30 Jul 2016 09:30:35
TFI can say all he wants about signing another attacking player, if you won't meet the valuation and have no intent you might as well stay at home mowing the lawn
We won't spend anymore BIG money unless we sell off some players, it's the way we operate.
Broken record time, I say it again, why spend 30,000,000 on yet another midfielder when we could add 20 mill to that and get and top top striker for 50-50 mill.
30 Jul 2016 10:07:33
Why? Because we wanted a strong leader with technical skills in midfield, there was a player with what we needed and the transfer was achievable.
A Xhaka in the squad is worth two higuains in the bush.
30 Jul 2016 10:24:50
If we'd had the money or rather spend the money on a top striker and center back, xhaka would be great but if it compramises in anyway us sorting those two places out, it is a poor decision. The most important replacements should have been striker, then center back, we'd just bought elneny for midfield, it wasn't as important. Wengers plan a went tits up and as usual plan b was urghhhhh, don't know? What do we do now.
30 Jul 2016 10:30:48
I do get what you're saying Banbury, but in fairness we did need a midfielder like Xhaka!
Trust me, if we'd signed a Mata type player, I'd be fuming, but Xhaka adds real steel our midfield, he's big, loud and a leader and our midfield lacks all of those.
To be honest with you, I really, really, reaaallly want to see a midfield pairing of Xhaka and Elneny.
I know what you're all thinking, 'But D_, Santi, Ramsey, Coquelin, what about them you bloody fool?! '
And yes, all good choices, but the thought of Xhaka and Elneny in the centre of the park, especially against the likes of City, Chelsea, etc is amazing to me.
You've got the Xhaka with great passing, ability to dictate tempo and good vision, pairing Elneny who could run for approximately 180,032,217 minutes without stopping, plus his good tackling and eye for a shot, it's the good old double pivot!
Actually, let's all take a moment here, I'm putting the breaks on the negativity for a minute.
Credit Arsene and co where it's due, Elneny was an astute signing and he's really impressed me when he's played, so kudos there.
That being said, there's very little excuse for not signing a striker.
I mean at least at CB, if were pushed and say we can only get a CB OR a ST, we can use Monreal, Chambers, Holding and Le Coq and go for a striker.
Lacazette is right there, Aulas can say they won't sell all he likes, but throw £45m down and I'm sure he'll change his tune.
Instead it'll be more like
'Here's £30m'
'We want £45m'
'Heres £32m'
We want £45m
'Here's £28m and a loan of Bennacer'
'Get out'
30 Jul 2016 10:41:04
I agree Steve, but If a striker doesn't want to come, or is priced so high that the club thinks its not sustainable, we can want all we like but it can't happen. Hence they tries for vardy and xhaka, but will doubtless keep an eye on others. As for CB, i can imagine he was looking at things we aren't like coq being a cover cb etc.
The window isn't done. I'm sure aw will be thinking about letting cazorla go and maybe one of the wide boys if possible to get a striker and a cb, but also how current squad can be used if mahrez or someone looks possible.
30 Jul 2016 11:04:02
Also to give credit -
In a hyper inflated market where John stones costs 50mln, Holding for 2mln is an extremely smart signing.
Reminds me a bit of Ramsey for 5mln. A player signed slightly pre-maturely but we all knew he was going to grow up to be a talent; based on the intelligence at such a young age.
30 Jul 2016 11:16:38
I'm not sure Xhaka is going to be the dominant force your expecting .
He won't make the difference a top top striker would .
If Giroud gets injured, then what.
Xhaka gets injured we have comfortable replacements.
30 Jul 2016 11:18:38
Good post as well D.
Elneny is a clever buy which filled a great gap, but as Steve said a CF and or CB had to follow.
30 Jul 2016 11:37:30
Let's say Holding becomes as good as Kos how long will that take?
Which clubs will Belerin Ozil Sanchez and Ramsey be playing for them?
Some fans might be prepared to wait for years but players with footballing ambition can't afford to do that.
30 Jul 2016 11:53:07
I agree 62. The four you mentioned are class and will be off in a flash, we will have a job to keep hold of them, Kos as well.
30 Jul 2016 15:44:36
Banbury good point about replacements for injury. The same is applied to center back as does striker.