Ollie Watkins

Low mileage?

Also so intent on having Duran as their long term striker that they’re actively negotiating to sell lol

Click, click, click

We all know the script (injured in his first game if he signs here)

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If we do sign him, will he able to play for us in the CL?

Yeah next round I think?

They did away with Cup-tied rules quite some time ago. 2018/19 I think

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This is why I love this forum. At lunchtime there were no real updates or new posts, and then I log on tonight and a new thread has been created and has blown up with activity.

I think it was only yesterday that @GC-Maniac was saying that regardless of all the links, the club were probably working on something behind the scenes which would come out of the blue, and he has been proven right again.

The move is unexpected, but I can fully get behind this for a number of reasons:

  • £60m in the transfer market now, is not a lot of money. Watkins is far better value for money IMO than some of the other players we have been linked with, such as Cunha.
  • Watkins is an Arsenal fan and would absolutely jump at the chance to play for his club.
  • He has only just turned 29 (his birthday was on 30th December). Auba was 28 when we signed him, so the age of the player doesn’t concern me. We can get at least 2-3 good seasons from the player.
  • He is a proven goal scorer in the PL. He stats last season for Villa were really impressive (27 goals).
  • I think he fits our system and the way Arteta wants us to play. With the amount of chances we create, he could be a very clinical striker for us.
  • While it would affect what we do in the summer, and raises a question whether we would then still look to sign Sesko, this does address a key position in the squad and means I can still dream that we are in for Musiala and Wirz in the summer.

The uproar about the timing of it.

Who gives a fuck. Window is open, you wanna sell, sell. You don’t, tell us to get fucked.

Constant mention of £40m +£1 incoming

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I don’t think we have intentionally made a bid just before their match…seems much more likely that Al-Nassr’s move for Duran may have forced our hand…Villa will not sell both of them. The hope I suppose is that Watkins helps them secure qualification tonight, but then puts in a transfer request to force a move to Arsenal. Very rare that we submit a bid for a player if there is no encouragement from the player.

Agreed. Lack of planning and just going mad in the final days of the window. Edu leaving has fucked us a bit in the short term.

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It’s not like anyone from the club has made a public statement just before the match. The leak could have come from within Villa.

Perhaps another £5m will ease that rage, they’ll also have a long term plan and getting over £100m in one window will help.

I don’t get the hate for Watkins…this would be a great signing for us. It has become pretty clear from updates from Ornstein (see my post from yesterday) that our main striker target was Sesko, but he isn’t going to move this January. That explains the lateness in the interest for Watkins, as he clearly wasn’t our first target, but also the situation at Villa is different now compared to the start of the window. If we sign Watkins, we are buying a PL proven striker who walks into our first team. What is there not to like?

@Pires in respect of Gyokeres, it was very clear from Ornstein’s update, that he wasn’t high on Arsenal’s agenda, and Arsenal wasn’t high on Gyokeres’s agenda…there are no legs to this move. Personally, I would opt for the player that scored 27 goals last season and plays in the PL, over a player who has an excellent goal scoring record but is unproven in the PL.

Keown just said it was a £50m bid on TNT, then added “allegedly” in a strangely elongated way.

£60m was the bid that was rejected they aren’t selling for that clearly, honestly what does being an Arsenal fan have to do with it? Means nothing to me

Watkins has never been a clinal finisher, last season he scored a respectable amount of goals but is that more so a one off than the norm?

Age should definitely be a concern because the fee it’d take to sign him and if signed we could be looking for another striker within two seasons , it can be a bad investment and chances are a physical decline is around the corner and for a player that is so heavily reliant on athleticism that is an obvious concern.

Just look at this season, hardly set the world alight has he

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In respect of the fee you’re correct, that’s the fee that’s been rejected, so obviously looking at slightly higher but would expect it to be in this ballpark.

As for the number of goals he scored, who was the last player for Arsenal that scored 27 goals in a season? I think he would score a lot of goals for us.

Yes he is 29, but we can get 2-3 good seasons out of him and if that means we win the Premier League, the money has been well spent.

https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/1884694427915976734?s=46

Fun while it lasted

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They were saved from themselves

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Why does it require other clubs to save us from this Arteta saviour complex.

Get good players.

Stop trying to fix flawed players. Especially when they won’t even be cheap with those flaws.

Get Ekiteke or however you spell it

Thank god. Spending over 60m on Watkins just isnt it

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