It was only reported on every Arsenal related website for weeks!

Yeah, in the end we end up with a player who wanted to leave and not being able to strengthen the position properly. This practice of only selling players when clubs meet our exact valuation just seems to put us in a weakened position time and time again.

The club can't really win at the moment. Sell players for less than their perceived worth or on a loan and the fans complain. Hold out for an appropriate deal and have it fall through, the fans complain.

Just more examples of the poor state the club is in.

Looks like building a good squad doesn’t happen by accident

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/live ... 08fd486df1

A little presumptive right ?

I mean Ramsdale surely is a better option than Ryan, Lokonga has shown me more in 2 games than Ceballos showed in 2 seasons. How can you tell white isn’t better than Luiz Mr red card and free penalty. Off the back of one game at Brentford when half our team was missing through covid! Surely a settled Ødegaard is better than an unsettled loanee.

Do you think some perspective is needed to be retained and that after 3 disappointing results all may not be as bad as it seems when players become available and we play easier opposition.

2 weeks of people moaning about Artetas favourite colour are coming up.

We seem to pay top dollar when recruiting and get bottom dollar when selling. Consistently.

Like all of us here I do truly hope that you are right that things aren’t as bad as they seem.

But it looks to require more than simply getting players back. The tactics and game management need to go up several notches. And we seem to be a long way off being a motivated and committed squad.

The despair isn’t wholly about three defeats, two of which were expected. It’s the awful way in which we have set about those games.

Some good news, Ornstein is reporting we're working on a deal for Bologna defender Takehiro Tomiyasu. Can play right back or centre back, 22 years old, 2 seasons in Serie A behind him.

And some bad news. John Cross reporting AMN won't be training with the team after his instagram post yesterday. So we won't let him leave, and won't let him train. Doesn't strike me as excellent man management if true.

Kind of easy to see why he might be frustrated. If Arteta was going to choose that ramshackle defence ahead of him then he really does need to be elsewhere.

After an extensive five minute search online (as I've never seen him play) I actually have to say this looks like the right profile for us. Young, talented and versatile. Played about half his games at right back last season, but was almost exclusively a right back in 19/20. Looks decent on the ball, is 6ft2 and looks athletic. Very interesting signing if we can pull it off.

Same search the club undertook to find him. Googled right backs for sale plus some stats site that has yet to be verified as actually properly identifying talented players. The trolley dash is on.

Apparently Arteta is a big admirer of the player and is the one pushing for a deal to get done. A lot of things are a mess right now, but this signing is not something I'm going to complain about if it happens.

Do you think that will have any impact on our owner? Or do you think 'very nasty' will actually just be a few boos and banners?

Very true.

But also kind of easy why the club cannot let that sort of thing go and why Arteta might not want lippy players.

Have you seen the stuff about AMN agent though?

He’s under investigation by the FA for making dodgy payments and the reason Maitland Nile’s didn’t sign for Leicester or saints on loan was because they refused to pay his ridiculous fees so he went to West Brom a far less attractive club because they were desperate and agreed.

In addition according to Ornstein the Everton offer is a 2 year loan without obligation which takes him to the end of his contract. Why would arsenal agree to that ?

Deadline day is always so weird. Normally it can take months to get a transfer over the line, but then it's deadline day and it all happens in a matter of hours. Already reports from Italy that Tomiyasu is having a medical today.

Yep. Sky are reporting that a deal is agreed between the clubs and personal terms are not a problem.

This tweet seems like a summary of our transfer business this summer. If we can't get rid of the players we don't want, we're not getting the player we do want.

I can’t say it’s a signing that excites much however I know very little about the bloke.

If you wanted to sign a right back he’s not in the first name that springs to mind. All a bit meh. I suppose your essentially swapping out 2 frustrated and uncommitted players for 1 who will be.

Like I said, I've never seen the guy play but it was the same with Lokonga and Tavares and both look pretty good. I think we're identifying talented players with the right profile, that doesn't seem to be our problem.

We live in hope that we'll get him and he'll be ok, particularly going forward. We desperately need someone to take ownership of that position.

It is a pity about Bellerin's patchy form and wanting away. He's still potentially a top class player.

I suppose the fee is only 16m it’s a signing with little risk. (Your saving 6m in Bellerins wages for the season )

Like Tavares or lokonga you are getting in another motivated player at the expense of one who isn’t.

Is Tomiyasu paying Arsenal £280,000 a year to play for us then?

https://www.spotrac.com/epl/arsenal-fc/ ... rin-11978/

It's evident the squad is mentally fragile. The way we played before the goal at City gives me a little hope. Without the goal, I think we would have lost but it would have been a much tighter game. Maybe 1-0 or 2-1. Respectable performance in a losing effort.

Sometimes in business, which is this, you ned to take the hit for the long term betterment of the business.

Hadn’t seen that about his agent before. None of that good if true.

Sky reporting as ‘done deal’. http://www.skysports.com/share/12395735

However, it only becomes true when on Arsenal.com

That article doesn't actually say it's a done deal. I'll only believe it when I see it on Arsenal.com.

Sky are saying if Bellerin goes to Real Betis is will be a loan with an option to buy, not an obligation for them to buy. Sounds more likely to me.

I’ve never disliked Bellerin. Always struck me as a decent professional whose injury record took his career backwards. But despite that, I would still have rather seen him as our right back than Chambers or Cédric. AMN or Bellerin? More debatable. Probably not much to choose between them.

According Fabrizio Romano.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hitc.c ... asu/%3famp

Me too.

I've also seen it mentioned that it's just a loan, without option or obligation. Think Bellerin could still do very well in a less demanding league, and if him leaving allows us to sign someone potentially better for the starting eleven it's good enough.

Well some random bot has created a "Welcome to Arsenal" video so it's a done deal !

According to reports Arsenal accepted Palace’s offer for Nketiah but the deal broke down over personal terms. If true it would seem Nketiah either received an offer well below the wages he wants and/or he fancies his chances in the free agent market at the end of the season and doesn’t mind if he doesn’t play much football. Who know what to believe. As fans we want what’s best for the club not the player so will latch on to reports like this and deem Nketiah greedy but there’s two sides to these things. He’s free to decide his own future that’s best for him.
One thing that is for certain is Arsenal have messed this one up to even let it get to this point.

I always think the same when I see games like the Chelsea and City one. But as with most of these generalisations (that we all make) is there are counter arguments to this like going 1-0 down early away to Leicester and Southampton and home to Spurs and coming back to win them all. Or holding on to a 0-0 v a rampant Leeds when down to 10 men. Or winning away to Man U or Chelsea. There are plenty of games where we could be described as mentally weak or mentally strong. We’re essentially consistently inconsistent.

The thing I’ve said about is for some time is that if we play well we might well win the game, if we play badly we almost always lose the game. So I suppose the part that backs up your assertion that we’re mentally weak is finding a way to play badly and still win - see Man U v Wolves or Spurs v Wolves. Both were outplayed but both came away with scrappy 1-0 wins when they should have been buried…..and I’m sure we would have been

https://twitter.com/adamvoge/status/143 ... 02465?s=21

Here’s a good Twitter thread analysis on our new right back.

Summary seems to be he’s very strong defensively, good in the air, good in 1v1s, can play CB and has decent pace. Where he lacks is in the attacking third. Bologna don’t play in a way where their full backs really push on so it could be a case of not being asked to do much attacking but my suspicion would be he’s just a much better defender than attacker. I think someone commented that he’s similar to Chambers in terms of profile but better in each attribute.

My concern is how he works with Pépé who feels like he really needs an attacking overlapping right back to allow him space to come inside and not be doubled up on all the time.

So 6 signings all under 23.

Michael Edwards, the Liverpool director of football is stepping down at the end of the season. He’s been the main guy behind Liverpool’s success in the transfer market in recent years. I’ve seen a lot of people say Arsenal should go for him, and that sometimes opportunities present themselves that you need to take even if it upsets people. Like us clinging on the Wenger when Klopp was available.

Put Edwards as technical director above Edu and have him in charge of transfer strategy in and out and we’d be infinitely better off for sure.

Reports now that AMN has cleared the air with Arteta and is staying for the season, with Arteta promising AMN he's in his plans. I don't really rate AMN as a central midfielder, but would definitely prefer to see him play over Elneny.

Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards could leave next summer

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b4d3 ... 792fab93b5