The Arsenal Thread

[*Jamess*]

From She Wore A Yellow Ribbon - The Arsenal on Facebook:
Arshavin says he wants to stay.

 

[Quasit]

Also Pep Guardolia has revealed hes spending only one more year at Barca..Now if we don't win anything next year surely Pep is the ideal replacement to the one and only Wenger, were often refered to as the 'poor mans Barcelona'. So I think hed relish the chance to manage us as we play a similar style to Barca (When I say similar I mean we try to play the perfect pass, goal etc..) Also a chance to manage in the premiership? I dont know, seems like the ideal replacement..

He has said that when he quits @ Barca he will have some time of football.

 

[Joss]

Oh yeah isnt it likely that Clichy's on his way out? 5 Million to Inter, what a joke, hes worth at least 15..Not too sure if Gibbs is ready for week in week out Prem football then again Jack done it so it can be done, hopefully it does. Also heard rumours if Nasri leaves stewart downings replacing him??

---------- Post added at 10:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 AM ----------

Arsenal could be tempted to make a summer move for Liverpool target Axel Witsel after it emerged that the Standard Liege midfielder's ambition is to play in the Premier League.

Just found that on BBC sport 'Gossip' Not too sure how much is true but seems like a good player..not top of my list but would be a good addition to the squad.

Also Pep Guardolia has revealed hes spending only one more year at Barca..Now if we don't win anything next year surely Pep is the ideal replacement to the one and only Wenger, were often refered to as the 'poor mans Barcelona'. So I think hed relish the chance to manage us as we play a similar style to Barca (When I say similar I mean we try to play the perfect pass, goal etc..) Also a chance to manage in the premiership? I dont know, seems like the ideal replacement..

I don't think Clichy will leave. Would be surprised if we went for Downing - natural winger isn't really what Wenger looks for. We haven't had one since Ljungberg and even he wasn't an out and out winger, playing a similar role to how Walcott does now.

No to Guardiola. Don't want him for numerous reasons:

1. I hate Barca, and everything to do with them - including him. (VM me if you're desperate to discuss how beautiful FC Barcelona are and how irrational I am, leave it out of this thread)

2. Don't think he's even that good tbh. His reputation as a footballer precedes him and the players look up to him - he's meant to be a good coach (training etc.) but in terms of tactics, what's he actually done? He didn't outclass SAF, he did in 09 by deploying Messi as a False 9 but really, it's difficult not to win things with that team imho.

From what Gibbs has shown me this season he is most definately NOT ready. For all of his faults and errors, i hope that Clichy stays.

Gibbs is ready quality-wise IMO. His injury problems mean he can't get a run of games and when you're not 100% fit and forced into the team through injuries to others, you're bound to not perform well. He's a good player and has a bright future if he can just get over his injuries.

He has said that when he quits @ Barca he will have some time of football.

This.

 

[Ride The Walrus]

Clichy or Gibbs? One will probably leave in the next two or so years?

 

[Joss]

Clichy or Gibbs? One will probably leave in the next two or so years?

Not really... We've released two LBs from the Academy in the last couple of weeks (George Brieslan-Hall, Tom Cruise) so they don't really have any competition there. We'll need to look at that area for the Reserves/U18s this season and I expect Wenger will sign a young FB to eventually provide competition as part of the 10 year plan. I think both Clichy and Gibbs would be happy being rotated in the First Team.

 

[Athe~]

INo to Guardiola. Don't want him for numerous reasons:

1. I hate Barca, and everything to do with them - including him.

 

[Lol_101]

Clichy or Gibbs? One will probably leave in the next two or so years?

many u guys forgot about armand traore. he's been in shadows this year, but i dont really know how he'll play. maybe Juveentus like buy him as a replacement for their old LB.

like how Krasic joined for retired legend Pavel Naved (great days at Juventus) .

---------- Post added at 04:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 PM ----------

'Barca', not Barsa

---------- Post added at 04:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:50 PM ----------

Not really... We've released two LBs from the Academy in the last couple of weeks (George Brieslan-Hall, Tom Cruise) so they don't really have any competition there. We'll need to look at that area for the Reserves/U18s this season and I expect Wenger will sign a young FB to eventually provide competition as part of the 10 year plan. I think both Clichy and Gibbs would be happy being rotated in the First Team.

its untill Real starts giving hope and Marclo, cuz he doesnt play well in LB. marcelo is more of a LM

or could be in a part exchange deal, if we can get Benzema.

---------- Post added at 04:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:51 PM ----------

From what Gibbs has shown me this season he is most definately NOT ready. For all of his faults and errors, i hope that Clichy stays.

dont blame him for the fall.

 

[Athe~]

'Barca', not Barsa

Actually, it's a 'ç' (Which has a pronounciation more similar to an s as opposed to a c), not a c, and since my paint skills couldn't manage to get it right, I chose to go with an s.

 

[Lol_101]

Actually, it's a 'ç' (Which has a pronounciation more similar to an s as opposed to a c), not a c, and since my paint skills couldn't manage to get it right, I chose to go with an s.

ahh okay.

i cant type that 'c mixed s' on my keyboard, so i always go to C

 

[Joss]

"For many years Wenger was effectively fighting with one arm tied behind his back, due to the financial constraints imposed by building the new stadium, but the club now has sufficient funds available to spend again, albeit not at stratospheric levels, without compromising its sustainable model. They need to do something, because one thing is certain: if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same results."

The Swiss Ramble: Arsenal's Transfer Budget

 

[Mike.]

"For many years Wenger was effectively fighting with one arm tied behind his back, due to the financial constraints imposed by building the new stadium, but the club now has sufficient funds available to spend again, albeit not at stratospheric levels, without compromising its sustainable model. They need to do something, because one thing is certain: if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same results."

The Swiss Ramble: Arsenal's Transfer Budget

"On the other hand, he sometimes implies that his hands are tied financially, “Even if people say you have to spend money, we have to be realistic. We can’t buy players for £50 million. That is a fact.” However, there are several arguments against this perspective: (a) few sensible supporters want Arsenal to spend that much on one player; (b) very good players can be bought for much smaller sums, e.g. Mesut Ozil, Nuri Sahin and Rafael Van der Vaart; (c) as we have seen, money is available to improve the squad, probably around £50 million."

 

[Joss]

"On the other hand, he sometimes implies that his hands are tied financially, “Even if people say you have to spend money, we have to be realistic. We can’t buy players for £50 million. That is a fact.” However, there are several arguments against this perspective: (a) few sensible supporters want Arsenal to spend that much on one player; (b) very good players can be bought for much smaller sums, e.g. Mesut Ozil, Nuri Sahin and Rafael Van der Vaart; (c) as we have seen, money is available to improve the squad, probably around £50 million."

As he says in the conclusion - his hands have been tied. Perhaps not to the extent AW implied, and as seen with the examples of Ozil, Sahin & VdV, quality players don't always have to cost £50M, so there's no excuse for not buying quality - especially considering his eye for talent - and certainly there's no excuse for not getting rid of the dead-wood like Denilson.

Still; we apparently have around £50m as a transfer budget next season, but part of that will be spent on extending the contracts of existing players like Nasri, Djourou and Clichy:

"As Wenger’s budget covers both transfers and wages, just because money is available to him does not necessarily mean that he will use it to purchase new players. Indeed, there is already talk of extending the contracts of Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy and Johan Djourou this summer."

I expect that will cut it down to around the 40M mark...

 

[Mike.]

no one ever said that his hand werent tied, simply that he acted like there was no money when that wasnt the case as the whole article shows

---------- Post added at 10:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------

considering arsenal need 2 maybe 3 signings, that still goes a long way. Upto him whether he uses it

 

[Joss]

no one ever said that his hand werent tied, simply that he acted like there was no money when that wasnt the case as the whole article shows

---------- Post added at 10:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------

considering arsenal need 2 maybe 3 signings, that still goes a long way. Upto him whether he uses it

I'm not sure why you're arguing about this - I admitted that Wenger has exaggerated the financial pressure he's been under recently. Wenger's right in saying we can't spend the money that other clubs can, though - which is partly our fault for signing shoddy commercial deals and partly down to the long term investment of the Emirates Stadium which cost something like 500M in total. More money is becoming available now, though since we've recovered our investment in the Highbury Flats etc.

I think more important from that second quote I posted is that Wenger seems to think that signing truly world class players is a hassle and, aside from blocking the development of promising youngsters (why haven't we bought any FBs since we don't have any in the Academy?) it's bound to be really expensive, which plainly isn't true when you look at the amount Ozil and Sahin went for as well as VdV although that's sort of different since he wasn't wanted at RM.

Wenger won't pay over-the-odds for quality players, which he's right to do IMO but when you look at those examples - he doesn't have to. Thing is that people say things like "buy Gary Cahill!" or "buy Falcao!" without actually stopping to think whether it would be worth it. In those two cases, I'd argue it isn't really for the prices we WOULD have to pay and players like Bartley & Afobe who I think have a massive future. That's not to say we don't need a ST or a CB, of course. I'd like to see an experienced CB come in for 10M or less, and a striker signed considering Bendtner looks set to leave. Those are the urgent areas for me, perhaps a RB too.

 

[Mike.]

I'm not sure why you're arguing about this - I admitted that Wenger has exaggerated the financial pressure he's been under recently. Wenger's right in saying we can't spend the money that other clubs can, though - which is partly our fault for signing shoddy commercial deals and partly down to the long term investment of the Emirates Stadium which cost something like 500M in total. More money is becoming available now, though since we've recovered our investment in the Highbury Flats etc.

I think more important from that second quote I posted is that Wenger seems to think that signing truly world class players is a hassle and, aside from blocking the development of promising youngsters (why haven't we bought any FBs since we don't have any in the Academy?) it's bound to be really expensive, which plainly isn't true when you look at the amount Ozil and Sahin went for as well as VdV although that's sort of different since he wasn't wanted at RM.

Wenger won't pay over-the-odds for quality players, which he's right to do IMO but when you look at those examples - he doesn't have to. Thing is that people say things like "buy Gary Cahill!" or "buy Falcao!" without actually stopping to think whether it would be worth it. In those two cases, I'd argue it isn't really for the prices we WOULD have to pay and players like Bartley & Afobe who I think have a massive future. That's not to say we don't need a ST or a CB, of course. I'd like to see an experienced CB come in for 10M or less, and a striker signed considering Bendtner looks set to leave. Those are the urgent areas for me, perhaps a RB too.

You kind of made my point there, that is probably my only real criticism of Wenger.

 

[Joss]

You kind of made my point there, that is probably my only real criticism of Wenger.

I think he takes some things too personally... He's over-protective of his players and the stories that fly around in the tabloids about Arsenal having an 80M war-chest & signing top player for 10s of millions of pounds mean that often the more sensible fans don't get heard... Still - he does pay for top class players when we really need them - Nasri and Arshavin are good examples of that. If he actually looked at some of the really world-class players he might be surprised at how cheap he can get them.

---------- Post added at 12:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 AM ----------

According to his agent and father, Bendtner is worth "One hundred million".

Bendtner 'worth 11million euros' | Sky Sports | Football | Premier League | News

 

[Mike.]

I think he takes some things too personally... He's over-protective of his players and the stories that fly around in the tabloids about Arsenal having an 80M war-chest & signing top player for 10s of millions of pounds mean that often the more sensible fans don't get heard... Still - he does pay for top class players when we really need them - Nasri and Arshavin are good examples of that. If he actually looked at some of the really world-class players he might be surprised at how cheap he can get them.

---------- Post added at 12:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 AM ----------

According to his agent and father, Bendtner is worth "One hundred million".

Bendtner 'worth 11million euros' | Sky Sports | Football | Premier League | News

he hasnt played likes hes worth 11m.

On Wenger, yeah thats where i have my gripe, the top players are out there at the right price, he cant dismiss it straightaway. At least he looks to be entering the market this summer so lets see what turns up

 

[Joss]

he hasnt played likes hes worth 11m.

On Wenger, yeah thats where i have my gripe, the top players are out there at the right price, he cant dismiss it straightaway. At least he looks to be entering the market this summer so lets see what turns up

It's more like £9m iirc, but he has been played on the RW. He's turned up with important goals at times and is a good finisher - he just doesn't get the chances at Arsenal. Personally I wouldn't mind him staying but I imagine he costs a bit in wages & we can hopefully get around 15M for him and Denilson.

 

[AdamArsenal]

I don't see the fuss about a RB, we only recently signed Carl Jenkinson from Charlton, a accomplished RB and CB.

 

[Joss]

I don't see the fuss about a RB, we only recently signed Carl Jenkinson from Charlton, a accomplished RB and CB.

It's why I said "maybe", but he's 19 and we don't know how good he is yet (good enough that the English FA are trying to convince him to switch from Finland) and Eboue isn't good enough for a PL challenging side to be perfectly honest. He's a joker, and I love him but he's clumsy and inconsistent. Sagna is awesome but needs competition and someone ready to step in when he's unavailable. Plus Eboue will be at the ACON - If Sagna gets injured then, at a crucial point in the season, it's a big pressure on Jenkinson.