I don't see how Tonali would work or how he was ok with his agent floating that idea. Too many "peak" MF to find them all min. When everyone is healthy does Tonali get on the field over Rice, Zubi or MO/Kai..... doubt it. At 25yo is he willing to sign on to be a backup..... doubt it. Wharton makes sense. His age and status allows him the flexibility of being a backup learning to take over for Zubi. But that would be a damned expensive backup and he is only 4yrs younger than Zubi. I get the idea of keeping him from a rival, but I think I would rather make a run at Bouaddi. He's 4yrs younger that Wharton (8yrs younger than Zubi), would also be HG, is arguably similar quality and would cost less money.
@ArsenalMetro made the argument above for a 3-headed rotation of Tonali, Zubi and Rice which is what got me thinking about they way they are playing now, where Rice and Zubi are putting a ton of miles on their legs and who could slide in and not be a huge drop off. I'm all for Bouaddi if Arteta/Berta believe in him. 100m is too much for this kind of purchase, something like ~75m would be reasonable and a better use of money than what they did for Eze last summer. There's probably a supply and demand thing with these players, Liverpool, City and United could all be in the market for Tonali, Wharton and Anderson. I wouldn't want a bidding war but could be one that slides through and is available for less than everyone thinks.
I wasn't thinking about the "3-headed" concept (missed that above) and could see that as something Arteta might entertain. I could see Tonali being a good option for that at the right price. Could also see Bouaddi being that option as well but may not be the immediate impact of Tonali.
There are rumors that we're interested in Aleksandar Stankovic. 20 yo promising CM with Club Brugge (came up thru Inter)with good passing range. We were linked to him last summer. He looks like he'd be a good understudy to Zubi.
Saw that too. Makes sense to some extent because the Italian league has a habit of going after good players past a certain age (Giroud, etc). Saw a video about how broke the league is and its one of the things they do to get quality at a lower cost . I really like Jesus and think he'll be sorely missed. Obviously we must buy right as a replacement if/when he goes. If the rumors of Alverez are true, it might be a game changer. Anyway, Jesus has been really effective. Recall his first few months with us before he got hurt. His injury was hugely damaging. He was hot at the time, scoring regularly.
Some rumors floating around that Arsenal & pool are sniffing around Christian Pulisic. His current deal expires in 2027 and Milan has been slow to the table for extension talks.
27, will be 28 in September. I liked him a lot when he was at Chelsea. But agree...cough....spit...with he who shall not be named and we should invest in youth. Regrets about Sesko not coming still but I will still hope and pray for Gyokeres to find his footing and score a lot more.
I think this is probably agent talk to spur contract talks. As a fan of Pulisic with the USMNT, I'd say pass with Arsenal. He's not built for the EPL. Stay in Serie A. He's doing great there.
Alvarez makes even more sense now given Kai’s fragility. Which is a shame since Kai looks so good when healthy.
He has been relatively healthy preceding last calendar year… I don’t know if he him playing a lot of Bundesliga minutes before 20 is catching up with him.
All the minutes in his first season and a half at Arsenal. Worrying for the other players that have had absurd minutes under Arteta.
i think we need to transfer in trossard, both attacking gabriels and maybe loan one of gyok or kai and buy alvarez and a left winger
I'm not that worried about Eze, Arsenal is probably the most complicated team he's ever played for I'm confident he'll come good. I also don't think Arteta has built out what exactly Eze is intended to bring yet. Similar to Rice's original utilization compared to what he does for us now. I'm more worried about Saka's body.