I’m still shocked that Barca, Real and Bayern haven’t swooped in to match Roma’s 10 million pound offer for Granit Xhaka. Clearly haven’t seen his pass completion statistics, he’s a bargain at ten mill come on Senors

Ah yes, good shout. No I don’t think he does. Hakimi had 7 goals and 10 assists in the league last year, in a better league than the Scottish Prem. tavernier scored an incredible 12 goals last year

I get that. But we didn’t achieve anything anyway, even with him. We’d have been better off giving game time to one of ‘ours’. At least it would improve their sell on value if nothing else. We starting to look like a Div 1 team trying to get promoted with loaners.

Three days late with this...but RIP Jose Antonio Reyes, June 1, 2019.

Thats what a change in manager can do. No one's fault.

Sort of. But at the outset a six month loan period looked like it didn’t really take us forward. And so it has proved. We might have got lucky but it never looked likely.

Also, who'd have guessed Ancelotti would jump ship from Everton to go to RM as soon as Zidane left.
No 6 months didn't take us forward, but Ødegaard may have needed a little more time. No chance now if he returns to RM, given he'll be part of Ancelotti's plans so it seems.

Without him I think we would have finished in the bottom half of the table I reckon, manager likely sacked for that. You can’t expect that to be acceptable

Hi ltg,

I'm not a fan of loans without an option to buy. For a so called big club signing a player on loan without an option to buy makes little sense because the better they do then more the price tag goes up, other clubs take note and enter the bidding or the parent club decides to keep the player.

If he'd got us top 4 it would have been a calculated short term gamble that paid off but I find it hard to get invested in a player with no option to buy at the end of it all.

Even if we get Buendia, how confident are people that he’ll be better or represent an improvement on Ødegaard? Because I’m not. Signing Norwich’s best player, if we do, does less for me than signing an outstanding young prospect from Real Madrid who they rate highly enough to not give us an option to buy.

Some have found Ødegaard a little underwhelming. I haven’t. His performances against West Ham and Brighton, and he produced in other games too, convinced me he’s a special talent. Very special. Buendia has shone in the second tier of English club football. Sure, it’s a competitive league so I’m not going to write that off with ‘big deal’. But given the choice of either keeping Ødegaard or recruiting Buendia, my own personal decision would be to retain Ødegaard.

Also, Buendia has played first team football with three clubs. He had two seasons in the Getafe side, a small top tier outfit who have played in La Liga for only sixteen years of their existence and have never won the Spanish top tier league or cup. After that they sent him on loan to Cultural Leonesa, currently a third tier Spanish club. Then he was sold to Norwich. Certainly not the smallest club in England but miles away from what I think of a big club. I hope I’m wrong but I’m finding it hard to feel excited about him joining Arsenal.

To be honest socrates, you refer to us as a “so called big club”. Are we still? We’re now a KSE club, and have been for ten years. Sure, although it’s fallen over that time we’ve still a huge worldwide fan base and as a result can fill a big stadium. But the size of Arsenal has fallen under the Kroenke ownership regime, and I will be surprised if that decline doesn’t continue under Stan.

Won't happen. But, I'll take it any day.

Edit: Didn't realised he is already 30. Scratch that, go for a younger one.

Oh, so sad. I always liked him. RIP Reyes.

Maybe I got it all wrong but from afar it seemed Henry felt threatened by Reyes and may be a big part of why he never felt settled in to the club.
I recall later, his agent saying he should have stayed. But on the pitch it seems Henry didn't like him.

But just to show how much other clubs feared him, Man Utd targeted him in one of the worst ways I've ever seen. Also, Drogba may have been the 'Arsenal killer' but Reyes was certainly the 'Chelsea killer'.

At the start of the 04/05 season Reyes was on a level that has not been achieved by many Arsenal players in all my time supporting them. Up until that Man U game Reyes was stunning. Such a shame that he got kicked out of the English game and couldn’t adapt to the rough treatment....and of course didn’t get better protection from refs.

I think I’m more optimistic about the potential of Buendia in our team (should he sign) than others. I did like Ødegaard and I think if you were comparing them both Ødegaard’s ability would be more subtle. Signing a player from the championship or even a player from the prem is pretty rare for Arsenal. The things that stick out for me for Buendia is he is 2 footed, we’ve missed a genuine 2 footed player in central areas. I’m not even talking about goals scored with each foot, just basic passing and dribbling. Ødegaard was very one footed as was Özil. Buendia’s stats show a very high work rate and good in the high press and turnovers. Fans will instantly take to that as well.
Last time Buendia played in the prem he created more chances for his team mates than every player apart from de Bruyne and Trent. I think he only got 7 assists that season. Which I think is still more than any Arsenal player has managed in the past couple of seasons, and putting those chances on for Arsenal’s strikers rather than Norwich’s can up that assist total.

I do like the gesture. Was Jesus' washing of the feet of his disciples an act of subservience? The spirit of BLM is not the same as that of black power. The clenched first is powerful, but, for me, delusions of military power and revolution have been far more misleading to the working classes than supposed delusions about democracy.

Spot on, Bernard. I'd be happy if Buendia was coming in to add to our midfield. But I'm despondent that Ødegaard is gone and Xhaka may leave too. Imagining that incoming player will replace the likes of Xhaka and Ødegaard, let alone be an instant upgrade seems to me to unwarranted. Unless there is someone at Arsenal who has a Wenger-like ability to find brilliant players at bargain prices, or there is fat budget so we can either buy top end players or have multiple attempts, there is no reason to think that any particular incoming player at that price range will be better than the like of Ødegaard, or Xhaka or even Mustafi (who was highly rated when we got him) and Elneny.

Even if Buendia turns out to be a hit, it will probably take a season or two for him to bed in. Its not like he's Busquets slotting into a midfield that already has Xavi and Inietsa.

Hi Rich,

I agree, I'm actually quite excited about the prospect of signing Buendia (even though it probably won't happen).

From the admittedly little that I've seen of him he looks like a very dynamic type of player who both scores and assists goals. A livewire.

If I had to make comparisons I'd say Ødegaard is similar to Özil in his play, whereas Buendia is more like Alexis.

I understand Sergio Aguero gave gifts to support staff on his departure and also gave away his car. A nice gesture. I know people will say he can afford it etc etc; but how many players actually recognise people at their club when they leave.

Yes, huge credit to him. Not many give.

As long as our new midfield play more progressive football, I'm happy. More incisive passes, faster movement forward, more triangles around the middle of the field and more guts.

A new striker interest.

https://www.football365.com/news/arteta ... 3s-striker

Preferred Ødegaard anyway.

https://twitter.com/paddyjdavitt/status/1401213048044593156?s=21

Reports suggesting Buendia to Villa about to be completed.

Are we actually going to be beaten to Buendia by Aston *%^@*** villa.
Embarrassing.
Amateurish.

I know we’ve been *%^@ of late, but I honestly don’t believe a player would choose Villa over us even with us being in this state. Either, he’s not our first, primary target or we weren’t in seriously in for him. I get it may fit the narrative of how bad we are when it comes to transfers, but I tend to err on the side of this being b%*&s%*^. If we want him, I reckon we’d have signed him or will sign him.

Our targets must be elsewhere I’d have thought.

Wouldn’t go losing your *%^@ quite just yet.

Not necessarily. It comes down to how much we think the player is worth and what he is worth to us and also what we can afford. If another club is prepared to pay more then in the long run it might work in our favour.

We stand a better chance of not paying over the odds in future negotiations once it is clear that we no longer pay any old price.

Martin Keown?

Can you believe that was apparently over an extra £50 per week?!

So Buendia is going to Villa for £30m plus add ons. If we don’t get Ødegaard we’ll look pretty silly. And sadly every time Buendia does anything for Villa next year it will be rubbed in our faces no matter whether we made a serious bid or not.

Anyway, I reckon Ødegaard is who they still want, failing that Aouer. I think Buendia was probably on our list but further down it.

Crazy how much villa have spent on transfers in the last 2.5 seasons. Huge outside investment, they’ve dropped over £200m on the team in that time with very little coming back in. Same story as Everton.

David, I really didn't expect Buendia to come to Arsenal. Especially given our illustrious owners rather buy on the cheap. Held it to £30M steadfast. Not that just overpaying on any player means they'll be an excellent fit for the club, but the sheer lack of ambition from the Kroenkes no matter the cost. Doubt Stan even knows what club Buendia was bought from anyway.

Darren,
Have to see if Carlo actually changes his mind about retaining Ødegaard obviously.

This is it though, has he said anything or is it just rumour? I haven’t heard any direct quotes saying the player is staying at Madrid, just noise and rumour.

It fits the story to knock Arsenal over this Buendia deal but who knows if the interest was real?

Not sure we were ever serious. I doubt it would’ve been the money. Think Partey. Think Pépé.

We may moan about our spending policy but the evidence suggests we will pay what’s needed to secure our targets.

Thing is Ancelotti could give Ødegaard a new option. Zidane didn't rate him. So nothing concrete, but it could all change of course.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.justar ... 284004/amp

My worry about other the Buendia thing is that he may well have been 3rd or lower on our list of targets for that position, but what happens if we can’t get our first choice? Villa have moved early and if he wasn’t our first choice we are then forced to put all our eggs in the first choice or weigh up the risk of not getting the first choice player and accept someone further down the list because he’s about to go somewhere else.

I’m sure that if Buendia was our first choice we’d have put the same money up that Villa did and the player would have chosen us.