It is being reported today that we are one of a number of clubs that want to sign Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha, however, he will not come cheap.
Zaha is apparently valued at £75 Million, a fee that we would really struggle to raise and even if we could, is he really worth that sort of expenditure?
Zaha looks good at Palace because of the quality of player around him, he never looked that good during his short stint with Manchester United back in 2013-15 and while there are a variety of reasons for his disappointing spell at Old Trafford it does raise many questions.
So many players play brilliant with the lesser clubs but as soon as they get their dream move to a bigger club they simply are unable to up their game, it is one thing to play for Crystal Palace and a whole different matter when you don the Arsenal shirt.
If Zaha played for a bigger club then you would surely fill more at ease that he will be able to replicate his form with another big club but when a player takes a leap up a level it is a risky proposition.
Of course, top players flop as well, Juan Veron, Andriy Shevchenko and Radamel Falcao are just three names off the top of my head that fall into the ‘flop’ category and other players from lesser clubs have made the transition flawlessly. Our own Mattéo Guendouzi is a good example of that. Ok, he is not yet world class but you get my point.
But £75 Million is a huge amount of money and I would feel uncomfortable splashing that out on a single player that cannot be guaranteed, in my opinion, to perform to the same level with us as he does with Palace.
What is your opinion?
Forget it for £75 million. Stan would stroke out hearing that price. How about £40 million + 1£? He only spends big on Ranches not players.
Our entire transfer budget will probably be less than Zaha’s price tag. Expect Europa league back door to CL our new “top 4.” We need massive investment in short term ( over 2 yrs) not dragging it out over the next decade and hoping for the best.
Kronke waited 15 yrs for Rams to have 1 good year, I don’t think he’ll spend to help Arsenal over the next 2.
Well said Durand ? Kroenke didn’t even use a penny of his own money to purchase Arsenal, everything was bank loans the man is a miser.. he probably collects coupons to do the grocery shopping lol
I was just looking to post about Zaha. Would pay up to GBP45m for him might be able to offer chanbers + 45m? We dont have anyone bursting through from midfield like man C and other teams. Xhaka shoots occasionally from distance. Ozil runs sideways across the box.
How do you think he got his money because he NEVER spends it
Sorry, he’s not worth it. Had his chance at Man U and flopped. Man City paid £37m for Leroy Sane who is in a different league to Zaha and we paid £35m for Mustafi. Let’s face it, we have spent a lot of money on very average players in a very average team going nowhere fast. We are not even a good watch anymore.
The sad thing is we have an owner who hasn’t spent a penny of his own money on the club and has zero ambition to compete with the big boys and a manager who doesn’t seem to know his best team. I know he hasn’t been here long but surely long enough to at least sort out the defence which is an embarassment.
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Not a chance! Zaha is not worth 75 million! And we need to sort out our awful defence before we do anything else. A reported 45 million transfer budget isn’t gonna get us much so we need to shop in the bargain basement! 70 million last summer, 45 million this summer, what will it be next summer 20 million?? That’s the way it’s going! I’d happily give up champions League football for the next 2 years just to get rid of Kroenke, the man is a poison to Arsenal football club!
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Times have changed and so have people. Arsenal is no longer the icon of English football and unless we are able to follow the `deviils code` and buy our way to success I`m afraid that`s the way it will stay. This is not a sport anymore it`s a sickening transaction of money.
Zaha will not be worth the money, even if Kroenke doled out the money. He certainly wouldn’t win the penalties at Arsenal that he does at Palace.
I ask again what does the opposition have to do to Lacazette for him to be awarded a penalty; hit him over the head with the crossbar? Once again a blatant push in the back and and the referee waves play on. Also Wolves second goal was offside. Officiating in the EPL gets worse week by week.
However this doesn’t excuse Arsenal’s abysmal defence and passing and crossing in the final third. The majority of these players are not good enough or mentally tough enough to take this Club forward.
With Kroenke as owner the future looks dire.
Nothing surprises me with English referees Ozziegunner! There’s a reason not one of them even went to the world cup.. they’re performances week in week out are nothing short of abysmal! If some player brushes past Salah it’s a penalty! I’ve lost count how many times we should have been awarded a penalty this season and on that subject it seems we’re awarded a lot more yellow cards than the opposing team for similar or less serious offences! I’m not excusing our dire performances but facts are facts we simply don’t get fair treatment from referee’s in my opinion. I said the other day, these players, just don’t get what’s at stake and they simply do not care… It’s time the club got ruthless and get rid of the underperformers which is half of the squad.. no room for passengers in this game.
You can not blame that result on the ref ,I know that you don’t like a bad word said about emery ,but he’s got a lot wrong over this last 4weeks .
This constant tinkering has now come back to haunt us .
He picked the team you have called out for. Emery can’t play for them. They are just not good enough.
No pride, no commitment just a bunch of self centred mercenaries, who couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge the supporters who travelled 4 hours to Molyneux to watch that inept performance.
What about the previous matches ?
What about the odd substitutions at half time ?
What about the constant formation changing ?
We should be 9 points better off now.
To not know you’re best team and formation with 3 matches to go in the season is bad management.
Yes we have had injuries but what team doesn’t ,to go all of January saying we needed a winger to then bring in an unfit CM again is bad management,you can say that he didn’t have money but then why is he managing the team if he can’t gets what he wants .we all know he was bought in as the cheap option.and you get what you pay for .
Can’t say I disagree about him not knowing his best formation and team. I am starting to have serious doubts about this man. I was going to give him one season to get used to the lads and PL but one would expect an improvement over the course of the season.
Now, with a top 4 under our own control, we grab 3 of a possible 12 points in the PL in our last 4 games. That’s not an improvement but that’s going backward.
Who would you bring in to replace Emery? Do you think well credentialled coaches/managers will be lining up to apply, given the current squad, the potential transfer budget, Kroenke’s ownership and Arsenal’s self sustaining financial model?
Personally I’d like to see Arteta or Nigglesman or Julian Nagelsmann at the helm. Emery plays ugly football and is far too liable to switch to defensive tactics at ludicrous points in the game. I also don’t like hearing how he got the players in for a training session just 7 hours after landing back from Naples, that is just insane to me.
Spot on ozziegunner. Allegri turned us down, I wonder why??
Zaha scored against us, he’ll be thinking what a bunch of losers we are. Even if we break the bank for him. Why? We don’t have a midfield to pass the ball to him, he’ll end up doing a left back’s job more often than not. Until we properly replace Cazorla we are not getting a decent winger…
No point signing Zaha with the amount of tosh he would have playing with him. In any case why would he come to us, we are hardly a step up from Palace and he wants CL football which he won’t get with us.
Arsenal can still qualify for top 4 , if we can beat Leceister city in their yard. Manchester useless will still play empty Chelsea at home, that will be a draw or a win for Manchester Useless. Arsenal only to win the next three games or forget about top 4
We don’t have the budget for a player like Zaha.