I agree on the quality thing, that’s why I don’t want us to sign in Jan if it’s just for the sake of it, I think getting the quality is the most important thing. I’d probably have it at CB, LB, LW, CM, CB.
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Banega looks levels above the midfield dross we have, looks a genuine Cazorla replacement. Actually has decent close control, dribble past an opponent and thread a through ball all while being able to defend tenaciously. For 18m release clause you snap him up.
Also while our defense is shit our midfield is equally shit. No one can dribble, only Torriera can tackle and only Xhaka can do anything other than pass sideways and he’s a defensive liability.
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We need to get players who get Arsenal into the Champions League (read win the Europa League) and build from there.
One doesn’t really exclude the other either. We get Nelson back in the summer for example.
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I’ve said before the season; Ramsey was going to be Emery most advanced midfielder. Banega is going to replace an outgoing Ramsey. What will happen to Ozil nobody knows. But this we be a Torreira, Banega, Xhaka/Guendouzi midfield.
Even if he’s 30, if he’s a direct replacement for Ramsey that Emery knows and wants for the same kind of money we’d potentially get from a Ramsey sale then it’s a pretty obvious move imo.
I really don’t understand this notion of us not achieving anything and therefore only needing to build a young team that might do something in 2-3 years. If we spend all those years outside of the CL then none of those talents are going to want to stick around for very long.
We need short term solutions to get us near the CL before we start banking solely on the long term. There’s no reason we can’t sign both 20 year olds and 30 year olds.
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Also hands up how many people thinks we should of got young players like Morata and Lukaku over Aubameyang. And how about Mustafi over Sokratis?
Quality>Age
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This type of short termism signings will affect any chance we have of competing a season away from on.
Liverpool and Spurs are not high up because they made series of over the edge signings.
We need to build up our own core. There are plenty of players out there who can contribute as much as Banega who are just game time away from achieving so.
It’s not like Banega has had a consistent world class performances to back up taking this gamble.
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Heck this will be similar to United signing Schweinsteiger, Zlatan, persisting with Felliani etc.
Yes they contributed but the stagnation remained because once they left, the progress was back to square one.
They were late 30’s this guy is only 30 ffs he’s not drawing his pension just yet!
Lol what? Schweinsteiger is only 34 now. He was 30 going on 31 when United signed him, same as Banega.
Yeah but he was definitely past his prime that much was obvious and arrives with a very questionable fitness record. Banega has more to offer now than he did when he went to United.
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Not really, because those players were already definitely over the hill physically, and probably on £200-300k a week.
Sokratis and Banega would represent something like £35m of investment that we won’t get back, but they’d most likely be 2 starting XI players for 2 or 3 years which would be 2 slots we don’t have to worry about and that’s really not much for a rich club to spend on first team players.
You can’t overhaul your team in a single window and you can’t find the lesser known talent for every position every year. If we have gaps, they need addressing ASAP and the Ramsey situation is leaving us a big gap.
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I would say every player ages and declines differently, Luka Modric had the best year of his career at 33, while cesc (whoo indeed startet playing serious football at young age) wasnt a shadow of himself before hitting 30.
I like Banega but he does raise some questions due to injury history
Yeah but that’s not what Calum said. He said Schweinsteiger was late 30s when United signed him. He wasn’t. He was 30. I’m not far off 30 and when that time comes I most definitely don’t want to be referred to as being in my late 30s 
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Haha fair enough I thought they signed him when he was late 30’s 
he played like he did tho 
On paper we are building a core too tho. Holding, Mavro, Guendouzi, Torreira, Nelson.
My bad then haha. Don’t know what I was thinking.
I hope those players progress exponentially else that’s an average core tbh
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Won’t take no for an answer from the player.
Holding our targets to ransom like Suge Knight, boss shit.
Can imagine Carcedo dangling legs off a balcony.
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