No Arsene was right. And he could have done what's happening now and his comment would still be correct.

Sorry Hoy, didn't see this until I'd posted something making a similar point.

So looks like we've signed Declan Rice. That really came right out of the blue.

Hardly heard anything about him nor even knew there was any interest in him.

Aussi humour. Many may not get it.

Apparently a few have forgotten about Theo, Ramsay & Wilshere. Never quite at the level to challenge.

Who is Aussi?

Kroenkes out!

The abiding memory of Theo will be the aftermath of that goal against Liverpool in Champions League... not his fault after scoring such a brilliant goal but somehow so Theo. His goal and assist against us last season also stands out in the wrong way.

In other news that could mean a 5-6 point better showing for us this year: Mike Dean will play no further part in football this season. Is all good news.

Who? Never heard of him.

Another bargain bucket signing I suppose.

The first few matches he played for Chelsea he looked a livewire and I thought we'd missed out big time but as time progressed it was clear that for all his silky skills and dribbling ability their is not much end product.

Obviously, he was playing in a poor Chelsea side which did not help but I would be shocked if we went for him, except at some ludicrously cheap price or a cheap loan, neither of which look likely given Athletico's previous demands.

In the context of the premier league you need a core of players who know what’s at stake. Even the teams you reference had Cole, sol etc

City have a reasonable core. This is not a dont sign foreign lads but I do feel there’s something about this current Arsenal that is helped by the fact you have a bunch of players in the squad who are more local and understand the consequences

I thought he was their best player in the 2nd half of their season. I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if he turns up at Arsenal. He just fits so many profiles of what we need right now

The Declan Rice signing is something of a watershed moment in the club's history, a statement of intent and a signal to the footballing world that we can compete for the very best players, something we never really did even under Wenger.

Started brightly and then fizzled out. Didn't he get left out of the team in the last few matches? Chelsea decided against taking up their option to sign him so I guess his lack of end product was a factor.

Think Potter picked him for a bit, of course he got that red early on that meant he was out for a stupidly large proportion of his loan

Then Super Lampy Lamps came in and I’m not sure how he fared then.

He’s a punt now, similar profile to players we signed who are now Arsenal legends. Think it comes down to whether you want to and think you can make it work. TG would go for it, and fair enough, I wouldn’t - just about. If Arteta believes in him and has a plan then that will make all the difference, but I can’t see it tbh, partly because he wouldn’t be a central piece like Bergkamp was signed to be, not is he cheap for his talent the way Overmars or Pires were.

I think Overmars was 7m and actually can’t remember how much Pires was. But that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

It certainly is. As an aside, when has Arsenal had the highest transfer for a British player prior? Was that Super Mac? I am guessing at that, no idea. In the '30s we did I think, but in the modern era. Who?

What I especially like about Rice is the intangibles. One of which is he was his club's captain. When it comes to crunch time, he knows what it takes. Ødegaard doesn't have to mind him when we need a late goal, he knows that Rice already knows what attitude to have.

I am excited about the season. Even if we make no other transfers in, we are, on paper at least, much stronger. I want to caution you all as well as myself that we can't expect the same start to the season as we did last term. We were on fire the first dozen games. Teams are far more mentally prepared for us now.

At full strength we look lethal, with decent options off the bench. I am curious to see what incarnation Arsenal materializes into this term. I would like to see us freshen up the attack a little. I recall seeing us towards the end of the season and knowing ahead of time where we were going to pass and thinking, the opposition is well aware of it.

Slightly concerned at the lack of striker purchases. Nketiah hasn't me convinced, Jesus is not a 9 and the jury is out on Balgoun in terms of how he will fare in the Prem which is a big step up from Ligue 1. Someone like Muani or Vlahavoic.

RIP Jane Birkin at 76...."Je t'aime moi non plus" ("I Love You, Me Neither"),

I am similarly concerned about this situation. Jesus was waning towards the end of the season. And I don't think it is anything to do with his injury. I would absolutely love to have egg on my face with this comment when he starts putting the goals in over and over again.

Always thought Balogun is a better keep than Nketiah. Similarly, hope Nketiah proves me wrong.

Don’t know if you have seen this from gunnerblog today but I assure you we aren’t the same person and have never met …


"Is there room for one more (attacker) ?Maybe there could be an opportunistic signing. This is pure speculation on my part but what i might keep an eye on would be João Félix"

(@gunnerblog )

https://youtu.be/macB_V6oLXM

We were interested in him before he went to Chelsea so it wouldnt be completely out of the blue. He's obviously very talented with a crazy high ceiling but he seems a bit similar to our attackers. I think i'd prefer a much stonger striker like Toney as we dont have anyone of that profile in the squad.

I don’t think he would be brought in as a striker but primarily to cover saka and compete with Havertz and Ødegaard. He’s very talented but his flexibility may attract arteta as being more logical to signing someone like say Moussa Diaby who can tick one box to cover saka every 3rd or th game.

Okonkwo is said to be leaving on a permanent deal this summer. Talented gk who had a good loan last year.

Maybe a new olive that younger players will be allowed to leave permanently rather than on constant loans. Get buy back clauses in at a price which would be lower than we might normally pay for a player at the level we need and it makes sense

Inter have offered 34 million quid for balogun over 5 instalments. Hmmn doesn’t seem remotely enough

Worldwide Arsenal are now deemed to have the most valuable squad. Trasnfermarkt gives values to every player based on ability but also age and length of contract. So if you have a very talented squad all at a young age and under long contracts you create this huge squad value.

The question Id ask is if we were trying to buy Balogun from Inter with him having been on loan in France and scored 21 goals what price would they demand from us?

I get that cash rich prem clubs get fleeced, and sometimes don't put up much resistance to that in order to get what they want but Balogun's sale needs to start with a 4

I wrote previously about a number of key Man City assets moving on this year. Gundogan has gone and there are strong rumours on Laporte, Phillips, Mahrez, Bernardo, Walker. City have quite a small squad and whilst I would fully expect them to replace any players leaving it would be quite an upheaval to have to replace these players and get them up to speed on Pep's highly technical tactical strategy

West Ham have bid £40m for Paulinha from Fulham. Fulham have told West Ham they want £80m, why are West Ham low balling with such a disrespectful offer, they should just be paying Fulham what they want on the terms they want......

Did they take too long to send the paperwork?

If he was available on an even remotely sensible fee, either permanently or on loan with an option, then I could see us being interested. However, it appears Athletico want to recoup a large portion of the £120m they paid for him and frankly, given that his career has largely stalled, he's looks no better than a £40m gamble at this point.

Whilst polishing off a bottle of red last night (one which Bernard would have looked at with disdain I'm sure), I was thinking about why the purse strings have been loosened so much, so quickly. This question jumped into my head:

Does anyone else think that Stan might be 'fattening up the goose' for a sale?

I am pleased to see a lot of Brits in the Arsenal squad, and I hope you are right about their potential influence. My take on City's recent golden years is that they have not really depended on a core of local guys for their success. Sterling, Walker and Stones were or have been been integral components; Foden and Grealish a bit less so; and Phillips hardly at all. For me all the great players and captains at the resurgent City have come from abroad. Arsene Wenger was right about ignoring passports, as Guardiola's trophy cabinet confirms.

I think there’s a few things at play.

Firstly Arsenal have a top class coach now who demands success and asks the most from his players so if he’s not backed by the owner he will just leave and if that happens there will be a real moment of realisation in the fanbase we are going nowhere under kroenkes stewardship. I think they trust Arteta more than the last 2 managers and are happier to back him to the hilt

Many of these larger transfers deals are being constructed over long instalments over the contracts so I think if you need to dip into the market it’s slightly easier. I just think they may have realised that they have to go big or go home if you want to own a large premier league club.

All that said I bet you kroenke is watching what’s happening at united very carefully. The Glazer family reportedly only put in £150million of their own money in 17 years at the helm and now they stand to make at least between £4 billion-£5 billion. There’s a bigger picture here and this isn’t KSEs own money they are spending

They trust Arteta more than Wenger? The guy who brought the club through the post-Highbury years when we had to tighten the belt considerably and still needed top 4 almost every year to balance the books.

When it comes to spending money. Yes absolutely. Towards the end they eventually started taking Arsenes decision making process for new signings off him you may recall and ended up signing players like Perez and others who were not his choices, brought a new head of recruitment in againest his wishes and really at that point it was the start of the end. Wenger always denied he lost decision making in this area but by the time Emery joined they had an outright policy that he coached the players and wasn’t involved in transfers hence ending up with Pépé and torreira when he wanted zaha and others. This is all well documented

Then when arteta joined he wasn’t even called manager but head coach in reference to the fact he wasn’t supposed to be involved in transfers but that was never going to work. Mslintat went and Then in 2020 Arteta's role was formally changed from first team head coach to manager, reflecting a wider remit at the club and the fact he was shaping transfer policy again. All common knowledge

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1681 ... 35687?s=20

Official away kit. Not keen on the kit, but the launch video is spot on again from Arsenal/Adidas. The kit will look better on the players - as it always does - and I still expect it to sell very well especially with younger fans - these kind of jazzy and slightly garish kits fly of the shelves

Brighton interested in balogun. If he goes there his price will double in 1 season

So where do the big 7 currently sit with transfers:

Arsenal In: Rice, Timber, Havertz
Arsenal Out: Xhaka

City In: Kovacic
City Out: Gundogan

Liverpool In: Szoboszlai, MacAllister
Liverpool Out: Firminho, Keita, Milner, Ox

Man U In: Mount
Man U Out: De Gea

Chelsea In: Nkunku, Jackson, Angelo
Chelsea Out: Havertz, Mount, Kovacic, Koulibaly, Pulisic, Mendy, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Azpilicueta

Spurs In: Maddison, Soloman Manor, Vicario
Spurs Out: Moura

Newcastle in: Tonali
Newcastle Out: