This site has become slower than Mertesacker. I am out of here. Goodnight, all. Shame about dead line day, but we live to fight another day.
Shame we didn't sign any one, but the early signs in our performances seem good, I guess the reason no players were signed was because of the young players coming through. I'm disappointed no one was signed, it's always nice to see a surprise name pop up out of nowhere, but I'm not going to spend any time dwelling on it, because it's a not that big of an issue.
Good article that exposes the reality: On a day of major signings, Arsenal were fairly quiet. While Clint Dempsey packed his bags for White Hart Lane, Charlie Adam signed for Stoke City and Dimitar Berbatov was transferred to Fulham, Arsene Wenger showed that he is content with the current state of affairs at the Emirates, as the Gunners sit in the middle of the table with two points, no goals conceded and no goals scored. It didn't seem like the Frenchman feels any sense of urgency, since he kept his list of summer signings at Lukas Podolski from relegated Cologne, Olivier Giroud from French champions Montpellier and Santi Cazorla from newly-rich Spanish side Malaga. Looking back on the last few months, the biggest question will obviously have to be whether the most was made out of the summer or not. If you look at the signings made, then yes, all three are great players. Podolski, the German who made a verbal commitment to the Gunners a long time ago, has over 100 caps for his international team. Over the years, Podolski has shown that he is a talented yet mature player with great vision, as well as a powerful left foot. Giroud fit the Arsenal bill well because he not only blends in with the passing system at Arsenal, but also brings new qualities to the table, such as long-range shooting ability, aerial ability and strength. Additionally, pure finishing is something that Wenger is going to need given van Persie's departure. Cazorla was absolutely brilliant in the first game against Sunderland and quite good against Stoke. The little guy has plenty of energy about him and controls the game wonderfully, using dribbling, vision and pass execution to make him one of the most exciting players at Arsenal in the last few years. But then if we make the picture a little bigger and look at all of the Arsenal transfersâwhich means looking at the sales tooâthe summer seems like less of a success. The two most decisive ones were the departures of Robin van Persie and Alex Song. The Dutchman's move to was not only a huge blow in itself, but to add insult to injury, it was to bitter rivals Manchester United. Van Persie may not have been the offensive spark, but he was the finisher, the ruthless goal-getter who is dearly missed, as two games have gone by without a goal. He scored 30 Premier League goals last season, winning not only the Golden Boot, but the best player award chose by the players of the league, as well as the writers' association. This was one of the biggest moves of the entire window. Another shocker was the Alex Song to Barcelona deal. What a mess! Song seemed to have been shipped out of London because of his attitude problems (showing up late for practice, etc.), but afterwards said that he didn't want to leave at all. Anyhow, his commanding presence in the midfield isn't something that you come across every day, and Diaby, the replacement so far didn't show that he is as good on defense, or on offense for that matterâ the Cameroonian had started to show great vision in his last year at the club. Neither of those two holes in the squad have been completely filled yet, despite the fact that both Giroud and Podolski are very capable footballers. Neither has proven to be great in the Premier League left, but they have time to adjust. Now, if we look at the even bigger picture, it isn't looking good at all. The biggest part of the transfer window is to keep up with the other Premier League teams, and Arsenal aren't doing too well in that respect. Other teams have really used this window as an opportunity to sign big names. Chelsea broke the bank to buy players like Oscar, Marko Marin and of course, the supremely talented Eden Hazard. They spent Abramovich-esque sums of money, and it really has given their squad some real depth, and the young Belgian from Lille is turning out to be a wonderful buy, pairing beautifully with Fernando Torres. Manchester United haven't really gone crazy in terms of spending, but Sir Alex Ferguson has brought in quality to Old Trafford. Of course, Robin van Persie was bought, and he scored a beautiful goal against Fulham. Also, Shinji Kagawa, a key part of Borussia Dortmund's 11-12 Bundesliga title, was signed in order to strengthen the midfield, an area which was said to be very weak for the Red Devils. Tottenham also had a surprisingly active window, bringing in Emmanuel Adebayor permanently, and also getting Clint Dempsey (for a surprisingly low fee of £6 million), Gylfi Sigurdsson, Moussa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen and Hugo Lloris. This strengthens almost all aspects of their team, and they may even still get Joao Moutinho. Manchester City didn't really sign as much as usual, but, well, they are still City. They are already quite star-studded. Their signings of Scott Sinclair, Javi Garcia, Maicon, Matija Nastasic and Richard Wright are quite big, but not up to the Manchester City standard. If you compare Arsenal to these teams, their personnel aren't really up to any of the others', except for maybe Spurs. More signings could definitely have been made this transfer window. Midfielders such as Nuri Sahin, Michael Essien, Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote were linked to Arsenal, but nothing was done. Plus, strikers Robert Lewandowski, Edin Dzeko and Demba Ba were rumoured into the Emirates, but Wenger didn't want them. Are the Gunners going to be able to compete with these teams? I don't really see that happening. Sorry, Gooners, but it looks like it will be just another race for fourth place. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...window-a-success-or-a-failure-for-the-gunners But hey, that's not a problem right? Since a few of you on here accept mediocrity and view it as a major success to simply fight for fourth place, after all, finnish 4th, is your new trophy, so what's the problem if we go trophyless again, don't even challenge, but only fight for fourth spot.
Good to see someone talking sense, and simply showing the reality: ARSENAL legend Frank McLintock has hit out at the Gunners after last-ditch panic talks to keep Theo Walcott. McLintock, the skipper who lifted the Double at Highbury in 1971, is amazed that the club has got itself into another transfer mess. Arsenal appear to have clung on to Walcott â for the time being at least â but their selling policy has left former Scottish centre-half McLintock perplexed and angry. The shocking Emirates exodus is perfectly illustrated by the team photograph above, which was taken ahead of the Champions League quarter-final second-leg home clash with Villarreal on April 15, 2009. Just THREE players, Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Lukasz Fabianski, are still at Arsenal â while seven of the remaining eight stars have been flogged for a combined £145million. Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas Samir Nasri, Alex Song, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor and Emmanuel Eboue were all sold. Defender Mikael Silvestre was let go on a free in August 2010 by manager Arsene Wenger. McLintock said: âThe photo sums it up perfectly. Thereâs only three players left after only three years. âYou canât keep changing your team every year and thatâs what has been happening. âItâs almost as though there has been a crisis every time the transfer window opens and I donât think itâs fair to the supporters. âWeâve always been two or three players from really challenging for the title but you canât be changing most of your team every two years. âWhen weâve not spent money, the reason given is because we are still paying for the new stadium and everyoneâs gone along with it. âBut how long do we have to wait until we say âRight, the debtâs cleared and now we can compete with City, Chelsea and Unitedâ? âArsenal fans would like to know whether the club will ever do that again.â McLintock, 72, even doubts his own view that the Gunners can still be ranked among the worldâs best teams. He added: âIâve always regarded Arsenal as one of the biggest clubs in the world but maybe Iâm wrong now. âWe seem to be selling all the time, especially to Manchester and itâs something that myself and the supporters donât like to see. âMaybe times have changed in the last three or four years and weâre the also-rans fighting for fourth place behind United, City and Chelsea. âWeâve sold for a lot of money and seemed to get players who are not quite as good as the ones who have left. âYou canât keep on doing that all the time because supporters will get annoyed and wonder why.â The move to the Emirates in 2006 is estimated to have cost Arsenal around £390m. Financing the switch from Highbury has been blamed for the lack of investment in the squad. McLintock said: âThe Emirates was meant to help us compete with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona but you canât keep losing the players weâve lost every year.â Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...ank-McLintock-fury-at-club.html#ixzz25BWswDEd No, Frank you're not wrong, Arsenal are indeed no longer an elite club with the likes of Manu. He speaks the facts, you can't continually sell your best players every summer, and expect to challenge and win things. Every year it's the same story, sell your best players, and start again. Then the new summer comes, and we sell the players who were brought in as replacements after they've had a very good season for us. This club is turning into a joke with it's policy. How long's it going to be before we sell Chamberlain, Vermaelen, Koscienly, Sagna, and Cazorla? At this stage, I think we will sell Cazorla after the 2014 season, Sagna will probably be sold next summer, and Vermaelen will probably be sold off as well at the end of the 2014 season to continue to balance the books and for the board to pocket profits. This is Arsenal after all, when a player is world class, our policy is to just get rid of them, preferably to a domestic rival, or Barcelona.
If he is so unbelievably stupid that he doesn't know why, he shouldn't open his mouth, and proclaim that stupidity to everybody.
I would still like to know just who we could/should have bought? At the start of the close season, a lot of people were really rating Wemgers transfer dealings and accepting the fact that RVP was on his way. Soing's departure was a bit of a surprise, but why is everybody now yelling about the negatives because we didnt do any last minute shopping. I remember last year critics were saying we should not have left it so late. It seems that however he plays ist Wenger and the board are bing slated. He has made some good purchases - they need to sedttle quickly now, I'll give you that -but it is early days of a long season (I wonder how Chelsea fans are viewing their pole position in light of the slaughter last night.) Transfer season over til Christmas, nothing more can be done. Stop moaning until you've given this team a fair view and lets get behind them -COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
I'm a little bit peeved because Wenger said on Wednesday that we were "working very hard" to bring in more players,
I wouldn't have minded had Wenger not said: "we are working hard to bring in more players", why lie to the fans?
I still find it strange that Wenger stated that he was looking to find a replacement for Song.. Yet we didn't sign one.
Only thing I can think of is that he changed his mind, thinks we have enough options in the middle of the park. Remember Chamberlain the other day, said he could fill in for Song there.
He seems to constantly change his mind. It's weird because whatever he says is completely unreliable these days.
With due respect to Arsene it became really annoying. "Podolski and Giroux were brought to play alongside RVP they are not his replacement". Next month - "We have already replaced RVP, we broughtGirod and Podolski.". "We do not need anothr DM, because Song was not a typical DM, he played further up the pitch". In two weeks time: "Sabin would not be a replacement for Song anyway, because he is not a DM, he plays further up".
Of course it was a big success. We managed to sell two of our most expensive players, brought three decent guys ant earned another 10ml. I am sure every transfer window where we manage to earn a million or two is a great success for the board.
5 gooners (myself included) in agreement with this article. It would be hard to argue against. To bring in quality players only to sell your best players is counter-productive (especially because the new players are just adjusting to the league). Take with one hand, giveth away with the other.
Are you serious? So he should have said "we brought them to replace Van Persie" while Van Persie was there? Really? He said after something along the lines of them being bought to prepare in case he goes, but they would be good reinforcements even if RvP stayed. Stop twisting words... Of course he will not say they are there to replace RvP when RvP is still at the club.
You have to read between the lines, and his comments were very clear to me. They could very well have been working very hard the last few days. They did warn that they wouldn't buy "anyone" but quality players that would contribute long term, which also means the likes of Dempsey wouldn't be considered as panic buys that we would struggle to find loan moves for by the half of the season.
