18 minutes ago, Dr. Socrates said:

They’ll ask for 60m and we’ll meet them half way. Isn’t that how these things work? 

I think we need to leverage everything we can here to avoid being taken for a ride. He's way down the pecking order for them, is unhappy, has barely played for 12 months and Arse have apparently been hawking him around all and sundry to get rid. Doesn't sound like they've got a lot of bargaining power.

To be honest though I'm not sure about another permanent signing. Maybe we propose a loan instead? Could work well for all parties.

18 minutes ago, Gonoir Beniashile said:

I think we need to leverage everything we can here to avoid being taken for a ride. He's way down the pecking order for them, is unhappy, has barely played for 12 months and Arse have apparently been hawking him around all and sundry to get rid. Doesn't sound like they've got a lot of bargaining power.

To be honest though I'm not sure about another permanent signing. Maybe we propose a loan instead? Could work well for all parties.

Yes. He had groin surgery last year and never featured much after due to lacking sharpness. He played in the U21 tournament over the summer and by accounts played well. Now he’s fallen behind Trossard, Havertz, Odegaard, and hasn’t featured at all so far this season. Usually a sign that the manager wants you gone. He seems to fit the profile we’re after and if we can pick him up for a modest fee and he gets back to the form of his breakout season with Arsenal where he finished joint top scorer, he could be a decent addition. My worry is we don’t want any passengers, with all the injuries in the squad, so we need him to hit the ground running. 

I don't know. My input on this matter.

Sam Mokbel just said Arsenal don't want to sell and we've have to offer well above market value. 

Puts an end to that thankfully. 

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Sam Mokbel just said Arsenal don't want to sell and we've have to offer well above market value. 

Puts an end to that thankfully. 

The next couple of days will be full of claims and counter claims in the media. Nobody will really know what's going on. I think I'll hibernate until Sept 1st.

When I first became aware of Smith-Rowe a few seasons back I was very impressed and thought Arsenal had a cracking little player. Can well understand Gooners being dead against him moving to a rival - especially when we offloaded the duds that are Jorginho and Havertz to them!

But he could be yet another young player who has been affected by injuries. We have already seen lads like CHO and RLC never looking the same player again and maybe Arteta has already seen signs this could be the case with Smith-Rowe, as he's certainly a player you would persevere with otherwise. We could always hope that Arteta has just got too big for his boots and has lost the plot, but I would be very careful signing yet another player with an injury record as we don't want to add to the ever growing list.

Nice player, always struck me as a bit lightweight. We already have enough options in his role(s).

Looks like Flem from Cow and Chicken. That should knock a few mill off of the asking price. 

he's a good player. He did really well in the U21 world cup 

also the arsenal fan meltdown would be hilarious

On 30/08/2023 at 03:52, Nibs said:

When I first became aware of Smith-Rowe a few seasons back I was very impressed and thought Arsenal had a cracking little player. Can well understand Gooners being dead against him moving to a rival - especially when we offloaded the duds that are Jorginho and Havertz to them!

But he could be yet another young player who has been affected by injuries. We have already seen lads like CHO and RLC never looking the same player again and maybe Arteta has already seen signs this could be the case with Smith-Rowe, as he's certainly a player you would persevere with otherwise. We could always hope that Arteta has just got too big for his boots and has lost the plot, but I would be very careful signing yet another player with an injury record as we don't want to add to the ever growing list.

This is a well-reasoned and sensible take, but part of me wants Chelsea to sign him just to stop him scoring against us.

I think he could be a very good player if given time to develop, maybe a bit of a Bernardo Silva type - 7/10 in every category with a great ability to progress the ball upfield - but he needs a team that's got the right system and would afford him playing time.