By Walter Broeckx
If you type in the words “Wenger should buy” in Google, then you get some 44.500 hits in the last 24 hours. If you take the last week you come up with some 177.000 and 426.000 in the last month.
If we include the words “AW should buy” we get another 70.800 hits in the last 24 hours and 328.000 in the last week and 695.000 in the last month.
So this means that in the last month, since the end of the season Arsène Wenger received the staggering amount of some 1,121,000 pieces of advice (or on occasion orders), to buy someone.
Now lets us imagine for a moment that Arsène Wenger would do nothing all day but look at the internet sites to see what the fans want him to do. This would mean that in the last month he was told every 2 seconds whom he should buy.
So is it realistic to think that all this advice are read and noted by someone? Let alone that this person would be Arsène Wenger. Or would he just be sitting all day, without sleep and adding up the numbers. Something like: “Ah, the fans want me to buy Gourcuff 10.217 times, oops 10.218 times – just a new order arrived – so I think I will go for him…”
Yes the idea alone is laughable but yet almost every second somewhere an Arsenal fan feels he is as knowledgeable as Arsène Wenger, and qualified to give Wenger the best advice in the world. I didn’t do the research to find out how many hits you get after the words “Wenger should buy X” when there comes a sentence something like : ‘Or he has lost it” and “or he is a c*nt” and what about “he is a stubborn fool”.
Even the first words, “he should buy” are, in my opinion, a bit arrogant – and yet that is what most of the anti-Wengerians call him most of the time. But the second part is even more than arrogant if you ask me. Because you can put any name behind the “he should buy” part without knowing anything at all.
But let’s try and do this is in a realistic manner, starting with the most important thing: is the player for sale?
If the player is out of contract than it is up to the player to decide what he is going to do. If he is under contract it is in the hands of his current club.
The second question is : Does his club wants to let him go.
If the club says “no” then you can do nothing about it anymore. It is the right of his current club to say no. Just like we consider it our right to tell Barcelona: NO. So if we get a NO, the dealing is over.
Of course we could get a “No, not at that price” answer. Then there could be a deal but if the other team asks an insane amount of money would it be wise to go along with them? I mean if Lille wants 40M euro for Hazard should we pay this amount of money for a 19 year old? I can imagine some of the fans screaming abuse at Wenger for buying another unproven kid (in the EPL) for such a price tag.
But let us suppose the clubs agree a fee. Then comes the second part: the player has to agree with the transfer. Now maybe in the years that have gone by there has been some buying and selling players against their will but I think it is fair to think that most players are strong enough to say NO if they don’t want to join a team. And if this should happen I think this player should go to a court somewhere and sue a few people for human trafficking or slavery. But in reality I think those days are gone.
So if the player wants to come to the club, the deal can be finalized if we meet him on his wages. Let us suppose that Lille goes down some £10m for Hazard but that Hazard wants a weekly wage of £150.000. You can imagine what the answer would be from Arsenal I guess. No deal will be done and rightly so. We are not going to risk our whole wage system for a 19 year old.
But let us pretend we live in an ideal world and Hazard agrees the terms Arsenal proposes. Only then we have our player and even then it all could fall to pieces. Just imagine that in a medical we find out that this player has something wrong in his body somewhere. Don’t say those things never happen as it did last year when a Porto player didn’t pass a medical test in Italy because he had problems with his teeth.
So only when all this has gone right we finally have our player. I think you can imagine that this takes just a tiny bit longer than writing down: ‘Arsène Wenger should buy Hazard, or he is a……….”.
And yes I would like it if Hazard were come to The Arsenal. But please let us keep in mind how many obstacles there can be between writing “AW should buy” and really doing the deal.
None of us knows what is going on. Arsenal could currently be negotiating with 5 or 10 players or with none at all, we just don’t know it. And I can be mistaken on this but I think that the official international transfer period is from 1 July until 31 August. So in fact I think no transfers can be done officially before that moment. The only deals that could be done are between English clubs for the moment as the system in England is different from the other big countries in Europe.
So blaming Arsenal and Arsène Wenger for not signing someone now looks at bit stupid if you ask me. Unless you want him to buy some good old fashioned, strong and hard tackling English centre back. Why don’t we advice Wenger to buy Shawcross then?
I know that the transfer period is a difficult period for most of the football fans. The rumours, the fake stories, the lying reporters, the inventing of new gossip every day just to get hits and newspapers. I think we all hate it, I do anyway. I can only ask people to keep their heads. No need to risk a heart attack because of newspaper the Daily Lie tells us that player X will be sold tomorrow. This transfer period will be no different from the others: all our players will be sold at one moment by the newspapers but when we come out at the start of the new season we will see most of them back in the red and white we love.
I can only ask for common sense and some fair play towards our club from our own fans. If at the end of the transfer period your dreams haven’t been fulfilled you can be angry and blame the manager if you really want. But now? Who and what is there to blame thus far? Don’t make yourself sick during the transfer period by believing all the rumours that they spread.
As for those who still really want to say: “Wenger should buy….” I would suggest that you go to the sites of the club from your favourite target, look for the telephone number, pick up the phone, ask the manager and tell him you want to buy player X and ask how much you should pay. Or better, just say, “I would like him to buy player X if he is available and at a decent price”. Because calling out some names is just to simple and it doesn’t work that way.
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Arsenal sign Argentine keeper, plus two, and get ready to take another genius from Barca
The Index of Very Ancient but still Quite Interesting Things
What to read in between World Cup matches
Walter
When you buy a season ticket and spend £2000+ a year supporting the club, then write this article.
But don’t tell fans who do what you do not to shut up and be good little season ticket holders who pay their money and keep their traps shut.
You’re right: Wenger doesn’t need to do what they say. And mostly, he doesn’t.
But he equally doesn’t enjoy the right to say the squad should win the title when a cursory examination of the squad says he won’t and then claim that the fans are ‘unrealistic’. They feed off what he says. And if he sets out to be disingenuous, then he faces the music like a man. Or he should, on £4m+ a year.
He should be required to face reasonable criticism from those who pay his salary. Who are season ticket holders, Sky sports subscribers and fans throughout the world who pay to watch Arsenal on the telly and buy Arsenal merchandise. They aren’t the Board, Sky or the printed Press. And he’d better not forget that.
Wenger is not perfect. And quite frankly, 99.9% of fans don’t expect him to be. But despite that, 90%+ of them think he’s bloody good. Except at managing English talent from 18-25. Which is a significant failing at an English club.
But if he thinks he’s the Pope, infallible but expecting royal treatment by the worshippers who pay their tithes each year and bow down dutifully before him, then maybe he should speak with a few Cardinals about standing when the current one’s time is up.
Because a French Pope would sell newspapers. And get people watching cable. And going to websites. And, who knows, flocking to St Peter’s Square in their millions too.
And that’s what makes the world go round, isn’t it?
And if you, as a Belgian, wish to create an atmosphere which implies that Arsenal should play anyone but English players, then with the greatest of respect, I would ask you to return to supporting Standard Liege, Anderlecht or any other Belgian club which is where you would be welcome to spout your anti-English opinions.
Sir.
rhys jaggar please shut up!
Am i bein retardd o jus blind coz i cnt realy c wre t sæz AW ought not 2 buy an englsh plyr?i jus thnk h ws tkn a sideswyp at shawcrs knwn at hs tuckle on rambo!!iv gon arnd ‘many’ sites teln AW 2 buy hazard n i sure hpe h c’s it n frankly im not goin 2 stop but i do have 2 accept that those whre some very good stats 2 back the also very good artcle!!all you have 2 realise as a fan is you can do shit on yo ipad,laptop,phone,pc or a written letr 2 AW himself but the dude wont give a shit!!excpt its an authentic death threat o coz!!!100% behind prof
Re. Ryhs Jaggar. I am season ticket holder and I agree with you that the prices we pay are over the top. However, how the hell do you know how much Walter spends following the Arsenal. I`ve got a mate who fly`s in once a year from Australia to watch the team and his one trip a year costs more than my season ticket. Supporting a team is`nt just about spending money, its about investing your time and effort in following them. By the way I completely disagree with Walter about the type of player we need, a big ugly English centre half is exactly what we need. I`d also like to see a few more English players in the side, especially down the spine of it.
Rhys. You must admit there are an awful lot of Arsenal bloggers and commenters on the net who bitch and moan permanently about Wenger not signing players like Hazard. Many of them are so rude and condescending about Wenger that it pisses off many other fans, like Walter and myself.
There is a huge amount of ignorant and arrogant arseholes who brand Wenger as a ‘c*nt’ for not signing player X with absolutely no indication of insight into any of the considerations over transfers which Walter is describing. Many, many fans on he net sound like they really do believe it is as simple as ordering a club to sell us their best goalie/CB/DM/whatever, and the only reason why it doesn’t happen is because Wenger is a stuborn c*nt.
I think Walters article is mainly directed at these people and can’t see any evidence in the piece that Walter is anti-english.
p.s. I think you may be referring to the big ugly english centre back comment but I think we all know what Walter means. I would take that comment with a pinch of salt, not a racist attack.
Rhys
Am an arsenal supporter from Africa.
i pay about 1,000p per season to watch them on tv (not to experience them at the Emirates). Remember those lucrative TV deals that the EPL negotiated? Yeah am paying for those – That doesn’t make me an expert on matters Arsenal, and Neither should it make you one.
Not to be too much of a pendant but when you type in = Wenger should buy – you are actually performing a broad match search. If you type in “Wenger should buy” (keeping the quotation marks in your search) then you are performing an exact match query.
Broad match will find things related to the terms while exact match brings back pages that contain the string of text entered.
Performing the exact match search currently shows 4 results in 24 hours for me, 2 of which relate to this blog post.
Heh, “pedant” not “pendant” – Muprhy’s Law I guess 😉
Rhys Jaggar: I had in the past been wondering who & what you are. Now I know without any doubt you are an annoying cockatoo. Get off your high horse and SHUT UP as johan advised. You are not only annoying, you are insulting as well. You have absolutely no right to be so insulting and so condescending to Walter.
Walter,take no notice of Rhys ,he shows himself to be , at heart ,very anti Wenger . And if you ask me its him who appears racist . You , on the other hand ,show yourself as a good Arsenal fan and a good man as well. Keep it up mate.
The problem is that there is never a reasonable time to criticise. If you do during the season you get told wait and see at the end. If you do it at the start of the summer you get told to wait and see, if you do it at the end of the summer you get told to give the players a chance next season. When is an unhappy fan able to give their opinion?
What bothers people is how we always get told we have money for top players then when we do badly we get told wenger is working miracles on a tight budget. But what tight budget if we have money? Just some consistency would be nice. We have a fantastic stadium which has an embarrassing number of empty seats and that won’t change until more fans believe were worth watching. Right now we don’t play amazing football even, that’s a myth these days. All you’re left with is a handful of class players and a larger handful of players who people won’t care about if they’re sold. There’s nothing special about our current team despite having a few great players. We lack penetration good crossers good finishers good defenders and we don’t have a team to be scared of and we usually lack height and strength. Then we get told not to complain despite feeling short-changed. But like I say if we wait til the transfer window closes well only get told to judge the team at the end of next year (again).
Lol the English spine.
Where to start?
Huddlestone or Song?
I rest my case.
Yes, there will be plenty of English Gunners soon. And even my friends who grew up buy the stadium, who are British but not English, would like to see more HG players in the 1st XI, it’s only natural.
But, we’re entering into sinking territory here, about football styles that aren’t so different in the modern era (Brazil’s team have more ‘English gr*t’ then the England team I’m afraid), about inaccurate notions of something called ‘race’, about culture.
There’s a simple answer:
Holland, a nation with a population approximately the size of London (I really can’t be bothered to check), churns out quite a lot of good footballers. English Football, it’s blingtastic wages, 24hr news channels, and lack of pitches (or coaches) for kids to play on, is a joke by comparision. No argument, no defence. I’d like to see some numnut try.
All English CL finals? How many English players in those teams? Perhaps we should ask the Capello Index.
The ENGLISH FA’s Burton may still be joke, but AFC’s training ground does exist, it has been built, and players are just starting to come through. And it is/will be to a standard matched only by two other clubs in Europe IMO.
Any AFC fan who chooses to ignore these facts, is being disingenuous. Or is that being anti-English?
Some people…like my good friend Manuel,
‘They know NOTHING!’.
Ryan,have you considersd jumping under a bus ,it might make you feel better
@ryan!!wel said mate!!!esp about wenger having 2 work miracles on a tyt budget and that we play beatiful football!these are myths based on the legends of the age of henry and the likes!!evry window you get told AW has £30mil 2 spend n wat does h do??ovr the past 2 seasons(post highbury) thse r sum o the significnt signings he has made.vermln-10mil,nasri-12mil,ramsey-5mil,silvstr-1mil,arshvn-15mil,eduard-13mil wc amnts 2 56mil!and then sold henry-16mil,hoyte-3mil,gilberto-1mil,hleb-14mil,adbyr-25mil,toure-15mil wc makes 74mil wc h cld hv blown as thy sæ all proceeds frm a transfr go in2 his pocket so basically the dude has the money and then sweet talks the media in2 saying he has got a tyt budget!!!!get m hazard and i will 4gv you!!
@Rhys Jaggar sure Jaggar. if you want to look like a clown, or more like a stroppy teenager then fine go ahead and write silly ” wenger must buy!!” articlkes. If you are angry and tired of your season ticket then sell it! Cos that is what you come across as. A shallow man that has no clue! sorry mate for being so persona, but really, someone had to tell you. And if you DO belive AW and arsenal for that matter takes your opinions into account. Well most clubs are run on a Utilitarian model, you know, where the majority decides.If 20% of the fans sell their tickets and hate the team there will be new people to step in. that is the beauty of it. All you achive by moaning is angry replies from other fans really. Nobody with power really cares Hardly the result you really craved was it?
Rhys —
What the hell kind of comment was that?
French Pope? Where did that come from?
Hey Walter
you raise some interesting points and most would agree we don’t know the complexities of signing a player. Football wouldnt be football if a fan didnt chip his two pence in
The point underlying is that the squad needs strengthening if we are to challenge which I think is a fair thing to say.
Fans get annoyed because we read several news articles stating that all/ most of his transfers will be done before the worldcup. The confusion lies either with the press or with wenger.
I aint no football scout and wenger is an expert at spotting potential,I do find it sad that the gr8 man has come under such scrutiny but that is what happens when you dont win, you have nothing to back up what you are saying when you dont deliver the goods.
Just occasionaly though WALTER sometimes the fans can see something wenger doesnt being too close to the problem,
ALL I really want to see is progress because the competition is rising and WENGER may have a serious problem if the SPUDS do better than us
Wenger may live or die by his signings, I would say get a decent crosser of the ball if you have the likes of chamkh and B52, strengthen the obvious areas, but dont make the same tired excuses the buck stops with the manager
I think many fans just get a bit frustrated due to their passion and commitment to the club. It’s like a bit of the “keeping up with the jones” syndrome. We are all guilty of it sometimes. We see all of our “less well-off” neighbours (other clubs) constantly splashing out on all these expensive products, and even though we know that they are living well beyond their means, and that they will eventually have to curb their extravagant ways, we still just sometimes wish that we could be a bit more extravagant too, and I think there is nothing wrong with us suggesting players we would like etc as long as its done positively and with a bit of passion (not by slagging off the current squad all the time etc). But I think that most fans also realise that at the end of the day, we still don’t do too badly, and at least the main things we have splashed out on – like the training complex, academy and new stadium – will make us much better off in the long term, rather than a few shiny cars that cost a fortune to run and only last a couple of years before we need to splash out again to replace them.
I also know for fact that Arsenal are way better than 17 teams in this league already and will bet that next season they will be easily better than at least 17 teams again. I also agree with many that this team will only get better and better as well so even if we bought nobody, I would still be fairly happy, as we already have a brilliant team, so I am just looking forward to the new season whatever happens
Ryan, although I agree that we are woeful at crossing and lacked penetration in important moments last season, we also had our 3 most penetrative players either missing or being played completely out of position (RVP, Cesc and Arshavin). OK admittedly we are just as crap at crossing with a first choice 11!
But anyone reading your post Ryan would think that we had just been relegated. We finished 3rd in the EPL mate and were chalenging up until the last handful of games with a completely ridiculous injury list!
Walter
Not one of your best.
The blogs are really all about opinion- a way to discuss your thoughts with others. If it contains some sense then fine. Only a simpleton would think that professional football managers would take much notice of we bloggers, who have little concrete knowledge of anything other than our interpretation of what we see on a football pitch or the little verified information given to us. We get set up by rumour & conjecture, which is somehow spun into fact, often by those who should know better.
You do however seem to have flushed out Rhys’ xenophobic leanings.
“Except at managing English talent from 18-25”
Perhaps you can enlarge on that Rhys because it doesn’t make much sense to me. Parlour & Cashlie are 2 examples of English players he significantly improved. Theo has unfortunately not been fit enough for long enough for us to see the Wenger influence. Looking at the England WC squad I don’t see many players, who would be an improvement on what we have, apart from the Gerrards, Rooneys & Lampards etc., at our chief rivals.
We are about to find out just how good he is on that topic because for the first time the academy, AW had the foresight to set up, is about deliver a crop of technically gifted Englishmen that he can integrate into the first team. We shall know in about 3/4 years if your statement can be justified. His problem will be how to sort out how to use all this talent.
Wenger does not avoid criticism & can usually answer it but what we have is a sizable minority, who know it all, & seem to hate everything about the club they profess to love. There are a couple of examples on here today.
Firstly Walter, liked this article as you are just trying to highlight the complexities of signing a player in real life – most people’s scouting system seem to come from a video game and youtube clips.
I favour adding Neven Subotic, Taye Taiwo and Micah Richards because I want to see slightly more physically imposing back four in keeping with the EPL and Arsenal History. I don’t like Ledley King but he knows how to make a well timed tackle – unlike a certain joker called Shawcross. But ultimately like you say I don’t even know half the story, in fact I probably only know about 1/10th of the situation – so I wait eagerly for Arsene’s judgement on the matter.
Gooner80, I am suprised that I agreed with your comments today (no need for Jonny to step in today – haha).
LRV @ 3.10 – I’ve been wondering the same thing about Rhys Jagger. I’m a North Londoner that has Nigerian relatives who are very proud of the Arsenal legend – Kanu. They spend comparatively a huge percentage of their wages following Arsenal ( getting authentic home and way shirts each season, tv subsription to follow matches, internet access to keep updated etc) than a lot of UK based supporters. I am quite proud that my team continues to win fans accross the globe by the brand of football and ethos of the club.
@Ryan, in my experience doom and gloomers have always exercised their right to moan not just at the start, mid and end of season but also at the start of matches (when they see team selection), half time( complain about the style of team talk given by Sir AW) 2nd half (tactics/subs) end of match (regardless is game one or lost).
@Finsbury, as always I agree with your comments 100%.
Soul rebel you are exactly right. All things considered we did well and whoever suggested I should jump under a bus should grow up. I don’t pretend that there’s nothing great about our club, that’s for le grove. But I won’t take the bad with the good and pretend the bad doesn’t exist. I don’t say sack wenger or anything of the sort. In fact the one thing I asked for was consistency as we get told one thing one minute and another the next. I’ve never called for expensive signings or stopping the youth program or spending all our cash on players. I respect those who think wenger can do no wrong because the man is literally a legend, but I can justify all my criticisms with reasoned logic so I’d prefer to be treated with more respect than being told I’m only negative. I can talk all day about how I think van perdue is quality and how I’d love song to stay here for fucking ages but the article is about the critics and just like I said there’s never a good time to criticise. I care about this club and I won’t pretend everything is perfect because without criticising we never improve
Van persie* damn iPod spellcheck
There is alot of sense on here today
I you tubed Van Persie or should I say Bergkamp Mach 2 this guy is quality I think he is going to have a decent world cup if Holland can defend, I personally am glad RVP aint linked with any speculation, give us one whole season and I would be glad there aint a player like RVP anywhere
talking of opinion would any one like to see song switch with TV5?
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-i-ll-spend-the-right-money-on-my-defence-
Here’s something for people like rhys to shut up..
Wenger knows better than u ignorant fools…
Like someone said this was maybe not my best. I think sometimes you have something in your head and it doesn’t come out like you intented or someone is reading things in it you didn’t wrote.
But if you write on a blog these things can happen. It’s like being a ref and sometimes you make a wrong decision or you saw it different from your point of view. But I can take a some criticism and I have my say and so can the people who comment express their opinion.
But just to clarify a few things:
1) I really don’t think you can say that someone can write an article only if he spends +2000£. If I was Bill Gates 2000£ would be peanuts but if someone in a poor country (and I don’t mean anything offensive in this and I don’t want to insult someone) spends 50£ in a year and if that is half of his money I think that the guy spending 50£ is by far the Gooner that is prepared to hurt himself for his club and not the Bill Gates type.
2)When I was 17 I came to London for the first time and it was love at first sight. I love London, I love England. I have nothing against English players. Okay the reference to Shawcross could have been interpreted as something against English players. This was not really my intention. It was just that I had read something about him yesterday and I wanted to have a go at Shawcross as I really don’t like him. It was a bit a cheap one I can admit this. But you can believe me, and if you don’t that is your problem, but I am one of the biggest fans of Wilshere and hope that he will be the best player ever to have played for Arsenal if we look back at his career in some 15 years time. If I would have something against English players do you think I would look at the youth team (full of English talents and good ones) and was chearing when they won the Fa Youth league? I don’t care from where an Arsenal player comes. When he is wearing the shirt he is one of mine.
And like I said my article was mostly aimed at the insults that fly around against Wenger for not having bought already.
Yesterday I went on some Barcelona forums to see how the Barcelona fans react on the fact that for the moment it looks like Cesc is not coming to them. I never saw anyone making a bad comment against Guardiola or the board for not being able to bring him home as they call it. They blame Arsenal for not being cooperative but they don’t blame their own club.
And this difference in style is rather remarcable I think and maybe something that some of our fans could think about.
And my local team in Belgium is Berchem. A former first division team that had the privilege of having a rich foreign owner who promised to bring the club back to the first divison but then seemed to be a bit of cheat and got them back down after being arrested.
Walter
Barca wont bitch so much because they are winning things ATM I guarantee you would see white flags everywhere if they werent happy, the spanish fans are worse when it comes to impatience
Oh, one more thing. Just a thank you for expressing your opinion.
Ryan, fair cop. Its just I read too much negativity on so many Arsenal blogs, it usually comes hand in hand with fans who have it in for Wenger.
Hopefully the consistency will come when/if the injuries decrease and with 1 or 2 more signings. I understand the frustration too and I hated watching our humpings this season against teams we have become capable at matching and beating in the recent past.
I know its important to criticise, just so long as its positive though. Don’t catch the gloom virus from Geoff at Le Grove!
I love Van Perdue to mate ; )
p.s. touch of class with the follow up Walter.
Oh and goodbye Big Phil!