If the Arsenal transfer rumours about the possible impending departure of the Arsenal and England international defender Calum Chambers from the Emirates are true then it could be that Arsene Wenger has already found a replacement for the former Saint in the shape of the 20-year old Bolton Wanderers centre back Rob Holding.
Perhaps not though, as even though the transfer of Holding is now official the Daily Star is reporting that the Gunners are involved in a transfer tussle for another central defender. The player in question is the young German star Matthias Ginter of Borussia Dortmund and the other club chasing his £10 million transfer is the Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg.
With a Daily Mail report suggesting that Arsenal might be looking for a replacement for Chambers who could be off to Premier League rivals Watford, Ginter seems like thew more likely replacement as he also has the versatility and ability to play at right back and central midfield as well as the centre of defence.
The 22-year old might actually be an upgrade on Chambers as he has been playing more regular football for Dortmund and the German national side than Chambers has for Arsenal and England. He also has two awards given to the best German player in the under 18 and under 19 age groups.
What do you make of these rumours?
Bob.
I don’t see this happening
Its hard to get a German to move from a German team especially Dortmund or Munich
Also Dortmund will want to keep him
But by all means bid for him. Would love him to come to Arsenal. He could be the perfect long term replacement to Mertsacker.
Just please get a top striker minimum
The media is busy trying to put a positive spin on the hammering Dortmund dished out to man United earlier lol
I would support Chambers going out on loan for more game time and experience. He really didn’t have enough chances with us and it stalled his development.
Send him on loan with the condition that he is played at CB or DM.
Yes, RB doesn’t suit him and he should fully concentrate on CB/DM
We spent £16 million on him so he needs consistent game play for him to improve and not lose on the investment
Rob Holding was an excellent investment at £2 million
Worse case scenario, he goes on loan improves and we sell for a profit
Best case scenario he helps us win trophies
Agreed.
The news of Chambers going out on loan has gone quite!
And if 2 million pound man Rob Holding is about to jump ahead of 16 million pound Chambers, in the pecking order, then whats that say about Wenger’s judgement and managerial skills? ?
OT.
The Sun Dreamteamfc has opened for the 2016’/2017 season, it’s totally free and you can pick as many teams as you want.
So to all those fifa manager experts and wannabe’s ..
” Lets be having ya” ??
I set up a public mini league, for anyone that wants to join.
The mini league’s name is: AKB v WOB and the pin number to join is CEV52JW…. Goodluck!
Ivan “nullard” Gazidis, just announced that we should not expect “big signings” and we are not here “to break” the bank…. He also emphasised that “we finished second which showed that we have progressed”…!!
Did he forget that we finished second behind Leicester?? And that the major clubs in the EPL basically “did not compete”, I mean at all…!!
That’s yesterdays news and there has already been a article on here, based on that … Don’t worry about it mate, I will wake you up when and if something exciting happens! You can go back to sleep now! ????
Arsenal only get the rumours, other team get the purchases… we are to be left behind!!!
Yes and this Arsenal movie has more trilogies than Rocky, Star wars, Star Trek, Superman and Spiderman put together! ?
So on the latest interview from AW on the Arsenal site, he says: “Cazorla will come back, Wilshere is back… so we are solid in midfield.”
WHEN will Cazorla come back? This worries me a bit since we don’t have a good track record for players returning from injuries. The fact that he hasn’t been pictured in training yet, and AW comment leads me to believe he is not back yet.
There maybe some truth to this story, but not a permanent deal maybe a loan move. Gazidis just came out and said they won’t pressure themselves into big money buys, hence the Ginter link. Ginter is a prospect I’d take him for that price but I’d go all out for Koulibaly if I’m honest!
IF Gazidas means what he says and we don’t get top striker and cb then i honestly can’t see where the goals will come from for us to challenge for the Title nor can I see our defense being solid enough. I hope its just a smokescreen
My interpretation is that a major signing is not in the pipeline, he is preparing us for no further major signings. This is either because they have decided not to make any more major signings or are hoping to make signings if the opportunity arises.
Ivan Gazidis earning his coin in the media repeating a mantra we know he absolutely doesn’t believe in. Arsene Wenger parading a £2.5m signing to the media like we just won the summer. The club still sorely lacking in important areas.
What a shambles.
I think what makes it worse is that I don’t think there’s a plan and I don’t think it’s that likely we’re going to do an awful lot more business this summer. We are where we are… and the CEO thinks we can challenge for the Premier League.
“We’ve got a squad now that we believe is capable of competing to win the Premier League. We came in second last year, which was disappointing. But we’re on the right track.”
This sort of comment comes completely without the context of the shit-show that was last season. We finished second in a year City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea went through managerial turmoil. We lost out to Leicester City with 71 points… the points total that usually lands you 4th place. We’re about bang on par for where we always are.
“This approach, for us, gives us a very, very powerful balance because it’s not just about spending money but about how you spend your money and doing it wisely,”
Spending money wisely. Jeez, how often have we heard that line before? Wisely, for me, is going out and buying the best possible players you can afford with the money you have. Wisely, is what United have done this summer. They’ve signed the best midfielder in Serie A, they’ve signed an experienced winner of a striker to lift the mood of the club (lot of PR there), they’ve signed a very good defender and they’ve signed the most productive player in the Bundesliga.
That’s spending your money wisely. You make £150m extra, you spend it on your squad. Arsenal make £150m extra, we spend £30m and talk about how great it is to have a nice philosophy that hasn’t won anything major in over a decade. It’s embarrassing carry on from Ivan. He shouldn’t say anything rather than back a horse good for glue.
What makes Ivan’s rhetoric even more farcical is that he thinks the fans don’t read The Swiss Ramble. He thinks we don’t pick through the financials. He thinks we don’t see what smaller clubs are doing on way tighter budgets.
“We’re making progress in what is a fiercely competitive world, against competitors that have the capability to spend far more money than we do,”
“We’re doing it by being very, very disciplined; spending money where we believe it makes a difference, but also giving young players a chance and believing in ourselves and our values.”
How many clubs can spend more money than us? Champions League for 20 years straight. Huge, huge, huge kit deal. £92m matchday revenue. Premier League rights at staggering rates. How can he be complaining that other clubs can spend more than us? Our wage bill is £3m short of City. It’s £10m short of United. Our cash reserves were 75% of the whole league at one point last season.
We couldn’t be in a better position to go out and get what we want.
We act the pauper, when the truth is we’re one of the most powerful clubs on the planet. We just don’t use that power. Well, Wenger doesn’t. Sitting on his hands, thinking he can defy the realities of football.
“I don’t have a nostalgia for [Wenger], and the board doesn’t have a nostalgia for Arsene,” said Gazidis in a wide-ranging interview. “That’s not why we believe in him. This isn’t a football club that looks backwards. This is a club that looks forwards and is always, always pushing the boundaries of how we can progress.
This statement, again, is just a lie. The club are indebted to Wenger. Well, Stan is, so they let him play with his toy until he decides to pack things in. Arsenal are not progressing under Arsene Wenger. Look at how far we’ve fallen away in Europe. Look at how advanced the coaches are that have arrived in the league. We’re regressing. The club might be putting in better infrastructure behind the scenes, but we’re catching up, not surpassing. In a game of marginal gains, catching up just won’t do…
“Our fan base is frustrated that we didn’t win last season. We’re frustrated that we didn’t win last season,”
“I am. Stan Kroenke as our owner is. Arsene is. Nobody is more frustrated than he is; disappointed that we didn’t finish on top because that’s our goal.
“What I see is a manager who is deeply committed to this football club, devoted to it, continues to think about the long term.”
NO NO NO NO cx.clxz,cdd, < That is me banging my head on my desk.
Thinking about the long-term is this.
Bayern Munich win the treble under Heycknes. They move him on for Guardiola. Here’s what Marcotti said about his tenure there.
‘As far as I’m concerned — and, more importantly, as far as many in the Bayern hierarchy have told me — Guardiola has already succeeded. He introduced concepts and an evolution that has simply made his players and the club better. And that’s a manager’s first job.’
That is good stewardship of the club. Arsene Wenger is not making the club better. He’s not introducing new thinking. He’s not evolving how we play. He’s not pushing us forward. Anyone with half a brain for football can see that we’re stagnating. To position Wenger as a forward thinker is patronising. To come out with this interview right now, tells you that the club are trying to shape our minds before the disappointment drops that our summer is going to be a farce.
“I think one of the challenges we have as a club, is that because we have constant [presence] and have somebody who is resilient, consistent, disciplined, and clear in his thinking, perhaps sometimes people outside can get the impression that there is nothing changing.
“And nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve made dramatic changes in how we operate as a football club, in all of the areas I mentioned.
“We have to be world-leading in those areas, and Arsene has been not just deeply engaged in those areas, but driving many of those areas forward.”
Honestly, it’s just such a nonsense. How is this playing out on the pitch? Fitness, granted. But tell me how the world leading capabilities are advancing us on the pitch? How are they advancing us in the transfer market? How are they impacting the systems we play? How is anything we do giving us a competitive advantage? How are we comparing to clubs like Bayern who have similar financial power to us?
It’s just rhetoric… we’re a Tesla chassis with two Flintstones holes punched in the bottom of the car. The worst thing about all the above comments is that Ivan knows. His team know. The whole club knows Wenger is finished. I even suspect Stan K knows and might be letting him have his time in the sun before the dark clouds of this season set in…
… but there’s the thing. Wenger is a survivor. He always just gets away with it. This season though… this season feels a step too far. The planets have aligned and I think it could be horrible. Too much competition, not enough action our side to combat it.
We have a good squad of players, an average captain running the ship. Only so long you can survive that. But the bigger question here is why would anyone just want to survive, when you have all the tools to succeed, win and make history?
The madness of Arsenal…