There have been Arsenal transfer rumours this summer that have linked the club with at least two of the players that ended up signing for our Premier League rivals Manchester United. A few reports put the Gunners in the list of clubs interested in Paul Pogba bot nobody in their right mind actually thought that Arsene Wenger would be going for that mega money deal.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, however, did not seem to be out of our reach, especially as the Swedish striker was out of contract and available for nothing, although his wage demands were always going to be eye watering.
I don’t know the exact figure but the cost of Mkhitaryan was around the £30 million mark and we paid more than that for Granit Xhaka, so a lot of Arsenal fans were left wondering why Arsenal with our place in the Champions League were not in that battle or whether we were beaten too easily.
Listening to the words of Wenger on the subject, it appears that our boss has decided not to try competing with the spending power at Old Trafford, to avoid a bidding war that will push the prices even higher.
He was reported in the Evening Standard saying, “Manchester United are the richest club in the world along with Real Madrid. Not many people can compete with their finances but that doesn’t make the difference because at the moment on the pitch we can compete.”
And on the Arsenal website he said, I said the other day that the price of a player normally depends on his talent, on his expected strengthening of the team, on his age and on his resale value. After that, we are in a system where we are in competition as well and if your opponent pays £40million, then if you want the player you have to pay £45million.
“You focus on your squad and your quality and you try to strengthen where you can. We were not specifically [competing] with Man United on a player, so we have done what we wanted and we want to do more. We try to compete at our level with all the assets we have and we try to compete with them. We showed that last Sunday [against Man City].”
So is Wenger right to stay away from p[layers wanted by Man United and other big spending clubs?
Bob.
We aren’t asking to compete wth man united in the transfer market.. we are saying we need a striker and a defender, that’s all.. man Utd can’t buy all the players in the world. I see it as a bad scenario when we have to start the season wth a makeshift defence while we had the whole summer to prepare. poor management
Exactly, fans should pay attention the obvious instead of trying to find flaws in our arguments. No one is saying we should spend 300m in two seasons or 100m on one player, all we want is for the manager to SPEND. The market is severely inflated which means there is no way for us to get a PROVEN player for “cheap” by the manager’s standards. In today’s market 30m for a top class international is considered cheap, 40m would be considered reasonable, and 60m for someone like Aubameyang wouldn’t be considered too much when he’s one of the top scorers in Europe. All we want is for the manager to show intent by getting a player quickly with no public display of stinginess like the Suarez saga. Everyone knows what Arsenal is lacking but Wenger wants to take his time filling the holes in the squad just like he took time finding a decent DM. Will we wait 10 years for a top CF just like we waited 10 years to have someone like Coquelin ? That’s what the majority of fans are worried about hence why we are constantly frustrated.
Heck I don’t even mind getting a winger instead of a CF as long as he’s a GOAL SCORER. We can’t solely rely on Sanchez to win us every game and we have enough proof of Giroud and Walcott not being good enough to carry us.
Arsene don’t deal with Jorge Mendes since Cristiano Ronaldo. He apparently has a knack for unsettling clubs, players and all. He sold Di Maria to United one season, the next he auctioned him off to PSG, same story with Falcao…let’s just say united made a combined 40 million pund loss on those two players alone. Add that to Pogba’s, he instigated to Pogba leave in the first place and then sold him back for 89 million pounds, he basically holds clubs to ransom and make them spend more than is necessary not to talk of his disruptive influence in the dressing room.
Watch how Pogba would have an awesome season and get flogged off to Madrid the next.
why didnt wenger make those transfers?
simple.He wasnt convinced
Or maybe because we already have enough playmakers and what we need is a FORWARD
But I will be so gutted if we missed out on mahrez and he really was available
He is better than sanchez and ozil tbf and would have absolutely no problem displacing any player from our squad
when someone on this site says a player is better than ozil you get thumbed down.
All right I said it yes i said it I said it coz its true
Because it’s not true.
If were the admin I would moderate any comment containing the “specialist in f…..e” quote by mourinho to bash the manager.
Matter of fact no true gunners fan would ever quote anything from that scum much less to use it to describe the manager.. it’s like treason
You’re getting red arrowed because Mahrez is a winger/forward while Ozil is an ACM, they play two completely different positions therefore can’t be compared.
Mourinho is afraid to not spend money and Wenger is afraid to spend money.
Its an unhealthy situation for a club at either side of the spectrum.
To start the season with no registered centre backs or strikers is appallingly incompetent.
Mahrez would be a waste of time and money – we don’t need him we need a striker and a central defender.
I cannot believe a top manager like Klopp or Guardiola would have allowed this to happen and it just illustrates the point that Wenger has lost touch years ago..
Mahrez is good but not better than Ozil….they both have their strengths and flaws. .. I like Mahrez and wish we get him but if Wenger is looking at just two positions to strengthen for now then I will go with Mustafi who I heard will undergo his medical on Monday and then a STRIKER.. ..
The common factor in all those transfer is their agent mino raiola, and should be clear to all arsenal fans by now that the club don’t conduct business with that guy.
Donyen Malen is a Mino Raiola client though.
Nobody is asking Wenger to compete financially
Just get a CB, striker and winger
Fans aren’t demanding that we pay crazy transfer fees
Most of us didn’t want Arsenal to pay £70 million for Higuain
Most of us don’t want Arsenal to pay £60 million for Lacazette
Mkitharyan was only £26 million
Ibrahimovic was a free transfer (high salary though)
Janssen was £18.5 million
We just want a complete team of quality players good enough to compete
This exactly, if we can afford to get a player that will fill the holes in our squad and improve our team we should get him instead of searching for a cheaper deal.
What if 21 year old Asano is the striker. And what if he pulls this deal off for Mustafi along with the Holding lad. Would that not be positions filled. People are saying they don’t care about the price, but I think they do. People still bring up Giroud fee, they say he is worth it, implying you need to pay more to get better. So if anyone has said this before, don’t now say we don’t care how much we pay.
We could have had Lacazette for 45 million pounds. Problem is we allowed the Higauin deal to be completed after which Lyon increased their valuation of lacazette to 60 million Euro.
I can not comprehend why we send 35 million of an area of relative strength (we had Coq and Elneny) and spend nothing in area we have only one very average striker in Giroud.
A week ago I was thinking that Wenger will not be getting a winger, but now he says ..we look to improve on quality in any position, I think it’s going to be a case of us not getting what we need, and instead maybe one marquee midfielder that becomes available, most likely a winger. This is just pure speculation, but since when has this not went hand in hand at Arsenal.
i don,t know about you but if the rumours that everton are in talks with valencia to sign aymen abdennour are true it doesn,t look good for the mustafi,s transfer,what do you think??