Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

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Increasing by £2.5m seems a bit precise too.

[OCD]

I wonder how much of a key player they see him as too. He seemed to play a lesser role once Ødegaard was brought in (I think he was originally playing as a 10 but then got moved wide to accommodate Ødegaard). I think we have pegged him as our most important target of the summer and would probably go onto the same salary terms that we're prepared to pay Jack. 

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I think they see him as a project and the contract they likely wanted to give him reflected that, with another attacking midfielder coming in. Now with us flexing, they'll need to offer him a sizeable contract and that likely accelerates his development because there's no room to take that 2nd wage on board.

Something of a conundrum for the Spanish Pulis and whether he trusts him to step up, as pursuits of Ødegaard and Maddison suggest he doesn't yet.

[Chris_Jephcott]

For some reason, I think there’s more in it than just speculative bids.

Agent probably wants the move, Arsenal aren’t offering a contract that is up to what the Agent thinks is best. ESR wouldn’t want to move out of choice, but with a guaranteed starting role as a No10 on a decent more money than Arsenal are offering…

I reckon we’ll see this develop over the next few days.

It would be another huge statement of intent, and make our attack really fearsome

[eamonn]

Chucky must have been given assurances on first-team opportunities (hence him appearing as the season wound-down), how are we going to give him game time, never mind the 50 other midfielders we have, if Smith-Rowe joins ?

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We do not have a large squad. Grealish won't play 38 games, form dips. We're going for top 6. We need a clutch of talented players going forwards.

[cdbearsfan]

Isn't Chucky more defensive midfield that likes to get forward, whereas ESR is more out and out attacking midfield?

[Aldridge Villa]

Any more news on the Alvarez rumour, or was it just that ?

[SoccerHQ]

Midfield options are:

8: McGinn, Sanson
6: Luiz, Marv
10: Jack, Emi, Chuck

Given Emi and Jack will likely play wide, there is definitely room for another 10. I wouldn't mind upgrading that quality in 6, as Dougie is still young and won't be playing till September you'd assume.

That said, it's more to control possession and territory rather than shield the back 4 where we need to improve rather than stopping goals, as we were decent defensively.

I agree but I don't think Luiz should be a 6, he's better playing a bit further forward for me. Ramsey is an 8 as well. So no senior 10 where it's their main position and only Marv as an out and out 6 in the squad.

I also think that if you have a 10 then a 6 is vital. 

Three 8s might be a more pragmatic solution - a la Liverpool - as the squad will be less disrupted if/when injuries occur as ‘generalists’ are more plentiful in supply (Sanson and Ramsey for example).

Problem with playing three 8s is none of them score very much. I think if you played McGinn as most advanced of the three he could chip in with 5-10 goals but he's really lost the scoring touch in last 18 months, Sanson averaged about 5 a season in France and Luiz could chip in with a few long rangers but none of them feel capable of double figures really.

Liverpool can get away with that as even in mediocre seasons Salah, Mane and Firminio contribute 40-50 premier league goals.

We'd need 20 + from Ollie, 15 from Jack and then double figures from one of Buendia/Traore. Jack could get close to 15 if he was on penalties but then you take away AEG chipping in with double figures so that's the crux.

We simply don't have enough goals in the squad as it stands to get close to top 6 imo but signing a central midfield who could get double figures would massively help, West Ham signed one in Jan 2020 after all.

[cdbearsfan]

No developments. Maybe something will happen after next weekend (or earlier, if Argentina don't make the Copa America Final).

[SoccerHQ]

Chucky must have been given assurances on first-team opportunities (hence him appearing as the season wound-down), how are we going to give him game time, never mind the 50 other midfielders we have, if Smith-Rowe joins ?

Luiz at the Olympics in August, Ramsey loaned out somewhere on season loan and that will immediately create space and if he plays well he can continue high up the pecking order.

I suspect we'll ease him in as we've done Ramsey, regular sub cameos and odd start every month.

[pauliewalnuts]

This Smith Rowe stuff is really strange.

It seems strange that Arsenal would consider selling him, let alone that he might be up for leaving, and I think we're too cute to get dragged into some ruse to boost his contract negotiations.

Yet it has been dragging on for a while, and it's hard to believe there is all this noise if we hadn't been in some way encouraged.

Don't get me wrong, I think he looks incredibly promising and it's probably worth £30m just to piss off those rank, self-entitled Tarquins, but it just has a feel of strangeness to it.

[PaulWinch again]

This Smith Rowe stuff is really strange.

It seems strange that Arsenal would consider selling him, let alone that he might be up for leaving, and I think we're too cute to get dragged into some ruse to boost his contract negotiations.

Yet it has been dragging on for a while, and it's hard to believe there is all this noise if we hadn't been in some way encouraged.

Don't get me wrong, I think he looks incredibly promising and it's probably worth £30m just to piss off those rank, self-entitled Tarquins, but it just has a feel of strangeness to it.

Yeah I agree. Also it might be we’re doing very little and it’s not effort at all, but it sounds like we’re placing a lot of focus on it. I can’t imagine we’d be doing that if we didn’t expect to sign him. I’ve been firmly of the view there’s little to no chance of us getting him, but I’m starting to think we might.

[Toronto Villa]

It’s been two weeks since the opening bid of £25m so not that long ago. The weird thing about it is that it’s all very public. Neither side has admitted it, but more importantly Arsenal haven’t rebuffed it. Which given the reported offers being made they could have done at any time. We don’t normally do this but clearly Arsenal or the players agent is not making this go away. I don’t think we’d do it to play up his contract which could have been offered and signed at any time you’d have thought. If this does happen it would be a super signing made all the sweeter that it pisses off those entitled wankers no end.

[Matt C]

Really odd on ESR, I didn’t give this one a chance and to be honest I’d expected him to have signed a new contract by now but it rumbles on.