Pizy

Maybe its his biggest powerplay yet to get Bartomeu to resign. He's been trying for years. As sensational as Messi is, might it be smart to rip the bandaid off now and start their rebuild post Messi? It was going to happen soon anyways. Rather than paying a 36-38 year old Messi in a few years £1m a week when he has declined, break from him now and build a new team.

What if it's all been a smokescreen with Sancho and Messi is the real target? That's why they've been stalling so long on Sancho. To wait and see if Messi becomes available. 🤔🤔🤔

City or PSG seem the most likely destinations if he does leave. Hopefully it's PSG so we don't have to deal with him. City would be annoying but they're already ridiculously good going forward. Funnily enough, he doesn't drastically improve them domestically (he will in the CL). The nightmare scenario for me is him going to United. Takes them way up quality wise. And the media coverage would be unbearable 24/7/365. PSG to play with his mate Neymar and Mbappe seems most likely. Di Maria is one of his best mates too. And Paris is a million times more suitable for a superstar celebrity like him than dreary Manchester.

Oh shit. Imagine adding Messi to that City side that was scoring for fun already... Christ. Rather he go there than United, though.

Isn't Messi on over a million a week? Combined with whatever transfer fee, how can even Man City afford him? I can't ever see him leaving Barca no matter how bad things look.

That's an interesting thought. Definitely has the physical tools to be a beast of a DM.

So weird. We're going to have 3 (maybe even 4 if Mbuyamba goes) very young CB's out on loan now? Ampadu, Tomori, Sarr, and Mbuyamba. Zouma, AC, and Rüdiger aren't old either and you'd expect them to all be here next summer if they perform well. For that reason it's hard to see why Sarr would agree to sign with us. Where is his path into the first team?

I don't think you can take the armband off of Azpi for a player just coming to the club. Although when everyone is fit, Azpi may not even be on the pitch more often than not so Silva could indeed wear the armband some days.

Nice. Will probably be our most important signing. If he can handle the language barrier and remain fit he is the 2nd best CB in the league after VVD even at age 36.

Thought for sure we'd see at least 1 announcement today but it doesn't look like it. Figured Thiago Silva would be confirmed today.

Just want to say that I absolutely hate international football outside of the World Cup. Playing these pointless international matches just before and within a few weeks of the PL restarting is ridiculous. Just asking for big players to get injured.

Yeah, unless Liverpool take a huge step back in their intensity or they get a very long term injury to one of Salah or Mané while at the same time all of our new signings settle instantly I can't see us making up 30 points basically overnight. Its going to take 90+ points to win the title again and going from 66 to nearly 100 points is simply very unrealistic. Getting within single digit points of the eventual champion would be a great season in the league.

Watching Sarr's videos and he looks seriously like a mirror of Koulibaly. Same playing style. Freakishly athletic, covers lots of ground, good passing range, loves a perfectly timed slide tackle. Looks a great prospect but I have zero clue where he fits here unless not only Tomori goes but also another CB.

Why Silva?

Just go to Arsenal Mania and read through the "Non-Arsenal transfer discussion" thread. Pure delusion and extreme jealousy. A lot of it reads like wishful thinking. They're all trying to convince themselves that our signings aren't as good as they actually are.

Yep, I've been reading ArseMania as well. That FA Cup win has blown their confidence wayyyyy up to the point of extreme delusion. Reading RedCafe and a good number of the United fans think Silva is a good signing. Just about every Arse fan on their forum is laughing and saying he's terrible. As if they have prime Tony Adams at the back. Silva would instantly be their best defender! 😂 I still maintain my prediction that Arse will finish nowhere near top 4 again. Don't care who they buy. You just know the lads on AFTV will be talking about the title in the lead up to the season starting. 😂😂😂

At this rate we may actually get multiple announcements on the same day. The stuff of transfer muppets dreams!

Possible I guess. But I just don't think Frank fancies a keeper who is short and cannot command his area. Even if Kepa suddenly rediscovers his form he can't become bigger or taller. He will always be targetted at setpieces and on corners. Don't think Frank wants that. I'm still curious about two situations: what Arse are going to do to keep Leno & Martinez happy and what United are going to do with Henderson. We have to at least inquire about both situation, right?

It would be a pretty massive walk back for Kepa to become our #1 again. You don't drop him for our most important matches of the season and then bring him back in. Finding a loan destination for him has to be the only reason we haven't signed anyone new yet.

The fact that all the reputable sources came out at the same time and said it was done makes me feel they were briefed. They all sounded so definitive that I will choose to believe them until we hear further from Bayer forcefully denying it.

That was fucking quick! From the ultimate high one moment to a gut punch the next... Bad look for Fabrizio and Falk if the got it wrong.

Attacking the transfer window like a proper elite club. Feels weird after years of hit and miss buys.

We really need Matt Law to return from his holiday and give us some goalkeeper links. 😆 Unless Frank and the board are thinking that upgrading the defense in front of him will help Kepa enough to bring him back into the team? Hard to see that but the total silence on the keeper front is puzzling.

I agree. No excuses for us this season if these moves materialize. Winning the title I think will still be beyond us simply due to having basically a whole new team. City and Liverpool are the finished article after years of building. So they'll still be the top 2 most likely. The season will be grueling due to COVID so those teams that are more gelled will benefit. But as you say, we should be comfortably finishing in the CL places with multiple games to spare. And making a deep run in the CL (like last 8 or better).

So Chilwell and Silva seem all but done. If we can finally get Havertz over the line (which I'm still nervous as fuck about) and can get even a solid, not even spectacular keeper this will be the greatest transfer window in our history. Perfect blend of young talent who are not even near their primes yet and veterans who have seen it all. And we can have most of our business done and dusted before some big clubs even do anything of note. Liverpool have signed a backup LB. City have signed a couple of decent but not top class players. Arse have signed 32 year old Willian and are about to sign an uncapped Brazillian who was wanted by nobody else but Everton really. Spuds have signed an average midfielder from Southampton. United have signed nobody at all. If all these signings click from the start we have something special.