Seen on Twitter:

"Queen Victoria died 44004 days ago. Tottenham Hotspur last won the league 22004 days ago.

That means Totts most recent league title is closer to the Victorian Age than the present day."

Now that's funny.

Not necessarily. If you're loaded, you just hoover up everybody, whether they're half-decent or not. When you're Chelsea, it isn't a science.

Nice. Things and events that are more recent than Spurs' most recent league title are always good value. I've always liked: 'the invention of the pocket calculator'.

Hi john1. I think it’s even funnier that someone actually bothered to work out how many days it is since Queen Victoria snuffed it in order to compare it with the number of days they’ve also calculated it is since Tottenham won the league.

I think we can all take a big lesson from Messi who will some how try and survive on half his wages for the next few years. This kind of sacrifice is rare.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57836300

Smith Rowe wearing ozils number 10 shirt in training now. Obviously completely unconnected and unrelated to him getting a new contract

I'd have thought that something that showed someone went to such an involved level of detail would have been right up your street Bernard?

Apart from obviously preferring the charming self-effacement of Ronaldo to the rampant ego and endless self-promotion of Messi, what else tilts you towards the Portuguese chap?

The thing I like most about Ronaldo is that he isn’t Messi.

Even if Willian was in Miami to discuss joining Inter Miami, more than just his high wage demands would scupper that deal. Just one look at that little belly bulge would be enough for Becks to say, "No can do".

My gut feeling on a lot of the nearly transfers is they will get done because we're desperate. It will likely mean us accepting a lower bid than we want or paying more than we want.
Xhaka to Roma - I just find it hard to see a way back on that now
Ben White to Arsenal - unless someone gazumps us you don't bid £45m for a guy and not go to the £50m the club want
Nketiah will probably leave for less than the £20m we want

The ones that concern me more are finding any way possible to trim the squad and shift the absolute deadwood or no future.

I can see a lot happening in the last few weeks for us in a case of he who blinks first. The only certainly is it was probably effect the start to the season as the squad gets a big shake up, various players haven't had a full pre-season and a lot have had their mind on transfers rather than football. Fast starts are essential but with our fixture list and transfer business required I can see a very sticky first 8-10 games where we could easily be down in the bottom half of the table again

I would keep a strong eye on links from Crystal Palace to our players considering who their manager is now. Not just Nketiah

Do you find Messi himself irritating or do you find the hype around him irritating?

I'm guessing its not just the hype, because surely Ronaldo is just as hyped?

If it is Messi himself, is it his character, appearance, or playing attributes you find irritating?

He's a regular Tom Pinch, isn't he?

I would say Ronaldo is more hyped. The amount of praise lauded on him in the Euros was nuts. A late penalty and injury time goal when his team were already beating Hungary was heralded as another masterclass by him. Great player and I would say the best finisher I have ever seen, which makes the over the top praise of regular goals and performances annoying and of course he loves it.

I think we should walk away from it. You are right. £50m+ is huge money. Man Utd are getting Sancho for £73m. Consider that Sancho is bona fide one of the absolute top young players in Europe and that Man U always have to pay extra. Did anyone mention White as a target for top clubs before the England call-up? He looks well over-priced to me.

It probably is mostly the hype. I disagree with dec on this. I find Messi significantly more hyped than Ronaldo. I’d say Ronaldo is seen, rightly, as one of the best two players of his generation (in second place). I’ve often heard Messi denoted as the greatest player of all time, at least by those who didn’t see Maradona. Ronaldo isn’t.

This I do agree with you about dec. Look, £50m+ is a loony price for a central defender in a depressed market who, as I seem to recall, Top Gun pointed out a while back wasn’t considered good enough for England’s Euro squad.

Unlike Saliba I have seen White play. I think he was in Brighton’s team in the final league game of last season. If he played for Leeds against us the season before I would have seen him then as well. But I can’t honestly say I noticed him. He didn’t strike me as brilliant (or useless) enough to make me notice him whenever he has played against Arsenal.

I thus can’t give a reliable viewpoint on what he’s really like. I fully accept that. But regardless of this admission, is he really outstanding enough to justify Arsenal blowing well over £50m on him, if that’s what Brighton will let him go for? That will be a huge proportion of Arsenal’s transfer budget this summer, unless Stan has decided to financially dope us, which I really doubt. I remain to be convinced the money couldn’t be spent more wisely.

It’s an even loonier price when you consider our finances.

There are loads of people who contend that Ronaldo is the best player of all time. And there are even more who will argue that Ronaldo and Messi are the top two.

I am old enough to remember Maradona but not Pele (although I have seen plenty of footage). I didn't think I would see a better player than Maradona but then Messi came along and has kept doing it for well over a decade. A discussion of the greatest players in history that didn't consider Messi would be very strange indeed.

There’s somebody somewhere who will say anything. You’ve probably seen a lot more reports on this than me, as it’s not the type of report I take much notice of. But I don’t recall anyone saying Ronaldo is the best of all time. I’ve seen many claims that Messi is.

I accept your point Messi should come into any discussion about the greatest of all time. But for me Maradona is better. Messi is one of the greatest I’ve seen though. However, I don’t consider him the best.

Quite frankly, if it's midfielders that are needed, Youri Tielemans, 24 years old at Leicester is alright. Played well.

Thought £50M a bit absurd.

Have to say the best to Vieira for all the success he can muster while at Crystal Palace. Even if it means poaching a few fringe players.

If I had to choose between a CB and playmaker and we can only fill one, I'd go with a playmaker. We have a desperate need in both positions. However, Xhaka has to go and we need someone in the Fabregas mold in that position. Someone who can make the right pass at the right time.

Holding is good enough for the time being but I'd love to have the Brighton defender instead and Holding be the 3rd defender. I'm pretty much writing Saliba off. I don't know what the behind the scenes drama is about but whatever it is, the end result is he's not playing for us. If he ends up with us, all well and good, but I'm not counting on it. At all. Sadly.

I'm expecting Partey to improve after a full season of injury and adapting. He'll help shield the central defense to a large extent.

If we get Smith and a playmaker, I'll be a wee bit confident going into the season. If not, I'll just cross my fingers week to week. In any event, I am hoping to see Smith-Rowe and Saka improve. I'm hoping to see Martinelli get more playing time and improve. Those 3 are the main ones I watching of the young players. Oh, and the new boy.

Saliba’s contact will have just two years left to run when he returns from Marseille. Right now it’s hard to imagine him signing an extension with us. So statements that he ‘remains part of the club’s long term thinking’ seem odd.

Even though football is far more widely followed than when I first got into it some 20 odd years ago (has it been that long?), some holdouts, some 'old school' friends still tease me from time to time. I had to laugh at this one though.

Arsenal being a big club or not, it's hard to imagine as you say. Why should he? He was highly touted when we signed him. There are more than enough clubs of a decent size I would think who would sign him within and outside England.

I would think if they can match his current wages or of course increase it, he would go. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a few offers for him. Although, any club would have to ask the glaring question of why aren't we playing him.

He’s currently linked with Liverpool for £65m. Agreed though, he’s a classy player

Seems like the club want a home grown GK, linked with Ramsdale and Sam Johnstone. I hope Sheff Utd price us out of Ramsdale because they were meant to be asking £30-40m which is crazy. West Ham just had a £6m bid turned down for Johnstone. He only has 1 year left on his deal, that’s the guy we should be going for if we want a getable home grown GK.
At the time backing the more experienced Leno over Martinez seemed right, especially as it seemed we couldn’t really keep both. But now with Martinez as home grown, flourishing and Leno itching for a move it looks a disaster

If you believe various trusted journalists of the actual bids we’ve made we are ready to spend up to £45m on a centre back, up to £40m on a central mid and up to £30m on a creative mid. Those are the supposed bids for Ben White, Locatelli and Buendia.
It shouldn’t be a case of only being able to get 1 or 2 of those bids because all 3 play in very different positions.

Lokonga seems like it will be announced today, new home kit launch today as well.
Lokonga is the Ceballos replacement and Tavares is the back up left back. Neither improve the first team yet, and whilst depth is required we’re facing a season with maybe only 45 games rather than 60+ so a smaller squad with a quality first 11 is even more important

I agree. Indeed, I’ve pointed out a while back that next summer he’ll only be two years from the end of his contract and it’s hard to see why he would even think about renewing it. So I reckon the quote you highlighted and Edu’s stuff about Saliba going to Marseille on loan to develop as a player is little more than ‘politically correct’ (trying to say the right thing) nonsense, at least regarding any idea of keeping him at Arsenal.

My guess is the hope at the club is that Saliba will actually have a fine season with Marseille. Not so much to get him ready for Arsenal’s first team. But so he can be sold for a higher price next year than will be possible if he doesn’t do well at Marseille.

If I’m right about this, Saliba may become the answer to a quiz question in a few years when all this will be memorised less. Who is Arsenal’s most expensive signing who subsequently never played for their first team?

I think the acting can be cringeworthy but it probably just comes down to trying the gain a competitor advantage…..or errrr….cheating. Would they do it if it was a kickabout in a park with their mates?

New kit looks horrible. Looks more like Ajax than Arsenal. That much blue has no place on an Arsenal shirt.

In a months time we will play our first EPL game. Arteta has spent all his time chasing Ben White. He is a player, a number of guests on podcasts have suggested plays differently at the CB role. Already I think too much energy has been spent on this deal. At the prices quoted he needs to improve our defence significantly and be almost error free for the season. Arteta needs this deal otherwise the failure to keep Saliba will look very poor.

At the end of last season I believed we were chasing an attacking midfielder or midfielders. Now I see that unless we can find a new defensive midfielder we cannot sell Xhaka. I can only assume that Arteta is intending to push Partey further forward.

Money must be available as we have made a number of bids. I am struggling to see what Arteta is aiming to do.

The inability to sell players, will come back to haunt us. Many of the players in squad at Hibs are players we are supposedly looking to unload (Willian, Bellerin, Lacca and SK). How can this improve squad morale, establish partnerships in the team and generally lead to accord within the team.

There is a suggestion that after the Scottish tour a number of transfers will follow. I hope for our sake they do. We need to make some progress towards the start of the season. A well prepared start for the season is essential. We are a long way short at the moment.

Hi Rich. I’m afraid I don’t automatically believe trusted sources. Reports say we’ve bid £17m for Aouar. To me that sounds more realistic than offers up to £40m for a central midfielder or £30m for a creative midfielder.

If you saw it, you probably realised from my post to dec last night that I think the idea we bid £45m for White is most likely a nonsense. If we had I bet Brighton would have bitten our hands off and the deal would have been completed as soon as he passed a medical. If White does end up joining us, my guess is it will be for a damn site less than £45m, and so it should be.

As l’ve said before, I honestly think the huge majority of transfer gossip, both in terms of the alleged players and the amounts bid, should be seen as little more than attempts to sell newspapers or attract internet hits.

Trustworthy sources? I remember going to an Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) meeting a few years back (to be honest, quite a lengthy period) and Ornstein was the guest speaker. The AST person introduced him as, words to the effect of, the reporter most likely to be right about Arsenal (I don’t recall the exact words used). I actually did some research on Ornstein the following day and it was clear he’d got loads of things wrong.

Perhaps he is more likely than most journalists to get things right? But whether that’s enough to make his reports what I’d define as ‘trustworthy’ is another question entirely, particularly for stuff not on the point of happening.

There can’t be many posts on the forum in July down the years that reek of the bitterness and agenda this one displays. The misery, the bed wetting, oh yes Congratulations!

Booo hooo Arteta and Edu are struggling to sell such obvious turds

Cheer up there’s a month and half left of the transfer window to go and I think you will see at least another 4 new players coming in.

Saliba will have a chance to showcase himself in the Europa League. It will be interesting should he excel in Ligue 1 and/or Europa. Believe he will give Arsenal the short shrift when that happens. Forget about extending his contract at that time.

I dunno, TG, there have been plenty of 'bitterness' and 'agenda' posts on the forum down the years, so I doubt that Gaz's latest would even scrape into the off-season Top 50. Still, I reckon it's a bit rich, Gaz, for you to suggest that 'Arteta has spent all his time chasing Ben White'. From the north of Queensland, your binoculars must be pretty good to be able to ascertain exactly how Arteta is whiling away his summer days. None of us has the slightest idea what squad we'll begin the new season with, so even a rabid anti-Artetite like yourself might consider waiting a week or three before passing judgement?

I had to google this. Thanks for the educational post, Decaf!