I hope we keep Partey. An absolute rolls-royce of a player.

Haaland would be nice.

I've seen it said that Richard Garlick has been a real difference-maker in recent transfer windows.

I’ve also seen it suggested that Arteta did a total job on Rice. Invited him and his dad round his house and talked in detail about his plans and how he envisaged the role. To convince a player like that in his prime to come to Arsenal is impressive as I’m sure Chelsea, city, united or Liverpool would have all wanted him if they hadn’t known he was set on Arsenal

Arteta is the real deal I’m telling you. Demands the most from his players and insists on the most accountability from his board. You don’t spend 100 million on a player unless the board backs the manager 100%. Do you reckon this would have happened if wenger was still manager. No chance. Arteta deserves a huge amount of credit, he’s invigorated and empowered our football team. All of a sudden it feels exciting being an Arsenal fan again. Best young coach in the world and at some point you are going to have the 2 spanish giants after him.

Still feels weird right. Arsenal breaking the British transfer record. Never thought I’d see the day. It’s definitely up there with the Bergkamp and sol signings as the best ever.

We are signing Tchoucameni as well for 85 million.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/22856413 ... rice-deal/

Go full Todd Boehly Stan. Sign them, sign them all

And this would be as equally pointless as selling partey

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/ ... newcastle/

A few days ago we were in the market for Fofana at 30 million. Why pay 85 for this guy?

I’m seriously impressed!

Big up for the Management and for the Owners. The window has been open for barely 2 weeks and we look to be close to concluding 3 major pieces of business. It’s 4 if you count Saliba, which for me is probably the most important of the lot.

The other thing is that the 2 of the 3 incomers are properly tall. At our peak under AW, we had a team of giants who towered over the opposition in the tunnel. Made you feel that the biggest kids in the playground were your mates. I liked that.

So when was the last time we broke the record for an English player? Alan Ball? David Jack? Our profile is as high as it’s been for years. Players want to be part of it all. Players are choosing us.

Good time to be a gooner.

He looks like an impressive fellow. Seems we are recruiting well across the board.

Wow Nwanieri stays too. Everything seems to be going almost too well !

Completely disagree with this. It has nothing to do with breaks. It has a lot to do with it isn't played widely. Its played more widely now than at any time possibly.
Second, the best athletes aren't in it America likes sports it dominates (American football, men's tennis at one point, baseball). For decades ice hockey was the 4th most popular sport by some distance. It wasn't anywhere close to Baseball, American Football and baseball in popularity. Easy to see why. Very few people played it. Its a "winter" sport so why would people in California, Louisiana, Florida, care for it? It's always been far more popular in Canada even though in the past, most of the teams were in America. The American north that is. Washington DC was as far south as it went for years.

The best athletes follow the money. The money is in the the NBA and the NFL. Baseball has waned in popularity as less people are playing it. Baseball was the number one sport in America for decades, until the late 70s, 80s or so. Boxing has waned in popularity because of the rise of the NFL for one and secondly, the prisons stopped boxing programs. Some of the greatest boxers came out of the American prison system, Sonny Liston, Bernard Hopkins, and many others.

Anyway, some one once asked Boxing analyst and expert Bert Sugar why there aren't any great American heavyweights anymore. He said something to the effect "They are playing linebacker for the NFL". You can make way more money and put less impact on your body in the NFL. Makes sense.

Until America finds a way to channel some of its best athletes into football it will remain that way. Football got popular with young boys/men in America to some extent because of gaming. My friend's son never kicked a ball in his life but is a huge Chelsea fan because that was his team in FIFA gaming from EA.

The women's team was more popular than the men's team for much of the 90s and early 00s because women's football is widely played from 8 years old through university. The best American athletes played either basketball or football. Its how our gymnastics team got better. Gymnastic academies flourished nationally when we had early success in the Olympics. Thousands of middle class girls saw themselves on the Olympic podium.

MLS is finally doing a bit better because the current generation grew up with the sport, understands the rules, and Messi and Ronaldo and Beckham are household names. It's also became vastly more accessible. It's well documented on here when I first joined this site how I got up at early mornings and drove to a British pub to watch the noon kickoffs at 4am LA time and the only way to see the games were on satellite. Now the major sports networks are fighting over who can buy the rights.

One final thing about football getting so popular in America we are involved in its governance at the FIFA level. I made this dire warning years ago. We will eff it up. We can't help it culturally. We will be completely driven by profit motive and not what is good for the sport. If there is a way to make football nearly as popular as the NBA and the NFL without us being involved in it, that would be ideal. If we had our way, we'd have a break at 20 minutes probably and stop the game for whatever reason throughout for at least :30 seconds so we can wedge in a quick advert. The cup finals will become like the Super Bowl, no longer a sport but an 'event' like the Oscars, Grammies and last 3 hours minimum.

Good question, DHD. Maybe Supermac? (If you discount the weird Bob Latchford transfer, in which two players went in the other direction.) Bryn Jones?

We're also putting together a tall team as well. Gone are the days of Wenger's midgets. Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Havertz, White, Kiwior, Partey, Tomiyasu are all over 6 ft

The prem more than any league in the world requires high levels of athleticism, pace, power and strength - we lost that for a while. Good to see us getting it back

This was certainly a long post about Americans' lack of interest in football for someone who's never shown (on this forum, at least) the slightest interest in the MLS, or your own nearest local club.

Must admit McQ that my first thought was Supermac followed quickly by Alan Ball. I knew about David Jack from my old man (first £10k player) so I was pretty certain on all three.

When I looked it up though, Supermac didn't appear on the list and I'd never heard of Bryn Jones.

I also hadn't realised that DB10 was the record overseas signing at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progression_of_the_British_football_transfer_fee_record

Saliba deal set to be announced this weekend when he’s back from holiday. Deal until 2027, £200k per week

Interesting. Funnily enough, David Jack's grandson, who has the same name, is prominent in the Australian football journalism world, as was his father, who also had the same name. It can get a bit confusing.

Some brilliant names on that list. Syd Puddefoot signed for Falkirk from West Ham in Feb 1922 for a then record fee of £5,000!

The Kroenke's have learned an old formula that has reaped success elsewhere. You have to spend money for success and that success will repay you a few times over through more fans attending, merchandizing, etc.

Kroenke bought Arsenal with the strategy of buying hidden gems on the cheap. What Henry, Vieira, Freddy, Pires cost compared to what they produced had made their fees an absolute steal.

However, with scouting globally far easier, largely with the growth of the internet, a conference side can spot a hidden gem half way around the world.

Kroenke has learned you can spend big money wisely if you have the right people making those decisions. He brought in very astute people when the Rams moved to LA. He spent big but the players came in produced right away and got them a Super Bowl. His NBA team has a great Serbian player, who was the league MVP two years running. He was the team. The other players weren't good enough for anyone else. They would make the playoffs but weren't going to advance, its still a team game. He spent on bringing in very good young players who were hungry and now a championship. Repeated the same thing with the ice hockey team and I would suggest he's doing that with The Arsenal. He's trusting Edu and Arteta.

Mount to Man U for £60m is done.
Chelsea have raised £180m odd in sales so far, strangely they’ll be wildly lauded in the press for the deals they are striking but they’ve made 2 rivals stronger and driven out a home grown player - and a quick look at what they’ve got left in their squad shows gaps and a lack of quality and depth.
I expect them to be hugely up and down next year. Individual quality will win them games but against organised teams who have their system set they’ll get embarrassed I think

West Ham want Tavares apparently. For you West Ham….£25m paid in instalments over 18 months

Not where the terms considered. WHU want 18 months, Arsenal 4 years.

Saw it mentioned that if the player delivers no one will mention the price.
Very true, for example how often do you hear that Allison cost Liverpool £60m? A huge fee for a GK.

So Arsenal want it structured like 90% of deals and West Ham want something completely unrealistic

Using the Klopp example, I don't recall much of a mention when they bought Van Dijk for 75m which was a huge fee at the time for a centre back and that was what 6 years ago?. It worked out for them so if it works out for Rice I don't see too many people even thinking about it.

Pau Torres to Villa. Quite a coup for them, Torres has been chased by much bigger clubs than Villa. Emery did a very good job in the second half of the season with them. Team to watch out for next season.

I think they got Tielemans on a free very quietly earlier in the window as well

Mount on £300k a week at Man U. I read we got Havertz on £200k per week. Man U spend £150m a year more on wages than we do, use that to educate Man U fans when they come at you saying we’re spending so much money. Clubs annual wages at the top end of the league are the equivalent of the sorts of transfer budgets they have. So you see Arsenal outspend teams on transfer fees bud significantly underspend against them on wages. Both come off the bottom line so need to be considered

Interesting that City hasn't featured since 2008. I guess it shows that the transfer fee is a fairly imperfect indicator of the cost of players.

If everything that should come off does come off it is hard to see where Arsenal have put a foot wrong this window so far.
Martinelli, Saka, Saliba tied down to new deals - these were the critical ones. But other players have also been extended (I think Ødegaard will be next)
young players like Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri tied down despite huge interest from other big 6 clubs
early business for Rice, Havertz, Timber

The only area to prove now is how well can we sell

I think you will see mistakes arriving in the form of bad player sales. I really hope I’m wrong

Selling Partey for just 20 million makes no sense what so ever. We will spend twice as much recruiting a player not as good.

KT .. I bet we do some deal where we loan him somewhere and pay half his wages. I watched Kavertz champions league final winner the other day where he capitalised on the city left back being caught out of position up the pitch. Who was the left back ? Zinchenko. Sound familiar ?

Balogun. What’s the point in loaning him if we just sell him next season for as little as 35 million. If we sold Nketiah and Balogun who do you reckon would command the biggest transfer fee ? I reckon it would be balogun which then poses the question why would we sell him instead of the player worth less.

Then just a general theme of not getting enough cash for players or loaning deadwood instead of selling etc etc

Selling players is our kryptonite, just can’t seem to get it right.

Liverpool looking to trigger the £60m release clause of Szoboszlai. I thought this guy was brilliant when he was at RB Salzburg, he made the obvious jump to RB Leipzig, hasn't pushed on as much as I thought he would but maybe now is his big chance.

Seeing how they played at the end of last season and if they can fix the midfield I'd expect Liverpool to be back up in the 80+ points category next season. The forward options are terrific still, Salah, Jota, Nunez, Diaz, Gakpo. They've added Mac Allister (a profile of player they didn't have before) and had a lot of success with Trent in the inverted RB position.

If you sign an “inverted” right back how does that work if you already have an inverted left back ? Don’t they both get confused and run into each other in the middle of the pitch. Can you have an inverted striker ?

Haven’t been this confused since I saw this https://youtu.be/uuP1GOEON7A

Pains me to say it but Maddison to the Totts for £40m is good business.

One theory is it allows Tierney to stay and play more because he can slot in as the left-sided defender in a back 3 if Timber is on the other side inverting in to a midfield holding pair with Rice.

Unfortunately I agree, it’s a very small fee considering he was their best player I thought. Nearly everything went through him and spurs have definitely got a player now who can pick out Harry Kane.

That’s logical but I would be shocked if KT is with us in august and I just can’t see Arteta dropping zinchenko who seems to be his favourite child.

Ugh, that film was so dumb. Desperate to be so clever and things going in reverse just isn't the incredible cinematic experience they were hoping for.

I agree with most of this. I would say that in Edu's term he hasn't had much opportunity to sell a player for decent money. The wages have been high and the players old or contracts running down.
The recent ones that felt light were definitely Leno for £3m - although that has already bumped up by £2m and could add another £2m if Fulham avoid relegation next season
Guendouzi felt light at £12m at the time but there is a decent sell on clause there if he moves on again
Mavropanos at £3m is light, but I've not seen him move for bigger money yet
Willock was a good sale at £25m
Pablo mari for £6m wasn't too bad

Big opportunity this summer.
Reading now that we want to push the price up to £20m for Xhaka - too right, and the rest.
I don't think there is any way Tierney goes on loan - he stays or is sold. If he's sold it needs to be £35m at least - more if he's sold to Newcastle - £50m is the going rate for a full-back to a state backed club

Selling Partey and Xhaka and replacing them with Rice and Lavia doesn't make sense to me. Especially for the amounts touted for Partey and Xhaka.
I'd rather keep Partey and play him for 2 years and lose him for free than sell him for £20m now. Keep Partey allows Rice to occasionally play as an 8, then in 1 or 2 years you can look at Lavia or the next Lavia

The interesting ones are how much we can get for the players we don't want, this has always been far lower than fans would like. So, Pépé, Holding, Tavares, Cédric, Lokonga, Trusty......even Patino is he's decided he wants to move on - some prem teams are interested. City regularly get £10m+ for these types of players.

That might be challenging if Kane is playing for Bayern Munich.

True, he was better than I gave him credit for when I actually watched him. But his injury record means however good he is, he won't be there when they need him. That's what made the talk of 70M nonsense for me and 40M not much lower than his actual on pitch value, if not about right.

Although they've hardly got any games this year with no europe at all...