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

Where does Ramsey fit in???

Never mind the above, I hadn't seen Buffon's post

Forget Jack he's injury prone, I'm more worried about being forced to sell Gnabry because I'd say we'd have the 'Pogba regrets' if he went to Bayern, and would bet he'd never return if we tried to re purchase him.

Regardless of all the romance around Jack and his Englishness, let's look at whats really best for now and the future.

Looks like Bayern would loan Gnabry straight to Bremen if we sell to them, sadly this smells like there's something there, but hopefully not...

yea apparently his father, who is his agent as well, has been telling people he is being sold and then loaned. 

yea i get the feeling that we might be missing out on someone special here. 

Morning from Aruba gents. I've been drinking rum & coke since 9am so it's been an interesting day. Mustafi & Lucas are confirmed, as is Chambers loan deal. According to latest reports Werder want to buy Gnabry - direct quotes from their coach. Personally I'd like to see him stay. Same with Jack. Also regarding Jack & Chambers futures they're 24 & 21 respectively. Mertesacker is gone end of this season; isn't crazy to see him have a good season at Boro and come back in to the fold for us.

Hopefully he does do well at Boro and gains in confidence. The move makes sense as it seems like Holding was ahead of him in the pecking order after that Liverpool shambles so he wasn't going to get much game time here.

Keen to see how Perez and Mustafi fit in to the side now.

I get the impression that Perez is a slow burner and wont set the league on fire straight away, but by the end of the season will be a key player for us. As for the Must or Afi, i think he is ready to rock and roll straight away!

I think Jack has to go to a team where he will be playing week in and out. Everton would be a good side for him. 

So how are we pronouncing Shkodran?

Squadron.

Talk of Crystal Palace at the minute. That would be a pretty good move I think. Stay in London, prove himself, with a view to pushing his way back in next year. I think that's very possible given Santi is getting on in age. 

Saw this in a tweet which makes a lot of sense;

Everton would be perfect. They have a quality manager too where as Palace don't.  

just had a look a the toffees squad. they have a full midfield already ay. might be hard to fit him in there. as much as i would like to see him ripping it up with Ross 

Hope he goes to Roma or Everton; not fudgeing Crystal Palace with Papa Pardew

Roma is looking more likely from what I'm reading. Would be ideal - gets ECL matches, knows Szy, can get away from London and the trouble he always gets into. Although Szy probably isn't the best influence ha!

Looks like Roma fell through and instead he's going to Bournemouth. Will be weird seeing him at the Emirates in another teams colours; although not actually playing against us.

If he stays fit it's an excellent move. Bournemouth play good football and have a brilliant up and coming manager. Could be exactly what he needs.

Just stay fit though ffs.

A pundit the other day was making out like all of Jack's injuries were down to him not putting in the effort. Given most of his recent injuries are impact injuries from collisions with players etc you can't put that down to anything but 'sport'.

Hopefully he'll get the rub of the green instead of rubbing the green for a change.

With Gnabry & Campbell leaving this window, Welbeck out for awhile, I'm worried we're a bit light in the wide areas. Sanchez is our best in that spot then it's Walcott/The Ox as tradditional wide men, or midfielders. I'm guessing we'll see Perez out there a bit too?

waaaat!! sturridge rumours are flying around. we already have Welbeck...we dont need another injured striker with a 90s hair cut...

as for the gnarby transfer. I think hes gone very cheaply. Im a bit puzzled why we didnt get more for him...

Last year of his contract, and was clearly not in our plans.

Sanogo, Akpom, Debuchy all staying.

Wilshere to Bournemouth on loan after being close to Roma, and having AC Milan asking after him. I think Bournemouth is a good move though. 

The new Nigerian kid we signed has gone on loan to Maastricht. 

Gnabry to Bremen for 6m euros apparently. Very cheap, but that's what happens when there's only 1 year left on your contract. 

Wide positions are lighter now, but still plenty of depth there. I imagine Lucas Perez will battle with Giroud to play striker, with Sanchez starting on the left, and Walcott/Ox/Iwobi scrapping for the spot on the right. Welbeck to return in Jan and add more competition. I just hope Campbell can be recalled from his loan if players go down. 

Heh, Mustafi went down injured in Germany's friendly this morning. Apparently he got treatment and came back on and seemed ok but you couldn't make it up could you?

So total ins/outs for the season looking like;

IN:

Xhaka

Holding

Asano

Lucas

Mustafi

Nwakali

OUT:

Gnabry

Hayden

Arteta

Rosicky

Flamini

Wellington

Asano (loan)

Wilshere (loan)

Crowley (loan)

Szczesny (loan)

Campbell (loan)

Chambers (loan)

Nwakali (loan)

Ok favourite game time...... 

                                  CECH

                                  Ospina

BELLERIN   MUSTAFI     KOSCIELNY   MONREAL

 Debuchy     Mertesacker       Gabriel             Gibbs

                 XHAKA                 CAZORLA

                Coquelin                   Elneny

  WALCOTT               OZIL                    SANCHEZ

         Ox                   Ramsey                     Iwobi

                                  PEREZ

                                   Giroud

PLUS: Welbeck, Holding, Jenkinson, Martinez, Akpom, Sanogo, Reine-Adelaide, Zelalem

swap Ox and Giroud in and yeah me like

Ox over Walcott. And I would be happy with Holding over Mustafi for the mean time. Cannot be expected to play week in week out at a high level yet though obviously.

Our centreback stocks are really healthy now.

Also, was this the first transfer window in forever that we actually bought what we needed?

At the start, the general consensus was that we needed a striker and a CB. We got both of those, as well as another good young CB, and what looks like a world-class holding midfielder. 

Pretty happy to be fair, even though we all wanted a higher profile striker than Lucas Perez. 

Not only that, but i'm fairly happy with our outgoings as well. 

Only minor gripes would be getting more money for Gnabry and i would actually have liked to see Campbell stay on.

Well Gnabry wasn't going to sign a contract extension, so take what we can instead of letting him go for free, hopefully their is a massive sell on clause in that contract with Bremen though

So are people pleased with Perez? After all of the names that we were connected with this off season we ended up with a spainish vardy. I guess I'll hold my call on him until I see him for a few times with a cannon on his chest.

Reserve judgement until I see him play I guess. Not about being a big name or his price tag or what club he came from or anything but he doesn't appear to have had a particularly spectacular career. On paper he seems a bit of a bargain journeyman sort of option - 27, been around several unglamorous clubs, never been called up for his country and managed double figures in goals just one season in his career. But most of that would have applied to Vardy and Mahrez before last season and Wenger used to have a lot of success signing this type of player so hopefully he works out. Reminds me a bit of Eduardo - an out of left field sort of signing noone had heard of. See he's got the number 9 shirt so he's not off to the best start!

Before these 2 signings I thought 4th would be a struggle this season as things stood. Adding Mustafi should make that safe at least but not sure we've added the special quality that would have challenged for the title. Suspect we'll be a distance behind the Manchester clubs with Ibrahimovic and Aguero being the main differences.

Diaby... what could have been... the eyes felt a bit watery watchin this one

must have sound

https://twitter.com/WengerTactic/status/7714053884...

Such a shame...

Abou Diaby - A professional hospital patient whose career has been blighted by appearances for Arsenal and Marseille.

Glad I caught him playing live - not many can say that! Saw the goal vs Liverpool (like 3rd highlight in that video) where Rosicky crosses for a headed goal. Poor dude. 

Interesting tactical analysis of Arsenal's spacing issues against Liverpool and Leicester.

load of rubbish, taking isololated moments and applying his homemade analytic "skills". If you think this is actual tactical analysis I suggest you need to watch football for another dozen years or so.

Description from this guys blog

"18 year old analyst currently working in performance analysis (and opposition scouting) for Huddersfield Town"

Arsenal Legends vs Milan Glorie

Midfielders not moving to help their defenders is not a problem? Midfielders can't just roam around, they need to be available to make passes and be passed to. Classic ad hominem. 

Just because he's 18 doesn't mean he can't make analysis. The fact that he works for Huddersfield Town might actually mean he has a brain for analysis like this. Ad hominem again.

And how are these isolated moments? The fact that this occurred 10 times or so throughout two matches is pretty bad. Losing possession so carelessly isn't forgiven that easily at other clubs. It didn't happen anymore once Ozil came back. You wouldn't see Barcelona or Bayern Munich midfielders be as isolated as these, they're always available for a pass.