Saliba Watch Rumours suggest that Saliba's head may have been turned by his recent Google activity... please log in to view this image
Saliba Watch 2 Mohamed Bouhafsi (who I quoted in the above post) suggests that, if we were to sign Saliba from under the Nomads' noses, we'd loan him back to Saint Etienne for the season Exodus Watch Reports in Mexico suggest that Monterrey are lining up a bid for Vincent Janssen I know the immediate belief is that this move would end Janssen's international career, but not necessarily: Andre-Pierre Gignac got into the France team for Euro 2016 while playing for Tigres in Liga MX, so if he rediscovers his scoring touch (and to be honest I hope he does, because fat's shat on the poor guy from a great height for the past two years) he could get himself back on the Dutch radar again ...although I hear bigsmithy is demanding that Rodolfo Pizarro be included in the deal Alderweireld Bullshit Watch It probably says more about me, but with Roma offering £10m for Toby I sincerely hope the club's response was one of the following a.) For Levy to adopt his most menacing tone of voice and say "First you waste my money, Baldini, now you're wasting my time" b.) The club to immediately offer the same amount for Nicolo Zaniolo c.) We sign Daniele De Rossi on a free transfer for the sole purpose of having him say what a ****show Roma are behind the scenes whenever he's within earshot of Toby (and, if he has time, play a few games)
Honestly, the signs were there all the way back in 2012 when we were both bidding for Vertonghen On our end, Levy flew out to Amsterdam to meet with him (not least because we didn't actually have a manager at the time...) and discuss his vision for the club and how Verts would fit in with that at the heart of our defence At the other end of Seven Sisters Road, Wenger was suggesting that Verts play as a defensive midfielder
Pixie will be praying to every known and unknown deity that this is false news. Already, he will have felt the Gates Of Wum beginning to shudder.
The signs were there for a while I agree, but after AvB got sacked and Sherwood came in, it looked - for all intents and purposes - that the gap was going to increase again. We broke our trophy drought and secured CL football, whereas you guys looked totally directionless. That Summer, we signed Alexis Sanchez, Calum Chambers, David Ospina, Welbeck and Debuchy - all of whom were intended to add squad depth and quality to a side consisting already of Cazorla, Ramsey, Chamberlain, Giroud, Ozil, prime Mertesacker and Koscielny, to name but a few. Then we saw the breakthrough of Bellerin and Coquelin the following season, and ended up finishing 3rd whilst retaining the FA Cup, whereas Spurs finished 6th (correct me if I'm wrong). There was so much hope and promise that we could finally surmount a title challenge for 2015/16....only for us to not sign a single outfield player and then bottle a title challenge against Leicester City. Even though you finished below us on the final day, there was no question of who looked the better team for the majority of the season. Poch had addressed a lot of issues and bought shrewdly, whilst Kane proved why the previous season wasn't a fluke. It was same old Arsenal with us; the only solace being taken in finishing ahead of Spurs again. But deep down, many Arsenal fans were very concerned at the way things were headed. Despite finishing 2nd in 2015/16 - our highest finish since 2005 I believe - I feared the gap would be closing again, as we continued to make the same mistake every single season, whereas you could see the tangible improvement at Spurs. Admittedly, I didn't think your development would accelerate like it has done, but the signs were there again. The difference was, under previous Spurs managers, it always seemed 'close but no cigar'. In Poch, you unearthed a real gem of a manager with a passionate drive to succeed and hunger to build a competitive team, despite significant financial constraints for most of his time. I think you were able to take advantage of the internal rifts between Usmanov and Kroenke, Wenger's decline, Gazidis and Dick Law not having an iota of footballing knowledge between the pair, amongst the poor signings and high wage expenditure etc. But in fairness, you still needed to make the right choices to capitalise on the misgivings at Arsenal. Well, you have done just that and then some.
Or (based on your suggestion that Spurs backed off in order to smooth the NDombele signing) "first buyer" status for Spurs if Lyon do decide to sell.
Not quite, I believe you need to (significantly) improve your trophy haul. If you do that, then yeah probably. But to be honest, even if you don't, it is hard to envisage us finishing ahead of you for a while. We've done well in the past, but it's all history now. Only the present and the future matter.
Atletico are effectively suing Barca for £72m, basing their case on the argument that Griezmann agreed to join them before July 1st - i.e. when his release clause was as high as £180m. I don't think they have a leg to stand on legally, but this could get very, very nasty.
Alves Spitballing Whilst I'm not convinced about the suggestions we've made a bid for Alves, what with the sole source being an agent's mouthpiece, it does make me wonder: if there were genuine interest, would the real plan be for us to have Alves as a stopgap for a season before making a play for someone like Max Aarons next summer? In other words, rather than bring in a cheap stopgap to tide the team over for a year while waiting for the long-term target to become available a la Stambouli, instead we're looking for a better quality stopgap? Similar can be asked for Ceballos tiding us over for a season before we make our presumed play for van de Beek next summer
