Seems like we've spent so long on the Vlahovic wild goose chase we are left with two options; activate the Isak £75m release clause or nothing, neither of which are particularly attractive. Pay massively over the odds for a work-in-progress or leave yourself significantly short of striking options in a £50m 4th spot chase.

That's if Isak is even interested. Those who miss out on Haaland in the summer might look in his direction.

As usual, its a mess of our own making.

I think they're looking ahead to the future beyond this season - my guess would be we were eyeing a deal or two in January that we couldn't get done, but most of the moves we made were aimed at building funds for the summer. We're not getting much in terms of transfer fees unfortunately, but we've continued shedding a lot of wage, opening up space for new signings.

It's a gamble for the rest of the season though. If my math is correct we have 17 games in 15 weeks, which is doable with the squad we have unless we get a bunch of injuries. None of our rivals for 4th is in a perfect place with their squad building, but we're really playing the margins.

Although, if we hadn't chased Vlahovic would we be in any different position in terms of potential striker signings? The prices wouldn't be any different, the abilities and availability wouldn't be any different - yes we'd have a bit more time but if clubs dont want to sell mid-year it is tough. Everton won't let DCL go considering their precarious position. Real Sociadad are close to Champions League, Lille won't entertain losing David until the summer. The one who was available was Vlahovic because he only had 18 months left on his deal.

Eriksen has signed a 6 month deal with Brentford. They still have to come to the Emirates, ex-spurs players get the usual friendly reception but I would quite like the Arsenal fans to give him a good reception, show some class and respect for a guy who almost lost his life on a football pitch 6 or so months ago

7 years at spurs. He should get booed and rightly so.

I support the club in terms of not panic buying or settling for just anyone at great cost - afterall this is how we got in the mess we've been in. But, some well thought through loan options, even for small fees and covering big(ish) wages all represents quite low risk and a timely boost for Top 4. Having said that it isn't obvious who the striker loan options were and we did try hard for Arthur but Juve pushed for an unrealistic deal for 18 months and not a great financial deal for us. Wijnaldum would have been the one I'd have pushed for in midfield

Juve got rid of Bentacur for £19m and signed Zakaria for £5m. That is good business

I think the policy is “ship out with extreme prejudice and let’s start again”

Anyone who divides opinion seems to be open for a sale. If they got a 2 million fee and saved 1.5 million in wages they considered it adequate rather than risking someone not offering anything in the summer.

Feels like they are clearing the deck for an oncoming player

Hearing a bit more about this right back Spence who played against us for Forest. Even if we did sign him he wouldn't be eligible to play for us this season due to rules about the amount of different clubs you can play for in a season. £10m is the rumoured fee.

A young back up home-grown right back certainly makes sense for squad planning

The savings we've made on the annual wage bill are extraordinary in the past 3 years. 5 or so years ago our wage bill was right up there with Liverpool's and not that far behind Chelsea and Man U and City.

Without Champions League we've needed to cut the bill, and perhaps that has allowed the transfer spend we've had, but the latest figures I've seen in the Prem for yearly wage bill are:

City £401m
Liverpool £371m
Man U £324m
Chelsea £323m
Arsenal £256m
Spurs £207m

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... adline-Day
This links us to Raul De Tomas if we can move on Aubameyang.

27 years old, probably a more reliable goal-scorer than anything we have, has a market value under £20m. Could be a low cost gamble. Feels a bit Lucas Perez but that's just based on very little as I haven't seen the guy play

Burnley sign Wout Weghorst, 29 years old, 6ft 6" striker. How very Burnley

Also some more rumours about Isak. I get that it's a lot of money for a young player, but I don't think we should be scared off because Pépé hasn't worked out the way we hoped. We're not going to compete for the best players who are already the finished article, so we need to get them in before they're already established top class, and that means paying over the odds sometimes.

The article says he would cost 60m though.

Better off going for Isak

We’re totally screwed.

Aubameyang has been sighted in Barcelona ahead of his medical. Even though it looks unlikely we'll secure a replacement today, let's not forget we were done on deadline day in the summer of 2020 before activating Partey's release clause and getting the deal done in a matter of hours.

We're just over half way through the season and if we can double the goals from midfield we're looking at very good returns. Emile Smith Rowe, Saka, Martinelli, Ødegaard have 22 goals between them so far. Get that to 40+ and that is a strong return, add in 5 or so goals from defenders and then you have the glaring omission which is the 25-30 collective goals from your strikers - we're on course for 14 if Nketiah can match Aubameyang's 4 goals and Lacazette doubles his tally.

So just in numbers of goals to get top 4 we feel about 15 short, which means we end up fighting an awful lot of very marginal games which can swing one way or the other on one moment of skill or one mistake. In recent weeks we've seen how we haven't been able to win those marginal games (Burnley, City, Everton) and Spurs and man U have been winning them.

I can still recall the really late signing of Arshavin with live video of him walking around outside his hotel as the club desperately tried to get the paperwork sorted.

Reading reports that Arsenal are prepared to let Pépé go loan loan to an unaamed Spanish club before the window shuts........last one out turn off the lights. This is crazy

We have apparently bid £58m for Isak but Sociedad understandably want his minimum fee release clause paid which is £75m

The biggest problem I have with our inactivity and shedding half the squad is it leaves no room for excuses if you fail in your target. It reminds me of when Wenger used to make very few signings and profess to have enough quality to achieve what we wanted - and then when we fail you look back and say 'but you had the chance to strengthen and you refused'. If you strengthen and it doesn't work then at least you can say you did everything you could.

That is crazy.
He has never been given a really proper sustained run in the team.
I know he can be frustrating but feel like there is a real player in there.
Difficult i know with the form of Saka and Martinelli recently but he could have been afforded more game time.
He is one of the few players who can score goals.
What on earth is going on???

I watch the moves Liverpool make with interest because they are our best barometer for success ie: a big club without infinite resources who have had the ultimate success by smart transfers in/out and a very good coach/players.

One thing I think we always failed to do at our best was strengthen from a position of strength or properly plan for the next team, as sides gradually break up. Liverpool had 3 elite forwards all getting towards 30 at the same time, all will want big contracts next up and all were vitally important without much back up. Liverpool have signed Jota and now Dias to remedy this, they also have Harvey Elliot coming through who I think will make the England squad in the next 2 years.

Having built such a strong squad they can afford to go after elite targets (Konate is another), and as long as they keep on top of this there are no wholesale squad turnovers to do, and because of this they can make a few low risk transfers such as this Fabio Carvalho from Fulham for £5m.

They are loaning out Pépé and aubameyang without bringing anyone in? Would be utter madness. Very hard to believe

I’m always puzzled by the human dynamics of these last minute transfers. It’s a hell of a thing to find that you’re suddenly off to another country tomorrow.

The ins and outs relevant to this season so far are:
In - nobody as the American keeper cannot play until next season.
Out - AMN (loan), Mari (loan), Balogun (loan), Chambers (permanent), Kolasinac (permanent).

It is impossible to argue the squad isn’t weaker for the second half of the season, at least as things stand. Moreover if the stories that Pépé is going somewhere on loan are right, that makes things even worse. Then there’s Aubameyang who is reportedly in Barcelona to seal a move.

Regardless of whether Aubameyang and Pépé stay or go, it will be astonishing if we don’t sign a forward and midfielder. The transfer window closes 11.00 pm tonight. So there’s still ten hours to go. But as time passes it’ll get closer and closer to the window being a hopelessly incompetent performance by Arsenal.

I would agree with that, but the squad is also in a better position for the summer. To me, the window is more about us not improving rather than the team getting worse, because all of those players are safety options you have in the squad but if you have to rely on them you're in trouble. None of those players have contributed anything of note to Arsenal in a very long time.

Aubameyang is a bit of a different case, as that seems like a personal issue. And loaning out Pépé who scored 10 league goals while not being a starter last season would be mental.

Sounds like the aubameyang thing is far from certain with Barca offering players on loan in our direction like Dembele and umtiti because we can’t agree a deal.

Yet … he’s in Barcelona but hasn’t met with the club.

Long day in prospect

Aubameyang has gone full Odemwingie

You never go full Odemwingie

Apparently Newcastle bid 140m euros for Osimhen and Ruiz both from Napoli. Napoli and both players rejected any notion of a transfer. Newcastle's summer is going to go crazy, bids for anyone and everyone. If only Willock had done for them this half season what he did last half season we could have probably squeezed them for £50m

Whilst I'd agree that none of those have offered us that much this season you then have to think what the alternative would be IF we had need to call on them. Chambers if he'd stayed might easily have got 1 or 2 games at right back or CB - now Chambers isn't here if we get to the stage where we would have needed him we're having to pick a total rookie from the U23 or mess up the rest of the team.

West Ham have had bids of £50m for each of Raphinha, Calvin Phillips and Darwin Nunez rejected this window. It isn't easy adding players.

In terms of strikers, unless you're willing to go to absolutely silly money, there seemed to be 2 options - Vlahovic who could be bought due to a contract running out and clear intention not to sign a new one and Isak who had a release clause.

Your Kroenke sister (or is it brother?) club is in the Super Bowl.

I wrote on hear years ago that Kroenke was going to build a very good team in Los Angeles. I said years ago that the agreement he had with the NFL was that he was going to try in earnest to build a very good team to challenge for the Super Bowl. Why? LA is the 2nd biggest media market in America. The NFL has been trying to get a team back there for years. In a rare moment of sanity, the people of LA refused to be bribed into funding a team for years. Unlike other cities. Well, now LA has 2 teams, LA Rams being by far the more popular. (The other team moved up north 2 hours from San Diego, the Chargers)

I say that to say that Kroenke can do the same with Arsenal if they had the will to do it. Maybe he is if the amount we spent last summer and over the last few years is going to be used to counter an argument otherwise.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60197489

Mentioned this guy before. Looks a good signing.

Aubameyang is staying because Barca can’t afford him. He’s gotta get a plane back now, he was there for a holiday for 5 hours

Maybe he was visiting family.

Heard about an interview with someone (no idea who but presumably a reporter). Seems he isn’t that surprised by Arsenal’s lack of expenditure this month. The implication seemed to be that Stan wasn’t too impressed with Arteta when he went to see him recently and as a result Kroenke isn’t convinced about the wisdom of letting Arteta spend big. If we do get fourth, that’ll guarantee his survival. But if we don’t, putting a few quid on Vieira replacing him in the summer may not be an outlandish bet.

How did he find this out did Kroenke tell him? Surely speculation at best but more probably made up nonsense

I’ve no idea. Perhaps it is pure speculation or made up nonsense.

But Stan is a multi-billionaire businessman. He is going to want tangible results after investing £160m of his money (as he will see it, wherever it comes from). I said that at the time, and it’s blatantly going to be the case. You don’t need a PhD in Business Management to work that out.

But how soon? We heard lots about the 'project' and using younger players rather than journeymen. It seems contradictory, and downright fickle, to suddenly demand that we come 4th this year. If we wanted immediate results we should have invested in a different profile of player, surely? The fact that we are letting so many players go without replacement (and the temptation is surely to find journeymen to fill gaps, or just not get rid of our own journeymen) suggests that we are more interested in building up a quality squad in the long run, and waiting for the right players, than finishing fourth. Is Arteta making all those decisions without the owners' consent? If he isn't, our problems in January were hardly his fault and replacing the manager with another unproven one does not seem progressive to me.

Of course but now when we are having our best league campaign for a while where we have a genuine chance for top 4. He’s not convinced. Doesn’t really stack up.