As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
A lot of agents will hold off deals for their players involved in the Euro tournament in the hope the players value will rise after a good showing in the finals.
I see Wenger being very aware of this and try to tie up a deal or two before the big kick off. I think Huntelaar will be in the shop window but I doubt we will go for him Villa would be fantastic tooo but to be honest we would not pay the kind of money to bring him to the Grove.
We will buy lesser known players as always but Arsene may unearth a gem or two
Wenger dosent buy "names" he buys what he thinks is the correct person at the rite price for that position. We need experiance not a name, and a few new unknowns. And new unknowns is Wenger's forte.
I think some of you are getting confused about our need for quality players as above to star names. Eto and david villa are indeed star names and I firmly believe we could and should sign the latter however players like wright phillips and barry are not star names but could def do a good job for us and are players we probably should be targetting. Some would point to the sucesses of signing unknowns like sagna but others would probably point to the relative failure of signings like the cygans & stepanovs of this world. We do need proven quality players that are ready to hit the ground running a lot more than we need young players who are still developing. As for nasri I too have heard a lot about him but have not seen him in action so do not feel qualified to judge if he would be good enough for us.
A small question for Daniel D though - if you really believe that wenger can see the areas we need to improve in do you think he will buy a quality keeper ? Almunia is not good enough and wenger seems to be the only one who believes otherwise
mrgnu1958 wrote:As ive said before in other posts.
We will be signing anyone that nobody else wants 1 day before the transfer deadline.
AS PER USUAL!
Very good comment! i dont think, Nobody wanted Henry did they, or Vieira, or Eduardo, or Sagna, or Rosicky, or Hleb, or Van Persie, or Gilberto, or Adebayor, or Toure, or Gallas i could continue! when have we ever panic bought anyone on the last day? (Baptista doesnt count as we swapped him for Reyes and anything was better than that wally)
mrgnu1958 wrote:As ive said before in other posts.
We will be signing anyone that nobody else wants 1 day before the transfer deadline.
AS PER USUAL!
Very good comment! i dont think, Nobody wanted Henry did they, or Vieira, or Eduardo, or Sagna, or Rosicky, or Hleb, or Van Persie, or Gilberto, or Adebayor, or Toure, or Gallas i could continue! when have we ever panic bought anyone on the last day? (Baptista doesnt count as we swapped him for Reyes and anything was better than that wally)
I don't think it's relevant wheter you and I know players before Wenger sign them...I bet Arsene knows 5 times as many players and all about their ability as the most clued up person on footballers around the world on here.
However, just for fun...lets try to think of how many players we knew before Arsene signed them..and by that I mean knew as in having seen then play at least on telly a few times. I can think of 10,
Overmars, Suker, Henry, Kanu, Reyes, Gallas, Poom,Jeffers, Sol, Wright.
With the exception of Campbell, Overmars and to a lesser extent Gallas, I'd say all the players I knew about before they signed for us have done poorly whilst playing for us.
I didn't no much about Henry other than he didn't do well in Italy. The rest that I did know about performed quite poorly.
I'd accept relative unknowns over established names everyday of the week. Players like Henry, Shevchenko and Veron should stop our fans from calling for big name signings.
Even buying players that have performed in this league is no guarantee. Benjani was banging the goals in for Portsmouth and did absolutely nothing for City. Anelka hasn't looked as good for any of the Premiership clubs he played for as he did for us.
There's more involved than the ability of the player and his history in the league. Some players just do better at different clubs.
The excitement over Nasri seems a little much but he has been known for a few years now, hardly a Sagna or a Cesc when we brought them, more like a Kanu in terms of name.
I'm not excited because we haven't signed him yet and never seen him play
The two reasons I am exited are that we are actually singing a player for 10 million plus, and that everyone seems to call him the new Zidane. If Arsene is ready to break the bank for a player, he must be very good Even though I am not sure where he'll fit in
The question i pose is when have we ever signed star names?? last i can recall is mr.bergkamp, possibly sol campbell, the rest were hardly star names when we bought them. Personally i dont crave a star name, i just get increasingly frustrated watching chelski, manure, liverpool and other teams spend large sums of cash on players whilst we dont. I think you guys are giving eto'o far too much credit - sure he's a quality player but he aint no henry, ronaldo, drogba etc. he thrives on a reputation just like ibrahimovic and more often than not fails to live up to it. Plus he is damaged goods and is a bit of a trouble maker. Also we simply couldnt afford him and he wouldnt want to come on wages for anything less than £80,000 a week.
To be honest what wenger does is nothing short of miraculous with the odd flop, but i'm quite happy to see us linked with nasri - he's an awesome player, i dont think he could be as good as zidane, but it will take him time to settle as he is small in stature and seems to lack a physical side to his game. I think SWP would be good for us cos of the wright connection and could offer us some much needed width.
I think we need to get use to the fact that most of the time top quality signings will be rare, but on the odd occassion we will get them, but wenger wont pay over the odds. Im quite shocked how few have heard about nasri considering he could become one of the best players in europe. Personally, im very excited!!
Villa would be fantastic tooo but to be honest we would not pay the kind of money to bring him to the Grove.
Even though I am not sure where he'll fit in