Arteta and Edu(ardo Hagn)'s Transfer Targets: January 2021

[Macho]

Think Saka plays well is most positions to be honest. Think even centrally he will do a similar job to ESR.

 

[Dutch D]

I think it's way too early to conclude a Saka/Tierney left side doesn't work. We've been in horrendous form for most of the season. Between 17 october and 16 december we scored 2(!) goals in the PL.

The whole team was crap until 5 matches ago when Saka was indeed playing rightwing, but the uptick in form coincided with having an actual creative midfielder in the side in ESR. That has been a major contributor to Saka's improvement in form. There is no reason to conclude he couldn't do it from the left, as well. He's an intelligent player who would know when to tuck in and give Tierney room for the overlap.

Saka also looked better at RW at u18/23 level.

There is no way I can check this, but it seems like a bold statement. Did he really play at lot at RW at that level? @MutableEarth

 

[El Duderino]

Saka LW Dembouz RW is it?

Messi cf

 

[TornadoTed]

I think Tierney and Saka were just fine on the left but it made the team unbalanced having our 2 most dangerous players on the same side. All teams had to do was cut out our left side and they stopped us.

I think moving Saka out to the right and having ESR in the middle means we can attack left, right and centrally which makes us far less predictable.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Puig would be elite as long as Douzi isn't coming back, and after the news coming out of Hertha I hope he doesn't come back. Childish little toad.

Puig - Partey
Saka - Ødegaard - ESR
Haaland
​

The dream is coming alive.

Puig is the dream? Don't know about that.

 

[Sebastes]

Obviously Messi and Co are the biggest drains on the wage bill but they could sell Puig for 10 to 20m and get an instant cash injection. It's hard to see anyone paying big money for those players you've listed because they haven't worked out, their wages will be big and Barcelona are up ****s creek without a paddle. Unless they are open to ridiculously low offers its gonna be the young prospects low wages moderate fee IMO.

Yeah I guess so, maybe they look to sell Puig or Trincao. Don't think they'd sell Fati or Pedri though, they're the future crown jewels. Dembele I can see them selling for 40-50m seeing as he only has a year left. But even 40m on Dembele is a slight risk what with his injury history. That guy's like Pepe on steroids, all the talent but can he make the most of it.

Interesting thing is I think they’re due to pay 400m this year. Most likely they will somehow postpone it, at least for a bit, but they’ll just have to have a firesale by the looks of it.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Feel like a lot of people are ignoring this and not quite realising that you need at least 4 CMs to get through a campaign. Like sure we all want to get rid of everyone except Partey but who's gonna sit on the bench and play in the cups. Azeez looks good at u-23, maybe he steps up, probably he needs a loan first. I think one of Xhaka or Elneny stays just cos we need the numbers.

Xhaka is fine as a squad player, people's hatred of his personally clouds their view of what actually happens on the pitch.

If we got Bissouma for example, Partey/Bissouma/Xhaka/ElNeny would be an strong set of central midfielders.

 

[RacingPhoton]

Xhaka is fine as a squad player, people's hatred of his personally clouds their view of what actually happens on the pitch.

If we got Bissouma for example, Partey/Bissouma/Xhaka/ElNeny would be an strong set of central midfielders.

I think most Xhaka haters including me would be fine if he is a squad player and is used only for cup matches and EL. But I don't think Xhaka will be happy as a squaddie. Plus he has two years left. We could potentially get money for him.

 

[dashsnow17]

Xhaka is fine as a squad player, people's hatred of his personally clouds their view of what actually happens on the pitch.

If we got Bissouma for example, Partey/Bissouma/Xhaka/ElNeny would be an strong set of central midfielders.

In theory yes but I just think Xhaka would cause problems if he was sitting on the bench every week. He backs himself, he's 28, I don't think he'd settle for being a squad option, he'd rather just move to a different club and be first choice there. Whereas a character like Elneny is happy to sit on the bench, y'know.

Also we have to sell players to raise funds. Who can we sell for actual money? Pepe for 30m if we're lucky, Laca 20m, 10m each for AMN and Nketiah, but Xhaka i'm pretty sure we could get 30-35m for. He's a sellable asset.

Like you'd rather have Xhaka on the bench than Elneny obviously, he's a better player, but from a squad building perspective you might just keep Elneny cos you need a body and he doesn't have any real value anyway.

 

[MikelHadADream]

I think most Xhaka haters including me would be fine if he is a squad player and is used only for cup matches and EL. But I don't think Xhaka will be happy as a squaddie. Plus he has two years left. We could potentially get money for him.

The problem is Torreira, Guendouzi and ElNeny are in the same boat. Torreira and Guendouzi are done under Arteta, so that leaves us with Partey, Xhaka and ElNeny next season. Getting rid of Xhaka as well means we will need to sign 2 CMS, and with all of the other areas we need to sign players, it's just not feasible imo.

I'd be shocked if he goes next summer.

 

[dashsnow17]

The problem is Torreira, Guendouzi and ElNeny are in the same boat. Torreira and Guendouzi are done under Arteta, so that leaves us with Partey, Xhaka and ElNeny next season. Getting rid of Xhaka as well means we will need to sign 2 CMS, and with all of the other areas we need to sign players, it's just not feasible imo.

I'd be shocked if he goes next summer.

But think about it from his perspective too. He's probably already having conversations about his future. He knows he has 2 years left, he's not (to our knowledge) had talks about a new contract, maybe he wants a new challenge. I'm sure he likes the club, likes London, but he doesn't love the club, he's probably hated the club at times. He backs himself, he'd think he could go to a good club in Germany, Italy or Spain.

He's at an age where he wants to be an important player in a team. Imagine hypothetically we sign Bissouma for 40m or whatever in the summer. I guarantee Xhaka would be walking into Edu's office with his agent and asking whether he's Arteta's first choice CM or not, and if he didn't get that guarantee I think he'd ask to leave.

 

[Dutch D]

Sell Xhaka, Elneny, Torreira, release Ceballos, loan Willock.
Promote Azeez, reintegrate Guendouzi, buy a good DM.

Partey (Guendouzi) - DM (Azeez)

or if Guendouzi remains a poisoned apple sell him too and keep Willock. I honestly would be fine with those two as back-ups if it allows us to spend heavily on more another creative player (Ødegaard permanent or Grealish) and a first choice DM.

It's quite simple to me, not good enough = sell. Get high quality starters and use youth as a back-up if there are no good options on the cheap. Willock isn't worse than Elneny and potentially has a big upside if things click (he shouldn't be used as a 10 though).

 

[dashsnow17]

Sell Xhaka, Elneny, Torreira, release Ceballos, loan Willock.
Promote Azeez, reintegrate Guendouzi, buy a good DM.

Partey (Guendouzi) - DM (Azeez)

or if Guendouzi remains a poisoned apple sell him too and keep Willock. I honestly would be fine with those two as back-ups if it allows us to spend heavily on more another creative player (Ødegaard permanent or Grealish) and a first choice DM.

It's quite simple to me, not good enough = sell. Get high quality starters and use youth as a back-up if there are no good options on the cheap. Willock isn't worse than Elneny and potentially has a big upside if things click (he shouldn't be used as a 10 though).

If it were up to me i'd reintegrate Douzi too, but it just ain't happening. We didn't loan him out to develop him, we loaned him out to get rid of him and cos we couldn't sell him. If it weren't for the pandemic we'd have sold him last summer.

And cmon, you can't have Willock and Azeez as your back-up CMs, that's just not realistic. Unless we can find a very decent CM for very cheap to play back-up I'd say one of Xhaka or Elneny has to stay, probably Elneny unfortunately.

 

[MikelHadADream]

In theory yes but I just think Xhaka would cause problems if he was sitting on the bench every week. He backs himself, he's 28, I don't think he'd settle for being a squad option, he'd rather just move to a different club and be first choice there. Whereas a character like Elneny is happy to sit on the bench, y'know.

Also we have to sell players to raise funds. Who can we sell for actual money? Pepe for 30m if we're lucky, Laca 20m, 10m each for AMN and Nketiah, but Xhaka i'm pretty sure we could get 30-35m for. He's a sellable asset.

Like you'd rather have Xhaka on the bench than Elneny obviously, he's a better player, but from a squad building perspective you might just keep Elneny cos you need a body and he doesn't have any real value anyway.

But think about it from his perspective too. He's probably already having conversations about his future. He knows he has 2 years left, he's not (to our knowledge) had talks about a new contract, maybe he wants a new challenge. I'm sure he likes the club, likes London, but he doesn't love the club, he's probably hated the club at times. He backs himself, he'd think he could go to a good club in Germany, Italy or Spain.

He's at an age where he wants to be an important player in a team. Imagine hypothetically we sign Bissouma for 40m or whatever in the summer. I guarantee Xhaka would be walking into Edu's office with his agent and asking whether he's Arteta's first choice CM or not, and if he didn't get that guarantee I think he'd ask to leave.

I'm not so sure. If we did sign Bissouma, our options there would be Partey, Bissouma, Xhaka and ElNeny. Xhaka would still get loads of game time as I think he'd be rotated with Bissouma.

Xhaka may well want a new challenge, but I don't see how the club can let him go. Torreira and Guendouzi are done under Arteta, Ceballos is going, I can't see how they can afford to let Xhaka go on that basis purely.

In any case the club won't be forcing him out. I think it would take a really good offer for the club to part ways with him this summer.

 

[dashsnow17]

I'm not so sure. If we did sign Bissouma, our options there would be Partey, Bissouma, Xhaka and ElNeny. Xhaka would still get loads of game time as I think he'd be rotated with Bissouma.

Xhaka may well want a new challenge, but I don't see how the club can let him go. Torreira and Guendouzi are done under Arteta, Ceballos is going, I can't see how they can afford to let Xhaka go on that basis purely.

In any case the club won't be forcing him out. I think it would take a really good offer for the club to part ways with him this summer.

But can they afford to keep him? They said they don't want to let players go past 2 years left on their deals. Can they afford to forego the transfer fee they could receive for him?

I think a lot depends on the next 6 months obviously. Maybe Xhaka forms a great partnership with Partey and we win the Europa League and he's like "yeah I wanna be here for my prime years". Maybe that doesn't happen and both him and the club see this summer as a natural parting point.

 

[Tom349]

I think it's way too early to conclude a Saka/Tierney left side doesn't work. We've been in horrendous form for most of the season. Between 17 october and 16 december we scored 2(!) goals in the PL.

The whole team was crap until 5 matches ago when Saka was indeed playing rightwing, but the uptick in form coincided with having an actual creative midfielder in the side in ESR. That has been a major contributor to Saka's improvement in form. There is no reason to conclude he couldn't do it from the left, as well. He's an intelligent player who would know when to tuck in and give Tierney room for the overlap.


There is no way I can check this, but it seems like a bold statement. Did he really play at lot at RW at that level? @MutableEarth

Doesn't work was probably the wrong way of describing it but if puts a lot more limitations on both players game.

Think you will find he only has one or two goal contributions when he and Tierney share the same side of the pitch.

Also should revise that last statement by stating that Saka showed more potential from the right in u18/23. The majority of his games he played on the left due to Amachei but he had some brilliant passages of play when he was on the right.

 

[A_G]

@HairSprayGooners

 

[Tom349]

But can they afford to keep him? They said they don't want to let players go past 2 years left on their deals. Can they afford to forego the transfer fee they could receive for him?

I think a lot depends on the next 6 months obviously. Maybe Xhaka forms a great partnership with Partey and we win the Europa League and he's like "yeah I wanna be here for my prime years". Maybe that doesn't happen and both him and the club see this summer as a natural parting point.

Going to cost more to replace him than what we could possibly lose if he left 12 months later with only 12 months on his contract.

In any case their is no suggestion that Xhaka would demand a transfer if he was demoted to the bench. Bar the issues he has had with the fans and occasional brain explosion, there is nothing to suggest he isn't professional and wouldn't back himself to keep his spot.

 

[Dutch D]

If it were up to me i'd reintegrate Douzi too, but it just ain't happening. We didn't loan him out to develop him, we loaned him out to get rid of him and cos we couldn't sell him. If it weren't for the pandemic we'd have sold him last summer.

And cmon, you can't have Willock and Azeez as your back-up CMs, that's just not realistic. Unless we can find a very decent CM for very cheap to play back-up I'd say one of Xhaka or Elneny has to stay, probably Elneny unfortunately.

Why not? Why forego €5-7m in transfer fees, a non-HG spot, and saving 50k in weekly wages when Willock can do everything Elneny can do and has a potential upside.

I'd rather risk going into the season with Willock, still a prospect, as a back-up than have fake 'security' in Elneny.

Given our huge financial losses this season and last, we can probably not afford a big net spend in the summer. Xhaka is a sellable asset. I'd rather use him to fund an actually good midfield partner for Partey and rely on Azeez as a back-up. I mean everyone here is clamoring for an 18 yo Gravenberch to come in for 20-30m, but why not try our own most highly rated 18yo CM as a backup? Gravenberch had little to no experience before this season and he's been bossing it from the start because of his technical ability. Give Azeez a chance. Grass is always greener with talents at different clubs.

Also, don't forget if we buy a creative midfielder, we can always move to a 3 man midfield with an anchor and two more creative options in case of injuries. For instance:

Partey/new signing
Ødegaard - ESR​

 

[MikelHadADream]

But can they afford to keep him? They said they don't want to let players go past 2 years left on their deals. Can they afford to forego the transfer fee they could receive for him?

I think a lot depends on the next 6 months obviously. Maybe Xhaka forms a great partnership with Partey and we win the Europa League and he's like "yeah I wanna be here for my prime years". Maybe that doesn't happen and both him and the club see this summer as a natural parting point.

They say a lot of things mate. If a decent offer doesn't come in for Xhaka, they have no choice but to keep him. It was the same situation as Lacazette last summer, who now only has a year left.

I've said this before but I think we have bigger issues in the team than a Xhaka upgrade. If we can sort out the attacking players, then fine try and upgrade him.