Chez

they (front four) are working hellishly hard to press and turn over possession, and making some nice runs too. Not sure what more you want from them.

all sounds very positive, but equally he isn't signing any contract until the summer and at that point, with just 12 months left, the pressure starts to build and decisions have to be made about whether or not to allow an asset to leave for nothing. When £20m bids come in and Ings says he wont renew, then phrases like being here until the end of his contract may be in the distant past. We shall see.

Arsenal's confidence, form and fortune changed pretty much half way through that match. They are a completely different side to the one coming into that game which was on its knees. They looked very good against Newcastle midweek. Much changed line up though. Glad to see we have gone strong. Never a better chance to win the FA cup with the side we have. Hope we can re-find our goalscoring form with Ings and Adams.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-transfer-news-ryan-bertrand-southampton-b900828.html Bertrand's agent doing his job here placing this story to give him leverage at the negotiating table.

"You would be mad to do that, because if you did, we'd know about it. Do you do that?"

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-transfer-news-ryan-bertrand-southampton-b900828.html Bertrand's agent doing his job here placing this story to give him leverage at the negotiating table.

I think he is a very good footballer and woud have made a good signing for us if the money had been there/right last summer. Excellent touch and ability. Not prolific, but a far far better player than Long, who is eating up wages. Not sure we can afford those (Kings) wages at the moment until we offload all our deadweight. Got to say that if Bournemouth want £18m for a player with 6 months left on his contract left, the thought of us selling Ings for £20m, or even putting a release clause in for that amount seems like madness. Whether Bompey get that money is another thing of course.

wants more games, goes to club that wont give him more games.

I did not know that. I thought there was big money available if he moved and he wanted that. I didn't realise he was happy to stay. Good to know. He hadn't been great, so I can see why Bagpuss chose him - I assume to raise funds to bring in shit like Bernard? I guess the money did help pay for Camara's loan too, for which I am thankful.

Maybe. Eriksson, at a similar stage of his career at Spurs had a bit of a sulk, played like shit for months, but still got his move to Inter.

the Prem prize money will be fully factored into the £150k a week wages (or whatever it is) that we have offered.

no idea. I didn't have a clue who he was before we signed him other than what I read at the time of the transfer. Must have been playing bloody well as we invested a sizeable amount on him.

You are right about world class, by which I mean would get into a world's best team. VVD and Toby. Bridge wasn't a prospect though, that could kick on. He was the finished article. Shaw the same. Already among the best in his position in the league. He (Shaw) hasn't got back to that level since. I don't think he ever will. Both were tremendous players. I think your assessment of Mane is disingenuous. The Sheff United game was December 2014 and he didn't join Liverpool until 2016. In between those dates he blossomed into one of the most dangerous attacking players in the league, enabling us to demand a huge £34m fee for him. Many felt this was not nearly enough. He has continued to shine, but now at CL level. To say no one here felt he was a world beater is bolloxs. He also was already the finished article. I agree, Ings is very good. He's at the Beattie level, when he was scoring goals for fun.

when Beattie was flying he possibly offered more than Ings, with his height and strength, although Ings has better touch and ability on the ball. Beattie is a good case history though as his form fell off a cliff once he decided he wanted a move and then subsequently got one. Imagine if we had offered him the equivalent of £150k a week and got the return Everton did for it? Perhaps now is the time to sell, although I am not sure how much we'd get for him this summer. Should we expect Ings to continue to score hatfuls of goals or are we seeing a best and end up paying for a lot less then that over the next four years. Tricky. I guess our record contract shows we expect him to continue to be great...

To provide context, Haller (26) was just sold (right in the middle of the COVID financial situation) for £20m and he was a non scoring, dare I say it, complete and utter failure.

I was thinking the same. £20m is far too low. At this very minute would we accept £20m for him? I think no, and thus a £20m clause could create a possibility of a bid today that we could not turn down. Come the end of the season, would we accept a £20m (again assuming no contract has been signed) or risk an unhappy player that leaves for free 12 months later. Not sure, but at least its in our own destiny. As you say, may as well remove the contract offer - all it does is give him big money security and prevent him going for £0 in 18 months. Tricky though. As a company, allowing a valuable asset to depreciate to £0 would be bad business.

11 league and one league cup game now. Fulham have improved, but points are still few and far between.

he ain't gonna make 20 unless he comes on off the bench in games like this.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1301034/Timo-Werner-contract-details-Chelsea-salary-bonus not sure how accurate that is, but £270,000 a week might be sightly beyond us.

like they know.

we appear to have offered him the biggest contract in our history. Not sure we can do much more than that. we want to keep him, no doubt about it, but there is only so far we can go. We just can't compete with the big boys who pay the likes of Lingard £150k a week, and proper players many times more.

Players want CL money more than CL football IMO. If we paid him say £350k a week, for the sake of argument, and United came in offering him CL football but on £150k a week do you think he'd leave?

This story doesn't make sense to me. The older he gets the less likely a big club will come in for him. Sign a new deal and any move disappears. No better moment for him to get his move than this summer (when his price will be low, thereby attracting suitors) or the summer after when he his price will be nothing. Both rely on his not signing a new deal.

I thought the idea was to see if the next guy could fill his shoes. Walcott has looked good working up and down the line, but not up the middle. N'Dundulu is interesting. Not sure I am confident he is gonna be good enough ti be our starting striker by the start of next season.does he score for fun for the B team?

makes you wonder how much Ings proven, but older is truely worth. I guess one year left in the summer changes things a lot.