Arsenal Banter Archive August 05 2016

05 Aug 2016 22:37:57
Be warned, I'm hacked off again.

I find it amazing that the board announce "We have an extra £70m to spend if needed", pretty much the day after Leicester and Lyon tell us to get stuffed over Mahrez and Lacazette because we are offering stupid money.

Seriously, who are they trying to kid?

Surely, as a supposed 'elite' club, we know how much money we have to spend at the start of the Transfer Window, not half way through, when team's decide they don't want to negotiate with us anymore?

It's all smoke and mirrors by Wenger and the board into fooling supporters we had lot's of money to spend, than probably putting all the blame on the selling club.

Bloody ridiculous.

It's like me saying to my wife and 3 kid's, "I have plenty of money to spend and we are going to Disneyland", than doing absolutely nothing about it in the 6 weeks holiday, than saying, "Oh, sorry kids, back to school Monday, no Disneyland, blame your school for re-opening".

The Glazers (Man Utd) get a lot of bad publicity, but they have stumped up over £400m in past 3 seasons for transfers.

Mourinho (Man Utd) , get's a lot of publicity, but he identifies the area's he needs to improve, than identifies the player's he need's, than goes and signs them, over £160m spent so far.

We have spent £30m on Xhaka, which I am happy about, but didn't really need him, but won't spend over £30m on a much needed striker like Lacazette?

Wenger admit's we need a striker, identifies Vardy, Morata, Lacazette and Higuain as targets, yet doesn't even put in a bid for any of them?

Joke of a club.

05 Aug 2016 23:00:42
Are you going to get an argument from me dags, what do you think. You are turning into malaga, or even better, me.

05 Aug 2016 23:04:14
I feel your pain dags : (

The fans are going to want answers and blood if we don't address the two area's we are in so desperate need off.

They must have something in the pipeline surely, they can't be that stupid AGAIN. But playing poker face with all these teams over there top players is going to do nothing but piss them off n maybe even make the player think twice as to "why this team doesn't seem to think I'm worth it" il just stay or go to who thinks I'm worth it.
It's seriously annoying because we're classed as rich and have millions to spend yet we act like we're on the breadline. Wtf? we can get a decent striker for £40m, the board need to realise this price is now the average price for quality (unless your lucky enough for find a gem ie Mahrez)

The players we need are out there, just pay the money and get them in, it will bring a whole buzz around the place.


Show us we're still a power in the transfer market 🙏🏻.

05 Aug 2016 23:20:46
Steve,
It just hacks me off mate.

We have not bought a striker in 4 years, since Giroud.

Nothing against Olly, he does a sterling job, upfront on his own, but Wenger's reluctance to buy a striker is pathetic and damaging to our club.

No good spending £42m on Ozil and not buying a striker.

It's like buying a top of the range blue-ray dvd player and not having a TV. Pointless.

Bloody ridiculous.

06 Aug 2016 00:44:33
Annoyingly, we won't know who the problem is till Arsene goes.
I'll bet you now that when Arsene does leave, there will be a lot that comes out from the woodwork about his practices and methods, in transfers and general.

There's currently a strong rumour going around that the board actually took over negotiations for Xhaka, as Arsene was messing about.
If it's true or not, I couldn't say.

What frustrates even more is that this isn't some secret.
CB is the only 'surprise' issue this season.
We do need one anyway, but it could of waited if not for Per.

Anyone can see Arsenal have needed a striker for 3/ 4 seasons.
We haven't had a top striker since RVP.

We went for Higauin, tried to be tight and naffed it up.
We went for Suarez and naffed it up.
We waited and waited for Benzema (apparently) and naffed it up.

We never had a plan B.
(Side note here, not signing Vardy is ridiculous, apparently we offered similar wages to what Leicester are now paying him.
We knocked just over £200k wages off our budget when we let go Flam, Arteta and Rosicky, if we really wanted him, instead of giving him room to think or be swayed, slap down £130k a week, 3rd highest paid at the club, 4 year deal, get in this team.
Instead, we went to the coppers jar and tried to shift some pennies)

This season, we did.
We went for Vardy, tried to get him on cheap wages and naffed it up
Then moved to Lacazette and we've seemingly naffed it up!

Then, come September, it'll be 'Look, err we tried but there were no strikers on the market'

Yes there were, but you riled them all up!
We were never going to get Ibra, let's not pretend.
Higuain too would probably of taken Juve over us anyway.

But Morata, Lacazette, Millik, even Javier Hernandez has come out today and said he's not ruling out leaving the Bundesliga.
Yes; these players are going to cost you £30/ 40/ 50m, it's a sellers market, but if they score the goals that win you the league, that win you some cups, that (dare I say) win you the UCL, they were worth every penny!

I'm not trying to be unfair to Giroud here, but here's the deal.

He's not good enough.
You can bring up all the stats in the world, but if Giroud is so good, why aren't we fighting to keep hold of him?

If we told the world that Alexis/ Özil/ Santi/ Ramsey/ Koscielny/ Bellerin were available, how many top clubs do you think would come calling?

If you said Giroud, who would?
Maybe a Napoli.
Most likely a West Ham, a Lazio, Sevilla, Everton (sorry Ed! ) good clubs, but not the elite.

Same goes for Cb's.

Who'd take any of Chambers/ Per/ Gabriel?
Good clubs, but not elite.
Chambers and Gab may become very good one day, Gabriel can, I think, if he just tightens up a bit:
There are players out there who can remedy this problem.

Mustafi is one of those players.
Depending on what you read, we've bid between £15-25m and Valencia want £25-40m for him.

If you truly have ambition, then you don't haggle over a few quid.
They want £40m, you offer £25m, they say no, you go back with £30m and you go from there.
If you REALLY want the player, you just pay the £40m.

We don't, we go in with £25m, they say no, we go back with £27m

It's incredibly frustrating and Dags, I'm sorry for the war and peace style response, but it's starting to even get to me a bit these days and I came into this window full of Xhaka themed hope.

Even our bloody players are making comments about the lack of signings!

You've got the Cech interview.
The Mertesacker interview and his 20 goal joke.
You've got Bellerin talking about it.

Ivan says we won't spend loads.
Arsene says we're active in the market.
Someone leaks the stuff about the board making whatever we need within reason available.

i saw two rumours today.
That an unnamed club had bid for Slimani of Sporting and that and Unnamed English club had bid for James Rodriguez

If those are true, I bet money at least one of those is us.
A striker who's got a good record in an average league, who's a carbon copy of Giroud and a No10/ Winger who's top class but not a necessary signing.

Come to think of it, James would be a classic Arsenal signing.

'We ballsed up the striker and centre back, but look at this player! '

The equivalent of shaking your keys in front of a baby to distract them.

A couple of big Arsenal bloggers and ITK's are promising a BIG signing before the window closes, I really, really, REALLY want to believe them, but the only madness I see is the one on the hospital report confirming Arsene's rapid descent into dementia territory.

06 Aug 2016 00:46:06
Absolutely spot on Jeg.

06 Aug 2016 00:56:56
Dags people can be as positive about this club as they like, i have no problem with that but for me we are now a club that has turned into a dinosaur, with a dinosaur manager and an owner who doesn't give a jot about ambition, success and winning. I don't go into the new seasons with the same positive vibes i used to and i am not as excited by our players as i used to be either. Where are our heroes of the future, the warriors and artists that used to carry us to titles through the winters.

06 Aug 2016 08:12:39
Absolutely top post D.

Spot on Steve.

05 Aug 2016 21:37:42
2nd half

Absalutelyfookingsuper:-)

I know it was only a friendly but isn't it brilliant to watch the Arsenal tank somebody good and proper. Love that feeling. Hope there's many more during the season.

It was a joy too watch that hunger and eagerness to impress from Iwobi and JRA.

Both have some skills. Early days but in JRA hopefully we've got back some of the forward thinking attributes that never came to be with diaby.
The wee tap from santi for Iwobis goal was Class. It was like "there you go son, fill your boots. ".

05 Aug 2016 21:58:27
Even though it was a friendly, I enjoyed watching the game. It was good to see the hunger and directness of the youngsters, something we have not seen for a while from our team.

05 Aug 2016 22:27:13
It was against a very poor side

Please don't go over the top :)

05 Aug 2016 22:40:50
It's all about fitness lad's, nothing else :-)

05 Aug 2016 22:42:28
Jeff's got soooo much potential, cracking little player.

I'm hoping zelelem gets another loan so he can grab some more game time (i think he could be unreal) so composed, great eye for a pass, just needs to beef up a little.

I think we really really lack in the striker position though because yes Chuba is learning but we don't seem to have any other emerging talent in that position.

05 Aug 2016 23:05:45
Judgement can't me made in friendlies, they are all a bit fitter still now though.

05 Aug 2016 23:06:29
Oh and there wasn't many vikings in viking.

06 Aug 2016 00:07:41
Lads both points taken. However without dissecting it too much, let's make hay while the sun shines.

Santi done the 90.

Campbell was super

Gibbs didn't get injured

We didn't hear the Iceland clap

Theo looked like he had an orgasm from relief when he scored

Youngsters looked promising.

They all look remarkably similar to each other, giving defenders difficulties man marking :-)

We might have someone dangerous from corners.

The Arsenal were on the telly you don't have to pay for.

They won convincingly.

My Mum has the kids.

LIDLS is doing 12 carling for 8 squidly over here.

I've been pretty much told I'm on a promise tonight.

Hay.

Its good to be alive ;-)

06 Aug 2016 00:14:54
To be honest, I'd still say Bielik, Zelalem, Chambers and maybe even JRA could use a loan this season.

They all need regular game time to progress now and they're all at a bit of a 'make or break' age.

Akpom should stay I think as long as we sign another striker.
Giroud, new lad, Akpom is a decent bit of depth, Chuba wouldn't get regular games, but he'd get time off the bench, cup games and so on, it'd be good for him to learn from the first team for a bit now.

Iwobi will be involved a lot after last seasons end id imagine.

06 Aug 2016 00:48:05
Haha, love it Ulster :-)

05 Aug 2016 21:24:28
Ok I'd like to see us not sign a winger I think Iwobi deserves a chance to claim that position he looks more and more like the real deal
Belik Apkom and the Jeff all look like they could push on and provide some extra back up to the squad.

05 Aug 2016 22:36:24
Really impressed with iwobi. So composed and even on a hat trick he wasn't greedy and looked for the open player.

05 Aug 2016 23:09:23
I was impressed by iwobi from last season, i'm looking forward to see if he can kick on andcadd goals.

06 Aug 2016 00:11:10
I like Iwobi, but if there was a Mahrez style winger to be had, we should go for it.

If not, if Ox can stay fit, he can do an excellent job there, he just needs a run and a bit of confidence.

When we start saying 'we shouldn't sign x player, because it'll be bad for y player' that's Arsene territory mate!

If a youngster really has the quality, then they'll take their chances when they appear.
Look at Hector.
We signed an international right back to play first team in debuchy, he was solid till an unfortunate injury and since then, Bellerin has never once looked like losing his spot.

05 Aug 2016 20:48:33
5-0.

Got a strange feeling we will win the league this season.

05 Aug 2016 20:52:51
It's a given mate.

05 Aug 2016 21:04:38
Now that is a strange feeling mate😂.

05 Aug 2016 20:54:29
Did you see spurs today dags, they looked very impressive and harry Kane banged in two as well.

05 Aug 2016 21:19:56
I'm assuming your not talking about the injury league! We have that win already.

05 Aug 2016 21:48:39
Definitely Raver,

He's doing his CV a world of good for when Real Madrid come calling next season :-)

05 Aug 2016 22:13:56
Yes very good raver.

05 Aug 2016 23:10:25
Raver he's the biz, until the pressures on.

05 Aug 2016 20:12:18
So, assuming there's no major outgoings, I'd say no more Cm's will come in this season.

That being the case, who starts at cm for you?

For me, I'd say we spent £34m on Xhaka to start, not be benched, so he's one.

The other, I'd like to see some tactical nous.
Against smaller, less aggressive teams, I'd like a pairing of Xhaka and Cazorla or Ramseh.

But for big teams, more aggressive sides, I'd love Xhaka and Elneny.

Neither are true 'DM' players, but Xhaka sits deeper, plays balls around and can make a tackle, almost a Xabi Alonso.

Whilst Elneny (I really think we have to give Arsene and co props for that signing, something like £7/ 8m, that's a snap) runs for days, reads the game well and gets stuck in when needed, a great pairing to break up play and redistribute.

I love Coquelin, but to me I can't see him necessarily being a regular starter over the 3 mentioned.
Though he'd be excellent to bring on when a game needs locking down.

That said, I'm not the gaffer, so I could be talking utter tosh.

What are your thoughts people?
Who're your preferred cm's?

05 Aug 2016 20:51:16
Xhake deep, Elneny going forward.

I'm still ok with the idea of 'training' Coq up as a Centre Half, he has all the attributes and can't do too much worse than Mertesucker.

05 Aug 2016 22:24:48
Coq and caz the best central pairing for me until i see different.

05 Aug 2016 22:43:16
Coq and Caz.

Sounds like a drag queen double act you will find at a seedy London nightclub.

Speaking of which, where's Raver?

05 Aug 2016 23:12:09
Now i know how you spend your nights out now dags.

05 Aug 2016 20:00:01
Itv 4 Sunday 5:45 for the Sunday game guys.

05 Aug 2016 20:25:16
Cheers Sags.

05 Aug 2016 19:10:46
Hi Arsenal fans and welcome to our weekly 1 hour extended edition of real Arsenal transfer news round up where we will be bringing you all the real Arsenal transfer news from the past 7 days.

Well there we have it Arsenal fans that completes yet another week of real Arsenal transfer news.
Due to this programme slightly under running by 59 minutes and 58 seconds of its allotted one hour slot we will going over live to Dave in Didcots allotment where he is expecting a lettuce he planted back in the spring to start peeking through the surface any day now, please be warned some younger gooners and those gooners of a nervous dispersion may need to watch this programme from behind a cushion as lettuce acceleration rate can be very unpredictable during early August and my cause those who can be easily excited to jump out there chair with excitement and start hugging the closes person to them uncontrollably.

05 Aug 2016 19:27:21
😂😂😂.

05 Aug 2016 19:55:33
Lol, love it G62 :-)

05 Aug 2016 20:29:25
Talking of lettuce, I went to the Docs the other day and showed him a lettuce leaf growing out of my pants, he said, "oh my god that's awful"

I said, "that's nothing Doc, it's just the tip of the iceberg! "

05 Aug 2016 15:39:22
Perhaps the stubborness of the boss will always be his downfall, another year of losing out on a class cf, looks that way.

05 Aug 2016 15:48:35
What class CF are we losing out on?

05 Aug 2016 16:31:06
D16,

You must of heard of him, he's called Higazettorataenzema. There is a private jet on standby at a variety of international airports to whisk him to Stansted where a high speed taxi is sat, engine running, to rush him over to London Colney to sign on the dotted line and do the obligatory photo shoot.

He will be wearing the number 974435. 😉.

05 Aug 2016 17:13:43
That's actually funny Red

Well done x.

05 Aug 2016 20:30:48
Haha, you feeling ok mate. 😉.

05 Aug 2016 14:14:48
One of the problems with raising funds for transfers is that we rarely get decent fees in these days and often have to loan players out to get their inflated wages off our books. Szczesny is a prime sample, as we have just loaned him out again, rather than sell him.

Debuchy was the same last season, Lord Bendtner in the past, etc. We miss Dein and Fiszman's superb negotiating skills. We seem to have the same problem when buying. I can see us going into the season without a new striker and CB, that are so desperately needed. We may get them by the end of the window, by which time we will have Koscielny and Giroud back, but may have already lost valuable ground on our competitors.

05 Aug 2016 14:40:43
Lets face it, we're just rubbish at transfers full stop.

05 Aug 2016 12:06:34
Icardis agent has been traveling to London for 2 weeks, I guess she must be walking.

05 Aug 2016 06:41:44
NEWS.
I heard that we may be interested in Higuain in the next transfer window.
and probably in the following windows after that until he hangs his boots up.
😂😂😂😂😂😂.