Watching Drogba score his 8th goal in a final and win his 10th cup in 8 years you realise for all his theatrics and how much alot of us hate him he's a match winner and has been more than worth the 24M that Chelsea invested in him....in that same time we've won 1 F.A. Cup!! Obviously Chelsea have had their share of flops as well (Torres, Veron, Shevchenko, etc) but are there plenty that work out as a long term investment. The continuity factor is also key as soon as anyone gets up to a decent level with us they're soon enough looking for pastures new. Wenger has tried a handful of higher priced signings and although Wiltord did eventually turn out ok Reyes and Arshavin were disappointing (despite early promise) I'm not saying Wenger should go out and buy a squad full of 20M+ Players...he can't anyway...but having 1 or 2 quality long terms signings would make the world of difference. Has 30M for Ferdinand been a waste for Man United with all they've won? Think of the amount we've spent on Centre backs in that time. M'Villa seems worth the gamble right now and 17m-20m might be an investment needed and if we don't get him I have the fear Man City, United will snap him up. We were the first ones seemingly sniffing round Hazard and a season or 2 later we have no chance of getting him and has price has almost doubled. Maybe a 20M bid last season and he would have been ours??? The only way we don't need a big signing is if somehow Wenger finds his ability to once again pluck bargain buys but it's been a while since he's done that. Kos was a great find but we over paid initially at 10M, Arteta was worth about 10M, where are the great buys of the Veira, Petit, Anelka era?? Although when we do pip other clubs like Ramsey from Man United or Walcott from Chelsea, Diaby from Liverpool they don't even seem to work out for us!! No more Chamakh's and Park's, no more Joel Campbells who are years from the first team, this summer (like all others) needs QUALITY!!! Wenger's favourite word now act on it
I diasgree. Our signings are as good as anyones!! Our problem is not who we sign it's who we let go. Hypethetical fantasy squad time. Just remember none of these player's cost us a particularly large transfer fee. We could conceivably still have: Fabregas Nasri Diarra Flamini Adebayor Toure Cole/Clichy In our squad. --------------------Scezcney-------------------- Sagna------Vermaelen-----Toure---------Cole -------Fabregas-----Song------Wilshere------- --------------------Podolski------------------- -----------Adebayor-------VanPersie------------ Bench: Nasri, Walcott, Arteta , Diarra, Chamberlain, Mertesacker etc.. Wenger's signings are great. Dont get it confused. Chamberlain for £10 Million will be better than Malouda/Milner/Veron ever was. Adebayor £2.5 Million went on to score 31 goals in a Season for us. Still a quality player. Arteta Been probably our second best player this Season. Van Persie Only injuries have stopped RVP from being considered one of the very best players in World Football. Fabregas Signed for next to nothing. Has turned into one of the best midfielders in the World. Sagna £5 Million for the best rightback in the league. Vermaelen for 10 Million. Still a quality defender. Cheaper than Alex / Lescott / Toure /Boateng/Luis. etc... etc.... When Wenger signs he does it well. All managers sign the odd 'mistake' only when Wenger does it they normally did'nt cost too much so its not such a big loss. We just need Arsenal to keep our best players and stop acting like a ****ing 'selling club'
Its the greed in the transfer market and parsimony of the Board and Wenger when it comes to wages that has cost us dearly over the years. We lost Cashley for the sake of £5k a week extra, unbelievable. The sales of Toure, Fabregas and Adebayour were greed motivated. We the fans have been sold down the river by the Board and the manager.
Fabregas wanted to go back to Barca, Toure was struggling hugely with his weight after Malaria and was much past his best. Ade was greedy, the other two are frankly ridiculous comments.
Marquee signing are players that are top quality, not just potentials. Just to clarify, i'm not saying we've bought rubbish over the years and the players you've highlighted are top quality, but they weren't Marquee signings at the time. For example, Bergy was a Marquee signing but Fabregas wasn't (he proved it later). Signing M'Villa would be a marquee signing as he is proving his potential and is only 21. But i agree with your point, if we didn't become a selling club, we would be challenging a couple of years ago.We take one step forward and two steps back.
Replace song with Flamini in your fantasy line up and replace Toure with Gallas and I would agree with you. Toure was past his best when he left us - Gallas was the better CB.
This ^ Wenger isn't the problem, it the board who decide to sell our best players. Wenger would have kept them.
Probably right but I preferred Toure. He always seemed commmited and was less of a douchebag. He only left us over the whole Gallas saga. Lazarus2000, The problem is signing a 'big name' is often not the best thing to do. Paying three times as much for a player when there is someone equally good around(but not yet hyped up by the media) is not a good strategy. It requires balance though sometimes the 'right' big name player can be exactly what the squad needs - in that case its worth it. Although he was'nt uber expensive I would say Podolski is a 'marque signing.' We also need to be more cut throat with the young players. If they dont impress cute them loose. One thing we have here at arsenal is a good sscouting network
Well i wasn't advocating signing these kinds of players as you've highlighted, we have a fine scouting network that finds quality players. I agree, the Pod is a marquee signing and hopefully he'll prove it next season. I'm still unhappy at the whole Mata episode and what really went on. But we can rectify that buy buying players like M'Villa and Kagawa. They are within our range and grasp, just grab just grab!
This, Toure was loyal to the club and always showed heart which many our players these days don’t seem to have. Gallas was a petulant brat and was venomous to the changing room. A number of players were said to have had disagreements with him. I would have loved to have kept Toure who would have been much better backup than Djourou or Squill
