Chewie

Good for next season if Mo ends frustrated in this season

Ah.. Alan Green and Mike Ingham. What a duo. I've the complete 5live audio of their commentary in Istanbul. Pure delight

War, huh?

let's go Jude from Progressing and Kylian from Receiving and see how that flies with our friends from Madrid

Genuinely not so sure about just going to City. How long has Pep got left? Where does he play in a team built around Haaland? Of course they can just throw money at him, but if he's as level headed as the reports seem to suggest, surely he can see that what we are doing here could build towards being very, very special. I don't think the club would baulk at the transfer fee. FSG are capital investors, and this lad is at an age where his capital value won't drop. It's not that much more in ££ than what we were prepared to pay for a holding midfielder and probably par for the course when adjusted for the fees we paid for Virgil and Ali 7 years ago. We can also offer him the chance to play alongside, and then surpass, Mo as our most pivotal player, so the natural pathway is there. Of course I'm just talking myself into believing this will happen.... but there's also a load of sense as to why it can happen

I know it's not his first language but after the game Arteta is quoted on the beeb saying "We need to rest and finish at Southampton and then go on holiday. Any other club in this position would finish in a position that we cannot even dream of." Anyone got a clue what he's on about???

Yeah.. He's probably only signed a 4 year contract...

Get the funk out!

You should apologise for this

Good to be back?

Wirtz worked with Virgil in Blackpool! Interesting....

I'd say if you're a player on the fringes hoping to prove yourself and make some sort of impact in the final 4 games it must be very frustrating. Elliott, for instance, must want to do well in these games but nothing about the prep or the match has the focus or intensity to make it count

Now that arsenal can only get 74 points that means that, as of today, we won the league with 3 points against West Ham with virgil heading home the title winning goal a couple of days after committing to staying at the champions.

This sky interview with legohead is plain weird.... He's missing a light bulb !

In some previous years scoring an away goal would have meant they reached the final (provided the other team didn't score more) #timing

You're never going to get a job working the athletic

Would love to see them get dumped out of the CL Get whalloped on Sunday Finish at best 3rd in a 2 horse race

This thread has had 4.9 million views in 8 years That's 612,500 views per year Not everyone is viewing at the same time, but let's say to keep the numbers even there's 100 people That's 6,125 views per person per year 118 views per week Just under 17 views per day 1 view per waking hour.. Seems reasonable right

The Madrid one - getting good players without transfer fees or The Dortmund model - not allowing players to leave on a free? (or both?)

Reckon it's become part of their modus operandi to get high profile players to run down their contract. They paid for Bellingham as Dortmund won't be played by anyone. If Bellingham wanted Madrid he needed to go for a fee otherwise they'd have sold him to somewhere else

The whole video thing. Evidently not constructed for a generation that managed to turn a thread about becoming champions into a debate on the intricacies of Simple Minds, Dire Straits and rehashing whether or not bono should have danced with that girl at Live Aid '85... Yet it has 1.6 million likes on his insta So I'm pretty sure he and his team will consider that a huge win. Won't matter to him that a bunch of mainly blokes with a median age north of his shirt number find the whole thing nauseating. From the false start sit down trope (the Last dance has a lot to answer for) to the principle of telling your own story and projecting your own highlights, rather than leaving that for others, such as the club, to do... To even presuming to suggest this news might cast a cloud over winning the title and the celebrations... Wt???! It's all very much... Just nauseating...and misjudged, and nauseating Yet there it is, with 1.6 million likes communicating 'his story' Maybe it's just us... Maybe we're discovering like John McClean in Die Hard 4 that we're the analogue watches in a digital age But then he did kill a helicopter with a car, so on ya go TAA, yippee ki yay....

If he does are we buying two centre halfs? RB, LB & 2 CBS Two forwards Minimum of one midfielder That's 7...a heck of a lot to get right

The athletic piece was a lot of bluff that ignored one of the most vital pieces of the jigsaw... This has all been in the post since signing an extension for 4 years only timed to run out at the age of 26. Definitely not saying he planned then to leave, but he and his advisors (who were doing their job) left this as an out... So from then the possibility was always alive in his and their heads. The way Madrid work, they'll have scheduled that date in from the moment that extension was signed... Which is them doing their job as well. Had the dream always been to stay for a career and captain the team that extension would have had 6 years on it and we'd now be negotiating a salary rise or sale.

And what foresight to caveat the status of legend.... Or have you been plotting this all along

This. I'm 100% fine with not building a side around the highest paid player being a right back who cannot lead that line, and having to accommodate him as captain in about 3-4 seasons when the legs start to fall off. He's a lot of miles on the clock and we definitely got the best years out of him before that whole inverted nonsense started a couple of seasons back. Arne has done well this season to just simplify things for him and us. Trent has fantastic abilities and a bunch of stats to back up how effective he is and has been, but I reckon our manager and the boffins are completely chilled with building a team without him in it and have a clear plan to do so