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phips wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Watching the game on Saturday i did think how the hell would it work if we signed Sanchez ( or Mbappe) when we already have this team and still Sane,Bernardo,Sterling, Yaya, Gundogan , Foden ready to bring in as attacking options.

Just makes me think Pep could be making it harder for himself as it would be so hard to keep everyone happy. He might slightly improve our best team.... or would he?

this. I've subscribed to this idea for a long time--not just about Sanchez and not just about football.
it sounds nice to want your team/club to stockpile as much talent as possible but there's only a limited number of starting spots. yes, theres a lot of matches (football = 38, baseball = 180+, NBA = 82) but big-time players dont think that way. they want to play in every single match they're fit enough to play in and sitting on the bench doesnt even sound like an option for them. if you have a bunch of guys like this then the locker room can get bad and people are complaining to the media etc and it can rot a team from the inside out.

As good as them players are, they are not going to get 20 goals a season. We wasted a lot of energy on Saturday and made it hard on ourselves. if that game was further into the season and came on the back of 7 games in a month, it is one where we would have dropped points.

Another goalscorer (Sanchez or Mbappe) gives us the required options where we are not flogging Jesus and Aguero.

I think Pep wants goals scored a lot quicker in games (even having them killed off by half time). The pre-season games were a reminder of last season - a lot of chances created but the finishing from our goalscorers was poor.

phips wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Watching the game on Saturday i did think how the hell would it work if we signed Sanchez ( or Mbappe) when we already have this team and still Sane,Bernardo,Sterling, Yaya, Gundogan , Foden ready to bring in as attacking options.

Just makes me think Pep could be making it harder for himself as it would be so hard to keep everyone happy. He might slightly improve our best team.... or would he?

this. I've subscribed to this idea for a long time--not just about Sanchez and not just about football.
it sounds nice to want your team/club to stockpile as much talent as possible but there's only a limited number of starting spots. yes, theres a lot of matches (football = 38, baseball = 180+, NBA = 82) but big-time players dont think that way. they want to play in every single match they're fit enough to play in and sitting on the bench doesnt even sound like an option for them. if you have a bunch of guys like this then the locker room can get bad and people are complaining to the media etc and it can rot a team from the inside out.

Comparing those sports game totals to football game totals is a fallacious line of argumentation.

In the NBA the same 5 players start every game baring injury or perhaps due to a matchup issue. You cannot stockpile such high caliber backup players who will be okay with being on the bench some games like football, because they'd never accept it.

In baseball you have to rotate a lot of pitchers because their arms will fall off and will lose their efficacy. However, the primary star players mostly play every game, but do sit out once in a while for a rare rest.

With football, especially for top level PL clubs, ROTATION and COMPETITION FOR PLACES is ESSENTIAL to survival and success if you want to win in all competitions, which we do. Now, your world class players usually have their places cemented, but if you think they could still improve or are a bit complacent (Aguero, Nasri and Yaya last season) and you are a manager who has high levels of respect, like Pep, you are not afraid of competition as you believe it keeps players motivated.

Notice Pep's comments this summer about not wanting players to stay who don't want to be here (i.e. Kolarov, who Pep wanted to keep around allegedly as our 4th CB). If you want to be a part of this and try to earn your spot, then this is the reality, and I suspect all of our players at this point here on on board with. Sane and Sterling surely are aware of our interest in Alexis and yet I haven't heard anything about them wanting to leave as a result nor do I think that's where their heads are at. If they did what would that say about their desire? Isn't this the criticism I keep reading, and I feel as well, about Sancho?

Funny how I keep reading whinging about Sane Sterling and Jesus somehow not getting games....what about our new signing Bernardo? He has to compete with Silva and KDB. We also have Ilkay too for the roaming 8 spots. You worried that they won't play as well?

I don't recall hearing a peep out of those worrying about SJS regarding the backups to KDB and Silva.

As JC referred to, the game counting is off as well.

Bottom line is everyone wants young players to get time to develop, but we are not playing around, need goals from wide areas and to win trophies. This idea that they should not face tougher competition, when they are allegedly trying to get to the same level as an Alexis, who I would think should be a great role model for their development given his incredible work rate and skill, and Pep has not shown any indication he will not play the two other than speculation that this signing and 352 are surely the death knell to Sane and Sterling getting opportunities. With all due respect, it seems a bit like fortune telling to me or Chicken Little.

iwasthere2012 wrote:

carl_feedthegoat wrote:I actually did say that when it comes down to getting 50 million now or zero in 10 months or so..why the fuck would the board allow that decision to be wengers alone ???!!

Seems madness to me if its his decision.

Seems to me it's not his decision. It's like they are angling for more money, otherwise the board backs Arsene.
I wonder how high we are willing go.
Still think this has last day written all over it.

If we are genuinely interested in Sanchez (personally, I still hope it's a load of paper talk) and it looks like going to the last day of the transfer window, we ought to put in a reduced bid now (say £38 million, for arguments sake), with the inference that, if Whinger is still holding out for keeping the player, when the 11th hour comes around, we might bid even less than this.

It might just concentrate the minds of the Arsenal 'money men' to stop letting Whinger play silly so and so's.

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:

iwasthere2012 wrote:

carl_feedthegoat wrote:I actually did say that when it comes down to getting 50 million now or zero in 10 months or so..why the fuck would the board allow that decision to be wengers alone ???!!

Seems madness to me if its his decision.

Seems to me it's not his decision. It's like they are angling for more money, otherwise the board backs Arsene.
I wonder how high we are willing go.
Still think this has last day written all over it.

If we are genuinely interested in Sanchez (personally, I still hope it's a load of paper talk) and it looks like going to the last day of the transfer window, we ought to put in a reduced bid now (say £38 million, for arguments sake), with the inference that, if Whinger is still holding out for keeping the player, when the 11th hour comes around, we might bid even less than this.

It might just concentrate the minds of the Arsenal 'money men' to stop letting Whinger play silly so and so's.

Just cannot see Arsenal willing to say goodbye to between £40M and £60M.
They will sell at that price to anybody outside the PL.
But if there are no foreign buyers willing to pay that price - I think they will sell to us.
Business sense usually wins out at Arsenal.

Prezike, rather than quoting that huge soliloquy ill just say that i disagree.

it may be true that its best for the club to have rotations and competition for places (people always take about having depth/a squad) but in the players' minds i firmly believe they only want competition for places when they're the "automatic starter". once they get overtaken by their "backup" they dont like the competition anymore. then, if their backup becomes the starter and the former starter becomes the backup they leave because they "want to play more" because they love the sport and just want to play (I see you James Milner). of course im just talking about the good players here. the understudies love competition because it lets them believe they have a chance of overtaking the better starter.

going to my NBA example, look at James Harden back on OKC. he was the team's sixth man and numerically played more minutes than the starter he replaces. but he left to be a starter (and get more money, i know). it's a weakish example, ill grant you, but it illustrates my point. i believe that in players' minds the status of being the starter is crucial and regardless if its absurd to assume they'll be able to play all 38 league matches (aside from the keeper) they still firmly believe: i want to be the starter and play every minute. look at Sanchez last season. he was whining and sulking when he came off. Ronaldo never gets subbed; Zidane did it once last year and he threw a fit and Real actually ended up throwing away a lead and drawing or losing.

How do you finish a game drawing or losing?

PrezIke wrote:With all due respect, it seems a bit like fortune telling to me or Chicken Little.

I've seen the film. Chicken Little was right. The Sky is falling.....

We're waiting on word of BT.

But the big problem we have in our squad is scoring goals.

Aguero scores but will miss games through injury (and maybe suspension). Jesus is new to the league - looks very promising but we can't guarantee 20-30 goals.

Sane/Sterling/Silva/KDB/Yaya etc. do not score enough goals.

I honestly have no idea how people on here do not want us to sign a player who will score 20-30 goals for us.

We currently do not have enough in our attack to score enough goals...even if we have lots of fantastic midfielders!

But then for so long many people on here have been saying that now we have Jesus, Aguero will be on his way. No logic to that whatsoever yet the line is still repeated...

Justified logic wrote:How do you finish a game drawing or losing?

you see, in league football there are 3 possible results for the outcome of a match: win (when one club outscores the other), loss (when the other club gets outscored by the first club), or draw (when neither club scores or both clubs score an equal amount of goals).

aaron bond wrote:But the big problem we have in our squad is scoring goals.

Aguero scores but will miss games through injury (and maybe suspension). Jesus is new to the league - looks very promising but we can't guarantee 20-30 goals.

Sane/Sterling/Silva/KDB/Yaya etc. do not score enough goals.

I honestly have no idea how people on here do not want us to sign a player who will score 20-30 goals for us.

We currently do not have enough in our attack to score enough goals...even if we have lots of fantastic midfielders!

im fine with signing Sanchez ( i still there there's a 99.9999999% chance he stays at Arsenal this year) but then im of the mind that we might as well sell Sane or Sterling. that's my mindset. agree or disagree.

phips wrote:

Justified logic wrote:How do you finish a game drawing or losing?

you see, in league football there are 3 possible results for the outcome of a match: win (when one club outscores the other), loss (when the other club gets outscored by the first club), or draw (when neither club scores or both clubs score an equal amount of goals).

So basically you don't know what you are talking about.

phips wrote:Zidane did it once last year and he threw a fit and Real actually ended up throwing away a lead and drawing or losing.

jesus christ. do you speak english?

they were winning and they end up either drawing or losing--i can't remember which. so that means they conceded enough goals to equal the amount they scored or they conceded more than they scored.

https://twitter.com/City_Watch/status/8 ... 8269792256

Wow £70 million !

phips wrote:jesus christ. do you speak english?

they were winning and they end up either drawing or losing--i can't remember which. so that means they conceded enough goals to equal the amount they scored or they conceded more than they scored.

You don't get pedantry do you?

City64 wrote:https://twitter.com/City_Watch/status/899021558269792256

Wow £70 million !

Some joker is suggesting that Draxler would only cost 32m. To somewhere like Rheims perhaps, not to us.

If we pay any more than a nominal amount, say 20 mill for an old player in the last year of his contract.

Then the spafia and pep deserve a good slap around the ears.

zuricity wrote:If we pay any more than a nominal amount, say 20 mill for an old player in the last year of his contract.

Then the spafia and pep deserve a good slap around the ears.

Honestly i dont care what we pay id rather have sanchez than not and its not my money. If he was in contract for another four years he would be at least 70, given arse dont want to sell if thats what it tales then thats what it takes.

They'll have to change the opening sequence of MotD.

Dubciteh wrote:

zuricity wrote:If we pay any more than a nominal amount, say 20 mill for an old player in the last year of his contract.

Then the spafia and pep deserve a good slap around the ears.

Honestly i dont care what we pay id rather have sanchez than not and its not my money. If he was in contract for another four years he would be at least 70, given arse dont want to sell if thats what it tales then thats what it takes.

Agree with this. Sanchez would take us to a different level.

30m for Evans and 70m for Sanchez......