My Arsenal transfer summary so far. by MK
Pre-Season has begun and with the conclusion of the Euro’s, the Transfer Window is meant to intensify. However at the Emirates it feels a lot different, the club has a civil war brewing. There are two groups of fans currently who are both equally frustrated. You’ve got the angry ‘Wenger Out’ fan who has had enough of our Current Manager clashing with the ‘Arsene Knows Best’ fan, who strongly believes that we need to have more patience and faith in the current set up and leadership. Regardless of your opinion in the argument it’s having a negative effect on the whole club.
Last season I attended the FA Cup game against Watford and out of all of my trips to the Emirates this was the worst, the atmosphere was flat and I could see many empty seats – whilst the fans in the stadium were more interested in taking selfies and recording every set piece instead of cheering their team on. Topping all of that was the fact that you could clearly see the divide amongst the supporters, since that game it has gotten worse and worse with the stories of Arsenal fans fighting amongst themselves, home and away, getting embarrassing.
Truth be told both groups of fans want the same thing which is success for Arsenal and the fighting is caused by pure frustration. We are watching everyone else going out and buy what they believe will allow them to improve and we aren’t! Granit Xhaka is a good player but he has been perceived as a political move to convince fans who weren’t going to renew their season tickets after a frustrating season.
You can’t talk about Arsenal for very long without mentioning Arsene Wenger, he has provided so much for this club and his time has changed our philosophy. This can be seen by speaking to any Arsenal fan born after 1996 or so. This is all well and good but it shouldn’t give him unlimited time to get it right again.
Arsene Wenger is a dictator, he obviously isn’t anywhere close to Saddam Hussain or Robert Mugabe but I honestly believe he must control everything. He is the only manager in world football that is more powerful than his bosses (Mourinho likes to thinks he is). Ivan Gazidis has continually said that the Board follow Wenger’s lead. With this going on it’s impossible to see them sacking him ever, Wenger answers to no one at the club. This meticulous behaviour that bred so much success for Wenger up to 2005 is the main reason he hasn’t been as successful since 2005. The game has moved on and much like his playing staff, Arsenal don’t have the right personnel in the transfer team.
A fed up fan.
Mike
Well I guess its gonna be AKBS vs AOBS season 10 next season.
get your jokes, comebacks and sarcasm on a stick ready…
*grabs thesaurus
Best show currently available on Netflix.
The selfie brigade and camera out lot are mostly who go to the games now. They aren’t there to support the team they are there to be posting pictures in Facebook to try and make out they are cool.
Bring back the days when it was the terraces and Highbury and was all standing…..now that was an atmosphere and that was a fan base.
yes we will talk to our kids and grandkids about highbury like it was the spiritual mecca ,
we will exaggerate every emotion felt, every card dealt,
tis the days of glory one will reminisce.
feel like i need to write a poem or at least listen to tupac now.
What i know is this, if Arsenal should loose to Liverpool on the opening day or loose any of the first 3 matches then there will be a very massive backlash and who knows maybe this will send the club to another panic-buy mood..lol
That’s the problem the real fans have been priced out, no atmosphere and lack of ambitions is in a lot of fans now, you have people like supetuur (I so wanted to put another letter on the end of that) who will make excuse after excuse for Wenger.
next season will be very different as I don’t think a top 4 is nailed on and if that happens even some of the Wenger supporters may turn sad sad times for a club that has so much history and pride, it’s symptematic of this country where the rich don’t understand the working class and don’t care as long as they make money. The fan base will eventually dwindle you cannot rip of the public for ever even the dumbest fan will realise “eventually”
With this squad will will not make top 4 slate me at the end if I am wrong
I’m not suggesting at all i’m content with this current squad….
But I swear every damn season someone’s saying ‘we won’t make the top-4…’ if there’s one thing, and one thing at all you can bet on for sure at Arsenal… It’s we’ll be in the top-4
Well we came second last season but more by good luck than good management. I must confess to being one of the negative brigade as I can`t see Wenger ever motivating a title winning side.
Furthermore I think it would do Arsenal good to miss out on qualifying for Europe, and I don`t mean just missing the cut I mean like not making the top six. The fans can protest as much as they like it`s the players who could change things. Once Sanchez and Ozil say enough is enough then the thin end of the wedge is in the door.
Aussie jack, i think your concern about ozil and sanchez is well justified. I think that the lack of transfer activity last season and this season, particularly on the striker front is down to kroenke and financial constraints. However motivation, which is down to wenger is a big issue, last season we had numerous golden opportunities to get clear ahead in the PL and after beating leicester at the emirates we should have pushed on and won the PL.
Basically it looks to me like lack of ambition, it is why RVP left but then the stadium debt was a severe financial constraint. Financially things are much better now.
Arsene FC Top 4 rules OK.
….ok
ok 🙂
arsenal transfer update
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errr looks like after pogba man u are in for fabinho from monaco an it looks good to go
there u have it! arsenals latest transfer news…man u are buying fabinho
same time tommorow lads for the next episode of the transfer twilight zone
I have looked at the financial reports for the last five available yeas on arsenal.com. The latest figures show Profit 24.7, cash reserves 228.2, debt 233.9, net debt 5.7, all in £m.
When looking at the last five yeats it shows that we have always made a profit, debt is falling, cash reserves are rising. It is a clear consistent policy.
I have also read Kroenkes comments at the mit sloane conference in boston this year. His policy towards sports team ownership is that they should be self financing.
Putting this together it is clear to me that the board in general but Kroenke in particular set clear financial targets/constraints. The reason they rate wenger so highly is that he operates within these constraints and delivers what the board see as sucess.
With regard to spending our cash reserves, here is a quote on 18 sept 2015 from the bbc website “”We’re focused on delivering more success,” said Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis. The cash reserves of £193.1m are intended to cover costs for a full season and are not solely designated for player transfers.”
Basically I think that the aims of the club and the overall financial aspects are set by Kroenke, he is a businessman and owns over two thirds of arsenal, why would he let a manager override him? Whilst many blame wenger for not buying what we need and penny pinching, he is operating within the constraints set by Kroenke. When we get a new manager he will have to operate within the financial constraints set by kroenke and achieve the tagets set by kroenke.
I think the title of this article should be “Frustration with Kroenke causing Arsenal fans divide”
The above refers to arsenal cash reserves being intended to cover costs for a full season and are not solely designated for player transfers.
In 2015, arsenal operating expenses without player transfers were £281.4m and cash reserves were £228.2m. This implies that the arsenal board consider that cash reserves need to be some £50m higher. This is a very different scenario than the often stated ” arsenal have ovet £200m in the bank, why doesn’t wenger just get on and spend it”. The answer is that the board consider the cash reserves are not high enough. So much for just go and spend £80m and get a top striker, let alone the astronomical wages which would go with such a deal.
I believe that here are a lot of issues with the team which wenger could and should have addressed like team moral, grit, determination, ambition, overpaid players etc. However I consistently hear commentators on tv, newspaper articles and fans on this site saying things like, we have the money, test their resolve and drop 80 million on the table, just go and buy what we need etc. and blaming wenger.
I think the reality is that wenger has to buy from current income and also increase cash reserves. With the extra money from tv deals etc I do not know how much is available but unless kroenke changes his mind no money (or very little) will come from cash reserves.
Last summer was a case in point, Interim Accounts for april – sept 2015 show a loss. This is apparently due to deferred payments to existing players old clubs. This probably explains why only Cech was bought in summer 2015.
Are the thumbs down because you disagree with my analysis or do not like it..
This Koulibaly player. I’m thinking, why does everyone sound so sure of him. Is it because Napoli want 40m for him, possibly. Is it because he’s described as a man mountain, again possibly. I wonder how many people have actually seen him play, I’ve never once seen him play. Never heard of him till the recent links. I reckon African supporters will have been aware of him. Looking up defenders on youtube can be misleading. We know they show the best bits, with a forward the best bits can tell you how talented he can be. With a defender the best bits will look similar to allot of other defenders. So is it his stats, do they stand out, decent stats but again this can be misleading. I read about Xhaka and read allot of good stuff, I can’t really say the same for Koulibaly, maybe because before last season people were not writing about him. It’s said that che want him, this might be another reason for people who haven’t watched him all that much.
Wenger is happy with his income and maybe the reason why he won’t take pay-cut to manage England. United are close to Pogba and Wenger won’t even spend on a striker which is really off-putting for millions of Arsenal fans. At the end of season it will turn into a riot if they don’t win the league or atleast progress to the later stages of UCL.
Regardless of Kroenke’s agenda, there have been obvious flaws in our squad for a long long time that Wenger just fails to address. Yes, he has fixed many of the issues in our defense and midfield (took his sweet time) but why oh why does he keep persisting with Giroud as no1 up front? Not just that, we seriously don’t have any decent wingers to compliment the big guy. Giroud is the type of player who needs those crosses, and he excels with another striker next to him (just look at him and Griezzman). Wenger isolates him up front and expects him to deliver. Every season it’s the same **** we cry in the transfer window for better strikers, but nothing materializes (when there are clearly decent options within our price bracket).
We will NEVER win the title with Giroud as our primary CF. He is at best a good no2, or to be played in a 4 4 2 formation. This is why Wenger needs to resign and hand the reigns over to someone who can actually see these glaring issues. We also have too many underachieving players who contribute little but are happy to embrace that fat paycheck. Bring in some players who are hungry to win – too much complacency in our squad.
@Big Gun spot on mate, plus Wenger needs to stop his 75/80/85 mins substitution, he needs to bring in players very early when we are trailing to oppositions,plus he really needs to change his approach to games because he’s just too predictable most of the time….