Mertesacker is done and dusted. He'll be announced tomorrow, he's agreed to personal terms, passed his medical and Werder has signed off on the fee. £80k pw for 4 years.

I was getting at that. I don't think Modric will be very good if he stays at Spurs, especially if Spurs get off to a slow start after the international break. Levy lied to him (according to him anyway), Harry screwed him over in the media, and he obviously wants to be playing for Chelsea.

Might not be the worst thing if we don't get him this transfer window, at least Josh will get more of a chance.

I'm very confident we're trying very hard for a name "bigger" then either of these, but are a dog to complete such. A little bit of rumbling about Gourcuff in the past 24-36 hours as well. We were very interested in him last summer, then he went to Lyon and had a poor year. Could possibly buy low a year later.

M'Villa and Martin seem to be the two most possible Ligue 1 players on our radar, but with the Santos/Mertesacker/Park signings that no one saw coming, what's the point in listening to the rumors anyway?

Depending oh how chelseas season goes, you could see them putting up a huge bid for modric in January. They are already thin there I think.

Nice to speculate I guess...this is how I survive exam period @ uni

I think they will get a deal for Meireles done.

Ah fair enough. If that was a genuine agreement then it looks a bit harsh but given Levy's very public stance I think he has to stand firm for now.

Isn't that a **** ton for Mertesacker? I mean he's experienced and ****, but there's no way he's good enough to deserve that kind of money, esp with him being extremely untested in PL.

Such a victim in all this, Luka Modric.

Apparently we offered him that, which is at least slightly overpaying him to rush the deal through. We contacted, offered the deal and he had passed his medical in London within what, 12 hours? Less?

edit: to not double post.

According to tomorrow's issue of The Guardian, #Arsenal will sign Samba, Marvin Martin and Yann M'Vila before the window shuts.

That's what I thought as well.

Wasn't Luiz supposed to be on £35k pw?

You'd think having to play for Spurs would be bad enough.

That would be 3 fantastic signings for Arsenal, but I doubt any of them happen.

I've noticed that whenever clubs pay a medium sized to huge transfer fee, the player always get lesser wages that he technically should. Do all players receive a small % of the transfer fee (ala Fabregas getting 4mil or so from the 35m transfer)?

I mean I seem to remember that Joe Cole, Jovanovic, and a lot of the people that signed on a free get much higher wages than people with huge transfer fees.

Also, when it says per week, are they only getting paid the 38 weeks of game times, or in the offseason/international breaks, etc. as well?

Awww, poor bloke has to leave and actually play football.

---

Bellamy to Liverpool maybe?

Do you think there is a significant probability that Harry lied about Luka asking not to play? I may be misreading you but it seems extremely unlikely to me that Harry made that up, not least because Luka hasn't disputed it in the media afaik.

I think we're working hard behind the scenes to sign a striker that we haven't been linked too. This is without any actual sources, but Chamakh is at worst (best?) being shopped, at best clearly out of favour with Wenger. We're trying to give Bendtner a way out, and both Wenger and GOAT have said we are trying to find him a new club. Even with Park this leaves us short for strikers.

Don't know how "likely" any of the Martin/M'Villa etc are, but I really, really enjoyed them the last 3x I've seen France play. Martin has been playing opposite of Nasri, ahead of M'Villa and he has performed so much better then Nasri did in all of those games.

SCZ
Sagna-Vermaelen-Mertesacker-Santos
---M'Villa---
Martin-Wilshere
Walcott-RVP-Gervinho


Would make me very, very content. Very low chance of it all/those specific players happening of course, it's probably the best case scenario. I'm out, until tomorrow for the "real fun."

I'm just speculating really based on Redknapp's record of BS. I seem to remember he got himself into some strife with Lennon last season by initially claiming he "didn't want to play" in a Champions League game. Lennon then said he was ill/injured

Players generally don't get a % of the fee, but players who are free agent can demand a signing fee or higher wages knowing that clubs won't have to pay a transfer fee for them.

I think they get their xK/week x52 (or 53 w/e), so I really don't get why people don't just talk about xM/year instead.

I'm still flabbergasted that Arsenal didn't just stump up the £6m for Enrique

Isn't a signing on fee reasonably common for a lot of signings?

if the gentleman's agreement isn't being adhered to, i'd say your right

Cant believe Arsenal fans have more than 0% hope that Hazard signs. Jesus

I thought it was prevalent in 100% of signings (in the top flights)

who should i be following on twitter for deadline day?

i really only follow duncan castles, marcotti, henry winter and the guardian writers

Very small chance Santos is first choice over Gibbs, 0% chance Mertesacker is first choice over Kos except probably against teams like Blackburn and Stoke.

just cant see it.

hes injured + mirror saying pereira deal is done for (fail) £20m