All these players left Arsenal to go to clubs with a greater chance at winning things, Henry to Barcelona to win the CL, Nasri to win anything and secretly I think Fabregas' decision to leave was sped up in some way because of a lack of silverware, he was only 24 when he left us after all !! Now RVP has gone, ultimately because he wants to win stuff. Many fans are commenting about RVP being greedy and the manager being at fault and this and that. These comments I think are wide of the mark ! Too many players are citing lack of ambition at the club as a reason they are leaving and how can we argue ? Buying Giroud and Podolski are NOT signs that the club are being ambitious, we've spent c£20m on the 2 which is pretty much what we spend every season anyway. What about other players that we need ? What about a CB or AM ? What about a DM ? Maybe the 2 signings were in recognition of the fact that RVP was going to leave anyway. We have not shown ambition of late, we have simply chased the bucks and as a result we are losing our best players with alarming regularity. Time the club paid more than lip service to the fans and backed up their hollow words.
I swear I remember you being delighted at us signing Podolski and Giroud? In fact even going as far to say that Podolski is better than Hulk . Also, Fabregas left because Barcelona, his childhood team, wanted him.
No one does not delight at their purchase but that alone does not improve our chances of winning since as Mr Head points out, there are areas of our squad that require attention. Heavens, we shipped 49 goals last year and 45 the year before. You cannot leave such an invitation for your rivals and expect to succeed in the hunt for trophies. A long time ago a certain Mr B Clough broke his slightly northerly club's purchasing record and paid 250K I believe, for a man called Shilton. That was a great fix for Nottingham Forest and in a not dissimilar manner, we should be fixing our defence and in company with that, our midfield because that is sorely short especially if Micky is laid off for some reason and Jack continues to have injury woes. We have concentrated on attack as a means of achieving success when that is only a part of the solution. There is a bigger picture but we are not addressing it. That to me is why RvP is not convinced that his future lies at our great club. It isn't over yet since he did say that when Gazidis was back from holiday, there were talks to be continued then. However if we don't fix the gaps in our game we cannot expect RvP to wish to remain nor indeed too many of the others who hold out hope of success in their careers. I think Arsene in buying Podolski and Giroud wants a final hurrah before his time too but in order that he can succeed in this he needed RvP and he also needs to address the deficiencies in our squad or there won't be anything of great pleasure to take away when his time does come.
I am delighted and I rate them. But that doesn't mean the club are showing ambition. How do we "gauge" ambition ? the easiest way is by looking at how much we spend on players in transfer fees and wages. Well even in quiet seasons for us on the transfer front we spend around £20m, so how is spending that now a sign of ambition ?? Its less than half of what we spent last season !
Well, if you think Podolski is such a good signing as a talisman for the front line then surely it doesn't matter how much we spend on him? In fact, the cheaper the better. Ambition's pretty much gauged by how a team attempts to improve each season- for example spending more money on more quality players in order to finish higher in the table or win trophies which shows ambition as the board is willing to put this money forward in order for the team to be stronger, so I agree with you on that. So in this sense, I think that more "ambition" is needed, especially now that RVP has chosen to do a runner. Giroud and Podolski simply won't cut it in getting the goals we relied on so much last season from RVP, so we definitely need another striker as well as some more talent in the centre of midfield.
