Talk that Arsenal really do want Ramsdale and will go back with a 3rd bid in the region of £25m. It is supposedly our GK coach who is really pushing for this - assume the same coach who recommended Runnarsson!

Of all the links to players and prices we've heard this summer this is the one I really struggle to get my head around. No club spend £20m+ on a back up GK. They might buy a £20m GK and decide to upgrade with another expensive GK but you don't spend that on a back up so he must be being bought in to be first choice if not now then very soon.

Sometimes I think the homegrown status is given too much weight. Would we be going for Ramsdale if he was Spanish and just got relegated from La Liga? I know we need to fill the 8 home grown spots in the squad - Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Holding, White, Chambers, Balogun, Azeez, Okonkwo and I think Saliba and Martinelli would count when they are 21. and that is even if we sell all of Bellerin, Nkeitah, Nelson, Willock, AMN.

Look at some of the signings the top clubs have made for the GK position in recent years, Man U just signed Tom Heaton, Spurs signed Joe Hart, City signed Scott Carson, Chelsea have just signed Marcus Bettinelli - all of them home grown and none of them really top class, but all experienced and can fill a spot in the squad that wont get much playing time.

There will be english experienced GK who can come in a do a job and not take up valuable funds.

I completely agree with you, Rich. We all remember how Almunia weakened the side. Keeper is such an important position that you just can't mess around with it. For the money being quoted, you would think Leno is on the way out and Ramsdale will be No.1. If he is being brought in as a No.2 it's a stupid extravagance.

The thing is we don't really need homegrown players right now. Looking at the first team squad on arsenal.com we have precisely 17 that are non-homegrown, which is the maximum you're allowed to have. And that includes Runarsson, Kolasinac, Willian, Torreira and Xhaka, who are all rumoured to be leaving. Even if we only sell or loan out two of them, that would still leave room for two signings that are not homegrown - a central midfielder and a creative midfielder for example.

With regards to Ramsdale, it's hard to know how to judge him. He didn't seem to have a good season at Sheffield United, but that being said it's hard to know how to assess a goalkeeper's performance in such a poor team. The Sheffield fans seem to really rate him, and by all accounts he had a great season for Bournemouth in 19/20. He's still just 23 too, which is no age for a keeper. It's the fee that boggles the mind. Only thing I can make out of it is that we have a lot more money available than most thought going into the summer, because I can't see us signing Ramsdale and then not afford the central midfielder we need.

I agree with Top Gun that Steve Williams and Pail Davis were underrated. But I’m not sure Anders Limpar was. He was a top player, but the impression I always got is that he was widely considered as exactly that. All three of Williams, Davis and Limpar were high quality players. I’m not sure Williams and Davis were perceived as good as they were. That makes them underrated. But I’d say Limpar was perceived as top quality, so I’ve never seen him as underrated.

I completely agree with Hazuki that Per Mertesacker was grossly underrated. Nacho Monreal was as well.

Amazing story. I was wondering why it was in an American soccer site until I read the story. He may have been in my neck of the woods (Philly).

As for underrated players, I thought Giroud was under appreciated if not underrated. I think Kols is underrated to some degree. Perhaps the most underrated for me in my time as a fan may have been Edu, when he got a game he looked very good.

I didn't know who he was. Not bad from the usually biased youtube videos.

It always strikes me as funny how strong opinions some have about players. I've seen som rubbish these links, saying Guimaraes isn't that good etc. Apart from the fact that I doubt many Arsenal fans watch Lyon regularly, he's a 23 year old player who has one season in France since coming over from the Brazilian league, not sure how anyone can definitely say he won't be good enough.

Profile wise he looks like exactly what we need to me, said to be good defensively but also gifted with the ball and able to beat the press and go past players in midfield. Perfect age too.

Truth be told unless they are a really high profile player I doubt many people have watched many players who don't or haven't played in the prem. I watch the odd CL game even though we're not in it but I don't tune in to the other European leagues - so we really are just going by the very basic facts and profile of the players linked.

Tavares and Lokonga - I'd be amazed if anyone had heard of them before this summer, but both are 21, physically decent, quick enough, and they look sharp and mobile and neither cost a lot of money. The profile was right. They may or may not work out but as a fan who knows little about them you can see the logic in the signings.

Limpar was a class player for us and for me easily is in our top 5 wide players of all time. However for me he’s isn’t held in wide enough acclaim, he rarely gets a mention in flashback, people’s favourite sides and stuff like that and when George was demonising the player our fans never seemed that hacked off about it. He used to sub him off every week despite his efforts and it never really seems to bother folks as much as it should have.

I’ve spoke before about when Anders was brought back into the side in his final days in a game againest saints set up all 4 goals I think and was dropped the next match. No uproar

When he was sold there should have been uproar also but George didn’t even offer him a new contract. He then won the fa cup for Everton where he set up the winner.

For me he wasn’t highly regarded enough slightly but outside of Arsenal he definitely isn’t mentioned enough and was underrated

So we have spent 76 million ish including white and are being linked with the following players...

Maddison about 60
Ramsdale 25 ish let’s say
Guimaraes for 30

I mean that’s the best part of 200 million. Seems a lot for us right ? Selling a few players would compensate a bit but still. All these links seem strong ones too. Wonder what’s going to happen

Years ago I saw more of the continental leagues. The Eredivisie was on American tv for whatever strange reason. They mainly showed 3 teams, Ajax, Feyenoord and and PSV, and then AZ. I liked Vitesse because of a Dutch friend I met overseas but could only see them if they played the big 3. I saw pre Arsenal van Persie, he played on the wing, not center forward. But even in a league with many great technical players, he stood out because of his close footwork for a guy that tall. I was a fan of his coming to us and was confident he'd do well.

But stopped watching the league and they took it off the schedule. Saw a fair amount of Bundesliga. The various South American leagues was what I got the most of from a channel called Fox Sports Espanol. The South American version of the Champions league was very good.

I would imagine these days there is very little secrets with internet and videos. Very, very hard to get a hidden gem in Europe. Possible eastern Europe in the Balkans...maybe. South America I think is a place you can find hidden gems. If Africa had the infrastructure I imagined more out of there as well. Although they seemed to have improved considerably.

I think Paul Davis was one of the most underrated players at Arsenal. Lovely elegant player and kudos for breaking Cockerill's jaw.

What uproar did you expect when he was dropped for a match or sold? Limpar played for Arsenal between 1990 to 1994 when the internet was nothing like as used as it is now. Marches in the street, demonstrations? It wasn’t going to happen. Not because he was underrated (except by Graham) but because the opportunity to express displeasure wasn’t anything like it is now.

I actually agree that Graham lost patience with him too early, but that was the manager’s bad decision. Sadly it happens and has with many, if not countless, players over time. In my view Limpar was highly appreciated by fans and for that reason I just don’t see him as underrated. Had social media been as extensively used in the early 1990s as it is now, I’m sure Graham would have received a lot more criticism for his treatment of Limpar. But as I say, the world was different then.

I don’t think we’re disagreeing about Limpar’s quality, although I’m not sure I’d put him in the top five wide players from what I assume is your era when Pires, Rocastle, Overmars, Sanchez and now Saka all spring to mind. But top five of all time, when the likes of Brady, Armstrong and Ball can be counted as well? Wilshere would have had plenty of games out wide too. Let alone the countless players I’ve not seen (including Bastin)? I think that’s over the top even though I would put Limpar ahead of Wiltord, Nasri and Ljungberg.

So in my view, Limpar’s place in the top five wide players of all time is highly debatable, rather than him ‘easily’ being in it as you say. That isn’t me underrating him. It really isn’t, as I don’t. I think he was excellent. I just think I’m being realistic.

Managed to keep reading till halfway through the 2nd para and thought “nah don’t bother”

So AW may be returning to a managerial position with Swiss club Blick that couldn't agree to terms with him in 1995. Instead he chose Arsenal.

The Brazilian connection via Edu.

Hi Rich,

We were strongly linked with Guimaraes before he joined Lyon, if I recall it was suggested that he was choosing between us and them. Whether we actually bid and it got as far as a straight choice I don't know but he was definitely on our radar so I assume we have been following him ever since.

I said the other day I was encouraged by the age and profile of player we are targeting and I am, that said time and tide wait for no man and we must start getting some "first teamer" deals over the line because the start of the season is upon us and realistically we need more quality if we are to genuinely move up some levels.

I like the White signing, I think he may turn out to be a revelation. Lokonga looks very promising and Tavares is very raw but a good athlete and could surprise. It's by no means enough though.

I keep seeing us linked with some quality players, as well as some puzzling rumours such as Ramsdale, but is there any real substance to these links or is it more a case of us making a few tentative enquiries and it being blown up into something its not.

The problem we are having, as far as it seems at the moment, is offloading our players. Clubs like them but don't want to pay anything near what we are asking because of their wages and the financial effects of Covid. In short, nobody wants to pay big wages or a big transfer fee, and who can blame them. How do you solve that one.

Well it was only three hundred words (301 to be exact) and there have been countless longer posts here by many people. Perhaps you were reading it in the middle of the night?

Conversation closed. It’s an old post now

Everything I’m reading is suggesting that it’s the Swiss national team.

Good point, LTG. Does anyone know where Exiled has disappeared to? A forum legend (regardless of your definition of legend: more Dennis Bergkamp than Omer Riza, anyway), and his collection of scanned Arsenal books was incredible.

Interesting. Changing subjects then, at what point do you count a post as old so the conversation closed? Less than half a day?

Bye Bernard

It was a simple question. Is it less than half a day when you consider a post too old to make the conversation open?

Bernard, you mightn't have heard. Since Rog optimised the PHP tables on Wednesday, everything posted on the forum expires after 24 hours. It is then considered an 'old post' and forum members are forbidden from engaging with its contents.

I was last in contact with him in early June. He’s a regular on Twitter but gave up or retired from the forum. Wouldn’t shock me if he returns one day, but that’s just my own hunch rather than anything he said to me.

Reports suggesting Madrid would want 43m for Ødegaard minimum but the player only wants to join on loan again. Honestly if that’s the case we shouldn’t go near him and invest our time in players committed to a future with us.

I don't think he did enough to justify that kind of outlay, TG. Another loan without an option to buy is stupid.

Paying much more would be a gamble I agree, he played well but I agree with what Perry Groves said when he mentioned he thought he has an Özil like tendency to be invisible in some matches whilst looking good in others. You can put it down to age and experience but unloading 50 million plus a hundred grand a week seems a big gamble.

True, although you could accuse most players of the same thing - for instance, how many stellar performances did Bergkamp manage at Old Trafford or Anfield?

Sorry you seem to be comparing Dennis Bergkamp to Martin Ødegaard. To quote Mr Spock I find that highly illogical.

To indulge the silly comparison however I’ll suggest Bergkamp was the master of consistency and in some games it simply won’t work out. The same observation some have made about Henry that he didn’t score enough in cup finals however to compare certain players performances in our hardest matches to Ødegaard not turning up in half his games isn’t the same thing.

Calm down. I was just reflecting upon the fact that even our greatest-ever players sometimes didn't do much in the biggest games of the season. Don't worry - in 22 hours, my post will be rendered invisible by Rog's new settings.

If that’s true then absolutely not. Not at all what we need.

Rog is being generous in leaving it 24 hours until it’s rendered invisible. The time against my post 532544 last night is given as 10.28 pm. Top Gun this morning declared the “Conversation closed” because “It’s an old post now” in his post 532550 at 8.45 am. So just 10 hours 17 minutes later.

At least Rog is leaving the post as visible for 13 hours and 43 minutes after it becomes old and not worth debating.

Good point, Bernard. My calculation was, well, little more than a guess - let's be honest. Perhaps either Rog or TG could clarify?

Pictures on social media leaked of Ben white with his arsenal shirt

You are making this up? Right?

A wind up perhaps?

You haven't heard the rumours of Rog and Big Pharma? Whenever he takes a 15-minute break from colluding with the pharmaceutical industry to artificially stimulate drug prices, Warrior is deciding - unilaterally! - how long a forum post should remain extant. It's just like 'Logan's Run', but much less sexy.

Kinda what I thought. Until I saw people picking up the ball and running with it.

No I'm not in with Big Pharma although I used to smoke a fair bit of greenery back in college.

I had a poster on my wall of Bob Marley, and in the poster he was wearing a T-Shirt with a picture of me on it.