So all these players that we were going to buy according to the rumour mongers; we didn’t.
And don’t you just love it when the journalists fly into desperation mode, talking about an Arsenal panic, just as in 2011 when we lost 8-2 to Man U, and last season when we panicked again and brought in Danny Welbeck?
And as for their response, their answers, their explanations to being utterly and totally wrong ever since May. It wasn’t that we needed to buy Benzema, but we were going to, in fact we had, because he was THE GOAL SCORER.
And you know what – even when we pointed out that he scored no more than Giroud, not a single one of them is saying, oh, we screwed up, we sold you a pup, we told you that this or that player was not just coming to Arsenal but already here, signed, deal done, seen at the airport etc.
No, no one says that. Instead they blame the manager and his team for not bringing in the right people – the people they had predicted were already here.
And even when I pointed out that Benzema indeed was not a goalscoring centreforward I was told to look at his assists, which are worse than Ozil’s. Or maybe we need a defensive midfielder to replace Coquelin? Fine, so let’s see who has got better figures in the last six months than Coquelin?
Oh, just three or four players, none of whom is available, and all of whom only have figures a bit better than Coquelin, who is still learning his trade while they are at the height of their form.
And what thought for the future generations – the players like Coquelin and Bellerin who have just come through, and Zelalem who is about to. Would they still sign for Mr Wenger if all he ever did was buy, buy, buy.
There was a time when Arsenal supporters were really pleased that we had players like Brady who we brought through the ranks, rather than endlessly buying. Now it seems all that is gone. Even when we bring players through – players like Ramsey, Coquelin, Bellerin, Gibbs, Theo… no we should ditch them all, and buy, buy, buy because a bunch of lying toads who made up stories about how this and that player was not just signing but already signed, were saying, “ah ha, fooled you again, just like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that, and …
Or maybe we should just buy someone, anyone, because look all these players are queuing up to come to us, and they must be better than the players we already have, because…
Encouraged by the “let’s buy someone at any price” activity of some the Telegraph spoke of “a growing sense of panic at the Emirates.”
It was a clever ploy – they take their own hype, hype it some more, invent the concept that Arsenal’s hierarchy are running around like headless chicks, and claim we have failed to buy Karim Benzema when the only people who thought we would buy Benzy were the hype-makers.
But the growing sense of panic is in the journalistic ranks and on the blogettes, because we traced their nonsense all the way through, and we haven’t let go.
Then they continued the story with the most arrant nonsense that the player we used as a vapour transfer two years ago, Gonzalo Higuaín, was now back as a target.
And next up they quote all sorts of Argentine and Spanish newspapers to confirm the fact that Arsenal are after whatever name they think of next.
The Mirror then claimed that Mr Wenger had “prioritised” landing Higuaín after finally “giving up all hope” of signing Benzema in the foreseeable future.
And then we have Arsenal “returning” to target Edinson Cavani—who PSG would allow to leave over the next two days. Creating the story makes it look like the newspaper is on the ball, and that Arsenal can’t buy anyone – and amazingly people believed it.
Julian Draxler? Yep Arsenal were in for him. And that’s a win win for the media because if Arsenal don’t sign him they can keep on with the chatter about the failure of Arsenal, and if they do, they can laugh at how Arsenal have purchased another “injury prone” player.
Then it was “Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is ready to swoop to land Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez following the Algerian’s superb start to the season.” Oh no he wasn’t.
Spurs striker who demanded his contract be paid in full to leave also pulled out of transfer to Aston Villa on advice of pastor.
ARSENAL WILL WIN EPL THIS SEASON!!!!!!!
COYG!!!!
Everyone knows these stories are rubbish. The concern should be that once again we leave ourselves with a squad not strong enough to win the league…groundhog day!
No, we are made a laughing stock by not correcting the errors that led us to finish 12 points off Chelsea last season and lose to Monaco 3-1 at home in the CL last 16.
Gooner Sam
Can you see into the future then?
Can’t argue with that Groundhog.
Come on you Gunners!!!
BTW, which “we” are those journalist laughing at?
the ones who moans Arsenal NOT BUYING anyone in this window?
the ones who believe that this window is a FAILURE?
the ones who believe Arsenal have the worst window of all clubs?
the ones who believe that Arsenal is only sitting back, playing on the beach, having a laugh with their cigars and do nothing?
the ones that thinks Arsenal have FAILED replacing players?
the ones that thinks ARSENAL has FAILED?
Mick – certainly not but I have seen the past seasons where the squad has not been deep enough and use that as a more than likely indicator for this season. Logical?
Those supporters of Arsenal FC who bewail the absence of new signings, conveniently forget that, in the absence of an indulgent “sugar daddy,” so many criteria have to be fulfilled in order to achieve a successful transfer.
Arsene and his staff have done their best and no doubt will try again in January. In the meantime 100% allegiance to club, team and manager is needed…..there really is no other choice. 😉
I would be more disappointed if I was really thought any of the names we were linked with, would make a difference.
Why the fuck did you have to bring up the 8-2 thrashing at Old Trafford???!!!
Whilst correctly stating nonsense of journalists & blogs, you intimate agreement to Arsenal buying no one apart from Cech. We surely need another Striker & a 2nd defensive midfielder. Wenger’s arrogance & primary objective of proving critics wrong though wins out over pragmatism. He always has to leave us short somewhere so he has excuses to fall back on when the familiar failings & weaknesses resurface again.
Brilliant rant. I totally agree. Media live on sensation so everything, every little titbit gossip gets instantly sensationalised and football is no different. It doesn’t matter to them whether it is true or not what they say as long as it sells. That’s the reality of it. Same with politics and every other aspect of our lives. The problem is most people take it on face value and believe something is true because “it’s in the media”. Most people seem to lazy to think for themselves, too much effort, they rather eat daily pulp they are being fed with. And with people like our legend Titi Henry being influenced by all this bullshit what is the hope for the rest of us? End of my rant.
Btw, I love this site.
Sukebe
Your posts rock!!
The players being touted were unrealistic targets and I doubt were ever considered. That being said with Podolski, Sanogo, Akpom and Afobe gone kinda can’t help thinking Arsene has messed up like he did when he let Viera go and failed at the last minute to sign Baptista. Looks like it’s all on Giroud yet again. Not good.
And nicky – Arsenal are hardly destitute are they ?
I think it is reasonable not to sign this summer. The big name strikers available are either old(for pace and football), or are no better than we had. If new names are required then we had to offload the players we had first, because it would not be fair and reasonable to be overloaded with proportionally talented good players.
Journalists are no longer journalists, they are click-baiters.
Which shouldn’t divert us from the fact we have added just one player to the squad – a world-class goalkeeper though.
We need a cover for Coquelin, not a replacement. We have played five games so far and in the worst case scenario there are going to be at least 41 more to play. We have already seen how opponents target Coquelin week in and out. He can’t possibly play every game and neither of his alternatives are good enough to preserve Coquelin’s level of performance.
When it comes to a striker issue, if this means Wenger has trust in Joel Campbell, it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Gooner Sam
I have no time for anyone who writes off the season when it has only just begun. Are you of the opinion that the only way a team can improve is by buying new players? Fortunately our manager has more faith in the ability of our current players to grow and improve as a team than the media and, sadly, some of our fans have.
Am tired of arsenal been the coach we can never win the league when we have an average striker. I don’t think I will be watching our matches this season.
Great article. Injecting a little logic into the transfer talk is always welcome but rarely heeded.
Benzema might have been possible, but having Giroud and Benzema competing for minutes for club and country was never a good idea. Arsene Wenger has made an art form of the cohesive squad; he is never going to deliberately set up such a hostile dressing room.
I think the funniestthing about transfer talk is; Arsene Wenger tells journalists the truth but they are so used to being lied to and manipulated, they don’t believe him. he said before the window even opened he was looking, but unless he found a special player or two that was better than he already had, he was satisfied with his squad. Cech was available, Wenger brought him in.
Compare what Arsenal did to what Chelsea did. Arsenal brought in a world class goal keeper to address a need.
Chelsea brought Pedro, Abdul Baba, Begovic, and Falcao into the first team.
So who did better business? On the face of it, Chelsea. They added Falcao, who was once one of the best strikers in world football, Pedro, a top fifty player, a solid reserve keeper, and Abdul Baba to add depth in the center of the park.
however, the Blues also let go of several first teamers in the form of; Cech, Salah, and Cuadrado.
The questions is, a reserve keeper who will see action in the League & FA Cups is necessary, but does it make them better? Is he better than Cech, the player they lost? No.
Abdul Raman better like sitting on his arse. Terry and Cahill are Mourinho’s favored pair, and Kurt Zouma is on the verge of attaining world-class status. Raman is never getting into the first team, barring wholesale collapse or major injuries.
Pedra is a terrific player, but does he really make Chelsea better? Maybe. Is he better than Oscar? Oscar is a major talent and a young player with time and the will to grow. Pedro is the finished product. You get what you get. To play Pedro either Oscar or Willian have to sit. In addition to being a straight swap, forcing a player who helped Chelsea win a title last season to the bench is not going to create cohesion in the dressing room. so does Pedro make Chelsea better? Maybe. A little. But Mourinho is risking his esprit de corps.
Finally, Falcao. A major gamble, but on loan, one worth taking. Major knee injuries take two years to heal physically and psychologically. He could yet turn out to be the signing of the year. To sign him, Chelsea let Drogba go and anyone who saw Didier play last year saw a ghost of the man who bullied Premier League defenses for a decade. Does Falcao make Chelsea better? Maybe. The risk here is; he forced Remy a rung down the ladder and the poor guy was already not playing much. He’s got to be miserable. Will Chelsea be able to keep Remy if he doesn’t see first team action before the window opens in January?
Now, balance the incremental potential improvements with the losses. Salah was a good player who didn’t work hard enough on defense to suit Mourinho. Ditto Cuadrado. It seemed premature to pull the plug on Cuadrado after six months, and his reaction after reaching his new club, thank God for delivering me from Chelsea, speaks volumes. Finally, Begovic for Cech is not an improvement. Begovic is a decent keeper who is much younger, but right now, and Chelsea always buys for right now, he’s not. So Cech leaving weakens Chelsea’s squad.
What did Arsenal do? They signed Cech. They lost one significant first teamer in Lukas Podolski and the oft-injured Abou Diaby. This off the team that finished a solid third in the league with the best record over the second half of the season.
At the end of the season, Chelsea will be a top four club and so will Arsenal. What separates them s style and luck; there is no significant talent gap, despite claims tothe contrary. Keep Calm and Don’t Sweat the Transfer.
This article smacks of desperation protesting too much… Like you are trying to over compensate for your disappointment by trying to make out you ain’t disapointed! Like this little gem;
“Even when we bring players through – players like Ramsey, Coquelin, Bellerin, Gibbs, Theo… no we should ditch them all, and buy, buy, buy because a bunch of lying toads who made up stories about how this and that player was not just signing but already signed, were saying, “ah ha, fooled you again, just like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that, and …”
Not only is that a load of bollocks but it is totally demented old bollocks!
All of those players were bought, even Gibbs! No one would care if the players were signed for £5, £50m or were brought through the acdemy. As long as the squad was adequately augmented.
And that is the issue, the squad remains weak in two key areas. Maybe Akpom and HYden will be good enough next season, or the season after…
Arsenal employ a department of 30 + people to deal with transfers – what a complete waste of money! With a strike force who struggle to score goals and only one defence midfield player. Wenger cannot find the players that many other clubs can (Swansea,Southampton,etc) who are very efficient in theses positions! Why do Arsenal charge the highest ticket prices in Europe I wonder?
I totally disagree!!
These signings that the Media were linking us to…perfectly legit in in FIFA Manager!! 🙂 )
@DEX
thank you!!
this is the first time anyone i opposed thinks my post are great…
@APO
FIFA Manager IS the real life 😉
Mick – what you fail to take into account is our injury record (example against Liverpool we had a 20yr old playing who not surprisingly struggled) and the fact that no other top flight team in Europe failed to sign an outfield player.
I certainly don’t think we needed to buy lots of players, just where we are too light. Namely a striker (Giroud is a great plan b but his stats will show you he doesn’t score enough goals) and a DM (Coq is brilliant but Flamini has been poor for a while and Arteta, whilst good cannot play enough games).
This season felt like a real chance with our end of season form and with a couple of additions we could compete. Now with our form so far and our lack of strengthening I fear the same shortcomings as last season.
Hope I am wrong and will always support my team but I do feel that Wengers stubbornness could mean we fall short again.
One last point, this is a debate so personal insults are disappointing, we are all free to have a view
If we dont challenge for the title, then I don’t think may will remember the journalists, frankly. The laughing stock will be Wenger.
Intelligent piece and pretty much on the money. This market was panic buying, with some terrible deals. I agree on Giroud, everyone taking up these other players and the fact is his stats are good. The issue is can he do it in the big games ?
Ok Tony. Given that Mr Wenger has stated that he is happy with his squad, there was no-one available who could improve it and that he believes we are title challengers, are you prepared to simply call him out when we finish fourth and are knocked out of the UCL at last 16, as has happened every year for as long as I can remember?
No doubt I will be asked to judge in May but let’s face it, we all know what’s coming.
Do you actually enjoy this year after year?
Would winning something other than the FA cup come as a shock or is it something you actually consider possible?
I’m not trolling you, I really am genuinely interested.
@goonerSam
let’s talk about striker.
okay you named Giroud as Plan B, so wenger should buy the Plan A?
as Pete asked, who?
Let’s talk about DM.
Who is at the moment as good as (or better) Coq who is willing to be a back up plan?
for me, I bet Bielik will do..
on your last point i totally agree about personal insults should be banned.
but a personal banter is a healthy one i think. 🙂
@paul35mm: Rahman is an excellent player. I fully expect him to slot straight in at left back, with Azpilicueta on the right, and the increasingly-lacklustre Ivanovic dropped to the bench.
The point is that we finished way off the pace last year, so the need to improve was evident from the league standings.
Our problem was that our great finish to last season papered over all of the cracks. We had a great end to last year, a brilliant pre-season, won the cup and the charity shield.
But scratch the surface and the same frailties remain – any injury or suspension to Coquelin, and one of Arteta, Flamini or Chambers will take his place. Our season went off the rails in the opening months of last season, coinciding with Giroud’s spell out with a broken leg. Are Walcott / Welbeck / Campbell good enough to replace him for any length of time? I doubt it.
Anyone can see we needed to shore up our options up front and in defensive midfield. The problem is that Wenger has too much faith in the players we have; he’s just so blinkered that he can’t see we need strengthening.
Cech should have been the first of three or four signings, instead he’s the only one. We’re already five points adrift of the top just four games in, and the league leaders still have Otamendi and De Bruyne to come in.
Yes we will win our fourth place trophy as usual, but I get the feeling that Wenger is happy with that situation, rather than trying to strive for more. Forget the paper talk, that’s a red herring. The fact is that we are a few players short of a title-challenge – the best we can hope for is to stay in contention until January (by keeping the first team fit) and then buying some reinforcements when the next window opens.
@Ryan
Do you really believe this??
Personally, I feel there has been a collective lapse of memory in many parts of the media and even on this site. We have in Welbeck, someone that combines the pace of Walcott, the strength of Giroud and the tenacity and work-rate of Alexis. Remembering particularly last seasons away games at Villa and ManU (cup), he seems to combine extremely well with Ozil. This was a point touched on by Arsene after the Villa game. (see http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140921/boss-on-welbeck-and-ozil-combination)
Giroud would be celebrating now. Lol
Gooner Sam
Where did I personally insult you?
I do take injuries into account. Last season as a result of injuries Bellerin was given a chance and boy did he take it. If we had followed the buy, buy route you appear to advocate he would still be just another youth player. I guess you were talking about Chambers in the Liverpool game. Did we concede any goals, no. Did he improve in the second half, yes. He certainly won’t improve if he never gets a game.
I applaud Wenger for not following the herd and attempting to organically develop a team from within rather than trying to buy his way to success, which would be a futile route for us to take given the almost infinite resources the Manchester clubs and Chelsea have.
As for a striker, I would love to see an Aguerra or equivalent at the club but where could we realistically get one from given that Man U, Chelsea etc (not to mention Barca, Real Madrid, PSG etc) would be competing with us for his signature, any one of which could blow us away on transfer fees and wages. I do not see any point in getting a 2nd or 3rd tier player in just for the sake of it, much better to look at our existing options. As Arsene has repeatedly said, he will attempt to improve the squad if top quality is available. Obviously this past window it wasn’t, ask Man U, they couldn’t find a striker either.
Mr wenger has failed to sign a striker. Well, i will just relax, support the team and pray we pip Liverpool to 4th position.
Mick – I just meant that often if people have a different view they are labeled as stupid / sheep, glad you’re not.
I too aplaud giving youngsters a game and nurturing them but for me it’s about balance and as such I don’t think we have it.
The striker issue is not new we have had it for several seasons, enough to buy as our internal has not been enough.
DM we chanced upon Coq, great but an injury / suspension we are in trouble.
Anyway time for bed, hopefully my dreams will come true and we’ll win the league.
Thanks for the chat / banter ?
Gooner Sam
Sleep well and may your dreams come true.
Good Grief! No matter what happens, those who support AW will continue to do so and those that don’t support AW will continue to pillory him.
Let’s just cheer on our club!! 🙂
So we have Jayram & a bunch others that think Wenger does not know how to run a football team! You poor brainless numpties. Wenger has won the league undefeated and won more FA cups than any other manager, has won the league several times & yet you think you know better. He has created a club that has solid financial footing without debt. The squad is priceless and the team plays beautiful football. Your opinion is based on your perception of his squad with your changes. Why should I support your thinking when it is clear that you cant buy a football let alone a train ticket to Arsenal?
Wenger Out! Piers Morgan in! 😉
Upshot of the transfer window: Berahino, de Gea, Stones, and probably some others, destabilised but have to stay at their clubs.
Thank goodness this did not happen to us at Arsenal. There were years when we had that problem. Those days are past.
After the international break we should have Welbeck and may be even Wilshere back, Sanchez will be in better form, and Giroud won’t have to be insulted by what the papers say about him for a while. I see a bright future.
In Cech I reckon we had the defensive signing of the window.
And mainly I’m laughing and congratulating Everton and Martinez on keeping their young defender out of the clutches of moneybags Chelsea!
What many forget, is that AW is building a long term team, hoping that he can keep them together. Now the onus is up to the players to show they can perform week in week out because their desire is so strong. This is the only reason I sometimes get disappointed with them( 🙂 when I see a lack of focus for the 2 hours every game day), but truthfully I am waiting for this team to show their worth and make everyone have open mouths.
In reality, to me Benzema did not seem to be an Arsenal player, but if AW wanted him, I suppose he must have seen something in him that I did not see.
I would have liked to see a young big Vierra type player to play alongside/share the position with Le Coq, but that may well come sooner or later.
As I mentioned before, I am more worried if Oezil gets injured, for we tend to struggle a little more then. Our Zelalem is getting experience this season, and he may well be back at Arsenal before the season is over. Oezil should not have to push forward too much.
Also I can’t wait for Wellbeck to return, he does provide lots of cover in midfield, and he is very defensive minded too even when he plays forward.
We have many, many options, and I hope AW starts to use them more and not wait until injuries.
I also hope Jack gets over being injured so much, but I can see how he gets injured. He needs to learn to release the ball a little quicker, which will reduce many tackles on him. But seeing the quality we have now in the youth U21s, he will have to do this, else he may find himself being edged out slowly.
All in all, the team is good, they just need to have that determination to win EVERY game now, and show it on the pitch. We know they can do it.
Offtopic:
That was a long long day today.
Partitioned my Hard disk and installed Windows 8.1 twice, so I could update one of them to Windows 10.
Got all my applications I use installed on Windows 8.1, and now I just have an “empty” Windows 10 to play with. 🙂
Although I have not written anything for a while, I have enjoyed reading all the comments although some are pleasant, other not so pleasant and still others are outright insulting.
What I find foolhardy is that no one has mentioned a single player we should have bought and I am channeling this question to all those who think AW has refused to buy to improve the team.
Top Strikers we all agreed are few in the market unlike 10 to 15 years ago. Remember, Henry, Treazeget, Van Nisterooy, Raul, Ronaldo, Anelka, Owen, Kanu, Ibrahimovich, Inzagi, Batistuta, Totti, and so many others I can’t just remember now. Replace with Suarez, Lewandoski, Benteke, Benzema, Rooney, Giroud, Aguero, Muller, Costa, Dzeko, Van Persie, Cavani, Soldado and a few others left. You will observe that top strikers are no more available and the few are at big clubs with higher financial clot than Arsenal.
To think probably, Benteke, Dzeko and a few others are the only high profile strikes to change clubs and they are not even top quality. Would any one be glad if we had bought Berahino or Njie or even Anthony Matial for £36m. Even ManU could not find one with all the money they were ready to invest.
Thank God the transfer window is closed. Now you either support the available players or continue to lament or change club allegiance. I hear Man City are signing new fans for the season. Care to join?
The thing is with the new TV money coming in right now, smaller EPL teams do not NEED to sell to bigger clubs. More monied clubs have never needed to sell. And, you would only buy a player that actually improves on the players that you have at present. Arsenal is a very good club. We don’t need more VERY GOOD players we need game breakers…and there are not a lot of these.
I am convinced that we all would have loved a great signing had AW pulled it off. The problem is that many treat the Transfer Window as Christmas where gifts just arrive to indulged children. Did we ever stop and think where the money came from when we were 8? It’s a little different as an adult. Much as I love my wife, I don’t want her buying me outrageously expensive baubles that WE don’t need and WE can’t afford for Christmas…We still need to eat in January and then what about the holiday next summer?
Well no new signing, I hope we don’t come up short, the lump and load teams will injure our players. A little short sightedness as we always carry a player or two.
Think I saw, on the feed on the other thread, football fancast ran a poll where we classed as having had the worst transfer window of the big clubs with about 48%, followed by United with about 21%. A utd who signed…a kid for £58m, signed another international goalie but didn’t offload their current one (leaving them with 4), utd who has only one recognised striker in the misfiring rooney…., We signed one of the world’s best goalies, two teenage players- one who had everyone talking in pre season (Adelaide), for less than £1.75m each. Just shows you don’t have to listen to the drivel in the media.
This question has been asked several times now but don’t think it’s been properly answered so far; for those clamouring for a purchase who could we have bought (that was available) that would have improved us? Everyone knows utd were out for a striker and, given the stupid money they paid for an unknown teenager, must have been offering other clubs ridiculous figures but they still couldn’t find a striker. It’s also pretty obvious that, had Benzema been available, they would have been offered him or used him as bait in a cash plus player swap since madrid were also desperate to sign united’s keeper. Despite all the above we still have some of our fans baying for blood saying Wenger should have still signed someone…, who?
Al,
I’m sure you will join me in finding it quite amazing that nine if the footballing experts either on TV or indeed who frequent this website have managed to answer your question. An oversight in their part. Or perhaps they’re not quite such experts after all…….
-nine if
+ none of
Apologies.
JB, I believe that Mr Wenger is a miracle worker. While other clubs have been scrabbling around in the transfer market for players who might or might not fit in, between the end of the 2014 summer transfer window and the 2015 transfer window we have come through with five players of brilliance that are making a real difference to the club. I am not sure who else has done that.
If we win the FA Cup again and nothing else and I get a ticket to see it at Wembley for the third year running, I will be overwhelmed with happiness.
Ebay, I am sure someone will buy your season ticket from you. Would you like us to advertise it for you?
Gunner90, and indeed everyone, we have had the “highest prices in Europe, the world, England” thing so many times, and put forwards the evidence to the contrary so many times, I think it is time to call it a day. I’ll be cutting any further comments made to this effect. It is not true, we have shown it is not true, and if you can’t be arsed to read up on the subject I don’t see why I should bore everyone stupid repeating the same stuff.
By not signing anyone on the deadline day, Mr Wenger has just said to his players “I believe you can win the league.” This is the best confidence booster that could ever have been.
BTW, the ‘striker we need’ crowd have forgot Welbeck have you??
@Menace
I do chuckle at your stock answer to everything critical of Wenger.
We’re not worthy, we’re not worthy… How dare you criticise… He is a genius … and can not be questioned … Blah blah blah.
It really is quite simple. Wenger has made the call that we didn’t need a striker. He will be either right or wrong on it. We will see. Personally I believe our title chances ended at 6pm yesterday.
I agree with Henry, we don’t look strong enough with the current team. I had to laugh yesterday when he called out our top scorer this year as Own Goal.
To all you who ‘know’ what will happen to Arsenal by season end (with such accuracy) – predicting doom…please can you give me next weeks LOTTO numbers; truly appreciated 🙂 🙂
Just a fact that was brought to my attention, which might bring some sanity to all this Spend Some F—–g Money. Swansea were the lowest spenders in this Transfer Window, but who did they beat in their last match on Sunday? = Man Utd 2-1 away. Just goes to show spending Lots of Money just for the sake of it is not the answer to instant guaranteed Success Fans crave for.
Ryan F posted that “any injury or suspension to Coquelin, and one of Arteta, Flamini or Chambers will take his place” can someone tell me? any injury or suspension to Matic who will take his place? Kurt Zouma, a Brazilian I fogot his name or loftus cheek and, and compare them to what Arsenal have in Chambers ramsey/wilshere, and Chamberlain who can step in and make additions to aterta and flamini who are even natural and capable replacements. chelsea doesn’t have that.
It seems that the naysayers are completely ignoring my earlier posts on other threads. Of the players bought this window – so we can therefore surmise are available – who would they have bought and at what price? And which first teamer would they displace? Simple questions. No credible answers so far.
None what-so-f*cking-ever. Put up or shut up.
The other point is that we have not lost anyone we didn’t want to lose. Don’t lose sight of the fact that Wenger is the best developmental coach out there and we can therefore be confident of organic improvement from the existing squad.
thanks Tony, good sense (as always)
To the nay-sayers/doubters/AAAs out there I’d say this: We have a good squad and I believe that Wenger and Gazidis would have improved it if they could. Read Arseblog today, he also makes sense. Perhaps we just couldn’t do the deals we wanted to or the players did not want to come (or clubs wouldn’t sell). Look at the WBA, Wolves or Everton situation for example; all had players others wanted but they stuck to their guns and kept their stars. Good for them.
We kept hold of Ramsey, Monreal, Santi (all linked by the media with moves) and we have depth. We added a WC player in Cech, we have 2 others (Ozil & Sanchez) with a core of quality youngsters who will improve (Jack, Ox, Ramsey) plus a host of proven PL performers.
Yes Benzema might have added something, but look at Man U; they spent over £30M on a risk – that is the reality of the market at the moment and I for one am quite glad we chose not to play that game.
come on you Gunners!
Billy The Dog – September 2, 2015 at 7:05 am – I am all in favour of your suggestion to buy up the season ticket of any disgruntled Arsenal fan ( am using the term losely !). Why don’t the AKBs on here buy it ? Tony can be in charge of it .
Any UA reader visiting London , can apply to get that ticket ,free of charge . A true fan can have the privilage attend that match and shout his head off for us AKBs .
So how about it , guys ? We already have a banner , now we reward a fellow AKB .
I’ll pledge 100 Pounds as my share . It’ll be like the oft repeated story of ‘Coffee on the wall ‘, where we just play it forward .
http://www.myenglishclub.com/profiles/blogs/coffee-on-the-wall
Pete, don’t take it personally. They ignore me as well.
Billy – I don’t. But I do try to educate people so we can have a more informed debate. I am certainly not always right (far from it) but one of my goals through debating in forums like this is to learn something new.
If someone can identify a candidate that may meet the criteria then it might be an interesting discussion!
When our top scorer is own goal and the fact that we cannot score in a brothel is particularly alarming. You cannot doubt that we needed a striker. We should have made a attempt for world class striker. i.e. Cavani.
Its a dog’s life ?
An old, tired-looking dog wanders into a man’s gated yard one day. The man is a dog lover, so he lets him in. He examines the dog’s collar and feels his well-fed belly, coming to the conclusion that the dog has a home.
The dog follows him into the house, goes down the hall, jumps on the couch, gets comfortable and immediately falls asleep. The man thinks its rather odd, but lets him sleep. After about an hour the dog wakes up, walks to the door and the guy lets him out. The dog wags his tail and leaves.
The next day the dog comes back and scratches at the door. The guy opens the door, the dog comes in, goes down the hall, jumps on the couch, gets comfortable and falls asleep again. The man lets him sleep.
After about an hour the dog wakes up, walks to the door and the guy lets him out. The dog wags his tail and leaves.
This goes on for days. The guy grows really curious, so he pins a note on the dog’s collar: “Your dog has been taking a nap at my house every day.”
The next day the dog arrives with another note pinned to his collar: “He lives in a home with four children — he’s trying to catch up on his sleep.”
“Can I come with him tomorrow?’
The trouble with this site and many others is when the points being raised are disproved/proved at the end of the season nobody ever accepts they were wrong and finds another issue to fix their gaze on.
If Arsenal go close to or win the league Wenger and his followers will be vindicated. If however Arsenal finish 4th of 5th the decisions made now will have been proven to be wrong and he should face up to his mistakes.
Arsenal will not win the league and will not even be close. I Would say they will be over 10 points behind the winners. They will not get past the 1st knockout game in CL which would be complete failure considering they are in the top 8 in terms of Wage bill.
They will suffer many injuries during the year and some key players will miss most of the season. Other players will be played out of position all season long and we will not see the best of them because of this.
If i am wrong i will acccept it at the end of the season.
Goonsville – if that is your conclusion after reading this site, then ok, it is your conclusion. But I regret to say we are on different planets and it is probably best to go looking elsewhere.
Marcus – how do you know if we did or did not make an attempt for Cavani. Failing that, how do you explain that last season we only scored a few goals less than Chelsea who won the league?
Dex
‘All of those players were bought, even Gibbs! No one would care if the players were signed for £5, £50m or were brought through the acdemy. As long as the squad was adequately augmented.’
So certain, so sure you’re right. Yet it escaped your attention that two players of a similar age, Bellerin and Martial, were both called up to their national teams for the first time this week. One cost 36-50 million, and was way beyond our reach. One is our own player and would also be beyond our reach if he was on the market at this stage.
Can’t you see that buying any of Ramsey, Coquelin, Wilshere, the Ox and Bellerin would be immensely difficult or simply impossible if they were at this stage of development at another club? There’s really no excuse if you can’t.
If you can get that far, and realise the truth of that, you have to then appreciate how much it matters that we were able to bring through those players- whether from 16/17 or much younger. Bring through and actually play- in the first team, at 17,18,19, without 50-150 games under their belts already. City, Chelsea and now Utd don’t have to worry about that.
The evidence is that ,whatever’s said, or however good the youth teams are, they won’t risk you until you’re a proven quantity. A fine policy if you can pay 20- 50 million for the best twenty year olds, not so good if you can’t rely on that
It also dramatically improves the chances of not being Nasri’d. Ole Samir gave an honest riposte as to why we are stupid to expect loyalty – he’s not an Arsenal fan, he’s not from London. No guarantees of course, but the chances are those players named above, who Wenger has given real opportunities to from the earliest age and guided from potential to being the real deal, will have a bit more affection for and loyalty to the club than Nasri.
It gave us Ramsey signing his latest contract when he could have demanded the wages he’d easily get elsewhere which would ruin our wage structure. It most likely ensured Bellerin and Coquelin only asked for reasonable wages when signing their latest contracts, when other clubs would love to have pounced. It could give us an extra 2-4 important years, or a whole career.
That stuff matters, it gives us hope of defying the odds and beating clubs with significant financial advantages, and your apparent stance would not allow us to gain any of those benefits.
Imagine a website so determined to prove an old foolish manager right against the views of everyone else in football it actually bans comments from people who disagree
Looks like one world class signing per window is not enough any more…for some.
GW you can imagine it if you like, but here we only fail to publish comments that give no evidence, repeat exactly what has said before, or are abusive.
Maybe your right Tony. If you want a site without debate and only people to post who agree with your point of view you must be very insecure about your views. I will find another site as requested.
Sometimes .. It is the obvious that is overlooked.why do we watch football at all? fantasy! It’s the way the team as a unit plays and hopefully produces football stunning to watch with individual and collective skill sets on display hopefully producing the desired outcome -the win. If that doesn’t happen we can still enjoy the game you know. Liverpool’s draw with us was still one of the finest 0-0 s you will ever see! as a footnote- I predict the player of the season will be Gabriel.
” Everybody else says/ knows / thinks / feels/ is of the opinion ….” .
My question is how does one poll or get the opinion of everybody else ?
a) By reading every article written by everybody else?
b) By walking the talk and meeting publicly with everybody else?
c) By calling , messaging , e-mailing everybody else?
d) By thinking that what one thinks is also what everybody else is thinking ?
e) By bull shiting for everybody else ?
f) Your mates down at the pub , dole queue, office ARE everybody else ?
f) Your name IS Everybody Else !
Am asking this as I have never had the opportunity nor the privilege of being asked for my opinion by …well , everybody else !
Let’s just qualify this:
Arsenal the only team in the top 5 leagues who did not buy an outfield player. The only team out of approximately 100 teams…absolute joke.
Ash
buy not signing anyone we are making one of two things clear
1) We are good enough to win the league with only the addition of Cech.
2) We are not trying to win the league
Last season we didn’t really come close to winning the league so I guess the club’s opinion is the only area we needed to improve on was in goal.
We have been informed by the club that money is available to spend, surely one of the players who moved this window would have been able to improve Arsenal? Or are Flamini, Arteta, Gibbs, Walcott etc really the best players available world wide in their positions?
@Ash, you and the media are absolutely wrong again. Arsenal actually signed 2 outfield players this summer! If you were a real Arsenal fan, you would have known about Jeff Reine Adelaide and Yassin Fortune!
No no Jerry that’s not how it works.
You see last season when Bellerin and Hayden were included in the first team squad the AAAA couldn’t have that. AFC had only signed Alexis…
“Six defenders only” was the Meme used by these Sado-masochists to whip themselves into a frothing frenzy. I see Bellerin has made the Spain squad and might get a cap to add to his FA cup winners medal. Never mind.
So this year the zombies are being asked to repeat the “no signings” line from the PR “Experts” who are very keen at throwing lots of wonga towards certain special agents.
Yup. I can understand why people who choose to not engage their Football brains feel like they are stick when they choose to keep on listening to an believing the type that Steve Coogan satirised to perfection over twenty years ago (please refer to alan partridge – truth, or fiction?).
GW what you completely fail to take into account is the issue of finding a player who will improve the quality we have, who wants to come to Arsenal (where there are more moaning supporters than probably at any other club) and who will fit into the squad and the system. And you are assuming, wrongly as the article at the start of today showed, that the transfer will work and we will get a player who fits in and does well. As the figures presented showed that only happens in 25% of cases. So rather than being the simple little move you portray it is very complex and not guaranteed.
“old foolish manager right against…”
A-ha! That is great banter.
😉
Meanwhile people like john Gregory, former coach manager and player and Tottenham fan say stuff like:
“Arsenal football club represent the best in English Football (at the top of the game)”
When people are so keen to claim to that everyone (they mean the Manx supporting Newscorp which is just a little bit weird) agrees with them then that usually a good indication for some Mindless Gibberish.
Ash/GW:
Of the players that moved clubs this summer (anywhere in the world) and we can therefore assume were available:
1. Who would you have bought?
2. How much would you have paid?
3. Which current player would they displace from the first team?
OMG – reading the article and the comments have proven to be a tedious requirement of following Untold- somehow it’s fun. I remember asking some disgruntled Arsenal fan in Nigeria who didn’t think AW did something remote to positive what he thinks he could have done differently- didn’t come up with anything remotely positive either. So, most disgruntled people assume;
1. They know better than the manager until they sit on the hot sit only to discover their thinking cap is missing,
2. read everything the media projects as the absolute truth,
3. assume all the club’s problems have to be solved from outside, without looking at the potential we possess inwardly,
4. Forget that the core of every great club is from within their ranks and if the players perceive that opportunities would never come their way, they would prefer to move,
5. Wenger doesn’t know what’s good for his team at any moment.
I always believe in potential more than anything else. There is potential in this crop of players we have at Arsenal and there is the determination by the players to vindicate AW. We will hope to win the League coz we also need a little bit of luck aside talent.
Some people always want something new.
Some people just love opening presents.
Some people always want the latest craze.
Some people are always looking over the fence at what the neighbour has.
Some people just get bored with what they have, and always think there’s something better.
Some people will always moan and groan and stamp there feet when they don’t get what they want.
I get it. I know there are people like that, it’s just I thought they where 5 years old.
It seems I was wrong as it’s clear some never grow out of it.
Sleekwhale
I did something similar today, to a whinging Gooner.
I asked him, which striker would you have bought then?
Well personally, he said, I’d of got Cavani.
So I asked him:
Was Cavani for sale?
Hmmmmmm
Did we bid for him?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Did he want to come to us?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
So I said, maybe we tried to get him, maybe we didn’t. Maybe any of the above, and you know what he said?
Well we should of got someone.
And that’s it. Someone, anyone !!!!!!!
No matter we’ve seen with Liverpool and Spurs the results of the ‘someone’ ‘Anyone’ method. Nope, just BUY somebody.
We’ve even seen it with United. They’ve thrown a QUARTER of a BILLION QUID at there own version of the buy ‘Someone’ ‘Anyone’ project, and I don’t think they’ve got there yet. We’ll see.
The point is, when you are in the mess room, or on this blog, saying we should of bought this player, we should of bought that player, it’s easy to build the next ‘Invincibles’ but it ain’t the real World.
Giroud fails to score against Liverpool – They say we need a new striker
Benteke fails to score against a weakened Arsenal defense, despite Liverpool’s outstanding first half display – They keep quiet.
When the referee blows his whistle at kick off, you only have 11 players on each side and it is the performance on the day that wins you the game rather than the personnel…Swansea’s performance beat Man United. Crystal Palace’s performance beat Chelsea. Westham’s performance beat Liverpool and Arsenal. It is about time the English media consider performance and tactics can win you game instead of brainwashing people into believing, it is only by spending you win titles.
Just because it is Arsenal, winning back to back FA cups and shield does not count.
I notice now after the window has closed we now announce that wellbeck needs surgery and will be out for months.wonder how long the club have known.No doubt this post will be deleted because it goes against the grane but menace is still allowed to post after umpteen derogatory posts.talk about fair speech.
Saint, as far as I know you are the only person who talks about fair speech, freedom of speech and the like. I don’t know anyone else who does. I am not sure why you keep banging on about it. Come to think about it I don’t actually know what it means, but whatever it means I suspect it has nothing to do with the article against which you posted. Normally speaking posts which have nothing to do with the article are not posted, but yours was so bizarre I thought I would.