You said we weren't good enough to get a European place. I'm suggesting you need to qualify that, if the point at issue is whether we are a terribly run club full of poor, overpaid players. Pretty easy to understand, I would have thought?

Not vice versa?

I might be the only one but £25m a season for Messi doesn’t seem that bad a deal. Imagine the shirt sales and merchandising deals, the marketing opportunities, the media coverage......it would probably pay for itself purely in the off-field possibilities and put Arsenal right back on the footballing map. It might even get us back in the CL (unlikely but you never know)

I might be the only one but £25m a season for Messi doesn’t seem that bad a deal. Imagine the shirt sales and merchandising deals, the marketing opportunities, the media coverage......it would probably pay for itself purely in the off-field possibilities and put Arsenal right back on the footballing map. It might even get us back in the CL (unlikely but you never know)

Morning socrates. Economically you may well be correct. But if Messi is open to moving to England, don’t you think other clubs would tempt him far more than Arsenal? City under Guardiola for a start, with them paying him even more generously. Okay, they’ve just signed Grealish so let’s say they’re not so keen now. How about their neighbours? In the Champions League, the country’s biggest club. With their worldwide fan base, and as big as Arsenal’s is United’s is miles bigger, they’d therefore sell way more Messi shirts.

The economic argument you give applies to Chelsea and Liverpool just as much as Arsenal, and aren’t they more tempting? At least Chelsea are in the Champions League. The only way Arsenal are in Europe this season is geographically.

Everyone here knows I’m not keen on Messi. But I appreciate what a wonderful player he was, especially at his peak. What I don’t understand is Arsenal fans clinging on to a hope he’ll join us, and I’m not saying you are socrates despite your last post. That picture I saw of Messi in an Arsenal shirt which Zed kindly posted here. It’s so ridiculous it’s laughable. There’s as much chance of a couple of supermodels offering a threesome to a homeless tramp in his cardboard box down the Embankment tube station.

Isn’t he hugely more expensive than that? I thought that he had agreed to drop his wages to ‘only’ £39m

We're linked with Takehiro Tomiyasu - right back from Bologna, currently with Japan at the Olympics. 22 years old 6 ft 2 and Spurs have been chasing him all summer and had a £15m bid rejected. We've apparently moved to the front of the queue.

So that would be 5 right backs at the club if he signs!?

Still so much work to do before the window closes.

Talk of Kolasinac's contract being cancelled so he can join Fenerbache on a free - joining his best mate Özil. If there is no other way to move him out of the squad then just do it, even if we are having to pay 50% of his wages for the next year.

I might be the only one but £25m a season for Messi doesn’t seem that bad a deal. Imagine the shirt sales and merchandising deals, the marketing opportunities, the media coverage......it would probably pay for itself purely in the off-field possibilities and put Arsenal right back on the footballing map. It might even get us back in the CL (unlikely but you never know)

Talk of Kolasinac's contract being cancelled so he can join Fenerbache on a free - joining his best mate Özil. If there is no other way to move him out of the squad then just do it, even if we are having to pay 50% of his wages for the next year.

No wonder Arsenal are short of cash. They keeping paying out fortunes for people not to play for them. Nuts.

No wonder Arsenal are short of cash. They keeping paying out fortunes for people not to play for them. Nuts.

If I was advising any player on leaving the club, you would be silly not to require a full payout or just sit down and wait. With the pandemic many clubs where you are heading will not be offering big wages, particular if there is no CL money.

We, Arsenal, are caught in the half way area of being trying to get back into the top 4 and being forced to pay silly wages to attract or keep players. In my view we are negotiating from the wrong angle. We should be paying a good wage but topped by bonuses for trophies or top 4 or a lesser sum for Europa.

Getting paid to leave? Hold on there ltg..lets not be too hasty on this. Just saying...

How much do you want?

I'll chip in with a fiver.

Mustafi is now a free agent, can’t find a club and been voted “loser of the season”

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/footb ... i-24693341


we were paying him a hundred grand a week. people on the SGF thought he was ace.

Just to clarify, do you mean they thought he was ace when we signed him, or later?

I think we're probably all guilty of using hindsight on transfers. I'm sure there have been plenty of transfers that when they happened at the time Arsenal fans either got caught up in the excitement of a new signing, or didn't really have a bad word to say about the signing or perhaps a few grumblings. Possibly because with lots of the players we haven't actually seen them play and we look at the transfer fee rather than the wages.

For example:

Kolasinac was voted Bundesliga best left-back, was physically imposing and had a reputation for flying down the wing and providing lots of assists, and we signed him for free! At the time I don't think there were too many moans. Hindsight shows he wasn't good enough to justify his place in the team or his wages and now we are all grumbling about his signing because we can't shift a player we don't want.

There are probably similar arguments for Mustafi, Xhaka and Willian (although people definitely grumbled about the length of his contract)

...Kolasinac was voted Bundesliga best left-back, was physically imposing and had a reputation for flying down the wing and providing lots of assists, and we signed him for free! At the time I don't think there were too many moans. Hindsight shows he wasn't good enough to justify his place in the team or his wages and now we are all grumbling about his signing because we can't shift a player we don't want.

How much do you want?

Very good points. Even if we have paid Kolasinac £3m pa in salary (and who knows the truth of that figure), has it been the worst deal ever made to spend say £12-15m on a squad man who played over a hundred times in four years? In the scheme of things not a big stick to beat the club with.

I think we're probably all guilty of using hindsight on transfers. I'm sure there have been plenty of transfers that when they happened at the time Arsenal fans either got caught up in the excitement of a new signing, or didn't really have a bad word to say about the signing or perhaps a few grumblings. Possibly because with lots of the players we haven't actually seen them play and we look at the transfer fee rather than the wages.

For example:

Kolasinac was voted Bundesliga best left-back, was physically imposing and had a reputation for flying down the wing and providing lots of assists, and we signed him for free! At the time I don't think there were too many moans. Hindsight shows he wasn't good enough to justify his place in the team or his wages and now we are all grumbling about his signing because we can't shift a player we don't want.

There are probably similar arguments for Mustafi, Xhaka and Willian (although people definitely grumbled about the length of his contract)

I think we're probably all guilty of using hindsight on transfers. I'm sure there have been plenty of transfers that when they happened at the time Arsenal fans either got caught up in the excitement of a new signing, or didn't really have a bad word to say about the signing or perhaps a few grumblings. Possibly because with lots of the players we haven't actually seen them play and we look at the transfer fee rather than the wages.

For example:

Kolasinac was voted Bundesliga best left-back, was physically imposing and had a reputation for flying down the wing and providing lots of assists, and we signed him for free! At the time I don't think there were too many moans. Hindsight shows he wasn't good enough to justify his place in the team or his wages and now we are all grumbling about his signing because we can't shift a player we don't want.

There are probably similar arguments for Mustafi, Xhaka and Willian (although people definitely grumbled about the length of his contract)

Mustafi...really, why drag him in it. It was obviously we were taken and the shock was that he got as many appearances as he did. A halfway decent purple patch for a few months where, it was mre he didn't make glaring mistakes than he played well, doesn't erase his Benny Hillesque compilation of errors.

Afternoon Rich. I once remember you calling Kolasinac the best left back in the Bundesliga. I pointed out at the time, he got into the Bundesliga’s team of the year at the end of one season. That’s like getting into the Premier League’s team of the year. I asked, is that alone enough to define him as the best left back in the Bundesliga because, for me, Alaba was for quite a lengthy period. Kolasinac getting more votes for the Bundesliga’s team of the year one summer doesn’t, or didn’t, change that.
.

That’s it Zed. They didn’t even superimpose Messi’s face on someone in this season’s home shirt.

Morning socrates. Economically you may well be correct. But if Messi is open to moving to England, don’t you think other clubs would tempt him far more than Arsenal? City under Guardiola for a start, with them paying him even more generously. Okay, they’ve just signed Grealish so let’s say they’re not so keen now. How about their neighbours? In the Champions League, the country’s biggest club. With their worldwide fan base, and as big as Arsenal’s is United’s is miles bigger, they’d therefore sell way more Messi shirts.

The economic argument you give applies to Chelsea and Liverpool just as much as Arsenal, and aren’t they more tempting? At least Chelsea are in the Champions League. The only way Arsenal are in Europe this season is geographically.

Everyone here knows I’m not keen on Messi. But I appreciate what a wonderful player he was, especially at his peak. What I don’t understand is Arsenal fans clinging on to a hope he’ll join us, and I’m not saying you are socrates despite your last post. That picture I saw of Messi in an Arsenal shirt which Zed kindly posted here. It’s so ridiculous it’s laughable. There’s as much chance of a couple of supermodels offering a threesome to a homeless tramp in his cardboard box down the Embankment tube station.

We're linked with Takehiro Tomiyasu - right back from Bologna, currently with Japan at the Olympics. 22 years old 6 ft 2 and Spurs have been chasing him all summer and had a £15m bid rejected. We've apparently moved to the front of the queue.

So that would be 5 right backs at the club if he signs!?

Still so much work to do before the window closes.