January transfers

Of the players you mentioned only two are brilliant - Cesc and RvP.

Nasri disappointed more than he impressed, Ade was a really mixed bag and came back from the 2008 summer break thinking he was Pele - a complete tool.

Walcott is quite simply a million miles from being brilliant and the least talented footballer of all that bunch.

The problem is that when Cesc and RvP had become brilliant players, we had all too obvious flaws - Almunia ludicrously continued as GK; Toure/Gallas was a terrible CB partnership; AW refused to replace Gilberto/Flamini/any other DM so we endured Denilson for way too long; Bendtner was the next best solution when RvP was injured; Eduardo was perma-crocked after his injury the poor bugger.

From about 2008 onwards, we needed to sign the players with the calibre of Cazorla, Mertesacker and any proper GK, not treading water or in some cases going backwards.

It's not just the talent they have though, they are so many cases of limited application in their work. This for me is one of the key arguments for a change of manager, too many of the players over the past few years have been in the comfort zone, unwilling to put in the effort to make the collective better than the some of its parts.

"It's not just the talent they have though, they are so many cases of limited application in their work. This for me is one of the key arguments for a change of manager, too many of the players over the past few years have been in the comfort zone, unwilling to put in the effort to make the collective better than the some of its parts."

That, for me, is the exact problem we have with the current players, there isn't enough fight, desire and willingness to do the ugly things to make the team great.

The table doesnt lie though and we are right where I said we would be now, we are on a par with the likes of Spurs and Everton, in no way are we better than them anymore, simple as that.

I think its very hard to keep a british core like we have and improve on the squad, does anybody truly believe that signing Demba Ba and losing Theo Walcott this January make us better? Does it push us closer to the top three? is Ba and Giroud better than Adebayor and Defoe or Jelavic and Miralles? I dont think so.

Jenks1981 wrote:"It's not just the talent they have though, they are so many cases of limited application in their work. This for me is one of the key arguments for a change of manager, too many of the players over the past few years have been in the comfort zone, unwilling to put in the effort to make the collective better than the some of its parts."

That, for me, is the exact problem we have with the current players, there isn't enough fight, desire and willingness to do the ugly things to make the team great.

The table doesnt lie though and we are right where I said we would be now, we are on a par with the likes of Spurs and Everton, in no way are we better than them anymore, simple as that.

I think its very hard to keep a british core like we have and improve on the squad, does anybody truly believe that signing Demba Ba and losing Theo Walcott this January make us better? Does it push us closer to the top three? is Ba and Giroud better than Adebayor and Defoe or Jelavic and Miralles? I dont think so.

Long story short....

A friend of mine was over today as I flicked on the repeat of the 1-0 Wigan game..he sat and watched and we talked about where arsenal seam to go wrong...to him jumping up and shouting at one point "Chase the fucking ball!!" Aimed at the ox when it was far easier for him to collect than the Wigan player...and we watched and watched...and found ourselves shouting the same context over and over again...
For me this is a huge problem we have...nobody seams to know when they should apply themselves to any given situation...tracking back mids and defenders are left stationary and no end of times have we seen attackers gain huge head starts to our stationary players...I find myself boiling at points when we break up field and we either have to contend with a cross to no one or the dreaded backwards passing that seams to be all the rage at the moment with our boys...we have in the last half a season simply gone what a lot of our momentum is...backwards.......and its not a slat off at him but Rambo is the main culprit....fuck me everytime he is on I sware its more backwards balls than attacking....but anyway...as I was saying we have no understanding as a unit on what we should be doing at most given times in a game...the shape of us seams to be getting it back together..slowly but its seams to be returning....I hope this brings understanding to our boys we need to be more productive...if its tracking back or attacking...knowing what they should be doing has to be addressed...now back into this chat I had,my friend is I would say vastly more clued up on football...he has a 14 year head start on me...
He was saying that our game of attacking was a one saving grace we had if the shit hit the fan..we almost knew we had goals in us but not only that..players knew what to do as a unit to get them...now as this game played all this has gone to shit...I cannot really remember at this point the real last time we had our boys work as one for more than one game..all be it you could say players are still new and might take a little more time...I had told my friend that as its been also said here the league don't lie...teams have been taking points all round this first half of the season...and be it our problems we are 4th and we have the 4th best goal difference by a good 6 goals....so something is working to an extent....all be it spurs helped us with an extra few....transfers should and prob will change this....we still need and this is 100% in my book a DM....we need a big hard bastard in there to help us gain footholds in every match....and the striker debate goes on....I like Theo...I like him a lot..unless he proves us wrong now until the end of the season..he has a full half...knows the team knows how we play....no distractions....CF start netting...he needs to because if come the end of the season and he has less than a handfull of goals to show...I think he will be shown the door...as a comentator said the other night....time to give something back Theo....he has to bring the goods...as it stands I am 50/50 if we should show him the door as it is....
The BA debate I think we go on to....hostly I would take him...what do we have to lose....he might be injury prone but then most of our players are....his work rate and caliber of goals blows Theo out of the water..and hostly if I don't see BA going anywhere in this window I will be stunned.....he has a lot of followers..and deservingly so....
Maybe we will see a couple of personnel come in to give us a bit more bite in the window.....unless

I hope I am proved wrong....Walcott to the rescue and the team gets its shit together.....

Oh and fuck off some of this dead wood we have.....

Just to add on the is the Ba and spurs and Everton and co's strikers being better than ours....those other teams have pairs in the goal scoring charts on good amounts of goals too...they might be defensively worse off than us and looking at a goal difference perspective it will look this way.....but the fact is the have pairings smashing in goals....we have santi on 7.......


Says it all really.........sir Alex Rudolph shit cunt brought a striker because he was lacking the goals that mattered....its what we should be doing also to have our own parings in the scoring tallies....not treading on eggshells and saying this will do....Wenger wants us to take him seriously......he needs to take a look at what we need....not all these thousands of fans can be wrong...can they?!..

I would certainly take Ba. Better than Giroud/Theo/Gervinho as a striker, so he would be an improvement and that is what concerns me. We won't get Cavani/Falcao etc.. and I don't believe the Villa rumors so we should be satisfied with Ba. Whether he is good enough to win us titles is another matter, a problem we can't afford to think of right now.

Well put it this way I would take Ba over Gervinho any day so..for me its a no brainer..

I'd take Ba if that 7.5M release clause is true. The worries are his supposed knee injury and that the move would probably be money-motivated on his part. But his goal to game ratio for Newcastle is really good and he'd likely get even more scoring chances playing for us. Gervinho isn't good enough this season at all, Podolski seems to be a left sided player for Wenger, I prefer Walcott on the right than in the middle and that leaves Giroud. We need a proper strike to back him up.

Villa won't happen. I have a feling Juventus will break the bank to sign Llorente. Huntelaar has signed a new deal. Ideally I'd like Cavani in terms of fairly realistic signings, but if not then for 7.5M I'd also take Ba.

Mike York wrote:I'd take Ba if that 7.5M release clause is true. The worries are his supposed knee injury and that the move would probably be money-motivated on his part. But his goal to game ratio for Newcastle is really good and he'd likely get even more scoring chances playing for us. Gervinho isn't good enough this season at all, Podolski seems to be a left sided player for Wenger, I prefer Walcott on the right than in the middle and that leaves Giroud. We need a proper strike to back him up.

Villa won't happen. I have a feling Juventus will break the bank to sign Llorente. Huntelaar has signed a new deal. Ideally I'd like Cavani in terms of fairly realistic signings, but if not then for 7.5M I'd also take Ba.

The juve trail with Llorente will prob be where he ends up......I don't want huntelaar....to much at too late in his career...ba,and even a cheeky bid for or swap for dezko....I would could and be happy at that....and apparently he could be on his way out....

ralph avedikian wrote:I would certainly take Ba. Better than Giroud/Theo/Gervinho as a striker, so he would be an improvement and that is what concerns me. We won't get Cavani/Falcao etc.. and I don't believe the Villa rumors so we should be satisfied with Ba. Whether he is good enough to win us titles is another matter, a problem we can't afford to think of right now.

We won't be moving up the table till we don't bring in players of the caliber of Cavani.

At this rate what worries me is how will the board / manager / players respond when (not if) this team eventually finishes outside the top 4? Based on recent evidence, they will just shed a few of the better players to ensure the "business model" remains sustainable on the income generated from the UEFA Cup (or whatever its called nowadays).

"Silent" Stan - No record of owning successful sports teams (allegedly).

Usmanov - King of IPOs among other things.

Other board members - old fashioned, stuck in the past and greedy.

Manager - for all his strengths, past glories and glaring weaknesses, he is making himself a martyr, a lesser man would have walked away by now.

The players - all the good ones have left, the rest are other mediocre or trying to leave (or both) - the only positives are Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain and a little gem of a player in Cazorla.

The fans - Powerless. Ripped off but a false sense of entitlement as well?

Fans older than I have known far greater lows than we currently do. But fans rarely see a model based on targeting something other than trophies and a continual improvement. It barely matters that we are performing well below our potential and are incapable of improving year upon year - all that matters for the leadership is the sustainable model. It is that which is unpalatable for the fans, young and old.

It's quite hard to fail to improve so consistently as we do. Part of the blame is down to the model (endless player turnover, never quite the right balance of experience, quality, youth etc, lack of experienced players brought up through the club, a reluctance of our better players to re-sign because they see that we can't challenge) and part of it is down to the manager and his staff (same old tactical problems, failure to address weaknesses in the squad that can't be put down to the model - ALMUNIA....., priority on things other than how to do our best such as focusing on a certain frilly style of play rather than being frank about its limitations).

I hear lots of journalists in the media talk about a sense of entitlement among Arsenal fans and although I think there might be an element of truth to it, I think the strongest emotion is that of frustration. Arsenal fans tear their hair out because not all our weaknesses can be put down to money.

When we find ourselves at a low point, AW is all too keen to point to money, but football is always about more than money. To so consistently get 3rd/4th place does count as a form of mediocrity - even if it's only statistically. Those of us who see the games week in week out know that mediocrity all too well. The Groundhog Day element of it - bored of watching AW's Arsenal, we never change - is what makes us look almost spolit. However, it's frustration more than anything else imo.

We owe a lot to AW, but he also owes a lot to us. He's at a club which has total trust in him, at some clubs on the continent he would've got grief from fans far beyond a few boos at half-time. When he arrived he also had a Dein/Fiszman partnership behind him willing to authorise sales and having in the case of Bergkamp already personally dipped into their pockets to make sure a transfer happened. Those two are no angels - they acted in their own interests and pocketed the cash from the club that had made them rich, but in the UK successful football clubs have always had individuals who were genuine fans driving the desire for success. We no longer have that. For me that is the scariest aspect of AW leaving - if he left what identity would we have left?

Michael Foster wrote:

Mike York wrote:I'd take Ba if that 7.5M release clause is true. The worries are his supposed knee injury and that the move would probably be money-motivated on his part. But his goal to game ratio for Newcastle is really good and he'd likely get even more scoring chances playing for us. Gervinho isn't good enough this season at all, Podolski seems to be a left sided player for Wenger, I prefer Walcott on the right than in the middle and that leaves Giroud. We need a proper strike to back him up.

Villa won't happen. I have a feling Juventus will break the bank to sign Llorente. Huntelaar has signed a new deal. Ideally I'd like Cavani in terms of fairly realistic signings, but if not then for 7.5M I'd also take Ba.

The juve trail with Llorente will prob be where he ends up......I don't want huntelaar....to much at too late in his career...ba,and even a cheeky bid for or swap for dezko....I would could and be happy at that....and apparently he could be on his way out....

If Dzeko is an option he'd be a good shout. Big fan of his.

Anyone else heard of Luiz Gustavo (DM, Bayern) is linked with Arsenal?

rschalala wrote:Anyone else heard of Luiz Gustavo (DM, Bayern) is linked with Arsenal?

Seen a few articles in last week linking us with him. Don't know much about him though. Someone I know who watches more German football than me says he is a bit of a unit and can play in a few positions comfortably.

Mike York wrote:

Michael Foster wrote:

Mike York wrote:I'd take Ba if that 7.5M release clause is true. The worries are his supposed knee injury and that the move would probably be money-motivated on his part. But his goal to game ratio for Newcastle is really good and he'd likely get even more scoring chances playing for us. Gervinho isn't good enough this season at all, Podolski seems to be a left sided player for Wenger, I prefer Walcott on the right than in the middle and that leaves Giroud. We need a proper strike to back him up.

Villa won't happen. I have a feling Juventus will break the bank to sign Llorente. Huntelaar has signed a new deal. Ideally I'd like Cavani in terms ozf fairly realistic signings, but if not then for 7.5M I'd also take Ba.

The juve trail with Llorente will prob be where he ends up......I don't want huntelaar....to much at too late in his career...ba,and even a cheeky bid for or swap for dezko....I would could and be happy at that....and apparently he could be on his way out....

If Dzeko is an option he'd be a good shout. Big fan of his.

I personally think dezko is vastly underrated.....the guy changes games so often and has bundles of energy.....

So according to twitter, we will be signing:

Arda Turan - GBP 12MM
Demba Ba - GBP 7.5MM
Yann M'vila - GBP 7.5MM

I wish that were true.

They say Turan wont be joining til august though

Cannot see the M'vila signing happening, would actually be too good to be true + Diaby will be back in training next week.

Chris Chan wrote:They say Turan wont be joining til august though

That sucks! I can't see Arsenal spending over GBP 10MM and not having him to not be immediately available to play for us.

Meshaal wrote:

Chris Chan wrote:They say Turan wont be joining til august though

That sucks! I can't see Arsenal spending over GBP 10MM and not having him to not be immediately available to play for us.

I wont believe any of these stories until they are confirmed by the club

Meshaal wrote:So according to twitter, we will be signing:

Arda Turan - GBP 12MM
Demba Ba - GBP 7.5MM
Yann M'vila - GBP 7.5MM

I wish that were true.

If these rumours are true, we have effectively replaced Robin van Persie with three quality players, albeit half a season too late (and of course their combined wages will be higher than what we were paying him though possibly less than what he was demanding / is on at United).

Chris Chan wrote:

Meshaal wrote:

Chris Chan wrote:They say Turan wont be joining til august though

That sucks! I can't see Arsenal spending over GBP 10MM and not having him to not be immediately available to play for us.

I wont believe any of these stories until they are confirmed by the club

Where is the fun in that!

Remember when we signed Angulo? Xabi Alonso? Mata?

I do notice a pattern developing....

Meshaal wrote:

Chris Chan wrote:

Meshaal wrote:

Chris Chan wrote:They say Turan wont be joining til august though

That sucks! I can't see Arsenal spending over GBP 10MM and not having him to not be immediately available to play for us.

I wont believe any of these stories until they are confirmed by the club

Where is the fun in that!

Remember when we signed Angulo? Xabi Alonso? Mata?

I do notice a pattern developing....

I remember when we signed Sahin

Meshaal wrote:Cannot see the M'vila signing happening, would actually be too good to be true + Diaby will be back in training next week.

Back just in time so we don't have to buy for that position.......


Then of course 1hr after the window shuts he gets injured....

demba Ba has been struck out by Wenger......so it looks like the injuries are coming back and Wenger decides its enough........if he has struck off a player for 7.5m of that capacity then we have no chance signing anybody else......dead window looming.

Michael Foster wrote:demba Ba has been struck out by Wenger......so it looks like the injuries are coming back and Wenger decides its enough........if he has struck off a player for 7.5m of that capacity then we have no chance signing anybody else......dead window looming.

I wouldn't say struck out as yet, the impression I got was Wenger said we haven't signed him yet.

Jamie Sanderson says we have been offered Yann M'vila for GBP 8 million. Who is this guy and why does his name sound so familiar?