And who is that player and what would he cost? I agree that Delap would be underwhelming.
The league is there for the taking for Arsenal next season. Liverpool and City both have aging teams, and Liverpool in particular could be losing some extremely influential players.
It’s easy to see the rationale. For Arsenal it’s the final piece of the jigsaw. For us, he likely wouldn’t make us contenders, and by the time we are, then he’s 30 and it’s cost us a huge amount of money, and needs to be replaced.
Given our financial situation absolutely. We can't afford a player that will demand that kind of fee, wages and has limited sell-on if it doesn't work out.
Since when did prolific strikers became that cheap without a release clause, especially in this era when they are a rarity? He's more likely to cost 3 figures than not. The price you mentioned is what we paid for Hojlund and I'm pretty sure Gyokeres is more highly rated than when we acquired the former.
Gyökeres might cost more and Arsenal are also interested. Osimhen has quite high salary demands. Both players will have limited sell on value. So I would be surprised if we were to sign any of them.
I would take that, let's see what Arsenal are up to and if Jim thinks Gyökeres is too old.
They are both 26 plenty sell on.
I mean you'll certainly sign someone but I wouldn't get my hopes up too much. Arteta also said you'll sign a striker in January. In the end it's others who decide how much money is spent. I have my doubts you'll sign four players before any outgoings, especially as good performances over the past few years will have to be rewarded with rising salaries.
Arsenal are so far ahead of us right now it will take us years to get close to them, even if we get everything right in the next few years, so it's absolutely absurd to say we're a much better prospect at a current stage. They've got a young team that is on course to finish 2nd again while clearly missing an elite striker (I'm sure they will strengthen elsewhere too), that's a really attractive option for a 26 year old who will want to be competing at the top for the next few years. We've basically performed like the 15th best team in the league for 2 years now, our priority should be about building a team through coaching and recruitment that can have us actually play good football and show any ability to dominate games before worrying about spending a fortune on a striker.
6 or 7 windows is an age for a player who is in his prime now and there's very little evidence that we will get things right. You're not wrong in theory though, I just objected to the delusion that we're a "much better prospect" right now. Plus I'm not at all convinced if we can realistically spend the amounts of money involved on one player when we likely won't have the revenue from being in Europe and have so many areas that need to be fixed before worrying about going all in on a number 9.
It will take longer if we keep buying budget children players and hoping and waiting for them to kick into top form. If we were a serious club and somehow manage to buy right then you can easily go from sht to really good in a short space of time. Gykores 65 mill, Frimpong 35mill, Ederson 55 mill. Cherki 25 mill - 180 should get us top 4. Add a keeper and CB the following season and we should be competing. Most on here would say Im aiming too high or its unrealistic but I still remember who we are - Man Utd and yes we should be aiming that high. If we fall short we fall short but at least aim for the top instead of just giving up and accepting sht hoping that in x years our team of kids become world class. Its a ridiculous strategy and already proven to be dogshit - see the Hojlund, Zirkzee experiment.
That’s just circlejerk stuff that fans use to try to one up each other. Arsenal are more likely to spend 80m than we are. Can't see him joining. It will be another 45m striker.
There are a lot of rational, considered fans around.
I very much doubt we do all 3. Zubimendi and Gyokeres are the more likely but Williams sounds more like Arteta's dream than reality. Those 2 are 130M and we'll have to sign the annual GK, CB and LB once we move on from Neto, Kiwior and Zinchenko. Martinelli/Trossard for another season would not shock me.
