The Arsenal Thread

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Dortmund bid was accepted along with Napolis, Bendtner has the decision. German journalists like Rafa Honigstein expect him to end up at BD, Roma could make a late swoop but unlikely. Napoli offered him less money per week, I'd expect him to end up at BD by Friday. Sporting are well out of the race now...
 
Jamie. said:
Dortmund bid was accepted along with Napolis, Bendtner has the decision. German journalists like Rafa Honigstein expect him to end up at BD, Roma could make a late swoop but unlikely. Napoli offered him less money per week, I'd expect him to end up at BD by Friday. Sporting are well out of the race now...
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Sydney2.jpg
 
Wenger's interview

Arsenal have been caught up in two of the summer's loudest transfer sagas, over whether the captain Cesc Fábregas will move back to Barcelona and if Samir Nasri will join either of the Manchester clubs. Arsène Wenger, the manager, has kept his counsel but in his first interview of the pre-season, from Malaysia, where the club have begun their mini-tour of the Far East, he was keen to clarify his position.

Why are you so confident that Cesc Fábregas will stay?
I am confident because I hope he will see that there will be no greater achievement for him in his life than to lead this team to success and that it will not be the right period for him to leave the club.

In one breath, you say "confident" but in the next, you say "hope". There seem to be a few grey areas ...
I think Cesc has always been torn between his love for Arsenal that I feel is really genuine and, as well and what you can understand, the desire to play for the biggest team, at the moment, in the world. I think both exist in his head.

Have you had a meeting with him since his return for pre-season last week to discuss where his head and his heart are leaning?
Yes. I cannot speak about the meeting but he knows that I want him to stay.

He is under contract until 2015 so, technically, he cannot force his way out?
No, but you can only be in if you are completely in. He is the leader of the team. He has to be completely focused and convinced that he wants to stay.

If he is not completely focused, Arsenal would presumably still not let him go unless they got what they felt was the right price for him?
Yes. But we want to keep him and for us, it's not a question of money. We are not there to make the money. We are there to keep our best players. We have managed the club well to be in a position to say "No". For any money. We have the potential to do that because we are in a healthy financial situation. But, on the other hand, you need as well the player wanting to be with you.

That's clearly the issue, isn't it? You have to be convinced that Cesc, in his heart, wants to stay, 100% ...
I am convinced, but I want him to be convinced.

Surely, he can give his best on the pitch only if he is 100% committed?
Some people questioned his last season but I never question his commitment. This guy is a real winner and if he did not have the expected season, it was down to injuries. He played in some games where he was not right completely but he wanted to play, to win.

You seem to be in a similar situation with Samir Nasri?
No. Samir's situation is clear for me.

He definitely stays, come what may?
He stays.

So if a club comes in with a big offer, knowing that he's in the final year of his contract, you will say, "You're staying..."
I've just told you that we are in a position where we can say "No".

And you will, in the case of Samir?
We will.

You think that it is worth more to have Samir for one more season and risk losing him on a Bosman free next summer than to cash in now?
Yes.

That could be construed as a £20m gamble?
[Smiling.] You are the same people who reproach me for not spending money and now you reproach me for wanting to spend it! It is in the interests of the club. Fábregas is in no man's land ... Imagine the worst situation, that we lose Fábregas and Nasri; you cannot convince people that you are ambitious after that. And even if you lose Nasri, to find the same quality player, you have to spend again the same amount of money because you cannot say you lose the player and you do not replace him. And the other clubs who come to take him have scouts all over the world as well but if they come to us for our player ...

You clearly don't want to sell Cesc but it's been like a feeding frenzy with the Catalans saying, officially and unofficially, that they will get him for this amount and that they will get him. Is there a message that you want to send to them, once and for all?
Ha ha. You know what they do. I can only speak for ourselves. For us, it's not a question of money. It's a question of desire. We want Cesc to be with us but we want him as well to be happy with us. I have heard people say that we do not want to keep Cesc. We are desperate to keep Cesc. And we will fight for everything because you do not educate a player for eight years as we have done only to want him to go once he is at an age to deliver. We want to keep the team together.

The boldest official statement from Barcelona this summer came from the president Sandro Rosell when he said that Cesc was worth less now than what he bid for him last summer [£40m]?
That is disrespectful to Cesc. I rate Cesc so highly that for me, he is top, top, world class. He is certainly in the top five midfield players in the world.

In summary, if Cesc is not happy, you would let him go?
I want him to be happy and to stay.

But if he said he was unhappy...?
That's the only way, he could get out. I don't think he's unhappy but he wants to go back to Barcelona. If we wanted to make a money situation and wanted to sell the player, we put him on the market and we ask "Who gives more?" But that would not be the conversation. For us, it's not a question of money. It is a question of Cesc wanting to be with us. And I think he is torn because he loves the club deeply. We will fight until the last second to keep him.

How important is it that you emerge from the transfer window with a bigger and stronger squad
The message that we give out is important. For example, you see about Fábregas leaving, Nasri leaving ... if you give that message out, you cannot pretend you are a big club. Because a big club, first of all, holds on to its big players and gives a message out to all the other big clubs that they cannot come in and take away from you.

You have big games at the start of the season before the window closes, including the Champions League qualifiers...
I have a basic team in my head that can start the season and it is important as well to settle psychologically and that the players who are here focus on the season and not the transfer market. The players who are here will ask "Will he go, will he go?" That is not the way to prepare for the season.

Would a major signing convince the players who are ambivalent about staying?
What is very difficult for us is that as long as you do not know that this group stays together, you cannot strengthen the team because you think, "If he goes, I have to do what?" I also cannot really tell you [a transfer target], I want you because if he stays, you cannot come in. So you are in no man's land and that is terrible. That is why the transfer period basically should stop when the training starts.

So you need Fábregas to give you a quick answer, one by this week?
We have to stop at some stage. Cesc now comes back to training in London from a muscle injury so I hope we can close that very quickly. In our favour.
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Jamie. said:
Dortmund bid was accepted along with Napolis, Bendtner has the decision. German journalists like Rafa Honigstein expect him to end up at BD, Roma could make a late swoop but unlikely. Napoli offered him less money per week, I'd expect him to end up at BD by Friday. Sporting are well out of the race now...
Click to expand...

8 Million for Bendtner? That's just brilliant.
 
Hamburg keen on Bendtner | Football News | Sky Sports

Hamburg just come out and say ''we want him but we wont get him''...Pointless.

Thing that made me 'lol' to myself is the SSN story claims that Inter/AC want him...

I used to think SSN was the gospel, the choir and the preacher but now I can see half the time its wrapped up in English transfers it doesn't really delve outside of Britain. Crazy reporting if they think AC Milan/Inter will match the 8 million bid or that they want him at all...
 
Bendtner would be a real dream, he is a very interesting player

Dream player? What Bendtner are they talking about.
As for interesting player, quite. How he manages to miss some chances is very interesting.

---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

Szczesny has chosen number 13 for this season.

Take the number one lad.
 
Seen a few things that they had a 100M sprint at the training ground and Ryo drew with Theo. ;)
 
Jamie. said:
Hamburg keen on Bendtner | Football News | Sky Sports

Hamburg just come out and say ''we want him but we wont get him''...Pointless.

Thing that made me 'lol' to myself is the SSN story claims that Inter/AC want him...

I used to think SSN was the gospel, the choir and the preacher but now I can see half the time its wrapped up in English transfers it doesn't really delve outside of Britain. Crazy reporting if they think AC Milan/Inter will match the 8 million bid or that they want him at all...
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SSN is *****, but then i always try to find at least two separate sources on each story anyway
 
Just back from the open training session. It was in general good spirit. I missed the roll-call of the players and didn't realise Denilson got booed.

They didn't hand out the training passes freely so only a sixth or so of the stadium was full.

From the training session, it looks like the lads will probably be quite a bit aways from full fitness for tomorrow's game.

Shava looked especially perky, Myaichi also looked energetic. Nasri and the two goalkeepers were fairly cheerful. Is Fabianski injured? He wasn't there. I have to say Vito should give them fair competition. Not as good as Chesney at shot stopping but his kicking is far superior.

There's a sizable African contingent among the supporters, they tend to be a bit more... chauvinistic(?) about their players and love Jack Wilshire and Robin but don't give much the other younguns.

Jenkinson was there I think, big bloke actually. Ramsey looked more commanding but still very much prone to those awful hospital balls.

Us Malaysians still love Wenger btw. Big roar when he got near

Few bits of info from a member of an Arsenal forum.
 
I'm pretty sure Wenger said Bendtner and Almunia were both talking to other clubs. Doesn't that suggest a bid has been made, and accepted from someone for Bendtner?

Dortmund have denied their interest again, saying he's "too expensive". I wish he and Wenger wouldn't price him out of a move - big wages always going to be a stumbling block tbh, but if he wants to leave so much he has to accept that he's probably going to have to take a pay-cut from a lesser team. YOU'RE NOT BETTER THAN MESSI FFS.
 
Manchester City have branded Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's outspoken comments about UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules "unfounded and regrettable".

Wenger believes there are major questions for City to answer over their record £300million sponsorship deal with Etihad Airlines.

Although the contract includes naming rights for Eastlands, plus a major input into a yet-to-be-built training facility close to the stadium, in addition to an extension of their shirt sponsorship, it is still not entirely clear how City ended up with such a gargantuan sum.

As Etihad are the national airline of Abu Dhabi, home of Blues owner Sheikh Mansour, there are some who feel the figures have been artificially inflated to help City achieved UEFA's demand to live within their means.

Wenger is one, putting City onto the defensive.

"The financial details of the comprehensive agreement announced last week between Manchester City and Etihad Airways remain confidential and figures being speculated about are not accurate," said a club spokesman.

"Manchester City is a pro-active member of the European Clubs Association and is working actively and with transparency with regard to Financial Fair Play.

"In light of these facts, recent comments about the partnership by some observers are unfounded and regrettable."

This might not cut much ice with Wenger who, speaking on Arsenal's Far East tour, had questioned the validity of Financial Fair Play if City could be allowed to negotiate such contracts.

"It raises the real question about the credibility of the financial fair play," said the Gunners boss.

"They give us the message that they can get around it by doing what they want. The difficulty and the credibility of the financial fair play is at stake.

"If financial fair play is to have a chance, the sponsorship has to be at the market price. It cannot be doubled, tripled or quadrupled. If they bring the rules in they have to be respected.

"He [UEFA president Michel Platini] is very strongly determined on that. He is not stupid, he knows that some clubs will try to get around that.

"At the moment I believe they are studying, behind closed doors, how they can really strongly check it.

"That is his big test."
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@Sunil - Wenger has a point to be fair. May not be any of his business directly, but why should Arsenal (or whoever) compete at market price and be self-sustainable when teams like City simply get round FFP by having their owners (or owners' relatives as appears to be the case) pumping ****-loads of money into the club?

And WTF?

"The financial details of the comprehensive agreement announced last week between Manchester City and Etihad Airways remain confidential...

Manchester City is a pro-active member of the European Clubs Association and is working actively and with transparency with regard to Financial Fair Play."

Clearly if the deal is confidential between City and ETIHAD airlines, they're not being transparent?
 
That's it, Joss.
If they so commited with transparency and completely sure that they are not doing anything wrong or unfair, why such secretism?

If you are annoyed by Wenger's words, just counter them by proving that you are doing everything ok.
 
Joss said:
@Sunil - Wenger has a point to be fair. May not be any of his business directly, but why should Arsenal (or whoever) compete at market price and be self-sustainable when teams like City simply get round FFP by having their owners (or owners' relatives as appears to be the case) pumping ****-loads of money into the club?

And WTF?

"The financial details of the comprehensive agreement announced last week between Manchester City and Etihad Airways remain confidential...

Manchester City is a pro-active member of the European Clubs Association and is working actively and with transparency with regard to Financial Fair Play."

Clearly if the deal is confidential between City and ETIHAD airlines, they're not being transparent?
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Never denied what Wenger said. TBH Wenger said what we all know. But kudos to him though for talking about the point being a manager. Looks like few other clubs will put pressure on UEFA for sure.

Lol at the bold points. They dont know what they are talking. :P
 
sunilvk7 said:
Never denied what Wenger said. TBH Wenger said what we all know. But kudos to him though for talking about the point being a manager. Looks like few other clubs will put pressure on UEFA for sure.

Lol at the bold points. They dont know what they are talking. :P
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Yeah I know you weren't questioning him. More of a response to City than you!
 
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