Liverpool will surely buy a striker, it might be a stretch for them to get Isak for what would surely be another British record transfer fee soon after spending £116m on Wirtz. Liverpool are trying to sell Nunez to Napoli and of course they have tragically lost Jota as well.

Liverpool were incredibly lucky with injuries last season, almost unprecedented for a team who compete and expect to go deep in 4 competitions and I’m not fully convinced on their depth beyond the first 11. They do look well covered in full back areas with Frimpong, Bradley, Kerkhez, Robertson, Tsimikas but none of those are really able to play centre back where currently they only have Van Dijk, Gomez, and Konate (who has only a year left on his deal). Gravenberch with only Endo as back up for the def mid position and up top could still fall apart with a few injuries.

Its the Africa Cup of Nations this mid season - Dec 21st to Jan 18th - which is 5-6 prem games. Interestingly we play Liverpool on Jan 7th, so potentially no Mo Salah for that one.

That’s done for them before. He gets injured every time with Egypt at ANC. I’m sure that’s played innit he timings of buying Wirtz this year. Potentially they’ve got up to 50M coming in for Harvey Elliot. CB is a big omission atm you are right.

The biggest announcement for me is Nwaneri's new contract
Double whammy to us if he does not sign

It’s Nunez that’s pushing for a move apparently, and Jota was pencilled in as their main striker for this coming season.

Have to say the business the Club have done so far is very encouraging, Eze would be the cherry on the cake, you would think Martinelli would be sacrificed to balance the books.

Me too Soc. Looks like a strong direct player willing to take defenders on. He got pretty comfortably lassoed by Saliba when he played us in the CL but then Saliba and Gab also completely dominated Haaland who would be the strongest forward in the league. And no other team in the PL has our CB pairing.

I've watched a few more videos of Madueke and despite my earlier disdain, think he will be another great signing. Both him and Gyökeres are fast and very direct when running with the ball and that combination of pace and power we haven't really had for quite some time. Saka doesn't have outright pace and Martinelli has the pace but not as much strength.

Can't wait to see them play.

Ornstein saying Liverpool are indeed going for Isak.

Wirtz, Isak and Salah in the same team is fantasy football stuff and that’s before you get to them swapping out Diaz for a new winger.

Turning into a nuts transfer window

He said on Sky last night that Newcastle wouldn’t be looking to sell him. These guys drive me mad.

All this about petition stopping Arsenal signing Noni, having 4000 signatures, cannot be real Arsenal supporters, probably Spuds, Chelsea, and Man utd, stirring it up.
Same as the graffiti saying Arteta Out, surely the real fan base is not going to do that, we finished all that with Wenger out.

People like myself who just go to the Arsenal every weekend for a release and to take their mind off work and to have a beer with their mates seem a dying voice.

As usual the worst people in society have the largest voice and that pony petition was likely signed by rival fans but there is a hardcore support from overseas fans now who generate such noise. Vitriolic streamers who peddle attacks on Arsenal for monetisation on various platforms not to mention the musk hate fest twatter. It’s all kind of mental really, you have people in Botswana doing daily video updates on why Arteta needs to sacked in pre season. People screaming at webcams to get traction. It’s a wider societal problem generally and a similar scenario to how far right content is pushed out in the name of “freedom of speech” . Generally no wonder there’s a mental health crisis for the younger generation with so much bollocks going round


I think this nails it…

https://stubbsytours.wordpress.com/

Ornstein saying the new contract is close

Both statements could be true though, Liverpool are going to go for Isak and Newcastle won’t be looking to sell him. That’s most transfers until a price becomes too good to turn down

I doubt very much that Newcastle would be looking to sign a striker like Ekitike if they hadn’t had a conversation already with the player or Liverpool about selling Isak. Their bid of 70m was rejected as a first bid. Nobody’s trying to spend 85 million on a back up striker to replace Callum Wilson and the nonsense people were suggesting yesterday about playing them both together showed how little people actually know about football.

I have to say it’s refreshing the way Liverpool are always looking to ensure they have enough forwards. They are like us with left backs. It’s probably early doors but I have a feeling it will get done as after a sale they must feel confident they can meet the the price. It’s not a mystery negotiation.

Following on from my last post re hate for Noni, I'm certain that when he plays for us , the crowd will get behind him and show overwhelming love and support for him, and show what real support is.

fingers crossed

Tuesday came and went, and still no announcement on Gyökeres joining. Seems Friday is the new announcement date

There is a huge disparity between the match going fan and the loud casual attention seeking fans on social media.

Sadly when there are no matches happening the media’s barometer for supporters feelings is the attention seeking idiots on social media. To be fair the media can also choose to use these guys as their headline even when matches are in full swing and the matchday fans putting out a very different vibe.

There is a lot of talk that Arteta MUST win a trophy next season. I completely understand it, 5 years is a long time when it feels like you’re very close, but there is no context to the conversation. Assuming people say the consequences of not winning a trophy means he should be sacked is such a bonkers statement without context. 10th and out early in all cups then sacked makes sense, 2nd on 95 points and runners up in cups on penalty shoot outs it makes no sense.

As long as the club is contesting at the top of the table and gets decent cup runs it will be difficult to see a scenario he’s fired. He’s responsible for getting Arsenal back into a working order and the people calling for an extreme solution for being runners up need to wobble their heads.(they are out there though)

As you say to off the manager it would take a fall from grace. Drop out the top 4, maybe a few players leaving and critically fan discontent in the ground. No champions league plus big wage bill etc. We are no where near that and I don’t envisage that happening.

Removing a manager isn’t a small change, the coaching staff go, some players will see it as an end of an era and go. It’s wholesale surgery and starting from the top. Chelsea and spurs can win as many tin pot trophies and our online fans can lose the plot as much as they want but that’s not how Arsenal has ever operated.

All of that said the pressure will arrive at some point. Winning a domestic cup here or there would at least shut folks up for a bit

If, and its a big if, Liverpool sign Isak for a new british record fee - say £120-130m, there will be a lot of Arsenal fans and pundits saying we should have bought him. But at that price it is completely illogical for us. We have a budget and we had fairly sizeable holes in our squad that needing plugging. I desperately want us to sign a striker but I don't believe it is the sole or biggest reason why we haven't converted 3 x 2nd place finishes in to firsts. We scored more than enough goals the year before and had horrendous injuries to virtually all our attacking players last year. Saying the problem is not having a striker was too simplistic in my view, I think creativity was more of a problem last year and something that a top striker could help solve was the ability to capitalise on being in front in games by putting them to bed - but a lot of the time it wasn't us failing to score guilt edged changes to go 2 or 3-0 up, we took the lead and the intensity dropped, we stopped creating and dominating and whilst we weren't giving up stacks of chances we allowed our opponents back in the game.

So whilst Isak would be nice is he Gyökeres +£60-70m nice......or us buying Isak means we can't buy Zubimendi, Moquera and Kepa. One injury to Isak (who has had a patchy history (missed 40 games in 3 seasons) and struggled a bit with 3 games a week when Newcastle were in the CL, and you're back to square 1. That is not to say Liverpool aren't doing the right thing buying him, their squad (I think) still has gaps and a lack of depth in key positions but they were champions and more complete than us, we've also lost more players this summer who need replacing.

Madueke has signed a 5-year deal.

Sporting are currently negotiating the add ons with Arsenal for Gyökeres

They are asking for…

2.5M for every time Charlie Mullins says something totally stupid

2.5 million for each occasion Kneecap mention Palestine

5M for each occasion someone mentions Havertz is our best paid player when he isn’t.


Talks continue…

So Ipswich have turned down 35 million from Brentford for Omari Hutchison want more.

All of a sudden the transfer fee police responsible for defacing murals because Madueke might start to look a bit stupid as that looks decent value

Sporting want to include four clauses in Viktor Gyökeres deal but Arsenal are refusing to accept one.

https://www.sportbible.com/football/foo ... 0-20250716

Hi Rog

Help please. Unless I pay 'sportbible' a subscription, they require me to allow all their cookies; I try hard to avoid doing that. It's becoming increasingly common. Is there a way around it?

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... 5kpd4y2yvo

I mean how low can you go.

Hiya

The cookie thing is an EU regulation which prompts a warning saying that a website will place a 'cookie' on a persons machine to record a visit.

We use them here for the forum so people can stay logged in.

To get around cookie warnings (almost all web sites have them !), I just install this :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefo ... ut-cookies

That's for Firefox. I think the other web browsers will have something similar also.

Rog ...

Disappointing from one of the biggest footballers in the world right now. Frankly he should have stood taller than this.

Elanga has gone to Newcastle for £55m - I'd rather have Madueke. Elanga strikes me as more of a space runner, whilst we need pace we are in more need of players who can open up stubborn 10 man defences, Madueke has a bit of a maverick in small spaces about him. It is another big reason I want Eze, he's something different, a creator and dribbler from central spaces.

I think it’s a lot to ask an 18 year old to be the bigger man here.

Can't get over those idiots on twitter who think Edu is still our sporting director.

Even if he is literally

I see xhaka and Guendouzi are both being strongly linked with moves to Sunderland.

Somewhere up there Bernard is tipping the Sunderland for the title today

Fulham keen on taking Nelson back on loan. Arsenal looking to add an obligation to buy as part of the deal. Nelson is a tough sell as he’s had 2 big hamstring injuries in the last 2 seasons

Speculation going round that the city verdict is about to be confirmed and they will receive a 3 point deduction for failing to co operate and a big fine and they will be found innocent of all the other charges.

I read that too.

If that's the case then the PL and lawyers are either a right load of chumps who had no place bringing the charges in the first place or City's lawyers have just wiped the floor with them. Probably both.

If I was United, Liverpool and Arsenal I'd resign from the PL and form a new league, invitation only. Can't see the PL lasting without the biggest three clubs in the country and those invited could move with the big three to the new league.

Never going to happen of course but would be great if it did.

Morning Soc,

The only thing that I had any hope for was the voting bloc of clubs who are anti City’s working practises. The rise of Newcastle and disgracefully Nottingham Forrest and the like (Chelsea are, have always been and always will be genuinely awful as an organisation) looks to have scuppered that.

I wonder if you really drilled down whether clubs are focused on surviving/ making money or actually winning. It probably varies depending where clubs are in their cycles - but the making money part seems very dominant and Oil money being around makes that easier.

I don’t think there really exists the appetite from the clubs to clamp down on City. Because now it’s City AND Newcastle AND Chelsea AND Villa AND Forrest really skimming the very edge of fair practice trying to win at all costs and clubs want money end of.

That is the most depressing and unsurprising news I’ve ever heard.

No to be fair I amsurprised City haven’t somehow spun this to their advantage and the Premier League aren’t preparing some embarrassing apology and compensation for them.

If it’s true what is going to be hard to listen to will be all the “we have been victimised” stuff. Pep was almost going down that route already. Ironically their 1 charge would be trying to conceal the other charges they were found innocent of by not complying. Oh so they did nothing wrong then !