ALL Transfer talk - merged thread

[xgtdec]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

you can include Arsenal in there too, our transfer business is the laughing stock of the premier league........sure just add one pound extra..that'll do the job. When was the last time Arsenal beat other clubs to a superstar player?? Was anyone else even in for Rice before we spaffed 100 million on him?? We are a big enough club to attract reasonable players, some of whom turn out to be much better and they leave to go win trophies. We're quite possibly the most high profile selling club in England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66027803.amp

It was a straight fight between us and City and he chose us. We also beat United to Timber’s signature. Calafiori was wanted by Barca and AC Milan.
Where do you get the idea that we are the most high profile selling club in England? The Wenger era ended in 2018 and some of you still haven’t woken up from your stupor.

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

[Red Army 2]

BREAKING from @Matt_Law_DT and @SamJDean:

Borussia Dortmund are ready to make a move for Oleksandr Zinchenko, who’s likely to leave before the end of the window.

[General]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

you can include Arsenal in there too, our transfer business is the laughing stock of the premier league........sure just add one pound extra..that'll do the job. When was the last time Arsenal beat other clubs to a superstar player?? Was anyone else even in for Rice before we spaffed 100 million on him?? We are a big enough club to attract reasonable players, some of whom turn out to be much better and they leave to go win trophies. We're quite possibly the most high profile selling club in England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66027803.amp

It was a straight fight between us and City and he chose us. We also beat United to Timber’s signature. Calafiori was wanted by Barca and AC Milan.
Where do you get the idea that we are the most high profile selling club in England? The Wenger era ended in 2018 and some of you still haven’t woken up from your stupor.

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

[Red Army 2]

Agreed Perry. As hard as this is to say and as difficult as it is to hear, are we genuinely a “big club”? We don’t behave like one in my opinion and haven’t done so for a very long time.

If football supporters and pundits listed English and European big clubs, there’s no doubt that we’d be on the list, but apart from the 1930s, we survive very much on very short periods of past glory. Europe’s top table would include R Madrid, Barca, Juve, AC Milan, Bayern, Liverpool, Utd and now, sadly, Chelsea and City. Before anyone leaps to remind me of the current positions of Utd and Chelsea, I’m taking an adult overview of teams that have competed for the top prizes on a consistent basis. Utd are obviously in danger of losing their place at the table.

We have never seriously been in that elite group and our European record makes that clear. We also don’t behave in the appropriate way in the transfer market. As someone else asked either yesterday or today, when was the last time we bought a star player at the peak of his powers? I genuinely can’t remember. Dennis was the last established world class star we bought and we got him because he was experiencing a trough at Inter. Our transfer policy has been buying prospects, some of whom proved to be fabulous….Anelka, Paddy, Cesc, Van Persie, while others have flopped, or buying experienced journeymen, too many of whom have been bang average at best and have hung around draining resources on over paying contracts. In addition to this, Arteta has taken us down the route of massively overpaying for duds, or in the case of Rice, an above average grafter.

We’re as far away from that top table as we’ve been in the last 30 years and these owners and this manager won’t alter that.

Always agree with most of your posts Retro mate, and again spot on....its just the Rice comment dont agree with....TBF hes got that lump partey or old man jorginho alongside him...that surely would worry anyone....i believe Rice is top class...a very very good player.....but yes the rest depressingly 100%

Fair enough Red. While I wouldn't have paid 105 million for him, he was a good addition and performed better than I expected last season. I've been a bit disappointed this current campaign, but as you say, he's not help by the midfield partners he gets lumbered with and by Arteta's tactics. In my book, for 100+ million, you ought to be getting a creative game changer and I don't think Rice meets that description. He is, however, the type of player that we were missing and with a top centre mid beside him, the engine room would be in good shape.

Btw, why did you change from Red Army to Red Army 2. I initially thought Red Army2 was a new poster on here.

Yes its me... had to change as laptop died.....desperately need some quality signings...just the thought that scum were 6th when they got to champions league final keeping me going...hoping for a miracle

[xgtdec]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

you can include Arsenal in there too, our transfer business is the laughing stock of the premier league........sure just add one pound extra..that'll do the job. When was the last time Arsenal beat other clubs to a superstar player?? Was anyone else even in for Rice before we spaffed 100 million on him?? We are a big enough club to attract reasonable players, some of whom turn out to be much better and they leave to go win trophies. We're quite possibly the most high profile selling club in England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66027803.amp

It was a straight fight between us and City and he chose us. We also beat United to Timber’s signature. Calafiori was wanted by Barca and AC Milan.
Where do you get the idea that we are the most high profile selling club in England? The Wenger era ended in 2018 and some of you still haven’t woken up from your stupor.

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

Again your obviously a high ranking Arsenal board member to have all this evidence rather than press clippings from your i am gooner scrapbook.

And that would make sense as the arsenal board are not familiar with superstar players either. See we dont buy them, we make them. Sure who am i telling, your ratifying the contracts arent you, the ones noone can understand but you

[augie]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

You should include the water boy and edu in that cos their transfer business is mostly clueless too - they have bought FAR too many average players, and overpaid on players like rice, white and havertz. I said it at the time, if you spend £100m on a player then he better be either very prolific in front of goal (rice isnt) or a creative genius midfielder (again rice isnt) - rice is an energetic box to box midfielder but he never had a special skill set that would justify the £100m+ price tag. Was any other club in for white when we bought him ? Lets be very clear about this too, but the water boy bought him as a centre back and he was undersized as a centre back too - as a full back does he have a skill set that screams world class at you ? Not for me he doesnt and I would say that he is a good player but not outstanding and not as good as Timber, but we spent £55m on him Havertz is a £35m-£40m tops - and I mean at the very most he is that price. He is one paced, shies away from challenging centre backs in the air, and even nketieh is a much better finisher than him
I picked out 3 players who get regular game time when really I could have just as easy picked out a dozen other players (like the portugese pussy) who we pissed away money on when they are not at our level

What’s the sudden hate for Rice. He’s a top player and we are very lucky to have him. £100m is the going rate you pay for a player of his age, quality, experience and injury record. Grealish cost City a similar price and he offers nowhere near the same value of money.
City paid in excess of £60m for Rodri in 2019 and he’s either a creative genius nor a prolific goal scorer but remove him from their team and they fall apart. Don’t underestimate the impact Rice has on this side and his versatility. A lot of the work he does goes unnoticed.
Once again I will repeat my assertion that most fans don’t understand how transfers work - valuation, contract, payment terms etc. Rice’s transfer was probably one of our best business in recent years because it needed a low down payment and repayment of the remaining money was spread over 4-5years, and he’s just turned 26 with his best years still ahead of him.

For starters, where have I expressed hate towards rice ? Fact is that he is one of our more important players, BUT he isnt very creative, isnt a regular goalscorer, and ffs he isnt in the same league as rodri as a CDM, so therefore I cannot justify spending anywhere near 100m on him. This throwaway remark about "a lot of his work goes un-noticed" - have you ever seen that said before about a £100m player ? No you fcuking havent because the reason why a player usually costs £100m+ is because they stand out not stay hidden doing some unseen work

Secondly, someone as knowledgable as you should know that rumours linking clubs to players is NOT proof that that club is actually interested in said player - you talk crap about evidence but can only be referring to media rumours cos there has never been proof of bids from any of those clubs for any of the AFC players you talk about. City NEVER actually bid for rice and pulled out a few days before we signed him - at the time the rumour was that they pulled out cos they were told he wanted to join us, but again that is only a rumour and we have ZERO EVIDENCE proving it, and again it is not a bid

[General]

you can include Arsenal in there too, our transfer business is the laughing stock of the premier league........sure just add one pound extra..that'll do the job. When was the last time Arsenal beat other clubs to a superstar player?? Was anyone else even in for Rice before we spaffed 100 million on him?? We are a big enough club to attract reasonable players, some of whom turn out to be much better and they leave to go win trophies. We're quite possibly the most high profile selling club in England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66027803.amp

It was a straight fight between us and City and he chose us. We also beat United to Timber’s signature. Calafiori was wanted by Barca and AC Milan.
Where do you get the idea that we are the most high profile selling club in England? The Wenger era ended in 2018 and some of you still haven’t woken up from your stupor.

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

Again your obviously a high ranking Arsenal board member to have all this evidence rather than press clippings from your i am gooner scrapbook.

And that would make sense as the arsenal board are not familiar with superstar players either. See we dont buy them, we make them. Sure who am i telling, your ratifying the contracts arent you, the ones noone can understand but you

Slightly incoherrent. The evidence is clear that City bid for Rice. You could either provide evidence to the contrary or keep falling back to the figment of your imagination.
Going by your argument, Thierry Henry was a journey man squad player because he wasn't your tabloid style superstar signing and was not signed for a huge transfer fee either. Same goes for Salah. Can you not see how ridiculous this sounds?
You still cannot sunstantiate your argument that we are the most high profile selling club in England smh

[xgtdec]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66027803.amp

It was a straight fight between us and City and he chose us. We also beat United to Timber’s signature. Calafiori was wanted by Barca and AC Milan.
Where do you get the idea that we are the most high profile selling club in England? The Wenger era ended in 2018 and some of you still haven’t woken up from your stupor.

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

Again your obviously a high ranking Arsenal board member to have all this evidence rather than press clippings from your i am gooner scrapbook.

And that would make sense as the arsenal board are not familiar with superstar players either. See we dont buy them, we make them. Sure who am i telling, your ratifying the contracts arent you, the ones noone can understand but you

Slightly incoherrent. The evidence is clear that City bid for Rice. You could either provide evidence to the contrary or keep falling back to the figment of your imagination.
Going by your argument, Thierry Henry was a journey man squad player because he wasn't your tabloid style superstar signing and was not signed for a huge transfer fee either. Same goes for Salah. Can you not see how ridiculous this sounds?
You still cannot sunstantiate your argument that we are the most high profile selling club in England smh

Ok lord harris.

There’s no evidence for a city bid, it’s a website article claiming there’s a city bid. If a bbc article is your evidence then a career in law is not for you.

As for Henry, as soon as he bottled the majors for us we sold him, as with all other class players we’ve had in the last 30 years….sold on and tell me now, in which cases were those class players replaced with appropriate replacements. It’s hasn’t happened, we’ve sold our best players and not replaced them. And we’re a high profile club. So put the 2 together and you can see why we’re the premier leagues most high profile selling club.

[General]

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

Again your obviously a high ranking Arsenal board member to have all this evidence rather than press clippings from your i am gooner scrapbook.

And that would make sense as the arsenal board are not familiar with superstar players either. See we dont buy them, we make them. Sure who am i telling, your ratifying the contracts arent you, the ones noone can understand but you

Slightly incoherrent. The evidence is clear that City bid for Rice. You could either provide evidence to the contrary or keep falling back to the figment of your imagination.
Going by your argument, Thierry Henry was a journey man squad player because he wasn't your tabloid style superstar signing and was not signed for a huge transfer fee either. Same goes for Salah. Can you not see how ridiculous this sounds?
You still cannot sunstantiate your argument that we are the most high profile selling club in England smh

Ok lord harris.

There’s no evidence for a city bid, it’s a website article claiming there’s a city bid. If a bbc article is your evidence then a career in law is not for you.

As for Henry, as soon as he bottled the majors for us we sold him, as with all other class players we’ve had in the last 30 years….sold on and tell me now, in which cases were those class players replaced with appropriate replacements. It’s hasn’t happened, we’ve sold our best players and not replaced them. And we’re a high profile club. So put the 2 together and you can see why we’re the premier leagues most high profile selling club.

A simple Google would reveal that City's bid for Rice was reported by most reputable news outlets, not just the BBC, so on the balance of probability if you understand anything about law, it is likely to be true. You can't be bothered to do a simple research but believe your own speculation and this is exactly the problem.
I stopped reading after bottled the majors. Are you a yank per chance.
Our reputation as a selling club ended when the dinosaur was finally relieved from his misery.

[Retro Gunner]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

You should include the water boy and edu in that cos their transfer business is mostly clueless too - they have bought FAR too many average players, and overpaid on players like rice, white and havertz. I said it at the time, if you spend £100m on a player then he better be either very prolific in front of goal (rice isnt) or a creative genius midfielder (again rice isnt) - rice is an energetic box to box midfielder but he never had a special skill set that would justify the £100m+ price tag. Was any other club in for white when we bought him ? Lets be very clear about this too, but the water boy bought him as a centre back and he was undersized as a centre back too - as a full back does he have a skill set that screams world class at you ? Not for me he doesnt and I would say that he is a good player but not outstanding and not as good as Timber, but we spent £55m on him Havertz is a £35m-£40m tops - and I mean at the very most he is that price. He is one paced, shies away from challenging centre backs in the air, and even nketieh is a much better finisher than him
I picked out 3 players who get regular game time when really I could have just as easy picked out a dozen other players (like the portugese pussy) who we pissed away money on when they are not at our level

What’s the sudden hate for Rice. He’s a top player and we are very lucky to have him. £100m is the going rate you pay for a player of his age, quality, experience and injury record. Grealish cost City a similar price and he offers nowhere near the same value of money.
City paid in excess of £60m for Rodri in 2019 and he’s either a creative genius nor a prolific goal scorer but remove him from their team and they fall apart. Don’t underestimate the impact Rice has on this side and his versatility. A lot of the work he does goes unnoticed.
Once again I will repeat my assertion that most fans don’t understand how transfers work - valuation, contract, payment terms etc. Rice’s transfer was probably one of our best business in recent years because it needed a low down payment and repayment of the remaining money was spread over 4-5years, and he’s just turned 26 with his best years still ahead of him.

For starters, where have I expressed hate towards rice ? Fact is that he is one of our more important players, BUT he isnt very creative, isnt a regular goalscorer, and ffs he isnt in the same league as rodri as a CDM, so therefore I cannot justify spending anywhere near 100m on him. This throwaway remark about "a lot of his work goes un-noticed" - have you ever seen that said before about a £100m player ? No you fcuking havent because the reason why a player usually costs £100m+ is because they stand out not stay hidden doing some unseen work

Secondly, someone as knowledgable as you should know that rumours linking clubs to players is NOT proof that that club is actually interested in said player - you talk crap about evidence but can only be referring to media rumours cos there has never been proof of bids from any of those clubs for any of the AFC players you talk about. City NEVER actually bid for rice and pulled out a few days before we signed him - at the time the rumour was that they pulled out cos they were told he wanted to join us, but again that is only a rumour and we have ZERO EVIDENCE proving it, and again it is not a bid

Augie has made all the valid points in answer to this post and saved me the effort.

All I'd add firstly is to ask why the nonsense hyperbole about "hate"? I get sick sick of the constant contemporary use of this word in society generally, where it's usually complete bollocks, as it is here. It's use is a tool to try to close down debate. It's perfectly possible to criticise a player without construing that criticism as hate and this exchange is a perfect example of that. People, including me, are expressing the opinion that £105 million was too much to pay for Rice, given that he's neither creative, nor a game changer. He was a fairly big fish in a very small pond at West Ham and more pertinently, I'd watched him closely in international games and he never shone amongst that level. In fact, he tends to look a little out of his depth in my opinion.

I think mot of us are happy to have him in the side as a solid and generally reliable midfielder, the likes of which we had been missing for years, but what have you seen him create? How many defence splitting passes have you seen him make in a season and a half? You do yourself no favours by putting him in the same bracket as Rodri, because he simply isn't, in my opinion of course. None of this makes him a bad player, or means anyone "hates" him, but it's perfectly valid to question the £105 million we paid.

Secondly, may I make a general point....it's good to hear opinions that go against the majority expressed on here, but your inclination to suggest that other posters on here are ignorant about the game and the mechanics of the business is pretty insulting. Unless, as xgtdec sardonically suggests, you are amongst the club's decision makers, then you are simply expressing opinions that have no more validity than any others on here, unless supported by incontrovertible evidence. Trying to make your opinions sound like facts won't wash.

[xgtdec]

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

Again your obviously a high ranking Arsenal board member to have all this evidence rather than press clippings from your i am gooner scrapbook.

And that would make sense as the arsenal board are not familiar with superstar players either. See we dont buy them, we make them. Sure who am i telling, your ratifying the contracts arent you, the ones noone can understand but you

Slightly incoherrent. The evidence is clear that City bid for Rice. You could either provide evidence to the contrary or keep falling back to the figment of your imagination.
Going by your argument, Thierry Henry was a journey man squad player because he wasn't your tabloid style superstar signing and was not signed for a huge transfer fee either. Same goes for Salah. Can you not see how ridiculous this sounds?
You still cannot sunstantiate your argument that we are the most high profile selling club in England smh

Ok lord harris.

There’s no evidence for a city bid, it’s a website article claiming there’s a city bid. If a bbc article is your evidence then a career in law is not for you.

As for Henry, as soon as he bottled the majors for us we sold him, as with all other class players we’ve had in the last 30 years….sold on and tell me now, in which cases were those class players replaced with appropriate replacements. It’s hasn’t happened, we’ve sold our best players and not replaced them. And we’re a high profile club. So put the 2 together and you can see why we’re the premier leagues most high profile selling club.

A simple Google would reveal that City's bid for Rice was reported by most reputable news outlets, not just the BBC, so on the balance of probability if you understand anything about law, it is likely to be true. You can't be bothered to do a simple research but believe your own speculation and this is exactly the problem.
I stopped reading after bottled the majors. Are you a yank per chance.
Our reputation as a selling club ended when the dinosaur was finally relieved from his misery.

Balance of probability applies in cases that are presented in a court of law, your not in a court of law, your on a football forum. A website story claiming a bid from a club is not evidence of a bid. Several websites claiming there’s same thing is not evidence of a bid. The only evidence of a Man City bid for Declan rice would come from either Man City or West Ham.

I’m not an American no, bottled the majors is just the phrase I picked for Henry to highlight that in an awful lot of major or high importance games he went missing entirely or bottled the games major chances and was sold off being considered surplus to requirements, a move that IMO costs him any legendary status he might have had.

Now take a look at the long long list of players that were supposed to replace Henry (admittedly a hard job) none were up to the task and all were sold on. In a more reasonable timeframe Aubameyang might have hit those numbers but guess what…. We sold him.

Pick any position and you can do the same thing, a great player not replaced with all attempts being sub standard and the resultant hires being sold on.

The slow down of our selling is as a direct result of our years of being a selling club. We’ve very little left to sell, no ones queuing up for our players cause the majority of them are bang average. Wait till Saka and saliba are on their way out the door and you can do your best Perry mason impression to convince yourself it’s not true.

[Retro Gunner]

It was super work by various agents to have the likes of city feign interested in Rice etc, work that most likely had us pay 30 odd million over the odds. And i specifically said superstar player which even the most retarded of fan couldnt argue that Timber’ and Calafiori are. They're journeyman squad players at best at the prices paid reflect that. See we dont need to wake up from any stupor...we've been wide awake all along.

You can either acknowledge the evidence or believe the story in your head about agents. City were clearly in the market for a midfielder because they signed Matheus Nunes for £53m, after their failed bid for Rice. A complete waste of money as it turned out.

See this is exactly what I said is wrong with our fanbase today. The self entitlement and never ending whingeing. What does a superstar even mean? This is not some Hollywood movie. Calafiori and Timber are quality young signings with huge potential and they are exactly the sort of signings our club should be making. The fact that we beat other clubs to their signature is something to cherish. Why would any self respecting fan turn his nose up at them?

Again your obviously a high ranking Arsenal board member to have all this evidence rather than press clippings from your i am gooner scrapbook.

And that would make sense as the arsenal board are not familiar with superstar players either. See we dont buy them, we make them. Sure who am i telling, your ratifying the contracts arent you, the ones noone can understand but you

Slightly incoherrent. The evidence is clear that City bid for Rice. You could either provide evidence to the contrary or keep falling back to the figment of your imagination.
Going by your argument, Thierry Henry was a journey man squad player because he wasn't your tabloid style superstar signing and was not signed for a huge transfer fee either. Same goes for Salah. Can you not see how ridiculous this sounds?
You still cannot sunstantiate your argument that we are the most high profile selling club in England smh

Ok lord harris.

There’s no evidence for a city bid, it’s a website article claiming there’s a city bid. If a bbc article is your evidence then a career in law is not for you.

As for Henry, as soon as he bottled the majors for us we sold him, as with all other class players we’ve had in the last 30 years….sold on and tell me now, in which cases were those class players replaced with appropriate replacements. It’s hasn’t happened, we’ve sold our best players and not replaced them. And we’re a high profile club. So put the 2 together and you can see why we’re the premier leagues most high profile selling club.

Ashley Cole
Patrick Vieira
Thierry Henry
Samir Nasri
Emanuel Adebayor
Cesc Fabregas
Robin Van Persie
Gael Clichy

That's from the top of my head. From that list, I wasn't much of a fan of Clichy or Adebayor, but everyone on that list was sold, against our will (other than the stupid decision to sell Paddy) and taken by an aggressive bidder. We could also make a case for including Alexis Sanchez in the list.

Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and to a lesser degree Santi Cazorla, are examples of top quality players that we allowed to leave without replacing with anywhere near the same quality. The latter two went on to continue playing at a level beyond their replacements at the Arsenal.

After years of no longer having top class players worthy of poaching, we now have Saliba, Saka and maybe Gabriel and Martinelli, who we'll struggle to keep.

All in all, xgtdec has a point.

[OneBardGooner]

BREAKING from @Matt_Law_DT and @SamJDean:

Borussia Dortmund are ready to make a move for Oleksandr Zinchenko, who’s likely to leave before the end of the window.

Well that's more than the uselesscunt does for us unless he goes wandering off in La La Land and out of position

[augie]

I should also say that when we are talking about man citeeh we are talking about a club that throws around money like it is confetti, but even they wouldnt bid £100m for rice cos they knew it would never represent value for money

[xgtdec]

I’d even add in the case of replacing Henry, how many duds did we have sprinkled with some genuine talent. And let’s not forget, we’re also on the wrong end of being a selling club in that we are selling for peanuts to get stupid salaries off the books.

So in replacing Henry that I can remember we did

Auba
Lackofthreat
The feather
Welbz
Giroud
Does eduardo count??
Chamakh
Perez??
The Arsenal legend that is park chu young
Sonogoals.

And for decent measure Henry the 2nd time.

I might have missed some

10 players bought and sold, possibly at a loss to replace 1 single position. What position would you like to do next??