Martinelli, Edu, Gilberto, Gabriel, David Luiz, Willian, the other Gabriel, Wellington (I think), Andre Santos.... that's 9, now I'm stuck.

Ah, Haz - how could I forget Silvinho and the Beast.

Denilson?

Of course.

Saka isn't but he plays like one.

Seems we are meeting a lof of our transfer goals. If we get most if not all our targets, that will obviously raise the expectations for the squad. If we get all our targets save 1, whomever that 1 is, what place is the minimum for us to finish?

Good work on getting 10 straight off the bat....

....and Denilson makes it 11

We kick off on the 5th of August. I think we should all transfers in place by then. Too often we engage in last minute dashes after we have lost a few of the opening games and end up on the back foot for the season.

I certainly wouldn’t argue with that. It’s just after the window closes, we finally know what we’ve got to work with until the mid-season window.

England is better than Spain and Netherlands? Ok

While I am thinking of Brazilians and I can only think of maybe a handful, would Eduardo count?

Well, yes. Quite clearly so at the moment.

Good riddance. Was he pushed?

https://theathletic.com/news/mike-riley ... Cl22WBSZk/

99 starts in the Premier League

CF: 78 starts, 40 goals, 14 assists
RW: 15 starts, 9 goals, 8 assists
LW: 6 starts, 4 goals, 1 assist

A player with those stats, who has won 4 titles and is still only 25 is very good and would normally be worth double what we’re paying

Why do you think Guardiola’s getting rid of him then? Okay he’s getting a huge pay rise at Arsenal, but the idea City can’t match, let alone exceed, what Arsenal will pay him opens up the possibility Guardiola doesn’t feel he’s worth well over £200k a week.

City have bought Haaland but Jesus was a squad back up to Aguero, so why not Haaland too?

If you think City are selling him cheap, doesn’t that support the idea Guardiola wants rid, or at least doesn’t give a damn about his departure? After all, I very much doubt City are being charitable to Arsenal by selling him cheaply.

Furthermore he’s scored 58 Premier League goals for City in total. So only 5 goals have come when in the 58 appearances he hasn’t started?

Didn’t know that.

He’s 1 in every 2 starts at CF in the premier league. That’s wrighty and aubameyang type stats. That’s very good

Jesus is reportedly the one pushing for a move, as he wants to be a starter. He only has one year left on his contract, so they either sell him now for £45m or lose him for free in a year. With Haaland and Julian Alvarez arriving, they don't really need Jesus. Not being a nailed on starter for City isn't necessarily a sign that a player isn't quality, players like Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Grealish and Mahrez have had long periods of being rotational players.

Juan - who could forget that young lad! Edit - he only played in cups.

Raphinha feels like the least talked about of our three signings that look the most likely. It's probably because we already have good options for his position, but I'm really excited about the prospect of signing him. 25 years old, with several years of experience from the PL, Ligue 1 and Portugese league, he's at that age where he could be an immediate improvement, but still have several good years left in him.

He has an interesting set of qualities too; pacey, great dribbler, very direct and with good end product, but also good defensively for a winger, a tireless worker, and very good in the press. He will cost a lot, but if the club can afford it I don't really care. The way he's been playing for Leeds in the last two years, it's hard not to see him as an immediate improvement on Pépé.

Good point! And, amazingly, seven years after his only two appearances for Arsenal, Juan made it into the Brazilian national team.

The 14th amendment:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

has been used to rule on cases making abortion legal as well as gay marriage legal. The recent ruling led by Justice Clarence Thomas led the unprecedented act of the court to reverse a previous ruling arbitrarily. It's a stunning act. Something no court has attempted. Chief Justice Roberts, who would personally like to see legal abortion end, was not only completely against taking such actions but voted with the minority against the act. Why? He valued the legitimacy of the court more than his personal views. The Supreme Court, the last real bastion of fairness now has an approval rating lower than Biden, 25%, and has seemingly lost its legitimacy.

Justice Thomas has not only written an opinion supporting ending abortion but also took the extreme and also completely unprecedented act of hinting at ending other rulings that legalized gay marriage citing the 14th amendment.

What makes his comments particularly hypocritical is that the same 14th amendment was used to end, or more precisely, make illegal, a case where the state of Virginia (similar to other former slave states) outlawed interracial marriage. Thomas, a black justice is married to a white woman. His marriage could and should be made illegal by the same reason(s) [14th amendment] if he was consistent.

I've long said America is no longer a functioning republic. All of its federal institutions have ceased to have any legitimacy. My guess? America will be balkanized eventually the way the far right envisions it to become. Have its own version of Iraq where it operates like Kurdistan. Technically part of the country but in reality runs its own area any way it deems fit. They no longer have the numbers and are losing numbers. On the other side, the Democrats are completely incompetent, corporate owned and have neither the will to fight and seemingly the intellect. Parts of its base are either voting more and more for Republicans (Asians, Latinos, some Gays) or not voting at all (Blacks). We will likely see a functioning 3rd (or even 4th party). Possibly the Green party.

When the dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency and the country suffers a massive economic crash that is now regarded as a matter of when not if, the veneer will be gone and America will be exposed fully as facade. The empire (as opposed to emperor) will truly have no clothes.

Pre-season training starts tomorrow 27/6. Need to get some of the other deals across the line asap.

Not being a lawyer, a friend said the source for the legalization of interracial marriages from the source I saw said it was based on equal protection clause. In any event, it can be challenged as well. The end result is this is all a big fat mess.

A real insurrection was attempted on January 6th 2021. It was sloppy and buffoonish but an earnest attempt nonetheless that involved members of the government. The Democrats won't do anything more than a finger wagging and the Republicans are shockingly willing to ignore it for politial expediency. This is something we expect out of 3rd world government not the self named, 'Leader of the Free world'

The EPL is more like the SPL these days. A 2 team league with regards to the title. I think eventually Newcastle will interrupt that duet. Until then Chelsea or Man Utd I think stand the best chances. Either will need to buy well and get a good manager and both are very capable of doing that.

Newastle may take up to 5 years to challenge that. With their money and manager they will likely look more like Chelsea when they first got money than City who were all over the place with regards to transfers and managers who weren't really good enough early on.

That kind of financial resource is rarely denied.

Pep has said he doesn’t want to keep players who are unhappy. He’s hinted something similar for Bernardo Silva who is getting interest from Barca.
Jesus with 1 year left on his deal puts context on the price. For a player with 1 year left I think £45m is relatively expensive, but take that element away and £45m is cheap for a player with his stats and ability

Haaland os one of the two most sought striker talents in football (along with Mbappe) he’s probably the main reason Pep feels he can move on without Jesus, along with the contract situation the timing feels right probably. City also bought Julian Alvarez, the best young striker in South America right now, 22 and scored a lid for River Plate - a lot of teams tried to loan him but City have rebuffed them all so he’s clearly seen as the Haaland back up.
Just because a top class manager is willing to let a player go doesn’t mean he’s no good or past it.

Arsene never seemed to stand in the way of top players who wanted to leave, even in the good times. Petit, Overmars, Paddy, even Henry.

The psychology around this is important too; no point trying to keep an unhappy or ambitious player, no matter how good.

It’s also worth pointing out Jesus only had 12 months on his contract left and it’s a World Cup year so he needs to start. Really Guardiola had no choice.

We’ve discussed this here. Seems pretty obvious really.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... nsfer-news

I wasn’t aware anyone had said a manager letting a player go means he’s no good or past it. But do you not accept that had City offered Jesus £220k a week, let alone the £280k Top Gun said he’d read, that he might have changed his mind about staying there pretty damn quickly?

Guardiola presumably doesn’t rate him high enough to pay that sort of money to, and City have had more spending power than anyone. You yourself said if Jesus was the only recruit in strikers you’d consider it an underwhelming transfer window in enhancing that area of the team. Now he looks like being the only new forward you spend all day (not literally) trying to find stats to make out he’s so brilliant he’s the answer to our problems.

If our only options for strikers next season are Jesus, Nketiah and Balogun, my confidence about getting a top four place will decline. On paper I think it looks even weaker than the three we started last season with: Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah.

I admire the attempt at fairness, but exactly what are the Democrats supposed to do? They have to tread very carefully, because anything they do will be twisted around and used as precedent when the Republicans take power. Even prosecutions are highly risky, and they cannot be seen to be politicizing the DOJ. The Democratic Party has to position itself as the party of moderation and constitutionalism, and just hope that the great American public wakes up before it is too late.

One of the most mind-boggling things about democracy is how much people's votes are influenced by short run economic factors (like inflation) that are completely outside the control of the party in power, and how little by factors that would actually matter.

Basically it boils down to a choice.

Do you want to sign Tammy Abraham or Osimhen on their own for 85 million (because that’s what it will cost) or would you prefer to get Jesus and Raphina for almost the same amount of money?

I’d pick the latter personally and I think many would. Gives you many attacking options and a beefed up squad ready for 4 competitions

I agree. It’s an impossible dilemma. Anything the democrats do will be reversed and strategy copied but the issue is the republicans and tories of this world will plumb the lowest depths anyway.

The problem started and can’t be fixed essentially the moment you allow people like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson to be involved in major political parties. They will wreck everything to support their personal interests and that of their allies. Does anybody actually believe they are motivated by improving living standards for their citizens ? Just total bollocks. Trump would literally let America rip itself to shreds if it benefitted him personally, likewise Johnson.

The world is *%^@** with its current political leaders

I’ve only skim read the relevant posts so I’m not really following this debate in any depth. But what I will say is that however mind boggling some factors that influence voting behaviour can be, I still strongly believe that democracy is better than the alternative. Sure, voting systems can often be improved. But I’d rather have a less than perfect democracy with citizens having the right to vote unwisely preferable to not having elections.

Like I said on Friday. Coming to a place near you

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/ ... de-327500/

Gabriel Jesus is looking promising but I can't help feeling that even if we agree a fee for Raphina some other club like Barca will find the money from somewhere at the last minute (don't they always) to match our bid.

I wonder if we are working on any more surprise signings amongst the press frenzy for Jesus and Raphina news.

When I'm posting the stats they aren't to back up a strong opinion I have because the stats are there are fact based and just allows others to see if this might change or affirm their opinion on someone.

I've said many times I want a tall physical striker and would be slightly underwhelmed if Jesus was our only striker purchase but I can also see that he's a hugely better option for us than Lacazette in almost every attribute, and have been surprised by the signing of Vieira and the rumours than Raphina is close - I didn't expect us to be in for players like those. I don't feel the need to swing fully to one side of the argument or the other and entrench my position there, I'll often bring up the positives (Jesus Stats) and the negatives (lack of a plan B, no physical taller striker).

If City offered Jesus £220/280k per week, who knows if he'd have stayed. Plenty of players with the world cup on the horizon have decided to forego the pay-day in their comfort zone where they might feel they've won everything and go for the new challenge where they can be the main guy. We'll never know Jesus mindset on that.

Give at the start of the summer I set out very clearly what I wanted from Arsenal - it was a minimum of 6 players, 2 defenders - particularly to cover the full back positions where I think we got exposed when Tierney/Tomiyasu were injured, 2 more players in CM - a more defensive minded player and a creative player, and 2 strikers - 1 tall/1 small for the sack of saving long explanations - given that fan desires rarely come off in a window.......If Arsenal come out of the summer with Jesus, Vieira, Raphina, Tielemans, Martinez (plus Saliba nd Turner) that would be as big a window than any Arsenal fan could have hoped for.

So whilst there are still areas I'd want to improve (I've said there are 3, right back cover, taller striker, CM), and whilst top 4 is still going to be a battle, I would deem that a successful summer.

In terms of top 4 - if we assume Liverpool and City take the top 2 places as no-one looks ready to challegnge them quite yet. I haven't seen anything from Man U to suggest they are turning the ship yet, Spurs have made a few signings and have those 2 world class strikers but they are heavily reliant on them. We're probably pretty equal with Spurs right now, but longer term our squad is infinitely better set up. Chelsea are a mystery - who knows what they'll be next year. So for us it is probably 3rd-5th. Which is the same battle I'd be expecting us to have even if we signed an extra striker

I think Raphinas availability might have altered our transfer plans. It doesn’t sound an easy transfer but if he did come our attacking options would be endless. Even if you had an extreme injury crisis and lost saka, martinelli, Raphina and Emile Smith Rowe to injury at the same time you could still push Vieira and Jesus wide and use Nketiah up front. Saka and Raphina can both play left or right and in the game for Leeds where Raphina impressed Arteta the first time he swapped flanks frequently. There’s tons of options.

The only thing that doesn’t make sense really is that it’s pretty inconceivable we wouldn’t sign a central midfield player as that was a problem area for us last year and it may be the club will look to sell first before investing in that part of the pitch.

Raphina as well as Jesus would certainly give us a very fluid and interchangeable forward line that's for sure.

Totally agree about the central midfield issue. Whilst our lack of goals was an obvious issue, without Partey we were bullied far too often in the centre of the park last season, particularly away from home in difficult conditions.

I am not even sure Tielemans is the solution there, he adds more technicality, composure and goals but not really a more physical dynamic presence.

Morning both.

I think the Raphinha deal is the most evolving/ time sensitive of the lot which is why we've probably parked Tielemans for now. I would imagine we feel there's less urgency regarding that deal as we may have a free run at him. Just a guess obviously. I also think in this day and age of social media we hear about potential deals more readily than in the past without necessarily understanding how certain deals may need to be prioritised over others at specific moments in time. If we do get Raphinha and then move for Martinez - who I think may well be viewed at as a Tierney replacement long term due to injury concerns etc - then we can say this has been an excellent window regardless of whether we sign Tielemans. I hope we do get a CM however as we need depth, experience and variation in our midfield. Not to mention an upgrade too.

Think you might be right about Martinez and Tierney Darren. This is the only mooted signing I don’t get. Ornstein is saying we are serious about him but you don’t spend 35-40 million on a back up centre back who can play in midfield at a push.

Holding isn’t leaving and Saliba seems to be returning. Mari will certainly go but that doesn’t mean you need 5 centre backs.

Just a bit weird the player we are pursuing for that position this season played at centre back last rather than left back.