So Arsenal have a poor season in which we miss out on Champions League football for the first time in two decades under Arsene Wenger but the club’s board decide to give the long serving Frenchman a new contract anyway. The proviso is that the boss and the board change their ways and drag the Gunners back up among the Premier League big hitters and at first it looked like it was going to happen.
An early signing of quality in Sead Kolasinac and then the breaking of the transfer record to get Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon but that is it with a little over two weeks before the domestic season begins. Meanwhile almost all of our rivals, except Tottenham thankfully, are outstripping our spending by some margin once again.
Man City are spending cash like a man with no arms and both Manchester United and Chelsea look like spending well in excess of £100 million on new players. Is it just me or is this summer just like all the rest, with the Gunners being tight or too cautious and dropping even further away from the really big EPL clubs?
Or do you think Wenger is being sensible with the Arsenal transfer fund and will have a few more signings for us to celebrate before the window shuts?
Bob.
….dont worry about big spenders, they even done it before esp. Man utd and Man city; what baffles me most is why Wenger dont go even for those good players who wants to play for us?! (Mahrez and Carvalho), at the same time sticking with the deadwoods, why not sell Gibbs to westbrom while you don’t use him?!
….now, i think Wenger controlling too many things at our club is becoming a problem, either he dont have much time to think carefully about them, or he is simply stubborn!
I’ll be surprized if he buys more players . But I know that he needs Koulibally , Carvalho and either Lemar or Mahrez to compete against the teams in the EPL.
Ahh.. the famed we can’t win unless we get the players I want post!
Wenger still dithers. buy Mahrez, Carvahallo and lemar and sell sanchez, wilshere, walcott and some other fringe players. try to have 30 million in the bank come january incase you need to bring in someone on the quick.
Arsenger Wenger is just disturbing the mind of fans as well as the players around Europe by showing his stupidity by telling he is going to get a great players to arsenal but foresure this man cannot sign any good players rather than residue players at the end for the sack of his business. He is just doing his own survival business at the club making players of the club hopeless….
We ain’t gonna make the top6 even, with that squard.
GROUNHOG MR BEAN WENGER DAY AGAIN LOL
Every year it is the same old tight arse Wenger trying to get players on the cheap while other clubs are just spending and pulling away from us. I have been an Arsenal supporter since I was a kid and these last few years have made me mad to see him holding on to the money like it was from his own pocket. Needs a thundering kick up his arse to get him moving. Mentions a lot of players but so far he has only paid for Lacazette.
Our squad is huge.. can’t help but think we’ll see a few exits first. Agree with the previous article in why are we demanding so much for fringe/injury prone players? Ship them on and work on the squad!! IMO we’re a great CM away from ready(ish).
Befare we start thinking of who to buy: Where can we improve and who are realistically available? What happens with Sanchez?
GK: Cech, Ospina and Martinez – no upgrade needed.
Defenders in either a 3 or 4 back line: Bellerin, Ox, Monreal, Kolasinac, Koscielny, Mustafi, Holding, Mertesacker. On their way out? Debuchy, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Chambers???? Possible youngsters promotion to fill the gap if we sell the four players. I hope we keep Jenkinson – he’s Arsenal blood.
DM: Coquelin, Elneny
BTB: Cazorla, Xhaka, Ramsey,
AM: Özil, Wilshere
Strikers: Walcott, Sanchez, Iwobi, Lacazette, Welbeck, Giroud
Hmm – I believe an upgrade is needed on DM. Sell Elneny- not because he’s bad – he’s a very good squad player but we have to think about quotas and Coquelin I believe qualifies as home grown. Matic is possibly available…
We really have no proper alternative to Özil but several players can do a similar role (Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere). Cazorla is the player we’ve in the last two seasons been unable to replace when injured. The solution is probably to change formation and style when he’s not playing. Our forward line up: I’d like an upgrade on the wide players – Mahrez and Lamar come to mind.
Reality is that the team is average. Too many average players, and without Sanchez this current squad is not CL material.
Buy a great CD like VanDijk
A fighting DM – like Carvalho
And Mbappe, dont loose Sanchez and then we are ready to compete.
Debuchy, Gibbs, Wilshere, Walcott, Perez, Elneny, Ospina sold, Per, Campbell and Santi next year, Lamar, Golovin and Leon Goretzka in, may be 1-2 English youngsters to fill the quota
Chambers and Jenkinson need to stay this year, for English quota
There’s time to be sensible and there’s time to be aggressive. Being sensible now is penny wise pound foolish. By now we sould have known a defensive midfielder is of extreme importance and so are a few other positions. Sensible thing would be to acquire talent early and get them to play as a team before the season starts. But again our club our manager has always known what’s best for the club year after year and they have let us down year after year
Ask Wenger
He even said that the last two weeks will be the busiest. That sounds to me that he is waiting for a bargain. He has bought a lot of players on the last day or last two weeks. The risk of this is getting average or even below average quality players
So far
Arsenal: Kolsanic, Lacazette
Chelsea: Morata, Cabellero, Bakayoko, Rudiger
Liverpool: Solanke, Salah, Robertson
City: Mendy, Walker, Silva, Moraes, Danilo, Luiz.
United: Lindelof, Lukaku
I’m not sure why we at least haven’t got Lemar by now.
Kolsanic and Lacazette is NOT enough to fight for the title. The teams above are strengthening from a stronger position.
Wenger is slowly turning an excellent start into another disappointing summer.
Spurs haven’t signed anyone yet but they are still better than us even with Kolsanic and Lacazette
Well it’s probably premature now to say they are better than us but they sure have the potential and the qualities to be a champion squad and that should be enough to give us concern.
I’ve finally came to realise after the Arsenal board allowed Wenger to sign a 2 year extension to lower my expectations for this team and to accept we are a mid-table club. That way you won’t be disappointed if we fail to reach top 4. It’s a real shame this is how our club has become but I choose to support the team, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.
The thing about other teams is that they have identified the problems they had in last season and moved fast in securing the necessary players.
United needed CF and CB badly.City had to strengthen their ageing backline. Chelsea just want upgrades in CB and Striker.Liverpool needed more player as they are in Champions league this yr.Spurs don’t need anyone as they have a young squad and they have almost all their places covered.
Where as even though we know there is a problem when it comes to defence,Wenger seems to be living in denial.All these talks of signing Lemar or Mbappe is just to keep fans guessing so that there are more ticket and merchandise sales.What we really need is a midfield general , someone like Viera or Gilberto
Another I thing I don’t understand is why people thumbs down genuine and honest comments.
It can be a bit clicky in here mate- you are in the crowd or you aren’t. Don’t worry about it- if you are getting red arrows it still means they read it 😉
Besides who cares about a red arrow or 10!
100% agree arsenal girl…then like last year when we lost to liverpool at home on the opening day, we loose to leicester i just pray that wenger doesnt come out and say the team werent ready !
Doesnt wenger realise by now that getting transfers done early gives the team time to gel as the players intergrate sooner. Arguing the toss with teams over players valuations only agrivates the situation. Ffs every euro team knows that english teams are cash cows because of sky and bt and price their players higher to us. Also, he signed lacazette this year but if he had signed him last year instead of dilly dallying he could have got him cheaper. Then he comes out and says he could have got mbappe for 500k earlier and now he is worth 100 million plus ????
But then again, apparently Arsene Knows Best !!!
Looks like Arsene still has the syndrome, one big money for one window only ,even when his neck is laying in the rail of a sacking train. This is also indicating by none of so called dead wood pack their bag yet. If Arsene doesn’t “clear the room” to make spaces, there’ll be none to add in anymore. He seems love all his players too much like classic cars collection. It seems no cure for Wengeritis, LOL…
By the way, time still in his side, one month remaining. You can still save the neck Arsene! Spends the club money!
u are completly right Bob,in that we are way behind.i mean even look at the likes of Everton.and yes like others in the comments i think players like Lemar,Mahrez,Carvalho,Martins-if all are signed-and Sanchez left intact,can make the change.but Wenger and Kroenke,being Wenger and Kroenke,that is very unlikely to happen,and we will be left behind,as always,and probably an even more disastrous season awaits us
Although many will suggest that Robson has a personal vendetta of sorts aimed squarely at the Grinch who stole soccer, that doesn’t make his words any less truthful…such tactics are nothing new…in the U.S.this business practice has become so common that even the players regularly use the media to manipulate public opinion(LeBron James did likewise to rally public support for himself and away from his teammate, Kyrie Irving, who has asked to be traded)…whether for contract leverage or to rally support for or against certain players, this strategy can be incredibly effective at times, but when it misses the mark it can be dangerously divisive…for a close-to-the-vest team like Arsenal to use such nefarious means to manufacture a wedge between the fans and it’s best player (again), is absolutely despicable…for the sanctimonious higher-ups who demand that it’s players adhere to a certain protocol regarding information deemed “in house” or else to intentionally spread “fake” news or to provide certain outlets with privileged information for such purposes is pretty low indeed…no moral high ground here, just a big club pretending to be a small club so that they can continue to pull the wool over the eyes of a dedicated, albeit somewhat naive, fan base…so not only does this club no give a shit about it’s fans, this clearly shows that clubs primary interests aren’t even soccer related…for all intent and purposes Kroenke doesn’t care if we’re a soccer club or a tampon factory as long as we continue to maximized his investment…stay woke people…great to see more and more people commenting on the state of the franchise…this club needs to be held accountable for it’s actions
There be a lot of long words in this here article…. we not be 3 simple folk…
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confessed problems with their transfer policy in recent years.
Wenger revealed Arsenal could’ve signed Kylian Mbappe before his emergence at AS Monaco.
And the Frenchman admits similar problems arose regarding Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante and Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann.
He conceded: “We can improve our recruitment.
“When we talk about Mbappé, we could have had him sooner. Players like Griezmann or Kanté were possible for us.
“We missed them, not because of our financial limit. We need to be faster when players are not on the lists for all clubs.”…. grrr then hurry the f%¥# up…!!
To be honnest we are no where near the tittle next season.Wenger must add more players and go back to our favourate formation 4-4-2 that won us the league thirteen yrs ago.
I understand the frustration at our performance in the transfer market year after year. Especially if you compare it to some of our competitors who seem to go about their business decisively and without as much dithering as us.
But can I ask politely why anyone is surprised by this? Did we expect things would change? Why?
Did Wenger promises change? I don’t think he did.
Also, why do we think we need a DM? Seen through the eyes of Wenger he just spends a boat load of money on Xhaka and with playing 3 at the back we will be playing with 5 defenders if you include the wingbacks, add Xhaka (or Coq or Elneney) and you have 6 defensive minded players, leaving 4 attackers. I don’t see how a DM should be a priority IMO we need more attacking talent.
I agree on expecting too much from this incompetent board and manager. But I disagree on not needing a DM because to be honest we need it as much as we need attacking talents. I think Coquelin lack the physicality to be a DM but enough to be in the first team on the bench, especially if you consider the English quota. Elneny on the other hand just don’t cut it for me in this team setup and how we play. Finally Xhaka has signs of quality but I think he’s more a box to box play than one more defensive minded. His cool composure will do well in the ball transitional role, perhaps if coupled with a type of player similar in attack as Cazorla.
Must you buy a French player Arsene? I thought by now you could have at least secured reasonable signings… Arsene wenger spends arsenal money as if it is his, letting Sanchez leave would be our biggest mistake…. Let’s address our DM and rejuvenate our back 4 so we can compete
I just don’t see anything changing Thi season or the next season…..the answer to arsenal is Wenger and the board leaving….with that at least we will have new blood in the management….
I agree 100%. It is silly to expect change without a change in people who run the club.
Unless fans stick together and make enough pressure on them. Otherwise do not blame them at the end coming season but blame ourself . Same way same result .
Jimbean agree with everything you say.
Janseen if you don’t think we need a DM you never go to a game and see how our so called great midfield is overrun by top teams.
Cazola not coming back., Xhaka is average how we spent that much on him., which means Wenger will persevere with him so as not to be proven wrong. Elny not good enough. Ramsey overrated, most season ticket holders think this. Walcott enough said! Wiltshire injury prone.
Another season of frustration under arrogant Wenger
I think AW head has been turned by Iwobi performances on the wing and that’s holding him back from the transfers. You all know what the old miser can be like and if he thinks he can do it cheap he will.
Iwobi seems pretty sharp (against the oz teams at least) and now he probably thinks we are set to go.
Heaven help us if that’s the case!
By the time the window shuts with buys and sales we will be at nil spend.
The laca signing was one to appease the fans ,looks like they’ve spent money but they’ve just spent enough to not go over there stinging budget – not saying he’s a bad player but there was better on offer / looks like a younger Defoe type player to me ..and the left back situation is the same ,is he any better than what we have .i don’t think so !
While all the other top teams buy big we mess about like always .top teams next season will be Chelsea both Manchester clubs and spurs -that’s the way it is until he’s gone
I was against Wenger getting another contract……now that he is our coach for the next two seasons…..it is time to let him do his job…….let’s support the team……..and go crazy if the old man fails towards the end of the season………the man will never overspend his competitors……..nor pay for a player above his valuation……….I think that’s just his way of business…….I’d be surprised if he signs another player if he does not sell some fringe players……at least he outsmarted Sanchez…….sign a new contract or play for less money…….and Sanchez has two or three years of consistent peak performance left in him……….I hope he gets with the program,,,,,,,,Wenger wants to win a significant trophy at a decent price……..not excessive…..
All we need is Gelson Martins ( Sanchez mentality) and Mahrez. ( Midfield ball player) and we can compete.