Dani Ceballos

We havent signed him though :roll_eyes:

Urgh. Thereā€™s no way Madrid let him go permanently.

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Him not being in the best relationship with zidane (and some other people in madrid) is quite handy atm, and could be even more useful at the end of the season if we want to buy him. Could turn out to be a very nice deal in the end if things go the right way.

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Who is this cunt?

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Some racist who hangs around colney

I sense you mean your source. I meant the player. :grin:

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He looks like a player who doesnā€™t absolutely piss his pants when put under pressure.

All of our midfielders are tier 3 (at best) when it comes to beating the press with excellent close control / body feint / awareness to change dribble direction.

One of the most horrible things about watching Arsenal in the last 24 months is how all of our central midfielders receive the ball and either one touch it back to the original passer, or take a safe option and pass it back to a defender. Weā€™ve missed a Cazorla type baller who can receive the ball, and in one move break the first defensive line in the centre circle region of the pitch. Without this quality, we become so fucking easy to mark because weā€™re so predictable. Opposition know that none of our central midfielders are capable of breaking the press with some skill / awareness so they can setup their banks of four / five and stop us with relative ease.

However, a player with the quality to turn / dribble out of the press opens up the final third massively, and pulls opposition players out of position, and who will often need to chase back because the ball has now moved way past them.

I desperately hope Ceballos is this kind of player.

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I hope Unai will deploy him at CM rather than the Ozil role. As you said, we need midfielders who can take a little pressure without pissing themselves.

See him as a Xhaka replacement in the starting 11. Hopefully Unai will so too. Enough of the stiff one-legged twat.

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Just to touch briefly on this point:

Whatā€™s insane is we have Ā£231m in cash banked up and we could easily spend half of that right now and still be in a healthy position.

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Except that this was the figure in the bank last year and the club probably suffered about a Ā£40-50 million operating loss for 2018-19, which would bring the current cash reserves down to Ā£180 to 190 million (they would have lost Ā£42 million in 17-18 had it not been for big player sales, which was not the case last summer, and both AST and SwissRamble expect the club will have been in the red for the first time since 2002). Another season out of the Champions League would lead to a similar loss and before long the cash reserves might be wiped out if they donā€™t invest wisely. They have some flexibility, for sure, but it would not be prudent to spend just to be spending or to get transfers done quickly just to appease fans (thus maybe spending millions more than might be necessary).

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It wouldnā€™t be done to appease fans, but get back in the CLā€¦

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Either way @SRCJJ @Moondoggie we can agree we have seriously conducted some bullshit approach over the last few years which has hurt us bad.

Basically what it tells is - is that each year we miss out on CL, we are more and more fucked
(no shit, Sherlock I know).

A lot of this started by not competing in the CL. Thatā€™s were we lost relevance and in turn revenue.
This is were Liverpool and spuds have now kicked on.
Round of 16 elimination is not enough.

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As if it isnā€™t still insane that nineteen other teams combined only have three times as much cash as we do lol

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We havenā€™t had a midfielder who is able to operate under pressure in tight spaces since Santi. Hope Ceballos can bring that to our midfield. (Mesut can to a certain extent but isnā€™t agile enough).

If he can help the team get top 4, thatā€™s all that matters. Guess weā€™ll have to worry about trying to keep him at a later stage if we want to.

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Yeah this really nails it and why pressing against them is phenomenally successful - zero composure (contrast with Cesc, Cazorla, Vieira), lack of quick thinking (contrast with Cesc), or any guile (you came at me too aggressively, so I just punch through the press with a quick move/twist (contrast with Cazorla)).

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This is the most strawman graph Iā€™ve ever seen.

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Please add another closed bracket I am triggered

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