https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48839601

Hard to know who is madder. Leicester for saying no and Manure for bidding that much in the first place. Madness.

I have high hopes for Joe Willock, think he has a touch of class and a decent physical presence.

Going rate for a world class centre half. He’s a good player and unfortunately he’s 100% what arsenal need.

Agreed I’m more excited about seeing Willock properly used in the first team more than any youngster. He’s taken giant leaps in the last year and is far too good for U23 football now.

Plenty of players cause our defence to have kittens so I wouldn’t use that as a barometer. If zaha is worth £60m then fair enough but with our limited budget I would question whether we should spend a huge chunk of it on one player.
If you have 5 first team gaps to fill is it better to blow a load to get 1 star and 4 average players or buy 5 good players at the right age in order to stabilise a club that is in dire need of a reset.
Sad to think of players having resale value and potential but I think that is where arsenal need to be.
Like I said, I wouldn’t say no to zaha but nowhere near the prices Palace are asking

Spurs have just signed NDumbele for a fee rising to 63, it’s frustrating but probably the going rate.

The reason why Id be prepared to go a bit further on him is that regardless of what happens in the transfer market this summer we are still going to have problems in defence next year. People expecting instant improvement will be disappointed.

We can’t afford to sign a Maguire or Koulbaily for 70 million and if we do eventually get a 22 year old full back in it will take time to bed him into the premiership. We may be able to improve the balance of the side but I wouldn’t expect vast improvements at the back. (Especially if we can’t offload Mustafi)

I wouldn’t say no to Zaha either. But I heard an interview with an experienced pundit who implied he’s not actually as gifted as his reputation suggests. The reason he gave was that Zaha rarely strikes the ball as cleanly as he should. Sadly I can’t recall who the pundit was, although I’m sure it must have been an ex-player.

He’s only 22, zaha is 26. If zaha signs a 4/5 year deal we won’t see any return on our money. Ndombele has a 6 year deal and spurs could likely get all their money back.
I get that there is a premium on prem ready and homegrown players, but I still think it’s too easy to get drawn in to ‘the going rate’ when there will be plenty of players who go for far less this summer that a bit of good scouting would uncover.
Maguire for example - Leicester want £90m. Pavard went for £31m, Manolas for £32m. Those two plus Tierney and some change for the amount they want for Maguire.

I like Maguire but I do wonder how he’ll fare at a top 6 club where he’ll be asked to defend 1v1 on the halfway line with all his midfield and full backs 25 yards in front of him.....
I just think there are better deals than being held to ransom by English clubs

That's interesting, Bernard. My brother bought his teenage son a season ticket at Palace a couple of years ago and ended up going to a lot of the games himself. He was in Ireland this weekend and we were talking about Zaha and he said that he doesn't score anything like as much as he should because his shooting is just poor. Now I think he went up a level in the second half of last season and there is more to come.

I haven’t seen a single match from the kick off to the final whistle, but I’ve watched bits of many of the televised games in the women’s World Cup. One firm impression I’ve got is that you can get away with a lot more than you can in the men’s game without being booked. I’ve seen loads of challenges that would have got bookings in men’s football yet end up with no more than a free kick. It’s almost as if you have to stab someone to death to get booked in the women’s game.

As I was writing this post an English player has just got a second yellow in the semi-final against the USA and been sent off. Despite that, I still stand by my first paragraph.

I only ever watch two Palace games in full each season. But after I heard the interview I kept a close eye on Zaha in the highlights I saw of their games. What the pundit and your nephew both said appeared valid, from what I could see. He often doesn’t strike the ball cleanly.

Me and my friends used to say the same thing about Sterling, he so often just didn’t make good contact with a ball. Pep got him getting in at the back post and tapping them in from 6 yards somewhat negated this, but I’m still not convinced he strikes a football as pure and hard as say Harry Kane.
The lure of Zaha is a skill set we don’t have in our squad. I often feel Arsenal score goals that are good but don’t rely on mistakes or forced mistakes by the opponents. Zaha certainly forces mistakes

Hi Rich,

I've never really got the hype surrounding Zaha. I've always seem him as fast and skilful but a bit of a headless chicken.

So he is just like Wellbeck except he scores a couple of more goals each season because he isn’t injured as often. Wellbeck finishing was atrocious. I suggest they ring up Wellbeck and offer him a contract. That is from a person who thinks Wellbeck was a waste but this would be spending 40-80 mil for the same type of player.

Valiant effort by the England women's side. They have nothing to be ashamed of. I was a fan of the American woman's side long before the men's. They have always been more pleasing to watch more than the men's side and remains that way.

When Arsenal ladies were dominating everyone a while back I became somewhat of a fan of the English side as well.

Congrats to my American side and I'm happy obviously but also have the utmost respect for the English women's side, they have a very bright future ahead of them.

We got Martinelli. Don't think we'll get Zaha.

No it wasn’t; ‘atrocious’ is far too strong a word to use. Did you know that when you used minutes on the pitch for Welbeck’s goal scoring ratio rather than appearances, his ratio equated to one goal every two games. That isn’t bad at all. Indeed, it’s pretty damn good. What made Welbeck’s goal scoring ratio look unfairly worse than it was is that sub appearances towards the end of games count as full appearances.

I'm excited with Martinelli coming in. Good for our long-term set up. I think we need to get at least 2 reinforcements to the defence, and one of whom should be an established player. Hope Byliek gets his chance too. And a star player replacement for the role Vieira, Cesc and Carzola played so well for us.

For not the first time we will have to disagree - its what makes the forum so good. Do you want to address his finishing, the misses, the miss timed headers etc. Anyway what do you think about just signing him to another contract instead of chasing Zaha?

Linked with Fekir from Lyon this morning. Lyon have said he’ll leave this summer and the price is rumoured to be some £25m cheaper than the £53m Liverpool has him lined up for last year. Apparently Arsenal’s pursuit of Fekir relies on us offloading Özil....well that’s that then.

£350k a week, just bonkers whoever decided on that. If you sign a player to those wages, even wages over £200k per week you are restricted to selling him to only about 12-15 teams in the world, otherwise he hangs like a millstone around our neck.

Joe has probably benefitted more than most from Freddie’s input; which augers well for his continued improvement if he’s involved with the 1st team

That’s the thing, the missing of sitters wasn’t as regular as you are trying to make out. They happened occasionally, but so they do with any forward. One goal every two games, using minutes on the pitch, is nothing to moan about. I would have liked to have seen us keep Welbeck. His all round game was pretty strong. Reasonable skill, a decent passer, not a bad finisher (whether you accept it or not), okay in the air, good physical presence, the only impression I ever got from him was that he had a fine attitude, lots of pace and one of the hardest working Arsenal players I’ve seen. To sum Welbeck up in one sentence I would say this. Brilliant at nothing apart from work rate, but good at everything else.

In my view we could have used those qualities making it a mistake to let him go. Moreover, it wouldn’t have cost us the transfer fee that Zaha will, if we do get him. Let me say I’m fine with the idea of signing Zaha. Whether we will or not is completely up for debate. If we don’t because of our unwillingness to pay the transfer fee, the problems that may cause could be made more intense by no longer having Welbeck on the books.

That Alex Morgan is very pleasing to watch.

Another point I should have mentioned about Welbeck is that he can do a job centrally or wide.

https://www.fctables.com/players/danny_welbeck-224739/

I just had a look at his stats (including minutes played) with goals scored ratio. Obviously you are taking account of all his cup matches to bolster the stats because as far as EPL goes he is far short of those stats. And i am not sure where your 1 goal every 180 minutes comes from.

As an example 18/19 season EPL 697 minutes for 1 goal but if in the Capital One & Europa 720 mins approx for 4 goals. I do not take account of England games.
17/18 season EPL 2689 minutes for 5 goals 1420 minutes in cups for 5 goals
16/17 season EPL 1772 minutes for 2 goals Cups in comm shield 725 mins for 2 goals

I am not going back further - where did you get your info.

In fact having looked at the minutes he actually played I withdraw my suggestion to get him back. Just too injured and absolute liability to the club. If I recall Wenger did not want to sign him but only take him on loan and he was trumped (once again ) by Man Utd. It was one of the occasions Wenger was 100% correct.

Good to hear Hodd. Freddie doing some good work with the young players then?

Easy there soc, she's a married woman. Married a footballer and people half jokingly says she's the better footballer of the two. lol

Chelsea released Cahill, Higuain, GK Eduardo, Kyle Scott and Rob Green.
Slim pickings but should we go after any of them?

Well I definitely read it somewhere. Your stats just look hopelessly wrong. He scored more often than that. When I’ve got some time I might look at the stats and do the sums myself.

I felt the US were fitter than England over the 90 minutes. Particularly up front.

Bellerin replacement rumor

https://tbrfootball.com/report-arsenal- ... placement/
Report: Arsenal identify Klostermann as potential Bellerin replacement

I’m happy to admit I’m looking for excuses not to do the sums myself but this site said he scored 1 goal every 124 minutes. Yes it includes cups, but I think cups should come into the calculation. Why exclude them? Cup goals are included in goal scorers’ stats. I see Henry, Wright and van Persie as Arsenal’s best goal scorers of the modern era and they all would have scored plenty of cup goals within their aggregates. Unless of course you’re just trying to make his figures look worse than they are?

https://www.fctables.com/players/danny_welbeck-224739/

We are supposedly interested in Yacine Ibrahim. Some interesting players available for free according to this:
https://www.transfermarkt.us/statistik/ ... osespieler

Interestsing

No way is he a goal every 2 games striker. You can look at minutes played but it's almost pointless. 16 league goals in 5 seasons at Arsenal. Great work-rate but ultimately an injury prone player who doesn't really score much.

Villa and Southampton have both spent £50m on players so far this summer, and yet we only have a £45m transfer budget.

It is nonsense and just doesn’t add up. Obviously we have a very high wage bill compared to these clubs but we made £40m more than them from Europe, probably a good £500k-1m more per match day, have a shirt sponsor deal worth many millions more, a kit manufacturer paying us £60m per season and regular greater payments in terms of league position and TV.

One word: Kroenke

Was Alex Morgan's celebration disrespectful? I didn't even know what she was doing when I saw it.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/07/world- ... elebration

Alex Morgan trolls England after World Cup goal by sipping tea after scoring

Adidas Responds to Anti-Semitic Messaging on Arsenal Soccer Jerseys
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/adidas- ... 29175.html

Media saying arsenal have up to £70m for the zaha deal. Also saying Barca are offering us Malcom on a season loan with an option to buy. If that was true I’m sure there would be a hefty loan fee considering we spooned £2m their way for half a season of Suarez, and the option to buy would be something like £50m.

For £70m we could do a lot rather than put it all in on zaha. Tierney, Fekir and Saliba would be fairly close to £70m for all 3.