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

For me, he does his primary job supremely well. (i.e. defending) His crossing is up and down; but he certainly isn't the worst.

Well he could want it more, you know, like Alonso did ?

<blockquote data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jack Whitehall firing shots against Cesc Fabregas in his own face. Quality this. <a href="https://t.co/hqBijKaoK6">pic.twitter.com/hqBijKaoK6</a></p>— Arsenal Related (@ArsenalsRelated) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArsenalsRelated/status/1003371603781091330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2018</a></blockquote>

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....If that didnt work, here's the link.

https://twitter.com/ArsenalsRelated/status/1003371603781091330

Full vid here;

Bloody funny.

Fellaini??? 

Very weird. Can't see how this guy fits in our team, unless Emery thinks he can re-purpose him as a CB!

Big tall units to lump the ball up to and 34 year olds. Wenger really is gone.

Lichtsteiner confirmed. Sokratis all but.

Lets make some assumptions to get an idea of the current squad... some of them a bit of a stretch but just hypothetically: Emery will play 4-2-3-1, Ospina and Martinez will both be sold, Wilshere will leave, Ramsey will stay, and Aubameyang will start on the left with Lacazette up top... 

                                  Cech

                                 Macey

    Bellerin       Mustafi      Koscielny      Monreal

 Lichtsteiner   Sokratis     Chambers    Kolasinac

                    Xhaka             Ramsey

                    Elneny        Maitland-Niles

Mkhitaryan                 Ozil                 Aubameyang

  Nelson                    Iwobi                   Welbeck

                              Lacazette

                                Lucas

On that basis I'd say we're short a wide forward or two. Nelson is raw and Lucas is probably expected to be sold. Iwobi can fill in on the left, Welbeck can play up top, so I'd say someone young-ish who can play on the right?

Alternatively, we are being heavily linked with central midfielders, perhaps Emery sees Ramsey as a no.10 or wide forward?

We're short a keeper for sure. It seems Cech will remain no.1, perhaps an old head to sit on the bench?

We also have some CBs to go out on loan probably. No room above for Holding or Mavropranos, and Monreal can cover CB too. I don't think Mustafi will be going anywhere either. 

It's Lichtsteiner :)

Nketiah scored a brace for England U21's overnight. Great finishes too. 

Wonder if Emery will find a place for him in the first team squad this season?

Some rumours last night that Lacazette isn't part of Emery's plans. Might be total bollocks though.

Ozil apparently picked up a knee injury in Germany's last warm-up game as well. Not yet known how bad it is, but some fear he could be done for the world cup. 

If Nketiah can do that from out wide in the Europa League/Cups/off the bench for PL I'd be stoked.

Another back room appointment has been made, Marcel Lucassen has joined as director of football development. Mandate is how we run our juniors up to the U23's. Will be interesting to see what changes he brings; more on the dude here:

https://news.arseblog.com/2018/06/arsenal-appoint-...

Sounds like we're not far off from getting the french youngster from PSG, and the greek bloke from Dortmund. Hopefully they're holding back the kity for a midfield and goal keeping signing.

Edit: will be interesting to see if the W/Cup slows down signing opportunities for us or not - ideally you'd want deals locked in by the end of this month to get your pre-season together sorted.

Yea sounds like these 2 deals are probably happening. 

Arsenal officially released 9 players overnight, interestingly Wilshere was not on the list;

Rumours last night that we want him to stay, and are still trying to negotiate. 

Also strongly linked with Sampdoria defensive midfielder Lucas Torreira overnight, Napoli are also after him. 

Anyone else see Jens save Rosicky's penalty in his testimonial match? Bloody brilliant. 

hey fam. Need a hand. Mrs loves the black and pink away kit, but have struggled to get my hands on a woman’s small of it for her. Any go to spots for end of season clearances etc?

Realise I’ve left this way to late given we’re already able to buy next seasons kit!

Typical Jens.

Soyuncu rumours grow stronger. 35m, 22yo CB. 

Torreira rumours continue.

Sokratis deal sounds done. 

Reports of Adli doing a u-turn, which the player then outed as false on instagram.

Sounds to me like all of these are odds-on aside from Torreira, which still could be total bollocks. 

Torreira sounds pretty legit, is coming from respected Italian sources. Guess well see.

We could very likely have a Turkish guy and a Greek fella in the middle of our defence - talk about the potential for friction..

Interesting news has been coming out of Portugal over the last few days around Gelson Martins, the winger at CP Sporting. 

So this team had a bad year last season, and some fans disgustingly attacked the players at the training complex. 

Being in harms way like that is a legal reason to be able to cancel a player contract, and that is exactly what Rui Patricio is trying to do right now, to get himself a move away from the club, on a free. 

There are rumours that Martins has had discussions with Arsenal, wants to come, but did not want to create bad blood, so suggested we go down the normal path with a transfer fee. 

A Portuguese newspaper reported that we made a 30m euro bid, that was knocked back, and that we then came back and made the same bid again. So that's basically a threat to them that says accept this bid, or the player will just cancel his contract instead, and we'll have him on a free. 

They've apparently knocked that back as well.

Not sure if this is all true, but it's very interesting. Lets see what unfolds...

Have you tried Trademe? There's an English based seller on there selling loads of Arsenal shirts. Most with names and numbers in all sizes.

The other option is always ebay

That is interesting Paulm. Talk of Carvalho exiting too, always thought he'd have been handy for us, not too much of a risk if you get him on a free.

So now Martins is among 4 players at CP Sporting who have actually cancelled their contracts! William Carvahlo also in the list.

If this is all confirmed as legally fine, then all 4 will now be available on free transfers. 

Rumours last night that Adli has u-turned and will sign a new contract with PSG. I wonder if his agent was just using our interest to get the bling.

Torreira rumours gather pace. Some outlets reporting that we've agreed a fee, as well as personal terms. 

Apparently the Sampdoria present has confirmed that Lucas Torreira has been sold to Arsenal.  Cost to us is €30m. Cant find a sauce for that though.

Also, we are supposedly in advanced talks with Nernd Leno and this is close to getting across the line. Again, no sauce.

Grain o salt

Leno rumour just confirmed by Mark Lovell, some Bayern ESPN journo. 

Yea was  just coming on to post about Torreira. Sounds like it could be happening.

Hadn't seen that about Leno, interesting!

Also, Atletico Madrid have signed Thomas Lemar. 

Wow, didnt know Lemar was going to Atli. That's interesting. Plenty of noise coming out of their camp saying that griezmann is off to barca. 

Also, might be old news. But AMN has signed a long term deal/contract extension. Not sure for how long though. 

Kinda seems like we are signing a lot of middling players in an effort to plug gaps to hopefully get us into the top 4, then push on from there.

hmm just read that the deal for Sokratis is done, but will be announced next month because that's the start of the German financial year... hmm not sure what I think about that... seems like an odd thing to wait on while other clubs sign players willy nilly. 

Yea I don't quite get it either.

Some rumours that Fulham want Chambers. Would make sense if we buy Soyuncu as well as Sokratis. 

Sad though, I thought Chambers was really improving. He's had some pretty good performances for us. 

Sounds like Sokratis, Soyuncu and Torreira could all sign given the strength of the rumours. 

Leno talk is new but Bild have gone big on it. 

No idea what's going on with Wilshere, seems to change every day. 

Juicest off season for awhile now, I'm enjoying it.

I wouldn't be in a rush to sell Chambers. Him, Holding, Mavropanos are three quality & young CB's. Perhaps a year with Fullham on loan would be good - especially when you consider Koscielny is out of contract end of 2020 (and I can't see him extending beyond that). 

This young midfielder sounds OK, but not quite the big name signing I'd like. I get the impression this is going to be similar to the off season with Arteta, Mertesacker etc coming in. Good but not Sanchez/Ozil level signings.

AMN is a great decision. Players keep referencing a new pressing system which is encouraging to hear!

Reading about Torreira, sounds like a great young find and what we need - just half the size of Viera.

According to here: https://www.whoscored.com/Players/248109/Show/Luca...

He's: very strong at ball interception, strong at long shots, taking set pieces, passing, tackling, concentration, and blocking the ball.

Also sounds good money wise, we're only paying $30m euros but it's paid to them over 3 years. I know we do amortisation of payments, but that's still handy for the cash flows.

Not too worried about Sokratis being announced July, that's only a couple of weeks away. Should get him in the squad in time for a full pre-season with the non-w/cup attending players.

Have a few worries with our signings/potential signings which I hope aren't borne out -

Torreira; small, I don't care how strong you are, how many players at 1.68 have dominated the midfield in the modern EPL (Kante is a freak of nature, so he's a bit of an outlier)

Sokratis; poor passer of the ball, coming off a terrible season in Germany

Bernd Leno; has been one of the most average keepers in the Bundesliga for the last 3 or so years. Makes more mistakes than any other Bundesliga keeper (remind you of anyone?) and seemingly hasn't progressed since he was 23.

The only one that I look at and think 'yeah, that makes sense and is a good, pragmatic move' is Lichtsteiner..

How many players of that stature have tried and failed to dominate a midfield, thus proving that short players can't do it? 

I think the fact that he's unusually short for a male human being means we don't really have any sample size to make a comparison. Being that short makes you an freak outlier, full stop. 

I think all we can safely say is that he won't be a force in the air. And we can probably also assume that he has a sh*t ton of tenacity and mental strength to battle through what must have been a career full of coaches writing him off as too small. 

According to sky sports he was 3rd for tackles and 5th for interceptions in the Italian league. That kind of break up play from midfield has been missing since the Coqzorla midfield combo.

Not to worried about the height thing, N'Golo Kanté is the exact same height funnily enough. If he is coming in then he will be used as a DM who intercepts play rather than knocks down long balls.   

I saw a comment on twitter saying that when Coqzorla was working well, some people thought that the jobs of breaking up play (Coq), and keeping the ball in tight spaces before shifting it on (Cazorla), was really something that should be able to be done by one player. That person thought Torreira was the one to do this. 

If he can, then having him next to Xhaka would be phenomenal, allowing Granit to play as a real deep-lying playmaker, without being shown up defensively all the time.

Only other thing is it would mean that Ramsey and Ozil probably wouldn't be in the same starting side. 

This again takes me back to the thought... does Emery hold Ozil in high regard? Could he even be the one to make way here?

Or alternatively he might see Ramsey as the guy to partner Torreira, or even Ozil to play wide to allow Ramsey to be in the no.10 role. 

So many questions. 

Now we've got some social media clues to assess.

Bernd Leno liked an instagram post saying he was Arsenal's no.1 target at keeper. 

And in something probably a bit more concrete than that... Wilshere has posted on Instragram "There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book".

Perhaps that's it for him then? Moving on?

oool. Opening games for 2018/19 season =

Week 1:Manchester City (H)

Week 2:Chelsea (A)

Straight into it!