Arsenal and Aston Villa continue to hold talks over the sale of Ezri Konsa, with an agreement expected to be reached in the coming days.
Villa want to keep Konsa and have set a high valuation for his sale, which is clearly designed to discourage Arsenal from continuing their pursuit of the defender.
However, the Gunners have refused to give up and have continued their efforts to add him to their squad. Arsenal have so far kept asking Villa to lower their asking price, despite the difficulty involved in reaching an agreement.
Konsa has enjoyed a long and largely successful spell on the books at Villa, so he would be more than happy to take on a new challenge at a bigger club this summer.
Arsenal Continue Negotiations
Arsenal will have a chance to sign Konsa if they pay what Villa have requested, but the Gunners believe the valuation is too high and would want at least a small discount.
The Gunners believe they can secure that reduction and close the agreement soon, with a source telling Football Insider that the teams are close to an agreement which could be reached in the next few days.
Arsenal’s continued interest suggests they remain determined to bring Konsa to the club, while Villa are equally keen to protect their position and avoid losing a player they would prefer to keep.
Villa Want to Keep Konsa
Villa are one of the successful sides in the league in recent seasons and believe they need to keep their group together to challenge for bigger trophies, so they will still try to keep him.
That stance could make the final stages of the negotiations important for both clubs. Arsenal want to complete the signing without paying Villa’s full valuation, while Villa will continue to push for a deal that reflects their assessment of Konsa.
The two clubs remain in discussions, and there is optimism that they can find common ground in the coming days. Arsenal are unwilling to walk away from their pursuit, while Villa continue to hope that their valuation will be enough to convince the Gunners to reconsider their approach.
For now, Konsa remains at Villa, but the negotiations could soon determine whether he begins a new chapter with Arsenal.
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Not for me – not excited about this one.
Never really rated Konsa.
seem garlick and arteta are trying to offload MLS to raise funds for Konsa. awful move imo
The left wing forward is where we are really lacking but its Easy for the club to find defence signing but attackers are never their priority or they are just not good at signing elite forward players.
PSG keeps buying attackers and we are just buying defenders (even chelshit got rogers) and now I fear we may not see marli salmon in action this season.
I will be really furious if they keep martinelli and our only LW are tzolis and martinelli.
I’ll rather play eze there than martinelli.
Cmon, we already tried Eze on the wing vs Aston Villa and it was disastrous. In fact, he was directly responsible for the goal we conceded when he lost his man, Matty Cash.
What do you expect the recruitment team to do here, pay £130m for Alvarez when he doesn’t really want to come to us?!
Martinelli was our top scorer in the Champions League. We would be crazy to sell him without a significant upgrade (they’re still after Yildiz, even though Juventus says they won’t sell him at any price). Especially now that we finally have a Xhaka replacement in Guimaraes, and sold left backs, which hopefully means he won’t need to track back as much.
Regarding PSG – movement on depth signings there but no really major strengthening. Torres for Ramos is not setting the world alight. Godts is not getting in ahead of Kvara, Barcola and Doue. They’ve shipped out as many as they’ve brought in, haven’t noticeably improved the team like we have, and also failed to get their primary target forward (Yan Diomande) and a better goalkeeper.
Marli Salmon – kid is only 16. His time will come. Right now we need consistency and experience to win the league, not young prospects for the future.
One more forward signing and we’ll be golden.
First when I mean Leftwinger I’m not talking about alvarez coz he can never be a LW so how could u ever think of him as a LW and it make me not want to respond to u but again I was so sad to read yo comments about psg attack and I felt pity so I feel u need football salvation since u wish to know how to analyse football.
1st psg starting front 3(doue demb kvara) is far better than any starting front 3 we choose and tzolis is definitely in our starting front 3 , also psg new front signings are as good as our starting front3, we may want to exempt saka (and special dowman) but havertz gyokeres madueke martinelli and szolis are not convincingly better than their back up trio front signings alone .
So tell me how can u possibly not respect psg attack.? They have a much better arsenal in attack department so we should equip ours too. And stop being petty trolling them about some stupid yiomande deal coz he’s not better than their starting front trio. Madrid needs him more
✌🏽 COYG
You totally misunderstood what I said there Tea, no need to be patronizing.
On “not respecting PSG’s attack”, I said they can’t find anyone better than their current front line this window, so they’re buying for depth. That means I think their current attack is very strong, NOT weak.
My point about Alvarez was you want us to focus on making a big attacking signing over defenders, with LW as a priority, and think the club is not doing enough. That’s fair. The truth is though that there are no easy solutions, or we would have one by now. None for less than £100m anyway. I was not saying that Alvarez is the right solution there, I was saying that if you want fast, big signings, then they are going to be problematic on some level. The recruitment team isn’t ignoring the issue, it’s just that like almost every other club right now, they can’t get the players they want for the price they think is fair.
You posted that “PSG keeps buying attackers and we are just buying defenders”. That’s not entirely true, they have bought two, and sold /loaned to sell two. They have also not been able to buy any players who clearly get in ahead of their current first team. Because their first team is so good.
When the BBC reports, it is more REAL. Of course JA as well. I think Konsa is coming soon. Ready made to shoo in for the Saliba spot. I think he’s a London boy. Half a dozen England team could be derived from Arsenal. Villa is selling lots this summer.
Hopefully this will get over the line in the next few days.
My guess is that they’ll settle for a one off fee of £55M or £50M + £5M add ons.
If this does get done ASAP, then M A and A B can finally fully concentrate on the Striker
re-enforcement, which they must also be currently working hard on as well.
If it can all be done in time before the Transfer Window slams shut – then it’ll have been another very good summer.
Konsa will be a great addition to arsenal let’s get him
Konsa will be a great addition to arsenal let’s get him now
If Arse want him pay the 60mil
Konsa will be a good fit for the team – a CB who can also cover for RB.To me, he’s a better option for Saliba than any of the right sided defenders we have now.
But I can see Ben White moving on; his injury issues are very well documented
Deal done, £51m apparently.
A very sensible deal considering we only have two fit players in the right side of defence- White,who doesn’t have a good injury record and Mosquera who is still inexperienced. If White goes down now,we’ll be in trouble.
When City lost their defenders to injury last season, they didn’t hesitate to get Guehi from Palace and he was a big part of their resurgence.
Exactly.
Good to see you back, Onyango. Hope you’ve been having a good summer!
Yes I have, thanks
I agree Onyango. Unfortunately, with Saliba’s indefinite injury, something sound had to be done. I felt that LP royally screwing up by missing out on Guehi last summer was one of the most significant events (ultimately allowing MC to swoop in the winter) in its effect on the outcome of the PL season for LP, MC, and indirectly, the Arsenal.
the problem is that they seemingly try to offload MLS, future of this club, for that… 😢 they cant be that ruthless. homegrown boy like this.
I really don’t understand this signing. What happens to Mosquera now? Where will Saliba play when he is back? When will we ever develop our young players when we keep buying 50M players for even back ups? Madueke, Eze, Merino, Konsa.. all very expensive back up players.
“I really don’t understand this signing” that’s because we haven’t operated at the level of a top club for like 2 decades. That’s the same structure used by City when they were dominating the league. A top quality starting 11 with a top quality expensive bench. They bought a good player in a position already occupied by a another good player, the 1st season he’s still adapting so accept secondary role, the 2nd season he competes for a starting 11 role. Either he wins and take the position or he loses and don’t accept a backup role and leaves then another takes his place. This on repeat ensured a humongous squad depth.
Spot on Ackshay and that’s exactly what MA has been saying and eluding too for the last four seasons.
The bench on Sunday was full of internationals and Martinelli / Nwaneri wasn’t even there!!
100% Ackshay, no notes.
No. I’m with Akshay, this deal is wrong. Overpaid at 51M for someone an iffy CB whose shoehorned into RB at best, has no affinity for RB.
If you wish to invoke the City model, they made half a billion selling their academy for pure profit in order to fund transfers like this Konsa one – so the clubs inability to defend Skelly this last fortnight is for real then, no academy products playing for us going forward, sacrificed on the altar of copying soulless plastic City.
This doesn’t sit right with me. This is a poor summer window for us so far.
No I’m not with Akshay, I’m with Quantic Dream. Akshay and the rest of you don’t understand how soulless our club is already becoming copying City.
This does not make sense. What is soulless about building a squad that can potentially compete on multiple fronts?
This isn’t simply about copying MC. All the great teams in recent European football history have built great squads not only great first teams.
How do you expect Arsenal to compete without a strong squad?
MLS isn’t going anywhere, that was just transfer gossip. Dowman is being integrated into the first team slowly and will not be sold. Salmon could well be one for the future. Nwaneri has been given plenty of chances but it seems he’s not yet consistent enough for a full campaign. But he needs to develop too so it might just be the “honourable” thing to do for him.
We would all love to see more academy prospects but we also need balance in the squad. If we don’t have the experience on tap for this level, then it needs to come from somewhere. We’re well above the level of most Prem teams now, we’re competing with the likes of PSG, Bayern and Madrid, who have no issue with buying experienced players and integrating a few top academy prospects here and there where possible.
Plz tell them quantic dream.
What is wrong about been young and good enough. Why can’t salmon be our 4th defender.
We are killing nwaneri all because of madueke who is not better and now salmon coz I don’t see him getting much game time now and yet the boy is special, he can even play right back or dm coz he’s good with d ball, he’s a cool defender too like saliba
Arteta even reluctantly use special dowman like he’s got a point to prove with his madueke signing.
I bet yamal and cubasi will still be a youngster on bench, fabgregas will have discovered his talent at a much older age at chelshit and Wilshere wont be known at all if it were left to arteta and some fans here
Seriously
because he’s 16 years old and is yet to start a Prem game.
There is no evidence he is ready to be the 4th choice CB for the champions
that’s allot of pressure to be on him .
Arteta sees him in every day in training and the assumption has to be he thinks he is not ready .
That is okay , he’s 16 !
I did say last week for peeps to clam down , one reader said he should start against Coventry because he’s better then Mosquera and Hincapié……let’s calm down
he’s got no business starting for the Champions In the Prem and as I predicted won’t thank god.
You are the one who is not listening to the army of us – you made it clear you won’t play Lamal because of age – you have made it clear Dan’s Way is if you had Lamal, give Lamal 6 years in the B League and then have a look if he’s good enough 🤷♀️
Done and dusted, £51 million. Hope it doesn’t affect Salmon too much.
Time is on his side GB- he’s going to be learning from the very best in the business!!
I did say dude he wouldn’t be ready
manager must have agreed
Decent player, not a crazy overpay either. Acceptable in this market. This’ll make us far less vulnerable if someone gets injured in the next couple of months. And once Saliba comes back I don’t think he’d mind being a squad player and maybe a RB option instead. Arsenal haven’t had this many English players on squad in quite some time
I guess one of Mosquera or White will leave in January…
Slamon should go on loan.
Salmon is only 16. He’s still in school, not a full professional yet. He should stay in the academy for this season at least.
A decent signing, who’ll get plenty of game time with the recurring injuries that have cursed the right side of our defence in recent seasons. It could unsettle Mosquera, but he’ll still get his chances, and Salmon will also remain part of the squad, I’m sure.
Just the one forward to buy now (probably).
Yep. Glad to see this one over the line.
Another forward, either for depth or starting role, and this will have been a solid window again.
he will struggle to make the Prem squad on match days and should
he’s 16 who never started in the Prem
some are basing this on a friendly because they want it to be true
just let him develop gradually
Of course!
Konsa has good stats but looked dodgy at WC. But probably a good signing. The defence looks stronger but the attack is no better than last season? YET!!!!! We need a bigger shuffle up top. Direct replacements for Jesus and Martinelli still needed. Are they both going? Can we get buyers?
Buying any upgrade in attackers has been clearly really hard this summer, and not just for us… The market is very tight.
Tzolis is easily the most significant forward signing in the Premier League so far this window (sorry, Victor Munoz). City, Liverpool, United, Spuds and Chelsea haven’t upgraded in the forward area at all. Most of the strengthening has been happening in midfield (Rogers, Guimaraes, Tielemans etc).
Barcelona lost their two center forwards and can’t replace them with any top players. Atletico are blocking them acquiring Alvarez.
PSG have only been able to exchange depth options, effectively. Madrid are probably the only other major club that you could argue have strengthened in the forward line, beating PSG to Diomande.
So if we get a depth forward to replace Jesus, we will have done better than just about anyone, certainly in the Prem.
Tsolis may turn out better than Ryan Giggs, we haven’t seen him in one prem game yet. Preseason is no time to judge. I hope he is going to be a good signing but lets see first.
Fair comment. And I agree we should be prioritizing an attacking signing next.
Seems like that’s the intent, thankfully. We still aren’t fully committed to a consistent first front 3 (other than Saka).
Reggie,
He may have a good season, but he’ll have to go some to be better than Ryan Giggs.
He needs to be Derek 😂
Keep wishing, he has no such legs as great giggs. Tzolis is good but we should get a proper baller like giggs and stop dreaming
@TeaKay, I think you need some time off the Arsenal happenings, you’ve got little or no clue what we are building, simple advice.
Thanks Saliba for getting injured during the transfer window. The casualty might be White when Saliba returns. Konsa is good and fit as well in the RB
Genius signing
better then what we had to replace Saliba with .a player who can come in straight away and perform
His Wikipedia page says Konsa is a boyhood Spurs supporter. Are there others in history who played for Arsenal but like Konsa supported Spurs? Apart from Sol, Bentley
Amba,
And it works the other way to. Darren Bent played for Tottenham but is an avid Arsenal fan. As was Sherwood I believe.
Yeah DEREK in that sense maybe George Graham also. Inwards?
Mostly Arsenal fans who ended up playing for Spurs. Kane, Bale, Solanke all supported Arsenal growing up!
Jermaine DeFoe as well Bergkampfwagen. Apparently he has the Cannon tattooed on his chest.
HD,
Is it why Defoe while playing for many teams never scores against Arsenal? Mostly karma.
amba, I think he scored about 3 or 4 goals against us, but that’s a pretty bad record considering the amount of games he played in against us.
Ya Herr Drier thanks. Insignificant number as you rightly said
Really – haha, love it! Must have generated some banter in the dressing room!
Bergkampfwagen, it surely must have 😂😂
Im not sure why any Arsenal fan thinks we’re copying City, as they were always praised for their attacking style of play.
What our club is now doing, is what MA said he wanted to do four years ago and that is to have two top players for every position – if our club has become “soulless” then millions upon millions of Gooners who celebrated our PL win must have been ghouls!!!
I don’t have to like the Man City business model you have all fallen in love with, where Academies are Pastoral Farming. You rear them, then off to market. I don’t see adopting that soulless model as necessary to achieve our goals. It changes the DNA of who we are as a club.
I don’t have to rate the player. Okay maybe at CB. But he certainly can’t give you at right back, what White and Timber do when stepping into midfield. He doesn’t have that. I’ll take you on if you want to argue that.
I don’t have to like 51M for a 29yr old journeyman. I don’t have to like the muddled thinking, bringing in starters for back up roles is great for a squad and cohesion, or good value for money, in that under rules everything you do with money stops you doing something else.
With the exception of Foden, O reilly, Lewis, Bobb and Mac Atee.
I don’t espouse misusing the academy but there are situations where it’s difficult to justify waiting until they are mature enough to start at an important point in the season. Most academy players (or back up goal keepers) only get to breakthrough when a senior player gets injured
The last couple of seasons were hardly the best time to experiment. No league title in over 2 decades and a support base that was becoming increasingly anxious
You don’t have to love Konsa, or the price. The situation here is just that no one knows how long Saliba is out for, so we want extra assurance at RCB. We hopefully won’t need Konsa for any RW coverage. The only “something else” we’re stopped from doing with this is playing Mosquera for maybe 6 months as our primary RCB. Which is even less ideal.
And it’s not that everyone has “fallen in love with the Man City business model” as much as many of us understand that like them, we need to buy good, experienced players to help ensure we can win the Prem again and keep challenging for the CL. We can’t rely on the academy for all that.
The Invincibles for example only had one academy player as a starter (Ashley Cole), with the aging Parlour and Keown as squad players. Did they have no soul?
But the soul of a club is really the fans and connection to the community, not the first team, the ownership, the business model or even a manager’s philosophy – those all change.
Absolutely 💯% correct with your last paragraph Bergkampfwagen .
That was seen during the victory celebrations and it was nothing city115 can ever hope to emulate.
True, they do have a very loyal fan base that followed them no matter what and they were seen as many other fans second team…..until the oil money changed their attitude and following.
To say that our support is soulless and are trying to invoke the city model shows a complete lack of knowledge and respect for our fanbase, club, owners, manager and players.
The very fact that the club has said Skelley is going nowhere doesn’t seem to have registered anywhere!!
Thanks, Ken.
City and Man Utd and Chelsea in their day attracted a lot of “plastics” and no doubt we will too if we keep winning titles. That will never change the fact that AFC is a club with a deeply engaged, real community, and means something emotionally powerful to both locals and fans all over the world…
And yes I see people still thinking that we’re *trying* to sell MLS, which we we know just isn’t true. Gossip rags gotta get those clicks!
I’m afraid your premise is rather inaccurate and somewhat caricatured. Arsenal are not simply following the Man City business model. Arsenal’s squad has been built over a number years. Arsenal’s plan has seen seen the use of young players as a foundation to which have been added good quality senior players. There are a few common ideas to MC’s model but these are similar to many top clubs around the world. These include the understanding that in order to compete effectively against other top clubs you need a strong squad which include experienced professionals.
Your reference to a senior England international and one who has played creditably in various competitions as a journey demonstrates a clear lack of balance in your criticism. That you then go on to claim that others are demonstrating “muddled thinking” just adds to the strangeness of your comments.
When comparing players you have to take into consideration their injury history as well as their general football profiles. Simply arguing that Timber can do certain things better than Konsa is meaningless when Timber is unavailable due to injury.
There is nothing soulless about building a team/squad on sound principles.
‘Swiss Knife’ Konsa (as he can play in different positions) start his Arsenal career by playing v Aston Villa in the 2nd week. Cheers or jeers at Villa?
If Konsa is a Swiss Army knife, Skelly must be a Offiziersmesser.
Konsa is a CB, he ain’t no midfield invert.
Heard explanations Konsa can play if inevitable in Skelly’s new midfield position, as RB and CB. Beside the SAR Konsa is also that your word MG lol
Would love more if Arsenal beat Villa next week by a Konsa goal, at Villa Park, against Emery, scoring against Martinez, after losing there last term 2-1.