Arsenal Banter Archive February 21 2013

21 Feb 2013 23:12:21
Quick Question:

As guardiola is joining Bayern, where do you think their current manager Jupp Heynckes is going to end up?
He is 67-68 years old, and his record speaks for itself. Retirement beckons for him? or does he still have ambitions?

He's retiring {Ed002's Note - Probably buit not certainly. He has an offer on teh table for his services and will decide at the end of teh season.}

21 Feb 2013 20:00:01
This sounds mental but I am already excited for the summer and what will happen, see if he stays or goes? who we buy? Who we sell? I am however fully behind the team for the remainder of this season we still have a big job to do and I for one am full of optimism we will pull it out of the bag. No more negativity till the end of the season and then if we don't qualify for CL we will have something to be negative about.

Couple of points if Wenger does go I would love to see Diego Simone or De Boer. Simone is doing a class job at Atheltico plus bonus Beckham won't come training anymore. De Boer is doing great at Ajax plus might bring Bergkamp back with him.


Secondly I am in two minds about my season ticket renewal flip a coin time I think thou n
Knowing my luck won't renew and we go next season unbeaten and run away with the league.

Holmesy

I'd go for either of those managers too. Both young. World names too which would help attract players.

21 Feb 2013 19:58:21
well. goddam it! spurs go through in the 90th min. FUK. good goal mind you. anyway. hopefully they get dumped in italy:):)
andi

Its good news more fixtures for them

gaston

21 Feb 2013 19:19:04
got to laugh at u all saying we signing him him him and ooohh him, wasnt we all saying this in jan jack will be gone this time next year to utd UNLESS WE SIGN

GK RB CB DM RW/LW ST/CF 6 players we need or that's it for us mid table from then on FACT

Say what?

21 Feb 2013 17:52:26
Hello Ed and fellow Gooners
As I have been off work today I have had time to reflect on my previous post and I feel that I am fully justified in my anti AW comments. If the rumours are true and SK has given AW a vote of confidence plus �70m to spend in the summer all I know is that you chould give him �100m to spend and put a loaded gun to his head and he still wouldn't spend it. AW himself is the problem at the club.
This is far the best squad he has had but it still contains some bloody good players and we should be performing better and be more consistent.
To put it this way if AW was in charge 2nd leg Bayern I would say no way but if Mourinho was in charge I would have a flutter on us. This comes from a fan who thought AW was God and even when I sat in that bar in Paris in 2006 (I am convinced if Lehman had not been sent off - we would have won)
I still thought he was THE MAN.
I wonder if we lost the next 3 league games leading up to the 2nd leg what the Board's reaction would be? I would get some respect back for AW if he would tell us the truth about the transfer kitty. Whether it is his or the Board's decision not to spend. Oh, I forgot, he is paid �146,000 per week not to!
Thanks for the site Ed.
From the totally fed up Heybridge Gooner!

Hello people that should read far from the best squad not what I wrote

21 Feb 2013 17:38:31
Just finished watching the Milan vs Barca match that I had recorded. I knew the score but just wanted to watch the match to see the tactical approach Milan took.

I have to say this is what can happen when you go in with a solid tactical plan and execute it well. Milan coach knew if he played two rows of 4 with the forwards even coming back behind the half way line at times to defend, then his chances of at least a draw was more possible.
And now they head back to Barca with no away goals conceded. They made barca look average with their intense TEAM PRESS defending. Messi looked completely lost!

I hope wenger watched that match and took some notes on tactical planning.

Well done to the new, younger milan side. you worked your socks off and deserved the win

Absolutely correct, Milan had a game plan and every player stuck to it, last night was a battle between a well organized team against a few outstanding individuals in a team, tactics game plan and more importantly execution and team discipline and hard work made messi and co look very ordinary, a boring game for the neutral but great game for tacticians.

Could arsenal have done that to Barca, the answer is No, our playing style and the managers is to attack minded for that, I love our fancy football but to succeed now especially at champions league level we need to emulate how Milan played against the best team in the world, that is called a plan B mr wenger (defending as a team)

Shaneyd {Ed027's Note - please register your sign off

21 Feb 2013 17:29:42
Personally I feel that we need a few players to strengthen the squad. The board need to allow Wenger to spend some of the money that they have locked away. there are rumors suggesting that Wenger has been given around £70 million to spend, but the board are too cheap to do that. We need to improve on a lot of areas and get rid of the baggage that is holding us back! thankfully Wenger has realised that young talent cannot win trophys and inexperience can cost you points and games, this was shown last summer when Wenger invested in some big names who were also talented. I also feel that Wenger should change his approach to games, the formation that Weger plays, 4-3-3, has proved to be good over the years but I feel that it leaves big gaps, especially on the counter and our midfield often creeps forward leaving us vulnerable. I feel that we should change to a wide 4231 (or a defensive 4411) as this gives us width but also allows us to cover our defense.

Some players we need include:

1) A new goal keeper. Szczesny is good but has been making a lot of mistakes as of recent, even looking at the Bayern game, two of the goals he could have prevented (2nd and 3rd). somebody like Ter Stegen (Bor. M'gladbach), at 20 years old he has proven to be very good at such a young age and has the potential to be amazing (as an avid fan of the bundesliga, Ter Stegen shows great reflexes as well as good authority over his own area).

2) A new right back. Within the past year, Sagna has been looking more and more lackluster and Jenkinson is prone to mistakes, as he is young. Somebody such as Caceres (Juventus), who is versatile and not afraid to put an extra shift in.

3) A defensive minded midfielder. Somebody who can break up the play and isn't afraid to lunge into challenges, don't get me wrong, our midfield isn't bad but is prone to leaving big gaps between the midfield and defensive line causing problems at the back. Someone like Toulalan (Malaga), who is experienced, a good leader and someone who is good at defending and also distribution and somebody who Arsenal have strong links to already.

4) A Shadow Striker (CF/CAM). We need somebody who is able to play defense splitting passes, have good hold up play, and the ability to put a few shots on target. Nasri was especially good at doing this, and after selling him, we didn't have any to fill that trequartista role. Good examples of this is are Jovetic (Fiorentina) or Mario Gotze (Bor. Dortmund). both of these players have good ability and are both still quite young so have good potential and both ave been linked to Arsenal in recent years.

5) A Left sided Winger. Somebody is pacey, has the ability to beat defenders and the ability to put accurate crosses into the box. Walcott and Chamberlain are good wingers who have ability but are both prone to cut inside and look for a pass and not put it into the box for Giroud. Giroud has given Arsenal a different approach this season, and we must use his aerial ability.

Lastly I must stress that this is my opinion and must not be taken as black and white. Arsenal are a very good team fighting for champions league spots season after season, and 1000s of clubs would kill to be in our position but I feel that we are taking more and more steps back rather than going forward. Thanks for reading.

Hurray the second post on the trot where we get sensible thought and comment - good grief it's great to see some common sense and positivity.

A heart felt thanks.

The ghost of Terry Mancini

You say that our 4-3-3 system has been good over the years but we haven't actually won anything since adopting that formation. I agree about the 4-4-1-1 which is how we use to play when we were winning. It would be nice to see him try the oldskool way to see how we get on.

War Gunner

Do we need to get a keeper to replace Shez for me no, need a good back up yes, what Shez needs is a half decent defence in front of him, Seaman, Leaman could make mistakes as all keepers do but look at the defence in front both of them had

21 Feb 2013 17:17:19
It's obvious we need some new players for our club. I was thinking maybe the following;
- Capoue - £10 million
- Amborietia (spelling, Bilbao CB) - free
- Begovic - £7 million
- Jovetic - £19 million.

All seem realistic to me and it's only cost around £36 million.

I think Jovetic cost £30-£36

Begovic will cost at least 10 million and capoue probably aroun 12-15 million and
jovetic aroun the 25-30 mill mark

21 Feb 2013 16:29:17
If AW was to leave AFC, and we couldn't/wouldn't get a Mourinho, Ancellotti, Klopp to replace him, what would be the selling point in being able to attract world class players.
We're not a top 3 team in our own league; we're not a top 10 team in Europe; the current squad is FULL of dross; and we don't pay star players top wages.
Wenger, who has his flaws no doubt, still has many admirers throughout the world that would love to play for him or love to employ him.
So I ask all of you, what's the attraction to come play for Arsenal w/o Arsene?
Please don't say history because most of the top footballers out there only know Arsenal with Arsene.

I'm still on the fence about him leaving because I have zero faith in the board to adequately replace him. Better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don't. At least we know he cares about the club, it's his love for economics that's f";cked up and should be left for his superiors to worry about.

There are other options available for example Laurent Blanc look at what he did for Bordeaux, or we could try and get Heynckes when he leaves Bayer said to be rethinking his retirement. Both of these managers could attract players and are an example of what we could get

21 Feb 2013 16:21:05
Sounds like we will sign this Bilbao CB, he looks good actually. Like Mertesacker but stronger and faster making him much more suited to the EPL. If both Mert and Verm were to leave (apparently Verm will) then another CB like Subotic or Rami should really be brought in.

Detroit Gooner

21 Feb 2013 16:08:39
Getting tired of reading how Bayern are so great and how they taught us a footballing lesson etc.

Yes we got beat, but they really are not that great, they are a solid team who are in form and on a fantastic run at the moment. We however are a bit lost, on a poor run with players playing out of position as well as some of our players clearly showing poor form.

And as for them playing us off the park, wtf? all the goals including ours were lucky or due to defensive errors.

I say we should pick ourselves up and show them exactly how we can play, if it means our players giving 110% for 90 mins then great, they owe it to us.

If not a lesson what does 3-1 away from home count as. they could have scored a few more as well. one coomontator suggested men against boys and I guess that is fairer.

dave

21 Feb 2013 13:17:18
would everyone be happy if we only bought these players in the summer?

GK- 5mill-vorm
Defender-�20mill-hummels
D-Midfielder-�10m-capoue
Midfielder (no10 striker) �20mi-jovetic
Striker �20mill-damiao

We'll have to negotiate the prices on those as you're 5mil over our reported 70mil "war chest". ;)

Midlands Gooner

Jovetic won't come that cheap I guess.

Also they add up to some 75+.
On top of that we need a RB as I feel Sanga will leave, We also need a proper Winger right now we only have one proper winger as of now in Ox (I don't count gerv) and that too has is very young and has not developed much from last year (This is for the people who say we have players for 4-4-2 system, guys we don't have wingers I am talking about proper wingers like De Maria, Nani and not makeshift wingers like Ramsey).

The more I think the more I feel even the reported 70mil won't be enough to make us title winning squad. last season Man United lost title on goal diff they still went ahead to sped 40mil considering where we are now we atleast need 100mil to revamp the squad.

'Only bought these players'

. only? It's hard enough for Wenger to buy 1 player in a year, forget 5 players. It's easy to buy 5 players on football manager though, and I expect you are doing that as we speak.

Vorm? We need a top quality GK to REPLACE Shezza.

War chest or no war chest, if we don't make CL next season, we can forget any of those players.

If you can get Damiao for £20m, can you do my budget next month?
Your a miracle worker!

Other than that, "only" was the wrong choice there mate!
Off that list, I'd be happy with Just Hummels and Jovetic to be honest.

I know we need more, than that, but it'd be a statement of intent.
However, I can't see Hummels leaving Dortmund for us right now.

D

Seeing as we have been in CL football for the past 10+ years and never signed a TOP player, we can expect that to continue.

21 Feb 2013 12:54:05
Forgive me this may be long but, Bayern Munich have a self sustainable model just like the Arsenal. They have no sugar daddy's pouring money into the club, yet on both the domestic and European fronts they are a force. They have a slighly higher wage bill to us, or maybe even the same. Yet we are millions of miles away from them. They spend what they have, and that's what Wenger doesn't understand. Arsenal will only get into financial trouble if they spend what the don't have, but in this case Arsenal have the money. We need say about 2 or 3 word class players and then another 2 or 3 quality players. Our so called great academy hasn't produced players now for a while with the ability to compete at the top level. Bayern produced Lahm, Muller, Kroos, Alaba. Compared to Gnabry, Eeislfied who haven't being tested at the big stage. The point of this post is Bayern should be the model for Wenger to follow, no sugar daddy, no financial loses, but yet still competing and winning trophies. Arsenal are paying the price of paying avergae players too much money. We need to buy as follows to compete:
Jovetic/Higuian/Benzema
Wanyama/Capoue
Ben Arfa
Goetze
Hummels
Begovic/Mingloet

NigerianGunner

Borussia Dortmund follow the same model, with similar results. Wenger needs to get over his La Liga love affair and look towards Germany as the new model for sustainable & successful football.

21 Feb 2013 11:37:43
I fail to understand the loyalty being shown to Wenger, when he has clearly been heading down the wrong path for a few seasons.
1) He abandoned his hugely successful 4-4-2 formation, using mainly tall athletic players.
2) He has made some dreadful signings, such as Squilacci, Park & Santos.
3) He has ruined some decent players, who had impressive records, until he got hold of them, such as Chamakh & Arshavin.
4) Some players have gone backward under him, including Oxlade C, who is a shadow of last seasons player, as is Vermaelen.
5) He fell out with RVP, at the end of last season, he has fallen out with Sagna & Vermaelen. They will be off this summer.
6) He insists on using zonal marking, which simply isn't working.
7) He sold our sole powerful defensive midfield player last summer & failed to replace him.
8) His 'socialist' wage policy has failed. We have lost quality players by not paying enough & have players who are overpaid & we can't sell.
9) He won't spend any of the huge funds we have. Indeed, last summer he sold 2 players & bought 3 players, without spending any of the funds.
10) He is a dictator, not allowing Bould to coach & even Brady is leaving next year, as he doesn't see eye to eye with Wenger.
11) His demeanour on the bench is poor. He bends double, grimacing & clutching his stomach, looking like a nerd in his daft coat. The zip episode was comical, resembling Basil Fawlty. Alternatively he berates the 4th official. His latest is attacking journalists. He looks like a man on the brink.

I can't imagine for one moment that either Moyes or Mourinho, could do worse than Wenger has performed this season.

Are you kidding, mate?
1) Barcelona wants to disagree
3) Arshavin isn't blameless. a player should, first and foremost, want to play. he rejects a loan move to Reading why? the Squid too. despite being unused, they'd rather rest on the bench rather than play.
4) The Ox is 19. perhaps hold the pressure and judgement off till he's old enough to marry?
7) Song was only a defensive midfield by name, not by trade.
9) the money available is questionable. the club makes losses if we aren't selling or jacking up ticket prices.
10-11) WOW. just wow!

if the post was a troll, then you, sir, have succeeded.

Top post.

should of signed your post!

Not mike dexter.
I wrote the original comment.
1) Barca are unique, but don't forget the absolute quality of their players & even they have Mascherano & Busquets who can tackle. don't forget Barca didn't win their league or the CL last season & this season they are on the brink of being eliminated by a very average AC Milan team. They will win their league, as their sole competitors Real have imploded.
3) Arshavin, has been played out of his natural position, another oddity that Wenger does. Why should he go to Reading? I don't think anyone offered to take Squilacci on loan?
4) I am not judging the Ox, although, if asked to, I think he an amazing talent, but Wenger's use of him this season has been sporadic & he hasn't performed as last season.
7) Well, I would rather have Song with us.
9) The money isn't questionable, you can easily look at the club accounts. We have enormous reserves, £150m, probably considerable more, when the latest accounts are published.
10 & 11) I failed to understand your wow comments?

Then you ought to question the quality of the players we do have instead of remembering what we did. Barca, Dortmund, etc. are case in point that technically astute players are just as good as physical players if not better. the trend suggests the latter.

there's two sides to the 'money' coin. on one hand, our operating profits were going down for a few years and had it not been for selling our stars and buying garbage, we'd be making losses at the club. on the flipside, the "reserve" cash pile seems to keep growing without being used to even offset operating costs.
either that's just bad management or intentionally forcing us to sell high+buy cheap and keeping the money to rot away.

i just get what makes people so sure of their judgments. here I am trying to understand things while making allowance for fair doubt, and I see others who're so sure of it all that it's unbelievable.

21 Feb 2013 11:07:02
this is the clubs cash balence

2009-100mill
2010-128mill
2011-150mill
2012-154mill

projected cash flow for 2013 is 230mill. with half the emirates money.

when is some of this money going to be spent?

we have all ways had money in the bank, why have we not spent any of it?

why did we not spend an extra 60 mill in the summer?

who is making these decisions, gazidas is saying there is money to be spent, why is wenger not spending?

WHO'S TELLING LIES?/

From what I have been told, we already have over £200m in the bank, probably nearer £250m. The problem, is Wenger is French & having a similar academic type of French father-in-law, I fully understand his mentality. He looks after the finances at the club like they are his own. Whereas managers such as SAF, Mourinho, etc, want success & are not too concerned with the clubs finances, which are the directors concern. Imagine, Mourinho is given say £250m to spend, there is no doubt the club would be able to compete with the top 3.

Only a small portion of the money in the bank is available for spending. You need a certain amount in there as a condition of your bonds. The majority of what's left is for the day to day running of the club. AW is paid a big salary for keeping his gob shut. Arsenal have money to spend, but it's not a great amount and to be fair if the club hadn't sold Cesc and Nasri then the club would have made a £30m loss last year. To answer Champagne's question, Gazidas is lying and AW is happy to go along with it as he loves the club and wants to see Arsenal through the worst of it. Next season the extra £34m TV money will be available to clubs and soon Arsenal can negotiate better sponsorship deals, this will inevitably mean more cash available, BUT that doesn't mean it will be spent. If you ever needed proof that AW's hands are tied, then look at January's signings. The club badly needed a few good players, but only a LB was signed. AW is doing what he can with the money available to him, or lack of it should we say.

Sydney!

Can I also add that Arsenal are struggling to offload some of the "leeches" in the squad and that is another reason why new signings cannot be made.

Sydney!

Finally, A gooner who speaks sense. I still! trust Wenger and I believe he is shielding the board. You work for your boss, do you slate your boss in public or to other staff members when it can get you the sack? Your company aren't doing too well financially, do you leak out their financial spending to others outside of the club? We haven't got the money that everyone calculates we have (some of your Maths on here are diabolical). i'm also a believe Wenger should be judged on next season, as I beleive that season 2013/2014 we are debt free (It might be this season). Another point, i'm sick of hearing the bs let's boycott the games, let's boo at 8 minutes etc, Do you really think that will help our team? Do you really think that will make our team more confident? Some of you gooners just haven't got a clue. I love Arsenal and I will stick with them through thick and thin, yes I want a trophy, but I would never ever boo the Arsenal. Never. Also if you moan about the expensive ticket prices, simple, don't go, i'm sure others will take your seat. i'm just sick of the plastic arsenal fans who say they support their team and all they can do is belittle them. It also makes me laugh, at the begininng o the season, many of you were praising Arsenal and AW, and now your on a witch hunt for his head. All I can say is if he does leave, if! you have to be careful what you wish for, as we could be the new Aston Villa, on a fast declining downhill spiral. Also I don't want David Moyes as I don't think he would have a clue when it comes to CL (No disrespect to David Moyes). And Finally. Wenger trusts his players (We don't see what happens in training), in training some players may seem outstanding (probably because they're only training so the passion of the game won't be the same), people like Ramsey will shine (He thinks he's Messi and Spanish the way he does back heels that just don't pull of), but on the day don't turn up. Half of our starting 11 are top quality and a 1/4 nearing quality and the other 1/4 are dros, but you get that in nearly all teams. For example, dare I say it, Van Persie carried Man U, their goal keeper, dros, Johnny Evans absolute dros, Carrick dros, Butner dros, etc. Sorry about the rant but c'mon let's get behind them instead of fighting them. Rant over and out

Spot on Sydney may arsenal fans open their eyes and try to imagine where arsenal would be now without wenger. He stayed because he loves the club and loves the challenge. Those saying he's a dictator are deluded. Yes he's implied in most of the club's aspects, but he certainly not decides the budget! He deals with it. And without considering the fact that he didn't win any trophy in the last eight years, the club is in a much healthier situation. I expect this summer to be busy can't you feel it? Sponsors renewed, deadwood leaving. Without him we'd be in the same situation than liverpool or even worse. Let the man finish his job and judge him when it's done. It's not over yet.
Stan

21 Feb 2013 09:48:35
When people talk about how hard it would be to replace Wenger, they seem to be talking about the Wenger who won titles and brought in top players for very little.

That Wenger is long gone, the Wenger who needs replacing now is the one who loses top players and can't pick a team to beat Birmingham in a cup final, Bradford and Blackburn in cup games. The Wenger we want out is the one who did not strengthen the squad when we were log leaders a few years ago with a young team in need of expirience.

So when a section of the fans want him out, don't rubbish them with how hard it will to replace him. Either you overestimate Arsene or you seriously underrate some of the other managers out there.

It should not be this hard managing a club with our resources and history.

Get a younger manager who is tactically apt, and who can spot talent from a mile away.

Basically get us the old Wenger back!

Fank Reynolds

Since when has wenger been bigger than arsenal.

a manager is not bigger than the club.

Nice post 'Fank'

I 100% agree with this - there are plenty of managers out there who could get us defensively organised, use the squad depth well, play people correctly and use tactics, and nice, attractive flowing football. And there are so many managers who can spot talent, interact with the fans in an honest way. I can't wait to see who our next manager is, I really can't!

Boys. When will you realise that Wenger is a busted flush. I take my seat at the Emirates and have a sinking feeling when I see the line-up, and then game after game. THE BACK PASSES. THE SIDEWAYS PASSES. THE SLOW BUILD-UP. THE TIPPY TAPPING on the edge of the box.
Why is this team shot-shy? Why have our squads got weaker year on year?
The blame lies with those at the top dazzled by Arsene's glorious past record. He must be brilliant when answering to the Board. Perhaps he speaks in French? Anyway there is a Board meeting today attended by Silent Stan. That must be a bundle of laughs.
Result? No change I'm afraid boys.

You can see Wenger has no new ideas. it's apparent all over his squad selections. He is just throwing squad selections against the wall hoping one will stick and produce results. Steve Bould is a useless as well. he is supposed to be the eyes and ears, and he acts like a corpse.

21 Feb 2013 09:41:40
Since Wenger has been the boss, we have seen many great players come and go, but the one person I think that Wenger has missed more than anyone is David Dein.
Does anyone know what these differences were between Dein and the board?

DD would not be able to offer anything to us now, times have changed massively since he left.

Its easy to convince a player to stay when he will only earn similar money elsewhere, but when you are talking about an extra 100k per week in wages alone to move to citeh its impossible.

This is the main factor in our fall from the top

337

Ironically it was about getting extra investment into the club in the shape of. wait for it. one Stan Kroenke. At the time Kroenke wanted to buy in and only DD was for it. He saw that kind of large-scale investment as the only way to compete with Man Utd, Chelski, Real and Barca. The rest of the board wanted to stick with their cosy, clubby way of running the club and he left when he could see it wouldn't change. The irony of course is that a short while later Silent Stan got what he wanted when Lady Nina and a few others needed to cash in.

Stan has been an 'absentee landlord' looking for a steady return on, in relative terms, minimal investment. Dein still has a great love for the club and Usmanov, being considerably richer than Stan (and Roman by the way), is the kind of investor that Dein feels would match Roman and the Sheiks and catapult us to where we all want to be.

CECEGUaW

21 Feb 2013 08:59:52
today the arsenal board are having a meeting.

will we see some authority stamped on the club?

will the major shareholder finally come out and tell the supporters which direction the club is going?

kroenke was at the game the other night. will he turn a blind eye to the shambles of 1st team that the manager has built.
will he be man enough to make decisions that big club owners do and don't blink an eye?

time to stand up stan or push off.

Charlie, do you think that Arsene is solely responsible for everything that is wrong at the club? I honestly don't believe if Arsene left tomorrow anything would change, the board and Kroenke give him the perimeters to work within and that's what he does, has to do.
Im with you on tactics and other issues on Wenger but honestly don't believe anything would change if he left unless there is a change of direction with the board, we can say Wenger has to much control until we are blue in the face, but someone is letting him have that control and ultimately he doesn't have THE CONTROL, the board hide behind and he is happy to let them do so, other managers wouldn't and that's why they love him.

1404

The game has changed, huge sums of money elswhere have turned players heads.

AW has become more stubborn, but when he came to us we were able to compete financially with every other club and players had a straight choice to play for us and be paid well or move on and be paid the same, now they can get another 100k per week elsewhere.

I'm not saying this is right, but changing AW alone will not change this. The people behind our competitors now have unlimited money and will keep spending it until they become bored.

337

337

we have money.

stop using money as an excuse.

the stadium is on along term loan till 2031.

we have over 150 mill in the bank and have had over 100 mill cash flow since 2009.

there has been no investment from the club, we only use money from the sale of players.

are you telling me that what the club has spent over the last 8 years is good enough?

they have not put football 1st since the move to the emirates.

there is loads of money in the band its not a myth its actually there.

154 mill in the bank dated 31st of may and that does not include this years season ticket sales and match day revenue.

if wenger did not agree with these policy's why did he not resign.

we have become a selling club and we only have 1 jewel left in JW10.

if the barcelona come offering 50-60 mill do you think the board would say no?
do you think jack would say no in 2 years time if things don't change.
do you think jack would say no to playing with players like messi?

people need to start to be realists, what proof can you show me that arsenal have improved in 5 years?

Charlie, firstly you need to calm down a bit. I am not using it as an excuse but merely pointing out that the game has changed.

You may think that spending all of our 150m will be the answer, but this amount of money will be Dwarfed by others. It is not enough to buy back success.

In my humble opinion we need to add 2 or 3 players, but more importantly our coaching methods clearly need to change, we have some of the most skillful players in the league but they are lost tactically.

337

Do yourself a favour champagne Charlie. Join the AST and take yourself along to the meetings they have with Gazidis and co. Then you can get your questions answered and then you don't have to work yourself up into a ridiculous state of affairs over information you get from online blogs.

I like that you post consistently on here, but you keep pawning off your opinions as fact - and your constant conspiracy theory/Wenger out propaganda is dull now.

21 Feb 2013 07:28:39
Too the guy asking about RVP's son,
After RVP left he obviously moved to the north with him and because I live in Wilmslow (where most man city/man utd) players live where we train on a Wednesday at my school there is also this special talents for under 10s thing Maicon takes his son sometimes but Van Persie takes his all the time.
Utd don't scout under 9s

21 Feb 2013 02:27:41
I'm not defending Wenger or the players but every season the media just wait for something like this to happen a bring everything they possibly can up to slate arsenal and Wenger. I like every arsenal fan am not happy at the moment but did we really expect a lot from the champions league this season No. The only reason it has been blown up like this because the timing it has happened after losing the Blackburn game. if we won that game and sitting 5th in the league and still lost to Munich do you think the media would be on arsenal like they are no.
it happens every season it's nothing new we get kicked out of every competition in a matter of weeks. The only good thing is we seem to always perform a lot better in the league when it is the only thing we need to focus on. Who knows we might beat Bayern Munich and go through doubt it but you never no with arsenal.

Also the every season when the media turns on Wenger and arsenal the big clubs see there opportunity to start to talk about there interest in are players. Barca have started already with Alves talking about jack but there is no way jack we be off he loves the club and I think he will try he's hardest to win something with us.

Another thing winding me up is the media have started going on about the ex players and what they have won since we last won a trophy.
here is the list

T. Henry
A. Cole
C. Fabregas
F. Flamini
A. Hleb
E. Adebayor
P. Vieira
K. Touré
G. Clichy
s. Nasri

Yes they have all won somthing but for me the only players that helped there team a deserved to win out of that list was Cole, Henry, Vieira. The rest just were there in the squad a picked up there medals.

Nasri just warmed the bench up for city and prob got them about 6 or 9 points last season. Toure hardly played last season for city and the season before when they won the FA cup.

Adebayor only won copa del ray with madrid but he also wasn't a regular

Clichy played but he was just lucky that he was in a really good solid team last year didn't have to do that much.

Flamini and Hleb hardly played for there teams when they won there trophys and lastly Cesc has won 4 trophys but 3 of them was jsut 3 games (finals) from what the team did the following season the only one he can say he actually help win was the copa del ray.

Charlie Gooner 4 life

CHARLIE

I DISAGREE WITH YOU 100%

i have heard numerous journalist say they enjoy wengers press conferences.

what you do not understand is we are in a results business. the club is being paid by sponsorship and tv money to be in the lime light.

wenger has not won a trophy in 8 years.

defeat to bradford

defeat to blackburn

hammered by every 1 above us in the league except for a dodgy win over the spuds. let's not kid our selfs the latest team wenger has built has been terrible.

show me an improvement in the last 5 years and I will stop being anti wenger.

the club has not lost its winning mentality, arsene wenger has lost it.

he is still trying to play barcelona style football with players that would not get into barcelona's 3rd team except JW10.

i do not see any progress under wenger.

i won't talk about the huge contracts given to players that are rubbish.
aa23--75k
sqid--55k
gerv--60k
diaby--65
rosicky--75

i won't talk about the players that are out on loan.
chamach
park
denilson
nb52
santos
and there is about 10 more.

do you think ivan gazidas made the decision to sign these players?

we never had much money to spend but how much waste have we had for 8 years?

20 Feb 2013 20:31:57
edoo2 do you have any transfer news for the summer?

have you heard if there is any thing brewing?

you usually have a good idea if there is any thing worth looking in to?

cheers {Ed002's Note - It is very early still.}