Glad you enjoyed the sun. If you'd skydived down here you'd probably have turned into a giant hailstone.

Can't believe preseason already in 10 days!!

Morning socrates. I'm surprised you like Mahrez when you never took to Özil. To me they're very similar types of player and largely bring both the same benefits and negatives to their teams. Very talented when going forward but adding next to nothing to the defensive side of the game. I'd say in that respect Mahrez might even be a bit worse than Özil. Both can look disinterested and disappear from games, and after seeing so much of them I'd also rate Mahrez as a little worse in that way too. It adds up to them both being inconsistent. Mahrez will of course be cheaper to buy than Özil, but I'd be surprised if that was a significant factor in making you like Mahrez while never appearing to take to Özil.

Give it time.

Hi Bernard,

Mahrez is an old fashioned dribber with a magical left foot who likes to take on his man with little drops of the shoulder, step-overs, changes of pace etc. He likes a shot at goal coming inside from the right wing onto his left foot.

Sometimes I think we get so bogged down with our passing game, especially when teams drop deep and defend with two banks of four, that we need someone who can go past his man and take him out the game, opening up space for others.

I think Mahrez actually suffered a bit at Leicester because they rarely dominated possession, home or away, infact they often had around 30% of the possession and played largely a counter-attacking game. It was good when Mahrez got the ball but that wasn't always that often in matches so his influence was limited. He's have much more of the ball in an Arsenal side.

Özil is a precision passer with fantastic vision and weight of pass but not really a dribbler.

So basically, I see them both as having magical left foots but being quite different in terms of their playing styles. Both are very lightweight defensively though.

Hi Soc

I largely agree with that. Özil is a playmaker. Mahrez is a winger with real ability to beat a player and happily, he has a good shot on him too. He is one of the few players in the league who can kill a defender one on one without using blinding pace.
Unlike the rest of the forum, or so it seems, I am not too worried about the defensive qualities of either, although Özil's half-arsed tackles are annoying. We never cared too much about Pires' defending. A solid central midfield and well organised defence should be more than sufficient to take care of the defensive side of the game and let the attacking players do the damage at the other end.

Exactly. Plus, the notion that Sanchez contributes anything defensively is a complete myth. If anything he's a defensive liability because of his habit of holding on to the ball for too long in our own half. Hazard, De Bruyne, Coutinho, Eriksen, they're all pretty much useless defensively. It's not what they're there for.

Could either of them take over Carzorla's role?

Now that could be magic?

Afternoon socrates. Mahrez is certainly much more of a dribbler than Özil. I certainly wouldn't call him a Peter Marinello style dribbler though, if you're talking of him being an "old fashioned" dribbler.

Chilean newspaper La Tercera are claiming Sanchez will 'honor his contract'. Assuming that would mean him leaving for free next year. Not sure how reliable La Tercera are, but I would be ok with that outcome if he's set on leaving.

Bayern have said that he is too expensive for them. If Arsenal are insisting that they won't sell to another PL club, there may be nowhere else for him to go. If true, it is quite a change from the RVP days.

From Arsenal's point of view I don't think that's a good option. If he goes into the last year, winding down his contract, I think we'd have an unsettled and distracted player on our hands. That could destabilise the whole squad. I would prefer ideally he signs a new deal, but if he's not willing to do that we should sell. Reluctantly.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40496970

Haven't seen this posted. It looks like we got our man.

I tend to agree with bromley. £50m is, even in today's world of football, a lot to give up for a single season of having a possibly unsettled player (even if he is great) on our books. Look, if he stays and we win the league, then Sanchez leaves on a Bosman, I'll be more than comfortable with that. In fact I'll be delighted as anyone who could afford it would presumably spend £50m on a player for one year who would guarantee them the title in that season.

But even with Sanchez, if we sign Lacazette and Mahrez as well as Kolasinac, will that be enough to make up the difference with the other big clubs no doubt strengthening too? If Sanchez does stay, we'll have to wait and see. But I think anything less than winning the league will make the decision to give up the £50m a mistake, especially as we could have bought other players with it on the basis of talent Wenger has identified, which I still believe is the part of the job that he's best at.

SSNews reporting completion of medical for Alex Lacazette.

Looks like we have our man..........................

Bad news. He's got piles and Arsenal are walking away from the deal. Arsene Wenger quoted: ' Well, er, Lacazette has a touch of the Farmer Giles, so we will not be signing him. I feel very sorry for him as he had set his jam tart on joining us, but it is not to be. We could not have him playing a little with the handbrake on.' Lacazette's agent, Emma Royd, was unavailable for comment,

I agree with Haz that Sanchez's defensive work is overrated. Disagree that we should keep him if he has decided that he wants to play elsewhere. Having a player like that would have a negative influence on team morale and £50m is still a big amount to chuck away, especially when he could just end up at City next season anyway - and for free.

Will be interesting to see if we revert to two cb's next season. With all the attacking talent we're seemingly after, I can't see us sticking with three cb's and leaving a big money signing on the bench.

I think we should stick with 3 cb's. I 've always said we should try it and am really pleased with how solid we look since we changed to it.

Problem now is are our two backs competent with the new set up. Monreal yes suits his play but Bellerin I think needs to work at it. Cazorla needs replacing then it's up to the forwards to play their parts, four of them assuming we have two midfielders. Two playing up front two floating. 5212 defending 3412 attacking.

I know what you mean. We've been shaky defensively for a long time so it was great to see some stability at the back when we tweaked the defence. It also released Xhaka and he played some lovely football in the last two months. However I just don't think Wenger will stick with it longterm. We just have too many attacking players and sounds like we still want more.

Don't think it would be that big a problem if Sanchez was to stay on for the final year of his contract. He seems like someone who mostly wants to play football all the time, don't think it's his style to not give it all he's got. Plus, he'll be 29 when the season ends. If he has a poor season it will probably have a big impact on what offers he'll recieve.

The rest of the players knows what it's about. It's professional football, everyone is out there to maximise their careers. As long as we keep strengthening I genuinely don't think it will bother them too much if Sanchez was to leave. Not selling him to City would be a statement that we're their rivals and won't be doing them favours. You can never control what players do when their contracts are up anyway.

It just seems to me that taking £50m now from City, or him going there for nothing in a year, seems a big price to pay for making a statement to City. I'm struggling to think of anything other than winning the league that would end up making it worthwhile.

Only works (for the fans) if you assume we will spend the said £50M.. our track record would say not so I say keep him, more likely is we have just spent it on Lacazette.

This guy nails the typical GOP fundamental voter because he used to be one of them. 45 (refuse to use the 'P' word Trump) has the launch codes. Its sobering. Its scares the daylights out of me...and it should everyone else. The country has visibly changed. Way more acts of rage on a one to one human level. More fatal road rage like a man who chased down and killed an 18 year old recent female HS graduate. A girl!! I can't recall if it was Churchill who said something to the effect Americans will do the right thing eventually...after exhausting all the alternatives.
I'm not so sure anymore. The amount of people who have the mindset in the article are too large. Not the majority but not far from half.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/fundame ... er-change/

If and its looking like a big IF, we keep Sanchez, I doubt we'll see him as a striker any longer. The good thing about Lacazette is he can basically duplicate Giroud's skillset with technical ability and pace. Too many times we break on the counter with Giroud up front and he is too slow for the counter. What happens with Welbeck? He came to us for more playing time and may find himself 3rd in rotation. Will he want to stay under that scenario?

I'll like to see Alexis staying on for another year. His work rate is always a plus point for me. As a fan who is more keen to see successes on the field, I am not bothered with Arsenal's financial losses if he leaves on a free the following year. Ironically, that had always been the bug bear for most of us, in that, Arsene and Arsenal had always let financial considerations precede winning trophies.

With the additions (hopefully good ones), we might win it next season. Or challenge very strongly till the end. This might change Alexis' mind about leaving after a good season. Well, it is all hopeful thoughts from my end.

Actually Hoy I think our first move would be to offer 20 mil less before we pulled out.

Given the choice, would it be better to sell Sanchez and get top or near top dollar (or pound) now or have him for one more season along with our new buys so that we make sure we are top 4 and god forbid challenge the title?
If its the latter. Is he professional enough not to mope around for the season or does his will to win and compete override his not being sold?

The overrated ginger prince Paul Scholes? Chelsea fans think so. I didn't think he was as good as advertised. I saw very fine player but frankly, not as good as most said he was. It was either believe you lot or my lying eyes. Still, one has to respect even the great (greatest) Vieira saying Scholes was the best midfielder he played against. I saw a player who had an uncanny ability to arrive outside or inside box at the right time and good vision. I never bought the 'he's a bad tackler'adage one bit. He was a nasty player in the tackle and referees coddled him. How can a so called bad tackler How in god's green earth does a known 'bad tackler' admittedly by his own manager get only 4 red cards in his career? Along with 97 yellow cards and such a low number becoming red? His national team career exposed him. For a player who was always mentioned no worse than top 3 or 4 ever in the EPL do so awfully bad in Europe both club and country?

http://www.givemesport.com/1092549-chel ... -III-1sted

Don't think it will pan out this way...but one can dream.

He was a fantastic player, AG.

I'd say Scholes was in the top four central midfielders I've seen in the PL era...........Keane, Vieira, Scholes and Gerrard would be my top four (in no particular order).

I take your point but doesn't our track record also say we won't win the league whether he stays or goes? So what's the point in not collecting the £50m now? Look, as I've said, if he stays and we win the title, then he goes on a Bosman, I'll consider it money well spent. But anything less than a fourteenth league win and I'll look on it as money thrown away. Money that could have been used to strengthen the team. You doubt it would be, and I can understand why. But if it wasn't, that's another factor about Wenger's management that I would feel deserves to be looked at very closely.

I'm not even sure a second, third or fourth place finish to get back into the Champions League would justify the decision. I do firmly believe Arsenal can qualify for the Champions League again with or without Sanchez, especially as I'm hoping Tottenham might struggle to maintain their standards of last season from playing at Wembley. What I'm much less sure about is winning the title if Sanchez sees out the last year of his contract. Perhaps I'm alone in seeing it this way, but for me the only outcome that would justify the risk is winning the title. In my view, anything less would make it a poor decision.

I would keep it to the first three as I think Gerrard is a level below. The other three were superb players. Among the very best in Europe at the time. There is nobody close in the PL today.

I won't rule out an ''Arsenal tinted" view. The link mentions Lampard again, who I think was a great player but also overrated in terms of how high he is held in actual talent.

I didn't see much of Keane pre-Vieira if at all but for me Vieira ruled, lord and master over all when he was in the mood. Gerrard had a bit of that but not to the same level, more attacking than Vieira. Scholes...hmm...I can't..just can't...haha..but I do concede he was a great player.

We can all agree he is, its just how great is the question. How much of his greatness was due to being in that coddled Man Utd team? Everyone on that list of yours did it for their country. It could be argued the national team exposed his shortcomings.

I think the fan reaction is a factor here. The anti-Wenger and anti-Kroenke sentiment hasn't gone away. If we sell Alexis to City, fans will be up in arms again. The best option for me would be to sell him and get in a top class player with the proceeds. If the Aguero swap is a possibility, that would be great.

I read Alexis as the type of person who will give his all. And I think this will only change if Wenger gets anal with him. I see Wenger as someone who will get anal with players who dare to speak of/to him (speak against obviously).

For me, a swap for Aguero is a good second option. Keeping Alexis is first.

Funnily enough, I'd probably say that as an all round player Gerrard was the best of the lot.

He had a bit of everything (technique, vision and a great range of passing, power, pace, desire and a bit of a nasty streak). He could do just about everything on a football pitch and could play in multiple positions. I think he should have gone to Madrid or Barca in his prime rather than stay at Liverpool.

I just hope Lacazette isn't the replacement for Alexis. If he is then we still need at least another 3 topclass players to even think about competing for the league.

Looking around at what's available to us (ruling out Mbappe) it's hard to see a like-for-like player who would provide the same number of goals and assists so we are almost needing to buy two players to replace one.

I certainly accept the reaction of fans is a factor shaping the decision, if the decision to keep him is made. But the club was happy enough to ignore fan opinion over Wenger's contract renewal so they're picking and choosing when to take account of fan reaction, which I'm not saying is wrong. I'm just suggesting they've possibly got it the wrong way round in ignoring and abiding with fan opinion. But I'm with you on this. The best option would be to sell him now and recruit a top level player with the £50m. If we end up kissing goodbye to the £50m and not winning the title next season, I think supporters may be less understanding of any explanation for the shortfall with 'we could not compete financially with the Manchester clubs or Chelsea'.