Leverkusen offering a 4 year deal. Had a great year but fine with it, let’s get younger and more athletic in midfield
On one hand, he was really good this year, provides senior leadership, and would have been a great depth option with more high level matches next year. on the other hand, having an 8 that can turn >
€15m seems decent enough based on his age, buying league, etc. Hope we don’t miss him too much in the locker room
he fell off a cliff around the time saliba got hurt can’t remember if he was starting to look shaky before that, very possible he was, but saliba not playing definitely exasperated it imo definitely agree on moving on from him, if possible, this summer
Yeah independent of his extracurricular activities, Partey has now demonstrated long stretches where he's hurt or bad. Could be bad because he is hurt now, but that doesnt change the fact that's been gone for large portions of the season. Also I will not believe Xhaka is gone until I see it. I like the idea of 15 but going to venture to say we get no where near that. It would probably be better to keep him as cover and let him go for free.
Xhaka wanted a longer contract and probably saw the writing on the wall as far as game time was concerned - it must mean that we're fairly confident on landing Rice.
His contract had an option, good through 2025... no real rush to unload him, as there isn't a ton of sell on value that will be lost by waiting. Think this is an example of us doing right by the player & allowing him to leave
Hopefully with the understanding that it’s not going to be for two nickels. I know he’s not a world beater but fuck taking 7 mil or some degrading number from a farmer league squad.
Absolutely. Sounds like his wife's from that area and that may be a big reason why he wants to move to Leverkusen. The fee's rumored to be 15m, while not a huge amount, is OK for a 31 year old with 1 year on contract, who's had highs and lows at the club.
I like how the season hasn’t even ended yet and we’re trying to sort out replacing 2/3s of our starting midfield, and add depth at RB, CB, CM, Winger, and possibly CF
Jorginho is a fine player to keep another year Also of the belief the Brighton performance looked so disastrous because of Arteta’s subs. Not to mention we literally gave up subbing ESR for Odegaard but that won’t stop the simple fucks like Neville who talks loud and thinks he’s always right
Next season should be telling for Arteta. He's had the built-in excuse of lack of depth, for limited squad rotation & that should be rectified this summer.
Think Gunners has the summer signing distribution right... This would be my dream + 1-2 other depending on outgoings Forward: Nico Williams MF: Rice RCB: Fresneda
Totally get wanting him but has there been talk of Nico leaving? Feels like Bilbao keeps guys longer than you’d expect and his brother never left
I think he has a very approachable release clause, which makes it possible… I don’t think he’ll end up coming to us, but a guy can dream
his challenge on Mitoma was bad and he really paid for it. it was pretty clear what Caicedo was doing.
The only part that is the slightest bit disappointing is that these mfers are a fucking juggernaut and it’s just not going to be every year for us where we’ll be up 5 with 8 to play or whatever it was. Can’t blame them for not having enough in the tank to get over the finish line but fuck if it isn’t annoying that some goddamn Europa game did us in.
you look at a guy like Silva going off and the fact that he gets to start about 2 of every 3 matches because there are also guys like Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden in their squad, and it's no wonder they're so good at closing out seasons.
I have no idea I just know he's super ambitious. don't even want to think about it being a possibility right now.
Saw that Saka is gonna be on 290k/week, good for him. Guessing that's around what Jesus is on and our top 2 earners. Ramsdale going from 60 to 120
Seems to be some smoke regarding Xavi Simons from PSV... would make a great 2nd MF to pair with Rice/Caicedo. Just changed from Raiola to Darren Dein as agent too Edit: Appears he's more of a AMF or winger,