It is very difficult for any Arsenal fan not to be critical of this transfer window. Obviously, almost every transfer window is a disappointment but it would be a soap opera if we start discussing each of those. Keeping our focus on the one that just closed, we can’t help but wonder if Arsene Wenger missed a trick or two.
The vociferous supporters of Wenger would point to the worst things that happened to other clubs. Manchester United, notably, became a laughing stock of their own fans for the way they conducted business. Surely enough, no Arsenal supporter could have digested such an experience.
However, this is no silver lining in what became another traumatized experience. There is no solace in the pitfalls of other clubs because it would not help your own team on the pitch. To be more blunt, the failure in not signing a new centre-forward on deadline day may come back to haunt Wenger; for many reasons.
First, there is the ongoing concern about Olivier Giroud’s ability to lead the line. He even lost his starting place to Theo Walcott in the last Premier League game. Not that Walcott set the place on fire but it was a clear message to Giroud.
Wenger also has problems with his back-up because Danny Welbeck doesn’t look like coming out of the physio table in the near future. The England international has a chronic knee problem and is taking longer than expected to get back to full fitness.
When Welbeck arrived at the Emirates from Old Trafford, there was silent optimism that he could be the answer to the centre-forward conundrum. Wenger tracked him for long and saw him as a long-term solution.
But, Welbeck hasn’t answered the questions around his sale – yet. One reason is that he couldn’t play on a regular basis because of his injuries. He hasn’t played since April 26 and it’s still unclear when he would return.
Good enough reason to buy another striker? For most, it would have been but not for Wenger. True, that he wanted to sign Karim Benzema but Real Madrid would not sell at whatever money that Wenger is throwing.
There was apparent interest in Edinson Cavani but nothing moved on that front too. Either Wenger baulked on the price or was too choosy deciding the return on investment doing his own ‘price vs potential vs fitment’ matrix.
Whatever it is, Arsenal ended another window without signing a striker. What if Welbeck continues his injury woes and suddenly Giroud gets injured too? In a season where the fans expect a real title challenge, this could be one decision that may haunt Wenger. Let’s hope it doesn’t!
Sridhar
“May”?
We didn’t score enough last season, so unless you think Cech will add 10 more goals I’d love to know how we’ve suddenly got enough firepower to win the league. Give my ribs a break, don’t tell me Theo is the hope…
As long as our current top scorer “own goal” keeps it up then maybe we’ll fluke it. Want to stick your money on that? Thought so.
Hey now, we brought Cech in, to SAVE goals from occurring.
Just like how I was brought in, to help SAVE money.
#IvanKnowsBest #SavingIsBehaving #DontCaveLetsSave #WarChest
Your little Ivan impression is sad and annoying. Be a fan and contribute an opinion, stop being a monkey in a suit.
Ditto
#Budd, you are so inside AW A$$ when taken picture his nasty face shows up, keep licking his A$$ your brainless AKB.
Hmmm, your point being? Ah, you don’t have one, you just here to swear and spout insults at everyone not agreeing with you. The picture you see is actually my uncle who’s having a canny resemblance with Wenger. People stop him on the street and asking for autographs.
not may,,,,will…but guys wat if Wenger do a Ferguson and win the league??? I actually want Wenger to give welbeck a chance,cuz Giroud wnt improve any further…. Cech…..Bellerin….Gabby…. Boss…..Nacho…..Le Coq…..Santi…Ozil…Sanchez…Welbeck…Walcott….just keep them fit…coyg#
Sometimes I look at the comments here and I laugh. Anyways, the season has begun in earnest. And Arsene Wenger has made it pretty easy for me to adjust my expectations for the season.
I expect City, Chelsea, United and maybe Arsenal to mount a serious challenge for the title. But my favorite to win it come May 2016 is Manchester City, with Chelsea coming a very close second. There is no way we finish ahead of Chelsea. We will never be more motivated than they will be over through the course of the entire season. And as for City, they have done (and will do if need be) more than Arsene Wenger will ever do to win the title this season.
As for me, I’ve lost all confidence and trust in Arsene Wenger to win the PL title and I’ve made my peace with that. Until Arsene wins the league title with Arsenal once again, I stay on the side of those who believe AFC is never going to win the league title with him in charge. I would never hate him or blame him completely for that.
we just beat chelea…and they have added a significant Pedro to our significant Cech.
I am not sayin we will bully them, but as far as sayin “no way”….dont know
This is from our legend Henry.
“Ideally it does not look right now like they are going to win the league like this. But I think Arsene believes he can win the league with that team and that team is good enough. And that is his prerogative.
“I think he should have tried to bring players and I think he did try, it could not happen, but I still think that team needed some players.”
That my friends is just a polite way of saying, we f*cked this transfer window up.
Thierry is protecting a future Arsenal role so he won’t come out guns blazing and say it as is. Merson nailed it, “10mil for Arsenal is like Accrington paying 100quid. I feel the fans are getting cheated.”.
Neville was on the money last week also. Wenger went out this summer knowing he needed to upgrade the team in some areas, and the reason he didn’t was because HE didn’t agree with the selling teams valuation. Ambitious teams don’t take this approach, they see a need and fill it with an identified solution even if they pay a little extra Liverpool-Benteke, City-Sterling/KDB, United-Martial.
Easily summed up by this. Treble winners Barcelona, who have a transfer ban, bought more players than 3rd place, last 16 Arsenal. Cheers Arsene.
But yet they extort the fans with exorbitant ticket prices…shame.
Precisely. Fans can pay the highest prices in Europe but heaven forbid we’d pay prices on the market that equate to that.
Do they? Because there’s this little concept called offer and demand. If the demand is there then how this can be extortion? Paying 2 pounds more per game than the other team? I want to buy a free ticket but I can’t buy one for less than 100 quids for lets say WBA. If we play against Manure the price for a free ticket is 300 quids. And thing is that there is PLENTY of people wanting to come. Bringing my boys to see a game set me back 400 quids for one game last year. You think I am sorry? Not in a lifetime. I tell you, Arsenal must extend the stadium with 10k so that the queue for season tickets gets cut from 8 person per ticket to something like 6.
Missing the point are we Budd? We have a large and supportive fan base hence the demand for tickets, but you think the price is fair because there’s a demand for them still?
That’s not the measurement of whether they’re extortionate, it’s how our prices compare to other teams in world football. We have a ridiculously expensive ticket, more expensive than Barca, Real, Bayern, City, Chelsea, Dortmund, Juve, who all have won more than us in recent times. So are we justifiably expensive when we look around at our competitors? No. We aren’t as successful and we don’t invest as much.
Be like buying a phone more expensive than an iPhone that has half of the features. No sense to it, and nobody would buy it. ONLY reason we do is sentiment. A rare quality in any business that is being exploited by the Arsenal company. But by all means reduce it to whether you think a day out with your kids is good nick at 400 quid you pleb.
You know, is not hard to find a phone having twice the features iPhone has but still being cheaper. Kinda put things into perspective.
Pretty daft argument you’re making as Wenger refused point blank to buy anything. There goes your notion of buying better for cheaper….in order to take the morale high ground you’ve actually got to invest alternatively.
Buying nothing and deflecting blame elsewhere is a ridiculous stance for a manager among the top 6 earners in world football.
Only thing you conveniently leave out is that he did signed a world class player this window. Hence, my argument still stands
I think we can safely assume that having been the first and only manager to ever go unbeaten a whole EPL season and successfully carry a club through a stadium change, Arsene knows more than any human being now living could ever know about football.
AFC’s is the perfect description of an operation model far better than those of Barca, City, Madrid, Man United and Chelsea. And it doesn’t matter much to the club if we haven’t won a league title in past 11 years or so and do not win for the next 1 to 5 years.
I am not sure he is the best manager ever but definitely he’s there among the best.
Rubbish, just absolute fictional rubbish.
Yes Wenger stayed and did well with the funds allocated to him during the stadium years by keeping us in 4th (he was getting paid royally to do so but even still others may have gone elsewhere to a club that could challenge). Before this he arrived and changed the English game with his continental approach to fitness, psychology and diet and had a mixture of adopted players including a back line carved by Graham and a certain Dennis Bergkamp and those he identified and help develop into top players (Henry, viera, petit..). Wenger had some part in the invincible season of course but it was more the lions who failed to lose on the pitch.
But it is clear from watching Arsenal over recent seasons that his motivational, tactical and managerial abilities are far from ‘the best in the world’. Tony Adams, ray parlour and others not looking to maintain or develop a career within media have no delusions and have informed us of his antiquated training methods and his excelling in psychology and not football/tactical aspects.
And now, for too many seasons in a row he fails to identify and procure the required quality and numbers in depth to mount a serious challenge for the league under a blanket of excuses.
We have a great ‘operational model’ as you say but it isn’t gonna win us anything.
Your first paragraph made me burst out laughing. What a ridiculous notion, you poor, simple individual.
Good god.
@JimBeam
No. That is simply Henry’s “opinion”…No more. No less…
Yes it is, Henry’s opinion, I agree with you. And you can ask another 1000 people in football, who love Arsenal and want the best for it their opinions and you wont get much different.
@JimBeam
Regardless if they agree with him or not. They too offer only”opinions”, not truth…
See the difference? Or do you even want to?
Depends which 1000 people in football who love Arsenal you ask. You may’ve a surprise. A big one.
#Budd, #NY-Gunner;
People like you which accounts for all the AKB’s, like to be misserable, and take humiliation knowing for the fact Arsenal AFC is no longer Football club, it is a franchise, and we the true supporter of Arsenal and Football are not blind and brainless like you to take it year in and year out for the past 11 years.
Even the team with transfer ban like Barca did more than us.
Looking at the In and Out of Arsenal, he offload a $hit load of deadwoods which he shoulld have done years ago, but limited the play time for Campbell, to few minutes. His Shitty face during the game shows frustration but knowing the money flowing to the bank which I am he is partly beneficiary satisfy him.
This man is Very Very Very Bad news for Arsenal annd requires a physical force to get rid of him because Kroenke and company will not let him go.
Dream on 4th place this Year!!!
Honestly I think not signing a cover for DM or someone better than Coquelin will be a bigger problem if Coq has a dip in form, a multiple match ban or an injury. There’s a lot of players that are (maybe) not world class but surely above the level of Arteta and Flamini, I think not signing somebody there is very ignorant and it will only double up the number once Arteta/Flamini get out of the squad.
The DM position does not bother me as such, if any of the above scenarios were to play out, I think whoever comes in can do a decent job for few games but not having a lethal striker is criminal…I miss the days when we asked for the score and not ‘who won?’ whenever The Arsenal played and we missed the game…Henry would pop up with one or two goals at least, even Cech was scared of the King.
If Wenger had at least got another LW, we could have played Alexis up front or at least have a dedicated LW backup
We just have to pray that Giroud has his best season, that Walcott improves up front, that Alexis improves and everyone avoids major injuries
Pathetic summer after so much hope and promise getting Cech. Damn you Wenger
Stop praying man, even the bible says ‘Faith without works is dead’…sign players that put the fear of jah in your opponents and then your prayers will be answered.
@incarnate
That sounds like Stoke City’s mantra. Look where it got them….
And look where they brought Newcastle.
@Budd
Exactly…
Henry’s body language said a lot more than his mouth last night. As much as Arsene knows best, we the fans are the ones deluding ourselves by thinking the club ‘s ambitions and ours are the same, the club has a business model that says ‘do enough to stay in the champions league places’ it is right in front of eyes and we indulge the board and management further by helping them penny pinch, talking about players being too expensive and all, screw that! Who cres if the club has to shell out 236 billion pounds to sign Lionel Messi’s kid? After all, we the fans do not complain about our extortionate ticket prices, why should the club complain about the price of players we clearly need? It’s a different issue entirely if we were at least strong enough to stand toe to toe with the top echelons of the game and we decide to be inactive in the market, even Barca with a transfer ban managed to sign a couple of players, that’s really funny! Let’s stop kidding ourselves, FFP is dead in the water and players, quality ones will not come cheap, Petr Cech was a once of and that kind of deal will only come along in the next five years before we find such bargain again, in the meantime what do we do? Wait? No ways man!
Theo Alexis and Olivier are the best front we have and also in my opinion the best trio in the league. You have to look at an attack as a whole not just the target man in the middle.
Hazard -Costa -Pedro is better in my opinion
Sterling(Nasri) – Aguero – Navas(DeBruyne) is also better in my opinion
The problem is Giroud our two attacking Wingers are good enough to play in any team in the EPL our CF can barely make it to the bench in some.
Right now Hazard Costa Pedro is not firing on all cylinders but yes, their market value is bigger than what we have.
arsenal fans are the most worried fans in the whole world
.and i know most of you are arsenal fans because of monsieur wenger. it will be very disheartening to see wenger leave only for arsenal to become much worse. We all know we cant compete with the financial strengths of chelsea and city thats why caution needs to be taken for now until we reach that level. let wenger finish what he had started the guy has a degree in some finance course i dont know what. let him first put us in a very stable financial base and uplift our stature in his knowhow of tracking world class talent so we can keep on expanding every now and then.we need to give more patience until a proper long term solution arises that way we can spend each season enjoying our clubs big name stature.
arsenal fans are the most worried fans in the whole world
.and i know most of you are arsenal fans because of monsieur wenger unless you are from north london ofcourse. it will be very disheartening to see wenger leave only for arsenal to become much worse. We all know we cant compete with the financial strengths of chelsea and city thats why caution needs to be taken for now until we reach that level. let wenger finish what he had started the guy has a degree in some finance course i dont know what. let him first put us in a very stable financial base and uplift our stature in his knowhow of tracking world class talent so we can keep on expanding every now and then.we need to give more patience until a proper long term solution arises that way we can spend each season enjoying our clubs big name stature.
Yesterday, Muzzi Ozcan tweeted ” Its happening ” just hours before the transfer deadline..Few hours later he posted “Just a few minutes more”.Later he deleted both the tweets..This suggests that the Cavani rumours might actually be true..And if its true its a total DISGRACE for Arsenal FC..#KroenkeOut #BoardOut #Wengershouldquit.
It also might suggest the he knows f##K all and was planning that arsenal was gonna do our normal deadline day signing. And if that’s the case the you shouldn’t be so gullible and believe everything you read
It suggests he was taking a sh!t or pulling his wood.
That too
I think the article should have been titled “Not signing a striker will come back to haunt Wenger.”
“WHAT IF?”
Thats what it all boils down to huh?
Is this the BS that Arsene and AKBS want us to believe.
“In a transfer window where 1 Billion Pounds worth of players were sold, we could not find a single one that could be an upgrade to our existing squad that was 12 points off first place last year”
I have few suggestions you may or may not agree with but how about Vidal, Kongdobia, Otamendi,Martinez,Dybala, Pedro, Draxler, and the list can go on…
Look at us last year apart from Sanchez. Debuchy, Chambers,Welbeck,Ospina came in, i would not consider any of them top top class, but they came to fill in some holes in our squad, some better than others.
This year there seems to be no holes in our squad, Le Coq is our savior, who will play 60 games, and we have a new striker in Theo. And BFG is getting better with age.
Look buddy, you can believe in anything you want, The world is flat, Climate change is not man made, or that you have a invisible best friend who talks to you at night.
But for God’s sake stop, just stop insulting everyone’s and i mean everyone’s intelligence with this BS
@JimBeam
Believe what you wish dude. I”m not here to try and coerce you into anything.
My post was directed at the writer of the head topic. But it seems to apply to your train of though as it does to so many others…
Think of the super divideds the shareholders will receive with all that unspent revenue. I bet Arsene has shares
The club obviously think that city are over the hill and far away so why splash the cash.
As I’ve said many times before the Arsenal football club is a franchise.. Profit before championship.
Great interest being accrued also!
Will look great come end of year fiscal results. Won’t make a blind but if different on the field though..
But that’s not important apparently.
As far as I am concerned, Wenger had no real intentions to sign anyone else apart from cech.
And to be honest I don’t think we needed him,
Ospina is as good as cech at shot stopping!
I’m as dissapointed as the next fan regarding the lack of transfers and the way wenger keeps playing the players out of position.
the whole world knew that there were many available players who are better than giroud and welbeck but the specialist in failure couldn’t find one. Fans are crying but he doesn’t give a sh*t about us, nobody is bigger than the club but the way he does in the transfer market looked like he is bigger than anybody else at the club. Mourinho was right he really is a specialist in failure and this transfer window proved that.
Arguably we have strikers in Alexis, Theo, Giroud and Welbeck as well as, the now in the team till January, Campbell. The problem isn’t quantity but quality and I upmost believe we went out with the intention to sign one of the very best. I have first hand information we were in talks with Cavani but our wage structure stopped us there. Then I would imagine we were in talks with Benzema but that did not materialise. The result, no added quality, just lots of quantity.
This will probably bite Wenger as no matter how many strikers you have, you can only field one player in that position. Even if every striker COULD get you 15 goals, you can only play 1. Realistically in that 5 players I mentioned there is probably around 45-50 goals. That still leaves another 40 from elsewhere in the team and without people who are good at long shots or set piece deliveries we’re again looking like we’ll probably hit more like 70-80 goals then 90.
Let’s see what happens. Maybe we’ll have some huge luck and Theo will finally start playing like he has the potential to.
maybe he’s considering Lacazette transfer as soon he realizes that he can’t go too far with Lyon.
However as the most top transfers, unlikely in january… 🙁
It has been a terrible transfer market for this season for arsenal, even in terms of a business sense it has been ridiculous.
Czech our only signing will not sell much shirts, because he is not an out field player who normally gets most of the fans attention, even no name players outside would have boost sale in gears, i guarantee you most Jamaicans will become more interest in Chelsea gears because Chelsea bought one of our national teams player and his shirt will sell.
Now the question of availability of exceptional players, it seems in wenger’s eyes exceptional players had to be from top teams and cost a lot of money, there are several players from the spanish, german, dutch, ukraine and even the championship, which could have added something new to the team at even below 15 million pounds,
It only shows who runs arsenal, because from what i have seen Wenger was not interested in buying anyone
Sridha, don’t worry. The Boss will not be hunted for not signing any outfield player in the just concluded summer transfer saga. As a matter of facts, he looks to be upbeat already to confront any protests from any Arsenal fans group who may want to do a meltdown against him. The Boss and the Gunners are more than capable to handle successfully, the Premier League title & the Ucl charge without a Benzima or a Cavani. The Boss & the Gunners are armed men that are fully armed with the latest weapon grades within their rank & file. And are therefore not afraid of any title challengers. The Gunners have constituted themselves into hunters and are no longer guards, as they have upgraded their Game App Data Plan Running from 3G App to 4G LTE App Running. And have thus equiped themselves with latest game speed application data plan grade. And are unavoidedly poised to ruthlessly deal with any team that crossed their path in any competions.
Wenger out
at every home game please donate a pound or better throw it in Wengers direction he may get 50 to 60 k pounds every home match as they are already looting the fans there.sit on the money and wait for market value to come down wenger.players are there he just does not wanna pay.But we are a small club, wenger is actually proving the likes of fabregas,nasri and van persie that they were right to leave the club cuz all players have ambition to win the league
and i do think we gonna sell ozil next summer if we don’t win the league which looks very likely and buy fabregas from Chelsea.
SAME OLD WENGER STILL SITTING ON THE CHEQUE BOOK . NEVER GOING TO CHANGE. WENGER HAS MADE IT OFFICALL ARSENAL ARE HAPPY TO BE AN ALSO RAN TEAM. Mr Wenger has NO AMBITION. WENGER OUT NOW.
We don’t even need to debate this anymore. The fact is, unless you are as deluded as AW, you must believe we should have brought in new talent to strengthen our team.
Everyone with an ounce of reality knows we are going backwards. 2 marquee signings in Ozil and Alexis but no progress this year (aside from Cech) amounts to standing still at the very best.
It’s not even a debate anymore. The argument has been done to death. The only way to effect change is by protesting and / or not buying tickets / merchandise. How long do fans go on blindly supporting a team with little REALISTIC ambition?
I know being a fan involves ups and downs, but this is an ongoing saga of tightfistedness, and it HAS to stop.
Two goals can define a Title, any manager knows that you need to score to win, well any manager but Le Frog, it’s unconceivable that this man is still in charge as he was working pro bono (no wages) on the contrary, with his salary we could afford Klopp and Simeone both together……not signing players and we are only talking 2 tops to reinforce the team, is an insult to the fans and proof that while he is in charge there is no chance for us to progress……I will rout for the team and players, even for Donkey Giroud and dead weight Flamini if he gets to play, but looking forward to that day when Le Frog retires and we become a contender once again.
Why blame AW. We wanted a proven goalscorer. First he tried Martinez, But he refused to join us. likes of Dybala were not even in the frame. Benzema did not want to come and RM would not sell him unless they sign a replacement. Cavani was a huge gamble for 50 mil at 28. He has signed a world class player whenever he wanted and available. LVG has a huge gable of MartiaL. Lets wait and see. Lets hope for the best. Our team is not that bad. and there is always a next time.