There have been many conficting reports about the possibility of Aubameyang or Lacazette moving to Barcelona in a swap deal for Coutinho or A.N.OTHER, but the financial situation means that the Catalans need to sell players before they can buy.
Ronald Koeman said this weekend (as reported in the Metro): ‘Seeing all the positions of the team we lack people in front,’
‘Ansu [Fati], [Ousmane] Dembele, [Sergio] Aguero are missing. We lack there and that is why we have talked about the possibility of signing a forward to have more players and more competition. It all depends on whether we can sign.’
So Barcelona are actively in need of a striker, while Arsenal are in the desperate position of having too many strikers on the books, and with no European football to give reserves some game time, they are going to be left with many unhappy players sulking on the sidelines. How many strikers can Arteta keep happy when he has Eddie Nketiah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Gabriel Martinelli and Folarin Balogun all vying to play as centre-forward. Even if the Gunners use two strikers per game, there is still only one game a week.
Fabrizio Romano highlighted the problem when he revealed in HITC: “I think it’s not an easy situation to be honest, because Arsenal have a lot of players, and it’s not easy in this market to get rid of players. I still remember they decided to change with Hector Bellerin for months and months, and he’s still at the club,”
“It’s not easy to find a solution with many players, also in attack, Nketiah they’ve not decided what they want to do, so it’s a confusing situation. From what I’m told, in the dressing room, I’m not told there are big problems in the dressing room, but there is more a problem about too many players in the same positions, in particular in attack, and they wanted to bring in a new one like Tammy Abraham, but they couldn’t because they had too many players in this position.”
“The real difficult part of this market is about selling players, look at Manchester United they are not selling players, and Arsenal, they’re trying, but it’s not easy. It’s something this week that needs to be clarified, but it could become a problem.”
So right now, I imagine Arteta would sell any striker that is wanted by another club, although Aubameyang’s wages could be a stumbling block, but everyone else except Man City, PSG and the like, are in just as bad a position financially after the losses caused by Covid.
The next two weeks are going to be crucial to Arsenal’s season…
I may be completely wrong and not for the first time in my life but im more excited by a Auba Coutinio swap because that would for me be better than odergaard, even with the unknown of how coutinio has recovered from his injury. Coutinio was a player that got you off your seats. I have doubts it will happen but its a possibility.
Coutinho is 30 and past his best.
The type of player we have very bad experiences with.
I hope, it doesn’t happen.
coutinho actually just turned 29, 2 months ago. Not ideal, but i d rather have a 29year old midfielder who will most likely be interested in reviving his career than a declining Aubameyang, who unfortunately seems disinterested in most games. I am a huge fan of his, i appreciate his contribution but with our system/tactics (non-existent) i just dont see how we can utilise him properly. At least Coutinho can/could create something out of thin air.
Coutinho would be just another high wage earner. I cannot see what he would really bring to us, beyond the odd spectacular goal. I would only have him if he cost next to nothing, and on moderate wages.
Honestly I cant understand why so many of us reject Coutinho. The guy is better than ESR..
Barcelona are 1,300 million in debt.
How is buying a 32 year old striker with no resale value on 350k p/w good business?
As for Lacazette why would Barca pay a bean for a player they can get free next summer?
Arsenal will pay Aubameyang and Lacazette a total of 45million pound if they both see out their contracts.
Let them both go free.
Any fee is a bonus.
Laca is integral to Arsenal, hard working on and off the ball, good link up play and plays for the shirt. Auba seems disinterested, lazy and something seems to be disturbing him. So it is ideal to swop Auba with Coutinho, good for the players concerned and good for the teams involved. Hope it is done fast, less than 2 weeks remaining for the window to shut.
Laca – 128 EPL games, 50 goals,
Auba – 114 EPL games, 64 goals,
Giroud – 180 EPL games, 73 goals cost us 10M, profit of 8M with a similar goal to game ratio to Laca.
Laca + Ozil + Xhaka + Mustafi = Mediocrity hired. When we could have had out and out players like Higauin, Juan Mata, Kante or even Fabregas 2.0 would have taken us places. We are sufferening for the wrongs of the Wenger era.
Extremly good deal for AUBA and COUNTINHO beter than Odegaard ja!!! Continho alread experience while Odegaard need to be groomed .
Countinho’s wages will probably be massive and he’s 30 already. The exact kind of player that we keep getting into trouble with.
I’m not saying he’s bad but no thanks. Brentford’s manager said it perfectly, he doesn’t care how much experience anyone has, he looks at 2 things:
Desire to win for the team and skill level, nothing else matters like age/experience etc
If he is willing to accept reasonable wages(lower than Auba’s current wages) then i d go for him, he is 29 (exactly 3 years younger than Auba) and couldnt cut it in a Barcelona team where he basically had Messi, Griezmann and co to compete with, along with a couple of serious injuries. rather gamble on him than suffer more of the 0 contribution of Auba.
So you lot are still going on about Coutinho, a player that reached his ceiling way back and is in the typical Auba, Ozil etc kind of mood at the moment (Lazy mood).
He does nou havr that much to offer anymore in my opinion. I feel like his lost his motivation long time ago. He is 29 years old. Will be demanding astronomical wages for him this retirement.
I think as an Arsenal fan have had enough of these kind of overhyped, over paid primadonnas.
I thought he proved last season that he needs minimum grooming.
Lacazette is strong but he is not fit in arsenal squad these why he fail to be arsenal’s top scorer all those previouse years lack of combination with others. we are need a strikers e.g Dominic lewins, Lautaro, Patric schick
OT. Am Really Jeleous if Tottenham gets the Harry Kane Money from City
When you play 9-0-1, you only need one CF.
Dusan Vlahovic from Fiorintino maybe the man for the same price as Ben White.