Morning all.
Sections of the Arsenal fan base are giddy with excitement at the prospect of Arsenal breaking the world transfer record to sign Monaco wunderkind Kylian Mbappe. The club had an initial bid of £87 million rejected by the French champions, but the rumour mill went into overdrive this week when Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis were pictured in Nice.
The more cynical Arsenal fans pointed out they were probably trying to sign an unknown 12-year-old rather than the hottest property in world football. After all, it was not long ago that they spent all summer awaiting the arrival of Gonzalo Higuain and were eventually presented with Yaya Sanogo instead. But there appears to be a genuine ambition from the club to sign him, and they are reportedly willing to go up to £122 million to secure his signature. That would be a phenomenal amount of money, shattering the world record, but in a market where Kyle Walker is apparently worth £40 million it actually looks a good investment.
Mbappe is only 18 and already a title winner, and he absolutely lit up the Champions League this season. He is full of potential and looks like the heir apparent to Thierry Henry. But breaking the world transfer record, or even getting close to it, just seems like something Arsenal would never do. Fans are used to their club being priced out of all its top targets and settling for second best, so they may be forgiven for thinking they have slipped into a parallel world.
Lest they grow too woozy with euphoria, Wenger delivered a sobering assessment of the Gunners’ chances in the summer transfer window.
“We will sign between a maximum of two and three players,” he said. “We cannot spend as much as many other clubs because some clubs have external resources that allow them to be basically unlimited.”
Those clubs being the likes of PSG, Chelsea and Man City, who could blow Arsenal out of the water. Or Real Madrid, who are intent on rivalling Arsenal for Mbappe. Wenger then pointed to the £2 million signing of Rob Holding as evidence that you do not need to spend big to recruit quality players. The jury is still very much out on Holding, and that is not exactly the sort of ambitious declaration that will convince Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to sign new contracts.
Arsenal may have won the FA Cup, but that just papers over cracks that are apparent to all: the Gunners finished fifth, 18 points behind Chelsea, and were humiliated by Bayern Munich in the Champions League, so the squad is in need of a serious overhaul. Their Premiership rivals will improve in the summer, and Arsenal are not given much of a chance next season.
One has already joined the revolution as Sead Kolasinac signed on a free transfer from Schalke. Arsenal have a real need for a left wing-back if they continue to play three at the back, so it is a shrewd signing. They are also trying to sign Belgian youngster Henry Onkekuru for £6.8 million.
Wenger apparently has a £150 million budget, he says he wants to sign no more than three players, and if those two only account for less than £7 million, he could conceivably blow the rest on Mbappe. Tears of joy would stream down the faces of many fans, delighted at the prospect of marrying Mbappe’s pace with Ozil’s supreme eye for a through ball. But it would be neglecting a serious need for further bolstering of Arsenal’s squad.
They need a backup goalkeeper, a holding midfielder and a centre back, and a winger if Sanchez leaves. It could be more prudent to divide the £150 million more evenly: they could sign, for example, Riyad Mahrez, Alexandre Lacazette, Virgil van Dijk and Jean Seri for around £150 million. If their clubs play hardball, Arsenal could raise money through the sale of squad players like David Ospina and Kieran Gibbs.
Mbappe would also be under huge pressure to perform after such a price tag and that could backfire, which may be too big a risk for Wenger at such a critical time in his reign. Granted, Mbappe will go for a high fee wherever he ends up and will have to deal with the weight of expectation, but that could be someone else’s risk. Wenger could instead buy a few top players in their prime that are happy to play for one another in a harmonious dressing room.
Yet Wenger has unflinching faith in his current players. He says he will only supplement the squad with a few players of extreme quality, and by now fans are used to his stubbornness on such matters. He has apparently promised Gazidis and Stan Kroenke he will walk next summer if he fails to deliver a real genuine title challenge this season, so it seems a switch could well have flipped in Wenger and he is ready to finally spend big on a player that could win the team points single-handedly.
Mbappe could be tempted as he would be the main man at Arsenal, but in Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow at Real Madrid. At odds of 14/1 it might actually be worth backing Arsenal to win the league. Go each-way and you are covered for them finishing in the top three. They will not be distracted by Champions League football and could have Mbappe firing them to glory.
Author bio:
Martin Green, who is an experienced sports writer and has covered the Premiership for many years. He is a lifelong Arsenal fan and would be amazed if they managed to sign Mbappe.
I’ve already got the Mbappé song for the terraces, Salt & Pepper’s Push it
Mbappé, bappé, bappé, Mbappé, bappé
Ok,I’m probably showing my age there. I’m off down to the ‘man cave’ 🙂
Oh, gr8 post btw 🙂
Morning Rico and all. The transfer windows have been something of a disappointment for a while now.
Morning gg, Adam, all.
Perhaps this one will be good, however….
I’m looking forward to seeing our new signing up front 🙂
Morning all and thanks Martin………………………………………..am I the only one who thinks Mbappe is the oldest looking 18 year old in football ?……………….is he related to Kanu, who was the oldest looking 23 year old when he joined Arsenal !. hahaha
GG9…………..dont start singing your Mbappe song with any of us HHers around otherwise you`ll be on your own !………………….could be a stadium emptier ! hahaha
More chance of me playing for Arsenal than mbappe.seriously?the ditherer will dither & the cheapskate 2nd/3rd rate players are on there way.he won’t change.beleve you me.out of the so called £150 million budget,he’ll have £145,000,000 left by end of window.2 Bob players signed & Sanchez,bellerin given away to our rivals for peanuts..
Costa not wanted at Chavs !……………………………….Costa anyone ?………………..milk ?………one or two lumps ?
I’m being picky, but the “jury is very much out on Holding” stopped me dead in my tracks lol
I’d say he’s proven his ability-longevity is all he has to prove now but again, that’s being picky.
All in all, a great post and I don’t know what to think on Mbappe.
Having seen bugger all of him, all I can go on is the hype but so many of our apparent transfer targets either haven’t eventuated, or weren’t actually targets to begin with, I’m gun shy now lol
Morning all.
Have you good tekkers Uwot?……………..obviously you are better than Sanogo, but are you any good ?
As much as I pray ( and that`s not a lot as an athiest ) you are wrong, it wouldn`t surprise me if you are spot on !………………although, Wenger said he is working 24 hours secretly ……..in the dark as well !………….hope he has a braille keyboard !.
LC, fekking never!
Costa-brilliant player, but I just couldn’t handle
him at the club lol
I`d have him, Scott, as they`re looking for an assistant to work in the Kebab shop in Launceston !
Quite on here as most are at the polling booths to vote for a new Government………………I haven`t bothered as they are all lying bastards !……..the only time I ever voted was to leave Europe and it worked as we`re not in the Champions League !
Classic, LC hahahaha
England U20`s playing in the U20 World Cup Semi-Final against Italy on Eurosport 2 @12:00…………………………..Maitland-Niles in the team !
England one down after two minutes. Maitland-Niles doing his best Alex Song impression so far!
3-1 to Engerland !………………in a WC Final ! 🙂
Venezuela in the final !………………didn`t know they had a football team !……………thought they only had fit looking beach babe Miss World types ! 🙂
Great result for England under 20’s…
Hahaha………….the last line cracked me up !……………this is what happens when you join northern bastard teams !……………..the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence and the sun is a lot less yellowier up north !
Nolito, 30, has made just nine Premier League starts since joining City for £13.8m from Celta Vigo last July.
He has struggled to adapt to life in England and said he wanted to leave.
“I’ve learnt little English. It’s hard. Just ‘tomorrow’, ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ and a little more,” Nolito told radio station Onda Cero.
He added: “My daughter’s face has changed colour – it looks like she’s been living in a cave.”
England-Venezuela at the final U-20? One of he best teams was drop last sunday in penalties
Wha’s the situation of Gnaby?
OK………….lets not listen to any more Bellrin rumours !………………………apart from one`s about any new hair styles !.
https://twitter.com/HectorBellerin/status/872844575194435584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.express.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2F814731%2FArsenal-Transfer-News-Hector-Bellerin-Barcelona-gossip-rumours
If we sell Hector, they’ll be a lot of very unhappy fans, same with Alexis, especially after Wenger said he won’t be sold…
If it`s not right to put up link please remove, Rico, but I and can imagine our Aussie brothers on here find it disgusting !
Glad you won 3-2 Australia .
http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/08/saudi-arabia-national-team-fails-to-honour-minutes-silence-for-london-terror-victims-6694996/?ito=facebook
Don’t diss Venezuela, if they got to the final they must have a good team Cocker…
Our one-day team is doing really well in the ICC trophy.
Apparently Venezuela focus on youth big time so they will probably be a tough opponent…
No problem Lc
Gnabry is a free agent…
Sorry if that’s been posted already…
Re Gnabry: AW got that right. I guess he and his father weren’t kidding when they said they were joining Bayern and they will not sign.
New post up.