ClaphamFox

If you read the word 'hopeful' and genuinely understand it to mean 'should', then you should bottle your optimism and flog it on ebay. That stuff is potent

Do you mean when Cooper is poached by England? I’m expecting us to do well next season but not that well…

Coady also said that Cooper doesn’t want to change too much. My guess is the style will be similar to last season but a little more pragmatic - ie, there will be an emphasis on passing and building from the back, but with the scope to go more direct if the opportunity presents itself or we’re under the cosh. I’d be ok with that.

There's a big difference between -6 points and -12 points. The former would present a challenge, but one we could overcome; the latter I agree would make survival extremely difficult. But I'm expecting it to be much closer to -6 than -12, and I think the club is too. If we only targeted players who would want to stay if we got relegated, we'd be narrowing our choices down considerably. We also need to consider high quality players who would boost our chances of staying up, but would also have a high resale value if we went down. I'd put Soule and O'Riley into that category.

I’m not so sure. We’ve been linked with O’Riley in previous transfer windows and he fits the bill in terms of what we need. I suspect our interest is genuine.

I doubt the club sees it this way at all. The owners have no intention of getting relegated and are trying to build a squad to survive, which won’t happen if we refuse to spend. Hence we were willing to pay up to £30m for Soule and are very likely willing to pay a similar amount for O’Riley. Of course that doesn’t guarantee we’ll get these players, but I think our intention for this season is clear enough.

It's a shame Martin Dahlin has retired.

He could live in Herts where all the other Arsenal players live and be at Seagrave in less than 90mins if he put his foot down.

Just seen the one with Kari Lake

Indeed. He's a proud Catalan and a supporter of Catalonian independence, which he apparently regards as incompatible with managing the Spanish national side. He is also on record as saying he wants to manage an international side at a World Cup or European Championships. Given his stature, he's only going to pick a country that he thinks at least has a shot at winning a major trophy, which realistically gives him a choice of what? Maybe six or seven countries? And he's lived in England for eight years and loves the game here. So is it really so outrageous to think he might be tempted to manage England? But what do I know? Purple Ronnie says there's no chance of it happening because, um, 'common sense'

Hello Jon!

Sure, of course they can keep him. Soule can't force them to sell him to Roma, just as Juventus cannot force him to join us. If neither side blinks, he'll stay with them next season. Besides, do we really want to risk a large chunk of our transfer budget on a player who has apparently made it clear he doesn't want to join us? is that what we want - an unhappy player who has just come for the cash and is miserable because he misses Italy? I'm not sure I do.

Here's the perspective from a Juventus fans' site. The key sentence is at the end: "We might not be able to force Soule to move to England, so there is a chance we will have to keep him or sell him to Roma." https://www.juvefc.com/soule-is-now-complicating-juventus-summer-plans-with-his-insistence-on-joining-roma/

The club cab take whatever offer it wants, but if the player refuses to sign the contract there is nothing they can do about it. Players cannot be forced to join a club if they don't want to. In Soule's case, if he knows that Juventus need to sell him and he wants to join Roma, all he has to do is refuse to sign for anybody else. Chances are, Juventus will eventually relent and sell for a lower price to Roma because they need the money.

But if that club wants to sell the player and the player refuses to join the club that has submitted the highest offer, the selling club may have to consider accepting a lower offer from a club the player is willing to join. KDH was persuaded to leave for the good of the club because Chelsea came in for him. If the only offers were from Brighton or Brentford, I think he'd have refused to go. If, as reports suggest, Juve needs to sell Soule to boost their transfer kitty, they'll have to care what he thinks. And if their choice is ultimately between being stuck with him because he refuses to join the highest bidder, or selling him at a reduced fee to Roma, they'll very likely opt for the latter. I think he'll join Roma.

It’s even better when it’s about a player most of us were scarcely aware of before he was linked with us. Having a collective mental breakdown about a well-known player just doesn’t feel the same somehow.

But if the player refuses to sign for us, what can they do?

Based on?

He has said his ambition is to manage an international team and he’s not going to manage Spain, so why not?

I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s been reported before that Pep would like the England job at some point. Apparently he wants to eventually manage an international team and is not interested in managing Spain. He also loves the English game…

FA ‘willing to wait’ for Guardiola… https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/pep-guardiola-next-england-manager-b2581326.html

Why did you think that?

Unless of course it's happening!

Presumably he'll have fewer to choose from by the end of the transfer window.

He should go full Michael Corleone and say: “Our offer is this: nothing. Not even the cost of Soule’s flight to England, which we’d appreciate if you put up personally.” It would shit ‘em right up.