At the same time that we are hearing from the Arsenal and Spain star Santi Cazorla some hints that he might be going back to Spain’s La Liga to play for his former club Villarreal at some point, there are the reports that the Gunners have not yet managed to persuade our two best players to sign extensions to their current contracts.
Arsene Wenger has played down the issue and insisted that he is not worried about his two main stars signing on again soon but that it is just not his priority right now. But I am pretty sure that the Frenchman would feel a bit better about things if he already had Ozil and Alexis committed to the club long term.
Now, as well as being our best player this season, the German playmaker may be doing Arsenal fans a big favour off the pitch as well, if I am right about his delay in signing a new deal being due to him waiting to see what the boss does in the transfer market this summer.
As reported by the Evening Standard he has been speaking about the possibility of going to play in his country of birth Germany or even in Turkey where his father comes from. But the creative midfielder also suggested that he could play the rest of his football career in the English Premier League.
He said, “There’s no hurry. I have two years left on my contract.
“We’ll see how it goes at the end of the season.
“I’m not saying that I definitely must return to the Bundesliga or spend time in Turkey. But I’m not ruling it out either. Maybe I’ll finish my career in England.”
Do you think that Ozil and his Arsenal team mates Alexis and Cazorla are waiting to see which players will be signed in the summer before they really commit to the Gunners?
yes offcourse and nobody can blame them..They came to arsenal to win trophies and if they c the club can’t fulfill this they have a right to move on..
I used to hate V.Persie and Fabregas for leaving but now I can fully understand why they left.
Sign Icardi and Ibrahimovic problem solved. Ibrahimovoc will be free sign him to 2 year deal and spend 35 m on Icardi. Sell Theo and Giroud.
There has been a lot of nonsense written on this site about the influence of Kroenke on transfers etc….the usual bleat about how Wenger has got more stingy since Kroenke’s arrival and how Sham Kroenke dictates the transfers.
Fact – Sham acquired majority shares in July 2011.
Pre Sham, Wenger spent
05/06 – 6.8mil for Rosicky, 9.1M (yes even I was shocked!!!) for Walnut, 7.0mil for Adebayor, 11.2mil for Hleb, 2mil for Diaby.
06/07 – 7.5mil for Eduardo, 3.4mil for Denilson, 2mil for Fabianski
07/08 – 15.8mil for Nasri, 4.8 mil for Ramsey, 4.0mil for Diarra, 6.0 mil for Sagna,
08/09 – 15mil for Arshavin
09/10 – 10mil for Vermaleen
10/11 – 10mil for Koscielny, 4mil for Squillaci
2005- 2011 Approx 122 million in signings (haven’t included in list above players under 1 mil)
Post Sham, Wengers supposed controlled years
11/12 – 10.6 mil Gervinho, 12 mil Oxlade, 3 mil for Park, 950k for Joel Campbell, 6.2mil for Santos, 10mil for Arteta, 10mil for Mertesacker
12/13 – 11 mil for Podolski, 13 mil for Giroud, 20mil for Santi, 8.3mil for Monreal
13/14 – 42.5mil for Ozil
14/15 – 12 mil for Debuchy, 35 mil for Alexis, 3mil for Ospina, 16 mil for Chambers, 16 mil for Welbeck, 11.2mil for Gabriel, 2.4mil for Bielik (who is he???)
15/16 – 10mil for Cech, 5mil for Elneny
2011- 2016 Approx 258 million in signings
So don’t let the facts get in the way of the myth that Sham has stopped Wengers spending. In fact post Sham, Arsenal has made a loss in the transfer market. Furthermore contract extensions were given to many players that have not been deserving the biggest being Walnut.
If Sham is so controlling, would he not have a bigger say in the increase of wage billls up an average of 10% each year with many long term injured on the list? Again in business, wages (and all of its associated costs) are one of the biggest expense so if he controls Wenger, why would he not look at the biggest controllable expense?
The point to this is. I dislike Sham and what he has brought to the club but I now have a bigger dislike of the OUR clubs manager who preaches one thing and does the opposite. “. I will leave when I feel I cant take this club any further?…. This season, he has lost us the FA cup….it is likely that he has made us finish out of the top 4 and that to me is a literal statement to.. can’t take the club any further… TIME TO GO
He spent a lot but not many smart signing like big players who have proven over 1-2 seasons that they’re among the best or are the best & spending for what those qualities are worth. Looking too much to bargain.
A prospect has a 1/2 of really fulfilling that potential & getting to that level (great, world class).And even that there’s a lot of moving parts! Because they’re not in his eyes rightfully valued yet he can mesmerize at Barcelona forward line & there ability to score & I quote:”turning football into art”. So he knows what it takes to some degree.
Also some players have clearly not progressed under his tutelage, not enough anyway (Ox, Walcott) even thought he is not 100% responsible it’s a fact!
I22m over 7 seasons. Chelsea and city had this beat in one or two seasons, meaning vast differences in affordable quality. Spurs spent 100m in one season and liv spent 100m too. It’s from 2013 to now that we’ve had better money, this isn’t really a dispute in my opinion. The Sheikhs came at the worst possible time. Liverpool way back had a domination period. Manu had theirs too. I believe that but for these sheikhs, and oil barons, we would have had a similar dominance period, or at least shared it with manu. If they (Sheikhs) never had come over we would quite possibly be talking godlike on Arsene Wenger, how he done it better than Liverpool and Manu, because we were in huge debt.
I thhink it is net spend which is important (difference between players bought and sold).
Here is a link for last five years, put http at the beginning
://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-last-five-seasons/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons
A few surprises, tottenham are 20th and the only PL Team to make a profit on transfers. Leicester are fourteenth on £55m, Arsenal are fifth on £104m.
On this basis it is tottenham who are the best purchasers of players, they made a profit of £55m in the last five years putting their squad together.
So leicester being the underdogs, assembling their squad on a shoestring is a myth. It is Tottenham who have assembled a squad on far less than a shoestring.
Seems odd to me but as they say, there are lies, damn lies and statistics.
Agreed, plus you need to take into account how much was in the proposed war chest every season and how much WAS NOT SPENT and how much rolled over each year and also the amount that was made in profit each year, and the increase in ticket process over these periods of time its shambolic the whole of this is a bent as a butchers hook, Sham as you call him is still sitting there as a silent man who neither encourages nor castigates the manager when we fail, Wenger is also always lying through his teeth and the excuses are getting thinner and thinner each year, his buys were for the main part less than prudent and this is all about the “Cheaper option” rather than the big spend and the long term expectation. and how much of the spend you have listed was made up with the selling on of players such as Van persie and Fabregas? to name just two lets also remember Song and Hleb ect ect who were sold for excellent prices and where did the money go for these sales
Look at all these purchased players you have listed and tell me which ones are really world class and have gone on to prove their worth in an Arsenal kit?
In there prime & with there quality any club could do with a Sanchez or a Özil or even both in there squad…and turns out a lot of club have that financial power to pull it off. City is one of them, Barca/Real & Bayern are the other ones. All of them are contenders to win it all each year!!
They know that & after coming up short arguably 2 seasons in a row & specially this one…they will wonder if there will be any chances for them to be successful going forward. With the ways the other teams are shaping up:
1) New managers in EPL with quite the success (Pep, Klopp, Conte & possibly Mourinho)
2) Big money not afraid to spend
And looking at the way the club, are lovely Arsenal they’re playing for are doing:
1) Wenger not showing any sign of changing his approach on the market
2) Lack of accountability & ambition at every level
Delaying there contract resigning for themselves is the smartest thing they can do! They know things we don’t even know & it could maybe force Wenger & put pressure on him…hence long term benefit for the club
It’s all speculation & rumours but when the team ain’t doing well with so many moving parts that’s what happens. Pretty sure they’ll like to win a gunner but…Now all we can do is wait & see but if they elect to leave because they want to WIN can we fault them?
Three players and the team will be ready for next season
1.Experienced CB in shape of Hummels or the like
2.Am ok with XHAKA addition since we have Le Coq,Elneny who could do the same job too.Let the CM be for Ramsey,Cazorla and Wilshere
3.With services from Ozil and Sanchez as well as Iwobi am sure LUKAKU can give us 25-30 goals a season.
4.Retain Campbell and give a last chance to OX as back ups but let WALCOT go
5.JENKNSON as a back up to Bellerin no problem to me since he has got that PL experience from WHU.
Goodbye ARTETA,FLAMIN,ROSICKY,MERTESACKER,DEBUCHY & SZCZESNY.
Not with wenger it wont:)
I think the CB is essential. BFG will be a year older and Gabriel and Chambers aren’t good enough yet.
Hope we do sign Xhaka but Wenger moves appallingly late in the window and this might all be media noise.
We definitely need a hitman. If Wenger lets Theo go (and he needs to) he might add a class striker. but to be honest, he’s more likely to tell us we’re fine with Wellbeck Giroud Alexis and Chuba.
We’ve got too many players in the squad that are only about 80% good enough for us to be winning silverware. None of the clubs we need to beat for trophies would look at these players for a second. That’s not setting us up for success. Unfortunately, this means Walcott, and Gibbs, and the older players you listed.
It’s a separate problem, one that rests with AW, that our players don’t take the pitch with a dominating and winning attitude (a la fergie’s teams). We’ve dropped bags of points this way, to the likes of Norwich, Palace, Sunderland, West Brom, Swansea, Stoke, Chelsea. That’s where we lost it this season.
There’s some great junior talent set to bloom – Iwobi, Reine-Adelaide, Akpom, Crowley, Gnabry still. But they aren’t the answer on their own. It needs a couple of top line additions to support these kids and to ensure we keep our other world class players.
I think that’s the easy part of the change we need. I’m much less confident about Wenger dealing with the complacency and lack of intensity in some games. He’s so slow to change his ways. Chelsea and the Mancs will be making big changes for sure. Spuds and the bin dippers will be looking to improve too. We need to do a lot more than just tinker around the edges.
Yes that and if we make CL. Clubs not making the CL can be a get out for many players, and I’m glad if these two said they want to see if players come in because lets face it, going again with Giroud Walcott Flamini Oxlade as very important players to the first team would be suicidal.
We need CF, Winger, CB and DM