Might as well go all in. Everyone else seems to chip away at the pie. Being we have to sell before buying. But some journos like to rock the boat. Do agree about the paragraph Bernard mentioned though in this.

Sidney Poitier and Miles Davis

Go on Xhaka, "go Hollywood" same as Mourinho did.
Will explain the Hollywood bit later.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Kieran Gibbs

Welcome to the forum, Andre Marriner.

I do agree with you. We have a high risk of losing our better players. Just not next season for Saka (yet).

That’s a name from the past isn’t it? By which I don’t mean Andre Marriner.

True! I should have said, 'Welcome back, Vince,' as well. It was rude of me not to.

Smith Rowe is close to agreeing a new contract until 2026

Dan Friedkin is owner and president of AS Roma. He's a businessman and film director. His company, Imperative Entertainment, since 2014, is a studio in Santa Monica, California. Currently Imperative Ent. is producing Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorcese, starring Leo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
Friedkin's net worth is $4.2B.
Looked up AS Roma owner when Mourhino became manager.

Welcome back Vince. It seems ages since you last posted.

Daniel Ek to submit a new bid of over £2 billion.

I just can’t see the Kroenkes letting go somehow. Not unless the offer gets really tasty.

Hence the "gone Hollywood" in earlier post.

Ek should keep piling on the pressure. Give them an offer they can't refuse.

Been a long time Vince.

What price would Kroenke be willing to sell at ? 2.5? That’s more than current value right ? 3 definitely.

I think LTG and others touched on this yesterday and this season is make or break as it just feels that if we don’t get back in the champions league soon we could have years in the wilderness approaching with players aware that Arsenal are no longer a competitive entity and leaving or not joining. That causes Kroenke a problem as no amount of PR or deflection from incoming transfers will convince our fans in his ownership.

Maybe It could be time

Hi TG,

It’s definitely time from an Arsenal point of view, I’m just not sure Ek will be able to bid £2.5 billion + and still have the money to make big investments in the team. Unless he has some other billionaire backers supporting him.

Had a look at some clips of Ruben Neves. A player who takes a couple of touches before distributing. I am not sure he is a quick player. How is this an improvement. Arseblog made a joke about Arteta getting in players that were just like him as a player. Joke or no joke that maybe a truth. Arteta was never more than a very ordinary footballer and one of the reasons we never competed at the highest level.

When he was made manager he was given too much power. The Saliba situation is a case in point. He should have been told, integrate him into the team not decide not to play him. He should say I want a. Restive midfielder and they should come to him with a couple of names but purchase who is right for the future of the club.

On another issue, AMN has said he has not been spoken to at the end of the season. How is that possible. There should have been a total debrief on every player. The transfer window is open - how do players know if they should be negotiating transfers. Arteta’s man management is appalling.

Morning socrates. There was a report on 17th May that Ek had bid $2.5b for Arsenal but the Kroenke’s turned it down because they don’t need the money (see my first link). I think there might often be a bit of confusion about how much is being bid because some reports give their figures in US dollars while others use pounds Sterling.

According to the figures in US dollars, Forbes say Ek’s net worth is $4.0b (see my second link below). Hence $2.5b is 62.5% of his fortune. That will leave him with a net $1.5b, so 37.5% of his current wealth. That’s a very major drop. If not a massive drop. Hence I wonder if you’re right about Ek needing other sources of funding if he’s is going to not only buy the club but subsequently fund transfer activity.

There is also the question of what the Kroenke’s would sell for. If they did turn down $2.5b in mid-May, I suspect $3.0b would be the bare minimum and I’m not certain even that would be enough. We mustn’t underestimate Stan’s greed.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/ ... the-money/

https://www.forbes.com/profile/daniel-e ... da2a646abc

Hi Bernard,

That’s the thing, by billionaire standards Ek is not that wealthy. Is his wealth also tied up in shares? Unless he has a consortium of wealthy investors behind him it’s hard to see how he could afford the levels of investment required.

Its not like he has £10 billion in cash just burning a hole in his pocket.

Hasn’t this been covered already? The cash of the prospective owner is largely irrelevant anyway as kroenkes wealth is neither here nor there as he borrowed from Deutsche bank and more recently Barclays to buy the club entirely and hasn’t put in whilst continuing to buy ranches, toupes and all sorts

The only pertinent point I can see is that Ek wouldn’t likely be a sugar daddy owner and that because of this would bring back arsenal DNA and influence. I’d take that right now

*%^@*** hell 35 m in fines.

https://arseblog.news/2021/06/report-pr ... 0-million/

No, its 20 million divided amongst the English wantaways + 15 million each. Hardly even a slap on the wrist and unlikely to affect transfer plans.

With pretty much every club in Europe struggling with money this summer, it seems like a perfect opportunity to try and swoop up some elite talents - players who are 18-20 and has shown great potential while still playing regularly.

I've said previously I want us to sign two midfielders, and while I do like both Bissouma and Neves as players I hope we don't sign both of them. Both are very good and would probably not need much time to adapt having played several years in the league, but I don't see them growing into elite players. One of them plus someone like Gravenberch at Ajax or Camawinga at Rennes, who can probably be signed for a lot less than they would go for in a normal market seems perfect to me. Those type of signings might not work out, but we could probably recoup most of the transfer fee if they don't make it, and if they are successfull we'll have a top class player at our hands. Even if they would want to move on after a few good years they would probably have doubled or tripled their worth.

We can't sign ready made world class players, so we should make an effort to go for world class potential to complement any signings that are meant for the starting eleven right away.

That's the easy part. Now name the ballroom dancing category they'd had just won.

Some reports that Guendouzi to Marseille and Xhaka to Roma are as good as done deals.

Oh I missed that bit. Yeah not as bad although Kroenke will probably take out another Barclays loan to cover it.

I’ve got very mixed feelings about Xhaka. Lots of pluses and minuses in his game and you were never quite sure what you were going to get. He did eventually learn to rein in his mad impulses somewhat. Horribly one paced .

Right now though we’ll be weaker without him as we did seem to be more effective with him than without him. However we do need to improve both in qualities and in numbers there so fingers crossed that the incoming player(s) are a major step up.

Chuck in a fat guy in a red suit and it’s Christmas folks

£15.5m for Xhaka.

Not my favourite player but come on that is the very definition of underselling an asset.

Agree with that LTG.

I moan about his deficiencies but then we leave him out and we look immediately the worse for it. We had a very decent run in the second half of the season and he was our most influential player in a number of games. No disguising his lack of pace and his propensity to foul, but he's still a very decent player who will be hard to replace.

Yo Bern - finally managed to renew my STs.

What a bleeding palaver! Even with a geeky bloke from Arse Ticket Office talking me through the processes, it still wouldn't bloody work. 6 email exchanges and 3 calls - last one was almost 90 mins!

Someone need to re-build that poxy website from bottom to top. Rog?

Adarabioyo has a release clause from Fulham for just £10m. Arteta worked with him at City and we've been linked. To be honest I didn't watch much of Fulham last year though.

Oh for a multi billiinnare like Stan, it's nothing. No doubt he despises having to pay it though.

I know exactly what a pain in the neck it was. To be honest, things were easier when they let you do it by phone. Was probably easier for them as well if you were on the phone for 90 minutes with them trying to sort it out. They did eventually take my money though.

One thing that might make a difference in the Ødegaard situation is his salary. He was getting paid double with us what he was at Real Madrid and real now have to consider what to do as he has 2 years left on his contract. We could possibly offer him 135-160k a week and that would probably be unlikely there I’d have thought for a player who would mostly sit on their bench.

If we can get around 30 million for those 2 *%^@ puffins Xhaka and Guendouzi I could certainly see us meeting the 52 million asking price for Ødegaard.

Is he really what we need if money is tight though?

He’s a silky player with a lovely soft touch and nice passing range but he’s more Özil than Alexis and I want to see more pace, power and dynamism added to the side.

Plus he likes to drift to the right and he gets in the way a bit of Pépé or Saka or whoever is playing there.

He’s a top talent, no doubt, but is he what we need at this precise moment in time?

We are desperate for more quality in that position and I can’t see many better options. Also critically he can improve at his age and when he gets to know his team mates

Seems a realistic option, were not going to get Grealish or coutinho with no Europe right.

Have to disagree here. Ødegaard is not a quick player by any means, but I was well impressed with his work rate and pressing when he was here. He also showed a lot of leadership qualities for such a young player, driving the team on and giving directions to his teammates. That West Ham performance was the best example of that, it was not just about his delivery when putting players through to create chances, but the way he seemed to grab the game by scruff of the neck to make sure we got back into it.

Something must have happened, beyond football, for Arteta to marginalise AMN. And that includes Saliba.