Arsenal Rumours Archive August 04 2011

04 Aug 2011 23:43:04
kyle bartley away to glasgow rangers on season long loan

04 Aug 2011 22:41:08
bartley going back to rangers season loan
cahill to be announced in the morn

04 Aug 2011 19:47:21
if Andy Carroll is £35million and what is Fabregas according to Barcelona £27million you must be having a laugh because he was injured most of the season so was Carroll he was out for like six months and what did he do for Newcastle ....nothing. So I think Cesc is worth between £40-50million

Its clear Cesc's true value is well over what Barca have been offering, but in reality that doesn't matter. There's only one team Cesc will agree to terms with so they're free to toy us about with low offers.

I hear what you're saying, but valuations are all over the place if you ask me- I don't think there is necessarily any logic with it- are players worth that much in the first place ? Of course not, but another story- statistically Fab is the best central midfielder n Europe and is top quality, so it does seems ludicrous that you can pay 35mil for what really is a young developing striker- how can you compare? tbh I don't think you can anymore and you will go crazy trying to work it out. For e.g. IF we do end up signing mata, for more or less about the same money as downing and you will see a difference in quality believe me, you will think what the hell ? As I said there is no real logic and I don't think you can compare...

The price paid for any player depends upon the relative bargaining strengths and tactical positioning of the 2 clubs who are in negotiations. L'pool paid that for Carrol because they had just rec'd £50m for Torres - Newcastle knew this and had no reason to sell Carrol in January unless they were made an offer they couldnt refuse, so to speak. With Arsenal and Barca, Arsenal are in a weak position purely because everyone in this galaxy knows that Fab only wants to go one place, the place where he was brought up on football. Arsenal know they will have to sell eventually, and that he may not show his true form if kept against his will (like last season?) AND that he will only go to Barca. So they will get him for as cheap as they can and take advantage of the situation. I woudl say a deal worth £35m in total is what Arsenal might expect, given the conditions GazHP

£35 million is fair as a up front fee but with add-ons should reach around £40 million. In my opinion Barcelona started in strong position but as they continue to bid below the relatively fair asking price, all the while insisting they would love to sign him, I'm sure Fabregas will get annoyed for toying with his future. Furthermore they prioritised the big signing of Sanchez who replaced the sale of 2 fowards: Ibrahimovic and Bojan, comments about Tiago being better also will unlikely have helped.

Plus look at Torres, £50 million was a ridiculous fee. I would think Torres is worth about the same as Fabregas, likely less because of his terrible form and there were not stand out factors in that transfer other than Abramovich's money.

Any financial transaction is double ledgered:

This means VALUE in money, always has two side .... The sellers valuation and the buyers. what you get in these type of one off sales, is a median of the two considering predisposed attachments or conditions.

It isn't like valuing jewellery or something where you can work out the static value of something based solely on it's condition and features.

People aren't lumps of gold though Sky and their daft promotions would have us believe it... Arsenal are far more interested in replacing THE WORK that Fab does more than the player himself, as no player will ever be bigger than the club.

Barca on the other hand are buying him as a supersub which they don't need at all; more of a marque signing to appease the fans and media than anything.

Who knows he might not even last a year there, behind Xavi Iniesta and co.

All friends in the Spain squad, but you wait until they have to work together

A player is only worth what another club is willing to pay 5 years ago 27 million for a player would have been huge money but for some reason as the economy gets worse the transfer fees for players seems to go up

04 Aug 2011 19:21:11
just arsenal claims that if we pull out for juan mata for whatever reason we will turn our attention to marvin martin, who sochaux have put a 9m euro on his head (8m pounds). would be a bargain, next season would be worth 10x the amount

So marvin martin is going to be worth 80 million pounds? good one mate

I think even if we do sign mata we should still sign marvin Martin would be a bargain at 8 mill

Sochaux have put a 25 M euros price tag on him, check your facts mate.

04 Aug 2011 18:19:01
Me and my Dad went to the Arsenal members day today and got autographs from the players.
Henri Lansbury was there, and when my dad asked about what he was doing next season he simply answered with a shrug of the shoulders and 'don't know mate'.
Wouldn't like to see him leave good player and a top lad.

Definitely rate Lansbury, haven't seen too much of him but I remember when he was first signed - they were bigging him up as the next Cesc Fabregas

I guess we will find out sooner rather than later if this will be true - both in footballing and club loyalty terms

Both equally excellent lads, both tremendous footballers.

One costs tuppence the other costs £40M but which one will be the most valuable to Arsenal I wonder . . .

Be interesting lets just hope they both end up staying. Or at least one of them

04 Aug 2011 17:13:15
Why do we Gooners listen to the media?

Cesc is staying Barca can't afford the fee and still owe us money from Hleb and Henry deals. Nasri will sign a new contract but wants reassurances that we will strengthen our squad.

Mata and Benzema are smoke screens Edan Hazard will be coming in. We won't buy Jags or Cahill as we won't pay over the odds

Almunia, Eboue, Bendtner will leave and several others from reserves will go out on loan.

Could do with knowing who we will sign Jags or Cahill trying to sort my dream team out and thinking of getting one of those in on the basis they are cheapish now and will sign for Arsenal........and possibly keep more clean sheets....not a rumour I knwo but importnat to em at moment whilst I kill some tiem at work.....

I no longer see Cesc staying as a good thing, his heart is clearly not in it for us, and he desperately wants to go. This has dragged on long enough, its time to let him go, get a replacement and move on

04 Aug 2011 17:10:57
From one source ive heard that Owen Coyle has opened the window for teams wanting to bid for Cahill aprt from Liverpool, this gives Arsenal a good chance.
If we do have to sell Nasri to a rival club to get money from him then surely it would have to be Man.C, for just under £25million or a deal which we could include Adam Johnson in.
If this happened adn we lost Nasri we should do our best to keep Cesc at the club.
We all know Arsenal has money and our own chairman has said we havent stopped spending after they bought Gervinho. So I would like to see maybe another CB or a strong CDM-Ed what are your opinions on Fellaini, I think he could be a good buy and hes tall so he can help us with our corners etc... or we good buy another striker

I think he would be a great signing

What do you mean a part from liverpool? Coyle is good friends with daglish, he said today on ssn that he only had lunch with him last week- why would he not accept a bid from liverpool? Sorry that doesn't make sense- they may will bid and we may lose out on him (if wenger does want him )- that's reality within the transfers market. Competition.

Maybe this is just me but i dont realy understand his heart not being with arsenal. When you are ambitious as Cesc claims to be and you are on the pitch you play with all you got imo.

04 Aug 2011 17:06:55
talksport: eto'o expected to leave for poss city or arsenal.

04 Aug 2011 16:49:14
Jeez just finished watching Cesc's top 50 assists, this guy is something else. Maybe its the close season, or Barca's incessant tactics which have made us fans forget just how special the guy is but if we lose him I dnt see how we will survive it. For the last 2 seasons hes 'wanted' to leave and yet only injury has stopped him from performing to the best of his ability, not his attitude. If Catalunya is his parent, then we Arsenal are the step dad who took him in when no-one else wanted to him.
Im not blind to all the tactics Barca have employed to ruin his relationship with the fans and make it so that we have no choice but to sell him now, so why ist he? They even paid 30mill Euros for Sanchez, someone unproven even though it is well documented that they have limited funds.Hes an intelligent person apparantly, so why is he so adamant to move their?
Anyway, Im going to pray from now to the Newcastle game and hope he doesnt leave, because hes a special talent and if we cave and sell him for less than 40-45mill I will give up hope on the season ahead.
Eman

Well said your right hes something of a midfield giant alright . its just us arsenal fans are sick of the trans sega the last two seasons.

I'm with ya there, until you said you'd give up hope on the season ahead. We can adjust and adapt to life without Cesc (hopefully).

Ty

OO sorry I meant in terms of winning trophies LOL. Our win % with him is something over 60...
Eman.

No one is denying that he is brilliant but i think we could live without him. People were similarly fatalistic about our prospects after Henry left, and yet we were fantastic for the first half of 2007/08. I would like him to stay, but both Wilsh and Rambo have the potential to be at his level in the next couple of years.

I do agree with you they will be top notch in a couple of years thats not good a nuff for a team like Arsenal . we should have had a dream team Now with all the youngsters Wenger said will be one for the future i

Will everyone stop going on about how well we've done since Thierry left... we haven't won a thing... don't we have ambition... we don't want to be 'surviving we should be winning things

04 Aug 2011 16:41:02
My take on the Mata situation using logic and reading between the lines. This is all my opinion.

I believe the Mata deal is off FOR NOW

The reason for this:

Wenger wanted 40m for Fabregas before Mata's release clause deadline so we could use 18m of it for Mata. This would leave 22m obviously.

With that 22m I believe Wenger has a deal for Benzema sorted. ie. Agreed a fee with Real Madrid, agreed personal terms with Benzema. Just without the money available to push it through YET.

I know we already have money at the moment before people say we do have money available.

Again IN MY OPINION this is the way Wenger has his priorities set.

1) Solve Fabregas and Nasri's futures. Preferably let Fabregas leave for 40m, keep Nasri and sign Mata and Benzema in one swoop to soften blow of Fabregas leaving.

2) Use money we already have to strengthen all other areas of the team that need it. Ie. CB, LB and CM cover, perhaps GK.

3) Sell other dead-wood and replace them.

4) Sign more youngsters as always. Use money to pay compensation, wages etc.

---------------------------------------------------

Due to Barca not paying the 40m in time for us to get Mata I believe we are left with two options:

1) We keep Fabregas, sell Nasri for 22m and replace him with Mata, no Benzema til' we see what money is available after strengthening the rest of the team - potential deadline day deal.

2) We sell Fabregas for 40m eventually, but as Valencia want more for Mata we'll move for a different winger for 18m MAX. Still leaving 22m for Benzema.

3) Least likely. Play hard ball and keep both Fabregas and Nasri. Very little chance of signing Benzema unless we get enough money from player sales, sacrifice getting a LB, CM and GK or get a third or fourth choice CB ie. Dann and Samba.

--------------------------------------------------

Again this was ALL MY OPINION on the recent rumours and how I believe they COULD pan out. Just as sure they will almost definitely pan out different lol. Anyone out there agree with this logic? Ed?

StEvE

{Ed022's Note - Personally I think there is a lot of sense in this post Steve. Very well thought out. You are not far off I reckon...}

I want to believe because that would mean there is some real intent from Wenger to try to strenghten the squad.
However my theory is that nowadays Wenger is a deluded old man who still thinks that his magic touch will make players better and therefore he doesn't think buying already proven and good players is necessary. His ego is also so huge that he is not going to buy a new defender because that would mean he'd crack under pressure and do things the way everybody saying and therefore solving the problem would not be considered due to his genius Strasbourg brain

Seems very sensible to me...are we sure that StEvE isn't Arsene in disguise?? (ooooh conspiracy)

{Ed022's Note - He can't be Arsene Wenger...he makes sense... Ooooh bitchy Ed...}

04 Aug 2011 15:05:25
Looks like arsenal are close to signing Jose Rodriguez a 17 year old 'wonder kid' central midfielder from Real Madrid.
hmm...one for the future, great- but what about players we need now...

London Gooner

We still need to buy the kids as well as the more experienced players.

I allso see that rumour think it was on Arseblog or something

04 Aug 2011 14:47:40
The Guardian IS CLAIMING:

'Henri Lansbury has failed to agree terms on a new contract at Arsenal and the young midfielder looks set to leave.

Lansbury is staying do not believe the media

Thats why i put claiming in CAPS, thought it was a giveaway

Lansbury signed long term contract in 2010 so I assume there's few more years left to negotiate

Why would he sign now? He probably thinks he will get his chances this year and as an ambitious lad he thinks he'll do well and then he can sign a new contract with better terms after this season

04 Aug 2011 14:32:39
I work for Remars and we have the contract to print all the arsenal calendars programmes team posters etc we were told this morning that the photo shoot was being cancelled due to the weather but my boss Jon flanagan spoke to someone at arsenal who told us the real reason was because in the next 10 days there would be at least 8 coming in or leaving the club.
When he asked more he was told nasri is a done deal to City Eboue is off to turkey squillaci is going home to France. And Mata will be in by next weekend Samba is joining and upson will be back at arsenal as back up and the shock signing of Gyan. In all this there was no mention of Fabregas. Watch all this unfold before next weekend.

So we keep our transfers a secret , but we tell a calendar boss all our movements. If it is true Arsenal will find out then guess what , you wont have a job tomorrow

I cant understand why Arsenal FC would divulge this information to a printing press yet they wont disclose it to the Media?

This could well be true, as you've told it- whether it will happen or not is another thing entirely. word of caution- I wouldn't mention names at all, individual or companies- as someone said above you could lose your job- be careful.
LOndon Gooner

Watch it happen. they don't tell the media as it gives harry at spurs something to copy. The person my boss Flan spoke to is a scout there called Jake Parratt he told him this as we were slagging Wenger off for not doing anything.

Stupid man that printing company doesn't even exist. I work in finance and I checked and there is no company by that name in London. Stop bulls**ting and get some sense Upson will never play for Arsenal, he is not good enough And Mata is not coming

You did get something right with your "prediction"... The weather in NW1 is sh*t

{Ed022's Note - I looked out the window and just thought it was a typical August summers day in London...}

Haha you wanna get out more mate. We are a based in st neots. When you say your in finance, what do you do work on a till in tesco you tube.

Obviously not a big printing company , as can't find it in google

Big enough to print arsenal calenders however...

Remar Incorporated; yeah I heard of them smallish company but large orders.

Look buddy, you know what you heard - and that's cool people will dispute when they think it's NY Red 'Bull' just the same as you will defend...

Personally I can't see 8 players of stature coming and going - and whoever it was that was slagging off Wenger has proven themselves to be small time:

Wengers staff are known to be fiercely loyal, and why wouldn't they be? Probably some jumped up marketing bod who thinks he knows football better than the boss

I wouldn't be so quick to presume it either way, but I still stick to my own predictions from the last day of the season.

Nasri stays
Fab leaves for Barca
Clichy dropped
Szchz made no 1 GK
1 x LB who can also do CB
1 x Striker

And the usual compliment of:

3 or 4 youth players plus 1 good but unknown signing (Include Jenks, Gervinho and that other one here I suppose)

UP THE ARSENAL

What a massively elaborate talecant see a few of those happening but if upson comes back im asking for a refund on my arsenal membership

04 Aug 2011 13:40:52
footy online: Arsenal who were expected to bring in Mata this week, are now looking to return to Lille to sign Hazard before Saturday week.

Why do people believe these sites? wont happen as that would mean spending 20mill + on 1 player (hazard) and wenger WONT EVER DO THAT

04 Aug 2011 13:38:15
Word in Glasgow is that now Rangers are out of the CL Arsene Wegner is ready to offer £10 million + Kyle Bartley for Jelavic.Rangers/Arsenal fan here, I think it would be a great deal.

Why would arsenal have just offered bartley a new deal?

I think Bartley will be loaned out to a premiership side for this season. {Ed022's Note - Having recently signed a new deal his future is secure and I would agree. A PL league would be the best for everyone concerned. At least up until January.}

Jelavic is cup tied so it is a pointless signing

24 hours after signing a new deal at arsenal? i dont think so

One part right so far...hmmm {Ed028's Note - Hmmm indeed}

04 Aug 2011 12:54:10
between Elia, Arda Turan, Mata, Adam Johnson, Marin
who is better than the other in terms of preference

IMO it would be Mata, Johnson, Elia, Marin/Turan, but I admit I have no idea who Marin or Turan are...

Juan mata of course ansd A.W should do everything in hes power to bring that type of talent to north london.

Marin mata elia turan johnson

Mata, Turan, Johnson, Marin, Elia

Mata is a fantasic young talent who is consistent for club and country.
Turan is the leader of his national side but play is a weaker league...great ability.
Marin has the potential but says he prefers to remain at Bremen this season.
Adam Johnson being English will be overpriced, but he is talented.
Elia...Kluivert one day and Babel the next.

Go with Mata or Turan. Maybe Eboue as makeweight for Turan as rumours have him going to Turkey anyway.

Personally I'd say they are all decent. I think Mata is probably the best of the bunch, Marin and Elia not far behind. But IMO Eden Hazard is better than Mata. Only just though. I'm surprised he wasn't included in the options.
Joey

Marin, Mata, Turan, Johnson, Elia

04 Aug 2011 10:48:32
I am a first timer on this page but am a credible source u can bank on.daily follow me becos my sources are direct and straight from the emirate stadium.The mata deal is not dead and buried, discussions are still ongoing and arsenal went cold becos of the sudden approach of tot'ham, nd a host of other clubs.as I type, the two clubs are in secret discussions and will make a public pronouncement b4 48hrs.Scott Dann will be a gunner b4 the league kicks off.another good news is that, a left back, one among cissoko and izzaguirre is on the cards but expect nothing concrete until the final days of the window. As for Barton, it's a huge possibility if wenger accepts to sign.the board wants to know if wenger will take any such risk becos of his off the field and on the field behaviors.am not from dubblin so watch this page

With respect, we all know Dann might be coming, we all know Arsenal and Valencia are still in talks, and we all know it is a possibility Barton may join.... I find this post as reliable as any others to be honest.

Never read so much trash. Reliable source Yeah right. Jog on

Well if you want to potray an image, pertaining to know the dealings of Arsenal FC.

Atleast

1) write your statements in proper english or in bullet points

2) Sign off with a name. What do you mean watch this space? whose space? how do we know your any diff from Dublin Gooner...well atleast he had a signage.

{Ed022's Note - Well, I am not 100% sure what "to potray" is. What I do know is that you were trying to suggest if you want to portray something (that is to describe something in words) then spacing out your words and using bullet points instantly adds credence to your piece. On this I would like to add a rumour is a rumour, no matter how it is presented.
Also I would like to add you did not start your first bullet point with a capital letter nor end it with a full stop. So, how about we all get off our high horses, stop slagging off people's grammar and punctuation and let people have the freedom to post rumours/banter etc...}

Yeah also 'at least' is two words.

If this is your first time on the site, then how would you now about Dublin Gooner?

COBBLERS-GOONER...... What a load of old trash, nothing you have said has come froma a relaible sourse, unless you class the daily red tops newspapers and many football web-sites as "reliable"...... Are you sure your not DUBLIN GOONER in disguise ???

+1 to Ed022.
Half the people on this site seem to be intent on appearing more educated than others, at the same time they do not realize that their grammar isn't as good as they think it is. :)

First class dreamer, that is what you are :)

Secret talks? whats your name?? IVAN?

Would you all stop going on about izzaguirre hes just not good enough for the gooners he plays for a small pub team in glasgow

So did Charlie Nicholas, Liam Brady managed them and Ian Wright always wanted to play for them.How many European cups Arsenal won? A pub team that has 60,000 fans backing them,I read a post on here that said "singing ruins the match", "it's too noisy when fans sing" etc etc.

If you had a competant grasp of the use of the english language then we might takie you a little bit more seriously before completely dismissin this dribble you have posted. No one at the emirates would risk there job to give outside information, if an insider is tellin you then he is blaggin n tryin to make themself look clever
BD {Ed007's Note - Way to pull someone up about their use of the English language, 1-0 to the other guy I reckon.}

04 Aug 2011 10:35:42
According to Guillem Balague his article in AS suggests that Cesc Fabregas is staying at Arsenal this summer. It basically says that Barca have made a final offer of 29m euros + 6m variable addons + 3m for something else (38m euros all together). But Arsenal want £40m (45.8m euros), so they will reject the bid. Another reason that points to why he might be staying is that he is training with the squad on members day, and he's going to play against Benfica on Saturday.

JH.

On twitter also barcelona have claimed that they are almost finalizing the transfer only SMALL VARIABLES remaining

Well obviously Arsenal are going to Reject the bid...its not rocket science...Wenger and Arsenal are now pissed.

40 mill is the amount...not a penny less.

There is no more option.

Or i would say...30 mill and a 3 year pass to sign as many talented youngsters from their academy as arsenal want.

F U Barca

His heart is not with Arsenal. So surely it would be wise to let him go because a unhappy player/captain could be the start of a bad season

Wheeler92

Barca would've loved that 9 million in add-ons that would never get paid.

04 Aug 2011 10:18:55
two things ive heard yesterday,

first one that wenger is going to have jags and cahill by the end of the summer and will use the cesc money to pay for them.


the other one is that wenger will just bank the 40mil from barca for cesc and dont sign anyone else,


believable for the top one
Unbelievable for the bottom one


sussex gooner

I dont think Wenger will sign two CB's just one. I understand Wenger not signing a replacement if Fabregas stays as he can move Nasri into Fabregas's place & we have many midfield options. I believe the possible 2nd signing Wenger spoke of will only be signed if both Fabregas & Nasri depart. My feelings are that Fabregas will eventually go & that Nasri will be offered his position, a resigning fee & a much improved contract. If he refuses to sign, then Wenger will sell him, as despite his protestations to the contrary, he will not if possible allow Nasri to run down his contract & lose £20+ million. Our CB's for next season will be Koscielny, Vermaelen, Djourou & the 'new' CB, he will keep Squilacci, either because he is too stubborn to admit he was a poor signing or he wont be able to sell him. Mind you I wouldnt rule out a loan deal to a French club.

What a stupid choice you've given us. Just trying to lower morale, it seems. Wenger won't buy 2 CBs when we only need one.

If Arsene Wenger was serious about strengthening our squad, surely he would have done it by now with just over a week to go before the season starts. All the rubbish about being "active" in the transfer market and we know where we need to improve, was just a smokescreen to con fans into renewing their season tickets. Do we really have any money to spend? I have supported Arsenal since 1970 home and away and will always remain a gooner, but this pre-season has left me very dissapointed with the club who are showing no ambition and when the injuries start to come, as they inevitably will, our squad is going to look extremely threadbare

04 Aug 2011 09:34:12
Why is it barca cant stump up the Cash for Cesc?

Alexis Sanchez 25 million euros + 11 million in add ons which never account to 11 million in the end.

Cesc - 40 mill...thats what we want or 45 million euros.

Barca Budget was 45 million euros. But lets rethink where their money is.

Bojan to Roma - 11.5 million Euros
Jeffren to Sporting - 3.5 mill Euros
Ibrahimovic on perm - 24 mill Euros

39+45 = 84 mill Euros - 37 for sanchez and 47 Remain for cesc...so they can pay our 40 million pound valuation and have 1 mill remaining. So pay the damn money you scums.

Because Barcelona are over 400 million euros in debt & have just paid their players 6 month wages (they pay their players 6 monthly) & signed Sanchez.

They dont pay their players from their Transfer transactions.

barcelona has disclosed losses of just over 20 million last term considering 18 months ago they showed losses of 80+ million.

This club is not in debt as its revenue generated is sufficient to pay players.

The reason they took a bank loan last year was the stupidity of signing ibrahimovic for 60 mill + eto and pay him 250K a week and then loan him out a year later and still cover 47K of his salary.

Add to it messi and co earn well. this is not the fact this year, and the transfer kitty is for buying so they should pay up.

last year in their financial doom they spent 32 million on david villa and still had 42 mill to spend on cesc.

Think about it they are playing the poor man they arent really poor.

If you have a look on Barcelona's site there accounts clearly show that they are over 400 million in debt, plus last years losses. Last year they took an additional loan of 150 million euros to pay the wages for 6 months & for other incidentals. They simply cannot afford waht we are asking for Fabregas, unless they can borrow more funds, in waht is a difficult financial climate. I am also certain that they are reluctant to pay Arsenal a substantial sum for a player that we obtained from their academy, by utilising a legal loophole & other players have arrived since. The amusing thing is that, if he signs for Barcelona, they will be paying Arsenal a substantial sum for a player that walked out on them.

04 Aug 2011 08:00:33
what about Arda Turan..if Mata deal failed

04 Aug 2011 01:09:46
I work as a youth coach at fulham. I have contacts with two guys who coach the under 14s at Arsenal as we did our uefa b license together. Now obviously Wenger doesn't tell them transfers but word gets around the coaching staff. My friend told me that Jagielka is now looking very unlikely and Wenger will not pay full price for Cahill as he's set on getting him for free next summer. Worrying rumour is Wenger will go with kos and vermaelen as they've done well in pre-season and now won't sign a centre back.

On a good news and bad news note, Mata will sign 100% before August 14th. Bad news is Fab will be leaving this summer.

Joey M (football youth development coach at Fulham FC)

I have no problem with Vermaelen & Koscielny as two of our CB's, but both would benefit playing off a taller aerially dominant CB, hence I would love to see us sign Cahill & Samba, so they could be alternated in tandem with either Vermaelen or Koscieny & we could, as Wenger mentioned, play Vermaelen at LB. I cetain we could purchase this pair for £30m, assuimng we get £35m+ for Fabregas, this would finance the deal & if Nasri leaves the sum rasied could pay for Mata. I would sell Squilacci (if possible).

This strikes me as one of the most believable of rumours on here.

Why pay 17million for a player you can get for free next season (Cahill), if the defence is having trouble go with a reduced bid for Cahill in January.

Mind you it's probably what a number of clubs are thinking about trying to do with Nasri Looking at Nasri in preseason, I would be tempted to start with Wilshere and Ramsey ahead of Nasri, they look better as a centre duo, and seem to have a better understanding with each other. Not to mention Ramsey looks a lot hungrier than Nasri.

I think Fabregas will be missed, but at the risk of sounding controversial, I think it will allow others to take the next step, and also, I feel that we do sometimes rely on Cesc a little too much, and the play tends to go through him almost too much which can leave us without a plan b.
IF he leaves then I think more players will take responsibility during matches and look for the ball.

When Henry left others made the step up.

Just my view on things.

Kermit79

Kermit...couldn't agree more with your post mate. My OH and I had is conversation the other night, and he likened it to the Henry situation. Yes, we'll miss Cesc, at first, but I'm happy to see him go and look forward to watching how our midfieldsrs develop (esp Aaron and Jack) after he's gone. i'm quite optimistic about that area of our team tbh.

Thank God for that I thought I was going to get slaughtered on my thoughts.

It think that Ramsey is a fantastic player, and dare I say it will weigh in with more goals than Cesc. Ramsey has vision, he has just lacked playing time due to his obvious injury. Ramsey also doesn't go missing in the big Games (Man utd goal). Just shows the character of the guy to come back from that career threatening injury and be as committed as ever.
Wilshere is the obvious choice, but I think Ramsey is just as an exciting prospect, along with Frimpong.
Wenger has it sussed.

Kermit79

{Ed022's Note - This is my point and the points of a lot of fans. We are relatively happy with our midfield, even if both Nasri and Fab go I see one name coming in (Mata.) But in general I feel Rambo, Jack, Song and Frimps will be quality. Up front we don't have many options. Only Gervinho, Arshavin, Walcott, RVP, Chamakh and Vela. Thats not including Super Nick Bendtner. I think we'd all agree we need a DEFENDER or two...}

There's no guaranty Cahill will sign for us after his contract runs down. Man city or chelsea will give him double than we can. So stop posting he will sign for us when he's free.
DrchoGunner

{Ed022's Note - Hasn't Cahill already rejected City's overtures already this summer? It's not all about the money. Yes, Chelsea could offer him more money sure, however the original poster and my understanding also is that Wenger is keen to get him on the cheap and is "set on getting him for free"...or (cheaper in Jan if required).There is no guarantee he will sign obviously but I think it's clear Wenger will not pay £17m now for someone he could get for about £6m in January and free in July...}

Not sure that we do need defenders. More like we need a better defensive plan. Defenders going forward is ok, but aerially is where we are weakest. I put this down to zonal marking. DJ is always looking for the mistakes of Squillaci. Gibbs is often caught out of position. But the with TV5 back and Kos settling I think we are fine. Of course like everyone I would like us to strengthen, but dont think its the end of the world if we dont sign anyone.
I would sign a utility defender like Subotic (18m) or Vertonghen (10m). Jagielka and Cahill too expensive for what you get

CrossRoss

Firstly Cahill wont necessarily sign for us, next season for free, as another club may agree a fee to sign him during the current window or he amy choose to go elsewhere next season. For those of you who sate we need Jagielka or a utility defender, it is exactly what we dont need. We need a dominat 6'3" plus commanding CB with good aerial abilty. We already have two perfectly decent 6ft CB' in Vermaelen & Koscielny, both of whom could do with a taller, what is known as a number one CB in the John Terry, Tony Adams, Vidic mould.

04 Aug 2011 00:36:47
Spanish reports:- if barca sign fabregasssss this week and this week only- before next Tuesday - arsenal have a deal in principal with Valencia to see mata go to the emirates with in a matter of hours after. The media also saying that barca will pay 30m and fabregas and his family friends will pay an extra 6 m to force the move. Therefore the gunners will receive 36m in total. Mata is set to cost 20m or less. However this deal will only happen if cesc moves. However they also say that if arsenal want mata they will have to pay around 23 m, Valencia have realised that there may be a matter of urgency after the cesc deal and will take what they can get.

There is also news of a possible move for bendtner from espanyol watch this space....

Dude really? firstly mata will cost '20m or less' then next line you say 'however they also say that if arsenal want mata they will have to pay arround 23m' which one is it???

also not too sure but doesnt mata have some sort of trigger in his contract if an offer of 18m comes in? i know its not a buy out clause its about valencia offering 80k a week wage isnt it? what happens if valencia cant afford the 80k off does that trigger another clause? eds maybe you know?

Reports suggest Mata going nowhere.

.......and his family friends will pay an extra 6 m to force the move........... ha

I don't actually believe the friends and family thing but I have been thinking it myself. All the Barca players keep banging on how much they want him - show it by stumping up the difference

Monkey