There IS more but £20m is what Arsenal WILL spend in January

I must admit to being a wee bit miffed when I saw that Arsenal Football Club, with all the mega millions sitting in the bank, and after the likes of Stan Kroenke and Ivan Gazidis keep suggesting that they are ambitious and ready to back the manager in the transfer market. It seems that the Board, to give the fans the trophy success we want, will give Arsene Wenger a measly £20 million to spend in January.

So if the report in The Mirror is true, then we can forget about the likes of Marco Reus, Mats Hummels and any other big name players we have been linked with. Or can we?

Because there are also reports from Spain that Real Madrid are ready to sell Sami Khedira in January, before losing the German for nothing in the summer. With so little time left on his contract, Arsenal would not expect to pay more than £10 million for the 27-year old World Cup winner. And that is one of the major problems, defensive midfield, solved.

The other major transfer we need is a central defender and the remaining £10 million would be more than enough to get us either Ron Vlaar from Villa or Winston Reid from the Hammers. It might even be enough to persuade the Scottish champions Celtic to part with their talented young Dutch centre back Virgil van Dijk.

So when you look at it like that, maybe the figure of £20 million is not all that the club will allow Wenger to spend, it might be the amount earmarked for the two signings he has already planned to make. What do you think?

Tags Khedira Reid van dijk Vlaar

29 Comments

  1. Transfers should have been made in the summer! Simple. How can you get to November with half your defence out injured then start talking about who we should be buying in January to save our fourth place trophy.

    In my eyes the January window is there to make the odd reinforcement or make a purchase to cover a player that may be out long term injured. On that basis we need a lot of players and then some.

    The summer window allows you to buy early, settle the new players in then push on in the league. Since David Dein went this club hasn’t had the ability to do transfer deals properly. I honestly think you could deliver a world class player to the Arsenal board with all the paperwork and agreements on the fee and salary etc in place and tell them all they need to do is sign the contract and they’d somehow cock it up. (Ok a bit extreme I know for those out there that will think i’m being literal) but we are a laughing stock.

    We were told that building The Emirates would allow us to compete with the biggest and best in Europe. But we are nowhere near. I don’t just blame Wenger. He is failing as a manager because he can’t or won’t change, i’m not sure which. But that greedy American and the rest of the board don’t seem to care about the fans and success of the club. We pay some of the highest ticket prices in the world let alone the league. We have negotiated some huge sponsorship deals and I firmly believe the funds are there for players. So why don’t they come? I think it’s partly Arsene’s/The boards reluctance to spend, and I also believe players look at the club currently and think there is no real drive to be more than a fourth place club.

    We need a board that says to the manager, look, our fans pay huge ticket prices so we need to get in big game (not necessarily big name) players than can perform. We need to give these fans the trophies they richly deserve to see this team win. We need to put players on that pitch that want to PLAY for this club and FIGHT for this club. We need to get rid of the dead wood that clog up the injury room taking big salaries (Abou Diaby).

    So I say to all you AKB’s. To all you Arsenal fans that say oh it could be worse and we should stop moaning. Are you happy? Do you happily hand over thousands of pounds a year just for tickets, then more for travel etc? Do you honestly look at the likes of Man City and Chelsea and think oh good for them, they can win the league but who cares we got fourth? Do you leave a match thinking oh well we threw a lead away again but never mind there is always next week? Because if you do then Stan, the rest of the board and Mr Wenger will keep delighting you with their lack of direction, inability to sign and manage quality players and lack of fight.

    We have a magnificent stadium and on the whole magnificent and dedicated fans. So is it so bad that a growing number of us want a board, a manager and a team that can return something to us?

    1. It’s not just Arsenal that are dealing with injuries, every club and their fans are moaning about it. Fans want a world class CB and DM in Jan, but we need to realize only certain players are available and Wenger’s approach is if the right player is not available, he is not going to buy just for the sake of buying, which I can agree with. I would rather want quality over quantity, and in the past he was forced to buy cheap and ultimately not really get the best players…but now I feel I would rather buy one world class player at a time and bind them in for the long term, than buy 2 mediocre players and then moan about them a year down the line when they are not consistent enough and under performing.

      Considering our current contract situation with players, both Arteta and Flamini have a year to two years left, so the chances of Wenger bringing in another DM in Jan are slim. But then his logic should be to buy the best CB he can in Jan. We need at least 30m to do so, maybe more. Hopefully this rumour of 20m is just that, a rumour and Wenger will be given a much bigger kitty to play with.

      1. Can I just ask. How do Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd all seem to find world class players? Ahh that’ll be because they are prepared to accept that quality costs money. Everyone has a price and do you really think Wenger will spend £30million on a CB? As for a DM that now won’t happen as he’s given Arteta another years contract, and probably still banking on Diaby coming back for half an hour at some point. I really feel for Diaby, it must be hard as a pro to go through what he’s been through, but why do we keep paying him? If I turned round to my company and said oh i’ll be off sick for 2 years i’d be out the door.

        1. I’d also like to point out that more often than not we are ‘competing’ for signatures of players that the likes of Tottehnam and West Ham are chasing for example. Now does that not set alarm bells ringing?

        2. @ Darymt ……. And chelsea got MATIC when?…… In January! … We don’t believe getting anyone is possible in the winter window even with cash in hand…… Its a shame

          1. @SoOpa AeoN And they got Costa, Remy, Fabregas and so on when? In the summer! Come on! Read what I wrote. January is when you bolster with one maybe two if you really need them but you won’t get many targets until the summer.

            1. @ Darylmt……… I’m nt saying ur assessments are wrong(ofcuz i agree with u), onLy adding to that, by saying worthy business could still be done irrespective of d window (summer or winter) ….. But wenger isn’t a fan of ideas

            2. Yes, and this January we need 2 players. A CB and a CDM. No one is suggesting we sign 6 players in January. But we should insist on getting those 2 players and setting the goal any lower is unacceptable.

      2. Ah Big Gun mate, where were you in the summer when the transfer window was open? Did Arsenal not have the money to buy players or were the players not available? One CB we wanted was bought by AS Roma, I don’t know how good Kondogbia is but Im sure hes better that Flamini and our Captain put together.

        Big Gun its sad and pathetic that you have convinced yourself that we are doing alright because other teams have issues, we don’t care its their issues and Arsenal is our issue. How such a once good and pragmatic manager became such a looser and sadly he has turned us into LOOSERS AS WELL. ITS NOT ACCEPTABLE ANYMORE WENGER MUST LEAVE FINISH AND KLAAR

      1. @ quantic dream ………. Perhaps once in a while, wenger slips in a one pound commission into em bank accounts …L()L

  2. Got better thing to do than talk about Arsenal transfer at this time of november….even with 300millin Wenger won’t buy the needed players…Old age is over clouding his reasoning…the Old man needs a break n rest so he can enjoy all d money he made from Arsenal fc

  3. Agree with first post.
    Main signings should have been made during summer. For us to start the season with a light defense after selling Vermaelen and loaning Jenkison is the height of carelessness.

    January is always difficult to get top signings as clubs do not want to sell or loan midseason. Also, clubs are usually desperate to buy or loan so prices will be higher.

    As to £20 million. Well, that’s not enough to sign both a top defender AND DM (*not to mention a world class striker or forward). I think either Wenger will just sign a defender or sign a defender on the cheap/loan and another signing

    Wenger started transfers early and made excellent signings in Sanchez, Chambers, Debuchy and Ospina but went down hill. He didn’t sign top quality DM or more defenders. He didn’t sign a world class striker. And actually didn’t even sign Welbeck. He admitted this. He was in Rome on deadline day. Wenger said he wouldn’t have bought Welbeck but try to loan him if he were in London. Welbeck is good and happy he is with us, but he is no Costa, Aguero, Falcao or RVP…yet.

  4. If the Yankee hadn’t taken out £5 mil for supposed services rendered we could have had a whopping £25mil to spend in Jan.

  5. Wow, Vlaar and Reid. Talking about ambition.

    Another one is still living on the hype of World Cup and another one has been West Ham quality for years. Neither one will improve as a player further but I guess its the price tag that matters.

    1. You would rather have Monreal at CB? Big players rarely move in January because the prices are inflated and also the players don’t want to move unless they are unhappy. Both Vlaar and Reid would be big improvements on Monreal and probably even Mertesacker. Stop using everything you can to incite negativity because there is enough of that here already, some justified, some not.

  6. Wenger earns almost half of what he’ll be given in January (£20miL) …..forget the fact that most players may Leave for a fee (ads) in january, that’s all probability…..and who’s to say more deadwoods, fLops and panic-buys won’t be on the way to ArsenaL Fc on deadLine day???……. The board would tell us there’s enough to spend…. Who are they fooling?…..its obvious, their decadence is crystal clear ….But the bottomLine is…. “STINGYNESS HAVE BECOME OUR WATCHWORD” and this will cost us dearly

  7. Arsene will return 15m from that sum as he is very loyal to the owners.He may still bring worlclass striker and DFM in Nugent and Cattermole using just 5m.

  8. To be brutall honest, i see no posabillity of anything good happening as far as the team and our playing ability, re signings, in January.For the board, for Stan and the rest, YES, thats their Bag? I cant see 20 mil. going very far, with what we need, and even double that, you can bet Arsene will fxxk it up again. Thats for surre!!

  9. Arsenal spent well over £60m in the summer. According to Gazidis, a lot of the £200m cash reserves Arsenal have is already committed. Around £100m is uncommitted, and some of that is spent on day-to-day running of the club. Factor in that the £200m figure was released when season tickets had just been sold and the new Puma shirts had just been released, meaning the number was higher than usual. It’s a little questionable how much Arsenal really have left to spend. But even so, £20m still seems very low.

  10. how do the papers “know” how much our transfer fund for jan is do they have a reporter hiding the bin of gazidis office recording this info,
    wenger will be backed with whatever he needs, i totally believe them when the board and ceo state PUBLICLY (not made up behind close doors like the rags do) that they will back wenger with the funds needed(they are very good at balacing the books so they should have enough for him maybe sell one or two deadwoods to make extra £15million somewhere) they will.
    the figures are just made up by papers because unlike other clubs we still have a bit of decorum in how we do our transfers and not naming our budget is part of that, we just get who we need and thats it all done in secrecy that why alot of clubs dont mind doing business with us because its all done respectfully under the radar and nobody gets embarrassed if the transfer dont happen.
    we will turn the season around wenger will take the credit no doubt but one way or another we will come good in the new year we always do in previous season nov to jan always bad months for us have been for a few seasons now but it breaks and we come back stronger in jan onwards ready to get in to top 4 COYG

    1. i appreciate you concern for the club and what what individuals print on here that conflicts with the best intrest of our club, nothing personal but dont get me wrong or misrepresent me please on here,

      i would love nothing more than we get a forward thinking manager in at the end of season pep klopp etc or however can take us to the next level, i just realistically accept the present problem at the moment and just hope we can maneuver our way around it until end of season, i want nothing more than that we not just compete but run the league for years to come and am fully aware this may or may not happen under wenger as long as we win something big and take our place among the big 4 European clubs with a manager that wants to make a name for himself with us.

      And create a new dynasty for himself, peace and harmony to all fellow supporters of our awesome club AND ALSO EVEN MORE SO TO YOUR SELF QUANTIC DREAM WE WILL KEEP SUPPORTING OUR TEAM TOGETHER AS FELLOW GUNNERS THROUGH THICK AND THIN THROUGHOUT THE GOOD YEARS AND THE BAD COYG

  11. I think we need jan sales to buy players that we would get in the summer so we the fans will no who we have for next season. We have so much shit at arsenal that needs to go. There are players that a top 6 side would turn down. I think the yank needs to piss of and let a true arsenal fan own the club? Think we have one of them A. I can’t watch arsenal at the mo coz its heart breaking again & again. Do I think we need s new manager ? NO we need a world class number 2 that will take over arsenal in 2 years time when AW goes up stairs to his new office. A number 2 needs to say to AW this shit is wrong and not sit on the bench with his head in his hands. The other thing we pay the players so AW should have said to all the arsenal players you not playing for your countries yr staying here and getting things Wright. TW came in for what ten min? Shit man and he is going to let him play for a shit England side my o my

  12. honestly I will cry if we end up with Ron Vlaar.

    I wouldn’t mind Khedira but he’s not quite a pure DM, so I would like if Arsene added a type of player that suited Flamini’s current role aswell.

  13. In January usually only players like Kim Kallstrom are available :)) You should stop dreaming for a worldclass DM or CB. The change must come from inside our club and our players should find their form ASAP. I just want us to loan out players like Sanogo

  14. Campbell Rosicky podolski could leave in January that would raise at least 20m

    That could go towards getting pedro as there replacement freeing up space for theo,giroud,gnabry to be eased back into the team.what does pedro bring? Work rate , high class ability,goals, assist = upgrade

    As for the 20m we have to spend
    12m khedira
    8m cb?

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