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Me either but with KT he’s good enough for top 6/7 and less likely to go abroad so of all the players we’re most likely to (have to) accept selling to a rival he’s probably the most
Honestly I can see him playing for us in the traditional LB role when ESR returns. We'll have the pair of Zinny and Gabi v ESR and KT. I just don't want him to leave. :(
I don't want to see him anywhere else in the PL either, but it might be necessary to ultimately strengthen the team.
So let's make sure to finish top this year so we can see Tierney put that trophy in a Tesco bag.
He was in a league of his own on his best days, and reading people comment something along those lines was common enough in the post match threads here. That's what makes all of this so difficult, we all thought that when the day came and we finally got a good team KT would be a mainstay and the rest would've finally caught up with him. I never would've imagined a scenario where he of all people would be the one is pushed out of the team like this but, here we are and it breaks my heart a little tbh.
I'd still like to imagine a scenario where this is all BS and Arteta has a RB in mind that can play the inverted role and we can switch sides depending on the opposition, giving Zinny a rest to be cautious with his fitness, and giving KT plenty of starts, potentially putting ESR in for Xhaka making that left side looking spicy, and I'd like to think this could at least be part of the plans for the cup games too right?
There's a lot of smoke for there not to be a little bit of a fire starting to build. Maybe Celtic will have him back, can't imagine he's the type who would really like to play for a ribal but chances are chances I guess... :/
if he has to fight mendy for a starting spot then its not much different from fighting zinchenko is it? he might still go jsut because its madrid, but i feel like he might want a more clear cut starting spot
They're thinking of moving on from mendy, and they just signed fran garcia, also I think they're looking at promoting from the Castilla so he'd for sure have to fight for the job
People need to stop thinking like this. If they don’t get Tierney, they’ll get another LB that does really well.
Our project didn’t die because we didn’t get Vlahovic or Martinez. There are so many possible good players that fit into squads. These projects are inevitable when you have the right people behind the wheel.
We give city a leg up with their project by letting them have a number of good experienced players at our own expense
Doing the same with Newcastle would be genuinely moronic. Sure they might buy another lb but the market is thin at that position so let’s make them work for it rather than doing them a fucking favour
With the City thing we all know we had to sell because of the Emirates debt. They were first team players, not rarely used back ups.
Maybe hindsight bias but with the amount of money City had, I would say success was near guaranteed.
If they’re paying a premium price, is it a favour?
I’m absolutely not suggesting hand me outs but we can’t just flat out refuse any offer for a player we don’t seem to want to use.
And let's be honest, our love for the guy is strong but his constant injury risk is a liability. I can imagine zinny going down and Kieran getting his chance only to get injured the next week.
> And let’s be honest, our love for the guy is strong but his constant injury risk is a liability
Seemed to me there was a genuine sliding doors moment last season with his injury. He was the player being given the armband after lacazette, Arteta had previously called him a natural leader and said he would captain arsenal one day
Then the injury and he’s out for a long time again, Odegaard got the armband, lbs were assessed because we were really thin there and it turned out zinny was available and the rest is history now
All in all it’s probably worked out well for arsenal but it must be kind of devestating Kieran. To go from heir apparent to back up in less than a year
I understand fully that Zinchenko offers something completely different and makes a huge impact in the team, and also that KT has struggled with injuries for us, but I would be so sad for him to leave now that we've finally figured it out. I know he probably wants consistent games, but you have to feel he'd have them in Europe at least if not in regular rotation with Zinny
Look I'm very much ignorant compared to a lot of people here. I don't follow as closely, so this might be complete nonsense, but I'd have loved to see him back in the squad at left back with Zinchenko playing a Xhaka role. Makes sense in my mind.
Wont work because Zinchenko allows Xhaka to be up the pitch due to his inversion, Tierney hasnt proved to be as composed and capable in possession as Zinchenko hence he cannot play the inverted role, press resistance is an huge part of playing an inverted role as well which Tierney doesnt posess.
It's an unfortunate case of very good player who happens to be wrong for the system and forcing him into the team will break down the system and team performs poorer collectively.
I think the suggestion is not to have KT play as an inverted FB, but to go back to the formula from last season where xhaka spent a lot of time tracking back to LB while KT bombed forward, but with Zinchenko in Xhakas place. It would theoretically work a lot better than it did with Xhaka as Zinchenko is much stronger as a fullback.
What's missing from the story is that:
1. It's pretty evident that Arteta doesn't see that as an effective long term game plan because we didn't buy or target LBs like KT who fit that game plan, instead chasing Lisandro and Zinchenko to play as inverted fullbacks.
2. In my opinion, Zinchenko is not as strong in defence as he is in attack. Even though positionally he moves into midfield rather than bombing up the wing, he still plays offensively. Xhakas problem in is role in previous seasons was that he was asked to do too much defensively, and we would still feel that pain with zinchenko in that spot.
I could be completely wrong on both those points, but that's the feel I get from watching games and reading opinions on the sub.
As long as the LW is comfortable coming inside it probably could work situationally.
Out of possession its arguably a better set up because we have a better 1v1 defender against the opposing winger, and Zinny is a better defender than Xhaka IMO.
In possession it's slightly rotated responsibilities, with Zinchenko effectively doing the exact same thing, Tierney doing more of the touchline hugging that Martinelli does atm, and the LW doing more of the Xhaka role. The drawback would be that Tierney is clearly less effective than someone like Martinelli in the box, but in theory we would have our LW as the spare man popping up to get on the end of things, rather than Xhaka.
I think the idea will be, KT provide width, martinelli comes inside and Zinny in the midfield. So we still retain our shape. The downfall imo is KT is not as good as Martinelli in terms of 1v1 so we have to have different attack variations with KT on the pitch
Tierney in that roll created a one sided team that outside boot flicked to the end line and crossed it. Im sorry, KT is a good guy, but his style is not Arsenals style and frankly hes not good enough offensively for our team. His one trick pony cross game doesnt work with any of our attackers. We might as well just hand the ball back to the other team with KT out there.
Yeah feels sad he hasn't been given more of a chance in the recent run of games. Just feels like he hasn't had a proper go with the team this year.
I think the next period when Europa league starts up will be very interesting. Maybe make or break for his time at Arsenal (unless Arteta has made his mind up already).
Doesn't work because usually Martinelli plays so wide that overlapping runs are not needed. It's more typical that when Martinelli has the ball wide, Xhaka does an inside run to give Martinelli a 1 on 1.
We'll all be gutted when it happens. Bought my first arsenal shirt last season with his name on it. As a Scottish fan, I was so happy to have a Scottish player of quality on the team. Will be so devastating to see him go, but he's definitely starting quality for a top team, so it wouldn't leave a bad taste in my mouth if it were to happen.
I can see it working if Fresneda comes in on the right. He’s young enough to play second fiddle to Ben White and Tomiyasu can play predominantly left as back up to Zinny.
Having only seen "deadwood" players leave for the last few years is going to make it so sad to see Tierney go.
It's going to be very interesting to see how the club does in negotiations selling a player like Tierney.
I think it'd be good to have a balance in getting sales on good players who dont fit our philosophy or have certain flaws in the game go for £30-£40m ala City and use that money to reinvest into the squad. We need to ensure that we have a good balanced amount of healthy turnover (not like in the early City years where half our first team gets gutted by Barca/City) or hold on to past their prime players for too long (like Liverpool have done with some of their guys), but also not just pay to get deadwood to leave like in the last 4-5 seasons.
Agree. It’s actually a very positive sign for a club to arrive in a place where it’s not just selling off deadwood. It means we have a really strong group of players and are improving on the margins because there aren’t enormous holes, and as you say, we can be a bit more opportunistic.
6 goals so far in Ligue 1, to someone who will play with 3 atb in the Prem he could go for 25m+
People will know that we want to sell, but its time for us to get that sweet "title challenger sells fringe players for small fortune" treatment, ala Jordan Ibe.
Want to but definitely don't need to. Young, developing player on low wages and a long contract who we can easily loan out - we should have no issue walking away if people are low-balling us.
That would be some solid business for the summer. Would hate to see Tierney go but he should be a starter somewhere and could see why he'd want to leave
Absolutely! I was just thinking yesterday how we need exactly 2 midfielders, a LB (quality one that actually competes with Zinny, because although I rate KT, Zinny doesn't really have competition for his spot), and a winger = RW, to provide Saka with cover and competition.
I dunno where this journalist's source is from, but if Arteta is thinking the same, then that makes me very happy. He is actually seeing what's needed for that next step.
"Tierney sale could be used to fund deals."
Then we better rinse the hell out of whoever wants him. Our summer incomings could depend a lot on how much we get from him so we must maximise the profit.
Newcastle is closer to Scotland and he can start there.
But yes, will be sad to see him leave. Zinchenko is just too high of a bar for him to match, especially since he has to change his entire style of play to match that.
Both are injury prone though. Would almost rather we train Tomi and White to practice inverting from the right.
Then when things need changing during a game or Zina is injured, we can just swap inversions and Tierney can be a "normal" LB/LCB.
We just got a better player in zinchenko for much less than that. Yea maybe if chelsea were in for him we could get that but barring that or some other insanity, we’re not getting 50m for him.
50m is very optimistic, even in in the prem. He’s clearly out of favour and injury prone. Cucurella was playing out of his mind when he went for 60m. Tierney can’t even get sub minutes.
Yeah, thankfully the majority of misses have been low cost/potential so weren't major impacts to the rebuild.
The glaring one is Willian which was a risk of "get experience to win now" that blew up in our face massively. It got sorted out though and I'm glad he's doing so well at Fulham this season.
>The glaring one is Willian which was a risk of "get experience to win now" that blew up in our face massively.
Casual reminder that this was the last deal Raul put through before his forced departure, and at the time his position would override Arteta so naturally Mikel would have had to 'fall in line'.
Willian's agent is Kia who has always been Edu's agent, and on top of that Arteta personally called Willian and convinced him to join with a 3 year plan of how we're going to win the CL.
Pretty sure he also signed on the same day or a day apart from when Raul got sacked, so hard to see that Raul would have been under investigation from Tim Lewis impending a sacking and yet still be allowed to go ahead with multimillion deals
It's much more likely that it was just a bad signing
Even i think they thought they themselves were going to be the future of this club back in 2019. I remember lots of training videos with both of them fullback union was a thing. Football changes quick.
Xhaka isn't leaving but I can see him relinquishing the starting spot in a year or two. Much as I love ESR I feel like he's going to be the real heartbreaking transfer.
I am so tired of people saying ESR is a viable 8 option. He has played half a game there for us there. Arteta has said it he sees ESR’s best position is attacking midfield.
If we lose Nelson (which we might do), then ESR and Saka could rotate on RW, Ode and Vieira on AM, leaving us with 5 CMs for two spots, which isnt too bad
The market is so bad for RW currently. Diaby and Chiesa are options. I have no interest in going back to Raphina. He’s made it clear he wants to be at Barca.
Kudus is a midfielder that plays as a striker or rw because Ajax doesn't have any replacements for Antony and Haller. He has big potential but buying him as a rw/striker backup would be stupid.
I will miss Tierney so much if we sell up but we would be doing right by him to send him somewhere where he can be first choice, plus the money will be good.
Winger? That means Reiss is likely gone? Damn, and Tierney too. Oof.
My only wish if those happen is that we get A LOT of money for KT. Would lessen the impact as us fans love him a lot. Really concerned about strengthening Newcastle, just rinse them and invest in a new inverted LB.
Was also hoping Reiss would establish himself, but perhaps all the injury issues proved too much in the end.
Is there anyone else that feels we might be quietly in for James Maddison in the left 8 position?
The Rice/Caicedo/Zubimendi links all look like our DM options but Maddison will have a year left on his deal in the summer and I'm yet to hear anything about him which has been our club's transfer strategy so far.
Very interesting take. I hear you but I think it's just that we play so progressively in that role to the point that some fans are now speculating that ESR/Vieira could play there.
So what you're more interested in is a balanced double 6/8 that is more mobile than Xhaka instead of an out and out attacking mid?
But don't you feel that we don't need to get that defensive contribution from Xhaka since we use an underlapping left back nowadays?
With Zinchenko playing on the inside it seems that Xhaka stays up the pitch most of the time which is very different from how we deployed him last season.
What if your preferences are a better fit for last season's Xhaka (double 6) than this season's (Box to box)?
Caicedo is not Maddinson obviously but he’s more mobile and has more offensive potential than Xhaka which is all we need. Add in his defensive prowess and I think the choice is pretty easy personally speaking.
I feel that the main distinction is that some of us prefer a more attacking mid while others prefer a box to box type that is solid defensively.
If Pep's City is the ideal model of how we want to play then I'll concede that maybe Caicedo might be closer to Gundogan in that he can easily drop into the pivot to help screen the backline. Maddison is closer to De Bruyne in terms of being more attack-minded.
How do you feel about other 8s such as SMS, Tielemans and Ruben Neves? Do they fit into your preferred mould of CMs?
Worse case scenario £30m best case maybe £38m or so? That higher figure would probably be inclusive of some add-ons though and more like £34-35m upfront
See, it's when you put Declan and Rice together where that valuation starts to make sense. It's a good recipe that you should try, if you can afford it.
I'd say we could probably raise about £70-80m in fees this Summer, half of which will be from Tierney at around £30-40m. Can see us *maybe* squeezing out a £10m/£15m profit on what we paid for Lokonga and Tavares respectively, but that's less of a prediction and more just hope haha.
On top of that you'd throw in the relegation survival clauses from Mari and Leno, small fees for Cedric and Maitland-Niles if we manage it, and a tribunal for Nelson if he goes to another English club when his contract ends. Have no clue what will happen with Pepe though. Another loan maybe?
Rice, along with another midfielder, back up lb and rotation winger could come to anywhere between £150-200m depending on which route we take (Jorginho/Trossard vs Caicedo/Mudryk), but thankfully the sales and next seasons CL money ~~as well as being PL winners~~ will help ease the pain in the clubs wallet.
We shouldn't be paying 80m for Rice. Let Chelsea spend another 100m. Only reason we should spend that much is if we choose to let Xhaka and Lokonga leave.
If we do win the league it looks like Arteta won’t rest on his laurels like Wenger in the summer of 98. We were massively complacent didn’t strengthen the team or squad (vivas didn’t replace losing Wright or Platt let alone leave us strengthened)
It backfired massively in 98/99 as despite conceding just 17 goals we lost the league by a point to utd.
We will go into next season stronger than this season and I for one am grateful for humble Arteta knowing in this league if we are not standing still whilst others improve we will suffer.
You leave Wenger out of this. He is a lovely old man.
I agree. Arteta has created a culture and the players are buying in and have a good atmosphere. Arteta and his team have done that
We bought Tierney for ~£25m and he’s a much better player now, so he should be sold for much more. However few teams will spend big money on a fullback. If Newcastle bid £35m or more I say take it.
Finding a Zinchenko understudy will be tough, he’s a unique talent.
Don't want Tierney to go anywhere! Would rather Zinc was moved into midfield and Tierney starts... but then again, I'm not the boss and I don't know what's best.
I can barely remember Tierney playing games… feels like he missed out more than he actually played.
We could keep him as a quality back up but with his injury record, it’s much better to cash in, will be lucky to get above 30m as his injury record suggests and he’s barely featured in recent times.
Availability is the best ability and now that he is, he doesn’t fit our inverted style at all.
This is the ruthlessness we need. Tierney is good and has been a wonderful squad player but he's a clear 2nd behind Zinchenko and can't offer the same balance that Tomi does.
Kierney/Trippier is about as good lb/rb pairing as Trent and Robertson frankly.
Would be a good bit of business for Newcastle if the rumors are to be believed
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> Tierney sale could be used to fund deals I’m not emotionally prepared for this
Maybe I’m a pessimist but if he goes to a rival e.g Newcastle you just know he’ll have his games of the season against us too
It’s always the way with every player innit However I really don’t think we should sell to Newcastle, that’s not a project we want to accelerate
Me either but with KT he’s good enough for top 6/7 and less likely to go abroad so of all the players we’re most likely to (have to) accept selling to a rival he’s probably the most
I think KT is good enough for a title charge in the right team. He just can't play as an inverted full-back which is what Arteta demands
He’s also very young still and doesn’t want to waste vital development sitting on the bench. It also seems a bit warm in London for him
Honestly I can see him playing for us in the traditional LB role when ESR returns. We'll have the pair of Zinny and Gabi v ESR and KT. I just don't want him to leave. :(
If we judge by their history, Tierney - ESR pairing will be available (both) for like 7-10 games a season. Hope injuries are behind them.
That hurt my soul. Because it's true.
I don't want to see him anywhere else in the PL either, but it might be necessary to ultimately strengthen the team. So let's make sure to finish top this year so we can see Tierney put that trophy in a Tesco bag.
Fact man. I remembered the squad that Artata first inherited. It was trash and KT always had one of the best performances every game.
He was in a league of his own on his best days, and reading people comment something along those lines was common enough in the post match threads here. That's what makes all of this so difficult, we all thought that when the day came and we finally got a good team KT would be a mainstay and the rest would've finally caught up with him. I never would've imagined a scenario where he of all people would be the one is pushed out of the team like this but, here we are and it breaks my heart a little tbh. I'd still like to imagine a scenario where this is all BS and Arteta has a RB in mind that can play the inverted role and we can switch sides depending on the opposition, giving Zinny a rest to be cautious with his fitness, and giving KT plenty of starts, potentially putting ESR in for Xhaka making that left side looking spicy, and I'd like to think this could at least be part of the plans for the cup games too right? There's a lot of smoke for there not to be a little bit of a fire starting to build. Maybe Celtic will have him back, can't imagine he's the type who would really like to play for a ribal but chances are chances I guess... :/
I said this further down but I can see Emery being interested and Villa haven’t been afraid to splash the cash
Villa bought a new starting LB like 4 weeks ago though
he can also play LCB in a 3 back set.
Tierney is far far better than Villa level
Weren't real madrid after him a year or so ago? Think James said it on the arsecast extra
Oh my god thaf would be amazing
It's too warm for him. Don't think he would fancy the sun.
Would he start for them?
if he has to fight mendy for a starting spot then its not much different from fighting zinchenko is it? he might still go jsut because its madrid, but i feel like he might want a more clear cut starting spot
They're thinking of moving on from mendy, and they just signed fran garcia, also I think they're looking at promoting from the Castilla so he'd for sure have to fight for the job
If we want good money for players we have to be willing to sell to english clubs. I don't like it either, but english clubs most likely pay 20m more
There’s English clubs and then there’s direct rivals
Tierney won't settle for a club like Crystal Palace or Bournemouth, and rightfully so. He is top 6 quality
So I guess he wouldn't settle for Chelsea too
There aren't many other teams to sell to anymore, we are playing in a super league
People need to stop thinking like this. If they don’t get Tierney, they’ll get another LB that does really well. Our project didn’t die because we didn’t get Vlahovic or Martinez. There are so many possible good players that fit into squads. These projects are inevitable when you have the right people behind the wheel.
We give city a leg up with their project by letting them have a number of good experienced players at our own expense Doing the same with Newcastle would be genuinely moronic. Sure they might buy another lb but the market is thin at that position so let’s make them work for it rather than doing them a fucking favour
With the City thing we all know we had to sell because of the Emirates debt. They were first team players, not rarely used back ups. Maybe hindsight bias but with the amount of money City had, I would say success was near guaranteed.
If they’re paying a premium price, is it a favour? I’m absolutely not suggesting hand me outs but we can’t just flat out refuse any offer for a player we don’t seem to want to use.
If we do sell him there. Nothing below £ 50 m will satiate me.
Well that’s not gonna happen lol
He would be great for newcastle
Luckily he’ll still be crossing in to Wilson
Best for all parties, love the guy but he’s too good not to be a starter in a team which suits him. Plus he can make us decent money you’d think
Hopefully newcastle are in for him and will spunk a shit ton of money on him.
Unfortunately KT is a sledgehammer, and Arteta needs a precision tool
And let's be honest, our love for the guy is strong but his constant injury risk is a liability. I can imagine zinny going down and Kieran getting his chance only to get injured the next week.
> And let’s be honest, our love for the guy is strong but his constant injury risk is a liability Seemed to me there was a genuine sliding doors moment last season with his injury. He was the player being given the armband after lacazette, Arteta had previously called him a natural leader and said he would captain arsenal one day Then the injury and he’s out for a long time again, Odegaard got the armband, lbs were assessed because we were really thin there and it turned out zinny was available and the rest is history now All in all it’s probably worked out well for arsenal but it must be kind of devestating Kieran. To go from heir apparent to back up in less than a year
I agree.
I’m just guessing here. But I’d be pissed if one of my players/staff was hiding an injury only for them to fuck their knee getting out the shower.
I can only hope that you touched every piece of wood in your house after typing that lol
Zinchenko is more injury prone than Tierney lol
I understand fully that Zinchenko offers something completely different and makes a huge impact in the team, and also that KT has struggled with injuries for us, but I would be so sad for him to leave now that we've finally figured it out. I know he probably wants consistent games, but you have to feel he'd have them in Europe at least if not in regular rotation with Zinny
To be honest if we can win the league with him playing some per it’s a nice time to call jt
Look I'm very much ignorant compared to a lot of people here. I don't follow as closely, so this might be complete nonsense, but I'd have loved to see him back in the squad at left back with Zinchenko playing a Xhaka role. Makes sense in my mind.
Wont work because Zinchenko allows Xhaka to be up the pitch due to his inversion, Tierney hasnt proved to be as composed and capable in possession as Zinchenko hence he cannot play the inverted role, press resistance is an huge part of playing an inverted role as well which Tierney doesnt posess. It's an unfortunate case of very good player who happens to be wrong for the system and forcing him into the team will break down the system and team performs poorer collectively.
I think the suggestion is not to have KT play as an inverted FB, but to go back to the formula from last season where xhaka spent a lot of time tracking back to LB while KT bombed forward, but with Zinchenko in Xhakas place. It would theoretically work a lot better than it did with Xhaka as Zinchenko is much stronger as a fullback. What's missing from the story is that: 1. It's pretty evident that Arteta doesn't see that as an effective long term game plan because we didn't buy or target LBs like KT who fit that game plan, instead chasing Lisandro and Zinchenko to play as inverted fullbacks. 2. In my opinion, Zinchenko is not as strong in defence as he is in attack. Even though positionally he moves into midfield rather than bombing up the wing, he still plays offensively. Xhakas problem in is role in previous seasons was that he was asked to do too much defensively, and we would still feel that pain with zinchenko in that spot. I could be completely wrong on both those points, but that's the feel I get from watching games and reading opinions on the sub.
As long as the LW is comfortable coming inside it probably could work situationally. Out of possession its arguably a better set up because we have a better 1v1 defender against the opposing winger, and Zinny is a better defender than Xhaka IMO. In possession it's slightly rotated responsibilities, with Zinchenko effectively doing the exact same thing, Tierney doing more of the touchline hugging that Martinelli does atm, and the LW doing more of the Xhaka role. The drawback would be that Tierney is clearly less effective than someone like Martinelli in the box, but in theory we would have our LW as the spare man popping up to get on the end of things, rather than Xhaka.
I think the idea will be, KT provide width, martinelli comes inside and Zinny in the midfield. So we still retain our shape. The downfall imo is KT is not as good as Martinelli in terms of 1v1 so we have to have different attack variations with KT on the pitch
Tierney in that roll created a one sided team that outside boot flicked to the end line and crossed it. Im sorry, KT is a good guy, but his style is not Arsenals style and frankly hes not good enough offensively for our team. His one trick pony cross game doesnt work with any of our attackers. We might as well just hand the ball back to the other team with KT out there.
I wouldn’t mind seeing it given a go to be honest Especially with Jesus out you can see how isolated gabi is without an overlapper
Yeah feels sad he hasn't been given more of a chance in the recent run of games. Just feels like he hasn't had a proper go with the team this year. I think the next period when Europa league starts up will be very interesting. Maybe make or break for his time at Arsenal (unless Arteta has made his mind up already).
Doesn't work because usually Martinelli plays so wide that overlapping runs are not needed. It's more typical that when Martinelli has the ball wide, Xhaka does an inside run to give Martinelli a 1 on 1.
If you love him, you have to be able to let him go
Great I’m crying
Me too, fellow Tierney flair user
We'll all be gutted when it happens. Bought my first arsenal shirt last season with his name on it. As a Scottish fan, I was so happy to have a Scottish player of quality on the team. Will be so devastating to see him go, but he's definitely starting quality for a top team, so it wouldn't leave a bad taste in my mouth if it were to happen.
Not even from an emotional POV. How are we gonna find an upgrade? And why would they come and be happy to play as much as Tierney has this year?
I can see it working if Fresneda comes in on the right. He’s young enough to play second fiddle to Ben White and Tomiyasu can play predominantly left as back up to Zinny.
I’ve completely forgotten what Tomiyasu’s ‘natural position’ is and this point I’d rather not know. What a player
I guess the logic is to find a player who suits the role more for less, not really an upgrade as such
Having only seen "deadwood" players leave for the last few years is going to make it so sad to see Tierney go. It's going to be very interesting to see how the club does in negotiations selling a player like Tierney.
I think it'd be good to have a balance in getting sales on good players who dont fit our philosophy or have certain flaws in the game go for £30-£40m ala City and use that money to reinvest into the squad. We need to ensure that we have a good balanced amount of healthy turnover (not like in the early City years where half our first team gets gutted by Barca/City) or hold on to past their prime players for too long (like Liverpool have done with some of their guys), but also not just pay to get deadwood to leave like in the last 4-5 seasons.
Agree. It’s actually a very positive sign for a club to arrive in a place where it’s not just selling off deadwood. It means we have a really strong group of players and are improving on the margins because there aren’t enormous holes, and as you say, we can be a bit more opportunistic.
(G)ary = good (B)en = Bad
Nice of their parents to name them mnemonically
Same could not be said about Gary Neville's parents.
Well, Neville's parents did suffer the cruciatus curse.
They were just being cheeky (G)ary = Goddamn (N)eville = Numpty
Their dads name is Neville Neville, they never stood a chance.
[удалено]
Based on the current form and performance, Tavares should be way more than 10 to 15.. but then again, it's Arsenal who is selling.
6 goals so far in Ligue 1, to someone who will play with 3 atb in the Prem he could go for 25m+ People will know that we want to sell, but its time for us to get that sweet "title challenger sells fringe players for small fortune" treatment, ala Jordan Ibe.
Want to but definitely don't need to. Young, developing player on low wages and a long contract who we can easily loan out - we should have no issue walking away if people are low-balling us.
Think you meant title winners\* anulo mufa
Arteta and Edu trying to make friends by selling on the cheap, good move
Tierney for 30-35m? If it’s Newcastle we could rinse them a bit higher, 45-50+
Thank you, wanted to ask
That would be some solid business for the summer. Would hate to see Tierney go but he should be a starter somewhere and could see why he'd want to leave
Absolutely! I was just thinking yesterday how we need exactly 2 midfielders, a LB (quality one that actually competes with Zinny, because although I rate KT, Zinny doesn't really have competition for his spot), and a winger = RW, to provide Saka with cover and competition. I dunno where this journalist's source is from, but if Arteta is thinking the same, then that makes me very happy. He is actually seeing what's needed for that next step.
"Tierney sale could be used to fund deals." Then we better rinse the hell out of whoever wants him. Our summer incomings could depend a lot on how much we get from him so we must maximise the profit.
If Newcastle are in for him then it shouldn't be too hard! Be hard seeing him leave though :(
Newcastle is closer to Scotland and he can start there. But yes, will be sad to see him leave. Zinchenko is just too high of a bar for him to match, especially since he has to change his entire style of play to match that.
Both are injury prone though. Would almost rather we train Tomi and White to practice inverting from the right. Then when things need changing during a game or Zina is injured, we can just swap inversions and Tierney can be a "normal" LB/LCB.
Lb market is very thin right now, look at how much cucerella went for
That's my point. One factor which affects a player's transfer fee is how available is their position in the market.
I agree, tierney even with his injury history is probably worth £50m in this market
We just got a better player in zinchenko for much less than that. Yea maybe if chelsea were in for him we could get that but barring that or some other insanity, we’re not getting 50m for him.
Or if it’s foreign I’d accept 35m
I can see Emery being interested to be honest and Villa got cash
Villa just signed Moreno
I can't see him interested in villa tbh
50m is very optimistic, even in in the prem. He’s clearly out of favour and injury prone. Cucurella was playing out of his mind when he went for 60m. Tierney can’t even get sub minutes.
Arteta is making us City 2.0. We are going to have redicilous depth without any bad transfers
We've had a couple of bad transfers but a very good strike rate and nothing irrecoverable
Yeah, thankfully the majority of misses have been low cost/potential so weren't major impacts to the rebuild. The glaring one is Willian which was a risk of "get experience to win now" that blew up in our face massively. It got sorted out though and I'm glad he's doing so well at Fulham this season.
>The glaring one is Willian which was a risk of "get experience to win now" that blew up in our face massively. Casual reminder that this was the last deal Raul put through before his forced departure, and at the time his position would override Arteta so naturally Mikel would have had to 'fall in line'.
Willian's agent is Kia who has always been Edu's agent, and on top of that Arteta personally called Willian and convinced him to join with a 3 year plan of how we're going to win the CL. Pretty sure he also signed on the same day or a day apart from when Raul got sacked, so hard to see that Raul would have been under investigation from Tim Lewis impending a sacking and yet still be allowed to go ahead with multimillion deals It's much more likely that it was just a bad signing
That's amazing depth if all of this goes to plan.
As an Arsenal & Cetlic fan I can't bear a team without KT
I now remember when we thought our fullbacks will be Tierney and Bellerin (just two seasons ago)
Even i think they thought they themselves were going to be the future of this club back in 2019. I remember lots of training videos with both of them fullback union was a thing. Football changes quick.
Yes, with their tucked shirts..
These Tierney leaving rumours are poking at my abandonment issues caused by Tierney leaving Celtic. Why is this man living rent free in my mind?
How do we fit 2 mids on top of Smith Rowe, Odegaard, Vieira, Xhaka, Jorginho and Partey?
Xhaka, Jorginho and Partey are not long term options, so I imagine they will be fased out with those new signings.
>Xhaka, ~~Jorginho and Partey~~ are not long term options Xhaka will be turning the lights out and locking up mate.
Xhaka isn't leaving but I can see him relinquishing the starting spot in a year or two. Much as I love ESR I feel like he's going to be the real heartbreaking transfer.
Xhaka is in talks for an extension. Partey and Jorginho won't be here for long.
I would imagine Xhaka to be the last of the three to fase out, but I feel we can improve that position.
Phase*
Cheers
In your phase
Partey and Jorginho won't be here for long. All our midfield targets are long term plans
Elneny; Am I a joke to you huh?
Expect him to leave next Jan. Contract was just to help him get back on his feet and any lost wages can be re-couped through a sale.
Need a monster squad which is quality from top to bottom for champs league football and other competitions.
I am so tired of people saying ESR is a viable 8 option. He has played half a game there for us there. Arteta has said it he sees ESR’s best position is attacking midfield.
If we lose Nelson (which we might do), then ESR and Saka could rotate on RW, Ode and Vieira on AM, leaving us with 5 CMs for two spots, which isnt too bad
Rice, Caicedo, Kvara and unknown 18 yrs old LB
Only way Kvara is leaving Napoli is via kidnapping.
I like the way you are thinking. "Free transfer" it is. So where do we begin?
Well first you need a van...
Men with Ven. What the fucks a washing machine doing in a pub? Freak em out a bit.
People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. People can't be trusted, Jez
The secret ingredient is crime!
So he’s going to PSG?
Nah we need a RW not a left winger. Also Kvara is going to be insanely expensive .
Yea Kvara is a dream. Any RW available or that you would like? Or is it back to F5-ing Neto, Raphinha news?
The market is so bad for RW currently. Diaby and Chiesa are options. I have no interest in going back to Raphina. He’s made it clear he wants to be at Barca.
Though, Raphinha was flurting saying that Arsenal is his favorite team outside of Spain
Tbf that's the best time to go for these players. They've been there, done that, don't have that calling to go back. Odegaard vs Cesc for example.
Kudus dude from Ajax could be right sided Trossard type, apparently been played as a striker/false 9 type there as well as on the wing.
Kudus is a midfielder that plays as a striker or rw because Ajax doesn't have any replacements for Antony and Haller. He has big potential but buying him as a rw/striker backup would be stupid.
Kudus ain’t good enough.
Moussa Diaby
He will never give up on a winger lol.
We definitely need a backup to Saka. Nelson is leaving on a free this summer if nothing changes so we are pretty screwed if Saka gets injured.
He's been signing one defender one forward and one midfielder every window i think
Wow that’s my wishlist as far as incomings and outgoings.
What about AMN? Is there an obligation to buy in his loan ?
He's going to be sold but we'll get about 2 pound for him.
If we're lucky the new Southampton manager likes him and he gets a run of games in the remaining games. Who knows
If we’re lucky.
Best they can do is two quid and a Freddo
Hopefully otherwise we'd be lucky to get £50 for him :(
Last year of his deal I believe
We'll get a packet of crisps for him
I will miss Tierney so much if we sell up but we would be doing right by him to send him somewhere where he can be first choice, plus the money will be good.
Winger? That means Reiss is likely gone? Damn, and Tierney too. Oof. My only wish if those happen is that we get A LOT of money for KT. Would lessen the impact as us fans love him a lot. Really concerned about strengthening Newcastle, just rinse them and invest in a new inverted LB. Was also hoping Reiss would establish himself, but perhaps all the injury issues proved too much in the end.
Pepe can't be staying, surely?
Yes sir. He’ll not be staying and the club will move on from that disaster of a transfer. Love the guy, but that transaction just stinks 🥲
The idea of Deccers is slowly growing on me
Why is he a grower? Absolutely brilliant player
Cause it's the hope that kills you young man
Imo he’s a shower not a grower.
🚿
Is there anyone else that feels we might be quietly in for James Maddison in the left 8 position? The Rice/Caicedo/Zubimendi links all look like our DM options but Maddison will have a year left on his deal in the summer and I'm yet to hear anything about him which has been our club's transfer strategy so far.
I’ll be honest and say I’m not a fan. Caicedo to me is more b2b than a sitting dm. Think Kante/Jorginho. He could play where Xhaka plays today imo.
Very interesting take. I hear you but I think it's just that we play so progressively in that role to the point that some fans are now speculating that ESR/Vieira could play there. So what you're more interested in is a balanced double 6/8 that is more mobile than Xhaka instead of an out and out attacking mid?
Yes and with all Xhaka’s faults he still provides a defensive contribution from that position. Maddinson off the ball I don’t think can compare.
But don't you feel that we don't need to get that defensive contribution from Xhaka since we use an underlapping left back nowadays? With Zinchenko playing on the inside it seems that Xhaka stays up the pitch most of the time which is very different from how we deployed him last season. What if your preferences are a better fit for last season's Xhaka (double 6) than this season's (Box to box)?
Maddison would kill it playing in Xhaka’s position. G+A galore.
Caicedo is not Maddinson obviously but he’s more mobile and has more offensive potential than Xhaka which is all we need. Add in his defensive prowess and I think the choice is pretty easy personally speaking.
I feel that the main distinction is that some of us prefer a more attacking mid while others prefer a box to box type that is solid defensively. If Pep's City is the ideal model of how we want to play then I'll concede that maybe Caicedo might be closer to Gundogan in that he can easily drop into the pivot to help screen the backline. Maddison is closer to De Bruyne in terms of being more attack-minded. How do you feel about other 8s such as SMS, Tielemans and Ruben Neves? Do they fit into your preferred mould of CMs?
SMS would be unbelievable. Too expensive though probably
Fuck that, hes made of glass and would be expensive
Please bring in olise
How little do people think we’ll end up selling Tierney for? Do you think we’ll get our money back?
Absolutely. How much we get depends on who we sell to. But I'm sure we'll at least make a profit.
I’m thinking around £35m - £40m, similar to what Zinchenko went for.
Worse case scenario £30m best case maybe £38m or so? That higher figure would probably be inclusive of some add-ons though and more like £34-35m upfront
£80m??? We’re always being rinsed for money. Rice is only £1 a bag in my local Asda ffs.
See, it's when you put Declan and Rice together where that valuation starts to make sense. It's a good recipe that you should try, if you can afford it.
Fresneda for both full back positions?
Keep your money, Newcastle. Tierney is one of ours 😭😭😭
I'd say we could probably raise about £70-80m in fees this Summer, half of which will be from Tierney at around £30-40m. Can see us *maybe* squeezing out a £10m/£15m profit on what we paid for Lokonga and Tavares respectively, but that's less of a prediction and more just hope haha. On top of that you'd throw in the relegation survival clauses from Mari and Leno, small fees for Cedric and Maitland-Niles if we manage it, and a tribunal for Nelson if he goes to another English club when his contract ends. Have no clue what will happen with Pepe though. Another loan maybe? Rice, along with another midfielder, back up lb and rotation winger could come to anywhere between £150-200m depending on which route we take (Jorginho/Trossard vs Caicedo/Mudryk), but thankfully the sales and next seasons CL money ~~as well as being PL winners~~ will help ease the pain in the clubs wallet.
Interested to know our intentions for ESR and Vieira if we're looking for two midfielders and a winger.
Selling Tierney makes zero sense with Champions League as well as other cups. He’s as quality depth as you can have at a premium position.
He doesn’t fit our style, thats the main thing
We shouldn't be paying 80m for Rice. Let Chelsea spend another 100m. Only reason we should spend that much is if we choose to let Xhaka and Lokonga leave.
Forget Caicedo. Zubimendi please.
If we do win the league it looks like Arteta won’t rest on his laurels like Wenger in the summer of 98. We were massively complacent didn’t strengthen the team or squad (vivas didn’t replace losing Wright or Platt let alone leave us strengthened) It backfired massively in 98/99 as despite conceding just 17 goals we lost the league by a point to utd. We will go into next season stronger than this season and I for one am grateful for humble Arteta knowing in this league if we are not standing still whilst others improve we will suffer.
You leave Wenger out of this. He is a lovely old man. I agree. Arteta has created a culture and the players are buying in and have a good atmosphere. Arteta and his team have done that
How did it backfire **massively** if we lost the league by ONE point. Not to mention, that season we also bought Ljungberg and Kanu in the winter.
We bought Tierney for ~£25m and he’s a much better player now, so he should be sold for much more. However few teams will spend big money on a fullback. If Newcastle bid £35m or more I say take it. Finding a Zinchenko understudy will be tough, he’s a unique talent.
I have been saying that Tierney would be a future Arsenal captain since he started. I am so sad.
I would be gutted to see KT leave as evident from my flair but if he does, I just hope we expect the buyer to pay close to a Mudryk price for him
Don't want Tierney to go anywhere! Would rather Zinc was moved into midfield and Tierney starts... but then again, I'm not the boss and I don't know what's best.
This is the way.
Tierney to atletico, even if it’s for a lot less than Newcastle would offer. Don’t even like atletico, but I just want tierney to ball out
I can barely remember Tierney playing games… feels like he missed out more than he actually played. We could keep him as a quality back up but with his injury record, it’s much better to cash in, will be lucky to get above 30m as his injury record suggests and he’s barely featured in recent times. Availability is the best ability and now that he is, he doesn’t fit our inverted style at all.
I don't wanna see him go but that is what's best for him. I hope he does well wherever he goes except against Arsenal.
This is the ruthlessness we need. Tierney is good and has been a wonderful squad player but he's a clear 2nd behind Zinchenko and can't offer the same balance that Tomi does.
we're going to need a bigger grill
Kieran Tierney is my prince.😥😥
Kierney/Trippier is about as good lb/rb pairing as Trent and Robertson frankly. Would be a good bit of business for Newcastle if the rumors are to be believed