BMox81

I expect competition for places. Everyone has now been conditioned to think it's all about a first XI and the rest can just sit there. Morata has said that he's all about the team and has proven that while at Juve and Madrid so if we were to get a player of similar quality (like a Belotti) at the club then I'd be all for it. Could even play a 3-5-2 with them both. We only have one true world class player at our club and that is Hazard. So any improvement on that front would be fantastic.

I don't want players signing just be on the bench though! Why does everyone else want this?!!! I want players that are going to improve the squad as a whole. This, along with the Drinkwater fiasco are not examples of us wanting to improve the squad. They will be bought just to make up numbers and that is the wrong way to go about it.

Really? You'd be happy with a 32 year old striker signing a one/two year deal? Are my expectations of the players I want at the club that much higher than everyone elses?

Bakayoko and Morata were replacements for Matic and Costa - they are not upgrades. Upgrades would have been keeping Matic/Costa whilst getting in the other two.

You don't even make any sense with the posts you write. Danny Drinkwater is not the signing our club should be aspiring to. Krychowiak for example is heading to West Brom on loan. Are you suggesting Drinkwater is a better player than him?

Oh we will. Because we're desperate. Chelsea Football Club. Desperate to sign Danny Drinkwater.

The mere fact you've all convinced yourselves this would be a good signing is a clear indication of the club's poor dealings within this transfer window.

Whoever is responsible for the due diligence regarding this move should be in for a hell of a morning when they get into work today. Who puts a bid in for a player knowing he wants to play in one position while we'd like him to play another?! Reeks of incompetence. I knew he'd choose Liverpool over us. Nothing to do with him not having any ambition - I think it's just he feels he can get the starts in CM there as opposed to with us. That and the English core of players there would have had a major impact.

If there is one saying that will epitomise this window will be the term “squad depth”... Let’s be honest here, out of all the CM’s that were available, was Danny Drinkwater at the top of the list for anyone? No. So the only reason certain members are now saying they’re ok with this is because we’re three days from the window closing and we have run out of viable options. Which then we have to conclude that this situation is the result of poor planning from the board.

But everyone has already established that he is to be 4th choice here. If that's the case then he's not going to get a look in is he? Which brings me back to my original point...

He's approaching the peak years of his career. Why would someone at that point in their career be happy with a place on the bench or a smaller role than he currently has at Leicester? Can someone please answer this for me please without having to resort to saying that we need squad players.... He epitomises mediocrity and the complete reverse of player we should be going for and no-one here is going to convince me otherwise.

It's not about them crying, it's expecting signings higher in quality than these two. We are the Premier League Champions. I expected us to show a bit more ambition than filling the squad with the mediocrity with the likes of Drinkwater, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and the like. We need to improve the squad, not settle for inferior players. I'm surprised more people aren't annoyed to be honest.

Sunday Supplement has been on this morning and the Ox situation came up. Deal obviously hinges on Wenger deciding whether he's going to sell him or not. If he does decide to sell, they all pretty much agreed Ox is Liverpool bound and used the fact that his preference is to play central midfield as opposed to any other position.

What did I say?

Could be that he might prefer to play with the other England boys that are at Liverpool. Wouldn't be surprised if that's a major pull that Klopp would use to tempt him there.

There are much better players in central midfield that have gone for less money than what we are being expected to pay for Danny Drinkwater. A poster above said that we’re not buying a first choice midfielder. I question the logic. Why aren’t we buying another first choice midfielder? What happened to players competing for positions? I don’t want us buying a midfielder purely for the sake of filling a spot in the squad. I want a midfielder to come in that is gonna look at the other three and have the desire to want to start ahead of them. This is us settling for mediocrity right here and I am shocked that there is an alarming amount of people that are ok with it.

To Wenger it's not about the money though. He's said to day that there would be a financial sacrifice (regarding Sanchez), but he's looking at it from a sporting point of view. And in that regard, he's within his rights to do that. They all signed their contracts and Arsenal as an employer can enforce them to stay for the duration of said contracts. He would much rather gamble and have them all stay at the club in their final year of their contracts in the hope they sign new deals during the season.

Better than nothing. Does anyone else feel sad that it's coming down to this? Having to get bodies in purely for the sake of having bodies as opposed to getting in players of top quality to strengthen the team. Awful scenes.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsene-wenger-sanchez-oxlade-chamberlain-10993574.amp Wenger isn't going to let the Ox go guys-best we just move on.

Wenger is the type of manager who will be quite happy to let his players run their contracts out until Jan if there was an inkling of a chance he'd resign then. And if not, then they'd let him go on a free.

I refuse to believe Wenger would ever sell us a player after the whole Cole fiasco. Which makes me wonder why we (Roman) is perfectly ok for us to sell our players to them....

Not the point. The issue is that Conte had nothing on the bench that could have changed the game once Cahill had gone off. Christensen was only brought on after Cahill got sent off and it was a gimme that Morata was going to come on. We had no one else that could have made that extra bit of difference. Thats the issue here. I don’t want mere squad members to make up the numbers. I want top quality talent that can make us better as a team.

What’s that? World class striker scoring on his debut but left on the bench? Like I said, should have started from the beginning.

Morata not starting is the exact reason why you should spend less time fraffing about like our board has done all summer and get your transfers in early so the manager/coach has enough time to implement his ideas. A £58m record signing should be starting on the first day of the season. And the state of that bench is a disgrace. The club should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the squad to end up as it is.

S.Aurier and MU have found an agreement around a 5-year contract. Rest to negotiate with Paris and have a work permit #PSG