Good to see the back of Aubameyang. Never a captain on or off the field. More interested in money than in playing for us. Since we gave him the mega deal he has been completely disinterested.
Good to get him off of our books, but not bringing in a replacement, even on loan is ****ing criminal. If it’s a lack of goals that costs us a top 4 or top 6 place, then Arteta and Edu are toast
So Aubameyang has officially gone, as per the club's statement on their website. I have to be honest. I feel quite sad about it. He was an elite striker and joined us at a time where we were declining and became even less creative. Yet his goal contributions speak for themselves and he helped us a lot. 92 goals & 21 assists in 163 games. Golden Boot winner in 2018/19. Single-handedly won us the FA Cup in 2020. Won us the Community Shield as well. Memorable goals against Spurs, Man Utd, Chelsea & City. 5th fastest player in PL history to reach 50 goals. Regardless of how it ended, he was a superb striker for us and I hope people don't forget that. All the best at Barcelona, Auba.
Gutted to see him go And at the same time, it looked like the right time for us to part ways Thanks for the memories Auba. In 4 years he achieved more with us than any Spud player has done in over 3 decades
Great player - did'nt suit Arteta's style unfortunately. Will be interesting to see how he does at Barca. Will see for sure if he's past his best or not.
Rumours of Auba's death have been vastly exaggerated. I can see him re-discovering his form at Barca! Arteta, is far too young in his fledgling career to be falling out with his star players. He was lucky Auba was on top wages, and was expedient for Arsenal to get rid, as in they do not feel he has any value. I hope he gets to Barca and re-discovers his form and leaves egg on Arteta's face!
Exactly. Coming from a Spud I'd expect no less But a Gooner wanting an ex player to tear it up and leave egg on our manager's face as a result .... that ain't right
It's about time the Club really showed some ambition to get back challenging for titles. We've thinned back the squad massively, even offloaded Aubamayeng.. I know this is unlikely but I would do something like this... A TOP Class CF and CM should be priorities. In: Declan Rice & Erling Haaland. Saliba & Guendouzi back from loan. --------------------------Ramsdale----------------------- Tomiyasu----Saliba/White----Gabriel------Tierney --------------------Partey--------Rice--------------------- -Saka-----------------Ødegaard---------SmithRowe- ---------------------------Haaland------------------------- Bench: Xhaka, Lacazette, Martinelli, Saliba, Guendouzi, Tavares, Taylor.
Although I agree we need to be serious in the transfer market this Summer… Haaland and Rice? No chance these are realistic targets, even with CL football. Also, Guendouzi isn’t coming back. His loan to Marseille is effectively a permanent deal once he played a certain number of games (which he has done).
What's a realistic target though? Were Alexis Sanchez, Ozil or Aubamayeng a realistic target when we bought them? I'm doing the job I wanted to do as a kid as was told by teachers and others to be more 'realistic' - yet here I am. In Britain realistic just means pessimistic. Haaland has a 58m release clause this Summer and we just offered 63m for Vlahovic. Arsenal have a close relationship with Dortmund and Haaland is good friends with National Team mate Odengaard soo perhaps not Impossible at all. Rice - the biggest obstacle with this one will be West Ham playing hard ball and asking for a ludicrous transfer fee. I would say that Champions League (Top 4) would be required to sign either of these players. I know neither is likely to happen but they would both be almost perfect for what we need in the squad.
But a lot has changed since then. When we signed Ozil and Sanchez, we were a regular Champions League club, with the 3rd largest wage bill, a squad of good players and Wenger still had credit in the bank as a top manager. And when we signed Aubameyang, that was only our 1st year out of CL, so we still had credibility with top players across Europe. Currently, we've been out of the Champions League for 5 years, with back-to-back 8th placed finishes, and have a rookie manager in charge. Our wage bill has gone down, too, which has undoubtedly been impacted by the lack of CL/European football, in addition to forcing high earners to leave. Haaland is going to have the pick of who he wants. Man City, PSG, Juventus, Man United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and even Barcelona are all ahead of us in the pecking order. With the exception of Barcelona (currently), these clubs can offer better financial packages than us. Vlahovic rejected us because we're not an attractive enough proposition for him - and this was when he only had 1.5 good seasons. There's no logical reason for Haaland's representatives to even entertain an offer from us when he has a better opportunity to win trophies and earn good money at the aforementioned clubs. Again, Man United, Man City and Chelsea are all strongly linked with Rice - each of those clubs are richer than us and can offer more than we can. None of these transfers are 'impossible', but their likelihood is extremely slim, especially in the case of Haaland who is the hottest property in Europe. We will probably be looking at players the tier or two below this lot e.g. Isak, David, Osimhen etc.
That's like hearing your other half has run off with someone and you hope they find eternal happiness together
Not Haaland or Rice. One’s gonna have the pick of every elite club in Europe in the summer and the other is gonna be slapped with probably an £80m-£100m price tag that only Chelsea will likely be willing to pay. Personally, providing they can put the packages together, I see both Mbappe and Haaland at Madrid in the summer as part of the new era of Galacticos. They’ll be freeing up Bale’s £600k wages, as well as Isco’s and it’s highly likely they’ll try and sell players such as Ceballos and Jovic.
Well there wage bill has gone down because Arteta/Edu are looking to rebuild the entire squad. Like I said if we finish back in the top four our ability to sign BIG names again comes back. If we finish outside we will have to focus on young talent ( a strategy I'm not opposed to at all) You are talking like Arsenal isn't an attractive prospect for a player. Huge Club, massive fanbase in the EPL, London etc.
Bear. Come on. Let’s not beat around the bush here. We are clearly not the club we used to be. Which is why the top, top players go to other clubs. If you think, in 2022, we are the equivalent/more attractive propositions than: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Juventus, PSG or Chelsea Then I don’t know what to tell you. Our name and history speaks for itself, but that in itself will not attract the hottest prospects to us. The two main things those elite players look for are money and trophies. All those other clubs have a better chance of winning silverware AND/or offering better wages than us. This shouldn’t even be a debatable point.
Also, I'm not saying we can't attract very good players or prospects - we can - but if we're talking Haaland, Mbappe, Rice etc, then there are a whole bunch of clubs ahead of us in the pecking order.
Until we get back into the Top 4 and CL, then we're always going to miss out on the very top players That said, we're beginning to assemble a squad that does have the talent to get top 4. The tricky issue for us is that we're going to need to sign a top drawer striker in order for us to compete at that level, and all of the best ones will want to go to a team already playing CL football.
