Arsenal Banter Archive June 20 2016

20 Jun 2016 22:25:56
Hi eds, first time poster, long time reader. Great work from you guys in here seem to be involved a lot more than eds in rangers page (glaswegian arsenal fan here) I've just seen a rumour linking us with lukaku (romelu not Jordan) was wondering if there's any truth in this. Personally I think he's perfect for us, potentially great player. But can't see arsenal spending the money. Looks like its the usual get fans onside with xhaka then come out and say only 2 more and end up with dembele and an average defender. Sorry to ramble but really he needs to get his act together and open his eyes, both van dijk and wanyama would have walked into our team from celtic and he let them go, now wanyama is going to spurs for 11m while we get kb'd off a one season wonder who doesn't fit our system at all. Beyond a joke. We should be prioritising kante, van dijk and a proper top striker like lukaku or morata.

{Ed091's Note - Maybe theyll look to him now the vardy deal is off, but i doubt it due to the fee he would command.

20 Jun 2016 22:41:58
100% agree with Van Dijk and Morata.

20 Jun 2016 23:35:01
Add Mahrez or Gotze to those two and I am in!

20 Jun 2016 23:38:29
Is the vardy deal actually off then eds? As nothing I've read regarding it being off is in any way conclusive. What Wenger said seemed no different than what he always says when interested in a player?

{Ed091's Note - We will have to wait and see.

20 Jun 2016 21:05:24
I have a feeling that wenger will approachthe new season with new formation and tactics.
OR he might proves me wrong and stick with his stubbornness lol.

20 Jun 2016 21:57:23
Or putting it another way, if thing don't change, they will stay the same.

20 Jun 2016 19:53:35
Hi fellow gunners and ed's hope you're enjoying the Euro's. My question is with Blanc set too leave PSG do you think we will strike a deal to have him at the Emirates in the following season? With Wenger being on his last year is there any info on Blanc being his successor? I think he'd fit quite well at the Emirates.

{Ed002's Note - It is not a subject the Arsenal site will be discussing due to the vegetables.}

20 Jun 2016 22:40:49
Harsh.

{Ed002's Note - Ok, the harsh vegetables.}

20 Jun 2016 23:03:33
That's better Ed.

{Ed033's Note - hardy vegetables like rutabaga, kohlrabi, chicory and arugula, i presume.

20 Jun 2016 23:59:56
We are definitely a bunch of cabbages Ed033 :-)

20 Jun 2016 17:44:44
21 years ago today, we signed Dennis Bergkamp.

One of the best players to ever put on an Arsenal shirt.

20 Jun 2016 18:06:04
Excellent player and a spurs fan too.

20 Jun 2016 18:11:20
The only thing he liked about Spurs was Sol Campbell - we know how that worked out ;-)

20 Jun 2016 18:20:33
One of the best players to grace the prem.

20 Jun 2016 18:40:06
No red, he was obsessed with the legendary Glenn hoddle lifting European trophies.

20 Jun 2016 22:12:45
Raver was that the 83/ 84 final when you beat the mighty Anderlecht who actually cheated their way to the final by bribing the ref in the semi to beat Notts Forest who would no doubt of stuffed you had you had to play them.

Another interesting fact for you from that 2 legged final. Hoddle wasn't in the squad for either game. 😱😂😂.

21 Jun 2016 00:03:54
greatest player i have ever watched play in an arsenal. Even in his last seasons, his class never abandoned him. anybody remember the 7-0 thrashing we gave to everton at highbury in 2005?

20 Jun 2016 13:44:15
It does my head in that some fans are saying do we need xhaka as we have le coq and elneny, don't get me wrong I am a massive le coq fan I think he has been the difference the last two years his game against man city showed he is the bollocks and personally I'd play him and xhaka together.

But don't slag a new signing off before the poor boy has played a game for us I think him and le coq sitting there will be great and hope Wenger signs that new deal in Wenger we trust!

20 Jun 2016 17:47:19
Its not about slagging off, its about priorities, unless we are going to spend huge money we have other more pressing priorities a lot more pressing. It is not personal to xhaka, its about the money left to buy the quality we need in more pressing positions. If you asked most people center mid is the last place they would strengthen. Its not a xhaka problem more a wenger one. We have regularly bought midfielders when strikers and defenders are more of a priority and that is the case here.

20 Jun 2016 18:02:13
Are you joking Steve . Bar a striker it's been a position we have needed to fill for some time, unless the Elneny signing pacified people. Every silver lining has a cloud hey.

20 Jun 2016 18:11:08
Totally agree Steve, Midfield isn't an area we are short n.

20 Jun 2016 18:12:44
Agree crybaby

Xhaka is better than Le coq, elneny and Rambo so why not sign him? He's a born leader and that's something we lack massively.

I don't know why people are crying about signing him and not a striker, the transfer window isn't over and we get will have people working hard all across the planet trying to identify the most important signing for us in years.

No need to get agitated just yet but I agree it's go BIG or go home.

20 Jun 2016 18:27:16
Striker, center back, right wing, more pressing and yes elneny was bought as the piece in the jigsaw by wenger, if not why buy him. Coq, wilshire, ramsey, caz, elneny can all play varying combinations, what are the varying center back or strikeforce of a similar strength. If we spend 150 mil this summer then great but this is arsenal andwe have a budget, i would not have blown the majority of it there, it wwould have gone into scoring and not conceding, areas we need to address first.

20 Jun 2016 19:05:09
Jegooner you make me laugh, priceless.

20 Jun 2016 19:05:17
Steve you summed it up perfectly. Priorities.

You shod be in politics :)

20 Jun 2016 19:10:50
I think despite needs elsewhere Xhaka made sense despite our current midfield. We lost Rosicky, Arteta and Flamini whilst Cazorla is now 31, I think.

We were crying out for quality replacements when Coquelin, Cazorla, Wilshere and others got injured.

Xhaka and Elneny are upgrades on the three we lost and hence make us stronger. A stronger shield in front of our back four makes us stronger.

I for sure would like to see Mertesacker replaced and a better winger but a striker is the ONE position we 1,000,000 % need to upgrade.

20 Jun 2016 20:59:08
All crying this time last year saying we need a world class cdm we don't need a CB we need cover for rb forward and rw.

20 Jun 2016 21:03:07
I see Xhaka is an upgrade to what we have, and he is defently better than what we have (le coq and el neny) not saying yhey aren't good but he is better. So that's a positive move. We all know that we are after a striker and I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. As for a CB not too sure what the hell wenger is thinking about and bit making it a too priority after many many howlers our CB had.

20 Jun 2016 23:11:50
Glad I put a smile on ya face Steve

Next il be crowbarring some positivity out of you ;)

21 Jun 2016 00:25:55
Me i'm always positive, i try to give two negatives and what does two negatives equal? Can you remember your science class.

21 Jun 2016 07:37:37
lol ofcourse ste mate

Two negatives equals a Steve r ;)

20 Jun 2016 12:12:01
Why would we sign a winger when we've got Campbel who hasn't been trusted with enough play time despite putting in a great shift whenever he's given the chance. There's C. Willock, Reines-Adelaide, Gnabry, all willing to step up for the senior team. We've got brilliant talents in Zelalem, Toral, Crowley and the likes who can feature in midfield so there's no room for any more purchases in the midfield (Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshire, Elneny, Xhaka, Coquelin) .
What we truly need is a striker, one who will bed the ball in the back of the net. Wenger may for all you know, not purchase a CB. He is likely to put his faith in Gabriel and Chambers as back up to Mertz and Kos.
We do not know how the transfer window will end. Wenger could surprise us all.
We should have won the league with the chances created last season but our attackers lost their heads right from the second half of last season. We need more fire power up front. Maybe an all season fit Welbeck could have won us the league. Walcott was disappointing.

20 Jun 2016 12:32:42
There is always a worry with us and transfer windows and we always seem to discard any youth. Midfield has been talked about and everyone seems to have forgotten Alex Iwobi too.

There is a chance one of the players you mention break through but I think because of Guardiola at City, Klopp having a full pre season and Conte at Chelsea that we are going to need the real deal from the off and striker is the absolute stand out position we need to fill.

Ferguson won his last title off the back of RVP with what was arguably his poorest squad.

20 Jun 2016 12:42:56
Mertz is to slow now and chambers needs to go out on loan. We've had the last 13 years of giving players a chance and 2 fa cups in that time is not good enough. Those players would make good squad players and back but not 1st choice.

20 Jun 2016 13:18:10
Even a blind man could be able to tell Arsenal have CB and ST problems. I fear Wenger would fix only one and that would inevitably be the ST department.
I would personally love to have both.
Midfield looks good however wings isn't that bad (Sanchez, Iwobi, Ox, Campbel, Walcott plus the incoming young lads) . Albeit i would love a Riyad Mahrez.

20 Jun 2016 09:25:58
Ed025,how you doing

What's your expectations for Everton next season.

{Ed025's Note - im expecting better than last season malaga, for the first time in a long while we have a decent war chest and we got the manager we wanted so all the signs look good mate, top 6 would be good but we will just have to see how things pan out but the blues fans are very optimistic and looking forward to the new season as im sure we all are..

20 Jun 2016 09:43:10
I think you under performed last year with Martinez bizarre decisions

I expect a lot more from you

You have a good squad

Get rid of McCarthy.

{Ed025's Note - i agree with you malaga, macca is a bit of a headless chicken and we do need to upgrade in midfield and other areas, we need to get off to a good start really otherwise the natives will get restless, everton fans are not the most patient mate and are expecting major improvement..

20 Jun 2016 07:11:55
Granit Xhaka looks like a really good signing, i couldn't care less if he was really needed or not.

For people saying that we should buy Morata because he is a "big game" striker, that's not good enough for me.

People might choose not to remember or come up with cynical reasoning for why it happened, but has scored in some pretty big games.
He scored twice against Bayern (the one he scored away was pure class)
Scored a hat trick against Olympiakos, which propelled us into the last 16
Scored against City twice
scored against Liverpool twice
as a matter of fact the only club i don't remember him scoring against since he has been here is Chelsea ( then again we don't score against Chelsea) . you could argue that he hasn't performed when we needed him the most but that's a debate for another day.

Giroud needs to be replaced by someone better than him, Morata simply isn't better than Olly at the moment. At Arsenal we have the problem of making it out that our players are complete donkeys when the chips are down, which is sad.

20 Jun 2016 07:42:43
Totally agree CMP

Love what I saw last night mate ;)

20 Jun 2016 13:25:29
I think our need for a morata is far greater than a xhaka, regardless of opinion of how god they are or not.

20 Jun 2016 13:40:09
Good not god, sausage fingers.