I do agree that he has too much power. It's worked in the past, but now somebody else should do the negotiating when it comes to transfers. That said I'm glad we didn't pay 35m for Higuain and the Suarez affair was a shambles admittedly, I'd have liked to see us go back in with a higher bid for Bender, but what can we do if Dortmund don't want to sell ? It might be frustrating, but I don't think we should be getting mugged off for players. This window has been crazy with the prices being payed, look at the spuds, they've spent nearly 90m if they get Willian. It looks like that's them spending the Bale money in advance, but are the players they bought worth that ?
It might not be bad as what you have experienced, but we have to deal with a lot of **** in these last eight years, especially the last three. From the pathetic '8-2' to the Carling Cup **** against Birmingham. If we knew this was the best we can achieve or we did not have the resources to improve, then fine, I would settle for it. But it's the knowledge that we have the resources to up another level, and yet our board and manager are refusing to use those resources is why most Arsenal fans are pissed off at the moment.
Put it another way, would Arsenal fans be happy if we'd spent 90m on Soldado, Paulinho, Willian, Chadli and Capoue ?
Why? It's not like we are going to getting anyone better now, is it? In fact looking around, we won't even get anyone close to Higuain's level now.
I hear you. I feel the same way. Something is not working, and Wenger has to take some of the responsibility for it. I just think that if we could sort out the way we do our negotiating then we'd get the players we want. Whether that means Wenger taking a step back from it and somebody like Dein coming in to do it or whether it means a DOF coming in to leave Wenger to get on with the football, then it would be worth looking at. I still think if we sacked Wenger, then unless we can line up a replacement who's better, we're going to end up in even more of a mess than we are now.
Looking at the way the market has gone, i really think we should have just paid the £35m, thats what decent players are going to cost now
Also Higuain was about something more. It was our chance to make a real statement and set the tone for the summer ahead, but instead of getting the deal done, we abandoned it because of some dodgy info from an agent and a release clause that did not exist.
This window has been skewed out of proportion by the spuds chucking cash around for players who are not worth those figures and PSG, then Napoli doing the same. One is based on another club potentially offering a ludicrous amount of money for Bale, the other based on rich foreign ownership and the chain reaction from a couple of massively overpriced transfers. We might have money to spend, but it doesn't mean we should just accept that we're going to get mugged off.
SO you telling me a guy that can potentially score 30 goals a season is not worth £35 Mil to us? Higuain was the striker we needed.
Our financial standing, our "pull", revenues and wealth relative to other clubs wasn't comparable to our situation now. In some ways you could consider ending up fourth this season more of an under-performance than getting 8th back then. I have no delusions of the pre-Wenger era of course, and have posted about it before, but the last 3-4 seasons the post-Emirates excuses have expired for good IMO, and not improving should be considered a failure relative to our potential as a club.
Maybe... At £23m we were ready to do business, but what were we going to do when Napoli offered £35m ? Offer £40m ? I wish we could have got him, but Napoli stole in there with a mega bid.
Perhaps so but maybe not as it would require relinquishing some control. It makes all the sense in the world from an outside perspective that Wenger would crave a reunion to relieve the burden somewhat, but from that same perspective bringing in a defensive midfielder into the team seems blatantly sensible too. Either way, reducing Wenger's control at the club especially in the financial side of transfers is the bare minimum we have to do at the club. It's the only way I can stomach the idea of him staying on, by having someone like Dein take control of transfers and that way we'll see if he's still up to the task. Like you, I think he might be, but like I say I don't think Wenger would be as enthusiastic as you'd naturally think.
It's speculative, but I think he'd like to work with him again. Dein has certainly made no secret of his desire to work with Wenger again. I know it sounds like harking back to an old age, but I honestly think that Dein and Wenger could work their magic again.
Wasn't it Dein that was pushing for Usmanov to take control of the club? Not sure Kroenke will be in a hurry to let him back..
It was and retrospectively it looks like a hurried move at the time. Dein sold his shares to Usmanov thinking he could mount a successful takeover and probably instill him as Chairman. I'm beginning to wonder if that might not have been such a bad outcome after all. Since then Dein resigned at Red and white holdings, stating that 'he didn't want to harm Arsenal' But let's not forget, it was also Dein who brought Kronke into the fold, only for PHW to tell him 'We don't need their sort at Arsenal' and it was Dein pushing for a rich owner that led to him being ousted. Only for PHW to then embrace the man that Dein was recommending.
I agree with Piskie about Higuain being overpriced. I suspect he really isn't worth that much money. The two most dissappointing elements from the window for me are that a) we didn't make basic but solid squad additions which would have afforded the fans the patience for a marquee signing whether he came or not. and b) if we're being priced out of the market for major signings, then could we at least not have added some young, promising players to the squad? I was as excited about the links with the Croatian teenage duo as anyone else, but nothing transpired there. I couldn't give you any names unfortunately, but if there's one thing you'd expect Wenger to know about it's young talent on the global market.
Even back then we were regarded as one of The "Big 5" along with Liverpool, Man Utd and would you believe Everton and Spurs
