I guess they realise that Tonali and Guimares is as good as anything on the leagues, so it is better to cheat FFP by doing dodgy deals with Forest than to sell a star player.
If Newcastle are serious about the Champions League, Botman, Tonali, Bruno, Gordon and Isai cannot leave.
Bruno G would be prohibitively expensive. Newcastle have clearly stuck with their price tag. To them he’s a £100m player and we aren’t going anywhere near that.
Merino is a robust, dependable and highly capable medium term solution. Big improvement on Elneny in terms of level, and big improvement on Partey in terms of availability.
We are stronger with Merino and I suspect even more difficult to score against. He’s a duel monster by all accounts.
He also solves a problem with who you play alongside Rice in our midfield. Partey isn’t reliable fitness-wise. Jorginho is more than dependable but can’t be expected to play 3 times a week and then you’re into attacking options that upset the balance of our midfield and put too much on Rice.
God the reminders of us being linked to Bruno g certainly make me a lot more excited about merino.
Get it done!
I’m coming round to this but would have still preferred Ruiz over him and I’m still a little underwhelmed. Really wanted a statement signing in midfield. Makes lots of sense. He is versatile and signing him doesn’t preclude us bringing in a top midfielder next summer. I’m also at the point where i trust Arteta and Edu so willing to get behind this.
I think Ruiz is just too expensive after the euros, scoring a few goals will have inflated his stock even more.
Can picture him in the Jorginho role still allowing rice to bomb forward but if mikel thinks merino can fill that role well enough for half the price then fair enough. Better to go big on the attacker or save for an even bigger midfield target next year if we believe one will be available.
Imagine spending 60m on Ruiz this year then we can’t compete for a wirtz or musiala next year so have to watch them go to city/madrid.
Is this cunt making stuff up?
https://x.com/now_arsenaI/status/1818741523309105218?t=Ue0LMkWR8IA40z_c51gaAw&s=19
Accepted now according to him
https://x.com/now_arsenai/status/1818911169127575830?s=46&t=AXaXFdGpC85RzXwk6DBMgA
Well that’s made up.
Purple Panel now reporting it too
https://x.com/purplepanel/status/1818932340090875907?s=46&t=AXaXFdGpC85RzXwk6DBMgA
Cool, just need a winger now
Who tf is purple panel?!
Yep, sealed.
Move the thread, Mikel is a red.
His finishing seems a bit low there.
A reminder of his PL days.
Can’t wait to see him linking up with Odegaard again.
Expecting him to fit in right away. He wont need six months to turn on like Havertz.
He’s an experienced player in his prime time (credit to Rio) years, he’s basically the same profile as Xhaka was in his last years here, except better. Should fit in effortlessly.
With him and Rice, plus with Odegaard pressing like mad too, we should be winning every possible duel in midfield from now on.
Plus, with a other tall player, seems we’re becoming pretty much unoutchable at set pieces lol.
Are those transfer sources above, legit? If so this is great news, his average rating for Real Soceiadad across the season was very high too.
Does Ode take over the #10 with Merino taking #8? I’m not sure I feel okay with Merino getting the #10
I never watched him closely. Looking at his compilations, he makes a lot of sense and at 25m, it makes even lot more sense.
Good acquisition.
Confirmation from a more reliable source now:
