So PSG are apparently going to offer us 80 million for Saliba

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Originally Posted by PSRB

Quite, superb partnership, vital goals, seems a great personality and has really grown. Probably more settled in the UK as well.

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Is a huge, huge piss taker of opponents and alongside Ben White one of our most irritating players. Too important to lose :-)

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Originally Posted by Peter

and I would think he is one of the most important players, alongside Saliba, Odegaard and Saka.

Longer term, Arteta may want to upgrade but I would think he has many, many priorities that need fixing before this.

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I'll give you that. Would be nice to see some investments made in some of the attacking areas of the pitch. I think that Mikel quite rightly wanted to make us tough to score against first (hence hefty investments in a goalkeeper, several defenders, Rice, Merino etc). Now those foundations seem sturdy and settled; time to complete the project.

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Originally Posted by PSRB

A highly talented and young one. Look at the issues we've had getting a pair of decent CB's. Must have spent well over £150m sorting that position out.

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Yup. It's like when ManU bought Rio for 30mil. Arsène said it was a good signing but 10m too much.

But we then spent 30m on Vermaelen, Kos and Per. Don't get me wrong, the latter two were great players for us. But when you look how much we spent on CHs, Ferdinand for 30m looks a bargain.

We spent 55m on Big Willy and Big Gabby. The best CH pairing since TA6's days.

If we sold Willy, we could end up spending 50m on a replacement who isn't good enough and ends up getting loaned out and sold cheap as we buy a 2nd 50m CH and repeat ad infinitum.

Fergie always said the one player he wished he could have signed was Big Tone.

We have to keep Willy and Gabby. The Ødin injury has really ****ed us. Just have to hope we can stay in the CL until we have everyone fit, the Dec-MnM-Ødin MF works and MnM and Cala learn to work triangles with Gabby M and we start to get on a roll that gives us belief as it did post Dubai at the start of the year.

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Originally Posted by Peter

I don't think it was about replacing Zinchenko. I think it was more about Arteta not really trusting Kiwior who was our only cover for Gabriel. Arteta probably wants to get where City are- having the ability to change the back four regularly for different types of games, by shuffling players who can play in multiple positions. So far that hasn't really been possible as we have had 3 or 4 defenders unavailable each game so we have had to pick from what is available.

I also think this summer was the first time the financial situation has really hampered our recruitment. I have no doubt whatsoever that we wanted to strengthen the forward and creative parts of the squad but we simply couldn't afford to. Calafiori and Merino represented affordable solutions to the areas we could actually fix. Sterling was the affordable solution in the wide areas but is clearly not setting the world alight in training so far :-( I suspect we would have been better off keeping Reiss Nelson but Arteta doesnt trust him....

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If you remember, Zinny was MA's second choice. He initially wanted Martinez who was a LCH/LB.

I think he wants FBs who are ball playing CHs who can play as FB or DMs {so can invert.}

So when won FB is attacking, if we get hit with a counter, we have a back 3 who are all pwoppa CHs.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

That was last season for two games - he's played pretty much every game since and been given a leadership role.

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Yup. MA thought he could try TP5 at RB - so he could invert into MF {he plays as one part of the box MF with a DM and inverted FB, and he'd played RB in Spain so must be could enough 1v1.} This allowed him to play BW at CH so we'd have 2 ball playing CHs. {Look at the ball for Saka vs Scousers.}

But he realised BW is a better FB, a better back 3 defender when the LB is inverting and that Gabby and Saliba compliment each other so well, the fact that he's not as good a passer as BW is irrelevant. Add in all the goals he scores and it took MA two games to realise the error of his ways and Gabby's first name on the team sheet level.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

Yup. It's like when ManU bought Rio for 30mil. Arsène said it was a good signing but 10m too much.

But we then spent 30m on Vermaelen, Kos and Per. Don't get me wrong, the latter two were great players for us. But when you look how much we spent on CHs, Ferdinand for 30m looks a bargain.

We spent 55m on Big Willy and Big Gabby. The best CH pairing since TA6's days.

If we sold Willy, we could end up spending 50m on a replacement who isn't good enough and ends up getting loaned out and sold cheap as we buy a 2nd 50m CH and repeat ad infinitum.

Fergie always said the one player he wished he could have signed was Big Tone.

We have to keep Willy and Gabby. The Ødin injury has really ****ed us. Just have to hope we can stay in the CL until we have everyone fit, the Dec-MnM-Ødin MF works and MnM and Cala learn to work triangles with Gabby M and we start to get on a roll that gives us belief as it did post Dubai at the start of the year.

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The same Summer they signed Ferdinand, we signed Pascal Cygan :-\

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

Yup. It's like when ManU bought Rio for 30mil. Arsène said it was a good signing but 10m too much.

But we then spent 30m on Vermaelen, Kos and Per. Don't get me wrong, the latter two were great players for us. But when you look how much we spent on CHs, Ferdinand for 30m looks a bargain.

We spent 55m on Big Willy and Big Gabby. The best CH pairing since TA6's days.

If we sold Willy, we could end up spending 50m on a replacement who isn't good enough and ends up getting loaned out and sold cheap as we buy a 2nd 50m CH and repeat ad infinitum.

Fergie always said the one player he wished he could have signed was Big Tone.

We have to keep Willy and Gabby. The Ødin injury has really ****ed us. Just have to hope we can stay in the CL until we have everyone fit, the Dec-MnM-Ødin MF works and MnM and Cala learn to work triangles with Gabby M and we start to get on a roll that gives us belief as it did post Dubai at the start of the year.

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Rio is a great example. He was both hugely overpriced and one of the bargains of the century :-)

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

If you remember, Zinny was MA's second choice. He initially wanted Martinez who was a LCH/LB.

I think he wants FBs who are ball playing CHs who can play as FB or DMs {so can invert.}

So when won FB is attacking, if we get hit with a counter, we have a back 3 who are all pwoppa CHs.

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Yes, that is exactly it.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

The same Summer they signed Ferdinand, we signed Pascal Cygan :-\

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And only one of those two players played in a team that went a whole season unbeaten in the league

And played in a side that beat Inter 5-1 in the San Siro

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

And only one of those two players played in a team that went a whole season unbeaten in the league

And played in a side that beat Inter 5-1 in the San Siro

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Good points.