The concerning thing was that some intermediary was shopping him around and no one is taking responsibility. We know it wasn't Myles' mum (his agent), so that only leaves the club. I suspect that it was someone from Berta's team. Whether they'd gone rogue or not, who knows. But the fact is, we have too many central midfielders now:

Ødegaard
Rice
Zubimendi
MLS
Bruno G
Eze
Nwaneri
Merino

Personally, I think Merino is a terrible midfielder for us but he's a clutch striker, so I can see why we're reluctant to get rid of him. Even if I never want to see him in midfield because he breaks up our play too much. I think Arteta sees Nwaneri as the eventual Ødegaard replacement and so is determined to make that work in the long-term. With the squad currently too big, Berta's office knows we need to move players on, and a massive offer for MLS makes that feasible. Given that he was a Champions League Final starter who performed at a world-class level, he's our biggest sellable asset, but not one I'd move on. I'd rather sell Ødegaard, Merino and more reluctantly, Nwaneri and just force a proper evolution of our midfield. But the backlash has been loud. I think loud enough to kill any considerations Berta's office may have had.

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[–] VesNL@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I'd batch them up like:

Ødegaard, Eze, Nwaneri

Rice, Bruno G,

Zubimendi, MLS

Merino falls more in the Havertz category. A weird hybrid. And I agree he does slow us down when he's in the middle and things are tight. But he's been great for holding up and crashing the box. Which gives us a new problem, we then have 4 strikers.

[–] Astrealix@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I think someone's just tryna unsettle him. I doubt any of our team from top to bottom want him gone, considering his age profile, ability, and homegrown status. I'd be more keen to sell either Zubimendi or Eze before MLS if we had to, even though I think Zubimendi is the better player currently and Eze is a completely different profile.

[–] Aesecakes@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

Here’s an unlocked article link

[–] scrchngwsl@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

I actually don't think we have too many midfielders. We need 6 high quality starters for 3 slots. We saw what happened last season with the number of games and injuries. Zubimendi dropped off a cliff toward the end of the season because he was playing 90 minutes 3 times a week for 4 months straight. I know there are 8 players listed there, but the last 3 (and indeed MLS) all play other positions too so will get plenty of game time.

We'd have to get a massive offer for MLS that allowed us to buy an absolute star on the left wing for me to be ok with selling him.