I have no facts to back it up, but just a gut feeling that Tottenham will not have a good season. It will be City and Liverpool..again...snore.

I'm curious to see how Lampard does. I wish him all the worst obviously. OGS second season will be interesting as well. As always, Man Utd will try and buy themselves out of mediocrity. If we could only be so lucky.

His 'quotes' were taken completely out of context, Iwobi cleared this up on his own social media only a few hours after the non-story broke

Agree, nothing wrong with what he said.

And nothing wrong with what I feel about it too I just hope he goes, because he is not the type of player who can take charge of a game for us. A good squad player, but he feels he should be a regular starter.

That's how it always is, taken out of context

https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/22/arsenal- ... -10438171/

hope it is not true, Nelson won't be happy about it

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/07/22/a ... ed-elneny/

Hope this one is true and completed fast

Thanks. Happy to hear it was a 'non story'. It didn't sound like something he would say.
Let's hope he carries his ANC form into the season.

Why wouldn’t Nelson be happy about it? It’s only a proposed loan and I’m sure he’d see more first team football than at Arsenal. That should be seen as a big positive for him, especially when it’s first team Premier League football.

He is a very hard worker. I like his work-rate. But, unfortunately, just not good enough to be sitting in the books when we need better players to improve the team. If we are rich and have a willing owner, he is a very good squad player to have around. Ditto Iwobi.

I felt he had already "done his time" in being loaned out last season. If he had already proven himself, why get loaned out again? If I was in his position, I would feel being undervalued by my manager.

Oops, what I had meant was actually "Of course, any player who gets quoted for what they really meant, would say their words were taken out of context. Especially when they fear possible repercussions from their manager/coach."

And you had taken my opinion out of context

We’ve supposedly bid £55m plus £10m add on plus Nelson on loan for Zaha. From a team who were meant to only have £45m to spend that is a big jump.
I really don’t think that is a smart move. £65m could do a lot for this team were it spread across 2 positions, ie the young Brazilian winger and one of Leipzig’s CB.
More than a bit worried that we don’t seem to be linked to any CB at the moment.
Kos needs to go which means we’re left with mustafi and Sokratis with only holding to come back in. Those 3 backed up by Mavropanos and Monreal, and medley is nowhere near enough for the new season.
In fact I’d take that £65m and buy 2 CB and find a way to move mustafi on even if it was for £10m

If i was to prioritise signings I would go for a left back and wide player and yes I would go the extra mile for Zaha.

Zaha provided 10 goals and 5 assists for palace last year and 9 goals the season before in a struggling team. Özil, Iwobi an Mhikitaryan simply wont provide that for the team and our form at the end of last season was so poor because we just didn’t seem to create anything. We desperately need a wild card as we are too pedestrian.

60 million is a lot of money but Zaha is precisely the type of player we need and proven in the league

Did he prove himself? The impression I got was that he started really well but things then went downhill. Maybe that impression isn’t correct, but it was the impression I got.

I really hope we don’t keep going all out for zaha hoping palace will buckle on the final day of the window and be forced to sell at our price. It is far too risky.
If palace won’t budge on their price then call their bluff early, give them our bid and say you’ve got 1 week then we’re off to get new targets.

Nothing new in this really.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.footba ... 624352.amp

Ornstein has tweeted that Arsenalhave reached an agreement withReal Madrid for the loan of Ceballos and are ready to seal the Saliba deal including a season loan back to St Etienne.
Beat spurs to both signings

Would be very happy to get Ceballos for a year. A sort of less two footed but quicker and bigger Santi. Wenger tried to get him before he went to Madrid. Very very talented, and could play an important part in our pursuit of Champions League

Needs to seriously up concentration levels and positioning. Has a lot of excellent raw tools, and is technically good for a defender of his size. At present a sort of quicker but less composed Ignaci Miquel (remember him?). Still young though. The next 2 years are key, and he's got a chance, but not remotely ready yet.

And yet have a good record of doing so compared to other big clubs in England. The fact is bar the crop Wenger rushed to the first team in 2007-2012, we've had no really good crops since the mid 80s, until this current lot.

Totally agree. Why I always thought he had a chance. He's hungry, always moving and willing to work for teammates. Don't know if he'll be Arsenal standard, but barring injury, he'll have a good career. I want him doing 1 on 1 sessions with Wrighty every so often. Their style and physicality is very similar.

We were a bit unlucky with Gnabry. Got a bad injury just as he was breaking into the side and then Pulis took him on loan for a year and give him 1 sub appearance all season, the penis-capped throwback moron. Any intelligent manager in the same situation would have leant heavily on Gnabry as he was more talented than anyone else in the WBA squad. Then he came back, got fit, was all due to sign a new contract, but after the summer tournament, Bayern cooked up a deal with Bremen and Gnabry (perhaps sensibly for him) reneged. A real shame as Wenger loved the player and intended to bring him into the squad properly that year.

Indeed. I personally agree with some of the cause, but think the timing was a massive error, as the Kroenke's can just point to the changed structure and ignore the rest. Also, why are so many people referred to as 'influencers' so utterly vacuous?

Yes, he started well and then got injured. Not sure his injury was pre or post dip in form. I would think he would have done enough to warrant a look-in. He was playing in the top league of Germany, and not a lesser league. To be able to impress at all, should be noted. That's only an opinion I hold.

Long gone are the days of us squirreled away in Austria under Wenger. The summer tours have gotten more expansive and the opposition more significant, Emirates Cup aside from several years ago.

The "good" thing about the anger of some if not most fans is that the Kroenke's are at least aware of it and I would guess are wary of it getting bigger. Do they care? Yes, but not as much as we think they should or do is my guess. The Los Angeles Rams are their primary concern. That won't change. I also think Josh cares about the rumblings far more than his father.

Worst decision to hand the keys over to him. The board were caught between a 'Scylla and Charabdis' between Usmanov and Kroenke.

Hmmm.....wonder how either of them got interested in buying The Arsenal?

Thanks David Dein.

Agreed nothing compares to the '80s youth that came through. Can't get much better than winning 2 titles ('89 and '91). However, I we have done great in the youth tournaments under Wenger and there were a couple League Cup sides that was mostly young players that got us to semi finals or finals. And they were routinely sought after for loan deals.

City and Chelsea (locally) have hoarded the best area talent with money. Changed the landscape I think. Soton has produced a lot but that may be attributed to the fall of Pompey and their being pretty much the biggest club on the southern coast and have had good management teams in.

If it’s going to take Nelson going on loan to Palace to get Zaha, which I thought was the idea gooner7 objected to, doesn’t it come down to the impact you’d expect both Nelson and Zaha to have with Arsenal next season? If you’d expect Nelson to be an impact sub and that is the realistic expectation, the rationale for Arsenal is surely to expect a lot more than that from Zaha?

I suppose whether we would actually get enough from Zaha to make it worth losing someone who you anticipate being an impact sub next season is up for debate. But someone at Arsenal will have to make that judgement this summer.

As I said he other day, I have mixed feelings over the Ceballos if there is no option to buy, although it seems the Real President has promised to discuss selling him to us next June.

He's technically brilliant and had an outstanding Euro u21s tournament with Spain. Whether he can cope with the pace and physicality of the PL is the big unknown.

Let's be honest, if we want to get back in the CL asap then turning down the loan of a potentially topclass player (with a reasonable salary) just because there is no option to buy is a bit churlish given our alleged financial situation. If it allows us to spend on other areas of the team it may be a sensible move.

Unfortunately, though, the better season he has the less our chances of signing him unless he falls in love with Arsenal and england.

Hi Bernard,

I'd have thought a loan move to Palace would be ideal for Nelson at this stage of his career. A decent team with an intelligent manager, in London as well.

Morning Socrates. That’s the way I’d see such a deal as well. I was slightly puzzled by gooner7’s opposition to the idea and I doubt Nelson would be unhappy with it.

If he helps to get back to CL status then it will be a win. Whether he stays or not will be up to Real and if they want him back I doubt that the appeal of England is going to keep him.

I really hope we have other options because Zaha isn't worth $65m and there must be better options for the same money.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/nfl-s- ... -1.3963947

We're 42nd.

I’m expecting another Baptista type loan from Ceballos. Without an option to buy it’s just arsenal developing a player for another club. If he scores 10 goals and provides 5 assists his price will be huge, if he doesn’t then wasted a year.

The Suarez loan was probably the worst loan deal of all time. He looked an absolute nothing player

So what would you rather have Ceballos and a top four finish or no Ceballos and no CL.

I think we are having to take a pragmatic approach. We felt unable to let the chance to sign Saliba pass even with a year's loan so we are having to cut our coat according to our cloth. I am hoping that signing Ceballos allows us to buy another CB and someone like Saha or Everton Soares.

I was expecting Suarez to show ability on the ball, even if he hadn’t fitted in. But he didn’t. Average ability mixed with not an awful lot else.

Has Saliba been confirmed yet?

So we have a prime minister now who can’t even honestly say how many children he has.

Apparently we are doing exactly the same with defenders. Ie trying to get a loan centre half in.

So we’re looking at an unwanted, perhaps youngish, CB from a top side? Someone like, although probably not, Bailly from Utd. Or Bielik perhaps... No one in England will want to strengthen us, so we’re looking at someone from maybe Bayern Juve Real or Barca. As an aside did you know Zech Medley is 6’5”!