Why the f would Partey put in a good word? Only if misery likes company… 
I’m not sure Buendia would cost £50m…but they would probably all on average work out at that cost. We would have to make a lot of money from sales this summer to help fund all of that!
And would we really want Onana…not sure I want a druggie in goal for us
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Well if Partey couldn’t convince him, I have every confidence that Arteta could…
There’s also the caveat that Xhaka becomes redundant with Saul. 
He won’t join, but that is another reason to go all in
I could live with that…maybe we could convince Inter with a Hakimi - Xhaka + £10m swap deal…that would be one off the list, £35m deal for Buendia and then go all out for Saul and Varane.
Varane is definitely the toughest one. Guy has won it all, is he prepared to start over?
I reckon Saul will be up for it. Lost his place in the national team too. He definitely needs something new and what better way than to reunite with Partey?
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I love the sincerity in which you two are having this outlandish conversation.
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Blame Arteta and the club for making it sound like it’s gonna be Madrid 2009 all over again. 
Wait Saul? Since when 
He’s available. Lost his place at Atleti.
No reliable source has linked him with us though.
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Santi Cazorla dislikes this post.
(As do I)
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There is no problem with small, lightweight players but when they are the only ones that Wenger picked, it meant we got overrun in midfield by stronger more physical sides.
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In 07/08 our midfield consisted of Rosicky, Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini and Eboue or Diaby and got rarely overrun. In 09/10 and 10/11 we had Song but we got overrun all the time. The smaller players were not the problem.
That’s true but after that we had a succession of smaller, light weight players that were also often injured like Cazorla, Sanchez, Nasri, Walcott, Arshavin, Wilshere, Rosicky, Arteta etc, with very few of the midfield or defensive power houses that we had when Wenger was successful.
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We say that but since Vieira left and then Gilberto, we became soft and we did get overrun. It wasn’t just our midfield but also our defenders. It was something that would be continuously highlighted by every pundit and ex player over and over again. It was also something our rivals targeted and exploited ruthlessly. It’s also clear to see from a fans perspective. The spine in our team was weak, and honestly has been until we brought in Partey (that’s the first proper strong midfielder we’ve had since Gilberto).
Our team isn’t soft anymore, So not so much as a problem as it was before.
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Better call Saul
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Smaller players are fine now, if you had a team full of big gangly fuckers you’d be forever conceding free kicks and getting cards because their elbow hit them in the face. Games about energy and running, aslong as you have a dominant keeper and tall cbs you’ll be fine.
Games soft now, you can’t really impose physical dominance over a team. You need agile runners in midfield to dominate a pitch nowadays like kante etc
Pundits always say lazy observations, truth is we were just shite at defending and shite at defending set pieces. Our midfield used to control the game against anyone. We got unstuck when there was a speedy little cunt like Rooney etc pressing our back line/deep midfielder.
Trying to think of the last time where a team physically dominated a team and the other team had no answer to it. I think it was when Man Utd played either the Europa League final vs Ajax or the Semi final vs Celta Vigo.
Gilberto hardly played a roll in 07/08 and 08/09 and our team didn’t get overrun. Because Wenger’s approach in his first 13 years was a lot more defensive and counterattacking. That is what we changed but we never made the right tactical adjustment. Our game post 08/09 was to have the front four combine in and around the penalty area of the opposition and have the backs push up far up the pitch, often with one of the double pivot joining in the attack. The centre backs and one of the double pivot fell back. That however leads to the single midfielder who stayed back being drowned in the midfield when we lost possession since we had seven players in front of the ball more often then not. A powerhouse enforcer is not going to solve that issue. That player gets overrun every time because he has to cover to much ground. Even the player with the greatest physical abilities would get found out.
It’s still an issue today. This what I have described is what cost us the game against Villareal. Wenger and Arteta try to implement the Dutch/Barcelona way but they fail. You need to keep the field has compact as possible by playing a high line and have the press figured out when you lose possession. But under Wenger we can’t press for shit in the latter years, and there is way to much space we left to exploit between the back line and the offense. That is the issue.