It is pretty hard for Arsenal fans to be upbeat right now. A shocking start to the Premier League season has not got a lot better and the chance to add some real quality in the summer transfer window to help the Gunners fight for the Premier League title has come and gone.
It is still very early days though, and the form that Arsenal showed from the start of the calendar year right up until that game against West Ham does give us reason to feel quite confident that we can still have a good season. But we are still looking forward to the resumption of the domestic football action more in hope than expectation, mainly because of the disappointment in Arsene Wenger’s failure to sign a single outfield player.
So anything that cheers Arsenal fans up at the minute is very welcome, so we should all say a big thank you to the former Arsenal and England defender Martin Keown, as he has got stuck right into our rivals Manchester United and their increasingly erratic manager Louis van Gaal, in his Daily Mail article.
You thought Wenger made some odd decisions? Well check out what Keown thinks of the United boss and his bizarre treatment of some of the United players, not to mention that eyebrow raising panic buy of some unheard of and unproven French youngster for more money than we paid Barcelona to get Alexis Sanchez.
Keown wrote, “It was embarrassing. The signing of Anthony Martial is a huge gamble. He has been compared to Thierry Henry and if he is half as good then he will be a decent player.
“Van Gaal likes a pacey ball-carrier — he had Arjen Robben at Bayern Munich and tried and failed to make Angel di Maria that man at United — and Martial fits the bill. He might even be the answer to their striker dilemma but it is still a big risk to take on an uncapped youngster.
“Van Gaal also thought nothing of selling Di Maria and losing £16m just a year after signing him and the way Di Maria and Radamel Falcao both flopped discredits the Dutchman.
“The biggest issue for Van Gaal, though, is his man management. The David de Gea saga was farcical but if no offers had been made by Real Madrid until deadline day then he should have been playing.”
Keown goes on to question van Gaal’s treatment of Valdes, Shaw, Rojo, Januzaj, Rojo and others and suggesting that his man management skills clearly leaver a lot to be desired and could be why they lost the Pedro transfer to Chelsea. And he made it clear that Wenger is much better at this part of the job.
So should Arsenal fans appreciate what we have got and be glad that we don’t have a tyrannical nutter like van Gaal or Mourinho in charge?
It is still hard to believe they paid that, I reckon they could of got him for less maybe even allot less if they hadn’t of waited til last moment. I doubt Arsene would have paid 20m for him. Someone the other day mentioned how interesting it will be to see how our own French wonder kid will turn out compared to the most expensive ever French wonder kid, it will be something to look out for.
LVG done the same thing at Bayern, he went out and brought in many talented players but allot of them weren’t settling in well whilst working under him but then when the next manager took over it turned out that he had an excellent squad to work with.
I think you are onto something here. Just for the sake of comparison we may see Jeff being thrown in the fight at high level. He’s not experienced as Martial but at least he look to lack any inhibition any newcomer usually shows.
In fact yes, I think you totally nailed it. This will probably be a benchmark this season. Provided, of course, Jeff stays healthy and that Wenger will give him playing time.
I’ve had time to cool down and realized Wenger was right not to spend. We’re not in a position to gamble on players that won’t have a long term effect on the teams i.e : Cuadrado, Falcao, DiMaria, Torres, etc. Many people say “spend spend spend” but Chelsea are a prime example of why overpaying for a player that poses more risk than benefit isn’t the right transfer approach for our club. We’re not like them in the sense that we can’t afford to spend a 100m on players every season and buy more players for the same price when they fail smh. Many forget that Arsenal are rich but not Sheikh rich. And someone please tell me why they would be happy with Martinez when what we really need is a Suarez ??!?! A top striker is hard to find, but a top striker than can fit our system and is even more difficult. Before Suarez, Barca didn’t have a no.9 that could suit their style since Eto’o, likewise Bayern weren’t happy with Mandzucic and Gomez even though they were scoring for fun, they wanted a Lewandowski. Real haven’t let go of Benzema all this time even though his recent goal stats haven’t been to their standard (19goals), but why do you think they won’t let go of him ? It’s because they know that other than Aguero there’s no one else that would have the quality they search for, which is the same quality Wenger talks about.
People forget Wenger brought in Ox for only a few million off our transfer record at the time.
16mil was a huge fee for a youngster only proven in the lesser league.
Personally, I get the feeling Wenger has pretty high hopes for Akpom though.
Wenger wants Apkom to pull a Coquelin. When Giroud is either suspended or injured and Walcott pulls a hamstring, Apkom will be called back and start with a bang like our midfield general.
He should have destroyed Wenger also for not spending in the window….?
Only that he did spent 11 mils for Cech. I guess that’s all it was needed.
Wenger doesn’t actually negotiate for players any more. That’s Dick Law’s job. But don’t let that stop you from thinking Wenger’s to blame for the Suarez deal or whatever else “low valuation” that people blame on him.
hey dude most of the time I appreciate and like your comment, but these days you are getting as one of the delusional Arsenal fan. I have been saying many times that I love Wenger and his work for the club. But this time I have no words to express my frustration and disappointment regarding his transfer policy and team tactics. I do not think we will wing the Premier league while he is the manager. He is so stubborn and blind to see our weak side….and I’m so surprised that there are fans like you who just follow his confused and frustrated route!…wake up son!
I respect your opinion but as The Dude said it is just your opinion man. Why do you assume I am not frustrated with the fact we did not signed a better striker than Giroud? You don’t think I wanted Lewandowski at The Arsenal? The moment I have seen we were draw against Bayern I knew it is all over in trying to sign him. The same with Cavani when Ibra rested with an injury and Benzema was part of the formidable attack who ripped into Betis. I am sure Dick Law and maybe even Wenger still insisted for both but it was not meant to be. What was the alternative? Do a Martial? Buy Charlie Austin? He was there for everyone to pick him on a cheap. Go for Benteke and pay 32 mils? Seriously? Same as Alexis? Clubs started to realize that what they have is gold and in the long run the clubs benefits by keeping them should they afford it. I see this window as a succesful one since we did not parted with absolutley anyone form the regulars first squad. My optimism rely on this fact alone. Of course, I may be put to the ground if they don’t perform but there’s no reason to cry just yet. Chin up, look forward. Football resumes in 8 days. Let’s enjoy the games tonight.
And on what basis are you best suited to know that Wenger is stubborn if not for the pundits that told you so? On what basis are you suited to know the tactics that Arsenal should be using? Can you first tell us your successes as a coach, then we may start to believe you. In the information age everyone has an opinion but not every opinion makes sense.
I wished to hear Arsenal legends destroy Arsenal and Wenger for not spending and for laying about Welbeck’s injury.
Fortunately they understand exactly how things are. Arsenal was in the market, Wenger said it himself that if he can buy someone who can up the quality and not just the numbers then he will buy. We all agree on that. What you don’t understand is that for Arsenal to announce Welbeck is injured in the last two days would have made all prices to skyrocket when we were negotiating or simply inquiring for any player. It is simple but you lot refuse to take a step back and think logically. I can’t help but just come and say over and over again: it is really bad to spend just to spend in the hope you may hit gold. It looks already that we have struck gold with Jeff. May the gods keep him healthy.
LvG as Keown says seems to be a poor man manager and I suspect the issues run deep in the old Trafford dressing room. He seems to be very binary, your best mate, or your nothing and treated like something stuck to his shoe. Doesn’t bode well for Utd, but then I think Maureen is losing his composure also and Brenda always looks to be one bad result from turning into a phsyco!
And what about Wenger?
What about Wenger?
I got the answer, according to @gooner100 if
LVG: Poor Manager
Mourinho: losing his composure
Brandon: psycho
Wenger is arrogant and delusional
And you figured out the last one by elimination I assume.
Hey Budd, how is the therapy going??? Are you taking your meds?? Make sure you take them, the doctor said three times a day after meals…
You can do it, we believe in you
Then I must revise the schedule because usually I have one meal a day. Thanks for the tip though.
I think you’ll need the illegal stuff to deal with some of these clowns, balance it out with a few uppers and they may not sound so depressing.
hahahahahah, your comment make my day……
really really but really a bad thing to say man.
have u ever met someone with cáncer?
This is exactly why I visited this thread! To debate who the worst AKB is…….
Pfft! actually discuss the current team?? no way!! because everybody knows we can’t win the league with Flamini as our third choice DM! Wenger out!
“failure to sign a single outfield player” annoys me…
Haha people are throwing it out there as if it’s a common expression!!
It’s ridiculous! We brought in a World-class, proven GK from the previous seasons winners and a huge rival of ours which is one of the best moves of the window! The whole ‘outfield player’ is just a way to ignore this.
I don’t know what is worse – your decision to comment on an article with a completely unrelated inflammatory comment or the fact you can’t accept another person’s opinion to the point you feel the need to constantly insult them without provocation.
United spent mainly wisely in my opinion
1. Schweinseigter
2. Schneiderlin
3. Depay
4. Darmian
I think he should have purchased another Top striker but overall he has strengthened his squad.
Martial was very expensive but if he turns into the next Henry, it will be us who will suffer lol
United have strengthened enough to take third place in my opinion or at least fight for it.
That is what? Like 70-80 mils, right? Who’s world class from these 4? None. And don’t forget the wages they have to pay just to attract these people there. Schweini is a 200k/ week, Schneiderlin is 140, Depay the same and Darmian a close 100k if it is to believe what the media is saying.
It is not spent wisely, they bought what was available. As for Martial, it remain to be seen. I believe LvG will give him lots of play time to justify his price. But do you know how many players were seen as the second Henry?
you were wrong they spent well this season, according to media’s their net spending is around 40mil and as for their wage don’t forget they have sold players that earn a lot of salary like Falcao, RVP, Di Maria and others as well which means they have gain a lot of money from the players they sold. As for world class Basti is world class and someone with great experience, even Ozil said how Man Utd is going to benefit from Schewanstiger.At least they have tried to strengthen their gap this season.
How the hell did they spend well? That plus last summers spend should be a title winning team by now. They are a million miles off that. Instead their marquee signing of last season was sold at a loss and they have bought a mixture of good to average players with no real stand out players.
Buddy keep up with the conversation we are taking about 2015 transfer season not 2014.
Learn how to read
hahahaha he didnt read actually
And he graciously explained (and if you took the time to read it you would have understand) that if you count how much LvG spent since his arrival then he would not have absolutely no excuse to lose a single game.
If Arsenal did what Manure did then you and the tabloids would have had a field day with the board, Wenger, AKBs, JKBs and what not. But then again, this is understandable. Nothing, but absolutely nothing, sells better than Arsenal in the tabloids. Well, maybe sex is a close one.
Never mind doing what Man Utd did, the fans, every sport media and tabloids are having a field day with the board and Wenger right now as it is.
yeah all those people that have never managed – you should be proud you decide to take their opinion over the guy that announced his team wouldnt lose a single game in a season and then actually went on to do that.
It doesn’t matter if none of them are World class. You don’t need WC in every single position.
Schweinseiger and Schneiderlin are damn good players and get the job done
I would have bought them both. I have said that. But I would not have paid the ridiculous wage their agents wanted. Besides, shows they were in to milk United. Better them than Arsenal. So far they don’t show being worthy of these wages.
Go and Google it for God sake
Schewanstiger: 200k
Darmian: 80k
Repay: 90k
Scheniderlin: 100k
I don’t think their wage is exaggerated that much. we are paying 140k for Walcott and Giroud 130k.
I can say the same thing you said,what did Walcott and Giroud show to be worthy of that wage?
I don’t doubt any number quoted. Even yours. In the end it is only the player and the agents knowing exactly therefore I am ready to accept your numbers. It makes little difference though.
How is 100k/ week wage low ? I usually work in euros so if you please to excuse my confusion. But how do you know exactly what salaries the players have. And that includes Giroud and Walcott. Because club does not publishes these numbers. Even salaries in the annual balance are shown as a total and often including the all employees. Players are not allowed to disclose the number (just as any employee). I take you work at the Emirates in which case, you have my apologies.
expect Schewanstiger you are wrong about the other players wages.
the difference is man united is a football club while arsenal is just a bussiness club for wenger, kroenke and some of thier as s licker fans. man united had done everything they can to achieve their goals and to make their customers happy while arsene cares more about saving the money for kroenke and himself and akbs have forgot football as well to become economists as him.
The parallels in my view of Utd as was and now are clear. ‘Yesterday’ under Fergie, Utd had a long term vision, tried to develop their youth and to build a sustainable world class football club. Like AFC continue to do.
Today Utd, Chelsea etc just buy for the moment, have far less interest in developing youth and every manager comes and goes with one objective – I need to win, fcuk the long term, I won’t be here!
If you think any of these players would make it into our first team then you might have to re-evaluate your standards. Schweini is past it and not worth the wages, Schneirderlin is a B2B and wouldn’t be first choice over Ramsey or Cazorla. Depay is a poor man’s Walcott and Bellerin is miles ahead of Darmian.
I just don’t get the fuss is all about Man Utd signing Martial, they are spending the clubs money after all. And this is not the first time Man Utd pay huge money for unproven talents.
Ronaldo was 18 years old he sign for Man Utd, he only scored 3 goals with Sporting and Man Utd paid 13 mil pound that’s in 2003,no body even know who Rinaldo was at that time.
Ronney was 18 years old and Man Utd payed 25 mil pound in 2004.
Henry only 3 goals for Juventus when Arsenal bought him, Arsenal paid 11 mil in 1999.
If club paid that much money for potential talents during that time I don’t see what the big deal is if Man Utd paid what did.
From what I hear the kid got potential, Wenger said it, Henry also said the same thing, if he soak up all the pressure and fulfill his potential he might be good investment.From what I read Monaco chiefs were saying Man Utd were scouting him for a long time and teams like PSG, Chelsea,Man City and Barcelona were all in for him.
To be honest even though the price is huge I admire Man Utd for taking the risk and sign the kid.
One thing I wish Arsenal legends to do is to write something that shows the anger of the fans about lack of spending and about lying (not revealing) to the fans about Welbeck’s injury.
Henry was playing for Juventus though #theDifference. And I think the fact Wenger wasn’t interested in Martial kinda suggests that he isn’t the next Henry even though he has talent.
I remember when Henry played in WC for France previous to when we signed him. A Liverpool friend of mine said to me did you see Thierry Henry playing for France, I said who, then no I never heard of him. He said ya want to check him out, the kid is lightning quick and just blows past players for fun ..he looks deadly. Then when we signed him my mate was absolutely gutted as he took a keen interest in him and France National.
So Henry was already in high regard before even Juventus signed him, not really a huge gamble.
11 mil 10 mil…
Rooney was a bit known and at Everton IN EPL…didnt have to adapt.
How much was for Martial..?
you cant compare that
Wenger was wise this window. The quality of player available was generally poor and he avoided panic buys which would only have caused him problems in the near future.
Lets face it, just because someone is better than a player we have doesn’t mean we should sign him because just being better doesn’t mean he is top quality.
Top marks to Wenger on a window well worked.
Ok Afc92, you better add my name to your list of ‘deluded’ AKBs because I am one too!
Budd speaks a lot of sense on this board and his post above is succinct and to the point.
What is the point of spending money for spending sake and getting ripped off in the process?
I expect the 92 part of your alias refers to either when you started supporting Arsenal or when you were born and believe me if you had lived through some of the dross of the late 70s and early /mid 80s when we were a mid table team you may have a different view. Mind you even though we complained amongst ourselves we still looked forward to going every game and always cheered our team on. I agree that not all is rosy in our club but calling the board and Wenger thieves and liars is tantamount to heresy and treason as far as I am concerned! Call me deluded all you like, its water off a ducks back mate!!
Budd and NY are the best posters on here. There are a couple of great AOB’s too that make intelligent points and the rest of the posters name the same players every window and then blame Wenger for not signing them even though Wenger never actually officially ever showed any interest in them……………………
According to most of the posters, the man that signed Ozil, Sanchez and Cech is an idiot. That is a twisted logic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not idiot, but naive and arrogant.
Everybody knows that arsenal players are injury prone.
Besides, thinking that the current squad, which finished 12 points under chelsea, can win the league is simple stupid. With that logic, neither barcelona or Bayern, would make sign a player….
There was no inherent flaw in the team that finished last season well. A quality player in everyone position, the ability to defend and attack well, pace plus power across the front and creativity on another level in EPL terms coming out of the midfield.
The problem with the 12 points was the start plus consistency. Those don’t necessarily need new players (and he bought Paulista in Jan anyway to complete his team). He should be fixing those on the training pitch.
Our weakest position after Coquelin came into the first team was GK and he filled that probably the best way anyone could have. So i don’t agree that you need to buy to bridge 12 points.
what happen with the “cohesion, consistency and team work”, when is broken by injuries??
what happen with the poor tactical approaches?? (which one is very often)
Paulista, yes, good player, but we wait until january, when we need him 6 months before.
Right now, our weakest position is a CF, do not try to hide that, i’m not the only one who see that…. or you think that henry and other great players are fools?
Then deal with the injury. I don’t see how adding players that will be displaced when injury clears up helps cohesion.
There was no top quality CF for Wenger to buy. That really is it. Henry and co can harp on about this all day but Wenger had no one of the desired quality so did not buy.
so, you prefer replace an injured player with an average player instead of quality player…. how many games we lost for that?? or how many games we lost for the injuries??
“There was no top quality CF for Wenger to buy”, hahahaha, yeah sure, there are many of good CF that can make a better job than ours current forwards.
I think you need a reality check. Chelsea can’t replace Costa with an equal player, same for Hazard, City can’t replace Aguero even after spending all that money etc etc. Not all players are replaceable by players of the same quality.
I don’t care for strikers that are just better than Giroud. Walcott might end up being better than Giroud, Wellbeck might too. Who cares? We are talking about top quality ones. Ones that are exceptional talents. Tell me which top class strikers moved this summer that Wenger could have bought? He has kind of been hung out to dry here because no one in England bought a top class striker and at least 3 of the top 6 needed one.
Charly Champagne is a very cerebral AOB. It is always nice to argue with such people who actually throw in real words and not war cries. Thumbs up!
maybe be is a undercover AKB, LOL
I come on here to discuss Arsenal but by proxy that often means commenting on other teams and the comparison. While Fergie was manager of Utd I respected them, even if I did not like them. They were willing to pile money into the club, but they respected their players and would give them fair oppurtunity before they were moved on or laid out to pasture. Van Gaal, however, has changed my opinion somewhat.
Since his take over we have seen a huge number of Man Utd players become unhappy. We have seen ex-man utd players involved in the club become increasingly upset over players being unused/sold/mistreated. Off the pitch we’ve seen over £250m of investment with little to no regard for adhering to concepts of FFP or sustainability of the club. We’ve seen signings that will directly replace high performing players who are then shipped off to parts unknown with little regard to team cohesion, stability or happiness.
To put it bluntly, Van Gaal is managing like you might expect from a FIFA player. He is not regarding his players as people but merely as tools to achieve a goal. He is not concerned by the welfare of the club, the players or to a secondary degree, the state of football in England. He has been widely lauded as “giving youth a chance” but you saw last year how quick he was to drop young players if they did not instantly perform, and he was rather forced to use some of them through injury. He has in fact, sold off some of Man Utd’s best young players, loaned out their brightest spark and continues to buy players at inflated prices.
To consider he has sold Welbeck and loaned Januzaj, unceremoniously removed Van Persie and Hernandez (two fan favourites) and alienated their star player in De Gea you have to say he has totally ruined everything good about United. Now they are much like Chelsea – a team of mercenaries with no heart or intent to put back into the footballing community but purely driven by results. The only problem is the complete absence of stability means that the players aren’t gelling, constantly fear for their position and the team are still not playing great football. Unlike their partners City, they are not reinvesting money into grass roots football or improved facilities but purely funneling it into the talent of other teams, with little regard for how it’ll effect their own.
I will end just by pointing out that Van Gaal achieved 4th last year after spending an absolute wealth of money. This was not a comfortable 4th, but the kind of scraped 4th we had when we were at our lowest. He progressed hardly at all in ANY cup competition and within a year saw the loss of £6m on a loan deal for Falcao and a further £16m on Di Maria. £22m loss of value for the club in a single year is a huge failing, made worse by the devaluation of other players to boot. Van Persie left for a shocking £3.84m and saw his price drop £22m in 3 seasons, just 2 seasons after shooting man utd to the PL title. Hernandez left for less then £1m. As a business model you are seeing United lose HUGE sums in a very short time.
When you combine his poor on field performance, poor dressing room etiquette, lack of trust in young players and abysmal financial model it is quite possible LVG will have to be removed from his post at the end of the season with anything short of the PL title because of how costly he is becoming to the club. In many sense he is actually in a worse situation then Wenger.
Two wrongs can never make a right..funny how such articles are meant to prove to us how mr.Bean by choosing not to spend is a genius. The obvious truth is that we already have enough rot and garbage at the club to clean rather than poking our noses at other pple’s messes. I wld rather our legends smoke fire in the right direction!!!
@Budd you are the one who brought the salary of players in the above argument by mentioning Man Utd players salary and now you are saying clubs do not disclosing players salary.
Read what I have wrote : what media is saying. I have no clue whether these numbers are right or wrong. They can serve as best as guidelines to which anyone (including me and you) can add or subtract.
@Budd I get ur point with a lot. Of sense am not cut out with all the akb and aob thing truth be told sometimes wenger makes it look like signing a player is not a big deal it is a big deal and we must not always wait for cavanis n benzema there are other player not really that average that can give u result especially when you know u need them for me wenger has a care free attitude my opinion
There is always a next tyme for arsenal i.e next season,next game etc. Even after the westham game we were told to focus on the nxt game and forget the last one. After we fail this season there is always a nxt season…we are perennial loosers and the back stops with Mr. Bean!!!