I am sure that most Arsenal fans will be hoping for more, with an experienced and quality centre back and another striker top of most Gooners’ wish lists, but I for one am really hoping to see the Leicester City and Algeria star Riyad Mahrez swap the east midlands and the King Power stadium for north London and the Emirates this summer.
There is still no real way of knowing if the Foxes will keep the PFA Premier League Player of the Year or not, so very little clue will be talked about, including the events in Sweden yesterday, when Leicester played their final pre-season friendly game against the Spanish La Liga champions Barcelona.
Just as in the other pre-season matches, Claudio Ranieri included Mahrez in his squad and the Algerian forward started the match. This could be taken as a sign that Ranieri is still determined to keep the player and perhaps even that he is confident of it.
On the other hand you could take the fact that Mahrez may as well not have been on the pitch for all the impact he had before being subbed off at the break as a sign that he is ready to leave. And there was another piece of encouragement for Arsenal fans to focus on, as the new Leicester striker Ahmed Musa, signed from CSKA Moscow this summer, scored a fantastic couple of goals after coming on for the second half.
Could having a player who looks ready to replace Mahrez might make Leicester more willing to sell?
Bob.
Musa double has nothing to do with Mahrez transfer to arsenal….
Mahrez transfer to Arsenal depends on Arsenal, Arsene, Leicester, Ranieri and Mahrez..
@Uzi OzilUzi Ozil
Also depends on Wenger’s love for the Ox, Walcott, and Ramsey, who all play RW. Will Wenger finally do the right thing and get rid of them for a quality player like Mahrez?
During the transfer window:
Arsenal follow a pattern/Trend , speculations and Last minute spanner in the works attempt
Others follow a Target, transfer fee/release clauses and keep to timing
Sad but true….
I must really commend the Leicester coach for the job he’s doing as I think their success won’t be a one off should things continue like this and with some intelligent planning they would be great and would take points from a lot of top teams.However I must say this it pains me to say it but I must.Arsene Wenger is a very very sackable manager at this point in time.He’s lost a lot of qualities of a top coach and he behaves like he doesn’t know what he wants.If he wanted success well he can go out there and buy what we need but it’s like he doesn’t know what to do or chooses to not do what’s right.I like him a lot but his character bothers me and it’s painful to see things go like this.
Draxler did not follow Wolfsburg for their friendly match!
There are very many reasons why Draxler may have skipped training….and one of it may have been to pay a courtesy visit to his 2nd cousin Chloe…
u knw, it’s been a while!
Hahahaha…..This is just plain stupid
Musa’s double to help Arsenal seal Mahrez Transfer ??????
There’s a fanous saying that goes :
“Heaven HeLps Those Who HeLps ThemseLves”
But we are not really helping ourselves, are we?
[Mahrez’s transfer depends on what Uzi has said above]
I feel so sorry for fans who express so much frustration over the transfer business of our club. Most of them keep blaming Wenger. Why blame him when the owners are not complaining about him. Do you really think they will stick to him if he is not playing the game according to their objective? hmmmm. I am just saying.
Spot on. I have said similar things myself and about six weeks ago would get approx even numbers of thumbs up or down. More recently I have noticed a large swing to thumbs up for comments putting the blame for lack of transfer spending on Kroenke.
All these links at the moment are giving me a case of blue-balls… I genuinely don’t know what’s better for my health. The weeks where there was nothing to report or all this speculation about players I’d sell my first-born to have at the club 🙁
Come to Arsenal please Mahrez.. Give me this transfer window climax I deserve!!
Not trying to be a downer, but I’m not too confident against Liverpool on opening day. Xhaka is just NOT enough. We had a good preseason last year too, beat Chelsea in the community shield and then was embarrassed on match day 1 at HOME to West Ham.
lol, we still praying Mahrez is coming? This has been going on for weeks, the interest is just general interest. There’s no concrete evidence from any reliable source we’re even close to getting him. Wenger doesn’t like the price so it’s not going to happen. Same with Draxler. I’d even be shocked if we get Mustafi at this point who is dirt cheap, but still too much for the club somehow. Lower expectations folks, expect Sanchez to be our striker vs Liverpool as well.
There are very many reasons why Draxler may have skipped training….and one of it may have been to pay a courtesy visit to his 2nd cousin Chloe…
u knw, it’s been a while!
no doubt he’s rebelling against the club, but it means absolutely nothing if Arsenal aren’t willing to pay the necessary price for him. We’ve known his price tag the whole summer, nothing has changed.
There is no Mahrez transfer. Stop dreaming. Mahrez is just pi$$ed off Vardy and Kante got good deals and he instructed the agent to start working on it. In the end, Mahrez will milk Leicester just as Theo did with Arsenal.
Mahrez supposedly turned down a new contract offer from Leicester ( £100,000 aweek)
Don’t blame Walcott, Blame Wenger
Wenger could have easily refused to increase Theo’s salary
If anybody was offered such a huge salary increase he would accept
That’s not Theo’s fault
Wenger was stupid to pay an average player such high salary
Yeah and the fans too…recall #signthedamnthang?
I am not blaming Walcott for the raise he got. That’s Wenger and fans fault. I thought I have inserted the word “agent” in there. Anyway, all I wanted to say was that we should not put too many hopes in signing Mahrez.
@Budd
How could he be milking them, when he DESERVES a big pay raise. At least Leicester get quality in return, whereas at Arsenal, Wenger sanctioned 140k a week for a player who’s almost never did anything to deserve a pay raise, and injury prone! It says everything you need to know about just how bad Wenger is, when a player of Theo’s limited ability can become almost the highest earner at Arsenal, and pull off a ten year stint (and counting) at one of biggest clubs in the world.
Well said fella!
He already got a bumper contract in March 80k a week. If it wasnt Chelsea to steal Kante and Arsenal to activate Vardy’s clause then Mahrez would not be pi$$ed right now. Honestly, I don’t even know how you guys can believe what media is throwing at you. I think you like to be lied in face and when you discover the lie you run for the next one which sounds just as nice.
Budd lets be honest there is no big transfers, the club is making money thats the bottom line, every year we hear lies from the board e.g we have 200m and it can be used to sign anyone.
this transfer window has been another where the season ticket bait stories have been in full. although there seems to be lots of fans who keep buying merchandise
so to these fans i will say suck it up buttercup no more moaning if your not prepared to act
I brought myself some Arsenal Pjamas about 2 months ago along with some Arsenal tops for the children. A week or so later I decided to not buy anymore Arsenal merchandise until they show a commitment to us fans by spending the good money that we put into the club for improvements and glory!
John0711. There is an article on the bbc website dated 18 September 2015′ Titled “Arsenal: Annual accounts reveal £200m cash reserves”. This stated the following
“”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.”
In 2015 arsenal operating expenses without player transfers were £281.4m. It would appear that the club considers that cash reserves are mainly for a rainy day and on the basis of the BBC report we have a long way to go before cash reserves are available for player transfers.
Not signing other needed players besides Xhaka before the US tour I can get over but still not getting at least 1 before the these final 2 preseason games is kind of disheartening. Glad Alexis and Ramsey are back though, was wondering why Özil hasn’t returned as well since both Wales and Germany went out in the semifinals…
Because Ramsey was out of the last Wales game I think
I understand what you’re saying, but wasn’t he still there with the team? Even though he was suspended I would assume he still had to maintain team integrity and travel together…
Plus he would still have needed to train and stay sharp in case wales got throudh to th final.
its looking like we are not getting anybody in this window, apart from what we have already got. i know we as a club are very secretive in our deals. but all the clubs that we want the players from are all coming out and saying that there players are staying. so that is making our options shorter that last week and as the weeks go by it going to get harder to get any decent quality in to the club in time for the start of the new season. as all the club are not as obliged to part with there best players as earlier in the window. but as usual we will have to see what happens.
i would hazard a guess that wenger has at least £60 million left in his transfer kitty, to strengthen the first team but don’t expect much incoming in the near future thought. because he don’t sound like he is willing to change the first team to much, we are hearing the usual catchphrases like the internal solutions are better than what we can bring in. and like wise quotes. absolutely useless management of the clubs needs.
at least we can be guaranteed that ozil and sanchez wont be signing any contract renewals anytime soon at this rate, due to no decent action in the market. i wonder what they have been promised(transfer action wise) to try and make them sign there new deals. it better come to pass. or they will be sold next summer for certain.
Are we even in for Mahrez? If we wanted him we would have sealed the deal by now surely, If we are then we have agreed a price with the club and are discussing wages with the player.
IF all those things are true, the hold up must be down to us penny pinching with his wages?
Supporting Arsenal is not good for the health. Wenger should just go all out and sign Chicharito.
@skills1000 I totally agree little pea would be great for us. Lacazette, mahrez and draxler smokescreens? #griezmanscoming 🙂
Ranieri is a smart man I must say.Something I can`t really say about Wenger. He is not really sure whether Mahrez will go or stay. That`s why he has brought in some quick skillful attackers as insurance.He doesn`t want to be caught unprepared for CL and EPL. As for Wenger, he had to wait for Per to get injured before getting to know he needs cover/replacement. That shows His ineptitude. Even if Per was fit, Arsenal needed a better and quicker central defender going into the season. With a player of Ozil`s calibre, Arsenal needs a world class striker with or without Giroud or Welbeck`s injury. Sometimes I wonder if Wenger wakes up in the morning and actually harbor a burning desire to win the Champions league. It`s so sad we are saddled with a team and a manager who are not pressured to excel.