Pretty much this. We can compete with anyone else apart from the very elite of Real, Barca and Bayern. Pretty much no one can compete with them as they offer everything. We offer a hell of a lot, from being situated in a nice part of London to having a manager that a lot of these players grew up watching and looked up to. Getting Ozil, Sanchez and Cech shows clearly that we can attract the very best players, so no more nonsense about not being able to get a WC striker.
Who said Wenger doesn't get bum buys. Lets not forget about all those countless young players we get drafted in and then let go when they don't meet expectations. A few examples of flop buys are Campbell, Miyachi and Wellington, there are probably a fair few more and i'm not quoting the real crappy ones.
Such a highly strung bunch.... anyone even considered the player's personal circumstances - wives, de-facto's, kids, crappy UK weather, cultural differences etc.. Everyone seems so hell bent on we should have him, this or the other and we have the God given right to demand. The fact is we can not compete with the Chelsea's and Man City's on wages..wages..not transfer fee's. We can go down the Liverpool or Spurs route and end up buying for the sake of it.. look how they have progressed over the past how many years... regressed.. I'm just as frustrated as the next man but there is no point busting a boiler over it. I truly believe the club knows best and whatever happens behind the scenes is in EVERYONES best interest in making the club better.
It's not just about getting that marquee signing, its about strengthening the squat with say a quality DM, which is a very gettable target. Now we're going to go in praying that Coqs doesn't get injured because when he does, we will become a whole lot more vulnerable.
Be as sarcastic as you like but what's the point in getting sooo...... wound up over it. IF the board was that naive or selfish why have we been able to capture the Ozil's and Sanchez's of this world... there's obviously a lot more to this transfer/signing business that we will ever know or are led to believe. Like I said, does that make most of the other boards wrong too>> Apart from Chelsea/Man City. Im talking EPL clubs here because like I said it's more than just a player being purchased for "x" and giving him "y" as wages. Confirming I'm not a deluded Wengerite just someone trying to make some sense of it all... No argument to win or lose here just an opinion.
This would be a reasonable point, but it hasn't stopped players from other foreign leagues coming to the Premier League before. Schweinsteiger spent all his career at one club and spent all his time in Germany, he is married and has kids, yet moved over to frikking Manchester within a matter of days. Di Maria also moved to Manchester after winning the CL that year to a side that finished 7th. Shaqiri went from Switzerland to Germany...to Stoke! If you're honestly suggesting that every player we have gone after have had issues with all these things, then I think that is straw clutching because if we're going to be honest, the money is in the Prem and if you offer enough, weather and family isn't really an issue because their family will move wherever the player goes and they can still maintain or better their quality of life. That's just the reality of how these things work. No-one says we have a God given right to sign anyone, what we're saying is we have had the same problems for years and we still refuse to address them. We have had numerous opportunities to strengthen in positions where there have been a host of quality players available that we can afford tbut they have gone to 'lesser' sides. And when you take everything into consideration, the feasible options appear to be that we either weren't interested in certain players or we didn't make substantial/any bids for these players. And this has been to our detriment.
I agree with you on the big signings, of course there are a lot more variables to look at when buying that top marquee signing. You are right that we don't have the god given right to get any player in the world, even Real struggle sometimes with getting their player, De Gea being a prime example. But its the other positions that are worrying me, DM to be precise. I think this position would really help us big time in being able to consistently get those results and allow us to be more solid in the middle, which i feel is a position we still need strengthening.
Aaaah tranfer deadline day. Where tired old cliches like AKB and WOB get thrown around and everyone ends up in tears. My policy this window is to completely forget it's TDD and save my bloody pressure by a few extra points. I highly recommend this strategy people.
We're apparently being linked to Aleksandr Kokorin, lol, so funny, I kept taking the piss we'd sign someone named Slava Shakili coming from somewhere in the east, and it's probably gonna happen. We really are showing some top top top ambition. This club is a joke.
I have to say, that while I'm frustrated at the lack of activity (and I don't truly believe that we'll pull a huge transfer out of the bag, with no rumours on the last day, like a rabbit out of a hat!), I can't see any worth in buying a striker like Ings or Austin or others of that ilk just to be 'buying a striker' all it will lead to is filling up the squad with another player who isn't as good as Giroud (like Welbeck) when what we need is a significant improvement on Giroud. We don't want to be taking away squad spaces and wages (both important with the HG rule, and max squads of 25 for 18 year old+ players and FPP). I'm glad we haven't spunked £36m on Martial or £20m+ on Pedro as they definitely aren't what we need, and aren't of the required standard. And those ridiculous fees show how desperate the market is at the minute for strikers (especially when you consider that Sanchez signed for £33m and Costa for £32m). If the plan is that we know a player (grabbing a player out of the air here - say Ibrahimovic, Benzema or Cavani) is available next year, but isn't this year, then I'd rather not spunk a load of money on a Pedro/Martial player now and then get a player we actually next year. Saying this though not getting a DM (either a WC 1st teamer or back up for Coq) is inexcusable though. And very short sighted, especially as we will be pushing Arteta into a semi-coaching role, and next year more than likely a full coaching role next summer.
I was more impressed with Austin in the season he was in the Prem than I have been with Giroud throughout his time at Arsenal. I don't agree with you at all on Pedro, but I agree with you on Martial. However, we may well have to start spending that much on strikers because the market has been inflated even further with all these ridiculous fees. Coupled with the fact that clubs are aware that we are in a better position financially, I really do fear for how much we may end up spending on future players. In regards to Cavani or Ibrahimovic, sport is pretty much about the here and now. We don't know whether these players will be available in a year's time and are we really in a position to be biding our time until one of them becomes available? It's a huge, huge risk to stick with what we have in the hope that one of the other players will be obtainable in the future when we have no idea what's going to happen. The thing is I don't even think we need a truly world class striker to win the league, we just need a striker who has good movement and is quite agile who will work well in our front three. Giroud doesn't make the right runs and hinders us when we're on the counter, so that's why I think more or less anyone who is a bit more nimble and has a good touch would be an upgrade on him.
Sorry if I misled, I didn't mean to just 'sit and hope that another player is available next season' but if one of the team (Wenger, Law ect) had firm information that a WC player was available from next summer, but wasn't leaving his club this season, then would you want to bring in a sub standard player just to be seen to buy a player this summer. And I disagree about Giroud, he may not be WC but I think a lot of people will miss him when he leaves (unless of course he leaves and a WC player comes in), we certainly missed him last season when he was injured for the 1st half of the season. Like it or not, he is the focal point of our attack, everything revolves around him, his hold up play, and him dragging defenders around. When he isn't playing we seem even more likely to just pass sideways 25 yards out without ever getting near the box. If we had a quick, sharp striker who was a WC finisher (like RVP in his prime) then amazing, but don't be fooled into thinking nothing would change, as we'd need to change our whole way of attacking - as we did when RVP left, as we'd become so dependant on one player scoring all our goals we were ease to stop. So we changed it up, and our midfielders started scoring more.
"It’s very unlikely Arsenal will make any signings before the deadline. They explored a few options but nothing even got off the ground, let alone coming close. Almost certainly no ins or outs today for the Gunners." David Ornstein BBC Sport My initial reaction would be "what a disappointing window" but looking at what Chelsea and United are doing it does make me feel a bit better Cant wait for the window to close and focus on the football!
And what about Man City ? Or are you just like Wenger and the board, being happy to finish in the top four and not really bother with the title?
Oh and let's not forget that Chelsea were better than us last season by a mile, and while they have got off to a **** start, they still have quality players and more importantly a quality manager, the difference between us and Chelsea was not Cech.'
I wouldnt say they were better than us by a mile..... They didnt have any big injuries which meant they kept the same team almost all year. They were almost exhausted by end of year. This makes me think they cannot do the same thing again. In fact, we have already been shown that is the case. Add opponents mental part of "Everyone wants to beat the champion" and the chelsea players mental part "we are the champions". Put this all together and I think the gap is very realistic ASSUMING we are consistent like last year.
