Pizy

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.

It's funny and kinda strange that entering the summer the number 1 position that needed to be addressed most urgently was goalkeeper. But it appears as though that's going to be the very last position we will sign. 😂 And what's stranger is that there haven't been any concrete links to any keepers. Just loose links to Onana who if we seriously wanted could surely have been a Chelsea player a long time ago. Maybe the club are finding it impossible to find a new home for Kepa even on loan and that's what is preventing us signing a new keeper?

It's all about intelligences and positioning. He's still world class in those two attributes. He'll get into trouble here and there if he's isolated by a pacey forward player but more often than not he won't allow himself to get into those situations. I'm extremely curious who his CB partner will be.

In the very biggest European matches PSG are just chokers. Just like Man City.

Oh yay, here we go with the PSG players diving and flopping all over the place with the slightest contact. That's why I can't stand Neymar.

Havertz/Chilwell/Silva triple announcement end of this week. 👍🏼

Expectations are so low from much of our fanbase that I think he's going to really surprise people.

Whatever happened to the two most popular "ITK's" of yesteryear, Tancredi Palmeri and garbosj? They still out there lying to people as if they know anything? 😆

Wonder what the latest new bid was...

Give him 10 games as a starter before we judge him at least. That'll be a good sample size. If our attack is as substantially improved as it should be with all these signings Chilwell may not even be called into action defensively very often. If he's playing in the opponents half most of the time this will be a fantastic signing. And seeing as we have the majority of the ball in all but maybe a handful of matches a season, I think it'll go well. And unlike Alonso, Chilwell has good recovery speed and can actually run past a defender when he's got the ball. Those two things alone should be a colossal upgrade. Alonso can be kept around for the times when Frank switches to a back 3.

Should be interesting tonight scouting Silva. He plays a blinder and our supporters will go bananas and cry out for him. Hell, he plays well against this Bayern attack and PSG may decide to offer him a new deal. But if he gets skinned alive by the best attack in the world everyone will be screaming for us to avoid at all costs. I hope he plays well and PSG still lose. That way our fears of him being totally past it and too old are soothed and he decides to seek a new challenge with us.

I think him being English and well used to the rigors and grind of the PL play a big part. We really have to get our defensive signings right this summer. Perhaps Frank and the club view Chilwell as less of a risk since he has played in this league for years? Who knows. Maybe they just think Chilwell has the higher ceiling. I'm going to reserve judgement until I see him play for us a few times. The price isn't nearly as crazy or ridiculous as it looked like it would be. If it's £50m that's the same thing City paid for each of Walker and Mendy. Cancelo was even more. AWB cost £50m to United and he's nearly useless going forward. I think it's a fair enough price for Chilwell when you consider his contract length, age, nationality, and the fact that Leicester are a rival for top 4.

Yeah, the battle for those central midfield spots is going to be very interesting. Since it look so like Jorginho is staying we have he, Kante, Kova, Billy, Mason, Barkley, and RLC all vying for those two spots next to/behind Havertz (fingers crossed). I mean, surely we have to be looking for buyers for one or two of those?

It's getting ridiculous now. In fact, it's beyond ridiculous. We've reportedly been at the same stage of negotiating for weeks. Nearly 2 weeks since their season ended.