I am getting increasingly concerned about our play being too one dimensional. The best sides often have a clear balance between players of different types. If we get these players, it looks a bit ‘all the same’. One could say peak Barcelona were an exception. Yet we don’t have players comparable to Messi, Iniesta and Xavi. Even they had Busquets in midfield.

Norton-Cuffy playing for the Eng U19's now, just provided an assist. His athletic and physical profile means he adapted to men's football really well at Lincoln. We were linked with this Djed Spence guy but I can see why the club might wait for Cédric's deal to end and promote Norton-Cuffy instead. White and Saliba can both cover RB as well

I've read that Jesus wage is more like £220k per week. Partey is our current top earner at £200k per week. Then we drop down to Pépé at £140k and a whole host of players around the £100k mark, some of which are likely to leave like Leno and Bellerin.

Clearly setting the bar up at £200k ish is going to mean our very best players (Like Saka) will use that as a benchmark for any new deals. But I don't think giving Jesus £220k per week at 25 is in the same ballpark as the £350k per week contracts handed out to Özil and Aubameyang who were more than likley going to decline due to their age (a similar argument could be made for Willian as well)

Have to say I'm impressed with the job Edu has done since he came on. The squad overhaul we've done in the last few years was well handled, and the way we're building our new squad is really exciting - there is a vision abehind the signings we're making, and it comes across very well in the interviews I've seen with him. It's nice to see the club acting with clear direction, and everyone seems to be on the same page about what that direction is.

There continues to be really strong links to Jesus, Raphinha and Martinez. If I was to guess, I'd say those three are our remaining signings this window, and after that I would only expect us to look at selling some players who are surplus to requirement (Pépé, Torreira and Bellerin being the main ones).

I would also try to sell Holding - good player and an excellent pro, but he's not a player who should be starting too many games, and with Gabriel, White, Saliba and Martinez, and Tomiyasu being very comfortable at CB we don't really need Holding. 26 years old, English and signed long term, we could be looking at a decent fee for him.

Of the players linked to us, Tielemans is looking the most unlikely at this point. The links have gone a bit cold, and with Martinez being able to play DM and Vieira being viewed as a potential no 8, perhaps Edu and Arteta are content with the options we have in central midfield.

A champions league title winning club. Really! Are you 100% sure.

A friend sent me this story about Mané and his charity work.

https://huddleup.substack.com/p/sadio-m ... us-athlete

This was a great story and I have a lot of respect for him after reading this.

me too

was he handing an oblique criticism of Aubameyang when he mentioned cars and watches?

And about 200 other footballers

Viera announced

There appear to be growing links between Martinez and Manchester United too, with ten Hag giving them the advantage. If we do get him, it’s an interesting buy. Top Gun mentioned him being short, at 5 ft 9 ins, for a Premier League central defender. I know Martinez can cover other positions but I do see Top Gun’s point.

Should he go to Manchester United and our only forwards next season are Jesus, Nketiah and Balogun, I wouldn’t expect us to expose his lack of height when they play us. But there are plenty of Premier League sides where that may not be the case.

If we do get Martinez, it’s an interesting idea to sell Holding. I fully accept what you say about him being a good professional but not quite the standard to be a regular starter for us. Also with him being English and at his peak (27th birthday is approaching, in September) we should get more than a decent fee for him. If we do get Martinez and sell Holding, I won’t be delighted or livid. I won’t even be pleased or sad. I’ll just wait and see how well the decision works out.

One for the conspiracy theorists but two of Gabriel Jesus’s closest friends have just followed Arsenal on Instagram. Arsenal Twitter remains undefeated in its detective work.

Hi Gaz, was announced a few days back.
Did you just come down from the mountain after a 10-day trek?

All those years with Paddy. Now his namesake. And still his name gets spelled wrongly. Up there with Wiltshire.

Christopher Nkunku extends his contract with RB Leipzig until June 2026, deal now signed and sealed. Release clause of 60m euros, quite a low release clause and I suspect if he does anything like he did last year for goals and assists someone will be triggering that clause pretty soon

Hi Both,

I was wary when seeing Martinez was only 5ft 9" but (and I know stats aren't everything) there are stats that shows he wins more headers per game and a higher percentage of headers per game than Pau Torres (another CB linked with moves to the prem) who is 6ft 2.
By all accounts Martinez is an incredibly combative player and I've seen people liken his aerial ability to other shorter CB like Ayala and Cannavaro. Must have a very good leap and timing.

However, if there is any league where your height is exposed it is the Prem.

Martinez is also a very dependable left back - from what I've seen he'd be technically the most adept defender we have at the club as his ability on the ball is more akin to a midfielder

Worth noting that Martinelli and Saliba count as home grown players for the quota. Prem teams can have no more than 17 'foreign' players which is sometimes the easier way of looking at the home grown quota.

Martinelli and Saliba were both registered at Arsenal for 3 years before their 21st birthday so they count - in the same way Bellerin does.

Home grown:
Ramsdale
Holding
White
Saliba
Emile Smith Rowe
Saka
Nketiah
Martinelli
That is a good group of home grown players who are all young enough and should be with us for a number of years

It seems like not enough is being made of Chelsea buying Lukaku for £100m and 1 season later sending him on loan for £8m fee. I've long felt that teams who regularly spend huge amounts on players get away without the grilling when large numbers of those high price signings fail, but when we've done the same on a much smaller selection of high price players it is remembered more because we do it less frequently.

In a similar note not much said about Spurs buying Gil for £23m+Lamella and shipping him out on loan when he was nowhere near good enough. Ndombele at £60m is another under the radar flop.....and Lo Celso, Spurs paid a £14m loan fee and then a further £28m to make it permanent and he's out on loan.

Spurs have bought pretty poorly in the past 4 years or so, they're still being propped up by Son and Kane. Kulusevsi and Romerso look good loans/buys but they still need to pay the £75m to make those deals permanent.

When a new player comes there’s a tendency to over focus on the salary being reported. They all get paid a fortune these days no point analysing it.

Gabriel Jesus is an exciting signing for Arsenal his form towards the end of the season was impressive. There’s no doubt he will improve us. He’s a better option than any of the strikers we had at the club last year. When’s signing a new striker not been exciting?

I'd stick with Holding. He hasn't let us down and at 5'9" Martinez is too short. Martinet can play CM as well I have read

We got to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs
Looky here, look out
I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums

It does sound crazy!

New strikers are definitely exciting. I always get nervous and desperate for them to get off the mark early. New strikers can be at one end or the other of a successful transfer because what they do is intrinsically linked to success of the team more so than any other position I think. 10 average players and a top class striker can do something - I don't think you can do that with any other position.

Dan Ballard looks like he's making a move to Burnley (working under Kompany). It will be interesting to see what the fee is? I'd expect under £5m.

I saw City sold one of their young GK who had been on loan at Portsmouth I think, sold him for £15m. Liverpool and Chelsea regularly also get top whack for their unwanted youth team players, we need to get better at selling them at the right time

Few reports saying we've made a 55m euro offer for Raphinha with 15m euro in add ons. Waiting Leeds response

From Ornstein:
Marseille keen to sign Nuno Tavares on loan & Arsenal will consider sanctioning 22yo left-back’s temporary exit if they manage to recruit in defence - Lisandro Martinez of Ajax the priority target

https://www.arsenal.com/news/jordi-osei ... vfl-bochum
Expect this to be a fairly nominal fee

Reading this now. Nuts right. Total 70m bid. We are going hard

Thing is he’s likely to have 3 of his international team mates with us also. Surely makes it more attractive

I suppose this isn’t too bad in Sterling but still huge money

https://www.football365.com/news/leeds- ... ts-arsenal

Good he's already informed. We done.

Balance is important, but a decent set of players for rotation is also needed obviously.

Not on the Arsenal official website.

Marseille and Atalanta both keen on Tavares on loan. If we can bring in this Martinez guy and get Tavares on loan to a decent club like those two that would be ideal.

Jesus and Raphinha alongside Vieira does make a very flexible and exciting attack, I feel the only thing it misses is a taller more physical striker.

I could see there might be a possibility that Xhaka leaves if someone like Tielemans comes in. I'd love to have them both.

I also have a feeling (not this summer) - but maybe in the near future if we did need to balance the books then Emile Smith Rowe might be a player that we would consider letting go if we received a ridiculous offer. I'd rather we kept him and get to see him across a full season where he's fit, but at the moment he needs to find his place in the team and a way to affect every game he plays in (in the way Saka does) With us buying Vieira, who is much closer to Ødegaard than Emile Smith Rowe in style it makes me think Arteta doesn't see Emile Smith Rowe as a No.10. I'm not sure Emile Smith Rowe has ever fitted that well as an advanced 8, so that leaves the wide left role where I think Arteta prefers the more direct running of a Martinelli type right now. To be clear I'm not writing Emile Smith Rowe off but I could see a point in the future where a tempting offer might see us cash in if we need to

Are you on dial-up?? It got announced on the official site about 4 days ago! He's got the number 21. It's still on the front page.

This is what I said the other day.

Arteta plays 2 systems mostly and I don’t really see where Smithers will fit in either

1) A 4-3-3 with 1 holding type midfielder like xhaka flanked by 2 more creative number 10 box to box types ala city or Barca. I think this is the one he intends to prefer.

2) And a 4-2-3-1 where you have 2 pivot midfielders like partey and xhaka and one free spirit which is Ødegaard. We used this most last season

For formation 1 It hasn’t worked when he’s been played as 1 of the 2 attacking midfielders and the centre always looks unbalanced with him in it. He doesn’t offer enough support to the partey or xhaka type.

Then for 2 he has Ødegaard and now vieira in his way. Who looked to have better and more well rounded games to them where he seems to live for the final third.

You can play him on the left at a push but he’s not always convinced there and if we are bringing in more wide players that looks tough.

I think he needs to evolve his game somehow and if Arteta is committed to the 433 formation he wants and stays beyond next season you may see a transfer for him similar to Iwobi. To be honest a move to villa to replace grealish probably would have made sense for him.

Hi TG, Sorry I didn't see your post - or maybe I did and it stayed subconsciously in the back of my mind enough for me to post it as well. I hope he stays and carves out a proper role, having the extra European games will help get more game time

I think it’s a decent observation rich and I hope he stays 2 but I get the impression that due to way the way the manager sets the team up and his skill set he’s not really suited to us unless he evolves his game he will go. The question I posed to soc was if selling Smithers freed up enough cash to buy Reuben neves would you do it? I’d be sorely tempted