[quote="Rich"][quote="Zed"][quote="Bernard"]
Did Ornstein say when the quarantined period ends?[/quote]
Possibly mid to late next week Bernard.[/quote]
I read speculation that the quarantine period needs to end before the formal work permit can be granted and therefore Arsenal are waiting for the work permit before they can officially announce the transfer. Which if true does make sense because there’s no point jumping the gun even with a 0.1% chance you might be left with egg on your face. I do agree the communication to fans could be better. That sort of thing doesn’t have to come from the club officially it can be leaked to favoured journalists[/quote]
Yes, unfortunately most is pure speculation Rich. Club will announce when ready.

I think it needs to be higher. Why should we sell at what is considered a ‘fair price’.
If Bellerin goes you’d assume AMN becomes first choice RB and RWB.

We’re in a position that to get our top targets we may need to sell players we don’t particularly want to lose so it’s up to the club whether we can risk taking a step back in order to take two steps forward with this sort of player trading.

Well jolly jolly Gab's has been announced via Will Ian and Luiz.

I can see no sense at all in selling Hector at all. Makes very few mistakes and is still on the come back after a serious injury. I do not believe that AMN is proven in those positions nor are there other options available at the club.

It is on Arsenal.com too Zed, and has been for many hours. I don’t know whether Luiz and Willian or Arsenal.com announced it first. But my bet would be Arsenal.com did.

News on Ceballos from this morning. https://apple.news/AUxzdGgR2S1GXx3ZduaIJHA

It’s an odd one especially considering we came close to selling AMN last week also. Bellerin is clearly the best player in that position we have but Ainsley has shown he can do well. It would be a huge vote of confidence for him and a chance to nail down a spot.

I guess it’s an adjustment and gamble, lose a competent defender and replace with a internal solution. Use money to fund a restructuring of the midfield (which is critical) it’s a gamble.

Hi TG,

Bellerin has not been the same player since returning from his serious injury. He appears to have lost some pace, which was always his biggest attribute. Without it he becomes just an average RB. Whether that burst of pace will return given time is anybody's guess.

That said, if PSG are sniffing around then I would want no less than £35m. That would allow us to perhaps bring in one of our midfield targets.

It's a balancing act made more complicated by the fact that teams know we are trying to offload some peripheral players and they are looking for firesale prices.

Our most saleable assets are mostly the ones we want to keep.

I suspect PSG came in for Bellerin and we started to consider that keeping AMN might not be such a bad idea, especially if we could get big money for Bellerin, which is stating the obvious really.

Morning Bernard,
It was on Arsensl.com as well. Thanks.

Is there a place for Özil? https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/09/02/bring-him-back-some-arsenal-fans-beg-arteta-to-recall-31-year-old-star/
I don't know when his contract ends but it just seems a waste.

Bellerin has lost a yard of pace but even so, he's still faster than almost all the opposition wings out there. He's also well respected in a team that lacks leadership. And has lacked effective leadership on the pitch for some time. We give that up by selling Bellerin. A case can be made either way. This may be a good time to make the transition to AMN at the position and let him grow into it and make it his own or for the time being until we get buy a good one. Just like we had place holders at LB till we bought Tierney.

Been reading we are after the winger (and GK I think, not sure) of Brentford. He's well known to the scouts. Hmmm...okay we use another attacker, especially in case of injuries. Will he expect to start?

Just saw that Bellerin is only 25. I thought he was older. AMN is 23. Hmmm

So assuming Bellerin goes where will that leave us.

Holding, Sokratis and Torreira sound strong contenders to leave the club based on what is being written. Those wouldn't require replacements apart from Torreira

Kolasinac and and Lacazette possibles. (However Lacazette would require a replacement in my opinion so it seems to self defeating)

Just a feeling you will see one more player come in with a number of players being let go to fund it,

Reminds me of when you’ve just spent money on an old car on repairs and it’s all good, you think we’ll I’ve just spent 500 quid I can’t sell it now, but it’s precisely the time you should sell it otherwise it’ll get another problem down the line and you won’t be able to.

Bellerin looks to be getting over his injury and potentially into some form and PSG are sniffing around, we’ll have no other chance to sell him for decent money. Ainsley backed up by Cédric is ok, potentially good, both can play Left also. With Tierney and Saka for cover we’re ok at LB too. I’m not counting Kola..

On a separate but related note, I seriously dislike PSG, the Qatari backing and all they stand for, but I’ll happily accept their money. Just pointing out my ridiculous double standards...

I like Bellerin and wouldn't mind keeping him, but with PSG and reportedly Bayern interested you have to consider it. Most clubs seem to be struggling for cash now, but PSG and Bayern aren't most clubs. We'd have a genuine shot att getting north of £30m here I think, and considering we need to upgrade our starting midfield it might be worth it. Even if Maitland-Niles is seen as a downgrade (depending on how he develops) a slight downgrade at right back might be worth it if it makes possible a big upgrade in midfield.

If Bayern are interested in a player then he must be worth keeping.

No doubt he's a good player. But I guess the dilemma is that we need to raise funds to strengthen the side, and clubs will not pay anything for average or poor players.

Bellerin would be definite downgrade on Kimmich so why would Bayern be looking at Hector? Kimmich can play in midfield so the only reason I can think of is if they‘re looking to use him there instead of right back.

Morning Bern

Seems there's to be a ballot for attendance at a reduced capacity fixture vs Sheffield Utd on 3rd October. Did you get the email?

7 years ago today.

??

Is there any backup to Kimmich? Bayern play an extremely High line, the highest I’ve seen, so they probably demand an awful lot from their full backs. Rotation plus if Kimmich can play midfield plus I’d guess Bellerin fits what they’re looking for, would be my guess.

I hadn’t checked my emails since before it arrived. But thanks, I will go and read it now as seeing your post made me check and it has arrived.

James Rodriquez to Everton. Gotta give it to Everton, they have been trying hard to make it to the top tier. They have bought the best they can afford and even a few tries at players they can't afford.
I've never liked Everton for reasons I won't get in to. Favored Liverpool over them but they are trying very hard. Kudos.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53995695

I'm not too confident this Partey deal will get done.
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1330304/Arsenal-transfer-news-Atletico-Madrid-Thomas-Partey-release-clause-swap-deal
Arsenal sent Atletico Madrid Thomas Partey release clause message after swap deal offer

There are sales out there to be had, despite covid there are teams who are seemingly still willing to risk quite big money or unproven players, or just plain average players.

Villa spending £14m on Nottingham Forrest's Matty Cash
West Brom spending £14m on West ham's Diangana
Sheff Utd spending £20m on B'mouths Aaron Ramsdale
Fulham spending £12m on Brighton's Anthony Knockaert
Fulham spending £9m on Harrison Reed from Southampton
Palace spending £18m on Eze from QPR
Zenit spending £12m on Dejan Lovren....he's 31.
Spurs £17m on Hojberg from Southampton - is he the player to break them in to the top 4?

The thing that seems to stop us making these sorts of sales is the wages. We have been paying average players way too high for far too long, makes it impossible to shift them on, or we have to give them free transfers so the club their moving to can afford the wages.

Everton's transfer policy in recent years has been awful.
They've just bought the second hand players from bigger prem clubs for huge amounts hopeing they can revive their career, Walcott, Schniederlin, siggurdson, Iwobi - those 4 cost them over £100m.
When they've bought from lower prem clubs they've overpaid and it hasn't worked out, Pickford, Bolasie, Michael Keane - none of those would command the fees they were signed for now.

And they're still chasing 'name' players - where the only certainty is the size of the wages.

Take a look at Leicester for the way for a 2nd tier club to operate and incrementally improve year on year

Leicester has done fantastically well. They are special though. A league unto themselves in terms of transfers. Punching way above their financial weight. Wolves, Sheffield United, clubs around there are the typical clubs transfers, etc. Everton are trying, not as successful as they want to be but I gotta give them credit for spending and trying. Still don't like them though.

https://www.gunnerstown.com/arsenal/202 ... ays-he-is/

Interview with a french football expert who cools the excitement around Gabriel.

We certainly need to be careful as fans because the expectation of any signing with Arsenal seems to be they will come in and fix our problems. We need to be realistic. We should certainly expect more from someone like Willian who is experienced, played in the league, knows the language, his opponents and hasn;t had to uproot his life. But Gabriel, Saliba and any other signings will take time.

That said, I feel far more confident in Arteta being able to take a player with good raw attributes and improve them that I was with Emery or the later Wenger years.

Hi Rich,

I read that. Hard to know what to make of it. He doesn't expect him to become a worldclass player but a competent PL player. Let's hope that his judgement is skewed.

You are right, though, to expect either Gabriel or Saliba to be the new VVD is just wishful thinking. Where was he at 22?

Agree about Arteta being able to improve them although he's very single minded so if they aren't good enough he won't play them. I would think (hope) that he's certainly watched hours of Gabriel videos before approving the signing.

Judging from the French football expert’s analysis it sounds like Gabriel may need a Mertesacker next to him. After all, I still maintain Koscielny wouldn’t have become the player he did without Per. Sadly, as the bloke says, we don’t really have a character like that now. As he implies, Luiz is probably the nearest to it.

He’s a Brazilian CB who’s been playing in the French league. Most of the squad speak Portuguese or French and he has rudimentary English. He literally has a very experienced Brazilian CB who will in all likelihood be playing next to him in a back 3. I think he’s got a very good chance to settle well and improve under Arteta who, let’s not forget, drastically improved the fortunes of Mustafi, before misfortune and Jamie Vardy overtook him. Whatever you think about Mustafi he wasn’t playing well.

I don’t mean to be snobby but the ‘expert’ is from goal.com. If he’s telling us fans will need to be a bit patient that’s hardly news. You’d have to to be pretty naive to think he’s coming in to be a galáctico from day one. I’ll wait for a second opinion or better yet, see what Artera can get from him.

I wouldn’t disagree with any of that, especially your comments on the alleged expert. The squad do seem to respect Luiz. But if you remember Mustafi had a very impressive start to his Arsenal career when he played games alongside Mertesacker. After that good start he then made some big errors in games (a problem with Luiz too) until Arteta took over. So maybe they both had a similar impact? Obviously Mertesacker no longer plays, so let’s hope Luiz helps Gabriel.

But from this, I reckon Rich is right (if it wasn’t Rich who said it, apologies to him and whoever it was). In the short term I’ll be surprised if we see a back four with Gabriel and Saliba as the two central defenders. Maybe in the future we will, but I doubt anytime that soon.

Seems fans of the fans we finished around as well as the top clubs above us are casting a wary eye on us. I hope we fulfill those fears.

Is it that long?

True what they say that time goes quicker the older you get.

Not a bad earner eh?

What was seven years ago, yesterday now?

Good buy for Man Utd. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53977831
Not unexepected. I expect both Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Chelsea to make huge transfers of top players. That's the norm. Making it work in their system is the problem. When it works, its tough for the rest of us. But that's football today.

I think it was about the time Özil signed.

Reading the Athletic article on Gabriel few things stood out to me.


This bodes really well for his settling in, he’s spent a loan year in Zagreb has learnt a second language really well which bodes well for his English which he already has in basics.



and

This is the prescient point, it’s the one on one duels, when he’s isolated against players against the big teams who can fashion those chances with the likes of Mané, Salah, Rashford, Sterling etc. And against smaller teams who get those same chances on the counter. With Liverpool it’s both to be fair as they play on the counter by design. His ‘profile’ is mentioned a lot, this is why. Physically and style wise he fits.


As you can probably tell I really didn’t think much of that interview with the ‘France expert’ and frankly he’s 22 and has all the raw attributes there. All of them. If you could point to some obvious gap in a young player that would be one thing, like Holding some people have pointed to his pace and or technical ability, (I still think his game is fine to be a good CB if other things go for him tbh.)

I realise we might not see him in the side for a while as he hasn’t played a game for 6 months, but writing him off as a top player is as dumb as nailing him on to be one at this point.

I honestly can't remember if I've ever seen a 22-year old defender I thought had excellent positional sense. I think it's one of those things you learn by playing, and one of the reasons central defenders often come good later than other players.

How about Tony Adams? Captained us to the league title at 22. He was obviously good but I'm too young to know if his positional play was excellent at 22.