Looks like we can stop worrying about Lacazette moving to Barcelona. Per Sky Sports Greizmann just said goodby on the Atletico web site.
I really haven't seen him play that much in Italy. I don't think he'd be a world beater but it seems reasonable to imagine he would be a very useful player to have. Plus he was good at set pieces.
Not really, just the youthful positives a younger player brings. I thought he would be better too but nope. I'd rather play Monreal, especially 26-30 year old Monreal.
Totally agree. I take some solace that this is all here-say, even if in this case the source is the Ornacle.
This goes back to Wenger and his financial mismanagement and his inability to develop players the consequences downstream in terms of the stature of the club. Basically, in the last year or two under Wenger, nobody who had options at the level of Spurs or Liverpool or better would ever choose to play for us. We desperately needed a good player for the sake of the credibility of the club and Ozil charged us a lot for that. That's why I'm not blaming Gazidis nearly so much as some other people. There just weren't any good options available. And people can blame Emery for this or that, but the club is in much better shape now.
What financial realities? This idea of a self-sustaining business model is not anything that came down on stone tablets with Moses on Mt Sinai. If it works fine, but it shouldn't be the fans' job or even management's job to shoehorn 10 lbs of sh*t into a 5 lb bag. As much as I and some of you might have complained about it, the business decisions of last summer were the right ones. We simply had to re-rationalize the wage structure and we've done that. We're just not successful enough as a club to justify paying Ramsey or Ozil-level wages. But that was last summer. This summer things are different. I can appreciate the need to work within a budget but we've got some needs to fill and 40MM GBP simply isn't going to cut it. Money isn't the answer to all of our problems but it is the answer to some. To the extent they are, simply tell Stan to open up the checkbook and cut some checks.
He was a great player, no doubt. And on a good day he still is. But he's not a great player for us, right this second.
Yeah maybe, it's still a problem for me. Not everything Ornstein says ends up coming to pass, but that is the word the club wants to put out to the street, and that's bad enough on its own terms. In terms of management, if you're good at pinching pennies and evaluating talent, it probably _is_ possible to make a self-sustaining model work. And if you're really lucky, you maybe could even have a good window this summer for less than 40MM GBP net spend, but it's still the wrong message. You might be able to pull off a cheap transfer here or there that Real or United wouldn't get away with, but it takes a bigger toll on the motivation of our own players. The players want to see good new signings come in. They want to see competition for places. They want to see regular CL football. The players who have good alternatives elsewhere are going to be looking at those alternatives and we're going to be left the rest who don't.
The "financial situation" of the club is entirely a PR sham. The team has over 200m cash on hand, nearly as much as ManU while we have not even close to the debts that they need to service. In a market of insane transfer inflation it is absolutely nonsensical to put cash under the mattress as our money is worth less and less by the year and we consequently fall further behind. It only makes sense if you consider: Kroenke is currently privately financing the most expensive stadium ever in LA. This proves two things: 1. Kroenke is actually more than happy to spend his own money on sports teams that he cares about, and 2. We are, whether we like it or not and whether you like to call it that, being used as his piggy bank, because he is undoubtedly counting Arsenal among his assets when declaring for the financing he's getting. Cash on hand is literally only useful to Arsenal as a club because it pumps up our valuation on Kroenke's books in a more reliable way than players or transfers do. 40m budget is an absolute farce: it's not even a Europa League budget at this point. And that the team is claiming poverty is a cynical lie forced by Kroenke and the projects he actually cares about.
Gazidis was a total fraud who was either impotent or incompetent or maybe both but not anything better. Commercial deals are pretty unrelated to player management or development and we have by far the worst trajectory in that sector of any team in the top six in PL, and that jurisdiction was Gazidis's and Gazidis's alone. His record was atrocious.
Looking like we could get CL regardless of the outcome of the EL final. Read a report this morning that City is being investigated for financial irregularities. If found to be breaking the rules they would face a CL ban. Per the rules we would be next in line for their spot. If we win EL, United would get City's spot.
I don't believe for a second this will happen. City will make some huge "charitable" donation to some UEFA sponsored philanthropy and all will be forgiven. The Chelsea transfer ban, I think, has more of a chance of sticking. They've already lost their first appeal. I'd still bet on them avoiding the full brunt somehow, but I'm not as sure of that as I am regarding City's issue.
well... may not be out of the woods just yet with Laca... https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/football/first-team/players/6899/Alexandre-Lacazette#
Manolas is supposed to have a 30-35m release clause if Roma fail to qualify for CL. That said, he's not coming to play for us if we don't qualify.
Pablo Sarabia from Sevilla has a 18mil release clause and I reckon he’s a perfect fit to the team: Technical, high work-rate, Creative and very tough mentality I would bring Sarabia in. Sarabia, a winger like Rebic who can also play at the striker position when needed, a left back and Callum Patterson as backup RB/RM I know people here might not rate Callum but I think he’s a decent baller especially as a backup
Based on the TransferMarkt values I listed previously... 40m kitty + Ospina - 3m Mustafi - 25m Nacho - 9m ElNeny - 9m Chambers - 15m Miki - 25m approx 125m to work with Rabiot - Free Sarabia - 18m Fornals - 25m Brandt - 21m Manolas - 35m That leave approx 25m for a LB (Grimaldo?)and/or depth at ST, CB (depending on desired base formation) -------------- PAE ------ Laca ---------------- -------------------- Fornals -------------------- Grimaldo -- Rabiot -- Torreira -- Bellerin ------ Kos ---- Manolas ---- Sokratis ----- or ------------------ Laca ------------------ - Brandt ----------------------- Sarabia - ----------------- Fornals ------------------- --------- Rabiot ------ Torreira ----------- Grimaldo -- Kos --- Manolas -- Bellerin or --------- PAE ------ Laca ---------------- ----------------- Sarabia-------------------- ----- Fornals --------------- Brandt ------ ------------------ Rabiot ---------------------- Grimaldo -- Kos --- Manolas -- Bellerin All look pretty damned strong, especially on a 40m budget
IIRC, our past transfer budgets included the player’s wage package and wage increases from re-signing players. I could be wrong about that, but that’s what I recall.
I think Arsenal have suggested that the wage packets restrict the transfer kitty, but not that they are included in the kitty. Last year's summer window should offer hope that the £40m may not be a hard and fast number. I believe last year we were also told that Arsenal only had £40m to spend and they ended up spending £70+ million.