There are still a few days of the summer transfer window left and we know that the last few days can often see quite a lot of deals being done. We have done them ourselves in the past and Arsene Wenger has already suggested that this might be the case again, so the Arsenal fans feeling frustrated about the lack of money spent and players added to the current squad could still have something to smile about.
It looks like we will definitely not be getting Thomas Lemar from Monaco though, after The Mirror reported Wenger’s comments in his press conference about the French club refusing to sell. That does tell us that the boss was trying, though, so his other comments about being happy with what he has seem a bit odd and they have also opened the door to more protests and discontent from us Gooners if and when our latest Premier League title challenge falters.
He said, “I am completely happy with the strength of the squad. I have said already we have too many players. Some players have no chance to play.
“If you have too many players of confirmed status you are in a difficult position to give a chance to young players.”
This is all well and good if that squad of players goes on to show he was right – but if they don’t, which is more than likely, then he only has himself to blame when we turn on him like we did last season. This transfer window was his chance to spend serious money and show that he had changed, and so far he just has not done so. Can he really be surprised if we then blame him when things go wrong?
Bob.
I don’t think he realizes that. I give him exactly 7 days to turn this around. I bet you any money that if he haven’t signed anyone (or keeping Alexis etc.) during this time then the next defeat will prompt the banners and airplanes out. From that point on, Arsenal will be a mid table team winning some of their home games and struggling away. I know I will be slaughtered for this but without keeping Alexis and reinforcing key positions in the squad, Arsenal can finish somewhere in top 10. Yes, Chelsea was there but they acted ruthlessly and turn things around very quick. Of course they don’t have Kroenke as owner, I give you that. But how long will Kroenke tolerate mediocrity when the revenue stream dries up? So yes, after 7 days I will know exactly if I will take one sabbatical year from Arsenal. I suggest all of you to do the same if you want to keep your health.
I agree with you buddy.
One thing I don’t seem to understand about some ‘over optimistic’ Arsenal fans is that…don’t you see everything is not going well at Arsenal? 3 out of 11 1st team players can walk for free in 12 months. The same defence that bagged over 50 goals last season is expected to perform wonders this season? Everyone knows we need a replacement for Cazorla, as well as a bullish CDM.
Honest question for those who will thumb me down…what would it take for you to see our team is not performing at their best?
Blah blah blah, if Wenger this, if Wenger that, blah blah.
While the transfer window is still open stop your girly whining, you don’t have a crystal ball.
If Sanchez and everybody else stays and we revert back to 4-2-3-1 then we’re plenty strong enough. Plenty!
Sanchez Ozil ??? behind Lacazette is going to win games. The defence will be organised again and backed up by Xhaka and Elneny, all will be good.
I get the frustratiion if no players being bought when we’re short or have injuries, but it ain’t the case at the moment.
The frustration at the moment is key players not performing well at the moment, but some people pretend it’s a lack of buying.
The team formation and Wengers team selection is what’s wrong, made worse by tactics and dumb substitutions. No team of players can play well with random idiocy from the manager game to game.
Let’s remember in the last game Bellerin was on the left.
The only thing a good coach can do with limited talent is work the defense. See all low table teams, if they good at one thing that thing is defense. Wenger does not do defense these days which is very surprising departure from the midfield bossed by TWO rocks : Vieira and Petit/Gilberto Silva. Very rarely Vieira went upfield but when he did, the other one was not even crossing the halfway line. Check the games from 2003/04 season or earlier to see Petit in action.
Anyway, I digress here. I lost count how many times Wenger played men out of their natural position. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it works for a particular game but sooner or later any coach with half brain will exploit the weaknesses of the players out of position. This is what happened at Stoke and against Leicester. Ramsey is too high up, in fact he is the striker at the point where Xhaka waste the ball in an area where Ramsey supposed to be. He commits to recover but he should have not because if Ramsey was there, Xhaka would have been at the 2nd ball and most probably killing the final pass. Last season, I liked Ramsey on center/right side because it shows what he can do when he is disciplined. Steel lungs and strong tackles. I believe we haven’t lost 11 games while he played there doing EXACTLY what he was told to do.
So yes, I don’t understand anymore Wenger. I heard these days from himself that the team is mostly picked by these fancy statistics boys at the club (Kroenke must been seen Moneyball otherwise I don’t get why Joshua Kroenke thinks he’s Brad Pitt) and not exactly by what is shown in the training. Beats me, have no clue where the club is going. Hell, I can even understand Mustafi departure (remember, a panic buy which didn’t really paid off) if we do buy someone like Van Dijk. I don’t understand why we didn’t went for Bonucci (he went for peanuts to Milan) from which both Chambers and holding could learn the trade. Really, really baffled by how the club is run these days.
Sorry but I think if you open your eyes there are fundamental flaws in our team. I agree with you on our attacking is very good (although some of the players need to learn how to finish, Welbeck, Walcott etc.., but we have to address the issues at the back, it is a must!!!!! This league is the best in the world and therefore we have the best attacking players in the world playing in this league. Therefore very simply you must have that strong spine, you must be adaptable to each team you play.. we don’t have \ do either. Go 4 – 5 years back, how many quality players have we lost, LOTS, Why? Because as a club we are not progressing! You could argue we have the best team in years but even then we don’t manage top 4!!! Something is very very wrong and it needs to be addressed! And unfortunately I believe it is Wenger, I have been a fan of his for years but the last 3-4 years he has lost it. I just think we need to grow some balls get rid of mediocre players and prove we are a team to challenge for the top. However as long as Wenger is in charge this will not change. I would love for Wenger to prove me wrong this year but I can not see it. The club maybe financially sound, but the squad is in a mess in my eye’s.
@Arsenal1again – If our squad is plenty strong enough if Sanchez stays and we revert back to 4-2-3-1 how come we fell down the table like a brick last season with that formation and those players missing out on the PL by 20 points? Did Wenger miss a trick last season that he has now learned?
No of course not. The man doesn’t learn.
Buddreloaded
You are so correct mate. Wenger is digging his own grave. I do not see any transfer activity in the next 7 days except for some leaving the club. We are smacked by Liverpool. What Wenger fail to understand is that some of the mid table team have strengthened their side and will give good competition to the top clubs. In such circumstances with our usual problems in midfield and back be prepared to finish outside top 4. I will not be surprised if we finish below top 6 which may see the exit of Wenger I hope or the project will be to finish in top 6 and compete in Europa league .
I am one of the 2013/14 believers in the British core, I admit it. I was also a believer in EPL challenging after beating Leicester in the last second. I am not ashamed to admit it. I was clinging on the smallest hope. But collapse in that year confirmed the trend started in 2009/10. Fool me once, he’s cunning tw@t. Fool me twice, you take advantage of my love for the club. Won’t be a third time. I absolutely love Wenger, the football man, the idealist. But I realized that football world is moving into digital era. Nothing, but nothing holds true anymore for more than 10 seconds. Everything is possible, yes, even Arsenal winning UCL but it needs someone to act upon this possibility. For me is back into the early 80’s now. What a miserable life I had as an Arsenal fan. But hey, at least I know how it was. I am sure it will be easier for me this time around.
89 was our greatest win before the Invincibles.
89 came after 17 barren years and it took 15 more years from that moment (probably the best in our history) to get to the Invincibles.
True Break-on-through, but 79 FA cup was spectacular for me because it’s the year when Arsenal went in my veins.
BuddReloaded don’t forget in ’91 we lost only only one league game and had nearly another Invincibe season.
I know that but I am talking about League titles until 89 here. FA cup goes without saying for Arsenal. We are the experts.
I can see us finishing 7th this season, below Everton and I still can’t see Wenger getting sacked.
UEFA coefficients just got published in time for the UEL draw. It is confirmed now that Arsenal is out of top 10 clubs in Europe. Benfica, Sevilla and Dortmund ahead. Needles to tell you that this will influence TV money for European competitions. Well, it was just a matter of time.
Dangote likes those numbers.
It will be much easier to get an offer accepted somewhere between 2019 and 2020.
When you think about it, we only have to go through two to three very poor seasons and then the massive change happens. No more Kroenke, no more Wenger. Happy days, sunshine, rainbows and titles.
Can’t believe we didn’t even try for Gylfi sigurdson, he would HV replaced Cazorla and be an improvement on wilshere and Ramsey.
No left winger in Arsenal team, no creative midfielder, Ageing and Inexperienced defence mixed with poor team selection.
Brace up Arsenal fans, Everton have a better squad.
Pure disappointment is on the way.
I’ve been saying for years that we’re slowly but steadily turning into an Everton.
This year it might come true. And that’s sad, because we’ve finally gotten a proper attacker in the squad.
What was the purpose of adding 2 more years of failure??? Believe you me, it’s getting worse! You all saw what Everton can do to a team like city needless to mention we struggled against them last season..they have greatly strengthened just as most teams have and it’s going to be tricky. Am disappointed that since being an Arsenal fan almost 13 years ago, I have never witnessed my team win the EPL..and now even top four is proving tricky!!!
Wenger has got problems he created for himself,I am sure that he knows this and if JM gets Lemar will tell us that he is weak.So far the small change will not effect an improvement and as a fan I am preparing for the painful losses thats to come.Yes it is about business but at least repair the problems we got.You cannot make a racehorse out of a donkey.
Don’t think wenger will be sacked for poor performance by this board. Over the years, poor performance will impact the inflow of money and departure of Kroenke. Only then will wenger be sacked and we will move forward. In the meantime, I’ll just watch the games on TV and wish my team luck.
Well I already sounded off and kind of lost it in reaction to that “I am completely happy with the strength of the squad” absurd monstrosity quote. Recent searches for Arsenal transfer rumors quote him as still being open to people coming though, something like it’s impossible to know what might happen in the last week. No particularly reassuring either, but at least not sounding like he’s totally writing it off.
Because of Wenger’s dithering we are trying to sell in the last week
Because of his dithering, no Lemar
Same old story every summer
YU got yr head in the sand girl maybe you didn’t hear it this morning lemar prefer man utd to arsenal, I’m sure before this came out this morning arsene knew about it that’s why he said Monaco have shut the door because the reason was coming out this morning, clever twat that wenger
I think it’s too early to blame or condemn wenger. We have just play two matches at of thirty-eight, we still have plenty of time which i believe positive things will come out of it. Let strongly support our darling team(Arsenal) rather than condemn. Man united bought Pogba last session for a world record fee and finished the session below arsenal thanks to a lucky europa cup glory that qualified them for champions league after missing out on different occasions after the reign of Sir Ferguson. Gunners for life
So just because we finished ahead of Man u we should be happy and satisfied?
A fan like you giving wenger more confidence. What is new with Arsenal, of course nothing. We have been waiting for a good team who can win the league for more than 12 years. It’s been 12 years man.
It is a bit frustrating that we are moving at a snail’s pace on our project to move up the table whilst in fact we are sliding down fast. Some times even skipping buying a single outfield player like two summer windows ago, this past window (up till now) only signing 2 players and allowing three players to go into their final contracts and the negativity that this brings and then you look at Everton and Koeman who with in 1 and a half windows and 12 months in charge has us looking over our shoulders despite having lost Lukaku who can be compared to being their Sanchez.
A good manager can have an impact and a bad manager can destroy in no time at all what he has so carefully built. If you are as shy in the transfer market as Wenger is mistakes like Perez and Gabriel (and perhaps Mustafi) are very expensive in terms of losing momentum in building and keeping a squad fresh and constantly improving. Not sure how much improvement we can expect from players like Ramsey and Walcott and Wilshire.
Perez was a bargain for the transfer fee paid; banishing him to the bench when available to play was Wenger’s fault!
My friend I agree and I actually thought Perez should have been used much more last season. As a left winger he was very effect in the few chances he got and being left footed his assist and potential for assists from the left was higher than most other options. He was also a much better natural finisher than most of our other forwards.
I am calling Perez and Gabriel (who iOS not a bad option on the right of there CDs) mistakes because Wenger wants to offload them. Mustafi also still has potential but if the trumours are true and we are considering selling him, he to should be considered a mistake by Wenger. How else should you qualify a player who get’s sold so soon after buying him? Sold by a club who don’t have unlimited funds and in some cases sold for less than we paid for them?
These players would not be on my list to sell, but than again if it was up to me we would still have Campbell in our squad and Wenger didn’t rate him either.
This season i believe Arsenal will do better. It’s high time we focuse on the academy than relying on inflated transfer market. Let groom our talent and give them chance. We have young lads who can perform better than Mbape and Debele when given chance.
Name the said young lads better than Mbape and Dembele?
I have said it here before – 25 players in a squad, 5 years on average each at the top – do the maths, you need 5 new players a year just to stand still. AW has been going backwards for years now.
Wenger, old boy, you will live to see all the fans turn on you by the end of your contract. And it serves you right. You had the invincibles that people will remember you by, but only after they say what a horrible manager you were in the last six years of your tenure. Because you will shift the club into a mid-table club by the time you’re done.
Nebsy, I am not classing seasons with FA cup win as unhorrible. Even if we won the league like we should have done the season Leicester did I wanted Wenger out, I am done with him.
He done great things for his first 8 years and he would have been remembered for this like he should be, then he sticks around frustrating us every season for the next FIFTHTEEN YEARS which is almost double those first 8 seasons. Two thirds of an Arsenal career with mediocrity cancels out one third of it that was good.
The fact Wenger stayed at the club indicates he has a personality disorder, supremely arrogant and despotic. Who stays at a club he can’t improve just so he can be like the Roman Emperor Nero, playing his tune while the club burns?
Wenger doesn’t care if the fans dislike him, what we feel is inconsequential to him, just like the starving people of Paris was to Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake.” Only Wenger says “Let them have a Champions League place” or he says “Let them have an FA Cup.”
If he carries on with the formation that makes half the players look like a duck out of water, carries on with bad team selections, absurd substitutions, refusing to pay the price teams want for players when he can, putting players out of position – we will be out of league winning contention by November.
Maybe then others will understand is managing OUR football club. He might think it’s his now, but like some fans have said here they’ve never seen Arsenal win the league. – abd this is ultimately what he’ll be remembered for. I started with Terry Neill and though Wenger has won cups during the time of the youngsters, Wenger won’t be remembered like he thinks he will. Those first 8 years are being cancelled out by the 15 seasons that followed.
George Graeme, a true Arsenal man, must cringe every game at our defence. He always built teams from the back, Wenger builds from the front. Weird thing is George was a forward and Wenger was a defender when he played. We also have Bouldy from the famous back four as assistant manager and he is powerless. This more than anything highlights what a dictator Wenger is.
‘I am completely happy with the strength of the squad ‘. Just imagine this annannoying statement from Arsene. This is the squad that has been failing us for years yet Mr wenger is happy with it. This man is happy with failure. I agree with Mourinho on this one, Indeed he is a ‘specialist in failure ‘. As a matter of urgency, this man need to go as soon as possible before he does more damage to this great club. Thanks for the memory it’s time to say good bye but sadly he is not going anywhere
Arsenal fans are so dramatic. We aren’t going to finish behind Everton this season.
An extra 30 goals last season could have won us the PL (although half of those 30 goals would have been needed to take care of Bayern). So if Sanchez stays and scores 30 and Laca does as well we will win the PL.
Wenger is outdated. He is a poor, poor manager and not able to manage our great club in this modern day football. We are Premier League also rans and I suspect he is taking revenge on the supporters who, by now, cannot stand him any more. Even my non football friends ask me what is wrong with this man called Wenger. Pundits, supporters, press, players, ex-players, all and sundry, know that Wenger is not up to his job anymore. The Arsenal board are scared to bin him and as long as the profits are there they will do sweet FA. I fear after the 31st of August there will be an Arsenal revolution. The supporters will have had enough. In 1642 we had the English Civil War. In 1819 we had Peterloo, nearly starting a Civil War. In a few days there will be the Arsenal revolt and I predict Arsene Wenger will be overthrown.
There was a point around 2011 that I felt sorry for Wenger as he was in a job that he used to be good at but he was no longer good enough to could carry out to a top level standard and fans were getting on his case, especially after the 8-2 humiliation at Man U. Since that time Wenger has only got worse. His tactical set up has got worse and worse and I don’t think we have no seriously challenged for the title since 2004.
I really do believe him when he says he truely loves the club but he does not understand that his time as a top quality manager ended more than 10 years ago and that he really should have left us back in 2011. Now it is obvious that he is not going to leave us willingly no matter how bad he makes us.
Wenger is a decent human being and he is intelligent, just not up to the job and I am so fed up with his excuses and his obsession with clinging to his job at all costs that now I no longer care what he thinks about all the Wenger out chants and banners as he is ruining our club. I just want him to go now!
PS – Gadzidis and Evil Stan can go too.
Cannot win the league- mission impossible! Apart from a couple of players, this a very average team. Wenger is to blame, he buys the players, he picks the team and HE comes up with the tactics. He should have left ten years ago but his ego ( and a very healthy wage packet) wouldn’t let him. Allowing three players to run down their contracts reeks of ineptitude – not just him there were others compliant in that little mess. This club is in trouble – from top to bottom.
This club will not see a PL title for the next 10+ years. I know it is sad and it upsets me to no end, but even if we bring in a top manager (who would have no interest) it would take more funds than we have to rebuild this squad made up largely of unexceptional players.
Ozil, Sanchez, and Ox will all most likely be gone by the time a new manager comes in. Kos and Cech are nearing their end of the career Per is in his last year with Monreal not too far behind that leaves us with maybe one or two exceptional players in Laca and Kolasinac (I know it is too early to judge these guys as exceptional but I am desperate to be optimistic here).
It will take many years to rebuild this club after the job Kroenke/Wenger have done on it.
The wenger issue has gotten out of hand, he deserves what soever comes to him. I don’t blame the board for our club not improving over the years.. I blame arsene….he is the only manager in this world that will work under such conditions just to please the board.