http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...bregas-and-Samir-Nasri-prepare-to-leave.html? Before journeying to Newcastle, Arsene Wenger told reporters that the club were title contenders, even last year....... He said "We were very, very close to the title last year," and then continued saying... "Champions are people who do not give in; they continue to fight and believe in their strengths. We have enough strength.” .....which is fair enough since as a manager he has to give hope and encouragement. However in response to the failure to land trophies, Arsene then added “I don’t listen to what people say. What I want is for our fans to appreciate our team and to support our team.” and furthermore as though in response to some form of media conspiracy against the club, went on to say “If our fans go the way the media want them to go we have no chance. The people behind me and around the press box do not necessarily represent the majority of the fans. They are the ones you [journalists] hear the most but aren’t necessarily the majority. They make your opinion maybe but they aren’t necessarily the opinion.” How in the face of the meltdown at the close of last season and the apparent lack of changes to our defence as seen over the friendly games at the close season, can Arsene simply brush off questions of our performance and the seeming absence of action to address the problems within the team reminds me of that scene in the courtroom of ' A Few Good Men ' where Jack Nicholson as Col Jessep demanded that he would rather his critics simply say thank you and be on their way. The ' don't question me ', ' we are doing fine ' or ' have the strengths ' simply flies in the face of reality. For members who haven't seen the film or wish to enjoy that scene, here's a clip from YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo And now from The Independent.ie, of Mata he says "We will not do (a deal for) Juan Mata. I don't have to give a reason," and on Jadson "We are nowhere near on Jadson. We are not talking to Shakhtar about him," On the prospect of a Centre Back "We have specialised people who work everywhere. Every club looks for centre-backs in the whole world," he said. "People with unlimited resources look for a centre-back. We are not in a supermarket where you go to a shelf and you ask 'where are the centre-backs or the strikers?' "We are today in an international market where all over the world people look for the same players. Massive clubs have scouts all over the world and if they don't find anyone, in the end they come to us. You don't need to be a genius to understand that. "We will have a new centre-back by the end of the transfer window because Thomas Vermaelen only played five games last year. To buy just for the sake of buying - you won't find me there. If I'm convinced the player has the quality, I will always do it if he's better than the players we have." Source - http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/sport/wenger-pulls-plug-on-mata-move-2847341.html? So with the verminator injured, are we getting a Centre Back or not? This is getting tedious. C'mon Arsene, wake up. We will have the same defensive failures again unless you really do something about it
Perhaps had he done the deed by now, there wouldn't be all the media attention....... Here's hoping and hoping for victory tomorrow ( this evening ! ) TBH we shouldn't have to go to Newcastle wondering if we would win or not.....
LOL pal I don't think Arsene lets anyone hurry up Arsene, no matter how much he needs to. Guess we'll have to see what the next few weeks bring. I hate to see him under siege but really though, he or he and the board need to get their priorities right. Having Ryo in the first team is OK by me since he was already on board as of last year. Perhaps we'll allow him one of the other three but then I return to the aspect of priorities. Losing anything up to twenty points because you can't see your way to organising the defence is simply giving away points cheaply which Arsene himself has spoken much about. Yet we wait to see if he does something about it. ( eyes looking skywards )
There are three things Arsene needs to work on which were obvious from last season 1. Plan B 2. Defence 3. Defensive Strategy I actually do trust his judgement on the players he has bought. It's the ones he hasn't that leaves me wondering. He must know what he needs to do this season. He may think his youth policy is still right but if those pieces of magic are not in place it won't be ultimately successful and for that he will have only himself to blame. Now I think Arsene should be smart enough to recognise that so I hope we can avoid all the pitfalls of yesteryear. Perhaps we can swap Mr Gazidis for Vincent Kompany
Blues fan in peace (BCFC) I think Wenger will have some tricks up his sleeve. dont forget the money from fab and nas coming your way. He colud spent half that and get some real good quailty players which im sure he will. you probably need a CB and a CM. Cahill _£10m ish & There are loads of good CM's knocking around Sissoko - Toluose?? Melo - Juv maybe maybe ?? theres loads
Thanks Smiffy I hope he or rather Mr Gazidis doesn't just keep the money in the bank. It's more likely that Arsene will bring in a player from Europe for the CB spot. Messrs Cahill & Co are overvalued at their current asking price and I can't see Arsene spending more for a CB than he would a striker or midfielder. Wish you a good season
samir love the new name Jayram Are you actually happy with our transfer buisiness this summer? Because I don't think you can blame the media for it. In answer to the OP, I hope Wenger is just saying those things to deliberately piss people off because otherwise he sounds like someone detached from reality. Maybe he should let Pat Rice do some of the press work because Wenger is probably feeling the pressure at the moment.
Lord Jayram has what? please log in to view this image Actually Arsene's sage makes a good point in the workrate and commitment of players like TV, Wilshire, Ramsey and Frimpong. This hopefully will be a positive influence on the team. If they can be more vocal as well then they would have achieved what our captain of the previous year failed to do. That's one of the most important facets Arsenal lacked all season, someone to pull the team together, pull them up when spirits are down and help bind the players together as a team. Who knows, we could be the surprise club of the season. Remember Arsene, get that defence right and we save twenty points straight away.
There is one aspect of the Mata saga that I'm sure some of us may ask. It is that whether the existence of that clause which raises Mata's price if the deal was not completed by the end of July affected the prospect of the purchase. It's probably not worth debating anyway and best to concentrate on the new season which is here and now than Juan Mata who is not. Or should I hazard a guess that we may be going for Eden Hazard?
What the ****? How can getting rid of 2 of the 3 best players at the club be any good for us? Its all well and good talking about having a winning mentality but its more important for a player to be good, for example if we bought Dirk Kuyt as a replacement for Nasri would that be a positive move? Furthermore where is your evidence that any of the players we have bought have a winning mentality? None of them are experienced players in a top league and only 1 is ready to come in to the team straight away. You say Miyachi, Chamberlin and Campbell will all be excellent players as though that is a fact but where is your evidence? You can only predict that players under 20 will be world beaters if they are genuinely exceptional at a young age, as good as Messi or Rooney were for example, are any of them in that class bracket? I disagree with pretty much every point you have made and don't understand where you are getting your evidence from to support your assumptions.
