Apparently we bid 6mil for Cahill

[Deise Gooner]

They are having a laugh if they think he is worth £17.5m.

£6m for a decent/not great defender with one year left on his contract is not good, but its not bad either.

Enrique went to Liverpool for £6m

Dont you think its a bit hypocritical when we made City pay £24m for Nasri with a year left to then turn around and offer that for Cahill.

No - because we never 'made' City pay the fee. We told them what we wanted for the player and eventually an agreement was reached. Although in this case you may feel the offer for Cahill is too low, there's nothing stopping Bolton turning it down if they want in the hope of getting a better offer. However, they also run the risk of not receiving one and thus losing Cahill for even less in January.

Very true but there is a slight double standard involved.

[Nos89]

IMO he is better than Jagielka, but having said that he isnt worth £17m when he's in the last year of his contract. Cahill is a good player, but he's hardly a world beater, he's a solid PL defender who hasnt been tested against the best in Europe and the world as he hasnt played CL football and has barely played for England. Fact is, a lot of lads who are nothing more than big, powerful beasts can look good in the PL but would get torn apart in Europe. Obviously the PL is the bread and butter but despite recent events, Arsenal should still be planning to try and compete on all fronts.

I think for a player untested at CL level in the last year of his contract but who has potential, a bid of about £10m would be fair. Lets be honest, Bolton get an average attendance of about 22,000 people and their prices are cheap, probably averaging around £20 when you take into account concessions. That means their whole gate receipt turnover is only £8.4m a year or so, so I dont think they can sniff at £10m coming in for one player who could leave for nothing in the summer. If, as the article suggests, they are happy to sell in January as he is still CL eligible I think they're in for a shock. Teams left in the CL after christmas will not be pinning their hopes of success on the untested Gary Cahill, and if they are they wont spend much money on him since they could get him for nothing in the summer.

So £10m would be fair, but then the article says "£6m plus extras", so not just £6m then. The extras might take it up to nearer £10m depending on success, or they might guarantee Bolton a good % of any sum above £6m that he is sold for, which could be highly lucrative for them. Plus a lot of clubs accept less money if the purchasing club offers to pay it in one go as opposed to the majority of clubs who stagger the value over a few years. So basically Bolton overvalue him and whilst Arsenals bid looks low, it might actually be reasonable depending on the extras involved and the payment terms (having just sold two players for big money, I'm sure there is £6m free that could be spent immediately). To me it looks like the media just wanting a stick to beat Arsenal and Wenger with, but I've been wrong before

Good post. Wenger isn't exactly making it difficult for the media smack us down. He's turned us into the Premier League pinata.

[Eboue-Why?]

Fantastic analysis there safcftm and more or less spot on.

Fantastic tits more like!! I still can't decide which pair I'd like to..........

[donaldo]

Its funny to hear Gooners say Cahill is not worth £17m yet we paid £12m for a 17 year old division one player

[Barriecuda]

Cahill for 17m?

I'd do it for sure. It might be a little overvalued, especially considering he's got a year left on his contract, but we also don't have a year to wait, and just because someone is unproven in the CL doesn't mean they can't do a tremendous job once there.

I believe the EPL requires the most consistency and concentration of any league, qualities that would translate well into CL play.

[donaldo]

In the last fortnight we have made £60m out of transfers and £25m from the CL qualification.£85m and we are still penny pinching

[SPARKSY]

With 5 days left till the window closes and everyday we are looking for signs that Wenger is buying but No, nothing.
We will be lucky to get one player let alone the 3 or 4 we need.

Make no mistake, we may have have a result against Udinese but this team as it stands will not hold up over the course of a season playing 40-50 games.

What are they doing with all this money, year on years selling players for top money with no investment and still have the neck to put a 6% increase on us.

SPEND SOME FUCKING MONEY

[augie]

Its funny to hear Gooners say Cahill is not worth £17m yet we paid £12m for a 17 year old division one player

It isnt just that but "wengerism's" seem to be implanted into the minds of Gooners everywhere now - how many times have we all complained about wenger economics and stated that in todays market you simply must pay a bit over the odds when you are looking to buy ? Cahill isnt worth 17m I agree but 6m (if true) is absolutely taking the piss and is a disgraceful bid imo These are the same AFC negotiators who are having problems shifting bendtner cos they are looking for 11m ffs and if any of you believe that bendtner is even as good as cahill (never mind being worth almost twice as much) then you are seriously seriously deluded

I have said before that cahill would not be my number 1 choice as a potential centre back recruit but I am just embarassed at the possibility of us making that low of a bid I also have to say that if I was gary cahill and I found out that this story was true then I would be doing an exclusive with a media hack saying that if that is all that AFC think I am worth then they can fcuk off and I will join a proper big club

[flash gunner]

It amazes me how modern supporters are obsessed with money.....

We need a centre half - Cahill is a good, young(ish), English one... I dont care how much it costs get him!!!!!!

[safcftm]

Cahill for 17m?

I'd do it for sure. It might be a little overvalued, especially considering he's got a year left on his contract, but we also don't have a year to wait, and just because someone is unproven in the CL doesn't mean they can't do a tremendous job once there.

I believe the EPL requires the most consistency and concentration of any league, qualities that would translate well into CL play.

I would presume that part of Wenger's thinking revolves around what advantage you are likely to get from having Cahill this season as opposed to picking him up for nothing in the summer. If Bolton are wanting £12+ million then it becomes expensive. If you were one player away from winning the title and challenging for the CL then it would be worth it, but in reality you'd be paying a large transfer fee and a seasons wages for a player who, in al honesty, wont have you much nearer the PL or CL titles this season, assuming he would be your only big signing.

If he were to go for £12m plus a wage of 40k a week, the first year would cost you £14m. For me that is a lot to spend on a player who wont be enough to make you genuinely competitive in the league this season.

Lets just say you save this money by waiting until next season, you could get him for free and pay him 60,000 a week instead of 40,000 and the £14m saved would pay for him for 234 weeks (so the entire duration of a 4 year contract even with a couple of million thrown in as a signing on fee).

I'm not one of those who likes to think about the finances of a deal too much and hate the fact that fans sometimes have to think like accountants these days, but in this case I think the figures involved make it obvious that paying over the odds now would only be worth it if it was for a player good enough to let you challenge Man United and push you further in the CL where the extra prize money could nearly pay for him, and for me Cahill isnt that player.

Obviously if you wait you'll need to compete for his signature, but I think Arsenal are as good as any of the other sides that will be interested in the lad. Wenger needs to spend, but for me he'd be better putting the money towards a quality striker to play with RVP and trying desperately to peddle Chamakh, with any money left over going towards the likes of Tiote to beef up the middle of the pitch with the aim of adding Cahill to the jigsaw next season, by which point you would look a much stronger side

[Barriecuda]

I would presume that part of Wenger's thinking revolves around what advantage you are likely to get from having Cahill this season as opposed to picking him up for nothing in the summer. If Bolton are wanting £12+ million then it becomes expensive. If you were one player away from winning the title and challenging for the CL then it would be worth it, but in reality you'd be paying a large transfer fee and a seasons wages for a player who, in al honesty, wont have you much nearer the PL or CL titles this season, assuming he would be your only big signing.

If he were to go for £12m plus a wage of 40k a week, the first year would cost you £14m. For me that is a lot to spend on a player who wont be enough to make you genuinely competitive in the league this season.

Lets just say you save this money by waiting until next season, you could get him for free and pay him 60,000 a week instead of 40,000 and the £14m saved would pay for him for 234 weeks (so the entire duration of a 4 year contract even with a couple of million thrown in as a signing on fee).

...

I believe the problem is that we continue to wait and wait to get a "better deal" with every player. We probably could have had Mata, we waited for a better deal, and lost him. We waited a year to sign Chamakh for cheaper, and flustered at the end of the season because we had no proper strikers. We continue to lose talented players (ie Nasri) because we refuse to strengthen the squad...

At some point you just have to spend the money and get on with it. Yes, he might be overvalued at 17m, but we need to get on with building this team. There are costs to waiting that aren't easily measured - for example, the experience players (Cahill) might get this year, improving chemistry with the rest of the team, could easily be worth 10m if it helps us win games and saves us points this year and/or the next.

I'm also assuming we, in this extremely short span of time left, are not limited to buying ONE player. Obviously we have higher priorities right now than a defender - IMO, we need a proper playmaking midfielder to get the ball to the strikers - but I'm assuming that if we buy Cahill it won't be the only transfer of the year.

[biglunn]

^^ good post

Whether nor not he is worth £17m or not... is he an improvement on what we already have? Absolutely.

He may not be as good as Vermaalen technically, but what he does bring is someone that does the basics correctly & is an experienced Premiership player - already an improvement on Kes, Djourou and Squid. Hell slot in nicely with Verm.

I dont buy the arguement that he may not be a European competition player - lets work on improving our team performance in the Premiership, because if we neglect this, we wont have any European football. I dont want another 'technically brilliant' defender that poos himself against average Premiership teams. A big part of why we regularly implode as a team is that we have far too many players that are inherently mentally weak. Lets start changing this.

[Boomer]

It amazes me how modern supporters are obsessed with money.....

We need a centre half - Cahill is a good, young(ish), English one... I dont care how much it costs get him!!!!!!

totally agree.

I laughed at the amounts paid by Pool and Mancs but atleast they knew whom they wanted and then got them.
Wenger only wants a certain type of player but only for the right price.

[rigsby]

Well Spurs are sniffing about him. I know it was plus add ons. I'm unsure how Bolton can justify 17 mil when he could be off for nothing soon. I reckon Arsenal are testing them, we'll probably get him for around 12 mil.

[biglunn]

Well Spurs are sniffing about him. I know it was plus add ons. I'm unsure how Bolton can justify 17 mil when he could be off for nothing soon. I reckon Arsenal are testing them, we'll probably get him for around 12 mil.

Pretty much like how we justify £20+ for Nasri, also in his last year. And of course... why dont we make sure we push it to the last day and make darn sure that we have dropped 8 out of 9 points before we get him!

Do we get Cahill for the asking price, or do we go into this season as we are, or perhaps get a defender without Premiership experience, give him 5 years to adapt, and in the meantime accept falling out of the top 4 and miss out on European football?

Do not underestimate the virtue of getting in a Premiership experienced player, even thiough he is and maybe never will be a world class player.

BTW - Wenger always bangs on about looking for players of super 'exceptional' quality that are better than what he already has... how highly must he rate the likes of Almunia, Diaby and Song for him to not being able to find better players? The mind boggles