I’m waking up to this thread being way too uninspiring given we’ll be 67 minutes into a league game vs Brentford at this time in 3 weeks.
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Man you know how it works. We won’t spend big unless we lose all our opening games tragically, which ironically is how Arteta came to the club- full circle as fuck.
Even worse we’ll do really well our first 3 games and decide we have more then enough to battle through the season
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Willian normally good in the first game at least
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I don’t understand why we would persist with a player so set on joining another club. Doesn’t that present a risk a season from now if we put down a 30m+ outlay on the player? He would be tied down to a contract, but what about commitment and impacts on dressing room spirit? Anyway, don’t know how true the rumours are, haven’t taken them too seriously, and maybe it could be all part of hardball negotiations for another player, e.g. Reuben Neves, i.e. trying to show Wolves we have other options.
I can’t fault the club here for trying. He’s probably the best candidate out there to replace Xhaka. Perfect profile to change the dynamic of our midfield.
He wants to go to Juve because he is a Juve fan and has given priority to Juve but he hasn’t refused joining Arsenal. He mentioned in an interview in the past that he is interested playing abroad.
Nowadays we get briefed on these moves and negotiations a lot but I doubt this is something new. Players will always have preferences and playing the waiting game sometimes pays off.
I don’t think we’re putting all our eggs in one basket though.
What we heard in recent days is that we won’t be waiting for long. We’ve heard that the club has enquired about Neves and he seems to be the alternative. The price doing the rounds on him is also 40m euros so I think that can be wrapped up quickly if/when the club gives up on Locatelli.
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Big oof.
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If Locatelli wants to go to Juventus and sees us as second choice, I’d prefer to go for someone else.
It’s not as if he is PL experienced so if we’re just replacing Xhaka we might as well go for a player like Neves who is already playing in this league.
I’d rather spend most of our budget on a top quality AM than buy two average players for both positions, who might not be much better than what we already have.
We’re essentially always at least second choice, basically nobody is signing for us if Juve, Real, Barca, Bayern etc are interested. Partey, Auba, Pepe, basically anyone else we’ve signed in recent years, we would not have been any of their first choices lol.
Seems an odd reason to not sign a player most people seem to think is quality. Whoever we sign instead of Locatelli would still prefer to play for Juve than us lol
It’s almost like you’re saying you want the club not to be ambitious and not to try to sign the best players available 
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Wish we’d never signed that cunt Henry. Was just biding his time before making the move he really wanted to Barcelona.
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If he liked us that much he should have signed for us and not Juve in the first place.
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But think of the poor Chelsea fans
Being second choice for a top level player from the PL is one thing but for any Italian player, who don’t have a great record of adjusting to the PL, it’s something else.
I doubt we’re anywhere near second choice anyway.
I take your point but it’s more to do with me preferring Maddison than Locatelli and I’m fed up with us wasting money every transfer window on players that we pay world class wages to and then can’t shift.
Just buy quality players from the PL.
They might cost more but in recent seasons we have wasted 300m on players that aren’t good enough and we can’t give away so it works out cheaper to pay for proven quality from this league.
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Yeah, that was doing the rounds yesterday.
Sounds to me like putting 2+2 together though.
Gonna have to wait for someone more reliable to confirm it though.
While we’re at it, who would guys prefer?
- Bernardo Silva
- James Maddison
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I change my vote to Silva. Better fitness and a value for money signing compared to madders
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Press the Show vote button to hide the result and then you can change your vote
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At the same price, Maddison.
But you’d have to think Silva would come cheaper than Maddison, and has the benefit of already being at his peak and would instantly be our best player
I rate Bernardo but two things give me a lot of pause. First, never scored more than seven league goals despite playing in a team scoring over 100. He’ll score some long range bangers but I think he is more of a facilitator than an end product contributing attacking midfielder. Second, I’m just suspicious of players who would see us as a clear step down and only come because we’re offering huge money. Is that the player you want as a leader and centerpiece of the project?
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Silva??? Poggers, now we are talking. Raise the technical level of the team please.
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Why’s it only the handsome people voting for Maddison?
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