Age does make a difference to whiskey, Bernard, but unlike wine it does not mature once bottled. It is the time in the barrel that counts. Irish whiskey must be matured in the barrel for at least 3 years, but a 12 year whiskey will generally be much better as it softens at it ages. It also evaporates. I doubt there is much value in terms of taste in a 100 year old whiskey. Chances are it wouldn't taste good.

Greetings Bernard. Such a whiskey would be available only on special auctions, and would come to market fairly rarely. You'd need to wait for such an auction or track down a collector.

The value of something like whiskey, beyond a certain level, depends on what people are prepared to pay for it.

Ah yes, that’s right it was age once bottled. Thanks, as I say I’m not an expert in whiskey.

Perhaps. But I can see the allure and wouldn't mind giving it a try. Good thing I don't have a spare couple of million!

2-2 draw with Rangers today.
Tavares started and scored our first, got in down the left and slotted a nice finish with his right in the far corner.
Nketiah got the 2nd.
We’d fallen behind twice to goals from corners.
By all accounts we had all the game, loads of guilt edge chances but only took 2 while conceding from 2 set pieces from maybe only 3 chances they had.

Apparently Aubameyang missed 3 total sitters

Thanks 79. Much appreciated.

Oh I would definitely give it a go, as long as I knew it wouldn't kill me.

Next season is a big season for Pépé. He ended the season on his best form for us.
I also think Smith-Rowe could really step up a notch for us next year.

The other player I’m really keen to see more of is Balogun.

Desperately need to get rid of the deadwood and put our energy in to these guys with ‘high ceilings’

Arteta: “We’re going to have some new faces arriving probably, so very positive

I’m sure he’s talking about Lokonga which is basically done and Ben White which is meant to be done when he returns from his holiday on July 26.

Back up young LB for a bargain fee, young Dynamic CM probably as a Ceballos replacement and a right sided Young English CB. That’s not a bad start to the window but I think 3 key positions to add still are creative midfield and a deeper central midfielder to replace Xhaka assuming he goes. And a first choice RB, Also needed is a back up Gk. so still plenty of work to do in the market. Fill those 4 positions with quality and we should as a minimum be getting back in the top 6.

Then it depends what we can get rid of. Kolasinac, willian, Bellerin, xhaka, Nketiah, torreira, Nelson, Willock, AMN, Lacazette all need a decision and there is money to be recouped

People say this every year. There are none out there as far as I can see for sale.

I'm making absolutely nothing of Aubameyang's missed chances. It's preseason. After a lay off. I'm just happy he was free and clear for such chances. I'd love to see more of that.

Balogun and Martinelli for the future.

If we get Smith and a creative center mid, we should improve.

We are going to have to give away Torreira, Kolasinac and Willian aren’t we. Just finding someone to pay their wages will be a challenge. Those 3 players salary alone is costing us about 400k a week ! For players not involved really. Our transfer business has been bonkers paying fortunes to average or past it talent

I wouldn’t be in a hurry to offload Lacazette personally.

What I don’t understand is what is the difference between a loan with obligation or a transfer simply paid on instalments ? Sounds the same? all these players are moving on loans right now.

When we were first linked to Neves I was a bit underwhelmed as I thought he was a like for like Xhaka replacement, decent passer but not pacey or mobile enough. Xhaka without the brain farts. But looking at Neves stats he’s far more than that, his rate of tackles, interceptions and turnovers is miles better than Xhaka, and at Wolves he tended to play a lot more longer passes which is probably why his stats are lower there.
If we can get the price right for him it could be a savvy move. People raised eyebrows at £40m for Jota from Wolves.

Outside of the prem there are bargain deals to be done. Aouar for £20m is good but Camavinga for £25m is outstanding.

I'd keep Lacazette, especially if we are going to be relying more on younger players. I though he was impressive last season, both as a leader and and terms of his play. It was very unfortunate that he was injured towards the end of the season.

I think you are quite correct. I think the same applies to Lacca. The thing is that they are are getting into those positions. Its when the chances aren't coming that you know they are out of sorts.

Maybe his wife is expecting twins ?

I assume the loan with an obligation to buy means the buying club has nothing to pay for a full year, before they then start the payments of the transfer fee no doubt in instalments. It presumably delays having to pay anything for twelve months.

Who knows but some conditions could limit the obligation to buy. Would the obligation still be in place if, for an extreme example, the player dies in a car crash (or of anything else)? That’s obviously the most extreme ‘get out’ of any possible exceptions to the obligation but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were routinely some in place.

Eff Danny Mills

Ben White’s stats last season vs all our CB

Have to agree with the Romford Pele, £50m is a bit OTT for Ben White, even though English. Hope he won't disappoint when the time comes. At least not for Arteta, Arsenal supporters everywhere, the current players. As the MSM will be salivating to rip the club and the hiarchy to bits. The word flop comes to mind.

So partly I’m taking from that Holding isn’t the shitbucket everyone keeps making him out to be.

You can see the thinking behind signing him quite clearly in those stats, in case we already didn’t know. We haven’t actually signed him yet though have we?

Does Holding get much criticism here? If he does, I’ve not noticed it. It generally seems quite gentle good but not great type stuff. But I would warn against putting absolute faith in player stats.

A comparison of the stats for Maguire and Mustafi at the end of Maguire’s last season at Leicester (2018/19) implied Mustafi had outplayed him that season. From memory there was only one single category where Maguire had the better stats. But Manchester United still coughed up £85m for him.

I raised my eyebrow at the fee but he's a good defender and may become a great one. Who knows. We need a developed CB alongside Gabriel and White is.

People said at the time Man Utd grossly overpaid for Rio, 28 mil was it? Even by today's money its still not a small amount. We paid way more than we normally did for players when we bought Sol. When we put it into his salary. First, 100k a week player.

Liverpool paid 75 mil for van Dijk. All the aforementioned defenders were integral to a title. Not that White will win us a title but we need a solid defense. We can't leak goals as we have been or keep giving up leads and closing out games.

We are developing a good defense. Partey in front of a quality back 4 and keeper.

I’m probably one of the posters he has blocked. So can someone else explain to him that we didn’t buy Sol Campbell for “way more than we normally did” spend on players? We signed him at the end of his contract at Tottenham. I don’t suppose Tottenham would have considered for one second selling him to Arsenal.

Mills really hates Arsenal. It’s strange really, I get that in his time we were one of the top two teams and regularly beat his teams and our left side gave him a torrid time so he might be bitter about it but it was all 15 years ago. He needs to get over whatever grudge he has and it makes him look stupid as a pundit.

In the last 24 hours he’s said Pires was the first player to bring diving in to this league and that he’s amazed Ben white is going anywhere near us because we don’t win things.

Mills doesn’t get the mainstream gigs anymore, whenever I’ve heard him on radio on our games he just can’t hide his disdain for us. He works on some of the clickbait radio/tv/online stuff - if it’s just a wind up method to get fans phoning in to disagree then fair enough to make your living but you can’t be taken seriously as a pundit at all then

We had the 3rd best defence in the league last year so I think we’re targeting White to improve our build up and attacking play. He’s very good on the ball and dribbles the ball out of defence. It was a big problem for us last year of not being able to transition the ball quickly enough forwards meaning we often had to break down defences with lots of men behind the ball and at least for the first part of the season trying to do that without a creative mid!

You'd think he'd hate Man Utd more. I don't understand the Michael Owen hatred as well. I get Sherringscum's hatred of us. Fat Sam blames Wenger and by extension Arsenal's management for the managerial jobs at the biggest clubs going to foreigners.

I am hoping some of that hate isn't a wee bit of xenophobia. A lot of people thought we were a bit too French/Foreign in those days.

In sports similar to football (ice hockey, basketball, American football) there are some similar strategies and that is to build from the back, specifically, when you build a side from the ground up, start with the defense. This can take on a few different looks. It can be defense by ball possession (Brazil, Barcelona) or just having a damn good, no compromising tough defense that looks scary (1986 Chicago Bears, Arsenal's of the 90s and frankly, Arsenal of the early 00s, Leeds in the Revie era from what I understand, Oakland Raiders of the '70s).

There are some sides that will simply outscore you as a strategy (Golden State Warriors, Keegan's Newcastle, Liverpool of the 70s and 80s) but I am a fan of having a solid, air tight defense. You can be 1-0 to the Arsenal when you need be but also 'Scoring, Scoring Arsenal' as well.

I thought Wenger in the last several years of his time with us spent way too much of the little money we had on attacking players and rolled the dice on the defense, with some success (Kos) but more than a few duds.

Fat Sam was a huge fan of Carroll and I know he's viewed as a big waste but I always thought he could be a fairly dangerous player with the right set up. Okay...okay...stop laughing...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57884925

Those stats don't show that White is appreciably better than our centre backs. He played some games at right back so the "attacking" stats should be better. Also, I don't agree with Rich's point about needing a new central defender to improve our attacking. That could be said for fullbacks but building attacks through the middle of the pitch rests with midfielders. And as for dribbling out of defence....no thanks.

If we were paying £30m for White, that would be fine. £50m is way over the top. We are talking about a player who has played a single season of top flight football and one in which nobody was really talking about him until he got called up to England's large pre-Euros squad. That fee will also put a lot of pressure on him to deliver.

Our midfield is our biggest area of weakness by a long way and that is where the investment should be going. Maybe, I am jumping the gun and we will spend £60m or £70m on a midfielder. I won't hold my breath on that one.

So, White is not good in the air...allegedly.
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/ben-white-mikel-arteta-arsenal-20980317

Let me tell you something no matter how the kid performs he will have people on his back here on the forum because of his transfer fee, nationality or the manager who signed him.

I disagree wholeheartedly on what you have said here really. If you want to play out from the back you need defenders comfortable on the ball with a range of passing. Despite his calamitous antics at times we looked a far better team when David Luiz played in defence to enable quicker distribution to get the ball forward quicker. If he joins I see it as a positive that despite needing obvious reinforcement in midfield a plan is in place and part of it was bringing in defenders capable of playing the system we desire.

Teams who have CB who can't progress the ball forward quickly from the back and who aren't press resistant end up having two options
1) play much more direct football (we don't have the forward players for that)
2) ask your midfielders to effectively come and collect the ball from deep - this is basically what we were doing for much of last season. This just compresses the play so much more in our half and in order to avoid big gaps between the defence/midfield/attack everyone ends up dropping deeper. All this means that even if you do manage to bypass the first line of the opponents press you still have 60 yards to goal.

A number of our forwards are 'finishers' by that I mean they are best at getting on the end of chances rather than dropping deep and linking play. The likes of Pépé, Aubameyang, Martinelli thrive when 1 v 1 and space behind the defence. You play to these guys strengths by getting the ball forward more quickly so they aren't doubled up on all too easily.

I often see tactics whereby teams allow a certain defender time on the ball because they know he can't progress the ball forward as well as the others. for example Wan-Bissaka at Man U is rarely put under pressure.

Its fine if people disagree but I think it will prove to be a big added bonus to our attacking play to have centre backs who are elite level passers, press resistant and are comfortable bringing the ball out of defence

Passing was one of if not the biggest strength of Luiz. He looked like a midfielder at times from the back. I'm hoping we can have two CBs who can do that. What I like the most though is that they are big and capable. They are athletic, not easily bullied. And with Partey in front, it will be less pressure on them (although I'd like him to go forward a bit more).

Statistically Partey got forward a lot less than in the previous 3 seasons with Atletico. All his other relevant stats were quite similar. Perhaps it was because he was effectively holding the entire central midfield together on his own at times.
Depending on the partner he gets we could see more of him in an attacking sense. Put him in with Bissouma or even a Neves and the onus will be on him to get forward more.

Partey seemed to be a wee bit more free towards the end of the season. I'm inclined to trust his football brain of when to go and when to stay.

Looks like Lokonga is due to be announced soon.

Not sure Rafa Benetiz is going to endear himself to already sceptical Everton fans if their first few signings are Begovic, Andros Townsend and Demari Gray.
Everton spent way beyond their status for a while though, they've had some wild spending summers without much success. We've even managed to get £50m from them for Walcott and Iwobi

Was Partey really “effectively holding the entire central midfield together on his own at times”? It’s been said, and I think it’s a fair comment, that Partey made a slow start to his Arsenal career. He had some good games, but I think his overall level fell significantly short of “effectively holding the entire central midfield together on his own at times.” Myself, I think it’s going well over the top to say that.

Partey was at a new club in a different league, let alone an alternative country. There were injury problems too, that presumably held him back. I am therefore expecting a big improvement from Partey next season. But let’s not overplay or exaggerate the excellence of his form last season. If we do, it may become harder to emphasise any positive progression in his form that I not only hope to see, but expect.

Just been formally announced on Arse.com:

https://www.arsenal.com/news/welcome-sambi-lokonga-joins-arsenal

"Albert will wear the No 23 shirt and have the name Sambi on the back"