No, you're right, it's great he is apparently spending big and spending early. But he hasn't been immune to bad buys in the past and I was interested to see if anyone with more knowledge of Xhaka than me thought this was a good deal or not.

Don't know much about him but the fact that he is over 6 foot is a positive as we could do with some height and muscle in the middle of the park and on set pieces.

Walcott, Rosicky, Arteta, Flamini
With Wellbeck injured we MUST sign another striker.

Even if Welbeck wasn't injured we would have needed one. All the top teams have a top quality striker. We need one that will get us 20+ league goals a season. None of our current strikers are capable of getting us the goals to challenge for the title bar Sanchez but Wenger doesn't play him up front.

I would go all out for either Aubameyang or Higuain. Both have had excellent seasons for their respective clubs.

Yep, I'd add Morata to that list as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36270266

Nine months out for Welbeck...

Jesus H.....

I feel for wellbeck. Poor guy can't catch a break.
Wenger has to replace him. We all know he won't though.

Not even Wenger can be as shortsighted as that. Right?
Right?

Feel very sorry for Wellbeck, poor guy

Yes terrible luck. There always seems an Arsenal player who gets injured before a major tournament. Very disappointing as he would have have almost certainly started. No one to cheer on England now.

seems like a nice lad so terrible news for him. Puts a lot of pressure on Wenger not to just disappear for his highly lucrative commentary stint at the Euros, but to sign a good striker.
With rumours of Alexis leaving (hopefully untrue but his storming off the other day not a good sign), and a record low no of goals this season, if we go into the new season with just Giroud and Theo (who may well now not be allowed to leave), oh....hell in a bucket.

Morata is a really good player but has a slight attitude problem apparently - Buffon was quoted as saying Morata can be world class if he sorts that out. He's young, fast and very skilful but needs a coach like Allegri, not maybe Wenger, to bring out the best in him. I'm not sure he's a 25 goal a season player either; he plays well as a front 2 player for Juve. They have Mandzukic who is light years better than Big Olly.

Yeah, really bad for Wellbeck and typical for us. It didn't look too bad on Sunday. Just seems our players constantly pick up these sort of injuries. No idea what AW will do about it though.

Wishing Welbeck a full recovery, didn't even feature for half of the season and was probably one of a handful that played consistently well.

I worry this will just mean we'll have to rely on that donkey Giroud to hit the ground running next season.


I agree.......for me it'll be interesting to see how Wenger utilizes Xhaka if he does join.

Wenger's dithering in the transfer market has always been a big problem, so early business is always welcomed. Yet will he leave the team short again? Squad needs attacking and defensive reinforcements. Wenger still hasn't replaced RVP, and Giroud -- despite what the stats say, isn't top quality. As Shearer says, getting 20 goals a season is the minimum you should expect with a guy like Ozil.

I still think Wenger sells himself short when it comes to his deployment of players. There's no evidence that he gets the best out his team anymore, and you get the feeling it doesn't matter who or what he signs, you won't see any considerable improvement. This team is mentally brittle, and always let you down. The football has been turgid for months, injuries always plague the squad, and they just can't surprise us like before.

If Arsenal are going to win the title next season, they have to start defending properly as a team. All well and good the manager saying Arsenal are attacking, but if you don't work on the foundations, you'll always collapse. You don't buy pressing and organisation..........you work at it in the training ground. And reap the benefits as the season progresses.

So many of Arsenal's issues could be solved internally, yet the manager's sheer negligence and vanity means we only see transfers as the solution. Personally I hope he isn't just signing players now to justify signing a new three-year deal.

If he does buy early, I fear we'll spend the rest of the summer speculating about the next buy which will never come, a bit like when he bought Cech. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record I don't think the problems wholly lie on the pitch. We 'should' strengthen yes, in certain areas, but I'm convinced with another manager we could have won the league this year with our current bunch of players.

Anyway, it's a moot point as it didn't happen and Wenker doesn't look likely to leave any time soon, plus it looks like the silent one will be there for the duration - we make him money, what's not to love about it for him.

So we're in the race for Le Virtual Trophy yet again this year, the weekend should be interesting for those teams in contention, if nothing else!!

well, Rafa is available!

De Boer's also not renewing his contract.

Times say Wenger has been offered 2-year deal.

Has to sign it by October.

Oh dear

Newcastle have nothing to play for so no St. Totts day this year.

Well it may work in our favour as they can play without any pressure and you never know. One last hurrah before leaving the PL. Though I do expect TH to at least avoid defeat. What will be will be. For our part, I expect us to tonk Aston Villa, scrub expect, I demand it!. Let's sign off the season with a whizz bang and lots of goals.

I think we'll win - maybe 1-0. They will also win and secure 2nd, release a DVD, commemorative wall plates, mugs, ad infinitum! They're fans will say they don't give a lot of thought to finishing above us, but they bloody do Well, every dog has his day, let's give them this one!

On another matter, OH received his ST renewal form yesterday, before the clubs spin doctors haven't even started talking 'war chest'.

No other club can touch us when it comes to long term injuries...van Persie...Diaby...Rosicky.....Ramsey....Walcott...Wilshire..Debuchy.....The Ox....and now Welbeck....not just one long term injury but multiple ones. We seem to be cursed prior to the major tournaments. I wish Danny Welbeck a speedy recovery.

Indeed, although I'm hoping they're looking to do what Villa did to them. It's also the last PL game in front if their own crowd for a while, but it's unlikely that they'll win tbh.

ODL needs to get his skates on re signings. It seems that the Germans especially are getting things done early. We need to get rid of 3/4 players and get a similar amount of real quality in.

I'm hoping that the rumoured 2-year deal will remain just that, a rumour...

I think our curse extends far beyond just major tournaments. Still I seem to remember Arsene has been promising to deal with this for a good ten years or more. He'll probably get around to it eventually!

Seriously, does nobody at the club take a step back and think 'maybe it's something we are doing that is causing injury after injury after injury'?

Gibbs should be on the list too!

Seems to be a two-fold issue.

The amount of long term injuries we get and also most of them seem to turn out even longer term than first anticipated. Some you understand, Diaby had a horrendous injury and then has had loads more as a result of that one. Other ones more odd. Muscle injuries that take 8 months to sort out.

I saw a stat on Wellbeck the other day showing the amount of games he played for Utd in the three or four years before joining us and how many he’s played for us. No real injuries of note at Utd and two major ones already with us.

It’s difficult to believe we have just been unlucky for ten years or more. I don’t doubt the club have looked in to it but it isn’t improving. The one thing that strikes me is that often the incident that leads to an injury doesn’t appear very significant. Could there be an issue in our “strengthness programme” if indeed there is such a thing. Are our players more susceptible to certain types of injuries because of how we train/build them up?

There are some mitigating circumstances re the injuries like Diaby where it had a knock on effect for the rest of his body. Wilshere has dodgy ankles. Impact injuries; there isn't a lot you can do about those. Just rotten luck. The Welbeck situation is a frustrating one. It seemed like a nothing challenge and he's crocked as a result. Then sending players on who haven't warmed up properly like Walcott and Ramsey...that's just stupidity of the highest order. You can write the script for Jack and the Euros.

From today's press conference On an unusual campaign, he adds: "It is a missed opportunity for everyone who was supposed to be up there. Other people can feel a missed opportunity." Yeah but its our missed opportunity I'm concerned about.