As the January transfer window draws ever closer the Arsenal fans are hoping, as always, that Arsene Wenger is ready to spend some serious money and sign the players that will help the Gunners to win the Premier League title that has been too long away from north London.
But we are also starting to experience that sense of Deja Vu about our transfer business under Arsene Wenger in recent years. I doubt that any of us has forgotten or forgiven the winter window a couple of seasons back when the Gunners were in the middle of an injury crisis and were desperate for at least two key players to see us through the second half of the season.
Two words Gooners, Kim Kallstrom. We were crying out for some top quality signings in the forward line and defensive midfield and Wenger signed, on the final day mind you, an aging Swedish midfielder who turned out to be injured himself. On loan mind you.
So we have good reason to worry. And Wenger´s comments reported by the Daily Mail are hardly the thing to ease our fears.
The boss said, “We are in a position where we want to do something. If I find the right quality, I will do something.”
What are we talking here Arsene, players that are better than Arteta and Campbell?
He continued, “I love a bargain. Who does not love a bargain? I don’t know many people that don’t like a bargain.
“What is for us a bargain is to buy players of top quality, because only top quality strengthens our squad. I can tell you I bought Patrick Vieira for £2.5million and it was a top bargain because he was a top quality player.
“We spent nearly £40m on Ozil but I still consider it a bargain because the player is top quality and the priority has to be the quality of the player.”
I agree but I also think that Wenger has to forget about bargains. If they come cheap, all the better, but what is more important is for the club to sign players of the right quality. His comments on Ozil suggest that he knows this but I still have my doubts.
Will he really spend big money on the players Arsenal need if he does not see them as a bargain?
Quality doesn’t always cost an arm and a leg…
but MOST of the time it does. wenger is arrogant to think he can spot a bargain better than all the other coaches in the world: if there’s a player that’s that good out there, he’ll have a big price tag on him.
Yeah, Bellerin and Coquelin really set us back financially. Or Monreal, who cost about £8.5m and is easily the best left back in the league at the moment. Compare that to Baba Rahman, who cost Chelsea around £21m.
Having watched ManU game yesterday, I think spending a ton of money doesn’t get you a great team, well not immediately in any event, so I agree with @NY Gunner and @liam. I can’t think of any team who is going to sell a top class player in Jan to us, unless we offer some outrageous sum, and then there fitting straight in and commanding a position like a CDM in the EPL is not guaranteed.
Saying that if you could buy Thomas Muller please Mr Wenger I would be a rather happy fan 🙂 Holding my breath until the end of the transfer window closes.
R.I.P matey ?
i’m glad we have coq,bellerin and monreal. but realistically, coq is a unlikely-to-be-repeated turnaround story. u cant say wenger spotted bellerin straight away. first sagna had to go, and then jenkinson, and debuchy got injured. only then did he field bellerin. its also interesting that all 3 cases are defenders. i still believe that to make a substantial change to our chances of, say advancing beyond our usual level in CL, we’ll need to sign a WC striker. and a solid DM (at coq level or higher).
@almostwinner
The fact still remains, we had them in our squad already. It will always be up to the player to either step up or not. Look at Vardy, Stones, Coleman or Kane. These guys were worth nearly nothing. Yet they saw their chance and took it. While on the other hand both Spurs and Pool bought a boat load of what could be considered “flops” and wasted just as much money in doing so. While Chealsea has gone through just as many good players they got on the cheap who did not produce in the way they wished, but are doing dang good now with other teams…It’s a gamble I guess AW ain’t willing to take…
Wenger knows what he’s doing…
oh no don’t give me that look, it was the flame who said it.
but right now i don’t care if he knows or doesn’t know what to do, we need quality signings come January
Krychowiak £17 million
Aubameyang £30 millon
baby please
He considers Ozil a bargain, which is true when you compare him to DiMaria and Sterling. I could see him spend in winter, after all he bought Paulista at that time.
wenger buys when he’s forced into a corner. last jan, we hadnt found coq, and our our defensive ability was very weak (flam,arteta used to be CDM). and mert was being found out again and again , esp when we played high line. i’m glad he found gabriel. this winter, i can imagine him finding some DM, but CF , especially of the quality we need, is very unlikely.
You have to ask yourself this:
Do you belive someone,
Who constantly fills your head with excuses,
Who always lets you down after giving you some hope?
NO?
But you can never tell, with some wenger fans on here!
?
Wenger boasts about bargains and yes he did sign some Gems for peanuts and then sold them off for £20+ millions of profit at a time, But boy did he sign some expensive flops too
But that’s all in past!..
The new generation money spinner is in the Youth structure, Give it a few years and watch them fly off the shelves!
At £50mil a pop ?
@Fatboy Gooney
In comparison with todays market, those flops were not so expensive. Just deadwood hard to get rid of…
Now imagine buying a 50mil flop and trying to recoup your money back from him…Sami Khedira comes to mind…
I think Torres was worse?
You’re taking his comments out of context in an attempt to paint him as miserly. What he said came after the reporter had explained to him what Black Friday was, as Wenger wasn’t aware of it. It wasn’t just Wenger talking about a desire to look for cheaper players.
— We spent nearly £40m on Ozil but I still consider it a bargain because the player is top quality and the priority has to be the quality of the player.–
“I agree but I also think that Wenger has to forget about bargains. If they come cheap, all the better, but what is more important is for the club to sign players of the right quality. His comments on Ozil suggest that he knows this but I still have my doubts.”
That’s exactly what is meant by his quote that precedes this sentence. He’s saying that a player who performs is a bargain, irrespective of the price. Saying he needs to “forget about bargains” directly after that quote would suggest you want him to sign players who are no good.
What does it means by to spend big in the January transfer window? So, Arsenal MUST spend big to bring in new signings before Arsenal fans will be happy. Even if Arsenal didn’t win the title, the Arsenal fans will still be happy because Arsenal have spent big to sign some new players to satisfy their yearnings? Right? Wonderful!
Has the Boss not been misqouated out of content? Hasn’t he said, he’ll be ready to spend to improve his midfield if he can find the right quality who will be an upgrade to the quality of the Gunner or Gunners he has in that Area? Right?
Arsenal are gradually getting over the injury crisis they’ve had in their squad as Ramsey in now back to the squad and the Ox and Walcott are in there periphery of returning to the squad. The only 3 big absentees who may take up to the next 2-3 months before they are back are, Wilshere, Welbeck and Coquelin.
Nevertheless, Arsenal will not suffer a fall away in their 3 title charge before those 3 stalwarts returned to the squad. Because Arsenal have suitable quality cover in the squad to deploy to manned the DMF position as Flamini has now stepped in to fill the void.
Let’s also bear in mind that, Arsenal have some other top quality Gunners in their squad who they could deploy as DMs, in the Gunners of, Ramsey, Debuchy, De Abreu and Chambers if the occasion warrants it. Any of the last trio should be glad to play as DMF as they are mostly not regular starters but bench warmers.
So, in my personal opinion, Arsenal may not need to sign a DM in Jan. Save if the situation to do so becomes unavoidable. However, I am of the opinion, the Boss should sign an affordable senior striker as a 4th striker cover and a top quality senior left back cover if Gibbs will be played regularly as a mid-left wing.
Let’s be patient and see. Arsenal have the quality Gunners they can fine-tune to successfully sustained their 3 titles charge in the tough 2nd half of the season that begins in January next year to possibly lift all those 3 trophies without haven to resort to spending big to achieve their targets.
we can do well in PL and FA cup.
which 3rd title do you think AFC could successfully sustain the challenge for ? CL?
Krychowiak!!??
Aubameyang !?!?
That’s like a heavenly transfer window on earth.
Am optimistic but believe me, its never going to happen. Not this window or the next. Now that’s realism.
If we get to the last 16 then our targets might be a we bit diff because of cup tied players in europe. Is Carvalho cup tied since lisbon are in the europa? We need quality they say, so whos available? Who wants to join us? Need another attacker now that xould be abit trickier also as the euros are coming up im sure alot of bid starsdnt wana move until the summer!
there’s not much available in jan. jan is for band-aids (which we often find ourselves in need of). to really fix our situation, wenger needs to spend substantially next summer (doing so wont guarantee a championship, but getting bit players is certain not to improve our situation). i’m not saying its impossible to win PL with the squad we have – its just hard because we’re inconsistent and our squad is not as deep as some of the others. the PL season is long: to win it, we cant just be good for 1-2 months. thats why we need a good backup cdm – coq is not going to go 38 games w/o injury. (OTOH this year things look so bad for most teams, its going to be our best chance in quite a while). but to improve in the CL, and to strike fear into MU,MC and chelsea (like we used to) – to do that we need a WC striker .
Imo Lars Bender should be on top of the priority list
wenger won’t buy anyone. He’s getting wheelchair back in january so why on earth would he go get another player?
@Dennis
And that is the main reason why he doesn’t spend. He has too much faith in injury prone players. And would never by someone who might eventually sideline them…
Fact is Arsene is the only manager that could use some big spending.