Meanwhile, Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has revealed he has been speaking to Wenger to bolster his squad with some Arsenal players during the January transfer window. Garde admitted right-back Mathieu Debuchy is one of the possible targets. The Villa manager was Wenger's first signing when he took charge at Arsenal and is looking to take advantage of his relationship with his fellow Frenchman to strengthen his ranks. "I had a conversation with Arsene Wenger a few days about some of the players and Mathieu Debuchy was one of the players," said Garde.
I think this kinda dispels the rumour going round that Elneny would be signed in time to start the Sunderland game. I doubt he'll be featuring against Liverpool, either. As for Deeney, I'm not sure where that link even came from. Wenger wouldn't go for someone that's so average at the age of 27 (I would like to believe). I've not even been that impressed with what I've seen of Deeney, anyway. Ighalo has been far more impressive and would have made more sense, even if the link was tenuous.
Definitelty sounds like it's a work permit issue with him. Isn't the issue that Egypt have fallen out of the top 50 rankings so you normally need special dispensation? Think we're confident of getting it as he's played every (or near as dammit) game for their last 50+ matches.
No surprise, I just hope Wenger can bring in another signing or two (hopefully a stellar signing) before the end of this month. Then perhaps we can get an upgrade on Welbeck in the summer...
To be honest I doubt we'll be coming in for any stellar signings this Jan window. Availability of the desired players will be limited and at highly inflated prices, which will be an issue for us. But also, Wenger rarely goes out and buys a really big signing in Jan, unless he desperately needs one, which I don't think we do. The DM is our priority and it looks like we're getting one. The stellar signing will come this summer.
Aubamayang was a weird one. The guy has had a great year but before 2015 his goalscoring record was less than stellar. I think the 40-50 Million price tag is ridiculous for a player with only one Top quality Season.
It's that sort of flawed logic that saw Wenger refuse to bid more for Suarez. He had one stellar season before we moved for him. Even if he's only had one top quality season (subjective) then that's still one more top quality season than a lot of the players we have that are continually defended like Wilshere. Quality costs money. You either cough up or miss out. We aren't short of money. Spending that amount won't affect us. Worrying about whether he should be £25m or £40m is pointless as it will make little difference to AFC. If he's available then we should buy.
As always you are just arguing for the sake of it. Suarez scored 111 goals in 158 games for Ajax. (82 in 133 for Liverpool) He has always been a goalscorer. In 2009-10 he scored 49 goals for the Dutch Champions. Anyone with a good knowledge of European football could see that Suarez was TOP quality. (I remember multiple threads on the old BBC 606 calling for us to sign him.) Before 2015 Aubamayang on the other had never scored more than 25 goals in a Season in any League (French/German/Italian etc..). They are not comparable. Plenty of strikers manage 1-2 top class Seasons then drift back into relative obscurity.(this may or may not happen with Aubamayang.) So for me 1 year of good football is not enough to justify a HUGE price tag. £50 Million is what I would expect to pay for someone like Benzema, Cavani or Lewandoski - a proven goalscorer.
I am partially arguing for the sake of it but only because I know I'll disagree with most of what you write because most of it is nonsense. Scoring in the dutch league means absolutely nothing when you consider the pap forwards that do well for Dutch teams. He had ONE top quality season before we bid for him. Not valuing someone like Aubemeyang now is exactly the sort of thing Wenger does and is exactly why our squad had been short of players the last few years. He overvalues his own players and undervalues players he sort of wants.
After your comment about the Dutch league strikers I thought I'd look at the top scorers in recent years and see what they have done since. Last season it was Depay who is now at Utd, they seem to rate him but he hasn't shown top form for Utd yet as far as I'm aware, though it's still very early since he left Holland. The year before it was Alfred finnbogason who has since played for Real Sociedad where he got 4 goals in 27 games in all competitions, only 2 in the league in 23 games. Before moving on loan this season to Olympiacos where he has 2 goals in 11 appearances so far. Not exactly setting other leagues on fire. Going back another year it was Bony who did well at Swansea and now plays for Man City. So he did pretty well for himself. Then it's Bas Dost who went on to join Wolfsburg and has 35 goals in 74 league appearances. Pretty good return in a good league. Then it's Bjorn Vleminickx who had a tough time in Belgium before a successful loan spell in turkey, then some time not doing very well in turkey and he has just signed for a team who won the Turkish second division last season to qualify for the top league. Not been a success story. Next up is Suarez, as we know he did well with Liverpool before moving to Barca. Obviously could score in any league. Then Mounir El Hamdaoui who played went on to have decent numbers at Ajax then less successful spells with Fiorintina and Malaga. So he played for some good teams since but never really delivered. Then it's Huntelaar who has gone on to be successful in Germany. And if you look back further there are quite a lot of big name players (Van Nistelroy, Bergkamp, Kuyt, Ronaldo etc...). It seems quite hit and miss, almost every other year is a success story. It'd be interesting to do the same with other leagues and see how the top scorers do after there big season.
Aside from your argument being completely subjective, whether he's had one 'great' season or whether he's had 10 doesn't really matter. He is showing right now what he is capable of and that he is banging in goals for fun. He's 26 years of age, hasn't actually played as a centre-forward throughout all his career but I'm sure most here will agree that he has the attributes to do very well for us, if you actually watch him play. In his last season with Saint Etienne, he was the second-top goalscorer in the French division at the age of 22. When he moved to Borussia Dortmund, he was playing second-fiddle to the top class Robert Lewandowski. He got 16 goals & 4 assists in 28 starts for Dortmund in his first season when he was mostly deployed out wide/on the bench. That's hardly terrible, is it? In his second season, at a time when the entire Dortmund team were really struggling for periods of the season, he got 25 goals & 10 assists in 43 starts. And this season, you can see how well he's doing. In an era where the likes of Raheem Sterling, Fernando Torres and di Maria moved to other English clubs for extravagantly inflated fees, to suggest that Aubameyang's £40m price tag is ridiculous is...well...ridiculous.
IMO £40M is a steal for someone like Aubameyang. Look beyond the numbers. Look at the player's quality. Pace (check), Finish (check), spatial awareness (check), aerial ability (check), skill (check), all round technical ability (check). Arsenal have a history of playing forwards not just CFs. Players who roam around the frontline and can hurt you either by themselves or creating goal for others. Henry did it, RVP did it, Sanchez is doing it. PEA is the perfect ST for Arsenal. He can play on the shoulder. He can cut in from the wings. He can take players on. He's perfect. And now has the numbers to back it up (for those of you who like your 'stats'). He's just a brilliant player.
Not at all. I'm just suggesting a Club like Arsenal shouldn't be paying 40-50 Million for a 27 year old with only ONE top class Season under his belt. He's a good striker no doubt but wether he's on the Suarez/Aguero/Lewandowski/Benzema level.. I just don't think he is. And for that reason he doesn't warrant that kind of transfer fee. We seem to live in an era where one big Season is enough to get hyped beyond all rational sense. This is why Liverpool ended up paying £35 Million for Andy Caroll. Arsenal are not that kind of Club - so my point is really if we are to pay 40-50 Million on a striker he needs to be proven.
I get what you are saying to a certain extent but the nature of the transfer market has changed. The players you consider in the 40-50mn range i.e. Suarez/Benzema/Lewandowski/Cavani will actually cost 50-75 million now days. The prices in the market have inflated to huge proportions also with the dearth of WC strikers available their prices are naturally higher. Its the nature of the market Kevin De Bruyne had one good season and cost 55mn not to mention the added cost payed by English clubs because it is the richest league in the world
Considering we paid £35m for Sanchez who was surplus to requirements at Barca, I don't see £40m for a key Dortmund player in great form being unreasonable
I get Bears argument. It is risky spending so much for someone after a special season. For every success you get a Michu, now rebuilding his career in the 4th tier of Spanish football. However, as Brunel says, he's shown enough last season to suggest this is not a flash in the pan. Plus, you know, who doesn't want a rapid forward?! In much more exciting news. Nacho Nacho maaaaan is on the verge of signing a 3 year extention. please log in to view this image
It would be a risk spending £40m on PEA, but it's one well worth taking in my opinion. He's shown enough to suggest that he would be a cracking player in our team.
Is there anything that actually shows we are going for him or are the hopes of many of us raising false expectations again. I get a bit bored with speculative discussions, not because of what is written, some of that is well argued and informative, but with the feeling that unfortunately it often ends up as rants against Wenger for not buying players he ever intended too. This is an off-shoot of having a transfer window in January. In my humble opinion either we should return to the days of yore when transfers could happen at anytime in the season or restrict it to the close season.
