Three days ago we published an article about AC Milan’s Franck Kessie and Cagliari’s Nicolo Barella who were being touted as possible replacements for Aaron Ramsey and I opined that neither transfer was likely, however, there have been further developments with regards to Kessie and to a lesser extent Barella and I must admit, that I am now far more positive that we may well fill the shoes of the soon to be departing Welshman with one of these two players.
Teamtalk have reported that AC Milan are now prepared to offload the 22-year-old in order to fund the purchase of Tiemoue Bakayoko, who is currently on loan with the Italian giants from Chelsea.
It seems that Bakayoko has impressed Milan enough for them to want to make his loan move a permanent one, however, they need to raise the money to make this happen which in turn means that they are now ready to listen to offers for Kessie.
Milan want £40 Million for the Ivory Coast international and while that is a sizeable amount it is not out of our reach and in fact, if we make next seasons Champions League and sell some of our own fringe players we may have a far larger transfer budget than what we have been lead to believe.
As for Barella, it turns out our scouts watched him score against Finland on Saturday, which tells you that we are indeed keen, even though he is priced at a whopping £50 Million.
We will miss Ramsey for sure and there are going to be a lot of rumours about potential replacements, some will be outlandish and some will be credible and right now, you have to consider that Barella and Kessie are two of the more credible possibilities.
I’m ok with kesie replacing ramsey
Capital NO. Give Suarez a chance, we dont have excess money to waste on him, Ramsey isnt that irreplaceable, even without Suarez we can manage with those we have. Ramsey replacement isnt priority, i hope our boys stay injury free next season, we arent doing badly even with injury woes, remove games we play with xhaka at cb or lb which we lost or drew like crystal palace, d 6point lost to the first games and you see our squad is ok. A very good winger is all we need
Touche. We still have many CMs, so why should we buy the unproven one? Especially if AC Milan want to replace him with Bakayoko, that says a lot about Barella’s contribution at Milan
Talking about Crystal Palace, Zaha is a good scorer from the left wing, despite his low number of assists in this season
If Zaha and Pepe are too expensive, there is still Adama Traore in the market, which seems to be not trusted by his coach. Or promote Amaechi to become Nelson’s competitor
Nice goal by Jenko ?
Who’s jenko.. Besides y arent we talkin abt leon bailey in leverkusen.. He’s a powerful wing forward.. Now wen chelshit or spurs get him we wud b left bitin our nails over wat wud ve bin..
Carl Jenkinson ?
@leo, mate, just trying to assist but stop with the text speak and stuff like “chelshit”, it just makes you look rather juvenile and well, stupid. English may not be your first language and I’m not trying to patronise you but please, as for “who’s Jenko?”, he’s an Arsenal player!
Leon Bailey’s forms dip in this season
If Arsenal are interested, Arsenal had better assess him thoroughly. If he just relies on his physical attributes like Sarr, he could have difficulties in EPL
So 3-2…. not a bad game.. thought Suarez did alright – particularly in the first half… one thing I did notice….they love Ozil out in Dubai ?
Ozil is many people’s idol, especially the Muslims
Never heard of John-Jules, hopefully he can step up next season
Sue, they love Ozil everywhere except in Germany!!!
Some really good performances from our youngsters (hadn’t heard of some of them myself I’m afraid) and I thought Suarez was playing as if he had a point to prove!!
So pleased for Jenks as well, he’s living the dream I think we would all love to do…a real gooner and I hope UE can bring out even more from him.
Watching the body language of the senior players during the game and when substituted, it seems they are all really enjoying themselves.
I think UE is building a real spirit within the group and Mondays match against Newcastle is one I am really looking forward to, in order to see if this is true.
Haha very true Ken ?
A good run out for the youngsters…they did well. Yes I hope we see more of Jenko… like you say – a real gooner! I hope we keep him….
Yes I can’t wait for Monday either! I opted out of going, am going to the Palace game instead! But I will be watching on the box. Have a great time if you’re going Ken & if not I’ll see you on here ??
Excellent idea With Ken1945 and Jon Fox donating their bet to charity. Both these guys are two of the longest serving supporters on this site and deserve a round of applause. As Arsenal fans we shouldn’t be taking money off each other. The perfect remedy. Well done the pair of you.
Kessie is nothing special.Barella is but would cost a fortune.Our limited budget should be utilised to buy in areas where we are weak, namely centre back and left back.The acquisition of a natural pacy winger would take priority over another midfielder when we have talented youngsters waiting in the wings.
Good to see our boys in good shape and looking happy. A clean bill of health should see us comfortably making the top four and making a serious push for the Europa league.
Kessie is not that big of an upgrade (if it can be considered an upgrade) and would not offer anything more than the other box to box midfielders we currently have.
Arsenal should focus more on getting a top quality right winger and a top CB as priorities and after these two signings are sorted out, we could look for another midfielder and to cover any other problematic areas the Unai Emery identifies.
This is the first time i am writing on this lovely forum despite reading the articles and comments for the past few years.
Ooh it’s Kolasinac V Sokratis tonight ?
Fact is that we won’t get very high with the team we have. Only Aubameyang, Lacazette, Torreira and maybe Guendouzi should be in our first team if we want to fight for the title. We need a whole new starting defensive line, box to box CM, wingers and CAM to fight for #1
Also if we don’t get into Champions League, Suarez will go elsewhere
1st thing is to focus on the next match
ForeverGooner, we won’t get very high?
Well, at the moment we are in fourth position and just one point off third and with CL qualification in our own hands…unlike utd and chelsea!!
So apart from the four names you have mentioned, the rest aren’t good enough?
How the hell have we managed to be in this position?
, I’m sure you will explain in great detail…after all your going to sign twelve new players that will improve this disastrous situation…so where do we start?
Of course the next match, wow!! Bet Ue hasn’t thought of that one.
But what’s the point, if we believe in your assesment of our squad?
We’re doomed Mr Emery, we’re doomed!!!!
As for Suarez not wanting to join if we don’t have CL, well do you want a player like that in your new squad of twelve players – or should I call them mercenaries?
Hallelujah the international break is over ???
Switzerland blew a 3-0 lead…. reminds me of the Anderlecht game!!
Anderleccht game ? That is club-side game. Well the most notable club-side game lead that was blown off was Newcastle 4 – 4 with Arsenal.
Each time I remember or see that game again brings pain like the day I lost my dad. I didn’t sleep throughout each of the nights.
I just meant because that ended 3-3 too… I did think of the 4-4 with Newcastle… one to forget though… so angry that day
OH MY GOD…. I’ve just seen pictures on Twitter of Lukas Podolski sumo wrestling ??? how fine he looks in his little mawashi, with a little facial hair.. ripped as ever…. sweet dreams tonight ??
LP is a sumo wrestler now ? must be all that sushi he’s eating ? so you called the result again definitely mystic meg ?
Glad I looked on Twitter now ? as much as I’d love to take it & brag, not quite… I got their goals right.. but said we’d score 5… ?
Well you did say they would score 2 so you get a ? up ? didn’t know you liked sumo wrestling Sue ? Wenger is a fan also said when a sumo wins they don’t celebrate out of respect ?
It depends who’s doing it ? well I bet he saw a lot of it during his grampus 8 days!
Neil Ruddock Vs Mike Ashley ? ? Haha quite possibly they eat fughi in Japan which is thousands of times more toxic than cininide and it’s very expensive.. I think it’s a type of blow fish like a puffer fish
Cinonide*
Oh don’t say that… nightmares tonight & I don’t mean about the puffer fish or cyanide ??
You’d watch that wrestling match with one of them big foam fingers cheering them on ??
this is the problem with you ken
when someone make a point about our inability to compete for the title? you jumped in claiming holier than thou statement of ” look at least we are better than united and Chelsea, two years ago we better than Everton and watford , last year we were better than anyone we finished above. for once in your life understand what the poster said, he says we are doing we with what we have currently but we have a very very long way to just to compete talk less of winning the damn thing. in other to do that we have really heavily invest get it. gush you infuriate me at times. you honestly think we will win the league this set players despite ourform? and here somebody just pointed that out and you are here trying to tell us how knowledgeable you are.
‘we are doing great’
kristoman, before you became infuriated with my reply, perhaps you should have read the original post more thoroughly?
ForeverGooner states: “Fact is we wont get very high with the team we have”.
Now I quite simply read that as meaning we aren’t very high with the team we have…how do you read that statement kristoman? Differently to me,if so, please explain how?
That’s what I am questioning him about. Being fourth, but not very high!!!
No mention from him or me about winning the title in that quote is there?
I also didn’t say that we were BETTER than chelsea or united did I?
What I ACTUALLY said was that a top four finish was in our hands…UNLIKE chelsea and united.
Is that’s the “holier than thou” statement you are referring to? Is it not true then, or have I made an error?
So when have I ever said that we will win the damn thing? Not in this post or any other come to that, so what’s your point there?
We ARE competing for the damn top four though and that is where ForeverGooner is wrong.
That’s what I’m questioning him about, not if we can win the PL, as you would have realised if you had bothered to read my reply fully.
It’s not “rocket science knowledge” to know we have to invest heavily if we are actually going to try and win the damn thing, but that’s NOT what UE is trying to do at this moment in time is it?
He’s trying to secure CL qualification, so that we can obtain the vast amount of money on offer, because kronkies not going to give us the money ForeverGooner wants to buy 12 new players to compete with the other top clubs is he
Surely that’s common sense, not me trying to “tell others how knowledgeable I am”, unless you hadn’t realised that yourself?
If anything, I would have thought that the common sense statement would have summed up ForeverGooner’s conclusion that we won’t win the PL with the current squad, why didn’t that infuriate you as well then?
Here’s what infuriates me… it’s when someone can’t be bothered to read a post properly, then get’s the comments completely wrong and, finally, compounds it all by calling someone out and try to humiliate them.
Read both posts again, see if it’s YOU who has “jumped in” and somehow managed to belittle yourself rather than your objective of doing that to me.
Tell you what, why not come back, answer my questions AFTER you have done this and tell me exactly what is wrong with both mine AND your observations?