Very pertinent point Bernard. Personality has been missing from our team for a while. He does look a very promising player.

Btw, Geraint Thomas is a Gooner.

I heard the offer is even higher than that.

Now I'm a big fan of Ramsey. He's given us the two best moments of our recent history with his FA Cup Final winners. Not too many players can say they've done that twice. But if he's been offered £200k+ a week and is still stalling then there's the door Aaron.

Another reason to like him

Blimey so if it’s nearer 250k a week why hasn’t he taken it. If that is the case I’d be pretty sure he’s staying as I couldn’t see him moving abroad and city wouldn’t be interested so it’s chelsea Liverpool or united and I just can’t see any of those 3 paying that type of money just to sign Ramsey.

His negotiating tactic is an interesting one, his wages at the moment are 110k and every week he is delaying signing the deal he misses out on another 140k purely in an effort to squeeze a little more cash Out of the club. He’s probably losing more than he would have made just to give the agent the feeling he’s in charge.

Or maybe he wants to go? Lord knows.

The offer as I was told would allegedly make him only behind Mesut Özil in the high earners stakes. Ridiculous sum being mentioned. TG, I think it's even higher than £250k. That's what was intimated to me.

I think he wants to play in the CL simply. Top 4 really is absolutely essential this year IMO and I think that's a tough ask. Will be delighted if we do.

If it’s closer to 300k then my goodness he simply isn’t worth that, Pogba is on less at United. There’s probably less than 30 players on the planet making that per week I’d guess and for that type of money you can attract bonafide superstars who do it week in week out which simply isn’t Aaron Ramsey. If he is trying to run down his contract as far as I’m concerned he’s a hypocrite considering his role in the Sanchez stuff last year and should be benched.

Your right we have our work cut out for 4th. I’d suggest the 2 manc clubs and Liverpool will finish top 3 and we will have to fight it out with spurs and Chelsea for 4th place which would be some achievement

i do like Ramsey and think he is one of our most important players when fit but we really have made a rod for our own backs by giving Özil that contract.
But if its true he has been offered 200,000 to 250 ,000 plus a week while the likes of Aubamayeng are reportedly on 180 ,000 and is still stalling then its time to sell him and find someone that can do what he does. And there IS someone else out there.
We stood by him after that horror tackle all those years ago plus his other injuries and you'd like to think there would be a bit of loyalty returned....
I dont think he is worth 200,000 plus a week and if he is looking for more let him go and find someone willing to pay him that money.
It was a mistake giving Özil that contract and you can understand Ramsey trying to get the best contract he can get but no way should we be paying more than 200,000.
If anyone deserves that sort of money it should be our man from Gabon who i think is going to be sensational this season.
Very excited to see the likes of Torreira who started pre season today and Guendouzi who looks like he could be a real bargain if he carries on playing like he did at the weekend.
So excited. It feels fresh. Like a new era is upon us and the staleness and groundhog days of Wenger finally gone.

Good points ..... greedy bludgers who "hold guns to our head " can f*** off .

I like Ramsay but he's not worth anywhere near 200 grand ...160 would be my top offer . I'll be very disappointed if the club caves in to any more than that .

Any game without a clip of old Puffa Jacket remonstrating with the fourth official will be good .

I don't blame Ramsey looking for a huge contract. This will be his final one before retirement. Much the same as Alexis was doing when he moved to MU. Is he worth $200K per week, no. But if he manages to get it from somewhere, congratulations to him.

He is a good player to have in any team, but not someone who is able to orchestrate a team when needed.

Only 9 days left of the transfer window. So nice to go in to this period knowing we’ve done decent business and anything else is a bonus. Obviously I want more, I’d like another CB and a winger but more important is the stability of getting our deals done early and a huge amount of our squad having an uninterrupted pre season

The squad has a decent age range. A group of experienced heads at the 30+ range, plenty of players in their prime 26-29, lots of younger players and then also a group of teenagers knocking on the door.

Due to the age of a lot of our premium attacking players there will need to be some turnover there but not for a few years yet

How many wingers are still around Rich? Everyone plays with wide midfielders, including Arsenal. I will have forgotten many but I'm finding what I'd call bona fide wingers who speedily hit the touchline dribbling past the full back to sling crosses into the box harder to think of.

Sure, they exist. Mané, Sane, Sterling, Walcott, Son maybe. But I'm less convinced the likes of Hazard and Willian or Rashford are true wingers. I certainly don't see Mahrez ar a winger, but a wide midfielder. Are wingers becoming an endangered species becuse they're seen as a luxury? I don't think it's impossible.

I don't think I can agree with your view that we have done decent business. I would have classified it as a very risky strategy. Leno and Sokratis are both players who need to improve significantly on their last season. With Leno he is error prone over a long period. What we are gambling on with both these players is that they will get back to their best this season. Lichtsteiner as backup is a gamble as he is unproven in the EPL and the unknown is whether he can adjust. Kolasinic is not looking great. Mavropanis, Holding, Chambers all need to lift significantly.

Looking at the CB I see some real difficulties if all the players in that position don't improve significantly from last season - that is a key position and I am nervous as to how they can be taken apart. On the highlights of the PSG match their players got around us in defence pretty easy and lack of finishing was a problem for them. Yes, you can say pre-season games don't matter but what it showed was that we have a fair way to go. That is not a positive sign but whether it is a negative we will see. Improvement needed and we should have recruited in this area last season not try to gamble this season.

Torreira - good buy but we will see if he can adjust. I think he will.

The young french kid - unsure but could go well.

The real problem is Ramsay and Wellbeck now need to be sold as neither has signed on. If I was Wellbeck I would have come back early from his holidays and tried to make myself invaluable to the new manager. Holiday - he played one game.

Ramsay can go if he has not signed by now. Something he was unhappy with Sanchez regarding. When Alexis was trying to get him and others to press he didn't want a bar of it. Lazy player and slow from box to box. Now we have a new manager who wants them to press can he change his ways. He can hold out for more money but we need to sell now not in January. If he does not sign immediately, sell him and then we need to spend on a new player - another trolley dash.

So who were you looking for us to bring in?

Our defence is an absolute joke.

So is our midfield. We are getting a lesson here.

Bellerin has had a nightmare, defensively and going forward. Guendouzi has been our best player so far.

Chelsea seem full of running and well up for it-hope our subs can liven up things a bit.

Guendouzi looking really good. A couple of lapses defensively but his range of passing has stood out.

Neither of our fullbacks can defend (but we knew that) and as for our central defensive partnership the less said the better.

Given that we reportedly only had a £50m budget and we desperately needed to strengthen 4 key positions (GK, CB, Def mid and RB) I don't know what more we could have got. Would I have preferred us to have signed proven world class players in each of those positions? absolutely, but you're looking at £200m+ for that.

Defence is a concern for me, but given the choice between natural talent in attack or defence I'd take the attack and hope that a decent coach can bring together a below world class defence and make them opperate as a better unit

Haven't really seen much evidence of this high press we've been hearing about.

Surely Guendouzi is already ahead of elneny. In fact I’m not sure how many games elneny is going to get behind torriera, xhaka, Ramsey and guendouzi

Why would you put Smith-Rowe on Rudiger for corners???????

Coo. Čech saves a penalty. Whatever next? Good performance in the shoot out.

Two in one night!

So it was. Funny thing these matches. They mean nothing .... but a bad performance is always worrying. Always pleased not to lose to our rivals.

I thought it was pleasing that we recovered from a very poor start to play a lot better especially in the second half. And it was a novel sight to see head coach and assistant coach stood by the touchline discussing what tactical tweaks were necessary. Very refreshing. It would have been an injustice if we'd lost.

How many matches in a row is that unbeaten against Chelsea? 6 I make it if we include today

Bellerin has gone from bad to worse. I watched him during the matches her in Singapore. He has a tendency to misplace his passess, and his crosses are almost always useless. It is a shock to see such a potential get so bad.

Guendouzi has been the stand-out player for us, along with Smith-Rowe.

I’m not crazy nvinced we have the right defence to play such a high line. Maybe Leno will be asked to sweep up a lot. If you want a high press you need a high defensive line. I think it may take the team some time to adjust to the new tactics, so I’m expecting some stuttered performances early on. Our best chance of getting champions league football may still be by winning the Europa League

Have you got a certificate to prove those first 3 words of your post are correct. I think any Arsenal fan maybe a little bit off centre after a couple of seasons. This one will likely be no different.

Who was it that was offering us decent money for Bellerin? We may want to start returning their phone calls. He had a bad game.

Čech saving penalties? Surely one of the signs of the prophesied apocalypse! I'm still excited about the season. Emery still trying to put his stamp on the squad and that will take some time to exorcise the spirit of Wenger out of them.

Hmmm catch 22, admit it, or protest too much in denial.

One thing about the pre-season games, I expected us to look more defensively assured, better organised and more switched on. Instead, we looked just as naive and disorganised as ever, particularly when defending set pieces. I also expected us to be a bit more dynamic with the high press but it seemed pretty half-hearted at times.

Early days I know but I hope we see improvements defensively or we are in for another long, hard season I think.