Arsenal Banter Archive July 24 2015

24 Jul 2015 17:52:38
I think every one is over reacting about what benzemas agent said, ozil was saying up until a few days before he joined us that he was 100% staying at real and wouldn't leave and we all know what happened with that, I'm not saying were deffinelty gunna sign him but what his agent said is exactly what wenger would have asked them to say we all know how secretive he is

24 Jul 2015 21:07:18
Why would anyone get excited about another Benzema rumour, we are always linked with him and he never gets anywhere like close to joining us.
If it happened it would be a lovely surprise but none the less a big surprise.
If he leaves there will be heavy competition from some very big spenders and we don't usually win those battles so getting excited seems like a waste of time to me.

24 Jul 2015 23:19:31
No way will we get Benzema.

If we do, I promise not to post any more jokes :-)

25 Jul 2015 04:56:20
Arsene,

I never ask for anything;but buying a striker that improves the team and no longer having dags jokes? Surely, this an opportunity not to be missed.

(just kidding dags, I know you would try not to crack wise but you would last at most a week)

25 Jul 2015 07:45:02
I make you right James :-)

24 Jul 2015 17:12:25
Lewandowski is not the question... He is the answer!

24 Jul 2015 17:29:28
So what was the question?

24 Jul 2015 19:34:14
The question is, "Who should I buy in Fifa career mode?"

24 Jul 2015 19:44:15
The question is "How best do we gear up for the upcoming league battle?" :)

Or rather, who will be the top goal scorer in the league this season? :)

24 Jul 2015 19:45:46
Why does ze seagull follow ze trawler? That's the question!

24 Jul 2015 20:22:01
Or when a snail lays a trail does it expect you to follow it?

24 Jul 2015 21:51:03
We are signing a snail

25 Jul 2015 02:50:30
Surely the question is 'how drunk are you?'

24 Jul 2015 16:53:56
Ed, Benzema leaving Real hinges on them acquiring a superstar striker to replace him. Do you expect Real to have difficulty filling his place if he were to leave?

{Ed002's Note - There is a long time to go - they have players in mind but it will be difficult.}

24 Jul 2015 12:16:04
With Lord Harris coming out and saying we have over £200 million in the bank it makes me wonder we we aren't pushing for the likes of Reus and Lewandowski. Hopefully we will make some world class signings soon it at least makes a statement of intent to a title push

{Ed002's Note - Just because a club has money is no reason to spend it. "World class" is entirely subjective. "Statement of intent" is a worn out cliche - other clubs don't feel threatened as easily as you think.}

24 Jul 2015 13:49:29
Abour 4 or 5 years ago someone at arsenal came out with a similar statement, that we could afford anyone because we had £100m in petty cash/bank. Its now £200m, i'm not impressed, by it at all. The statement that is, it means nothing except, we are building our savings up and telling people we are good at it.

24 Jul 2015 14:26:58
That's right Steve. There was little to no point in what Harris said. And as ed said arsenal ain't going to financially scare United chelsea or city.

24 Jul 2015 14:29:40
Spot on Steve. It means nothing. Reading that statement from the Director actually made me cringe, especially a few days after Wenger talks about other clubs buying success.

24 Jul 2015 14:44:59
I agree, just being good at balancing the books doesn't win the major trophy's, it does however secure the clubs future.
To contadict myself, we do need a good signing or two, Giroud is a good player, but he is not a world beater, same goes for Per and Le Coq (give him time though).
We are that close to a strong title challening team, to me it would seem prudent to go the last mile and make the major signings we all know we need. If we get the premiership, or very close to it, even through to the semi's of Champions league, it will up the Arsenal profile/brand and thus bring in more money, if we sit ona laurals and finish top 4 again, it is not progress (in my humble opinion)

24 Jul 2015 16:30:58
au contraire chaps, it means we are a well run team the makes the champions league every year, has won 2 fa cups on the trot and is poised for an EPL title challenge with a team that is more talented than in years and with a good team spirit.

It also means we are going to be good for years and years and not reliant on a sugar daddy like a lot of teams that wear blue. So it sounds good to me ;-)

24 Jul 2015 09:31:18
If a new striker were to be signed, would that mean one of our 3 senior strikers would be likely to be sold?

24 Jul 2015 11:24:11
3 strikers?

For me, Giroud is our only truly recognised striker.

24 Jul 2015 12:20:09
Theo wants to be a striker and won't be signing a contract to play outwide so we have to consider him as a very striker if he stays, but still plenty of room for a very top class addition

24 Jul 2015 17:06:57
I think we'd have to make room in order to keep balance and to keep all senior strikers happy. Giroud and Walcott won't be happy on the bench but, on the other hand, competition for places is a good thing.

24 Jul 2015 08:26:14
Just want the Eds opinion AND some supporters...

If we had Petr Cech last season and all other teams in the league stayed the same as last season, would we have won the league?

Cos the answer you are looking for is "No", so this season all we have added is Cech and the rest of the league have majorly strengthened their swuads (Liverpool have like 8 additions) what chance do we have this year??

24 Jul 2015 09:21:10
the actual answer to your question is we will never know, i think ospina did well last season and i personally would not say he cost us any points last season.. however the difference with Cech is that he will SAVE us points, he is the keeper to save shots that keeps have no right to stop, his experience will organise the defence so he has to deal with less chances. he is worth 10-15 points and if you consider that then yes we could well have won the league last season.

2nd half of last season we we on par is not stronger and more consistent with Chelsea an no reason to suggest we have go any weeker.

Liverpool's finished 2nd added 9 players and finished 6th so not sure why you are mentioning them after buying a further 8 player this season, that basically replaying the squad that got then to their highest finish in years.

we would all like another player or two but if we went in with this with the same squat, Sanchez with a full season under his belt, ozil with a full pre season, Wiltshire showing the form he did at then end and for England, ox back to full fitness, then while not expectant i would certainly be excited for the season.

24 Jul 2015 09:27:03
Ask the question again on the 7th of August and we will all be in a better position to answer it.
As for last season, no we wouldn't have been champions with Petr Cech alone and probably wouldn't have been with Cech Gabriel and Le Coq either but we'd would have been in the top 4 well before the turn of the year with those 3 and finished much much closer to Chelsea than we did and most probably above city.

24 Jul 2015 09:30:02
They've added 8 players.
Of whom, I think 2, Milner and Possibly Firmino, have UCL experience.
They've spent a large sum of money and I don't even think they're done.

Out of all those players, maybe Benteke would get a start at Arsenal, and even that's touch and go.
Even saying that, £32.5m is a lot of cash.
By no means are Liverpool a bad club, but in the past 2 windows they've lost their best player for years in Suarez, their Inspirational club captain and one of the biggest prospects in England.
The squad without those transfers is pretty mediocre.
And with them, it's only slightly better

Even more than that, 8 players have to gel, fit into the club, find their feet.
There's not even a guarantee that the likes of Firmino coming from abroad will settle instantly (I do like him though).

As for the other clubs challenging.
Chelsea signed Falcao and Begovic, hardly inspiring.
City have signed Sterling.
Utd have signed Depay, Schweinstiger, Schneiderlin and Darmian. A promising youngster, an experienced cm, a good Prem proven cm and a fairly good RB.
3 players coming from abroad, which means again, they'll probably have to settle in and one getting his first taste of UCL Football.
Sp*rs signed Wimmer, Alderweireld and I can't think of any others, but again, a young CB from Koln who'll have to find his feet and one that did well for Southampton, but as Lovren, Lambert and shaw will tell you, it's not always great after life at the Saints.

We've signed Cech.
A top class, proven, experienced keeper.
Will he alone win us the league?
Probably not.
Are we going to sign someone else?
Most likely.

Lord Harris's comments today will spark outrage from fans who'll start with the 'we have money, why aren't we spending it?'
The point is, would you rather wait for a Benzema or rush in and spend £30m on Benteke.

24 Jul 2015 09:32:28
With so many factors at play it's impossible to know. There are things like cohesion and moral that are very important . As a football fan it's pointless to be hypothetical about such things.

24 Jul 2015 09:36:12
buying a lot of players for a squad i.e. manu/pool and then getting them to adapt, gel and play as a unit is an upheal struggle with so many in one season. I wish both teams luck with that as I believe it may take them time to settle and get going this season.
I think the way we buy 2-3 players a season is a much better way then buying half a squad at a time.

As for the whole Cech scenario I think he would have given us at least an extra 5-8 points last season. Far to often we go a goal down before we can actually start playing, we have needed a GK that can actually prevent this happening and actually command his defence as well as Cech can. I don't think we would have won the PL, but i'm certain we would have had second place and few more points better off.

24 Jul 2015 11:09:05
How you can quantify a certain player is worth a certain number of Premier League points is baffling to me.

24 Jul 2015 11:23:58
It does not look like we are going to land benzema.

his agent has already said that he is happy in Madrid, and unless the club push him out the door he will likely stay atleast for another season.

ed has stated that we are interested in higuain but not at the price being asked and I hope we don't pay for him, as he has not really blown that league apart.

interesting to note the ed state that we would be interested in reus if he were made available and for me that would be the signing that can help us compete with Chelsea and man city.

Reus and sanchez on the wing with Walcott in the middle..pace to burn counter attack football

24 Jul 2015 11:28:23
RedRosie has hit the nail squarely on the head. Hypotheticals are completely useless. I'm more interested in how we'll go this season with Cech.

24 Jul 2015 17:03:14
With our end of season form, we'd have had a shout. I reckon, but yeah, I see your point. I'm still hoping for a prolific striker

26 Jul 2015 08:55:12
Sorry for the late reply but I was out at Sea.

I understand what you are Saying Rosie but you will if/when De Gea goes for i'm certain he has been your best player the last 2 seasons and with an average keeper instead of a world class keeper like you have you would have conceded a hell of a lot more goalds and points then you did last season.

Laker, its pre season and untill it all kicks off mate all any of us can do is hypotheticals, predictitions and opinions so to state useless, well that's harsh.

I'm sorry i honestly thought tthe football minded would know the difference of how many points a season a real decent keeper saves a team, especially a team like ours that has a defence that goes to pieces for no reason at all untill we go a goal down.

But hey that's banter and opinions for you. Keep them coming guys.

24 Jul 2015 06:20:25
I can't imagine Wenger and Gazidis are happy with Lord Harris's outburst stating Arsenal have £200m in the bank, have a striker in mind and can buy virtually any player. It reminds me of the time when a director, Keith Edelman, stated Wenger could spend £100m if he wanted to and was forced to leave his position at the club.
What Lord Harris thought he would achieve by making such a statement is beyond me.
The genius of Wemger has been to bring through young talent such as Bellerin and Coquelin. He has unearthed low priced gems such as Koscielny and is now supplementing them with more expensive world class stars in their prime, such as Sanchez & Ozil.
I believe we are 2 or 3 signings away from having a squad that can mount a serious title challenge: A top notch left back, a world class defensive midfield player and a rapid goalscoring central striker.

24 Jul 2015 08:06:09
In fairness coquelin last season was purr luck. Also, I love Wenger, but all other managers at the top in the premier have made signings like koscielny. Vidic for starters. Most managers every now and then signs a player for cheap who ends up great. Wenger used to do it a lot. That was mainly due to a large scouting network. Now he doesn't do it an awful lot, as everyone has a large scouting network. I mean look at john stones.

24 Jul 2015 12:54:12
CS - I am sure AW recruited Coq, gave him opportunities, loaned him out rather than selling him as he believed something was there....

Good, forced timing - yes BUT I still believe AW saw something in the player which is not luck

24 Jul 2015 14:33:18
He was actively trying to sell him. He only didn't because of injuries. And do forget he signed him at the same time as nasri. That's a long time to pretty much exclude him from the first team if he saw something.

And thinking about it, if we all look back to when song broke in to the first team, we were all saying the kind of things about him as we are coq now.

24 Jul 2015 17:05:27
We still do it a lot C S, you're just being rather cynical. Arsenal are still recognised as a decent academy. Although I see your point with Coquelin involving a touch of luck, he still wouldn't have been able to grasp his opportunity if he wasn't a player who had (eventually) developed well. We still have the likes of Crowley and Zelalem etc. to do the same thing as Wilshere, Gibbs and Szczesny. This is why a lot of young players choose Arsenal, like when Ramsey chose us over Manchester United.

Giroud was less than £10m I think and Cazorla was less than £15m, both players are worth more than that now. Before Ozil and Sanchez, our most expensive signings were Reyes and Arshavin, both for less than £20m. Remembering Man City have just paid £49m for Sterling and Man U paid £59.7m for Di Maria, I'd say Wenger still has the ability to buy cheap yet effective players.

23 Jul 2015 23:28:45
We seem to have driven Ed025 away :-(
Dags you need to up your joke standards to entice him back again.
Come home Ed, we'll be better this time!

{Ed007's Note - Ed025 is just really busy just now, have you not seen the work going on at Anfield?}

24 Jul 2015 19:39:06
Crying into your pint doesn't count as busy ;)