http://www.football365.com/arsenal/7248674/Wenger-reveals-Gunners-mutiny? He states half the dressing room wanted to leave and then goes on to say what saved us was that we were " extremely solid and united "? I don't think other clubs would have got themselves into this position but I suppose if Arsene says so......He's probably also a little deluded but that's not exactly news, is it? Other clubs in our position would have gone and sourced sound replacements but not Arsene or the board. Delays were the order of the day during the summer. Make it more like disorder. We virtually had Juan Mata but they let him slip through our grasp. Who else would we miss out on in January or next summer. Better to get our business done in January or we could have a torrid summer. Ditching a few pieces of deadwood both from the dressing room and the board wouldn't be a bad idea too. Over to you guys
Eboue, Bendy, Denilson, Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, Almunia, possibly Squillaci all wanted to leave. That's a large chunk of players. The interview he gave is very interesting and actually made me think he is working hard, and for the club. It's pure conjecture that Arsenal "almost had" Juan Mata.
I heard it on a discussion with Stewart Robson on Talksport a few weeks back. It was claimed that Arsene takes too long in coming to a decision which has seen us lose out on some players like Xabi Alonso and that the combined negotiating team of Gazidis and Dick Law did not have the prowess of David Dein. There were players who had wanted to come to us and were just waiting for the final word. Instead they were simply kept waiting. In Mata's case of course, it was alluded that this gave the opportunity for Chelski to come in with their big fat chequebook.
I notice your use of the word "claimed"On the subject of Xabi Alonso,my recollection is Liverpool made a bid for Gareth Barry and this made Alonso surplus to requirements at Liverpool.The Barry transfer fell through so Liverpool kept Alonso.
Wenger admitted that simple economics meant that players wanted to leave Arsenal because there was more money on offer elsewhere. "It's not that [players have to leave to win titles]," he said. "The problem isn't that. Frankly, if you compare what Manchester City have won in the past and what Arsenal have won, then you don't go to Manchester City to win titles. Players go to Manchester City because they pay much better than Arsenal. For me, that sums it up perfectly what Wenger was up against. Given the circumstances, I think he did really well to bring in some replacements.
Wenger took a liberty with the squad for several years in a row - by not replacing quality players and signing hasbeens or poor replacements. It was this stance that encouraged the best players to look elsewhere.
According to the discussion, Alonso was waiting on us but the final phone call never came. They cited other examples as well but I didn't make a note of them. Alonso and Mata were the main two that I recall.
I doubt the people on talkshite have any knowledge of our dealings with the postman let alone any players.
Arsenal have turned into a bunch of blithering idiots when it comes to transfers. Look how long the Gervinho transfer took, he missed a chunk of pre-season as a result. Having seen that we have a history of being slow in the transfer market post David Dein, I don't doubt that we are sloth-like in our approach for players.
....... who by coincidence along with their knowledgeable guests must know less than us since they hold a different opinion. I think die hards need to be realistic here. It's all very well reminiscing our glories of the past but great as they were and we all rejoice in them, they remain firmly in the past. It is our future we need to be looking to and right now the pointers bear no indication to our return to the glory days. It is also to the custodians of our great club that we should be seeking answers that amount to more than their platitudes and empty promises.
I do agree that David Dein should be brought back into the club to negotiate transfers and work alongside Wenger as his right hand man. Wenger (and therefore the team) has undoubtedly suffered since he was ousted from the club
How stupid of Arsene Wenger is it to come out with a statment like that. What a great confidence boost to the fans and any prospective players who were thinking of joining us. I guess he wants another pat on the back now for the great salvage job he thinks he's done, the muppets that he's talking about who wanted to leave should have been taxied to the door and any money made on their sales used to keep Nasri. Unfortunately nobody wanted to buy any of the rejects we have assembled, certainly not at the prices we ask, we were reduced to loaning them out in deperation, this says alot about our transfer dealings, signings and the general quality of the players in our squad.
Half the dressing room is full of **** that needs getting rid off anyway if you total up, as the Bondstar Wandit did earlier in the thread, a lot of **** was shifted and when you consider the actual quality that is in the squad there was only 5 or 6 players that would have suggested issues in terms of a revolt that mattered - albeit 2 of those did leave..soa ctually wenger did a very good job of erm keeping holding of ****? and then replacing them with a bit more experienced **** (benayoun, park and some youngsters wyho despite show promise, are still currently little more than **** with potantial to become quality...where have we seen that before!)
I don't think players only go to man city because of money, whether we like it or not they are a very good team now.
Arsene revealed half the dressing room wanted to leave Could it be they all realised they weren't going to win anything staying at Arsenal?
Maybe for Fabregas and Clichy that was the case, but with the exception of Nasri (who wanted more money) most of them wanted to leave because they weren't playing.
I wonder if Nasri would have stayed if he really believed we were in line for silverware. Guess we'll never know but with a player's career realistically being somewhere in the realm of ten years or so, can one blame him if he was lured by the opportunity to win trophies given the lineup at City coupled with the offer of more money? I must admit to being quite unimpressed when he decided to go but to assume Nasri would stay when what was on offer at Arsenal was far less than what was on the table at City ( both on and off the pitch ) is unrealistic to say the least. If that was Wenger's belief through most of the summer then I dare say that it is hardly surprising half the dressing room wanted to leave. What would there be to stay for? At the start of the summer break Gazidis announced to a meeting of the AST that lessons had been learned and ambitious transfer objectives were being pursued and that measures would be taken to ensure that our top stars were tied down to long contracts. We all know what actually happened of course. Much is made of players not being available but it seems strange that while other teams land their targets, we never get any of our first choice players. If we don't give real indication in January and the next summer that we mean to invest in the team, the team will stand to lose it's major investments. Then I dare say half the dressing room will want to leave again.
Not only were they not playing or trying (for us) -but they failed to get clubs rushing in for their services: Denilson, Bendtner, Almunia, Fabianski, Eboue, Traore, etc etc.
