If we actually have a £40-£100 million budget, and spend 30 million of it on Ryan Fraser . I'd rather play Nelson\Saka out wide and spend the cash elsewhere.
I'd rather spend all the money on the defence and one decent 8, aged 24 or 25, to replace Ramsey and phase out Xhaka. Indeed I would sell Xhaka to finance him. But ££ invested in the defence is the easiest / cheapest way to get more points. We know we can score sort of enough goals. Maybe hope one of the younger guys like AMN breaks out
Those are the sort of players I'm hoping that we'll sign, and there's probably some chances we'll get those exact ones. They seem to me to be more similar to Fraser than different. Fraser is older and has less sell-on value, but he also has is EPL proven and a higher floor. But all of them have to prove themselves here if they come. We don't exist as a forum for them to showcase them. Don't want Bale, don't want Rabiot, don't want Umtiti. The one guy I would make an exception for is Carrasco (quite possibly at the expense of Fraser) depending on how negotiations work out.
You gotta figure that's net of sales. I expect that we'll be raising some money from sales as well, maybe as much as our reported budget number, maybe more. I don't like to go hog wild to say how much our players are worth, but even on relatively conservative valuations I imagine that Chambers, Xhaka and Mustafi are worth 20MM GBP each. In any event, the bottom line for me is how thin our squad is on an operational basis. I mean we have a decent number of players but a lot of them really aren't helping us. This last season was frustrating and eye-opening both, on account of how many players we had who were with us on limited roles, and couldn't even fulfill those roles when we needed them. On that score I'm counting Ramsey, Ozil, Xhaka, Moe, Suarez and Jenko at least. To that end, it's very useful to get those players off the roster as much as you can. If it were up to me, there's only thirteen senior players on the squad who played a significant role for us last year who I want to bring back. That means it's probably a matter of necessity and smart economics that we buy a bunch of cheap players 17-21. In that world, I'm not inclined to turn my nose up at Ryan Fraser. If we end up buying him, I'd venture it will be between 15-20MM GBP. And if we had him available at the tail end of last season, we might have beaten Brighton by four goals.
Fraser has had a good season and premiership proven Would 30 mill bring in a quality wide player from abroad?
We've been linked with 19yo French CB William Saliba, who has been described as the next Varane, for 3-4 weeks. This morning I read that we are close to a deal to buy him and loan him back to his current club.
Pretty much this. If not for several stupid individual defensive errors Arsenal finish third. And a solid defense also keeps the pressure on the opposing team to perform. Also, I'm actually less interested in buying someone for being an out and out talent than I am someone who can contribute to the team play. I'm tired of bargain shopping based on individual value. Build me a cohesive unit. If that means overspending a little to actually fill a need with the right kind of player then do so. When I need a new shirt I don't settle on new shoes simply because they were the better deal.
The Fraser and Saliba rumors seem like very different approaches. If they lose the final and miss the CL. Emery will be under pressure, and Raul probably would be too. So they take a win-now approach, getting a proven PL winger in his prime who won't have much resale value. Beat Chelsea and they can afford to invest in long term assets like a French teenager who won't play next season.
With yesterday's loss it's looking like a rebuild (atleast partial) could be in order. Really don't think we have the funds to fix the current squad without unloading some vets to give us a bigger kitty to work with. My thoughts on the roster... Must Go (if you can find a taker) Mustafi Jenks ElNeny Xhaka Ozil Let them go for the right price Sokratis Kola Nacho Miki Laca PAE GK - Don't see us spending money here. Leno is good enough to see us through for another season. Give him all the matches he wants and keep Martinez (HG) as his #2. Look at GK next summer. CB - If we can find takers, I'd honestly sell Mustafi & Sokratis. Mavro goes on loan to assess what we have with him. My biggest name target would likely be Mario Hermoso (rumored available at 20m euro) and after that I would go for cheap release clauses (Fernando Calero 10m euro) or youth (preferably HG) LB - If we are going rebuild I think it is time we shift back to a 4-man back line. In that case Kola needs to go. He is a solid WB (at times) but his defense is not good enough for LB. I'd be open to keeping Nacho so that we could fill in with a young LB. If the right deals could be found, I'd also be perfectly fine selling both and bringing in 2 new LBs. RB - We are set with Bellerin once he comes back but we need a legit backup. I'd be inclined to go with youth (18-19 yo) due to cost and most vets willing to share the spot with Bellerin will either be on the downside of their career or will make noise when they aren't getting enough PT. CM - We need a stronger defensive presence from CM. Torreira is doing well. Duezy shows potential. For me, everyone else needs to go. I'd be ok giving Chambers a seasons to see if he is good enough to play for a top 4 club. I'd be inclined to buy 1 starting quality DM. My personal pick would be Marcus Llorente from Real. Fans love him and think he has a bright future but for some reason Zidane does not rate him. He, Torreira, Duezy, AMN & Willock should be a good mix. AM - Ozil needs to be gone. Not sure if that is possible but we need to make it happen if so. I'd look to replace him with one of Dani Ceballos (rumor Zidane doesn't rate him either), Pablo Fornals (rumored 20-25m euro buyout), Pablo Sarabia (rumored 20m euro buyout) or Ziyech (longshot but supposedly loves Arsenal, rumored 25-30m euro buyout). There are rumors of Gotze looking for a new challenge and Arsenal being interested but I've not seen much about cost or how lack of CL effects that interest. W - Probably time to move on from Miki. Iwobi has shown improvement this season and deserves to get more PT. I'd imagine we likely use Nelson, Saka, Amaechi and/or Emile as depth but I think it would be ideal to add 1 veteran to help cushion the blow of so much youth. Ziyech & Sarabia could be wing options as well as AM. We've seen the Fraser links but I'm hoping they are bogus. Outside of those I'm not sure what value options may be available. ST - Would prefer to see them stay but I feel like one or both of PAE/Laca will be sold to generate transfer funds. As much as they have carried us this season, I think we could more than make up for the loss of one with good picks at W & AM. Replacing both would be a bit more tricky and would likely set us up for a rough time next season unless we get a quick turnaround on our leaky defense. We've been linked to the you W/ST from Lorient as well as Thuram. I think both could be solid young W/ST options. If we end up selling PAE and/or Laca I'd assume our days of 2 ST formations will be FAR less frequent. In that case I'd think it would be preferred (or at least beneficial) to get a young target ST (Wesley???).
@chjoak you are amazing. While many (if not most) of us are still depressed following our team's pitiful cup-final showing yesterday, you are right back out there putting your energy back into our future. Maybe you're able to do that because your connection with the club seems to be a lot about the squad resources, maybe more than results or standings? I dunno, but kudos to you man. As for myself, an awful lot of wind went out of my sails yesterday. I'm way more on the meh/whatever side of the equation for the immediate future. Which makes my inability/inaction on going to see us play in DC in July a little bit more comfortable frankly.
Don't get me wrong, I'm frustrated as hell but by my nature I am an analyst. Once I get past the initial anger my immediate thought is "how do we fix this". That's where stuff like above comes from. I'm constantly thinking about solutions. Whether it be a client issue, kid issue, sports team, etc...
Also, saw an interesting rumor yesterday.... If true, we may not be done with Denis Suarez just yet. The claim is that Umtiti is our #1 target at CB. I assume we are looking for a loan with an option due to funds & his injuries. Barca still wants to get rid of Suarez, so the rumor is that we will agree to pick up the Suarez option if they make us a deal on Umtiti. Now before everyone freaks about about wasting money on Suarez... Valencia is said to be interested in him so we would then flip him to Valencia to wash out the fee.
I think we can talk about personal till the cows come home Fact is we need an identity We desperately need a lwb who can overlap and defend A tall fast cb who can header and is strong A tall physical cm/dm who can pass And attacking cm/10 At least 1 winger who is fast and skill ful who can cross and shoot
Agree. Think a big part of the issues we saw this year was the available personnel not fitting what Emery wants to do. I'm not saying that Emery is the end all be all solution but I think he can be effective enough with the right personnel. The problem is that we didn't have the guys to effectively run his 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 and we didn't have the defensively responsible MF to be effective at all. Think he actually did a really good job adjusting to a different offense then he typically runs but he just couldn't find a defensive combo that worked.
I would agree with that if his task was to win the league, but we should have enough talent to win a match at home against Crystal Palace. I don't think our team is 90's Milan, but still.
OMG, post of the year candidate! That is so so so so true. Ha. I barely know better, after 23 years of marriage.
I'm going to throw together my XI just based on who we've been linked with. If our budget is only 45 million, it's going to be hard to get any substantial amount of players in, but I'm gonna take a shot at it nonetheless. ---------------Laca/Auba------------------------ Iwobi--------------------------Fraser/Trossard ------Palacios--------Torreira------------------ -----------------Xhaka---------------------------- Tierney----------------------------------Bellerin -------------Sokratis----Holding--------------- --------------------Leno--------------------------- Let the record show, I would be ok with selling one of Laca or Auba to raise funds. I would also love it if we could get rid of Xhaka. However, if we can't sell him, he's probably still a part of the starting group of players. He's liabilities could be lessened by putting two hard working 8's next to him.
Not a bad stab. Some new links/info that could change things a bit... - Laca to Barca could still happen as it appears that Barca is not pursuing Griezmann. Barca is said to be interested in Laca, Jokic & Werner but may prefer Laca's skillset and experience over the others. The other potential drawback here is that ManU is said to be the current front runner for Griezmann. - We have supposedly been talking to Thomas Meunier for a month and have already offered a 5 yr deal. If true, I can't help but wonder if that means Bellerin may be on the way out. Can't see Meunier leaving PSG for a backup role and I don't see us concentrating on RB unless they think/know they can add to the kitty by doing a virtual Bellerin/Meunier swap. - Saw a rumor last night that in addition to our interest in Exequiel Palacios we are also looking at Nahitan Nandez from Boca. Claim was that we are interested in adding both to our MF. I recall watching Nandez play for Uraguay in the last WC. They had him playing primarily RM/RWB but I was very impressed with his play. If he brings that same intensity to CM, he could be very interesting. A MF of Torreira, Nandez & Palacios would definitely be the smallest in the PL but they would be a high energy, pesky bunch. - Mentioned it above... There is a rumor that Umtiti is our #1 target at CB. I assume we are looking for a loan with an option due to funds & his injuries. Barca still wants to get rid of Suarez, so the rumor is that we will agree to pick up the Suarez option if they make us a deal on Umtiti. Valencia is said to be interested in Suarez so the suggested rumor is that after picking up his option we would flip him to Valencia to wash out the fee. There is an added twist, we have supposedly been scouting Valencia W Ferren Torres so we could conceivably flip Suarez for Torres. - It is rumored that Rabiot is down to Arsenal or ManU. It is thought that ManU has the edge due to their willingness to meet his financial demands (the ones that every other team has balked at) but he is conflicted because ManU's MF is seemingly stacked and he played his best soccer under Emery.