And whether he can get the players who fit the profile at the prices we can pay.

It seems odd that in a summer where we really should have a smaller transfer budget than any recent season we are making bids as though we’re going to spend more than we have in recent years.
We’ve bid £40m for Ben White, we have also bid £13m for Lokanga. On top of that we know we need a creative midfielder, a right back, a left back and a goal keeper and probably another central midfielder.
If the links to Maddison are true then we must know it will cost us at least £50m plus. So we could be planning a £150-200m spend on players. Some of that will be offset by outgoings but none of that is certain in terms of price.
It’s all quite confusing.
Bids of £13m for someone like Lokonga i expected this summer. Bids of £40m for White I didn’t expect

It’s worth remembering we have shed a lot of money off our wage bill

David Luiz, Sokratis and mustafi leaving alone would have reduced the wage bill by about 320k a week. Agreeing a transfer on instalments must be far easier in these circumstances and no way would Ben White be asking for Davis Luiz type money.

Likewise midfield with Özil, Guendouzi, ce-ball-loss and potentially Xhaka going. That little lot will probably save us 550k a week! For players who haven’t been contributing at all in most cases.

The club has carried a lead weight round its neck with all these non contributing players on huge wages who haven’t delivered. Kolasinac and Willian are the last of these. Disastrous transfer business

Makes me wonder how much is actually true. It’s surely accepted the huge majority of transfer gossip is made up by journalists trying to sell newspapers and reporters attempting to attract internet hits. Someone says Arsenal want to sign a player. So lots of others say the same thing. So I’m not even convinced lots of rumours saying something similar are necessarily trustworthy.

Perhaps Arsenal do have an interest in Ben White. But if that is the case (and there’s no guarantee it is), I’m suspicious whether there has really been a £40m bid. I’d say exactly the same about a £50 plus bid for Maddison.

When transfers are confirmed on Arsenal.com is when to believe a player is joining. And even then I doubt the accuracy of the reported transfer fee.

This morning I see we are linked with Andre Silva, Guido Rodriguez, Joaquin Correa and Hakan Calhanoglu. I agree that most of this gossip is simply not worth paying any attention to and good old-fashioned bullsh*t.

We also have to remember a reporter will see another saying Arsenal want to sign someone and have bid an amount. So that will make them think they’d better report this as well to avoid looking uninformed, just in case it’s one of the rare examples when a transfer rumour has some validity. Maybe adding or subtracting a few million from the other report to make it look slightly original (I’ve seen Arsenal are making bids of £40m and £50 for White). That’s why I don’t even see lots of reports saying something similar as any sort of guarantee there’s much in the story.

Provided we get actual quality to replace them. Transfer rumours don't win football matches.

I do think you mischaracterise our main weakness. Having non-performing highly paid players on the books is a major problem. But major squad holes has been our biggest problem since the mid-Wenger years.

But why do you have squad holes?

Because you sign bad players. I honestly believe Wenger ultimately lost his job because of the business done in 2016 when we blew best part of 80 million on 3 duff players. If you replaced mustafi and Xhaka with Kante and Van dijk who both sold for less at that time than we paid would we still have squad holes?

Our transfer business for a long time has been sheer lunacy and nothing more has highlighted this than by us signing any players from chelsea like Čech and Willian who they deem no longer good enough.

I see Zech Medley has been transferred. That's a shame. I really liked the look of him on those admittedly rare occasions when he got a game.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/zech-medley-joins-kv-oostende

Anyone over 18 can turn up at the Arse and get jabbed over the coming weekend.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/emirates-stadium-host-mass-vaccine-clinic

Getting there.

I’m so old that I’ve already had my two jabs a while ago.

Indeed. Back in the halcyon Wenger days one summer I kept a log of rumoured transfers to Arsenal and I stopped bothering when it reached 50 different players. This at a time when we had a squad, most of whom would have been near impossible to displace!

Old? Mine was administered by Dr. Pasteur...

I can remember getting excited at Teletext and Ceefax. Spotting some transfer news on a page and then having to wait for it to scroll through another 70 pages to be able to finish off reading it.

Did they have Teletext and Ceefax in 1415 then?

Just seen that Man City are reported as having bid £100m for Harry Kane.

Quite remarkable that they should feel the need to go that high in today’s financial climate and also given his recent form.

Perhaps they’d like to go for Aubameyang as well. That sort of money would help our rebuild.

It looks like Lokonga is the most credible link and most likely to be our first signing of the summer for around £15m with add ons
His style of play from what I've read seems to be a more mobile Xhaka but maybe more attacking and less on the defensive positioning side.
21, 6ft 2, around £15-20m, already captain of his team, good athletic ability. On paper this is the sort of signing we should be making

Billy Gilmour tests positive for COVID and is out of the competition.

Because they embraced him at the end of Friday’s game, Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount are isolating and out of tomorrow’s match.

So shouldn’t the entire Scotland squad self isolate and be out of the next game because they all hugged Gilmour as well.

Lukaku looks brilliant. You could make an argument for him being the best out and out centre forward in the world right now. Man U sold him and are now struggling for a decent centre forward.

For international goals he is well ahead of Ronaldo at the same stage.

My guess is Pogba going for the most money he can get even if he's not the best fit for a club he goes to. Of all the top tier clubs, I'm not sure who would want him. He's been inconsistent ever since Mourinho.

I thought he would take the EPL by storm, and have people liken him to Vieira but obviously that hasn't happened.

Who would pay his wages for what their getting? I can't see Barca or RM. Not Bayern Munich either. Would PSG take a punt with the thinking that he'll play better in France?

While there's continued speculation of which players are actually being considered of late...throw in Jesus Corona.

https://www.sports-nova.com/2021/06/21/ ... us-corona/

Makes no sense what so ever. The English are more susceptible to covid it seems.

Going to the game tonight. Will be a Strange feeling as it’s been a while since I’ve been to a ground. Looking forward to 90 minutes of sideways football from Southgate.

Talk this morning that if we land Ben White that Newcastle can take Saliba on loan. They still want Willock as well.

Part of me just wants us to give Saliba a chance but if we are determined to loan him then definietley getting him in a premier league club is essential

Turkeys still think Christmas is a great idea

https://twitter.com/bylinetv/status/140 ... 45190?s=21

What’s the logic behind the location of games? For example, both Germany’s games have been played in Munich, which I’m comfortable with as I want them to win it. Yet I accept it seems an unfair advantage.

Although I only saw brief moments of them, haven’t all three of England’s (including tonight’s) been played at Wembley? I heard somewhere that the final will also be at Wembley whatever teams reach it. Again, why are England (should they reach the final) getting an unfair advantage?

Why aren’t the matches being spread around a bit more? Covid, or are they not bothered about giving some countries an advantage despite there no longer (as far as I’m aware) being a host nation like there used to be?

I have regularly seen reports as to how Brexit is affecting the general populace negatively. I have yet to see a single example of a benefit.

Hopefully somewhere along the line…..

Chelsea and PSG are chasing Hakimi, the brilliant attacking right back currently playing for Inter. Talk of £60m. I understand PSG going for him as I don't think they are that strong at full back but Chelsea already have Reece James as a very good right back.
If Chelsea get Hakimi I wouldn't be adverse to us signing James as a home grown right back. Undoubtebly there would be cheaper non-english options though

The vaccine rollout would be rightly lauded as a success however our desperation for a remedy was definitely heightened by us being riddled with covid. So yes maybe you got a jab a couple months quicker because of it. Not sure that’s logical justification for wrecking several industries though

I’d start Saka tonight. Southgate won’t but if there’s a player who can pick out Kane it’s him.

Any idea when the club starts pre-season training. I think our first game is 14 July at Hibs. Would be ideal to get all our new players to training for pre-season, or is that too weird an idea. So we may need to make things happen.

It's obviously ideal to get everyone in for pre-season, but it never really works like that for any club. Especially considering the amount of business we're seemingly looking to do. I think we'll get a couple of players in before July 14th though, but I would expect more arrivals after that as well.

Hopefully we won’t repeat our normal practice of getting them in at the very last minute of the transfer window and well after the season has started.

Hi Bernard,

It isn't Covid related. The format for Euro 2020 which was agreed several years ago was that it would be played in cities all across Europe.

With the exception of largely empty stadia, I think it is the biggest negative about this tournament. It is daft that a number of countries get to play their games at home while others are travelling all over the continent.

Also, there is something missing in not having a host nation.

A few leaks that Saka is starting tonight. Hope so and hope he has a fantastic game.

Partey is also taking the number 5 for next season (his favourite number). It was Sokratis when he joined.

Some prominent numbers not taken.
4, 8, 10 with no one in them. 11 probably available when Torreira leaves. Expect Smith-Rowe to take the No.10.

I see that the Champions League is starting tonight. A qualifying round involving such as teams from San Marino and Kosovo. I hadn’t realised that it started in June.

So more pre-season fixtures added in. This though is for mental health charity Mind. Only Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs, Aug 1-8.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 42043.html

Grealish Maguire aaaaandd Sakakakaka….

Might watch this one