Yeah ok, but then you’ve got to take Mihkhtaryn out of the team.

Transfers drive fans bananas. Reports we’ve made two bids for Gelson Martinez Portuguese winger. I know absolutely zero about him - other than his goals and assists last year were decent - but if we sign him it’ll set my mind at ease. It doesn’t make a lot of sense really, signings can make you feel like you’re well prepared when you’re not. How cocky were Utd the first season they signed Pogba? Whilst not being a flop they clearly signing players which could be argued replace him pretty easily.

I watched a YouTube video of him creativity labelled “[insert player name ] - welcome to Arsenal!”

So know I know he looks good in a video designed to make him look good. He seems to like a slide tackle is my take away.

Yes. It's always weird to see fans during the transfer window who seem to think every reported bit of progress about a transfer represent an actual bit of progress. As if the papers know all the details. So fans will get excited about reports that player X is about to sign, and then when it doesn’t happen and someone reports the buying club didn’t want to pay the asking price or whatever the club will get criticized for handling their transfer business wrong. Happens at every club, and you have to assume that a lot of the times there wasn't even that much interest in the player to begin with.

I think our interest in Torreira is genuine as it has been reported by many sources including local ones in Italy, but I very much doubt the reports that we’ve agreed terms with Sampdoria are accurate at this point.

I think the exciting thing about transfers, or potential transfers is the hope that this player might be brilliant (obviously) but also that this is something different to something that has previously failed.

This season is slightly different because Emery is the big difference so every current Arsenal player is going to be exciting to see how/if they change to meet Emery's demands - and are those changes for better or worse?

When you are linked to a player who looks and plays like a genuine defensive midfielder having needed one for 10 years - that is exciting

Sokratis deal is said to be done but Dortmund want to wait until July 1 and the new football financial year before it is officially announced.

I'm excited about any decent DCM. It's criminal how that position has gone wanting for so long. How can a man who saw how vital Vieira and the position to us be so negligent about it? That's a head scratcher.

One of the yardsticks I will be looking for Emery is how well we do against Man Utd and Chelsea. Wenger's record against them and specifically Mourinho isn't a great one.

Not necessarily , we would have had 60 million in the bank and as Mkhitaryan wasn't figuring in Mourihno's plans at all .... we could have bought him for 30 million if so desired .

Faced with the "Oh Jesus Alexis doesn't love me as much as I thought and hasn't "come to his senses" and extended his contract like I thought he would ........Arsene had to scurry around and make the best of a bad situation .

At the start of the season we were holding a royal flush ..... unfortunately Arsene chucked in the ten , jack , queen to try for a full house .

So, I tuned in to fox News. North Korea is our friend and Canada is our enemy. Okay, got it.

Assuming Emery is going through or has gone through the youth set up and have identified some of the youth he will groom to first team minutes. Enough talent to choose from.

Gotta assume he's had a ton of things on his plate. Excited. I am also very curious to see our tactics. He often likes to play with a high line. We'll see.

Since the start of last season we have lost ox, coq, Cazorla and maybe Wilshere soon from our central midfield. I expect AMN can be a proper first team addition in there but it still looks like 1/2 signings should be made.
Emery seems to like to play the 4-2-3-1 formation, or variants on the 4-3-3. I’ll be interested to see how the players we have work in that set up. Emery needs to find a permanent position for Mkhitaryan and work out how Aubameyang and Lacazette both play....and Özil....and Ramsey. We’ve got a lot of attacking talent but I’d still like to see a genuine winger with pace, trickery and an eye for goal.

I am excited about watching Arsenal again, primarily because we can be assured the frustrating football being served up over the past seasons will be gone. Any incoming transfer is something to get excited about, because he will be playing the Emery way.

I think Iwobi is a real option as a box-to-box midfielder in a midfield three, hope Emery gives him a shot there if we’re going with that formation. If we sign this Torreira guy, that would give us Xhaka, Ramsey, Torreira, Elneny, Maitland-Niles and Iwobi as options. Should be able to find a couple of working combinations between those six players. A 4-3-3 makes a lot of sense with the players we have, then again so does 4-2-3-1…

We've already got one. Reiss Nelson.

Good point. Looking forward to seeing how he develops under Emery.
I think there are lots of players not fulfilling their potential who could go one way or another under Emery, Iwobi, Xhaka, Chambers, Holding, Bellerin

https://www.arsenal.com/news/ainsley-signs-new-long-term-contract-2
Excellent News!

Lots of rumours in Italy that we're close to an agreement on Torreira, though I have no idea how good the sources are. Would probably not be confirmed before the World Cup anyway which is a shame. Remember when we signed Rosicky in 2006, and in his first game of the World Cup that year he did this:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7vH9oZcfDA[/youtube]

Ornstein is reporting the Torreira deal is imminent. He has a buy out clause of £25m euros, but that’s if it’s all paid in one lump sum. We’ve apparently gone in with £30m euros so we can pay in instalments.

Good to get this done before the World Cup, as a decent tournament for Uruguay and he could add £20m to his price and add plenty more clubs.

It will be interesting to see who’s defensive mid turns out the best/best value?
Man U - Fred £52m
Liverpool - Fabinho £40m
Arsenal - Torreira £26m
City - Jorginho - yet to be done but likely

I heard he’s unlikely to start so I’m guessing he might have a low key tournament. I’m not sure I could tell you I’ve watched even a half of football of any of these guys. Gone are the days of watching that random European round up on channel 4 on a Saturday morning. Anyone else? Isn’t Man U’s guy from shaktar Donetsk?

What’s clear Rich is that others seem to be signing finished articles where the players we are getting linked with have decent reputations but aren’t acknowledged as finished articles. This is logical and fits in with the reported budgets being published and it’s fine but we will need a few of these players to come good and the signing of Torreira proves Xhaka hasn’t worked out.

Bild is also reporting we are close to signing the German Keeper Leno and if this happens it would take our total spending to around 66 million in transfer fees. I can’t envisage many more players after that coming in unless we sell with Jack, Campbell, Perez and Chambers all muted with moves away. That might generate the 25 million for a wide player that’s desperately required.

Bild are reporting we're close to signing goalkeeper Bernd Leno. If true, and we get the Torreira deal over the line, that would mean we've taken care of arguably or four most pressing needs in terms of squad strengthening before the World Cup.

Just read a write up from a sampdoria fan that suggests that Torreira isn’t the holding midfielder we seek but more of a box to box, high energy, defensive but also bombs forward type. Be interesting to see where we intend on playing him but we seem to be constantly struggling to acquire the midfield shield our defence requires.

He can hit a free kick and long range shot as well.......and I live in hope that it won't be coached out of him and he can get more on target than Xhaka

Yeah, most sources (including Ornstein) are reporting it's done but won't be announced until July.

Sokratis is widely reported as done but won't be announced until July because Dortmund want to push the deal in to the next football financial year. I think there will be another CB coming as well, which could mean one goes. Mustafi? Or Fulham have a rumoured interest in Chambers. Chambers improved at the end of last season but I haven't seen enough of the raw ingredients to convince me he's good enough for us. I'd take anything over £15m

I wouldn’t worry about those comments from the Sampdoria fan. Even if Torreira is more of a deep lying playmaker than a defensive midfielders, his stats clearly indicate he’s a good ball winner that will track back. I think he has the most interceptions in Serie A the last two seasons. Don’t think we need a pure destroyer, just someone who is defensively capable to share some of the defensive load with Xhaka. I’m confident our midfielders can work that out between them in a system that puts more emphasis on defensive responsibility.

Jack and Campbell are both on a free, would free up some wages though. If we don't bend over backwards to sell our players on the cheap I think we should be able to get £15m+ for perez and chambers. Also we should be looking for at least £10m for Ospina. £40m plus a lot of wages freed up should get a very good player.
Lichtstiener, Sokratis, Torreira, Leno, CB, wide player is a good summer if the budget is to be believed. It would be a summer that looks to have a solid if unspectacular strategy and would be one that has addressed clear problems and holes in the squad. Obviously all that is on paper, it is up to Emery to gel those players and improve the existing ones to make a good summer transfer window turn in to great performances on the pitch.

This is a good point. Now Wengers gone our more direct coaching and instruction should benefit our system

Surely we should be able to get 15 for Chambers given he’s young and English

Chambers 15 million
Perez 10 million
Ospina. 5million

Plus losing the wages for jack and Campbell. Surely that’s enough to get your winger although we seem to be looking at another Turkish centre half in the bundesliga so it may be a case of selling chambers and replacing with another younger centre half.

Would be great if we can sign Jay Leno as goalkeeper

I wonder what the plan is with our central defense. There's a lot of talent there but the age mix seems a bit off. Koscielny is probably a write-off for the season. Have to assume Sokratis is bought for one of the starting positions. Mustafi had a poor season, but perhaps the club thinks he can improve under Emery. Holding, Chambers and Mavropanos are all at an age where they’re possibly too young/inexperienced to be counted on as first choice, but they’re old enough to need regular playing time to develop properly. Hard to see all three of them getting enough time.

Most rumours about central defenders apart from Sokratis have circulated around defenders in their early 20s as well.

Yassin Fortune departs

Arsenal have released 19-year old French forward Yassin Fortune from the club.
He becomes player number 5 to leave the club this season.

David Letterman might be a better option. Sounds a bit more like David Seaman.

Meanwhile, Spain... WTF????

When I was a boy, Question time used to be on public tv (government) here and I didn't know what they were talking about but found it quite funny. "The right honourable gentlemen..." and I still find it comedy gold
while respecting the seriousness of the topics. Blair was the most humorous PM of the ones I've seen so far.

Absolutely mental, day before the tournament starts.

Apparently, the Spanish FA were only told about the Real Madrid job yesterday just before it was announced. It's classic Madrid to ride roughshod over everyone, even the national team.

Reports saying it's against the players wishes. I get that the Spanish FA are annoyed about the Real Madrid thing, but this sounds like a recipe for disaster for the upcoming tournament. Incredibly short sighted.

PSG need to sell £60m worth of players before the end of June to comply with financial fair play. Forgot FFP was still a thing. Is there anyone at PSG who Emery fancies bringing with him or is this just dealt with by Real Madrid signing Neymar

Hierro looks like a decent solution. Very highly respected figure and the rest of the coaching staff will still have a big input. I won't be surprised if they go on to win it.

Rabiot.