‘Arsenal should make example of wantaway defender’

Hector Bellerin: Rumours grow over possible Arsenal departure

One reader is sure there will be five new signings at Liverpool this summer, while targets for Manchester United and Arsenal are suggested in our forum.

‘5 new players at Liverpool’

Aussie, i think we will be making 5 signings no matter what.

we need a centre back more then anything. A nig commanding centre back who is good in the air and can defend. VVD fits that build perfectly. The fact he is a superb on the ball is another great factor

even if we spend 90m on vvd and salah , i can still us buying more players. We will sell others. I expect at least 5 players. a centre back, a feft full, a winger, a forward and midfielder

salah and vvd would mark two of that list. Lets wait and see though. These deals are far from done

Sean the Sailor

 

‘Tapping up goes on in the majority of top transfers’

Let’s be honest tapping up goes on in the majority of top transfers and it’s as easy as a club telling one of its international players to come and join him at X club.

Even if a club is proven to have tapped up a player usually only a fine and a suspended points deductions is imposed so it’s hardly being rigorously punished.

The major impact of this is that Southampton have got the major hump with Liverpool ( which may have something to do with continuosly harvesting their best players)and if they are prepared to do a deal with Liverpool on VDV it will now be at top dollar or at worst if they agree to sell VDV (currently they say they have no intention to sell him and there has been no dialogue between the two clubs)

Southampton will only agree to sell him to say City or anyone but Liverpool, however these things have a way of working themselves out over time even Ashley Cole eventually signed for Chelsea in one of the most blatant forms of tapping up. ?

nine nine nine

 

‘No wiser about Solanke…’

I watched the under 20’s game especially to see what this Solanke had to offer and having watched the match I’m not much wiser about him, I know you can’t judge a player on one game, fair play he took his goal well but some of his other play wasn’t all wonderful but then he’s only young and there’s time I suppose.

I guess I was more impressed than unimpressed so for the price we paid I reckon we’ve done ok time will tell but I don’t see him threatening the first team squad just yet. YNWA RIP the 96

Scouser in Exile

United should ‘go for’ Dembele

Why not go for Moussa Dembele from Celtic, he and Rashford would form a perfect young strikers duo. Both young and without fear or are we going for some experience!!

Loney_striker

 

Joe Hart to United?

 

Joe Hart??! Hahahahahahaha!

If Mourinho signs Joe Hart as first choice GK in this juncture of his career (assuming we didn’t take Navas in the supposed De Gea transfer AND he also ignored Romero who has an impressive record to say the least), I will eat my desk.

Lazy journalism at its very best.

Hatters

 

‘The media have no idea…’

Calm down. The media has no idea who we are after, and are just making everything up. There is zero reliability in almost anything written these days, no critical journalism, only made up fiction. Unless something comes from a reliable source, it is made up. But yes, a broken clock is always right twice a day.

We will not sign Joe Hart, and there is no interest in him. Why? A couple of months ago, when Shaw was under heavy criticism by Mourinho, Jose made a clear dig at the player. Mourinho was pushed on Shaw being an English international and therefor should be good enough to play. Mourinho’s response: “Joe Hart is an English international and is playing on loan in Italy”. Zero chance we are after him!

Lansky

Kolasinac arrival hailed

First bit of business is done with the arrival of Kolasinac and while people often turn their noses up at free transfers, I have no issue with this one.

He is only 24 and has experience playing in a number of positions. He has been a bright spot in a fairly poor season for Shalke and had plenty of admirers. I would imagine this will mean Gibbs is on his way which is best for both sides and with Nacho saying he wants to extend his deal, it provides solid competition down the left side.

With this addition, I can’t see us bringing a central defender in, unless at least 2 go out. We have been linked with Florian Lujeune from Eibar but at the minute we certainly have numbers at the back. The question for Wenger is whether we have the quality.

Koscielny and Mustafi will be starting next season and there is an argument to say that Holding should be as well. Gabriel looks far more comfortable on the right of a 3 but I can’t see him starting. We also have Chambers back from his loan spell – i’m not totally convinced by him.

It’s also worth noting that, although signing Kolasinac puts Nacho’s starting place under threat, I think Wenger is more than happy for Monreal to stay because I think he likes him as one of the CB options and in fairness he never lets us down.

Andy 528

 

Manolas would be good for Arsenal

Got to echo the others and say he will be a useful acquisition,although his signing will surely be the end of Gibbs. He seems strong going into tackles as well as powerful going forward.

On our defense as a whole I think 3 at the back helps as it gives each of the defenders security and they seem to be less exploited then when playing a flat back 4, also with this signing it gives the chance to play monreal at CB but with I think this should be done in selective games as should playing holding even tho he has been playing beyond his years.

Kos revealing he has to play thru the pain barrier and can’t play week in week out puts more of the onus on mustafi and I have to admit he suits the system I like his aggression and he may well be the organiser of the bunch. But add to that Gabriel is injured and keeps getting injured as well as only had a handful of decent performances(not surprisingly since we went to the back 3) chambers coming back from his loan who I think should be moved on and add to that the forgotten man that is jenkinson.

So adding a top CB still has to be a proority. Let me add to this that rumours starting again about bellerin Barca bound and unless a offer of plus 50 mil was offered I wouldnt acknowledge any interest. Ox seems to flourish in that RWB position even tho he needs to master the defensive side as well as some intricacies going forward.

So if bellerin leaves think we could look at someone like sidebe and also a top CB I would like van dijk but seems overpriced plus prob wants to join a champions league club someone like Manolas or even someone less established because truth be told someone who can defend will suit the role rather then a top top individual as the system gives them much more security e.g Luiz playing

In the Chelsea system. This goes for most of the team it’s finding players who can perform week in week out in the roles rather then playing players because if there name, we saw this with Chelsea with moses and alonso and also Luiz and the benching of fabregas and willian.

Momo

 

Is Lacazette the answer?

Note also that Kolasinac made the Bundesliga team of the year. And we got him for free.

On another note, apparently Bellerin has apparently been quoted as saying the same kind of tripe as Cesc years back. We need to stand our ground.

We need someone to replace Cazorla, and a striker for sure. We have seemingly turned to Lacazette now (again!).

Even though the guy has been banging them in, why no one of note is after him? Elsewhere I read that Manolas is extending at Roma for 50K a week from 33k. At Arsenal Jenko is one 40K. Go figure! Bottom line Wenger is atrocious at managing our funds. Little wonder our wage bill is nearly twice that of the Spuds!

Ahmad1973

 

Time to say goodbye to Bellerin?

Have to say, reading the comments from Bellerin this week, it feels as though he could be off in the summer. In a recent interview he said,….’ Things have gone well and now hearing this type of news about Barca is something which makes me happy, but it doesn’t depend on me….

“It’s nice to know of interest from a club like Barca, the club where I grew up from a young age. For the moment I don’t know anything, I’m an Arsenal player and we will see what happens.”

See what happens?….It’s hardly an assurance to the club or the fans that he wants to stay. Valverde will have a mandate to buy big and win back that league title so he will no doubt have a blank cheque book.

The issue for Wenger is, does he see Hector as first choice in this new system? He had a pretty poor season, coming in for a lot of stick from the fans at certain times. The Ox came into the RWB role and made it his own. Wenger has to decide if Hector is worth fighting for or whether he just cashes in on him and get as much as we can.

Ahmad – if that’s true about Manolas then its great work from Roma because a couple of weeks ago he was on the verge of joining Inter.

As for Lacazette, I think Atletico would have made a move had their ban not come into play. At the minute it feels like he is kind of under the radar with so much talk about the ‘big’ forward names in football. Lukaku, Griezmann, Auba, Mbappe are all rumoured to be on the move.

Andy528

‘Bellerin needs to be made an example of’

Andy, Bellerin needs to be made an example of. Of course, Cesc is mentioned in every report I’ve read on this, this morning because the story is almost exactly the same, but the reason the likes of Hector think they can get away with it is because Cesc did.

It’s about time that we started making players honour their multi-million pound contracts. When Cesc left, we not only paid up the rest of his contract, but paid him his ‘loyalty’ bonus as well!

I do like Hector and I do understand (as I did with Cesc) the appeal of returning to the club where they grew up – especially when that club is one of the best and most successful clubs in world football – but Arsenal must come first.

It’s time Wenger and the board stopped bending over and taking it up the Arsenal.

Al The Gooner

 

No reason to criticise City spending

Nothing is wrong with paying a Keeper for £35m. Juve paid Buffon for £32m in 2001, sometimes if the needs outweigh the fee then i have no problem in paying .

City need the keeper and can afford in paying £35m. i see no reason to criticize them. but the topic at discussion was, why are we not making progress in our pursuit of players that we want? i bet Juventus, Barcelona, RealMadrid will be making signings before we make.

City is our main threat like i said before. and i won’t rule out Mourinho splashing the cash. B.Sliva is the kind of signing that will boost the morale of the camp. and as Phwepsi said, 07 June 2012, we have have made our best signing in the PL era. so you can’t make those kind of excuses that its too early.

And one more thing is, the further the transfers keep dragging the more complicated if turns out to be. so wrapping up early is the best way. because next season we won’t have that luxury of fielding the same 11 every match. and by the way, every time someone questions our lack of transfer, why do people assume that they are questioning Conte? don’t we have a DOF or TD to deal with our transfers? because that is what i thought one hell of Emenalo deals with. hand on heart let us hope next week brings good news to brighten my summer.

wise-fan

‘Is youth wasted on the young’

The title to this thread is attributed to George Bernard Shaw who, although probably never seeing a football match, may well have contributed to some recent posts on here. As with a number of contributions on this site, in my opinion many posters do not complete the arguments regarding youth, preferring to leave the debate at a point which, unsurprisingly, supports their case.

To support the GBS view of the matter, the general consensus seems to be that we may well have great youth players but they are too young to be trusted with it in major league action. The view is not new although it is true that, in bygone years, outstanding potential was trusted more than it is today….999’s mention of Osgood and Hudson confirms this and he could easily have noted that Docherty did this with virtually an entire team.

Today, the objectives set by the growing financial bias in the game means that, the rewards being so high, WINNING becomes the imperative rather than a “nice to have”. Indeed, it fosters the argument of 1905 who tells us that it is essential to have trophies rather than….well, just about everything. In today’s world it is hard to disagree but it is necessary to question this view.

For example: unless we “blood” great promise, what is an Academy for? The Club spent an ocean full of money building the facility, employees scouts from near and far, produces great players and………nothing! Except, of course, that our youth players prove time-and-again that they are better than those produced elsewhere and, what is more, this includes youth players from overseas.

Recently, I saw Loftus-creek ominate a Youth International and, earlier in the year, I saw Abraham score two goals in an international (v. Norway?). But, despite this and the continuing dominance of our youth we would choose to spend Monopoly money of young players like Mbappe or Kessie….and there are others. So, we not only waste the money we have spend on a world-class facility we compound this by spending (potentially) a kings ransom on internationally produced youth.

Regarding the Academy, I suppose I ave to say that we may loan or sell players, thereby making money, but is it Chelsea’s role to act as provender to the wider market or a player’s warehouse? No need to answer.

The fact is that the overseas players that we covet and are prepared to lavish huge sums on have been blooded elsewhere and this takes time….time during which the edges were smoothed of and the club won little or nothing. It could be argued that if we don’t want our talent to wither on the vine we may have to risk a (say) three year period during which we struggle to win trophies. So be it.

You can take a short term attitude with this but anything of value often does take time; you can’t buy everything and, despite our comparative wealth today we have struggled during this period to win trophies on a number of seasons…..2015/16, anyone?

The forthcoming season could provide an opportunity to blood, say, two youth stars (a) because we have a number of mature, outstanding players who can act as role models and (b) because despite our very reasonable objective to retain our PL title from what I saw from Cardiff last Saturday winning the CL next season is probably beyond us.

All English clubs have much to do to reach that standard, including Chelsea, but down the line we will improve….maybe with (say) two of the young players we produced at Cobham. This is just as valid an objective as any we have had in the Abramovich era.

palmeab