Arsenal Banter Archive May 30 2016

30 May 2016 20:00:24
Before the window closes I think we should all have a go at naming who we think will prove to be the best signings next May.
We all pick 4 players who actually move to or within the premier league this summer, we all have to pick one from each price range.
Under 10 million
10 -20 million
20- 30 million
And 30+ million
Be interesting to see if any of us can be as wise before the event as we all are after it :-)
If we'd done it last season I'm sure Derby would keen to talk about Kevin lots but want to move on from Benteke as quickly as possible :-)

30 May 2016 22:03:01
Agbonlahor under 10 mill to Arsenal, Ronaldo to spurs 30 mill plus.

30 May 2016 22:08:56
30+m Xhaka.

Sorted mate :-)

30 May 2016 22:25:22
Fair enough Raver mate I will put those two down as your selections, typical spud tactics if you ask me though mate, always shooting to early before the real action starts and leaving those closest very frustrated :-)

30 May 2016 23:04:57
Raver, I hear Wembley are trying to switch your home games to Wembley Arena not stadium due to unprecedented demand. They are also trying to figure out what to call the opposite of an encore in case you have another repeat. ;)

31 May 2016 03:42:01
Dags why did you have to go and say that, you've probably jinxed our new signing now after last summer's Loic Remy prediction!

31 May 2016 06:30:40
Raver, you stalker. Imagine all 36,000 of your fans at Wembley. 1961, The pain at the Lane, just goes on.

31 May 2016 07:53:12
Perfect, you could be correct mate :-)

31 May 2016 08:56:55
The Brazilian ronaldo?

31 May 2016 10:44:24
R. G. we have over 55 thousand people on the ticket waiting list that is why levy demanded Wembley. That is why we are building the biggest football ground in London to meet the demand. Youcan say what you like but we gave always had one of the biggest following crowds in England.

31 May 2016 17:32:12
Raver, have a look at your home Europa League match attendances, they were dreadful in the early matches, in addition the home match against Stoke, was well under capacity. That was in your 36,000 capacity cowshed.
When season tickets become available and fans have to shell out thousands of pounds for them in one payment, then the list of 55,000 soon reduces. Many of us say we would like a couple of season tickets, but when payment of at least a couple of thousand is requested, the demand drops dramatically.

31 May 2016 17:51:00
The Europa games were empty because they are poor games against poor European opposition on a Thursday night. Your ground has been half empty a few times this season due to the crowd being fed up with Wenger. Look at the biggest club in England Manchester United v Bournemouth, old Trafford was empty due to the game being replayed on a Tuesday . Every club in England will have a few games were the crowds will be poor due to different reasons. I'll come back to you when the new stadium opens and ask you Is it full and I know what the answer will be YES.

30 May 2016 10:41:55
Wenger Catch-22 of Strikers.

My long-winded point below: Wenger is rubbish at signing strikers. and I think he knows it too! Hence the "make them" approach. The problem these days, diamonds in the rough as youtubed/ wonderkidded/ media-hyped to death. All the noise means They ain't cheap. So wenger gets stuck in the mud.

Why is he bad at signing strikers?
Wenger has a system based on selflessness and any top striker is as selfish as they come! They don't "work" for wenger, make the runs he wants them too or pass / cut back instead of shooting from distance. (Think Sturridge: what would he do versus what Wenger would want him to do) .

Now, Wenger has taken a punt on relatively well-known and proven (ish) strikers at a reasonable price, where the risk isn't too big:
Podolski (known form his rocket left foot)
Giroud (top scorer and won Ligue 1)
Wiltord (well known in France)
Kanu (coming back from heart surgery)
But they all end up as or should super-subs

But we all know what he enjoys is molding young players to fit his system.
Henry/ Anelka/ Van Persie
Reyes (mentality problem)
Adebayor (mentality problem)
Walcott (injuries/ mentality)
Eduardo (injuries)

The point: we are asking wenger to do something that he doesn't know how to do. For a selfish striker to be a huge hit at Arsenal, either the player needs to change (he won't) or the Wenger's system needs to change (it won't) .

30 May 2016 11:37:35
Which if your analysis is right billy means we can never be champions under Arsene Wenger.
If only Arsene would accept a new assistant manager from outside the club who has alternative ideas and solutions to our same old problems things could be very very different.

30 May 2016 13:08:07
Seems a bit hash - Henry, Anelka, Adebayor and Franny J were all top notch strikers as was RVP.
Now a WC striker costs in excess of 50m and the pool of clubs that can afford them has jumped due to foreign money in the game. You now have the historical big clubs Real, Barca, Utd ( lesser extent in past 5 years) , Munich etc competing with the "new money" clubs like Chelsea, City etc (who were nothing before the money came in) for key players down the spine of the team. We unfortunately don't eat at the big table as we truly have neither. Hence we feed on what's left. This has ALWAYS been the case especially in the more modern money obsessed culture today.
By the way - I don't blame the players because if I could earn 5m more one year by having my agent promote me, I certainly would because you don't know when injury etc will end your CAREER. Yep - it's a job.

30 May 2016 13:13:05
Good post billy, the same also applies to his blindspot for center backs, boy we have had some real stinkers.

30 May 2016 14:06:26
And whatever happened to Suarez when he was there for the taking? World-class striker isn't he? He's just one perfect striker any team would want.

30 May 2016 15:18:52
As much as I see Wenger needs to up his game in certain aspects I suspect those who doubt his ability in the transfer market as far as strikers and centre backs go were the same people clamouring for Mangala, Otamendi, Benteke, Stones, Bony and others in the excess of 30 million bracket who have turned out to be rubbish.

As SY4 is saying, they are not 10 a penny and we are not top of the food chain.

30 May 2016 16:28:22
For every Benteke there's a Vardy Stoner mate and if you're not top of the food chain you need to outwit those who are to be a success, we're a lot closer to the top of that chain than Leicester mate.

30 May 2016 17:57:23
Willy, Suarez was there for the move and we bid high enough to activate the 40m clause. Suarez clearly didn't want to join us or he could have forced the move. He clearly wanted Barca, I don't hold this against Wenger as it seemed like a good opportunity which didn't work out.

{Ed001's Note - Suarez took Liverpool to court to try and force the move, so he clearly did want to join.}

30 May 2016 18:06:27
The cluase ment nothing what we didn't do was bid enough to make Liverpool sell, from what I remember Saurez wanted the move very much.
Personally I didn't want him anyway for non footballing reasons but he did go on to have a totally incredible season possibly the best by any player I can remember in the premier league.

30 May 2016 18:43:34
Ed, surely if he truly wanted to get to Arsenal then he would have come. We made a big enough offer and he pushed to enable A move. But were we really his chosen destination or were Barca?

{Ed001's Note - the club blocked it not Suarez.}

30 May 2016 19:07:35
Ed
I get that piece but if the buy back clause existed - he could have forced their had. No?
Sorry to go off piste with you.

{Ed001's Note - do you mean buyout clause? He did try, he took them to court but they are not legally enforcable in the UK.}

30 May 2016 21:03:07
Thank you Ed.

31 May 2016 06:35:56
Wenger has become a bit of an enigma. On the one hand he turns players into top class players; Koscielny, Bellerin, etc. On the other hand some players fail to improve or appear to go backwards; Chambers, Gabriel, Ox, Walcott, Gibbs, etc.
he has made some awesome signings in his time at the club; Henry, Vieira, etc. He has made some dreadful signings; Cygan, Stepanovs, etc.
Sometimes he changes a players position to great effect; Bellerin was converted into a RB from a wide attacking player. Sometimes he ruins players; Gibbs was a great midfield prospect, turned into a defender that can't defend.

31 May 2016 07:07:04
Gibbs would be ideal for a team that played a 3 5 2 system or similar which made the most of his attacking ability but also made allowances for his weakness on defensive side of his game.