A brilliant interview of an arsenal fan - spot on analysis I think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq0aSa-WUjo
Most fans agree with this guy it seems, just look at the thumbs up at the video, and comments, the fans have spoken. End of debate. Happy to say I witnessed this live and was part of the fans applauding him. :-D
Fans like him are the majority, you know it, . Fans like you will 100% be in the minority if we don't make the major and needed signings, you'll be the only one, along with OXO, making excuses if we don't saying it's not the end bla bla bla and Wenger is god.
I have been just as vocal as everyone else in calling for signings - we clearly need them given the depth in our current squad. But things aren't as aweful as the doom mongers like yourself would love to have everyone believe And i've said that now the money is there Wenger can be properly judged this season. If he chooses to not spend and then we end up only achieving 4th again without ever looking like we are likely to win any silverware then Wenger will have to face the consequences. Up until now i believe he has done very well to keep us where we are and had he not been let down by some of his players we would have achieved more. Now though the cash is there to spend and so it needs to be used wisely. That said i think that we need someone else involved in our transfer dealings like with Dein. I think this would have a big impact on our transfer activity. I don't think Wenger is 100% responsible for our transfers.
It's not the end of the debate at all. That's just you agreeing with yourself. I understand where this bloke is coming from, but I think his suggestions are borne out of frustration rather than any pragmatic solution. How not buying pies or pints is supposed to make us perform better in the transfer window is anybody's guess? We made a Forty million pound bid for Suarez this summer, so the argument that we're not trying to spend on the top players is defunct. The problem for me is that at board level we've made a lot of mistakes buying and selling players and we're not anywhere near as effective in the market as we should be, but that has got **** all to do with Gazidis' salary or the price of a matchday programme. By all means, fans are entitled to be frustrated at the lack of signings, we all are, but making spurious claims and suggesting nonsense actions isn't a solution, it's just a rant.
We made a 40 million and 1 pound bid, thereby killing the entire deal with that act of stupidity that made us a laughing stock. You really think you're going to do business with Liverpool, and snatching their best player by such a silly bid? His solutions are actually very good, the club may be bidding for big players as you say, but if they knew they had much more riding on it, such as losing money because fans are getting really tired, they'd have a very added incentive to work even harder to make sure they're bids go through. A man with a gun to his head is going to make sure his work pays off rather than a man without a gun to his head, you tell these business people they will be losing money if the deals don't get done, and you can bet they will be giving 10 times more effort to get it done.
If you think we're going to achieve more than merely scrapping for top 4 with this squad come end season, then you are well.......
That doesn't make any sense at all. The 40 million and 1 pound bid was supposed to trigger a release clause, whoever thought that was water tight didn't do their homework, that's the problem, not the size of the bid. To be fair 40 million should be more than enough to secure Suarez' services. The solutions suggested are nonsense. How is not buying pies and pints going to help the club in the transfer market ? If anything it will reduce our revenue so we'd have less to spend. As for having a gun to your head, anybody will tell you that is never a good way to conduct business, because you're backed into a corner. What should we have done, made a 6Om bid for Suarez ? That would have been akin to getting mugged.
Make a respectful offer of 40.5 million, not 40 million and 1 pound, that would get the ball rolling, and we probably could settle on 45 million with add ons over the next years. But the second we made that stupid 40 million and 1 pound offer, we destroyed any chances of getting Suarez by pissing them off.
I agree that the one pound thing was a bit stupid, it was inflammatory and was only ever going to piss Liverpool off. That's why I think there's something wrong with our negotiating team. Somebody thought the clause was water tight and they got it wrong, in the end the one pound thing just looked stupid. That said, there was no way Liverpool were going to let him go for 45 million either. Once Rodgers started harping on about the Bale bid, Suarez' price had gone astronomical. In any normal window 4O million would have landed him straight away, but this summer has gone nuts, and it's down to Real and PSG spending over the odds, which has a knock on effect.
I still think you are missing the point of all this. Most Arsenal fans probably agree that it is extremely unlikely that we will win the league with the current squad. I think the half that are less outraged about this are the ones that feel that it is extremely unlikely that we will win the league with ANY squad that we can easily afford and obtain. Simple restating that we will not win with the current squad (a prediction, not a fact), or that because of this Wenger, Gazardis, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, are not doing their jobs properly, isn't really doing anything to convince anyone that the converse is true. That if we sign x,y,z and not the players Wenger is going to sign, or might sign, it is certain that we will win. I understand the frustration, but not the logic, and I still think it comes down to the video game mentality that, if you play the game right, you will win; and real life isn't like that.
Suarez could have proved the difference between CL & not CL next season, something that's worth over 20m. If offering 40m means Arsenal finish 5th, and Suarez for 60m would have meant finishing 4th, he's worth every penny.
That's a lot of money to speculate on though. Personally, I think we need a DM and another defender just as much as we need a striker, so 60m would have seen us spend pretty much the whole pot in one go.
And if we finish 4th anyway, we just saved 40M. Of if we finished 5th after we bought him, we pissed it away. Now I understand that it isn't your money, so you don't care, but do you really expect Kronke, not to care about losing 40M?
