L'Equipe reporting that Guendouzi has handed in a transfer request. I'm pretty sure that usually weakens the selling club's position

I saw, that Podence lad looks very useful. Lovely nutmeg on De Bruyne before the assist for Jimenez.
Wolves doing a bit of a Leicester in the transfer market, selling Jota £43m to a big club and have the next player ready to take his place.
speaking of Leicester, I really like the look of Castagne, playing right back but will probably move over to left back when Pereira is back. Castagne was £21m to replace the £50m sale of Chilwell. Leicester do need centr backs though.

Morning socrates. You’ve said that before and I’ll repeat what I said the last time. There is no way that the club could give him any reassurances about squad strengthening. They wouldn’t have gone any further than saying words to the effect that they hope to make new signings, or that they’d like to.

Sorry, but thinking firm assurances would have been given to Aubameyang strikes me as a bit naive.

Morning Socrates, We're pretty much at net zero spend with Gabriel and Runnarsson being cancelled out by Martinez and a few small fees for younger players or sell on clauses. It would also be valid to argue that Willian replaces Mkhitaryan in terms of cost to the club

It is quite possible that Arsenal need to find a way to be net zero by the end of the window. The list of outs or potential outs is long, Torreira, Guendouzi, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Chambers, Mustafi, Balogun - possibly even Lacazette. The list of ins or potential ins seems to focus on 2 players only at this stage, Partey and Aouar, possibly a striker as well is Lacazette leaves.

Do those 7 (minus lacazette) equal enough money to buy Partey and Aouar? I doubt it.

I think your right Bernard, this is what I said yesterday. 100 million of our total revenue comes from match day. How can the club say anything whilst it can’t guarantee that income ? A quarter of our income. How can these clubs be just hammering out these transfers ? They must be spending season ticket money paid in advance they don’t know when they will be fulfilling.

I think it’s going to be very difficult to sign many players whilst the Covid madness continues. Might see 1 midfielder come in if we can offload some centre halves on loan.

Bernard, this is football we are talking about, I think its naive to think that Aubameyang's contract discussions did not include him discussing the clubs plans for this transfer window and beyond. I am not saying they gave him names, of course not, but they will surely have told him they expected to bring in a number of players.

I would be amazed if Aubameyang signed a 3 year deal, at his age, without some reassurances over the level of the club's ambitions. That would make no sense unless Aubameyang himself is happy to play outside of the CL and challenge only for minor trophies. If I was Aubameyang I most certainly would not be signing a new deal without believing that the club has big ambitions which can only be met by, amongst other things, bringing in better players.

Messi the gooner. lol...not realistic but fun story. Even if he had come we wouldn't have been able t hang on to him but for a few years probably.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/messi-temp ... 09465.html

On the other hand with the possibility that Covid will be with us for years (no sign it is going away yet), thereby reducing the income of even the biggest clubs for a number of seasons, maybe Aubemayang opted for stability and the lucrative money on offer at Arsenal while it is there for the taking? In his career he has very few winners medals - the couple with a club he likes may mean more to him than we imagine?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by assurances. The club probably told him, as I said in my post, that they hoped to sign another player or two. When I saw your use of the word, I took you meaning ‘assurance’ as some sort of promise or guarantee. I simply think it’s naive to believe the club would or could give such a promise or guarantee. An expression of hope or a desire to is about as strong as it can get, in my opinion. That isn’t what I’d call an assurance:

There is another way of considering all this. A cynic might observe that when a player demands assurances on spending, what they really mean is spending on ME ME ME!

Bugger the team and new players, what they want is an assurance that the Club has the ambition to pay their enormously bloated and inflated salary.

If Arsenal persist with the back 3 through this season we clearly have enough CB to make this work, but once we've got rid of the ones we don't want we run the risk of having an imbalance in numbers, ability and experience on the left side.
Luiz - best in the middle, could play right or left
Gabriel - probably best on the left or in the middle
Mari - probably best on the left or in the middle
Tierney - only used on the left of a back 3
Kolasinac - only used on the left of a back 3

Saliba - probably best used on the right of the 3
Mustafi - best on the right of the 3
Sokratis - best used on the right of the 3
Holding - can play right or left of the 3
Chambers - best used on the right of the 3

Apart from Kolasinac all the strength is on the left. Saliba is still very young. Holding can be up and down still. Mustafi looked like our best defender at the back end of last year, but only 1 year left on his deal so its now or never to get a fee for him.
We need to get rid of at least 3 of them. If Mustafi is only generating a nominal fee I'd keep him and sell Sokratis, Kolasinac and Chambers

What is the best 3 if everyone is fit?

Would love a solid Sol Campbell type for the middle.

Yes absolutely, let’s not forget Ashley Cole was still playing for the league champions who had just completed an unbeaten season when he met with Mourinho because of money. Don’t give me all this claptrap about footballing integrity

Also let’s be honest, if Aubameyang was 27 and not 31 and it wasn’t during Covid he never would have signed the deal.

I wonder if Alexis demanded ‘assurances’ from Man U about buying players before signing a £500k per week contract? Anyone think Özil asked for any assurances beyond soft fluffy towels?

It’s mostly bollocks. Players don’t give a *%^@ about much beyond their personal remuneration. Man U have been signing ‘ambitious’ world-class players - NAMES - for years without a sniff of European opportunity.

Maybe he stipulated that he only wants central midfielders who pass the ball sideways?

Perhaps he's come to relish the challenge of having to come back and fetch it himself?

Yes, isn't he though. A powerful player by reputation.

Players are by and large like reptiles - cold and calculating, warmed only by money and adulation. Their agents add to their ridiculous financial requirements to satisfy their own equally ludicrous aspirations. Their PR professionals reinvent them as grounded and caring - but they really ain’t like that.

They are dung beetles, mining the opportunities on offer.

Well all considered, nothing shameful in Aubameyang wanting 'assurances' all round. Especially knowing the type of owner we have.

Back 3 months ago after that Maupay incident, the curly long haired one, apparently asked for a transfer when speaking to Arsenal chiefs.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/arsenal.ne ... nsfer/amp/

Well, as reptilian dung beetles go I prefer the sort that score goals for fun, work hard for the team, and seem to appreciate the adulation.

Apparently the transfer request story has no legs. Twitter rumours that ran wild. Why would a player who has been shopped all over Europe still go out an ask for a transfer? He is in the market already.

The last player to demand guarantees of signings and actual names of players was RVP. It never ended well that conversation with Gazidis. We all know where he ended up a year later lifting the PL.

Moyes and 2 West Ham players test positive for Covid. We only played them 3 days ago. Hopefully nothing transmitted to Arsenal players

That makes a lot of sense. Transfer request usually just means the player foregoes the laughably named ‘loyalty payment’. It’s a last resort to force your way out, and as you say the club are all but wearing their feet out trying to kick him out the door.

I would have thought that if the sick players were in the team our whole team would be locked down and no games. Given some research I have heard about suggests that you can be contagious For 5 days without showing symptoms it becomes very messy. Maybe the testing will show if u have it.

No doubt neither club is taking any chances being that the Carabao match is tomorrow. Testing possibly done today and again prior to match.

Kroenke I believe owned more than 50% of Arsenal by the time RVP left in 2012. Full ownership in 2018.

Very much more than 50% by 2012 Zed. Kroenke owned two-thirds (66.64%) of the club as early as April 2011 when Fiszman died.

Worrying times as your season can be totally derailed if you have to defer a large number of games. Season is already crowded enough

It was two-thirds at the time in 2011 Bernard, yes.

Too much fixture congestion lately. Seems C19 tests were done Monday.

LOL..generally speaking I wholeheartedly agree with you. But there are exceptions. Cesc left because we didn't have a good squad and didn't seem like we would.
RvP was reportedly asking the same about who to buy, etc. but with him its hard to tell.

So, we get down to Aubameyang and I think with him, I can see him wanting to know that we are not going to spend the next few years fighting to be top half of the table.

Normally, I'd certainly agree many if not most players are looking for the pay.

Quite surreal. Just been watching the highlights of last night’s West Ham game. Whenever West Ham scored a blast of Twist and Shout was relayed over the sound system to the empty stadium. All sounded weird and incredibly naff.

Jesus, this means Wilfried Zaha probably has it too then.

I read that all Arsenal players were tested at some point after the West Ham game and there were no positives. Like all clubs, the players and staff must be being tested multiple times each week. The stakes are so high if there is an outbreak

Ornstein saying Arsenal are open to letting Reis Nelson go on loan this season. With Willian joining and Saka and AMN being able to play right wing I think it is the right decision. Get him playing a full season of prem football - including penalty clauses for the team who takes him if he doesn't get enough game time. Then reassess next summer.
Ornstein also saying Partey and Aouar remain the primary targets but Arsenal have back ups.

One player who's name has been linked with a number of clubs previously but I've not heard much this summer is Dennis Zakaria, plays for Muchengladbach, central midfield, 23, Swiss international. When Xhaka blew up there was talk of us trying to send Xhaka there in exchange for this lad

When needed we do have a bloke sitting on the sidelines who is a more than useful opener of defences. I don't mind a sideways pass provided it eventually gets to somebody with imagination - the great Gilberto played many of them for Arsenal and Brazil.

'Özil' and 'saving money' look odd in the same post. But yes.

It’ll be interesting to see if Özil gets in the team tonight. If he isn’t selected for even the League Cup, the odds on him having already played his last game for Arsenal will shorten, I imagine. Same goes for Guendouzi.