I mention him coming through the academy helps us avoid getting stuck into paying the English tax for homegrown players.
Homegrown and English oddly seem to carry different premium levels despite the benefit from a squad building perspective largely being the same.
Homegrown is 100% down to FFP/PSR/SCR. Sell them higher and it allows the club to spend more… not a lot to do with quality.
Hype is king.
Dude, Oxlade costed us almost as much as Salah, and he was not exact a star player at Arsenal at that time. Guys like Ramsey were bigger than him.
And never ever forget about Henderson. When we bought him he was less developed than Scott right now, and he costed us 20 million (which would have been 70 million these days).
We also tried to go all in on Bellingham but lost out to Real.
Rice’s price was totally warranted, though. He immediately improved Arsenal upon joining, and has been a key player since then, unlike a certain German dude who was even more expensive than Rice. Rice was in PFA Team of the Season for three straight seasons (and he will almost certainly be there this season as well) - dude is No.1 midfielder of the league right now FFS, also top 15 Ballon d’Or ranking (only Rodri was ranked higher as a PL midfielder, but he already left for Barca).
Klopp would have departed us with a treble in 2024 had we bought Rice in summer 2023. Had we bought him in summer 2022, we would have never crashed out of Top 4 (our midfield declined so badly in 2022/2023 that Klopp had to start a kid at CDM lmao).
You do want some sort of presence of senior English/British players in prime or advanced ages in an English team, though. Such presence is good for Academy young players, most of whom are British players. The kind of presence that Gerrard, Hendo and Milner provided during the past 20-25 years.
Rice the number 1 midfielder in the league? Because he came in top 15 in a popularity contest? not for me.
Henderson was £12m rising to about £17m with add ons.
Ox was dogged by injury issues at arsenal but he was very much considered a star talent, whenever he got a run of games he picked up an injury so they became very
softy softly with him
Given Trent’s poor decision-making ability, I could see this happening.
Chelsea have been linked with a move for England right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold if the 28-year-old Real Madrid defender becomes available. (Football Insider)
https://x.com/GraemeBailey/status/2115789786766098865?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^2115789786766098865|twgr^acc2dafb427990fcab0117baa6a61421ca126399|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.algerie360.com%2Fibrahim-maza-psg-arsenal-tottenham-mercato%2F
@FGred 's post. tag him for discussion.
All I want is for LFC have a go at this player he has a high ceiling and is very young his English is very good. Even Klopp turned up to watch him in his last match hoping probably to persuade him to backtrack on his allegiance to play for Algeria to Germany.
yeah i watched something the other day that ranked him as one of the best young talents in the world. I haven’t seen anything of him as i can recall but he does seem to be a hot topic.
Top young German player tearing up the bundesliga for Bayer…what could go wrong
Looks like Trent is desperate to follow Mikey Owen’s career arc. Problem is Trent he won the Ballon D’or and was at his best before he left. The only way is down from us, la.
And if you think Hendo’s reception the other night was a tad unfair , well … 
I could live with him joining say Villa or Newcastle, or even Spurs, but going to Chelsea, Arsenal or either Manchester club would be stupid and wrong. So he’ll probably do that.
I get the lack of trust in Trent making good decisions and even maybe preparing yourself in advance for him doing something stupid but that rumor sounds like typical press making this up because it will get a lot of views.
Just a reminder there is a dedicated Trent thread
I clicked on that rumour of the trent thread. It exists. It transferred me. It is definitely not an unreliable rumour that you posted. 
Isn’t AOC still Arsenal’s record sale?
no. martinelli.
Ah, so was right up to this summer. Still crazy that.
especially with transfers the way they are!
Nowadays if a player can lace his own boots … value £60m
It will look like even more of a steal once she become President in 29