January Transfer Window 2017/18

What if Sanchez doesn't go at all then?
It wouldn’t surprise me if Sanchez stays till the summer then goes to City. The only thing with that is we lose out on any transfer fee for him. But that’s our fault for not shipping him off in the summer for the £60mill City were willing to pay for him.

But honestly speaking I’d rather we keep him till the summer then he can **** off to City. You never know he might end up getting us that coveted 4th place...highly unlikely with us being so far behind now.

But if that happens I won’t be able to stop laughing at Utd and their fans, due to them losing out on Sanchez. But let’s see what happens, today should be the day Sanchez and his future is decided.
 
They're 3 points adrift and lost one more. Hardly stats to not warrant going to the club. Chelsea have and will always attract big players and pay mad wages too.

No doubt they will continue to attract players, as you say they have the cash to do so but in this situation I see no reason why he'd pick Chelsea over United, bar the London/Manchester question.
 
Migs has come out and is clearly not happy with being dropped again, tbh has had 5 season to prove he is good enough, if we get a quality keeper in just let him go imo
 
Looks like Mkhitaryan isn't exactly interested in an Arsenal move. Shame as I think he'd be a good fit for our system, but I can understand his reservations are we're a club heading backwards at the moment.

No way should we sanction a sale to United without him coming the other way.
 
We could sign Neymar and Messi for £20m and you'd still put a downer on it.

You aren't signing them though, you're spending £30m+ on Sanchez who's out of contract in 4 months (effectively) and giving him a contract that makes him the 4th highest paid player in the world.

The money involved is crazy for Sanchez but it's not that which makes the deal odd to me, it's the complete lack of strategy from Utd. You pulled out of any possible deal for Griezmann as he wasn't seen as a Mourinho type centre forward (I wasn't surprised by that and said as much) and for the past 7 months we've been hearing how Utd want to sign a proper winger because Mourinho's not happy playing Martial/Rashford types there. Sanchez isn't a proper winger and Sanchez as a centre forward is no more a Mourinho centre forward than Griezmann was.

We've spent big to sign VVD - he was one of the best CB's around (that was available), CB was a huge glaring weakness for us and most importantly, he appears perfectly suited to us. Based on all that and the fact that there were no obvious alternatives that we could have signed for much cheaper, you can somewhat understand why the club spent so much to get him. Sanchez on the other hand I'm really struggling with - on one hand you can say it's always nice to have another talented player in the squad but given the numbers involved you surely want more than just that? On recent form (recent probably being 12 months) he's not performed any better than what you have nor any better than a long list of forwards across Europe, there's no obvious reason for signing him in terms of the position he plays and the needs of the side and he's not exactly a long term signing either.

Everybody knows I can't stand Mourinho but it's because of decisions like this. He only thinks about today and gives no consideration for the long term future of a club he's at. He see's Sanchez as an opportunity to add another talented player to his squad, the fact that he's costing a fortune and it might not be the perfect deal doesn't matter to him. He doesn't care that when in the future Utd open contract talks with De Gea, Pogba, Lukaku or anybody else for that matter, that this deal will have knock on effects. Mourinho's a short term, chequebook manager and he's making short term chequebook decisions. I'm shocked.

Migs has come out and is clearly not happy with being dropped again, tbh has had 5 season to prove he is good enough, if we get a quality keeper in just let him go imo
Unless the club have got something up their sleeve then we're not signing a keeper now. It's hard enough persuading clubs to sell their best players in January but it's 10x harder to persuade them to sell their keeper, at least if he's any good. I can't see us bringing a keeper in until the summer and **** me if I'm happy with having Karius until the summer. It's been obvious since day 1 that Klopp's been desperate to bring Karius into the side - he's seen as a keeper more suited to how we play, being more comfortable with the ball at his feet and willing to come off his line and sweep up behind the defence. Unfortunately he has hologram hands and Klopp's kept having to go back to Mignolet which is why we can't let Mignolet go until a replacement has been bought.
 
To be fair, we have a number of young players but to arrest the decline we need players in their prime. Sanchez has wanted out of Arsenal since they were battered at Bayern Munich and you can't blame him. Arsenal are a club going backwards and the players and manager are weak - their own fans say as much.

I suppose it depends how highly you rate Sanchez, playing at his best he's one of the best players in the world, and that's hopefully what we will get out of him, if we sign him at all. Mourinho is never realistically going to sign a couple of youngsters in his place, so we'll take what we can get - and that would come with risks like any transfer.

The same way £100m+ transfers are going to be the norm, £350k+ wages will be soon too. This clearly has a bigger effect though as clubs will end up spending a fortune when it comes to renewals etc. As for Balague saying he'll be the 4th highest paid player in the world, there will be players in China earning more I think? Balague is fuming, which is rather funny.

As for Griezmann, we would have signed him but due to the transfer ban he opted to stay at Atletico at least until the summer. That's what I understood anyway.
 
You aren't signing them though, you're spending £30m+ on Sanchez who's out of contract in 4 months (effectively) and giving him a contract that makes him the 4th highest paid player in the world.

The money involved is crazy for Sanchez but it's not that which makes the deal odd to me, it's the complete lack of strategy from Utd. You pulled out of any possible deal for Griezmann as he wasn't seen as a Mourinho type centre forward (I wasn't surprised by that and said as much) and for the past 7 months we've been hearing how Utd want to sign a proper winger because Mourinho's not happy playing Martial/Rashford types there. Sanchez isn't a proper winger and Sanchez as a centre forward is no more a Mourinho centre forward than Griezmann was.

We've spent big to sign VVD - he was one of the best CB's around (that was available), CB was a huge glaring weakness for us and most importantly, he appears perfectly suited to us. Based on all that and the fact that there were no obvious alternatives that we could have signed for much cheaper, you can somewhat understand why the club spent so much to get him. Sanchez on the other hand I'm really struggling with - on one hand you can say it's always nice to have another talented player in the squad but given the numbers involved you surely want more than just that? On recent form (recent probably being 12 months) he's not performed any better than what you have nor any better than a long list of forwards across Europe, there's no obvious reason for signing him in terms of the position he plays and the needs of the side and he's not exactly a long term signing either.

Everybody knows I can't stand Mourinho but it's because of decisions like this. He only thinks about today and gives no consideration for the long term future of a club he's at. He see's Sanchez as an opportunity to add another talented player to his squad, the fact that he's costing a fortune and it might not be the perfect deal doesn't matter to him. He doesn't care that when in the future Utd open contract talks with De Gea, Pogba, Lukaku or anybody else for that matter, that this deal will have knock on effects. Mourinho's a short term, chequebook manager and he's making short term chequebook decisions. I'm shocked.


Unless the club have got something up their sleeve then we're not signing a keeper now. It's hard enough persuading clubs to sell their best players in January but it's 10x harder to persuade them to sell their keeper, at least if he's any good. I can't see us bringing a keeper in until the summer and **** me if I'm happy with having Karius until the summer. It's been obvious since day 1 that Klopp's been desperate to bring Karius into the side - he's seen as a keeper more suited to how we play, being more comfortable with the ball at his feet and willing to come off his line and sweep up behind the defence. Unfortunately he has hologram hands and Klopp's kept having to go back to Mignolet which is why we can't let Mignolet go until a replacement has been bought.

Karius is chance is now, my hope is he will do a de gea start off poor which he has and turn awesome, klopp giving him this run will hopefully do that, if not least summer gives us a chance to fix it.

I don't have an issue with migs statement I agree in part that klopp handling of the situation and chopping and changing hasn't help either
 
Karius is chance is now, my hope is he will do a de gea start off poor which he has and turn awesome, klopp giving him this run will hopefully do that, if not least summer gives us a chance to fix it.

I don't have an issue with migs statement I agree in part that klopp handling of the situation and chopping and changing hasn't help either

Karius has had other chances and failed to impress. I recall a couple of crosses against City where he just didn't know what to do, Otamendi back post was one but he cocked it up. You can't really teach him the basic instincts, the same with Mignolet, Karius probably will be okay backup but you need an experienced, competent keeper. Butland will cost in excess of 35m and is a risk.
 
Karius has had other chances and failed to impress. I recall a couple of crosses against City where he just didn't know what to do, Otamendi back post was one but he cocked it up. You can't really teach him the basic instincts, the same with Mignolet, Karius probably will be okay backup but you need an experienced, competent keeper. Butland will cost in excess of 35m and is a risk.
Butland is no improvement on either though well not imo,

If we want quality made it leaves 3 off top my head, Allison, donourama, oblak all of which will probably cost a very high fee if even possible to get
 
Griezmann was being touted around as an 80m player in the summer.

After Neymar and Coutinho and the other 100m plus transfers he is going to be silly money now.

Sanchez is going to be a bargain at that price if he comes.

We have to ignore the fact that his contract is out at the summer, and we could get him for free. a lot of other clubs would also be able to get him for free as well. Money talks and lets not get ahead of ourselves 40m is chump change for the club and 400k in a few years time once his contract expires at United (if he does come) will be the norm for top players. The likes of Pogba etc will be demanding that anyway.

I am genuinely surprised that no one has come in for Ozil yet?

Wenger will leave in a year and the club will be left in a much worse situation than when he got the job many years ago. He should not be given the responsibility of rebuilding the club if he has no long term vested interest in it.
 
Looking back I really think we should have, even though I was dubious at the time ah well

Some cheap keepers to be had in this list. No idea what the scoring means tbh, I can't see ter Stegen having much to do this season.

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To be fair, we have a number of young players but to arrest the decline we need players in their prime. Sanchez has wanted out of Arsenal since they were battered at Bayern Munich and you can't blame him. Arsenal are a club going backwards and the players and manager are weak - their own fans say as much.

I suppose it depends how highly you rate Sanchez, playing at his best he's one of the best players in the world, and that's hopefully what we will get out of him, if we sign him at all. Mourinho is never realistically going to sign a couple of youngsters in his place, so we'll take what we can get - and that would come with risks like any transfer.

The same way £100m+ transfers are going to be the norm, £350k+ wages will be soon too. This clearly has a bigger effect though as clubs will end up spending a fortune when it comes to renewals etc. As for Balague saying he'll be the 4th highest paid player in the world, there will be players in China earning more I think? Balague is fuming, which is rather funny.

As for Griezmann, we would have signed him but due to the transfer ban he opted to stay at Atletico at least until the summer. That's what I understood anyway.

Sanchez at his best was one of the best players in the PL, he's never been close to being one of the best players in the world. My comment on wages wasn't based on anything Balague's said but you're right, there possibly are players in China on more but I think it's fair to discount them. Only the 3 very best players in the world will be earning more than him and nobody could seriously suggest he's even close to their level - I doubt anybody could strongly argue that he's close to being in the top 10 players in the world. And you're right, wages will keep growing and the reason why is because of deals like this. As I said, whenever Pogba is offered a new deal (and it might be sooner rather than later as a result of this) he/his agent will point to Sanchez's deal and say that if he's getting x then I want y. But that's not Mourinho's problem, he'll be gone in a couple of seasons.

You mention your young players needing a senior player to help them and how Arsenal's players are weak etc. You don't spot a problem there? Sanchez is part of the problem at Arsenal - he's not been the senior player that's dragged the team through and helped the young players, he's downed tools and acted like a ****. And your young players (I still can't believe Lingard is actually 25) have out performed Sanchez.

Karius is chance is now, my hope is he will do a de gea start off poor which he has and turn awesome, klopp giving him this run will hopefully do that, if not least summer gives us a chance to fix it.

I don't have an issue with migs statement I agree in part that klopp handling of the situation and chopping and changing hasn't help either

Yea, I really can't see that happening. He's completely lost the trust of the crowd and there's constant panic when he goes near anything. The fact that shots just continuously go straight through his hands is one thing but what really killed him for me was the Arsenal game at the start of the season. He was brought in for no apparent reason which put added pressure on him and despite not having a save to make all game, you still walked away from that game thinking he was awful. On three occasions that day he had the ball at his feet and just ****ed about until he was closed down and nearly gifted them goals. I can't think of a single game he's played when I've thought he played well.
Isn't Reina no 1 at Napoli now? You should have just kept him :p
Reina got fat and lazy. I'm not sure if it was complacency when Brad Jones was brought in as his back-up but his form really fell off a cliff in his last 18 months with us.
 
Reina got fat and lazy. I'm not sure if it was complacency when Brad Jones was brought in as his back-up but his form really fell off a cliff in his last 18 months with us.

Doubt he would have cost us the amount of points those two loonys have.
 
Sanchez at his best was one of the best players in the PL, he's never been close to being one of the best players in the world. My comment on wages wasn't based on anything Balague's said but you're right, there possibly are players in China on more but I think it's fair to discount them. Only the 3 very best players in the world will be earning more than him and nobody could seriously suggest he's even close to their level - I doubt anybody could strongly argue that he's close to being in the top 10 players in the world. And you're right, wages will keep growing and the reason why is because of deals like this. As I said, whenever Pogba is offered a new deal (and it might be sooner rather than later as a result of this) he/his agent will point to Sanchez's deal and say that if he's getting x then I want y. But that's not Mourinho's problem, he'll be gone in a couple of seasons.

You mention your young players needing a senior player to help them and how Arsenal's players are weak etc. You don't spot a problem there? Sanchez is part of the problem at Arsenal - he's not been the senior player that's dragged the team through and helped the young players, he's downed tools and acted like a ****. And your young players (I still can't believe Lingard is actually 25) have out performed Sanchez.

On form I'd have him in and around the top 10-15 in the world (sorry, I should add in a strictly attacking sense), but I suppose that's all opinion. You see him as Mourinho adding yet another good player, I see Mourinho wanting him as the standout attacking player, the star of the team. This will, as ever, depend on how well he performs.

In an ideal world I'd much rather sign a player at his level who is 24/25/26, but really that is far from straightforward (and there aren't that many). A player in that mould would cost £100-150m in the current market and still want 2-300k a week.

Sanchez has carried Arsenal at times, he's often the only player who looks to be a threat, but he's not Messi and can't literally win games on his own when the rest of the team are rubbish - not many players can.
 
Feels like he pulled Arsenal out of the hole plenty of times. I think he's a cracking player, get him firing and he can be unplayable at times.
 
Doubt he would have cost us the amount of points those two loonys have.
Mignolet needs improving on but he's not nearly as bad as some people make out. He just goes through spells - when he first signed he done really well then finished his first season pretty average, without being terrible. He continued like that until he was dropped midway through the next season and then when he came back into the side he was excellent again. I guess it's a bit like the situation with Reina - he gets complacent when he feels his place is safe and it takes dropping him to kick start him again. It was the same last season - he was coasting until he was dropped for Karius but when he came back into the side he performed better than he ever has before. He ended last season in outstanding form but as ever, it doesn't last.

On Reina, he went all Brad Jones on us - he stopped diving for shots.

On form I'd have him in and around the top 10 in the world, but I suppose that's all opinion. You see him as Mourinho adding yet another good player, I see Mourinho wanting him as the standout attacking player, the star of the team. This will, as ever, depend on how well he performs.

In an ideal world I'd much rather sign a player at his level who is 24/25/26, but really that is far from straightforward (and there aren't that many). A player in that mould would cost £100-150m in the current market and still want 2-300k a week.

Sanchez has carried Arsenal at times, he's often the only player who looks to be a threat, but he's not Messi and can't literally win games on his own when the rest of the team are rubbish - not many players can.
Not that I agree with the first sentence but there's a crucial point, he's not on form and hasn't been for a long time. If you asked anybody to list the top 10 players in the world a week ago I don't think there's many that are even considering Sanchez - he'd be lucky to make the top 10 in the PL right now.

Only time will tell whether Sanchez is seen as such an important signing to Mourinho but it seems odd to spend so much money on a player in a role that Utd don't really want/need and that's not been performing.

You're right about signing a 25 year old costing more but there's a crucial different - when you sign Sanchez, whatever you're committed to spending on fees and wages is dead money. If he performs well then you keep him for 3 years by which time he'll be worth nothing and if he doesn't perform you're stuck with him for 3 years by which time he's worth nothing. When you sign a 24/25 year old the aim is for him to be your player for 7-8 years but there's always the chance that in 3-4 years you could sell him and recoup some of the fee if not sell him on for a profit. And this £100-150m thing is a bit of an exaggeration - we've only had 2 signings of over £100m and both have been for players better than Sanchez. I'm sure we'll see in the summer a number of quality attacking players being sold for sub £100m.

As I said, this just seems an odd deal to me and smacks of a club or manager that is happy to just get anybody in. All the speculation coming from Mourinho's pet dog was that Utd wanted a LB, a proper wide player and possibly another midfielder to free Pogba up - all things which seem fairly logical to be fair. When you've already got Martial and Rashford at the club I'm really struggling to understand why you're willing to spend so much on another inside left forward.
 
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