Arsenal are the superior team, they have a lot more than just Champions League football as well, they have stability, they have more prestigious competitions to compete for, that being the Premier League and the Champions League. Liverpool at the moment aren't in a positive position, they are a mid table club. Arsenal's squad is far better than Liverpool's you look at each section, Reina has just had one of his worst season, where as Szczesny has just emerged as one of the most promising young GK's in Europe. Look at the defence, Arsenal boast the best RB in England and one of the top 3 CB's in Sagna and Koscielny, the left side is weak, but I expect that to be sorted out with the signing of a proper DM to cover adequately. Look at midfield, it's not even a contest, and then look at the attack, again, not a contest, look at the substitutes and reserves, Arsenal excel again, far more depth, and not only is it just depth, it is strength in depth. The stadiums are irrelevant. As I said earlier, Liverpool are a mid table team at the moment, why don't look at a team that finished 5 places behind you last season, and imagine Liverpool were Arsenal. Now try and justify why Ramirez would join Sunderland over Liverpool.
I agree, I fully expect Brendan Rodgers to make some good signings and get you back on the rise, all be it, a slow one though, as the competition above you is far to powerful to exceed. The only way it can be done in short space of time would be a Manchester City approach.
Okay, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do to your post but I feel obliged to. - Do Arsenal have stability? How's the board at the moment? Oh, and a back to back loss and you'll all want Wenger out (again). Compared to us, relative stability, but hopefully that's behind us now. - There are 20 teams competing for the Premier League. Arsenal have as much of a chance as Liverpool (ie. none). - I've already said the CL is a huge draw for Arsenal especially compared to us. - It's a cheap and poor point to argue we're a 'mid-table' club. I'm sure it's fun, but you know we're not. - Reina is still a lot better than WS, who is a vastly over-rated goalkeeper. He's nowhere near Europe's best or even best emerging goalkeepers. - I like Sagna but he has a leg that can't seem to heal properly (not entirely his fault) and seems very jaded. Every time he's discussed on your board the opinion seems negative. - Koscielny is becoming a decent CB but Mertesacker and Vermaelen were poor last season. Agger/Srktel would start for Arsenal. - Gibbs/Santos are both decent but Enrique is better (although his form decreased dramatically after January). - I said Arsenal had a strong attack, which is obviously more dangerous than ours - hence why we're being linked to so many wingers, strikers and attacking midfielders. You have a lot of similarly talented players and good depth, although only one 'wow' player (RVP). - Apart from Wilshere you don't really have a world-class or potentially world class midfielder. - As I've said already, in attack you have more depth, more because we are so poor in this area than there being a great Arsenal squad. - The attraction of stadia is not irrelevant by a long mile. - That's a nice sounding argument, but you know well that Liverpool underachieved dramatically last season due to poor finishing (which you will know especially if you watched Arsenal against us at Anfield). Sunderland are at their level and are nowhere near Liverpool in terms of global appeal and so on. If anything is 'irrelevant' it's your last sentence. Thanks. Just to clarify, the huge factor is the CL, which is a huge plus for Arsenal I hope he does - I wish it was BR spending a hundred million and not Kenny. All we want is progress I think (and goals). There's not much in it between Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Newcastle right now, we can all beat each other on our day and we could all benefit from each other's players in various positions. The worst thing is that we have no idea what our financial position is - if our owners will spend, or won't, or can, or can't.
Yes, Arsenal have great stability, they are making huge profits every year, they are managing their debts with ease, the board are fine. I won't want Arsene Wenger out after a back to back loss, only morons with knee jerk reactions will. Although Liverpool are also stable in terms of ownership, we haven't seen any stability in the way the club is run, look at the whole racism fiasco, it was handled with extreme unprofessionalism. Look at how your owners throw cash about as if it was confetti. Not to mention that how many times you have chopped and changed managerial and coaching personnel. You've just brought in a relatively unknown manager as well, it doesn't really send out the right messages of stability. Arsenal have a great chance of achieving success in the Premier League next season, if we can keep hold of Robin van Persie and bring in one or two more signings on top of the ones that we already have, I fully expect us to be a force next season. You finished 8th, 8th-12th = Mid table. I see nothing wrong with this evaluation. I disagree, Pepe Reina is an extremely overrated GK, as he has been for many years, Wojciech Szczesny is quickly catching up to Pepe Reina's reputation and has already surpassed his ability. You are extremely in denial if you don't believe that Szczesny is amongst the best emerging GK's. His performances this season have been vital for us as he has won us many games. Wojciech Szczesny cannot be overrated if you aren't even rating him as one of the top young GK's around Europe. It can heel properly, it is not his fault that he is constantly the victim of disgusting assaults. He has just come off the back of what has been his strongest season in a long time, I have never understood why he doesn't get the recognition he deserves, it is, quite frankly, appalling. I will have look for these idiots on the Arsenal board who are discussing him in a negative fashion, these individuals must be ******ed. It is no coincidence that probably about 5% of conceded goals come from our right hand side. I agree, Koscielny is easily amongst the top 3 CB's in the league, in no particular order, it would be him, Kompany, and Vidic. I also agree that Vermaelen was relatively poor last season, but I feel he can improve should he have the right cover in front of him, I also believe that Mertesacker got off to a shaky start, but once he was settled, he performed well and made a good partnership with Koscielny. Agger would start alongside Koscielny. No chance in hell would Skrtel get any where near our defence. Never. I disagree, Gibbs and Santos are pathetic defenders. Enrique is vastly superior to both, but saying that, Enrique is extremely overrated and I would much rather play Vermaelen LB than Enrique. Should we acquire Yann M'Vila, we will have another potentially world class midfielder, Alex SOng is one of the top CM's in the Premier League, his performances proved that last season, and Mikel Arteta is a great midfielder, our best last season. It is. Unless you are fan of the team then the stadium isn't relevant. Just because of 'poor finishing'? What about the mediocrity in midfield? What about the terrible performances against low table teams? What about a manager who was out of his depth? It was more than just 'poor finishing'.
Another "arsenal" fan (doubts to your identity) confusing perpetual 3/4 place competitiveness with competing for the league. You haven't & you won't. If a player is selecting a team based on real chances of winning the premier league, Arsenal aren't one of those teams. Oh it's stable but it's also trophyless. As is your perpetual qualification to the CL, you're participators only. Which eventually is just plain pointless. "your" club are backing singers and have been for most of the last decade. Not saying LFC are better but if we're being accused of delusions it's time arsenal fans woke up & realized they are a development club for the big teams. Win SOMETHING, then you can come back to mock.
I'll sporadically answer the points... - Playing in a world renowned, deeply historic stadium surely would be attractive, logically, to a potential signing. If you are privy to the inner workings of football players' minds please share any contradictory knowledge. - Nearly all of our problems this season (on the pitch) resulted from poor finishing. Despite being mediocre, Adam, Rodriguez and Downing etc created tonnes of chances (go look up the stats). We just couldn't finish. When you don't score, the crowd gets edgy, the team is disheartened, the opposition emboldened; pressure grows. This explains (but by no way excuses) our terrible league finish. - Arteta is a decent midfielder, helps others shine, works hard... Nothing like his best (first two seasons at Everton). Song is average, occasionally looks great. M'Vila would (probably) be a good signing yes. - I'm not sure enough people rate Enrique for him to be vastly over-rated! It's probably just us and Newcastle fans, but thanks. I do wonder why he isn't with the Spain squad. - I'm a big fan of Sagna - it's sad to see him constantly the victim of such poor challenges. He has suffered for it though, he used to be brilliant. - I think Skrtel is exactly what Arsenal need - he's tough (tougher than anyone you have, arguably) and mobile (more than Mert). He's a decent tackler (like Kos). He'd be an interesting partner for Kos, who seems to excel at reading the game and with nippy forwards. Saying that, my opinion of Skrtel has been based on last season - he was quite average before that. - I'd say the best CBs in the league are probably Kompany, Vidic and Agger. When fit they're all exceptional, any combination of those three would be brilliant. - Reina's been shaky for two or so years (since we turned to **** really), Saying that, we had the best record defensively this season until Lucas got injured. Reina is a 'sweeper' style goal keeper - he won't perform brilliantly unless the defence hold a high line and deal with most threats, allowing him to clean up on the edge of his box. His shot stopping is great and his distribution is unrivalled. His handling has really went downhill though. - WS is a decent keeper, don't get me wrong, but I think Arsenal fans are too keen to big him up due to your recent, shocking keepers - Fab, Almunia, the latter years of Lehmann. Looking across Europe there are quite a few better keepers, I'll name some if you want, but I'm sure you'll know them all already. - We spent heavily last season because the club was bought at administration price, far below it's actual value, leaving a large sum of money. Kenny gladly wasted it, of course. - Sorry, I'd love to see Arsenal win ahead of United or Chelsea, but it just won't happen. Every year the same problems - defence and mentality. Maybe this summer that'll change, but right now you've signed Giroud - unproven but with potential, and Podolski, who couldn't hack it at Munich and has scored twice for Germany in two years. International record aside he has a reputation for bottling it. Sorry for being cheeky, you're not all bad
Lots of the same rumours bouncing around, but I'll certainly post something new on this thread or the transfer thread if I come across it. Not like I've anything better to do! At any rate, the window opens properly tomorrow, so any reports of 'confirmed' deals are premature until then, but I'd expect it to take longer anyway. Ramirez is reportedly interesting Juve, Napoli, Liverpool and Man City. I can't see him wanting to go to City; Napoli will surely use their money to replace Lavezzi with a similar player, or indeed Cavani; Juve hopefully won't spend £20M on him when they really need a striker. Leaving us! I hope.
Yeh definitely. The last Uruguay game featured him and Suarez, might see if I can find it, definitely on YouTube somewhere. EDIT: I'll put up some recent Uruguay highlights. Might have mixed Ramirez up with Rodriquez haha. Ramirez is yet to score for Uruguay. [video=youtube;LrmAe12hFLQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrmAe12hFLQ[/video] Coates and Suarez impress in this one.
I would respond to the other post, bazray, but I don't want to take this off topic. But one thing I'd like to say, first, my good friend was thought to be a man that goes by the name of Lettuce, and I am thought to be a man that goes by the name of Redux. This is all rather interesting.
