True, but the first couple of years were spent sorting out a big mess and surely shouldn't factor into a hard-headed decision about Arteta. In terms of our overall progress (a very good 2021), January 2022 surely registers as just a few bumps in the road.

So as it stands (still a few hours to go)
Arsenal have no one coming in and lots of fringe players out
Man U have probably lost Greenwood for the run in, also sent VD Beek on loan and had no one come in
Spurs got Kuvelevski and Bentacour in but got rid of Lo Celso, Ndombele and Alli - not sure it makes them much stronger
West Ham haven’t added anyone

We can debate which clubs have stronger squads and depths but in terms of where we were, how we all got here and what is left no one has really laid down a top 4 marker amongst the teams vying for it

Ornstein now saying there's an agreement between clubs to loan Aubameyang to Barcelona. Six months with option of another year.

...and we've apparently signed an American defender, who will join the club in the summer. Auston Trusty, 23 years old, plays for the Colorado Rapids in the US.

I read it is essentially him leaving on a free transfer rather than a loan. If so that’s a £27m saving over the next 18 months

A signing from another kroenke club regardless of how good he is or if he is what we need. What’s with us signing these players from the mls

Assuming Aubameyang would no longer be picked for AFC, If they get shot of Aubameyang and sign a striker then its worked out well. However, going into the final part of the season with only Nketiah and Lacazette as our first choice strikers would seem like a ridiculous gamble.

If we are to sign someone in the final few hours of this window wouldnt there be some news of negotiations?

Yeah, there would be. Nobody's coming.

It's a huge gamble. If we manage to get a respectable league position (top 6 for me) and the club really invests this summer I can see this being worth it. If we fall further down the table because of a thin squad and we don't recruits heavily this summer, then heads will need to roll.

Mixed feelings about Aubameyangs departure.

In his prime an explosive striker like few others, single handedly won us an FA cup and got us to a europa final.

Never seen a player decline like it though except maybe ljungberg and the last 2 seasons he hasn’t looked right. Weird that he kept getting covid but was also missing a lot. God knows what was going on behind the seasons and we will never probably find out.

It’s a shame that these transfers seem to end in bad blood all the time. Big part of our team the last few years I wish him well

Underwhelmed, totally.

Fingers crossed for the remainder of the season.

Although it is feasible he said something to somebody who wasn’t in the press, but it eventually reached a reporter.

Unlikely and even less so in a couple of days Or whatever it’s been. It didn’t happen. Made up.

Is is really that unlikely? Stan will speak to others not only in his family but KSE. That is guaranteed as it’s inevitable. I don’t think it’s outlandish to imagine someone mentioning what he said to someone with links to the press.

2 points off fourth place with a game in hand. Best position we’ve been in for a few seasons at this stage. Doesn’t make sense at all.

Made up.

Our chance of ending up in the top 6 pretty small if we don't get someone at the last moment. We are a couple of injuries / red cards away from crisis. Then the fans will be calling for blood, our best players will want out, and we won't be able to buy ambitious players, even if we have the money. Last summer there was some buoyancy because of our decent 2nd half of the season. We are setting ourselves up for the opposite. It seems reckless in the extreme.

I'm really scratching my head here.

I don't necessarily agree with that... If we get a bunch of injuries we might be in trouble, but if our key players stay fit we have a decent chance of top four with the players we have. It is a gamble of course, but we haven't really lost anyone who was important for something other than squad depth.

But he’s only just spent money. He is going to not just want but expect something back for that. For all I know it might be made up. But we cannot be sure, one way or the other.

According to the BBC, Ramsey is in Glasgow for a medical with Rangers.

Yes we can we know it’s nonsense because we were clearly pursuing vlahovic and espanyol said we enquired about their striker too. He wasnt being deprived funds by the owner.

Made up

It’s being reported that Mbappe has reached an agreement with Real Madrid for a summer transfer from PSG. His annual salary will be £41.5m.

Whatever happened to being ‘broke’? Same goes for Barcelona really. Financial Fair Play. Yeah, right.


https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/footb ... 0qVUAig4Uk

How serious was that attempt? Mcquilkie questioned how much time we’d wasted on an attempt to get a player it seemed had zero interest in joining Arsenal, and that’s a reasonable point.

I suppose I’m just not so pig-headed to write off with apparent contempt any rumour I don’t like as made up.

If we were willing to spend 60 million it’s serious. Plus we’ve signed 2 other players from the MLS. He’s not being deprived of funds. Made up

Does every offer have to be a serious offer? I heard a different pundit yesterday who questioned how seriously Arsenal went for Vlahovic, considering the pundit said he was a second rate, or was it second tier striker. Second something anyway. He allegedly had no interest in joining Arsenal. We could have offered Fiorentina £70m and apparently he wouldn’t have considered joining us.

But we have signed other players. He can’t be depriving his manager of funds if we are doing this. Clearly we aren’t signing a striker because we couldn’t get our main target and didn’t fancy the other ones available

We weren’t pursuing vlahovic because kroenke wanted to throw our fans off the scent that he actually hates his manager.

How much was spent on the two players from America? If you look back the bloke had questioned whether Kroenke stills thinks it’s sensible to let Arteta spend big money.

I actually suspect it’s perfectly feasible Kroenke approved a £60m offer if Edu had told him there was no chance of signing him. I’m sadly not a multi-billionaire but I imagine it’s a business practice to throw people off the scent of what’s really going on.

Who has said Stan hates Arteta? Or is that just one of you over the top exaggerations?

30 mins to go…..

Rangers official website has indeed confirmed the signing of Aaron Ramsey. A loan deal until the end of the season.

https://www.rangers.co.uk/article/range ... pwp2fdn6vO

Wonder if there’ll be any late confirmations of deals now the transfer window has been closed for around an hour and a half? Specifically, will Aubameyang get his move to Barcelona?

Aubameyang is done according to this dude although not sure if it's photoshopped.

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano?ref_ ... t-camp-nou

The meltdown on social media: hilarious. People would prefer to buy anyone rather than only a quality player.

It’s a hard sell for anyone wanting a quality forward in; can you guarantee me European football - no, can the manager deal with a diverse range of personalities: no it’s like a girls school - your no longer my friend and I want you out of the club despite this costing the club large amounts of money; what happened to the last forward who the manager demanded the club sign him to a longer contract; no one has any idea what went wrong; what trophies can I win for the rest of the season - nothing.

As long as we get at least Europa Lesgue he will probably keep his job. Yeah give me some paper and I’ll sign for you rather than…..

Our worst transfer window yet, will we live to regret this?
4th is within our grasp, but will we continue to lose ground again?

A chance to steal a march on our 4th place rivals but none of them made any serious moves either.

Spurs bought two players in from Juve who have 5 goals between them in the last 2 seasons and got rid of 4 attacking midfield/creative players.

So what does the club do about official club captain? Lacazette has been doing the role with Aubameyang in exile but it wasn’t ever formally stripped from Aubameyang as far as I know. I think the club will get to the end of the season on an ad hoc basis game by game without an official appointment and then make a decision in the summer.

Massive summer ahead. The only striker at the club will be Balogun. 2 more senior strikers needed. Elneny is also off so another midfielder required.
Saliba coming back might be enough for CB cover but if we’re in Europe then a young 5th CB might be handy
A back up right back will also be needed.

Finally, any players moving on from the team we have now will clearly need replacing, Xhaka? Pépé?

On strikers, I quite like the idea of brining Tammy Abraham back and getting Jonathan David from Lille. £100m+ for the pair. Roma might fancy keeping Xhaka and AMN.

I don't know. Letting Aubameyang go was a good thing but surely you need some sort of plan in place before you do that? The chances of Lacazette staying fit and in passable form for the remaining games do not fill me with optimism.
Ditto the likelihood of our ability to find a workable attacking combination without him. Maybe Martinelli can move to the middle? Pépé? I just can't see it.

Feels like a missed opportunity.

Now we have to play 17 games with a squad of 20 which should be okish but watch out for Lacazette and martinelli colliding during the wolves games and injuring themselves for several weeks knowing our luck.

Then in 17 games time we wish goodbye to Nketiah, Lacazette, Leno probably and El nenny definitely. It’s a complete squad rebuild.

Don’t know what we will do this summer. We will need 2 serious strikers and maybe even 1 or 2 midfielders. Not sure where the cash comes from for that it would be a lot. Feels like we are always unprepared and in catch up mode ever since we moved to the emirates.

The deadline day on/off saga of Aubameyang’s move to Barca feels like one we won in isolation. Barca suddenly started pleading poverty despite finding money for signings like Ferran Torres. Arsenal stood firm and said we’d make no financial contribution to the deal and it was for Aubameyang and Barca to come to an agreement over wages. We called their bluff and won. If the club wanted Aubameyang’s wages off the books then this transfer in isolation is a win. £30m ish saved.
The shame is that we couldn’t get a replacement in, we’re on a knife edge for the rest of the season and any time a player goes down injured we’re going to be hiding behind the sofa!

If we don't get top 4 this season, the fans (rightfully so) will be up in arms. We never expected to be in contention this season and the opportunity fell into our laps.

We should have spent like a club that is serious about top 4 and we never know when this opportunity will happen again. Leicester is having an off season, Newcastle will be on a spending spree. West Ham is well managed and seems to be a viable threat. Tottenham could turn it around or turn it up a wee bit with some good buys. Man Utd can be a threat for any position at any time. I can see Chelsea challenging City or Liverpool for most of next season if they work out a few kinks.

Whatever Arteta spoke about to Kroenke, it didn't seem like it worked. As for Aubameyang, we should have used him for the remainder of the season. Even if its not a starting or central role, off the bench or start and sub out early if he's not having a good match. I don't think we managed the whole thing well.

One big lesson we still need to learn is selling fringe players at the right time. Chambers, Nketiah and AMN have been subject to collective bids of about £40-45m over the past 18 months to 2 years. We’ll likely only get a little over £10m all in for all 3 I suspect.

There is always a market for young English players, we need to realise when those players peak price is and be willing to take the risk that they won’t regret it.