Arsenal have been slammed by the Sunday Time’s top football journalist Duncan Castles, claiming they embarrassed themselves on deadline day to go with a disastrous transfer window. The Gunners brought in only two players this summer in Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac, whilst overseeing a number of exits, and after finishing outside the Champions League spots last term, you would have expected much more improvements.
The Arsenal boss could argue that his side finished the previous campaign in top form, and would have wanted to disrupt that as little as possible, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was a big part of our system which was firing a few months back, and he was allowed to leave without a replacement being signed.
Duncan Castles has moved to slam the time wasted by the North-London club, and even insists that Lacazette was a less than ideal signing also. He said; “Arsenal had a terrible transfer window.
“A really shocking transfer window.
“Only one signing of significance, and one who in [Alexandre] Lacazette, for all his skills and finishing, is not a complete striker.
“Not a good aerial striker.
“Arsenal, in recent seasons, have moved towards an aerial game.
“Their defence is a complete mess, [it] desperately needed strengthening and nothing done there apart from [Sead] Kolasinac who is only a partial solution.
“And then the horrendous mess they made of trying to sign Thomas Lemar on deadline day, putting in a club-record bid when they didn’t have a guarantee that Lemar would come to the club.
“Not only did they fail to get the player but they embarrassed themselves publicly in their attempt to sign him.”
Is Lacazette suited to our style of play? Does the Lemar saga leave us red-faced? How many more signings were needed this summer?
Pat J
We had the whole of the transfer window to sign lemar yet we hardly made any convincing bid until the last day. #shambles
shows it was just a token enquiry.
Stand needs money in the bank for his billion pound rams project after all..
Everyone is entitled to hold and express a view, however ill-informed. I do, however, object to such people being given a prominent media platform from which to pronounce their views, especially when they are plainly nonsense. You have to choose, either smarten up and realize we can either be strategically productive or the same fans who always complain and knee jerk can have their talking points for over the pint and tue whole world can know our pioneering next moves. who got Mesut, Alexis, Xhaka, Andrei, Mustafi (via Mesut) the rest we made of course our great leader Wenger.
RESPECT ARSENE.
Intelligent start to comment…, ending???
Some people are perennial pessimists and have “negative energy” and negativistic attitudes (“good things don’t last”, “it doesn’t pay to be good”, “the future is behind me”). Not only do they disparage the efforts of others, but they make it a point to resist demands to perform in workplace and social settings and to frustrate people’s expectations and requests, however reasonable and minimal they may be. Such persons regard every requirement and assigned task as impositions, reject authority, resent authority figures (boss, teacher, parent-like spouse), feel shackled and enslaved by commitment, and oppose relationships that bind them in any manner. People diagnosed with the Negativistic (Passive-Aggressive) Personality Disorder resemble narcissists in some important respects. Despite the obstructive role they play, passive-aggressives feel unappreciated, underpaid, cheated, and misunderstood. They chronically complain, whine, carp, and criticize. They blame their failures and defeats on others, posing as martyrs and victims of a corrupt, inefficient, and heartless system (in other words, they have alloplastic defenses and an external locus of control). Passive-aggressives sulk and give the “silent treatment” in reaction to real or imagined slights. They suffer from ideas of reference (believe that they are the butt of derision, contempt, and condemnation) and are mildly paranoid (the world is out to get them, which explains their personal misfortune). In the words of the DSM: “They may be sullen, irritable, impatient, argumentative, cynical, skeptical and contrary.” They are also hostile, explosive, lack impulse control, and, sometimes, reckless. Inevitably, passive-aggressives are envious of the fortunate, the successful, the famous, their superiors, those in favor, and the happy like our Supreme Leader WENGER.
RESPECT ARSENE.
I am optimistic for this season, and the main reason is our front 3 of sanchez, lacazette and ozil is potentially the best we have had since Henry, Bergkamp and Pires. (not as good though).. With a strong back up of Welbeck, giroud and Walcott. Of course the centre defence and midfield have to step up and play with discipline. Also the signing of Kolasinac is proving to be just what we need as long as Wenger plays him at wing or full back.. Very strong, intelligent player with a great final ball. I am thinking that the dreadful defeat to Liverpool will be arsenal’s eureka moment, the same as Chelsea last season when we gave them a football lesson in our 3-0 victory. I hope lessons have been learnt from the defeat to Liverpool. If under the guidance of Le Prof Arsenal wins the quadruple titles of the Carabo Cup, the PL title which is the main big title win the teaming Gooners are after. Then also wins the FA Cup again and the Europa League Cup too all in a single season. Which I don’t think any club in the European football leagues has managed to achieve. I believe with these such a remarkable 4 title wins, I think the Arsenal board thereafter will offer Le Prof an immediate extension to his current 2 years deal at the club by a year. But Le Prof will likely holdout for 2 years extension which I think the board will consent to and keep him as Arsenal manager for the next four seasons to come beginning from this current ongoing season campaign. Stan Kreonke said about Arsenal This morning in news. He said he doesn’t see Arsenal as having a good season, Quote it will not be Arsenal,s year this year but has said, that there is no reason that he can’t make a tonne of money like every other year. Now it seems to me that he is having a good old laugh at the fan’s expense. He also said that he hopes to build up his empire using Arsenal as one of his financial services in years to come. Im serious guys this American owner is using the fan’s of Arsenal to personally finance his bank account for himself. which leads me to believe that when he is tired and gets what he wants he will walk away. Time to stand up and be counted and stop buying Arsenal Merchandise as you’re lining this guys pocket. indeed it is exactly the way in which he treats all his other sports ownership. Which is why the view taken on this site is that sacking the manager is pointless.
ARSENE KNOWS BEST.
These guys r bunch of fools for real,they r just looking for any little avenue to distablize arsenal,i pity d gullible fans who listens to all these barrages these guys r vomiting,what is wrong in bidding for a player without getting them?how many players did Chelsea bidded for without getting them? Didn’t barca bid for bellerin? What of coutinho? What is embarrassment there,arsenal had a fairly good sumer,they improved their attack and their defence ,kept their 2 highest profile player’s,kep d bulk of their team and u r calling it embarrassment? Go and pee man,we had a fairly good game against Stoke ,we paid for not being ruthless enough in front of goal,yes we were terrible against Liverpool,its start of d season ,stop moaning and leave our club,bunch of retard idiots, rubbish
Keeping players against their will ain’t improvement..
Oh look who’s back, bla…bla…bla…bla….boring…boring plastic fan. still think every non gullible arsenal fans should spread the positivity around our clubs including in blogs. Arsenals problem isnt wenger, its an owner who uses the club solely for collateral for other projects, demanding a huge cash mountain to be kept in the process, as well as a stale luddite control freak manager who is allowed to stay indefinitely, unchallenged, as he keeps silent and goes along with the ebbs and flows of the owners cash needs.
Sing with me now. ONE ARSENE WENGER.
How do you expect people to take you seriously when you are so offensive towards an opinion that’s not yours?
I hope you are not going to say “he started it”.
Laca was an excellent signing, as was Kolsanic. Not sure we were really serious about Lemar- I think he was probably our yearly “well we tried but failed” marquee signing- we were going through the motions with him.
Whoever we signed and whatever team we have you can safely say that’s what we go with now. We are very unlikely to improve on it in January as we do even less in that window.
I Am not too concerned about what these journalists think- there seems to be a bit of a campaign going on against Arsenal as they can smell blood – they know the fanbase is divided and then are just trying to add to the pressure. Ignore them.
Laca so far looks excellent, he looks dangerous and sharp and definitely gives us something we have been lacking.
Time will tell if we have enough as a team though- I think this is the season Jack may surprise us again but we shall see.
As for our EPL title ambitions I think it’s a bridge too far- there are so many good teams now it’s going to be a dogfight – there are no real pushovers anymore and we just have to accept that and move on. Besides that’s what it’s meant to be all about isn’t it? Would be boring otherwise.
Get behind the team and see what happens, stop the doom and gloom.
regarding Lacazette his going to make a huge difference in our goal tally, we always needed a player with his ability in and around the box, Laca is a better version of Lukas Podolski, for years now we are always passing the ball around the opposition box for ages with no end result but with Laca with his accurate aim and powerful shots we should do well, that is if he gets enough time on the pitch,
And who bought him, of course Our Great Supreme Leader One and Only Arsene Wenger. Arsenal outperform relative to their spend, there is a lot of misinformation (the term ‘fake news’ was not used) about Arsenal’s transfer targets and players for sale in the media – but the club have a policy of not denying anything, and Three FA Cups in four seasons is evidence of success. Arsenal’s problem isnt wenger, its an owner who uses the club solely for collateral for other projects, demanding a huge cash mountain to be kept in the process, as well as a stale luddite control freak manager who is allowed to stay indefinitely, unchallenged, as he keeps silent and goes along with the ebbs and flows of the owners cash needs.
IN ARSENE WE TRUST.
for god sake give it up with your love for the leader he was good in his day made massive chance in the way football is played today in the EPL but his lost his confidence and edge everyone has caught up and past him,
it took AW three seasons to buy Lacazette and paid 30 Million more then what he would of paid three years ago
Perez, Gabriel….
Its high time we left the summer and start talking about NOW!. I dare say Arsenal have a squad that can win the Premier League IF we get our tactics and the management and motivation of the players right. The last game showed us clearly that we were only a Mustafi, Lacazette, Kolasinac and a fit Alexis away from winning Liverpool. This squad is not as bad as we love to paint it. What could have happened on the deadline day that would have shown we were ready to compete? Sign Lemar and sell Alexis? What utter rubbish? Forget the economics, we have Alexis and we didn’t get Lemar. I make bold to say there is NO team that is worth its salt in this world that will swap Alexis for Lemar.
Lets be serious and address the issues where they lie. Nothing wrong with our squad, its the management and the tactics that I’m scared of. For instance, lets play Nelson tomorrow and lets play him as part of the front 3, preferably on the left (hopefully he might get Alexis fired up). But let me guess, IF that guy shows up on the pitch tomorrow, it will be as right wing back. THAT is where we have a problem! DID MONACO PLAY MBAPPE AT WING BACK (IN A LIFE MATCH AND NOT A FRIENDLY) WHEN HE WAS 17 SO HE CAN LEARN THE DEFENSIVE SIDE OF THE GAME? Can Wenger STOP this bullshit and start getting serious? Was Sterling played at Wingback at Liverpool? Was Ousmane Dembele played at wing back at Dortmund? Was Lemar played at Wing back in Monaco? Was Leroy Sane at Shalke? Wenger should STOP destroying these budding talent’s lives and careers. If we had focused Ainsley Maitland-Niles as a Central midfielder, Xhaka and Ramsey would have been scared for his position right now and that would have brought out the best in him and we won’t be looking for one Seri all over the place. These boys are NOT young anymore in today’s game. They shouldn’t be prospects anymore they should be pushing for starts in the first team. I saw Joe Willock during the pre season and I understood Wenger trying to sell Elneny. That young boy is better in every aspect of the game than Elneny and he should be given an opportunity today to show what he’s got. He played in the same team with Jack Wilshere and he seem at par to me. What made all these Young talents is nothing but OPPORTUNITY. The moment they showed the talent, the next stage is to give them a platform to express it, thats where confidence and experience is built, NOT IN LEAGUE TWO. What more for Christ’s sakes does Nelson have to do to displace Walcott on Arsenal’s bench? Play as wing back to develop the defensive side of his game? Did Walcott play at wing back when he made the English team to the World Cup at 17? Did Rashford, Martial, Mata, De Bryune, Mane, Dybala and the likes play at wing back? Lets STOP experimenting with people’s career, so they don’t decide to leave without reason.
Wake up!!
Nothing will change
I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and sh!t out a smarter statement than whatever you so lazy to write. I don’t have the time or the crayons to explain it to you, but what the heck, I am on the mood. Some on here look at things dispassionately when it comes to issues around Arsenal unlike you Wenger out keyboard militants who seem to believe you are pushing him out by commenting on blog. You’re all a disgrace to the true supporters who stick through thick and thin and work their @rse off to away games with loyal support because the love of the club. And what do we have here now for the wave of milennials bunch of pest fans who constantly moanig for 24/7 endlessly. Like other poster said above if you depressed about our Arsenal then go support your mighty Chelsea or others you like.
ONE ARSENE WENGER.
JembutArsene you are not an Arsenal fan, not in any shae or form. You are an old man fan of the Old Man. Nothing else needs saying.
Please do eat a bowl of alphabet soup in that case because the drivel you post is in need of an upgrade.
Yes the window could have been better but Lacazette & Kolasinac are looking really good! Was shocked that we were going to pay 92m for Lemar!! Fancy getting 40m for Ox though!! The Liverpool fans I’ve spoken to reckon he’s crap, a waste of money & defo overpaid by about 35m for him ??love it!
So agree with you
As to the signings we made, with Wenger in charge, I noticed it is difficult to make absolute statements. I can not say I like Kolasinac. I have to say I love the guy when he is played as left back. I like him less when he is played as CD.
Same for Laca, I love his finishing ease and love him as a central striker, I like him less out on the wing.
I have to agree that the Lemar saga was a joke and embarrassing and I also think we could have done more to improve the squad and in general as always with our transfer business I would have liked to see us move much quicker than we did on both the sell and the buy side.
Wenger seems to have this outdated idea in his mind that the last day is when you do your transfer business but not only is that no longer true it also means if you arrive on the last day ill prepared it turns into a shambles. How can you field any offer on the last day if you don’t know the player wants to play for you?
Perhaps there was a time we needed to bottom fish on the last day of the window but that is no longer true.
I do think with Kos getting injured more and more often and with a set of odd ball DMs that we could have done more to help our defending either by adding to central defends (Wenger clearly doesn’t think Holding or Chambers are ready for full-time duty) particularly after the sale of Gabriel, or by adding a better DM. We don’t have a complete type DM player.
Xhaka is a great passer of the ball, not a great dribbler but when we don’t have possession his liability shines (lack of closing speed and poor tackling and decision making) and that is not great for a DM.
If you add Ozil to that mix, also a great passer and a good dribbler but not so effective when we don’t have possession and you can see IMO that we could have done with a complete DM.
So yes I have to agree that our transfer window was disappointing particularly on the defensive side after losing Gabriel and still not having a midfield pairing that consistently fires on all cylinders. Xhaka and Ramsey seem to be the preferred pair for Wenger but they are inconsistent at best and often against decent teams wobbly IMO.
Finally, I am afraid that not selling Sanchez and Ozil will come back to haunt us in a big way next season when it is time to replace these guys and they move for free to other clubs (possibly in the PL). If next years market is like this year you need 200 million to replace these guys and I don’t see us spend that type of money and with a little effort we could have raised 100 million for the sale of them this window and used it to try and replace them.
The only thing IMO that could make up for this error is if we qualify directly for CL. This might change the minds of players like Lemar and might put us in a position to attract some half way decent players. Failing to qualify for CL football will only magnify the error of not selling these players.
Our current team is stronger than that of last season. There was nothing disastrous about our transfer, we added two quality players as well as retaining our squad including our best players. We let go a player who we have a ready made replacement for and who is not ready to wear the arsenal Jersey, and got good amount of money for him. We have a better squad and we are good to go. Liverpool lost 5nil to City, heaven has not fallen and their fans are not writing them off at this stage of the season. ARSENAL WILL MAKE THE TOP THREE this season. COYG
Fola yes we have a good team i agree and yes we strengthened but other teams who finished above us have also strengthened and more
Are we stronger defensively than last season? Perhaps in starting 11 if Kolasinac is played as left back, but with the departure of Gabriel and Wenger not really trusting Holding and Chambers and having switched to 3 at the back, I am not convinced our back line has strengthened. If you have to play Monreal as CD you will have a problem against better teams. Say what you want you want but Gabriel was a better CD than Monreal IMO.
Must they all talk about arsenal before they can be heard. Who ask for his opinion. Now laca is not a complete striker because he lacks aerial prowess. That is a stupid thing to say about a player who scored his first epl goal through nodding. The look for anything to knock us down. We have a disastrous transfer because we left it late? What about Chelsea or Spurs. I have heard enough of all these and admin and our writers can do us a favour by not bringing that negativity here.
JambutArsenal
as i use to be you are guilty of not watching any other teams or leagues outside Arsenals games to see how poor we really are
I am not quite sure if you are being genuine or sarcastic if I was honest….
I wish wenger all the best this season, as far as I am concerned I am done with wenger’s arsenal.
Menh..its getting harder to read most of the comments here. we win one game and all becomes well in the world…
we could have gotten 60m for sanchez and replace him with less if we had done our business early and paid for lemar.. now we going to lose him for free and pay almost double for lemar that’s even if the rumours are true.. we rejected 15m for gibbs only to sell for 5m later and btw debucy is our perfect replacement for bellerin and upgrade on defence ..i guess he thought we don’t need one since we won’t be playing bayern this season…
we could all just come here and try comfort ourselves or just lie to each and wonder why the board…manager gets every with these every time or we could really do something as a fan no matter how small to let them know we ain’t no fools.
” debucy is our perfect replacement for bellerin”
Made me lol.
I would much prefer to see a kid promoted or give M-Niles time as RB rather than see that sulk in our team again, he whined like a kid when Bellerins form kept him in the starting lineup, Debuchy wanted to walk into the team even though the one he would replace was performing.
GTFO Debuchy.
Oh and he has said AFC was willing to not have a fee for him but he will not take too much of a wage cut and happy to collect a wage in a year players want to prove themselves to the national team.
That is not the mentality we need in the 1st team.
So agree
AllTheWayAfrica. You forgot one. We say how Arsenal are too concerned with a profit and book-keeping one moment, the next moment, we’re saying how Arsenal messed up by not getting the money and not getting a player at more a reasonable price.
We had too decisions to choose from, so it was a lose lose situation from the get-go, ..moving the goalposts comes to mind. We chose to gamble on Alexis helping us back into the CL, we will help the books if it works and it will also put us on a better footing when players are deciding which clubs to join.
Still talking about the transfer window!
It closed 13 days ago.
Move on Pat, please.
What a load of rubbish!!
Kept all out TOP talent. Sold deadwood.
Bought lacazette and kolosinac
Good business
COYG
Indeed! We even got 40 million for that useless Ox. Brilliant bit of business!
Every supporter would have wished for a better transfer window but to say it was that bad… That is BS.
If we was told at the start of the window that we would get Lacazette, Sead and Lemar while keeping Alexis and Ozil then we would have been creaming out pants in excitement, we are only 1 off from that in hindsight.
Instead we had Gazidis telling us we have a war chest and how Wenger went around the CEO to the owner for his new contract, we was hoping Silent Stan might actually get behind the transfers Wenger wants and do something to ease the public rage.
I honestly do believe Silent Stan told Gazidis to back Wenger better but it was just words, he done nothing himself to support Wenger.
I have slated Gazidis but I have to point out that Mbappe said AFC was a real option, how was that the case unless we had a record bid in for him? What if that had taken all the transfer funds and it wasn’t free’d up until PSG got him which was late.
Rumors are that we will go straight in for Lemar again with the same bid but we will not have to sell Alexis to get the funds, where has the funds come from then? Same fiscal year and same season… I can’t see how 6 months would allow for that type of spending unless we had some kept away incase of something which is no longer the case.
Or Wenger just said it to try and force the board into doing it fast in Jan? He doesn’t speak out directly but he is a politician at heart with the way he answers questions XD
All true. And we have to remember that until we get a benefactor if we are going to live within our means we only have approx £70 mil per season on transfer fees inclusive of any increase in the wage bill.
That’s why we won’t be able to replace Sanchez and Ozil and that’s why we should have sold them IMO.
True
iv a deep regard and admiration for this club – like many others its a part of me – whenever we do well or we come short, it gets beneath my human fibre, i cannot help but take it personal. so after years allowing myself to be strung along by the hierarchy the coin had dropped and i believe its a duty to stand up and declare it from the roof top if something is annoying, regressive or drastically wrong – the transfer approach adhered to by wenger et al, promises much and delivers very little.
I sense the executive body at arsenal lack candour and transfers prove they’re an embarrassment.
#fans deserve better.
meant… “and attitude to transfers prove they’re… etc ect
Lacazette and Kolasinac seem like they will be excellent signings. However, I feel we needed 3 more players to have a squad capable of mounting a serious title challenge- a quality centre back, holding midfielder and creative central midfielder. Would have taken Lemar as a replacement for Sanchez too but I’m not fussed about Sanchez staying. The club’s failure to address all of our key problems (like always), alongside between tactically naive, irresponsible, lacking guts and leadership may potentially lead to another underwhelming season.
In answer to the questions at the end of the article: perfectly, extremely, 2
This was Arsenal’s chance to make a statement to the world and win the fans back but, inevitably failed (specialists?) once again!!..
We started well but needed another player or two, depending on our young guns ability to step up. Currently we need at least a CB and a CM to partner Xhaka (AW paid for him so he has to play lol) so let’s Chambers/Holding can step up?
We have some promising midfielders (Jeff, Niles, Willock, Bielik, etc) so hopefully at least one of them will help fill the void left by Santi? Other than that, I’d w say we could do with another creative attacker, like a Lemar, Mahrez, etc, unless a Nelson, Iwobi, or somehow Jack, or another young gun can dazzle us?.
We have a decent team with a lot of potential BUT history dictates we needed at least another singing minimum
Saying it was wrong to put a record bid in without any guarantee that he would join first, this is just stupid. Sure unless you tap the player up, that is the only way you will find out whats what, by bidding. Saying Lacazette is all wrong because he’s not a complete striker, again this just sounds stupid. He’s more complete than most, and he’s actually very efficient with his head if his first league goal is anything to go by. Not all good headers of a ball have to be tall, and we have Giroud for that stuff anyhow. We know we cocked up in the transfer market, even AFC know it this time round as they’ve let D Law leave. There is or there will be some shuffling of the back room staff. Lemar we messed up for sure, if he’s good enough for a genuine AFC 90m bid, well then I feel we are gonna miss out on him I’m afraid. We finally loosened our grip on some of those time wasters further down the pecking order, it’s good that we are finally looking to make some inroads in that department. This dude is trying to say that everything we done in the window is bad, BS, we picked up two fine players and cut some ties, so fock you dude. We know we need and we don’t need a ragamuffin to tell us.
We had the whole summer to sign either Lemar or Mahrez. They both wanted to come. That hurts the most. It’s not like top players are lining up, begging to play for us
In fact, I’m sure Wenger said last year or year before something like this: If a quality player knocks on my door, I will of course open it.
Lemar had agreed a contract with us. Monaco were okay to sell to us. Mahrez openly said he would come to us.
Yes its embarrassing how other clubs can get the job done but we can’t
Also does anyone really think Gazidas will do a better job than Dick?
We need a Director of Football or somebody with experience getting top players.
Honestly, ever since Dein left.
Our transfer business were in total mess.
And on top of that, there were times where we Arsenal, were beaten by minor clubs. What an absolute disgrace.
The Director of Football post is a thorny issue between Wenger and Gadzidis. If all reports are true so long as we have Wenger we will not have a Director of Football.
As we know Wenger is not going anywhere and it is safe to say that Gadzidis does not have the knowledge or capability to deal with the transfers so it will be interesting to see what happens next. Dick Law was a pretty ineffective negotiator but we do need somebody to do the job.
It’s just acting… the trio been doing it for years.
Nothing unusual and they deserve Grammy’s by now .
Nothing changed, we didn’t make a bid for the entire window and the last ditch bid was just a disgraceful attempt to hoodwink fans that they had tired.
Everything about the declaration to sign players early were cleanly forgotten as Kroenke laughs his way to the bank with fans’ money.
What a profitable business Arsenal FC has been, no investment needed just lied the way through. Windows after windows, fans went from high expectation to total depression.
Some dispassionate analysis is required. While loving Arsenal, it is true to say that the owner and the manager have their agenda. What is undeniable is that Arsene feeds us the same platitudes each year and despite a promise that the club would be restructured during the summer, the status quo exists. WE DID NOT HAVE A GOOD TRANSFER WINDOW. The club is in grave danger of deteriorating over the next two years if the manager and owner continue in the same vein. There is rubbish spoken about the consequences of changing the manager. Why then do Real Madrid remain at the top of the pile, despite frequent managerial changes? The answer is that with some rare exceptions they bring in managers of proven quality and experience.
We need a manager for the present, one who has a proven track record, one who will be part of a management structure which has specific duties and responsibilities, perhaps a head coach a la continent.
NOTHING CHANGED please dont say it will be difficult to replace Ozil. Which Ozil, the guy who plays good again bottom 5 teams on the log. Yeah it might be difficult to replace Sanchez.
The writer of this column does not know what he is talking about. You bid 92m for a player and you regard that as embarrassment? Who chooses these columnist? This guy should not be allowed to write articled.
JambutArsene please dont compare Ozil to Pires, you are just one of the greatest players Arsenal has ever got. Pires was great, but to compare him with Ozil is really an insult