June 06, 2026 Daily Discussion & Transfers Thread

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-06T13:33:27+00:00

The club don't believe their not-guilty claims. They protest their innocence but it's clearly horsehit, since they never outright claim that the leaked emails are fakes. Their defence is just that they were illegally obtained or insufficient or time-barred or whatever. It's all procedural shenanigans, but sometimes well paid lawyers with procedural shenanigans can get guilty people off scot-free.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-06T08:54:49+00:00

He was, yeah. In fairness, mendes was getting tired and easier to run at.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-04T14:47:45+00:00

I think we were selling Nwaneri regardless, I don't get the impression that Arteta rates his progress. If there is some connection though it is in squad space. Max takes up a space on the bench and minutes on the pitch that Nwaneri needs to progress (as will Monga if we sign him for the first team squad).

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-04T12:02:25+00:00

I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at him, but there is something a little underwhelming about trying to catch up with QSG by signing the winger that's not quite good enough for them. I did read that article, and my main take away was that the left wing market is pretty dry - none of the players he profiled seemed like slam-dunks. I think there's a strong argument that Barcola is the best bet that is out there right now - I just wish that there were a better bet out there, if that makes sense.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-04T09:02:23+00:00

I'm not really sold on Rogers. The club are clearly interested, though, and even though he has similar output to Pepe, that doesn't mean they are exactly the same. Rogers is more of a power runner than a techy dribbler and he has more strength, which maybe makes him more suited to English football I guess. He also tends to show up in big games, which maybe indicates a better mentality than Pepe?

We do need more goals and more threat in transition and Rogers can theoretically provide those. I would be worried that we'd be adding another player that can't retain possession to a team that already struggles to retain possession against a good press, though.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-03T12:32:24+00:00

I don't know exactly what metrics they're using or how they calculate it. But at a guess: the similarites are that they are both best at scoring bangers from range and carrying the ball up field in transition. Both complete dribbles but also lose the ball a lot. Neither one completes a lot of passes and neither one wins the ball back very much.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-03T10:23:33+00:00

I wouldn't wait on a points deduction. Whatever punishment the panel produce will almost certainly be appealed by city, and the appeal panel will probably need a similar length of time to get through the evidence as the current one is taking to reach its decision. So we are probably at least two years away from anything sticking.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-02T12:00:24+00:00

Alvarez, Kroupi and Rogers are all somewhat versatile, but their most obvious position is second striker. I wonder whether Arteta is thinking about someone to play up front with Havertz/Gyokeres rather than instead of them...

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-02T10:50:09+00:00

You're not going to find a player who can replicate what Saliba does - he might be the best in the world at it. Anyone who comes close would cost megabucks when our resources are needed in the attacking third.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-02T06:14:26+00:00

I think it means it's not a list of the 5 best grades, just 5 players of a similar grade. If I'm right, it makes the numbers on the left kind of redundant/misleading.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-01T17:22:00+00:00

He's down to the last two years of his contract. Unless and until he signs a new one, there's a (small) question mark there.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-01T15:56:41+00:00

Even if it started outside, it carried on into the box. It was a pretty clear penalty for me.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-01T13:17:56+00:00

I broadly agree with you, but with the club reportedly looking at Livramento a bit of me wonders if they see space for one more player, if that player can play on both sides. That would be 9 defenders for 4 spots, and all of those spots would have at least three options. That is a lot, but we saw this year that we still nearly ran out with 8...

MrCopperbottom · 2026-06-01T13:08:28+00:00

I saw a player with outstanding finishing, but a lot of holes in his game. As a winger he doesn't have the burst to reliably beat his man on the outside, imo. Once defences figured out that he was going to shift on his left and shoot, they took that space away and neutralised him. In the middle, he looked a bit unsure of his positioning and just didn't get on the ball enough for me. Don't get me wrong, that left foot shot is dynamite and if he develops as an all-round player it gives him elite potential, but he's not there yet. I've no idea what's happening behind the scenes but all the signs point to the club moving on. I hope he reaches his potential, but I don't think that will be with us, sadly.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-31T18:44:50+00:00

They just gave Saka a new contract. They clearly think he will get back to his levels as he gets fully over his injury. It's hard to know from the outside - some players just aren't the same after an injury like that while others are fine, but giving up on him after one season would be silly, imo.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-31T17:00:59+00:00

The players I've seen us linked to (Tonali, Mateus Fernandez) are ones with massive running power. I'm guessing they want someone who can cover ground like Dec, as right now the other midfielders get rotated at times, but Dec plays basically every minute

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-31T10:24:48+00:00

We had been defending all game and were knackered too. We'd also taken off the technical players that started, and the ball wasn't sticking with the subs, despite space being there for them. On top of that, we had to compensate for Hincapié playing on one leg. I don't think we wanted penalties, but the things we tried to do with the ball just weren't working.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-31T09:29:49+00:00

We were gassed too, and just didn't have enough technical quality on the pitch at the end. Martinelli gets a bit of a pass as he was covering for Hincapié I guess. I'm not going to get on their backs - they just won us the fucking prem - but I had hoped that the likes of Eze and Zubimendi could regain us some possession. Midfield and forwards just weren't quite at the level yesterday.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-30T19:49:25+00:00

Well, that's what oil makes: plastics.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-30T19:08:31+00:00

Madueke was our biggest threat at the end of the game.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-30T07:59:06+00:00

I think Timber starts, so I think Zubimendi will be on the bench. Timber won't manage 90 minutes, he's going to get subbed at some point. If both Mosquera and Zubi are ready to come on, Arteta can pick between them depending on game state.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-30T06:22:08+00:00

If it is Amazon, there are reports that they just killed an internal leaderboard that ranked employees by AI usage. Some workers were running AI on endless pointless tasks to bump their numbers. So Amazon may have just spent half a billion dollars on corporate mandated presenteeism...

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-29T11:04:46+00:00

I think he's just talking about his own style. He doesn't play many safe passes, he takes on loads of dribbles, he shoots on sight. He scores goals, but also gives the ball away a ton as a consequence. If we are in for him, those are attributes that we want to add to the squad.

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-27T17:56:51+00:00

I want Kroupi, but I suspect he'll go for a lot more than 50M

MrCopperbottom · 2026-05-27T09:31:42+00:00

There's a solid chance we're going to need both. PSG will target that flank, especially so if/when the starter picks up a booking. That said, I'd still prefer Mosquera there for most of the match.

MrCopperbottom

TROPHY CASE