Trossard will be Arteta's 8th signing from another premier league club. As many as we made in the 11 years previous. There is a slight premium to buy within the prem league but the oven ready player helps massively

He looked decent at the WC, and his highlight reel does look good, even by the standards of highlight reels. Slippery, technically excellent and with good awareness.

Hi AG,

Trossard is not the most exciting signing we've ever made but he's one of the most sensible. PL proven at the peak of his career and possessing the technical skill necessary to play the way we do and at a reasonable price.

Hi Rich,

One thing fascinates me. How are Chelsea going to get all these unwanted players on big wages out the door. We did it by basically giving players away, will they have to do the same?

There is not much money in europe. PSG, Real and Bayern are still able to spend big but they probably wont want any of Chelsea's cast-offs. That leaves selling to teams in the PL and even they might not be able to pay the wages the players want.

Not looking good for Reiss Nelson, is it?

Chelsea's policy of hoovering up all the best young talent around is interesting. How are they able to do it when other clubs are unable to. Aren't our owners richer than Chelsea's for example?

We only have to look at Zinchenko. Football wise he's a very unsexy signing but he's turned out to be an absoloute master stroke.

And I don’t think that Pépé will be back at any point.

There was an extreme example of ‘not ready for the Premier League’. The big surprise to me was that he never adapted at all. Just shows the risks involved.

Trossard is a very good dribbler and the type of player that seems a fit. Dare I say a bit of Jesus about him. They don't seem too dissimilar.

Remains to be seen but its a big boost on the face of it.

Not looking good for him but also if Trossard is predominately left sided I can see him evolving into an able deputy for martinelli so where does Emile Smith Rowe get minutes ?

Now we are signing Jakub Kiwior

Polish centre back. Don’t know the slightest thing about him.

Arteta likes collecting defenders like George did.

Wow we’ve wrapped that up quick. 20 million and flying in this weekend. I do honestly wonder if that money would have been better served on a midfielder like Tielemans

40 million spent in January then.

5 good players who can play at centre back and desperate for a midfielder ! Let’s sign a centre back!

That’s the Arsenal way.

Wow, where did that one come from. Never even heard of him.

Quite odd in that it seems to be a position where we are relatively OK at the moment.

Maybe we thought it was now or never if other clubs were sniffing around.

I wonder if this would have been done had we got Mudryk.

I expect Chelsea are preparing a last ditch bid even though they've no idea who he is either.

A new centre back was always on the cards at some point.

Apparently Arteta hates the concept of a right footed LCB play out from the back with his right.

Just feels weird because we need midfield cover

It worked with Colin Pates. Trust the process.

Jakub Kiwior Polish CB from Spezia - reports are we're closing in on him, 20m euros, he's 20, left footed and seems flexible in being able to play left back as well
https://www.football365.com/news/arsena ... diaby-list


Edit: Romano says it is a done deal
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/stat ... gr%5Etweet

may be the end for Holding - and almost certainly allows Cédric to join Fulham this window

Apparently EDU went to Poland and wrapped it up.

Since the mudryk transfer debacle EDU paid to attend one of Andrew Tates hustlers university online courses and feels more masculine and decisive which helped get this one done.

Fresneda is another to keep an eye on, 18 year old right back - in the £18m range. A few teams interested, not least Newcastle.

Feels like Holding and Tierney could be off in the summer. I'd be reluctant to release them without a clear plan but they don't seem to fit in the Arteta's style of play. We should be able to get £15m for Holding and £30m at least for Tierney

I genuinely hope not. Both solid pros we need around. Especially Tierney as both left backs seems injury prone

I read somewhere that if we win the league we have to pay Celtic another 5 million for Tierney

Amazing that we can get this Polish kid pretty much signed without a single journalist having a sniff about it. How on earth do you do a transfer that quietly? We need to though because there are clubs out there who will pick up on what we're trying to do and look to outbid us

Chelsea have used the loan market to do this so far - but they would be unlikely to be able to shift all the wages on to the loan club

How do you think we will use Trossard now?
And how do you think we will use him when Jesus is fit?
Any change?

Do we even care about the Liverpool v Chelsea result tomorrow? I'll go for Liverpool if there has to be a winner but both aren't a threat to us.

Emile Smith Rowe is the best equipped player to cover for Ødegaard. Arteta also said that he believes Emile Smith Rowe could play as a false 9. We've loads of games and we will have CL next year. He will get plenty of matches.

I think it would be a bad decision to sell Tierney. Arteta clearly prefers Zinchenko for his creativity, but Tierney is a better defender. In games where we are having to defend deep, I'd rather have Tierney in there.

I wonder where Arteta see's Vieira's best position. We have a left sided 8 and a right sided 8 where I think Arteta might end up stock piling useful players, with some of them being able to play out wide as well

100% agree with this. I wonder whether Tierney himself would be happy knowing his role is to play 2nd fiddle to Zinchenko, play some lesser home games and cup games?

Never heard of him.

Been listening to some Utd podcasts (vomit)

Two things they are nauseatingly cocky as *%^@. They think they’ll beat us. No circumspection whatsoever, they beat us earlier in the season, no caveats, we’ll beat them because we’re Utd and they’re Arsenal.

Secondly the player most people were talking about was Martin Odegard who Fred is going to mark. Made me think we’ve got so much threat, yeah please man mark him and leave Partey to switch it to Saka, Ben white to sneak in, Zinchenko and Xhaka to spin in a ball to Martinelli.

We really should be burying these a-holes.

I guess we aren’t going in for Evan N’Dicka on a free then if we’ve picked up this young left footed CB? I take it he’s left footed.

I’ve never seen him play, or even at all, he might not even exist as far as I know, but I was sure he was what we needed

Trossard for me will be used on the left wing I see our attacking 5 positions as the following hierarchy:

left 8: Xhaka, Emile Smith Rowe, Lokonga, Vieira, Trossard
right 8: Ødegaard, Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe
left wing: Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe, Trossard, Nelson
Right Wing: Saka, Martinelli, Trossard, Emile Smith Rowe, Nelson, Vieira, Marquinos
Striker: Jesus, Nketiah, Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe, Trossard

Man U fans are awful, any time I speak to them they tell me how so many players are world class, or the best in their position in the league etc - I just don't see it. If they had all these world class players they should be running away with the league.

De gea is close behind Lloris as a liability - press him at all times
wan bissaka offers little going forward
the defence is not quick and sits too deep
casemiro is top class but Partey is better
Eriksen - we must press him (ok he may be skilful neough to beat the press) but you can't give him time on the ball
Bruno - I just don't get this guy, a few goals but hugely wasteful in posession
Rashford has hit form after 2 years of relatively little
and there really isn't much else up top

A bit of background explanation that sets the scene:

"There is a reason why Arsenal want to provide competition for centre-back Gabriel.
"The Brazilian defender has played every single minute for the Gunners in this Premier League season - and every minute in all competitions since the World Cup break.
"Mikel Arteta knows that too much football on young legs can lead to dwindling displays towards the end of the campaign. For example, there was not enough competition for Bukayo Saka last season and he ended the campaign with zero goals and zero assists from open play in the final ten league matches.
"Kiwior has gone under the radar in Serie A and not many fans even noticed him during the World Cup, where he started every single game for Poland as they lost to France in the last-16.
"The 22-year-old does seem to fit the bill for an Arsenal defensive signing, with a wide range of passing and an ability to defend well while under pressure – as well as fitting the age profile for new recruits under Arteta."

So what’s our bench now ?

Turner, Tommy, kiwior, Tierney, Trossard, elneny, lokonga, vieira, holding ?

All of a sudden that looks healthier. If we get to sign that right back holding might look in trouble and we still obviously need more capable midfielders in reserve

Emile Smith Rowe instead of Holding on the bench with the current first 11.

Right back to replace Cédric
Central mid to be able to do what Partey does
Pacey wide right player
Plan B striker

Then you have a squad that can compete in all competitions

Here he is

Actually that’s a point Emile Smith Rowe drops holding out of the squad and when Jesus is back that means 1 of lokonga, elneny or Tierney doesn’t make the squad.