Ridiculous in that is was never going to happen!! And where was the back up plan? Lack of a quality striker has really impacted the latter part of the season......
Christ, this again? Normally meeting the buy out clause is enough to, you know, initiate talks. Talks that the player himself was asking for. Regarding Higuain though, just because he is doing well in Italy is no guarantee he'd do the same in England. He probably would as he's better than Giroud on paper but you never can tell.
The point is, Liverpool said very quickly that they weren't going to sell. They realised the value of the player to them, and would rather have gone through a court battle over the clause, a battle Arsenal clearly weren't prepared to go through. When was the last time Arsenal showed that level of bottle in transfer dealings? Here's an article from August 8th: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/08/luis-suarez-liverpool-john-w-henry which gave PLENTY of time to get another striker in, but all that happened was a late move for Demba Ba on loan. Complete ineptitude from the club to strengthen the area of that squad that MOST needed attention.
I agree we let it go far too easily but there's never been any precedent for a club saying "do one" when you activate a transfer clause. At least, not as far as I'm aware. We still had more than enough time to get somebody else in (and not Ba) but managed to balls it up. I have zero confidence whenever we send Dick Law to finish deals off!
There isn't a precident there. Liverpool knew Arsenal needed a striker and didn't have time to faff around over clauses going through the legal system. They gambled, and won. Arsenal...did nothing.
According to the Evening Standard Arsenal have been told that Diego Costa will join Chelsea in the summer but Arsenal are hopeful of buying Mandzucic from Bayern Munich
Arsenal are close to strking a £7M deal for Eintracht Frankfurt defender Sebastian Jung, 23 (Metro) http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...-close-striking-7m-deal-3426189#ixzz2zFpYV3US Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook Very good young player. Aggressive and good going forward - But makes me thing Sagna might be off
He is younger and better going forward than Sagna although not as solid defensively. Good enough to be Bac's replacement?
I just wish that we'd strengthen rather than be forced to find replacements for our best players. Transfer windows are for upgrading, that's what the top clubs do...
Even if Sagna stays, we still need to start thinking about replacing him. What we have seen is that players take a year or so to settle in the PL, so Jung would possibly really start to come good in 2015. I suspect no matter what Sagna does, we will sign a top right back this summer, Jung or someone else. It is the smart thing to do.
I'd like to think you're right, though I suspect that he made his decision a while back and his agent has been working on options for a while...
If Sagna stays, there is no chance of us signing a new RB. Sagna would be first choice, but we would still have Jenkinson and the highly talented Bellerin in our ranks. That's three RB's. Sagna for the PL and CL, Jenkinson for the Cup and Bellerin for the league cup.
Sagna still has two or three years left at the top and I hope it's with Arsenal. He's an experienced member of the Arsenal squad and somebody who we really need in our team. Players like him know when to attack, when to defend and when to simply get rid and relieve the pressure. It's players like these who know what it takes to win games. Also he's a decent CB when needed so adds versatility to the back four.
Sanga is about to sign his last major contract so you can bet that his agent has been trying to get the best deal for him. I'm not surprised it's going to the wire as that's what these sorts of deals entail. The longer it goes on the more he's likely to get what he wants from Arsenal.
I hope you're right Piskie because he is a top player and when he's fit and in form we're a much better team. I just hope that our focus this Summer won't be on replacing players that are leaving and that we can place more emphasis on upgrading the areas we know we're weak....
I doubt Jung would be happy to sit on the bench for 2 years waiting for Sagna's legs to go. Would make absolutely no sense in signing a RB if we keep Bac. To be honest, i'd much rather us sign a LB, Gibbs is injury prone and unreliable, Monreal has become awful, makes more sense to strengthen a weakness, rather than weaken a strength.
