Arsenal Banter Archive July 30 2016

30 Jul 2016 21:33:10
Totally celery off at the moment.
I have always been 'Pro Wenger', but this is a bloody joke.

We started off great with the signing of Xhaka, who I think will be our best player this season.

But, since than, nothing.
Wenger has always said "If I feel a player can improve us, we will sign him".
How in God's name does he think that a player like Mahrez can't improve us?
He won player of the season, scored 17 goals and 11 assist's, is 10 times better than Walcott and Joel Campbell combined, and he won't improve us?

Sorry Wenger, but you are a joke and you are turning our club into a laughing stock.

Lacazette is another player who will improve us.
63 goals in Ligue 1 in the past 3 seasons, in an average Lyon team.
He has an eye for goal, is young, physical presence and speedy, but Wenger is unwilling to spend the market value on a player like him, who can give us 8 years good service?

We have Giroud, who will score about 16 League goals next season, Welbeck who is injured until January, and will than return and contribute about 6 goals until the end of the season.

That's our 2 main strikers. Bloody joke.

Last season, when Barcelona knocked us out of CL, Wenger said "They have such a talented front line, nobody can compete with them".

Well, Mr Wenger, the likes of Suarez and Neymar didn't fall from the nearest tree and land at The Nou Camp, the Barcelona management went out and spent £120m on them.

It's called investing in success and it costs money.

We have the biggest grossing matchday revenue in world football, bigger than Barcelona and Real Madrid, £100m last season, because supporters put their hands in the pockets and spend their hard earned money "investing" in the team they love.

Our manager/ Boardroom are a complete joke.

As G62 continually say's, we are "The Cosy Club".
We measure success in pound notes and not trophies and that's as much down the the boardroom as it is to our limp Manager.

One week Gazidis is shouting from the rooftops "We can compete with the best and buy anybody", the next week he is saying "We can't pay these inflated prices".

Can't pay or won't pay?

Lacazette and Mahrez were ours for the asking. They would have taken us to another level and, in my opinion, made us title favouries.

This club, one I have supported for over 40 years has turned into a joke.

Problem is, the only one's not laughing are the one's that count, or at least should count, the supporters.

Lacazette and Mahrez would have cost about £75m combined, Mourinho is about to spend more than that on one player. Than again, Mourinho is a winner.

Absolutely gutted at the moment, as well as totally disappointed.

Have always supported Wenger, but I pray to God this is his last season with us.

Traditionally, I should end this post with "rant over", but I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of ranting this season.

30 Jul 2016 21:48:03
I have been saying all this for 6 years

1 by 1 your all changing your loyalty

Wenger out!

30 Jul 2016 22:07:58
Is that you dags, you are sounding just like malaga. I wonder what your mate malaga will say to you joining the dark side. Good post though dags.

30 Jul 2016 22:21:26
Excellent post dags and it's refreshing to see the point of view of someone like me who is a pro Arsene fan. It's ridiculous saying il only get someone who'll improve us but not seem willing to part with the money. I'm realistic and hiquain moreta was just not doable. But there are other players who I really feel would improve but nope we seem intent on getting them cheaper or not at all.

31 Jul 2016 00:04:26
Dags I will pick you up in the Subaru and take you for a good night out, looks like you need to let off some steam, I got a feeling nan Utd are back to dominate English football again with mourinho and the money they are spending.

31 Jul 2016 00:19:36
Melt down dags. You will be hitting the instructors break harshly from now till September.

31 Jul 2016 00:25:28
Thank you boys.

Tired of the same old crap year after year.

Was disappointed we let Mkhitaryan slip through our fingers, but to do the same with Mahrez is blooming ridiculous.

I could name 50 players off the top of my head who could strenghten us, but Wenger, on £8m per year, can't even think of one.

Still, if Utd and Chelsea don't click, we might finish in top 4.

Another satisfied season for Wenger and the board, with minimal outlay.

31 Jul 2016 00:44:36
Excellent post. sums up everything i think. How on earth won't mahrez and lacazette not improve us? Why can't wenger pay just the god damn money! maybe spending a hundred million pounds is not the answer but how will we find out if we never even take the ****ing risk. It is so bloody annoying. If wenger does not sign a striker and a defender, i can't imagine the thrashings we will get from united city and even liverpool. The way we run our club is a bloody joke. This is not a ****ing business. This is a club who is loved by millions of people. Life in itself is a miserable existence and worse if you an Arsenal fan. Why can't the board listen to the fans for once just once. Mr kroenke fine if this is walmart and you make a loss maybe a few thousand employees will lose jobs but this is not a company this is arsenal. Don't make our lives miserable because we are in millions.

31 Jul 2016 00:47:25
Thank you Raver,

Can you pick me up in your red and white Suburu? :-)

31 Jul 2016 01:52:27
I echo that dags mate, its been bloody depressing and if we buy we always leave some late moves, which makes it harder to adjust from the very begging of the premier ship, I know we've just got xhaka early on and it was great to see but as you are all saying we are crying for a top striker and wenger waiting for a bloody bargain deal.
I can't even bother reading the sport news and reading all the bullsh**t rumours that links us to every damn player in europe.
We need a change at the club, wenger leaving won't change much as the board is as stubborn and tied arse as much as wenger, and they will choose someone that won't have much of a say when it comes to money.

31 Jul 2016 09:46:20
Punani -> it is a business. It's always been run like a business. We have not always competed ( before and during AW reign - more competitive finishes since AW) . Big difference is that other business models have improved via sugar daddy cash. This means Chelsea, City and Utd have far more cash so now we need to beat 3 big fish rather than just 1 to win the league. That makes it very very hard

Football TV money does nothing to change that as it doesn't close the gap.

30 Jul 2016 16:53:40
Im starting to get a sinking feeling already. 4 weeks left of the transfer window and it looks all over for Arsenal. Everyday a different story about a different player, none of whom look like there leaving there club.

30 Jul 2016 11:36:14
Kevin Gamiero has moved to Atletico for £28m.

A great deal if you ask me.
I don't know if we were even interested, or maybe he had no interest in England, but in a personal level, would of loved Gamiero at Arsenal, especially at that price.

I do wonder though, will this affect our Lacazette move?
I know the whole football world doesn't revolve around us (it should though, it'd make my nonsense much easier) but if Sevilla really did want Ben Yedder, then they now have extra cash to fund a move.

Lyon also apparently want him, so if Sevilla get him, Lyon can't, which means no Lacazette replacement (I'm sure they have multiple targets in fairness) and they'll only dig their heels in more.

30 Jul 2016 12:45:49
He's nearly 30 with an average at best goal tally. Each to their own but not for me.

30 Jul 2016 13:58:51
I think he still has a couple years in him.
Plus his link up play is good, something we seem to look for!
That being said, as you say mate, it's each to their own.

Ben Yedder has now been confirmed for Sevilla, so that's another apparent target gone.

30 Jul 2016 14:55:14
He's average.

30 Jul 2016 11:04:10
I've changed my mind on Arsene being offered a new contract by the club as I now can't see how they can offord to let him go, no other manager could maintain the status quo of low investment high profit with champions league qualification above Spurs the night of our ambition and keep the majority of fans onside.
Without Arsene it would be impossible for the club to carry on demanding the highest seat prices while offering the minimum ambition and keep the stadium full and huge profits coming in and staying nicely tucked away in the bank.
No matter who the club brought in to replace Arsene the fans would not accept being continuing to be non competitive without a fight and the demand for a change of direction and ownership would become unstoppable.
At £8 million a year Arsene is fantastic value for the club and they could easily double that and still be quids appossed to the multi millions they would be forced to spend if Arsene left.
Yes there will be demonstrations and boos if this season doesn't go well but it will be from a minority and in the main the majority will toe the line as long as Arsene is incharge.
The people who run the club simply can't offord to let Arsene leave without desperately trying to keep him.

30 Jul 2016 11:12:19
He will get a new deal

The only way things will change will be if / when we finish 6th or 7th.

30 Jul 2016 11:27:04
Even if we dropped out the champions league who else but Arsene could keep the fans onside mate? Arsenal football club is now 100% a money making business and sporting ambition isn't very high on the agenda if it's on it at all.
Arsene undoubtedly loves Arsenal football club and football itself but I'm not sure football has anything to do with why the people running the club love Arsene so much.

30 Jul 2016 11:34:05
62 - I am on the same page.

It's the business model - it's not as competitive as it used to be

If the model changes - I would like AW to benefit but in the meantime, I think he is the best and less risky option for us and the club

I don't believe AW thought nor us that last season was going to be our golden chance so I think he and the club need to look at that and what other top 8 clubs are doing to ensure if our chance arrives again -> we take it, if there are opportunities to improve that we take them, we must invest better to properly compete to maintain our brand, standing in EPL and to compete for the title all the way to May.

As a business we ask fans to pay a lot to watch the game and we have a big stadium to fill. We owe it to the fans and need to do it for the self-sufficient model to succeed.

30 Jul 2016 11:35:15
More and more fans are getting getting disgruntled, eventually something will give .

Profit will become less each season .

Likes of Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez etc will move on, who do you then get to replace them?

You fail to attract bigger names and start looking to the lower leagues for players.

30 Jul 2016 12:14:13
BG - agree. Big players want medals. May be Theo is happy being in our team, England squad and 100k a week. Ozil, Sanchez and that type of players want glory and top wages.

Our business model was to sell real estate and stars but not always the ones we wanted to sell. Plus we had to endure watching them become stars ( making costly mistakes in our team ) then leaving and winning.

I am not sure we can return to that model to fund success as we never seemed to improve the squad. The poorer players stayed and the best ones left. They can run down their contract and then we can't get fair value for them and can't afford to replace with quality as a result.

We need to be more competitive in the transfer business and TV money didn't really help for two reasons:

1. All EPL teams get a share
2. It doesn't allow us to compete with the super rich non EPL clubs much better

This combined with lack of medals makes for a ever increasingly hard transfer window

We need more Arsenal specific cash to make us far more competitive. I am talking 100 to 150 m a year guaranteed investment in new players. City and Cheksea have it in their sugar daddy model while Utd have it in their marketing model. What do we have? Our cash reserves can not handle that type of longterm investment

Something needs to change or we need to accept we will be there / there about in the league, last 16 in Europe and it will get harder every year for us because more teams compete for top 5 spot but it's the same 3 competing for top 2.

If we have that guaranteed investment - Wenger must be held accountable for better performance. The investment level today matches our trophy haul and league finishes.

30 Jul 2016 12:15:18
Wenger will pi ££ more people this year and he will be gone.

30 Jul 2016 12:24:48
He's too stubborn for that Steve, the board love the man and will offer a new deal, he is no resistance to the board, he is in full agreement with their way of thinking .

30 Jul 2016 12:25:46
Agree SY

Theo is more than happy big money, fringe England player, he won't move.

30 Jul 2016 12:25:50
Banbury mate people are already losing interest in the club, a couple of people I know have turned to Rugby simply because they couldn't take anymore while others have just found a different way of spending thier time and money than sports.
Theres little question the approach the club is taking is short term high profit one without a lot of thought for long term interest in the club.
Already players don't see moving to Arsenal as the attractive option it once was and the longer we continue on our current course the less attractive we become to younger fans with no local of family influence and those who live in other countries as the team they want to follow.
Its difficult to think the Emerirates will continue to sell out for many more years without a change of direction, taking your customer base for granted is never a smart move long term and once they leave its much more difficult getting them back than it was getting them in the first place.
Arsene undoubtedly is the only thing keeping a lid on things that would be unacceptable without him.

30 Jul 2016 14:43:45
Well I for one won't go to home games, away days for me, always enjoyed them more .

30 Jul 2016 17:24:45
Arsene loves Arsenal plc not Arsenal fc I'm afraid, sponsorship deals will dwindle in the next few years as who wants to associate with a team with no real ambition to go forward?
Players already disregard us as an viable option for actually challenging for top honours, the world class players we have are already thinking of leaving and can you blame them?
Sooner rather than later we will drop out of the top 4 and with how short sighted the club have been it will take a monumental effort to get us back in.
All the good work Arsene has done he is rapidly undoing with the help of his pals Gazides and Kronke, but hey they'll be ok they can ride some horses on Kronke's new ranch.

30 Jul 2016 09:30:35
TFI can say all he wants about signing another attacking player, if you won't meet the valuation and have no intent you might as well stay at home mowing the lawn

We won't spend anymore BIG money unless we sell off some players, it's the way we operate.

Broken record time, I say it again, why spend 30,000,000 on yet another midfielder when we could add 20 mill to that and get and top top striker for 50-50 mill.

30 Jul 2016 10:07:33
Why? Because we wanted a strong leader with technical skills in midfield, there was a player with what we needed and the transfer was achievable.

A Xhaka in the squad is worth two higuains in the bush.

30 Jul 2016 10:24:50
If we'd had the money or rather spend the money on a top striker and center back, xhaka would be great but if it compramises in anyway us sorting those two places out, it is a poor decision. The most important replacements should have been striker, then center back, we'd just bought elneny for midfield, it wasn't as important. Wengers plan a went tits up and as usual plan b was urghhhhh, don't know? What do we do now.

30 Jul 2016 10:30:48
I do get what you're saying Banbury, but in fairness we did need a midfielder like Xhaka!
Trust me, if we'd signed a Mata type player, I'd be fuming, but Xhaka adds real steel our midfield, he's big, loud and a leader and our midfield lacks all of those.

To be honest with you, I really, really, reaaallly want to see a midfield pairing of Xhaka and Elneny.

I know what you're all thinking, 'But D_, Santi, Ramsey, Coquelin, what about them you bloody fool?! '

And yes, all good choices, but the thought of Xhaka and Elneny in the centre of the park, especially against the likes of City, Chelsea, etc is amazing to me.
You've got the Xhaka with great passing, ability to dictate tempo and good vision, pairing Elneny who could run for approximately 180,032,217 minutes without stopping, plus his good tackling and eye for a shot, it's the good old double pivot!

Actually, let's all take a moment here, I'm putting the breaks on the negativity for a minute.
Credit Arsene and co where it's due, Elneny was an astute signing and he's really impressed me when he's played, so kudos there.

That being said, there's very little excuse for not signing a striker.
I mean at least at CB, if were pushed and say we can only get a CB OR a ST, we can use Monreal, Chambers, Holding and Le Coq and go for a striker.

Lacazette is right there, Aulas can say they won't sell all he likes, but throw £45m down and I'm sure he'll change his tune.

Instead it'll be more like

'Here's £30m'

'We want £45m'

'Heres £32m'

We want £45m

'Here's £28m and a loan of Bennacer'

'Get out'

30 Jul 2016 10:41:04
I agree Steve, but If a striker doesn't want to come, or is priced so high that the club thinks its not sustainable, we can want all we like but it can't happen. Hence they tries for vardy and xhaka, but will doubtless keep an eye on others. As for CB, i can imagine he was looking at things we aren't like coq being a cover cb etc.

The window isn't done. I'm sure aw will be thinking about letting cazorla go and maybe one of the wide boys if possible to get a striker and a cb, but also how current squad can be used if mahrez or someone looks possible.

30 Jul 2016 11:04:02
Also to give credit -

In a hyper inflated market where John stones costs 50mln, Holding for 2mln is an extremely smart signing.
Reminds me a bit of Ramsey for 5mln. A player signed slightly pre-maturely but we all knew he was going to grow up to be a talent; based on the intelligence at such a young age.

30 Jul 2016 11:16:38
I'm not sure Xhaka is going to be the dominant force your expecting .

He won't make the difference a top top striker would .

If Giroud gets injured, then what.

Xhaka gets injured we have comfortable replacements.

30 Jul 2016 11:18:38
Good post as well D.

Elneny is a clever buy which filled a great gap, but as Steve said a CF and or CB had to follow.

30 Jul 2016 11:37:30
Let's say Holding becomes as good as Kos how long will that take?
Which clubs will Belerin Ozil Sanchez and Ramsey be playing for them?
Some fans might be prepared to wait for years but players with footballing ambition can't afford to do that.

30 Jul 2016 11:53:07
I agree 62. The four you mentioned are class and will be off in a flash, we will have a job to keep hold of them, Kos as well.

30 Jul 2016 15:44:36
Banbury good point about replacements for injury. The same is applied to center back as does striker.

29 Jul 2016 21:34:52
Ed001,

Happy Birthday mate. Hope you are having a good one.

{Ed001's Note - cheers mate it was a good one. I am really getting good at being 21!}

30 Jul 2016 07:40:26
ED01
Happy birthday mate.
Go and treat yourself at the shopping Mall today.
Last time we spoke it was your daughters birthday. Hope she has the strength to push you around the shops you old fart .
😂.

{Ed001's Note - hahaha I was there yesterday to see a film, no money for shopping as my daughter's bday is next month! She is 15. Scary. Especially as I am only 21......}

30 Jul 2016 09:29:57
Sign of a well spent youth Ed001 mate :-)

{Ed001's Note - good point.}

30 Jul 2016 09:39:22
Ed is this your 21st 21st :p.

{Ed001's Note - yep.}

30 Jul 2016 09:55:15
Happy birthday ed001 :)

Could be worse ed my mum left me before I was born!

30 Jul 2016 10:00:30
Cheers mate and I can understand that.