Arana is a welcome addition indeed, about time we got hyped for a Brazilian wingback, they always tend to be decent (Cicinho before he got injured) to absolute world beaters (Alves). he could slot in right away to help the left back situation as Escudero has not been entirely reliable and Carole has been Jerkyll and Hyde, the latter will probably have his loan terminated to get an additional slot for another player. I liked what (little) I saw of him and he should head back to Europe instead of being buried in Turkey.
N’zonzi can go, he has made boneheaded mistakes and cost the team points, add in his unprofessional attitude and storming off after getting subbed and he has no further value to this club aside from his selling price. To make things clear this all came after he got called up to the NT with France which was one of his “reasons” for wanting to leave in the first place. Some clubs will come for him regardless but if no one deemed him worthy of the 40m listed in his contract during the summer window then it might be a bit of an ask now. I’d toss him for 30m and be done with it. His lack of match experience for 2 months and attitude should probably exclude him from the NT entirely so no world cup for you. Remember the last person who left because he wanted to get called up to the NT? I wonder if Kevin has found his favorite spot on the brand new Wanda Metropolitano bench yet.
Montoya can leave, contributes nothing other than warming up a non-eu spot, I think Lasso can move on too, he’s 23 and while has class on the ball I just don’t see him being a big factor down the stretch.
For additions, we need a defensive midfielder asap, Mesa may fit the bill but at a mighty 171cm tall I’m not too certain of his aerial presence, Berge would be nice too, just stuff as much bodies there as we can, remember the days when one of Iborra, Krycho or M’bia had to settle for the bench? Good times.
Defence, I hate to keep saying this but we must get a center back in the 23 -27 age range, being one injury away from starting Geis is embarrassing, we can try picking some players who have been under-utilized but I’m at a loss for names so far. Our wingers can be better too as Nolito and Navas have been inconsistent, Capel is still on a free so could he be worth a punt?
If we can get capel back on a free I won’t mind, gives us more options out wide and fits the homegrown quota both on a trained in Spain and trained at club level.
Mesa to Valencia? No ffs no, him kondogbia and pareja would give me nightmares.
That’s just coming from some Valencia fan boys. I haven’t seen anything concrete on that. Valencia do seem poised to drop more money in January though.
According to some reports in Spain Gameiro has been given permission to speak with Valencia re a possible move next month. How we could do with him back
I’m just daydreaming Chris.
I well remember the reception he received in the sanchez pizjuan last year and there’s no chance he would come back. But he’s still far better than anything we have in attack at the moment
British newspapers have stated a deal between Arsenal and Sevilla has been completed. N’zonzi will be sold for 35M pounds with another 2.6M pounds in bonuses and the transfer will go through in January. The final sum is similar to the contract release clause of 40m euros and the cash will be useful in helping us bring in reinforcements for the campaign ahead.
Not bad at all if true. 35 Million pounds with 2.6 million in bonuses translates to approx. 42.7 million Euros, even more perhaps?
I hope this deal goes through and then fingers crossed for the management to use the money wisely. We can literally buy 2-3 very decent players (beside Arana) with the cash, also considering the surplus of the budget of course.
Nzonzi, Montoya and Carole will go I bellieve, and maybe one or two more.
This time last year we were leaders (if memory serves me right) (after turning over Real Madrid thanks to Jojo) and I remember thinking that with Roque Mesa we would win the league (eternal optimist), but his time has gone, he didn’t perform to the same level in the second half of the season, which coincided with his growing a pathetic moustache. Now he just resembles some coke headed South Amercan dictator and I don’t want him in our squad
I’d love to have Jojo back, and I’d welcome Sander Berge at the right price but Muriel has to go, I know that some players take 12 months to adapt but he aint going to come good.
As for Montoya, I heard that Macri (the Argentinian president) enquired how he was doing at Sevilla because the player is quite an exciting prospect for the Argentinians.
Hahahhaha! That surely was a pathetic moustache of his. Also agreed on Muriel, WBY could do well as a second choice striker, but Muriel really has to go. Nothing to offer more, he doesn’t score and his ball control is terrible. WBY at least can control a ball and make a pass or two outside the box.
What would someone pay for Muriel at this point? I’m sure his value has tanked. Can we afford to give up so quickly on our most expensive signing in history? Not a good start to Arias’ career.
Yeah that is a big issue. They would rather keep him and sell/loan out WBY, just to protect the ‘most expensive signing’ label. Also not quite sure how much would someone be willing to pay for Muriel nowadays… perhaps around 10 million if lucky.
