What are the realistic expectations? Who are your favourites to win everything again next season? City is the only reasonable answer.
Declan Rice | Arsenal £105m player
- Thread starter Samid
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What are the realistic expectations? Who are your favourites to win everything again next season? City is the only reasonable answer.
What are you on about?
What, kinda like us and Maguire?
You shut your dirty mouth.
We were able to move on all of the older players that were on mega wages, and it seems the Kreonke's have bought into Arteta and Edu's vision completely.
I doubt we'll be spending huge after this season (as in three big signings), our squad is pretty fleshed out now.
Fair enough.
Since United last won the PL title back in 12/13 they have won: 1x FA Cups, 1x Europa League and 2x EFL Cups.
In that same period Arsenal have won 4x FA Cups.
Both sides have been as bad or as good as each other in terms of winning trophies. Does this mean anyone that signs for United has decided to be a loser too?
Well he has not so far, and you cannot be sure of anything. Xhaka had an amazing season last season.
Who has said he's better than Partey?
I think they can play together. Though maybe Partey will want to take the crazy Saudi offer, or maybe the club will want to move him on due to the off field issues.
Yes, by using the same logic. Only loser signs for United as well.
He, and West Ham, have been shit for 18 months now.
I’m sure someone will soon post stats about progressive passes and all this but I was watching him involved in a midfield that allowed the likes of Bournemouth etc to walk right though them and dictate the play through midfield. It happened far too often and even his biggest supporters on here had to admit how much he was floundering.
My biggest gripe with Rice is this promise that he was setting out to become more expansive 2 seasons ago. That didn’t happen and he regressed to an even more restricted role that coincided with West Ham falling off a cliff. He may well play well in his area of the pitch but he isn’t leaving that box and I would blame Moyes but he does the exact same thing for England as well. This stupid fecking left side and drop right back into the CB position that he falls into. That’s where most of these tackles won etc stats come from.
Being the third CB in a congested defensive structure will see him collect a lot of blocks, interception, forwards passes etc stats because of the little space around him that he falls into. He’s the CM, that’s right on the CB toes, of course he’ll be the first pass from a defensive turnover a lot of times. He will be the player carrying it forward into the space that he himself vacated.
This is an era that asks DMs to cover the entire midfield following pressing triggers and covering those who push up.
He may well flourish under Arteta, there’s more than a good chance of doing that but it’s not based off of his form or performances from the last 18 months and if I were Havertz I’d be preparing myself to receive all of the blame for Rice not hitting the ground running because he needs a proper midfield partner etc.
I think it will be very interesting to see how he improves Arsenal as I really don't know how much I rate Rice. I think he does a job, bit like Keane used to, that doesn't get all the credit they deserve for the work they do - however Keane was regularly voted MOTM and has put in some legendary displays, yet I don't see that in Rice.
Perhaps playing for Arsenal and CL football will elevate him to the next level - looking forward to seeing how it works out.
Perhaps playing for Arsenal and CL football will elevate him to the next level - looking forward to seeing how it works out.
me too. Curious how he will work out alongside Havertz. Split opinions and could go either way.
stronger links today that partey might be off to Saudi. If that’s the case I’d argue our midfield is weaker than last seasons even with the addition of someone like lavia
They beat Bournemouth 2-0 and 4-0 last season, including a Rice goal.
Man of match against us a couple of months ago. But yeah, he's been terrible for 18 months.
I agree, losing both Xhaka and Partey at once is a massive blow and kind of fees like 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. That's our two most experienced players in our first XI gone. Think it's too much change for one window, especially with this young squad. If Partey does go, I don't think Lavia would cut it. We'd need a more proven, experienced midfielder IMO.
Overpaid massively. Mainoo is more talented and will go on to be the better player.
I've read the first line and I'll leave the post there.
Of course he's been so shit that the top two teams in England were willing to spend 90+ million and 105 million on him. He was so shit that Bayern spent months trying to convince him to move to Germany. He was so shit that Chelsea were interested for well over a year, but once CL was unachievable they were ruled out by the player. Yes, so shit.
What laughable nonsense.
As always on this forum people underrate the English players.
Midfield Maguire. Thank feck we weren’t the suckers this time.
I don’t know how you judge players but that’s a horrendous metric. Maybe those rumours is how you justify being conned into paying 105m for him over 3 fecking years.
But I am arguing with an Arsenal fan who seems to have literally not mentioned Rice until a few months ago on here unless I’m missing something? I’m guessing you were so impressed with his performances that you kept them to yourself?
I don’t really blame you for not reading past the first line since you genuinely seemed to have talked yourself into this signing 6 weeks ago
Yeah, you have built very good squad and with right age profile. Like you said, if you had to lose players then you are in good position to make good money to reinvest.
Arteta and Edu have done very good job transforming squad from overpaid dross to young and hungry players.
Some of these posts
The levels of stupidity and hateful bias from some posters (not all of course) has my brain haemorrhaging. Thankfully I've learned in my old age that it's just not healthy to argue with every moron on the internet, otherwise this place will be the death of me.
Pretty jealous to be honest.
He'll be an immense signing for them.
He'll be an immense signing for them.
Yes, using the fact the best team on the planet bar none, the best team in Germany and the second best team in England all wanted to sign him is a stupid metric to use when refuting your claim that the player has been "shit for 18 months."
Dig up.
He wouldn’t be bad in Stones role under Pep. A genuine CB / CM hybrid position that’s actually been allocated for in the team structure.
Pep buys players for 1/2 seasons time and he wasn’t being signed to weirdly revert their midfield two to a double pivot. Stones is 30 by the end of next season, it’s what City is all about.
I can now see why Arsenal signed Timber as well, they now have to reinforce the playing side around Rice but they shouldn’t have to do that around a 105m player.
Maguire is just shit
Mount has been shit for 18 months according to Chelsea fans.
We wanted him and got him, Liverpool wanted him and you wanted him. Hell according to German reports Tuchel wanted him as well.
Can you explain the difference here? Havertz says hello by the way. Madrid wanted him as well. You telling me he hasn’t been woeful for a long time now?
Obviously you can point to many games where Rice stood out last season. I’m open to be corrected but we both know you won’t and we both know why.
Is there a single credible source for the Bayern stuff you’re quoting as fact?
Because I don’t see any World in which Bayern would be prepared to absolutely annihilate their transfer record for Declan Rice, and even less so in a year they will have to spend big on a striker. Sounds like goal.com or caughtoffside nonsense.
You should probably also remember that all reports claimed Pep also desperately wanted Maguire.
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Huge signing for the Arse. I'm glad he's gone there and not Chelsea.
Can't believe how shit he's been for 18 months.
Just imagine how good he'll be when he becomes even mediocre, according to cyberman of the interweb's standards.
80% true. This expensive signings generally never work
.People will be shocked again when it won't work and act surprised.
Over 30 players have gone for more than €80M.
Here is the list. How many have genuinely been a success, genuine success through individual success and collective team success ? Which can be agreed by all group of fans.
Ronaldo ManUtd - Real Madrid.
Neymar Santos - Barcelona
VvD S'ton - Liverpool
Suarez Liverpool - Barca
Maybe Mbappe to some degree
From around 34 players, only 5 and below we can all agree to have been a success.
| 1 | Neymar | Barcelona - PSG | 2017 | €222m |
| 2 | Kylian Mbappe | Monaco - PSG | 2017 | €145m (+€35m) |
| 3 | Joao Felix | Benfica - Atletico Madrid | 2019 | €126m |
| 4 | Enzo Fernandez | Benfica - Chelsea | 2023 | €121m |
| =5 | Philippe Coutinho | Liverpool - Barcelona | 2018 | €120m (+€40m) |
| =5 | Antoine Griezmann | Atletico Madrid - Barcelona | 2019 | €120m |
| 7 | Jack Grealish | Aston Villa - Manchester City | 2021 | €117m |
| 8 | Romelu Lukaku | Inter - Chelsea | 2021 | €115m |
| =9 | Ousmane Dembele | Borussia Dortmund - Barcelona | 2017 | €105m (+€45m) |
| =9 | Paul Pogba | Juventus - Manchester United | 2016 | €105m |
| 11 | Jude Bellingham | Dortmund - Real Madrid | 2023 | €103m |
| 12 | Gareth Bale | Tottenham - Real Madrid | 2013 | €100.8m |
| =13 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid - Juventus | 2018 | €100m |
| =13 | Eden Hazard | Chelsea - Real Madrid | 2019 | €100m (+€40m) |
| =13 | Mykhailo Mudryk | Shakhtar Donetsk - Chelsea | 2023 | €100m |
| 16 | Antony | Ajax - Manchester United | 2022 | €95m (+€5m) |
| 17 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Manchester United - Real Madrid | 2009 | €94m |
| 18 | Gonzalo Higuain | Napoli - Juventus | 2016 | €90m |
| 19 | Harry Maguire | Leicester City - Manchester United | 2019 | €87.1m |
| 20 | Neymar | Santos - Barcelona | 2013 | €86.2m |
| 21 | Jadon Sancho | Borussia Dortmund - Manchester United | 2021 | €85m |
| 22 | Romelu Lukaku | Everton - Manchester United | 2017 | €84.8m |
| 23 | Virgil van Dijk | Southampton - Liverpool | 2018 | €84.5m |
| 24 | Luis Suarez | Liverpool - Barcelona | 2014 | €82.3m |
| 25 | Wesley Fofana | Leicester City - Chelsea | 2022 | €80.6m |
| =26 | Aurelien Tchouameni | Monaco - Real Madrid | 2022 | €80m (+€20m) |
| =26 | James Rodriguez | Monaco - Real Madrid | 2014 | €80m |
| =26 | Kepa Arrizabalaga | Athletic Club - Chelsea | 2018 | €80m |
| =26 | Lucas Hernandez | Atletico Madrid - Bayern Munich | 2019 | €80m |
| =26 | Romelu Lukaku | Manchester United - Inter | 2019 | €80m |
| 31 | Nicolas Pepe | Lille - Arsenal | 2019 | €79.9m |
| 32 | Alvaro Morata | Real Madrid - Chelsea | 2017 | €79.9m |
Add Kai Havertz in this list.. From Leverkusen to Chelsea €85M
Anyone can grab 5 different random metrics though to suit said player.
I’m waited on these performances being quoted for me and I knew they wouldn’t come. I even predicted stats.
Can't believe how shit he's been for 18 months.
Just imagine how good he'll be when he becomes even mediocre, according to cyberman of the interweb's standards.
Ok, you’ve talked yourself into the signing, see you in December. Your last stat graphic is what I described 2 posts up but you didn’t read past the first line.
Ok then so.
Edit I’ll give you an example
Idrissa Gueye
Top ten in tackles, successful tackles and interceptions in opponents half.
Must be 90m at least for him, am I right?
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Tuchel was managing Chelsea when they first started targeting Rice.
Romano and others (Tier 1) reported many times that Bayern were working on convincing him to move to Germany - that's when the stories about him preferring to stay in London started to come out (due to young family).
Can they? Prove it to me and show me Antony or Mudryk as one of the best wingers in the league.
Also what metrics are you going to grab that better suit a defensive midfielder?
They don’t prove him as one of the best, they prove he got more than 30 in each of the hand selected categories, not that he topped them.
Perhaps, but with the addition of Timber, who has a great touch for a defender and can bring the ball out from the back, I think you’ve had an excellent transfer window. Rice is a huge improvement over hacka (mental leadership as well as ability) and timber too.
I have my doubt on whether havertz can do what is expected as i think, like us, you need an out an out 9 to really challenge city.
Dodged a bullet at that price. He's a decent player and strengthens their squad but he doesn't get them any closer to City.
They were posted in response to the claim Rice has been "shit for 18 months." What's more likely, a player that's shit is going to be at the top of those metrics or not? I think the answer is obvious.
I agree they don't necessarily prove that he's one of the best DM's in the league. But they certainly support the case.
Now just grab 5 metrics and show me how good Mudryk, Antony and Nunez are. It's that easy right.