https://www.arsenal.com/news/henrikh-mkhitaryan-signs-alexis-leaves-club Where do you expect Mkhitaryan to play? How will he do? How much will u miss Alexis?
Really excited to see him come in. Great player with buckets of skill and also loads of experience. I think he'll play predominately wide, but he can also be used in the middle as a no 10. Can't wait to see him link up with Ozil and hopefull Aubameyang too. As for Alexis. Brilliant player, hate seeing him at Utd. But he wasn't committed to us and he was largely a passenger this season. Also he was a divisive character in the dressing room and his presence had become toxic. I thought his 'open letter' was littered with barbs about leaving Arsenal, so **** him. He's just another ex-Arsenal player now
Well that's a downgrade if I've ever seen one. Like when we replaced Van der Vaart with Clint Dempsey.
Come on. Seriously? A fully-fit, fully focused Sanchez or a fully fit fully focused Mickey. Who would you rather see in your team sheet? The fact that Sanchez was no longer focused and Mickey is rarely fully fit is irrelevant. Objectively you have taken a world class player and replaced with a very good one. Not bitter at all. If Spurs tried to pull something like this I'd be livid.
Well you've hit the nail on the head with Sanchez not being focused or committed. He had one foot out of the door and had become a divisive figure. We were about to lose him on a free and we've ended up getting a top quality player in his place on a long contract. What is irrelevant is that Sanchez is the better player. Because the reality is that for us he no longer was. Mkhitaryan will give us 100% so it's a better scenario for Arsenal than hanging onto a disgruntled Sanchez and then losing him for nothing.
'pull' what exactly? A player that could sign for anyone for free and clearly couldn't be bothered playing for us anymore and was having a negative effect on the rest of the squad? So if Kane got pi55ed off, was about to leave on a free in 6 months anyway, was playing well below par and was ruining the spurs squad morale... you'd be well peeved if you'd swapped him for someone still very good but a level down like Firmino? Yes we've lost a player who is world class, but we'd lost him a long time ago, not today. World class players have ambition. We couldn't match it. Don't begrudge him for not signing a new deal when we've been so gash. If anything we've been a bit fortunate to even get anyone nearly as good as Mkhitaryan for basically about £30m equivalent.
I think this sums up what I can't understand. Given the circumstances have you got a better deal than the alternative which was him walking in the summer? Absolutely. But surely instead of celebrating this minor victory you should be livid that these circumstances were allowed to build? Your point about Kane is a non-starter simply because Levy doesn't let any key player get to within 18-24 months of their contract expiring without signing an extension. If they don't and its because they've had their heads turned, they are sold there and then. Hence Walker, a player with 4 years left on his contract, becomes the most expensive british defender of all time and we are able to reinvest the money in Davinson Sanchez who plays like the second coming of Ledley King. And yes, if in the coming years Kane loses interest and starts to look elsewhere, he will be sold with 2 or 3 years still on his contract so that we break the transfer record when we sell him. You have lost your best player and have directly strengthened a rival in the process. If they weren't our rivals too I'd actually find the whole thing hilarious. As it is, if i'm not celebrating because of how strong United now are, I don't see how you guys are.
The circumstances were of our own making, but given the situation we did the best we could and got a quality player in return. The alternative was him joining a rival in a few months for free.
We've been livid about him running down his contract for ages. Been there, done that. Sanchez, second coming of Ledley? Come now.
I kind of think he's right though. On paper Sanchez is far better than mkhitaryan. We may be happy because we got something for him instead of nothing in the summer, but let's not brush it under the carpet: Arsenal messed this situation up badly and shouldnt be allowed to forget about it. It's like if you bought one bitcoin a month ago and now you sold it for half price and you're "happy about it" because you recovered half your original investment instead of potentially losing all of it...is it really a victory? Personally I think Sanchez should have been sold last summer and a replacement should have been bought long ago.
We didn't sell him in the summer because we couldn't get Lemar in. ****e to let him run his contract down, but we've made the best of a bad situation. We faced losing him for **** all in a few months, but we've got a great player in return.
Well, I have always been more critical of Sanchez than some. He was a good player and he scored a lot of goals, but he was selfish and he killed a lot of moves for us. Loved Mhkitaryan's first interview; he kept on being asked what he was good at and kept on replying that it was just better to watch him play. Who would he like to play with... "Everyone, no exceptions." This guy is a team player, I like him already. This is a great deal. if we can sign Ozil and Wilshere to new contracts, and get Aubameyang, I'm going to be worried about waking up!
Fair enough. I admire your ability to forgive and forget. Maybe that's why Wenger is still in the hot seat. As for Sanchez...yes, at 21 Ledley had a very similar style of play. I can see him developing into a beast of a player who will probably end up at Real in a few years My point was more that we wouldn't have been able to afford him with the same approach to finances Arsenal seem to have. Without the packet brought in for Walker we would've been scraping around the usual bottoms of the usual barrels. Maybe it's our relative lack of wealth that has led us to be so ruthlessly cautious. But then, you don't really see Arsenal doing very much with their wealth, do you?
I don't see what one has to do with the other. And the whole Lemar fiasco happened on the last day of the window. Sanchez should've been sold the day after the FA Cup final and that would've given you the entire summer to reinvest. Instead Wenger turned a blind eye to a situation that was blindingly obvious even to fans of rival clubs and clung on to the faint hope that he would sign a new contract. If he was at Spurs, he would've gone 18 months ago for £90m.... ...and we would've bought Nile Ranger with the money
Forgive and forget? I'm the most viciously anti-Wenger poster on here. The man is a complete **** trumpet, single handedly destroying his own legacy. He's in the hot seat because our club is infested with cockwombles from top to bottom who tolerate mediocrity, much like spurs seem to do with their non-achieving team. And as crap as we are, we still have three of the last four FA cups. What has selling Walker for £750m allowed spurs to achieve apart from giving spurs fans Levy-rections? The Daniel levy trophy for hoodwinking fans into thinking he's a mastermind and legend when he's actually helming a club like spurs while they win nothing? Don't worry, I'm sure you're "building for the future" and that next year is your year. Just don't tell Liverpool that as that's their mantra too. If a crap team like arsenal can win the tin pot trophy like the fa cup three times in four years can't spurs at least win it once with astute signings like ledley in waiting? Or maybe the Europa? What about the league cup?
Actually laughed at that one. Look, you're right in many ways. Most Spurs fans are massively grateful to Levy for what he has done. State of the art training facilities, brand new academy and now a stunning new stadium is quite a legacy for 15 years at the helm, trophies or not. But at the same time, there is a growing sense of 'now or never' in that we are long, long overdue a trophy and quite a few of our current players (Toby, Dier, Alli and obviously Rose but we don't give a **** about him anymore anyway) will start eyeing up far more lucrative exits if we don't deliver pronto. There is no point selling the new stadium as our stepping stone to compete with title-winners if currently we can't compete with FA cup winners. No question. This is why, if we lose our next 3 games and end up adrift of top 4, I hope we ignore the league and focus entirely on the FA and CL. Worse teams than us have won both trophies in recent years, so why not?
