I think the point is more that deals where in place for both Higuain and Di Maria and Madrid backed out at the very last moments when Arsenal thought things where done. You don't want to get known by the handful of clubs that can afford to buy your players for the prices you want to sell as a club that is difficult to to do business with. Again it is all paper talk. If you head over to the Arsenal board there where a few articles about how it all happened posted. We had originally enquired about all 3 of Benzema, Ozil and Di Maria at the start of summer and asked to be notified if one became available.
Ozil is a quality player not sure he was signed for the right reason though as I think the club was forced to buy big after watching how fans were pi$$ed off and had to do something comn man .. why sign Ozil in a position you are too strong and don't pay 10m more to buy Suarez or Benzema in positions you needed more ? as usual AW put his desire ahead of what the club need, you sure need more finishers than people who can pass the ball around .. AW always buy AMs and try to force them playing out of positions in wings or DMs .. biggest step towards the right direction is by stop piling up AMs and sort out your problems ..
Although i agree we needed another striker (particularly for depth considering our current injury list), Ozil was a player we needed. Anyone who watched Arsenal on a regular basis last season will have seen that we lacked a creative element when Cazorla was out/off form/man-marked. For a while now quite a lot of our fans have been calling for an AM who can play WF as well (the name people always mentioned was Isco). There where several games where we just couldn't create any chances with teams sitting behind the ball. With Ozil and Cazorla on the pitch we should find it much easier to create proper chances in the final third which will result in beter chances for Giroud and hopefully more goals. A lot of opposition fans don't see this but those who watch the team week in, week out can see how useful a top quality AM signing is for our squad.
It didn't appear that there was a deal in place for Higuain. Seemed like Arsenal were dithering over the fee, so Real sold him to Napoli. Ultimately all that mattered in the Ozil deal was that Real wanted to sell and Arsenal were the only club who appeared to be willing to pay the money Real were offering. As you say, in that situation you don't want to piss off the buying club, but then equally if you have two clubs who are both willing to value the player at the same amount then you always risk pissing one of them off by taking the bid from the other club. Besides which, Spurs are a clear example of a club that are well known as being difficult to do business with, but they still end up with clubs sniffing around their players every summer, so I doubt Real were that bothered about their reputation as a selling club. Ultimately my point still stands - you got a world class player that Real were willing to sell and was willing to move, but it doesn't necessarily mean you will suddenly start attracting world class players when clubs don't want to sell and the player's head really needs to be turned. The failure to get Suarez to really try and force a move from Liverpool shows that you still need to make progress in this area.
Agree to a certain extent. However, you have got to admit we are not much better in getting the players we really need or want. Unless Woodward and Moyes change their profit mindset and accept that clubs will only sell their top players if they get a very good price, then they will always struggle to recruit. Does anyone think that ferguson would have got RVP if he didn't offer a very high price?
you have Cazorla , Wilshere, Arteta, Rosicky who can fit in and that not mention other players your main strikers is not that good.. who gonna score? inconstant Giroud or out of favor podolski? .. that is why you struggled .. sure strengthen in this department, wingers, DMs, CBs have more priority that being busy trying to strength the depth in an area you already good at.. remember that last season you struggled bcz Wilshere and Rosicky were out too.. can't see this happening again.. let us agree that your 2 main problem was not have edge attacking wise and letting in silly goals, not sure how Ozil can fix those 2 deportments why you bought Ozil, has nothing to do with strengthen the team imo, but more to calm down the angry fans, and the fact W love having AMs .. you wanted 3 players from Real team , but you bought only one available for sell , you had no ambition to sign players you needed more, bcz the club was not ready to spend more on something that was more necessary.. this is why i think it was all a needed action by the board to silence the fans, and AW more than welcomed it bcz he worship creative AMs is insane the club think of trying to find a backup in case of injuries rather then spending in areas that need urgent solutions
Arsenal had the second best defensive record in the league last season. We had a lot of goals down to individual mistakes at the start of the season. Once Sagna had recovered form post injury and Vermaelen was dropped for the Kosc-Mert partnership, we cut the silly errors out of our game. And our defending as a team over the last 6 months (including the defensive midfield duties being shared by Ramsey and Arteta) has been very good. We have added Flamini to give depth in the DM position and also for the full-backs incase through injuries Sagna is used as a CB. So although its not the CB/utility defender people expected, we have added some depth to the defensive side of our team. And Flamini is still a very good player, getting him on a free could turn out to be a great signing. Although we have a lot of midfield players, we have needed an extra creative outlet to help Cazorla. Also because of our current injuries and Cazorlas good form at LWF it makes sense to brign in an AM. It may be hard for opposition fans to see as on paper we have a lot of midfield players, but Ozil should help solve a problem from last season. It might not be the problem most people notice but it was clear to see for Arsenal fans. For a striker we all agree we needed another player. Giroud had a good first season and has scored 21 goals for us already in a fairly short time with us and has a good amount of assists. He provides an aeriel threat (and defense) and links play well. He is a good player to have at the club and i'm hoping he has a good second season. He's a hardworking player and i'm pleased to have him as we don't have many players with his type of abilities, but we needed another option aswell. Arsenal tried to bring in a top striker and for whatever reasons failed and then where willing to settle for Ba on loan for depth. Mourinho pulled the plug on that last minute leaving us with no new striker. I'm sure we will be in for a striker in January. Sowe all agree on the need for another player there
