Don't think he wants to go to ManU but this has been such a ridiculously long drawn out saga that he might be glad to end up with the security of getting a deal done sooner rather than later
Agree. Reports can never really be trusted, but if the one about the stress being caused by all of this is true, he may just decide to go be done with it and go with the Utd offer which is apparently (again reporting) nearly agreed with Sporting. Also reporting tonight that Gyokeres has sent legal letters to Sporting That is not going to make any potential transfer quicker!
Gyokeres doesn't wanna go to United. We are still negotiating so I don't think he will go anywhere else, unless we completely give up on the deal.
Football fans are weird. Liverpool sign Ekitike for like £85m and Arsenal fans are all envious. We bid to sign Sesko and it was all like "he's not good enough, not proven anything".. blah blah blah.. Ekitike is 23 - He scored 22 goals last Season. Sesko is 22 - He scored 21 goals last Season. Sekso is bigger, faster and a year younger. Now instead it looks like we have signed a guy who almost scored 100 goals in 100 games but all you hear from Arsenal fans is 'well the Portuguese league isn't as good as the EPL'. Soo annoyingly negative about everything we do.
Squad is coming together nicely. -----------------------------Raya--------------------------------- -----------------------------Kepa--------------------------------- Timber----------Saliba---------Gabriel---------------MLS (White)--------(Masquera)-------(Kiwior)--------(Calafiori) --------Odegaard------Zubimendi--------Rice-------------- --------(Nwaneri)-------(Noordgard)---------(Merino)------- -Saka--------------------Gyokeres---------------------Eze?- (Madueki)---------------(Havertz)-----------------(Martinelli)
Even without Eze. That whole squad is pretty much confirmed. Jesus, Zinny, Nelson and Trossard are also still here as it stands, too. Depth is pretty incredible.
Ideally, those 4 players would have been sold this window (Jesus obviously won't due to his knee injury) to have made space for some better quality players. I guess there's still time for some of them to go, but reading what's been said about Zinchenko for example (happy in London, family want to stay, no pressure to leave), I don't think we will recoup much in terms of sales/outogings. I hope I'm wrong. The likes of Fabio Vieira and Lokonga absolutely need to be gone too.
Much as I like Gabriel Jesus. He should probably be sold. Our second highest earner on big wages, constantly injured and when fit doesn't produce the numbers. Love the guy though, great attitude. Currently being linked to AC Milan and Newcastle. Nelson looks likely to Fulham. Makes sense. I would say selling Trossard would probably be smart as well. He's 32 and only seems to produce when coming off the bench. Bring in Eze and perhaps another young forward.
i think replacing Jesus was imperative, due to his injury history. Can not be relied upon. We’ve done that with Gyokeres imo.
Also looks like Fabio Viera is close to a move to Stuttgart, This could open up a move for Eze. Our squad is going to look pretty complete if we can get that done as well. Eze can play LWF and as a 10. Allows us to play two 10's when we need a goal and would just give a whole bunch of new options to the starting 11.
Lots of rumours about Tottenham in talks with Eze right now. I guess we are waiting to sell before we make any final moves. Now I like Eze - definitely wouldn't say no to the signing but the more I think about it - I would much rather they spent the Money on Leao or Rodrygo. Eze isn't really a LWR'er and I think were pretty stacked in the Number 10 position. Odegaard Havertz Nwaneri Dowman Personally I think if we sell Trossard and bring in Leao or Rodrygo - that's pretty much a complete squad. -----------------------------Raya--------------------------------- -----------------------------Kepa--------------------------------- Timber----------Saliba---------Gabriel-----------Calafiori (White)--------(Masquera)-------(Kiwior)--------(L-Skelly) --------Odegaard------Zubimendi--------Rice-------------- --------(Nwaneri)-------(Noordgard)---------(Merino)------- -Saka--------------------Gyokeres---------------------Leao- (Madueki)---------------(Havertz)-----------------(Martinelli)
Martinelli is nowhere near IMO. Don't get me wrong ability wise he should be up there but last Season he was basically free on the left because teams were doubling up on Saka. He probably should have scored 15-20 goals with chances he had. He scored 8.
Martinelli's xG was 9.21 in the PL last season and he scored 8, so a goal less than he should have based on the chances he had. Rodrygo got 6 goals and Leao got 9 last year in the league - weaker leagues IMO. Rodrygo has never got close to the levels Martinelli did in his best season and Leao matched it in one season. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Comparisons above on attacking play. Given that Martinelli is operating in the PL I think he looks better - and then there is also the job he does running the line and helping the defence, which is far more than either Leao or Rodrygo do - and important to us.
This doesn't tell me which Seasons you are comparing. Rodrygo is playing on his weaker side every week and still getting 12-20 goals a Season. (He got 19 in 22/23 and 17 in 23/24 - Martinelli's best is 15.) I believe Rodrygo is a 20+ LWF. You know we had the best defence in the league last Season right?.. You know where we can improve .. Goals! Goals Goals Goals. Now Martinelli has scored some big goals for us, has a good attitude but He had some shocking performances last Season. I feel it needs to be 'you hit this number or you are out'. Like I said players are doubling, even tripling up on Saka right now - if he can't do what Sanio Mane or Gakpo did at Liverpool he shouldn't be starting games.
I was looking at league performance and over their careers. Season form can go up and down. They are all fairly young player who have played about the same amount of league games/minutes. I don't like looking at goals against minnows in cup competitions - I get that Rodrygo, for example, got 4 against Bresios and Salzberg in the CL , but i don't rate that very highly. TBH , playing for a big club in the Spanish league also makes it difficult to compare against playing in the PL where the depth is a lot better in terms of opponents week in week out. Perhaps I have some bias - and I do not watch Rodrygo anywhere near as much as Martinelli - but what I have seen of him has been wholly unimpressive. As for Leao - imo he is the definition of a luxury player. He has tricks, but he's often anonymous and he is not the kind of player you want around if you need to battle and dig deep in games.
