SUMMER TRANSFERS - Your thoughts on who did and did not sign

[Wenger = GOAT]

This is 2011 revisited only this time instead of selling our good players (because there's fuck all any good that's left) we've sold good squad players.

Brace yourselves for the mad trolley dash at 11:55 pm on 01/09/13. Isn't that the time supermarkets put near expiration food at pennies?

[the playing mantis]

webgers in his bunker, dont worry, the cynaide pills and luger are being prepared.

[1989]

he's a DM who runs about a lot - the world is full of them
Flamster for a start...

Clueless post. Can you name one of the same calibre as Gustavo? Go on.

And no Flamini is rubbish.

[highburyJD]

Provided Ramsey is fit and you think its ok for a club like us to have 1 fit first team player on the bench (2 if ramsey is fit)

bench looks weak, lets hope Ox can smash it 2nd season
I wouldn't describe missing one (key) player from our best first XI as "no fit players"

[goonersid]

Who the fuck are we going to play against villa we have no fit players no new signings and the squad players we had have all been sold for a pittance.

Szczezza
Sagna Mertesacker Koscielny Gibbs
Rambo Wilshere
Cazorla(or Rosicky)
Walcott Giroud Podolski

we'll play our first team, minus injured Arteta.
If we need an attacking sub we'll bring on Ox.

Bench is worryingly weak but personally I'm delighted at the players we sold and think we got good prices.

What a fucking stupid statement JD, why in under fuck are you delighted? Is Arsehole going to spend the money? is he fuck, or are you just pleased to see Kroenke and co make sume more fucking money?

[OneBardGooner]

From todays press conference:-


Wenger - We'll be active before deadline

Arsène Wenger says Arsenal will be active in the transfer market before the deadline passes on September 2.


Yaya Sanogo joined the Club last month but as yet there have been no further additions while a number of players have left - including Gervinho, Andrey Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh.

Wenger is confident he will add to his squad in the coming weeks.

"We are active," he told Arsenal Player. "We are in a situation like Manchester United, like Chelsea, where everybody expects signings and at the moment not a lot has happened.

"There are 18 days to go, so that is a long time in the transfer market and we will be active.

"I cannot certify what the number [of players coming in will be] but we will be active until the end, that is for sure."

In the Wenger, Gazidis, Kreonke Lexicon " active " equates to ' Sat on one's arse, twiddling fingers and thumbs, whilst looking at the huge pile of (unspent) cash sitting in the War Chest ( ) and drooling over the fat profit that will made in interest because none of it has been spent.

[g88ner]

he's a DM who runs about a lot - the world is full of them
Flamster for a start...

Clueless post. Can you name one of the same calibre as Gustavo? Go on.

And no Flamini is rubbish.

Is he?

He was very good in 2007/08 and I was gutted he left. He always gave 100%, was full of energy and encouraged those around him. I thought he was doing really well.

Not seen him play since, but he's 29 so shouldn't be a problem.

Why do you say he's rubbish? (genuinely interested - I'm guessing injuries have taken their toll then? )

[kiwomya]

This is 2011 revisited only this time instead of selling our good players (because there's fuck all any good that's left) we've sold good squad players.

Brace yourselves for the mad trolley dash at 11:55 pm on 01/09/13. Isn't that the time supermarkets put near expiration food at pennies?

We've sold squad players. Not good squad players.

[northbank123]

This is 2011 revisited only this time instead of selling our good players (because there's fuck all any good that's left) we've sold good squad players.

Brace yourselves for the mad trolley dash at 11:55 pm on 01/09/13. Isn't that the time supermarkets put near expiration food at pennies?

Out of interest which of our departed players where good squad players? They were all loaned out last year except for Arshavin and Squillaci, neither of whom would feature in a matchday squad unless there we injuries and both of who allegedly refused to move on loan. Our squad is absolutely paper thin but calling them lot "good squad players" for Arsenal is stretching the truth.

Also don't you dare use yellow-label shopping as a negative analogy

[swimmer1]

Provided Ramsey is fit and you think its ok for a club like us to have 1 fit first team player on the bench (2 if ramsey is fit)

bench looks weak, lets hope Ox can smash it 2nd season
I wouldn't describe missing one (key) player from our best first XI as "no fit players"

Need to add Sagna to the injured list being reported he is out as well who will cover in CD when Mert or Kos get sent off or injured and why the fuck did he send Migel on loan ? madness

[Tomáš]

Maybe it was as simple as him wanting to stay in Germany.

I'm really astonished about the outcome.
I don't think that he needed to stay in Germany, he has to move, the distance is to far from Munich to Wolfsburg. If Arsenal has offered the same transfer fee, wages and playing time, they still should be the first pick, because they are the better team, more known world wide and they play international. I'm not sure if Gustavo looked at players like Diego and Naldo from Wolfsburg and fancy a 'brazil gang bang'

[1989]

he's a DM who runs about a lot - the world is full of them
Flamster for a start...

Clueless post. Can you name one of the same calibre as Gustavo? Go on.

And no Flamini is rubbish.

Is he?

He was very good in 2007/08 and I was gutted he left. He always gave 100%, was full of energy and encouraged those around him. I thought he was doing really well.

Not seen him play since, but he's 29 so shouldn't be a problem.

Why do you say he's rubbish? (genuinely interested - I'm guessing injuries have taken their toll then? )

He's not the same player he was in 2008 any more. He's lost his pace and harrying ability which was a major part of his game. Injuries did take their toll but he's been on the fringes at Milan and has stagnated over the last years. There's a reason he's a free agent.

[kiwomya]

he's a DM who runs about a lot - the world is full of them
Flamster for a start...

Clueless post. Can you name one of the same calibre as Gustavo? Go on.

And no Flamini is rubbish.

Is he?

He was very good in 2007/08 and I was gutted he left. He always gave 100%, was full of energy and encouraged those around him. I thought he was doing really well.

Not seen him play since, but he's 29 so shouldn't be a problem.

Why do you say he's rubbish? (genuinely interested - I'm guessing injuries have taken their toll then? )

He's not the same player he was in 2008 any more. He's lost his pace and harrying ability which was a major part of his game. Injuries did take their toll but he's been on the fringes at Milan and has stagnated over the last years. There's a reason he's a free agent.

Well he's a free agent because he rejected the contract Milan offered him.

[OneBardGooner]

If we do not make some decent signings you can gaurantee Jack Wilshere will be off next season - and who could blame him with the idiots we have mis-managing our club...

http://talksport.com/football/exclusive ... 3081555730

"Ever since Jack Wilshere left the field after just seven minutes of Arsenal’s pre-season match against New York Red Bulls in July 2011, having picked up a knock that initial scans showed to be a ‘minor ankle injury’, he has been locked in a battle against his own body.

It was a battle he thought he’d won when, 15 months after the initial injury – eventually diagnosed as a stress fracture – he was back in an Arsenal shirt and making his first senior appearance for the club in 524 days. But it turned out to be little more than a ceasefire. By the end of last season, Wilshere was under the surgeon’s knife again – and forced into combat once more.

He’s four weeks into pre-season when Sport meets him at the Luton Hoo Hotel – a vast estate on the outskirts of Hertfordshire, where the serving of high tea proves to be a useful distraction from the arrival of one of the hottest properties in English football. Dressed casually in jeans and a plain white tee, Wilshere strolls through the lounge area attracting little more than a lingering look from guests with more pressing matters on their minds: jam then cream on the scone, or cream then jam? One can never quite decide.

His day so far has consisted of a single training session – something for which the midfielder is thankful, because it comes sandwiched between two days of gruelling double sessions that combine fitness work and agility drills with more technical exercises. Not that Wilshere is complaining.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a full pre-season in two years,” he says. “We’ve done a lot of strength and power training, and I finally feel like I’m up to speed with everyone else. I’m feeling ready.”

And the ankle? Wilshere glances down at the right leg that has been so troublesome for the past two years. “It was bothering me towards the end of last season, when I was on the bench a bit,” he says. “I needed to get a run of games for me to feel better, and I just couldn’t get going. But I had an operation at the start of this summer, to take out the screws I had put in and replace them with screws that don’t have a head, so it should hopefully be better now. For good.”

His day so far has consisted of a single training session – something for which the midfielder is thankful, because it comes sandwiched between two days of gruelling double sessions that combine fitness work and agility drills with more technical exercises. Not that Wilshere is complaining.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a full pre-season in two years,” he says. “We’ve done a lot of strength and power training, and I finally feel like I’m up to speed with everyone else. I’m feeling ready.”

And the ankle? Wilshere glances down at the right leg that has been so troublesome for the past two years. “It was bothering me towards the end of last season, when I was on the bench a bit,” he says. “I needed to get a run of games for me to feel better, and I just couldn’t get going. But I had an operation at the start of this summer, to take out the screws I had put in and replace them with screws that don’t have a head, so it should hopefully be better now. For good.”

Frustration has been the buzzword for Arsenal supporters unhappy with the team’s inconsistent form in recent seasons, but it’s one that Wilshere can relate to on a very personal level, too.

“The original injury feels like it was a really long time ago,” he explains. “Because when you’re injured and you’re not doing what you love, it’s horrible and the time just drags. It was the first time I had to have surgery on an injury, too. So when I heard I needed an operation, it felt like it was really serious. And I suppose it was.

“Going through that whole process of rehabilitation and physio work was really eye-opening, though. Before, you might have seen injured players in the gym and thought: ‘Oh, they’re not working that hard’. But it makes you realise that isn’t true. You have to work hard, keep your fitness up and do the work the physios set you... otherwise you won’t come back as strong.”

The birth of his son Archie came just three days after Wilshere’s surgery for the initial injury, in September 2011. It was, he says, the perfect distraction from the monotony of the repetitive rehab regime: ice, sit, ice, sit. Repeat ad nauseam.

“He sort of kept me going,” says Wilshere, a warm smile inevitably appearing as he talks about his son. “When I was unable to do things and had all that time off, instead of sitting there doing nothing, I was with my son and could get to know him a bit. So many footballers are away when their kids are born, so I was lucky in that sense. Does he take after me?

"People do say he’s a bit like me in the way he walks and runs, even though he’s not quite two yet. And he’s kicking a ball now – but he’s kicking with his right foot, which is a bit different. The temper tantrums have just started as well, so he can get angry easily. But it’s never for very long.”

The rehab process is one most players have to endure at some point during their careers – and fathering a child isn’t the right solution for everyone – but Wilshere is one of the unfortunate few for whom the journey from operating room to dressing room has involved more detours, delays and random red lights than a trip on the London Underground.

“It’s hard, especially when, like me, you have a few setbacks,” he admits. “They’re probably the worst thing you can have. You work towards a target, and then all of a sudden you’re out for longer.

“You’re seeing all the boys going out to train and it’s just so frustrating. Is it hard to stay motivated? Sometimes, but you just have to get your head down and do it, because if you don’t you’re not going to come back as strong.”

Wilshere’s last few words begin to reveal the fear that gnawed away at him throughout his time on the sidelines – one that must enter the brain of every injured player at one stage of their rehab: will I ever be the same player again?

“I never ever questioned whether I would play football again – I always knew I would,” he says. “But you do question whether you’re going to come back to the same level you were at when you left. The game is always moving forward – it’s getting quicker, and the players are getting more aggressive.

“So when you’re out of the game for as long as I was, you start to question that. And that’s the tough bit, you know, because you can see other players getting better and better while you’re stuck in the gym. All you want is to be out there on the pitch improving, but you can’t. Mentally it’s really hard, especially when you’re 18, 19 or 20 years old. Because that’s when you’re learning the game and always improving. So to miss out on so much of that time was tough.”

But Wilshere has spent much of his young life dreaming of playing for Arsenal – ever since he joined the club’s academy as a fiercely determined nine-year-old in October 2001 and set his sights on joining Arsène Wenger’s squad of Invincibles. It was never something he was going to give up without one heck of a fight.

Returning to first-team action in October 2012, Wilshere was immediately thrust into another battle, as Arsenal looked to bounce back from two straight defeats. He was told by Arsene Wenger at 10.30am on the morning of the game against Queens Park Rangers that he would be in the starting XI, with the Arsenal manager reasoning: “Sometimes I think it is better that you don’t have much time to think about it when you have been out for a long time.” Wilshere emerged unscathed from 67 minutes of combative football, and the Gunners were back to winning ways thanks to a late winner from Mikel Arteta.

But, as the season progressed, the Gunners found themselves knocked out of one competition after another – and slipping further down the league table. A 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in March left Arsenal seven points behind their bitter local rivals, with many feeling the balance of power in north London had shifted away from the Emirates towards the Seven Sisters Road. Was there a feeling among the players that they had been written off too early?

“That happens every year, I think,” says Wilshere defiantly. “Even this year, I’ve been reading things like: ‘Arsenal aren’t title contenders.’ But we’ve had that for years. We feel we have a great squad, as we showed towards the end of last season, when we went 11 games unbeaten [after losing that game at Tottenham]. So if we can reproduce that form, then we have a chance. When we had to get the results, we went out there and got them. And that’s what we need to take into this season.”

There is no doubting this is a crucial season for the club, with that trophy-related statistic bound to drag along behind the team until some silverware finds its way into the Emirates trophy cupboard.

“We understand the fans’ frustration, because we care as well,” says Wilshere. “Arsenal used to be a team that won everything, you know – trophies and titles. But now we haven’t won anything for eight years, so we know what we have to do. It’s time to start producing trophies and being closer to the top of the league at the end of the season. We don’t just want to be fighting for fourth place – we want to be up there with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United. We feel we’re good enough to be there.

“Last season, we lost games in cup competitions in which we could have been there at the end. We lost against Bradford away [in the League Cup] and Blackburn at home [in the FA Cup]. We should never be losing games like that. But this year we have to get over that, grow up a bit and realise that we need a trophy – Arsenal’s too good not to be winning trophies. We’ll be in four competitions this year. We know we have to win one of them.”

While little has changed in the Arsenal bubble since the end of last season, little has remained the same among the rest of the so-called ‘big four’. The managerial departures at Manchester United, City and Chelsea leave Wenger as the longest serving manager in the country – one statistic Wilshere is hoping could give Arsenal an edge in the title race this season.

“Time will tell, but sometimes players don’t get on with new managers, or they come in and change things [which doesn’t sit well with the players],” he says. “It will be interesting to see what happens – hopefully it will mix a few things up.”

[1989]

he's a DM who runs about a lot - the world is full of them
Flamster for a start...

Clueless post. Can you name one of the same calibre as Gustavo? Go on.

And no Flamini is rubbish.

Is he?

He was very good in 2007/08 and I was gutted he left. He always gave 100%, was full of energy and encouraged those around him. I thought he was doing really well.

Not seen him play since, but he's 29 so shouldn't be a problem.

Why do you say he's rubbish? (genuinely interested - I'm guessing injuries have taken their toll then? )

He's not the same player he was in 2008 any more. He's lost his pace and harrying ability which was a major part of his game. Injuries did take their toll but he's been on the fringes at Milan and has stagnated over the last years. There's a reason he's a free agent.

Well he's a free agent because he rejected the contract Milan offered him.

They made him a low offer because he's not good enough, and being the money grabber that we all knew he is rejected it looking for a better offer which has yet to come simples.