(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 2)

fixed

hahaha

Yeah Sanchez and Ozil will presumably be at the Confederation Cup sadly, but with no other tournament next summer I'd expect most of the squad would travel as they did to Asia last summer.

Sounds like Chelsea are stumping up for Morata.

Juve priced out of the Higuain deal, which probably means us priced out too - his release clause is absurd for a 28yo. 

Didn't know where to post this, but a pretty interesting read about the general expectation levels of the current 'big 7' clubs for this season.

https://www.espnfc.com.au/english-premier-league/23...

The comparison between mid-90s serie A is intriguing. 

The amount of money in the league means that there will surely be a number of teams that challenge these 7 as well - I mean last year these guys weren't even the actual top 7 for starters. 

Westham look to me like a team on the rise. Everton have got Koeman and some supporting funds now. Southampton appear to go from strength to strength, even with the constant drain of players/managers. There will be others too.

Interesting season ahead. Wouldn't be surprised if the winning points total is low like last season. 

Given they've already signed Batshuyai it will leave them with Morata, Costa, Batshuyai, Remy for one spot - seems a bit bloody greedy!

Rumours that Costa might be turfed out.

Also, here's a vid of our new signing Rob Holding. Obviously they always look good on youtube but he does look like a baller;

https://twitter.com/luke_bwfc/status/7553632241665...

Love those intercepts & instant transitions into counter-attack.

Would actually be comfortable with him & Chambers fighting it out for 4th string CB.

so has Rob been confirmed?

I also see Silva has been sold back to brazil. 6 years of waiting on a work permit, only to be sold back to the club he came from!

Holding not confirmed on arsenal.com just yet, but widely reported that fee has been accepted, and medical completed. 

In more interesting news... to get the excitement going... 

Twitter user AFCamden (aka "Pablo"), who seems to be the best arsenal insider when it comes to rumours, has hinted at a big centre forward signing... this guy seriously knows what's going on, he's usually the one to break most signings. Said Holding was a done deal on June 7 for example... 

Someone tweeted him "you've been quiet" and he responded with: 

"Sometimes it's best to keep quiet. Wenger is trying to pull off a madness #cf"

I know that seems like nothing but if you read this guy's twitter feed, he is a serious insider.

Madness in my mind is/would be: Pogba, Griezman, Messi, Bale, Suarez, Neymar, Ronaldo, Benzema, Kane, Kroos, Rodriguez, Hazard, Lewandowski..

Affordable madness would be: Eboue.

"pull off a madness"?

Wenger is giving one of these guys a handy-j?

He's quick chasing and on the counter and also can turn on the ball with ease!

Man we have a lot of work to do with our squad. I was thinking about it this morning, and the way we are as of right now, we just about have 3 players for every position. We need a couple more players in terms of quality, but in terms of purely numbers, we need to sell or loan out plenty as it currently stands! Here's a rough list of 3 options in each position, if we assume we'll be playing 4-2-3-1 again;

GK

Cech

Ospina

Szczesny

RB

Bellerin

Jenkinson

Debuchy

CB

Mertesacker

Chambers

Holding

CB

Koscielny

Gabriel

Bielek

LB

Monreal

Gibbs

?

CM

Xhaka

Coquelin

Elneny

CM

Cazorla

Ramsey

Wilshere

LW

Sanchez

Iwobi

Reine-Adelaide

AM

Ozil

Oxlade-Chamberlain

Zelalem

RW

Walcott

Campbell

Gnabry

FW

Giroud

Welbeck

Akpom/Sanogo

So only LB where we have less than 3 viable options right now (although some like Reine-Adelaide, Zelalem and Bielek are quite young). 

Very bloated squad...

i think this is either gaining traction or being reposted(probably the latter) as there are stories going around that we have some one for 50-60mil, who isnt Higuain/Lacazette/Icardi/bacca. Fudge knows who that is then. 

It's the guy from Gabon who I said on here 4 seasons ago we should buy from his French club whose name I can't spell

GK - Sell Ospina

LB - Sell Gibbs (blokes gotta be playing) buy Ricardo Rodriguez/other young but great LB

CB - Loan Bielek - keep other 5 - Kosc/Per aren't exactly bullet proof

RB - Hold off changes until January when Jenko is back. If Jenko comes back to what he was sell on Debuchy, if he's struggling wait until next summer then sell both Jenko & Debuchy & recruit a senior & junior.

CM - don't do a thing - we always have players injured here.

LW - Leave as is - Good talent mix there

RW - Sell Walcott & replace with Reus/Draxler/Mahrez

AM - Leave as is - Good talent mix there (with players like Jack/Santi/Iwobi able to cover too)

ST - Acquire prolific finisher like Higuain/Suarez, or speedy ninja like Lacazette/Griezman, sell/loan Sanogo or Akpom when Welbeck returns.

Based on that:

Sell/Loan - 6

Acquire - 3

Does mean you start the season with a stacked midfield - but injuries always kill us here.

Also lots of options out wide/up front - could consider also loaning/selling Gnabry and/or The Jeff if game time was a priority for their development VS being in the squad.

Couldn't agree more brumbys, pretty much exactly what I would like to see happen. 

I can't spell it either foal but aubameyang or whatever it is, is the one we're talking about. 

Be very happy to see him come in. 

Aside from that, Lewandoski would really be my ultimate purchase. 

Friendly against Lens streaming live on arsenal.com tomorrow morning 6am our time if anyone's interested.

Oh yes I am interested ;)

Actually can't wait to see the Jeff back in action again. High hopes for that lad.

Dortmund have recruited well but if Aubameyang leaves, they have also lost Hummels, Gündoğan and  Mkhitaryan - that's a champion spine of a team. Will be well over £100m in transfer income

They can have Sanogo - it's a like for like. Heck they'd be lucky if we even threw in some cash. He's scored an CL hattrick you know.

Holding confirmed.

1-0 down at half time in the friendly against Lens. Only just got up so didn't see any of the first half, didn't fancy the 6am start on Saturday for a friendly.

is there a live stream of it anywhere?

ignore that. i forgot it was on the arsenal page

wow we are looking average... except for macey in goal who is doing alright

Ox scores after a beautiful bit of play from Gnarby. 

That was a cross wasn't it? 

Heh just realised the Lens keeper is called Douche.

i thought it was deliberate

lovely goal

https://twitter.com/ArsenalGoaIs/status/7565779423...

The situation with Joel Campbell is so weird.

Even when rusty, he just always creates chances. But there's something that still doesn't convince, especially with Wenger it would seem. 

And what is his best position?

Mahrez rumours have exploded

French media saying Arsene met with him in France overnight, and we've agreed terms, now negotiating fee with Leicester. I thought he had a release clause  at 30m or less, but reports suggesting we're paying up to 50m.

I'm f*cken excited. Proven in the PL, prime age, definitely worth the coin imo.

My Uber driver on Friday night was called Manmeet

For me he's a winger, and a damn good one at that.

He can deliver a ball into the box, he can cut inside and shoot from distance, he can rotate into the hole and set the play to keep the opposition guessing, and most importantly he tracks back and supports the full back.

If we start the season with the squad we had, he's my first choice on the right ahead of Theo, The Ox, Gnabry, or an out of position midfielder.

I'm hoping Wenger keeps him & he kicks on.

It has to be asked, was it meant to be a cross?

I'd have to agree I'd start campbell ahead of walcott and the ox right now brumbys. If the ox could stay fit and start consistently delivering though, he'd give him a run for it. 

Higuain to juventus, 94m euros apparently. 

As good as he is, I would never want us to pay that much for a him.

Straight after Leicester City beat Celtic in some "International Champions Cup", Ranieri's making statements that Mahrez isn't going anywhere, but if you listen to what he is actually saying its more like a plea to him to stay because he is so important to the team, and he wont be the no.1 star like he is now if he goes to a big club. I'm guessing there is actually some traction on this, and when he says its only speculation, its because nothing is official.

Only he will know but live I thought it was a cross. There was one replay from behind the goal that appeared to show him looking to Gnabry at the far post when he hit it rather than towards goal. Pretty confident finish if he meant it.

Edit: Was referring to the final replay in this clip. Pretty quick though so difficult to tell.

As Arseblog pointed out - watch the Lens defender seemingly wipe himself out on the post afterwards.