What is clear is that we need to get this striker signing right. Its probably more important than any other signing we have had to make.

Whether its a transfer record breaking signing for an established player or a lesser fee for some young kid with potential it needs to be right.

No point signing our 5th choice option in Jan if we could tie up a deal for our 1st choice option to join in the summer.

Thing is people are forgetting in the summer it looks pretty certain we will lose all 3 strikers Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah. Nailed on.

If that’s the case we will need to sign 2 strikers in the summer not 1.

You could go in the direction of signing someone like Antony Martial for a lower fee now then make your main signing this summer. We will need more than 1 to cover 3 departures in this position

Absolutely. I've read what feels like dozens of stories about Vlahovic in the last few months, not one of which suggests he has the slightest interest in signing for us.

Hopefully it’s not a muddy pitch on Sunday then.

https://www.skysports.com/share/12508059

Good point, well made.

Now it’s being said xhaka hasn’t trained all week maybe because of a problem and will probably miss forest.

You lose lokonga now and we have real problems

Agreed, apart from the Martial bit, I wouldn't touch him at all. He may be available for a low fee if Man U are desperate to sell but his wages are £200k+ per week, and he's 26 now. Sign him and he fails to produce you're stuck with him for the length of his contract - we cant put ourselves in that position again.

One way to retain the value is buy young proven prem strikers - you'll pay over the odds but Calvert-Lewin, Watkins or Tammy Abraham are the 3 that tick those boxes (I know Abraham is at Roma now).
Otherwise go for someone like Jonathan David at Lille. He's probably more in the £40-50m price bracket than the £70m+.

From everything I've read and seen he'd be my current choice of striker

Assuming some if not most of you have seen it but for those that haven't. 'Belfast' is a fine little movie. Its about a protestant family in that city in 1969. May want to see it, its not too bad.

I was definitely one of the voices questioning why we would sign Ødegaard over what I deemed better options. In his first loan spell with us you could see he had some skills. I think I am partially vincidated in my doubts about him at that time because I think his head was in Madrid.

However, it seems that he's given up that dream mentally and is settled and dare I say committed to us now. His form reflects it. I'm happily wrong about him.

Yep. We might need AMN in there.

Adidas are regularly absolutely smashing it for us. Irrespective of how much you like the kits (my opinion is they've all been at least 'good') their marketing and promotional stuff always seems to hit he right note - even down to the famous people, players and fans they use in the ads and virals.

At this point, I would definitely look to extend Lacazette's contract. Even if he's overpaid for what he brings, he's a big part of this current team, and we can't expect any new signing to hit the ground running - they might if we're lucky, but it's never a guarantee. In the meantime we need a striker option we know can deliver, and Lacazette has never complained about being a backup. From what I've seen he's always given everything he's got, even if he only comes on as a sub.

Rich , Jonathan David would be a great shout and don't think he would cost as much as 40 to 50 million , more 30 to 35 million.
I'd steer clear of Watkins and Calvert Lewin. Good players but no way are they going for less than 60 million. Not worth it.
Need to be savvy with a Isak , David or Cabral type of signing though i appreciate Isak might be a bit more than 30 to 35.

Few times i have seen Kessie play he has been impressive.
Would be an absolute steal on a free and has a lot to his game. Either him or Guimaraes would be great.
I think we should go all out on Kessie or someone like Zakaria who is also on a free in the summer.

Happy that Coutinho looks to be going to Villa. Big no to him.

With our threadbare midfield could we possibly see game time for Patino coming up starting on Sunday?

Great shout from Top Gun.
We all think its one striker but with 3 going maybe it could be 2 unless he is going to fill the gaps with Martinelli and a returning Balogun if he smashes it on loan.

Bit nervy about Forest.
They knocked us out at this stage i think a few years ago.
I think Arteta will take this seriously and go semi strong.

Hey Rich,

I know its mostly bollocks but who are the favourite twitter ITKs at the moment?

The only guy who I really trust is Fabrizio Romano. I follow a lot of Arsenal accounts on twitter but they mainly just post rumours they've picked up elsewhere so they're not trying to be ITK more like messengers which is always interesting even if it is all bollocks as you say.

Fabrizio Romano is the king of transfers.

David Ornstein is worth following as he seems to play things with a pretty straight bat.

They knocked us out in 2018, but then we beat them 5-0 in the league cup in 2019.

I think the team will be close to this:
Leno, Cédric, Tavares, White, Holding, Lokonga, Patino, Emile Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Saka, Nketiah. Arteta may play Hutchinson instead of either Martinelli or Saka but I think he's more likely to bring him off the bench - Arteta hasn't ever really gone for broke starting the kids even when there seems to have been a good opportunity

Lille signed David for £22m so I doubt they'd sell him for just a £10m ish profit. He won the French league with them last year and his goal record is even better this year. I think he's a £40m+
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jonatha ... ler/533738

Countinho I agree is a relief to swerve. Just doesn't fit with any of the good recruitment and planning we've done recently. Villa paying 65% of his salary and have an option to buy for £33m at the end of the season. Stay well away please Arsenal. Big name players only guarantee big wages and all that.

I've seen more rumours around Lamptey, he does look an exciting full back. I think we need better quality and competition at right back but I'm not sure whether you go for a Tomiyasu opposite (which is pretty much Lamptey) or try to get a young replica Tomiyasu or even a versatile reliable player like Mazraoui who is more of a defensive right back who can also play defensive midfield and he's also on a free transfer at the end of the season.

My take on Arsenal's next steps with the squad re-build:

Players who will have left in the summer: Kolasinac, Elneny, Nketiah, Lacazette, Guendouzi, Mavropanos and Chambers contract is up but I think we have a 1 year option to extend it. (7) (approx £15m in sales there)

Players we probably want to sell or who want to leave: Leno, Runarsson, Mari, Cédric, Bellerin, Torreira, AMN, Pépé, Nelson, Aubameyang (10) (maybe £60m there being pessimistic)

Which leaves: Ramsdale, Tierney, Tavares, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Holding, Saliba(?),Xhaka, Partey, Lokonga, Emile Smith Rowe, Saka, Ødegaard, Martinelli, Balogun (16)

I’d argue that of the definite leavers only Lacazette and Elneny need to be replaced based on their contributions this season.
Of the 10 players we likely want to leave I think we’d manage to find a buyer for Leno, Mari, Torreira and AMN quite easily. Bellerin I think we’ll need to take a hit on fee because his wages will be high. Nelson would likely only be a nominal sub £5m fee. Cédric we won’t be able to shift. Runarsson will likely stay on loan until his contract is up. That leaves Aubameyang and Pépé – I could see both being with us next season still.

So that would leave the 16 above plus Cédric, Aubameyang and Pépé. If we’re in Europe we’d need a 25 man squad as a minimum. So would need to add a No. 2 GK, a No.3 GK (academy player), a right back (assuming Cédric just becomes 3rd choice on either flank), another central midfielder and two strikers. That brings us to a 25 man first team squad.

I was thinking along the lines of the pretend ITKs who post stuff which occasionally hits the mark but is mostly just wishful thinking. There seem to be a few of those accounts every window. Fun to read even if you know its mostly bollocks.

https://www.football365.com/news/ornste ... er-january

Still don't think it will happen

Looks like i'll be going to our semi final 2nd leg courtesy of my Brother and Nephew.
Ages since I have been. So excited.
I think the seats are Block 118 , row 12.
Anyone know if this is a good view/upper/lower tier though from memory the whole stadium gives you a good view!!

Arteta says there are COVID and injuries in the Arsenal team right now:

"It was for COVID and for injuries as well. I don't want to give anything away as you can imagine. We are really short with numbers. We want to play and that's how we are approaching every game."



.. so clearly xhaka has covid (anti vax loon) amongst others

Arteta also said 'we are going to move and look for options' when asked about transfers in central midfield

Son is out for 2 weeks - will almost certainly miss the NLD. Good news for us because he's been a thorn in our side before and is a very good player (who I'm amazed hasn't demanded a move to a top tier club yet)

He makes Kane so much better as well

Thanks LTG

Great news

I came home from a HS graduation party and 'To Sir With Love' came on. I was a bit drunk and tired but it caught my attention. To this day the theme song brings out the meloncholy in me.

He also made a few hilarious comedy movies teaming with Bill Cosby as well. He has a huge catolog of work I haven't done justice in this post.

That's three celebrities in a week. Actor Betty White, 99, director Peter Bogdanovich, 82, known for the movie, The Last Picture Show, among others, now Sidney Potier at 94, known for so many outstanding movies, A Patch of Blue, To Sir With Love, The Defiant Ones, etc.
Waiting to see who's next.

Newcastle is going the same route as City did when it got money. City signed anyone good who would come for the wages. Anyone, past prime, young, whatever, just to get things going. Eventually they got the right players and manager. Newcastle will be the same. They'll get a title within 5 years give or take, is my guess and a cup or two in the interim.

What Amy Lawrence said appears to coincide closely with a point DHD made a while back, which apart from all of mine was in my view one of the posts of the year. For all the negatives some people moan about, we often look better when Xhaka is in the team and routinely play worse when he isn’t. Sure, there are exceptions when we perform badly with him in the side. But as a general rule I think what DHD said is right and it happens regularly enough to make it being a pure coincidence seem unlikely.

Anyone else concerned that we’re going to run out of players sometime soon? Covid, African Cup, injuries etc? We need to be super lucky I think. We have a very small nucleus.

Yes

Think about this

183k new infections today so if this rate continues or increases it will mean you will have 1.8 million of the population in isolation permanently. That’s if they are bothering isolating.

There won’t be many weeks when we aren’t missing players with so much of this stuff about. Hopefully the infections will peak at some point and drop but we aren’t there yet.

Midfield and up front will be the areas we could struggle in. Lose a player there and it really will affect results

Really, really short on numbers so it seems. Game still will be played as is Sunday.

It would be quite funny if our game was called off following a week of our fans going chemtrails conspiracy batshit at Liverpool because they had to do likewise

Patino and Salah-Eddine don’t play for the U23 tonight. Unless there is a covid issue it seems certain they’ll be involved tomorrow. Balogun also not playing, could be as he’s playing the FA cup or it could be finalising his loan deal to Middlesbrough

If Lacazette is refusing to extend his contract he obviously doesn’t want to and fancies moving on. I’m not sure we should look to break the bank by offering so much money to make him change his mind. We’ve experienced paying big money to Özil and Aubameyang and I think it’s reasonable to say it hasn’t worked in the club’s best interests.

If he’s so eager to go, and refusing to extend his contract implies that may be the case, I don’t support paying him barmy money to persuade him to alter his plans. He’s not even that exceptional a player. Good but not great is how he fits my definition. Keep him until the end of the season and say goodbye is my vote.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror ... 9140.ampqq