Summer 2014 Transfers Mega-thread

completely agree. but they have billionaire owners.

 

I think with Arsenal they have a reserve of quality youth from all over the World that don't count in their Premier league quota of players they can use , maybe Wenger would rather have more attacking options and midfielders in his 25 man squad but I wouldn't be too concerned with Wenger's judgement .

 

I agree with all you say SN23 - I really don't think that Wenger gets the credit he deserves and, unfortunately, always seems to have the media on his back. Remember when he was being blamed for the decline in our national team because of the lack of English players in his side. Look at the situation now but no praise of course. Despite our argument Supers I don't think we are that far apart. My views on the subject are quite simple. Without the prudence and youth policy of Wenger Arsenal could not have afforded the Emirates. If they were still at Highbury they would not have been able to compete in the last 10 years with the financial clout of the others and would have ended up in the ' just beneath ' group along with Spurs, Everton etc and most certainly would have not qualified for the Champions League every year for the last 17.

 

I am fortunate enough to have been able to attend many matches at Highbury and have lived in the area and seen first hand what has been done to the local area , the old stadium was converted into luxury apartments and the Emirates site is still being developed into really nice housing surrounding the stadium .
They have improved the local area and provided both bespoke and affordable <ish> housing coining in a massive sum of money as a result, everything they do seems to make money and without Wenger steadying the ship as far as footballing matters are concerned this would not have been possible.
Arsene Wenger is Arsenal and qualifying for the Champions league 17 years in a row is nothing short of miraculous given the resources at his disposal .
They have always been my second team and my 3 kids have both Arsenal and Norwich kits as they were born here.

 

Who don't pump money into the Club and that is a very important difference.

 

I can't think of another manager who could have kept Arsenal in the position they are whilst finances were seriously restricted by the Emirates build. Now that's paid off though he's got to prove again that he's capable of building a title-contending squad. The Arsenal job isn't as hard as it was 5 years ago, there's plenty more managers who could do a job there. He's done an amazing job but I don't think he's immune to criticism, and for this summer it's not that he hasn't got cover in defensive positions, it's that he doesn't have options. If a player goes off the boil he'll have to keep faith with him (to be fair something Wenger's generally been pretty good at), or if he wants to tweak his defence to suit the opposition better he'll struggle. When competing on 4 fronts I don't think he's given himself the options a club in their position would expect to be able to call upon.

Whilst Arsenal may have mega-rich owners, do they actually pump their own money in? I thought the club lived within its means, but I could be wrong.

Edit: Ah, just seen 1950's comment, thanks.

 

so, we're all agreed that arsenal are run superbly off the pitch, that arsenal getting in the top four 17 years in a row is a great achievement, that arsene wenger has done a very good job, that he's taken a risk by not bringing in another centre half and that i'm a convicted criminal.

missed anything?

 

I always rated Pascal Cygan personally......

 

Yes. The little digs like Wenger being ' seriously weird at times ' and ' should have won a lot more in the last 15 years than he has' but we are now going round in circles because Arsene obviously doesn't think he is taking a risk or he would have bought somebody and he does have 6 options which he is happy with but you don't rate.

 

At risk of being shot down for being excessively pernickety... Wenger may well see it as a risk he is taking, but if so he obviously thinks it is a worthwhile one. Or he might have tried to bring in a CB and it didn't quite work.

 

All this talk of Arsenal - where is RobbieBB when you need him?

 

Flamini can play Left back if called upon making at least 7 options .

 

OK. I'm willing to wait and see, but I remember many on here rubbishing Ruddy when he first arrived, and Turner and so on. You may be right, in which case our professional scouting system is completely up the creek. That may be true, but it may also be true that they see potential for development that you don't. Arsenal are thinking PL and CL now, whereas we are thinking Championship now and possible promotion to PL. Big difference IMO. Like I say, I'm willing to wait and see.

 

I can see Sanogo scoring in the Champions league this year he is a fine player and France U21 International scoff all you like but the guy is a brilliant player not far from the finished article in my opinion.

[video=youtube;bGGsIBDYbiU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGGsIBDYbiU[/video]

 

this is getting really rather silly now rick and i'm getting bored of typing the same stuff. you may not remember but i was one of the few on here backing ruddy when he first arrived - i think i was the ONLY person to back martin! i'll keep saying it - i give an honest assessment of every player we talk about. my honest assessment may not fit in with your opinion but so what? its not like i'm going to boo him! every city player gets 100% backing from me when they pull on the shirt. even mark fotheringham. ok, maybe not him...

even if, as i fear, he ends up being a 'miss', it hardly means the scouting system needs to be started again for goodness sake! i think we've had far more 'hits' than 'misses' over the last few years. we have no choice but to 'wait and see' with all of our new recruits. people have been getting hard-ons about odjidja-ofoe - he could end up being a complete waste of money - we just don't know (i don't think he will by the way, he looks great!). but if i've seen a player numerous times (and i have with miquel) i will say on here what i think of him. unfortunately, on this occasion, i'm not a fan of what i see. he is too slow in the mind, too weak in the tackle and too poor in the air IN MY OPINION to be suitable at this level for regular first team football. as back up, who knows.

or maybe he'll be the next bobby moore and you can laugh in my face.

 

would sanogo get in the man city side? would sanogo get in the liverpool side? would sanogo get in the chelsea side? would sanogo get in the man utd side? would sanogo get in the everton side? would sanogo get in the spurs side? would sanogo get in the southampton side? would sanogo get in the qpr side?

to be honest, i don't think he'd be a regular starter in the the hull, newcastle or stoke sides for example. potentially decent, but at this time nowhere near good enough to be heading the attack of a club with champions league aspirations imo.

 

He wouldn't be scoring Champions league goals at MAN u or Liverpool.
Quote me the boy is very good and will get Champions League goals at Arsenal this season.

 

i'll give you man utd but liverpool?

 

Poor service Supes

 

ah right. yeah - that sterling looks ****e doesn't he?