Im not sure what the club were playing at with Suarez, there was never any chance of Liverpool selling to us
There must have been some ray of hope somewhere, in the same way that United felt they could get Cesc for as long as they did.
Im not sure what the club were playing at with Suarez, there was never any chance of Liverpool selling to us
The problem is Wenger has earned an admirable reputation of a savvy manager who can produce wonders for peanuts. 15 years of CL with a surplus on a transfer market is a truly wonderful achievement. From that point of view Wenger is unique. And I guess he wants to stay unique. His strategy is let's have a shot with what we have. If we win a trophy I will be a magician. If not, let's hope for another CL and I still will be unique. The alternative is to break the bank, buy stars and challenge for trophies seriously. But trophies are not guaranteed even if we spend 100 ml. So there is a big risk for Wenger to buy big and then fail to win a big trophy. And that would be the day when Wengers 'unique magic' will go forever, he will become just another manager who tried and failed - he will become another Benitez , and that is what he wants to avoid at all cost.
To look at it from a different perspective: Arsenal failures on a transfer market is a direct consequence of the wrong balance between a manager and a board. A manager should not care about the money, he should care about players and demand better players, he should apply pressure on the board to spend. The board's business is to find a compromise and spend wisely. With Arsenal's manager AND the board willing to spend wisely, there is no will to spend at all. There is no will to meet sellers evaluation of the player. We have seen it with Huguain,, now Gustavo. Had Wenger said to the board I need him and I do not care about his value, you have the money so go get him or else.. the situation would be completely different.
But instead everyone is happy at the AFC. The board are happy because the manager does not demand to spend on new players, and they do not need to pursue any risky strategies, the manager enjoys his 'unique' reputation, full control and huge salary, even players deep down are happy there is no real competition for a starting place. Everything is just fine. The only small problem is that Arsenal FC is loosing bit by bit his status of a top club.
The thing is, if Liverpool had agreed to sell Suarez to us,
then this thread probably wouldn't even have seen the light of day
I don't agree, we need far more than Suarez this summer, I still wouldn't have considered the window to be a major success, even if Suarez came in, as others have said, we need 3-5 players.
The thing is, if Liverpool had agreed to sell Suarez to us,
then this thread probably wouldn't even have seen the light of day
I said weeks ago when Suarez deal was more likely that this was already an incompetently managed transfer window by the club. Even the most severe of apologists here would have laughed at you if you'd have said we're a CF away from challenging for the title after that season where we barely managed to get fourth, thanks to the miraculous deeds of St. Koscielny in particular.
That whole hype-up by the club was completely irresponsible too, and has become a joke by now however it ends. (though the early theory that it was meant by the management to add pressure to Wenger to sign someone already, is looking more and more plausible now.)

Yes but you're a cranky old pessimist, so I'd expect you to say that.![]()
Didn't Gustavo get offered like 130k a week at Wolfsburg which was higher than what we would be willing to pay him and any other clubs interested? They want to make him there main man whereas at Arsenal he would be one of many midfielders. So i can see why he would potentially choose to go there. Doesn't neccesarily mean it was Wengers fault
His latest comments sound like we are working on several deals though. He said he wants to bring in 2 or 3 or if possible even more signings. I just hope we manage to get a fewof these deals wrapped up come september!
IF we fail to sign anyone and then IF we are well off the pace come the halfway mark of the season i will be very concerned about the situation as i think we are in a position to finally challenge again if we invest in this squad. IF this is the case i wouldn't replace Wenger mid-season but i would make it clear that as a club we where looking at potential replacements. Changing managers mid-season could have a negative effect on the team and result in us even mising out on CL football.
BUT i don't think it will come to this as i think we will be pleasently suprised by a few quality signings before the window closes and i think we will enjoy a good season this time around.
I think we will make 3-4 signings of people that none of our fans rate significantly, but a couple of them will be very good. We will be doing well at Christmas, but our fans will be saying that we will bottle it because we didn't sign experienced players.
Then, at the end of the season, we will win something, but the fans will still want Wenger gone, because they will say we could have won more, if he had only signed better players.
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That's TT and afcftw 90% of the time for you.
I haven't made any strawman argument. I simply made a prediction, I have not said anything you said is not true, or misrepresented any argument you have made.
Honestly, you lot have to stop responding in threads with personal attacks that have nothing to do with the subject under discussion.
It is how forums die off. I have no interest in belonging to a discussion group that simply trades insults.
What are you talking about? You practically never start or end a post without making it personal... what exactly is this "I doubt you have any interest in being fair, but ..."
or "but the fans will still want Wenger gone, because they will say we could have won more, if he had only signed better players."
