This must be G14's worst nightmare.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

'Finished well last year' is perhaps an over-statement. I think what you mean is 'looked less bad then he did in the first half of the season'.

That progress has regressed. It's clear that Arteta sees it as I do and tried to get rid of him in the summer - he seems very downbeat.

Not his fault, of course. But the manager and players clearly don't trust him one iota. Sad to see and I imagine he's sold in Jan.

That will mean that both Gabi and Gyokores have gone as per my pleas last season. At least someone is listening!

Irrespective of what we think of Vik, we never seem to sell players that teams know we want to get rid of. They get loaned with an option to buy that the isn't taken up. And they'll try to negotiate a lower fee. Or then get loaned to another club. We end up getting nothing for £40m+ players.

[7sisters]

Merino or Gyokeres ? It’s not even close. In defence of Gyokeres, I’m fairly sure he’d be prolific for a more direct outfit in a league that provides space and time on the ball.
Those penalty area exchanges between White, Havertz and Sako are a million miles away from Gyok’s game.
Even in a game like last nights that should provide him with a confidence boost and a hatful of goals turned him into a spectator at times.
To make comparisons with the laboured starts from Henry & Pires is absurd btw.

[John Bunnell]

He's had long enough, 7s? I'm open to a discussion on his role and ability but he's had one season which is hardly enough.

Bobby Pires and Thierry Henry are two names that come to mind. Mikael Arteta too, just ask Bunnell.

lol I think it's safe to say that Gyok isn't anywhere near to them two. Bobby & Titi are in a completely different stratosphere of quality. That was evident even when they were off form.

[Peter]

Merino or Gyokeres ? It’s not even close. In defence of Gyokeres, I’m fairly sure he’d be prolific for a more direct outfit in a league that provides space and time on the ball.
Those penalty area exchanges between White, Havertz and Sako are a million miles away from Gyok’s game.
Even in a game like last nights that should provide him with a confidence boost and a hatful of goals turned him into a spectator at times.
To make comparisons with the laboured starts from Henry & Pires is absurd btw.

Pretty sad state of affairs if we are back to using Merino up front after spending a ****ing fortune on our forward line.

I like Merino.

[WES]

The guy is basically about goals. In the second half of the season he scored consistently. I assume Wes was referring to that.

I dont see any reason to suspect a lack of trust. And lets be honest, it is only a matter of time before Havertz gets injured.

Love him or hate him, we need him. Selling him in January would be madness given our lack of alternatives.

His overall play, especially his hold up play, improved in the second half, his hold up play especially. It was crucial to the semi-final CL win over Atletico Madrid.

And he led the team in goals scored, which Rich likes to forget because it sort of blatantly contradicts his theory that Gyok is the worst Arsenal player he has ever seen.

Anyway, let Rich embarass himself, who am I to stop him?

[WES]

Merino or Gyokeres ? It’s not even close. In defence of Gyokeres, I’m fairly sure he’d be prolific for a more direct outfit in a league that provides space and time on the ball.
Those penalty area exchanges between White, Havertz and Sako are a million miles away from Gyok’s game.
Even in a game like last nights that should provide him with a confidence boost and a hatful of goals turned him into a spectator at times.
To make comparisons with the laboured starts from Henry & Pires is absurd btw.

It's not in the slightest absurd to compare to Henry and Pires. Both of those players struggled at the start, Henry was even being criticised 2-3 years in i.e. he'll never be the finisher, the fox in the box, that we need.

You said he's had enough time, 7s. No he hasn't, not even close. If players as talented as Pires and Henry needed more than a year, how can someone less talented like Gyok not need at least a year or more?

Gyok needs minutes, and an understanding from Arteta about how to get the best out of him. I'd be surprised if both don't happen this year.

[Rich]

Pretty sad state of affairs if we are back to using Merino up front after spending a ****ing fortune on our forward line.

I like Merino.

He's a more than acceptable finisher and can also play with his back to goal, win headers and link the attack nicely. None of which Gyokores can do (either this season or last).

[WES]

lol I think it's safe to say that Gyok isn't anywhere near to them two. Bobby & Titi are in a completely different stratosphere of quality. That was evident even when they were off form.

You're struggling with reading and logic again, John. No one said that Gyok was anywhere hear Bobby and Henry in quality.

The point was that if those two players needed time, someone less talented than them, like Gyok, will clearly need more time to be judged. One year is not enough.

[Rich]

You're struggling with reading and logic again, John. No one said that Gyok was anywhere hear Bobby and Henry in quality.

The point was that if those two players needed time, someone less talented than them, like Gyok, will clearly need more time to be judged. One year is not enough.

Both of them had the raw ingredients to succeed, though. A lovely touch, fantastic athleticism and balance. Gyokores lacks any of the natural ingredients to be a success (apart from maybe ball striking) - that has been clear since before he joined The Arsenal and certainly throughout last season.

He will do well when he can run into acres of space in team that plays on the counter and directly. I have been saying this since last summer when we signed him - it seems the penny is finally dropping with others now.

[7sisters]

I, like most, would be hugely surprised if Gyok gets the opportunity to turn it around. Arteta must have come away from last nights game watching a 16 year old kid make the game look easy, while wondering if fortune would ever smile on our luckless Swede.
There’s industry and talent but not at this level. He may have scored 14 last year but 3 were pens and most came against lower league opposition like Leeds and Spurs; none against the big clubs.
Looks like he was signed by Berta, announcing his arrival with a splash. Did Arteta actually want him ? We’ll never know but I’m fairly sure Arteta doesn’t see the potential judging by the way he’s been frozen out in the first few games. Havertz isn’t known for being a 90 minute player but the fact Gyok’s not been thrown on for the last 20 minutes doesn’t augur well for him.

[Rich]

I, like most, would be hugely surprised if Gyok gets the opportunity to turn it around. Arteta must have come away from last nights game watching a 16 year old kid make the game look easy, while wondering if fortune would ever smile on our luckless Swede.
There’s industry and talent but not at this level. He may have scored 14 last year but 3 were pens and most came against lower league opposition like Leeds and Spurs; none against the big clubs.
Looks like he was signed by Berta, announcing his arrival with a splash. Did Arteta actually want him ? We’ll never know but I’m fairly sure Arteta doesn’t see the potential judging by the way he’s been frozen out in the first few games. Havertz isn’t known for being a 90 minute player but the fact Gyok’s not been thrown on for the last 20 minutes doesn’t augur well for him.

I strongly suspect that the reports that came out at the time Re: Arteta wanting Sesko were accurate. He'd be a much better fit and is clearly going to be a success long term when you consider his skills and age profile. Problem is that the package to sign him was just beyond what we deemed him worth at the time. So we missed out and got Gyokores as the backup option.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Well we'd only sell him if we could get a replacement (Kroupi / Alvarez). If Havertz gets injured today it will be Merino up top against Brighton - I'm pretty certain of that.

He wants to play for Barca cos sadly, so many Latin Americans want to play for them or Real. And apparently he didn't like the visa rules when he was at City. He wants to bring all his family and entourage with him. {I dunno why that's problem if he main man is earning hundreds of grand a week - money spent in the British economy as opposed to elsewhere.}

But he doesn't want to come and that's that.

You would have thought that we were a relatively easy sell. Great, long-serving manager with the full support of the board so you don't have to worry about a new man with a new system coming in. Champions and lost the CL final on pens. If you believe yourself to be a substantial upgrade on the player Arsenal have in your position, you can go there and make yourself an all-time hero by winning us the Big Ears for the first time.

It's London and we'd only be showing an interest if we could meet your wage demands.

So if you don't want to come, you don't want to come. Vini wanted to stay at RM, he just wanted similar wages to Mbappé. But if he didn't get it, it seems he would have come to us. His team thanked us for helping force RM's hand.

The thing is, when you look at our squad atm, there are tiny number of players who are both able to seriously upgrade what we have and are available.

It's not like we have the squad space now that we could gamble £30-40m on a player like Quantum to see if they come good, like we did with Fabio a few years ago. We've got 8 world-class defenders with the leaping Marli knocking on the door. Our MF has Dec, MLS, Ødin plus 2 WC winners, Bruno, Easy and the Doctor. At RW, he's the 3rd option behind B and Noni {who was great last night, btw.}

So there's only LW and 9. We can't gamble hoping for another Quantum, there's not really the room because if it doesn't work out, that's another squad place and wodge of wages.

So, as with Vini and Alvarez, it's looking for a genuinely elite level player for those two positions. How many are there that clubs would sell? I wonder why we weren't interested in Barcola? Guess MA thought he wasn't good enough to justify that price a bit like Rogers.

One thing to note is that Leo was always able to do a job as a false 9. I wonder is Easy could?