Julien Laurent, Guardian football journalist, based in London, reporting for ESPN in U.S. Was just interviewed on US TV on Arsenal's signing targets. He immediately mentioned their small budget, then named 6 players they'd be interested in getting in this window.
Any guesses who he didn't mention?
Reported to be limited to around 50m and we're supposed to believe half of it is for an injured full back from Scotland? I'm going with bullshit.
Scottish media at their finest. I'm sure Hartson and Guidi will be doubling down on their efforts tomorrow on Tierney's value.
Who were the signing targets incidentally?
Im afraid it seems folk are clutching at straws on this one. Arsenal's own go to journalist is David Ornstein of the BBC, and he confirmed the bids & Arsenal's belief that a deal can still be done.
It seems Arsenal are targeting a left back, central defender, a winger and a Ramsey replacement with their budget. First choice in those areas seem to be Tierney, Saliba, Zaha & a loan deal for Ceballos of Real Madrid. They seem to be targeting young players in the main who can grow and Imorove with them.
Now that sounds difficult to do with a £50M budget but it's not as straight forward as adding all transfer fees up and that's their budget. They are trying to haggle to pay in installments, add ons etc. Plus I'm not sure their budget is only £50M, its an advantage for people to think they have a limited budget in negotiations, plus they will try to generate money from sales. Zaha is looking to prove too expensive so they are heavily linked with the Brazilian winger who started for them in the Copa America Everton Soares.
The frustration with the Arsenal fans is not who they are targeting, but the fact that they can't seem to get any over the line yet. They have seen Spurs come in and try and outbid them for Saliba at the last minute, haggling over the payment structure for Tierney, their Zaha bid laughed out, and their captain refuse to go on tour. They are targeting the owners with a campaign called We Care Do You, and the owners son responded yesterday with an open letter and interview sayingthey are confident deals will be finalised over the next couple of weeks.