Yeah, I remember that exchange. It was sort of near the beginning of their discussion. I didn't infer BS from it, personally, but I guess I could sort of see that.
I'll always love Andrew and James. But Elliot and the gang really dig into the weeds. I nerd out on that sort of stuff.
Breaking | Arsenal have agreed a 5-year provisional contract with William Saliba, according to the respected @DahbiaHattabi. Now fee negotiations need to begin with St Étienne. More follows.— Get French Football News (@GFFN) June 16, 2019
Saliba is a defender but do we know whether he's more FB or CB? In any case, at 18 it's a little hard to imagine him breaking into our A or B teams, right?
He's a center back who can play as a right back. He started 13 league games for St. Etienne, 10 in the center and 3 on the right. His body type is that of a center back, he's 6' 3.5" and appears to be relatively strong. While he is clearly one for the future, St. Etienne did finish fourth and statistically had the fourth best defense in Ligue 1, so I don't see any reason he couldn't be playing cup games next season.
Thanks for that. And I hope you're right about Saliba's quality. But as a CB, he'd presumably be behind Koscielny, Sokratis & Holding in the pecking order, assuming of course that all 3 of those guys are playing for Arsenal next season. I'm also assuming (hoping) that Mustafi is not long for our world. And still not sure where Mavropanos sits... his development has been a bit mysterious.
Good point. Forgot about Bielik this time. Though I was arguing just a month or two ago for promoting him. Not sure what to make about the recent rumor that he's threatening to leave if he doesn't get into the first team.
I consciously left Chambers off that list. Personally I've written him off... from playing in a back 3 or back 4 at least. From what little I've heard, Bielek is more CB than DM. Charlton's manager admitted that, even having played him as DM. So he should've been on my list... "assuming he stays of course". That's a phrase that seems to occupy my head a bit more this summer.
I hear we are loaning this kid back? Seems stupid We still need a lb, cm and wide players Not selling Ramsey and letting him go free has really hurt us
We're going to be rubbish next season anyway. It's important to build for the future, and playing an 18 year old full time in England might be risky, and if we're doing a loan back, the deal is essentially a transfer that's delayed by a year.
We should be doing a lot of more of this. Grabbing undervalued players leaving them at their clubs and figuring out what we currently own.
Loaning him back might enable Arsenal to pay the fee in installments, it certainly should be negotiable if they want him loaned back, and given the restricted budget Arsenal reportedly have, that would be a good thing. Re the 40 million BPS budget. IIRC, we were told Arsenal had a budget of 50 million last summer and they ended up with a net spend of 67 million (which may be why there was no January budget). This makes me hopeful that the 40 million is not a hard and fast number.
Player fees are paid over years now so 40 mill could buy 4 30 mill players we might budget ten mill initial fee then in increments after
I've heard several pundits say we probably have more that 40, but we're letting 40 be the number out there, so as to hopefully avoid the EPL tax on any of our targets.
Is he good? Haven't seen him play - whoscored doesn't have ball progression numbers, but he looks kinda like Torreira, but better on the ball?
Yeah, he wasn't saying he should be in the first XI (I know that's not what you said) just that he thinks it's a waste of time to go to the U23s at this point having played a full season, albeit in a lower division. I have to say I agree with him. If he can't at least train with the first team and potentially get some minutes in Europa or the "Used to be sponsored by a crappy beer" Cup, he should move on. Andrew and James were discussing his situation on the podcast this morning, and fwiw, they agreed with him as well.
I think he’s a baller. Shined against Milan, Lazio. He’s much better with the ball at his feet. Has that 360 degree control, initiates play from deep quickly, gives a lot of first-time passes forward into space, and no shmuck defensively. He and Torreira would make a great pair imo, with Bennacer the heart of that midfield.