Emerson Royal?
It’s beer battered tofu, hummus, cashew spread and greens on whole wheat.
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Not playing in Europe hopefully provides some impetus for more of a clear out. Arteta complained about the squad being too big this year (which it was) but without Europe you really don’t need more than 22-23 first team players. You don’t need five CBs, you don’t need five CMs, you don’t need 6-7 winger/attacking midfielders.
Edu will probably fuck it up but in an ideal world I’d like to see a squad like this one:
Strikers: Auba, Balogun
Three behind: Pepe, Saka, ESR, Martinelli, CAM signing
Central midfield: Partey, CM signing, Xhaka, Azeez
FBs: Tierney, new RB, cheap backup LB, Chambers
CB: Gabriel, Saliba, Holding, Mari.
GK: Leno, cheap backup signing
Loan: Nelson, Willock unless we can sell him at a really good price
Ideally gone (although not realistic to successfuly sell all): Lacazette, Nketiah, Willian, Elneny (or keep him and sell Xhaka), Torreira, Guendouzi, Cedric, Bellerin, Maitland-Niles.
Big question for me is whether Saliba can adapt to the league/team quickly enough to push Holding for a starting spot (and whether Arteta will be able to work with him). I can’t see us pushing for top four next year if Holding is our main starting RCB.
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Yay the shit season is over and now hopefully we will get some investment in the team and get excited for next year. If we make signings like Bissouma or Berge I’ll be disappointed/deflated, those signings aren’t it. We also can’t afford to continue to employ mediocre af players like Xhaka (Elneny is better and fine as long as he’s like 3rd option).
When Arteta says we need to be ruthless he’s completely correct, but I just don’t trust his judgement. He’s done a lot of damage to us with his terrible judgment of talent. Like, imagine if Lyon weren’t complete idiots and sold us Aouar for 50m, my gawd we’d have been terrible this season. Probably even worse because Partey actually improved our midfield quite a lot, even tho he looks a lot worse under Arteta than El Cholo.
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Depending on the contract situation, I’d retain Guendouzi tbh
Issue with our midfielders is that, under Arteta’s tutelage, they look really poor. Guendo looked like a top young midfielder under Emery. Partey under Simeone was a beast in the CL. Willock, very poor here, goes to Newcastle and is breaking goal scoring records for them. Dunno if it’s good to keep these guys if we are only ruining their value.
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Erm, what? 
Obviously Kounde is brilliant but what about Saliba?
I feel bad for the kid now…
Yeah the stories about looking for a RCB aren’t encouraging for Saliba.
I assume Arteta is happy with Gabriel and Mari at LCB, but he wants to upgrade Holding.
The optimist in my says that Saliba will be one of the 5 CBs at the club, and he’ll probably be competing with Holding to get game time.
Arsenal Vision did a podcast with Matt Spiro recently - makes you want to dropkick Arteta in the ballbag for not bringing Saliba into the squad last summer. The kid never needed a fucking loan to be ready.
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Tbf, I did agree that he had a rough season at ASSE having watched him in his second season. I think a loan wasn’t really a bad idea to regain his fitness but not registering him for Europa was ludicrous, especially after they failed to find him a club.
It seems like he is close to Guendouzi so I wonder if he said something stupid that pissed Mikel.
Arteta is clearly unsure of Saliba, and Ornstein has us actively looking for a right-sided centre-back. That tells me that we’re open to selling Saliba if the right bid comes in.
I see no reason why we shouldn’t at least break even.
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Kounde’s coming off the back of an awesome season, if we could land him, and I’m not sure we could then you go with him over Saliba every day of the week.
Kounde is not a possibility as even City balked at what he’d cost, he has a high release clause.
@Flexo If we did sell Saliba I don’t see us breaking even tbh and that’s through no fault of his own, we’d be taking a loss there.
I was expecting more traction here. We are linked with the best defender in La Liga this season.
The guy made the squad for Euros. 
Have we considered the scenario of moving on Mari and letting Kounde, Gabriel, Holding and Saliba fight it out? Saliba has been playing LCB at Nice.
may struggle to attract
will cost around £50 million
is likely to want Champions League
centre-back
Good luck getting anyone to get excited about this one :ozil:
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Tbf, I heard the exact same thing about Gabriel, Partey, Pepe and others.
I’m all for reinforcing our defence further. Shouldn’t forget though that we had the 3rd best defence in the league this season, so there are other areas which need to be addressed, but this guy does seem to be quality and would improve our squad which is the aim of the game.
Not sure I would get rid of Mari, as think he has done well this season, plus Saliba and Kounde are both right-sided CBs and Mari and Gabriel are left-sided CBs. I would still keep holding in the squad, but agree we could upgrade. Interesting to see what we do with Saliba. I know he is a right-sided CB, but he can play the left-side as well. Would be curious to know from anyone who has followed him while on loan on which position he has played…assuming they play a 4 man defence.
From various clips and reported lineups it looks like he has been playing LCB. Todibo was the one at RCB.
I’m not surprised tbh. Ball-playing CBs can play on either side. David Luiz, Ramos and Diego Carlos are good examples.
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I highly doubt the severe importance of what foot a CB uses. In theory? Yes. Over a whole season? Doubtful.
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I think it matters on limited players like Holding. There was a period he played as LCB and he always got himself into trouble because of it.
Modern CBs and players in general are much more flexible.
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Kounde’s height scares me a bit. His aerial statistics are actually very good but playing CB at 5’10 in La Liga may be a different proposition than in the Premier League.
I realize that he has other very good qualities but for 50m you’d ideally like a player who doesn’t have such an obvious potential drawback.
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His leap is insane, don’t worry.
Funnily enough, I think taller centre backs tend to be unreliable in the air at times. They rely too much on their height and their timing is off.
Case in point, Holding.
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