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

Who is a better no.10? I guess there's not actually that many classic no.10's going around right now. Ozil, Eriksen, Coutinho, who else?

Very true. However I would say KDB, Hazard, Silva, Coutinho in the EPL alone

You don't see either having a chance of happening? Huh? What do you think will happen if he runs his contract down? He wants to stay in England.

I don't know if you are just naive or very optimistic. (I wish I shared some of that!)

If Sanchez extends his contract I'd be legitimately shocked. He has us over a barrel and he wants to play with better players. Why would he extend?

I'm a big fan of Ozil; but I just think he's more replaceable in the current system.

'Worlds best No.10" is a bit irrelevant considering the modern game is really not about a traditional focal point Number 10 anymore.

if he runs his contract down that's 12 months for us to fix a problem

I'm neither naive or optimistic. I'm a realist. We have no need for the coin nor is there a suitable (IMO) replacement. 

Why wouldn't he extend ? He's going to get huge money at a huge club in a huge city and be guaranteed XI

Ozil's replaceable only in the sense that the club would be selling to diminish its passing and technical level for a runners 3-4-3. This won't happen. 

Best #10 , yes he is and yes 3-4-3 pretty much negates a genuine #10 role. This certainly doesn't mean he's redundant to our plans of actually winning a few games. FA Cup final shows this... 

I'm not going sadly - but I really need to get rid of my tickets... 

Going to both, but making a bit of an extended holiday out of it rather than just going for the games. So leaving on 30th and spending a week in Gold Coast first, then Sunshine Coast for a couple of days then a week in Sydney.

Had a stressful time over the last 3 months with looking for a new house and finally moving tomorrow so feels like the holiday is deserved.

Have you posted on the Arsenal NZ FB page?

Edit: Ticket Resales are weird - I managed to finally sell my lions tickets via LinkedIn!

Because that's stopped United signing/re-signing players right?

Yes, I am almost certain that not being in the Champions League has put a lot of United's transfer targets off.

It's mostly a myth though. Certainly a deciding factor sometimes, but in most cases you tend to find that if you pay them they come. Whether not being in the CL, or by simply just being United and having more money than anyone else raised the fee I can't say.

I think it's still very important, but that it's definitely diminished in the last few seasons, for the premier league at least. We used to have a "big four" situation, but it hasn't been the same top four for consecutive years for quite a while now. You can't be guaranteed champions league football at any team in the EPL these days. 

For a young player it won't be so important as they have time to help get their new team in it, but for the older established players it's probably quite significant as they don't want to be waiting for a year or two until they're there. 

For example Kante, who is quite young, and left Leicester for Chelsea and gave up the opportunity to play in europe, but now he's helped them get into it so his decision will pay off. If he was 30 then perhaps he might have placed more importance on Chelsea not being in the Champions League when he switched. 

It's still a big factor though. The only way ManU got around it to some degree was by firing money bombs at it. 

This just turned up from ebay. Scarf given to Arsenal fans at Wembley for the 2017 FA Cup Final. I also have a blue and yellow one from the 2015 Cup Final against Aston Villa which was also given to fans attending the game.

Anyone else see Sanchez's instagram story with his swollen ankle? Doesn't look good but maybe it'll minimise his confeds cup playing time/he'll actually rest.

Oh who am I kidding.

If he wanted to extend, that would have been done already. 

Reasons for him staying:

He likes England

Guaranteed to start

Reasons for him leaving:

He wants Champions League football

He wants a team that competes at the highest level with players at a comparable level

He wants more money

He has already put all he has into Arsenal and we've only got an FA Cup to show for it

Shark, even if we win the league next season I don't think he'd stay. He'll still bugger off to Guardiola at City.

I just think the worst case scenario is that he moves to a direct rival in the EPL and we have to sit through another Van Persie-esque embarrassment. We may as well cut our losses and sell him; though by all reports he's priced himself out of a deal to Bayern to force through a move to City next season.

Two FA Cups, but more importantly, what I don't understand is why we seperate Ozil and Sanchez from the performance of the team. It's not as if they have played the house down and the other 9 guys scored own goals to undermine them.

When we were in our worse patch this season, both Ozil and Sanchez were playing poorly as well. Sanchez in particular went full Gallas and was tannying about the pitch. Yes he continued to score, but his pass completion rate, the kms he was covering per game, his shot conversion, all these key stats were way way down from his norms. He was not performing, just like the rest of the team. 

These guys need to take blame for these performances too. 

If we win the league this season then he can fudge off to wherever. And he would have done the job he was hired to do. 

We have no desire to release the player, we don't need the $, there is no genuine replacement. It's an utter no-brainer, Sanchez stays. In fact I'd seriously question if anyone knows wtf they are doing if he's sold this window without a like for like transfer.

CR7? That's pretty much the only guy worth the bother. 

Has anyone been following the European U21 Championships. I can't believe Callum Chambers has been starting ahead of Rob Holding. Holding hasn't even got off the bench in the two games so far.

Irrelevant in terms of talking about whether he will stay or not - if anything, that is just another reason he will leave. If a guy like Sanchez (basically a robot that is built to play football 24/7) is so disappointed in the team that he drops his performance in that way; it's not a good look.

Of course they need to take some of the blame, but Sanchez was still far and away our best attacking force.

Sanchez' dip in form was because he was disappointed in his teammates...? 

I guess he really can do no wrong!

Had a thought last night; if we don't need the money and Sanchez doesn't want to sign on, would we consider a swap deal with anyone from City or Bayern? Would Aguero, Lewandowski, Neur, Vidal, Gabriel Jesus, De Bruyne soften the blow of losing Sanchez?

Would any of them want to go to Arsenal?

One season without ECL and we're now not worth signing for? We've got the money, the ambition, recent trophies, and a pretty handy looking squad. 

I think it definitely influences the premium.

You mention ambition. Imagine you're a near world class player with no allegiance to Arsenal - what suggests to you Arsenal is more ambitious than any other top English club? (Genuine question)

Welbeck has got the number 7 shirt for next season

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/06/21/hav...

https://twitter.com/stanjames/status/8774700097900...

The fact that they're in the market for you. I don't think it's about saying Arsenal is greater or less ambitious than specific clubs. It's more economics. Who is in the market for you as a player? Is the move going to give you the chance to play more and compete for trophies. Any player we're talking about at the moment will be coming in as a part of a title challenge and an FA Cup defence and should be starting 11 quality. Unless you have offers on the table from another party then it's irrelevant.

Welbeck is back to 23 when I visit. Hopefully user error.

• Debuchy
• Wilshere
• Chambers

However there is Campbell listed. I.E. some loanees have made the list some haven't.

Additionally Szy isn't listed under the keepers kit.

The white socks return again with the new kit. Not a fan :(

Yeah the socks should be red. Really like the shirt though. I only buy it every few years, think the most recent one I have is the first Puma one. Think I might get this one to wear to the Sydney games. Hope that fudgeing awful Man City sky blue thing doesn’t end up being the actual away kit. Red and white home kit, yellow and dark blue away kit. The traditional Arsenal colours.

Lacazette seems to be getting more and more traction with Arsenal sources claiming a bids been lodged. Wouldn't be surprised by Giroud going the other way. Interesting to see rumours of Martial popping up. I can't see Wenger getting him off United/Mourinho in a hurry.

Lots of stuff being reported about Lacazette, and also the Monaco winger Lemar. 

Mbappe rumours roll on. Still seems very unlikely but the talk won't go away on that one. 

Ox continues to be linked with Liverpool. 

I'd be stoked if we got Martial... and not because of the "Henry" jizzle, but because he could thrive in the right (our) environment and offset the loss of Sanchez. Lacazette doesn't excite me that much, and less so if it's at the cost of Olly.

The Mbappe bollocks is exactly that.

Not selling Ox

Not swapping Giroud for Lacz

Not buying Mbappe or Martial

Not selling Sanchez

If Lemar comes in expect Theo to be sold and/or Lucas. 

Transfer market looks to be in a holding pattern until a 'big piece' moves. Maybe a shift by James could be the trigger. 

I still chuckle knowing Sp*rs selling Bale to Madrid is what opened the door for Ozil to us. So good.

Mahrez rumours back on the radar.

I'm a big fan, I'd love him. 

Also saw AFC_Camden claiming we're about to land Lemar and the players picking us over Sp*rs. Having looked through his highlights reel he looks handy! Still really young but doesn't have the Mbappe hype and corresponding price tag/using us as a stepping stone to get to RM/Barca.

Been thinking about whether or not we should sell Giroud if we get Lacazette. I lean towards keeping him as I think our front 3 needs to include a big man with 1 smaller chap running off him & a play make flutting around beside him. I think it would then become match specific. If we need speed then it's a battle between Welbeck/Lacazette for starting. If we need strength then it's a battle between Giroud/Welbeck for starting.

I'd rather we found ourselves with Giroud/Welbeck alternating up front, supplemented by Lacazette, while Lacazette could play in behind either of those two.

The challenging scenario is that if you spend the money we're talking about spending on Lacezette and keep Sanchez/Ozil you'd be inclined to always start those 3 - thus stuck with both Giroud/Welbeck on the bench.

Still leaves you with both Walcott & Perez not getting a look in. 

Perez is definitely more suited to Walcott playing in the position behind the striker, but Walcott did just bang in 20 goals last season from a wide position so his finishing/pace can be handy.