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Football - City Bid the Wrong Type of Sterling


Philokles

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2 hours ago, JordanJH1993 said:

To be fair to WBA, they are quite good at what they do. I just wouldn't expect a player like Krychowiak to fancy moving from PSG to the PL to play in a team like a Pulis' WBA side. Good signing for them, though.



Presumably his intent is to put himself in the shop window so that a higher level team will be interested in buying him next summer once the loan ends.

Surprised no Prem teams seem to have been interested in Kamil Grosicki or Arek Milik given their respective situations. Both could improve a few teams.

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2 hours ago, Mexal said:

Also, latest rumors coming out of connected Arsenal people is that there is an issue with "available" funds which means we shouldn't expect anyone incoming. That is amazing. This is the worst run organization out there.

I find this to be quite shocking really and my initial reaction is to call bs on this. Seems more like propaganda to try and placate the fans for not making any more signings. Weren't Arsenal in for Lemar at one point after Lacazette was signed? And with Szczesny, Gabriel, Gibbs and now Ox sold, Arsenal are actually in the profit in terms of net spend this season. So that begs the question, where the hell has all the money gone? Kroenke's pocket?

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2 hours ago, JordanJH1993 said:

There is zero sporting ambition at that club anymore. Stan Kroenke is running it to fill his own pockets. I'd say that is the reason the funds aren't available; Stan is keeping the money for himself, happy enough to watch it coming in without ever spending it on the improving the team.

Kroenke is a huge part of why I delight in watching Arsenal fail.

Kroenke is an awful, awful man.

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1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

I find this to be quite shocking really and my initial reaction is to call bs on this. Seems more like propaganda to try and placate the fans for not making any more signings. Weren't Arsenal in for Lemar at one point after Lacazette was signed? And with Szczesny, Gabriel, Gibbs and now Ox sold, Arsenal are actually in the profit in terms of net spend this season. So that begs the question, where the hell has all the money gone? Kroenke's pocket?

From what I understand, the issue is our wages have gotten out of hand and we still have a lot of dead weight on the team. Players like Debuchy, Perez, Elneny, Coquelin, Wilshere, Cazorla, Mertesacker, Walcott, Mustafi, Chambers - depth in some instances which is needed, complete dead weight in others. They add to the wage bill without costing anything and really, one of the biggest issues was giving Walcott 140k a week for doing fuck all. If Arsenal wants to sign Sanchez/Ozil to new contracts, especially at the wages they're asking for (300k a week), they're going to need money available. It's pretty dumb. They got themselves into this mess and now are having a really hard time getting out of it. This is what happens when you pay mediocre players good salaries and are unable to move them when you finally realize they are meh.

56 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Some of the journalists close to Liverpool are saying 35m, and others are saying 40m, so 5m addons are probably involved. That appeared to be the price that Chelsea had agreed so it's not unreasonable for us to do so too; this market and everything.

Yea, I think the deal is 35m + 5m in performance add ons.

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So I've been lurking and reading this thread for the last 3-4 years, as I've become more and more of a football fan.  Along with watching a ton of games and talking to Mexal, it's helped me learn a lot about the sport.

But I've never really felt like I could add much myself.  Still probably can't.  But did want to respond to this.

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

Surprised no Prem teams seem to have been interested in Kamil Grosicki or Arek Milik given their respective situations. Both could improve a few teams.

Stay away from Milik!  He's fine right where he is.

I've slowly become an Arsenal fan, mainly based on the fact that I talk to Mex about sports a lot.  And I think it's been cemented this summer, as they've gone from a high of signing Lacazette (who will always have a place in my heart after some career mode heroics in FIFA 17) to a low of the total dysfunction of the past couple of weeks. 

But....I think the team I've truly come to love is Napoli.  We get to see a surprising number of Serie A games over here, and I started following them a lot last year.  Was kind of drawn to them after reading about Marek Hamsik and how he's stayed at the team in spite of opportunities to transfer to bigger clubs.  And then really got drawn in by their style of play.  Insigne, Mertens, Callejon, and Hamsik are a ton of fun to watch.

Anyway - they need Milik.  He's not going to be in the lineup most games, but he's really good depth and offers a dimension that they can't get from their other forwards.

What I'm really surprised about though is that nobody is trying to buy Insigne.  I know way less about the sport than all of you guys.  And I know he's small.  But he seems really really good to me.  Glad nobody has gone after him (other than some rumors a few weeks ago), and hope it stays that way.  But definitely surprised.

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21 minutes ago, Whiskeyjack said:

Anyway - they need Milik.  He's not going to be in the lineup most games, but he's really good depth and offers a dimension that they can't get from their other forwards.



Well, that's the thing really: he isn't getting into the team and he's far too good to be a bench player. That's why I think people could bid- no-one's bidding for Insigne because Napoli are famously hard to get players off but they won't be as bovvered by a backup player leaving.

I hope Zielinski keeps establishing himself in the team, too.

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6 minutes ago, polishgenius said:



Well, that's the thing really: he isn't getting into the team and he's far too good to be a bench player. That's why I think people could bid- no-one's bidding for Insigne because Napoli are famously hard to get players off but they won't be as bovvered by a backup player leaving.

I hope Zielinski keeps establishing himself in the team, too.

Oh yeah, I agree.  He should be starting somewhere.  And I think that was their intent when they brought him in, before he was injured and Mertens took over.

I just hope they keep him regardless.  I mean, Mertens has been awesome, but in addition to what I said above about depth, there's also the fact that he's 30, so no clue how long that will last.  Good to have a young talented player behind him.

But yeah, I get it.  When I look at the loaded teams like United, City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, Juventus, Bayern, etc., I'm always bothered by how much talent is just wasted on the bench, when they could be starting somewhere else.  Difference is, Napoli only has a few guys that could fall into that category, whereas those teams have a ton of them.

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42 minutes ago, Whiskeyjack said:

What I'm really surprised about though is that nobody is trying to buy Insigne.

In addition to what Polishgenius said about it being very difficult to negotiate with Napoli for first teamers, it should also be noted that Insigne bleeds Napoli. Chances of convincing him to leave Napoli at this stage is likely zero which is why Barca (nor anyone else) have even bothered with a bid even though he would have been an ideal fit for their LW.

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2 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

In addition to what Polishgenius said about it being very difficult to negotiate with Napoli for first teamers, it should also be noted that Insigne bleeds Napoli. Chances of convincing him to leave Napoli at this stage is likely zero which is why Barca (nor anyone else) have even bothered with a bid even though he would have been an ideal fit for their LW.

Yeah, makes sense.  Like I mentioned with Hamsik, thought that loyalty was a pretty awesome thing and part of what originally drew me to the team.

I've read Hamsik's Players' Tribune article where he talks about it.  Guess he's not the only one who feels that way. 

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Napoli sold Pavoletti today, so that is some of the competition gone, though it will probably make Milik more of an indispensable sub option than get him more minutes. His best chance is that Mertens' goals dry up, which I don't think is too outlandish given he's a converted winger coming off the back of a surely unrepeatable season.

A very good choice of team, by the way.

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Welcome to AOC, I guess.  I wouldn't have paid that fee for a player in the final year of his contract and so unsuited Arsenal's first team set-up.  I understand that Chelsea bid that much or slightly more, but that doesn't matter if the player rejected Chelsea. 

But if I set aside transfer fee, which seems now to have escaped all comparison to prior norms (not unlike people complaining for several years that the stock market is over-priced), he's a good and much needed addition to our depth and provides cover potentially for Mane/Salah or even for Gini/Can in that box-to-box MF role that requires a lot of pressing and making deep runs toward goal.  And we denied that depth to two of our rivals.

Hopefully Klopp's coaching helps him to develop and he manages to stay healthy.

With Lallana, Hendo, TAA, Sturridge, Gomez, Milner, Clyne, AOC, Solanke,  Kent, Robertson (does Scottish count?), Wilson, Woodbury and Ward (does Welsh?) all homegrown players in our senior squad, we have more flexibility than say City and Chelsea in meeting the homegrown quota and adding foreign players. 

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5 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

With Lallana, Hendo, TAA, Sturridge, Gomez, Milner, Clyne, AOC, Solanke,  Kent, Robertson (does Scottish count?), Wilson, Woodbury and Ward (does Welsh?) all homegrown players in our senior squad, we have more flexibility than say City and Chelsea in meeting the homegrown quota and adding foreign players. 

Nationality doesn't matter for the homegrown quota. Any player who was on the books of an English club for 3 years before turning 21 counts.

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@Whiskeyjack, I saw today that Aurelio De Laurentiis told Sky Italia that he turned down an offer from PSG for Pepe Reina.

Fair play, by the way, for picking a team like Napoli to support. Would have been easier to go for Juve or one of the Milan teams, even, but Napoli is a good choice. The club has great history, they play some exciting football and have some fantastic and loyal players (less said about Higuain the better). On top of that, they always tend to have nice jerseys.

Pity, on the other hand, that you decided to follow Arsenal in the Premier League. I'm sure it won't be long until you've joined the 'Wenger out!' brigade - that's if you haven't already!

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13 minutes ago, Horse of Kent said:

Nationality doesn't matter for the homegrown quota. Any player who was on the books of an English club for 3 years before turning 21 counts.

But Scottish or Welsh clubs don't count. Robertson was at Hull for three years, but only two of those were before he turned 21.  Before that he was at Scottish clubs.  

The much older limit on foreign players included all players from the Bristish Isles, including Rep of Ireland, as "domestic". 

Not a big deal.  We have a lot of homegrown players in our squad

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15 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

But Scottish or Welsh clubs don't count. Robertson was at Hull for three years, but only two of those were before he turned 21.  Before that he was at Scottish clubs.  

The much older limit on foreign players included all players from the Bristish Isles, including Rep of Ireland, as "domestic". 

Not a big deal.  We have a lot of homegrown players in our squad

Oh, I see what you mean. It is only English clubs, so Robertson wouldn't count. Ward would as Wrexham are in the English system. It is still useful to have more homegrown players as Solanke, TAA, Gomez, etc. don't need to be registered at all yet as under-21s.

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Looks like Llorente could be going to Spurs. That would be disappointing, as a Chelsea fan. I'd hoped we were going to sign him, as he is brilliant plan B. Considering he and Conte have worked together before, I would have thought that would have helped our position. Could be another big snub for us this summer. Story of our transfer window, really.

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Swansea are getting some good business done. A fee of £12m has been agreed with City for Bony, Llorente is at Spurs for a medical which could see Janssen go the other way on loan and Renato Sanches on loan as well.

Chelsea looked favourites to sign Llorente but, as has been the case in this window, they spent too much time twiddling their thumbs and were beaten to the punch. Conte must be furious by now.

Spurs left it late but ended up having a good window as well with the signings of Davinson Sanchez, Juan Foyth, Aurier and Llorente.

If Liverpool can pull off Lemar and a CB (VVD?), keep Coutinho and having completed a deal for Keita for next season, that would be a fantastic window for them too.

Arsenal are in shambles - a bloated squad but still weak in key areas, players wanting to jump ship, a manager who has become tactically inept and a board who doesn't give a shit beyond enriching themselves. At this stage, Arsenal are looking the weakest of the top six.

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