Very flattered but quite humbly I'm sure I have nothing to offer Arsenal that they don't already have and hire hundreds of people far, far more qualified and brilliant at what they do that some armchair fan with a grand masterplan for what Arsenal should be doing each day! If Arsenal hired me in any capacity and paid me the same I'm paid in my current job and gave me a full time role I'd pretty quickly be fired as being well out of my depth!
Doesn't stop me enjoying talking and analysing everything I can about Arsenal and wider football in general, but for now this can just be for the forum!

Of all the strikers on our radar or rumoured to be on our radar the easiest deal to do is Isak simply because the player has a £75m release clause. Perhaps we'll trigger it in the last hours of the window to take us off another Spanish club's Xmas card list.
From what I've seen of Isak he's quite different to Vlahovic. Isak looks like a skillfull dribbler, Vlahovic more an all round good goal-scorer.

I am quite certain fans of the opposing clubs would routinely give different views because, like you, they will be hopelessly biased. Supporters of one of the clubs is not where I would look for rational opinions on refereeing decisions. I once told you about The Gooner previously running articles on the views expressed on online forums of teams we were playing. Years ago there was a game against Manchester City when you had been crucifying the referee for giving decisions in City’s favour.

The next Gooner came out not too long after the game, so I still remembered your reaction to that referee. The Gooner outlined what the City fans were saying about him, because they felt every decision he gave favoured us. They thought he was either an Arsenal season ticket holder or hated City for some other reason like being a United fan.

It is worth remembering that judgements on referees are subjective, just like many of the decisions they make.

The fact that you’re even bothering to keep lists of refereeing decisions probably doesn’t surprise me, but I think may be explained by you getting something out of moaning about them. I doubt it’s pleasure. Possibly a relief of frustrations?

From your list, I can’t remember most of them, if any of them. For one example, you say at Leicester, Evans could have been sent off but was only booked? We won the game anyway. Who cares? Well, you obviously do, which is the rationale for my suspicion you get something out of moaning about refereeing decisions, and of course VAR.

You’re clearly an intelligent man and I honestly respect many of your opinions on Arsenal. But when it comes to referees, I think you go grossly over the top. I know you won’t follow my advice here, and why should you? But if I was you I would watch Arsenal matches when you don’t have access to your computer, smartphone, or whatever else you use to post here.

Even more money than Vlahovic. I can’t see that either. That transfer fee would be pretty crazy I have to say.

I wonder why Aubameyang didn’t want to live in Saudi Arabia. The wimp

FabrizioRomano
on Vlahovic: "#Arsenal have tried in every way to complete the deal in January. Never rule out surprises in the last week, even though its a very complicated negotiation"

Hi Bernard, I take on board all your thoughts and comments and in many cases I suspect you are entirely right in my rationale and frustrations with referees.
I always enjoy reading your posts and responses to my posts and think many of us on here will become entrenched in our views on any footballing subject - perhaps my New Year resolution should be to take a step back from the areas of football that annoy and frustrate me and try to be more objective.
I did think a few people would find it funny that I kept a list.....Part of my reason for keeping this list, and really trying to be as subjective as possible after the event (and my initial in game outburst) was to see if it does feel like we bad decisions - or as I've more come round to feel, not that we get bad decisions but we don't 'get away' with decisions that other routinely do.
On the Evans one, I think if you are going to keep a list of bad decisions then you have to include them all irrespective if we feel they affect the final result. If you only complain about the ref in games you lose it sort of undermines the argument.

We're never going to have referees at the level that satisfies fans as they'll always disagree with decisions. One thing I think would make a big difference is that when the ref and the var ref are debating a decision that we can hear them much like rugby. I think if fans heard the rationale behind the decision we'd have a better understanding of the rules and the job refs do - we probably still wouldn't agree but still.
In that respect this guy is quite a good follow on twitter as he dissects the controversial decisions from the weekend with respect to the rules and what the officials are looking for.
https://twitter.com/DaleJohnsonESPN

All the strikers we've been linked with carry a certain amount of risk - they will all cost a lot, are young, and haven't proven themselves at the top level in the way Aubameyang had for example. I think Vlahovic has the most interesting skillset with his combination of physical strength, technique and goalscoring, but there's a lot to like about Isak as well; physically he's not far off from Valhovic (taller, but a little slimmer built), he's fast and a great dribbler. He hasn't scored much this season but last year he had 17 goals in La Liga as a 21-year old. And his favourite player is Thierry Henry.

The thing that makes me the most hesitant about Vlahovic are the rumours of his entourage with an agent demanding big money in addition to the transfer fee. Doesn't give the best vibes. From what I've seen Isak has a good head on his shoulders, and seems like the type of character Arteta likes to work with.

Sounds rather too much like Anelka and his brothers.

Hi Haz,

Can't see Vlahovic happening at all. Too many snouts in the trough and he will probably have more attractive offers in the summer (playing-wise).

Isak is an interesting one. Fast and skilful but looks more like a winger striker than the conventional CF. Not necessarily a bad thing and could be amazing, after all we struggle to break teams down and his pace and dribbling ability might be exactly what we need. He looked amazing in the euros. Paying his buy-out clause would be a massive gamble, though, and one we couldn't really afford to get wrong.

Ciao Claudio Ranieri or sacked as they say.

We could do worse that look at maybe prising Wout Weghorst away from Wolfsburg. At least we'd have someone to aim for and he is a poacher as well.

I don’t think we’ll get Vlahovic either. But I hope we do because purely from what I’ve heard of him, he sounds much closer to the type of forward we need than the others I’ve seen described.

How much of a gamble is Isak’s buy out clause though, which we can’t afford to get wrong? After all, we spent £72m on Pépé and will lose much of it when he moves on. Meanwhile, the Kroenke’s are still apparently spending money.

You are right, of course, Bernard. If the Kroenke's are prepared to foot the cost then it really shouldn't matter.

I was listening to the Arseblog Arsecast Extra today whilst driving and they mention that we will probably need two strikers as things currently look with regards to our striking options. Losing Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah will mean we need to fill at least two of those spaces. If we can't get our star signing until the summer, then we can still be trying to get the second player to at least get some options up front. For what it's worth I've thought for a while that Calvert-Lewin may end up at Arsenal, but probably not until the summer. however, I'd rather we didn;t just get anyone to make up numbers, or we'll end up back to square one in about 18 months or so.

I watched Olise this weekend v Liverpool and was impressed again. Definitely a player to keep an eye on

Hi Darren,

Its a really difficult one. We are in a great position with a chance of top four but I think we can all agree the issues we have with regard to striker options could be our undoing, infact I just don't see us finishing 4th with the current options we have. Not unless Aubameyang somehow comes back in and starts banging in goals, which seems highly unlikely.

So what do we do. The fact is there are lots of CFs out there who would improve our options in the short term but only a few who could be seen as the longterm answer.

It feels like we have spent a long time this month on a wild goose chase and now we are running out of time.

I have similar concerns. I must admit, whilst I admit to never seeing Vlahovic, I most definitely have seen Calvert-Lewin, and Watkins for that matter, plenty of times. Not only when Arsenal play Everton or Villa, but bits of their games when they play other teams.

I have to admit, both leave me feeling underwhelmed. They’d probably cost almost as much as Vlahovic, but from never seeing him at least I can hope that he is what we need. With Calvert-Lewin and Watkins, it goes little further than expecting they’d be a bit better than Lacazette. For the money they’d cost, I was hoping for more.

True .... from couple of months back where everything looked rosy in the garden ... now it seems a B52 has passed overhead ; dumping a full load of Agent Orange .
Getting less than a win from that game was purely down to Arteta's timidity .

Gidday Old Man
Given that he was the one who alerted me to the joys of chess [ and a fair % of the rest of the world ] I'd be a little kinder and say he went a little off the rails .

......... but give him his due he did for chess what Ali did for boxing ; turned a hum drum board game into the biggest news extravaganza of 1971

I was working Sydney at the time of the Icelandic saga v Spassky , used to buy the paper every day to read about moves , stare fascinated at the little diagrams of horses and castles even though I hadn't the foggiest idea what was going on .
He set records that still stand to this day .

On Nepo v Carlsen .. no ...didn't know it was being played .

Maybe they're just waiting before a surprise announcement of Joao Felix and Mbappe.

We sent Balogun out on loan knowing we need a striker. He's the same age as Martinelli. Has played in a physically tougher league than Martinelli his whole life before Arsenal. I'm trying to understand all this.

Not saying Balogun is the savior of Arsenal but we couldn't use him? Nketiah was influential in his first run as a sub. Not to mention, we should had a few gilded edged chances that went by the wayside in the last game.

I agree we need a striker but I can't help feeling we under-utilize what we already do have.

Juve are preparing a bid for Vlahovic very soon, certain he’ll end up there and pretty certain that Juve’s bid will be nowhere near as good as Arsenal’s. Juve will go for some odd 3 year loan with obligation to buy. If the player wants Juve and no one else then just move on.

If we can’t get our target now, and spending £70m on our second or third choice is undesirable then we could look at a loan, Jovic at Real Madrid has lost his way but scored a load for Frankfurt before he went to Real.

Well Stan's Rams have a good shot at the Super Bowl

...take out the 49ers this week and probably the Chiefs a little later he'll have a bit more cash to splash on a striker .

Here's hoping.

The Rams could use another good striker.

I’ve seen reports about the rise in crowd disorder, more arrests and a large number of incidents of players being hit by objects thrown from the crowd. Obviously the main point of change needs to be with the idiots who throw the objects and when identified they need lengthy bans from all football grounds but I also think players should think a bit more carefully about where they decide to celebrate their goals. Predominately this will be away teams celebrating in front of the away fans. I completely understand that these footballers may well have taken vile dogs abuse from the home fans for 90 minutes and so to score against them it must be satisfying to be able to give some back and lose yourself for a moment, but I think they need to think twice for their own safety.

very Interesting seeing that footage of Arteta in the US at a hockey game with kroenke. He’s obviously there to lobby for transfer funds and build his relationship with the owner prior to flying out to the training camp in DUBAI.

Wonder how that conversation goes ? “Look mate you’ve gotta *%^@*** help us out here”

It’s invest or more sticking plasters we will have to fix later on

if not, I'm walking ..............

Most interesting part of this is that Juve might sell Morata to Barcelona. That would mean Morata has played for all three Spanish giants, plus Juventus (twice) plus Chelsea. And he's never been that good really.

To be honest it wouldn’t surprise me if he took that line.

He’s got a contract renewal coming up and he’s totally screwed. Looks to his subs bench and has a bog average Nketiah at on it and nobody else. It says something about the club that we can spend 150 million quid very well and still look so short.

He’s not coming is he? In fact he never was.


https://www.skysports.com/share/12524731

Hi ltg,

Funny how these so-say skint clubs suddenly find the money when they want it.

I hope we have decent back-up targets. No striker signing, either permanent or loan, and it feels like we just won't have enough to get top four.

If we were a supermarket we’d have a lot of empty shelves. Threadbare doesn’t begin to describe it.

I just hope that we don’t have one of those horrible trolley dashes where we panic and get dross.

We've let several players leave on loan without replacing any of them.

I understand the desire to get some of them out the door but no sensibly run club leaves themseleves short in the process. A bit like selling your car with a view to buying something better but without really having any guarantee that you can quickly get the upgrade you want to replace it with at the price you want to pay.

You'd hope there’s a plan, wouldn’t you? Our attack was so sterile and ineffective on Sunday but on the face of it, unless there’s a major acquisition (or three), that’s what we’re left with for the rest of the season.

Lacazette is a decent striker and he’s quite well suited to a withdrawn role but he was just too deep against Burnley, largely I think to offer some form of creativity in the absence of Xhaka and Partey. Lokonga is solid, but that’s all. As the sole central striker, he couldn’t get forward quickly enough which left us lacking in the box when the wide men created chances.

But worryingly, Lacazette is all we’ve got. Hopefully, Partey and Xhaka will offer a more from mf to allow Lacazette to get a bit further forward, but our central striking options are woefully limited at the moment. I’m afraid I’m changing my view on Nketiah; he’s played like a drain on the last few occasions I’ve see him.

So here we are. PEA is persona non grata, Eddie is looking more and more to be a dud, Balogan is gone and the only other option in the squad is Biereth who, though undoubtedly an exciting prospect, is most unlikely to be up to the job just yet. It’ll be good to see Pépé back but if Lacazette is to be the only central striking option for the rest of the season, we have little chance of a top 4 finish.

Another option is Martinelli up front with Emile Smith Rowe on the left (where I think he's played better than at No.10). There may be doubts about Martinelli's hold up play but on paper that is an exciting front 4

A look at the squad when Arteta took over:
Leno, Bellerin, Tierney, Elneny, Sokratis, Mkhitaryan, Ceballos, Lacazette, Özil, Torreira, Aubameyang, AMN, Holding, Cédric, Pépé, Mustafi, Chambers, Mari, Luiz, Nelson, Martinez, Mavropanos, Willock, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Kolasinac, Emile Smith Rowe, Macey, Xhaka, Martinelli, Saka, Saliba. 32 players. Of course some of those went on loan but that was the list of first team players on our books in December 2019

A little over 2 years later that 32 has been reduced by 10 players
Leno, Bellerin, Tierney, Elneny, Lacazette, Torreira, Aubameyang, AMN, Holding, Cédric, Pépé, Chambers, Mari, Nelson, Mavropanos, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Xhaka, Martinelli, Saka, Saliba

And of the 22 listed above I think the 10 below are the only ones with us to start next season:
Tierney, Holding, Cédric, Pépé, Chambers, Emile Smith Rowe, Xhaka, Martinelli, Saka, Saliba (and even in that there are question marks over Cédric, Chambers, Pépé, Xhaka and Saliba - the first 4 I think Arsenal would sell if they found a good price)

The rate of squad turnover has been astonishing in the last 2-3 years.

The closer we get to the deadline, the more I'm leaning towards just paying the release clause for Isak. It's more than he's worth currently, but he's 22 and has bags of potential. Let him grow with Saka, Martinelli and the rest. Would give the place a buzz too.

I like the sound of that Rich because I think Martinelli as a line-hugging wingman takes a lot away from Tierney's game. Don't get me wrong - I've been impressed how well Martinelli has kicked on since getting a run in the team, but I think that at wide left, he also restricts Emile Smith Rowe's effectiveness.

Not sure what the answer is. Martinelli, Ødegaard, Emile Smith Rowe and Saka are real talents and all deserve to play but I don't think we've yet seen a formation that effectively accommodates all four. For the time being, I just think Martinelli is too lightweight for a central role.

I do wonder if we might do this. 70 million quid is absolutely huge money though for him. It would be a huge decision though.

If we can add a couple of quality players we would have a genuine chance of fourth. Need a boost