Jase

James has played quite a bit when fit recently. And even if you take Azpi out of the equation, is Lamptey gonna get ahead of James in the long run? I'm sure you can understand if he doesn't want to play second fiddle.

The Times reporting Bale back to Spurs but Zidane...

The situation with Lamptey is a funny one. If he hadn't been used in that Arsenal game, would people even bother with him deciding to leave? From Lamptey's perspective, he probably knows he won't get ahead of James in the pecking order and he doesn't want to play second fiddle in the long run. It's also probably good he goes elsewhere because you know, he won't have to take shit from people when he suffers a dip in form...

Do they really though? Plus, it's also hard when there's James ahead of him.

Maybe but Lazio are only in one competition left - Serie A. They're already out of the cups. So, not sure how much rotation Inzaghi will be doing for the rest of the season.

Soares, you mean? The deal isn't even confirmed. Even then, don't tell me you wouldn't be going mad if the club signed Soares, who is hardly wow? It's like us signing Drinkwater! It should already tell you something when Arsenal, despite all their bad slump at the moment, had to "shop" from Flamengo & Southampton, Spurs had to look for players from the Eredivisie (players going to the Premier League from the Eredivisie don't exactly boast a great record of success) and get someone who fell behind Adel Taarabt in the pecking order at Benfica on a loan deal. It's just basically hard to sign someone quality in the January transfer window. As much as I'm frustrated that we aren't doing anything (or haven't done anything) in this window, I'm also not overly pissed either if means we stop wasting money on duds. I'd wait till the summer to see what the club have in store for the long term. We are definitely taking a risk here but I'd wait and see rather than going all miffed over the club not signing players for the short term.

The same could be about him going to Inter, Lazio TBF.

Arsenal have signed 2 defenders? Who apart from Pablo Mari? And speaking of Pablo Mari, if we had signed him - a relatively unknown from Brazil - wouldn't people be going ballistic over the club signing yet another unknown/seemingly average player?

So many contrasting reports over this Mertens/Giroud situation. You have ESPN, Matt Law saying we are still after Mertens (it'll basically go down to the wire) and then there is L'Equipe claiming Giroud will not be allowed to leave, which suggests we won't be signing an attacker.

The irony of moaning when the club make short term signings/sign average players and then also moaning when the club don't make make short term signings.

May or may not be related to Mertens but Napoli have signed a striker from SPAL.

The Slimani rumour has popped up.

Piatek to Hertha confirmed...

The Athletic's update on Mertens that is like neither here nor there...

IT'S HAAAPPPPEEEENNNNIIIIGGGGG...

IT'S HAPPENING...

I want to but I CAN'T BECAUSE OF WORK!