Layman's understanding is that Dembele is both expensive and more a pure winger to pair with PEA compared to Laca. I don't see Barca letting him go, tho.
I think that's exactly the point. That players are indeed evaluated in the context of their price tag. And I would argue that Ozil and/or his agent must in fact be quite responsible for his wage level. But even if by some miracle they were not, and he was just an innocent victim of someone showering money on him, that doesn't take away from a player's worth being valued in the context of his price tag. There are obviously other issues with Ozil at Arsenal, which have been debated up the wazoo, but the fact that his wages are so high in the context of our squad and our club's overall budget, is fundamental to our future decision(s) about him.
This makes sense to me. I've always favored a back 4 (with 2 strong CB's). But then again that's pretty much 90% or more of the footy I've watched in my life so...
Obviously the contract was a result of negotiations between Ozil's agent and Arsenal, but unless Ozil or his agent had compromising photos of Gazidis, Arsenal had other options, they could have moved him at the same time they moved Sanchez. Once the contract was agreed Ozil would have been a fool not to have signed. It's also a fact that in all professional sports players often end up being paid for past performances, not current production. BTW, Ozil still led the team in key passes this season.
I'm not sure its so much "sacrificing Laca for Dembele". Not sure anyone wants to get rid of Laca or PAE but with rumors buzzing there is some sentiment that one or both may opt to leave, especially if we do not make CL.
🚨 | #AFCDavid Ornstein on BBC5 radio discussing transfer targets. Arsenal: -Budget without CL is £40m-Targets identified (youth & experience) and talks underway-Priorities: CB, B2B midfielder-Secondary targets LB, RB, wide attacker, ST[@bbcsport_david ]🥈 pic.twitter.com/hKCX8qhaRw— afcSource™ (@afcSource) May 14, 2019
3atb is a formation that suits high quality wing backs as it is a counter attacking formation as u essentially are giving up the middle of the pitch That’s why it worked for wolves vs better sides and not against shut ones @DaPrince84 ozil the centre piece? Not sure about that. He played lw out of position Mueller was the man and Kroos Liverpool play 433 exclusively Pep and pocc switch between 3atb and 4
40M without CL? I assume that's NOT taking into account possible player sales, as well? I understand the financial realities but the club also has to pick themselves out of this rut or risk a serious degradation of the club's value. Although I will always add this asterisk to my transfer notes: I'm not actually demanding they spend the money as much as I'm saying find solutions to the shortcomings on the roster. If they find those solutions on the cheap or in the academy then great, so long as they see improvement on the pitch.
So just like last summer, 18 year olds and 30+ year olds, with a 22 year old thrown in for good measure. Seriously, if CB is a top priority, I suspect that means they are moving Mustafi and maybe Chambers. Their combined fees might enable Arsenal to sign a decent CB without dipping to deeply into the £40m kitty. If they are currently talking, the name most often mentioned in rumors is Bailly, though Mavropanos is muted to have a £30m release clause (which seems way to low) and recently Arsenal have been rumored to be interested in Gbamin. Re the B2B midfielder, didn't Emery just hint the Ramsey replacement might come from within. Wilock or possibly moving Iwobi to the middle?
Ozil did play out wide, but many considered him to be a key player in Germany's team. Two years prior in the 2012 European Cup, Ozil may have been Germany's best player.
If you take TransferMarkt as accurate... Ospina - 3m Mustafi - 25m Nacho - 9m ElNeny - 9m Chambers - 15m Miki - 25m All of those are either surplus or seen as guys who need to be moved. With Chambers you may be able to get more due to age and HG status. But with those sales you are looking at 85m not counting the 40m pot. 125m should be plenty to add a CB, LB, CM and W/ST as long we we look at value buys (free signings, release clauses and well scouted youth). Fill in the rest with academy guys (Willock, Nelson, etc...) and we could easily have a successful window. Where things get potentially dicey is if PAE & Laca opt to move on (no CL) and we find ourselves rebuilding the entire offense. But atleast we would get a good bit of cash (Laca 70+ & PAE 65+) to work with.
There’s something to this, but I also just feel like Emery’s ‘system’ such as it is really minimizes the impact he can have. There is something about the way he wants to play that marginalizes Özil. Remember early in the season when both Özil and Ramsey were having trouble even getting on the ball while playing in the 10; each of them had whole matches with fewer than 20 passes. What really sucks is that the people who never rated him use the current situation as ‘proof’ that they were right all along and that he was never a great player.
Here's what was said and what triggered my reply. Pretty unambiguous to me: And yes I think if we win on 5/29 that could have a HUGE effect on who goes and who stays. Ironically, our success in Europa is a bit of a negative with regards to summer transfers, in that it delays the conclusion of our season by 2.5 weeks, by adding this key variable outcome. Don't get me wrong, I'm 150% on board the Europa train... I've been there months now, especially since we turned over Rennes. And maybe the 2.5 week delay is not such a big deal because we're late anyway because of Sven's absence, and whatever other dysfunction there is in our front office.
If someone gives us 25m for Mustafi we should bite their hand off. And if we can get another 25m for Mkhi, I'd declare the outbound window a big success. Definitely not counting my chickens there though.
I don't think there's too many people who've said he was never a great player. But honestly I can only say what I've heard around here in the last several years, and it's more that he was rarely a great player at Arsenal. Like many of us, I was completely pumped when he signed. But as time went on, it just turned into a pumped up balloon steadily losing air. Sad, any way you look at it. If he ends up staying I'll always root for him, and trust that he'll make some positive contributions, like key passes (as someone just pointed out). But I don't think there's too many people who think he'll be our talisman next season, someone who can really turn a game when the need arises... home or away. And I'm not even talking about him being our biggest wage-earner by some distance.
Ousmane Dembele is a phenomenal player and would add badly needed pace to the side. Only 21 and would probably cost 100m euros, at a minimum. Barcelona would never do a swap deal for Lacazette straight up. They'd want cash too.
Full transcript of the Ornstein interview from arseblog: https://arseblog.news/2019/05/full-transcript-david-ornstein-on-arsenals-summer-transfer-plans/ I'd prefer someone younger and taller than Djene, but maybe he can provide cover at RB.
That's disturbing if a left back isn't one of the bigger priorities. I'd say we need an upgrade at LB if we want to play 4 in the back as much as we need a CB.
Not buying Ricardo Rodriguez when he had a cheap buyout clause was one of the dumbest moves we ever made. It was supposedly about 18-20m GBP. That's a phenomenal price for a starter.
I was never that high on him but he'd be an upgrade over an aging Monreal. Would he really have been that much of a defensive upgrade over Kolasinac?
My guess... If they can't fit a LB in the budget they are willing to go one more season with Nacho & Kola. It's not ideal but if we strengthen CB and get a better CM partner for Torreira the defensive issues on the left are at least lessened to a degree.
I wasn't arguing against the deal. Simply suggesting that we weren't sacrificing rather than making the best of a player wanting to leave.
Not the dumbest Wenger move but surely one of the worst recent examples of a very opportunistic move missed. And we sorely needed a LB at the time.