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.
Gunner Rob wrote:we didnt win anything when we had Fabregas supplying assists to Van Persie so why anyone thinks this will work now with him supplying assists to Giroud is beyond me.
That's because Van Persie was injured for the majority of the time Cesc was here - they were in the same team for 7 years and they rarely played together. It's laughable, really. Pathetic.
Everything I've read on the subject only says that the club as a whole said no to Cesc returning, nothing about AW specifically. Obviously if AW felt strongly in favour than he could probably overrule the decision, but he's got more pressing issues to deal with elsewhere in the squad.
One thing that seems to be overlooked on the impact it would have on the squad ("Özil and Rambo occupy his positions") is that the *precise reason* Cesc is unhappy at Barca is because of his lack of a consistent first-team position there. While it would undoubtedly shore up the squad, the unpalatable truth is that getting Cesc back as a second-string player, or displacing one of the current first-team selections would do all three players a massive disservice. Perhaps the motivation behind the club passing on Cesc at this point is because they're well aware of that.
Don't get me wrong - I have a lot of regard for Cesc and would love to see him back. However, with the current surplus of midfield talent I can't see how he would fit in at this point and - crucially - still be happy. More to the point, we need to bolster strike capability, defence and a decent reserve GK before we do anything else.
p206ab wrote:Now Maureen is in for Cesc.
I would hate to see him in any PL shirt other than ours, but I would really really hate him in chavs blue. Sign him up!
Don't you worry about those Chavs.....we'll show 'em we mean business when we sign 47 year old Samuel Eto'o at 10.59 on deadline day
I reckon the question people who are kvetching about turning Cesc down should be asking themselves is how they'd react if we hypothetically spent the 30m plus wages on getting him back, then later in the transfer window it turned out we missed out on a striker because we didn't have enough funding.
turricaned wrote:
One thing that seems to be overlooked on the impact it would have on the squad ("Özil and Rambo occupy his positions") is that the *precise reason* Cesc is unhappy at Barca is because of his lack of a consistent first-team position there.
It is quite possible to play Cesc and Ramsey central midfield with Ozil in front or wide midfield, or even Ramsey and Flamini central with Cesc as a number 10 with Ozil and Walcott wide.
I had another moment of agreement with you earlier regarding the Barca shirt "stunt". Cesc definitely didn't look like he wanted that to happen.
But yeah - it's possible for sure, but is it really worth 30m of our (significantly improved, but still limited compared to the likes of Chelsea, City, Real etc.) transfer budget to add yet another midfielder to the squad when we've got so many other areas which need more drastic attention?
As others have said - my heart wants to say yes, but my head reckons now isn't the right time.
As far as I can tell, that's based on positive comments AW made about Balotelli back in 2009.
While Balotelli, like Suarez, rubs me up the wrong way, he's a striker and we need one of those. Another attacking midfielder like Cesc would be nice, but we don't really *need* one at the moment.
My money's on Cesc staying at Barca for at least another season.
