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”!

The only way those players get valued at that sort of price is to get exposure in the prem. I'm relatively comfortable with our offensive positions with or without Zaha/Everton. I'm hugely concerned with our defensive positions where we are already a lot weaker than last year when we shipped 51 goals

Jerome Boateng Maybe, however he’s never really impressed me

Whilst the Ceballos deal is not ideal I can understand the logic if it enables us to strengthen significantly in other areas. However, more than one loan deal (especially if there is again no purchase option) just seems like the actions of a mid to lower table club.

How many big clubs in world football sign players on loan with no option to buy, except in an emergency situation where say a player suddenly picks up a long term injury?

If we are going down that route I'd rather just give the kids a go.

We get everywhere. Watching the Tour De France which is now near Nimes. At a rider crash scene there’s a guy in an Arsenal shirt taking photos from the roadside.

Probably caused the crash knowing our lot

Did his shirt have Mustafi on the back?

How about compared to Mustafi?
That’s actually a really good shout. Not a player I’d like us to invest in significantly, but on a loan that makes a fair bit of sense as Bayern we’re trying to flog him round Europe last summer.

If you look carefully you can see a Wenger Out sign in the corner.

Ha ha. Nice one.

I’m not sure I understand the pros for the selling club in sending a player on loan with an option to buy at a fixed price?
If the player does well or bad the buying club still has the option to buy or not.
I assume the price would be closer to what the selling club want to sell him for and realistically the only way it will get triggered is if he has done well for the buying club and therefore the buying club are more likely to agree to the price.

I’m fine with us not having an option to buy cellabos, we’ve got bigger problems. I don’t recall us allowing any of our players to go on loan with an option to buy.

I see what you mean but I kinda get it. It’s just a try before you buy isn’t it with the negotiations pre-done. I think the pro for the selling club is the deal is more likely to get done. If we had an option to buy on Cabellos I’m sure we’d be much more keen and pay a bigger loan fee perhaps?

Hi Rich,

To be fair, how many players have we loaned to bigger clubs than us without a buy option?

That said, we don't have enough money to address all the issues in the team (and let's face it there are plenty of them) so loans are really a pragmatic approach to try to get us to where we want to be (CL) as quickly as possible with the budget we have. I am not a gig fan of loans without an option to buy but needs must I suppose.

Talking transfers, surely a quality CB is an absolute priority for next season, especially if Kos leaves.

Cb, Lb, Cb Lb. Please.

Thing is We have

kosielny
Mavropanos
Chambers
Mustafi
Sokratis
Holding

Plus saliba now.

I can see the logic in signing another CB but at the expense of a left back or pacy wide player? I mean we don’t have any competent left back at the club. Surely it makes more sense to hold off and prioritise other areas until we can sell 1 or 2 of the guys we already have.

Unfortunately they are all journeyman CBs. Kos was a top CB once but is clearly now past his imperious best. The rest are a pretty average bunch.

Most of them are available at the right price but we've had no takers which tells you everything about their quality, or lack of.

To be honest, although I'd love to see a top quality pacy wideman arrive I think our defensive issues are a more pressing concern. Until we sort the defence we will struggle for top four.

3 out of 3 for the ICC. Not bad for morale. And have to be taken into context too, in that these are all pre-season friendlies. Still augurs well for the younger players, who played a big part in it. Time for the announcements ....... drum roll ................

Going to pens now ..

Spurs have managed to flog Vincent Janssen for £10m. Considering he has been absolutely beyond awful and has barely made a match day squad for a year that is a great price. Why can’t we sell our deadwood!? This really is as important as getting new signings in.

My fear is our glacial approach to a squad overhaul is going to take too many windows to get a competent team and in 3-4 windows time we will have a whole new bunch of players who need replacing either through age or getting annoyed at constantly being part of a team in transition.

Other teams manage to complete squad overhauls with less money than we have. 2 weeks left of the window. If we go in to the new season without any defensive signings then we can write off the season

Two players sent off in a pre season friendly! What was the ref doing. You only usually see red cards for serious foul play in friendlies.

I do fear for Sokratis and VAR this year. I reckon he’ll miss at least 5 league games with suspension. Making the need for a CB even greater

So we haven’t been able to shift a single deadwood player so far ?

Not one,

The club have no money so are having to get a defender and midfielder on loan.

A damning indictment of how things were so badly managed before Emery.

That would only be the case if receipts from players sold would automatically be added to the transfer budget. I’ve seen nothing of Stan being in charge that suggests it will be the case. From what I’ve seen of the Kroenke ownership regime, I suspect it’s naive to expect it.

I really hope we can get some defender deals over the line because defensively we look weaker than we did last year. Sokratis is reckless, I've never been a fan of Chambers as a CB, Holding will surely take some time to come back from his injury, Mustafi is well Mustafi and Mavropanos looks out of his depth at this point in time.

The kids have stepped up in pre-season and given us food for thought, but they are midfielders and forwards.

I think the funds will go towards transfers but as Rich said shifting the deadwood seems our biggest hurdle.

We seems incredibly slow with transfers in and out.

There is even talk that the Ceballos deal could be cancelled as a result of the bad injury to Madrid's Asensio last night.

Literallly waiting until 2021 for the contracts of Özil, mhikitaryan and Mustafi to run out. No club in their right mind would sign Mustafi

The club must have been mad to turn down 20 million from palace for chambers 2 seasons back.

I'm surprised no mid to lower PL league teams have not come in for Chambers. I think as a DM he could do a good job at at most PL clubs

How on earth is Jenkinson still an Arsenal player, and one right in amongst the first team and going on the tours etc. Since the end of the 2013-14 season Jenkinson has made 13 appearances for Arsenal - that is 5 seasons! What is he still doing here?

F365's take on Arsenal's squad - The defence stands out like a sore thumb.
First XI: Leno; Bellerin, Sokratis, Holding, Monreal; Torreira, Xhaka, Özil; Iwobi, Lacazette, Aubameyang.

Second XI: Martinez; Jenkinson, Mustafi, Chambers, Kolasinac; Guendouzi, Willock, Mkhitaryan; Nelson, Martinelli, Nketiah

Remainers: Macey, Koscielny, Mavropanos, Medley, Maitland-Niles, Smith Rowe, Elneny, Martinelli, Saka, Asano, Olayinka, Burton.

Yep, they definitely need a centre-half. And they definitely need a wide option. Looking at that second XI, they also need a right-back; the idea that they could start the season with Carl Jenkinson at right-back is preposterous. There isn’t an awful lot of depth in most positions, with a lot of pressure coming down on the young players – that front three in the second list has an average age of 19.

“We have very good players, very young good players. We need someone to help us,” said Emery and it looks like his pleas have been answered with the loan signing of Spanish international Dani Ceballos, which should push Alex Iwobi further down the pecking order. Can he play right-back though?

He’s on 45 grand a week and has a year of his contract to run.

He’s probably championship level at best and finding a club that will pay a fee but also 45 grand a week at that level is very difficult. Also no longer has age on his side. Just not a very attractive signing. Palace have been linked but I’d be shocked if he ended up at another premier league cub

Emery must be an idiot for not quitting, any self respecting professional would be off.

Trying to cobble together a first 11 from loans and duff players from the previous regime
No money
6 decent players in a squad of 25
Fans that will blame him regardless

If I was him I’d resign

What makes you think that, apart from wishful thinking? Sorry, but I’ve seen nothing from Kroenke’s record at Arsenal to support your hopes.

I am sure I've read many times that this season's budget is £45m plus whatever is accrued from players sales.

You see any old rubbish being written. Kroenke’s record does not support the idea and I’ll believe it when I see it.

I'm only going by what I've read.

When have funds from player sales not been reinvested?

Whoever wrote that article seems to think Jenks is ahead of AMN in the pecking order at RB. Which he obviously isn't.
I note there are two Martinelli's in the squad - perhaps we got a two for the price of one offer.

A little disappointed that Martinelli did not feature at some point last night whilst Nketiah, Saka and Nelson did.

early days but it suggests he is behind them in the pecking order and probably not quite the wonderkid we all hoped he'd be, a la Guendouzi.

Under Kroenke when have they been?

I did mention LB. We also need an upgrade on all of those CB's and can decide who in that lot to offload later.

I hope the forum joins me in congratulating Kroenke on his latest acquisition and welcome LCS to the Arsenal families of properties under Stan's stewardship.

https://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id ... 25-million

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment agrees to acquire Echo Fox's LCS slot for $30.25 million

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, owner of Arsenal, the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Gladiators, has agreed to a deal that will see it acquire Echo Fox's League of Legends Championship Series slot for $30.25 million, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN.

The deal is pending Riot Games' approval and comes after the expiration of a Monday deadline set by Riot that put Echo Fox, which was cofounded by three-time NBA champion Rick Fox, in jeopardy of losing their League of Legends Championship Series slot, as reported by ESPN on Friday. Since the weekend, Echo Fox has scrambled to strike a deal with a suitor.
"Echo Fox submitted a proposal to sell its slot in the LCS to a new investment group. LCS is reviewing the sale and will be meeting with the proposed ownership group in the coming days," LCS commissioner Chris Greeley said. "We're working diligently to minimize disruption to Echo Fox players and staff for the 2019 season in partnership with the LCS Players' Association. If LCS rejects the proposal, Echo Fox has agreed that LCS will be taking over the sale process for the slot. Our goal is to make sure we have an orderly transition and a new team ready for the 2020 season."

On May 15, League of Legends developer Riot Games announced that Echo Fox would have 60 days to remove minority owner Amit Raizada from its cap table following reports of Raizada's use of racist language toward a business partner. That deadline was extended on July 15 to July 23 after Echo Fox submitted a proposal for Raizada's shares to be transferred to an entity owned by a family member.

n April and May, Dexerto reported that, in an email exchange, Raizada used racist language targeted at Twin Galaxies head Jace Hall, whose company was also owned by Echo Fox parent Vision Venture Partners. In another back-and-forth, Raizada threatened Fox and his family after Fox expressed interest in leaving the company to work on ventures with Hall.

So far, Echo Fox have paid $5 million toward their $10 million franchise fee owed to Riot, league sources told ESPN. The remaining $5 million is to be paid over the next few years.

The deal is the second esports venture for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which agreed to pay $20 million to enter the Overwatch League in August 2017. Along with Sentinels, formerly known as Phoenix1, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment founded the Gladiators, the second Los Angeles-based Overwatch League team.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has a wide portfolio in sports spanning professional basketball, soccer, hockey and lacrosse. In addition to Arsenal, the Nuggets and the Gladiators, the group owns the Colorado Rapids, the Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Mammoth and the Pepsi Center. Company founder Stan Kroenke is solely the owner of the Los Angeles Rams.


Over the past few years, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment executive Josh Kroenke, the son of Stan and Walmart family heir Ann Walton Kroenke, has pushed for the company to be more involved in esports. At BlizzCon 2016 in Anaheim, California, Stan and Josh Kroenke were photographed spectating esports matches with New England Patriots owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.

For the past two years, Sentinels have operated the Gladiators on behalf of the Kroenke group. The Sentinels were originally founded as Phoenix1 in May 2016 by former Paramount Pictures vice chairman Robert Moore and his son Michael.

The group purchased Team Impulse's League Championship Series slot after that team was banned from the league by Riot for not paying its players. In October 2017, Phoenix1's application to become a franchise partner in the League Championship Series was declined.