*The opinion of a humble Leicester fan looking up at you* I really don't think that Arsenal are far off having a team that would seriously start to compete for trophies again. Marc-Andre ter Stegen - Borussia Monchengladback young goalkeeper, inspired them to 4th place and an unlikely title challenge this season. Jan Vertonghen - Ajax centre half, I think you may actually be linked with him but he's a top player. Will be what you need with Vermaelen (his ex team-mate) Leighton Baines - You really need to replace Clichy. Baines is a better player IMO. Might not be as suited to your attacking play though. Yann M'Vila - Would compliment Song in my opinion. Would make your midfield a hell of a lot more robust. Mario Gotze - Top class player, missed most of this season but still quality. Would require you to put you hands into your pockets though. Those signings would put you in the mix with the Manchester clubs and would distance you further from Spurs, Newcastle and *maybe* Chelsea. Would perhaps cost you around 70-80m and i'm not sure how much you turnover, but you're surely not far off regaining that money within 2 years. ter Stegen Sagna Vertonghen Vermaelen Baines Song M'Villa Gotze Podolski Walcott RVP Here's to playing you in the league in the 2013/14 season and to you winning some trophies soon. England needs a good Arsenal side
The point is the analysis should already have been done a long time ago and we should already have the answers for our failures - after 8 years another year of the same is not going to tell us anything. What do you think we will learn next year that we dont know already? Whilst you would have us sit and analyse whilst we win nothing, my view is that we need to now take action.
I've never stopped analysing. My conclusions are - Wenger should retire. We should unload 10 of our squad. We should reduce the 71 playing staff to no more than 50. We should also unload 5 manager's 'coaching' staff. We should not offer more than 3 year contracts to anyone. We have to discourage the sideways passing ' for the sake of it'. We should train for taking and opposing dead-ball kicks. We should hire a defensive coach. We should buy or develop wingers - not runners down the touchline. We should give our first-team players mental coaching with sports physiologists. Usmanov should be given a seat on the Board. David Dein should be hired, Ivan the terrible should be unloaded. Thats this summer - more later........
Bravo - analysis complete, time for action! Not to say we cant continue to learn, but no point analysing and not taking an bloody action!
No, the point is that the analysis is a constantly evolving and unfolding process based on the particular circumstances at the time. We have tried to address our issues, and we've come close to winning the league, the champions league and the carling cup in the last 8 years. We've come up short, so the process continues. You can't say we should have the answers for our failures, because the parameters are always shifting. You can only work with the particular context that you have. It's not a precise science. What do I think we will learn next year that we don't already know ? Technically that is a misnomer, you can't know what will happen next year, so you can't know it now. That said, you can analyse the situation now and take action to address what you think needs to be remedied. We know that we can't rely on RVP all season (if he stays) so we bought Podolski - that is a direct action of analysing a situation and acting upon it. We're not talking about analysis for it's own sake and doing nothing about it.
Sorry to bring this back up, but I only just got back to my room . I think we give our all quite a lot to be honest when playing big games. Look at us against Chelsea at the Bridge, Spurs at the Emirates, City at the Emirates, Liverpool at Anfield- we gave it our all, our slip ups have come when we've been complacent against **** teams, like Wigan, Stoke, Norwich etc (even Birmingham in the CC Final).
Unlikely for what reason? Arsenal is a step up for all of them and none (apart from Gotze at around (40m) - ter Stegen (10m) Vertonghen (15m) Baines (8m) M'Villa (15m) ) would command a massive transfer fee. Steel is what Arsenal badly need and ter Stegen, Baines, Vertonghen and M'Villa would give them that.
I can only really see Gotze leaving for someone like Barca or Madrid who would definitely be after him, the last I heard Vertonghen was going to Spurs. M'Vila we've been heavily rumoured with, so that's a possibility, as is Baines but I think AW wants to stick with Gibbs (which is a mistake in my opinion) and I don't really know much about ter Stegen so I can't really comment .
Good post, agree with what you say, apart from 2 things, i think Szczesny is better than ter-Stegen, and Gibbs has the potential to be miles better than Baines. Agree with you on the other points though.
Also, for the record, Ron Zieler is going to be far better than Marc-Andre ter-Stegen, you heard it here first.
Andy can you start as 1st team manager today, 5mill a year plus a house in Burbage, we'll put a special lane in, on M1 for your use only.
I just read the first 7 pages .. and skim read the last 3 pages. I see the same arguments made from both sides, but the over-riding view I take from this thread is, Murray is a total and utter knob I saw Arsenal have a squad capable of winning trophies ... which trophies might that be ? Biggest Loser ? Biggest Bottlers ? Biggest Money Makers for Shareholders ? Not being able to compete because of cash is bull - especially when you consider that, at times, we have come close. 1 or 2 astute signings would've done the trick. Blaming the board is bull because, the board didn't tell Wenger to buy Squishy or to take OXO off against Man U. Blaming injuries is bull because every team has to deal with injuries and buying strong players might be better than buying waifs. What annoys me the most and I am actually agreeing with something PISKIE has said in the past, we are not far off being able to compete ... but we are perpetually not far off being able to compete, so fix the sodding problems and give us a squad capable of finally being able to compete.
I just read your post and agree with very little of it, suffice to say the last paragraph....We are not far off, but I agree that we seem to always be not far off and thus not close enough. So we need to be able to go the extra mile and turn almost seasons, into trophy winning seasons. For me, that is the addition of 2-3 top quality players, but that would would need a significant investment.
I think getting a regular top 4 place has masked the problems that we've had. It's given some people in the current administration, the excuse to coast along and not properly invest in the squad. The league table does not tell the whole truth, in reality, we've been very lucky to get that 3rd place. We have Spurs and Chelsea to thank for having dreadful periods in the Premiership. Not forgetting RVP having an amazing FULL SEASON. You can't get more lucky than that! The question is, would they have invested in the squad more if we missed out top 4?
As a Stoke fan I'll try my best not to sound like a WUM - whether you have done well or not over the last 7-8 years is down to you guys, the fans and supporters to decide but I do feel what Wenger is best at is managing expectation. Jayram is not my favourite poster but I do feel he has a point.
