During the season I will do every weekend a combination of 50p and £1 football global accumulators totalling not more than 7 to 8 pounds.
I have never been remotely interested in the gaming machines and am gobsmacked the amount of money people spend on the gaming and sports machines.
My friends who work behind the counter say people regularly stake 1000 to 5000 pounds at a time.
Staggering and astounding.
Literally living in another world.
Scary.

Arteta has spent an average of £24m on his 25 signings. He's definitely been backed but between him and Edu they've genreally spent wisely and there are not too many bigger money signings that haven't worked

It is a very good defensive set. What is striking is the flexibility in it. We'll need to rotate more this season, the flexibility allows that and should allow more cover for injuries.

Timber fee is £34m. Man U were after him last year but got Martinez, the fee for Martinez was £48m.

Timber looks quick, powerful, mobile, athletic and has the ability of a midfielder playing in defence

Thinking about Balogun and the chance he gets sold for a hefty fee this summer….is it basically impossible for a youth talent striker to make it through a top 6 club academy to become first choice for that top 6 team direct from the academy?
Most teams play with 1 striker and he’ll be a senior elite level striker. Can you see any big club trusting their youth team player to be their main man, no matter how talented?
It’s even difficult for these young strikers to be part of the squad and eventually break in to be first choice.
It’s more likely they drop down a level and work their way back up

Hi Rich. There’s a lot of good fortune and timing usually in when a youth player gets their chance. Let’s say for example this scenario. Eddie is sold to, say, Brentford for 28M to cover Toney and one for the future. 28 is great money for Eddie imo and we bite their hands off. Balogun is persuaded to stay and has a great preseason in the States.

Match day two Jesus pulls up on 30 minutes, Balogun comes in full of confidence and gets a goal. Suddenly he’s up and running, and if he’s half as good as he thinks he is and gels with Saka and Ødegaard there’s his break right there. A lot has to go for him to that to happen, and it won’t, but you could see it right? Greenwood at Utd would be their main striker option right now if he wasn’t a massive Div - putting it extremely mildly. They must be sorely tempted right now to try to sneak him in the back door to the squad.

But I agree with you, I can’t think of many times it’s happened at a top side. It must be worse with young goalkeepers. I’ve been following Arthur Okwonko a bit in the youth set up, love the idea of him and his potential, but he’ll never displace Ramsdale in a million years.

Tricky one ; depends a lot which team you support ;

I dare say most of the English who are outraged about this would be in a state of euphoria if Bairstow had done the same to Steve Smith
I tend to favour the Aussies , Carey collected the ball and instantly through it back at the stumps

How Kiwi Brendan McCullum [ England's batting coach ] has the balls to question the Aussie tactics is beyond me .... here is that plonker doing exactly the same thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsznuSW-1Ug

This new guy Timber a central defender ...not exactly tall timber is he .... 5 ' 9" ..........not exactly your Tony Adams Steve Bould type

There is a fair bit of memory loss intermingled with outrage in the English team. First test this very series: a wicketkeeper called Bairstow tried to run out Labuschagne with exactly the same tactic.

Anyway, not to inflame the situation : if I was Australian captain, first ball bowling to England in the 3rd test , I would order an underarm delivery, bowl a couple of beam balls and appeal every ball. Just like backyard cricket really.

My only concern would be defending high balls. We did look iffy a couple of times last season.

While I'd love to get another player in, if Rice, Timber and Kai are all we get, I think we'll be a force this upcoming season. Can't really see any holes other than at left back maybe at full strength.

This is another top 3 side. I don't think Liverpool will have another bad season. They were 13-5-1 last season at home. Its a very good home record. Only us, City and Man Utd were better at home. They also pulled things together at the end and got to 5th. On form, they weren't going to catch us, or Man Utd, a team as we saw they absolutely massacred.

I think they'll be back to their winning ways. Newcastle is the wild card. They have the money, but not the name to bring in top players who have a choice of us, Liverpool, both Manchester sides, possibly Chelsea or even Tottenham who both have a better history and name recognition of late.

I think it will be us and Liverpool chasing City with Man Utd nipping very closely behind.

Hi Ash, good point on GK, when was the last time a top 6 club produced a home grown GK in to their first team?
Young outfield players can usually break in based on their lack of fear and often pace. I think back to Michael Owen who ironically in the current age of 1 striker might have found it much more difficult to break through now - he'd have probably been a winger.
So young players can often break through at full-back and on the wing - the two/four positions for arguments sake that mistakes don't matter as much as those positions through the spine of the team.

Xhaka is in Germany to complete his £21.5m move to Leverkusen. It was on hold until we secured Rice so although there has been no official announcement it must be done for Xhaka to move.

To put the £21.5m fee in to context I think that's the 3rd highest fee for a player over 30 paid for by a German club and I think only a handful of players have been bought by German clubs for over £20m outside of Bayern and Dortmund

List of record transfer fees to German clubs for players over 30
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/bundesl ... s=&zuab=zu

Reiss Nelson has signed a 4 year deal.

Saliba's new deal will be announced very soon

Steve Round has also left the club

Any chance of this Rice deal ever getting done. He should be at pre-season training next Monday.

What's your minimum expectations for the CL?
Mine is out of the group stages and win the next tie. Lose only to an eventual finalist or semi finalist. Must be a big name.

Yes, it is very remiss of all parties to keep us waiting like this. I feel we are being disrespected. What can be so complicated about a £105m transfer that it takes so long? And yes, being such an unknown quantity Rice surely needs all the training he can get, and fast.

I'd be happy if just for once we could avoid Barca or Bayern - unless in the final.

Medical happening tomorrow

We can beat both of them.

Me too. Timber is under 6 ft.

Saliba new contract is done. 4 years plus a 1 year option.

We had to tie up Saka, Martinelli and Saliba. I was confident and not at all worried about the first two, but Saliba felt a bit more nervy. That's a huge contract to tie him to. One of the finest CB for his age in the world - other big clubs would have been watching with intent.

We haven't put a foot wrong so far.
Early signings for top quality
Key players re-signed
and for the Sales we're getting good money in (£21.5m for Xhaka)

I expect a lot more sales and maybe 1 or 2 more incomings

Quarter Final should be the minimum. When I look at all the teams I can only see a handful who are on paper better than us. Where we may come unstuck is a number of players with the lack of big european game experience and in particular those 2 legged knock-out ties. We need Arteta to have a plan for them, but he's a novice at them as well.

Hmm...

Balogun to chelsea. Now this would be interesting

https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/tr ... -steve-kay

Good luck Granit. I have always admired his attitude. I actually think that this will be the hardest thing to replicate by any replacements.

Hello omoh, we always seem to get those clubs. Maybe our luck has changed or maybe we have a side that can deal with them now. Either would be fine by me.

My worry was in the past we always seemed like we got Man Utd in the league after an arduous away CL match.

Well done to Arteta and Edu in getting Saliba to sign up for four years. I think Arteta has improved his man management since he started. Also recognition of the previous club scouting who identified and the people who had the guts to pay a significant sum for a developing player.

Wish you the best Granit!

Best news for me

https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/tr ... -steve-kay

This one is still a head scratcher for me. Why doesn't Arteta rate him?
Will he light up the EPL and Arteta eat humble pie?

Yes I think he is an essential elect of our team.

I think the issue is more that they rate him but a move is a more attractive proposition for him. He has 2 players ahead of him and I think the club and its coaches are more invested in Nketiah for some reason.

It seems an easier proposition to sell Balogun than Nketiah. His stock is high right now and they will recoup more money for him.

It’s hard because a ruthless decision is required on Eddie but the club don’t seem ready to make it yet.

For me, Balogun over Nketiah any day.
I guess Arteta's tactics does not need a Balogun type player, more than a Nketiah type.

Today could see us announce Rice and Timber and Saliba’s new deal

Re: Balogun v Nketiah

I think lots of Arsenal fans like Balogun because we think he has a higher ceiling than Nketiah and we feel we’ve seen the limit of Nketiah.

I’ll try to be objective about it and put other arguments over.

Does anyone here rate Lois Openda above Nketiah? He’s a guy who also scored 21 goals in the French league last year like Balogun. And both were outscored by Lacazette.
Balogun also scored a lot of penalties, you still have to score them but they do inflate the stats a bit. He’s also completely untested in the league.

It’s an incredibly difficult decision for Arsenal to make. They made a commitment to Nketiah and Balogun has probably come on more than they imagined he would.

Balogun’s team Reims were a bottom 6 team, the job he did there would be very different to Arsenal. Obviously putting the ball in the net is the main job but a bottom 6 team don’t require one touch sharp link up play in and around the box. Most of his goals were from crosses, penalties or running in behind - he won’t get many running in behind chances for us against deep defences we play most weeks

I am assured from facebook sites that when I wake up tomorrow morning Rice will be confirmed as will Timber.

I'm a huge fan of Nketiah and I think the fans expected way too much when he had to fill in right away after losing Jesus. Considering his age, (lack of) EPL experience and the boots that had to be filled in a highly pressured environment (EPL title), he did marvelously. Things he got wrong in games are things he would normally have had to work on while playing league cup matches, FA cup matches against lower division sides and the odd 10 minutes or so when we are up 3-1 home to Bournemouth in full control of the game.

He has an innate sense of where to be for a pass or a rebound. He's fearless. He appears as if he feels he belongs and has no problem in being relied on for the game winner. He simply lacks experience and his upside is very good. Just like Willock to some extent. Arteta has to figure out if he works in our system and how or if he can't find him a good home elsewhere.

I think if Balogun comes he'll be expected to do more than what he can probably deliver. He looks more than a fine player but if he came where he would be played and how? There are all sorts of good players but they may not be right for your teams system. I think he can fit in, but he would have to be brought back and we see first hand.

Mbappe wants to sign for us

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 71195.html

It really is silly season now....and Miguel Delaney is a decent journalist.