Each age group will have a player to get excited about, a player who is not only the best at the club but is comparable to any talent at any club at the same age. From what I've read from those who watch a lot more youth football than me is Balogun was that player. Plenty of non strikers listed above which shouldn't have any bearing on whether we keep Balogun. We potentially have Aubamayang and lacazette leaving this summer. Of course you can't force a young player to sign a new deal but when you have special talent you do everything possible, perhaps a longer initial deal that the standard 18 month first pro contract or more involvement in first team training.
We turned down £5m for him in the winter I don't know if we would get that much more for him now. For someone with his talent it is poor money and due to another contract being run down.

Seen a lot of praise for Tierney over the past few games. Such an injury hit interrupted first season with us but there is a lot to admire about the raw attributes and attitude Tierney displays on the pitch. Strange to think there were rumours linking him with a transfer to Leicester if Chilwell was sold. I think Tierney could be a big player for us next season. Strikes me as a consistent competitor with very few weaknesses in his game.

If Aubameyang or Lacazette leave, we will need to buy a replacement, not hand their place in the squad to a kid who has never played for the first team. We already have a very young squad, which is why those young players I mentioned are relevant. You need a mix. We all, naturally, want to see our academy players make the first team, but for various reasons it doesn't work out for most of them. The reports indicate that he isn't prepared to sign the contract on offer. So he's not prepared to even give it more time to try to break into the first team squad at Arsenal. Fair enough. It is his decision. Also, it's worth pointing out that Martinelli is only two weeks older than Balogun.

Arsenal supposedly lining up Brazilian physio Bruno Mazziotti from PSG to replace Chris Morgan who is returning to Liverpool. If you google Bruno Mazziotti he doesn't look like someone who is going to tolerate any sitting out due to small niggles or players not going the extra mile!

Presumably the away league game at Villa will be played sometime like Wed 22 then? Arsenal site not showing the match in their fixture list yet.

If Aubameyang won’t extend his contract, he surely has to be sold? The club cannot afford to let him leave for nothing next year. If he won’t sign a new contract, and there’s little to suggest he will, I have to support any decision to sell him at the end of the season. The issue is complicated by his wage demands and age. He’s 31 so will very, very soon be past his peak. He might even be now. To pay Özil type wages to a player going downhill isn’t a sensible option in my view.

We’ll have a damn site more chance of replacing him this summer with £50m than we’ll have of replacing him adequately next summer when he’ll be able to go for nothing.

I will bet that other clubs are talking 20mil

Richarlison was linked with Barcelona in the winter window for £80m. We can’t afford deals like that

We won’t get anyone as good as Aubameyang for the price we have to sell him for this summer. That’s the cost of letting players run their contracts down.
We have to sell though because finding a replacement for £50m this summer is a lot easier than finding a replacement for £0 next summer.
We’ll get ridiculed again for selling a top star and the contract issue but it is the only sensible decision the club can make.
If we can’t replace Aubameyang with the money we sell him for then we invest in a younger striker with potential and use more of the money to bring in quality players in other areas of the team.

Hi Goonie,

Sadly, I do not think we will get £50m for Aubameyang. The effects of Covid-19, his age and the fact he only has 1 year left on his contract suggest a much lower valuation. Perhaps as low as £25m depending on the level of interest.

Hi Rich,

Players like Balogun should be signed on long term deals and then sent on loan until they are ready for first team involvment (if ever). Experience of first team football elswhere not only gives them an indication of what life is like in lower leagues when points and livelihoods are at stake, toughening them up, but generally it also enhances their value. It's a win win situation, either they come back and are ready to be involved at Arsenal or they are sold for a reasonable fee.

Look at Chelsea, most of their loaness never even play for the club but are sent out on loan, sold for large fees and the money re-invested.

https://thisisfutbol.com/2020/06/blogs/ ... one-mings/
The Athletic’s James McNicholas would like to see Arsenal sign Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings in the event the Villans are relegated back to the Championship

There has been lots of transfer speculation surrounding Arsenal but amongst the hype one story from a few weeks ago sticks in my mind. It said that having asked the players to take a wage cut as a result of Covid-19 the club see it as hypocritical to then spend big on transfer fees. Thus free transfers, budget deals and swap deals are more likely than any big name signings.

Of course that could change if several sales are made bringing in large fees but I would say do not get carried away with thoughts of major deals, especially if we don't make europe at all.

Hi AG,

I've always quite liked Mings. He's left footed and looks much more mobile than Mari so I wouldn't mind him at all.

Having bought Mari I doubt we'd be in for him though.

Mings would be very expensive. With your post about the club’s intention to not spend big on new players in order to avoid looking hypocritical after persuading players to take pay cuts (sounds a very convenient excuse), I’d say the chances of signing Mings look slimmer than someone who has suffered with anorexia for twenty years.

Hello Soc,
Someone's wishful thinking. No interest from Arsenal as far as I know.

If it’s your wishful thinking, you presumably believe Mings would be a good partner to play alongside your girlfriend’s bit on the side then?

I agree, I've not seen enough from Mings to suggest he's what we need and I could almost guarantee that for the price that will be quoted there would be 20 better non-english centre-backs who could be purchased for half the price. I bet even if Villa went down they'd be asking for £40m for Mings. They want £80m for Grealish and teams seem willing to enter a dialogue at that!

With Luiz here for another year, Mari signed up, Saliba coming in, and Mustafi, Holding, Sokratis, Chambers, Mavropanos all still on the books I fear that Arsenal won't buy a CB and will concentrate on a central mid, defensive and creative.
Luiz,Saliba,Mari are staying, Chambers is going nowhere due to his injury. I think you'd need to see Arsenal sell probably 3 of the other 4 before we buy another CB.

Maybe an interest again a year later in Wilfried Zaha possibly. But CP may want more than the £40m price from last year.

Difficult to know what to expect from transfers. Some clubs taking advantage of lower demand, like Chelsea, some clubs tightening the belt, we’ve asked players to take a pay cut and signed lots of contract deals. I’m sure from the clubs point of view news signings include Saliba, Soares and Mari. Which they sort of do, 100% we won’t buy unless we sell.

What happens in the following scenario?
Top 4 is liverpool, City, Leicester, Wolves
Man U win the Europa league and come 5th
Does it mean the team coming 6th would go in to the champions league of City are banned?

A good friend of mine was a Westham supporter so I often used to discuss the club with him. It struck me for many years that Westham continually purchased players who were in pre-retirement employment. They would never put in the effort for the whole season, knew they would not win honours and in the really bad years they flirted with or were relegated. They did not believe. Shredded some managers and really were just their for the wages. The young upcoming players can't wait to leave but there isn't many of them. Wilshire is the classic recent example.

Everton were a very similar club in both recruitment and what they achieved.

It strikes me : that is now us. We buy players like Sokrates, Luiz, Soares, Aubameyang, Mkh, Lacazette and keep Özil. We don't make the hard decisions and we have the distinction from the other teams of overpaying by large amounts and boosting the pension funds. Keeping Luiz and Ceballos is beyond explanation. If I see Willian mentioned it really signals the end.

Edu was very careful to point out it was him and Arteta who kept Luiz and the others. Arteta will be responsible. Given, unlike Emery, the manager has a say I will be looking with interest at our signings.

Will we get more overpaid pensioners. If the culture of the club is truly to change, this cannot continue.

Seems like arsenal are cancelling Mkhitaryan’s contract and letting him go for free. Saves his £10m a year wages but Roma offered us £10m for him as a transfer fee inJanuary that we turned down because we thought he was worth more! On the basis that there couldn’t be any more offers until the summer window why did Arsenal think his value would go up when he only had a year left on a very high contract. We should have snapped Roma’s hand off in jan, just like we should have snapped City’s hand off when they offered us £60m for Sanchez.

Having just posted, the Daily Mail decided to wind me up to a level of inappropriate language for the house with this article.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ummer.html

St Ettiene are having a pop at us this morning because they deem the terms we set out for allowing the extension of Saliba's loan back to them until to them until the end of the season as unacceptable.

Apparently it is over a £2.5m fee we agreed to pay them if Saliba played 17 games this season, a reasonable incentive to ensure St Ettiene played him whilst on loan. The Cup final would have been the 17th game so Arsenal don't want to allow him to extend his loan AND pay them a fee for the pleasure! Exactly right. Feel Sorry for Saliba but why should we fork out for our own player. Every other team re-negotiated the terms on any loan extension why should we lose £2.5m just to do another club a favour!?

But at his press conference yesterday didn't Arteta say Arsenal are happy for him to play the Cup Final?

I hope this is not true. But it sounds like us.

He did, but I assume he was just talking on the basis that Arsenal can't use him so why not extend the loan. The money side of things adds complexity

Man U look like like picking up a head of steam, I can see them getting top 4 at this rate, even ousting Chelsea.
Greenwood looks like some player at only 18. Along with Rashford and Martial they have that dynamic front 3 that most top clubs are striving for. All quick, mobile, can dribble, score and assist and are all comfortable in any of the front 3 positions.
Liverpool's 3 do this, and before there was the famous Messi/Suarez/Neymar at Barca - or evn before that was Rooney/Ronaldo/Tevez at Man U. I'm convinced this is the way we should be building our attack. Martinelli fits this mould perfectly. Pépé to some extent.

These wide players who can drift centrally and still score 15 and assists 15 a season are gold dust right now. Jadon Sancho being one of the best right now and certainly finding his way back to the prem for big money soon

https://www.arsenal.com/news/bukayo-sak ... m-contract
Bukayo Saka signs new long term contract! Fantastic news, incredible prospect

Seen rumours of Arsenal wanting Memphis Depay if Aubamayang or Lacazette leave. I don't remember him as a striker, but know he's played a lot better for Lyon than he ever did for Man U, still only 26, 19, 10 and 9 goals in his last 3 seasons (9 goals being the current curtailed french season) and only 1 year left on his current deal.

I wonder what other players are out there with only 1 year left on their deal? Must be plenty who would be available at a better price. We've got some of our own!

RB Salzburg forward He-Chan Hwang looks like moving to RB Leipzig to replace Timo Werner for only about £10m. Really liked the look of Hwang when he played the two games against Liverpool in the champions league this season. 11 goals and 21 assists for them this season. He could be one who is worth triple that in a couple of seasons

Dominik Szoboszlai is another at RB Salzburg who is a very good young player. Creative midfielder.

Leno, Saliba, Tierney, Saka, Martinelli, Pépé. 6 players with long term contracts, all young (or young for a GK in Leno's case) now is the time to build the team around them and build a team to their strengths.

Great news.

Great news Rich.
The names you mentioned needed to be signed.

Truly wonderful news. A bit unexpected to be honest, and all the more pleasurable for it.

Perhaps we can build a team of young motivated players?

St.Ettiene shooting themselves in the foot there. They clearly want the money more than they want Saliba to play. Which is fair enough I suppose, but also, do one.

Did not expect that. I wonder how big that will be! Like the statement of signing Özil but with an actual player at the end of it!