Didn’t Mail break the news regarding Kane and Grealish being top priorities for City last year?
I guess it’s important to pay attention who writes the stuff and how the news is being presented.
I guess it’s fair to say then that Tammy is the other striker in case Eddie leaves. Wheatley has also backed this recently too.
How do people feel about Tammy?
Better than Eddie and if the deal involves Xhaka going the other way do it.
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I think there’s a scenario where Chelsea sells Lukaku back to Inter and have another go with Tammy at CF by bringing him back
I think that is more realistic than Arsenal signing him
Never under Tuchel, and I think he would reject the move there if we’re also interested.
Btw, report says Nelson is coming back.
I can already sense people fuming.
I’m not particularly surprised by it. Arteta has a soft spot for him so it’s expected he’ll want to see his progress during preseason.
nelson apparently progressed quite well this season with Feyenoord.
I think Tammy would cost a silly amount of money and I’m not convinced atm that he is a better option than Nketiah. Nketiah is two years younger and I think he has shown he is a goalscorer with his form at the end of this season. Tammy has 17 goals in the league with 37 appearances. Eddie has 5 in 21, albeit a lot of those appearances were just as a sub at the end of the game. If you look at goals scored where he has started a game, he has a good return. Based on this, I kinda feel Eddie can match Tammy in terms of stats if given enough game time and starts.
If Nketiah doesn’t sign a new contract we need two new strikers, and for the price we would have to pay for Tammy, I think there will be better options out there for us.
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Tammy is also four inches taller than Eddie and I feel like he has a little more of that awkward build that can give defenders problems. He can run past them, he could bang them (easy) and yeah he can look a little bambi on ice but he looks like more of an Arteta player to me.
I think Arsenal thought they could sign him last summer too. Wouldn’t be shocked at all if they give it another shot.
If Roma win the Conference League I assume Arsenal could sell it to Tammy as “look, just leave as a legend and come take a run at top four with us and oh btw we’re better positioned to win the Europa League.” Whether it’s true is up for debate obviously.
Yeh Tammy is much more suited to the EPL long term than Nketiah but if we were to go into next season with Jesus, Tammy and Nketiah that wouldn’t be the worst. Not exactly barn storming on paper but in terms of practicality it’s not a bad set of goal scorers to attack an EPL and EL campaign with.
Id still obviously prefer a little more star power in terms of someone like Gnabry but it is what it is. A good summer doesn’t have to necessarily look world class on paper
I see a lot of question marks, gaps and concerns in this squad for next season at the moment. The level of investment and activity needed here is enormous in an extremely competitive space right now.
Start off with the number one priority - striker. Having lost the battle for 4th we are not even close to being favourites for the quality players out there atm. Spurs will have first pick of Jesus, Sterling and others. We’re hoping against hope that we can land forwards of that calibre atm so we’ll probably need to pay a huge fee and move very early to stand a chance. It’s clear that Arteta wants a very well-rounded CF and if he can’t get Jesus I really don’t see where the club go from there.
So for examples sake lets just say Jesus.
Priority 2 - Partey, Tierney and Tomiyasu are already squad players at this point. Their injuries are consistently bad and we need to find their equivalents/betters in their positions. It’s fucked up that both our full backs are crocks and realistically we can only strengthen in one of those two areas. Bringing in equally talented players as these three is going to be crucial in order to have any depth or opportunity to last the course with our rivals next season. We can’t be buying crap players to be their understudies again. So at the very least one combative midfielder and one full back should be added to the list, ideally bring in two fullbacks but that’ll be hard unless Bellerin gets another shot (sad last resort territory tbh, not even better than Cedric for me).
I’d say we could target a Neves/Bissouma/Ndidi/Rice deeper midfield type to compete with/partner Partey. Cheap ass way would be to bring back Torreira from the dead 
Hickey should compete with or usurp Tierney. If he’s not up to that then like Tavares he’s not good enough. He has to be on that level.
Priority 3 - Upgrade on Xhaka. It’s definitely time now to bring in a new starting calibre 8 whether we keep Xhaka in the squad or not (personally think we should for depth). Tielemans the only rumour that seems to be going around. Maybe we could revisit Maddison. We have to step up in this area really soon and it’ll cost a bomb for sure.
Priority 4 - We’re a CB light for sure. We’ve seen Holding can’t be relied on for any longer than a game or two. The wise move would be to bring Saliba back without any hesitation. No more fucking loans for him, it’s time that bastard investment comes to fruition.
Priority 5 - We can’t rely on Saka to play every damn game again. Pepe is as good as gone so we’re short. Other than a big signing like Gnabry I can’t see how we’re going to sort this out. Maybe we’ll have little choice but to resort to bringing back Nelson as dead as that is.
Priority 6 - Lets face it our options at LM are not good enough. Smith-Rowe and Martinelli are not ready to be those guys and might never be. While a forward like Jesus could play LW, either way it would leave a major void in the left or up top. It’s probably one of the least likely things, as well as RB or backup GK that will be addressed but it’s a very clear weakness. There’s no way ESR and Martinelli can hold that position down at a good enough standard for the whole season.
So overall I’m pretty much saying in an ideal world (so never happening) we bring in 1 forward, 2 wide men, 2 midfielders, 1 centre back and 2 full backs. So 8 signings/returning loanees. The absolute bare minimum has to be 4/5 key players which we’re certainly short of plus Saliba. Saliba HAS to return this time.
Wishing for options like this to start next season:
GK: Ramsdale, Reasonable GK backup
RB: New RB, Tomiyasu, Cedric
CB: White, Gabriel, Saliba, Holding
LB: New LB, Tierney, Tavares
CM’s/CAM’s/CDM’s: Partey, Odegaard, New MF, New MF, Xhaka, Elneny
RM: Saka, New RM, Marquinhos?
LM: New LM, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli
ST: New ST, Nketiah, Balogun
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Never going to happen.
Hard enough to convince Nketiah to stay as the number 2, no chance he stays to be 3rd choice without us playing a 2 up front system (which Arteta wouldn’t play).
Jesus and Tammy I’d be relatively happy with, but likewise if the other player was DCL/Richarlison etc. Not sure how much they’ll want for Tammy…
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I feel like Nketiah’s a complete dick head if he doesn’t sign on.
I don’t think he will have a life long career at this club but to have the opportunity to score goals for a club like Arsenal should mean something. He’s in the managers favour as well. And the fans no doubt appreciate his efforts in the last couple of months- I know I do.
At 22, if i were in his shoes, Id have another season or two at this prestigious club. He can spend the rest of his footballing life playing for mid table clubs.
For the record I’d love to replace him with someone like Tammy and be done, but I’m just talking about his circumstance as of right now.
He’s back to never playing as soon as Arteta’s hand picked striker turns up.
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But he’ll (rightly) point to his lack of gametime when the only opposition was Lacazette who couldn’t score to save his life.
Why would it be different when a new first choice signing joins, letalone if 2 signings come in above him.
He wouldn’t have much opportunity to score goals for Arsenal in that scenario barring injuries
He found game time during the Aubazette era, a year where £110m worth of strikers costing us £550k a week in wages couldn’t hit the broad sign of a barn.
Yes we’re going to bring in big striking players to replace those useless cunts but Nketiah needs to value what being involved in Arsenal means to him.
We have an EL campaign, 5 subs, there is a platform for him to step up from these last few months. This isn’t like Willock doing it for Toon. Nketiah scored these goals for Arsenal.
Ultimately it will be his choice but bias aside I know which one I would take
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Nah, it’s the other way around he’s fool if he does sign.
He won’t be 1st choice and he wants to play regularly not be a bit part player, he should know that this little run he’s on doesn’t mean a damn thing because once someone like Jesus comes in he will be playing ahead of him damn near every time.
Nketiah right now is not the managers favour, he is flavour of the month. Him staying doesn’t serve him it serves Arteta and the club.
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Eh, he didn’t start a game in the PL this season until mid April, well after Auba had been shipped off.
And the only reason he finally got picked ahead of Laca was as you said, he couldn’t score.
1st choice signing comes in and does get a few goals it would be even worse for Eddie
Nor should he be. He’s twenty fucking two as Taylor Swift once sang.
Why on earth should he expect to be our number one striker at that age?
Hell if he moves to a team down the table there are no guarantees he starts consistently for them either.
Most players would give an arm and a leg to be on the peripherals of a club like ours. If he’s given that opportunity and passes it by then I have no sympathy for the lad
That’s the thing he wants to be 1st choice or at least regular starter and he knows that will never happen here, I don’t think he has the expectation concerning Arsenal but backs himself to do so for a lesser team.
Man is done with the role he has been playing and there may be no guarantees he starts regularly for a midtable club but it’s far more likely than it would be here.
Most players would give an arm and a leg? I think that’s romanticism. Where are we going? Are we winning the biggest titles or competing in the best competition in Europe? Also when thats been your experience from day dot then you get tired of it which he clearly is.
Both he and AMN became dissatisfied here with such roles and others would too
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