If we do sign Tierney I wonder what will happen to Kola and Monreal. They'll be 2nd/3rd choice LB presumably. Would Kola be the back up and Monreal just hang around the squad and knock up the odd game at CB in a 3 or LB in the cups?

Would seem strange to have 3 fit and healthy left-backs but not a single right-back until Bellerin is fit. AMN and Chambers can play there but neither have convinced

I can't imagine that figure is right. £3m in wages is only £57k per week - would he be on that little at Real Madrid.

I can imagine the year deal costing us £10m maybe. And adding the wages in to the cost of the loan deal is slightly misleading because if we signed a permanent player then we would still have to account for a years worth of wages.

Alderweireld's £25m buy-out clause has now expired, meaning he'll likely stay at Spurs this season - but it is the last year of his deal so he could go on a free next summer. As we know to our cost, Spurs would probably have been better off if someone came in and paid the £25m for him. He'll be on a free at 31, surely he'll be eyeing up a final big 4 year contract at a top European club.

Hodd, what's your take on Zech Medley and how ready (or not) he is for a bit of first team action?

Dear oh dear - I guess you are feeling a little silly now

I read that in the sun, the loan payment as quoted by them was €4M which would see him being paid £200k+ a week. It’s complete nonsense and doesn’t stack up.

Edit: just re-read the first 6 words of what I wrote, it was an online article, I didn’t actually pick up or *gag* pay for a copy. And I also certainly didn’t follow a trashy link under the story.....

It seems Kolasinac is a pretty good defender?

Be fair, it was a spectacular result at Lords today.

England were very lucky with the weather though.

Yes, Surrey did do well last night routing Glamorgan for 44.

Well played.

And for a second there, it did look like the car was driving away. Made me think an Arsenal defender was behind the wheels, desperate to get out of position for the attack.

Well Madrid are hardly tight-lipped about anything. Everything is seemingly fed to their press mouthpiece Marca. Not saying the Sun are correct, infact I'd be staggered if they were, but I suspect details of the loan are in the public domain in Spain.

Hodd, are you referring to Medley or Amaechi?

It was Medley, surely?

The Scottish papers are saying an agreement has been made for Tierney. I do expect this one to go through. It’s strange though, when negotiations have gone on so long it takes a bit of a shine off the transfer.....it shouldn’t, it’s nonsense, but it all seems anti-climatic

Hi Lom

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... -15m-loan/

Not the best or most reliable source.

Not suggesting that they are reliable but they do seem to get access to a lot of Madrid stuff that should be kept in-house.

We are being linked with Zaha and Pépé but the suggested fees seem insane. You can understand why we are reluctant to pay them. It is not like we would be signing Messi or Ronaldo. Pépé is unproven at the top level and Zaha is still not an absolute top drawer player in my opinion.

Watched YouTube compilations of Tierney, which I accept isn’t a reliable guide on how good or otherwise a player is. It all seemed to focus on him going forward, in which he looked very impressive. I don’t suppose Celtic have to do a great deal of defending. But regardless of that, I would ideally have liked to see some sort of evidence that he is defensively competent. There wasn’t and he’ll have to do a lot more defending at Arsenal than he does at Celtic.

I’ve got a feeling Hazuki might have made the same point. If he did, apologies to him.

Certainly can't disagree with that, but the market is what it is. I'm past caring about transfer fees, if we pay 80m for a player it means we can do it, and if that's what it takes to bring in a top player then so be it.

Defense is the weakness with Arsenal that everybody agrees on, but I think our attack is getting overrated because people just look at the goal totals. Don't think anyone who watched us regularly last season can say we looked convincing going forward for any longer period. We had games here and there where it all seemed to click, but for the most part we looked slow and out of ideas and I think having two really good strikers made our numbers look better than we were.

Don't care much if it's Zaha, Pépé or Soares. All of them have different strengths and different red flags too. Just think it's crucial we get an attacking signing in.

It's very hard to make any sort of judgment on a player's defensive ability from youtube, but the Celtic fans I've seen talk about Tierney seem to think he's the second coming of Maldini. Should probably take that with a pinch of salt.

Phew, I’m delighted to read that.

Fair points.

I'd like to see us bring in a top CB but with the signing of Saliba I doubt that will happen this summer, unless we get another loan signing. Whether a top quality LB (if Tierney is that) could be enough I don't know. I imagine we are looking at Sokratis/Chambers/Mustafi as our main CB choices which does not inspire a great deal of confidence. Talk that Zech Medley will be promoted to the first team squad which seems a bit of a leap of faith.

Agree that we need a fast, skilful dribbler to complete our attack.

Amaechi has been sold to a Bundesliga 2 club hasn’t he?

If we really want a winger and are willing to spend most of our budget to get one at the expense of a CB or a good CB then I’d much rather forgo the winger and spend all that money on a CB or pair of CB. Not that it will happen but I’d even resign Welbeck on a free so we can use the rest of the budget on a CB

I read he’d been sold for £2.5m. Not a huge fee but Sancho only went for £10m. The best thing to do if these young players are intent on leaving is to insert a realistic buy back clause (say £20m) and have a healthy sell on clause of at least 25% minimum

Looks like Zaha was a backup for this kid. Ornstein saying we’ve agreed a deal for Pépé. £80m!!

https://twitter.com/bbcsport_david/status/1155052728525164544?s=21

Hi Darren,

That's like, wow!

I'm excited and I've no idea who good he is

Ornstein:

"Arsenal have reached an agreement with Lille to sign Ivory Coast winger Nicolas Pépé for ~€80m, paid by instalments to fit #AFC budget. 5yr deal, agent agreement still needed but set to be closed in next 24/48hrs. Napoli also have agreement with #LOSC but agent rejected proposal"

Haven't seen a single game where Pépé plays, but one thing is sure; the guy can dribble. May not pan out, but that can be said about any signing. At least we're giving it a go.

Yep, and you can't ask for more than showing ambition.

If I'm honest I didn't see this one coming, I thought there were too many big clubs with CL football after him (allegedly) and I thought we were more likely to hammer out some sort of deal for Zaha or for Everton Soares.

VfL Bochum. Wikipedia says £2.2M.

Well that is a shock. I’ll wait until I see him in the shirt but it would certainly be a statement on intent and show ambition.

If it goes through it will be hilarious that every man and his dog bought the £45m transfer budget story. If that was ‘leaked’ by Arsenal theyve played a blinder

Yes exciting news. But I hope we don't see Aubameyang or Lacazette sold to pay for it.

Wonder what this means for Nelson if Pépé is coming in?

Probably another season out on loan.

Think it could be either. May come down to who will get the biggest transfer fee and considering Aubameyang’s age, that might well be Lacazette.

Get out of it! That’s never happened! Has it!?

Wouldn't worry about that. They've both been heavily involved in pre-season and there hasn't been any substantial rumours about either of them leaving from what I can find. Don't think selling them is on the cards, this seems more like a signing to complement them.

Ornstein has said on Radio 5 that neither Aubameyang or Lacazette will be sold to fund the deal and the intention is all 3 to play. Pépé is seen as a winger rather than a central striker.