Transfer Wishlist

[Stroller]

I always have this secret dread of that water carrier Phillips ending up here.

[The_Invincibles]

No need to worry as we are going to spend £92m on Rice.

[SuperArsenal1886]

@The_Invincibles

That’s the situation we are in now though. There is a very good chance that after the summer window, Partey will not be our first choice DM. That’s the progression we are making as a team and have to accept that IF we want to challenge for the PL title and Champions League.

Yups, in that case I’m happy we’re in this position. Spending £45m on Partey to start was our intention and it works well. Now we’re in a better position, if we spend similar or more money; that person will likely replace him and he’ll become a bench option — that’s what I was trying to say.

@Wivenswold

Re. “Saka’s shocking form”.
Re. “Anyone who costs more than £40m, should be an instant starter/improvement over our first 11.” Yes because every £40m+ signing in EPL history has been a success because that’s how it works.

Saka’s form has been shocking for 6 weeks; do you disagree?

If you spend £40m+ on a player, it’s cause you want them to start, not be a bench option. Unless you have infinite funds — once they’re embedded in your team, and you progress as a club; you’ll likely spending similar or more money on a better player — and that better player you’ve just bought… will be a starter, not a bench option. That’s my point.

Pepe didn’t work out for us… but we didn’t spend £72m so he could be on the bench. The intention was for him to be a starter. He just flopped

@Powderfinger

They bought Grealish for 100m and stuck him on the bench last year!

Phillips and Ake were also >40m and explicitly bought for the bench.

They didn’t buy Grealish for £100m so he can be an impact sub lol. He was on the bench, cause he wasn’t performing well and was still learning the system. He was bought to be a starter; whether that takes 6 months or 2 years, the plan was for him to start.

I’ll give you Phillips and Ake; outliers can be found everywhere I guess. But no club in their right mind just plops 40, 50, 60m for bench players — unless they are young with an incredibly high ceiling.

[Powderfinger]

@SuperArsenal1886

They didn’t buy Grealish for £100m so he can be an impact sub lol. He was on the bench, cause he wasn’t performing well and was still learning the system. He was bought to be a starter; whether that takes 6 months or 2 years, the plan was for him to start.

I’ll give you Phillips and Ake; outliers can be found everywhere I guess. But no club in their right mind just plops 40, 50, 60m for bench players — unless they are young with an incredibly high ceiling.

I don’t believe City bought Grealish to be a starter or a sub, that’s not how Pep thinks about team construction. He wants about 15-17 field players that are good enough to be starters, who can compete for places, and who he can rotate between without much drop in quality. And he’s willing to pay big money for players to put in that group.

That’s what we need to do too if we want to compete with City.

[SuperArsenal1886]

Ok, so "potential to start’ in that case.

[Mondo]

“The currency is minutes,” as Clive would say.

[Powderfinger]

@SuperArsenal1886

Ok, so "potential to start’ in that case.

Yup, and we need 15-16 field players like that. Right now we have maybe 11. We’re not going to catch City simply by signing more Sambis and hoping for the best. We need to bring in ~4 top players this summer who can push the current starters for their jobs or at the very least come in and show minimal drop off.

[SuperArsenal1886]

100% agreed. We need to steer clear from any more Lokonga’s and Vieira’s.

[Wivenswold]

@SuperArsenal1886

Saka’s form has been shocking for 6 weeks; do you disagree?

“Shocking”? No. “below his early and mid season form” Yes.
I remember Gus Ceasar, Igor Stepanovs, Marouane Chamakh, Andre Santos and Colin Pates. You don’t know what “shocking form” is.

[SuperArsenal1886]

Saka’s literally been our worst attacking player for a good while.

When we had Chamakh & Santos (I don’t remember the others), we weren’t going for the title.

Different standards.

[Wivenswold]

I offered you “below par” but you’re sticking to “shocking” are you?
I fear a lot in life is going to disappoint you.

[GC-Maniac]

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1655865010558578690

[Pires]

I’d much much rather have him than Mount if we’re already going for such a player.

[SuperArsenal1886]

Oh, cry me a river. Honestly

[InvincibleDB10]

Out:
Nketiah
Xhaka
ESR
Pepe
Lokonga
AMN
Nelson
Vieira
Holding

Around 150m

In:
Osimhen
Rice
Caicedo
Maddison
Decent starting CB/RB

Just over 300m

Which is a net spend of more than 150m.
Very little of this will happen but we could win the title with these players.

[Truth_hurts]

We could win the title with that. Who would you go for if Osimhen wasn’t possible?

[InvincibleDB10]

@Truth_hurts

Who would you go for if Osimhen wasn’t possible?

Haaland.

[Jesseviolin]

Regardless of the names you’ve mentioned I really can’t see the club getting rid of 9 players and only bringing in 5 seeing as we’re back in the champions league.
I doubt any of our youth players are ready to step up either, on your out list I see 4 or 5 going out.

[InvincibleDB10]

I doubt many of those transfers happen but although there are several players we have to get rid of, only a few of those players on the list still get games with us.
Some are on loan and of the others, it’s unlikely we’ll miss them so those places could be filled by younger players.

But we certainly lack a depth in quality and Arteta will have to balance between getting the top quality players we need to push on and squad depth.

[Jesseviolin]

Do you know how Pepe has been getting on? I’ve heard nothing on here is he even alive?