Telegraph are reporting that the Toons are willing to pay up to £22M for Willock.

Xhaka doesn't seem the type to back down easily, and Arteta obviously likes the player. Find it a bit odd that the proposed Roma move falling through has been seemingly brushed under the carpet the way it has.

As for the new contract... just can't see the sense in it.

Roma were the only club interested in him, and they undervalued him (even as someone who doesn't think highly of him, I'll admit that). So it's not as if we're now trying to fend off someone coming in for him.

Another confusing move. One that suggests we're not signing any more midfielders this window. Unless...

#sellneny

I think we underestimate how much Arteta likes Xhaka. In my opinion Xhaka's agent played this beautifully. Roma's wage offer obviously was much lower than what he is earning at Arsenal. And they leveraged Roma's interest to get him a new contract probably on similar if nor more money at Arsenal.

The last player who moved from Arsenal to Roma had his contract cancelled and went literally for free. So I guess them offering some kind of money for Xhaka was seen as a huge improvement.

Turning down £10m from Roma for Mkhitaryan, only to then cancel his contract allow him to move there for free has got to go down as one of the worst pieces of business in our history.

No wonder they thought we'd bite at £12m for Xhaka

tbf to Roma it was the player who instigated the transfer. So they didn't need to offer the market price. Whatever that is for a player who has significantly underperformed at Arsenal for years.

A bit like Kane and City.

comment by Lexington 125.2 (U8879)
posted 19 minutes ago
Turning down £10m from Roma for Mkhitaryan, only to then cancel his contract allow him to move there for free has got to go down as one of the worst pieces of business in our history.

No wonder they thought we'd bite at £12m for Xhaka
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Remember when we did the same with Gibbs

What did we do to deserve such incompetence

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 hour, 11 minutes ago
Interesting dynamic atm:

Chelsea <------- Lukaku
Arsenal <------- Tammy
Inter <------- Lacazette
Arsenal <------- Lautaro
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We aren’t signing Lautaro. And Inter are hardly going to sign both of their strikers.

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 12 minutes ago
tbf to Roma it was the player who instigated the transfer. So they didn't need to offer the market price. Whatever that is for a player who has significantly underperformed at Arsenal for years.

A bit like Kane and City.
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A big difference is that in the case of Kane, It'll be Levy sitting on the other side of the table, dealing with the negotiations.
In our case, It'll be Edu.

To think Arsene turned us from football fans into mini accountants, poring over spreadsheets calculating our transfer window Net spends. And now the club have turned us from mini accountants into drunks, shouting 'AHH FACK IT, IT'S NOT MY MONEY!' at the moon.

Martinez aside, has Edu sold any of our players yet? Released, yes, loans, yes, but has he actually sold anyone else? I can't think of any.

Can’t even find a buyer for AMN

comment by King TUt (U3732)
posted 6 minutes ago
Martinez aside, has Edu sold any of our players yet? Released, yes, loans, yes, but has he actually sold anyone else? I can't think of any.
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Nope. Just Emi so far.

Good business

I'm going to defend Edu slightly here. We can be annoyed at him for some things, but there are other things he can't be blamed for.

It isn't his fault that we've been lumbered with certain players on huge contracts/wages and that we can't find a buyer.

When I look at the level of clubs interested in these players, it's no wonder we can't sell/flog them off. Who else is stupid enough to give them the crazy money we did? Elneny has no suitors, for example, and had Wenger not given him a new contract before he left, I'm confident he wouldn't still be at the club. Kolasinac is another one who was signed before Edu took the reigns and is proving difficult to flog.

I also think the market this summer is moving a lot slower than many people anticipated.

Look at the sales from other clubs this window:

Chelsea - 4 players (mainly youth players)
Man United - 0
Spurs - 2
Everton - 1
Leicester - 0
West Ham - 1
Man City - 3
Villa - 1
Palace - 0
Newcastle - 0

We're not the only club struggling to offload players.

I know it's annoying and frustrating for us, because it inhibits our ability to transform our squad, but I also don't think we can pin all the blame on Edu when he inherited a shiiitshow and then Covid has exacerbated it.

In fairness to Edu, three of the players he had to pay off in January were Wenger's signings.

It isn't his fault that we've been lumbered with certain players on huge contracts/wages and that we can't find a buyer.
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And it is about to do the same with Xhaka.
And don't get me started on Willian.

Past regime have made mistakes. The problem is that we haven't learnt from them and are just repeating them.

*He is about

Runarsson

Cedric - Saliba - Mavropanos - Kolasinac

Guendouzi - Elneny - Torreira

Willian - Lacazette - Nelson

Subs: Iliev, Bellerin, Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Nketiah


That's an impressive 'deadwood' XI + subs list we've accumulated right there.

*aware that is harsh on a few of those players, but I think we'd all agree we'd take a decent offer - or in some cases any offer - for every single one of them.

IOAG, I'm not saying he's free from any blame whatsoever. But some of those signings/extensions, you can't just blame it solely on Edu if the rest of the hierarchy either overrule him or if Arteta is adamant it's a player he wants (which it was in the case of Willian - Arteta wanted him, so he can't complain he hasn't been backed).

I feel like it's a bit lazy to just put it all on him.

I think it is fair to question his close association with Kia Joorabchian and the sudden influx of Joorabchian's client into the squad since he (and Raul) were brought in.

I feel like it's a bit lazy to just put it all on him.
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I don't think it is. Forget about Xhaka 2 minutes.
Take a look at our youngsters. Nelson, AMN, Willock, Eddie. All British and homegrown. In a market where those two factors seems to dictate price, it is very bizarre that we can't barely raise 15M for each one of them when the like of Pool and Chelsea can sold complete unknown for more than that.
How much would we get for the like of Chambers and Holding?

Edu is making a move for Maddison.
Player + cash, the player being AMN.

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