I thought the first offer was £60 million and the second was £65 million ! ? Guess these are just nonsense tweets
Three points on dealing with Brighton. First, all the reporting suggest Arteta was the one driving the Ben White deal, not Edu. Second, Trossard had already tanked his transfer value by insisting he wanted to leave. In this market he appears to be worth every penny Arsenal paid for him. BTW Brighton had the same reaction to Caicedo expressing a desire to leave that they had to Trossard expressing a desire to leave, they banned them from team training, in Caicedo’s case until after the transfer window closes. Finally, Arsenal at one point had expressed an interest in Bissouma, but they walked away from Brighton’s valuation
+1 nice post! Not only for it's reasoning, but for it's measured, civil, restrained tone. We need a bit more of that around this forum. And a lot more of that around the world.
Regarding Declan Rice... I'm no expert in player transfers, but from what I know about him, including the fact that he's English, and I believe he'll still have a year left on his contract this summer... I'd be a little shocked if Arsenal didn't have serious competition (maybe bidding war?) for him in 6 months. IOW, don't count any chickens!
This is the simple reality that is constantly ignored and which the likes of @Rewinder won’t or can’t accept. There’s not even any actual evidence of the common criticism (levied here by @mebeSajid and @Super Llama) ‘tunnel vision’ that we hear of Edu. (I’m not intending to use the tags to call people out; I’m just consolidating one thought that I think can serve as a response to multiple arguments.)
You’ve made this assertion several times, but it feels like an assumption of facts not in evidence. Got links to any reporting that supports this?
I think this discussion is probably premature--we can wait to hash it out after January is over. But being three days away from the end of a transfer window without a single acceptable backup CM doesn't seem to be representative of a healthy transfer management process, to my eye. Yes, possibly things will change in three days. But look--clearly Edu and Arteta have been given significant financial resources, more than any Arsenal transfer team have ever had. The people in charge of Arsenal transfers can not claim that as a limiting factor anymore. Really, when it comes down to it, if you buy Caicedo for 60 million or whatever, you're paying a 55 million pound tax on the fact that your transfer team can't identify this kind of player when they're worth 5 million in the summer window. I don't think Edu has really had any success on that front whatsoever. So \ I don't really know what he brings to the table, tunnel vision or not.
I have to believe that even though Edu hadn’t officially taken over yet Martinelli was his decision. Who else at Arsenal could identify a teenager in the fourth division in Brazil. In addition, while Tavares doesn’t fit Arteta’s system, Arsenal will almost certainly make money off Tavares by selling him to a team that uses wing backs. So Edu avoided the “tax” on Martinelli and will benefit from the “tax” on Tavares. In addition, had Partey not been injured in the summer Mudryk might actually be an Arsenal player now at a “pretax” price. Finally, back to Caicedo, there were a whole lot of teams that missed on him, including United who were actively looking at him before deciding to pass before Brighton signed him.
It’s not clear that center midfield cover was on the list before Elneny’s injury. Whether that was wise or not is a different question. It wasn’t last summer that Caicedo was available for that little, it was the summer before. But even looking at any player that blows up that we weren’t in for when they could’ve been had for cheap kind of illustrates the point made by @The Jitty Slitter: we don’t know jack shit about what is actually going on based on the surface level reporting. Nobody knew anything about our interest in Vieira or Kiwior before they were done deals. Is that because we got them done super quickly or because the media didn’t get a tip-off from a team or agent or family member, etc?
Thanks for that. I think it’s pretty scant evidence given the way this shit is reported (see above), but fair play for producing something that supports your stance.
The Athletic reporting on Muddy Mudskipper was quite interesting. Who knows how reliable the actors are, but it seemed the seller was preparing to hold till summer. I am not sure how serious they were about selling to Arse.
It's also not necessarily that teams miss on a player. Teams challenging for top 4 are not really able to give playing time to a project midfielder who needs lots of opportunity to develop. Lokonga is a player who would have been much better off going to a lower level EPL side where he can play - he isn't ready for play at the top end. Wumger was much more prepared to develop players who weren't quite good enough yet as projects which saved money, but also meant Arsenal were not competitive. I remember Arsenal playing Bayern one time with ramsey at wide midfield and he was awful!
Don't read The Athletic much, so not sure what/who you're referring to, but unless I'm mistaken Muddy is from this fabulous, animated Ren & Stimpy show from the 90's. Thank you for unearthing a part of my younger self! I'm waiting with bated breath to find out if this becomes the 2nd time in the last 24hrs that I'm enlightened as to currently popular trends in humanity. See calf implants. @yossarian did you notice how I just referenced another recent enlightenment that you helped me with? And seemingly under my belt now!
On left wing alone they have spent 135m Euros without including the add ons, which in Mudryk case could be another 30m Euros. They are literally at least three players deep at every position and while they have several U21 players that don’t count against the roster this year, they are going to run into the 25 man roster limit real soon. Instead of looking to buy more players they should be offloading players ASAP. Unless some of their injuries are season Enders, they, like Arsenal a couple of seasons ago, may end up with healthy players they can’t register for the second half of the season.
After their 2-1 win over Liverpool today, without Caicedo: “De Zerbi told reporters: "I would like him to finish the season with us, but we are ready to go forward without him."’
I've tried to do the math in my head for Brighton. Safe to say losing both Trossard and Caicedo this month would affect their chances at playing in Europa League, let alone Champions League. Assuming the latter is a bridge too far for them, what would they hope to glean from Europa? Maybe a net £20mm if they make a fair run? For some reason that's about where I put the math: if they can get 15-20mm more now than they would by selling him the summer, then it seems worth it to pull the trigger. But that's just me, some 4k miles away.
European competition is worth additional value in player recruitment and retention though. I don’t know their depth at his position, but presumably losing Caicedo now makes it more likely you lose other players in the summer and find it harder to replace them at a similar talent level again
Going up to 610 million? And a sign they are out for Caicedo? 🚨 Chelsea are back in direct talks with Benfica for Enzo Fernández. They want the player at all costs — Chelsea would be prepared to pay €120m fee. 🔵🇦🇷 #CFCBenfica president Rui Costa has still no intention to accept — but Chelsea will insist to get the deal done now. pic.twitter.com/CFhiVsv9no— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 29, 2023