Ollie Watkins

When people talked about transformational players, I believe we just need a few good pieces here and there, and most importantly we keep our core players healthy then we are good.

Yes, Sesko is great, Gyokeres is great…
If we can’t get those, it is not like we are out of the race all of a sudden.
Health is far more important.
When we were healthy (last season), we scored record number of goals and could compete with any team in the league.

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Mokbel said Arsenal have been exploring this deal in recent days.

Seems like it’s between him and Gyokeres as things stand.

This deal makes no sense given January’s availability.

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Well, that was a complicated one because Villa had Duran as well and they received a massive bid from Saudi at the time.
Once the Duran deal went through, their need to sell Watkins midway through the season wasn’t there.

I’m not sure how willing Villa would be to sell now though. They ended up sorting their PSR concerns for the last accounting period. Maybe they’re still open to selling Watkins but I think it’ll take a significant fee either way.

Any idea why Duran is on his way back to Europe?

I’m guessing that working in Saudi Arabia isn’t for everyone.

Enticed by the money, but then the reality of your choice becomes apparent.

Or both?

Honestly, it’s a bit of a mess mate.
Apparently the player wanted to go back to Europe himself. He had a very bright start but then the following months involved him missing a buckload of chances that cost his team, receiving silly cards or even getting sent off, that seems to have turned fans against him. There were games that they were booing him even.

Al-Nassr were open to letting him go because they were planning an overhaul anyway this summer. He was offered to a few clubs(incl. Man Utd) but Fener were willing to cover his entire wages which was appealing to both the club and player.

Can one play LW?

This would be a terrible signing. I think Watkins is a decent player but signing him would not convince me that we’re serious about winning the league.

Let’s get Madueke and Watkins.

The dream attacking signings we all hoped for years.

And trust me guys… The meltdown hasn’t even started yet.

:gabriel:

Watkins isn’t going to be our main striking signing, if we can get him cheap then more cover is great. Nor is Madueke going to be anything other than a squad player to back-up Saka. Our big ticket attacking signings are increasingly looking like Goykeres and Eze.

With Vieira, Nelson and possibly Trossard leaving we have space for all of the above. Nwaneri is going to be Odegaard’s back-up hopefully.

https://x.com/DeadlineDayLive/status/1943623295644860454?t=y06rokIi6jvWCatBKYpJhQ&s=19

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Such a nice update there

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If our transfer ins end up being Watkins, Madueke, Kepa, Norgaard, Zubimendi, and Mosquera, that would feel like quite an underwhelming summer window. No name to be particularly excited about

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Also makes it hard to justify the last two windows…

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Yeah this won’t go down well

If we’d got Watkins in January and then upgraded to Gyok in the summer it wouldn’t be so bad, but if he ends up being our main striking reinforcement that’ll be incredibly underwhelming…

Whole point of us not agreeing to spend big on Watkins in Jan was so we could afford better this summer.

Would rather we’d signed only Isak than if we end up in a situation just signing backups and similar-level replacements

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these lot are full of crap rage baiters.