I know it’s a fact that these ex-Arsenal players now earn their money giving a never-ending stream of opinions on TV, but yet again I am surprised that two pundits like Thierry Henry and Ray Parlour have joined in with the criticism of Wenger for not buying any big name striker this summer. Surely they should know after all these years how Arsene Wenger’s mind works?
Henry believes Wenger has got it wrong that the Gunners can win the League with this present squad. He said: “Right now, they are already five points behind Manchester City, have still not won at home and won two of their games by an own goal – which is actually their best goalscorer at the moment.
“It does not look like they are going to win the league like this.
“But I think Arsene believes he can win the league with that team and that the team is good enough and that is his decision.
“I think he should have tried to bring players in and I think he did try but it could not happen.
“I still think the team needed some players.”
Thierry, you are doing your training badge at the Emirates. You should know more than anyone that Wenger won’t pay over the odds for anyone when he has so many youngsters coming through? YOU are helping to train them!
But Ray Parlour goes even further and thinks that Wenger could find himself in trouble if things don’t work out the way Le Prof hopes it will, and he doesn’t think he was ever interested in buying Benzema either: “It’ll be interesting to see what happens now because he’ll be under pressure Arsene Wenger,” he said.
“If they start losing a few games, they’ll be looking back. It [the transfer window] started really well with Cech; I thought that was a great signing. Everyone was waiting for a big outfield player, they had Ozil two seasons ago, Sanchez last summer and it just didn’t happen.”
“The fans are saying now, where’s the money going, we want to spend that money,”
“Benzema was mentioned but I don’t think he was ever available; Real Madrid had to keep him. With Bale and Ronaldo up front they’re going for the Champions League and La Liga. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.”
Well, I guess at least we can be assured that if Thierry Henry ever becomes Arsene Wenger’s successor, then he won’t be afraid to go and spend the club’s money. Or will he?
professor of economics, good at making money for the owners
not much good at winning the trophies that matters
Thats some tame-arsed “Wenger bashing”. 4 weeks ago the “experts” had Chelsea nailed on as 2016 Champions. 2 weeks ago the “experts” were telling us how Pool and United looked like they had solved their defensive problems. Monk is now the new Messiah, Shelvey is now a Pirlo/Gattuso hybrid and Gomis the new Romario.
Lets wait a few weeks eh and see how the knees are jerking a bit further down the line.
Haha well said. None of this Wenger bashing makes sense anyway if there was genuinely no one decent available in the window. Just look at who we have bought recently – the caliber of names – Ozil, Sanchez, Cech – all world class and top of their game. I honestly don’t believe Wenger wanted to settle for some mediocre player this window just for the sake of signing someone. Sure, he could have gone out and signed a player like Austin at an inflated price, but that would be a massive gamble and if the player did not turn out as hoped, those fans wanting Wenger to sign anyone in the window, would be the same ones slating Wenger for buying him in the first place. I would rather Wenger wait for the right window to sign a TOP player, like he did with Ozil and Sanchez, than waste money on a player who is not the answer and then sit with a 3-4 year contract whilst taking up a squad spot.
Lolest!!!
I truly believe that he (Arsen) thinks he has the team that can win the EPL
there is a slight chance we could if no major injuries for us and some key injuries for our rivals it might just turn the tide in our favour
BUT if he (Arsen) thinks he can win in Europe then his dreaming, if he had bought two or three quality players ST plus DM third being CD then OH YES we could of been a force to recon with but………instead we make a lot of interest in the Bank
They are both right.
However it is wenger and the greed of the board. They made this deal with wenger and wenger promised to spend less and try relive the wonder years when he bought cheap and sold for fortune while being able to win. That is dated. Everyone has caught up on that . There is now too much money spent in football for that to work in a high success rate. Get with you have to spend some money to compete
Agreed legends!
Both thierry henry and ray palour are spot on and make perfect logical sense!
The war is ON!
The war ..lol. Your three dozen cronies and their five different pseudonyms are hardly an army.
like jonestown1 says pundits.. and yes henry too, have not even 4% plan about the things they talk… i mean i really think that they only can play football but aren’t really that intelligent… look 83% of ALL pundits predicted that chelsea would be the team to beat and that they are the only complete team in england and that they are perfect… 4 games in the whole opinion has changes, their predictions are almost never right, you guys say that they predicted every year that arsenal wouldn’t be champions yes that was true, but thats like the medias transfer rumors obviously one of the tons of rumors has to be right.. chance and probability works like that, they always predicted this would be the year that arsenal wouldn’t be in the top 4… THAT never happened
AND before soopa and the other knee jerker (thanks for the word @jt1 😀 ) label me as a top 4 mentality idiot… in those years top 4 WAS a success and it was an overachievement by our prof
but yeah i’m also of the opinion that arsenal isn’t top 4 quality anymore, if you are unhappy that arsenal is top 4 then you guys think that arsenal has the quality to be champions no? then you DO have believe in the team aint i right? if not why were you guys sad/disappointed that we weren’t champions the years before?
I mean if you guys think that we dont have the quality to be the champions then this year you can say that we could have had the quality if we had spend… yeah thats for this year but then why were you unhappy about the last decade? if you think that we don’t have the quality for even top 4 then our manager massively overachieved no? 😉
You can’t have it both ways ^^
@krish………u don’t need to tag my sobriquet in order to make a point…….. Now swerve!
What confuses me about this whole transfer debacle is this fixation on world class talent from the AKB’s and Wenger. As if to say, only world class talent can improve us, so all other players shouldn’t even be considered. For example, we keep hearing a lot about Benzema and Cavani, and for whatever reason we didn’t get them, but why other strikers were not signed or even considered. Is Wenger and his flock honestly saying that that there is no other striker on planet Earth better than Giroud, apart from world class? Absolute rubbish! Not only is there plenty of talent out there, but also strikers that are more mobile and more suited to our style of play. It’s no coincidence that we haven’t seen the best of Ozil whilst Giroud has been our main striker.
Now even if I agreed that it was a very tough market this summer for finding available world class strikers, and there is nothing out there better than Giroud, then why not at least by a quality back-up striker because of our lack of depth. Wenger knew Welbeck was out long term before the window closed, Walcott has hardly any experience as a striker, and Giroud is our only out-and-out striker, and he’s not even world class. Sanchez also cannot be considered because he’s too important on LW to move, and who would even replace him in the LW position?
I honestly find it ridiculous for some fans to suggest it’s been a fantastic transfer window for us. AKB’s and Wenger keep going on about price tags of other club’s signings, but in reality, the fees paid do not matter. Man Utd and City are being criticised for paying over the top, but no one can make a judgement as of now because their new signings have barely played or have not even played yet. What if they do really well and score lots of goals, are AKB’s and Wenger going to carry on with the blind criticism? We now have the cash to compete, and the fact is, all other clubs have strengthened their squads.
Criticising other clubs is clearly a tactic from Wenger and the AKB’s to deflect attention away from our abysmal transfer window. Man up, and just accept that Wenger got it badly, badly wrong.
One last point – people kept talking about Wenger going for a world class striker this summer. but why did he not try and sign one last summer and the summer before that? He’s had the funds since the end of the 12/13 season. Let me guess, there was no one available and better on the market than Giroud for three seasons? Hahaha!!!!!!
Would you have been happy if we had signed martial for 10 mio pounds? i am pretty sure that the most people on this site would have bashed wenger if that was the only “outfield signing” but he would have been the backup striker you mention… would you then have waited with your judgement on the buy? i don’t think so..
I’ve never heard of martial till he was bought for 36 mil i think, the price is the only reason the sob think that thats a sign of ambition if van gaal had done a good business and bought him for 10 mil nobody would have congratulated him…
Very true, whenever a naysayer makes themselves out to be reasonable you know the shoe never fits the other foot.
it isn’t giroud which is the issue. it is welbeck. wenger needs to lose this guy and but lacazette. welbeck came in and added absolutely nothing but speed. Walcott and sanchez might have failed there but showed something and with a shuffle they can work like in the fa cup final. welbeck adds a bit of pace and closing down. poor first touch, poor running in behind, poor hold up play and poor finishing.
Roy Hodgson is worried Danny Welbeck will not be ready for Euro 2016 and that England might have to plan without him after revealing the striker’s knee injury could be considerably worse than Arsenal have stated publicly.
Hodgson’s information is that Welbeck will be out for another six months, as opposed to Arsenal’s view that it will be a three-month absence, and the England manager said he has had to make contingency plans in case the former Manchester United player is not ready.
Id say with about two to three months of football left in season we will be hearing how Danny just needs some competitive edge before he comes back.
if I was hodgson I would be more worried about sturridge. far better player and worse injury problem.
and when he foolishly miss out on class talent and top target………in the near future, he will be like “I NEARLY SIGNED MESSI BEFORE HE MOVED TO BARCA” ………”Nearly” can’t kill a bird
UK market require a permit for every player not within EU. This is why clubs like Barcelona and Real (not to mention other La Liga clubs and Portugal) will have the first option when they sign players. It is not only related to Arsenal, all English clubs have the same problem. You can try to gamble but there’s no guarantee they will play for the national squad so that the permit gets granted regardless.
I think there’s s bit of making wood out of a fallen tree. It’s easy and it’s hip. No hard feelings.
We are all disappointed at not having an outfield player but if we count I terms of world class….oil then Alexis so now it was cech.
On a brighter side this is actually the team that finished fine and with a trophy plus one WC goalie…and this is the team that had a super be pretty season and beat Mou to win a trophy.
Glass half ull and half empty
*Superbe pre season
Seems like the wenger supporters are out!
Does Wenger really have supporters? I mean, I admire and respect the man but I believe he and SAF were the last ones doing a 20 yrs in charge at one club. Today dynamics changed quite a lot, you need to keep moving otherwise you get mowed.
What Parlour and Henry said is correct, but note, they didn’t really “bash Wenger”. They actually chose their words carefully.
Henry:
“I think he should have tried to bring players in and I think he did try but it could not happen.
“I still think the team needed some players.”
That is not “Wenger chose not to sign players”, that is “Wenger could not sign the players he wanted to sign”. That is not “Wenger needed some players” but rather “the team needed players”. Henry is quite clearly saying that Wenger made attempts to sign top quality, it fell through, and for whatever reason was not able to add other quality. This aligns with all the facts we do know but acknowledges that in Henry’s opinion Arsenal can not win the PL. He did not call Wenger a fool or arrogant, but rather, accepted the situation for what it was while making an objective statement that Arsenal need more players to increase their chance beyond a longshot to win the PL.
Parlour:
“It’ll be interesting to see what happens now because he’ll be under pressure Arsene Wenger”
“The fans are saying now, where’s the money going, we want to spend that money,”
Note he says Wenger will be under pressure – not that Wenger has made a mistake, is arrogant etc. He invokes the reaction of the FANS and makes it appear the fans are the angry ones – the fans are the ones looking to Wenger and putting pressure on him. Which is all true. Parlour is acknowledging the sentiment that many people have said on here – it is not that Wenger has done something so horribly terrible in the transfer market he deserves to be sacked but that the fans perceive his actions to have stopped the team moving forward. IF the club does bad or does not do as well as the fans expect after this inaction, the fans will put excruciating pressure on Wenger. All of this is VERY true.
Look – to all WOBs and AKBs out there, there are two truths from this window you either accept on face value or you chose to believe differently about.
1. Wenger attempted to sign quality players and this meant the best secondary options sold before he turned his attention to them and many other options were simply unavailable
2. Wenger chose not to sign any players for the team because he did not believe the money would be well spent on lower talent
There are STILL many reasons to be disappointed, many reasons why Wenger could be right and many reasons why this may ruin our season. Ultimately we have a good team and we should support them. Putting undue pressure on our manager at this time helps nobody. Let the team perform. IF they do not, the blame is on the manager, then you can remove him in the summer through said pressure so we can begin next season anew. Until then though the hate needs to stop and the AKBs need to accept that while Wenger might be in the right, there are so many circumstances now that cause venom towards him, it may be time he moves on if he fails to deliver.
Wellbeck 16 mill panic buy.
failed first season
Injured the next.
10 mill wages down the drain.
Wenger the master of the transfer market 🙂
The core 14 of our team are
Cech Ospina Bell Mertz Koz Gabriel Monreal
Coq Santi Ozil Sanchez Ox Ramsey Giroud.
The 10 second stringers Walcott Wilshere Gibbs Debuchy
Chambers Arteta Rosicky Flamini Campbell +Adelaide
are decent although some are injury prone, inconsistent
over the hill or unproven.
Fingers crossed 🙂
you are right about welbz.
you need squad players even though they might never play. would have liked flamini gone though.
Adelaide what a find. he hasn’t broke into the 1st team but maybe he should. only thing I wonder is was real, barca, Bayern sleeping to let such a talent get by them.
Wenger is always worried about the price for top quality players.
Look at him he is taking 8 Million a year as a manager.He should be concerned about it, I think for a manager who does not win major trophy is rediculous to get paid such an enormous amount of money.
He should be ashamed about it ,well the board I’d happy, the money stay in the kitty for a better dividen.
Jan come will be the same excuse,if I find a top quality player then I will put down 25 million,in the hope the club will sell before midnight.
Arsen wake up for God sake , and reinforce the team.
At the moment there is no hope. For anything.
If the board agrees to pay 8 mils for his salary (which in fact is only 6, the other two are sponsorship and other deals) then I don’t see why this is a problem. AFC is not a financial bottomless pit like City or Chelsea, they need to produce this money. If Wenger does it then I can see why he can be paid with 8 mils.
This arsenal legends/pundits need to watch what they say. I dont think they know how damaging their statements can be, because indirect statement can be easily twisted in modern media
Supply and Demand. If there is a shortage of supply the price goes up. Top quality costs extra, if the board was really intetested in winning and pleasing the fans they would have paid 50 million to 100 million for Benzema or Cavani. Giroud is a top striker but we need one more top striker. If we have the funds, why not just pay, its a once off investment that lasts for a few years until the youngsters are ready, and there is endless return on investment through increasing the fan base. Pleased fans bring in more fans. That’s how it works.
I think we have a good squad to compete but the problem is how to manage the squad to maximize it’s potentials, that depends solely on the manager. If you ask me “How can we utilize this squad to make sure in other to obtain maximum results?” My opinion if I were the manager.
1. Play players according to their best positions
2. Adjust tactics based on the opponents you are facing
3.Have a plan B when things are not going well
4.Make early substitutions
5.Play players that are in form at that moment, this includes dropping Ozil for Rosicky or dropping Ozil and moving Cazorla in CAM(be ruthless)
5. Avoid favoritism
Now that is my humble opinion
By the way, I think the number of AKBs on this site has increased overtime, is Budd recruiting them cus it seems he is their chairman. No offense Budd!
agreed. but Ozil has been one of the best players and is showing good form. drop ramsey for Walcott or ox. you could rotate in wilshere when fit.
I think we have a good squad to compete but the problem is how to manage the squad to maximize it’s potentials, that depends solely on the manager. If you ask me “How can we utilize this squad in order to obtain maximum results?” My opinion if I were the manager.
1. Play players according to their best positions
2. Adjust tactics based on the opponents you are facing
3.Have a plan B when things are not going well
4.Make early substitutions
5.Play players that are in form at that moment, this includes dropping Ozil for Rosicky or dropping Ozil and moving Cazorla in CAM(be ruthless)
5. Avoid favoritism
Now that is my humble opinion
By the way, I think the number of AKBs on this site has increased overtime, is Budd recruiting them cus it seems he is their chairman. No offense Budd!
It is obvious that in the today football spending guarantees not just trophies but MAJOR ONES.If anyone thinks or hopes that UEFA will come to our rescue is wrong.i wld predict that chelsea,manure and city are going to escalate their spendings to a new high domestically while the giants of europe in the likes of barca and madrid are gonna go mad. The big question then comes, ARE WE GOING TO ADAPT TO THE NEW REALITIES AND SPEND OR ARE WE GONNA HOLD ON TO OUR ECONOMICS AND ACCEPT THAT WE ARE NO LONGER A FORCE AND NOT GOIN TO WIN TROPHIÉS???
i was also disappointed by wenger’s decisions. He may be preparing to leave the club in sorrow rather than happiness, he has actually hit his own sucker punch. we lost the title on the first day of the match. neither Ozil nor Sanchez can help us without someone who can put the ball at the back of the net. We are now a top middle table team. Wenger’s standards