This is pure guess work on my part but I am tempted to believe that Spurs is a little too much like a corporation and has not valued the 'close to the grass' abilities of people like Spurcat enough. In the past the scout was one of the most important parts of any professional club I get the impression that nowadays too much faith is placed with people like Baldini and Commilli both of whom are controversial figures
We should do some swaps to help up your total. Adebayor for Sanchez, Coquelin for Lennon, Fazio for Giroud. Then you'd be up to 4 transfers and everyone's happy
In the case of Comolli, he's tried to pass the buck by saying that various scouts we had during his tenure were all offered jobs by various clubs in Italy and Spain and were not replaced - although the flaw in his argument is that I don't recall us signing many players from Italy, Spain or Argentina when he was our DoF.
Serves the pair of them right for playing brinkmanship, when they could have sorted this out weeks ago!..
Forgot you had him. I was glad we missed out on him last season but it's not like we've put that money to good use since
When you say fight for 4th do you mean with the team in 3rd? Because right now i can't see anyone challenging the top 4 from last year. Liverpool? Nah. Spurs? Everyone else? - too much of a gap to make up
He's right Brunel; that's the saddest thing. United and Chelsea look weaker than they've done in years. For me, the Chelsea rot started to set in mid-way through last season when pundits across the land were praising The Smug One for being a 'tactical genius' when in reality he'd simply clocked that his team isn't quite as good as he thinks it is. United are a mess with a megalomaniac for a manager, yet absolutely no-one is near to challenging top 4. This genuinely could've been Arsenal's year with some wise investment. Cech looked to be the first such investment but that's ground to a halt now. City will have wrapped it up by March at this rate.
Still can't believe we spent £16m on him. It just makes me think. Wenger's main strength was meant to be identifying top talent. If he can't do that now, then what is he actually good at?
So, during a normal midnight close, it's 9.45. Not many deals would happen now, without at least being rumoured, surely? VDV scenario apart, I think we are done.
I still can't believe that you guys didn't go for Schneiderlin. He was just what you need, and was reportedly keen to join Arsenal!..
On the bright(er) side, Dembele doesn't seem to be as bad as first thought, and is hopeful of playing against Sunderland on 13th.
Well it didn't sound like he wanted him from his comments after signing Welbeck. Didn't he say he probably wouldn't have been signed had he been in the country at the time? I think one of the things Wenger was good at when he arrived was being ahead of the curve. He got in very technically gifted players and some of them turned out to be brilliant but then other sides started doing the same and took away Arsenal's edge. He was also quick to take advantage of being the only ones that really took youth recruitment seriously and now that's an overcrowded market where Arsenal are no longer as significant. He's not innovating anymore, he's just continuing doing what he did when he first arrived, except all the other sides around him have taken up his ideas that worked and left alone the ones that don't. He's stood still whilst others have caught up. Maybe someday it'll all click into place and he'll be able to have his "I told you so" moment but after so many false dawns it's hard to see it happening.
Apparently the Spurs site had Son listed in our squad as a midfielder when he arrived and now they have him listed as a striker
