It seems a little odd that Arsenal Football Club would choose to drop a rather large hint about there being a lot more to come from the Gunners in the current transfer window on the same day that our chief executive Ivan Gazidis had issued one of those statements of his that sends chills down the spine of Gooners the world over.
The American, as reported by Metro, basically told us to chill our beans and not expect any big money signings because Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal scouting team were trying to do what Leicester City did before winning the Premier League title and find some hidden (and cheap, of course, very cheap) gems in the various leagues around Europe and the world.
Gazidis said, ‘It’s how well you can identify talent. It’s how well you can develop talent. It’s how strong your club philosophy is. It’s how together you are as a football club, what your support services are like in the medical field, fitness, analytics, psychology. All of these things become differentiators.
‘Leicester identified players from the French second division, so maybe there’s talent that we’ve been overlooking,” said Gazidis. “They did their talent identification [well], they had great unity within the group, as well as quality.
‘It wasn’t built on money. It was built on the great fitness work they did. It was built on all of these other elements. I think that’s going to be a continuing trend within the Premier League.’
Not exactly music to the ears of Arsenal fans Ivan. So while every other league title for years has proven the value of spending money and getting the best players, Arsenal decide that last season is the example to follow.
But the news did get better for us Gooners yesterday, as the club officially announced the third transfer of the summer being completed for the young defender Rob Holding from Bolton and the report on Arsenal.com ended with an upbeat suggestion that more transfers were just around the corner.
It said, “We remain in the market, so stay close to Arsenal.com for any further transfer news.”
How optimistic are you on this topic Arsenal fans?
Bob.
Guys…keep your expectations low, and you’ll not be disappointed with regards to our transfer activities.
this has been a very flabbougasting transfer window.
Just another de ja vu from the last one.
One signing plus a couple of ones ‘for the future’.
Plus some annoying words such as ‘we will spend if we see the right
quality’
Let me say this Im totally not impressed by the level of our squad.
At best we are just number 4 for the premiership and that squared for the champions league.
At the end of it just the same perplexing sentiments from wenger.
By the looks of things yesterday proved that its gonna be an absolute nightmare during the season.
Out of depth out of shape and out of quality.
We are gonna start witnessing another resemblance of the onslauggt and terror wenger faced from fergusson.
The simple truth is that over the last decade arsenal have become part of the second tier of european football and management and wenger and many overpaid players (we have a first tier wage bill remember) are happy there … If fans want more they will need to become much more vocal about it
I agree in part. The thing is though, everyone who is vocal, is vocal toward Wenger. Those changes you want, Wenger can’t make those changes without the boards approval. The people who own the club probably didn’t even know there was supposed to be a protest last season, they felt no heat. And I feel the same thing would happen again, even the fans who said the protest was not about Wenger, you could tell that that is exactly who they were blaming.
I’m all the way in South Africa I wish i was in London so that i could let my voice be heard I mean from where I am it seems like a lot of fans are actually content with this situation.. because if they were fed up that planned protest last year would have been much more effective
Mixed messages indeed. I would have to say, that after today, with Wenger using his I will buy big, but only on the right players. I am getting a sinking feeling. I believe they do want certain players, but they aren’t nearly aggressive enough to go out and get them. Look at how city turned Bellerins head, or are trying to. We complain about not being fair and above board. That’s all well and good but it simply isn’t working by us being all moral and principles like. The board and owners just aren’t bothered enough, it has to be this, they do the hiring along with the spending, and they simply aren’t hiring the right people nor going the extra mile. Make no mistake about it, the board run this club, and if they had thoughts on being the best, they would know how to go about it. They are very successful in life, so they do have a killer instinct. All I can say is, I really hope they’re willing to go the extra mile this season, it has to happen.
Just as there are mixed messages from Arsenal on transfer action………. There are mixed feelings in the camp of the fans!
Confusion has been set in motion…..
Here is what we do know
1. List our first x1 and it is no worse than anyone else’s in the league.
2. List our 2nd x1 and it is better than most if not all of our rivals.
3. However, to compete in the Champions league we need to sign a world class finisher and a world class centre back (but with 4 international Centre backs and a new under 21 centre back just signed, I don’t see this is an area wenger will recruit in)
4. We have already made our major transfer signing, barring the £36m Liverpool paid for their new striker Xhaka is the most expensive signing of the window.
5. Our Owner, CEO and Manager are probably the 3 most deluded men involved when it comes to bringing in the very best players. They only managed to sign Cech, Ozil and Alexis because no one else was really in for them.
My only hope is that wenger pulls off an ozil like signing once everyone else has does their business. Once again it won’t be one of the top 6 scorers in the world but hopefully it will be a striker from the small bracket that sits slightly above giroud. Most likely though it will be a player like lacazette, icardi or bacca who are basically no better than giroud, but certainly better than akpom and sanogo.
The Arsenal always give
fans “hope” of winning
the Premiership.
But critically never allow the
fans the dangerous thought of
“expecting” to “win” the Premiership.
Man U Chelsea City “expect to win” the Premiership
which is why they change managers so often
At Arsenal however Top 4 is inculcated into the minds of Arsenal fans.
This means that not winning the Premiership
is not considered “failure” by the majority of fans
so the Owner Manager and expensive deadwood players are safe for ever.
It is a very successful system especially for those for whom
winning the Premiership is not of any great import
viz a viz the majority of the Library clientele.
I do not understand the mixed messages bit in the title. Arsenal completed signing of young player and say arsenal are still in the market. Gazidis talked about spending money wisely. No conflict there.
Sorry to repeat what I have said before but the last five years of annual accounts show cash reserves have increasing by £68m, largest drop in any one year about £7m. I do not expect arsenal to soend much of our cash reserves this summer, it will be from current yearly income. I believe that is what gazidis statement is all about, and it is kroenke who determines this policy. Kroenke is a multibillionare, hard nosed american businessman. Employees like gazidis and wenger do not determine this type of financial policy.
Exactly, like every other club in the EPL eg. man u, man c, chelsea, liverfool, bottlerham, its the owner and not the manager who determined the club spending policy…it would be deluded to think it’s any different at AFC. Man u is spending even bigger in transfers post SAF to get into the top 4 now and they seemed not bothered by the inflated value of the market. For example Eric Bailly for 30 mil….and for a defender? Come on…he might be a good player but he doesnt fit the high profile signings category.
Over the years we’ve seen clubs changing managers but you could see the club buying policy remains the same with the same owner…Man u, Man C, Chelsea..buy buy buy, price secondary..Liverfool…penny pinching…Bottlerham young players with resale value….This goes to show how things work at clubs today and its naive to think its otherwise at AFC, unless one were to think Wenger as the ‘super special one’, and that everyone at the club would just cater to his wishes…..
French Eurosport are saying that Marhez has agreed to join us, we still have to come up with large offer though, and that the deal will try to go through in quick fashion. It would explain Arsenal.com suggesting people to stay tuned for more. I can’t imagine we would do that unless we were confident on at least bringing in one more big name. Not my ideal choice, but not going to complain. He’s a cracking little talent going forward, and surely he would offer similar to attacking threat that Alexis does.
I was keeping my hopes down just like comment at top suggested. Just when you think you’re out ..they pull you back in.
a micheal Corleone quote…respect trev.
still not buying it
Loved your comments @Trevor
It’s really hard being an Arsenal…especially during the transfer window. I really do hope we make good signings for next season…but as a result of of all the disappointments of previous years, it’s hard to trust what these dudes at the top say.
I think Manager and CEO had the same message, we well spend wisely, Xhaka is a big signing for wenger and therefore any body coming in must be close to the 30 – 40 million range.
Once spoke about bargain basement players , while other spoke about players becoming available over the transfer period for the right price, that just says to me there will be no other high profile signing because none will be available at that point, so we will have to be satisfied with a bargain basement.
I really do not mind cost of the striker once he can get me goals i am quite fine