Now Nas is off

[rigsby]

Hopefully it'll be the same sort of impact as Torres leaving Liverpool. In that the club spends the combined money on some quality players they actually strengthen the team. Wenger has no excuses now to not pay the big money.

[richpye]

Whilst I don't want Nasri to leave as I think he could blossom after Fab leaving, if he doesn't want to be here he can bugger off.

£22 million if we get that is a good price and would allow us to buy decent replacements. I know I will get shot for this, but I also think Ramsay could do a really good job there as well

[franksav63]

Hopefully it'll be the same sort of impact as Torres leaving Liverpool. In that the club spends the combined money on some quality players they actually strengthen the team. Wenger has no excuses now to not pay the big money.

You've got a great sense of humour Rigsby...

[Supagoon]

overrated unlike cesc so he can go, without much fuss.

Problem is, the players we have left. Is wenger going to at least try and save himself.

[safcftm]

If Nasri and Fabregas leave Wenger will need to have an ace up his sleeve in the transfer market, he can't let two of his 3 best players leave and expect to muddle on and still get 4th (can he?). Use the money to sign Samba, Tiote and Benzema and you'll still be near the top spots, albeit you'd still need a left winger and a keeper. Whether or not he will do something sensible like that remains to be seen, but a 6% rise followed by a weakening of the squad is surely not something that will be tolerated by the match going gooners (well, the ones with a bit of passion, not the JCL tourist type wankers)

[rigsby]

You've got a great sense of humour Rigsby...

I didn't say he would, just that he has no excuse not to. It would look a bit pathetic is we were haggling with everton over 2 million when we've just sold 2 players for 50 odd mil.

[biglunn]

£60m in from the 2 sales, probably spend £20m and then use the rest to put another dent in the mortgage. He's desperate to pay it off before he leaves so that 'we can compete with the best in Europe'

This is what Im worried about. Spending so little on the team while pocketing most of the transfer sale money (whether it be for raising share prices, paying off the mortgage, or inflating Wenger/Kroenke's earnings) has & is dropping the teams standard. If we carry on like this - selling off our best assets and keeping hold of shite - we will end up mid-table or worse, and it would require MASSIVE spending to get back to top 4. Spending of Chelsea/ManCity proportions, which won't happen at Arsenal.

It really baffles me why we don't speculate to accumulate - we are in great financial shape, buy some key players (don't have to spend silly, just cover the glaring holes, and replace the players that aren't cutting it) and at least TRY to make the squad look stronger and more competitive. That keeps the fans onside (more revenue as more go to games) and increases our commercial revenue (more companies want to be associated with us, more shirt sales - more money in). This is what ManU are doing to great effect - both financially and on the pitch, and I believe this is what Kroenke wants - it's just Wenger who is so stubborn with his 'project'.

[skipper]

Didn't Wenger say only few weeks ago that we cannot be considered a big club if we sell both Cesc and Nasri this summer?

[TeeCee]

Exactly biglunn, the problem is, as Gazidis has already said, WENGER has the say on who we buy or don't buy AND what price we pay. Therefore, we are totally in the hands of a man who is anti-money, he is on record so often speaking out against spending lots of money, to put so much power in the hands of one guy is very very dangerous and will probably ruin Arsenal in the short term (on the field I mean).

[Dan_85]

Didn't Wenger say only few weeks ago that we cannot be considered a big club if we sell both Cesc and Nasri this summer?

He says a lot of stuff that is just lies, bullshit, delusion, PR, spin....

[franksav63]

Exactly biglunn, the problem is, as Gazidis has already said, WENGER has the say on who we buy or don't buy AND what price we pay. Therefore, we are totally in the hands of a man who is anti-money, he is on record so often speaking out against spending lots of money, to put so much power in the hands of one guy is very very dangerous and will probably ruin Arsenal in the short term (on the field I mean).

Anti-money yet earns 7 million a year....

[JakeN13]

£60m in from the 2 sales, probably spend £20m and then use the rest to put another dent in the mortgage. He's desperate to pay it off before he leaves so that 'we can compete with the best in Europe'

This is what Im worried about. Spending so little on the team while pocketing most of the transfer sale money (whether it be for raising share prices, paying off the mortgage, or inflating Wenger/Kroenke's earnings) has & is dropping the teams standard. If we carry on like this - selling off our best assets and keeping hold of shite - we will end up mid-table or worse, and it would require MASSIVE spending to get back to top 4. Spending of Chelsea/ManCity proportions, which won't happen at Arsenal.

It really baffles me why we don't speculate to accumulate - we are in great financial shape, buy some key players (don't have to spend silly, just cover the glaring holes, and replace the players that aren't cutting it) and at least TRY to make the squad look stronger and more competitive. That keeps the fans onside (more revenue as more go to games) and increases our commercial revenue (more companies want to be associated with us, more shirt sales - more money in). This is what ManU are doing to great effect - both financially and on the pitch, and I believe this is what Kroenke wants - it's just Wenger who is so stubborn with his 'project'.

Couldn't agree more with pretty much all of that.

I'm praying Nasri & Fabregas will be sold and that will be the (re)making or breaking of Wenger. If he doesn't replace them with what we need and we don't win anything next year it will be impossible for him to stay on, if this is what it takes for him to wake up and bring in what we need then that's excellent.

[Goonanana]

Taking the £22 million at this stage is probably good business however:

1. He should never have got to the last year of his contract

2. How f*cking stupid is Wenger and the board selling him with only a week to go having not got a replacement in! We've been haggling over a couple of mill for some players and now every c*nt will know we have £50million burning a f*cking hole in our pocket so they're hardly going to accept a cut price! Look what the scouse had to pay for Carroll when everyone knew they had £50 mill in the back burner! Honestly this prick is meant to have a economics degree for christ's sake!

3. Mata is a great player but if his release clause has now gone we are goin to have to pay £10 mill for him than we would have had to! We could ahve got SAmba for that wasted money!!!

4. We are officially a selling club with no ambition - as admitted by Wenger (if he sold both)


PRICK!!!

[goonersid]

If Nasri and Fabregas leave Wenger will need to have an ace up his sleeve in the transfer market, he can't let two of his 3 best players leave and expect to muddle on and still get 4th (can he?). Use the money to sign Samba, Tiote and Benzema and you'll still be near the top spots, albeit you'd still need a left winger and a keeper. Whether or not he will do something sensible like that remains to be seen, but a 6% rise followed by a weakening of the squad is surely not something that will be tolerated by the match going gooners (well, the ones with a bit of passion, not the JCL tourist type wankers)

If we were talking about a rational sane person then I would agree. We are however talking about a manager who has become more and more irrational an deluded over the past 6 years. So much so that Senility is the only pardonable excuse I could accept.

[rigsby]

Isn't RVP going into his final year? and Theo? How is this constantly being allowed to happen?