Update on caicedo

He’s either likely or unlikely to sign for us tomorrow. We made an imaginary bid earlier today for 70 million that’s been denied as Brighton want 80 million but will likely reject that too. He’s super keen to join Arsenal as well as any other club under the sun.

Video explanation https://youtu.be/gYF5C3uvM18

Cancelo on loan to Bayern is not one I saw coming. Very versatile player for City but obviously a falling out has happened. This is all good news for us.

Enzo Fernandes looks like Chelsea’s last big deal this window, close to £120m

Some positive progress it seems on the Caicedo chase, Arsenal not leaving the table…. But it does seem we’re putting all our eggs in this basket which is a worry

Everton are looking to spend their Gordon money (£45m) on Gallagher from Chelsea. Not sure why Gallagher would go there right now. It helps chelsea cook their books though as they would bank the full £40-45m for accounting purpose and it would allow £280m of signings on 7 year deals to balance out that expenditure for this year….they’d have to make the same £40m sale each year but it shows how the long contracts can be used to manipulate FFP

Jorginho from Chelsea as an alternative is being mooted

I’d rather watch Dave Lee travis play Macbeth than sign another chelsea player but it might not be the worst idea.

It doesn’t hurt our attempts to sign caicedo the fact we are being linked publicly to other players now.

Don’t get or believe the onana links though. Why would Everton sell us their best player this season for just a 10 million profit when they are in the middle of a relegation battle

Man U have been drawn at home in 13 of the last 14 domestic cup draws

Brighton are free to reject or accept any bid they want but one way of looking at this is Brighton are able to get these players and are an attractive option for these players because they get a) playing time, b) prem league exposure and crucially, c) an unwritten promise that they will be allowed to move on to bigger things.

If Brighton are seen to block the moves for their players (which is completely their right) then maybe up and coming players might start to look elsewhere

Big NO from me
Have we not learnt our lesson with Willian???

Only believe it when I see it. Straight from Arsenal.

Wow. 3 years already?

Since Xhaka is playing a bit more of an advanced position than he was previously, he's got better looks at goal. I'd love to see him try more shots from distance to keep the defense honest. I can picture Nketiah putting any rebounds in.

If (and I haven't seen anything so far but it could very well happen) we don't bring anyone else in, what do you think of our chances of getting the title?

I think c would be include "at a time and in a manner that is not unreasonably detrimental for the club". That often is not the case in the January window. Clubs have to be able to say 'no'. Players agitating for moves on social media is a major problem too. You can see why a club would want to make a point about this.

I thought the only real concern from the City cup game was how well Ake dealt with Saka. He was excellent and kept Saka quieter than any full back I’ve seen this season. I’d expect the same match up in the league games. Having Ødegaard out there with Saka will help though.

0.5-X^aY^b

where X is the odds of Partey getting an injury and Y is the severity of the injury measured in number of league games missed, and a and b are parameters

Agreed, I don’t blame Brighton for digging their heels in, particularly as this might be one of the times they don’t have a ready made replacement imbedded in the squad already.

Wouldn’t be my choice. But I would take him as a last ditch thing if it was only on a 5 month deal. I don’t want him long term. I could see situations in some games where he could be useful. Arteta supposedly wanted him back in his first season, as did Pep at one point.

That, and the fact that Saka is a big game player. My impression is that his weaker games have been against lesser opposition or in the cups. World cup quarterfinals, and top 6 opposition in the league what makes him tick. He'll be up for this one.

Exactly.

Looks like no Caicedo then,

Why have we left things so late to try to sign the one type of player we absolutely need to cover Partey, even more so with Elneny's injury?

We spent what seemed weeks chasing Mudryk, expecting Shakhter to cave-in and accept our offer. That went well.

We only signed Trossard after his agent apparently contacted us the day before he signed, so why did it take his agent contacting us to set the deal in motion? Was it just serendipity?

Kiwior looks like more of a successful planned signing.

Let's see what happens to day but its not looking good.

At the end of the day we just don’t have the budget so we have to stretch it. What’s the alternative ? 8 year contracts for unproven players.

Even if Brighton accepted 75 million I’d feel uneasy about it. He’s hardly proven.

Every once in a while we go large. Last summer it was Jesus, apparently this summer it’s Rice but there’s an element of working to a budget. It’s always been this way with Arsenal

I’d rather we sat on our hands than sign Jorginho. Even play lokonga than sign him for 15 million and pay him 150k a week.

No sooner do I post then Ornstein says…

Arsenal advancing towards agreement to sign Jorginho from Chelsea. 31yo Italy midfielder now most likely #DeadlineDay recruit. Acceptance at #AFC that Brighton stance on Moises Caicedo means pursuit of 21yo Ecuadorian is over

The scale of the Jorginho issue will be on what terms he’s signed.

If he’s on a free and we just pick up his wages for the next 16 months it’s not much of a issue really. If he’s useless he won’t play for Arteta and we just move him in the summer. People moan about Willian but there’s wasn’t much loss there.

If we pay 15 million, 150k a week and it’s a 3 year deal it’s likely another situation where we have a player not adding value and could have to be paid off.

The £105m that Chelsea are supposed to be bidding for Fernandez is quite remarkable. Benfica bought him from River Plate last summer for £9m.

A club with our resources and souting network has to do better that Jorginho on the last day of the window.

We have a chance to win the league and you're telling me there is absolutely no one in europe, South America or even Africa who could have come in, even on loan, with a profile more similar to Partey than Jorginho.

Jorginho's contract is up in 6 months, if we end up paying £10-15m for him Chelsea will be laughing all the way to the bank.

I’m surprised that Chelsea would consider letting one of their players come to us. With their dosh they can afford to keep him and thereby stop us strengthening.

Who then? What obvious player can you extract in January.

Unless you pay an absolute fortune like chelsea you are signing a back up player, someone out of contract or someone like wouters who man united went for. It’s not really the time to do business but as Mikel said we have no option we have to use every window

They need to offload wages and squad numbers as a priority. I really hope we haven’t paid much though.

I have seen it reported that Palace want to take Lakonga on loan. Assuming that we do actually get someone in through the door (not a definite by any means) then that would help us out quite a bit.

They probably don't care ltg, they won't catch us and if they get Enzo Fernandez he probably won't play anyway. The Chelsea signings are all about next season and thereafter so why not pick up a tidy little sum for a player who is leaving in a few months for free anyway.

Do they? They seem to be impervious to FFP. Is it the squad numbers thing then?

I think "uneasy" is the appropriate word for the Caicedo fee. I feel the same. It's huge money for a guy who has done very little. If we are serious about Rice, you would wonder if we have the funds to get him in the summer if we have already spent £70/80m on Caicedo.

It's funny how being top of the table changes your perspective. If we were comfortably in 2nd but 5 points behind City, I would say we would be less inclined to favour huge spending in January.

Jorginho is technically a very tidy player but he's got no pace and no legs, not really Parteyesque in any shape or form.

In the event of a Partey injury, does that mean we drop Xhaka in Partey's role and play Jorginho higher up the pitch where his lack of pace and mobility is less of an issue?

Oh wow. I was assuming that he was a free. Anything else is not great.

Can't fit triple digit numbers on shirts?

I would assume the system would get tweaked so it’s more of a 2 to protect the back 4

Fee is 12m. That’s a lot for a player who is only signing a 16 month contract.

Very slow, one-paced midfield.

Ridiculous.

Reeks of deadline day desperation.

Arteta wanted him apparently, lets hope he's got this one right.

Hardly a league-winning formula if there is a long term problem with Partey? But that was always going to be a big ask.

So a decent bench option maybe.

This is the most important thing really.

People are comparing it to the wengers chelsea signings but we have Arteta in control now. A control freak who can’t stand his players giving the ball away let alone tracking back. Nothing misses him.

He’s probably going to start 3-4 games at most before being sold in the summer. Honestly just don’t play Partey in any europa games.