Until those players are signed, I can't be optimistic. The whole Higuain transfer story feels so similar to the one about Mata. Would not shock me, if another big club comes in and takes Higuain, while we dither about.
Feel the same way regarding Thiago. Wish we would just wrap it up and move on to the next one. dont forget the window doesnt open until Monday officially and not all clubs announce signings in advance. For all you or I know higuain could be a done deal as could Thaigo though in Uniteds case I think if it was 100% done we would have to announce it to the stock market. Not sure on that one. Think both our clubs will secure the above players.
Arsenal are nowhere near challenging. We need to make at least 3 top signings (Higuain, Fellaini, Rooney), plus there are other areas of the team we can improve in ie competition at GK, 4th choice CB, possibly another holding midfielder as Coquelin is probably leaving and Diaby is finished. We will also need replacements for Vermaelen, Sagna and Gervinho should they be sold (hopefully the former 2 are not sold). Should all of the above happen and Arsenal have a more conservative approach to games that we showed from the Munich victory onwards, THEN we can consider the thought of Arsenal challenging for the league and possibly winning a domestic cup. The faffing about with Higuain though and Wenger's history with dithering over potential new signings does not give me hope of that happening though.
Xabi Alonso,Juan Mata,etc. Under this board and manager, we have shown our ability to penny pinch with the best, so it would hardly be a shock if they are doing the same with Higuain. Asking for early signings and having those players ready for pre-season is next to impossible with this club. Maybe we can drag this Higuain deal into the last day of the transfer window, as well.
We didn't sign Alonso because Liverpool pulled out of the deal because Gareth Barry chose to go to Citeh.
I even remember us faffing about when we tried to Mark Schwarzer in that 2010/11 season. Missing out on him was hardly a great regret, but going into the season we had many problems with our GK's, and yet we ****ing haggled and haggled and in the end missed out on Schwarzer. So for that season, we still had Alumina as our number one and he was shot and cost us points, the games against West Brom home and away in particular were horror shows from him, which cost us five points, alone.
I never remember the club actually admitting to trying to buy Shwarzer.Perhaps you can find a link to enlighten me
Barry went to City the Summer after that. Liverpool never signed Barry because they couldn't meet his asking price because we refused to meet their's for Alonso. They wanted £14M and we woudn't go above £12M.
I didn't realise you had access to Arsenal's transfer negotiations. The "rumour" about Arsenal trying to buy Alonso broke the same season that Citeh bought Barry.Citeh susposedly outbid Liverpool and "according" to rumours Liverpool stopped Alonso joining Liverpool.
I didn't ask you for a link to a rumour in the Grauniad even though they do get a massive 34% of transfer rumours correct
The club are hardly going to 'confirm' their interest in him on the official website. It's was well reported by most sites, that we were in for him at the time, but instead ****ed around and went into the season with Alumina as our number 1. Even the BBC reported the story, and Fulham's manager at the time, confirmed our interest in said player. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/f/fulham/8913924.stm
No we tried to buy Alonso in Summer 08. Barry moved to City in Summer 09 (same season Alonso was sold to Madrid for £30M)
I still say we didn't buy Alonso because Liverpool didn't buy Barry.I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
I think one of the areas where criticisms of the club are least valid, is in transfer dealings. First of all, information on them is sketchy at best. Second, we simply haven't had the money to compete in that area. And thirdly, the club has been magnificent in the transfer market, when we have no more right to owning ANY of our bought players than Stoke or Sunderland, because over the years we have spent less than them. Any other team in the premier league could have had our squad, and spent what we did on our stadium, and finished in the top 4 for the last 16 years, but they didn't. Liverpool, Everton, Spurs, Newcastle, Leeds, West Ham, Ason Villa, Birmingham, West Brom, and Fulham could all have done it, without spending a penny more than they did over the same period. Complaining about us signing the players that have kept us in the top 4, essentially for nothing, is just bonkers.
All those could have paid the transfer fees but only Liverpool could afford the wages, so basically only Liverpool could have actually made the signings
We don't spend less than any of the clubs you have mentioned apart from Liverpool. We spend less on transfer fees, however our wages are astronomical compared to Spurs and everybody below them (apart from Liverpool). A £9M net spend on transfers over 8 years or so is very impressive but the wage structure is laughable and had it been done correctly we could have held on to departing players we didn't want to lose and could have landed the top players we have gone in for without success.
