Rimbeux

But not relative to the rest in our league

Spurs have it tough. They’ve to play every other team from the top 6, I don’t think the rest of us have more than 3, or maybe a 4. Either way they have a huge bearing on top 4, and we have a big opportunity to put distance between them and us

That’s the issue. Can the club hold a line in terms of refusing bids, and then both pay enough to put players into a more untouchable bracket and be ambitious and successful enough to remove challenging as a reason to want out.

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Yep, that’s the live issue

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Come on, Sanchez was hands down their best player, Can is a regular but by no means first name on the team sheet.

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Overall the question is whether they’ve got a better team, then if they’ve got the exact players they want and need. That they might have been able to salvage a bit of cash and a decent player at the death is probably the minimum they should have done. Going back to the summer and before, rather than entertaining a fantasy that all their one yr players would see the glorious future and re-sign by Christmas with Arsenal flying high in the league, they’ve missed a big opportunity to clean house on their terms and mount a top four challenge with committed players there for all the right reasons. Now here they are scrambling mid season for the discontented and comfortably off the top 4 pace. I think they’ll remain a good and dangerous team, but it’s debatable if their best use of £100m plus was both Lacazette & Aubameyang. Would also suggest there’s more than a declared reluctance to repeating his previous work behind Klopp not going after two of his former players heading to Arsenal

This man

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I'd love to sign him, ideal player for us, but it's a pipe dream at not even double but likely triple what anyone else is on in our case for a guy who's coming up to 30

Priobavly fair bit there’s a difference between lashing that on a player who’s got a good seven years of peak ahead of him and one who’s maybe looking at a couple. Of course if a club can afford to risk writing off tens of millions in pay should the player go over the hill midway through the deal that’s ultimately their concern, but there’s plenty to be sceptical about in terms of how smart the deal is

Odd piece, it's news I suppose but all it really says is the Echo have been told not to expect a conclusion today or tomorrow. It is concerning its dragging on, with no new camera angle or such like leaking out and not a whiff of any new evidence. Does it really take this long to interview those involved? That said, it took the Suarez-Evra case four weeks to get to an FA charge, can't recall if they had qualified lawyers guiding the issue from the start

Madrid is still so much about galactico I don’t see it. Reckon they try and fail to get Neymar and then go heavily for Kane & Hazard who have the right level of profile. We likely have more issue with Salah considering the noise around his performances

It’s mad really, £30m a year, must be one of the top five or so earners in world football with that, and bulk of it in his 30s. Agent really smelled the fear at Man Utd; imagine lots of their squad are having chats with their reps about cashing in

I dunno, seems like different things at different times rather than just the wages. They've had years of being picked off and used as a staging post for clubs winning more, back when they tried to keep most players in a high but flattish wage structure, and after they gave up on that. Then you add into the mix the belief Wenger has that he can persuade players to sign new deals even in the final few months and an old policy of only giving out short term contracts and extensions to players over 30

Indeed, it’s a huge short term bet, not cos of resale or any of that, but being committed to paying a 30y old who relies a lot on explosive pace so much money for four years plus. Maybe they can afford it and whatever the knock on effect on other players will be, but it would sting any club to push the boat out that far, too far for even Man City

Far from perfect, but more than useful Would be great to have someone who can operate like Busqets on the ball and Matic off it, but nobody on the horizon right now

Three centre forwards, no midfield or defence to write home about and losing the supply line bit by bit.

It's bizarre in the extreme, if they were going to sell him, the time was the summer. Maybe they couldn't have foreseen City running away with it, but they've now deliberately made getting top 4 harder for themselves. They're going to have to do something spectacular like win the Europa and spend hundreds of millions in short order or find themselves with a mid table squad that no top player would bother considering.

Money where he plays and a way out; think he wants a release clause and to play the holding role I think, rather than being moved around depending on whether Hendo is fit After tax

The goal today was maybe a not natural full back error, but the others he’s been responsible for in recent weeks such as at Arsenal and Burnley are basic concentration errors