The trolley dash..revisited

[brucegrove]

In the aftermath of the 8-2 apocalypse Arsenal and/or Arsene(?) responded by signing 5 players of varying quality. Per and Arteta ultimately proved value for money..the others less so...but i still have certain questions regarding this activity, your thoughts on:

1) I've always thought that clubs have massive dossiers on possible transfer targets. I imagine that different scouts cover different regions and at any one time a club would be aware of who are the very best left backs worldwide, which of these are realistically available, who is the best in their age group, (for a club with AFC's spendthrift attitude) who are the up and coming ones bubbling under the present first choice international player (like Monreal for example) etc and yet the purchase of Santos defies all logic. Was he really considered the best available player we could find worldwide to play at left back that we could buy for £8/10m ? I read later that he'd never even played at left back and was more of a left midfielder. A very strange signing

2) Considering how tight we are and how we negotiate down to the wire the purchase of Arteta without a medical was an astonishing financial risk on a 4year contract. It's practically a dereliction of duty for AFC to sign a player this way.

3) It was generally considered that Per had been available all summer but was only brought in after and as a result of this result.

4) I recall Traore walking off the pitch chewing gum and looking as if he didn't give a shit, he was sold to QPR shortly after. I always thought it was this piss-poor performance that led to the transfer but i read later that the transfer had already been agreed before so maybe that explained his seemingly disinterested stance

5) Off the top of my head, Park made around 9 appearances for us and didn't look up to the grade (where is he now?) yet i'm pretty sure i recall that two of those appearances were against ManU..a cynic might seriously wonder if this was a marketing ploy

6) Clearly this was a very rare moment of the board having any influence over Wenger. He was humbled/humiliated by the collapse and i suspect was ordered to buy players. Does anyone have any insight or thoughts into what happened between him and the board in the immediate aftermath. Did they organise an emergency meeting? How on earth did we come up with this strange motley crew of signings? Years later Ivan announced that we were in a position financially to sign any player (he mentioned Rooney) in what i personally think was a deliberate (and actually quite clever) tactic to stop AW from constantly telling the media that we can't spend and therefore deflecting criticism away from the board and back to AW if we don't spend. I genuinely believe that Ivan probably agreed this little speech with the other board members as a quite subtle poke in the ribs for AW.

Any thoughts?

[northbank123]

Just didn't realise quite how bad the whole window (not just the last two days were).

Arteta was a reliable servant and consummate professional in a terrible period - but has been carried along embarrassingly past his prime. Mertesacker in a similar vein.

Santos was an unmitigated disaster. Park was a modern day Ali Dia. Benayoun turned in a few half-decent performances but generally turned out as you'd expect an OAP loan from a team in the same division to - embarrassing that with our resources we went begging to Chelsea for scraps.

Don't also forget the other signings we made that window. Gervinho - awful awful player. Carl Jenkinson, Ox, Joel Campbell - add to this that Wenger personally dedicated time travelling and attending Ryo Miyachi's work permit hearing to advocate on his behalf

We lost the heartbeat of our team for the last half decade in Fabregas and our next most creative player in Nasri, and Wenger tried to replace them with long-term, cheap, speculative options. He then realised we were in trouble and in a mad two days threw fistfuls of cash at bang average players who we could easily have signed at any point in the transfer window.

[Wilson]

The loss at Old Trafford was made worse by the fact we opened with a home draw against Newcastle, then lost 2-0 to Liverpool, then got thrashed by United, thus we had 1 point from 3 games, 10 goals against and only 2 for. THEN, Wenger decided we need reinforcements, when it was already obvious before hand we needed players, yet only after a miserable start did he act. Thats not simply incompetence, its negligence.

We received 60m in sales from Nasri and Cesc, spent 10m on Gervinho and 12m on a 17 year old Chamberlain. So we are absolutely weaker, and still up 40m in profits from transfers, yet we go into the season under prepared, with less quality and quantity than the season before, and it takes 3 shocking results before Wenger suddenly realised the predicament, as as you says goes on a mad dash.

These arnt 'mistakes' or simple errors, they are spectacular examples of negligence. And it still amazes me so many think Wenger will be so hard to replace, when he offers up moments like the above.

The worst thing is, he didnt learn his lesson. After RVP was sold, no one other than Flamini on a free came in, and then we lost on the opening day to Villa, the fans revolted, and Wenger, always behind the 8 ball, embarks on a deadline day deal to bring in Ozil.

[Sean]

Yes, it was a strange time. Whilst TOF should have been sacked for the gutless league title and Birmingham final capitulation and then the 8-2 disgrace, we ended up signing only two players that had any use (now past their sell-by dates). Unusually as well, a lot of them have been shipped out by now - Usually we hang on to shite.

That Park signing was weird. On paper he looked like he could be decent - being a Korean international and all, but almost never used. Only seemingly brought on as a marketing ploy, which is embarrassing to see us pander to. East Asia already love us

It was interesting that Gazidis started to brief against TOF about this time. Were we forced to go on this trolley dash by the board? We must have been. I remember some fans thinking that TOF used the 8-2 to force the board into action - Although I don't think that's true. It was another typical 'paper over the cracks' job, as the squad was so suicidally weak, that literally any bang average player could do a job.

This was also seemingly the end of the failed Project Youth, as TOF was forced to use some experienced players. Although he's still liable to buy shite like Sanogo.

Still, Yossi Benayoun helped us on our glorious run to the VT!

[Arsenal Till I Die]

I actually liked Benayoun. One of those workhorse type players who we actually benefitted from having in the team. I remember he played brilliantly against Sours when we come back to win 5-2.

But that trolley dash

[Perryashburtongroves]

If I remember rightly, the old fraud wasn't even in the country that day. The board went over his head then and did it again with Ozil, I'm sure. Wanker is a total *word censored* and should have been sacked that August. This was the poof that he was clearly using the club for his own selfish ends and was defying all logic to do things he that he wanted. He was prepared to leave the club totally weakened because in his mind, he comes first.

[northbank123]

Sean - agree it was the start of the end of Project Youth in the last day of the window. That day was the closest I have ever seen Wenger to admitting that he was wrong - not with his words, never with words, but with actions.

The most radical U-turn he has ever pulled, without which we would never have had the Hawthorns Miracle. Speaking of which what a fucking weird afternoon that was - I watched our game with a sickening mix of anger and tension on my laptop with mates (including a United 'fan') whilst we had City on the big screen. Still remember the Aguerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro bliss and the confused look on Ferguson and Phil Jones' faces as the Sunderland fans erupted into cheers from nowhere.

[Theoperator]

Yes, it was a strange time. Whilst TOF should have been sacked for the gutless league title and Birmingham final capitulation and then the 8-2 disgrace, we ended up signing only two players that had any use (now past their sell-by dates). Unusually as well, a lot of them have been shipped out by now - Usually we hang on to shite.

That Park signing was weird. On paper he looked like he could be decent - being a Korean international and all, but almost never used. Only seemingly brought on as a marketing ploy, which is embarrassing to see us pander to. East Asia already love us

It was interesting that Gazidis started to brief against TOF about this time. Were we forced to go on this trolley dash by the board? We must have been. I remember some fans thinking that TOF used the 8-2 to force the board into action - Although I don't think that's true. It was another typical 'paper over the cracks' job, as the squad was so suicidally weak, that literally any bang average player could do a job.

This was also seemingly the end of the failed Project Youth, as TOF was forced to use some experienced players. Although he's still liable to buy shite like Sanogo.

Still, Yossi Benayoun helped us on our glorious run to the VT!

Agree with all Sean but TB mildly fair Sanogo was on a free

[officepest]

Agree with all Sean but TB mildly fair Sanogo was on a free

And we were still ripped-off.

[Theoperator]

Agree with all Sean but TB mildly fair Sanogo was on a free

And we were still ripped-off.

[Sean]

If I remember rightly, the old fraud wasn't even in the country that day. The board went over his head then and did it again with Ozil, I'm sure. Wanker is a total *word censored* and should have been sacked that August. This was the poof that he was clearly using the club for his own selfish ends and was defying all logic to do things he that he wanted. He was prepared to leave the club totally weakened because in his mind, he comes first.

Spot on.

And also the Welbeck signing too. TOF unusually took great pains to say that wasn't his idea. TOF also abandoned his post that day as well.

In some ways this should give us some (tiny) hope that that board ARE prepared to sign players over TOF's head. It's just a shame they couldn't aim their sights higher and sign true quality.

Sean - agree it was the start of the end of Project Youth in the last day of the window. That day was the closest I have ever seen Wenger to admitting that he was wrong - not with his words, never with words, but with actions.

The most radical U-turn he has ever pulled, without which we would never have had the Hawthorns Miracle. Speaking of which what a fucking weird afternoon that was - I watched our game with a sickening mix of anger and tension on my laptop with mates (including a United 'fan') whilst we had City on the big screen. Still remember the Aguerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro bliss and the confused look on Ferguson and Phil Jones' faces as the Sunderland fans erupted into cheers from nowhere.

Yep. Although I do get the nagging feeling that it isn't totally over. He still bangs on about 'Internal Solutions'

Van Persie was the one saving grace of that season - He saved our arses when it came to getting the VT. Then he challenged TOF to sign better players and refresh the coaching staff and he was basically told to fuck off (We're due to repeat this with Ozil and Sanchez soon). So he went to Manure and won the title and we still don't have a worthy replacement up front

There is no doubt that TOF should have been sacked in 2011. Instead we have to watch this dull tippy tappy shite as we bottle title after title for the rest of eternity

Agree with all Sean but TB mildly fair Sanogo was on a free

And we were still ripped-off.

True enough

We did sign him on a free. But we shouldn't have signed him at all - And waste £30K a week on the useless cunnt

[Midz]

I actually liked Benayoun. One of those workhorse type players who we actually benefitted from having in the team. I remember he played brilliantly against Sours when we come back to win 5-2.

Agreed, it was a shame we couldn't keep him.

[Blood_Gooner]

We didn't pay a transfer fee for Sanogo, but we did pay some kinda fee, to his old club, ranging in the £500k area. Therefore, the useless fucker wasn't completely free.

Any other big club and that signing would have been a sackable offense for wenker.

[Offside]

What is even scarier, is that the trolley dash players probably wouldn't have been bought if we hadn't lost so heavily (say a "normal" 2-0 defeat), which would have meant continuing the season with a woefully inadequate squad, both in terms of numbers and quality.

Wenger was in complete narcisstic denial that summer. He just assumed ( ) Fabregas and Nasri would stay, so he had nowhere to go when his "you can't call yourself a big club" remarks came back to haunt him. Then there was the faffing about over Juan Mata (who went to Chelsea and won the CL - the trophy Wenger is unable to win), the squad being riven with injury and suspension and then it took the concession of EIGHT (!) goals for someone at the club to think there might actually be a problem. When Fergie started sticking up for Wenger, I knew we were really in trouble.

[SteveO 35]

I remember it clearly, as it was the Summer after Red's infamous, 'irrelevant 8-2' and that glorious night in Udine.

I also think it was the first time the words "super quality" were uttered from the lips of TO1AW as the world screamed at him to sign players, and then "Super Quality" Park walked through the door, with the shirt swapping Brazilian Michelin Man waddling in behind him

Another truly great transfer window, but thankfully 5 years on Arsene knows exactly what's required this time and is ready to spend big