Was not looking to belittle mate...just do not see us getting those numbers. My view is we would more likely get... Dier £30m tops (2 years left on contract, 2 poor seasons one of which was injury ravaged). Trippier £25m Janssen £7m tops (2 sub appearances in 9 months 1 year left on contract) Onomah £5m tops (just 10 starts and 5 sub appearances for Sheff Wed last year) Nkoudou £5m tops (1 sub appearnce this year ) C Vickers 5m tops (regular games for Swansea...2 yrs left on current contract) If we got the highest figures it would make £72m...but it's all just opinion and hopefully you're right.
Zaha reportedly wants to join Arsenal. Arsenal reportedly willing to sell Aubameyang to fund buying Zaha. Begs a question....
I know he's just turned 30 years old, but there is no way we should be selling a player who scored 31 goals for us in a season where we had no width and were starved of creativity. He is the only reliable goalscorer in our team. Would be careless to sell him. However, my understanding is if we get an offer in the region of £80m for Aubameyang, the Arsenal board would consider selling...
Yup, he's also Premier League proven. 41 goals in 65 appearances. Would be a huge risk to get rid, even if we did get £80m for him. In the hypothetical scenario that we did sell, there is only one player who I think we could realistically get that would possibly be as good as him. AC Milan's Krzysztof Piatek. 23 years old, 30 goals in 42 Serie A appearances for both Genoa & Milan, has time to get even better and Milan are desperate for cash right now. Apart from that, there would be no-one else that I would think is worth selling Aubameyang for. And even then, Piatek would be a risk too.
I understand your line of thinking, Brian, and I agree with parts of what you're saying. The trouble with Bellerin is the type of injury he's suffered and the length of time he's been out for. He won't be back until October earliest. Whilst he is still relatively young, it remains to be seen whether he will still have the pace that makes him such an asset for us. If he doesn't have that raw speed anymore, then we are screwed. I'm not holding my breath on Tierney. We've reportedly had two bids rejected already, both of which were under Celtic's £25m asking price, so I wouldn't expect this one to go through. I'm also not keen on only using fullbacks for width. We did that for most of last season and it didn't work. You guys have got Trippier/Aurier (in theory) and Rose/Davies who can provide width from your fullbacks. Then, in attack, you've got Son, Lucas and Lamela that can play there too...we don't have those types of options. We can't rely on our current batch + Nelson/Willock to give us width in attack, particularly as the latter two are inexperienced at the top level. I absolutely agree we need another centre-half and a central-midfielder but, for me, a winger is crucial too. Will we get all of those players in one window? Not unless we can sell some deadwood IMO.
Jennings, Walker, Campbell, Gallas, Ziege, Carrick, Modric, Bale, Sheringham, Eriksen, Berbatov. JUDAS XI
I wouldn't say that any of Sonny, Lamela or Lucas play as wingers. They're definitely played as inside forwards, with actual width/crossing in the attacking third supplied by overlapping full backs...when the system works (of which more later). They all drift out wide but mostly, ]in order to then cut inside, rather than go outside a full back and cross the ball. Crossing largely comes from the full backs and like Arsenal, it can be a hit or miss....or miss.....or miss affair...which is where the problems are. When Trippier was fit and we were firing, his delivery from the wing was a real weapon....Davies was pretty good too. This season for reasons of fitness and losing Kane/Alli for periods, it's dried up. This is the 'later' bit: I'd suggest that Arsenal's problem is that Kolasinac's delivery is pretty damn terrible and Maitland-Niles isn't a specialist full back. Stick Alexander-Arnold and Robertson in your side and problem solved. The system ain't broke but you need better players in those positions and they should be a lot cheaper than Zaha. Zaha's not still at Palace without reason and he won't solve your problems....in my opinion. By all means, buy a winger but dismantling your forward line to do it? It's high risk and I'd be really surprised if you did it......not unhappy though.
It would be a safe bet that should you get 80 million for Aubameyang then AC will the same or more for Piatek who is an unknown in the prem
To be fair, Brian, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson are top-tier fullbacks. You could say for most team systems "stick world-class players there and see the difference". My problem is the fact we used 3atb for most of last season thus relying on wingbacks (Kolasinac/Maitland-Niles) for width. If we had better personnel, sure it may have been better, but I've never really been fully sold on the 3atb system and Danny Higginbotham on Sky nailed it a few weeks back. Whilst you have an extra centre-half in defence, you lose an extra man in midfield and can also be vulnerable on the flanks if your wing-backs push high. Most teams play with one striker up front, so having 1 striker v 3 centre-halves makes little sense. You very rarely see teams play with two up top unless it's a tactical change in a game when things aren't going to plan. And even if a team does start with 2 up front, what happens to the 3rd centre half if both strikers are occupied? It just doesn't seem like a wholly efficient system. Unless you have someone like N'golo Kante, who can cover the ground of two central midfield players, it's a difficult formation to frequently get good results from if utilised. This is just my opinion, though. Arsenal played much better and looked better when we had a flat back 4 with an extra body in the middle of the park. I don't like wingbacks. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should sell Aubameyang for Zaha (we'd be ****ing nuts to do so), but I do believe RW/LW is a position which needs upgrading. Whether that's Zaha or someone else, I don't know, but we need more goals coming from other areas than just Lacazette and Aubameyang. The reason we scored so many goals wasn't because of how many amazing chances we created, it was because of the unusually high conversion rate. We had one of the highest conversion rates in Premier League history. In an attacking sense, we were lucky last season. We can't keep relying on maintaining that high conversion rate going forward.
Piatek's looking the real deal. His celebration is the best in football right now too, especially when synchronised with the fans.
Given his young age and his outstanding goalscoring record, it's a risk I'd be willing to take. The bloke is a class act.
So did we. It worked in the CL against Madrid a couple of years ago but in the PL it's a busted flush. A little harsh? I'm indicating that your full backs were poor and an upgrade could make a real difference to the system. I'm sure that you could get a significant left back upgrade within budget. We've been wooing Sessegnon for years (and it could now be time for that to pay off)- it's a tactic that Arsenal are going to have to reintroduce. Trying to do it all in one leap isn't likely to work.
What makes you say this? Plenty of top teams still play 4 at the back now. Sorry, I realised that may have come off as passive aggressive when I pressed 'post reply'. My apologies, it wasn't my intention. I was just saying that unless the players you have in those positions are top class, any upgrade which is not at that level won't be enough to turn our fortunes around significantly if we are to persist with a 3-man defence system, in my opinion. And although I agree in principle that making too many changes in one Summer can be counterproductive, we have so many flaws in our team right now, that I would rather take the chance and do it. I can't stomach watching any of Kolasinac/Monreal/Maitland-Niles/Jenkinson in our team any longer. I actually think I will lose my mind.
I meant 3 at the back is done, it doesn't read that way, unless you know that we played Toby, Sanchez and Dier in the Bernabeu, as Jan Vertonghen had to play left back and we thought that they would open us up. Even then, it's not clear, I'll admit.
