Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

Andre Schurrle signs for Dortmund for £26m on a 5-year contract. For a supposedly chronically injured benchwarmer, that's an enormous risk and one that I'm glad we didn't take.

 

Who pays £26m for someone with a broken bottom?

 

Part of the problem with having an account where you post on another board and pretend to be a supporter of the "host" board is knowing exactly when to break ranks in order to deliver the perfect stealth-wum without getting caught. I've been operating like this on the Gooner board for several years, but it all fell apart just before the end of the season, and I ended up getting banned. In truth, I could have been banned 87 times over...

 

Wait...are you Arsenal87?!

 

Arsenal87 no longer exists, so this definitely can't be the case...

 

26m is for the player + the value of the total volume of recyclable wood comprised
by the splinters in his bottom..

 

Not any more.

 

Our squad for the pre-season tournament in Oz:



Obviously doesn't mean that players can't join the tour at a later date, but other than the obvious exclusions (players who competed in France), notable absentees are probably Njie, Pritchard and Dembele. The latter is puzzling given the fact that he is missing the first month of the season - I'd have thought Poch would want him to maintain his fitness. Are the former two set for moves away?

Also - peculiar that Chadli travels with the squad, and has Tommy Carroll forgotten that he's no longer contracted to play for the club?! Probably waiting for his parents to get back from their summer holiday so that he can get a lift home

Edit: just notice Bentaleb isn't on that list either

 

Given that 25,000+ of PIXIEs' posting are to / about you, and the remaining
10,000+ are similar for A87, you truly have given purpose to a man who would
otherwise have nothing to live for.

 

Some of the fees being spent this window are just astonishing.

£25m on guys like Schurrle and Wijnaldum? One spends most of his time on the bench while the other had a good 6 months in the Prem. West Ham have supposedly bid £27m for Carlos Bacca who turns 30 in September... Makes me wonder what an earth the likes of Kane, Eriksen and Alli are worth right now.

 

Seeing that Nabil Bentaleb isn't on the plane to Australia, along with Fazio, the shape of who makes the cut and who doesn't is becoming pretty clear:

Fazio: Gone £3m?
Pritchard: Gone £8m?
Bentaleb: Gone £12m?
Chadli: Gone £15m?
Yedlin: Gone £5m?
Clinton: Gone £8m?
Townsend: Went in January £12m

Departure total: £63m (even taking out Townsend, it's £51m)

Expenditure:

Wanyama £11m
Janssen £17m
N'Koudou £11m (if he ever signs?)

Incoming total: £39m

Whatever happened to the "we've got money in the budget to buy a striker?" When, if ever, are we going to actually spend some money? No matter what happens, we always put some money in Joe's pocket. We actually managed to get Janssen to agree to have part of his wage based upon the number of games he plays. N'Koudou's delay is probably down to him deciding how much to agree to pay us to play.

 

Don't you dare say you were him, I loved taking the piss out of him and would be gutted to think he wasn't real

 

Well, I’m certainly disappointed Bentaleb, Clinton and Pritchard didn’t travel, since it may mean they’re going to go. I don’t see much point in questioning Pochettino’s judgment, but may be able to suggest a theme. The players who made the trip and looked to be in some danger of losing their places were generally effective last year. I thought Carroll always did pretty well when he got a chance, and that he did what he was supposed to do. Chadli had few minutes but kept producing goals at the same rate he did the year before--a bit higher, actually. Mason was an important player until he hurt himself getting us our first win. It’s very unfortunate Clinton and Pritchard may be moving on without having a year to show what they could do. I like Bentaleb and think he’s going to have a good career, but I never saw him shield the back four the way Pochettino wants deeper lying midfielders to do. It seems to me he badly wants to be a deep lying playmaker, which isn’t a role that exists in Pochettino’s system. So he may be moving somewhere where it does.

However that may be, the main feeling I have seeing the roster is relief that the players who played in the Euros will get a break. They need one, I think.

 

Espn are reporting that N'jie, Bentaleb, Fazio and Pritchard have been told to use the next 2 weeks to find new clubs.

 

Well, there's no doubt about it now. Mauricio Pochettino will shoot the wounded to keep marching at full pace. There are some unlucky individuals in those deemed surplus to requirements and there's Fazio. I hope we get top dollar for them and they have success elsewhere.

I hope CCV, Dom Ball, Marcus Edwards et al do great things on tour and we have some regulars in the PL squad for next season out of that group. They need only look at Dele Alli and Eric Dier from last pre-season to see what is possible.

It is very clear that Mauricio Pochettino is the embodiment of 'To Dare is To Do'.

 

I find it exceptionally harsh that Pritchard is treated like that seeing as he has grown up at the club.

Deserves better imo.

 

And baffling given how good he's looked at a lower level. I for one would love to see if he could step up.

 

Here's the thing about that: while it's not exactly a well-kept secret that we want to jettison Fazio as literally as legally possible, assuming the other three are leaving because they didn't go on the tour misses the fact that Chadli went on the tour and he's likely leaving this summer, not least because Swansea are lining up a bid. Perhaps the reason Bentaleb, Pritchard and N'Jie didn't travel is because...they're better served working on their fitness due to long-term injuries and/or lack of match practice for the past season?

Keeping with stories that may or may not make sense, we're linked with Kaiserslautern's Luxembourgian striker Maurice Deville for some reason. I'm trying to work out which makes this sound like a dartboard job: being linked with a 23 year old second-tier striker with a middling scoring record, or a hack hoping he scores a last minute winner so they can use the CRUEL DEVILLE headline they've been waiting to use for years.

 

Let's not discard the possibility that a number of these players may well be heading out on loan. Pritchard is probably going to find it impossible to break through this season what with the quality we already have for the '3' and players like Son, Onomah and N'(insert name here) fighting for spots. A season loan for him to somewhere like Bournemouth would be ideal - going to a medieval side like West Brom was a ridiculous decision for a player with his creative talent. He needs to go out to a team that plays real football and cut his teeth at PL level. I'd say the same about Bentaleb - would love for him to be loaned out to a team where he can really learn to graft and fight like Poch wants him to. Maybe one of our B teams such as Sunderland or Hull would be a good destination for him?

As Brian has said - we aren't going to make a fortune out of selling any of them. The player who can command the highest transfer fee also happens to be the only player who has generated any concrete interest from a potential buyer and also happens to be the only player from that list who has travelled to Australia...Chadli.

Even from a ruthless Levy business perspective, it makes much more sense fiscally to send Pritchard, Bentaleb and Njie out on loan as its really a win-win: if they underperform, it isn't as if their value will plummet anyway, and if they impress, either we take back a top drawer player who has years and years ahead of them, or we sell them on for closer to £15m each and make a real profit.

 

Stan Collymore says that Janssen was a poor signing, and we'd have been better off signing Benteke or Berahino.

I guess this means Collymore's girlfriend was holding a frying pan when she hit him back? Because that's the only logical explanation for such utter nonsense.