Winter is Coming wrote:

Thimmy wrote:Gundogan is an important player for Man City, and his talent speaks for itself, but several times this season I've read and heard people point out that City "have the likes of Mahrez and Gundogan on the bench" as a reference to their quality of depth, and I think it's easy to assume that these players who are both in their 30s would slot into any team as a starter and perform like they are now performing during the business end of the season.

If I were a potential buyer, I'd consider the possibility that they're hitting peak form this late in the season as a result of not having to play 90 minutes twice a week. That's a luxury that benefits Man City, and not necessarily a club like Barcelona, who don't have a lot of squad depth and would presumably expect him to slot into their starting XI. I imagine he would have his own expectations as well.

Gundo has played 3500 mins across all competition this season, only Ederson, Rodri and Haaland have played more mins then him. I wouldn't say he had the benefit of resting.

However I agree with, there depth in terms of investment and talent isn't much different too most top teams. I feel Aresnal and Pool are the lightest, but RM in the CL had 2 players worth 100m, 2 players worth 35 mill and Mendy who cost about 50m, a healthy United side would have Maguire 80m, Martial 60m, Fred 50m, Lindelof 35m, Van Beek 35m, they would probably rotate between Wan Bissaka 50m and maybe even Anthony and Sancho who cost 80m each lol Chelsea lets not even talk about them, they have ridculous investment and quality themselves.

Even in Arsenal case, they literally dropped out early in most competition, further added Jorginho, Tossard and Kiwior in Jan, and Veira was signed in the summer for 35m and has played less then 500 mins in the PL. I can understand the depth arguement if they were competing in all competition, but that wasn't the case here, further more for league play they had good enough quality and depth, conceeding 3 goals to Southampton who are dead last at home and giving up a 2-0 lead to West Ham, is what killed there chances.

I hope Arensal invest more this summer, they're team can do a lot, if they keep building on this, but I feel their owners won't sadly.

If I was Arensal I'd target one of Laporte or Kim Min-jae for CB. Maddison for midfield, David for foward have GJ rotate between him and Saka.

This would probably cost Arsenal around 150-200 mill.

Next season top 4 will be hard, only 3 teams can make it into their, Chelsea won't have any Europe, Liverpool won't have CL (unless United or Newcastle choke), so they'll be heavy contenders. United will get maybe stronger and Newcastle will also get stronger, but I feel CL might do a number on them, but who knows.