The Wish List

[HairSprayGooners]

I know you shouldn’t concentrate on other teams business as much. But Liverpool, United and City will spend big again and on top quality. Chelsea will also go big no doubt. We have to be very astute or risk falling off.

Sokratis, Suyuncu, Leno, Seri and Ousmane Dembele would be the absolute bare minimum to even get us challenging for the top 4 I think.

It is a BIG summer ahead.

 

[Red London]

For what it's worth my actual wish list is Oblak, Koulibaly, Koke & Dembele, but that really doesn't matter.

Why Koke? Who would make way for him and dembele in the team?
3 man midfield i presume

 

[TornadoTed]

For what it's worth my actual wish list is Oblak, Koulibaly, Koke & Dembele, but that really doesn't matter.

That would be beautiful and make us title challengers but surely looking in the region of £300m for those 4, it's just stupid how transfer fees have rocketed the last couple of years.

 

[dashsnow17]

Why Koke? Who would make way for him and dembele in the team?
3 man midfield i presume

Um yeah I suppose I'd have Koke, Xhaka and Ramsey in midfield, then Aubameyang, Dembele and either Özil or Mkhi in attack. But sure you could jumble it around any which way you like. Anyway Koke has a contract to 2024 so I don't think that's a goer haha. These rumours of Barca sending Dembele out on loan keep cropping up though, it's highly unlikely to be true but it's a very tempting thought.

 

[HBL]

Pavlenka - £15m/Leno - £20m
Sokratis - £17m
Soyoncu - £25m
Torreira/Zakaria/Ndombele - £25m
Pavon - £25m

Think it’s fairly realistic, wouldn’t be my wish list but I think it’s probably close to the best we can do.
Out:
• Mertesacker, Cazorla & Campbell, looks like Wilshere is staying.
• Welbeck - £15m
• Mustafi - £20m
• Perez - £7m
• Ospina -£5m
• Akpom - £2m
• Asano - £2m
• Loan Holding and Iwobi.


Pavlenka, Cech, Virginia
Bellerin
Sokratis, Chambers
Soyoncu, Mavropanos, Kosc
Kolasinac, Monreal
Xhaka, Ndombele, AMN
Ramsey, Wilshere, Elneny
Mkhi, Pavon
Özil, Nelson
Lacazette, Nketiah
Aubameyang

Plus Smith-Rowe and Amaechi to hopefully get some first team action next season.

My actual wish list would probably be Oblak, Koulibaly, De Light, Kondogbia, Ndombele & Martial but that would cost about £300m.

 

[ArtetaCognition]

Providing that we are, indeed, signing Sokratis and Soyuncu so haven't included them in the 'Ins' section.

In:

Bruno Fernandes - 25m-30m
Mateo Kovacic - 20-25m
James Maddison (provided we can get him relatively cheap) Only sign if equal to or below 15m - HG squad option, high potential ceiling compared to other young English midfielders.. but definitely a risk.
Ousmane Dembele (Loan - optional purchase fee). Free
A GK that isn't ****ing Petr Cech or one of those **** overrated English keepers like Butland. I'll go for Lafont but I've only watched him a handful of times. Does anyone here watch him more regularly? From the times I seen him - he was absolutely bizarre. He seemed to have so much confidence in his shot stopping that it was almost immaterial where he would parry the ball. Never looked controlled but also never looked anything other than extraordinary. A really exciting prospect, admittedly. 20-25m.

Money Spent: Between £80,000,000 and £95,000,000

Out:

Nacho Monreal 10m. (with a heavy heart - love this bloke.. but he's on the decline and would still probably command 8 figures after his World Cup call up)
Danny Welbeck 15-20m.(this lad has all the heart in the world but he's not going to cut it at Arsenal and would command a good fee. Very underrated player and would elevate many teams in the top half - worth 20m in my opinion)
David Ospina - 8-10m (good goalkeeper but simply not Arsenal level. Easily a Europa League quality goalkeeper and could add 8-10m to our kitty.)
Aaron Ramsey - 30-40m (not happy about this but he is likely going to want to leave us. Equally adept (or superior) players, such as Kovacic, likely to be available anyway.)
Lucas Perez - 8m (nothing much to be said. Underutilised and never fit in).

Money In: Between £71,000,000 and £88,000,000

Net Spend: Between +£8,000,000 and -£24,000,000

I also feel that this squad would leave us a hell of a lot of options. For instance, I'm a huge fan of Iwobi's potential but none of my proposed starting XIs with this squad would have him start (the same with Maddison, Mavropanos, Chambers etc). I rate Mkhitaryan as our 2nd best player but he doesn't start in any either. Here are some of the sample line ups:

Easier home games

Difficult but winnable home games/away games where we are superior:

Difficult Aways/Underdog Games:

Taking those players and adding to that bench options of Cech, Chambers, Mavro, Mustafi, Koscielny, AMN, Elneny, Wilshere (potentially), Mkhitaryan, Maddison and Iwobi... I think that is a very solid basis for Emery's first season. Ideally, we would add a young (20-22) back up striker but our budget might not stretch. I would also absolutely love it if we signed Goncalo Guedes but, again, our budget probably wouldn't stretch and he may harbour bad blood for Emery loaning him out - even though it was a totally logical decision given the competition in his position at PSG.

 

[Ricardinho]

One we should be looking at?

Any of you feel like this could become a serious link following the news?

 

[Bergkamp1988]

Big question is what do we need, not what do we want?

Needs

Goalkeeper - new number 1
CB - new number 1
RB - second choice
DFM - new number 1
AM / Wing - new strong squad player

Cech or Ospina as number 2, sell other
Mustafi good at centre of back 3 but mot in back 4
Chambers showing huge promise, right so de of back 3
Bellerin great wing back but not in back 4
Montreal better back 4 but Kolasniac better wing back
Need a great defensive midfielder
Ramsey more important than keeping Özil
Mykhrarian will be very important next year
Keep Aubameyang and Lacazette

Leno
Chambers / Mustafi / new Cb
Bellerin / new DM / Kolasniac
Ramsey
Özil / Aubameyang/ mykhrarian

Leno
Bellerin / Mustafi / new CB / Monreal
New DM / Xhaka
Özil / Ramsey / mykhrarian
Aubameyang

Common have a little pride. Playing with 3 CB? We've done this, it's sacrilegious. This is Arsenal ffs.

 

[Bergkamp1988]

Providing that we are, indeed, signing Sokratis and Soyuncu so haven't included them in the 'Ins' section.

In:

Bruno Fernandes - 25m-30m
Mateo Kovacic - 20-25m
James Maddison (provided we can get him relatively cheap) Only sign if equal to or below 15m - HG squad option, high potential ceiling compared to other young English midfielders.. but definitely a risk.
Ousmane Dembele (Loan - optional purchase fee). Free
A GK that isn't ****ing Petr Cech or one of those **** overrated English keepers like Butland. I'll go for Lafont but I've only watched him a handful of times. Does anyone here watch him more regularly? From the times I seen him - he was absolutely bizarre. He seemed to have so much confidence in his shot stopping that it was almost immaterial where he would parry the ball. Never looked controlled but also never looked anything other than extraordinary. A really exciting prospect, admittedly. 20-25m.

Money Spent: Between £80,000,000 and £95,000,000

Out:

Nacho Monreal 10m. (with a heavy heart - love this bloke.. but he's on the decline and would still probably command 8 figures after his World Cup call up)
Danny Welbeck 15-20m.(this lad has all the heart in the world but he's not going to cut it at Arsenal and would command a good fee. Very underrated player and would elevate many teams in the top half - worth 20m in my opinion)
David Ospina - 8-10m (good goalkeeper but simply not Arsenal level. Easily a Europa League quality goalkeeper and could add 8-10m to our kitty.)
Aaron Ramsey - 30-40m (not happy about this but he is likely going to want to leave us. Equally adept (or superior) players, such as Kovacic, likely to be available anyway.)
Lucas Perez - 8m (nothing much to be said. Underutilised and never fit in).

Money In: Between £71,000,000 and £88,000,000

Net Spend: Between +£8,000,000 and -£24,000,000

I also feel that this squad would leave us a hell of a lot of options. For instance, I'm a huge fan of Iwobi's potential but none of my proposed starting XIs with this squad would have him start (the same with Maddison, Mavropanos, Chambers etc). I rate Mkhitaryan as our 2nd best player but he doesn't start in any either. Here are some of the sample line ups:

Easier home games

Difficult but winnable home games/away games where we are superior:

Difficult Aways/Underdog Games:

Taking those players and adding to that bench options of Cech, Chambers, Mavro, Mustafi, Koscielny, AMN, Elneny, Wilshere (potentially), Mkhitaryan, Maddison and Iwobi... I think that is a very solid basis for Emery's first season. Ideally, we would add a young (20-22) back up striker but our budget might not stretch. I would also absolutely love it if we signed Goncalo Guedes but, again, our budget probably wouldn't stretch and he may harbour bad blood for Emery loaning him out - even though it was a totally logical decision given the competition in his position at PSG.

Looks great. But..

I very much doubt Dembele is going anywhere. Even though he has disappointed at Barcelona so far. He has had injuries and is a young player that they might want to give more time to settle in. So.. Probably won't go anywhere. At least not on a loan.

And Xhaka as Defensive Midfielder does not cut it... I'm not sure about Kovacic.
But what I am sure of is that we are lacking a real / pure defensive midfielder.

Coquelin was the closest we've had to a DM in the pas years. Would've liked to keep him. He was the best tackler in the league not so long ago.

Anyway... Dm dm dm dm. And if Jesus Christ is good to us Dembele... Sure.

 

[dashsnow17]

Any of you feel like this could become a serious link following the news?

Hm not sure I want a nipple playing in goal for us. We can do better.

 

[StefanB]

Realistic wishlist:
Goalkeeper: Bernd Leno
Centreback: Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Midfielder: Steven N'Zonzi

Unrealistic wishlist:
Goalkeeper. Jan Oblak
Centreback: Kalidou Koulibaly
Midfielder: Fabinho

 

[asukru]

Realistic wishlist:
Goalkeeper: Bernd Leno
Centreback: Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Midfielder: Steven N'Zonzi

Unrealistic wishlist:
Goalkeeper. Jan Oblak
Centreback: Kalidou Koulibaly
Midfielder: Fabinho

Add Dembele and I would LOVE the unrealistic wishes lol

 

[StefanB]

Add Dembele and I would LOVE the unrealistic wishes lol

Haha. Yeah Ousmane Dembele is another player everyone would love at the club. And of course he's totally unrealistic like the others

 

[Stephen Wright]

IN;
Leno, Draxler, Seri, Sokratis

Leno
Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolasniac
Xhaka, Seri
Draxler, Ramsey, Mykhtarian
Aubameyang

 

[Hinderz]

If the rumours are true that Emery said he wants to build around Ramsey and Aubamayang, and he focuses on discipline and maximum effort, I wonder if Özil will fit.

Out
Özil £30m
Mustafi £15m
Ospina £5m
Campbell £2m
Jenkinson £3m
Perez £3m
Santi (free)
Mertesaker (retired)
Koscielny (crooked)
£58m

In
Evans £3m (2yr deal) - buyout clause
Fabianski £3m - buyout clause
Söyüncü £25m
Martial £40m
Dembele (loan to buy)
Seri £30m
£101m

 

[Toby]

GK:
I'll go with the trend and say Pope. I'm not convinced by Leno, Butland, Pickford. As Bremen fan @NieThePiet has mentioned, Pavlenka will stay in northern Germany. Hradecky, who would've been a great option, went to Leverkusen on a free. Oblak is simply unattainable for Arsenal, just for the sheer price. While many already see him at PSG, I could see him stay at Atletico as well. They're mostly a loyal bunch.
As the new squad number suggests, Cech will be here next season, which wouldn't be too bad if we brought in a young guy like Pope, new GK coaches and Cech being the expierenced no. 2. That means Ospina is out the door, and so is Emi Martinez.

Fullback:
Would save money here, do nothing, and trust Emery to fix them tactically. I'd go for a young guy if the opportunity came along, but like the Leipzig interest in 20-year old Mukiele from Montpellier with a rumoured 16m fee suggests, even that's not feasible anymore. Maybe Sven will pull a rabbit out of his hat.

CB:
This is a hard one. Koscielny is done, and he won't play for a long time. He'll stay but shouldn't be part of any plans. Holding should go out on loan. He's looked promising at the beginning, rather **** recently. But he's still young so there might be hope. Mavropanos has to definitely stay after what he's shown when he played.
That leaves Chambers and Mustafi. Chambers has mostly looked bang average, but with a solid end to the season. Mustafi has shown more in terms of peak performance, but also more in terms of erratic behaviour and mistakes. I feel both have the ability to find consistency and improve under Emery, but I actually don't want to play the waiting game with them anymore, so I'll follow the rumours that Sven wants to replace as many as he can of the backline, and bin both.

As for signings, I'd definitely bring in Evans for the 3m. Experienced, very, very solid CB back who knows the league and can add some needed stability, especially with Koscielny out long term.
As for the second signing, a lot points to Sokratis, who I myself have called a lumberjack, but as far as aggressive ball winning CBs are concerned he's a good choice. Plus: Most of the Dortmund players have looked bad this season.
The third CB signing is a tough one, cause he shouldn't be too expensive and has to be good with the ball along great perception of the game. Can't think of any one right now, even with searching the net. I'll call him X.

CM:
Ramsey, Xhaka, Elneny and Maitland-Niles stay. The Wilshere causa? I'd call it quits, let him go and free up his wages. As replacement, I'd pull Iwobi into CM. As many have remarked, he's looked better when coming from a deeper position.
I'd add Torreira. There's a lot to argue for a big, physically imposing player like N'Zonzi, but as Kanté has shown you can be that even if you're rather small. Going by reports and vids, Torreira is an aggressive, mobile ball winner, with good control and passing. With an apparent release clause around 20 to 25m, he ticks all the boxes.
Btw. Zakaria looks a great player, too and be more of the physical profile.

Attackers:
With Aubameyang, Lacazette and Welbeck the forwards are set. We've got Özil and Mkhitaryan. Even if Auba and Laca will continue to often play together, switching positions drifting in and out, I feel there's the need for a more classic winger who's got pace, dribbling skills and an eye for his teammates. I quite like Zaha, but Palace are already calling 60 or 70m or something. So I'd actually look at guys like Neres, Pavon and Sarr. All talented wingers but not as much in the public eye and in demand as Lemar, Malcom, etc. Forget Dembele, he's staying in Barcelona. A top notch signing would be Sessegnon, but we might be priced out of a race. Martial has been linked to Juventus and Bayern and is probably too expensive, too. Maybe Sven unearthes some gem, who knows.

Out:
Ospina - 5
Martinez - 2
Mustafi - 25
Mertesacker - 0
Chambers - 20
Wilshere - 0
Cazorla - 0
Campbell - 0
Perez - 5
Jenkinson - 2
Holding - Loan
----------------
~ 60m + 50 to 70m rumoured budget= 110 to 130m

In:
Pope - 25?
Sokratis - 20
Evans - 3
CB X - 30 to 35
Torreira/Zakaria - 25
Pavon/Neres/Sarr/X - 30
----------------------------
~ 140m

Squad:

Pope
Cech
3rd GK

Mavropanos
Evans
Sokratis
X

Bellerin
Monreal
Kolasinac

Ramsey
Xhaka
Elneny
Iwobi
Maitland-Niles
Torreira/Zakaria

Özil
Mkhitaryan
Pavon/Neres/Sarr/Sessegnon/X
Nelson

Aubameyang
Lacazette
Welbeck

 

[Gucci Piggy]

If Emery really does want to build a team around Ramsey and Aubameyang then this is the only way I can see it working.

In:
Leno - 25m
Sokratis - 17m
Söyüncü - 25m
N'Zonzi - 25m

Total - 93m

Out:
Ospina - 5m
Mustafi - 15m
Holding - loan
Welbeck - 15m

Total - 35m

Net spend - 58m

4312 with a proper DM, width coming from attacking full backs and the DM dropping into defence to cover them.

Leno
Bellerin Sokratis Söyüncü Kolasinac
N'Zonzi
Xhaka Ramsey
Özil
Lacazette Aubameyang

Bench: Cech, Chambers/Mavropanos, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Wilshere, Mkhitaryan, Perez

GK: Leno / Cech
RB: Bellerin / Maitland-Niles
CB: Sokratis / Chambers
CB: Söyüncü / Mavropanos
LB: Kolasinac / Monreal
DM: N'Zonzi / Maitland-Niles / Elneny
CM: Xhaka / Wilshere
CM: Ramsey / Iwobi
AM: Özil / Mkhitaryan
ST: Lacazette / Perez
ST: Aubameyang / Lacazette

Will cost too much to bring in first team wingers on top of the defensive overall that's needed, so for now go with a formation that fits our current players and maybe sign a prospect for the wing like Pavon to give a different option from the bench (if so I'd loan Iwobi to another Prem team).

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Actually starting to think we won't have many outgoings at all. Maybe Ospina and and a couple of loans such as Holding.

The players we've been linked with are GK/CB/CB/CM. So lets assume that's what it'll be unless someone leaves.

Cech/New keeper

Bellerin
Mustafi/Chambers
Sokratis/Soyuncu
Kolasinac/Monreal

Xhaka/Wilshere/Elneny
Ramsey/New CM

Özil/Iwobi/Welbeck
Mikky/Lucas Perez

Auba/Lacazette

Youngsters - Mavropanos/AMN/Nelson/Nketiah

Room there for a winger signing if Emery wants it, 16 foreign players on the books.

 

[StefanB]

By the way: I'd actually like us to go for Denis Zakaria. Xhaka's teammate in the Swiss national team. He's only 21 years old, but plays with a maturity beyond his years.

He just joined Gladbach last year, but apparantly he's available for the right price.

6'3" with good technique, passing ability and good defensively. Would be a really exciting buy.

 

[NieThePiet]

Please stop with the Zakaria thing, only because he is Xhakas partner in midfield for Swiss.

He was surely okay for Gladbach, but not that good, that he could be an option for Arsenal. We are not a mediocre club.