wenger said that the signing of Park Chu Young was going to happen maybe last night, but has still not been confirmed at 18.12 on monday. What is taking so long? We need to sign 3 players in 2 and a bit days, we are in big trouble. I just hope Wenger is trying to announce a double signing to please the fans... what do you think?
23:00 Wednesday night is getting so close. Now its after 18:00 on Monday. squeeky bum time for us Arsenal fans.
Can it be possible that even after the humiliation of yesterday not to mention the mental scars this will have placed on the team, we could possibly go through to Wednesday night not signing the players we need? Don't hold your breath friends. This board and management are made of strangely firmer stuff. The type that leads to denial. If nothing or not much happens, they could possibly say they haven't found the right players. Brace yourselves for the backlash.
This club leaves everything to the last minute. Well, just about and almost always. I'm actually surprised they didn't inspire last minute dot com. So now we have a striker ( Park Chu Yong ), a LB ( Andre Santos ) so to come, a CB, AM and perhaps a winger?
I said yesterday that LB was urgent because of the two players we had playing there so i am really happy that Santos is nearly an Arsenal player, now another three players and we would be back on for a top 4 spot. CB,CM and AM.
The thing is he is in such a catch 22 situation. What top player, with top ambition, would go to arsenal right now? What is Arsene Wenger supposed to do? Who is he supposed to buy? He has bought players all the way through his arsenal management, the complaints have been that he hasnt signed proven quality. The other problem is it isnt as simple as buying 3 or 4 players. Because buying those 3 or 4 players represents a clear vote of no confidence in the players he has. The young, inexperienced players who played in the most difficult ground in the league without a third of their squad. (I know people will say it is arsene wenger's fault that the players he has are young and inexperienced, but that is for another debate). These players need their confidence rebuilt and renurtured. Look, you got pummelled yesterday. A scoreline like that wont come around again for many, many years. Every star was alligned, just about every arsenal player was hopeless and they gave up. These problems arent fixed overnight. And without meaning to make the argument too circular, for Arsene to buy somebody he has to convince a top player who could play at any number of other top clubs that arsenal is the place for him.
Because he and/or the board have left it so late is why we are now in this position. It was very much common knowledge that Fabregas and Nasri were on the move and just as in the cases of Henry, Viara, Flammini et al, he has not replaced them on a like for like basis. It's not as though there was a youth project player ready to step into their shoes. There wasn't. That is why we are here today with little prospect of signing big names and having to renurture the youngsters who were sent out to face Goliath on Sunday. There is only one way to describe this - poor management by which I mean manager and / or board.
Arsene said he's looking at a defender, a striker and a midfielder, so that's santos (defender), korean guy (striker) and yossi, or hopefully someone better (midfielder) that'll be it
But it always comes back to money - If I remember correctly about 4 or 5 years ago you had one of the best young, attacking teams in England - Hleb, Rosicky, Fabregas, Adebayor, Aliadiere, Clichy, Sagna etc with the likes of Gibbs, Walcott and Wilshere in the youth. I'd say that was pretty good work, and would have brought successs had they stayed together. There is only one reason they didnt stay together - because one by one they had carrots dangled in front of them by teams who could pay them more. If Arsene Wenger could have paid them more, he would have. It just is not as simple as magicing up a replacement - its about finding a replacement that fits into your team and can adapt to the way you play. Had Arsene Wenger been aware an experienced, solid, Vieira like player who was willing to join and who would accept the wages Arsenal could have offered him he would have done. The unfortunate fact is said experienced, top players could earn twice the amount you could offer them by joining Chelsea. Or if they were good enough they could go to Madrid or Barcelona and enjoy the Spanish weather and of course considerably more money. Just look at Nasri - anybody who says he left for reasons other than the golden dollar are kidding themselves. Fabregas was always going to leave - but Fabregas's don't come along every day! These days money talks. And he will still get you into the top 4, or there or there abouts. And unless you get a sugar daddy in, thats probably about the best you can realistically hope for until the FFP rules come in....
Yes I agree it's money and the management are somewhat shortsighted in this regard. In not finding the money to pay the required wages has left us in the unenviable position of eventually not having sufficient funds anyway. You have to speculate to accumulate. They could consider a rights issue or something. BTW Adebayor wasn't worth keeping anyway. He would be a consistent player but for his ego. Essentially he was good for us .. for one year, the 2007/08 season. Thereafter his performance just fell away. It seems he has no longevity. Look at his tenure at City. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't last at Tottenham either. Time for bed TTFN
