By Tony Attwood
It seems a bit like a free-for-all in terms of Arsenal bashing this week. The Guardian, a little slow off the mark compared to other clubs, have made up for it with an eccentric piece by Sachin Nakrani. Not a journalist I am that familiar with, but someone obviously out to be the Arsenal Basher of London N1.
He accuses Arsenal of being a club that will, “talk big and do small, and by small I mean sign Frenchmen nobody has heard of. Yet to bring in any of their mooted big-name targets, Arsène Wenger’s side are now being linked with a move for Geoffrey Kondogbia, a 20-year-old FRENCH midfielder who currently plays for Sevilla.”
Now let’s just get it clear as to the “talk big” bit. Take for example the £30m (now up to £40m) that we are supposed to be paying Liverpool. Of this Arsenal have said, ” ” Same with the other players mentioned. And as for the mooted, although blogs discuss transfers, the first time they are mentioned is by and large in the press. The Guardian and their ilk do the mooting, no one else.
Anyway, back to the Guardian and Geoffrey Kondogbia
“Wenger is confident that a fee can be agreed with the Spanish club for the player and he can arrive in London as Arsenal’s second signing of the summer, after Yaya Sanogo, a FRENCH striker who arrived from Auxerre at the start of the month. Blimey, it really does feel like we’ve been here before doesn’t it?”
OK, so let’s think about this. Signing FRENCH players (to use the Guardian’s approach) that no one has heard of. Well, actually no-one is not quite right, since lots of people have, but rather it seems that the Guardian hasn’t heard of them.
And to think of such unknown FRENCH players in the past.
Vieira. £3m I seem to recall. Had you heard of him? I hadn’t. Not sure the Guardian had either.
Henry. More of a star than Vieira when he came to us, but still going nowhere fast as a left winger. Mr Wenger changed his position. So was Henry a name logged with you before he came? If so, I think you were in the minority.
And Pires. Who cost £6m I think. Did you know of him before he came?
Even the “lesser” players did a valuable job – Grimandi played here, there and everywhere before becoming our chief FRENCH scout. And while I am still upset about Wiltord leaving as he did, I think he did a great job for us and gave us lots of extra options. No, I hadn’t heard of him before he came to us either.
And there is one other thing… apart from Vieira I don’t think any French players were an instant hit. Henry and Pires certainly were not, and with Pires in particular we had to wait until season two for the utter pure genius of the man to shine through. I don’t know if Giroud (who is FRENCH I think the Guardian will agree) will develop enormously in second two, but I certainly think there is a strong chance that he will.
So if we are going back to signing French players no one has ever heard of I’d go with that. But then I hope that is not to the extent of dismissing players from other countries – particularly Spain.
In a lot of the chit chat it seems to get forgotten that of late we have brought in some rather nifty Spanish players like Santi Cazorla, Monreal and Arteta.
When you think of it that way it starts to look as if the Guardian is being rather Nationalist – not a crime but not really fitting with their liberal brief. Personally I think those three Spanish players have done wonders for Arsenal, and although Arteta is over 30, and although I suggested in an earlier article that he may take a step down the pecking order this coming season, I still admire his style and play and recognise his importance to us, greatly.
So, after our trip to the Spanish market, we move back to the French. What’s the matter with that? Does it matter if you have three, six, or nine players in a team from one particular country? Would the Guardian write the same article if we were bringing in one ENGLISH player after another?
Seems unlikely.
As to why Arsenal transfers are sometimes late, that is the way the market goes. Selling clubs have a tendency to hold on to players for as long as possible in the hope that they can get more for the players. Buying clubs sometimes say, “We’ll drop it if the deal is not done by July 16,” but then it is easy to have the bluff called.
It is a game of poker, not a game of “Oh Arsenal want this player so we’d better give him to Arsenal at once”. Rather it is a game of “Arsenal want this player, let’s get Chelsea to bid at a higher price and see if we can move Arsenal up.”
The simple fact is that Arsenal don’t have the money that Chelsea and Man C have from owners and Man U have from marketing, so our bids can’t match anything that those clubs want to do.
What is also a fact that if Arsenal are in the process of buying a whole stream of FRENCH players no one has heard of, we might well have an utterly amazing team next season, just as we had with two doubles and the unbeaten season.
12 July Anniversaries
- 12 July 1974: Ray Kennedy sold to Liverpool
- 12 July 1995 George Graham found guilty of misconduct
- 12 July 1998 Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira are first Arsenal players to win the World Cup; Petit the first Arsenal player to score in a WC final.
- 12 July 1998 Dennis Bergkamp wins World Cup Goal of the Tournament
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
- Royal Arsenal: from the Common to the Manor. Coming next.
The sites from the same team…
- Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
Pls Mr wenger and CO buy quality players, any person apart from huaigin, fellani and suraz will not be wellcomed at arsenal. We are tired of those useless French players, notably those unknown. Stop making noise, French club would prefer selling their players to other clubs than arsenal. Fuck you wenger.
You are right, the only begging question is, why is it always only Arsenal in the media? Whatever Wenger does it has to be criticized, why cant for once Guardian focus on other teams? Even if Wenger makes a mistake, who doesnt? and why does it pain them so much?
Most the flops has been cleared out, just replaced them just three quality even super quality, we know your brother Oliver giorld would not want you to bring any person but he can’t help matters.
Think this has become just a perpetuated fallacy: Viera was actually pretty well known. Not in UK, but he had signed from Cannes to AC Milan. It was big news when AC Milan signed someone at that time. And there were great reports following him from his time in Cannes (I always read World Soccer magazine). I did know of him, and I’m no scout. The big thing with Viera was getting milan to sell him and at that price. He really was know, and known to be good. As were the other two, Pires was doing it in the champions league, and in his national side. And of course we were lucky to persuade Juve to lose patience with Thierry before he had matured physically.
But nothing wrong signing good young players from wherever now too. It shouldn’t stop getting a couple of straight to the first team stars as well.
I think you could add Petit to the French list, as well as Koscielny, Clichy, and Diaby (who could have been special if it weren’t for the injury).
Pires was pretty well-known when we bought him, though, as was Henry (already a world cup winner). True to say that neither fully blossomed until Wenger got hold of them, though.
Like most gooners, I’m more than glad Wenger doesn’t listen to those who think a player’s value to the team is determined by their price tag.
Arsene Wenger and Arsenal Board are foolish, they always give their fans hope and @ the end of the day do nothing 2 satisfy the hunger and thirst of their fans, what nonsense talking Big spending Small. I pity Arsenal this season, I. See Arsenal below top 5! Wake up Wenger and give the Fans what they deserve!
Anyway, the team are in my country now, jakarta, Indonesia.
welcome to Indonesia guys
Indonesia gooner
Great article. Wasted on a good number of our fellow gooners who only seem to reference their emotion and absolutely zero of their interlect when it comes to all matters arsenal. Of course I understand how this happens but it’s the quickest route to frustration and disappointment.
Rupe,
I have to disagree with you that Pires was pretty well known.
He used to take the bus to the stadium on match days, but had to stop after three or four months when people started to recognise him.
It is not.
Actually this club doesn’t want to buy players. They don’t want to spend money, makes only profit.
And just a CL birth to make more profit.
@AW d guidian is right infact we re tire of french teenager, footbal is for a mature men nt all those child abuse french starlet, to my greatest surprise is that if those boys mature he wil later sell them Barcelona or Man city, fuck u wenger
Warning: Do not feed the trolls…..
Who is a head of transfers at Arsenal? I don’t understand why when it comes to the transfers Arsenal is the only club in english top flight that strugles to sell or to buy players. This is the time to buy quality players, other clubs they force others to sell by offering good amount of money, we should also do the same. GUNNERZ 4 LIFE.
Oh yes
Listening to you one may be tempted to think that there is nothing true in what is said.
Did anyone knew about sonogo, santos, park, chamack?
Well we all knew about Squillaci, about how he was kept on the bench for his former team (following an injury) and that he was not worth 8 millions.
Wenger is a liar and so are you. He keeps selling players and replace them with younsgters or freebies or shit from france like Squillaci, sylvestre, chamack,. Giroud is not world class, Van persie was! Henri was! Podolski is not a world beater. He was left on the bench for the final phase of the world cup and has not made any progress since. HE was not on the rise when he was bought. In fact against the top three he was absent last season (wenger said it himself). HE IS NOT WAY A GOOD BUY, BUT A LURE TO CALM FANS.
Now the problem is we need to offload him to buy a star and that may be the reason the Hugain or Jovetic deal has not been finalised. Surely Wenger wants a promising young player with a lot of talent to train instead of a ‘star’ that would put either Giroud or Podolski on the bench.
Keep faith in your liar economist whose main objective is to pocket 7 million and make Stan earn a fortune by paying back all the debts he incurred in buying AFC. Share value on the rise, sponsorship money coming in. Expenditure amounting to nothing more than sales. OH yes Wenger is truely a genius. However paying fans are not!
Keep the faith, man, keep the faith in a liar.
Gabriel O and cin, I realize you are probably not very well educated but try to use whatever small brains you have to come up with something more sensible.
Stop making excuses for Wenger and the board mugging the fans off AGAIN. Promising big signings when the ST’s are up for renewal and delivering unknown French players – it is not acceptable for a club of our stature. The board are RAKING IT IN while the common fan is out of pocket. IT IS A SCAM AND ARSENAL FANS SHOULD SPEAK OUT AGINST IT RATHER THAN BACKING WENGER AND THE BOARD.
Tony u seem to always find something positive about wenger over looking everything else?he is like a god to you!its bordering sycophancy!even when it is clear to every one that he is on the wrong,you are always there for him!do we call it blind faith?even when we are languishing in fourth,i use that because we enter competitions to win n nothing else!i think a true fan is one who recognizes when things are going wrong and acknowledges the same,so that he wont do the same in future!arsenal keeps on doing the same mistakes over and over again,where i come from we have a saying to err is okay but to repeat the error that’s worse!at least once in a while, be kind enough to correct arsenal,in your heart,don’t you think its a high time we tried another way?since what we have been doing is clearly not working?8yrs is a long time.lets try the tried tested and proven way.instead of buying many sanogos,bendtners senderos,we get one higuian?or even if we buy sanogo,when he matures if he will,coz nowadays they rarely make it,we dnt sell them to our closest rivals?
Amazing how for many it’s more about spending money rather than what you get.
@withwengerwerust. Your post shows a lack of understanding of the subject of the blog. It also has a number of contradictions and has wrong information. Are you paid to write posts of this standard?
To all the people who want Arsenal to spend money??? I thank god that the club are careful with my money? Wouldn’t I be gutted if they spent £35 million on “say Andy Carroll”?
After all you guys know better? Contracts can be concluded in a day or two, financial impacts of such purchases? All laws, rules and regulations don’t count? Maybe negotiations are not needed and pay way over the top?
In fact I’ve got a sandwich I bought from Marks and Spencer’s about a week ago still in the fridge, I paid £1.99 for it? But you can have it for £3?
Sound good?
Colario,
I wanted to say the same but realized that withwengerwerust is just someone with a rust mind.
I’m not too sure about this article and its comparisons.
1- First of all, I think it’s important to mention that difference in communication technology and media between today and the mid-late 90s and how that affects being widely “known” or “unknown”.
2- Also regardless of the level of being “known” or even price-tag, there are also some key differences in terms of accomplishments and quality that separate the Frenchmen recruits of yesteryear and those being spoken about in this article and recently.
Let’s examine.
Patrick Vieira wasn’t widely known in the general public (remember the key differences in media) but in in-tune football circles and followers, Vieira was a very highly rated young player when he signed with us. Consider he signed from AC Milan who in the mid-90s were arguably the biggest club around, also he was reportedly very close to signing for Ajax before signing for us, but couldn’t agree personal terms at the last minute, and Ajax in the mid-90s were still a very big club, and certainly much bigger than what it has become today. So there’s no comparison (regardless of position) to signing of player of Viera’s obvious pedigree and recognized (by the biggest clubs) pedigree at that time, to signing a 20 year old player with injury problems and limited playing time in League 2 in Sanogo. Vieira with even the media disadvantages then compared to now, was significantly better known, rated, and scouted than Sanogo is now even in this day and age.
Thierry Henry – as mentioned by some above he came to Arsenal as a world cup winner, not only a winner but France’s top scorer in the tournament. He was signed from Juventus, which like Milan in the mid-late 90s was still one of the true giants around in world football. That he didn’t work out in Juventus in just 16 appearances in irrelevant to how widely known and rated he was when he signed..(players, especially younger player often don’t work out immediately at clubs), maybe he could have settled in the following season, who knows?
Wenger should definitely be given credit for developing Thierry Henry into the star he became (and even for arguably “discovering” him in the first place for Monaco), there, there’s no disputing that. But that isn’t what’s being discussed here. The fact he was far better known and rated than Sanogo for example. And regardless of how well he was known, he came to Arsenal with a world cup medal and goals, a League 1 medal, as a full French international, and having the experience (not a good one) of the pressures and expectations at playing at one of the biggest clubs in the world at the time.
Robert Pires – Again, by no means a world star when he came, and credit to Wenger for making him into one. But he also came with being far better “known” that the “unknown” Frenchmen being discussed. He signed as a full French international was in the world cup winning squad, and was instrumental in France winning the Euros (iirc he set up the winning the goal) before he came on board at AFC (not sure if he was already signed before the Euros). And at 26 or so when he signed there is no comparison to he players being discussed above, with regards to experience and pedigree.
Other Frenchmen on yesteryear like Wiltord and Petit again may not have been widely celebrated stars, but were all ALREADY accomplished internationals with in some cases big NT trophies, and League 1 titles and domestic honours in France (and generally vastly more experienced) than players like Sanogo who never even featured in Leauge 1, or a player like Kondigbia was hasn’t even gotten a senior international cap yet.
There is just no comparison in terms of recruitment to those former players to these ones, when considering accomplishments, pedigree, ratings, experience.. and in terms of being “known” those players were still far better known than these being talked about now, and if they were to be recruited now in today’s media age (with the accomplishments they came in with then), they would be even exponentially more better known than those were are talking about in this article.. (also these differences in our recruitment extend beyond just Frenchmen).
To end this one a positive note, in the last 2 years there has been some signs though that we are recruiting more experienced and accomplished players again, so that’s a good trend.
@Singh u dnt have to choose the bad ones at the same time with that kind of cash u can get aquero,hazard,rooney,mata,gotze,reus etc!no good player comes on the cheap nowdays!days of wenger gems are long over for every ten cheap player we come by 7 of them are mediocre,gervinohs,chamack,bendtner,senderos,greedybuywhore,santos,park,ebue,jeffers,aluminum,flappyhandski.am not supporting inwengerwerust,he is obvious looney but he makes a little sense,all am saying is we must change our transfer perspective!what we have been doing is not working,let us try what will/is working.
A Super Singh re: “After all you guys know better? Contracts can be concluded in a day or two, financial impacts of such purchases? All laws, rules and regulations don’t count? Maybe negotiations are not needed and pay way over the top?”
The much-used excuse for inaction about “these things take time”, “negotiation complicated multi-million contracts is not easy” is just that an excuse. And a poor one imo.
I’m not saying that the club should buy or not buy, buy big or not buy big, but that fact is, if the club wants to get deals done they can and can do so quicker. It’s a bit naive imo to afford Arsenal this benefit of the doubt for what seems like a trend in often drawing out things (although its arguable if we were ever really in for some players in the first place) when so many other clubs, big and small, do not seem to have similar problem is completing business quickly.
And actually yes, a transfer (and contracts post transfer) can be completed in a few days, heck we’ve concluding several transfers in recent years in the waning hours of the transfer window. There are highly paid and experienced people at the club and all clubs who know how to speed these things up amongst willing parties.
IMO.. If the Club wants to do/is willing to do a transfer it can do so relatively quickly, just like any other club big or small… So to me it’s just either:
a) we are not actually in for several of the players that we have been linked to
or
b) We simply do not want to budge from our valuation of targets and meet or come closer to the seller’s asking price.
About point b, we seem to have no problems accepting premium prices for our bigger name players, but yet somehow don’t seem to want to pay the equitable prices on the other end. Said another way (if indeed we are/were really interested), is Higuain not easily worth the same 25M (arguably slightly less than, given today’s market) as we sold Adebayor for?
Anyway, it’s not about whether I know better, or whether we should be making these transfers or not, I’ll give the club the benefit of the doubt with that..but I think it’s a bit naive to blame perceived inaction on “these complicated things take time”, when other clubs of various sizes can and have and regularly do get business done much quicker than these gooner perceptions of how long these things take, and when we ourselves show that with time running out we can actually do business quickly if we want to.
That Podolski, he’s rubbish he is. I mean Netto are doing a special on German National team caps, must have been where he got his 110 from. And as for those 46 goals, they were just flukes.
In real life there is such a thing as evidence….
Pos Name Games Caps
1 Lothar Matthäus 150 23
2 Miroslav Klose 127 67
3 Lukas Podolski 110 46
4 Jürgen Klinsmann 108 47
5 Jürgen Kohler 105 2
6 Franz Beckenbauer 103 14
7 Thomas Häßler 101 11
8 Michael Ballack 98 42
I love Arsenal but this year I’d love it if they flopped. Nothing is going to convince the die hard fans to boycott their season tickets otherwise and this is the only thing that will make the board sit up and listen.
@ A. Stewart
or 3, The selling club has not yet got agreement on a replacement player coming in
or 4, The selling club is touting the player to everyone else first to see if they can up the price now Club A are in for them
or 5, The selling club has changed manager and the new guy thinks that actually he’s a damn good player and doesn’t want to get shot of him
or 6, It’s election year at Real and el Presidente has promised the world a top player and can’t actually now get anyone better than player A, so is holding things up..
A. Stewart,
Very Glad to learn something here. Thank you.
T. Atwood needs to fill the time and space,
so he conjures up the non-comparable. But it’s
looking a bit nervous among the fanbase, so
we get served up the cotton candy to dilute the poison
pill: “The simple fact is that Arsenal don’t have the money that Chelsea and Man C have from owners and Man U have from marketing, so our bids can’t match anything that those clubs want to do.”
Imo, we are being prepared by T.Atwood for the just-in-case we wind up getting the comparative no-names because we’ve been outbid, despite the reputed 70M (or is it more or less as we move out the non-performers?) There’ll be no end to the continual review of the glory days to stave off the gory days if quality signings do not emerge over the next two months. And of course, if the signings (of whatever quality) are very last minute, then that’s the built-in excuse for the slow start that Theo Walcott has warned us against (as anyone watching knows). Let us hope that with Theo and Jack having called for quality that makes a difference, that our best young players come to feel satisfied (as will the fanbase) with what we do get, if we do get it. We’ve not done the early signings, not that any of it is our fault, but there’s a mounting tenseness that is now palpable and hope does spring eternal, and good things come to those who wait, etc. And so it goes…
Podoslki is far closer to the types of signings we used to make when we were winning things under Wenger.
-Experienced domestically and internationally,
-Big tournament experience
-Played at a big club before (thus exposed to expectations) and/or tracked by big clubs
-Won domestic honours
-And while not a huge mega-star, still affordable.
He’s a Good signing, we need much more of this type.
These were the types of signings Wenger used to make in abundance when he won stuff at AFC.
These types of signings have always been available for affordable prices, however our/his priorities shifted post-Invinceables, towards trying to develop winning teams of young not very experienced accomplished players growing up together with common spirit for the club (he’s said as much) and it’s failed.
And given our increased wage bill, the sheer increased numbers of players we’ve had since our last trophy, the wages to paid to unproven players over time, it’s hard for me at least to accept it was done purely out of financial prudence during and immediately after stadium development, when this shift in strategy is arguably more expensive than when we had a more condensed streamlined squad of experienced and accomplished players who didn’t “grow up and were educated together at the club like college”, and considering that Wenger has long spoken about his preference for this philosophy of development, regardless of prevailing financial conditions .
There have been recent signs that we are making a shift back towards recruiting players already having accomplishments, wins and experience. They don’t have to be stars, but these types of players were and are still available, and affordably so, especially given how our financial might has steadily increased.
To: A Stewart
You have valid points, I suppose transfers can be concluded quickly. But how do we know at what point such interest starts at players? I could say I’m interested in ten such players who have promise, then say year or so down the line that player or players become available at a price that
I want to pay? Then such a transfer could be dealt with quickly?
I don’t know about you, but I hate being stripped up, I personally would wait till the last minute to buy and save some money? But then again it could be construed as being tight? Arsenal do have a responsibility to look after the money US supporters plough into the club?
Guess who comes IN, comes IN?
robl,
To your interesting points, I’ve also noticed how in yesterday’s papers (or very recent anyway), Mister Gazidis noted that indeed Arsenal’s profits are still good, but yes, measurably down from last year, and (rightly) much of it because there’s not been a top player to sell off and there’s no property sell-off. That said, I wonder if this decline in the amount and rate of profit is affecting the pace at which negotiations are being conducted? (That is, how real is the 70M after all? None of us can know.)
Super Singh,
And the more last minute that last minute, the less time for the team to gel, and the less chemistry, the more the early dropped points that matter in the end, and that Theo has been keen to warn us all against.
Truth is the press hate Wenger from the 1st day he stepped into Arsenal. The racist gutter press were about to write a serious pack of lies about the man when he stood tall and challenged any one of them to go to print. They all bottled it and they have hated him ever since. His early success was like a thorn in their side but there was nothing they could do about it. Now that a few lean years have arrived they are attacking him remorselessly on everything. Unlucky for them that Arsenal have a steady board who know exactly Wenger’s value and are not influenced by these bigots.
Bob
Good point, personally speakingI would prefer all Arsenal transfers be completed the first week of July when the window opens. But we’re not in the driving seat so just have to watch this space?
@ Robl…sure every transfer is unique, and there is any myriad factors to consider such as the ones you proposed and I or anyone can propose even several more,
None of that changes the point that every transfer is has varying considering factors to EVERY CLUB involved not just Arsenal and every transfer has any vast amount of variables to consider and surmount. You’re points 3-5 is nothing unprecedented in football transfer business and hasn’t only historically affected AFC and clubs are still able to do things relatively quickly, nor is specific point # 6 (and let’s not act like the perceived slowness of our transfer pattern has just started with Higuain for the first time).
Yet there always seem to be so many clubs, big clubs, small clubs, for big players, small players, average players, in different leagues, across different leagues and countries and player nationalities etc etc etc.. it doesn’t matter, yet despite all the complexities, inherent differences, complications, varying factors etc, so many other clubs are able to do business generally far quicker than the offered excuse for our inaction that “these things are complicated and take time”.
So to me the prevailing reasons (though not discounting any variety of other reasons) for said inaction are
a) either we are often not actually interested in the players being talked about, thus why things seem to drag out when they may actually never be in play..
or
b)If actually interested in the players spoken about in links, we are simply not prepared to meet asking prices and there is much to support this over the years.
And I think you miss the point of my conclusion, I don’t fault the club for any of this, it is their right to do business as they see fit, but that doesn’t equate them no being able to do things quicker when every other club seemingly is able to (and we ourselves can when time is running out) if we indeed truly wanted to.
This “these things are complicated and take time” is an excuse seemingly only uniquely offered to Arsenal football club that doesn’t affect others. That’s just nonsense imo.
.
And in defense of the Club, it’s not Arsenal that puts forth the excuse (because again, only they know if they are really in for a player), rather it’s the fans that use this naieve excuse to account for perceived inaction.
@ Super Singh..re “You have valid points, I suppose transfers can be concluded quickly. But how do we know at what point such interest starts at players? ”
Thanks for the compliment. To answer the question, that’s just it..we don’t know at what point such interest starts in players.
And while I expect to be criticized by some here for my opinion, they may not actually realize that I am giving the Club a pass on this.
Anyway, that we don’t know when interest starts, but do know that clubs of any size do regularly and are regularly able to complete a variety of transfer business relatively quickly and far quicker than what many gooners perceive are acceptable delays just because “these things are complicated and take time”, to me means that often we were never seriously interested in the players being talked and rumoured about in the first place (yes there are other possibilities and reasons why a transfer may not materialize) .
Whether or not we SHOULD be interested in getting in player x and player y, and who we should be targeting, is a whole different discussion, however, which I think is getting clouded when I’m merely discussion how short/long these things can take.
All,
A very well reasoned analysis (both historical and in general) and plea for patience in this tricky moment can be found here:
http://1nildown2oneup.net/good-things-come-to-those-who-wait-transfers-to-build-on-a-winning-team-not-for-transfers-sake/
So Gabriel O wants Wenger to “buy quality players.” Wenger has bought many quality players, starting with Vieira and continuing to, most recently, Monreal. “We are tired of those useless French players, notably those unknown.” Gabriel, did you even READ the article? Wenger takes unknown French players and makes them stars. He also does this with players from other countries.
Stuart seems to get it: Purchase price does not necessarily correspond with quality. Would YOU have spent 35 million on Andy Carroll? Would Liverpool have spent that much money on him if he weren’t English?
Bob: I also saw the column you posted, and it totally smacks the Wenger Outers. There’s a reason he is the manager and none of them is. He knows what he’s doing.
“Would YOU have spent 35 million on Andy Carroll? Would Liverpool have spent that much money on him if he weren’t English?”
Why do people constantly bring up this nonsense as though it has any relevance to a rational discussion about Arsenal, transfers and spending.
Even the vast majority of Liverpool fans instantly thought that was way too much for Carroll nevermind the general football public, heck even Carroll himself was way surprised by it (iirc)..
Just because a club did something obviously and uniquely stupid, in no-way means that those interested in AFC spending more on “quality” (which admittedly means different things to different people)would endorse such a stupid action like spending 35M on Andy Carroll..
Nor does it mean that they are reckless and want us to “do a Leeds/Portsmouth” or any other hyperbole driven nonsense, which has no basis in reality as there are no comparison to those clubs (for any myriad of reasons) and their respective financial/sporting situations.
Geez mentioning Andy Carroll or Leeds in these discussion about Arsenal and spending as so often happens (yes I noticed I am the one that ironically brought up Leeds in this instance) just dumbs down the argument.
No-one wants us to do what Livepool did and spend ridiculous sums on the likes of Carroll, Downing and Henderson…heck Liverpool fans didn’t even want that.
Truth – I think you are right.
The press hate to be beaten and resent it for ever afterwards.
Plus there is an anti-French slant in this country on a lot of things. Probably goes back to long-standing imperialist rivalries. Can’t think of any other logical reason – France, the French, their language, their art, their films, their footballers – all seem good to me.
By the way, Sunday is 14th July – Bastille Day – in case anybody feels like celebrating!
To be brutally honest I really cant see this Higuain transfer going through, I know its been said that the new Real manager needed to be in place before any deal could be struck, BUT, Arsenal have a habit of dilly dallying over fees and often lose out, Real managed to strike a deal for Isco prior to Ancelotti’s appointment so they can do deals without a manager in place, and now Napoli are in the frame with the colossal amount they will be getting for Cavani, with their history of nabbing Argentinian players I wouldn’t be surprised if that were to be Higuain’s next club. As for Arsenal being the supposed ‘favourites’ for Fellaini and Rooney, I rate them as likely to sign either of those as I am of meeting Elvis and Michael Jackson in my local cafe.
Just in case the more critical posters forget some essential aspects of the transfer process:
1)We can NEVER know, before the completion of the process, when the actual planning and inception of the transfer process begins at AFC….everything is kept secret,as it should.
2)Wenger and his scouts may APPEAR to wait for the last minute in order to cause us gastro-intestinal stress but the truth is that they work under a far more realistic and professional strategy, which DOES NOT include our opinions or wishes, and that is perfectly legitimate.
3)Those maintaining that 2 years ago everything was done in a rush have been proven completely wrong, after Wenger himself indicated that the 5 players he brought in were all in the docket months before they actually were officially transferred.
4)The business of Football transfers is NOT a popularity contest or a democratically based sharing between the fans and the Club management so all you wannabe AMATEUR FF managers should back off and leave the real work to those who do it best, Wenger and his scouts.
If you want to bash Wenger for whatever reason, at least have the courtesy to be objective and base your moaning on the real facts not your wish-fufillment wet-dreams.
In response to the AAA’s selections , I give you the people’s choice of real manure ( I shit you not !)- The top 10 flop buys of SAF –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRaLFZUaZ3M
Just in case your not able to open/view the above clip ,I gleefully present to you the crapo di crappy -crappy (its Italian).
10)Massimo Taibi (Disobeyed mother’s advice ,”Always keep your knees together when balls are coming your way !”
9) Ralph Miline ( but looks like Lee Sharpe’s photo.Hmmmm! )
8) Diego Forlan (Was on his way to M’boro but took a wrong turn in many ways ! Karma has a strange way of
bitting you in the ass !
7) William Prunier ( Who ?)
6) Jordi Cruyff ( Doesn’t always matter what is in the jeans ,…oops genes !)
5)Karel Probosky ( Many bad hair days too !)
4)Juan Sebestian Veron ( They made it up by selling him to Chelski – so not a total failure! )
3) Eric Djemba Djemba ( Just like him they too took too much of a gamble! If in doubt just Google it ! )
2) Liam Miller
1) Bebe
Dishonourable mentions also for
11) Jose Kleberson
12) David Bellion
13) Gabriel Obertan .
Please feel free to add to this list . In fact I insist !!
Hmmnn…….
Spend some fucking money and do it fast says men who spend minutes looking into a menu at their local pub wondering what to buy……..
Spend some fucking money and do it fast says men who spend hours in a mall deciding on which (color) tie to buy…….
Spend some fucking money and do it fast says men who spend months deciding on what car to buy……
Spend some fucking millions and do it fast says men who cant decide on how to spend their thousands…….
@ Pat – Hope everyone has a storming Bastille Day and not lose your heads .And like Marie Antoinette would say “Eat your cakes everyone !”
Here are some rare clips from that era .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4uvLXCUhVg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db3e8Qw9hhs
Nicky , old chap , you were there ,weren’t you ? Could you verify its veracity ?
on the subject of signing unknown players, can you imagine
Arsene signing Rooney and trying to mould him into something different? It would be a nightmare.
Why let the truth get in the way of a good story.
and round and round and round we go…the same old comments from the same old ‘voices’. This is an excellent site but perhaps its time to stop feeding the speculation guys; the Arsenal will sign players when the deals are done and announce them via the official channels. There is plenty else to discuss about AFC, the PL, FA and FIFA, the women’s euros, the Asia Tour (how about an AISA tour Tony), and Arsenal history( we might even talk about the Ashes!). Let’s leave this transfer will-he-won’t-he stuff alone for a week or so. Maybe then the trolls will get back under their bridges and leave the rest of us to a sensible and constructive discussion.
Peace be upon you!
DRew
@blacksheep 63,
Quite right of course. We have the rest of July and the whole of August to find and sign players who will fit in at Arsenal.
It’s about time Arsenal FC went into “purdah” each transfer Window so as to preserve the nerves and blood pressures of its supporters, until, on the last day, the Club would announce its signings.
Actually it’s nearly like that today, when you think about it. LOL!
For those kept suggesting money, I totally understand why your economy is in shit.
Fortunately, Mr Wenger is smarter.
For those kept asking why aren’t we buying players, I totally understand how Uninitiated are you.
Fortunately, Arsenal is still run by people with initiative and ideas.
For those kept suggesting names of players to be bought, I totally how would you licked arse
Fortunately, Arsenal is still supported by loyal sensible fans worldwide.