Does he have a point or is it more complicated than that?

Of course talksport employs pundits based on their willingness to bait large fan bases. I also think we’re often fair game because you’d get shot down or look a bit of an idiot trying to criticise Liverpool or Man City right now.
Spurs are given a light ride because historically they are not a successful club. What doesn’t make sense is how Man U and Chelsea aren’t slaughtered so much more.
Can you imagine if we’d bought a £100m striker and sent him back to his previous club on loan the very next season, or lost our best CB on a free transfer. Not really heard a peep of criticism in the media for either of those Chelsea mistakes. And don’t even get started on the shocking mess Man U have been in for years.
Arsenal are taking an approach with young players, many of them English and many of them from the academy, plus a rookie manager and we try to play entertaining attacking football - you’d have thought we’d have been cut a bit more slack in some parts of the media.

To be fair Rich, with football inflation wasn’t Lacazette a comparable outlay to Chelsea’s last year on Lukaku when he joined? £52.7m in 2017 according to the Guardian (link below)? If not the expenditure was much closer than the cash terms. How about the £72m we paid for Pépé? I’d say Lukaku has had just as much coverage as them. On talkSPORT from what I hear of it, I’d say more. A lot more.

You mentioned Tottenham but I must admit,I’m struggling to remember too many massively expensive waste of money signings lately. I’m not saying there haven’t been any. But recent and comparable to Lukaku and Pépé? If there are any they’ve slipped my mind.

In short I don’t think Arsenal are singled out any more or less than other comparable clubs. The very mild White dig today (Agbonlohor’s was much heavier but that’s his own subjective viewpoint and we all have them), came from Maguire and Varane being slaughtered for being expensive rubbish (another subjective view).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... ecord-lyon

Spurs have £60m Ndombele, and Bryan Gil (£25m plus lamella) who were both shipped off on loan very quickly.
I think if you get your expensive flop out on loan people forget them more than of they’re sat on your bench each week!

Also if you have a long list of expensive flops and big money signings I think the media give less attention to it than a club like Srsenal who spend big far less often, so perhaps it’s more obvious when a big signing fails. For example, how often do we hear about £70m Arrizabalaga, £40m Bakayoko, £30m drinkwater….or the fact Chelsea are struggling for CB and just got rid of two of England’s best young CB in Tomori and Guehi?

Lyon apparently have a buy back clause for Ndimbele of €65m. Not quite the same is it? To be honest I think you’re making it a bit too much of an issue. I’ve heard plenty of Chelsea losing Rudiger, as I have of them releasing Salah and De Bruyne for peanuts. Tomori and Guehi? I think they have a long way to go before they show Chelsea shouldn’t have got rid of them. Aren’t they supposed to have some sort of buy back arrangement for Guehi anyway?

My baseline point is that the Lukaku situation has attracted way more coverage than, for example, Pépé.

Do you think Lyon will exercise that €65m buy back for Ndombele? I can’t see Spurs getting any more for him than we’d get for Pépé. At least Pépé won a trophy, assisting the winner in the final.

I suppose we can see what happens this year. We were constantly reminded we spent the most of any club in Europe last year. Spurs will be spending north of £160m if they make their two loan signings permanent.

Personally I think Tuchel and Chelsea have had a really easy ride from the media, especially on the Lukaku issue. They were expected to challenge for the title last year and flopped massively.

I’d love to see the squad wages of Man U compared to us. I don’t think it would be too far off to say Man U’s top 5/6 earners might earn more than our entire squad. Ronaldo £500k per week, Sancho, de Gea, Varane all at £350k

We’re shifting more big earners hopefully, Leno, Bellerin, Mari. Need to use that money to tie down Saka, Saliba and Martinelli on new deals

No I don’t think Lyon will but who’s to say he won’t return to Tottenham and be a success?

You’ve said before, quite often, how well you think Chelsea manipulate the transfer market with their young players and how we should aim to do the same. Now you’re slagging them off for letting Tomori and Guehi go.

If you can find the highlights from yesterdays friendly win (I had them but lost them) there are a couple of wonderful through balls from Partey, to set up two of the goals. Another from Matt Smith to set up Balogun’s goal.

When we think about a teams most important player it is a combination of the best player and the one without a replacement. To that end a fit and firing Partey is so key for us. Elneny does an ok job screening, and not giving away the ball but he’s relatively non existent in cutting ball progression and turning and dribbling in tight areas.

In fact once you solve the main gap in our first 11 of a striker then you just need to go through the best 11 and likely replacements to see easily where we need to strengthen.

Vieira is a good signing for his similarity to Ødegaard as I don’t think we have anyone who can do what Ødegaard does. Then you’re looking at Partey, Tierney, Tomiyasu and Saka needing better competition.

Trying to read the tea leaves here…is there any significance in the appearance yesterday of Mari,Bellerin,AMN,Pépé and Nelson.
Do they have a future with us or was it a shop window display?

Your guess would be as good as that of the any of the rest of us.

My guess is that none of those 5 will feature for Arsenal in the coming season. The outside bet there I suppose would be Nelson but he hasn’t yet nailed down his several chances in his career so far.

Chelsea do use the market well for their youngsters, but they haven’t in this case. They sold two young CB when they had their best CB and another cb in the last year of their deals, another Cb is 37 and another they use at Cb is azpilicueta. That’s 4 CB who had no future at Chelsea and they sold 2 young English CB who’s value is now double what they were sold for.
In the past Chelsea gave done well with sales, but that doesn’t mean they should be immune from criticism when they do some bad deals. Let’s see how Chelsea do without Abramovic and without The female transfer guru who’s name escapes me

I would be shocked if we can move Pépé. His wages are 140k a week and his stock has fallen so much nobody will be willing to take that chance. He can perform in the Europa league so may add some value if we can’t sign another winger.

Nelson surely should be sold. He hasn’t really blown away anybody on any of his loans

Only one that lot that would be of use would be ainsley.

There's a highlight video on arsenal.com!

I agree about Partey, his midfield play is so vital for us. It's no coincidence that our best performances last season was when he was fit and in form, like the home game against City where he absolutely bossed the midfield in that first half. He was almost never injured at Atletico, so hopefully the past two seasons were just a bit unlucky for him because we're a different team when he's starting.

I think Pépé will quite possibly feature for the reason Top Gun implies, nobody else touching him with a barge pole. It’s quite sad with Pépé in my view. He has the basic attributes to be a fine player. Skill, dibbling ability and pace to name but three. It’s just never happened for him at Arsenal. Perhaps we were the wrong place at the wrong time for him?

Rich knows far more about this kind of stuff than me, but are there restrictions in squad size and if so what are they relevant to home grown quotas and stuff like that? Also what makes a player home grown as it clearly has nothing to do with nationality? Please nobody bother answering that question by the way.

I’m just using it to emphasise it may well be best to wait until 1st September when the window has expired and see what the squad is. Who else has joined and who has left? It’s only then when we’ll be able to assess the quality and strength of the squad without mindless nonsense about it being the best transfer window ever on the strength of showing interest in players who didn’t arrive.

I think it might be a question of mentality. Like you say, he has all the technical qualities to succeed - in terms of raw talent he's as good as anyone, and he's had some really good games for us, but for some reason he can't seem to perform consistently. He strikes me as a player who needs a run of games to succeed, but it's hard to blame Arteta for playing others ahead of him when they're much more consistent.

If we don't manage to sign a new RW, I can see Pépé staying on for another season. With us being in the Europa League, there will be more games for him, and maybe he can use that to kick on. Let's not forget he scored 10 league goals in 20/21, while only starting 16 games, so he's not a poor player by any means.

I'm hoping we have enough respect for Paddy's legacy to NOT sing...

'Vieira ooooooh, Vieira oooooooh, he comes from Portugal and plays for Arsenal'

It’s a certainty that it will be sung.

Albeit with the correct words.

Why would it symbolise a lack of respect for Patrick Vieira’s legacy anyway?

I think the only way we move Pépé on is a loan. The only other chance we might have is Christophe Gaultier might be/now is the nee PSG manager, he had Pépé at Lille when he had that great season. Perhaps he might be tempted.
One thing I’ve seen with Pépé (and this might be a very harsh judgement) but he seems to lack a bit of emotion and personality when he plays. It’s almost like win or lose, beat a man or get tackled he feels the same. I’ve not seen any raw emotion when he scores for example.

I also think he hasn’t been used properly with us. Arteta uses his right winger as a touchline winger who receives the ball wide and drives infield. Pépé has always been more effective receiving the ball much further infield and much higher up the pitch where his close skills and dribbling allow him to get in to shooting situations within a few seconds of receiving the ball.

The problem with Pépé isn’t how he is being played it’s simply that he’s brainless in his own half.

When he’s running at his full back he’s great, shooting and crossing around the box very good too. He’s perfectly capable of scoring 15 plus goals in a season. That part of the game is fine.

Problem is when he takes receipt of the ball in his own half he can’t keep it simple and lay it off. He can’t track effectively leaving his full back exposed..

What does it mean. It means he’s very effective in games like europa league, league cup, fa cup where it’s not a battle but in the premier league when it’s a slog he’s a liability and too much of a risk unless it’s time to throw caution to the wind. He’s probably suited to the french or Italian leagues rather than premiership or la liga.

I'm quietly excited about Nketiah next year. In the last 3 months of the season Nketiah really surprised me with his all round game, it came on so much from being a penalty box poacher. He looked stronger, fitter, faster and showed good touches holding the ball up. Even though he didn't score I thought his performance against West Ham away was his best performance for us.

It wouldn't surprise me to see games where we use Nketiah as the CF with Jesus on the right and either resting Saka or using Saka on the left.

With Nketiah and Jesus up top I still think we're a player short, a in the box target man, but I think Nketiah and Jesus need to be aiming for 30+ league goals between them next year. If we can get similar goal returns from Saka/Emile Smith Rowe/Martinelli/Ødegaard you could be looking at 60+ goals from that quintet alone

I think there's a player in there, his dribbling skills are as good as anyone in the squad and he can score goals. The trouble is that successive managers have failed to get consistency, awareness and good decision-making from him. Elite players tend to have the elite footballing brain to go with their natural ability, I am not sure Pépé has.

It might be a confidence thing, or it might be that the PL is just a step too far. It is for some players, it's mentally and physically draining and the pressure to perform week-in week-out is so high.

It feels like Arteta has given up with him. I'd like to have seen him a couple of times up front, just to see if greater feedom and lesser defensive responsibility might be the key to getting the best out of him offensively. If he stays, maybe start him up front in a couple of friendlies or in a Europa League game just to see how he might shape up. I am certain Arteta has tried that in training, though, so maybe that doesn't work either.

Jesus joins. Club ignored the warts thing

https://www.arsenal.com/news/gabriel-je ... ta-reunion

I think there’s a player in there but he lacks the right footballing intelligence and mentality.

Contrast Pépé to the behaviour of Raphinha at the emirates when Luke ayling got himself sent off. Raphinha almost got himself sent off arguing with the ref for 10 minutes about the red, Pépé would never have done that. Just not sure he’s got the right mentality to fight for everything.

He’s perfectly fine for europa league group games where he will look a superstar then on the weekend struggle

Given the level of competition for players in this current transfer market I think we have done remarkably well to get Gabriel Jesus. Whether he is the answer I don't know but he's a top level player with PL experience and youth on his side.

In a perfect world I am sure we'd have liked a tall, powerful target man as well but they are few and far between and market forces and our lack of CL football are making those kind of signings extremely difficult.

Gabriel must have been sold a good project, though. I don't think he will be happy if at the end of the window we haven't brought in at least another two top level players if not more.

It is finally announced, Gabriel Jesus is officially on board.
And we have 3 Brazilian Gabriels in our team now.

That will presumably mean paying a very large proportion of his wages. We were still paying 90% of Özil’s £350k per week salary, so £315k a week, when he went on loan to Fenerbahce.

That raises questions on whether it might be best to keep Pépé, even if only for the cups and as a Premier League sub?

I’m genuinely excited about the signing of Jesus.

I think people could be shocked at how good he ends up being for Arsenal. His ability to run and drive at defenders with the ball at his feet could really help us. He has the Brazilian ability to freestyle dribble with the ball at his feet and if you watched us last year we were quite pedestrian at times at our focal point of attack

Also he’s probably going to be a must for your fantasy league side as his transfer fee will be low and he’ll end up taking all our penalties too!