West Ham and Sassuolo, preparing paperworks for Gianluca Scamacca deal. Full agreement for €36m plus €6m in add-ons. Details on personal terms to be finalised tomorrow. 🚨⚒️ #WHUFCBeen told Filip Kostic deal will be discussed in the next days, after official bid submitted. pic.twitter.com/rDhXhpwuMf— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 22, 2022 looks like scamacca is going to London. Just the west side of it. Prefer Jesus to him but kind of wish we had sold Eddie and got him tbh.
apparently, management is looking at/for another winger with gakpo being an option. honestly, with how comfortable gabriel jesus is on the wing, i wouldn't have minded if they pivoted and went for scamacca instead (of another potential winger), especially at that price (apparently, 36 + 6 + 10% sell-on).
It makes sense to continue his dev, but he'd be silly to sign a new long contract which could see him stuck outside of the CL for another 3 years or more
Saka isn't a 29 year old looking for one last big pay day. And he isn't Nketiah, looking for assurances of playing time so he can develop and secure long term earnings. If Saka signs a new 5 year deal, he will be back in this exact same situation when he is still only 23 and will have another 3 contract extensions ahead of him. If he signs a new deal now, he will make more in 2022-23 than he has in his entire career up to this point. That matters!
I know we are down on Bellerin, but no one wants to pay for him while Barca and Chelsea are fighting over Azpilicueta who is 5 years older is kind of crazy to me.
All fine if the team goes in the right direction - but it could stall his career if it continues to be mediocre
to be fair, we're not exactly talking a frenzy market. it's literally, "xavi wants this guy" vs "you've been a dick over 2 separate deals, no, we're not doing you a favour".
Not sure how many of you guys are hiking in Georgia, but I’ll take all the pictures you’ve got. I spent three days in the Cohutta wilderness a few years ago and always wanted to go back. Beautiful part of the country.
Beyond just the Chelsea thing, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid for this team. I'm seeing lots of predictions that Arsenal will finish 6th this year, but I just don't see it, at all. I think we should probably finish 3rd and have a legitimate shot at 2nd. It just seems very odd that most fans of other teams (and a good number of Arsenal fans) have a much different view of our talent base than I do. Moreover, it seems that the other five teams in the Big Six are either stagnating or regressing. Even City, who at one perspective is the only team who's realistically beyond hope of overtaking. One thing I've admired about City is for all the success they have had, how little they have depended on any particular talent to carry them. Over the years they have lost Kompany, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero and barely missed any of them. It's like they are a machine that wins no matter which players they have. So Guardiola clearly has nothing to prove relating to his player assessments, and most other observers see it the same way. Even so, this year they are losing Zinchenko (who they don't care about), but also Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and supposedly Bernardo Silva as well. That basically leaves Jack Grealish, Foden, Mahrez, DeBruyne, and Erling Haaland. None of that is chopped liver, of course, but there's not a lot of options there. And if for some reason Haaland struggles to adapt to the League, I don't see a Plan B or Plan C for them.
Me neither. I'm not sure why anyone would have us that far down. We're much improved over last season, deeper, more balanced, much more dangerous on the attack. Don't kid yourself about City, though. They're the mothership for my home team, and I can tell you for a fact there's always a Plan B, C and D, whether we can see it or not. It's just how the organization operates.
We would have to be decimated by covid, injuries and suspensions to finish 6th this year. There were clear holes in the squad from last season, all of them were very promptly addressed, then we added some extra and we apparently aren't done signing players. Ceiling is as high as 3rd and as low as 5th in my opinion.
i don't see 2nd a possibility but 3rd through 5th should all be within possibilities without multiple odd catastophic situations. liverpool lost edwards which will make their retooling tougher but i think they did well with the mane and salah situations. alexander-arnold and robertson seems regrettably durable. as far as i can tell, manchester city have retained their front office people and that makes them dangerous. sure, they've sent away gabriel jesus and sterling but it doesn't feel like those were forced on them and they have now been left barren. the only question is how much they will have to pay for cucurella.
I'd certainly pick LIverpool over us if I had to choose but I still see an opening for us. At its best Liverpool is at or close to City at its best. But in contrast to City, Liverpool does depend on a small number of particular talents to carry them. And Liverpool is aging. They have Salah, Thiago, Henderson, Firmino and James Milner who all play significant minutes and all are nearing 30 or over it. And Mane who's not there any more. Darwin Nunez is an excellent prospect, but a prospect nonetheless, and I'm never certain that a player coming from a foreign league can handle the physical demands of the EPL until I see it. In any event, old players once they lose pace, they can lose a lot of it in a hurry. And that's especially detrimental for Liverpool, who must athletically dominate the transition from midfield to the forward line in order to be successful. And if they miss a beat they can fall pretty far, as we saw the year VVD got injured. As far as City goes i definitely trust in Guardiola and their organization's ability to find players. But even for them, the likelihood of getting meaningful contributions from players who aren't on their roster is still a stretch. So either they have a rabbit's foot for their main contributors, that they are going to stay healthy and on form. Or they have a lot of trust in academy players who have few if any minutes of senior football.
i mean, that was a super freak year. they not only lost van dijk but both matip and gomez all at the same time so their backline became fabinho and a random kid, weakening both that backline and midfield. as for losing mane, they got diaz a half season to acclimate so he is not just a brand new signing and they are less reliant on jota's health. and, unless they sell firmino, they aren't completely reliant on nunez to carry immediately. this is an excellent point. they have had excellent luck with their primary contributors over recent years. (though, i think jitty would put that "luck" in quotation marks.) on top of that, they play a LOT of games every season, even with guardiola's rotating them in and out. you have to wonder how long that health can last.