If Aubameyang has no intention of signing a longer deal then we must must must sell him in the summer.
1 more year of Aubameyang and £0 or,
Lose the year but have £60-70m to buy a long term replacement and reshape the team.
One of the worst things we did in recent years was not take the £60m City offered for Sanchez when he had 6 months left on his deal - how on earth do you even begin to justify that?

The same goes for every single other player unless they are dead-ending their contract to retirement or their £ value is so low that having them for another year makes more sense than bagging under £5m

A remarkable and heartwarming quote from Santi Cazorla :

"I don't know if it's possible or not, but I want to play one more game for Arsenal before I retire. It was a deep regret that I could never have a proper goodbye. Arsenal was the biggest club I ever played for. I'm proud that I was an Arsenal player."

What a wonderful player.

Hmm...I still have a little bit of pace left. Maybe I can be there winger.
https://theathletic.com/1553072/2020/01 ... enix-club/
Exclusive: Disgruntled Arsenal fans to launch breakaway phoenix club based in Surrey – Dial Square FC

You and Gaz are both right in my view. I just don’t get Top Gun’s attitude on this issue. Aubameyang has halted negotiations over a contract extension so if we don’t sell him this January or in the summer, we’re massively likely to lose him for nothing in the summer of 2021. Or at best relative peanuts in January next year. But arguably more likely a big fat zero in the summer of 2021. No pounds, no pennies, no euros, no nothing. That would be utter madness.

Flog him (the slang term for selling, not whipping) quick. If not now then in the summer. Had Emery or Ljungberg stayed in post I’d have seen relegation as unlikely but still very possible. With Arteta in post there’s no chance of us going down even though I think it’s as yet too early to decide on whether he’ll be a great appointment or not. That makes losing Aubameyang for nothing even less excusable as selling him would, or should, give us the money to strengthen the side for next season.

Will Wenger be able to get a job in a top club? Or will he have to "settle" for a 2nd tier club below the top clubs? He's been out the game a little while now.

By all means sell him in the summer but not now as was being advocated in the article and by the Barcelona manager

Relegation is unlikely but we are only 7 points above the relegation zone and struggling to get wins with Aubameyang in the side who is our only player who can actually score.

If HBO sacked James Gandolfini after season 1 of the sopranos you’d have a bunch of old guys taking *%^@ in a pork store and nothing else

Donny Howe today in 1984.

But you’ve already written off this season so I can’t see why you think selling him now is such a big deal? Even without him I just can’t see us going down. We also scored two at Chelsea so we can score without him. The only reason I’d prefer the summer than now is if getting rid would stop any chance of us winning the Europa League, which I not only see as vital but feasible.

But I presume you don’t see that as possible. If you’re right on that score and I’m wrong, I really can’t see why it’s an issue if we’d get more for him eighteen months from the end of his contract rather than a year.

Anyone who thinks we can win the Europa league urgently requires cognitive therapy. I mean serious proper Malcolm mcdowell clockwork orange type rehabilitations of the mind

6 wins in 23 Bernard. Do the math

The moment we meet anyone remotely average we will get our sphincter re sized to that of a bowling ball


... however relegation without aubameyang is 2 losses and a draw as things stand. Can’t sell him till summer and we won’t anyway

Ha ha. Subtle. I nearly missed that one.

Rough season for Arsenal fans. Possibly lowest position in the table for a season since the mid 90s and seeing what was once thought an unbreakable record in the modern era, seemingly easily beaten.
Hope remains for each but its tough.

Greetings Bernard. I'm inclined to lean towards Top Gun's view about keeping Aubameyang until the end of the season. I don't take too much comfort from the fact that we scored 2 against Chelsea. We can't rely on opposing midfielders tripping over their own feet or opposing keepers letting in speculative efforts from Bellerin. We need just a little more on the attacking side than that. Putting too much responsibility on Martinelli seems very unwise to me. I agree that it is unlikely that we will go down but I don't think we should be complacent about it and selling our top score does seem to be asking for trouble. The sides below us are showing to many signs of life!

And on the other hand, there is the possibility that we might hit form. At the very least, Arteta needs as strong a squad as possible to try to get a bit of momentum, keep the fans happy, etc. And we are still 'in' the season in a positive sense. We could easily get ourselves into contention for European qualification (even the Champions league is not totally out of reach) and we shouldn't write ourselves off in either of the cup competitions we're still in.

I’d say there’s more chance of winning the Europa League than there is of going down. In my view by far the biggest reason not to sell him now is it compromising our chances of winning the Europa League, not avoiding relegation. There aren’t many teams left in it who I would make firm favourites to beat us if we draw them. Plenty where it could go either way. But not many who I’d make favourites to beat us

Devoted football fans experience 'dangerous' levels of stress https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51222376





This season could finish us all off...!!

By far my worse season overall as a fan. Not sure how some of you old geezers made it out of the 60s and some of those years in the 70s and 80s.
None of my worse Arsenal moments thank God.
If Liverpool lose a league match I'll actually consider it a good season even if we finish mid table. Retaining the unbeaten season when it seems a certain record obliterated will make me so happy if it happens.

I think you will find that I don’t care if they had sacked this guy. Never watched 1 minute of it & an unlikely to change

Well here is my strategy on why we sell now. Take the money & bank it. The kids get a run out & we make assessments on whether they are good enough.

If not we spend some for a forward at the end of the season.

If we sell in the summer I think we will get less cash. Plus then we start next season maybe having to get Eddie or others going on their own. And if they don’t make it next season is over.

Of course we keep him and he decides to run down his contract or he gets injured at the end of this season and the interest dries up for a bloke in his 30’s. it’s not as if the club have done great deals in the market in the last decade. It’s only my idea others will see it different and be wrong of course.

Quite a few 3rd placed teams from the Champions League will make it much more difficult for us. Not sure which is coming into the Europa yet, but some very strong ones in there.

I'm with selling Aubameyang with a large fee in Jan. I think he alone won't help us win the Europa. We need better midfielders to supply the lines.

Pablo Mari, 26, from Flamengo looks like he’s our new CB signing. £7.5m

Was on City’s books for 3 years but didn’t play for them. Played against Liverpool in World Club Championship Final. Pictures on Twitter of him with Edu at Rio airport coming to London last night. Medical today apparently.

No idea how good or bad he is.

Pablo Mari then?

Risen without trace. At least he’s 6’ 3”.

I only know what I’ve read in the last 10 minutes. At least it’s another body at the back.

Hi Darren,

I saw that on twitter.

Like you I've no idea whether he's any good. Flamengo fans seem to rate him quite highly and he was apparently voted the best CB in Brazil & South America.

On the downside, it seems his weakness is a lack of pace. That always concerns me with defenders in the PL.

He's also 26 and has not been capped for Spain which is a bit odd.

If the price of £7.5m is correct then I suppose its one of those low risk gambles.

3 years at city (loan from city) should mean Arteta knows him. I don’t want us to be a club where the signings bypass any thought and input from the manager.
Like Soc, my biggest worry is the rumoured lack of pace. Pace covers so many mistakes.
£7.5m isn’t a lot but I’m fed up of us making stop gap or make do signings in defence. We rarely do this with strikers so why defence?
I was more excited by the Ukrainian guy we were linked with but then I’ve seen neither play

Hi Rich,

I am not going to judge him until I see him play but for that kind of money you would have thought teams around europe would have been all over him like a rash long before now.

Let's face it you do not find many 26 year old hidden gems these days.

Sounds to me like a squad filler kind of signing with little financial downside and plenty of upside if he exceeds expectations.

I would give us a chance of beating any of them. As I said, there are plenty that could go either way but I consider Top Gun’s observation that anyone who thinks we can win the Europa League this season as requiring cognitive therapy to be laughably ridiculous.

I accept the chances are we won’t win as we’re not miles better than all the other teams and there are quite a few rounds to get through. But we certainly have a chance of winning it. I don’t think that means I need cognitive therapy.

Seems like the sort of signing that Hill City would make.

Fingers crossed that he turns out to be a hidden gem bargain. Perhaps Edu had some input too?

Oh there's more.

He hates the commercialisation of the game but has 'commercial' and 'gofundme' buttons on his website.

Also if you google him he runs a construction company from the same address he's registered this joke at...nothing to do with his aim to build a brand new stadium I'm sure.

Bloke's a wrong 'un and a chancer.

Anyway who says Liverpool can't be beaten. Match report from today's game in 1936.

It's a rarity when it happens, but I've actually seen this guy play a few times.

Difficult to judge as he was playing in an abysmal Depor team but he seemed to be the only defender on the pitch quite often. Also it seemed to me he was the only one trying to organise people which is something we need badly. He seems to have progressed greatly in the last year or so and whilst a gamble (which anyone is frankly) he does have something about him and I hope he takes this chance with both feet. If we sign him.

Is Hill City’s stadium in the Lake District or the Pennines?

Talk now that Mari could be on loan with an option to buy. That would make a lot of sense

Interesting. Looking now to be a loan deal with option to purchase. That mitigates the (off pitch) risk I guess. We aren’t really in a position to lash out mega bucks anyway, having wasted what we have spent and also running the risk of infringing the allowable spend regulations.

Arseblogger has wrote some interesting articles over the last few weeks

His one today on the potential new signing is interesting. He’s basically suggesting that rather than arsenal signing players based on scouting the market all our signings are coming from Sanelhi and his associates like agents and ex colleagues. Clearly he’s concerned about it

A post on Football London from a guy calling himself Shaggy:

“Mari what a signing this is going to turn out to be !! The Guy is class why he never got to meet Pep is beyond me and is a question many people must be asking and have to ask !! The guy has been a pivot at the back for Flamengo strong in the air and in the tackle and is brilliant in positioning himself !! and for £7 million wow what a bargain !! and not one main stream Media outlet knew about it ?? just goes to show people how much the main stream are just fake news simply because they dont know anything about much at all !! and just write rubbish to fill space in their papers !! lol well done Edu again !! Regards to Lemar all saying he is finished because he doesnt have a good time in spain with athletico wow what a statement !! many players have turned their careers around by simply going to another club !! why cant Lemar to the same?? whether it will be Arsenal or not doesnt matter to me but i personally think he will come good in his next career move !! a player who was that good that he warranted such a high fee when he moved to athetico from france doesnt just lose it all over one season !! if he comes to arsenal it will free up Aubameyang to play as striker like he is and should”

On the face of it, it sounds quite encouraging. But is Shaggy an ITK who in reality knows nothing? I don’t know as I’ve never heard of him before. But one question is how often has Shaggy actually seen Mari. I imagine he watched the recent Liverpool vs Flamengo game. But other than that, how often does he watch Flamengo or seen him at his other clubs?

I know it was a while ago Soc, but Steve Bould was a 26 year-old second division player and a non-international when he signed for us.

You never know.

everything-you-need-to-know-about-arsenal-target-pablo-mari

https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-re ... ablo-mari/

I'm a bit annoyed at the attitude of some so called supporters, we have been calling for a centre back for ages, we get one and he's being wrote off as rubbish before even kicking a ball,we haven't got Upmecano money, not till summer anyway, bet these doom mongers were spouting off about Martinelli, never heard of him etc, not so noisy now are they, so let's get behind him, the team and the manager, any way must be better than Mustafi.

Hi Dray,

Not sure anyone is writing him off as rubbish. I couldn't possibly call him rubbish because I haven't seen him play, other than the Youtube highlights reel. I obviously hope he's a worldbeater.

I am intrigued by the signing but I do understand fans being slightly sceptical when by all rational thought, based on his career to date, it seems highly unlikely he will be the top, top CB we crave.

That said, CB's do tend to hit their peak later in their careers than midfielders and forwards so he could be a late developer.

Fingers crossed eh.

It's the 25th and the last week of the transfer window. I'm optimistic but also concerned.