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Football: “WHAT THE F*CK WAS THAT”?


AncalagonTheBlack

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3 hours ago, Sandokan I Ironborn said:

 

Thus, the weaker are the opponents, the easier it is to recall a winning XI. If Pep's team win the league (they may actually do at least a double) without being defeated, as you said it, they have a strong claim to be reminded as one of the greatests teams of PL history. But if they do so, it will partly be because of Chelsea and Man Utd failing to be title contenders, as their squads are weaker and their managers made worst choices in the transfer window. (so far)

 

To be fair, i don't think how much more they had spent would be making a difference. Even if they were on pace to reach 90 points (the rough total you normally need to win the title) they would still be 10 points behind city right now.  Though having someone breathing down their necks may make city more inclined to tighten up.

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Things seem to be hotting up with the Alexis to Man United rumours.

As much as I wouldn’t like to see Man United become stronger, it would be nice egg in the face for Man City, who are showing no urgency, as they seem arrogant enough to assume if they don’t get him now, they’ll get him for free in the summer.

Fair play to Man United, they haven’t just accepted that he is Man City bound and they’ve taken a chance to see if he can be swayed. As they are somewhat behind Man City on the Alexis hunt, they’d have to pay more in terms of transfer fee and wage to secure him. The higher transfer fee would definitely appeal to Arsenal, despite the fact Man United are a closer rival to them than Man City.

It’s a joke that Chelsea aren’t interest in him. What we are lacking this season is goals, and he has proven in his three and a half years in England that he is a regular goalscorer.

Hazard is brilliant, but he has never been prolific. Morata started the season well, but now that he’s out of form, we don’t have a reliable source of goals. Alexis would be the perfect signing for us, as Morata would have someone to share the goalscoring job with. On form, though, Alexis is much more than just a goalscorer.  I’d love to see him and Hazard together, but I’d say there’s next to no chance.

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11 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

As much as I wouldn’t like to see Man United become stronger, it would be nice egg in the face for Man City, who are showing no urgency, as they seem arrogant enough to assume if they don’t get him now, they’ll get him for free in the summer.

In fairness I'm not sure refusing to pay £35 million for an out of form 29 year old with a few months left on his contract when they don't even particularly need him, especially if the reports of Jesus' injury not being as bad as initially feared are true, is a bad look for City. It seems like a pretty sound decision to me.

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Yeah, I though those Sanchez rumours were complete bullshit until that joint article by Simon Stone and David Ornstein. I guess it all comes down to Sanchez now - if he is dead set on joining City then no amount of money we offer Arsenal is going to change that. Although I feel that there must have been some contact between United and Sanchez's representatives to gauge his interest.

For City, I guess it makes sense for them to draw the line over the transfer fee. They don't really need Sanchez now. He is a luxury signing for them and with the news that Jesus's injury is not as bad as first thought (Pep says he will be back in 2-3 weeks) there is really no need for City to pay £35m for him even though they were prepared to fork over £60m 5 months ago.

I'm still not confident that Sanchez will pick us over City but if he does join then that is a big boost for us. City have the title wrapped up but 2nd to 6th are all in a close fight for three CL spots. It would also be a boost for both our CL and FA Cup campaigns as Sanchez isn't cup tied for either competition.

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I don't care where Sanchez goes now, I just want him to go. I want Wenger to go too so if losing Sanchez makes us worse, I'm good with it.

If we do replace Sanchez with Malcom, that could be fun. Love a good 20 year old Brazilian. 

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15 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Things seem to be hotting up with the Alexis to Man United rumours.

As much as I wouldn’t like to see Man United become stronger, it would be nice egg in the face for Man City, who are showing no urgency, as they seem arrogant enough to assume if they don’t get him now, they’ll get him for free in the summer.

Fair play to Man United, they haven’t just accepted that he is Man City bound and they’ve taken a chance to see if he can be swayed. As they are somewhat behind Man City on the Alexis hunt, they’d have to pay more in terms of transfer fee and wage to secure him. The higher transfer fee would definitely appeal to Arsenal, despite the fact Man United are a closer rival to them than Man City.

It’s a joke that Chelsea aren’t interest in him. What we are lacking this season is goals, and he has proven in his three and a half years in England that he is a regular goalscorer.

Sanchez would be a Luxury signing for City nothing more. I am not sure he would break into their line up, I mean who should he replace?

Left wing? Sane has played a pretty impressive campaign thus far (surely on course for the young player of the season award). Their forward line up with Aguerro and Jesus looks good enough, so even with Jesus out Sanchez would look more like a back up to me. The right wing is blocked with Sterling, who (like Sane) is also playing pretty impressively. So 35m for a bench warmer, who has 6 months left on his contract? Even with the silly money in the EPL that looks like a ridiculous piece of business.
I think Guardiola is right, the only position this City squad might need strengthening it's the centrebacks.

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38 minutes ago, Notone said:

Sanchez would be a Luxury signing for City nothing more. I am not sure he would break into their line up, I mean who should he replace?

Left wing? Sane has played a pretty impressive campaign thus far (surely on course for the young player of the season award). Their forward line up with Aguerro and Jesus looks good enough, so even with Jesus out Sanchez would look more like a back up to me. The right wing is blocked with Sterling, who (like Sane) is also playing pretty impressively. So 35m for a bench warmer, who has 6 months left on his contract? Even with the silly money in the EPL that looks like a ridiculous piece of business.
I think Guardiola is right, the only position this City squad might need strengthening it's the centrebacks.

As someone who has Sane in two different fantasy football teams, I can tell you he hasn’t been that impressive since October. That’s not the only way to judge a player, of course, but anytime I’ve watched them he has hardly stood out. If anyone in Man City is going to win young player of the season, it’s Sterling, who still qualifies as he’s just turned 23.

I don’t get this whole ‘do they really need Alexis?’, ‘where would he fit in?’ Etc. Every team needs to build and improve. No squad is ever good enough. No squad can’t be improved. 

Man City’s attack is brilliant - the best in the league - but when a quality player is available, especially one that wants to join them, they still should try to sign him. Yes, their centrebacks is the most urgent area to improve, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in the market for quality forwards if they become available.

 

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41 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

As someone who has Sane in two different fantasy football teams, I can tell you he hasn’t been that impressive since October. That’s not the only way to judge a player, of course, but anytime I’ve watched them he has hardly stood out. If anyone in Man City is going to win young player of the season, it’s Sterling, who still qualifies as he’s just turned 23.

I wasn'T aware Sterling was sitll eligible, thought he was too old now. Anyway, Sane has provided quite a few assists (esp for Sterling's tap ins).

42 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

I don’t get this whole ‘do they really need Alexis?’, ‘where would he fit in?’ Etc. Every team needs to build and improve. No squad is ever good enough. No squad can’t be improved. 

Yes, but is Sanchez an actual upgrade? That's what I doubt. We are not taling about Neymar or Kane or somebody like that here. And to me it would be pointless to block the starting eleven with a 30 y.o. when your starting options are of similar or better quality and just 22 (Sane) or 23 (Sterling) and 20 years of age (Gabriel Jesus).Yes, the squad can improve, but their attack is not the part that desperately needs strengthening. The centrebacks are another story esp. with Kompany playing no more than 20 games a season. That's a more logical starting point for me.

 

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13 minutes ago, Notone said:

I wasn'T aware Sterling was sitll eligible, thought he was too old now.

Eligibility just goes on and on in the Premier League. James Milner won it in his eighth full top-flight season. He's 32 now and has still played fewer league games since winning the award than he had before.

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For me, the thing about Sanchez and City is the squad balance issue. They've already got so many forwards and creative players they can't give them all much playing time (what did they even buy Bernardo Silva for?) and they'd be introducing a known ego into the mix. Not sure they need that hassle.

We could use him, for certain, but I'd still much rather get someone younger. For preference Mahrez, who as discussed before should be an absolute no-brainer if there's any chance of making that happen, but there are other players who are a bit less proven so bigger gambles but who I think would be worth taking the chance on long term.

I mean, if Arsenal were to complete their own much-discussed moves for Mahrez and Fekir to replace Ozil and Sanchez, I'm not sure they'd be worse off in the long run.

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Joining Man City now makes sense for Alexis. Guaranteed PL title and CL football next season. Otherwise I think waiting until summer to sign for whoever he wants would be his best move. Not even sure United are a shoo in for top four. Would be funny for him to go and be Europa bound again next year. 

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I agree.  Sánchez would be good for Utd but what’s in it for him?  He’s good at tackling and tracking back but, even so, unlikely to enjoy the restrictive tactics of Mourinho.  City are more likely to offer him trophies and CL games, play with several other South Americans in a good attacking style, lots of chances to score, and he’d probably get to play as a false 9 in place of Aguero.  If he joins them now, he only has to make 5 appearances (the threshold was lowered) to get a guaranteed winner’s medal this season, and possibly get a good shot at a CL win too.  The only downside at City is he might not be an automatic starter all the time, but I would bet that over 2-3 years, Sanchez will be a better fit than Aguero and a more consistent scorer than Sterling.

In the last few years Mkhitaryan, Depay, DiMaria, Martial and Schweinsteiger have all bombed at United, while Lukaku, Pogba and Mata are iffy compared to pre-Utd form (Lukaku even getting booed lately), and even golden boy Rashford has regressed.  Only Zlatan and Lingard look like successes so far.  If you were one of the top attacking players who has already played for top teams, with one last big contract ahead of you to win some more trophies, would you really want to take a chance that Utd suddenly escapes this rut?

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City are the surer bet from a footballing success point of view, but word on the grapevine is that United are offering him more money/wages.

From an Arsenal point of view I just hope we sell him now and recoup some of the money. It doesn't matter that we strengthen a rival since City are going to win the league anyway, although arguably we could be in a top-four fight with United. It's also clear that Sanchez is not particularly motivated to play well for Arsenal anymore, so keeping him for the second half of the season doesn't serve that much of a purpose. We were always going to have to cope without him eventually, this just accelerates it a little more.

So whatever happens, I hope we just sell him soon.

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If Alexis ends up at Man United this window, it really will show just how much he wants to get out of Arsenal.

The trophy count for Arsenal and Man United is the exact same since Sir Alex Ferguson left, and it looks like this will be the first year since he left that Man United will finish higher than Arsenal in the league. 

I do feel that Man United’s project looks slightly more appealing than Arsenal’s right now, but that could well change if Arsenal have a terrible season this year, which leads to the early termination of Wenger’s contract and a new manager coming in. I’ve always felt that the opposite would happen Arsenal when Wenger leaves than happened Man U when Ferguson left.

It looks like Man U are prepared to offer him even more money than Man City, to try intice him into coming. Remember, though, it was reported last season that Alexis was prepared to stay at Arsenal only if they offered him £400K a week. A stance like that shows to me that it’s not actually about the money for Alexis, but the only way Arsenal could make him stay would be if they offered him an astronomical weekly wage. I’d say Man U will have to aim very high with their numbers if they are to make him choose them over Man City.

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7 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

while Lukaku, Pogba and Mata are iffy compared to pre-Utd form (Lukaku even getting booed lately), and even golden boy Rashford has regressed.  Only Zlatan and Lingard look like successes so far.



Apart from a couple of average games after his suspension, a problem seemingly since fixed when Mourinho started pushing him a bit further forward again, Pogba's been brilliant for us this season. And Martial hasn't really bombed, he just hasn't lived up to the high expectations set by his initial performances. He's fine.
Zlatan, on the other hand, has been vastly overrated.
Lukaku's in a weird place where he's on bad form while simultaneously improving as a player. Like, he does far more than he did at the start, in terms of team work and movement and finding passes and things. Just not working out.

But yeah, overall I agree that Jose is totally shit at improving players and has to go before it all comes crashing down. Even before Jose there were issues but it wasn't systematic.

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I'd rather we not pay £400k/week in wages. If Sanchez is demanding that sort of money then we should move on from him - he's a wonderful player but 29y/o and with a lot of miles on him. That decline might be hitting sooner rather than later. Plus, Sanchez clearly prefers cutting in off the left so this means less game time for Martial and Rashford while our right side remains weak. Yeah, I know he played on the right once upon a time in his career but that has not been the case for years either at club or international level.

£35m fee + a reported £5m agent fee + astronomical wages + possibly Mkhi included as well. The more I think about it, the less keen I am on this transfer. Really we should be offering big money for Mahrez who is quality as well and plays in a position we actually desperately need to strengthen.

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It may be that he’s willing to accept less than £400k to go to Man United. That’s what it was going to take him to stay at Arsenal, but if he thinks Man United are going in a better direction than Arsenal are, he’d probably be wanting somewhere between £250k-£300k, one would assume.

When you think of it, since he came to England - apart from this season - he’s probably been in the top five performers in his time in the PL. At Arsenal, he’s rumoured to be on around £130k a week, which is a low wage for such a good player. At Man United and Man City, there are several players earning a lot more than him that haven’t even nearly been as good as he has since he came in 2014. 

In that sense, he’s far from a mercenary. He could have just accepted a new contract to get his relative wage to then try force through a transfer anyway, as many players in the Premier League have. Instead he’s accepted having a lower relative wage than he should have based on his performances, in order to get out of Arsenal on his own terms. For that, you have to respect him - and Mesut Özil, too.

I’ve a feeling Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard will be doing the exact same thing to Chelsea, though.

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Chelsea are turning the ball over at an unbelievable rate right now. Especially from Hazard. Cahill is having a mess of a time trying to keep up with Vardy. 

ETA: And on cue, Cahill goes down with a hammy. 

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