Just a few short years ago, Arsenal finished second to Leicester in the Premier league and Arsene Wenger had managed to get the Gunners into the Champions League for the 20th season in a row, while Liverpool, with Klopp having joined them in the October, languishing 11 points behind the Gunners in 8th place.
But Klopp got to grips with his new team and hauled them up to 4th the following year, beating us by just one point, and sent Arsenal into the Europa League for the first time. This year Liverpool made some good transfer business and jumped even further ahead of us. They finished 12 points to the good, and Klopp even got the Reds into the Champions League Final, which just shows how much they have progressed and how much Arsenal declined. So is it any wonder that the Monaco star Fabinho decided to move to Anfield than come and join us?
SkySports reported last night….
Arsenal made a late attempt to sign Fabinho before he joined Liverpool from Monaco, according to Sky sources.
The 24-year-old midfielder is admired by the Gunners’ new boss Unai Emery, who tried to sign him at Paris Saint-Germain.
It is understood Arsenal made attempts to land the player over the weekend but he had already decided to join the losing Champions League finalists.
And why on Earth would he turn down Klopp’s Liverpool because Arsenal came in with an offer? Why would anyone? We are hardly a force in England any more, never mind Europe. What could we offer? A good run in the Europa League with our reserves?
The fact is that anyone we try and buy this summer who are also being sought by one of the EPL Top Four teams, would reject us out of hand. It looks like we will have to aim our sights a little bit lower until Emery can make us into a team to be feared again.
I so wish we had tried to get Klopp in when he left Dortmund. Look how things have changed in the last three years….
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Have to blame this on the Arsenal board. They had 3 years to sack Wenger and each year they thought of the economics rather than results on the field. I don’t blame Wenger because it wasn’t him who was kept in the job despite poor results. He would have been sacked in other top 4 teams 3 years ago.
Why are we still discussing this ? Its 3 years ago!
Yes, it is true. We took too long to stop the decline, and now the hill is bigger to climb.
But, if there is anything positive in this story, it could be the reports, that Liverpool are paying around 45m for him, and if our try to sign him failed because of our decline in stature, then it must be assumed we bid at least the same as Liverpool.
Another positive is that we are finally in the market for that type of player. We have been missing a proper DM for so many years, and it looks like that problem is now being addressed.
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Why is Arsenal signing MILFS Sorry I mean Mature like lichsteiner,34 & sokratis,30.It’s not improvement. They will be deadwood soon.
You don’t start rebuilding process with kids you do that with experienced and mature players once you win EPL on got championship spot and then you bring kids slowly like Petit said we have already many of them just bring men at least for a year
I can guarantee if we sign Sokratis, he will be deadwood by Christmas.
He is BANG average, ask anyone.
Sky sports reports that Liverpool acquired Fabinho for about £43.7m and that Arsenal made a late play for the Brazilian. That suggests to me that Arsenal have more than £70m in transfer funds because it won’t be wise to spend more than half of the money available to you on only one player given that we need a GK, CB, DM and possibly a winger.
must be wengers fault again for delaying and hesitating…
Let us not try to white wash Wenger.
After all he’s the man responsible for:
– giving Abou Diaby new contract time after time (TENS OF MILLIONS wasted on his contract)
– spending £100 millions on Xhaka, Mustafi, Welbeck and Debuchy
– non-existent match day tactics
If the money was the problem all along, still I am very GLAD NOW THAT WENGER IS GONE. FREEDOM.
pogba praised diaby recently…
wenger only wanted welbeck on loan….
debucy injured
only could blame on xhaka and mustafic….xhaka cant defend and tackle while mustafic was very bad this season…
JI, Pogba praised Diaby for his footballing talent but Wenger kept at Arsenal for 9 or 10 years despite his numerous injuries (40 times), thus wasting millions on a player who didn’t play much.
But Wenger kept him at Arsenal
No fan in the right mind calls Diaby an inferior player, not my point. It was his INJURY RECORD what made him deadwood. But he was still given new contract time after time instead of giving someone else a spot in the squad.
On his day Diaby was class though.
Rosicky too and Walcott who was not good enough and Mert who lost his legs after good performance vs Chelsea in FA cup he should have retired after that and bring some body to replace him and bring in players like Asano and giving a chance to Perez who was better than Welbeck
Of course he wouldn’t join us what player would in their right mind, if they have offers from a champions league team!
But I don’t agree with the Klopp bit we’ve won FA cups whilst Pool haven’t won a thing but have been in cup finals.
Give Emery a chance!
?Also Sven and Raul.
Arsenal missing out in the Champions League will continue to hurt us like this, of course combined with our penny pinching and sluggish ways in the transfer market.
This is a world cup year and most teams want to strengthen their teams in order to catch up with the Man City, R. Madrid and PSG’s of this world so Lpool approach of flying off the blocks in the transfer market is exactly what is required.
So much blame was placed on Wenger on Arsenal’s failures in the transfer market, a message to the 3 or now 4 amigos our eyes are on you!
players today are mostly glory hunters before players went to play for a club because they are fans of the club no matter what positions they are in; fight to win things with the club they love but today players are more of glory hunting thugs thinking of them selves before the fans. yes arsenal are 6th but leicister came from no where to win the league. if i was a player i would like to be the hero of emirates so i would not say no to arsenal a team that will soon be ruthless.
I find this rumour strange. So no one had an idea Liverpool had made a bit until right before he signed but they are aware that they beat us to his signature….sounds like media b*ll*cks to me
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That’s because it is nonsense. Sky Sports’ credibility has gone down during the past few seasons by quite a bit. They used to be gospel like BBC, but now you have to question every time. Nobody in the media knew about Fabinho, but now they say they know about Arsenal bidding. French reporters saying this is not true btw, lol.
When brokering a deal no one would announce it unless there are other intentions, only when it’s almost become a reality, mostly the seller side would leak some information about the deal to pump up the price just like the situation in purchasing a house!
Players choose clubs for different reasons, we just signed aubamyang don’t tell me others were not interested.
We have declined in relation to city yes. However Liverpool havnt won a trophy for 12 years and the way they play football (full on high press at start of games), klopps tactics make sure they have a wimper at the end of seasons when all players are running on empty and better organised teams pick them off easily.
Klopp has lost 6 out of seven finals. That’s too many to be a coincidence. That includes one against Emery’s Seville. Do you hear people counting the amount of years Liverpool or spurs have gone without a trophy like they did with arsenal??
My point is?? Not everything means arsenal are in decline. Have a positive outlook once in a while mate, you may enjoy it!!
Liverpool won the league cup in 2011 or so?? No other club is slated by the media like we are!
Yes but we also have to think why Liverpool might be more atracting club than us, despite they’ve won nada in the past 10 years.
Is it the style of play? Emery can change that. Wenger was way past his expiration date.
Fanbase? Probably. But I think Arsenal wins will weld together if Emery starts producing entertaining football.
Money? We have money, loads of money. The £50 million budget might be just media talk. Time will tell.
If Fabinho moves to Liverpoo, that’s fine. What bugs me is to read that we TRIED to bid for him but were too LATE. I reckon Emery wanted him but why were we too late? Glad Emery rates him as Wenger never rated any real CDM’s.
Fabiano said this was suppose to happen last season but didn’t which suggests Liverpool went for him last season and may have had an agreement with him and Monaco to get him this season just like that of Kaita.
I like that
Good one there
FACTS, the media is out for Arsenals blood. Arsenal fan TV doesn’t make it any better tbh
Sky sport reported that Arsenal had a failed bid on Fabiano, where were they when those bids were submitted and it was not reported by them, this is Media BS.
Fabinho
Fabinho is the player Arsenal and Liverpool so desperately needed. It’s no coincidence Liverpool haven’t won anything without a destroyer in midfield. Look what Kante did for Leicester and Chelsea. Liverpool will start winning trophies with Fabinho, Keita and Van Dijk in the same team with the front 3 they have and possibly Nabil Fekir .. but they still need a top goalkeeper. Arsenal need to pull off some great deals shopping at a lower level until they get back into the top 4.
I will take Emery over Klopp any day.
Wenger is gone, let’s look ahead. Wenger liked this club as we do. I still believe what he did was what he thought was okay. But unfortunately they weren’t lately.
We might not sign the topmost players now because we are out if CL but if we support our manager and the players available we will move up.
The case of Arsenal decline is so correct according to abumeyang, anyone who is never happy to face the fact might as well jump Off the cliff and where is the sense in not aspiring to be at the top in a football sport business like arsenal,? we are going to face the face that income will go southward in comparison with our rivals unless the people running the club are happy to be on the same par with other middle teams. one thing all the clubs ahead of arsenal have in common is that they are never happy of been an also ran like our deluded former coach , and they have also invested wisely
Arsenal nearly signed a 45m player 🙂
With a budget of 50mil and needing
2 CB’s a DM and a new GK we just
happened to have a lazy 45mill sitting there..
Really?
The only way that could be true is if we are selling a few players like
Ospina 3mChambers 12m Mustafi 25m Ramsey 30m Xhaka 25m
Mkhi 20m Wilshere 15m Ozil 30m Wellbeck 15m Perez 5m Jenkinson 5m
185m + 50m = 236m.
Then we could certainly buy a top GK RB 2CB’s DM 2AM and a winger .
Sell 11 buy 8.
8 players at 30m average. I could accept that.
Watch this space
We should be to find buyers Cardiff and Fulham might need some of em
It’s depressing to find out about this. If we wanted the player what were we waiting for? Dilly dallying till Liverpool moved in and then thats when we decided we wanted him? I thought we were past the days of conducting amateur business. Am getting scared of Liverpool now
Mane Firmino Salah
Keita Fabinho Fekir(possibly)
This is how Liverpool felt when Sanchez opted for us..
Adrien Rabiot is a tall commanding B2B midfielder with 1 year left in his contract. He could be on the move.
Sign Lucas Torreira BEFORE the World Cup. I guarantee his price will double after.
Stats per match last season with Sampdoria:
2.8 tackles
2 interceptions
2.3 fouled
1.3 dribbles
1 key pass
87% pass success
Lucas is quality just what we need like Flamini but with pace
Would love him and rabiot
Mane will never go past Stephan Lichtsteiner his is a rock wait and see
It’s obvious that no one knows the size of Arsenal’s available transfer budget. If anybody has some definitive documented figures from club sources, rather than media guesses, it would be good to see them please?
We are…. as always…… f****ing slow.
Anyway, outsiders had already of the perception that we are in decline. We used to be worth a second thoughts to players if we made last minute approach.
Who would gives a hoot about us any more? No one wants to restart negotiation process for sake of some god damn miser.
Yes we are Super slow.
Point is getting players together for the summer, weld in and bond. Getting 5 players as a panic buy in late August was the Wenger way which he practiced for years.
I would leavy only 1 player to be bough in August, rest should be wrapped up in June or better part of July.
This isn’t the first time and won’t be the last time we will see a player joining another club that we wanted, there’s going to be plenty more WTF moments this transfer window. Sven is good at finding unearthed gems but all we have got so far are 2 ex Dortmund players with possibly another to follow and Mavroponis. No one really knows our budget and figuring in the fact we are not the cream at the top, we are going to miss out on a lot of the top talent out there, this is a rebuilding process that isnt going to happen over night.
It’s a simple concept if we don’t challenge then i won’t go simple
Eventually the fans will get fed up, none of stans teams challenge
Despite the small minded Gooners who hoped Liverpool would lose and rejoiced when they did, I have a totally different point of view. Klopp is IMHO, the single most obviously charismatic PERSON, let alone just manager, in football. His personal skills and man management are on a completely different level from any other manager in football bar Guardiola, who is the closest to him and a similar type but slightly less outwardly enthusiastic. It must be thrilling to be managed by either but especially Klopp. To think that our idiot board missed out on appointing both these giants to keep WENGER MAKES ME SPIT BLOOD WHEN I THINK OF IT. Way beyond stupidity and bordering on imbecility, frankly. Had we appointed Klopp when Liverpool did instead, we could now be where they are, despite our board, I firmly believe. The manager is by FAR the most important man at any club and getting a TOP, TOP man is vital. I am happy we now have Emery and am excited about the future. But just IMAGINE how Liverpool fans feel right now about THEIR future, despite their keeper losing them the CL final.
jon, I believe in Emery Arsenal have a more astute, hard working and disciplined coach than Klopp.
Also we have to have patience through the current transfer window and make our assessment after we see what Anui, Sven and Raul deliver in recruitments.
Each player clubs like Liverpool sign, tends to remove them from the competition for other players Arsenal’s team have identified. From most accounts Liverpool had an agreement in place with Monaco previously.
My take is, until those money guzzling Americans leaves arsenal, we never compete again, the big buck would stop coming in and we would become a middle tag team
Why all this excitement about Fabinho going to liverpool, would it be the same if he went to Chelsea, Manu, Mancity, or Tots and suddenly arsenal made a bid, Everyone knows arsenal needs a DM, do not believe everything in the media, it would be strange that all media eyes would be on arsenal and no one pick that up.
Out of all the rumours, the only one i appreciate is Forsberg a very intelligent player, good engine good pace, i assume due to the fact he his Swedish he is not rated as highly. I am definitely not impressed with Sokratis or Lichstiener. Sokratis at Dortmund was equally as error-prone as Mustafi over several seasons, Lichstiener was going to be replaced by Bellerin about a season ago at Juventus and know we want him at Arsenal where the tricky EPL wingers will have him for lunch. I say drill our present Defenders till they collapse and get them organised.
Our focus should be a true Defensive Midfielder anything else is a bonus
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My fellow gooners take anything that Skysports says with a bucket of salt. This is the same Skysports that was so sure that Arteta was the next manager only to be slapped in the face by Emery’s appointment. When the don’t have facts about anything they will try to drag Arsenal’s name just so as to get hits.?
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Not sure if Klopp can survive when the club continues the pound crunching act.
Klopp is with Liverpool and what happen to them, has no relationship with us.
I don’t quite agree that the club was slow about fabinho. It’s likely we learned of his availability late and decided to snatch the transfer off Liverpool, but the player stayed loyal.. Before contracts are signed you can snatch any deal. Remember willian had his medical at spurs and signed for Chelsea ?
We are well known for being slow amongst players and agents. It’s probably no smoke without fire.
Slow in learning players are available…. it’s a slow act itself.
While the board’s ambitions will not have changed – we’ve got a new head coach who will be rectifying some if our weaknesses. That alone will be enough to get us into / closer to the top 4.
Let’s be a little positive for a change?
Even Man U failed to get Fabinho so enlarge and narrow the issue to Arsenal