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You get one do-over

Which one would you take back?


  • Total voters
    74

Ash10

Chairman of the Bum Brigade
Well yeah it’s obviously Pepe. Özil's contract didn’t seem that silly back then as he still had something left in his tank. Willian is a free transfer which kind of resulted because of Pepe being a complete bust. It's not even about signing Pepe, we should've made signing a top midfielder that window's priority alongside a relatively cheap winger with potential. That lack of midfield signing forced us to persist with bum like Xhaka & playing a loanee like Ceballos that we still haven’t recovered from.

Zaha would've been better than Pepe but might not have made that much of a difference with the joke midfield that we put out all throughout last/this season
 

Moah

Well-Known Member
Definitely Willian.

He we signed a Chelsea reject knowing full well what was coming. We were told he was here to replace Özil but ended up ruining our record signing.
 

Bloodbather

Established Member

Country: Turkey
Or Aouar and Partey for possibly similar price?

Aouar + Partey would probably be around 85 million, so it'd exceed the Pépé budget. Not sure if Atléti were willing to sell at that point, also. It'd still be a reasonable attempt, though, not undoable.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
I think it's arguably Pepe. Pepe pre-dates Willian and had we not signed Pepe with no idea how to actually utilise him, we arguably would never have had Willian on the radar - considering he's been Pepe's main competition. I don't think Zaha was as realistic an option considering how much money he would have cost but I think he would have been marginally more effective than Pepe in terms of general play.

That's not to say I think Pepe is crap, but he's a bad fit in our broken system.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Well I’m a bit surprised the forum has essentially voted Pepe. I think he’s young enough to move on and can’t see him staying beyond this summer at all.

Özil, the salary and loyalty bonuses will undoubtedly be more than the loss we will eventually make on Pepe.

Willian there was little excuse for, it was obvious he was not going to work and there’s no way out with him. 3 years of pain.

If Pepe did what he was supposed to though, Unai keeps his job and there’s no Arteta so - yeah probably the worst thing to happen to the club for sure.
 

Jae

Well-Known Member
Well I’m a bit surprised the forum has essentially voted Pepe. I think he’s young enough to move on and can’t see him staying beyond this summer at all.

Özil, the salary and loyalty bonuses will undoubtedly be more than the loss we will eventually make on Pepe.

Willian there was little excuse for, it was obvious he was not going to work and there’s no way out with him. 3 years of pain.

If Pepe did what he was supposed to though, Unai keeps his job and there’s no Arteta so - yeah probably the worst thing to happen to the club for sure.

I'd argue that both the wages we're paying Özil and the general negativity and controversy that has surrounded him for the last 3 years has been far more damaging to the club than the 72m we dropped on Pepe.
 

Jack_the_boy

Definitely Not Manberg
Lessons are learned from mistakes. The mistake made with Özil has surely taught those at the club not to give out such huge lucrative contracts to players where it makes them too comfortable.
 

Mitch

Blonde Brigade Grand Wizard
Serve lack of Bellerin and Diaby names.

Out of the list I would say Willian. Great debut, piss poor ever since.
 

lomekian

Essays are my thing
For me its Özil, but purely with hindsight.

Knacked his back about a fortnight after the new contract and went from being elite level number 10 to just above average almost overnight. Then the whole world cup Germany thing seemed to break his spirit a bit.

The contract will exceed whatever is spent on Willian / The eventual loss on Pepe.

More importantly, it was a move that screwed our wage structure and led to Ramsey's wage demands that priced him out and all the faat contracts we have seen since. Also, it became a problem we couldn't shift. 90% of players would rather leave than not play for a year, even if that results in a payoff below their contract value.

Also, despite a lack of positive signs at the moment, we don't know how the Willian and Pepe situations will play out. Maybe Willian will improve or bugger off to Spain. Maybe Pepe will find enough form for us to get a decent chunk of his value back?

Lastly, the Özil signing was ultimately a commitment to the delusion that we didn't need a rebuild, and facilitated all the rubbish transfer business we've done since.
 

Sanchez11

Nobody Is Coming!

Country: England
Signing Willian will cost us more in long run, shocking tbh. Pepe has been used wrong, the guy should be made focal point of the team. As fkr Özil we should kept Sanchez over him simple as.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
Trusted ⭐

Country: Wales
For me its Özil, but purely with hindsight.

Knacked his back about a fortnight after the new contract and went from being elite level number 10 to just above average almost overnight. Then the whole world cup Germany thing seemed to break his spirit a bit.

The contract will exceed whatever is spent on Willian / The eventual loss on Pepe.

More importantly, it was a move that screwed our wage structure and led to Ramsey's wage demands that priced him out and all the faat contracts we have seen since. Also, it became a problem we couldn't shift. 90% of players would rather leave than not play for a year, even if that results in a payoff below their contract value.

Also, despite a lack of positive signs at the moment, we don't know how the Willian and Pepe situations will play out. Maybe Willian will improve or bugger off to Spain. Maybe Pepe will find enough form for us to get a decent chunk of his value back?

Lastly, the Özil signing was ultimately a commitment to the delusion that we didn't need a rebuild, and facilitated all the rubbish transfer business we've done since.

Is that true about his back? Never knew he’d done it in.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
More importantly, it was a move that screwed our wage structure and led to Ramsey's wage demands that priced him out and all the faat contracts we have seen since. Also, it became a problem we couldn't shift. 90% of players would rather leave than not play for a year, even if that results in a payoff below their contract value.
Kinda f*cked us with Auba renegotiations as well to be honest.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
I think paying 72M for a player with no intention of replicating the conditions that resulted in his 72M season might be one of the dumbest things we’ve ever done.

It’s like seeing a race car on track, buying it, then expecting it to be just as fast off-road. :facepalm:

Özil made sense at the time and Arteta has broken Willian. Neither move was excellent business but they weren’t bad business either.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Funny thing about Pepe is. I don’t think it’s crippled us at all. We’ve learnt that wages are the real issue and he’s only on 100k. The 72M is in manageable installments and we see mid table premier league teams spend 100M like it’s nothing. Let’s not forget we spent 50M in straight cash on Partey the summer after signing Pepe. Willian’s rumoured 220kpw is a lot more crippling.

Besides If we get a manager who cares to utilise Pepe’s strengths we could probably offload him quite easily. 100kpw is doable for European clubs.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Long story short none of those decisions have been that bad. Every top side has at least one bad decision in the squad at any given moment.

The real issue is 3.5 years (and counting) of sub-par management.
 

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
Long story short none of those decisions have been that bad. Every top side has at least one bad decision in the squad at any given moment.

The real issue is 3.5 years (and counting) of sub-par management.

The 2016 window was 4.5 years ago tbf, you could argue even longer 2015 window we didn't sign the players needed, back in 2013 we only signed Özil when our pressing needs was a striker, at least an alternative to Giroud if not someone to displace him completely. But where we are now is a culmination of years of poor management and poor decision making at several levels.
 

REWB

Well-Known Member
Why are people mentioning Willian???? :lol: Whats his overall package cost over 3 years like 10 million? its peanuts ffs, whether he fails or not its doesnt affect the club finacially at all. Stop mentioning him ffs :lol: it was a small risk, we took a chance it failed whatever move on.

Pepe is going to cost us like 100million! overall. BIG difference.
 

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