Cody Gakpo

I’d be surprised if we get much more than 21 league goals out of Saka and ESR next season, but one can hope.

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I think Saka will be fine. He’s been on steady rise ever since he broke through. Proper year on year improvement so far.
ESR is a worry though, not so much his ability but his fitness. We didn’t think too much of it last year but this year it has come back to bite us. Not only is he not available as much, but even when he is he clearly isn’t fit which is evident from his performances.

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Yeah Saka is a :star:. He’s the only one of youngsters that I believe has top tier potential.

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Anyone noticed that the majority of big money moves from Eredivisie have flopped?

Look at this list:

Dutch lads, care to explain?

Exceptional talent, physically strong, a good finisher and an eye for a pass.

He’ll be a big part of Holland’s World Cup campaign in the winter. Hope he’s an Arsenal player by then.

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Would you prefer us get Sterling ? Gnabry or Gapko ?

Getting Sterling and Osimhen would be best window we’ve had.
Who needs defensive players anyway? :grinning:

Would be nice to get another Dutch Arsenal icon/hero/legend.

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I think I’d prefer Gakpo. His age profile suits Arteta’s project and something really excites me about him.

Sterling would want to be the main man and demand huge wages. Gnabry I’m not sure about, he may well come here and flop. I haven’t watched much of him this season, no idea what shape he’s in.

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That’s a huge endorsement.

I’ve only seen the highlights but Gakpo seems to score a lot of goals from distance.

The last Dutchman to play for Arsenal is RVP too.
You would have thought we would have dived into that market the past decade.

Yeah it’s been a shit period. We badly need Dutch blood at the club.

OA is lucky to have several Dutch on here.

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looking at the top 10 there nearly all of them appear to have left under the age of 21 or so. Maybe they’re leaving too early?

also

" Last summer, Arsenal were the Premier League’s highest spenders in transfer fees, bringing in six players for a reported £140 million. This summer, the strategy is different: Arsenal hope to add a smaller number of players, but lift the quality of the squad substantially."

wtf. We need both though. Even if we extended with players like Köfte Kaká for another year we still need a thiccer squad, otherwise we’ll be on our knees in Feb/March next year again I worry.

also @Bl1nk is there any talk in Dutchland media with substance about Gakpo coming to Arsenal?

That recent group of hyped PSV wingers/wide forwards is pretty sobering if we’re being honest - Lozano, Malen, Bergwijn, Memphis. All have looked pretty mediocre at their next club.

I’m not saying that Gakpo will end up the same but its very hard to judge these Eridivisie players.

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Add in Kluivert, I think it is not so hard to judge and the reality is most won’t become top players when leaving Eridivisie.

Odds are stacked against them.

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I think that is meant in terms of starters or marquee transfers.
Like, last summer 4 players we signed were signed to be slotted into the starting team right away.

Edu made a similar interview in Portuguese where he said we’ll sign one or two players and people lost their minds over it, but it was lost in translation that was meant as two big/marquee signings.

This clarifies that:

20220526_031924

“It’s difficult for me to assess Gakpo because I don’t watch much (any) of the Eredivisie.”

I think the only concrete links that I’ve seen so far were from around January time from a reputable PSV mouthpiece (journo) about us seriously considering him. Other than that, a lot of (good) smoke surrounding this, which leads me to believe there is a good chance we’re at least looking at him.

The reason I like this is because is because of Gakpo’s profile. Some won’t like that he’s still in his early development, but as far as I can tell, he’s very well thought of in the Netherlands (see @Bl1nk), has a big frame/tall, posting good numbers (albeit in the Eredivisie), dynamic to the point where I think he is clearly a striker but has been played on the wings predominantly. He has signed an extension with PSV until 2026, but I get the feeling the price point compared to an Osimhen or Nunez for example is half of what is being thrown around for them.

Going back to his height, I think it’s a big benefit to be looking at this as a key piece of detail to consider. I think we’ve massively improved from set pieces this season thanks to Jover. Adding a forward with a potential height difference by my understanding gives us another advantage, especially in some of the route one stuff we played towards the end of the season.

I think he would be a great signing and perfectly compliments our forward line. Signing Gakpo + Jesus provides much needed competition across the front line and hits both the striker/wide forward positions we need to upgrade at the same time.

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Starts for Holland against Wales. Game just kicked off.