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.
augie wrote:To be honest I am still laughing at the "lets hope that our scouts have greater depth of knowledge" comment jd......has to be tongue in cheek surely, when you look at the signings of the forehead, chamakh, giroud and the countless other fools that they have recruited to the club in recent years
We've made some poor signings but equally I think Cazorla is brilliant, that Kos can be the leagues best defender.
Arteta and Mertesacker are established players not potential
Ox will push on this year, he's class
I know many/most on here don't rate Giroud.
I believe he can continue to improve/acclimatise and be a key player, I feel the same about Podolski
Lukas is class, I believe he can be the difference in big games 2nd season.
I'm also not willing to dismiss Monreal or Jenks as bad signings already.
northbank123 wrote:Interesting point Augie - I would rather have made the move for Lewandowski without doubt. If it comes off then absolutely fantastic, if not then fuck it. Would he want to move to us? Quite probably not, although Dortmund wouldn't be so averse to selling abroad as you said. I think £40m could get him - or at any rate less than it would actually take to sign Suarez.
Ultimately with the Suarez thing I reckon we'll end up with egg on our face. We'll try and drag out these negotiations for as long as we can because when the deal collapses then there will be pressure on the club to look for other top targets, so if we can still pretend we might sign him in mid-August they're halfway home.
We'll have steamed in with one or two big offers, in the eyes of many sacrificed some principles and end up unable to tempt the player to move/force a move from Liverpool - which will make their deluded fans unbearably gleeful. Even if we did sign him, would we realistically be able to build our team around him? Not effectively, because we all know the bloke would try and piss off the first chance he got.
Lewandowski would be a long shot but I actually think we'd have more chance of signing him than there is of us handing over the money for Suarez - and that the reward would be greater. Obviously won't happen but would be interesting to see us try.
Anyone who was lucky enough to see Dortmund shit on Pep's parade in the German super cup would have saw a great manager with a bargain basement team punch well above their weight. Can we transfer Klopp to Arsenal before the window slams shut on any hope we may have had
I think at the end of the day our lack of signings this summer and previous windows comes down to one thing,WHO THE FUCK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO SIGN FOR A CLUB WITH NO AMBITION AND A CLUELESS HAS BEEN AS MANAGER??? under Wenker we have zero pulling power,we cant and wont attract big names end of.and those that we do get linked with the dallying toss pot changes his mind like the wind and we lose out ala Higuain
JD even if you don't think Giroud is as much of an oaf as many on here do, surely you can see that he is never going to be a "key player" of a side hoping to compete for PL and CL titles?
markyp wrote:I think at the end of the day our lack of signings this summer and previous windows comes down to one thing,WHO THE FUCK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO SIGN FOR A CLUB WITH NO AMBITION AND A CLUELESS HAS BEEN AS MANAGER??? under Wenker we have zero pulling power,we cant and wont attract big names end of.and those that we do get linked with the dallying toss pot changes his mind like the wind and we lose out ala Higuain
If you think this story circulated by Amy Lawrence about non agreement of transfer policy between the board and AW has some legs then there is another serious problem.
Any potential signing would expect to be 'sold' on the transfer by meeting, or at least having a talk with the coach, if AW is not interested in big signings then no matter how much the club offer if they go over Wenger's head, if he appears not comitted to the player, he will probably go elsewhere.
markyp wrote:I think at the end of the day our lack of signings this summer and previous windows comes down to one thing,WHO THE FUCK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO SIGN FOR A CLUB WITH NO AMBITION AND A CLUELESS HAS BEEN AS MANAGER??? under Wenker we have zero pulling power,we cant and wont attract big names end of.and those that we do get linked with the dallying toss pot changes his mind like the wind and we lose out ala Higuain
I think that's a problem.
In recent times, we've shown ourselves to be a club that doesn't win trophies, doesn't seem to be fighting hard to rectify that, sells their best players, doesn't recruit world class talent (with the odd exception) and doesn't pay top dollar either.
So even if we now have the money, it's about convincing Wenger/the board to spend it... and even then, we need to convince the best players that they can achieve their goals here... and sadly, not even the fans are convinced that's true, so why would an impartial, glory hunting footballer?
Also, when we're stalling and abandoning credible transfers like Higuain, it hardly suggests we mean business... neither does bidding £40m for Suarez, if we then back away and recruit Remy or Cisse instead
markyp wrote:WHO THE FUCK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO SIGN FOR A CLUB WITH NO AMBITION AND A CLUELESS HAS BEEN AS MANAGER???
Much as I want Wenger out, I don't totally buy this. For some reason, Wenger is still seen as a draw by a lot of players, you always hear them talking about how much they want to play under Wenger.
But i'm convinced that like us, the majority of these players no longer see Wenger as a top coach. Sadly it's not because these players feel that AW can help them to win silverware. It's because they see him as being the one who can help further their careers and perhaps put them in the shop window for the inevitable move on to Barca/City in a few years time.
this season was meant to be different, if we were going for suarez you would have thought given the chance we would have outlined our plan which is to the league title, by investing in our squad.
But the more pragmatic view would be signing suarez would have given wenger the excuse not to invest significantly more in the squad. When was the last time we actually had any significant squad depth, wenger likes a thin squad so that he can play some the kids. Unfortunately the youth project has been shown up to be a sham, and that we produce players no better than anybody else the vast majority will struggle to play at any PL club.
I think the same would have happened had we got higgy. Higgy plus a maybe one more and the squad is all set to fail by February as we have to draft in riff raff from the reserves. Cue the miracle in finishing 4th ahead of sh*tty spurs with 10 year trophyless run under the belt.
Arsene's era is over and at least if he doesn't sign any players this summer we won't have to see this sorry management beyond this coming season.
Supagoon wrote:this season was meant to be different, if we were going for suarez you would have thought given the chance we would have outlined our plan which is to the league title, by investing in our squad.
But the more pragmatic view would be signing suarez would have given wenger the excuse not to invest significantly more in the squad. When was the last time we actually had any significant squad depth, wenger likes a thin squad so that he can play some the kids. Unfortunately the youth project has been shown up to be a sham, and that we produce players no better than anybody else the vast majority will struggle to play at any PL club.
I think the same would have happened had we got higgy. Higgy plus a maybe one more and the squad is all set to fail by February as we have to draft in riff raff from the reserves. Cue the miracle in finishing 4th ahead of sh*tty spurs with 10 year trophyless run under the belt.
Arsene's era is over and at least if he doesn't sign any players this summer we won't have to see this sorry management beyond this coming season.
Don't bank on it mate ! - The board and wenker have already had talks about his contract extension - it will be sorted at a time that suits them - maybe when we have 3 wins on the trot and all the AKB luvvies are singing his praises - it's called PR Manipulation - and they are masters at it....if it was about Trophies wenker would be long gone - But it is about profit and keeping the club in the top 4 - which is the real money spinner...and as long as the *word censored* can somehow manage that - we are stuck with him - and the other scumbags on the board - Kroenke is making a nice little earner from Arsenal FC - so why should he move on??
markyp wrote:WHO THE FUCK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO SIGN FOR A CLUB WITH NO AMBITION AND A CLUELESS HAS BEEN AS MANAGER???
Much as I want Wenger out, I don't totally buy this. For some reason, Wenger is still seen as a draw by a lot of players, you always hear them talking about how much they want to play under Wenger.
But i'm convinced that like us, the majority of these players no longer see Wenger as a top coach. Sadly it's not because these players feel that AW can help them to win silverware. It's because they see him as being the one who can help further their careers and perhaps put them in the shop window for the inevitable move on to Barca/City in a few years time.
Agreed - we wouldn't have a problem attracting big players to us.
Barca, Bayern, Madrid, City, United, Chelsea, probably Juventus and then Monaco and PSG depending on motives have more pulling power than us. Probably on the same sort of level as Milan and Dortmund although I'd put us above both. We're still a big club that are in CL every year, we're in a position where a few top players could make us competitive for big trophies, we have a well-known and respected manager (regardless of what we think he carries a lot more weight than somebody like Moyes), we're based in a fantastic and attractive city and we pay pretty big wages.
If we were actually willing to spend the money we could attract enough quality players to challenge for the title without doubt.
markyp wrote:WHO THE FUCK IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO SIGN FOR A CLUB WITH NO AMBITION AND A CLUELESS HAS BEEN AS MANAGER???
Much as I want Wenger out, I don't totally buy this. For some reason, Wenger is still seen as a draw by a lot of players, you always hear them talking about how much they want to play under Wenger.
But i'm convinced that like us, the majority of these players no longer see Wenger as a top coach. Sadly it's not because these players feel that AW can help them to win silverware. It's because they see him as being the one who can help further their careers and perhaps put them in the shop window for the inevitable move on to Barca/City in a few years time.
Agreed - we wouldn't have a problem attracting big players to us.
Barca, Bayern, Madrid, City, United, Chelsea, probably Juventus and then Monaco and PSG depending on motives have more pulling power than us. Probably on the same sort of level as Milan and Dortmund although I'd put us above both. We're still a big club that are in CL every year, we're in a position where a few top players could make us competitive for big trophies, we have a well-known and respected manager (regardless of what we think he carries a lot more weight than somebody like Moyes), we're based in a fantastic and attractive city and we pay pretty big wages.
If we were actually willing to spend the money we could attract enough quality players to challenge for the title without doubt.
All true. But the other big problem we have is that ironically that manager, that probably could still attract some top quality players if he tried, would then use those players in the wrong positions and/or the wrong system/formation. Just buying in big names/top players is not enough. We need a manager that plays to the strengths of the players he has. We need a manager that understands and utilises tactics and strategy. We need a pragmatic manager that can admit when he gets it wrong and then at least try and correct those errors, whereas we currently have a manager that tries to play fantasy football with the wrong players in the wrong system and can never admit (even to himself) that he has got it wrong, never mind try and correct his mistakes.
I honestly believe that Arsene will never win another trophy with Arsenal. I still love the man for what he achieved up to 2006 but I want him gone more than any previous manager.
DB10GOONER wrote:But the other big problem we have is that ironically that manager, that probably could still attract some top quality players if he tried, would then use those players in the wrong positions and/or the wrong system/formation. Just buying in big names/top players is not enough. We need a manager that plays to the strengths of the players he has. We need a manager that understands and utilises tactics and strategy. We need a pragmatic manager that can admit when he gets it wrong and then at least try and correct those errors, whereas we currently have a manager that tries to play fantasy football with the wrong players in the wrong system and can never admit (even to himself) that he has got it wrong, never mind try and correct his mistakes..
