Willock to Newcastle is picking up pace. Reports are Newcastle have a limited budget (not surprising), if so then any loss we make on initial fee should go in to % sell on clauses. I read that Liverpool had a 20% sell on clause for Ings netting them another £6m. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Willock is sold on by Newcastle in 3-4 years time for £30-40m

I didn’t watch the whole Leicester vs Manchester City game earlier but saw a decent part of it. I thought Maddison’s performance was thoroughly underwhelming. On the rare occasions he wasn’t achieving invisibility, he looked no more technically gifted than Ceballos and passes the ball forward less than Xhaka. If he wasn’t dramatically better in the bits of the match I didn’t see, should we sign him I hope he’ll be a lot better than he was today.

Also Brighton are looking at Nketiah. A move that makes sense for all parties. Nketiah has actually looked pretty sharp in pre season but I just can’t see any way he starts for us or even gets anything other than very limited minutes this season.

Hi Bernard,

Maddison is a really good PL player, his goals and assists stats back that up.

It's a weird market where many clubs are broke but elite players still go for massive money and there is a huge premium for homegrown players.

Would I spend £70m on Maddison. Well, we paid £50m for a homegrown defender of a similar age so its not an outrageous fee in that respect. Are there better players/deals out there?......there probably are but for one reason or another we seem to be having a problem getting any over the line. I'd rather have Maddison than no one else, put it that way.

Morning socrates. If we spend anything like £70m on Maddison after spending £50m on White and we don’t get into the Champions League, I strongly suspect Arteta or Edu might be getting their P45s. Perhaps even both of them. After authorising expenditure like that, one assumes on Arteta and Edu’s advice, I’m pretty damn certain Stan won’t be happy. He’s a multi billionaire businessman after all. I wouldn’t expect him to be.

Did you read my link? It didn’t discuss work rate, but as I said a lack of energy is one of our problems. I just don’t see Maddison solving that.

Look, it’s fairly easy to find stuff about Maddison being grossly overrated as well as far more positive stuff (I’m sure it’s not only here you get exaggerations about players’ shortcomings and strengths). The most thoughtful analysis of Maddison I came across was the one in the link below. The overall judgment is that he’s good but not great.

It talks of his suitability for other teams, including Arsenal. The judgement is he wouldn’t provide what we need, even in terms of creativity. The idea of Arsenal spending £70m to get Maddison looks crazy, especially if suspicions he is close to (or at) his ceiling are right. That sort of money for someone good but not great, arguably without much potential for radical improvement (considering his age the ‘already at his ceiling’ possibility looks entirely feasible)? As the article appears to suggest, perhaps he’s already at the right club for him: Leicester?

Another point not really discussed in the article is Maddison’s work rate. In my view one of Arsenal’s problems is we can lack energy (a reason I don’t support getting rid of Guendouzi, as people here know). Watching yesterday’s game (or at least much of it), that is an issue I don’t see Maddison solving. Talk about static. I’ve seen more running from Alan Hudson when he played (not the hardest working Arsenal player I’ve ever seen). Maddison also doesn’t have anything like the skill or creativity that Hudson had.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theroa ... -real/amp/

Yes, by their acount he's very good but not special and for £70m you want special.

Yes, by their acount he's very good but not special and for £70m you want special.

I understand what you, and they, are saying but who would you sign? We need some creative spark, someone to provide some goals and assists from midfield. I don't really see Ødegaard as that (not that he's available anyway). Presumably we've scoured europe for attacking midfielders and found very few who can provide what we want and be willing to join us. It seems there are limited options out there for us.

I am not a huge Maddison fan but then again I'm not a huge Ødegaard fan either (not at £50m based on what we saw from him during his loan spell).

I would certainly rather spend £50m on Ødegaard than £70m on Maddison. At least he has a higher ceiling considering his age.

How about Aouar? By all accounts he’s available and would cost nothing remotely like £70m, or £50m for that matter. The highest price I’ve seen for him is £25m and the lowest is £17m. A happy medium is £21m. That seems a far more sensible option.

I hope the links with Trippier are just paper talk. He's a decent RB (not great) and he's almost 31. It would make no sense to spend a lot of money on an ageing RB whose best days are probably behind him.

There was some mention in a newspaper article or podcast that there had been some issues with him but I had no understanding of what they meant and they did not elaborate enough for me to understand it.

I would certainly rather spend £50m on Ødegaard than £70m on Maddison. At least he has a higher ceiling considering his age.

How about Aouar? By all accounts he’s available and would cost nothing remotely like £70m, or £50m for that matter. The highest price I’ve seen for him is £25m and the lowest is £17m. A happy medium is £21m. That seems a far more sensible option.

Hi Gaz,

I think we have gone a bot cold on him despite his lower price tag. He had a fairly indifferent season last year, by all accounts, and there are suggestions that both Lyon and his agent brother were difficult to deal with when we tried to buy him last summer.

And he’s getting cheaper by the hour https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... SOq8IzQEyo

Anyone got a live stream for the game?

Lacazette hits the post.

Then a really poor tackle from Ali on Pépé, had Arteta raging. By all accounts the ref has been awful, let too much go and the result is this stupid over zealous type tackle that seems to have happened too much in what are pre-season friendlies to simply build up match sharpness.

If that's the way the game is going then we should just bring on Kolasinac to completely go through a couple of their players to give some back

Then a really poor tackle from Ali on Pépé, had Arteta raging. By all accounts the ref has been awful, let too much go and the result is this stupid over zealous type tackle that seems to have happened too much in what are pre-season friendlies to simply build up match sharpness.

I see that Fofana is now out until next year.

Given what happened against Chelsea I shall be relieved if we get to the end of today’s match with no more injuries. These high profile ‘friendlies’ are more trouble than they are worth.

In the end it looks a lot like what we saw last season. We're solid enough, can control the play, but we just don't threaten the opponents much. Only one or two really good chances all game. On one hand, it's just pre-season, but on the other hand we saw this time and time again last season, which makes it all the more worrying.

On a positive note, our three summer signings all look good. And perhaps this is another game that can serve as an argument for why we need to add something to our attack, with the transfer window still open a few more weeks.