On the incoming side of Arsenal’s transfer window, we can’t really complain about the arrivals of Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac, but condisering that we came 5th in the Premiership last season, we must realise that we have to improve enough to leapfrog the 4 teams above us and must surely make one or two more top quality additions.
It seems certain that Arsenal are trying hard to get Thomas Lemar, although that seems to have gone quietly, and poor old Riyad Mahrez looks to be a forgotten man. Hopefully Wenger has got a surprise or two up his sleeve to give the fans more confidence (or at least hope!) for the coming season.
ARRIVALS SO FAR
Sead Kolasinac (Schalke) Free
Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon) 53m
On the outgoing side of things, Wenger admitted early on that he had had to trim his heavy squad, but we have seen little evidence of that so far, with just Wojciech Szczesny the only sale of note so far, and the new Juventus keeper hasn’t even been seen at the Emirates for the last two years….
SOLD SO FAR
Kaylen Hinds (Wolfsburg) 2m
Dan Crowley (Willem ll) Free
Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus) 10m
Okay so Wenger has told us that Alexis and the Ox will definitely not be leaving whether they sign new contracts or not, but surely there must be loads of players that need to be taken off the squad list and the payroll as soon as possible, like Debuchy, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Perez and Akpom.
And that should only be just the beginning! Get your finger out Arsene!
Darren N
Some Man U fan is giving me hard time, saying that they are signing Sanchez.. is this true? Coz they have money they can buy anyone as long as the selling team just names their price
If Sanchez is sold, he’ll be off to PSG. Reports are suggesting that the player has agreed terms and according to different media outlets the fee is between £35-45 million.
Alexis is leaving for sure. It will be satisfactory if he ends up outside EPL in that case. PSG are tracking Neymar and are ready to wait a bit. Meanwhile, there are news that Real is in market for an attacker and not Mbappe for his price. They are turning to Alexis too, and they have the best chance of trophies.
I dont really see Lemar as downgrade as long as he comes in for Alexis
we need an enforcer, a bully- replacement for kos due to injuries aswell
i dont think getting lemar and keeping sanchez makes us title rivals
2 more after lemar – im dreaming i know lol
Mr Arsenal should be smart enough deciding btw lemar and mahrez. If Lamar isn’t coming it will be bad losing mahrez or even letting him play the first match.
BREAKING NEWS: According to SkySports and other media, Barcelona is offering Rafinha to Arsenal. I would be very excited if this transfer really happens.
Like Sanchez, Rafinha learns directly from Messi and is used to play with Barcelona’s football level. I have been watching Barcelona’s matches and Rafinha always works hard for the team, unlike Andre Gomes.
If Arsenal has him, Sanchez’s departure will not be a big blow anymore. Or if Sanchez stays, Arsenal’s attacking lineup would be very scary. Imagine Lacazette, Sanchez and Rafinha/ Ozil upfront, supported by Xhaka/ Ramsey/ Coquelin/ Rafinha.
Look how simple this transfer window is for Arsenal.All we need is Mahtez or Rafinha who is now available and a CM that’s all.Rafinha is so good and with consistency is a world class player.He’s also very versatile and can play on the wings,CM and can also do a job very well at RB.He’s also very good defensively,can dribble and is technically very very gifted.
If he is that good why is he getting sold? Don’t they need a replacement for Iniesta?
The same can be said for several players who ended up in Arsenal.Maybe ypu don’t know much about him but just wait till he gets here.The coach even said he was not for sale but the player wants out.
Any deal Barcelona are looking to broker with Arsenal must surely be with the sole purpose of Hector Bellerin moving in the opposite direction.
Barca paid a lot for a RB last week.
Rafinha wants to leave and honestly speaking he’s not really part of their plans.He’s just going to be a bench warmer.They’ve already been told Belletin is not for sale and so there’s no stumbling block in this deal if we want it to go through.I also think Rafinha is particularly keen on coming to Arsenal too and at the age in which he’s arriving it’s hard seeing him go back to Barca.
Seems like the Chambers deal is edging closer. Wanted to know what people think of Sakho as a potential replacement. Is physically imposing (which we lack), left footed (again our cb’s are right footed), has BPL experience, is a leader and wouldn’t cost too much- £30m. Would he be a better signing compared to Manolas/Tah/De Vrij?
We need to trim not replace.
Sell him as he wont get the game time with us which im not sure if its good or not for us but we need to get rid of a few more before there is even space for others.
Time Arsene stopped this favouritism towards some players and get rid soon as we are to soft that way so even tho i want another 1-2 more in we need rid 4-5 first team squad.
After some fan pressure the consensus was that we’re gonna be ‘more active’ by going into market much earlier far as transfers go. Im a fan an I still get headaches and panic attacks with arsenals own peculiar idea of rapid response. Although nobody could have imagined Ozil n Sanchez planned to put a spanner in the works.
The real statement is letting Theo go and having planned an even better option to replace him. Then if Ramsey doesn’t regain his form (of 2years or so ago) we sell him too. Both players are typical of 10years of woeful mediocracy – if Ramsey seen Theo chopped he would soon restore his goal scoring consistency knowing that failure to do so would mean he’s next for the door. Let’s not forget Ramsey was at the centre of many of last seasons poor results and wasted opportunities in the final third.
I want to assume Sanchez is staying and if my assumption is right that means we dont need any forward player unless we sell Walcott or Giroud which i dont think will happen…
That’s why i think our defence and midfield needs attention, at the moment we just have so many of them but no real quality if you wanna be honest…
Do i trust Gabriel or even Mustafi to marshal our defence in the absence of Kos?? NO!
especially against a top team…i keep on remembering the Bayern game and how we imploded home and way when Kos was out, even Kos himself is rapidly declining…so in CB, I trust Holding and Kos, Mustafi is still dunno…
I dont even need to mention the midfield, Ramsey and Ox are both injury prone, Coq plays best with Cazorla and Elneny is below average…
So imo, we need a quality midfield player and a top top Cb…………Koulibally and Carvalho will be nice!
I didn’t see Kos stopping Bayern from scoring 5 in pre season, give credit to the defense when it is due, they are not that bad.
Yes AFC imploded and I would use that to support your argument of CM but not CB, when Cazorla was in CM we was playing like league champions along with having a healthy number of clean sheets.
It wasn’t the defending that was the main issue, it was the inability to stop defending on go on the attack, Cazorla surprised the world with how well he played that deeper role and he was the man who got the ball and started attacking movements.
This got covered in the new formation, our CM without Cazorla was missing in games and with the extra CB being able to step forward, it has made AFC a lot more solid in the middle.
I do feel sorry for Mustafi, he had a period of poor play but he was the man who came in after the Liverpool defeat and partnered with Kos to get praise. That praise dropped when Cazorla got injured.
Do I also need to remind you that our defence frustrated Chelsea and we beat them TWICE in 3 games, credit to the defense!
I don’t see the need to sign another centre back.All our centre backs with consistency are very good players.People seem to hate Gabriel very much but some of his performances should tell you that he can be a top player.He just suffers because of the language barrier but with time he’ll make it.I feel he’ll be the same as Koscielny and indeed they have a very similar way of defending.I never forget how useless Koscielny was when he came and how good he is today.Let’s appreciate some of our players.As for Koscielny,I think some of us are forgetting that he wasn’t really great last season.I for one believe he’s world class but is not a leader and that’s what Arsenal really lacks.We have no one to look up to.Don’t let the Bayern match deceive you.I can name some cricket score line matches which he was part of.
To me, there are two benchmarks with respect to how good our summer was.
The first one: Does our transfer activity make us better than last season? Hard to tell at this stage because it all depends on the final outcome of the Sanchez saga. Today we have a better squad than the last season as long as Sanchez plays to his ability next season for us. If Sanchez leaves this summer it is going to depend on who else comes in whether we are better or not next season.
The second bench mark, equally important, how have our rivals done? I think Man U have done well and are not done, City has improved, Everton has possibly improved but lost their best player, Chelsea has done ok so far, Spurs have not done much and Liverpool I didn’t follow too much.
So I think it is difficult to say how our summer has been. If I take my pragmatic view I say there is a high chance we will lose Sanchez which means IMO we should have already signed a third attacking player of high caliber which we have not. Meaning our summer could still go south if we don’t get Lemar, Mahrez goes to Italy, Sanchez to PSG and we sign an unknown project to replace Sanchez on the wing.
I guess patience is a virtue and it doesn’t really pay to speculate in the middle of the transfer window about the outcome. It does look as though we are still a bit slow and indecisive. Maybe less so if we really hold onto Sanchez and if he really plays up to his abilities next season. But if we sell him in the end we might pay the price for not having acted with more authority on the likes of Lemar…
Chris Willock has also left the club.
This is one of the easiest transfer windows ever for Arsenal yet we seem to be complicating thing.Monaco aren’t selling Lemar for less than £80,Roma want Mahrez desperately and we’ve been offered Rafinha by Barcelona.Why don’t we sign Mahrez or Rafinha.Both players will improve our squad greatly and with consistency are world class players.Rafinha is also very versatile.After signing one of them we just need a CM then we are done.
Rafhina preferably – very good player.
Chris Willock has talent but he is also a bit of a diva from what I have read, if true then I am glad he has gone and we didn’t make unrealistic promises to keep him.
Joe Willock looks the better prospect from the brothers and Nelson is a better attacker, I am happy with this.
AFC complicating things?
Because?
I fear you said what you did because AFC didn’t throw £80 mil at Lemar on day 1, is that so?
I don’t want Arsenal to sign Lemar for £80.Was the plan not to sign Mahrez or Lemar?If now he isn’t availabe then why not forr Mahrez?But seeing as Rafinha is now available then why not go him?After all we need is a CM then that’s it.It really should be easy if we want it to be.All the players listed too want to come to Arsenal.
As fro Joe Willock being the most talented I’m not so sure about that if I was being objective.From what I’ve watched from both Chris is as talented as his brother in every way and honestly speaking in the academy he’s more regarded than his brother and was actually one of our top academy players.However, I do believe his brother is also good but will face very tough competition when he’s ready for that spot.
Chris may have equal potential but attitude can hinder progression, thus my belief that Joe is the better prospect, I recall NB52 and all the promise he had but wrong attitude so never truly made it. NB52 had talent but wrong attitude, attitude blocked his talent.
I fully admit it is from what I read as well.
As for Lemar price, I do not know how much he is worth in all honesty, he had a very good season and Pires rates him so… Pires is someone I respect for his achievements with us so I am happy to watch a bit longer to see how it unfolds.
As AFC done 2 transfers kinda fast for us, I am happy for AFC to try and get bit more of a bargain from the 3rd signing, no need to rush. Things can happen which force a club to sell for less then demanded.
Rumors of Alexis to PSG for £30-40 million is less than expected £50 million.
If Lemar keeps pushing for a move then we may get him for same fee as Mahrez, if Wenger prefers Lemar to Mahrez then I am happy to chill for a while and see how things unfold. We are still in pre season and any signing right now will not join the team yet. I would prefer AFC to get Wengers main target and then put any failure firmly on Wengers shoulders. If AFC buy players that Wasn’t first choice for Wenger then poor transfers could be the issue.
Well attitude can hinder progression is a fact but from what I’ve watched Chris is better and is more rated than his brother in Arsenal.Also attitude can change so there’s still more hope.There a lot of players with bad attitude even in their early years but are still making it big.As for Bendtner having that talent well every one is entitled to his opinion.
This so far the window has gone good for us,
I still say we need 3 signings right now to complete the team needed to challenge for title: GK. CB, CM
I personally think the signing of Lemar would be for a CM role if not my strong second choice would be Leon Goretzka ( only way I see we getting both is if we loose Sanchez) (or a more wise thing to do would be sign Lemar, come Jan if Sanchez still wants to leave sign Goretzka same way we Sead and boom)
I still strongly believe we need a new CB people say we have 7 but chamber looks like he is out of the door, Monreal should be back up LWB (used as CB in dire need) Per (in all fairness should be rare sporadic) and Gabriel is not consistent enough. That leaves us with Holding, Mustafi and Kosh (who has admitted he has an ongoing achilles issue)- I have said it before and will keep saying it J JONATHAN TAH (He is fast, strong, goof tackler and can pass).
In terms of GK we are selling Ospina, Sczcenzy is gone, people may say Martinez but I look at is he has been with us a while and hasn’t really broken into the first team (main reason we are using him now is because the other 2 are going out of the door)
I say we should go for Lafont and breed him in to the squad and make him and Martinez face of for first and second choice keeper in the near future (Cech has 2 good season left in him)
I.think we need at least five players, a defender, holding midfielder, a winger goalkeeper and a striker, so let Alexis Sanchez go. Bring in benzama lemar, van dyk and carvalho and butland
Sell Theo Walcott. Giroud, Jenkinson, gibbs, and debuchy and el nely, and we be title contenders
I am happy with Cech and Martinez as AFC 2 GKs, I do not think we need a new one yet, would have been nice to keep Szcz but Martinez is stepping up nicely. Makes the sale of Szcz easier to accept.
AFC have enough holding CM, we lack a CM who is good at converting def movements into attacking movements, while we play in the 3421 system though we have the wingbacks who can help with the transition. Xhaka, Ramsey, Coquelin and ElNeny should step up and be what we need.
We do not need Benzema, we have Lacazette and Giroud.
People moan about Giroud but he has scored more goals per game in his career than Morata has, he has scored more goals against top 6 teams than Lukaku has. He is not good enough to lead the line all season long but he is still a very good player who can score.
I also do not think we need another CB unless we sell one, if we do sell one then I personally hope it is Gabriel and not Chambers as I rate Chambers more than Gabriel. VVD is unquestionably a player with quality but I also think Holding and Chambers are quality and can be just as good if given the trust, I think Kos is better and Mustafi can be better if he can find and keep his form again. Money can be spent in other areas, not like AFC has an unlimited bank account!
Your buy list will cost more than what we can make from sales, RM sold Morata and I can not see them selling Benzema in the same window unless we offered silly money. Lemar is going to cost a small fortune the way Monaco are playing hard ball. VVD wouldn’t be a small signing either, at least £50 mil? Carvalho will be around the £30mil… Add in Butland and that is close to £200 million! Add the £52 million for Lacazette and that would be around £250 mil spent.
Why not just try to buy the EPL instead?
But both Lukaku and Morata are regarded than Giroud and are both better than Giroud like it or not.Morata has not really had a team where he’s been the main man and I don’t think he’s played the number of games Giroud has.As for Lukaku not outscoring Giroud in the big games it’s not a problem.Even if it was vice versa it means nothing.I’d take Lukaku over Giroud all day long.
I will take Giroud ahead of Lukaku any day. Just because Man U decided to pay silly money for Lukaku does not make any better than Giroud all of a sudden. As for Morata, he’s and average striker. He was never the main striker in Madrid as average as some people think Benzema is. He wasn’t not the main striker for Juve, he was benched for old Lloriete, even Dyballa was ahead of him. Giroud is not a bad striker let’s give some respect and appreciate what we have. If a clearly better striker is available let’s buy, but not Lukaku.
Well that’s your opinion.I for one think Giroud is one of the most average strikers to ever play for Arsenal.I would be vindicated by their performances this season.Do you think any top team apart from Arsenal will take Lukaku and Morata over Giroud?I don’t see what’s so good about him.All he does is turn his back away from goal and hopes a fhance comes his way to score.There’s nothing special about Giroud.
The only replacement I see for Alexis Sanchez is ousman dembele from Dortmund and he has age on his side, and he got some talents and trickery to compensate the absence of Sanchez
I do wish I seen more of him live on the internet, he does look like a quality player doesn’t he ^.^
I am a fan of Dybala as well and I think he could be another player who could replace Alexis but I can’t see Juve selling him 🙁 BD might as they are not selling Auba anymore…
If we could get Leon Goretzka and replace maybe Sanchez with Mahrez, then we would not look that bad to be honest, but winning the title has become such an impossible task for Arsene that the mear thought or us tllk about has become nowdays loughable thing to us. Now i know how liverpool fans are a like.
Le frog needs to step up his game a bit bec 3 epl titles in 20 years is pathetic.
as per usual, we are trying to put a band-aid on a gaping wound..after the debacle surrounding Wenger’s stay or go parade and the ineptitude of our management team regarding player contracts, which clearly showed just how bush league our board truly is, this off-season should have looked similar to that of AC Milan’s
I personally believe that Wenger didn’t push to have the contracts of Sanchez, Ozil, Ramsey and Ox renewed earlier because he was going to use it as leverage when renegotiating his own deal…so far that tactic has backfired as we know little more about this squad moving forward than we did in May and Wenger clearly misjudged just how important his staying would be to both Sanchez and Ox…I like Lacazette, but I liked him a lot more 2 years ago at 20 million less…Sead might come good but once again he wasn’t a necessity buy, except that he was a free transfer and was signed early…another “wag the dog” tactic employed by the powers that be…as for the rest of the roster, very little has changed, except that it’s way too big and lacks the cutting edge to take this club to new heights.
For me this transfer period should have been the most active period in the modern history of the club…instead of travelling to the farthest reaches of the world to line Kroenke’s pockets, we should have tamped down the travel schedule this year and focused on the real issues at hand
I would have given Sanchez an early offer to extend with a rigid deadline and if he didn’t sign he would have been sold immediately to the highest bidder outside of England…I would have sold Gabriel, DeBouchy, Walcott, Welbeck, Ramsey or Ox, Wiltshire, Gibbs , Jenkinson and Ospina…I would have kept Szczy and gone after Douglas Costa, Hakan Calhanoglu, Van Dijk, Aubameyang, Aurier and Carvalho…all would have been possible, as most either moved to other teams or were actively being scouted by other teams…this team provides formation flexibility, some much needed size on the back-end and bags of scoring potential going forward: not to mention it would be a relatively youthful squad with ample first-touch capabilities to maintain the “beautiful” game and would have vastly increased our potential to score both on the counter and from set pieces
Told you guys the deluded one done in the transfer market apart from selling, lacazette was bought to appease for Sanchez selling, same old story, same old scenario, wonder how long it would take arsenal fans to understand Wenger.
Wenger has faults with some of his tactics, trying to teach players and using EPL games as an education has cost us along with his inability to change formation quick enough. For example, I do believe AFC could have won the EPL if we swapped to the 3421 formation sooner, ideally as soon as Cazorla got injured.
Transfers are done by Gazidis and Dick Law.
Gazidis was hired to take over Deins role and Dein was the one getting transfers done, now it is Gazidis, with the aid of Dick Law.
Wenger talks to the player and players family, Gazidis talks to the club.
Go and research who does what at AFC, too many fans read the paper blaming Wenger and they blame Wenger, media has made too many BS claims to take their word at it without checking.
I think sanchez goes we go all for wilfred zaha
Am I one of the few who thinks we could get away with 1 more signing and as long as we keep the core of the team then we can compete for the EPL title already?
Keep in mind how we got better with each game in the 3421 formation and then look at the number of clean sheets we had in that formation, if we swapped to that formation as soon as Cazorla got injured then I do not think we would have imploded like we did and we would have finished close to top spot, a real chance of having it as well.
Yes other teams are looking to improve but I feel AFC got the best CF signing so far, Lukaku is questionable against other top teams while Morata has a goal scoring record WORSE than Giroud. City have been trying for Alexis and it looks like we will either keep him or sell him to PSG to ensure we do not strengthen City for next season. Spuds have Kane and he is a threat but they are not as active in this years transfer market… Stadium maybe? I do think Spuds will be weaker next season than this season, already lost Walker and they are quiet in the transfer market. Reportedly wants Lemar but he wants AFC.
Since we changed formation there was only 2 spots we needed to improve on FAST and that was a LWB and a CF. We got both.
AFC AM could be better and AFC are linked with Lemar who will make our AM better (assuming keep Alexis), picking 2 from Alexis/Ozil and Lemar sounds like a strong area. If Ozil recaptures his assisting form then that AM will be just wow!
Wenger did say up to 3 signings and that is what we need if we do not lose core players, Wenger does indicate though that if we sell a core player then we will need to replace them, with AFC having around £100 mil to spend without money from sales then it makes sense to clear out some players. Szcz will fetch AFC around 12 mil euros upfront, AFC are looking for around £9 mil for Wilshere, rumor of £30 mil Theo sale, Ospina wanting to leave for game time…
If we do sell Alexis to PSG for a cut price of around £35 mil then not only have we recaptured his fee but also add that to the other sales and it means we could afford a good replacement for Alexis, maybe Mahrez? Hard to get someone as good as Alexis without UCL football to offer but AFC is a team so keep that in mind.
CM could be stronger but I want to keep in mind that Coquelin has looked impressive in pre season in a more def style B2B player, to be honest from his performances in pre season I feel forced to think of Kante, if Coquelin can step up in the def B2B role then we will have someone who closes down from the moment the opposition gets the ball. We know Xhaka is not the tackling type of CM and Coquelin is a tackling type… If those 2 can form a partnership then we could have a solid CM.
Xhaka and ElNeny.
Ramsey and Coquelin.
One last piece to defend that CM, ElNeny came to AFC and started fantastically. The partnership at the time was with Coquelin and Coquelin was the DCM, ElNeny more of a def B2B. The following season ElNeny was played as the DCM and Coquelin as the Def B2B, Wengers tactical error. It didn’t work. Coquelin wasn’t good enough getting forward, tryed to change his style and his form suffered. He has been getting better at that role which has been seen in pre season so far. This has been aided with the wingbacks being an outlet for Coquelin to use and AFC to keep the attack going.
Forget stats,forget everything.From a neutral and honest perspective if you watch Giroud,Lukaku and Morata who do you think is the best?
Giroud!
Well that’s you.I don’t see any top coach in a top club who’ll take Giroud over Lukaku and Morata.I don’t even see what makes Giroud special.I watch him just like other Arsenal players and I feel he’s an average player.Only Arsenal as a top club eill have Giroud leading their line.An averge striker he is.
Emmy ur rite with wat ur saying but the two signings we got are really good footballers if Sanchez goes we need top replacement which we won’t get cause it’s the way club is but for sum reason I think zaha could do well for us Things could be worse remember niyem half way line Zaragoza that thought drives me to vodka
Our transfer has been good we have strengthened two weak areas, while I want Mahrez at arsenal, a sturdier looking DM and a player who can do the Cazorla job. I would be happy if we get one of the three mentioned and call it a day.
If Sanchez leaves I would definitely add Mahrez.
I think we have enough talent in this Arsenal team to win the league and Europa……..but if Arsenal now seems to be silly rich………..they should buy William Carvahlo and Leon Goeretztka………otherwise promote some youngersters…….you never know……we may get another surprise from the youth side…..