Did you see the report about Lokonga? Said Anderlecht are open to selling after reporting big losses during the pandemic. Apparently they have yet to receive the windfall from Man Utd bidding on Sancho.

Yeah they rejected the first offer because they want more than Xhaka is likely to cost :58big-emoticons:

Great example

A 21-year old players value decreasing with about £20m after he's had a great season is a pretty decent example of a market that isn't quite all right, yes.

Ah so he was worth 40 million last summer. Yeah right !

I think we're fine with the number of non-homegrown players in our squad actually - most of the players leaving (Luiz, Xhaka, Guendouzi, Ceballos, Ryan, Ødegaard, probably Willian) are not homegrown, so that leaves plenty of squad space for more non-homegrown players.

But speaking of homegrown players, there are some rumblings from The Athletic that we're targeting Ben White from Brighton to strengthen our defense. Consensus among Arsenal fans are probably that CB isn't a priority, but I'm all for it. Think he's an excellent young CB, and he's looked better on the ball than any of our current CBs when I've seen him play. Only 23 as well. Holding had his best season for us, but to me he just isn't a guy we should rely too much on if we're aiming to make it back into the top four. Better suited to a team in the lower half of the table in my opinion.

Eh? Last year it was widely reported Dortmund wanted £100m for Sancho. Now it's reported they'd let him go for £80m.

The problem with this is most of the players who could leave and generate decent money ARE the home -grown players....Nketiah, Willock, Maitland-Niles - even Nelson.

Those 7 non home grown players you list above, 3 of them are loan returns, Luiz goes for free, I cant see anyone paying a transfer fee for Willian, Roma have only bid £13m for Xhaka and Guendouzi is looking like a £10m sale.

The 4 home grown players I put above should be able to generate over £50m eve in a depressed market

https://le-grove.co.uk/2021/06/15/data-dive-into-the-arsenal-midfield-puzzle-long-read/

This is a good read on the re-shaping of our midfield.
It also shows how good Partey is and how good he is against a whole load of midfielders we're linked with. Watching Partey last year I thought he had an up and down season disrupted by injury but some of the stats - and this covers all sorts of defensive and attacking stats you'd expect good central mids to have - show that he was generally excellent.

Reading a lot of stories that Arsenal are really keen on James Maddison from Leicester. I like him as a player but I can't see how we can afford him. Why would Leicester sell for anything under £50m - it is what they do.

Unless there is a yet to be known cash injection I don't think us signing any £50m player is the right way to go. I reckon we need at least 8-10 new players, £50m sucks too much out of the budget. I think we should be shopping in the under £25m range and looking at the bargains we can pick up from clubs either in deep debt or players entering the last year of their deal.

He wasn't "generally excellent" at all. He was a disappointment. The injuries clearly played a part and we know he is a talented player, but his performance last season was mediocre. I hope and expect that he will be much better next season.

That's where what your eyes see and what the stats show can be quite different. I wouldn't say he was 'mediocre', when he played well he was by far the best midfielder on the pitch but also had some sloppy games, but the stats show that he was one of the higher performing midfielders in Europe last year and better than many of the highly rated CM seemingly on the market for the biggest teams this summer.

Looks like a tough start. Then I looked beyond that and kept seeing tough matches. Then I realised that we now have a lot of tough matches because we’re not very good right now.

First 6 fixtures of the new season. Really tough start again. It seems like we have played a couple of really big sides in our opening handful of fixtures for a number of years running now
14/08 - Brentford (A)
21/08 - Chelsea (H)
28/08 - Man City (A)
18/09 - Burnley (A)
11/09 - Norwich (H)
25/09 - Tottenham (H)

Tough start.....hmmm. If it's any consolation we're not the ones playing in any Euro comps, to be sandwiched in between those other tough games the clubs in the Euro comps do have. No freezing Thursday night's out in Belgrade.

Yep. We'll also enter the League Cup at the 2nd round stage instead of the 3rd round that all clubs in europe do

Wow. This season is going to feel really weird after so long at the top table.

No doubt that those 8 are very real targets for the big 6, and I'd expect most of them to end up at a big 6 club in the next year or two.

Ramsey nearly scored. Should have done better.

So apparently we’ve bid £40m for White and at the same time are in the process of selling Mavropanos to Stuttgart for £7m.

Now, Mavropanos was one of the most promising young defenders in the Bundesliga last season, a regular starter for a relatively high profile club, getting plaudits for his performances and just capped for Greece.

Why are we asking a measly £7m. I’d expect to pay that for a young defender in the English League Two or Ligue 2 in France.

Followed up by missing a sitter.