Re: The Official Summer Transfer Rumours Thread

[Jay29]

Tidy player. Would be a solid signing for the squad.

I remember him on FM09 being a beast and wondering why he never got a first team chance.

[MJ]

All that's well and good but I'd have to learn the combination of keys you have to hit to get the å in his first name. I was willing to do it for Özil but I'm afraid I can't put myself through any more of it.

[Hapless_Hans]

All that's well and good but I'd have to learn the combination of keys you have to hit to get the å in his first name. I was willing to do it for Özil but I'm afraid I can't put myself through any more of it.

Again, noone expects you nor the English press to actually type an 'ö' or 'ü'. But it can't be too much to ask to type oe or ue.

[RealGunner]

We need to finally address issues rather than cover them up.

We need a controller. Arsenal under Arsene have never managed to perform without a controller. Even if that player is someone like Denilson who was shit but at least he did his job enough to make our performances look better.

And we need to buy someone who is actually established. Someone like Xhaka or Weigl or Gundogan. Not someone like Shakala Okahem Bacu Obeid from FC 5 star lads.


We need to bin Giroud(or make him 2nd choice) and Walcott and get proper centre forward and a technically good right winger/AM. unfortunately there seems to be no good ST. Not played fifa this year to scout either.

For right winger/AM I would love to have someone in the mould of ribery. We know Sanchez is a liability but we need his directness and thats ok for LW. at RW we need someone who is a goal scoring midfifelder with vision and passing.

We need a top quality CB.

[Jay29]

Mahrez feels like the obvious choice for RW. He's basically a much better Joel Campbell, and Campbell did very well in his brief stint as a starter and showed us the benefit of having a technically good and intelligent player on the flank.

Gundogan will have a year left on his contract this summer. We need to be all over that if possible.

[RealGunner]

Which we probably won't. Looking at our past history of players we should have bought but allowed them to move elsewhere just because it would 'kill' someone at the club.

Thing with Cazorla-Coquelin is that they aren't the best partnership but that they compliment each other well so they work and in return they make the team work better. Even when they both were playing together we had some awful performances and the results then weren't that much better either. However now we are not getting any results nor performances.

We had to convert a player who played as a LAM or CAM all his life into a CM rather than go out and buy one. Coquelin has started showing what we all feared a year ago or so. He is a very good ball winner, but he is quite useless when we are a goal down or when we need goals. Arteta was the complete package despite not being amazing and we need someone like him.

Yesterday was the first time i watched Elneny live and he actually looked like a good player. He came to receive the ball most of the time from defenders and tried to keep our play consistent. I think we need to throw him in the fire and start playing him instead of either Coquelin or Ramsey.


Our ideal team would be something like this

-------------------Cech--------------------------
Bellerin-------Ball playing CB----Koscielny----Monreal
---------------------Controller--------------------
-------------Wilshere-----------Ramsey----------
--------Ozil-----------------------------------Sanchez
-------------------------Higuain---------------------


I really like Mahrez but i am still wary of him being a big fish in a small pond but not big enough for a bigger pond.

[Sina]

http://lineupbuilder.com/2014/custom/?sk=s80p

[Peccadillo]

Which we probably won't. Looking at our past history of players we should have bought but allowed them to move elsewhere just because it would 'kill' someone at the club.

Thing with Cazorla-Coquelin is that they aren't the best partnership but that they compliment each other well so they work and in return they make the team work better. Even when they both were playing together we had some awful performances and the results then weren't that much better either. However now we are not getting any results nor performances.

We had to convert a player who played as a LAM or CAM all his life into a CM rather than go out and buy one. Coquelin has started showing what we all feared a year ago or so. He is a very good ball winner, but he is quite useless when we are a goal down or when we need goals. Arteta was the complete package despite not being amazing and we need someone like him.

Yesterday was the first time i watched Elneny live and he actually looked like a good player. He came to receive the ball most of the time from defenders and tried to keep our play consistent. I think we need to throw him in the fire and start playing him instead of either Coquelin or Ramsey.


Our ideal team would be something like this

-------------------Cech--------------------------
Bellerin-------Ball playing CB----Koscielny----Monreal
---------------------Controller--------------------
-------------Wilshere-----------Ramsey----------
--------Ozil-----------------------------------Sanchez
-------------------------Higuain---------------------


I really like Mahrez but i am still wary of him being a big fish in a small pond but not big enough for a bigger pond.

does Elneny not give us that attacking alternative when we are a goal down?

[Chumlum]

Nordtveit on a free would be fairly close to an ideal option among realistic possibilities.

Nordtveit, Gündoğan, and Mahrez in for Arteta, Rosicky, Theo (and/or Joel or Ox), Flamini would be a massively awe-inspiring overhaul of our midfield & right flank. Assuming Mahrez keeps performing at the same level anyway. If only, if only ...



#MileJedinakForCheap
#Re-signKimKallstrom
#MoveArtetaToCB

[Chumlum]

Given the Souness rant posted in another thread, and the lack of leadership/character we've often seen lobbed (and often rightly) at various recent Arsenal squads, I wonder if there are players you'd like to see come to the club primarily for what they bring in terms of grit, determination, testicular fortitude, etc.?

The thing about this Arsenal team is that a lot of the leadership seems to be either too calm or quiet at times (e.g. Per, and Arteta - a guy for whom I retain so much respect), or too purely by example (e.g. Alexis when he's on form and drags the team to victory). I'm not knocking any of these guys but a little something different is necessary too. Cech was clearly a good addition in this vein, but we could use more I think. There are other guys who yell and get fired up, but they include the likes of poor Flamini, so ...

Anyone whose mentality is something you crave to see in the team?

[Jay29]

I don't believe it's something you can buy. Sure, you can bring in experienced professionals who lead in their own way but the sort of leadership we're after is something that has to be cultivated from within. By this I mean you can't just buy Scott Parker and chuck him in and expect everything to be better, like it was suggested a few years ago.

For me, winning mentality, however you define it, comes from conviction in what you're trying to do and trust in your teammates to do their jobs properly and not go missing. Leicester and Spurs are good examples of this currently. Neither squad has players that jump out at you as strong leaders yet neither team has yet to wilt under pressure like we just did.

[Peccadillo]

what we need is an asshole. Flamini tries but is unfortunately also tripe..  maybe we are too nice.

More fuel to put an offer on Ibra's table if you ask me.

[MJ]

Cech was an inspired signing but the brunt of that mystical aura of conviction comes down to how the manager motivates the players.

I hate to say it but when Leicester and Spurs line up, they look like players with nothing to lose, fighting for everything. They're teams batting above their weight and seizing the moment.

When we play it's like we're petrified of the consequences of not winning. The players are feeling the pressure. Maybe the only two who have responded consistently all season have been Cech and Özil.

[MJ]

Telegraph's Jeremy Wilson predicts a £115m squad overhaul this summer.

Targets: N'Golo Kante, William Carvahlo, Victor Wanyama, Ighalo, Aubameyang, Ryan Sessegnon, Ben Chilwell

Players to leave: Gibbs, Debuchy, Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky

Ozil and Sanchez will be offered deals worth £200kpw while Santi, Per, Ox, Wilshere and Ramsey likely to be offered new deals of varying lengths.

Wenger's future undecided but it's in his hand. Board remain in 'total' support and his decision likely rests on our title challenge this season.

Defense and CM the priority this summer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/12178564/Arsenal-to-hand-Arsene-Wenger-75m-war-chest-this-summer-to-bolster-fragile-defence-and-midfield.html

[RealGunner]

Those targets

[Jay29]

Marca and AS both running stories this morning about James Rodriguez and Isco possibly leaving Madrid. Marca say Arsenal would be "delighted" to sign Isco, but the price could be between €40 and €45 million.

Isco on the left, Ozil in the middle, Alexis on the right.

[MJ]

That's a fair price imo. Could see him transitioning into a deeper role to supplant Santi. Sounds farfetched to peg him as a DLP but then again it seemed the same way when Santi first started playing there.

[Chumlum]

I don't believe it's something you can buy. Sure, you can bring in experienced professionals who lead in their own way but the sort of leadership we're after is something that has to be cultivated from within. By this I mean you can't just buy Scott Parker and chuck him in and expect everything to be better, like it was suggested a few years ago.

Fair point. Still, I think one can look for a type of character that a reasonably experienced player might have exhibited, something in an Arsenal mold (we already seem to have a high degree of professionalism and easygoing qualities in the squad), just a little more extroverted and intense.

That's a fair price imo [for Isco]. Could see him transitioning into a deeper role to supplant Santi. Sounds farfetched to peg him as a DLP but then again it seemed the same way when Santi first started playing there.

I've been saying it, Isco would be a great signing because he could play on the flank, or at #10 to rotate with Mesut, or also work as a deeper player in something like a Santi role. He'd be great business. €40-45m sounds like a perfectly reasonable price.

[Jay29]

Zonal Marking just wrote an interesting article on the sort of thing you're talking about, Chumlum:

http://www.espnfc.com/barclays-premier-league/23/blog/post/2818906/arsenal-criticism-for-lack-of-leaders-is-missing-the-point

Basically, he says that having an extroverted leader, someone who shouts and points and riles people up, doesn't make that much a difference in the grand scheme of things when you examine other successful teams.

[Chumlum]

That's a good article, and I get the points you and ZM are making.

I do agree that there's a chicken-and-egg problem. If Arsenal are playing beautifully and winning, we often say, "Look at Coquelin, he's screaming all over ... look at Gabriel's passion ... Özil has really controlled this match, wow." When a team is doing well it's easy enough to assign some leaders retrospectively.

What I was going for, and curious to hear about from others, was less "loudmouths" or even "leaders" per se, and more a sort of mentality that could be supplemented. You can't simply pay money and import it full-blown, that's true. But certain types of players could still be useful; certain mentalities could help supplement and enhance the squad. It's speculation on our part as fans because we're not on the training ground or in the dressing room. But speculation is fun too.

What kinds of players? Well, I know I would still kind of enjoy having the dark arts & ice cold demeanor of Matic (from Chelsea's title-winning season, that is). I recall a few years ago that Arseblog really, desperately wished we had Zabaleta, or a player just like him, in the squad - and I could see his point. I've long wished that a few of our positionally versatile midfield/attacking players were a bit more reliably workhorse-like, in the mold of Milner, Park Ji-Sung, or Dirk Kuyt. (Alexis has a bit of this but he's also one of our flair players, so it's different; this is the mold of player I wish Ox had turned into by now.) It's not one single quality I'm after, and it's not even always about leadership ... it's more a range of interrelated and often unglamorous qualities that I wish were more represented in the squad.

[RealGunner]

Would kill to have Isco

[RealGunner]

Mex Meyer only has a buyout clause of 25m....


we need to be on it ASAP

[Hapless_Hans]

Mex Meyer only has a buyout clause of 25m....


we need to be on it ASAP

Why? He won't start for you, why should he come?

[RealGunner]

Would be great as a RAM

--------------Welbeck---------------
Sanchez------Ozl---------Meyer
-------Ramsey---Elneny-----------

[Sina]

Nah, Isco or Draxman needed for that role

[RealGunner]

Agreed with that too

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