Nope, just drawing a clear examlpe of why some were comlpetely wrong when they said that no one of any value is ever available in January. Case closed.
Pity we don't operate under a veil of secrecy. We get linked to someone, and then another top team puts in a higher bid (Mata, Ronaldinho (ages ago), Hazard). Our targets are always well documented, maybe it's time we made out of the blue signings, like NUFC did with Cisse.
Like I said, there must be something wrong with yours . . . . . . . . . please log in to view this image you should be using the same Crystal ball as Alan Pardew and me
Newcastle did well to sign him alright but what on earth were our scouts doing in not spotting him? I suppose if they didn't see his obvious talent as documented by Gooner91 here then it stands to reason they would say rightly or wrongly though more likely the latter that there was no one available. However Newcastle felt different and acted on it. We missed out and by the looks of it, badly since RvP would have had a partner to take on some of the responsibility of scoring goals. We might have been safe in third by now and possibly challenging higher instead of having to win our remaining matches and constantly looking over our shoulders. This has been a season and a half of bad management, bad scouting and bad negotiating.
A wise man once said, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." We go through this every year, we're supposed to be the premier talent spotters, but we always seem to miss a real gem.
Seems we go though a lot every year, every year since the drought of 2006. And what's worse is that when we do find the player we would like, we don't fight hard enough to win him. We need change at the top. Seems the deadwood isn't only in the changing room.
No one is suggesting we drop RvP. If anything the majority of fans would love him to stay. However you will have noted that we have been uber reliant on him all season and it would not be imprudent to consider a striking partner for our captain since the likes of Walcott, Gervinho, Chamakh or Park are not consistent in that department. Indeed did RvP not suggest at the start of the year that he might be better employed as a second striker as that role which has seen him excel for the Dutch team may offer us bounties previously unknown. Had our scouts looked further afield and discovered Cisse, we may have bagged a series of goals which would have consolidated our standing and perhaps improved it. That's all some of us are suggesting.
But I thought Demba Ba was the solid gold striker that we missed out on? Now he hasn't scored in a while, we are told Cisse is solid gold. When he cools off, there will be another absolute certainty that we should have signed. Just tired of this crap!
and tired of you making childish responses to fair points. Dropping RVP indeed. Are you trying to take over my Victor Meldrew position?
I don't get he crystal ball comments - some numptys "claimed" there are no good players available in the winter transfer window who could improve Arsenal, they claimed they are NOT available. Jayram is 100% correct - clearly Cisse was NOT available, clearly he didn't move to Newcastle, clearly they are not 1 point behind us in the league with 2 games to go Your crystal ball jokes are dumb PISKIE as are your comments, what does a crystal ball have to do with anything ? Did Gervinho display a better goalscoring record in France compared to Cisse in Germany ? Nope ... but we still bought him. What about the crystal ball for Gervinho's purchase ? The point is Cisse has been banging in goals for little Freiburg since joining them - 9 goals from 17 starts for them this season until he left, 22 goals from 32 starts last season, 6 from 13 starts the season before. If we can take a puntn Gervinho we could take a punt on Cisse, not saying we should have, just saying your argument and crystal ball comments are utter BOLLOX. Toledo as usual has nothing sensible to say so he just snipes, he has no argument. Along with RVP Demba Ba was the form striker .. but what does Pardew do .. he buys ANOTHER centre forward and plays them both. Ba stops scoring but Cisse continues. Admittedly Ba has been pushed out wider to accommodate Cisse, but who is going to say the decision has not worked ? If we bought Cisse and had RVP a good manager could accommodate both of them - unless he is a one trick pony who can only play one formation, one tactic .... no wait ..
Nobody can usurp you Victor, but TT makes a valid point. It was Demba Ba who was being touted as the player we should have signed - until the goals dried up. Nobody even mentioned Cisse until he stated scoring and now he's the player that we should have signed. I'm sorry, but it's too easy and a bit lazy to pick a player out because he's in good form and then slate us for not buying him
The goals dried up because Cisse 1) took up similar positions to Ba and 2) Ba got pushed out wide. He still scored 16 goals until that point and was hot on RVP's heels. I'm sorry, but its easy to deny we should buy players and a bit lazy saying they couldn't or wouldn't improve Arsenal just because it fits your tired opinion.
I've never denied that we should buy players or suggest that they couldn't improve Arsenal. What I was saying back in Jan was that none of you could even name one person who we should have gone out to buy. That's why it's easy and lazy now to suggest we should have bought Cisse, when you have the benefit of 5 months of hindsight.
And as has already been said, I don't have a scouting network around the world and neither do I watch much football outside of Arsenal games. But I am not naive enough to claim that something cannot be the case when I don't know f'all about it Cisse proves the point so wonderfully, unless you follow the Bundesliga you probably would never have heard of Cisse, but players like him exist and next season there will be others. Nothing to do with hindsight. So when Wenger picks up a player few know about hindsight doesn't play a part but when Wenger doesn't hindsight does play a part I'm not knocking the purchase of Gervinho, just saying that the argument that decent players are not available in the winter is rubbish.
I think my exact words were that it's notoriously difficult to bring in players in the January window, not that there isn't one who might be available. Still, I didn't see anyone even mention Cisse's name in January. So it's a bit hollow now to suggest that we should have bought him.
PISKIE - its called taking a punt. We had one fit, previously injury prone striker ...... nobody would criticise the manger for trying to fix that problem - considering the other fit striker who wasn't scoring much was off to the ACON. What would've happened to Arsenal if RVP got injured ? Would our striking options be Chamakh and Park ??? Goodness. Actually .. did Chamakh also go to the ACON ??? EDIT - yes he did .. that left PArk as sole back up
