Arsenal Banter Archive June 01 2013

01 Jun 2013 23:31:54
hi guys this is a bit of a different question but if you could bring back any member of the invincibles in there prime who would it be? also who do you think is most like them on the market now. mine is bergkamp, I have to saw the player most like him is probably kaka because of his eye for a pass and phenomenal technical ability or jovetic

Bergkamp5353 {Ed027's Note - Viera, Yaya Toure

Bergkamp and van percie!

Henry could score anytime anywhere I'd say falcaos close to his level.

Spot on with the response Ed. agree 100%.

Lehmann- sczenszny
lauren- not really sure
cambell- kompany
toure-masherano at cb
cole- gibbs
gilberto- can't think of anyome similar
vieira- yaya toure
pires- rues
Freddy- pedro
bergkamp- rvp
henry- remy

Note* these comparisons are based on style and NOT abilty

Falcao is nowhere near Henry's level.

Thank god you said they're based on style because I was going to jump out my window when I saw Henry - Remy.

style wise i'd say your spot on there, apart from bergkamp and RVP, wouldn't say there is a man on earth who is that much of a genius on and off the ball apart from Berbatov.

01 Jun 2013 21:52:36
Congratulations to Carlos Vela for being top scorer at his club and for helping them reach the champions league!

Yeah! I'd rather have the boy back than Higuain.

Lanz

You do know that his club (Real Sociedad) are one of the teams that we could face in the UCL play-off, as well as PSV, Fenerbache, Metalist Kharkiv and Pacos Ferriera. So not very easy indeed, but kudos to Vela on his achievement.

I do know, yes - but congratulations are in order nonetheless. Real Sociedad getting to the CL qualifiers is pretty well on a par with Wigan achieving the same thing in the prem. It's a remarkable achievement.

01 Jun 2013 20:31:40
Grenier has said "I have more or less made a decision about which club I want to join, " said Grenier.

"I have made the choice for sporting reasons above all. Arsenal? It could well be them.

"There would be competition for places, but you get that at all big clubs and it does not stop me making my decision.

"I am still young, but I have always set myself targets and I do everything possible to exceed them. "

Take what you want from it. Personally I think he's going to be an Arsenal man next season. Anybody else?

Also I realise this news could be a day old but no one else had covered the quotes yet.

I think he'll be an arsenal player. Personally I think we should be aiming higher but ill welcome and wish him all the best.
AG

I think he would flourish at arsenal, great competition for santi and so on, remember its not a title winning team, its a title winning squad

Bergkamp5353

01 Jun 2013 17:17:34
A site is saying that Napoli is interested in Verms, and chance we could put together a package of Verms and cash for Cavani? Too lofty?

In our dreams my friend :)

Wouldn't mind Hamsik. Even though he said he wants to stay at Napoli.

Gokhan Inler for me.

Nas

01 Jun 2013 15:24:25
Is YILMAZ going to the Emirates? There is a few people in the know that think he might be!
Fantastic scoring record in Turkey. Watch got this one!

I would be ecstatic if we signed him!

01 Jun 2013 19:55:21
Decent player, united interested in him aswell though.

01 Jun 2013 15:21:16
How about Fraser Forster to sort out your goal keeping problem eh? He's quality and would be nice to see more English players in an Arsenal shirt, also think you should keep Vermalin and if you got Fabregas back that would be amazing! from a saints fan

What goal keeping problem?, shezza had a dip in form midway through the season, fabianski came in and didn't put a foot wrong, shezza came back in and was excellent.

01 Jun 2013 14:19:39
Metal,

Apologies to bring this back to the top but you hit the nail on the head with your reply to Nick.

It's now about that step up in quality, those 20+ million pound players that will have a huge impact on this squad, I want last seasons first teamers to have no guarantees of a starting place.

There are enough being shipped out to make room, plus massive savings on wages, I can't or won't believe that Arsene is going to sit with his arse on his hands in this window.

Exactly mate. Hazard, Oscar and Lamps don't start every game. Even Kompany doesn't start every game!

Chelsea struggle through the middle, they bring on Ba and Moses and play wider.

We struggle through the middle, we bring on the Ox and put him in the middle. Say whaaaaaat?

01 Jun 2013 13:53:18
Wouldn't it be great if it were a four horse race for the title next year, and we came out on top?!

Unlikely, but still.

01 Jun 2013 12:56:46
Celtic fan here heard you've made a 12 million bid for wanyama personally I think it will be rejected I like arsenal so would be happy to see him leave for you guys but if Wilfred zaha is worth 15 million wanyama Is worth more than him he dominated in champions league is a proven talent zaha is total overrated IMO. Good luck next season boys would be glad to meet you in champions league group stages your fans are very respectful and well behaved. (If we qualify for group stages lol we have to play 6 qualifying games before we get group stages) hail hail

I agree that Zaha is a little overrated but no way is Wanyama worth more than 15m.

Rather have Gonalons anyway.

Ted, I'm guessing you haven't seen an awful lot of him?

If we were only to make one signing this summer I'd want it to be Vic.

I rate him so highly and we need a CDM more than anything else.

OP is right. If we signed him he'd be worth £30m after the 1st season easily. That said I don't see him leaving Celtic for anything more than £15m.

It's not that I don't rate him, it's just that I'm not convinced he could make the step up from Scottish football to the Premier League. So for that reason, I would not pay any more than 15m for him.

01 Jun 2013 12:49:10
Just wanted to say whatever methods Arsenal used to sign Santi Cazorla I hope they use the same know how to bring some more quality like him to The Emirates.
Him coming to Arsenal is what I call having a "Right touch "
That's it. Got that off my chest. Ha ha!

Didn't we snatch him off a club with financial trouble?

Watch out Portsmouth, we're coming for your players!

Now Lyon have big fin problems

Do they now? How very interesting.

01 Jun 2013 09:17:15
question for the EDs who do you think will be the first tranfers for us coming in or going out?

thanks new to the site {Ed027's Note - Arshavin & Squiallachi should be released pretty soon, probably Fabianski too

Arshavin and Squillaci were released last week, Ed. {Ed027's Note - I'm sure they weren't...Is it official?

01 Jun 2013 12:28:40
Gervinho - "I'm staying at Arsenal"

TRANSLATION: "Lyon want to halve my wages - I'm going nowhere for now. "

Now, this is a weird one for me. This is a classic case of knowing when to compete on wages and when not to - and this is where you expect more from your scouts.

Gervinho has never looked like a controlled, top quality footballer. His stats are incredible but on the ball he is not, and any scout worth his pay packet should have been able to communicate that to Wenger.

The warning 'May NOT be suitable for a top 4 prem club' should have been given, and heeded. £70'000 a week? The cycle repeats.

This is one thing I can't really understand about the minds at the club. When will they realise that signing middle-of-the-road players will have middling results? If all you do is spend £10-15m on players, then you will never be guaranteed quality. You spend £20m and you are 10x more likely to see a return on your investment.

The point I'm making is - either sign £0-10m players and stick them on £15-40'000pw, or sign the £20-40m players and stick them on big contracts like £70'000pw.

Signing these average players on high wages is the sort of problem I thought the club was supposed to be dealing with. All that happens is that players aren't sellable if they don't come good.

I like Gerv, he never goes hiding, but it's been two years now and you have to wonder whether he is good for this club. On £70'000pw that 'wonder' was clearly ignored, and now we have another player sitting on his deal even though he plays about 10 games a season because he isn't good enough.

Juan Mata wasn't on £70'000 in his first season at Chelsea, and there wasn't any doubt about whether he'd be a success. The doubt about whether Gerv would make it in this league must have been there, yet boom, mega deal.

It's poor. I really hope to see less of this in the coming seasons.

More purchasing of players of a guaranteed calibre - less dishing out high wages to players who cost sweet f all because there is a solid chance they aren't that good.

The prem is not for everyone - next time, just sign someone who is already good in the league!

What about santi? arteta? giroud? podolski? All signed for 10-15mil and have all done a good job. There is no doubt we could sell all but arteta (of that list) for a similar or better price if needs be. Arteta is only because he's getting on a bit.

The main problem we face is signing players like squillaci, santos, park etc, all these were signed for relatively small transfer fees but have high wages. They were never going to be great as they were average players when they joined. So end up playing no part in the 1st team and take their wage.

Whereas gervinho and arshavin (for example) were quality players before they joined and it just happened to be that it didn't work out.

Couldn't agree more. No idea what made scouts want to buy him. 2 years and still nothing to show from him. Very average.

Well.

Santi - valued at £20-25m, we got him for £16m because Malaga owed serious money and had an imminent deadline.

Arteta - bought from a club desperate for money, many believed his best years were behind him when we bought him, and I think it's fair to say he has actually surprised many people with his consitency etc

Podolski - a £20m-rated seasoned veteran with insane experience, a good age, we managed to pike from a relegated club due to a clause in his contract, so he was half price.

Giroud was imo a very good deal, we paid about £12m for him - but in fairness, in the league alone, his return would suggest that we shouldn't have paid any more. Most £10m strikers score about 10 - 15 league goals per season.

Considering what Gerv had achieved in France, his fee was incredibly low. However, you watch him play and it's crystal clear we would have been foolish to pay any more for him.

I am sure anyone who didn't know who he was, but saw his stats, would have been shocked when the went to scout him and discovered what his play is like.

That being said - there's a nagging feeling he could still come good. He was great at the start of the season. He was our best player against Chelsea at home, and our only good player against Montpellier first time round. He scored his entire tally for last year in about 5 games and bagged 8 assists.

I won't lose sleep if we keep him - I just hate that we keep signing players who need at least a year to adapt. It costs us every year, and every season is a 'building' season instead of a season of progression.

Gervinho was great in Ligue 1, he got more assists than hazard in his final season. its not the CLUBs fault he hasn't lived up to expectations guys. stop finger pointing and moaning like little girls. its gernvinho fault, and we are trying to move him on at the moment. least the club is aiming for top quality instead of moving backwards.

Value for money, we will be singing a marque player its not going to be a 30-40m singing, but it will break our transfer budjet and extend the 15m curerntly. THere is nothing wrong with that fee it would be the norm if clubs with wealthy owners weren't about.

Your moaning about buying crap but what about anderson, 25m. absolutely awful player now. what about berbatov, wasnt used. You should be grateful we are managing our club better and not wasting money. we were paying debts off and without that 90% of you wouldn't have season tickets as we would still beat the old stadium.

Come on - I'm not complaining we forked out too much money for Gerv - I'm saying £70'000pw was a very high wage to put that specific player on when you can see how odd a player he is, and for that reason there was no guarantee he would be a success here. And the simple fact we've got nothing from him for 2 years and now he is in a position where he will face a wage cut if he returns to France totally backs up what I'm saying!

As for Berba - wasn't used? He was the highest scorer in the league in 201-11 only to be totally phased out in 2011/12, and he still scored a goal every 2 games.

Also this argument that we shouldn't question poor signings just because other clubs have them isn't a valid argument for not complaining. Who cares about United's flops? I'm talking about Arsenal's player.

And define wasting money anyway. So because we didn't spend £24m on Anderson we should applaud the club? We have a £143m wage bill and not a single player on more than £100kpw. On the flipside, we have Jenko on £32kpw and he never plays when Sagna is fit. You tell me who is throwing away money - United who pay Welbeck £15kpw and tell him to earn his contract, so they can accomodate the likes of Berba, Rooney, RVP - or us, paying Santos 65kpw to be a back up to Gibbs, Jenko £32k, whilst improving the contracts of players who warm the bench? It's not United throwing away money that's for sure!

100% agree with metal on this one.

The thing is if you pay some huge amount as transfer fees but still sign players on lower wages then its quite easy to move those players later. Like Anderson and Nani for instance would both feth Man United around 15m each. But they would be able to fetch something.

On the other hand Arsenal payed about 6m for Santos and now at those wages no one is buying them. On top of that he now has 2 years left on his contract and for sure he won't play for arsenal again so we would have to release him and that would be costly 5m+

So compare both the scenarios
Santos we loose 11m+ on top of that we payed him huge wages for 2 years for his s*** service
Anderson they also loose him 10-13m in transfers but payed him lot less in wages for his service and is no way as disastrous as Santos.


Also the bigger problem is that Santos is not a isolated case we have many such cases. (Squid/Bentner/Chamakh/Park/Gerv). That is why we find it difficult to move player. Its a case similar to ManC which also find it difficult to move players due to inflated wages the only difference is that they would find it difficult to move player like Nasri/Adebayor and for us it Santos. Atleast their player have something to offer to them like Nasri on his day can be very good. We don't even have that luxury.

And Wenger being an economist I don't understand how he couldn't understand. Socialist wage structure would never work practically.

01 Jun 2013 11:44:07
I'm predicting the following will be announced within a fortnight:

Cesar
Williams
Jovetic

The Fabregas situation is incredibly hard to call. He's set to hold talks with Barca management this week, if they don't assure him of starts next season I can see him asking to leave; especially in a World Cup season.
There have been no bids from ANY clubs lodged with Barca so far: they are obliged to inform Arsenal if they do.
The ideal situation for Barca is to keep him for another season to see how this transition goes for them- and give them time to find another creative midfielder. They cannot afford to get this wrong, Madrid are so close behind them now.

Paul

01 Jun 2013 10:20:00
Usmanov to complete takeover before the deadline ends. Villa, Grenier and Fabregas to Arsenal. Possible move to smash wage structure and keep Rooney in the PL.

01 jun 2013 09:50:08
hail cesar!

malaga gooner

Hail storm

1404

01 Jun 2013 08:25:50
has stopped taking bets on Julio Cesar.

01 Jun 2013 03:14:50
Very drunk. Very happy. My wife is pregnant and it will be my first.

Telling the whole fecking world.

I'm feeling awesome!!

Hackney Gooner {Ed029's Note - Good for you - look after her.}

Over the moon for you hackney.

may god bless your family.

malaga gooner

Congrats fella. Junior Gooner in the making.
Flybo

Congrats to both you and your other half Hackney.
It's a great feeling!

01 Jun 2013 11:25:33
Congratulations mate :)

Detroit Gooner

Congratulations Hackney!

Nothing better in this world!

Congrats Hackney.

Nas

Congrats! :) Bring a child into your life is the best thing you can do :)!

No worries there Ed0029. Thanks for your kind words. Head's bloody thumping right now though!

01 Jun 2013 13:17:14
Nice one Hackney, hope the heads not to sore!

Congratulations Hackney! Awesome news :))

Congratulations! Nothing better than bringing another Gooner into the world. ;)

Nice1 Hackney.

If it's a boy call him

Gunner

If it's a girl call her

Goonereat

Congrats make sure he is a gunner don't show him the crap teams because he will feel sorry for them

Many congrats

01 Jun 2013 02:58:33
I would be stoked if Fabregas returned.

But personally, I think we have too many central mids already.

Wilshere, Arteta, Ramsey Diaby and Fabregas, competing for two spots?
And in one of those two CM spots, we need a defensive player like Wanyama or Gundogan.

People cry out for defensive midfielders, and then say we should get fabregas back.

How on earth are we going to fit a defensive midfielder like wanyama in when we have Fabregas, Wilshere and Cazorla to choose from? We can't keep pushing Cazorla wide he is best as a CAM.

What we need for midfield right now:

Gundogan/Wanyama----------Wilshere
-------------Cazorla

Whoops, forgot to tag my post,

Nick.

Nick. again, it's this idea that of rotation that seems to bypass arsenal fans.

Man City have £25m+ players on the bench.

So do Chelsea, so do United.

We have 8m players on the bench.

Wilshere showed this season he needs to grow back into the team not be thrust back in.

Subs are not just for seeing out games, they are used to change games.

Man U can take off Kagawa and bring on a £24m Anderson who is criminally underrated and who proved this year he can turn games on their heads.

The only player on our bench who is guaranteed to turn a game is Rosicky and he doesn't make the bench a lot of the time.

Having the quality would allow Wenger to use tactics like never before.

Just as an example:
Imagine we line up with Wanyama, Wilshere and Cesc. We're at home and we go 3-0 up. It's 60 mins gone.
Take off Cesc, protect him. Bring Santi on. Take off Jack, bring Ramsey on to sit deeper alongside Wanyama. Take Theo off, bring on The Ox. This would allow us to protect our lead whilst still having a creative and attacking outlet.

Or reversed in some way:

Imagine we're playing United in a cup game, away. It's 1-1, 65 to 70 mins gone. We started with Wanyama and Arteta as two in front of defence, with Cesc in acm, Santi wide left, Theo right, Podolski up front. We need a goal or we're out.

Take off Arteta, bring on Wilshere. Wanyama stays back as the sole DM whilst WIlshere goes and helps in midfield with Cesc. Santi comes off for a striker as he's been quiet out wide - all of a sudden we've got Theo, Podolski, Cesc, Jack and another striker going for the win.

It's a blurry example but that's all it's meant to be - an example.

Remember when City won the FA Cup two years ago? They were drawing with United. Nasri was having a quiet game, as was Yaya. They desperately needed a goal - Mancini came out with a master-stroke.

He took off Nasri and brought on Barry - but it wasn't a defensive move. He told Barry to sit back and protect, and he told Yaya to get forward and join the attack. City sparked into life and Yaya scored the winner to win Mancini the cup.

It's this level of tactics that Wenger can't pull off with the squad he's got right now. If we want to win anything then we need game changers on the bench mate. Everyone's worrying about how we'd fit these players in - we need 18 players as good as each other, not 11 starters and 7 weaker players on the bench.

01 Jun 2013 01:37:54
Poznan in my pants has a really good blog post detailing the debt and availability of $. Discusses the Neville quotes at the end of the season using Swiss Ramble's financial analysis. It gives me hope for a couple of reasons. First we had no $ in previous seasons. We didn't spend because we couldn't. Second we will not be that far off from the City Chelsea as the years continue. That said I still don't expect us drop huge cash under Wenger, but when his successor comes in, who probably won't have the talent of Wenger, we can buy. Also we won't get beat continually on wages.

Stevens

01 Jun 2013 00:02:49
Sorry about being disjointed but doing this from my phone which won't allow me to reply to posts!

I posted earlier about the extension of the season ticket renewal and change in terms

To put the current position in context, I waited for 10 years on the list and was offered the season ticket 3 years ago. I was number 28000 odd when I joined the list

Now the waiting list only has just over 15000 on it and people are waiting about 3 years. That's due to a higher num er of people deciding not to renew and more people declining the chance of the season ticket when they reach the top of the list

That means the club churns through the list a lot more quickly and if it carries on at this rate they will have exhausted the list in 3 or 4 years.

That has to send a signal to the financial experts that they're losing their customer base and their brand is weakening.

Like I said earlier the longer this goes on the harder and more expensive it will be to correct and the only way to correct is to get us back into the position of challenging for silverware every year

Stan Ivan etc must spend now or they will have to spend more. And more the longer they put off the investment in building a top drawer squad

Time to dig deep Stanley

Personally I don't care who we sign as long as we're seriously contending for silverware againagain. And as long as they stay well away from Shrek!

While I agree that something has to be done, you can't overlook the fact that the new stadium can fit in quite a lot of people hence more people have the possibility to buy seasib tickets. One of the reasons for moving from Highbury was that there wasn't enough space for fan. Higher capacity - Shorter waitinglist.

/Aros

Aros, that decrease in waiting time would only have been for the first year or two.

We moved in 2006, and only upped the capacity by 20'000.

Once that first increase had been sold to new season ticket owners, then there should have been very little reason for the constant higher turnover of tickets to continue - if anything, a bigger stadium/'better product' should have resulted in even fewer season tickets being returned.

Supergooner has made a great point, financial analysts' alarms should be going crazy - there's no way 6 years on the numbers of season ticket returns is STILL increasing - that signifies something very wrong.