Next 2 signing are key

[TeeCee]

Again we could have sold Highbury for an immediate profit of 65-70 by most accounts at no cost whatsoever to the club and used those proceeds to pay off several years of stadium loan repayments which surely would have meant more money could be invested in the football team over the past five years including from 2005 to 2007 and we would be several years closer to being debt-free

Selling Highbury wasn't really 'for profit' was it? It was always going to be sold to provide a sum of money to go toward the new stadium. We could have sold it to developers for £70-75m but at the time, because of the booming housing market the board thought they could make between £30-40m EXTRA on that sum by developing it themselves, only to be hit by the impending recession. It was a decent idea that suffered only because of the world financial markets. There's absolutely no guarantee that if we had sold it for £70m that even half of that money would have been invested in the squad, in fact, with Wenger in charge with his pet project, if he'd had 35m to spend he'd renew the contracts of 7 or 8 players before he thought about signing anyone who would actually improve the 1st team!

[lowerwest]

having read wengers injury bulletin via pravda i wish to revise my earlier mail and say we need 4 players in to make us competitve-not a hope i know but its looking worse by the day. bendnter-we have no idea how long he will be out. fab and rvp-may not make the first game. like fab really did a lot in the world cup. conspiracy theories re why he might be out?

does anyone think this will be the season where the fans really stand up and protest about whats going on. the dumbing down of arsenal fc. 2005-2010 and beyond.

[Only One Tony Adams]

having read wengers injury bulletin via pravda i wish to revise my earlier mail and say we need 4 players in to make us competitve-not a hope i know but its looking worse by the day. bendnter-we have no idea how long he will be out. fab and rvp-may not make the first game. like fab really did a lot in the world cup. conspiracy theories re why he might be out?

does anyone think this will be the season where the fans really stand up and protest about whats going on. the dumbing down of arsenal fc. 2005-2010 and beyond.

RVP to miss the start of the season, FFS you could'nt make it up. He's out for five months then gets fit to play for Holland in the world cup, then has a few weeks in the sun and now he's fucked again........

[Rocky Number Seven]

The worst thing is it wouldnt be that much of an issue if Wenger would relax his stance on the Over 30's a little bit. Gallas and TV formed an outstanding partnership last season, one that deserved to be first choice again this year. We should be building on our strong points not destructing them.

Any money that we now have to look to strengthen our defence could then have been invested in other areas of the squad, namely a GK so we could really push on this year. Will we really find another CB who can click with TV for cheaper than it would have cost to sign Gallas for another 2 seasons?

[augie]

The worst thing is it wouldnt be that much of an issue if Wenger would relax his stance on the Over 30's a little bit. Gallas and TV formed an outstanding partnership last season, one that deserved to be first choice again this year. We should be building on our strong points not destructing them.

Any money that we now have to look to strengthen our defence could then have been invested in other areas of the squad, namely a GK so we could really push on this year. Will we really find another CB who can click with TV for cheaper than it would have cost to sign Gallas for another 2 seasons?

Debatable buddy - I know we had major keeper issues last season (as we probably will again this season ) but it shouldnt mask the fact that defensively we were not strong enough and I still believe that we need a big tall physical brute alongside tv5 if we are to improve defensively

[FrenchGun]

The worst thing is it wouldnt be that much of an issue if Wenger would relax his stance on the Over 30's a little bit. Gallas and TV formed an outstanding partnership last season, one that deserved to be first choice again this year. We should be building on our strong points not destructing them.

Any money that we now have to look to strengthen our defence could then have been invested in other areas of the squad, namely a GK so we could really push on this year. Will we really find another CB who can click with TV for cheaper than it would have cost to sign Gallas for another 2 seasons?

Debatable buddy - I know we had major keeper issues last season (as we probably will again this season ) but it shouldnt mask the fact that defensively we were not strong enough and I still believe that we need a big tall physical brute alongside tv5 if we are to improve defensively

You mean Mertesacker the bean pole?

I agree though. Even if our defence looked solid last season, we let a lot of goals leak in generally. And even though our goalkeeping is the main problem in our defense, I think that Gallas was becoming more and more of a liability as time passed by. My personnal ffeling is that Gallas and Aluminium AL were both the confidence breakers in the team...

[mikeyb772001]

We wont be singing any new players!!!!!!!

Djouorou ,Denilson and Bendnter will be back from injury by August September and this will be like 3 new signings!
See were gona win the leauge now!!!!!!

[augie]

I'm not sure if mertesacker is the answer to our prayers or if I am just desperate to see an strong experienced centre half alongside tv5 while our polish/french recruit gets accustomed to our league

[USMartin]

Again we could have sold Highbury for an immediate profit of 65-70 by most accounts at no cost whatsoever to the club and used those proceeds to pay off several years of stadium loan repayments which surely would have meant more money could be invested in the football team over the past five years including from 2005 to 2007 and we would be several years closer to being debt-free

Selling Highbury wasn't really 'for profit' was it? It was always going to be sold to provide a sum of money to go toward the new stadium. We could have sold it to developers for £70-75m but at the time, because of the booming housing market the board thought they could make between £30-40m EXTRA on that sum by developing it themselves, only to be hit by the impending recession. It was a decent idea that suffered only because of the world financial markets. There's absolutely no guarantee that if we had sold it for £70m that even half of that money would have been invested in the squad, in fact, with Wenger in charge with his pet project, if he'd had 35m to spend he'd renew the contracts of 7 or 8 players before he thought about signing anyone who would actually improve the 1st team!

Now I see why its all Mr. Wenger's fault.The Board had a good idea that they couldn't be blamed for because the economy went bad onm them.

If you read what I actually said I never said any of that money would have been invested in the team - it all would have gone to debt re-paymnet. Go ahead quote where I say otherwise. I'm waiting.

What I said is that we would have owed 110 million pounds less by the year 2010 than we did and would have paid off 70 million more on the stadium. That would have meant the the money from the matchday turnover in the years 2005-2007 that almost certainly went to debt re-payment could have been invested back in the team. Show me where I say anything to the contrary once.

BTW the economy had nothing to do with the decision being a poor one for Arsenal Football Club.

First off, the negative impact of the decision on the football team almost wholly pre-dates any economic or housing crisis in London or England. That impact began in 2005 and continued through ealy/mid 2008 where the cirisis itself occurred in mid/late 2008. At best the economic crisis made a bad situation a bit worse a bit longer for the football club.

Secondly the only thing the crisis did according to the Holding Company was perhaps delay that extra profit by 6 months to a year. So in fact their plan worked. So its a question of who it worked for, and looking at the team's recent history its not the football team. But looking at the History of the Share Price. Its pretty clear who it did work for.

[Rocky Number Seven]

The worst thing is it wouldnt be that much of an issue if Wenger would relax his stance on the Over 30's a little bit. Gallas and TV formed an outstanding partnership last season, one that deserved to be first choice again this year. We should be building on our strong points not destructing them.

Any money that we now have to look to strengthen our defence could then have been invested in other areas of the squad, namely a GK so we could really push on this year. Will we really find another CB who can click with TV for cheaper than it would have cost to sign Gallas for another 2 seasons?

Debatable buddy - I know we had major keeper issues last season (as we probably will again this season ) but it shouldnt mask the fact that defensively we were not strong enough and I still believe that we need a big tall physical brute alongside tv5 if we are to improve defensively

I agree there were major issues in defence but i dont think the CB's were to blame as much as we think. Losing two left backs for most of the season stretched us and although Traore did a job when he covered in my opinion Clichy never came back anywhere near the player we know he can be last year after his injury. The way he was exposed for Park to score utds 3rd at the grove being an example. Not to mention both Gallas and TV being out for the run in effected us badly, imo we were still in it up until this point.

Basically i think defensively last season we suffered majorly with injuries which in the end cost us just as much as our lack of strikers once RVP was out for the season. I might be going off topic here but is this down to a lack of squad depth or does it once again raise questions about the medical team? I mean at one stage or another the following players were out for some considerable time last season and although we may not rate all of them Wenger def does. Anyway heres who i can recall spending considerable time in the treatment room last season - what would we have achieved if they were all available for selection? Almunia - Clichy - Gibbs - Vermalen - Gallas - Djourou - Nasri - Denilson - Fabregas - Ramsey - Vela - Van Persie - Walcott - Bendtner, as well as Song and Eboue being at the ACN.

[FrenchGun]

I'm not sure if mertesacker is the answer to our prayers or if I am just desperate to see an strong experienced centre half alongside tv5 while our polish/french recruit gets accustomed to our league

*

Oh but I understand you Augie! At this time of the day, I'm pretty luch as desperate as you for any kind of signing. The german Bean pole? He's tall and even if not a real brute or the best defender in the world, tall guys are always though to pass.

[augie]

I'm not sure if mertesacker is the answer to our prayers or if I am just desperate to see an strong experienced centre half alongside tv5 while our polish/french recruit gets accustomed to our league

*

Oh but I understand you Augie! At this time of the day, I'm pretty luch as desperate as you for any kind of signing. The german Bean pole? He's tall and even if not a real brute or the best defender in the world, tall guys are always though to pass.

Is he good enough then mate cos you probably have seen more of him playing than I have ? Sometimes I get blinded by my utter desperation to see a quality signing in a crucial area that I dont properly assess the player in question If you are reading this arsene then please note that my desperation does not stretch to the signing of a 37yr old journeyman keeper.....we need real quality there please

[USMartin]

I agree that the defence itself wwasn't entriely at fault for a defensive failings. The big problem for me was that we needed two quailty defensive midfilders falnking Cesc and never once had more than one and he is still learning the craft and playing out ofm his natural and best position.

I won't say he was the sole reason we lost at Barca but I suspect a true quality defensive midfielder could have prevented at least two and quite possibly three of Messi's goals and would not have given up most of the other three or four good chances he got with Denilson failing to marl him at all anywhere on the pitch. Denilson is more of an attacking player and will never be a defensive mid-fielder for a teamm with ambiitions of winning silverware on the three years of evidence in the first team I have seen. He is not fast or athletic enough and his lack of desire to play the role only magnifies this.

We need quality box-to-box dynamic ball-winner in the Vieira mold or even the Essien mold alongside Cesc and Song because that is what will help our back four more than anything else, and given we have lost Gallas we need this player evenmore as we now may invest again there but I doubt this player or Koscieny will be ready to play as well or better than Gallas last year right now. So protecting the back four is more important than it was last year even when we failed to do so sufficiently.

[augie]

I know the majority wont agree with me but I feel that if we had de jong alongside cesc and nasri/wilshire we would be a lot more secure defensively that if we had song alongside them. De Jong would bring more agressiveness and better positioning than song and it goes without saying that he would be more intimidating than song

[REB]

de jong is just a dirty bastard and dont think he would bring anything to the first team, while i agree agression is needed but controled agression and not just any old dirty bastard of a player like de jong.