Contract expiring in 2023.
@Phoebica what’s the low down on this fella?
Refusing to sign a new contract
I really like him (obviously). Really good scoring record and still only 21. Superstar in the making. Which means I don’t think we’ll have a chance of landing him.
He has been linked with Dortmund a lot, replacement for Haaland I assume. But apparently Juve are after him now too.
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Weren’t most of those guys you mention in your post nobodies or flops when we got them lol
It’s not like we were out buying prime Maldinis and R9s in the 90s, we went out and got players who were up and coming or under the radar and turned them into stars.
Which is exactly what we’re trying to do now haha
I think you’re wrong here mate, I know you’re a pessimist but you’ve got the wrong of the stick imo.
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I just wish we would trust our young strikers more.
DCL would be fine, but is a position so unneeded.
Och, who cares anymore
I just don’t think they repay that trust.
Nketiah and Balogun just don’t look like PL strikers to me, maybe lower league PL strikers at best.
And despite how much I like Martinelli, it’s still unclear whether he’s a striker or a winger.
I’m not convinced our youth strikers are the answer.
The difference was we had a manager who knew what he was doing and turned all of them into world class players.
Arteta does the opposite.
The reason I’m pessimistic is because the board have chosen a novice, rather than a proven top level manager.
When they signed Arteta, I said he would drag us down to mid table level, which he has, and I’ve seen nothing to indicate this is going to change.
Whose on your wishlist then mate?
- Martinez - don’t think he’s agreed an extension yet so expires 2023? (Although still very unlikely)
- Vlahovic - one of the best young striker prospects - so unlikely
- Calvert Lewin - has everything you want in a striker, but Everton would probably charge a fortune
- Watkins - great potential and given they have Ings probably cheaper than DCL - plus I saw him play for Exeter before
- Toney - I know the least about him, and whilst I know he’s playing for a lower level team, he’s not exactly taken the league by storm
Some others I’d love to see but have little info on:
Maxi Gomez from Valencia
Adeyemi from Salzburg
Gabriel Barbosa from Flamengo
Damsgaard from Sampdoria
Darwin Nunez from Benfica
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If Ramsdale continues to be solid, many fans will just have to admit they aren’t the best scouts. It’s not our job anyway. It’s up to the club to have competent staff for player recruitment. I don’t know enough about Toney yet, for example, but I won’t rule him out either.
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Let’s be fair now, as well as he’s started the season for us, would he still be seen as good value for the the £40/45m potential transfer fee that was being reported at the time, that most fans were taking exception to?
I didn’t see many/any comments saying he was an awful player, they were almost entirely focussed on the value for money, and whether the money would be better spent elsewhere on the pitch
I get what you’re saying, but the club does seem to make some astonishingly poor decisions that were blindlingly obvious to a lot of fans
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I’ve been on this forum for about a couple of months so I am not familiar with comments here while the club was going after Ramsdale, more at the Arsenal Mania forum where practically everyone was panning him and didn’t want him no matter the price, and definitely not for 30m. I don’t know if there was a big difference here in this forum, 45m vs. 30m, and/or similar comments about a suspect player who apparently was a contributor to two clubs getting relegated.
Thing is these guys are all good players for a team fighting for 10-5 maybe 4th at a push. So whilst they will improve us they don’t bring the club back to where it belongs amongst the top teams of English football.
In my opinion both those points of views are correct, DCL is better than what we have now, because of age, physicality and possible resale value, but is he good enough to win a title? Nope. The same goes for players like White, and I would even argue ESR and our other youth prospects in our squad (despite recent performances) we only have two actual world class players. Aubameyang and Partey. One has been missing through injury and doesn’t have good enough players around him and the other has been on a downward trajectory for over a year.
This is why the coach is so important, our players are not good enough to win the league but the right coach could get us back into the top 4 consistently and then we won’t have to shop around wIth these kinds of quality. If we continue with this wanker and at our current trajectory then we going to be mid table for a long time.
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Good comment, but I would say Saka is our most important player, ahead of Auba and Partey. Both Auba and Partey have been world class, but not at present. If Partey stays injury free I have confidence. Auba is a bit of a mystery at this point.
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Putting so much responsibility on Saka (and by extension, ESR) is part of the problem.
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Also a perfect example of why we are where we are
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Saka is running on fumes, I’d like to see a bit more of ESR left and Pepe right.
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True, but are we talking merit and potential, or handicapping certain players because of responsibility considerations? Not being awkward for the sake of it, but there is a lot being conflated in there regarding ranking and assessing our players.
This is carry over from Arteta’s management last season. There should have been more smart rotation with Martinelli and Pepe. It’s the more complex criticism I have of Arteta despite Saka and ESR doing well.
Take away that Spurs game and Saka has been below average
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It’s not really Arteta’s fault that Saka played a summer tournament though. I do agree with you though that he needs to be careful with both ESR and Saka although I wouldn’t criticize him there just yet.
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