"Arsenal tell Alexis Sanchez he will not be joining Manchester City as Arsene Wenger refuses to sell stars to rivals

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z4leq44pmf

Choice 1 AW sticks to his guns and refuses to sell Sanchez. We lose £50million and Sanchez sits out the early games.

Choice 2 AW is forced to sell Sanchez and AW leaves the club in protest.

What would you prefer?

If it's leaving Germany the quality of the tracks will fall. Let's hope we beat Chile later today to make up for it. Talking of Chile, I didn't know they had stages of the Tour de France in South America. I know the Amazon jungle doesn't extend to Chile, but when does it go to South America so the bike riders can spend their time "fending off enormous insects in some godforsaken jungle with 100% humidity." The only jungle I've heard of in France is the Calais jungle, which was simply a name given to a migrant camp there.

EDIT: Actually I've just had a brilliant idea. Move the whole bike ride to Germany and call it the 'Reise von Deutschland'. The uphill bit could be done in the Alps instead of the Pyrenees. Add a bit of class to it.

Number 2. Losing £50m so he can join City next summer on a free transfer looks pure idiocy to me especially, unless something quite astonishing happens, as I doubt we'll win the Premier League whether Sanchez stays or goes. I'd say that even if Wenger doesn't leave the club in protest, although that would be an added bonus.

Funny enough my real-life surname (as opposed to this cybershow) has a royal connection, but apart from some of our Irish posters, I suspect I am the least monarchist of anybody on here.

As good old Tom Paine noted in his Business Plan aka Common Sense: 'There is another and great distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of Heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind...To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION.'

Windsor is my bet for hoy's real life surname.

More likely something ending in gina. Regina maybe?

Middle names Victoria and Albert

Bernard, I'm not sure you read my post correctly. Still, you may have stumbled on a great idea to have an 'amazon jungle stage' of the Tour. The dense undergrowth, killer snakes etc would certainly test the riders. I'll email the organisers.

Does it go to Wales. A Welshman won the first stage and now wears the famous yellow jersey.

After yesterday's one day final I'm just pleased his name presumably isn't Hales. Actually Alex Hales was born in Hillingdon, firmly Middlesex country. Sounds like the scouts at both my football and cricket clubs are equally crap.

Excluding Hodd, of course.

No prizes for guessing yours ......... either Battenberg or Schicklgruber

Jeez Hoy that will put some interest into the forum with a guessing game on the surname. I don't mind that quote being very anti monarch myself. I recall a time in my early 20s when God Save the Queen was still the national anthem of Oz and I refused to stand at a function. One person seated in 200 drew some comment.

Offspring performing at the Grahamstown Festival ... at '36.

http://cuemedia.co.za/2017/07/01/video- ... avourites/

Good on you. You know as much about football as Dame Edna, but I admire your republicanism. Off with their heads!

Knot.

Enough media outlets reporting Lacazette traveling to London to complete his signing for us for anywhere between £45-52m. I haven't seen him in french football only the champions league, he seems like the all round striker we've been missing since van persie left. He's got 113 goals in the last 4 seasons, 26 years old and has just had the best season of his career. If we're being realistic about our transfers then on paper this is as very good signing.

Sanchez misses a simple tap in and Germany against the run of play go up the other end of the pitch. Germany lead Chili 1-0............................

The Germans dominate once more.....................

Sanchez has a poor game once again.................

Assuming we sign him, he, Giroud and Welbeck are not a bad strike corp. Throw in another season of development for Iwobi.

If we get that Monaco winger, we're formidable going forward. Remains to be seen if our new formation with 3 at the back remains better than the previous one.

Not like it happens that often.

Lyon CEO Aulas has confirmed the Lacazette deal will go through in the next couple of days for a fee between 45-50m euro.

Good news, we need more options up front.

There's lots of talk about Mahrez too, although Ox looks like he is on the way out

Buenos Dec

Magic no tears shed here , the Ox is like a locomotive speeding back and forth on a siding ..... plenty of energy but f**&^% all end product . What would be wonderful if we could offer Walcott as a combo deal .

Not sure about Mahrez watched one game where he looked totally disinterested and ineffectual , was he just riding the crest of the wave during Leicester's championship season .....?

There was some little dude playing on the wing for Ghana the other day , speedy , skilful we could probably get him for 3 million pounds and four hundred green shield stamps ...more of an Arsene purchase

OMOH's surname is Tudor?

Lacazette should be a good signing because he's pacy with good movement and a very good finisher. I don't think he's at the elite level of strikers but given our current circumstances he's probably close to being as good as we could have realistically expected to get.

I'm a bit like Wilts-Gooner on this though, if he's in addition to Alexis then he's potentially a great signing, if he's instead of Alexis then I'm not sure where it leaves us. We might have actually gone slightly backwards.

I really like Mahrez and hope we sign him but I'm not sure how both him and Özil would work in the same team. Both very lightweight defensively.

I'm putting my money on Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Possibly a big if, but if we manage to keep Sanchez and with this signing and one of the wingers we are chasing (be it Mahrez or the Monaco winger), then what formation? There are some players who 'must' start.

This may be less of an issue since we will conceivably have a lot of matches and will need to rotate. The Europa league (still getting used to saying that with the Arsenal in the same sentence) will add more matches, then the domestic cups.

Lacazette will be an interesting signing for me. He has some positives but I am concerned about how he will be fed the ball. France prefer Giroud and I wonder if in fact that in the EPL he will find it a lot more challenging as he will not have the time he currently has in France. He may well step up but I agree with the comments that he is not top class. It may very well be feast or famine with this player and he is not a replacement for Alexis.

As for Mahrez, I am not a fan. I think he is a slight upgrade on Theo but he does not chase back to defend and last year he was poor in the matches I watched on TV. I am concerned that other managers have sorted him out and he may have been a one season wonder.

The Ox - I suspect other managers may get more out of him. I think he will listen to people who want to improve him and he wants to get better.

Hi AG,

It seems like Alexis has been sworn to secrecy over his intentions. That usually happens when a player is being allowed to leave but the selling club wishes to get replacements in first before an announcement is made. Plus, any club we are negotiating with will drive the price up even more if they know we have an extra £50m in the kitty from the Alexis sale and are desperate to make signings.

Up The Arsenal hey, C'mon you red ones...

I've found it strange that the French manager prefers Giroud to Lacazette, whereas if the stories about Giroud being released to either West Ham or Everton are true, Wenger has the opposite opinion. I don't associate the French style of play with lobbing high crosses in the area and while Giroud does have other qualities like his control and laying off of passes, they're what I associate with a slightly more direct approach. I thus wonder if Lacazette may be better suited to Arsenal than Giroud. Although as I associate France's style more with Arsenal's, that does raise the question of why Giroud comes above Lacazette in the pecking order for their country?

Like you I have some doubts about Mahrez. He's extremely gifted, but strikes me as a bit milky. He can be excellent as we saw in 2015/16 but often disappears from games as in 2016/17. Some used to moan about Özil's tendency to decorate rather than dominate games. I suspect that issue could well be raised to an even greater extent if Mahrez joins. Is Mahrez being signed, if he is, to replace Özil or play with him? If it's the latter, might Wenger see him in a more central role to replace Cazorla? After all, Cazorla started in a wider position before being moved to the centre. If so perhaps it could be the making of Mahrez, or it might be a nail in his coffin at the club. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose.

Agree with this. I'm not sure Lacazette is even a better overall player than Giroud, but his qualities are more suited to the type of football we should be playing.

There are certainly question marks about him, and he's not world class. I like him better than the likes of Lukaku and Morata though, especially since they would cost substantially more.

With regards to the French national team, I think there is sometimes a bias against players from smaller clubs. I remember Phil Neville complaining about the fact that when he was a backup player at Man Utd he was consistently called up England squads, but when he went to Everton and became a starter he was rarely picked for England.*

Just one of several possible reasons. Giroud is a good player who has often played very well for France, which is probably the main reason.

*A very good argument can be made that Phil Neville should never have been called up for international duty in the first place but that's beside the point.

Hmm...so its likely Sanchez is off then? If so, I just hope its not City or any other EPL side. There are reasons other than money for players to leave. RvP wanted a title. I've got to think that part of Sanchez's reasons are the lack of fight in the side throughout the season and not wanting to kill himself on the pitch alongside players who didn't want it badly enough. The last dozen matches excepted.

Logic may dictate that given a choice, Mahrez over Lemar for reasons obvious and perhaps not so obvious but I actually like Lemar more. Mahrez can fit in immediately as he is already well experienced in the EPL and knows what it takes to win titles. Its a huge advantage over Lemar. Also, he is in his prime at 26.

I like Lemar though a wee bit more. A bit more dynamic for my taste. Plus at 21, who knows how good he can get?

Will I be upset if we end up with Mahrez? Obviously I'd 'loov it' (channeling my inner Keegan). I just happen to be more excited seeing Lemar. But its like saying I enjoy Henry over Berkgamp...and I love Bergkamp to bits.

Too much news going around. Too much speculation. I'll get excited, or not, when transfers in/out are confirmed. With Sead's incoming , I'm excited

Hi Aussie Gooners, I'm just about to finish my vacation week in beautiful Cairns. Lovely city, so much fun stuff to do.

This is most likely so when you think about it, the club would probably factor this in too, that if Sanchez is going we have basically just replaced him with an inferior player, so in order to improve the team we simply have to improve other areas, basically what I'm saying is it is nigh on impossible to replace him with a player as good so we have to replace him with 2 (or 3) players that are closer to his level than the existing one's at the club.

This begs the question who's place is under threat from our first choice line up from last season?, I am not especially keen on Mahrez for the reasons others have already said, plus isn't he a bit too similar to Özil?, unless of course he is Özil's replacement!. Assuming we stick to 3 at the back there are limited places for 'attacking' players, this is why I think Ox might go as Ramsey/Xhaka was first choice in CM and Ox doesn't want to play as a utility man.

Back to Mahrez - if we do sign him where does this leave Walcott? - he's got to go surely. Wenger has always preached about 'evolution' rather than 'revolution' but I can't help thinking this summer we need the latter, there are just too many issues that need resolving for a little bit of tinkering to be enough.

Out - Walcott £20M, Giroud £20M, Ox £25M
Debuchy £0, Jenkinson £0 , Elneny £5M , Ospina £5M

£75M

In - Lacazette £50M..

So we are already +£25M if we get rid of this lot, big ask but it needs doing, the time for tinkering is over!.

P.S I would keep Wilshere purely as he's homegrown and has a passion for the club, he would have to accept back up status though, Szczesny I would keep as well but this doesn't look likely which I find odd.

I'd love to find a place for Wilshere as well. He is talented and he's passionate. We need those types of intangibles. If or when Sanchez leaves, we will get a huge fee. We were a bit over-reliant on him. He will be a huge loss both skill wise and emotionally. However, it also presents an opportunity to make the squad more balanced. A more than decent lead striker for the first time since RvP left. If we can get a couple high level wingers on either side, Sanchez's loss may turn out to be a good thing long term IF we can replace the goals, and have those goals spread out across the attack.
Ideally, I'd love to keep Sanchez but if we can't we have to make the best of his leaving.