Arsenal Find Turkish Delight A Little Bit Hard To Swallow
Aug 5th, 2013 by 'holic
Huge thanks to our very own Takeabowson for stepping into the breach while I am in some sort of a communications blackspot. Still I haven’t seen the game so his report tells me all I need to know. Thanks TaBS.
So it was only the Emirates Cup right? Right. It is a competition whose format of two games in twenty-four hours is designed primarily to fine tune fitness levels and match awareness rather than prioritizing any real need to secure early and ultimately meaningless silverware. Nevertheless it sticks in the craw a little that by the end of the ninety minutes it was Galatasaray, a Club whose mere invitation to the competition had engendered such criticism, and not Arsenal that got to stand on the winners’ podium.
Arsene rang the changes as far as he was able. Szczesny replaced his older compatriot in goal. Kos was rewarded for his excellent performance against Napoli with a day off and was replaced by Sagna in an otherwise unchanged Defence with the BFG, Gibbs and Jenkinson all given their second start in as many days. Further forward only Ramsey was deemed fit enough to start both games. Arteta and the Ox were given starting central midfield berths and from the off looked a more cohesive unit than the one Ramsey had formed the day before with Jack and Rosicky. On the flanks Santi returned for his first outing of the pre-season, whilst Theo immediately offered more potent threat from the right than the youngster Gnabry. Up front, the bumper Emirates crowd were offered their first glimpse of our only signing thus far, Sanogo.
The first half ambled away in pleasant enough fashion. New signing Sanogo was involved from the off, and when the Ox robbed a sleeping defender deep into Galatasaray territory he was given a superb opportunity to open his Arsenal account just three minutes into his debut. He will perhaps reflect that he might have done much better than the rather tame effort that found its way into the arms of a grateful keeper. Nevertheless, and despite his early miss, he showed enough before tiring in the second half to persuade that Arsene may just have found another player. He made himself available throughout and had a strength that belied his tender years. There is of course at this stage an understandable rawness to some of his play, but as and when he grows into his body there is certainly enough potential there to suggest that he might have a part to play in first team matters sooner rather than later.
With Arsenal quick into the tackle and establishing early midfield dominance primarily through the exertions of the excellent Ramsey, we largely dictated the first half, even though clear cut chances were thin on the ground. The clearest opportunity came when Ramsey showed superb vision to find Theo with a forty yard pass over the top. Theo’s first touch to bring the ball down was exquisite. Sadly he couldn’t quite find the finish to match as his shot went just the wrong side of the post. It would have been some goal.
Arsenal eventually took the lead in somewhat fortunate fashion when Theo found himself out on the left and his cross come shot crept in at the far post, his rather bemused celebration confirming that it was more cross than shot. A 1-0 lead at HT then, and on the balance of play no less than Arsenal deserved.
Intermittently throughout the first half loud catcalls had rung out throughout the Stadium. Thankfully they were not aimed at one of our own but at our old nemesis, Drogba, limbering up on the touchline. At HT he entered the fray with Schneider, and though his touch looked a little rusty he immediately gave the Turks a focal point that they had hitherto lacked, and the game became a far more even affair.
On the hour Gibbs was replaced by Miquel. It will not, one imagines, be a cameo that the young Spaniard will look back on with any fondness. Exposed for his lack of pace by both Drogba and Eboue down the flanks, it is difficult to see Miquel playing any part this season in the first team squad. That he didn’t start either of this weekend’s game at centre-back at a time when Vermaelen is injured would appear to have put paid to any hopes that he might have had of being the fourth centre back, and a left back he ain’t.
Drogba had already begun to “win” free kicks with his all too familiar theatrical routines and twelve minutes from time very slight contact from Miquel in the penalty box saw him go down as if he had been taken out by a sniper in the Clock end. The Referee bought it and gave a penalty. Drogba sadly doesn’t miss, and he used the opportunity to play his designated role of pantomime villain to the full. Seven minutes later it got worse. Mertesacker got his positioning all wrong, and an excellent ball from Schneider found Drogba with just the goalkeeper to beat. 2-1. Game over.
Any hysteria that greets this result should rightly be lampooned. Nevertheless, in an age when pre-season friendlies are televised live, played out in front of capacity crowds, and given the wholly artificial status of a Cup competition, scrutiny will no doubt follow. The close season promises and the lack of tangible evidence thus far of how those promises might be fulfilled have left the Club with very little wiggle room in the face of an adverse result, pre-season or not. Without some new stardust, it is difficult to see how the present squad without additions can mount a credible challenge for the Premiership. Let’s hope that this week at last brings good news on that front.
One imagines that Arsene will have had his fill of Turkish Delight. Let’s hope that he can yet find his way to Quality Street before the Season begins.
782 Responses to “Arsenal Find Turkish Delight A Little Bit Hard To Swallow”
Enjoy the rest of your time in South Hams.
10% please!
Oh, and by yourself a beer out of your cut. Good report. Just the right amount of disgruntledosity at the end 😉
The title is in the usual ‘holic style 🙂
Has Sneijder become German? :s
Never did like Turkish Delights,hazelnuts in caramel for me,lovely stuff Tabs!
All Gold, tabs.
You still have that ol’ Black Magic.
Thanks for the report Tabs. A very mellow report which perhaps reflects the current concern as to where we appear to be at the moment – someway far from where we should be! Tempus fugit Arsene!
Tempus very clearly does not fugit for AW – the quintessential Mr Cool.
Delightful..!
Great stuff, Tabs, and thanks.
All Gold indeed, just so we don’t forget Terry’s. 😉
What I found disappointing was that it was like watching Arsenal at any time in the last 5 years. The same old slow build up – sideways, backwards, sideways, backwards…… When we get near the penalty box, we find 10 defenders in there blocking our path, so we try to batter our way through. Nothing has changed! It hasn’t worked before and it doesn’t look like it will work this time either.
Watching bits of a variety of games played elsewhere, from the Football League games to other per-season friendliest, I couldn’t see any other examples where the attacking team face such a crowded penalty area, I guess because they all tend to get the ball forward more quickly. Buying Suarez isn’t going to help until we change the tactics – it didn’t work when we had Van Persie, Fabregas and Nasri.
Great post Tabs, thank you. Nice to do without the hysterical hyperbole (say, what …).
As we’re on “sweets”, I like to think of you all as Milk Tray deliverers :-).
See you at the Totters match.
Masterful writing tabs, a level of attainment which I would be happy to have the power to emulate.
Let’s hope come the end of this week that there will be Celebrations over one or two not-so-Miniature Heroes.
It really did seem to me to be a spot of the ‘same old, same old’. Plenty of possession but no incisiveness in the box and a complete aversion to shooting at goal which changed a little when Giroud came on. Love him or hate him (and I doubt there’s much of the former in this forum for him) as soon as Drogba came on a sense of foreboding descended. The foreboding was soon taken over by deja vu – dodgy penalty and two goals 🙁
However, the fact that they had (and thank the allah I was watching here in Turkey with some Fenerbahce fans who were behind us 🙂 ) someone like Drogba to come from the bench to make an impact shows our paucity of any killer punch either on the pitch or even on the bench.
I, like every Arsenal fan, am feeling bewildered (yes, truly, even though I should know better judging by past form) that we haven’t brought a significant someone in. Or, someones!
Why, oh why, are we at this stage of the close season when we should be using meaningless tournaments such as this to assess how our new talent will fit in? And no disrespect for any young, raw talent who actually were on display.
I’m not that keen on the idea of Suarez either but at least he would give us something even if we might have to censor out the ugly bits.
Sorry; I omitted to pay my respects to Gooner Terry. As a Jenny come lately to this forum, I cannot say I was familiar with him as a person nor his posts but it was very touching to read how highly regarded he was by people on this forum and in his life. RIP Terry; you clearly made a difference.
Pantomime villian is just another way of saying see you next tuesday
I’m betting on Arsenal attempting to repeat the Summer of 2011 all over again, minus the selling of a first XI player. Rather than an 8-goal drubbing by Man U, we’ll see a disappointing 1-1 draw against Villa, and some sort of knock picked up by someone in a thin position (e.g., Gibbs or Mertesacker), which leads to panicked buying of a couple £10m players and a possible loan at the end of the month who weren’t even on the radar.
At least in 2011, Arsenal had brought in Gervinho and Ox in July, two guys who could contribute *something* to the first squad.
Arsenal may not have won the Emirates Cup, but they’re gunning once again for the Procrastination Cup.
Cheers for the excellent write up tabs
I for one am glad they didn’t win the Emirates Cup this year. It certainly hasn’t lead to success when the matches start counting. A good workout and no injuries from the tournament sound just right.
docciavelli @18 – I definitely agree strengthening is critical right now, but I don’t think it’s fair to compare the condition of the current squad, and the subsequent purchasing needs, to the team that was destroyed at Old Trafford. That back line included Traore, Djourou, and a younger less experienced Jenkinson and midfielders like Arshavin and Coquelin. This team includes the players that were bought just after that game, and in it’s current state demonstrated at the end of last year the ability to succeed in the Premiere league.
I do agree with your concern about the potential for an injury in a critical position. What the team really lacks is depth, and a world class striker if Giroud doesn’t make a leap forward in his adaptation to the EPL this year (I for one think he will).
Well in tabs – great write up.
Hey Tabs, Holic owes you big time for this one. Admirable restraint demonstrated by you on ‘our’ Drogba 😉 Good report, pretty much the way I saw it go down. OX worked his way several times into or near the box, just thought he took one touch too many. From what I’ve seen of the pre season, Chelsea is going to be a monster force to be reckoned with.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that I agree with everything tabs said in his report.
I am surprised, however, I have not been following very closely.
I am also somewhat contrary by nature – a revelation which will itself surprise few, if any.
Thanks for the report, tabs.
Wyn Grant, who writes the Political Economy of Football blog (yes, he is an academic as well as a Charlton supporter; doubly damned?), makes this point in a post about the quest of marquee signings.
A stellar player does not make the difference between success and failure. There is an argument that a team’s performance is determined by the weakest link, the least good player.
True or false?
http://www.footballeconomy.com/content/quest-marquee-signing
This is a well written analysis of Liverpool’s and Rodgers’ use of projection of your own psychological failings onto others as a very basic psychological defence mechanism.
Rodgers is such a klutz as the television expose last year demonstrated.
http://ladyarse.co.uk/arsenal/2013/08/hitting-back-at-liverpools-arsenal-outrage/?
Nicely put, Tabs. Drogba just has the evil eye on us.
Interesting article NBN. It is absolutely clear that the weakest link will determine your results and final position as much but probably not more than your strongest player. Manure’s title this season is clearly largely a result of the goals scored by a certain Dutch skunk and the absence of suicidal defending by the defenders they offloaded to the Mackems.
Whilst it could be argued that signing Suarez addresses both the weakest link (scoring goals) and adds a marquee signing, however there are other factors at play. We have to make a marquee signing to show to the world that we are back as a truly competitive club and our future shirt manufacturer wants a European “name” to help sell the shirts globally.
Simples. As the outgoing shirt manufacturer would say, “Just do it.”
well in, tabs. pretty much sums it up. just remember, one swallow does not make a summer.
baff, that concept of projection came to mind reading redtruth’s description of oskar the other day.
I missed that dialogue scruz but I default to ignoring all redtruth contributions which is better for my blood pressure.
Afternoon All,
Cheers for the kind ones.
Dr C @2 – Cheque’s in the post 😉
Ollie @5 – I knew even as I wrote his name down that I should have looked it up just to be certain. Oh well, you live and learn 🙂
Zico @17 – I erred on the side of caution, but truth be told I much preferred your description of Mr Drogba to mine 🙂
Hehs at all the chocolate box references.
Bath @25 – That article you linked to sums it all up very well. Brenda’s “classless” comment just seems to me to be the latest in a long line of very odd comments. Arsenal have made the bids and said nothing thereafter. I cannot for the life of me see how that can be viewed as “classless”. Liverpool, on the other hand, whether it be MD, Manager or Captain can’t seem to stop talking about it.
Rapidly going off Brenda. Did think that he was fairly innocuous, but am rapidly coming to the conclusion that he’s not very bright. A huge great portrait of himself hanging at his home was doing the rounds on twitter yesterday. I realise that this might have been the work of someone who’s pretty handy at Photoshop but I do so hope it was the real thing. Very classy if so. Even Wolfie doesn’t have that much self-regard.
Also worth bearing in mind that Liverpool had to make a grovelling apology to Fulham last Summer for tapping up Dempsey. Hypocrisy knows no bounds in the soap opera that is the Premiership.
tabs – that portrait is real and hangs in his hall – it appeared in the cringeworthy (if you have any self respect) programme last summer showing how the new manager was going to take the Scunts back to the top (where they do of course belong as of right).
Brenda is further out of his depth than Gollum, and that’s saying something.
tabs, i think it’s true, about the portrait. it was exposed in that really classy liverpool television experiment of last season:
http://www.sbnation.com/2012/9/9/3304936/brendan-rodgers-has-a-painting-of-brendan-rodgers-in-his-house
NBN, True or False? Bath, I must disagree. Theoretically, the weakest link in any team, is either the goalie or a defensive player. If a team doesn’t ship any goals, they at least don’t lose. Sounds too simplistic, but true none the less. But of course, OUR top priority is securing a player who has the killer instinct, not over thinking/playing.
beat me to it, bath!
well, best of luck to “the swerve”, sorry abb…
http://www.arsenalstation.com/2013/08/04/picture-gervinho-with-his-new-roma-shirt-ahead-of-7m-move/
ABB@34 – not true. People default to blaming the keeper or a defender for a single error too easily. How many errors do forwards make? Dozens every game.
A weak forward/forward line means that the defence looks weak as the team loses as a result of a fluke goal or one moment of genius from the opposition. That’s certainly our position last season and was our flaw yesterday too.
and this:
http://www.arsenalstation.com/2013/08/05/picture-gervinho-training-with-roma-before-6-9m-deal-is-confirmed/
tabs @ 30 – the self-portrait is real. WHAT a twat.
As I wrote on the previous set of drinks, Liverpool are in the process of chucking an epic tantrum.
We’re now only a few weeks from the end of the window. Very soon they are going to have to wake up and smell the coffee; no other bidders have yet materialised and if this continues to be the case they need to choose between selling to us for the best price we’ll offer or holding onto a disgruntled player who has publicly stated he wants to leave and will presumably push again in January and/or next summer.
Their stance makes it quite clear that they’re willing to sell (you don’t keep talking about it and throwing out valuations if not), so that ship has sailed. Now it’s just a question of to whom, for how much and how late in the window.
Frankly, I think that their resolve will cave fairly quickly if they wrap up the signing of Douglas Costa. Regardless of what they say, he’s quite clearly a replacement. I also think that a Suarez transfer request would bring this to a head pretty quickly.
However this plays out, Liverpool ave made themselves look like total bell-ends, yet again. All the hysterical shrieking about “class”. I have to applaud Arsene and the club for keeping their thoughts to themselves – I know the press appear to have interpreted this as a monumentally offensive gesture, but it’s exactly how people should behave, and much better than we’ve been subject to when we’ve been on the receiving end.
Here’s hoping we land him and he sticks a hat trick past them when we next face them. He seems the type who would probably enjoy that.
Suarez’s failure to acknowledge the applause of the Mugsmasher fans during his 20 minute cameo and failure to attend Steeeeeeveeeeeee Geeeeeeeeee’s ‘Gala Dinner’ suggest his ‘love for the club’ has dwindled somewhat.
A transfer request or some legal agitation would no doubt facilitate an exit.
Scruz, will check your links in just a minute. 😉 Now Bath, Per was at fault for that 2nd goal. Not really blaming him, 2 games in as many days! Mikel was poorly positioned for the first. But, I find your premise, and NBN’s question, very stimulating 🙂
Seeing rumours that Miquel and Yennaris are about to be loaned out.
Scruz, He’s not smiling. Sigh. My biggest concern for him, are the fans there. They simply must back him. Unfortunately, racism is just under the surface there as well. Will follow him as best I can.
Had Feo scored with the through ball from Rambo and OG controlled a ball in the box better and scored, and hit his early shot away from the keeper – we would have won 4-2. The weakest link in this Arsenal team is the absence of goals (i.e. a reliable goalscorer) not an occasional individual defensive error.
Scruz/Bath/N7 – Cheers for the confirmation that the portrait is real. Haha, I can only join in the general condemnation – what a monumental bellend!
N7 @39 – Agree with all of that. It’s all over bar the shouting, Suarez is on his way. No way will Liverpool hang onto a depreciating asset who shows every sign of not wanting to play for them any more. The only question is where he goes. Hope it’s us. Really do need Levy to hurry up and accept a sack of euros from Madrid. I thought it was also telling that AW referenced the Qualifier when he was asked about timetables for new signings. Might be reading too much into his words but it fits with what we were talking about the other day.
As regards the stellar player/weakest link debate started by Ned, I think it very much depends on where the starting point is. Weak sides will be as poor as their weakest link, top sides will be as strong as their stellar player.
Worth remembering I think that Arsenal are a good side with no real “weak links”. We have a good base. What we lack is the stardust, the game-changers that all three sides that finished above us have. I’m not convinced that Suarez on his own would transform us into immediate challengers, but I think 2/3 stellar players would. We already have a good work ethic, team spirit, collective energy etc, it’s the game-changers Arsene should be shopping for in my view.
Good luck to Gervinho. I liked him when he first joined, had a trick or two and made things happen. After departing for the African Nations Cup in 2012 however, he came back with his fragile confidence shattered and never looked like the same player.
A good move for both Player and Club in my view.
I agree with bath.
The main thing we’re missing is a clinical goalscorer, ideally one who can create chances from very little.
We all saw last season that, once this team is in front, it’s capable of sitting a little deeper, protecting a lead and looking to hit on the break with pace. That’s how we should be looking to play, in my opinion.
I seem to recall that we didn’t lose a single game last season after taking a lead (could be wrong, but can’t think of a counter-example).
What we need is that first goal.
In pure footballing terms, leaving aside his general behaviour, I honestly believe that Wenger has targeted the best possible available player to fill that particular gap in the squad.
Although a defensive midfielder, an experienced back up keeper, and (frankly) some more warm bodies to pad out the squad also wouldn’t hurt.
Totally agree with tabs @ 45 re: the solid base.
I don’t think anyone should underestimate the huge strides that the squad made last season in this particular area.
I honestly feel that if you take away Cesc and RVP (the “stardust”) this is a better squad than we had in 2010-2011. That side was packed with talent, but (Barca aside) utterly bollockless when it came to the crunch.
If this gets through, the rain passed through today and if this sunshine remains I will now be realatively incommunicado intil Thursday night. Mahoosive thanks to TaBS for scribing, and you good people for reading. Cheers all.
No probs ‘H. Enjoy the rest of your break. Hope the weather cheers up for you.
Well done Tabs! Thoroughly enjoyable read. Won’t be commenting any more on the game, you’ve summed it up nicely and I’ve already talked enough about Drogba in the last blog to get me banned from the bar for a lifetime.
Cheers Toby.
Think Drogba will always divide opinion. As I said above, I liked Dr Z’s description of him, but I would have loved him if he’d played for us.
Some geezer on ESPN is saying we’ve been given permission to speak to Suarez.
Slightly dubious about the authenticity of this, but here it is:
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/video_audio/227775.html
Surely has to be bollocks.
I fully expect Liverpool to see sense, but I can’t believe they’ve gone from “we hate Arsenal, they can fcuk off” to “here you go lads” inside 24 hours.
I sense a game being played. Either that or Rodgers’ self portrait has fallen on his head.
As did I, and as would I. I am just, as you seem to be, honest enough towards myself to admit that both views can hold true, at the same time.
Or as Mourinho said:
“I am no longer Chelsea coach, and I do not have to defend them any more, but I think it is correct if I say Drogba is a
divercunt.”Oh, this is good. David James has just weighed in to explain how, by selling Suarez, Liverpool can increase their chances of a top four place.
Unconventional theory that… sell your best player to a team who finished a dozen points above you in the hope that it will help you catch them up.
A career in management beckons:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/luis-suarez-transfer-arsenal-can-2128454#.Uf_plKW6qDs.twitter
Blimey – just noticed it’s Paul Mariner doing the ESPN report. Didn’t recognise him at all.
He looks like the creepy old maths teacher who you always thought got a bit too much pleasure out of giving boys the slipper.
Toby – Haha 🙂
N7 – Wow that “some geezer” is Paul Mariner, erstwhile Arsenal centre-forward in the eighties. Age is a terrible thing, barely recognised him! 🙂
No idea if it’s true, though perhaps today’s events at their fan day and a more decisive request to leave from LS has reaped dividends?
Even if it’s not true, I rather like the idea of one of our own putting the cat amongst the pigeons.
As for David James, having suffered his punditry for the first time on BT yesterday, he must be right up there with the very worst in the sea of mediocrity that passes for Football Analysis in this country.
Ah I see you had already twigged 🙂
Cheers tabs.
Have to confess, it took me a minute to clock who he was. Had no idea he was even working for ESPN.
Ah well, fingers crossed he’s got some inside info. Even if not, it stirs the pot a little more.
Cynic @57. He does indeed.
I saw him first at the tail end of last season – had to do a double take. Not the Mariner I remember. He has clearly lived a little.
This new advert for the EPL on NBC in the US is pretty good. It was only appropriate they use Spuds as the coach in the video doesn’t really seem much worse than Harry.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2384367/Andre-Villas-Boas-Ted-Lasso-Tottenham-NBC-spoof-ahead-new-Premier-League-season.html
Heh Bearded.
A definite upgrade on Harry 🙂
Ciprian Marica anyone?
Had to google him Bath. I thought you were offering a round of fancy cocktails! 🙂
Never heard of him, so I think “no idea” will have to be my considered response.
tabs – that was my thought.
Eastern European Ferrerro Rocher?
His agent is talking up a link. Romanian ex-Dynamo Bucharest, Shakhtar, Shalke. Wide and central forward. 1 goal every 4 games or so.
Free agent. Seems to have peaked.
Hopefully just agent talking big.
Think we should honestly consider the alternatives to waiting on Suarez.
We know our requirements still outstanding following the draw and loss in the ‘cup’.
1) Striker with bite
2) LW/Creative midfielder cover for santi
3) DM with height/CBack cover
But rather than invest and risk exposure in 40m++ on one player with an overbite and some peculiar habits (talent and work rate granted), might we be better off with two more modest but reasonably adept acquisitions.
Get Benteke for 18-22m AND Michu for 10-12m. Combined total should not cost us more than around 30m which leaves plenty to spare for a quality bid in the third requirement for a DM with height to cover the ever present Diaby.
Dare I suggest we can put 24m then into say a Fellaini or even set our sights lower on a reasonably no nonsense Capoue with money to even add Grenier on an improved bid considering he is on one season extension at Lyon?
Getting Michu AND Benteke will limit our exposure to risk in selling on say Suarez should he not work out and double the possibilities that one will hit the ground running, and before the Villa game.
Michu can additionally be played as an attacking midfielder/LW. @27-28, he will have 2 to 3 seasons of good service left affording some of our younger players a bit of time to work into the positions he will cover.
Wenger has made some poor decisions in market (as testament by recent departures of dead wood) but he has always minimized our losses because he has been frugal with price, something crucial for our self sustaining model.
As example, Gervinho whom we bought for 12m was let go for 7m which extrapolates to roughly 5m loss. I can even begin to wonder what sort of loss we will expose ourselves to if for some odd reason Suarez at 40m+++ might do a belly flop on signing.
So just a thought, maybe rather than putting all the eggs in one basket and waiting for other issues to play out (beholden on the fancies of certain clubs), we should just give Liverpool a take it or leave it offer at 35m (not even 40m honestly). If they don’t bite, let real have Suarez, we should grab two in hand and get ourselves sorted for the new season rather than leave it late and at risk to another slow start.
Some thoughts on Galatasary game.
1) Keeper. It’s between the two Poles. Don’t see any new addition necessary for now.
2) Sagna. Sign him up. Still versatile, fit as a bull terrier and significantly better than Jenkinson.
3) Ramsey, should be played positionally ore disciplined and withdrawn. he is shoe in for an Arteta replacement IMO if he keeps his effort but seems a bit disjointed with the box to box role. Prefer him to sit deep and spot out (execute) the sort of service he gave to Walcott.
4) Santi/Ox. Prefer Ox out wide. Prefer Santi in the middle (size deficiencies granted) where his two footedness gives us better unpredictability.
5) Sanogo and Akpom for Giroud, Gnabry for Podolski, Eisfeld for Rosicky, but all worked in within the next 2-3 seasons rather than depended on now. That would be both foolish and unfair to them.
Should have a spot for the excellent Zelalem even at tender cesc age. Again, should be given room to grow rather than too much pressure early. So striker, LW/CAM and DM/CB still required.
Well done, TaBS. Cheers!
Drug-bar will always be a cheating C U Next Tuesday. If we sign the Uruguyan cannibal, we will have a racist cheater of our own to love and enjoy.
BMBD
Evening. I have not seen any of the game yesterday. The emirates cup did not throw up any real surprises. Two defensive howlers against Napoli and then outdone again by a Drogba cameo, again, and even though he is now a pensioner.
Could not get excited about the Emirates cup, so much so that I couldn’t even be arsed to take the kids this year. When I heard the teams attending it put me off and the current non activity has left me quite disillusioned about the whole situation.
I have just been reading AW’s interview. Reading between the lines it seems that we may not be planning any major moves until we know our champions league status. Personally I find that very worrying and that it leaves us massively vulnerable. I dread to think what we will do if the unthinkable happens.
Re the weakest player. Surely by strengthening the squad the weak are the ones to lose out???
Not a bad effort Tabs, I have read worse…….
😀
Julio Cesar on the verge of moving to Fiorentina apparently.
Just saying.
You’re too kind Steve 😉
Cheers Lonestar.
Old n slow. The Poles are both better.
For once I don’t agree Bath. Shezza for me still has a lot to learn. I think we have let him down to a certain extent by not providing him the experienced mentor back up that he needs. As for Flappy???? He still scares the living daylights out of me.
Agree with Steve re: the Poles.
That said, I’ll believe Cesar’s gone when I see him in a Fiorentina kit; he’s been on the verge of signing for a new club several times this window.
Just saw the first “Suarez medical tomorrow” rumour on Twitter. Surprised we haven’t seen any of them earlier to be honest.
N7: Cesar is beginning to approach Bendtneresque levels of almost signing for teams only to fail due to wage demands.
My understanding was Napoli was an agreed deal but fell through due to excessive wage demands. Reports now suggesting a deal at 3 million is now agreed.
Lars, maybe it is the first medical, but can you count how many transfer requests he made?
Remember when we were interested in Downing, it seems we missed him once again, bloody hell. He could join forces with Alaine Pardeaux in Nouveau Chateau.
Waggner out!!!
Aye Lars, but do they say where the medical is? Madrid or the Lane?
John Cross quoting Arteta on transfers just now: “It will happen. I have no doubt about it…. It will happen for sure…. the great players normally come at the end of the transfer window… I think Arsenal will do well in the transfer window.”
There you have it. Now we can all choose who we want to believe: the club captain, some doomer on Twitter who wants the manager out or our own twitching nerves.
Personally, I’m going with the geezer with the perfect hair.
COYG
Ciprian Marica anyone?
Ice, no slice thanks.
Three of the top ten Premier League shirt sales are Arsenal players, and Bale is not on the list.
10. Cazorla
9. Oxlade-Chamberlain
8. Wilshere
Some Dutch bloke is number one.
With you on that one N7.
Tabs-apologies for lateness I am in Norfolk with intermittent broadband. Lovely report. Still have no idea what is in Wenger’s mind. Everybody other than Suarez we are being linked with is a player with no EPL experience and aged between 18-20. Has the penny not dropped about Project Youth. He is saying we might have to go into a Champions League qualifier with a squad he has sold or loaned TEN players from. If I didn’t know better I’d think he has taken a bad blow to the noddle cos he isn’t making much sense to me
Great write up tabs, basically my thoughts 🙂
I was at the game on Sunday, my first since we lost 3-1 to Bayern back in February.
The day started with me running late to meet two of my good mates @ Highbury & Islington Station (U had purchased the tickets 😛 ), we then walked down the Holloway Road with the rest of the Matchday Gooners, a nice first experience for them I hope. I did note to myself that it wasn’t the same atmosphere as it was for a League or CL Game, no “Red Army” or “Come on you Gunners” to be heard as we walked down the road. No time for Piebury Corner or The Tollie with only 15 minutes before Kick-Off of the FC Porto/Napoli game, we headed straight to The Grove. Programme bought at an extortionate £5 (which was wasted as some cunt managed to spill a pint underneath my seat which was where I’d casually placed my bag with programme inside 😡 ), we navigated the Turnstiles and entered the North Bank to take our seats for the 1st game. It passed soon enough, although me & my mates were perplexed that Higuain was booed the way he was (I still haven’t seen the highlights of Saturday’s match vs Napoli), its not like he said outright he didn’t want to come to Arsenal, he did wait 2 days for us to come in for him & we didn’t because of a switch of target, end of story. Guess some Arsenal fans are like sheep, herded in whatever direction the Media Shepherd decides…
After our game had started, Sanogo soon had the crowd on their feet, willing him to score on his debut but it wasn’t to be, I feel that he should have ‘dinked’ the ball and remonstrated it to my mates but it was early in the game, he would get another chance if I recall correctly but he failed to put that away also, I was impressed by the shift he put in though, from my perch in the North Bank Upper it seems like he played across the front three attacking positions, not ready for 1st Team football though as others have already suggested, seemed to be ready for an Capital One Cup appearance though.
Theo crossed a goal in that first confused the North Bank Crowd, then had us laughing at his bemused face as the team slowly went to celebrate with him, Mertesacker in the lead 😆 The crowd seemed more animated, the usual chants began to ring out 🙂
But after Half-Time, things took a turn for the worst, Sneijder & Drogba came on to curses (especially for the latter) and we were overran in the midfield. Sneijder always looked dangerous, shooting close from range & Miquel had a game to forget, Drogba must have rubbed his palms with glee at the chance to terrorise him. A penalty conceded by our young Spainard due to typical actions from Drogba who duly dispatched it & then he popped up again to score the winner, Mertesacker being left for dead although I wouldn’t be surprised if Miquel was somewhat involved in that scenario 🙁
After Drogba’s double, we never looked likely to restore parity sadly bar one burst down the right wing from Jenkinson I think. 2-1 to Galatasaray at Full Time, we left the stadium as the Galatasaray fans celebrated along with some no mark Spuds fans that had already been reprimanded & removed for drinking open containers of alcohol around children, the less said about that pathetic rabble the better (don’t think you’d catch any self-respecting Gooners going to Shite Hart Lane and cheering on the away opposition -_-), they were asking for a kicking that they sadly never not :/
As we walked towards Finsbury Park Station, myself contemplating having witnessed a 3rd loss in a row live, I witnessed a little Gooner kicking trees in anger as he passed them, my only thought was “You see what you’ve done Arsenal!”
I’m going to the Members Day on Thursday, expecting a tense atmosphere to say the least. Even though it was only the Emirates Cup, it was a shame we had to lose to a Drogba double first of all after the way he terrorised us when playing for Chelsea and lose to Galatasaray, especially after all that’s happened between the two clubs.
Evening all,
Back from a deluged mid-north Devon, and through a somewhat lost Indian monsoon which had settled in over Bucks and Herts on the way home.
Thought I would get the official word on the current squad as during my week of partial media blackout I had lost track of all the comings (ha, ha, ha) and goings.
So, over to .com where we now have listed:
2 Goalkeepers, to get us through 4 competitions
7 Defenders, 2 of whom currently have back injuries of varying severity
8 Midfielders, which include Diaby, Frimpong and Miyaichi, who has a cracked rib
9 Strikers, which include The Ox (bit of a surprise), Gervinho, Chamakh, Park and Bendtner !!!!!
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear …………
Nice one, tabs, you deserve a better game to report on! But no mention of Zelalem? He gave me more hope for the future in his 30-minute cameo than anyone else in the two games.
Would it be entirely ridiculous to sign Drogba now? Not with an eye to the future, obviously, but he still has more than enough to offer as a sub or front man in games where our main men need rest (or get injured). I get the impression he’d jump at an Arsenal shirt, and he’d cost peanuts. Just a thought.
Oskar
“the great players normally come at the end of the transfer window” … N7 (*87)
Who could John Cross mean that would be greater than Neymar, Falcao and Cavani, or even Higuain and Jovetic? Of the possible movers Bale and Ronaldo perhaps, but I wouldn’t put anyone else (Suarez and Rooney included) ahead of those already sold.
Oskar
Great post tabs, just the right balance with a little bit of spice thrown on top 🙂
@62: Bearded, that clip was hilarious! I think it’s safe to say that even if they put 60% effort 4000% of the times they’ll still finish below us 8)
@88: Maybe Lionel’s cousin, Lenny Messy is coming?
Trev knows. Apparently that is still good enough to win the league???
Oskar – with ya on Drogba!
Even at 35 he gave our CB’s the run around!
Holic’ – your recent performance on the Hangout, in concert with the other four wise men was an absolute pleasure — intelligent and thought provoking, with the right amount of humour and good natured banter.
Thanks!
Oskar @88
The quote’s from Arteta, rather than Cross.
I suspect he had RVP in mind. Or maybe he was just thinking about the “great players” who are actually moving within English football (Bale/Suarez/Rooney).
Regardless, the point is that the club captain appears very certain that we’ll buy and buy well, and that should offer some reassurance to those who are concerned the chequebook will remain closed.
N7. I would be lying if I said I did not have grave concerns. As Trev points out, the squad is short of numbers and genuine quality. Both of these we were told we have the money to address. I have no doubt we will make signings but my question is when and of what quality? Players take time to integrate. My view is that we should have at least 2 or 3 in by now for the start of the season and to hit the ground running. You won’t win the league in the first 6 weeks of the season but you can sure as hell lose it.
Steve
I totally agree. Would have wanted to see the new signings bedded in well before now.
However, I think we need to balance our concern with a recognition that this has been something of a strange summer for English football.
Very few of the major clubs have completed their business (maybe only City), and Utd, like us, have yet to start theirs. Of the players who have been bought by English clubs, I suspect only Jovetic would have interested us, and not at that price (£28m).
For whatever reason, the market in England for top quality players is going to be active late this year. We’ve all moaned for years that this is the market we wanted to be part of. This is how it sometimes looks; think about the timing of the van Persie, Cesc and Nasri moves; late in the window each time.
There are plenty of quality players still out there; Suarez, Rooney, Benteke, Fellaini, etc. Of those who have moved, only Higuain looks to me to have been a realistic prospect that we “missed out” on. The market is not passing us by.
Anyway, all this has already been covered in the bar at length. All that’s left now is to wait. I think your concerns are well founded, but I also take some comfort from Arteta’s words, because he’s a thousand times closer to what’s actually going on that any of us, and he seems very positive.
Let’s hope for good news soon.
Just to note, the Telegraph is reporting that Rooney will hand in a transfer request, that his preference is Chelsea, but that he’d be willing to move to us, and that we might become the compromise choice as Utd view Chelsea are their more direct rivals.
Any deal depends on Utd sourcing a replacement. I guess we’ll see.
How do we feel about Rooney? Preferable to Suarez?
Historically I thought Rooney had a stated preference for us. Perhaps he sees Chelsea as more likely to pay his wages and is simply getting behind them cos he really wants out of Manure.
I’d prefer Suarez, but I’d take Rooney in a heartbeat if he doesn’t materialise. In fact I’d happily have both of them so long as we also get a quality DMF.
Oskar
I wonder if the Man U blogs are as edgy as ours? Without Fergie and Scholes and possibly Rooney I reckon they’re about half the force they were last season and if I was a supporter I’d be getting right on to Moyes and his lack of action.
Unless they sign big their squad will be no better than ours, imo.
Oskar
I hated Rooney for so long that it would be weird if he actually plays for us next season.
I have heard that he prefers us as we have more English players, and he seems to be friendly with Jack, Theo and the Ox, so it could happen. Wages might be a problem though.
My main worry with a move like that is, after winning so much with United, would he be motivated to play for us? And, if he took the piss under Fergie, would he take Arsene seriously?
Nearly timely.
Timely?
Oskar
bo0om?
N7. If I am honest I don’t really want either. Suarez is a fantastic player, but as an individual I really do not like him. He has missed 20% of liverpool’s games due to suspension. They have supported him through thick and thin. Putting my non biased football head on I actually feels that he does owe them something for that. He wanted to move abroad because of the way he was treated but now wants to join the team that finished 4th in the premier league???? I don’t buy it. If we sign him my fears would be that as soon as he gets a better offer from abroad then we go through all of this again. That coupled with his catalogue of misdemeanours does not make him a desirable option for me.
If Rooney really does want out of the mancs and wants to go to the chavs then good luck to him. I don’t see we should play second fiddle to him or them. Rooney has also played a massive amount of games in his career and I would genuinely wonder how much he has left.
Looks like I tabsed it….
Oskar, not sure if you have the stomach (or inclination) for the mental posts on a manure blog, but most of them go along the lines of “Why are Nani and Anderson still here?” and “Who do we have to fuck to get a signing?”
Every so often somebody just randomly posts “FUCK OOF ROONEY. SCHOLES=LEGNDE”
😀
Regarding our transfer activity, I am leaving tomorrow to this event http://brutalassault.cz/en/ and returning on Sunday…and I would sure as hell love to open my browser and see Arsenal welcoming new player/s in.
I am going to miss out on watching our CL qualifier as both first and second leg cross with my long needed vacations, but I would be much less nervous if we have gone in to those games strengthened already.
How did Liverpool manage to make a verbal agreement with a man which contradicts his written. As my learned friends on here know, the written usually prevails, unless of course…
…and they say that expected more class from a club who paid to activate a release clause?
I don’t understand, where did we lack class? Because we didn’t put a Cherry on top like the oil slickers do?
Oh give me a break!
Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal!
A word on verbal agreements. As noted above, they aren’t contractually binding.
However, that isn’t to say that they’re entirely without value, depending on context. Businesses are theoretically free to make and break verbal agreements with absolute impunity. However, there is a cost to doing so.
Sophisticated organisations recognise that the power of your word also has value. If you frequently break your word then that has knock on effects; in Liverpool’s case, the next time a star player wants a release clause he will insist on having it formally captured in his contract with all the bells and whistles, rather than simply shaking hands on it with the chairman and leaving the detail for another day.
This isn’t to say that Suarez can force his way out. Just that if Liverpool genuinely did promise he could leave and have now reneged on that promise then it’s not quite as simple as just waving him away – you take a reputations hit by doing so and encourage others to negotiate more aggressively in future.
If I remember my secondary school education properly, oral contracts are valid, but only if there is a witness, right?
If nobody besides Suarez heard what the Liverpool negotiators allegedly said then it’s not an issue. But if something was said to him and his agent/lawyer then it should be binding I think.
I saw this on wiki as well:
Oral contracts, when done correctly before witnesses, can be enforced. For example, In 1984, after Getty Oil was sold to Pennzoil in a handshake deal, which is legally binding under New York law, Texaco made a higher offer, and the company was sold to Texaco. (Even though the case was tried in Texas, New York law applied.) Pennzoil filed a lawsuit alleging tortious interference with this oral contract, which the court upheld and awarded $11.1 billion in damages, later reduced to $9.1 billion, but increased again by interest and penalties.
Thanks for pre-assist, CoR, making the Ollie random assist-special back back back!!!
Well in Oskar.
N7,
I’d have both of them (Suarez and Rooney) in a heartbeat. Furthermore, I really think we’re in for both. And I also have a feeling that we are operating with a high degree of secrecy and measurement because timing could be everything. For example, Manu might not be prepared to deal with us in relation to Rooney if we had already bought Suarez. Similarly, Chelski would immediately turn their attention to Suarez if Rooney was off the table. There could also be permutations about Cesc as its no secret that Manu are in for him. And I’m no more wiser than any of you and I could be entirely wrong, but I feel there’s definitely more questions than answers in relation to various statements made about Fabregas just as much as I feel that the timing of how we do our deals could easily effect our ability to sign the targets we want.
Any truth I wonder that Dein might be involved in some of the transfer negotiations behind the scenes….??? I know you’ll love that question Tabs. 🙂
It is theoretically possible to enforce a verbal agreement under English law, but I have never actually seen anyone be able to do so.
Assuming the verbal agreement meets the basic requirements of contract (offer/acceptance/intention to create legal relations/consideration) it will almost always prove insufficiently “certain” – I.e the other party will be able to find and exploit some vaguely in the wording and wriggle out of it.
I would expect Suarez employment agreement to be an English law contract, though I guess you never know.
Thank you for the ‘timely’ assist, Ollie. 🙂
Oskar
Also very easy to dispute the actual wording of a verbal agreement or for one party to suggest they had understood it to be part of an informal conversation rather than a contractually binding promise.
I would be stunned (and quite concerned) if our strategy with Suarez is to haul Liverpool to court and attempt to rely on a verbal agreement.
Ah okay. In any case, it seems that Liverpool may be making a lot of noise because their position is not so strong. So who knows what’s in that contract or what was promised to whom…
I was just thinking though, when was the last time we signed a player from Liverpool? Can’t remember…
Verbal agreements.
If it ain’t written down then it didn’t happen.
Simple.
Steve T
That’s the shorter version, and no less accurate for it.
Short and sweet 🙂
Do you fellas know when was the last time we signed a player from Liverpool? Or vice versa?
Verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re not printed on.
Oskar
CoR, the last I remember was Jimmy Carter circa 1992 – utter shite.
Joe: I have to admit that I am somewhat mystified by all the various statements made by other people (Arsene included!) on behalf of Cesc, but he himself has, to my recollection, not said a single word all summer about moving or staying. If he was really set on staying, it would only take a quick statement on, for example, Twitter to put it all to rest. It could of course be that he just doesn’t give a shit about rumours and can’t be arsed to issue denials, but with the amount of speculation that has been going on you would think it would be in his interest to issue some sort of statement.
Lars. Perhaps he is waiting for the results of his DNA tests????
😀
Hahaha! Maybe so, Steve! 🙂
heh Steve
Steve T @121 – 🙂
N7 – more excellent work throughout. Thanks.
My other comments are all verbal, so feel free to agree/disagree as you are most inclined. Enjoy. 😉
N7:
I would have thought that a verbal agreement made contemporaneously with the drafting of the contract may impute meaning as to the intentions of the parties at the time should any ambiguity arise in the interpretation thereafter?
Clearly Suarez & co thought that such a buy-out clause was in place and were adamant about that.
And while AFC might be precluded from entering into negotiations with a player without the authority of the selling club, its a little too coincidental to think that they bid £1 over the trigger point without having sight of the contract or by just taking the word of the agent in what is a multimillion pound deal.
Of course, I think your right when you say that hauling the contract into arbitration is not necessarily our strategy, but I wouldn’t rule it out either. For the reasons you outlined earlier, it would be very poor PR for LFC and ultimately would only serve to make what is already a bad situation, much much worse.
The less we hear of arbitration and courts, the more likely that Liverpool have succumbed and accepted the reality of the situation and just asked Luis to stay quiet so that they can organise a replacement and make the most of the deal. In this context, its “welcome to our world in yester-year”.
Of course, if should never have come to that and one can only presume that whoever represented Luis at the time is wearing an extra pair of underwear should all this go awry.
Lars:
Thats exactly the point I’m making. Normally Barca would have wheeled Cesc (and his DNA) out in front of the camera’s by this stage to put matters beyond dispute. Then there’s the fact that he’s just bought a house in London, his little girl is going to be based in London…………..too many questions. His partner has two kids from her previous marriage and they’re aged 11 & 8. So the prospect of uprouting them to Spain isn’t as easy as it sounds especially when there’s joint custody and school etc. I’m self employed. I have two young kids and I travel quite a bit. Whatever career aspirations/ambitions you may have, they are irrevocably compromised and subservient when kids come along..!
He may well stay another year at Barca but it will come at a social cost. Furthermore, there’s a new coach at Barca, its world cup year, Neymar has arrived and he will always be third in the pecking order behind Xavi and Iniesta. Cesc is at the peak of his career and was given so much freedom at AFC. I think he’d be very silly to stay another year in such uncertainty when its only a matter of time before he comes back to London anyway I feel.
Joe @ 125
Most contracts will include as boilerplate an “entire agreement” clause.
This essentially states that the terms of the agreement are solely as set out in the agreement – prevents either party from trying to drag in emails or other communications made during negotiation.
Basically, if you want something to be part of the contract, make sure it gets drafted into the contract.
There was some case law a couple of years ago which challenged the effectiveness of these clauses, but they remain standard practice and should suffice to undermine a claim that a contemporaneous verbal agreement was intended to form part of the agreement.
And that’s before we get into the difficulties I’ve discussed above re: certainty and intention when it comes to verbal commitments.
Don’t get me wrong, I think we will probably sign Suarez, but I don’t believe that we will do so by relying on the legal force of a verbal agreement. I think it’s a negotiating tool Suarez can bring to bear in his dealings with Liverpool (for the reasons I discussed above), but no more than that.
Just to add, it’s my belief that we have probably bid £40m + £1 because it enables Suarez to go bang on Rodgers door and insist that he feels he should be allowed to move.
The clause requires Liverpool to discuss the bid with him. It opens a dialogue and gives him scope to call into question the club’s integrity in breaking their verbal promise to him.
What we appear to be doing at the moment is sitting back and waiting while the pressure of the above does its work.
Suarez simply now needs to make it clear to Rodgers and the owners that he is going to be an unbearable sulky presence in the dressing room and a drain on team morale to a degree that it would be preferable to ship him out rather than hold on to him.
Much as RvP10 and CF4 did to us on consecutive summers.
Funny how we slaughtered the pair of them just for that Bath. Now the boot is on the other foot??????
We are a fickle breed us football fans.
Exactly-
They will need firm evidence to enforce the verbal over the written.
Will Liverpool realise that it is now to late to keep a player threatening legal action to get away? Surely a classy club like Liverpool do.
They sold Nando to Chelsea because he had a dip in form and Chelsea were not considered direct rivals at the time, although they finished 5th that season
Sorry was in a meeting. Have lost my train/chain of thought.
Okay that’s it. Just to say, I know senior officials are telling people we won’t raise our bid, so it looks as though we had no intention of raising our bid, as we ‘firmly’ believe we activated a release clause and that’s it.
That’s fair, it’s just that if we are serious about this guy, their club are expecting 55mill.
In the absence of the verbel agreement sufficing, of course.
Goonertown. That puts us in a very tricky position if someone else comes in and offers £45 million then?????
Steve T
There arent any reports of other interest, just like with Higgi (as the misses calls him), he can be swiped by any club at any time for any agreed fee. We would then have to have a word with uncle Stan to see if we can compete. But the whispers say that we will not compete.
N7,
Of course there is ample caselaw to support boiler plate clause’s and indeed the general parole evidence rule. But there are exceptions too. And I’m not suggesting that AFC are going to directly rely on the legal force of a verbal agreement. But what I am suggesting is that its the basis of an argument that LS can use to agitate for a move and make, what is already a bad situation, much worse to a point of being untenable. And that indirectly suits us.
I feel he will do this before he formally hands in a transfer request and forgoes millions in bonuses (didn’t he do this with Ajax?) because there is just no point in trying to come to any sort of an agreement with LFC. LFC have nothing to loose and more to gain by waiting (should Chelsea or Spurs enter the fray) and I feel would be happy to deal with anyone else other than AFC at this stage such is the effect of the “£1”.
I feel LS will only hand in a transfer request if AFC come to some agreement to compensate him and indeed AFC may have more purchase in that negotiation than trying to come to agreement with Liverpool who are clearly very bitter about the situation.
As I have said for ages now, I think that makes us extremely vulnerable. One big egg in a very flimsy basket. I am nowhere near as confident as others here that we will get the desk done.
Liverpool have demonstrated very publicly already what will happen if at this stage we put in a bid of £55m.
Rodgers or other Scunt: “Ehhhhhh, Gareth Bale is n’t 100% better than Luis Suarez. He’s going/gone for £100m. This bid from Arsenal is simply disrespectful and doesn’t come near to the real value of Luis. Anyway, we have no intention of selling Luis Suarez. He’s a very important part of our plans for the future. Nah, Nah,….Nah, Nah, Nah.”
I think the resistance of LFC isn’t a result of the extra £1 in that bid. It’s their belief that we are the only member of the top 4 that they have any remote hope of supplanting and then only if we don’t re-inforce.
Therefore the move of LS to Arsenal makes that all the more remote – it significantly weakens them and significantly strengthens us. Not to mention all the emotional baggage of being a selling club, accepting they are now SMALLER than Arsenal (despite their mythology) and that they have to accept midtable mediocrity for the foreseeable future.
…and I share your pessimism about our success in this venture Steve and hope we have a Plan C for the forward line as well as the marquee signing.
But we should
Agree with bath.
We’d have to be out of our minds to up the offer right now, it makes no sense as negotiating strategy.
We need to wait for the player to force his way out. Simple as that.
Yes, someone else might come in and top our bid. And then we’ll have a decision to make. That’s the way it works on the high stakes tables.
And our eggs aren’t all in one basket; we’re also in for Rooney, and presumably there will be other players we’re looking at.
This is worth a read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/10224449/Wayne-Rooney-urges-David-Moyes-to-let-him-leave-Manchester-United-after-failing-to-see-future-at-club.html
The manager has repeatedly stressed that Suarez is not our only target.
Have we made an offer for Rooney then???? Must have missed that one.
Bath. I’m impressed that you think there was a plan A and B????
😀
Long and the short of all this is that we seem to be asking Suarez to bite the hand of those that feed him.
Done deal then. 😉
Steve
Ivan called me up last night to confirm we’ve bid for Rooney. He said he was going to ring you straight after – must have slipped his mind.
N7. The manager said 5 years ago in his programme notes against Citeh after another season drifted away that he had identified his transfer targets and signings would be imminent. Guess what? I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, but I will believe it only when it is made official.
At the moment it is a media frenzy. The main problem with that is that we all have our own opinions. It does not become that difficult finding an interview or report to fit that opinion.
It could be an interesting few weeks.
I wish I didn’t care so much. 🙁
Steve T
Totally agree. Which is why I suggest we avoid presuming anything too extreme.
I fully understand where you’re coming from with all this. We’ve been effectively lied to for the last half decade and all sorts of promises have been made and broken re: recruitment. It’s hard not to feel concerned by the lack of activity after all the positive noises in early summer.
However, weighed against that, this is the first summer we’ve had money. The fact we haven’t sold any of our better players speaks to that, as does the huge Suarez bid (I don’t think there’s a single manager in the Prem right now who has ever offered such a large fee for a player). Something has clearly changed.
We should be patient and wait and see how this plays out. We should treat the various information sources available to us with a bit of scepticism (including our own innate nervousness).
It’s not great that we’ve not already added to the squad, but nor it is disastrous. It’s quite clear that most of the transfer activity this summer has happened at the very start of the window (Falcao, Cavani, mainly the oil clubs spending) or is going to happen at the end, with a dead zone in between. That’s not just affecting us, it’s affecting other clubs too.
I don’t believe we are only in for one player, because the exodus from the squad (I believe we’ve lost 28 players this summer) seems to suggest that more than one replacement will be required. That’s really the only piece of evidence I find even semi-conclusive at this stage. Everything else is pure speculation.
Looking forward to seeing how it all pans out. If nothing else, it’s been a fcuking nightmare trying to pick a fantasy league team this week.
N7. All good and valid points.
Re selling, all I would say is that we have no one left in the same bracket that have left in recent years. That may be why.
Apparently the Tollington has now been branded a “pro-Arsene” pub by people who want Arsene out and leading figures within the BSM have been “joking” about torching it. I am just lost for words to describe the stupidity of this.
BSM ??????????
Torching a pub because it supports Arsene???? The irony.
You could not make it up. Surely I am not the only one to notice that????
BSM = the Black Scarf Movement.
And no, you are not the only one to notice that 🙂
The Black Scarf Movement?
Didn’t they record that “like a G6” song?
Perhaps they want to check out section 2 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971.
Black Scarf is when you eat black pudding as fast as you can right?
Joe @ 110
Rooney AND Suarez you say? Ok, all right then, I’d be happy with that.
UTA.
Okay, I get it.
So the release clause only activates permission to speak to the player. Them lot are saying ‘it’s not that type of release clause’ and the media think release clauses allow the player to leave, which they apparently do not???
What a mess.
So the Surez’s claim not to have agreed to this clause and probably confirmed this verbally to which the classy club prob said ‘dont worry mate, we’ll let you go’, without foreseeing that an unclassy club would at some point be ready to compete.
Charm
-ing
Afternoon All,
Blimey, the Blog’s been busy today. Good work by all.
Ttg – Cheers for your kind words. I completely understand your misgivings re what’s going on at the moment. I think it would take a rare Arsenal bird not to share, to a greater or lesser extent, much of your bafflement. At this stage however, I prefer to sit back and much like N7 take some heart from the words of the immaculately groomed one that signings are on their way. Better for my nerves. The alternative is just too horrible to contemplate.
It has been one of the recurring themes of Blogs’ consistently excellent work this Summer that even the Players are urging the Board/Arsene to make signings. For once, I think he’s got it wrong. Far from urging the Club to make signings, I think the players are all “on message” and sending out exactly what the Club want in the public arena. Players talk and the kind of confidence shown by Arteta and others that signings are on their way gives me great heart. He will have more than an inkling of who might be set to arrive. That’s what I’m hanging onto anyway!
Wind – Cheers and enjoy the Members Day. At least Drogba won’t be there to ruin it this time!
Cannons – Cheers mate.
Oscar @87 – Cheers, and you make a fair point re Zelalem. He deserved a mention and it was an omission on my part to fail to do so. I can only plead a thumping hangover from the Saturday in mitigation! 😉
I thought he did well when he came on. He didn’t look at all out of place and the calmness in possession that we were already familiar with from the tour was again to the fore. As you say, a great hope for the future.
N7 @95 – Just a personal preference but I’d take Suarez over Rooney. I think SteveT makes a valid point about the amount of Football Rooney has already played, and I’m not entirely convinced that he will make “old bones” as a footballer. I also think that Suarez will retain more of his “value” beyond this Summer so if neither were to work out at Arsenal I think Suarez is less of a financial risk.
Joe @110 – Haha, this Summer has been so strange that I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. There have certainly been some mutterings across the Internet that Dein is operating again behind the scenes. Whether there is any substance to those rumours, your guess is as good as mine.
N7/Joe @various on verbal agreements. I have to disagree slightly with the first paragraph of your @106 N7. The problem isn’t that they aren’t legally binding, the problem is, as you quite rightly go on to say, one of evidential proof that (a) the constituent parts of a contract exist and (b) what the contract contains. I take your point completely that the higher you go up the commercial food chain and the written contract becomes more and more sophisticated, the less weight (if any) that will be applied to any additional verbal clauses. However I do remember aeons ago, largely during my training, doing both neighbour and Employment disputes where the “contract” hinged entirely on the verbal.
Lars @120 – I might be wrong but I had thought that Cesc had said that he was staying at Barca very early in the Summer? His assertion doesn’t make it true of course and might be all part of the “game”, but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been entirely quiet?
Joe @125 – Pretty much agree with your analysis of both the Cesc and Suarez situations. Or is that just blind hope? 🙂
N7 @127 – Absolutely this. The ball is firmly in Suarez’ court as far as I can see.
Lars – A new low for BSM, even by their standards.
You lot are posting too much, I can’t follow.
So I stopped early and just a word re: Cesc vs Neymar.
Neymar could prove to be a very expensive mistake for Barça if his anaemia doesn’t clear quickly….
tabs@162: now that you mention it, that does ring a bell. In any case I don’t think it really means much either way, it’s just that I can’t see why he wouldn’t be more clear if he had decided what he wants.
Ollie, anaemia? Caused, perhaps, by the Barca doctors taking too many blood samples to establish the contents of his DNA? 🙂
Just a bunch of pathetic bullies, tabs.
heh Lars.
Someone, Steve T I believe, mentioned above how fickle football fans are.
I hereby accuse myself – getting the hang of all these lawyers about the place – of being a fairly fickle football fan.
When Suarez was first mentioned as a £40,000,000 transfer target, I thought, “what in flipping heck’s name are we doing? We finally have proper money to spend and we are going to blow it on a complete lunatic !”
Now, some three, four, five (?) weeks later, and I’m thinking “we simply have to get Suarez – this must not fail. Just get anyone rather than Rooney !”
The signs for two seasons have been that Rooney is shot. I refer you to my “+5 years on his age” argument which I have made twice before and will spare you the tedium of repeating.
Add to that the fact that Suarez and Rooney would be a dead heat in an ‘undesirable personality’ competition, and it leaves Suarez as the only sane choice. At least he still has some potential.
And as George Graham used to say:
“Never buy a player who is on the way down”.
George may have been a little creative on the transfer dealing front, but stupid he was not.
Forgot to mention a good headline for the report Tabs. 😉
Lars @165 – Agree, and that’s why I’m still hanging onto the hope that he might yet leave Barca. I know that publicly the Mancs are still in the frame, but I still think that if he leaves Spain (and that is an almighty big “if”), it is to Arsenal that he would come.
Heh at the DNA tests 🙂
Ollie @166 – Aye.
Trev – Agree with your Rooney analysis and the arguments that you have made before about the amount of games he has already played, though I would stop short of saying he was “shot” at this stage. I still think he has a lot to offer, just not sure for how much longer
Not sure I agree about GG though. He bought his fair share of duffers, certainly in the second half of his tenure. They might not have been on the way down, but only because they were never “up” in the first place – Carter, Mcgoldrick, Pates, Kiwomya, to name just a few.
Trev @169 – Haha thanks. Started well and went downhill thereafter! 🙂
Fuck the BSM if so, how can you even joke about that? Thundercunts.
tabs@170: as long as Cesc has not signed for us or the transfer window has shut without him moving there is a fear within me that he shall sign for ManU, but pretty much all logic speaks for him moving to us if he moves at all.
Could mean nothing, but may also be very significant:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/06/gareth-bale-twitter-tottenham-hotspur
He’s gone Lars! 🙂
Well tabs, let us hope he is!
Though as much as it pains me to say it I must say Tottenham do seem to have been quite proactive and done what they can to limit the damage before it has even happened.
Tabs, spot on. My feelings entirely. The players coming forward with the ‘big signings’ statements are almost certainly doing so with the club’s blessing, if not encouragement.
tabs @162 – Excellent summary and I would add that especially Arteta more than any other player gives me confidence. He really seems to have undertaken the player/coach role in the team so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Wenger has direct conversations with him about transfer plans.
Changing direction a little bit. I could even see Arteta as an Arsenal manager in the future. He seems to have a great positional/tactical awareness and plays a position that requires that more than say a striker. He has leadership qualities in abundance. Although he still has a good couple of seasons left in the tank, especially since he has avoided added mileage over his career from international duty, Arsene will have plenty of time to teach him if that is indeed a career he wants to follow.
Bale will 100% go this window. Spurs are already spending the money, and have been for some time.
Their position is very similar to our this time last year, except they’re fortunate in being able to sell their player for twice what he’s worth and out of the country.
I thought that from Xmas on they were fairly unimpressive last term, and were baled out (ho ho ho) repeatedly by the Welshman. They ship goals for fun, and nothing appears to have been done to address that over the summer. I think they’ll do well to match last season’s point tally – it’s hard when your best player leaves.
Oh, and in case anyone is in any doubt, it is far, far better for us for the LWCs to have a big pile of cash than to have Bale.
bath @ 177 – spot on.
Bearded, interesting idea about Arteta. Didn’t he also act as more or less an assistant coach after he had to be subbed off in the Newcastle game in May? I seem to recall reading about that.
N7@179: could not agree more about your last paragraph. It feels a bit shit to have to hope for them to crash in order to make it easier for us to at least finish fourth but at this point in time that is what we have to do. What I really hope is of course that we will eventually get those reinforcements in that makes Bale or no Bale irrelevant to us. And yes, that last scentence may very well have been the biggest “no shit, Sherlock?” of the summer 🙂
BBC reporting that Suarez will not travel with Liverpool on their pre-season tour of Norway because he picked up an injury in training. During an open training session at which he trained alone and showed no signs of injury.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23592181
Presumably the same kind of knock that Bale and Rooney are suffering with.
Lars @ 182
Totally agree.
I’m told that only £30m of the Bale fee is upfront. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Spurs will sell him now and buy no further players this summer (I believe we’re all familiar with this manoeuvre).
That will leave them with a net outlay of approx. £20m, which is about right (if not a little toppy) for them.
Bath @177 – Exactly that! The idea that half the squad are going off beam and telling the Club/Manager what to do doesn’t wash with me. One has only to compare the silence of our players in previous Summers to surmise that generally players only put out into the public domain what the Club agrees to.
I imagine that the Club are allowing these types of public requests from the players because (a) they know that serious efforts are being made and (b) they are far more aware than we can ever be that those efforts will in time bear fruit.
All guesswork of course, but that would be my take.
Lars @176 – Pfft, what have I told you about Tottenham before? They are simply not to be taken seriously! 🙂
I agree with N7. They were average after Xmas, and they will be very very ordinary without Bale next season, though I say that without knowing much at all about Soldado or that Brazilian bloke they’ve bought. I work very much from a starting point however that if they’ve agreed to join Tottenham they must be either mentally deficient or crap … 😉
I also maintain that any Tottenham fan that doesn’t think that the majority of Bale’s fee will be poured into the big black financial hole that is their fictional new stadium is deluding themselves.
Bearded – Interesting observations re Arteta. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if that was the sort of role that he took on in the future.
Lars, yes that incident definitely comes to mind. He also seems to give a lot of direction to players on the field and in some of the training pictures. The pictures below also comes to mind.
Now why AW didn’t make him captain when he had the chance just seems odd, but it may have been easier to explain making the vice captain at the time the captain.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27453474@N02/8157719754/
http://24.media.tumblr.com/45ada6d14e69b15bf0d91657f4c19a32/tumblr_mn2373J4kk1r41s6jo1_500.jpg
tabs @ 185
One of the Arsenal blogs (which shall remain nameless but you can fucking guess which one) last week suggested that the players would probably welcome any booing the fans might wish to engage in at the Emirates Cup.
Their logic was that – clearly – the players have all turned against Arsene. Their total lack of effort and solidarity in the run in from Xmas was evidence of that, but add to it their comments over the summer re: hoping the squad was improved and you’ve got a veritable mutiny on your hands.
In that context, of course they’d LOVE to be booed while going about their business. Because they’d know that the boos weren’t for them, but for the oppressive slave master who prevents them from playing the pure, exhilarating football of which they all know they’re capable, and who resolutely refuses to bow to the common will and improve the squad. Yeah, that bastard.
All of the above said with what appeared to be a straight face.
Modern football fans.
Of course, the great joy of being a mindless, cat-calling sheep is that you win either way – if the team lose then they bloody deserved it. If they win then you must have motivated them.
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything scarier than being at an away ground and hearing the home fans booing the team off at half time – “fcuking hell” you find yourself thinking, just imagine how MOTIVATED the bastards are going to be when they come back out for the second half.
What flabbers my ghast is that they’ve managed to get so much for Bale. He’s a very good player but there are better players that I would have before him available for far less money.
One on hand you think, RM are a cute bunch, holding back from selling Higuain to us and getting 10m more from Benitez. And then they go and spend a mint on Bale!
Wind
Your day at the tournament, sounds similar to mine. 😉
tabs, you sure have told me that many times! And I should add that I do agree that they were quite ordinary for most of the season apart from Bale. However, if they can stay at the same level as they are (assuming Paulinho and Soldado are successes) then our wafer-thin squad at the moment makes me worried. Don’t get me wrong, all players fit I think we have a better squad than they do but we won’t have all our players fit for very long periods of time if any. Having said that, at this point they have only one fit central defender (at least they did the other day when I read about it) and that is Dawson who hasn’t exactly been Mr Reliable in terms of fitness in recent seasons.
Joe: I actually think one contributing reason for Real bidding – assuming it is true – €100 million could be pure cock-measuring and posturing for the Real fans. Barca have Messi and have just bought Neymar for a shitload of money and Real have to somehow top that, no matter the cost.
Well, got to be off for some food – I do expect us to have made at least three stellar signings by the time I have eaten. Or maybe not…
Another upside of not buying Higuain is knowing that those long-nurtured £100 notes from below Arsene’s mattress aren’t simply being handed over to the LWCs for an overpriced one season wonder simian sheep shagger.
Having said that, if we do manage to hire Suarez, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Brenda signed Adepaymore or Deflop to replace him and paid Monsewer Levi over the odds as is their wont.
Good call Lars @191. Bound to be a factor. It’s on the never never. What does an extra £40m matter? Ridiculous pricing.
N7 @187 – Aye, couldn’t agree more.
If it’s the Blog to which I think you’re referring, then I’m afraid I’ve long since given up on giving them the benefit of my click. The idiotic “logic” of most of their diatribes just defy any credibility.
Joe – Cute certainly but still pretty baffling. Obviously RM enjoy huge commercial sponsorship deals and the Spanish TV deal is obviously ridiculously weighted in their and Barca’s favour, but if they buy Bale for the reported sum, their net spend this Summer will be eye-wateringly high.
They always used to be bailed out by the Spanish govt. Surely that still isn’t the case given Spain’s present problems?
I’ll just start a move as I leave the office.
Lars, yep you’re right, if things stay as they are then I would be seriously worried (though I still reckon the Totts would find a way of fucking it up!)
I just refuse to believe that we won’t strengthen, and strengthen well, this summer, after all that has been said.
Fingers tightly crossed …
Good article on Real’s finances:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/03/real-madrid-uefa-financial-fair-play
Most pertinent takeaway for me was that transfer fees are not the key to FFP. Wages are.
Which presumably accounts for some of our deck-clearing this summer.
Chips a Petit-like ball over the defence and runs to the penalty spot.
Has anyone noticed that Gustavo’s reported valuation has lowered since the beginning of the window? Or has it always been €20 mil?
Is this what happens when nobody shows thy expected eagerness to sign?
Reportedly he’s a talent. In the same league as the godugens and benders.
Has anyone noticed that Gustavo’s reported valuation has lowered since the beginning of the window? Or has it always been €20 mil?
Is this what happens when nobody shows that
expected eagerness to sign?
Reportedly he’s a talent. In the same league as the godugens and benders.
Puts in false teeth, boots Brenda in the head, and does a massive belly flop to deflect the ball forwards …
Oh for fucks sake! 🙁
Well in GT.
^
Um, I’m sure I wasn’t posting that quick.
Well in GT, and runners up position with the same post as well. You are clearly a very talented fox in the box. Commis tabs, you were really in the tabs position.
Robbed of the 201 glory by a double post Bath 🙂
C’est la Vie!
Cheers for the link N7. Interesting stuff.
Interesting stuff N7. Thanks for the link – I had not seen that. More evidence that FFP will not work in the way some would like it to.
Evening all. Could anyone enlighten me as to who started this Tollie torching bollocks?
A big boy did it Guv, and then he ran off.
Think it was that Black scarf Harold or whatever he calls himself ‘H.
yep, information is captured in top too, I think 😉
Thanks Tabs and bath.
I like to think of myself as ‘right poacher o goals’ 😉
Long story.
Holic. It wasn’t Arsene.
😀
Holic. It wasn’t Arsene.
😀
Suarez picks up the pre-transfer injury:
Unsettled Liverpool striker Luis Suarez will miss the club’s pre-season trip to Norway with a foot injury.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23592181
What happened? Bit his own foot?
IG : Thank God , good news at last . Who have you bought Arsene ?
AW : Ants .
IG : Ha ha Arsene means Ricardo Alverantz , tricky Argentinian left winger .
AW : Non ,Ivan , Non . I mean Californian Red Ants . Zey are small , young , cheap , ave a good work ethic , collective energy extraordinaire . Zey ave to be seen to be believed . Very good at making ze late run into the Box unseen , I ave bought 3 for our forward line .
IG : Dear God no .
AW : I am a revolutionary coach ,it iz my dream .
IG : But what about having Arsenal DNA ?
AW : Zey are Red Ants , zey love this club .
IG : But the fans won’t be able to see them .
AW : Zey are Red Ants .
IG : But they won’t fit into our Total Football system .
AW : Zey ave six feet , zey ave ze potential for fantastique ball-juggling skills .
IG : *banging his head on the table* But where’s our aggression , where’s our bite ?
AW : Zey are Red Ants , zey ave quite a nip .
BEHIND THE ARSE 29/06/11
Just call me a visionary! 🙂
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/club-announcement-turfies-060813/
Goonertown,
Self assisting in the Tabs position – ooh, er – could well be a red card offence. More serious than assisting your own goal.
Mind you, Tabs was sooo slow, your offence may well be judged accidental. 😉
I think that’s a very fair appraisal Trev 🙂
What would have been my local team growing up, ie had I cared about them, just drew with Man Utd, getting Nani and Evans injured in the process (no, no crazy tackles). Not wanting people to get hurt or anything, just saying that maybe I should have paid them a bit more respect in my younger days…
Why is everyone (some exaggeration) double posting ?
Oh, and by the way, how do we know that Real Madrid have actually bid £100 million for Bale ?
Sounds most unlikely to me. Probably a line being fed to the press by D Levi just to wind up The Arsenal as we have lost all our best players, comparatively, for about fourpence.
Aha, return of BTA I see.
Those were the days, when summers of hopelessness were spent inventing delirious nonsense like BTA and redesigning the Happy Train, just to keep spirits up.
They were the good old days. We had nothing, knew we had nothing, and expected nothing.
Things have improved no end with our newly established wealth.
Haven’t they ? 😉
Just a tired old repeat Trev.
Sign o’ the times innit 😉
Just a tired old repeat Trev.
Sign o’ the times innit 😉
Matter of fact, we used to play in t’shoe box in t’ middle o’t’ road.
Aye, thee were lucky ……
Sorry. 😉
It is. 🙂
It is 🙂
Speaking of Trev, soon I’ll even take Archimedes, Socrates, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx or Kant as a new signing. Preferably Hegel. Always been especially fond of Graham Chapman. Might be because of his name that includes a few Arsenal managerial greats…
Various hehs chaps. 🙂
What a team those boys were Toby. Never get tired of seeing them in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur5fGSBsfq8
The Scene : DL Ltd Operations Room
An expectant, excited Professor Storey walks through the door of the Operations Room on his first day back at work, following his annual summer holiday. Full of ideas as ever, he is bemused by the lack of activity in the office, on the verge of a brand new season.
Sat at his desk, lost in a trance, sits Dr Feelgood.
Edwin : “What the f***? Where is everybody?”
Wolfgang Smallballs, (the only other “person” in the room) is admiring a new outfit in a full size mirror, twirling for effect…..
Wolfie : “This is it. They’ve all gone. Feelgood has sacked everyone, even Borda Disorder. I think we could be next, which is why I grabbed these new Dolce & Gabbana swim shorts, whilst I could still charge things to Expenses…..”
Feelgood stirs, and catching only part of the conversation, glares menacingly at Wolfie and states :
“Well, Madam Smallballs, that’s where you’re wrong, you and Professor Storey are critical to our new venture, but in order to make way for new blood I had to clear the decks – I had to get rid of the deadheads…..”
Edwin : “Erm, I think the expression is “deadwood” Dr F……
Feelgood (continuing, oblivious)
“and I had to introduce some drastic cuts in the wage bill, what with Financial Foreplay in the offing……so we are going to have to do more with less.
At least until the new guy gets here.”
Edwin : “New guy?”
Feelgood : “Just what the Happy Train needs. He’ll be Like A New Siding. He’s South American and he’ll give us some bite.”
Wolfie : “Oooh. Tongues?”
Edwin : “But can we afford him….and who is he?”
Feelgood: “We can afford him. He has a release clause in his contract. His name is Lewis Sore-As.”
Edwin : “It’s called parole Feelgood, and I expect he’s sore for all the wrong reasons….”
Wolfie (grinning): “You think?”
To be continued……
Haha, that’s what we need!
Great stuff Dr Z 🙂
I would not be seen dead in a pair of Dolce and Gabbana “swim shorts”.
I take that as a personal affront.
It’s Speedoes or bust for me. Pah!
Actually, the Greeks did score quite a goal. I wonder how many times they recorded that scene before that final header was put away with such aplomb.
And thanks Zico and Tabs for great pieces. Made my evening better. Now, about them D&G shorts…
You can lead a Wolf to Haute Couture but you can’t get it to think 😉
Feelgood,
I hope you appreciate my working at this late hour – New Quackery staff are not amused.
However, we have now completed the initial examination of your new incoming, Lewis Sore-As.
In typical style, you even managed to get the name slightly wrong, but let that not distract from the issues of import.
It transpires that your man will be the richest footballer in the country if, as expected, he eventually joins DL Ltd.
This appears, at any rate, to be his destiny, as evidenced by his real name – Luis Pecunia Sore-Ass.
His name, translated from the Latin, unfolds thus –
Luis – meaning ‘Luis’
Pecunia – meaning ‘Money’
Sore-Ass – meaning ‘Piles’
Hence, Luis ‘Piles of Money’.
Always glad to help,
Dr T.
Nothing like a couple of drama queens to distract one from the serious angst of a summer transfer window. 🙂
Dr T
Thanks for your diagnosis.
And doggedly delivered pro-bonio, which is just as well since you should now have received your P44. It would have been a P45 but we needed the odd “1” for Lewis.
The Feelgood Foundation would like to wish you well in your future endeavours in the Pun Factory.
FF
It will be a Fun Pact Pun Factory, for sure. 😉
Dr T.
I know you don’t like to be working late (we can’t all be Wolfie) but since you are getting paid top Pecunia for it, would you mind looking into this lad Bevin? S’posed to be quite the poacher/target man/false nine/winger/midfield artist/enforcer/center half/wing back/sweeper. Quite good in goal as well, but only when playing in Canada (don’t ask, I’ve got no earthly clue…)
Feelgood,
Many thanks for the P44, which turns out to be the Final Salary Pension Certificate.
I have an odd feeling you did not mean to wish me quite ‘that’ well in my future endeavours, but thanks all the same, dear boy.
I shall, of course, be happy to continue my relationship with DL Ltd in a consultative capacity.
Yours expensively,
Dr T.
Toby,
Bevin is a long lost cause.
He was found to be an entirely false nine after his time in Canada, which was actually spent playing in gaol – rather than in goal.
T.
heh tabs 217, though I think you deserve a yellow card for linking to that website (and what were you doing there yourself? :s)
ah bollocks, I see that Lyon will be through to the next round.
So all is lost. Alas. We lost our savior fighting over quelques arpents de neige.
See, not only the Greek and the German philosophers knew a thing or two about football…
Fair cop Ollie. It was linked to on twitter. I guess all football clubs can be hit by an infestation from time to time, but it takes a Club of rare stupidity to advertise the fact. In the circs, I thought it was worth the risk 🙂
Various hehs above 🙂
Right, sorry, that must have been my most pretentious post ever. Even if it in the best of worlds did tie in quite well to Python…
If anyone is interested, .com are running part of my summer interview which, if I say so myself, is rather touching.
Speaking of touching – which is far too often the case in here – I managed to slip in a few words like ‘grasp’ and ‘long and hard’ especially for you, Wolfie, old chap.
Don’t think anyone noticed, to be honest.
heh PHW
Ollie, young fella.
Are you getting that liver back into shape with some intensive pre-season training?
Heh Tabs !
Just tried your Spuds link out of morbid curiosity and, I kid you not, my Safari browser lost the internet connection and I was thrown right out of this site too !
Pure class !
Nah, actually, retracting my apology. Quoting intellectual Frenchmen seems to be pretty much on par for an Arsenal blog, and if nothing else at least Pangloss will appreciate the reference.
Last weekend, the Saturday at last, was a decent session, baff, especially as I didn’t go to the pub so game-time was also spent with beer even if there were only a few of us in the Tollie
-pub, +game perchance?
Need to induce more alcohol dehydrogenase before the season starts.
Sounds like par for the course Trev 🙂
indeed baff 252
Rodgers ” We at Liverpool never accept second best … our aim is to be in the top four”
You couldn’t make this guy up!
Guardian Online promising an exclusive interview as Luis Suarez breaks his silence!
Ooh err.
Here we go lads. Here we fcuking go.
Nice to be on the right side of a moment like this for a change. Hopefully he’s discovered his arsenal DNA and inner little boy.
Refreshing the page like fuck here. 🙁
We are in for Gundogan according to Mirror.
And the Guardian link
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/aug/26/arsenal-sign-sebastien-squillaci
Mirror trump Grauniad online:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-transfers-arsenal-target-suarez-2132028?
No quotes in that Bath. Guardian promised an interview.
Lurky – Booo! 😉
http://twitter.com/domcrofts/status/364866928076021760/photo/1
Luis, you beautiful bastard.
Looking forward to hearing Rodgers next valuation after this.
Patience, tabs, three more minutes. I hope we don’t get disappointed.
Front page of Torygraph.
https://twitter.com/domcrofts/status/364866928076021760/photo/1
Game fucking on!
Haha not as quick at this as N7.
Always the bridesmaid 🙂
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/06/luis-suarez-liverpool-arsenal-transfer?CMP=twt_gu
This is real.
And bang!
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/06/luis-suarez-liverpool-arsenal-transfer?CMP=twt_gu
Now that is making the game interesting.
Wonder if he says, “As a low class biter, I need to move to a low class club!” 😀
Puff puff pass Brendan.
This quote is crucial.
“I have the club’s word and we have the written contract and we are happy to take this to the Premier League for them to decide the case but I do not want it to come to that”
Tabs late again 🙂
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/06/luis-suarez-liverpool-arsenal-transfer
Checkmate.
Can I just say, Liverpool have behaved without much dignity this last fortnight, but spare a thought here for the fans. Because we’ve been where they are tonight and – fuck me – it stings.
It also passes. Life moves on quicker than you think and new heroes step forward.
That said, GET THE FUCK IN!
Game over.
Hand him over Brendan.
Lurky – Aye. Well played 🙂
Looks like he won’t be needing our advice on verbal agreements after all, eh tabs?
What a great moment. Now let’s seal the fucking deal.
I think we’ll see the toys being thrown out of the LFC pram (and a few stolen hubcaps) and I don’t yet feel completely confident that we will get him. However Brenda comes out of this as a total and utter cunt.
Heh – “You guys”, but played with a little more finesse.
Same objective, but delivered with much more carefully chosen words.
Bet the bin dippers are going crackers over this…
Consensus is “sell the fucker”, judging by Twitter.
And look at the fucking hole Liverpool have dug for themselves now. One bidder, £40m on the table, no reason to go any higher and they’ve all but ruled it out and mocked the bid. They’ve played this so badly.
Hardly surprising given their track record in the transfer market. Crap at buying, crap at selling. Graceless. Only good at nicking things.
Good step forward re. Suarez. However I won’t get too excited yet. Have a gut feeling that whatever happens will happen after tricky CL qualifiers, and we need him badly for those 2 games. Catch 22, I guess.
My reading: things will become clear after the draw on the 9th. Much will depend on who we get.
If Liverpool are smart they can probably get £45m now and save a little faith.
If they wait until the 27th and we qualify it’ll be £40m plus a penny, and look like total twats.
Will Ivan pocket 99p then, N7? 🙂
Go on Luis! Perhaps pool knew all along how tenuous their position was with regard to the 40m clause and have spent the last two days in a desperate attempt to get Arsenal to increase their bid or entice others prior to Suarez forcing the issue. Meanwhile AW and the board have sat quietly while they made themselves look like bell ends. If this goes through at 40m it will be a masterpiece of transfer business.
There were some quotes in the Guardian about how Liverpool fans expected Suarez to show loyalty after all they have supported him through. Remind anyone on here of of their fleeting hopes towards a certain foul smelling dutchman in the past?
I’ll still believe it when I see it.
Oskar
N7 @278 – Haha, I guess not 🙂
Great moment indeed. Still won’t be easy but Liverpool now know that they haven’t got a hope of keeping him. Just a matter of when. How difficult will they be?
Hilarious. Don’t want to get all premature here, but I think I’m beginning to love the little cunt already.
Payback for Ray Kennedy. It’s been a long time coming.
You been advising him on the PR front Snowy? 🙂
Bath
Ivan is well worth the 99p.
Bath, two or three times above. 🙂
Why is anyone surprised that Rodgers is such a tosser ?
He was reared by Chelsea. Or should I say ‘trained’.
Nah. 😉
Payback for Ray Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.
N7, it will indeed became clearer after the draw. But only if we get Pacos Fereira or whatever their name. Every other team is a potential torpedo.
True Trev, very true. Suckled by Maureen. Bleugh.
LO, I thought we were signing Paco Fereira? 🙂
Well as you know, I couldn’t possibly comment TaBS. Because Dr Spin might harm me 😉
I’m just sitting here listening to Elgar and clicking ‘refresh’ on NewsNow every 4.6 nanoseconds…
Tabs, great point on Kennedy.
And some selective quotes from your @288:
“Don’t want to get all premature here ……… It’s been a long time coming”.
I guess you can’t take Wolfie out of the man.
So to speak. 😉
3
2
1!
Oskar
Fires a Steeeeeeveeeeeeee Geeeeeeeee type punt over the oppo midfield and defence in the direction of a diminutive buck toothed runner……
Trev/Snowy/Bath – Haha 🙂
Ah that was a glorious moment. Suck it up Liverpool. You’ve had a grandiose superiority complex all my life.
How does it feel now eh? 🙂
BBC has Manure giving up on Cesc and bidding for Fellaini. Why are we not in there?
Oskar
Oskar onanism steals the prize.
Red card , blindness and hairy palms.
Oskar you know there is no self-assisting allowed in this bar. Self-medicating on the other hand…
Mind your own onanism, bath, all’s fair! 😉
Oskar
We have a rule about self-assists, BG? I didn’t know that. Next time I’ll use a proxy…
Oskar
Suarez ‘win at all costs, amorality’ already. Dear, dear, dear.
What an idea just crossed my mind .
We are looking for a CF, CB and DM this summer. Looks like Suarez is going to be our CF. So, come on Arsene, sign John Terry and Joey Barton and we are done for the summer.
Now, excuse me, I am going to throw up, and not on the cat this time.
TaBS @ 302 – 🙂
Personally though I won’t believe anything is REALLY happening until the be-toothed one starts running round saying shit like “It’s up for grabs now”, “Right at then end”, “good ball by Dixon” and stuff like that. Coz that would really piss ’em off 🙂
If I were his adviser i’d make him keep saying that kind of thing to Brenda every couple of minutes or so until he cries.
What are you guys doing still awake at this hour anyway?
Oskar
It’s almost Christmas in Islington. 🙂
Loving the little cunt, tabs? I’m not sure I would go that far, but I would be terribly dishonest if I didn’t admit that I feel quite good about us being at the “right” end of one of these deals for once.
Not at all convinced he’ll join us if Real have any interest in him (which I must say seems unlikely at this stage), but I can’t see him staying at Liverpool now in any case – which will test my theory that they would be better off without him.
Snowy – 🙂
Snowy – Hahaha :0 🙂
Lars – Wel la bit of hyperbole on my part certainly, but heh, gotta enjoy the good moments mate. 😉
Oskar,
I self-assisted completely by accident – during an #FFF sparring session with GoonerTerry – and even that didn’t save me from a red card.
Might as well start walking, old son. 😉
Certainly looks like Ivan Gazidis knew exactly what he was doing with our successive bids.
If memory serves from the days when he first joined Arsenal, wasn’t he somehow ‘in charge of contracts’ for the MLS ?
Really don’t want to jeopardise this, but it is feeling bloody good to be the other side of the fence for once.
That is a great idea, snowy 🙂
tabs, I am all for enjoying the good moments so no complaints from me! And the more I think about it this really isn’t about Suarez for me, it’s more about the fact that this well and truly blows any notion of Arsene being “afraid to spend” and other such claims right out of the water. If anyone ever needed any evidence that the club is working really hard to strengthen the team, well here it is.
Lurky: yuck, what a revolting thought to have that trio on our team 🙁
🙁 It’s a fair cop, Trev. Where can I find a copy of the rules so I don’t transgress again?
Oskar
Trev, if we pull this deal off at £40.000.001 then there is a rather large number of keyboard warriors whose faces will come in contact with a significant amount of egg.
We’ll just let you know when you break one, Oskar. 😉
Lars – it shell be so. 😉
Trev, that was a terrible yolk.
Give ova, bath. 😉
Trust Trev to come up with an egg yolk! 😉
Bollocks, baff was quicker!
The Beeb is finally up to speed.
Lars, your pronunciation will be more natural.
Lars – Whatever happens here on in, the bid is already on the table. Even if Liverpool gamble and wait and we go out of The Champs League or if Madrid come in late for him, and the transfer does not therefore happen, the fact will remain that Arsenal were prepared to pay £40m for him.
Consider those faces already well and truly egged 🙂
Actually a double yolk. 😉
Oscar
1. No self-assisting.
2. Always give me a free run at the ones!
Easy. 😉
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BRBW1SyCMAASj5p.jpg:large
Easy Wolfie
Hope Rob the Chef has the appropriate recipes an’ shit, or that deal is so off…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m904SQBfCBI
Those egged faces may well turn white, Tabs.
They’ll just have to al-be-men and face up to the fact. 😉
Lurky/Snowy – Hahahaha 🙂
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BRBYMfSCcAAsVaZ.jpg
Lurky. 😆
Tabs. 😆
Who does all this stuff !
Heh Trev, I can only imagine just how scrambled their minds are at the moment 🙂
TaBS – phwahahahahahahahhaahahaaaaahaar 😉
All on twitter mate.
Heh LO, snowy and tabs.
Orgasmic.
bath@328, that is actually true 🙂
tabs, if the deal does not go through they’ll probably somehow just convince themselves the bid wasn’t real and that the Suarez statement was faked by Ivan Gazidis…
Anyway, that’s me off to bed. Night all, I hope to wake up tomorrow with some fresh new quotes from the always classy and not in any way twattish David Brentan Rogers.
Well, it is nice that we are all in a good mood, joking and all that. Have we signed anyone yet?!
Bollocks! Please add “waiting to be read” at the end of that last sentence 🙂
Sky Sports News (yes, even them) Breaking News bar:
Suarez: it’s not just something verbal with the coach but something that is written into the contract.
You get out of Rodgers whatever you can Lars. 😉
Nytol. Don’t dream of vampires.
Whispers about Gundogan went unnoticed this evening because of Suarez interview. If we somehow manage to get him it would be really awesome. I don’t think that Dortmund are going to sell him, but the noise is becoming quite louder. I guess we will have to wait and see.
tabs@336, you made me snort milk out of my nose. DAMNIT! 🙂
228
We sold them Micky Thomas.
Hopefully you were drinking some at the time, scruz ?!
Not like you just spontaneously produce milk like some kind of high speed breast-nose ? 😉
Sorry N7 that was 288.
I’m as giddy as I was on 26th May 1989.
What Suarez said “Brendan, you are a lying cheating cunt” but it was in a montenegro ghetto slang version of Spanish so was misunderstood in translation.
Liverpool rejected our 40m+1 bid, so that’s off the table now.
Let’s play hardball and big again at £25m.
blow smoke out of that, Brendan!
lol, trev, wouldn’t wolfie love *that*. he’d be squeezing it like a bulb-horn.
yes, drinking milk to calm my stomach over the possible acquisition of lewis of the piles.
Game time baby lets go!!!!!
Re: Trev @316. The oldest excuse in the book. Being led astray by a dead man. RIP GoonerTerry. 🙂
Bearded @286 knows (as bearded men so often do)…
If what Suarez has said today is true and Liverpool are contractually bound to let him go this summer, then it makes sense that they would try their best to drive his price up before that clause in his contract became public knowledge. It also makes sense the Suarez would keep quiet about it for a while, letting Liverpool try their hand at driving up the price tag, until he felt he needed to speak out to move things along.
Could be wrong, but this version of events fits best with everything we know. It explains, for one thing, why Rogers et al have been going on about him in the media, desperately trying to invite more and higher bids.
No one’s mad at anyone. Liverpool are just doing what they think they have to do. They’ve known all along he was leaving, and so has he. Now it’s just a question of when, and to whom.
And count me among the – apparently decreasing – number who still don’t want him on our team.
Bravo Dr. Z @229. 🙂
If this hilarious* transfer does go through I guess it will prove that Dick knows how to lay down the Law…contract law, that is 😉
*Regardless of how you feel about Suarez, watching Liverpool go apoplectic is fucking funny to me
Morning all,
Finally, the toothy one speaks!
Speculation over?
I just hope we’re not on the receiving end of the Adebayor to City deal. We always said “They will see. He will score goals for them but in the end, the rest will catch up”. And it did. As it did at Spurs. I don’t want Suarez to be our new Adebayor. Had enough of him as it is.
With that said, and with the greatest class I can muster (not much at the moment), this IS quite fun…
Morning.
Lots of excitement last night I see. The so called release clause is reaching pantomime proportions. Oh yes it is, oh no it isn’t. The fact that Suarez has now spoken out though is very significant. There seemed to be some suggestion that he wanted his future sorted by the 15th? That must work in our favour. Head scousers still protesting like mad last night. It had all the traits of the naughty little schoolboy trying to protest his innocence when he knows he is guilty. There could be an interesting few days ahead.
Lucky, I saw the Gundogan link. There seemed little substance to it and looked pure speculation. That said I do remember AW commenting about him. From the brief bits I have seen he looked a fine player. He would be a welcome addition.
Ambivalent.
It’s the word that rushes to the forefront of my consciousness when I wake to the news that Suarez has decided to give his side of the story and all indications appear that Arsenal will get their man (although Arsenal being Arsenal , I don’t expect anything to be straight-forward or routine from here on in).
If we put to one side the obvious pleasure and schadenfreude that emerges from finally doing to someone else what the two Manchester clubs (and Barcelona) have done to us in the last two seasons, part of me still feels rather dirty by all this knicker-flashing, given the subject of our attentions. Yes I wanted us to spend and spend big. But him? Is this the best we can do now that we can spend like a drunken sailor? What will we get for our money?
Well, I guess we can look forward to cursing our ill-luck as he serves his next suspension, no doubt at a critical point in the season when we can least afford it. We can also anticipate that his first bout of vertigo will attract the hounding of a blood thirsty press-pack, ready and keen to make the furore over Eduardo’s “dive” look like a vicar’s tea party by comparison.
Will we also see the return of Arsene’s myopia, blind to indiscretions because the culprit is wearing an Arsenal shirt? I hope at the very least that we learn from Liverpool how to handle whatever controversy Suarez brings, although that will require a leap of faith if it’s left to the current PR team, based on all the available evidence.
We definitely need another striker. And someone who offers something different to those we already have. Suarez ticks those boxes. You could probably argue that he is a game-changer as well and one that opposition teams genuinely fear. What is less obvious is his ability to operate as a team player, and at what cost to team-spirit? Am I the only one who remembers virtually the whole Liverpool team ignoring him in a goal celebration last season?
The other nagging doubt that I have is that we are spending so much time wrangling on this particular signing that it will impact on who and when we recruit the other players equally as critical to the next campaign, as the need for a striker. Goalkeeper, defensive midfielder, full back, central defender. Required. Now.
I will put all the excitement generated above last night down to the fact that finally we had some news.
Me?
I’m ambivalent.
N7
Thanks for making my day at 270
I was thinking yesterday that it had something to do with that contract renewal last year, but was caught in between busy and bloody busy. BR is not a good liar.
Now we need to establish whether it’s a ‘talk to the player’ RC or a ‘give me a blast on that’ RC.
We will see innit (had the shittiest evening, only to wake to this bad boy)
‘We love you Arsenal, we do’
Zico
You make some fair points, but two thoughts:
(i) the Liverpool players seem to love Suarez. They banded round him over the Evra thing, both on and off the pitch, and they’ve all been pleading with him not to leave. Reportedly he’s actually quite a nice chap off the pitch (just a horrow show on it); and
(ii) this stuff about distracting us from other negotiations. I don’t buy it. An organisation of our size can do more than one thing at a time, and Wenger doesn’t need to be in the room for the duration of a transfer negotiation. Besides which, what are we actually “doing” re Suarez right now? We’re basically waiting. It’s not as if we’re camped outside Anfield counting out his fee in pennies.
zico, I agree with you that the general excitement comes from there being real (and for once unequivocally confirmed) news about something big happening and a measure of schadenfreude. Well, it does for me anyway and like you I still see this as a massive gamble if it does happen and I would prefer it if we lay our eggs in other baskets. I still don’t like him and I can not ever see myself cheering him on as an individual, but like I have said before a goal scored by Suarez for Arsenal would still be an Arsenal goal and “no player is bigger than the club” works both ways so I would cheer such goals like I would any other Arsenal goal.
Right, time to have some breakfast and wait for David Brent to make his next move – speaking of which I saw someone on Twitter say this:
“Rodgers failed at Watford and then sacked by Reading – one good season at Swansea before he walked out on them #class ?”
N7 – re (i) and Evra – that’s to be expected and I am not convinced that all believed in it. It’s called “the party line”.
(ii) So why the fuck have we not secured and bedded in any other players?
I am not looking for an argument, all I am saying is that from a personal point of view, Suarez, if we buy him, will cost us more than just the transfer fee and wages.
He has a long history of trouble and my preference would have been to have purchased somebody else, although I accept that this now appears to be a minority view.
I think we should stop wringing our hands and squeezing our moral scruples.
This player is indeed a wee shit and we know what we are getting, including the certainty that he will be agitating for a move to Real or Farca if a) he is successful and b) we are not in the mix for the PL and ECL. But I believe he is one of the 3 things we need and if a) happens then b) will be banished. No short contracts and a massive buy out clause should ensure that when Real come knocking, we can recycle the resource from the position hopefully of a club that’s in the mix and again we are a club that top players are keen to join.
Zico
You may well be right re: your main argument re: Suarez. I fully understand where you’re coming from + your reservations are well founded.
I just thought the “all our focus on this deal” stuff might be over-egging the pudding a little. I don’t believe for a moment that the lack of other players signing is because Arsene is sat in his office 24/7 staring at a large poster of the Uruguyuan.
As you say, not worth an argument over.
It may be the minority Zico but you are not alone.
See above.
In other transfer related news:
Bradford City’s City Gent mascot says he has been forced to quit by the club because he is no longer fat enough for the role, reports the Telegraph & Argus.
Life-long Bantams’ fan Lenny Berry, who has played the bowler hat-wearing mascot for almost 20 years, refused an offer of wearing a ‘Sumo-style’ suit and costume head to continue as the character after bosses at the League One club said his appearance no longer matched the ‘original concept’. But the 59-year-old says he now looks different because he lost weight for health reasons after being diagnosed with diabetes in 2006.
“I’m am absolutely gutted. I am a grown man and this is something I have cried over,” he says.”
My primary concern is that I think we are certain to be gazumped.
Liverpoo will be desperately trying to drum up interest. We (due to their historic delusion about their status) are in their sights as the weakest of the top 4.
They will therefore sell to almost anyone else (including the Chavs but not Manure, Everton or Shitteh) before they will sell to us. He will probably end up at a Russian club with cash.
Even at this price, Maureen will take great satisfaction in knicking him at the last minute and despite the former sour relations between Liverpoo and Chavski, they don’t see the Chavs as “catchable” rivals.
Even more than last week, I’m more than bored with transfer talk.
10 days!
bath, you may well be right and I for one do not in any way assume it’s just a matter of time before we sign him. However, I think Russia is not an option in any way for Suarez because it is my impression that he wants to be associated with a bigger league. Real, should they give up on Bale, and Chelsea I can see moving in for him but it does seem as if Chelsea have their sights set on Rooney.
Man Utd surely not an option for Liverpool or Suarez?
No N7, that move would be even worse for their moral scruples than selling him to us. Last place on the planet, then Everton, then Tranmere, then us. 🙂
Far too many seats still available for Spurs. I want it to sell out pretty quickly to have access to Tx and the lower tier…
Sorry bath – just looked at your post properly and realise you said “not ManUre”.
Was scratching my head trying to work out in what universe Suarez could possibly end up playing for the scum!
Well I’m excited and there ain’t nobody gonna stop me flashing my knickers!
Well, Speedoes actually truth be told.
Zico,
All points well made and founded. I understand your ambivalence.
Two things :
1. I think Suarez is a superb link player. He doesn’t have the conversion stats of Higuain, but he creates a lot of assists and generally his overall work ethic for the team is very impressive. This guy is much more than just a goalscorer.
2. We don’t have all the information. We now find ourselves turning from the austerity imposed by the stadium. Those years in the wilderness was the right decision and provides the club with a wonderful platform to go forward. All down to Wenger. All the most reason to trust him.
We may yet get gazumped but it won’t be by Anzhi.
They’ve just sacked their Manager and announced that their entire squad is up for sale.
Phil Thompson is on SSN new, coming out with some belters:
“Liverpool have played this well all along”.
“If you want to go play Champion’s League football then fair enough. But don’t say that then go and join Arsenal”.
Absolutely classic.
Haha. Good Lord!
You can always rely on Thompson to come top of the stupidity class.
That said he’s had serious competition from Mickey Quinn this morning.
I am absolutely loving this outpouring of Liverpool angst. They all appear to be genuinely perplexed to find out that Liverpool no longer have the kudos of yesteryear.
Wake and smell the coffee boys. It’s finest Uruguayan!
Great work above from Zico, N7, bath, Lars, Tabs,
It’s hard to disagree with a single comment whichever side of the fence you are beginning to tumble.
That is why opinion will be so divided.
Phil Thompson – does anyone take a word he says seriously ? At all ?
And Scousers on the radio this morning saying that the thing they hate most is ‘the dishonesty’.
No, really !?!? 🙂
The daft thing is, players leave, it hurts, but then you get over it.
Van Persie went, it wasn’t a great moment (although not a patch on Cesc leaving), and here we are a year on + he’s barely even spared a thought.
I watched Utd’s friendly vs AIK last night. The Dutchman missed chances for fun on the day he turned 30. We’re about to replace him with someone 4 years younger and who, if anything, looked a better player last term.
Life goes on, it’s not the end of the world. If Liverpool spend the money well they could end up all the stronger. Might even finish in the top 6.
http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8858527/-We-ll-Sign-Someone…-
Arsène Moyes or David Wenger?
Trev – that’s all very fair.
N7 – Haha, top six you think? Fair play to them if they make it. Huge leap forward.
Ollie – Moyes looks more and more like a man who is struggling with his sunburn.
I’m pretty confident they can do it tabs.
Rodgers has a project, and he seems pretty confident about it.
I’m getting confused here, far from my native Oxfordshire. I saw the back page Sun headline “Barca in £35M swoop for Luiz” – Oh, no, gazumped again… Hang about, thats more than £5M less than we bid… Why’s there a picture of a Chel$ki player in the article… Oh, yeah the bitey guy spells his name Luis… phew.
@Toby, miles above – It’s a bugger being with t’Internet in the evenings. You have loads of catch up reading before work, then you can’t respond until lunchtime. I spotted the reference, but sadly it didn’t ring a bell. Reduced to using Google Translate on the French, but still no bells. Sorry.
I know that I am now opening myself up to the possibility of ridicule and slight scorn, but I have said for quite a while that the best thing Liverpool could do is to sell Suarez. I have also said that given time, David Brent will improve Liverpool. The first thing I actually still stand by (he’s too big a fish in too small a pond there, which he possibly wouldn’t be in our team) but I am starting to have my doubts on the second one. Brent has, recently, shown all the signs of not being able to keep his cool under pressure and if he can’t do that he will never ever get them sorted.
N7 – Haha, you might be right. He doesn’t accept second best of course, so sixth best might just suit him.
Lars – Make you right. Once you hang a giant portrait of yourself in your own hall it’s only a matter of time before you’re found out. Gone by Easter.
Press playing a blinder.
Van Persie wants to go to Utd – of course he does! Who wouldn’t? Stop moaning Gooners, and accept your place in the world.
Walcott linked with Liverpool last winter – no need to question that, makes perfect sense, of course he’d want to go there.
Suarez wants to move to Arsenal – WHY THE FCUK WOULD HE WANT TO DO THAT?! It’s a sideways move at best. He’s really showed his true colours and he owed Liverpool so much more. Furious.
Absolutely classic.
Come join us Luis, no-one likes us either, it’ll be perfect.
I have to admit that all that shit does is make me warm to the idea of Suarez coming to Arsenal….
A rather stunning picture from Highbury in 1934:
https://twitter.com/History_Pics/status/365069693289103360/photo/1
Hmmm… I’m seeing reports that Rodgers has revealed that Suarez’ name was in one of the envelopes which he proclaimed contained the identities of the squad members who would “let him down”.
Could it be that this is all part of the project?
God, it must be nice to have a manager who has a project.
Heh tabs, that portrait really is quite something! I mean, it would have been one thing if it had been of him lifting a trophy with his team or a wedding photo or whatever, but just a very arty-farty picture of nothing but himself?!?
N7@392, very good points. I know fans of all clubs say “everyone in the media hates us” and I certainly don’t think that is the case but fact of the matter is that we have become an easy target for the bandwaggon journos. It is far from all of them, but the shout-the-loudest-you-can-so-noone-can-see-you-don’t-actually-have-a-clue-what-you’re-talking-about ones have definitely gone down that path. All this “X years without a trophy” is just lazy bollocks. That has contributed to painting a picture of Arsenal as far less worse off than we actually are, whereas a team like Tottenham are praised and hailed whatever they do despite them having finished below us for umpteen years running and only one very flukey League Cup in 2008 since nineteenninteygodknowswhen in their trophy cabinet. And yet in the past few years if you had read the papers knowing nothing about the clubs before you’d think Totnum have been lording it over us all the time.
Lars, cheers, I was looking for a new wallpaper, that might do the trick.
Lars @ 394
Why have they shut the gates – surely room for a few more?
UTA
Lays it on a plate to…
Bang
Get in there!
*Kisses wrist*
*Does fake dive*
*Bites arm of defender*
*Really wants champs league football at this stage in his career*
Lars @396 – good stuff.
Tabs, et al –
The David Brentan Rodgers picture in the hall – and soon getting found out – self aggrandising thing –
Seems a wee bit reminiscent of someone calling themself “Fun” and then immediately ……….. 😉
Sorry abb ….. *waits for severe telling off*. 😉
Well in N7, but ….
Is it an offence to score and then quite clearly post separately again to claim the Tabs position, i.e. slightly late ? 😉
*Accepts lengthy ban from Trev*
*Pledges to leave country to escape biased English bar residents*
*Gives interview to Guardian*
Can’t wait for the new season but every time you hear about it on 5live, you get this recording starting, inevitably, with commentary of monkey boy scoring another one of his goals.
The day when he fades from public consciousness or buggers off to Madrid can’t come soon enough.
So much to say and so little time to say it, which is probably a good thing as most things have already been said.
I am very aware that I wear my red-tinted glasses most (if not all) of the time, but I too must agree that the way people by and large are reacting to Suarez eventually coming us is utter bollocks.
I can understand that going from Liverpool to Arsenal, in the eyes of the neutrals, perhaps doesn’t seem like a big of a leap forward, but I’ve got two things to say to that. It’s not really about where we are now, it’s about the future. It’s about the set up. It’s about us having that new stadium, it’s about us having set us up for the future. On that level, Liverpool are lagging behind, only now starting their serious project of rebuilding, a project that might seem them remain at their current level for a few years, just as we dropped off when having to curb our spending and rebuild at the same time. I also believe that Suarez sees the value of working under Wenger rather than Brent. So, it’s not just about the point total last season (even if that CL spot sure is a good magnet), but rather were we will be in the next few years compared to Liverpool. I am not saying this to slight Liverpool in any way (not that I have a problem doing that) but because I believe that to be true. We will have a tough few years ahead of us, because we need to start convincing players that we mean business again. That won’t be easy and we will never have the money to buy us titles. We can’t guarantee any titles the next few years. It is very possible that Liverpool will win a cup this season, and we won’t get anything. That is the nature of cup competitions. But looking at the near future, our set up and our manager and also the talent in our team at the moment, we seem to be a better bet. For his future.
So yeah. Apparently when RvP goes to Manchester Utd it’s “Sure! It’s the right career move” but Suarez goes to Arsenal it’s “Classless”. And even if you take all the above I’ve said into account, perhaps it’s not as big of a move as going from Arsenal to Manchester Utd. Might well be true. But I don’t remember anyone calling the rumoured Walcott to Liverpool move classless. Then, apparently, it wasn’t moving sideways.
Also, to add insult to injury, this is us buying big. The entire world has been on our backs for the last few years saying that we NEED to buy top class players from top clubs to be in with a shout. When we try to, with quite a huge sum of money we ourself earned, apparently we are not conducting ourselves in the right way. There is no possible way to do this right. I don’t know what is worst, buying the talent from “lesser” clubs or knocking on the door of a similar sized club, when you happen to be in a better position than them and ask if their players are available. When we do number one, we get murdered in the press for stealing talents from the weak and not buying big, when we come with a serious offer, that would be very valuable for Liverpool, we get murdered for that.
For fucks sake.
Still not sure I like the bloke, but I’m leaning towards buying him just out of spite. Oh, also – GOALS.
N7, I see you already made a few of my points, sorry!
@ Pangloss
No worries, very obscure. It’s from Candide. Voltaire commenting on Britain and France duking it out over Canada. He was pretty much saying that the war was costing more than that far away place was worth, it being only a few acres of snow. It stuck in my head somehow. Got quite a poetic ring to it. Bevin, Canada, spending huge sums of money on something we don’t know if it’s worth it, Python, Philosophers playing football, Pangloss, French philosopher a plenty (Voltaire, Wenger). I just know there was a joke in there somewhere, but I absolutely missed the target Adebayor-style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_few_acres_of_snow
Don’t sweat it Toby@408. I’m more a student of Monty Python than of Voltaire so, it turns out, I didn’t spot the reference at all.
Hangs head and returns to work.
Toby @ 408: Nice reference that, when I had read I thought it was someone describing Canada but I thought, mistakenly, it was from Diderot’s Jacques the fatalist and couldn’t see any connection. Candide indeed.
Speaking of Wenger and French thinkers, I rather find him in the mould (which is the operative word, not saying he has a great intellect like Diderot’s) of Diderot … doesn’t fit well in either side of the typical ideological/mystic and humanist divides (over-simplifying, of course) of say Pascal-Montaigne or Rousseau-Voltaire or in modern times Sartre-Camus. A combination of pragmatic and visionary and never betraying the full range of thoughts and emotions in his projects.
I would trust that pragmatic-visionary nature — even though sometimes the outward stance might seem stubborn beyond comprehension — in making necessary adjustments.
BTW, Arsenal have been making these large bids for a while now when we find targets worth spending — both Goetze and Reus bids were substantial as far as I can recall.
As Lurky mentioned earlier, if we land Gundogan IMHO it would be as significant an addition as the goalscorer.
aaah some tabs action on twitter!
Blimey, a footie blog discussing French philosophers ………
For the uninitiated it’s all nicely summed up by –
To be is to do – Socrates
To do is to be. – Sartre
Do be do be do. – Sinatra
Always glad to try and help. 😉
Great posts above….you all know who you are but special mention must go to N7 @ 401. Lurrrv it.
Hey fellas. Things heating up on twitter, and not just Tabs. Robbie Fowler has just deleted some less than flattering tweets. Some good stuff posted here. Kinda like old times. Trev, miss FunGunner and I suspect you do too, as well as Tabs 😉 She could hold her own (just wish she realized that!). @228, my guilty pleasure of the day 🙂
Hold her own what?
Looks like Spu*s sold out a lot faster than I thought, Tx opens tomorrow already. Very hopeful of a good lower tier north bank ticket then.
I’m loving it, Ollie!
@416, cheapskate…..how do you expect us to buy top, top quality if you won’t pay top dollar? 🙂
Not sure what credit to give to that, but someone on Twitter retweeted something about Capoue, medical and that lot.
Don’t tell Snir.
I’ll tell you how, baff: we should invest in Eurostar 😉
For those who must enjoy the romp towards a treble winning season from the new world, the TV schedule for the first three months
http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2013/07/29/nbc-sports-group-announces-u-s-tv-schedule-for-first-three-months-of-premier-league-season/
The channels for EST 10 AM games are all yet to be finalized, but I would expect many of the ones involving Arsenal would be on NBC Sports Network and if not in one of the sister channels participating in ‘Premier League Extra Time’ package which most cable providers are carrying.
Cynic 🙂 She was my Billie Jean King to your Bobby Riggs 😉
Lars @394 – Great pic!
As regards all the media shenanigans, I personally love it when they go all bitchy on us. If you don’t support Arsenal, you hate Arsenal, and that’s the way I like it.
We’re Arsenal and they’re not. We’re better than them and they don’t like us for it. All their seething bitterness is out in the open for the whole world to see.
As it should be.
Well in N7, and superb celebration. Well worthy of the glory spot. A very mature reaction to the caution too. Well Played! 🙂
Trev @402 – Aye 🙂 Abb, I believe Fun does her work on George’s site these days.
Ollie/Cent 😉
Toby @406 – Top work. Nothing to disagree with there.
Thanks for that heads up, Tabs! Dr Faustus, I just emailed that link to me. xx
Evening All
Dr.z, re: your thoughts on the Uruguayan Beaver.
I don’t think you’re in a minority at all. Should we splash £40M + little/lottle bit on him many will be thinking why not on someone else of his calibre?
He’s trouble. Always has been. Probably always will be unless Uncle Arsene and Bouldie can good cop and bad cop him into some form of decent behaviour pattern whilst he dons the famous red and white. Questionable at best.
However, he is a match winner and, IMO, as close a replacement as we’ll ever find for Van Quisling.
Should Arsenal close the deal, I believe he’ll be the difference between us challenging for the title and challenging for 4th place.
Just my opinions. Other views are available.
Drinks on the bar for all the regulars.
PS: Nice match report tabs.
Interestingly, on the Saturday, Diving Drogba was given a warming cheer and a standing ovation in Block 2 when he left the field after their 1-0 win over Porto. It was a really nice moment and showed a lot of class, I thought.
But he was never going to get that treatment on Sunday when restored to full-on enemy status.
The boo boy on Saturday was Higuain. That did make me cringe.
Disappointed to not see you on Saturday, TS! 😉
Class? Sorry TS, don’t get it, these people in Block 2 can’t have been Gunners. Don’t necessarily need to boo him while he’s just there playing for another team but cheer? Standing ovation for Dogbag? Do me a favour….
Would have certainly been better directed than at Higuain (only heard about those boos, they truly make absolutely no sense at all, I can’t even imagine who can have considered booing Higuain or why. Bring me the head of Fiorentino Perez if you really need.
Cheers TS.
Interesting re Drogba on the Saturday. With you on the Higuain booing – cringey.
A review of all the posturing of the last 48-72 hours at Liverpoo, LWCs and Real leads me to believe that this will play out badly for us (I very much hope I am wrong):
LWC posturing and demand for a preposterous sum persists for another 3 weeks.
Liverpoo posturing continues with half an eye on LWCs and whispering to Real Madrid about flexible purchasing options.
Real Madrid get pissed off with Levy/do deal with Levy for summer 2014 during final week/days of window and turn to Suarez and Liverpoo’s flexible purchase arrangement.
Liverpoo purchase Adepaymore/Defwoe on favoured purchaser arrangement with grateful Levy.
Arsene and Ivan left at the altar in signing mode with only each other to embrace and time only to sign Darren Bent for £8m.
Suits everyone but Arsenal. Scary.
Well Ollie, it was quite a funny (ha-ha) moment in recognition of a player of genuine ability who has, unfortunately, always enjoyed playing against us. The cheering was also laced with irony but this was, after all, just a ‘friendly’ tournament.
Yes, disappointed not to see you too. Bumped into Tone after the match and walked to Tollie but because it was only a few minutes before the 7PM watershed for children and my boy needed to eat we decided not to enter and went round the corner for a bite to eat. Didn’t even make it to Piebury. Catch you next time, no doubt.
Interesting analysis here with a more optimistic spin than 430.
http://soccerlens.com/luis-suarez-saga-5-things/113391/?
Ollie,
I suspect the twits who booed Higuain are the same ones who normally boo Arsenal.
Almost equal in terms of stupidity.
bath @ 430: I wouldn’t think there are no alternatives considered if Suarez bid fails. Maybe Michu or Benteke, or maybe even old Cardozo? But in that case we would probably need two of such players as our left side of the attacking third gets really thin.
Something about the whole Suarez saga does indicate that there is a degree of intention and commitment to this deal from Arsenal’s side that have taken into considerations the many possibilities and found that we have the best chance to get our target.
Evening all. Everybody fed up with the transfer window head to South Devon. Not a clue what is happening. Wonderful stuff 😉
By the way, I’ve just spoken to another very good “inside” contact at Arsenal and we have apparently been making “loads” of bids for players.
Not sure how reassuring that is, but at least we have definitely been trying.
Dr F @ 434
Totally agree with this.
We’re all sat here desperately working through every possible permutation of the Suarez thing. Don’t think for a moment that the club aren’t doing likewise.
There is zero chance that they won’t have a plan B or C. That’s not to say there’s any guarantee that plan B or C will work, or that there’ll be enough time left to implement them, but they will certainly be there.
Trev – I like the sound of “loads of bids”. Now we just need one of the buggers to actually take.
Heh holic. No doubt the weather has improved now the rainmeister (Trev) has returned home 😉
*takes first plane to South Devon*
Enjoyed your pics on twitter, Holic. Keep em coming! 😉
Hi holics,
Extreme work scenes for me of late
Anyway, I am absolutely in Dr Z’s corner on Suarez. I don’t like him and I don’t want him at Arsenal. He is a massive cunt and he will continue to be one
It sucks that we seem to have put all our eggs in one basket
It sucks that we have put in lots of bids unsuccessfully.
Once upon a time Arsenal were an attractive employer for ambitious footballers. This is the result of the last two summers’ departures methinks…..even with more money for fees and salaries.
It’s a difficult thing to change a negative perception.
Paradoxically you can spend a decade building a good reputation and lose it with one minute of stupidity.
Relax Baff.
All gonna happen.
If it doesn’t I’ll buy you a bit of the wee Irish at Villa. (Will buy you one anyway :wink:)
Since you insist, I will succumb to cratur with an extra ‘e’. 🙂
Righto 🙂
Yes Harsha, but he would be ‘our c*nt’ and I figure his old teammate TV, could give him a going over, if needed. And I fully expect it would be in order, sooner than later 🙁 Bath @ 442, How wise of you! My football friends in the states (they don’t wear red tinted glasses) 😉 all pretty much think this; why would Suarez go to Arsenal? That would be a lateral move for him. Sad how we are percieved.
My ambivalence instantly disappeared the minute I heard Thompson and fatboy Quinn were upset.
Welcome Lew-is 😉
“A strong and impressive response from Brendan Rodgers in Oslo to Suarez interview. Quotes to follow later on Daily Telegraph website”
Ok Lurky, will google it shortly. Must say this has just been a tad too much for me. The sun, the heat, the margaritas and this whole tranfer stuff, why I feel a bit whoozy 😉
I must say that I am with Bath. If we have made loads of bids and they have all been unsuccessful then that really does not impress me in the slightest. All it tells me is that if we have made loads of bids that we really are not sure who we want, and if they have all failed then that can’t be good.
Tabs@443. Don’t tell me, you got chatting to this bloke down the pub…..
😀
I must say that I am far from confident that we will get Suarez. The comments from Gordon Taylor would tend to suggest that there is no buy out clause at all and that 40 million is the starting point for negotiation. No more than that.
The Toulouse president has confirmed that Capoue to The spuds is a done deal.
It’s the margaritas abb. The sun, the heat and the nervy transfer stuff is what we have in common, and I am ok.
There is some talk that Flamini is training with us. French and free. I guess we have found our DM 🙂
BG@432: Interesting link. Hard to disagree with the line that selling us Suarez would do Liverpool’s CL aspirations for years.
I also suspect that if we do land Suarez, he won’t stay for many seasons, but we might be able to flip him onto Madrid for double the price we pay. No doubt he’ll want a Madrid buyout clause in his contract.
I’ll tell you how we know there’s no buy out clause: the player isn’t in an Arsenal shirt. Any ambiguity works in their favour.
The fundamental dynamic remains the same; they have a player who wants to leave and is publicly kicking up a fuss. There is £40m on the table. No other bids.
If that remains the case, he’ll be an Arsenal player by September. That’s how these things work. The only significance of the clause is it gives Suarez one more thing to bitch about.
Lurky, Cheers! 🙂 Now to google …
Not sure I agree N7. I can see the scousers cutting off their noses to spite their faces. I really don’t think it’s as simple as you suggest. I also think we are very vulnerable if anyone else at all enters the proceedings.
Ladyarse report that Suarez has been told to train away from the squad – another brick in the wall.
and that the PFA state the contract clause is exactly as LFC claim – no buy out but £40m bid stimulates discussion with player – the boy was conned – no wonder he’s not happy.
http://gossip.ladyarse.com/arsenal/2013/08/07/suarez-told-to-train-away-from-liverpool-squad/?
Steve
We have been, and remain, vulnerable to third party bidders.
But Suarez will not be at Liverpool come September. That bridge was burned when he gave those interviews yesterday. You can’t publicly accuse your employer of lying and threaten them with legal action + then expect it to all just go away again.
Liverpool are in a very, very difficult position now. Very hard to turn down £40m+ for a player who may no longer be motivated to play for you and whose influence in the dressing room could prove negative. Our players have spoken this summer about how it felt having wantaways in the squad.
Question now is do we hold our nerve or go for broke. I still think we should sit tight.
By the way, the star are reporting we’re bidding £51m for him.
The only usually reliable twitter ITK (whose info has been on the nose so far this summer) says Rodgers ready to sell now. Suarez causing trouble behind the scenes.
Rodgers comments tonight “no one bigger than the club” support this reading.
N7. They are all valid points but I have been here so many times before with Arsenal. We have hardly covered ourselves in glory in recent years in the transfer market have we??? Call me old fashioned but I will believe it when I see it officially announced.
Likewise Steve. Until it’s on .com, it’s far from certain.
But just ask yourself; what would you be thinking if the roles were reversed?
Sell him to anyone, except Liverpool. That’s what I would be thinking.
Was supposed to be in London tomorrow – postponed now until, provisionally, Mon 19th August.
Villa on Saturday 17th.
I had expected to be getting the last flight back on Sat 17th but…..
Planets, meet Mr Alignment, I’m sure you’ll get on….. 😉
PS Holic – meet Mr B. Influence. 8)
I’m with N7 on this one. And I’m not concerned at all we’ve puts lots of bids in – lots of bids and lots of being told ‘no’ is a sign of active, disciplined (and healthy) negotiation. Bids and lots of immediate yeses are a sign either of lazy negotiation, and/or bids that start too high. And it’s a massive signal you’ve paid over the odds. Only a few clubs can afford to do that with impunity.
I was sent on a negotiation skills course many years ago in a previous job. It was four and a half days long, and probably the most difficult course I’ve been on in my life. Bit like this really:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3LL338aGA
Everyone on the course was completely broken after four and half days of ‘practical’ learning. Difficult, (mostly) counterintuitive, and completely relentless. But blimey, it was useful.
Top news zico 😉
Just to add, although I’d be happy to see Suarez arrive, I do think it’s an unwritten rule of football that transfers involving players who are willing to be benched/not play football to get their move generally work out badly for the purchaser. Suarez skirting dangerously close to that now.
Pangloss not recognising Candide? Shame on your nick mate! all I can say is…
In Goonerholic, where egos frolic
Mediocrities think they’re Socrates
Oskar
And to digress even further, here is an ‘improvement’ I wrote of Monty Python’s Philosopher’s Song…
PHILOSOPHUZZLED
Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant
Whose drunkenness was fable
Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table
Burke and Hume could out-consume
Heraclitus and Hegel
While Wittgenstein and Willard Quine
Got just as schloshed as Schlegel
When Aristotle was on the bottle
He drank flat out like an axolotl
But Dewey, Mach and Herb Marcuse
Preferred to stand at a bar and booze
Schopenhauer would oft devour
A quart of schnapps in half an hour
While Diogenes and Socrates
Could drink dry Grecian hostelries
Blessed Duns Scotus, laird of all topers
Made most drinking thinkers look total no-hopers
And Buber’s Bacchanalian drive, 24/7/365
Kept him alive until eighty-five
Hobbes and Mill of their own free will
Would swill and swill until they were ill
And Tillich and Schlick were pretty quick
To knock it back till it made them sick
Plato, they say, could stick it away
As much as a goatskin of mead a day
And as for Nietzsche, the plastered creature
Well he could teach a whiskey preacher
But none held a fart to Rene Descartes
Who could shift more booze than a liquor mart
Never giving a damn Rene poured a dram
And raised his glass saying “Up your arse…
I drink therefore I am!”
Up THE Arse, surely Rene?
Oskar
We seem to have had a player on trial since Monday – Morrocan midfielder Alharbi El Jadeyaoui.
He plays for Angers in French Ligue 2.
Now I don’t wish to be negative now we have at least a prospective signing in the sights but, there is probably a reason why you are still playing in Ligue 2 at 26 years of age.
Is this the ‘very exciting news’ ?
We could send him out on loan, Trev.
Oskar
Every fucking August. Sigh.
Am away and heard both Thompson and Quinn, two of the thickest twats on radio getting very upset today. Quinn who should not be behind a mike because he can’t string two sentences together very nearly lost it on air with a wind- up merchant .
Don’t share the sense of optimism that is being expressed here. Apart from the fact it is a hugely high- risk deal , Liverpool will have agents looking for a buyer in Europe just to spite us. And if a deal can be cocked up we are the ones to do it.
The fact is the season starts in ten days, we have a wafer- thin squad and haven’t spent a penny. We have a few kids on trial who won’t be nearly ready and no chance to bed in new players or a new system. Sign players early! We did last year. Playing Russian Roulette served us poorly in 2011. As Capoue signs for the Swampies have we any real plan of action ? I will recant these words if we make superb signings but I’ve seen this lot in action or should I say inaction before. I think we are being very kind to Arsene just because he’s not as big a prat as Brendan Rodgers
I don’t know what everyone’s complaining about.
We’ve already made £8,500,000 profit in this window and there are
3 1/2 weeks still to go. 😉
TTG I feel your pain on this, but Liverpool have both every right to seek to get as much as they can for their player, and actually (as a commercial enterprise), also have a duty to do so.
Of course it would be great for us to have early deals, but we are not bankrolled by monarchies and gangsters and their stolen or borrowed money. So we can’t just bomb out the second the window opens and sign worldies for any price, just because we can.
And so what if Higuain and Capoue went elsewhere? As has been said here before, big deals have big chains. If we were hugely serious about either, we’d still be in for them, and the negotiations would still be ongoing. If we don’t see the value and feel that we have other options that are more appropriate, we’re absolutely right to let them go to other clubs.
We wanted Capoue in Jan, Wenger confirming we just missed out in him last minute. Now no follow up six months later? Why? What’s changed?
Nine days til the season starts and a thin squad with players that haven’t been integrated into the squad. If moving from abroad they will have to also find houses, schools etc.
Someone made the point that any of the players the Spuds or Shitty have signed this window would have improved us. I’m inclined to agree.
Dr Z @464 – Oh no!!!! 😉
Totally agree with N7 and Snowy.
I completely understand the impatience, frustration blah blah blah but why the meltdown tonight? Don’t get it. The situation has not changed one iota from yesterday. If anything it has improved. Rodgers has confirmed that the breach between LS and Lfc is nigh on irrevocable. Liverpool will not sit on a depreciating asset that refuses to play for them. They are not Man City. They do not have the means to stick him in the reserves ’til xmas.Suarez will not be there come the end of the transfer window. He will be sold. Anything else is just scouse posturing.
They’re gonna get it in the arse. We’re just giving ’em time to lube up.
Only decent. It’s the classy thing to do.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BRBYMfSCcAAsVaZ.jpg
Very good question NB1. Couldn’t say for sure but what I’d guess, is that in the pecking order of importance for players we wish to sign, Capoue was down the order because we have other priorities that will cost a lot more. We need to close those deals first, because we don’t have unlimited funds, and that particular player’s team could not wait and went elsewhere.
I’m not surprised by the delay and paucity of signings, because frankly I’d rather we did all we can to ensure the big name signing(s) that everyone seems to want, than in the meantime spend all the fund on players that only incrementally improve the squad.
Hey Tabs (good one). We know he’s going to be sold. But to whom? I’m starting to get Real (Madrid) worried! 🙁
Of course that’s a possibility Abb – it’s a high risk game.
But that risk is no greater or lesser than it was y’day.
Wot TaBS said. And as a reward TaBS, this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMG6J2igU9A
*with grateful thanks to Oskar for reminding me of the song*
🙂
Snowy – Haha, immediately thought of that when I saw Oscar’s post! Cheers for posting. Great to see it again.
As a reward have one back. Just too many people “being very undude”
😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL216IAVZ_M
How do you fellas find this stuff. Very nice evening at the bar with such good company. xx Now off for a nap, cause I’ll be watching Real Madrid vs Chelsea later tonite. Nite holics.
Real Madrid? They are not interested in Suarez, they will get their Welshman. Chelsea on other hand … might be. Couple of reasons.
-Known for their habit to buy everyone we are interested in.
-They are the reason we do not have Mata.
-They are the reason we do not have Drogba
-They are partly the reason we do not have Essien, Hazard, Cahill, Lukaku…
-They bid for Cavani and Falcao, so they are in need for an attacker. If United don’t sell them Rooney, who do you think is next on the list.
-They will have more money once they sell David Luiz to Barca.
-Good relationship with Liverpoo, transfer related.
Haha TaBs and cheers! 🙂
I really have no idea why there is so much losing of shit going on. On reflection I think I’d be more worried if our dealing strategy was wholly transparent, because that’s not a good place to be either.
Realise that this may be heresy, but I’m little bit losing faith in the esteemed Blogs on this one. I know he has an audience to play to, but his recent cheap shots at lack of signings is making him sound a bit toddler tantrummy to me. He is usually a very amusing and perceptive voice of reason. Hoping he’s just doing it for the clicks.
*sighs at constant crazy 24 hour news cycle*
Certainly possible Lurky but why worry about hypotheticals?
As it stands, we are the only bidders at the party and the player has made his interest in joining us clear in the most public of ways.
At the moment we are still in pole position. Until that situation changes I don’t see the reason for meltdown.
Night Abb.
Snowy – To be honest I think Blogs’ recent blogs are coloured by his distaste for Suarez. I might be completely wrong but that’s my perception. Think he sees it a no-win situation even if we get him. I don’t agree with him, but he’s obviously entitled to that view. I think it’s a genuine view as he doesn’t really need the clicks.
I just don’t get the timing of the meltdown (more on twitter than here it has to be said).
Nothing has changed. Clearly Liverpool would not just roll over (at least publicly) on the back of Suarez going public.
It was always likely to get nastier before it got sorted.
Liverpool sell Suarez to Chelski? And, after Torres, be accused of being their feeder club? It would be funny to see, but having managed, painfully, to blank out everything bad about us getting Suarez I’d feel totally miffed.
While still hoping for major signings I can’t help feeling the genius pool is drying up fast, especially in the DMF position with Capoue gone and Manure in for Fellaini … who is left exactly?
The Anzhi thing is interesting. Willian anyone? I presume that’s not the Black Eyed Peas guy…
By the way, the Philosopher’s Song I posted at #469 is my edited and extended version which includes about twice as many philosophers as the original Python version. Hrrmmph.
Oskar
Oskar @ 488: Your extension to the drunken philosophers’ song was quite decent, but the original had the benefit of brevity. Certain humors can only be taken in small doses. 🙂
You can also try rhyming Althusser with boozer and Badiou with bordeaux … 🙂
About DMF position I share your opinion about the importance of it. But we might be in for Gundogan or Bender both of whom are surely better players than Capoue (not that I have seen a whole lot of Capoue to be honest, just the odd few Ligue 1 games) and played at higher level (CL etc.). Fellaini is a hard one, if Arsene seriously rated him he may have attempted earlier, so one never knows.
I do think we will get a good holding midfield option, but it may not be a name we were all thinking about.
I am not sure there has been a meltdown just yet but I do think people are getting very concerned. Not just because of the vulnerability of the Suarez situation but because as others have highlighted above. The season is 9 days away and the squad is as wafer thin as I have ever seen it. We don’t just need one signing, we need 4 or 5 as a minimum. Trev highlighted the point a while back. Go on to dot com and check out the first team squad as it is right now. If that does not set the slightest of alarm bells ringing then I would suggest you are not looking in the right place.
As if by magic up steps Blogs with a detailed account of how it all is in my little world. Have a read boys and girls. As I said, it’s what I and few of us in the minority here having been saying for a while now. It hits the nail smack bang on the head for me.
Whilst still feeling very calm when it comes to if we will strengthen or not (of course we will!) I too agree with you Steve, and with Blogs, that we really should have done at least a bit of our Body Buffer Building by now, ie, getting a senior player or two in on positions where we are a bit short. You know, like we did with Nacho. He might never be the best left back in the world, but he seems to be a solid player and can do a job. Having an experienced player or two like that by now to pad out the squad for the four competitions we will be competing in this year, would have allowed us the peace of mind to get stuck in the long sagas of trying to go for the top, top quality players for that little bit of extra. As many have said, I am sure us trying to get Suarez is not hindering our attempts to get other players in any way (at least not players in other positions) and I am sure that we can handle juggling a few targets at the same time. But still. Just as we need that first goal on the pitch to get comfortable a lot of the time, we need that first signing. It might still end up in a defeat, or rather, in not getting our top target (apparently Suarez), but at least it will appease the crowd and let the team work in peace. I don’t really believe in crowd-appeasing, but when it comes to goals on the pitch and buying players we really, really need, and I’m not even talking quality wise now, I’m just talking about more actual humans who can kick a ball when others are injured or fatigued, I can see no reason the club hasn’t managed to get a couple of players of that mid level caliber in. Sure, might be hard to get Messi to come, but there must be a lot of 10-20m players still believing that Arsenal would be a huge career step. Those are the players I’m talking about. Get a few of them, some will work out, some wont, exactly like Nacho worked and Santos didn’t, so get a few, we’ll clear out the ones that didn’t in a year or two, keep the rest, and then add more the next summer.
We need some peace of mind, but most of all, we just need a couple of players to help us avoid having to go for the u-16’s when we’re in a bad injury patch.
Point being – there is nothing wrong with doing the right thing when it is, in all honesty, actually the right thing. And the right thing now is signing a couple of players to solidify the team, and then going for broke with the rest of the money to add that game changer. The game changer can win us games, but not adding the covering bodies will make us lose points. We need both, please, and I just can’t see that it should be as complicated and time consuming and such a high stakes game to add the covering bodies, with the name we still got and with the money we have. I see Suarez is a complicated deal, no worries, we’ll continue trying. But get us a capped players of decent class in the meantime. They will be needed when the muscular injuries starts crowding.
We await a draw in the CL qualifying that a few weeks ago I highlighted as an absolutely pivotal point in our season. Several people told me to chill as we always breeze through. I note we lost at home to Galatasaray on Sunday and could face Fenerbache or Sociedad or PSV. None of those are easy and a trip to the Ukraine with a squad our size may leave us very exposed for the Fulham match with the NLD to follow. Can you imagine the rejoicing if we blow that tie! It will blow our season out of the water and yet Wenger has made no attempts to strengthen us for it. I am extremely dubious about his reputation for meticulous planning. Frankly we cut him way too much slack
If anyone needs me I’ll be in Wickes, pouring my life savings into superglue, industrial staples, high grade cement and anything else that might help me hold my shit together.
I have respect for those who are still relaxed in the face of what could easily turn out to be yet another display of Arsenal’s dithering ineptitude in the market. But unless something happens double quick, and I mean with signings other than Suarez, there’s every chance of another indifferent start to the season. When was the last time we got 3 points on matchday 1? Maybe 3 years ago?
I know we need to chill but the evidence of the last few seasons (especially the 8-2 and the desperate trolley dash that ensued) is very, very hard to just ignore. Have to admit, right now the club is guilty of incompetence until proven otherwise.
As Trev said….
We have two keepers, one is an over confident kid, the other is Flappy.
We have 7 defenders, 2 of which are injured. We are one injury away from Sagna playing at centre half.
We have 8 midfield players. That list includes Diaby, Frimpong and Ryo.
We have 9 forwards apparently. That list includes Theo and AOC. It also includes Park, Flipper, Bendtner and Chamakh.
Consider that along with the fact that the Season starts in 9 days and you may start to think that we could be in just slightly better shape??? You might start to think that perhaps those entrusted to run this fine club may not have covered themselves in glory this last 3 months.
Still in doubt??? Read Blogs again. It seems a great take on my be the best you can be campaign.
Steve, that’s a worrying inventory of our current resources, and Arsene only makes a rod for his own back when he says things like “we could compete for the title with the squad we have now” (or words to that effect).
I think at this pant-browning stage of the window, something fairly miraculous will need to happen to head off some ugly, ugly scenes – online and on the terraces.
Nonchalantly passes it ’round the corner’ hoping for a one-two…
Tabs has it spot on for me.
Right now, we’re the only bidder for Suarez. If and when that changes, we have a problem. But until then I don’t think there’s cause for too much negativity over our prospects.
I also wonder about some of the “no one wants a repeat of the 2011 deadline day scramble” stuff that I’m seeing online.
I think it’s become something of a cliche to point to that last minute shopping spree as a disaster. But was it really? And is shopping late always a guarantee of bad players?
Arsene bought in five players late in the 2011 window. Of those 5, one was a loan that proved highly successful + I suspect many of us would have taken him on a permanent basis. One was a £1m throw of the dice who never played a game for us. Made very little sense, but the total cost of the deal was probably less than Real Madrid’s hotel bill for the Bale discussions. One was Santos. OK – hands up – he was shit. The other two went on to form the backbone of our team and are a major part of the reason we’re still playing champs league football. One of them is currently club captain.
So – not a triumph by any means, and it felt awful at the time. But nor was it a debacle the likes of which must never be repeated. I think its grown in the collective imagination into a much worse spell of business than it actually was.
Just to add to the above, last season spurs signed Lloris and Dembele in the final week of the window. Two quality players I’d happily have seen in red and white. Obviously, you always want to add players as early as possible, but a late deal doesn’t need to mean a terrible player.
For the sake of balance, I must admit that if I had been in control of the cheque book this summer I’d have moved early for Benteke and Fellaini, then spent the next two months bringing in some squad players. For whatever reason, we’ve not done that. I wonder if our apparent obsession with “making a splash” and “adding a big name” has been the right way to go. However, until the window closes I’m happy to trust the manager’s judgement as to what’s needed, because he’s earned that trust in my eyes.
And if he signs another Arteta on 31 August I’ll be bloody delighted.
Boom.
Dr Faustus @ 410:
At first thinking I should be dismissive of your playful tone and attempt at either overshadowing my insignificant Voltaire-reference, or perhaps rather poke fun of it for it’s pretentiousness, I actually ended up thinking you’re right on the money. It’s not every day we get to see Wenger explained (and also defended!) by that kind of namedropping. Even if I, like every other western architect and his or her dog, happens to think that Heidegger is the being to top all the other beings. God, us lot are so embarrassing.
Balague saying that Spurs want player swaps as part of the Bale deal but none of the Real players want to go. Heh.
…and amen to that, brother N7.
Can’t argue with the quality that came in on that day in 2011, and you have a point there too: if we get one or two like the Lego-haired one on deadline day, that would demonstrably be written down in the Good column.
I see my angst as a mixture of concern over a poor start to the campaign with a touch of dummy-spitting thrown in. Sometimes our approach to The Window resembles my personal organisation: do bugger all on the surface, worry about it on the inside then pull the finger out at the 11th hour.
Please don’t get me wrong on that last sentence. Taken out of context it could sound like something entirely unrelated to football. And quite horrible.
😀
N7. I admire your optimism but I think this is bordering on being a shambles. You highlight 2011. Artera was a 10 million buy that we could have done much earlier. He is also a player we should have brought in 3 years earlier. Per was a great signing. Santos was a total flop, Park just pissed Lille off and Yossi was a stop gap. He played 19 games for us and scored 4 goals. I would guess that on those figures are very few starts. If you consider that “highly successful” then I’m sorry but I have to disagree.
The last minute dealings of 2011 I would say had a 40% success rate. Personally I do not consider that to be anything special.
Tabs, N7, snowy et al,
I sincerely hope you’re right.
It’s not where I want to be but I find I cannot disagree with Bloggs and Steve T.
We all know what the situation is. Whatever we do from now, it seems less than ideal that on August 8th, with all our self proclaimed resources, we are whee we are.
Anyway, I’m off to the Wildlife Park with the family today – to see some exotic creatures that are supposed to bite.
Cheers all. Have a good day.
Steve
Well, someone has to be the yin to your yang 🙂
I’m not sure it’s really optimism though. I’m sure I’m feeling much of the same anxiety and dread that you are. It’s just that sometimes I think the negative is being accentuated a little top much.
Another example; “any of the players city and spurs have signed this summer would have improved us”. Has anyone even seen that Belgian winger the LWCs have bought play football? Or more than 4 games from the Brazilian lad? I distinctly recall Jesus Navas getting the raspberry in this very bar when he was linked last January.
Obviously, signing someone is better than signing no one, but the above statement smacks of hysteria to me.
Yes, the summer isn’t going as we’d have hoped. No, everything isn’t totally fucked. Yes, there remains time for a happy ending.
Dutch courage all round – on Lars’ tab.
N7
If there’s a happy ending in it for me, Arsenal can take as much time as they want. 😀
Furthermore, did Ivan not say in his soliloque about buying big that ‘we’ did not want a repeat of the last minute ‘trolley dash’?
Waiting to be impressed.
Some people have called it negative, but I think today’s arseblog is rather ‘on the money’ and very well articulated.
Fully agree, Ollie. Entirely rational analysis.
I have nothing against a few last minute deals on uncertain players. No deal, pretty much, except for a select few players, is a deal that is bound to work out. I mean, a player like Arshavin who we had our eyes on for a long time (even if we bought him on transfer deadline day) for a sum that was quite big for us then, didn’t work out. You can’t make yourself immune to buying players who just won’t fit by paying large sums, even if you of course better the odds by buying great players. But there are other ways to do it, and buying a few players who _could_ work out has proven to be a way that has worked out quite well for us. So, no problem with the Artetas, the Merts and the likes.
But.
And here is the huge but (down Wolfie!).
It’s just no the time for this right now. We have a much to thin squad and our sights set a bit higher up this time. For once we have a solid, but small and a tad unspectacular core, and what we need is a solid strengthening of that core and then trying to add a cherry or two on the top. Save the cherries for transfer deadline day, preferably have two in the pipeline. If we get none, at least we tried in a serious way, if we get one, be it Suarez or someone else, it’s all fair and dandy and we probably did quite good business. If we get both, ouch, well, I guess we will have to curb our spending next year, but hey, we got two world class players!
But I’m not talking about the cherries now. I’m talking about the rest of the players, the ones that will make up the core of the team, and step in when others fall, perhaps even over time usurping a position or two form a current holder, but perhaps not be expected to walk straight into what already is the basis of a good team. I just can’t see how it is a good idea, this year, with the situation we are in, to wait for those players as we have in recent years. Get the fucking core in. Early. Get them bedded in. They are not the best players in the world, they might need some time, they might not hit the ground running. If we do that we can afford to wait for the big names, the big names almost always takes time if you don’t have silly money. They are always infected and complicated. These players are few and got ties all over, making things hard.
So yeah, no problem with the last minute dash. We are good enough at getting some right, and as long as we move the rest on after a season or two, I have no problem with it. But not this year, and not the core. We need that to work like clockwork this year to solidify. Leave the big names to deadline day, and hopefully we can do some good business. Until then, get me a copy of Mertesacker, a copy of Arteta/Cazorla and a copy of Giroud and we got a great centre half, a great midfielder and a 15-20 goal a season goalscorer and get them early. I’d be really happy with that. Suarez or his ilk? Cherry on the top.
Toby @ 511
Cannot disagree with a word of that.
The board moves in mysterious ways.
Agreed, Toby.
The Board moves, N7?
I second that Toby. We might just about scrape through with the odd gem on deadline day but this board/Arsene/whoever seem to have a stubborn self-belief that borders on the hard-headed.
Some might say they’re very slow learners, while others might think they almost exhibit a refusal to learn. I just don’t know of any other examples of people or organisations executing a task so badly over and over again, and then going and doing the same again.
Mystifying.
bath
More accurately: the board fails to move in mysterious ways.
Toby:
Get the fucking core in. Early. Get them bedded in. They are not the best players in the world, they might need some time, they might not hit the ground running. If we do that we can afford to wait for the big names
But don’t we already pretty much have that core? Yes, we have a rather thin squad but apart from Gervinho we haven’t let go of anyone who made anywhere near a significant contribution last season and it is not in any way unreasonable to think that the Ox can do better than what Mr Unreliable did. I am more and more starting to feel that what we need are the big names, the game changers if you will, like Cesc or Rooney just to name two at least remotely conceiveable names. If we, hypothetically, got one really good midfield player and a really good striker in then the only area where we look thin in my eyes would be in central defence.
As for the “last-minute trolley dash of 2011”, I agree with N7 that that was far from the disaster many seem to have decided it was. It was far from a resounding success, make no mistake about that, but many last-minute or late buys have been very good. ManU got van Persie just a day or two before the season started, the Spuds got Rafa Fanny-Fart in just hours before the closing a couple of years back and they got Dembele last year, we got Monreal with minutes to go in January et cetera.
I’m honestly not really sure where I am going with this, and let there be no doubt that I would have preferred us to have done things long ago and I certainly am worried, but until the window has slammed shut I won’t give up. But should we get there without significant reinforcements then I will want heads to roll. Only problem is I won’t know which heads…
Lars.
Yes and no. We do, but I don’t see it as a realistic prospect if getting both numbers and world class in the same players for us at this moment. We haven’t won anything for a few years and we still are nowhere near oil money. I agree with you that this core with two-three world class players would be the way to go. But since I have given up on this season as a treble-winning one and I still believe in the long term for which we have set ourselves up, I say get more players of the quality we’ve got, pick up a cup, move up a place or two in the table and continue the project next year. Yes, I absolutely believe we need world class players to win the league or the CL, but that’s for next year. I know it’s not fun to hear “patience” after all these years, but I don’t have any problem with letting this whole new money-spending thing take a year or to. I have patience as long as we move in the right direction. And if we can’t attract nor buy three world class players thus year, well, get more of what we’ve got, compete in all competitions and add that something extra when the opportunity arises. We wouldn’t last a season with this squad + Suarez in four competitions. A few more able bodies, hope for a Suarez, do our absolute best to get a player like that, but if not, at least consolidate to give us an even better platform for next season.
That’s my angle. Want a team that would always end fourth by sheer clockwork and professionalism. On that, add the extra. Don’t just buy a wild card that could, with luck make us finish first, but also could mean we end up sixth due to suspensions and too small a squad.
And also – the magic trick – KEEP the players that work out. This new money allows us to do that and I believe that is more important than our newly found buying power.
Wrote that on the phone, so might be a bit non-structured, not so to-the-point and autocorrected…
In the best if all possible worlds I’d agree 100% but I’m not sure that if that is t possible this year it’s not just the fault of the board, the negotiators and our manager, but a bit of a fault of the situation we have gotten ourself into over many years, and which have been more or less necessary. If you dig a hole over many years, even if merited, it’s not sure you can get up over just one summer, is all I’m saying.
And that was the last bit of Voltaire from me for a while.
Having all that said, I’m not sure why a player such as Higuain couldn’t have been our new Giroud. Sure, perhaps got a bit expensive for what he is, in the end, time will tell, but that kind of player, rather than the Cavanis or the Suarezes would have been the way to go this summer. I have no earthly clue.
The only surprise about this transfer window is that anyone is surprised that we’re not spending any money.
All talk and no action.
Last post in a row now:
This is not any critique at all towards the club, rather the opposite really, all I’m saying is really that I still believe in what I thought we were doing, the long perspective. This is really about my confusion about the club not acting like that anymore, but rather perhaps, are trying to rush things now, trying to turn everything around on a penny by going for broke. It makes me a bit disorientated. I really thought this would have been the way we would have acted, getting a few disciplined, competent, professional players in from teams like Everton, Napoli, good players falling down the pecking order due to silly recruitments at Madrid or PSG, and just make us a bit less vulnerable to injuries, whilst adding the beginning of that pointy end that will win us trophies the next few seasons. Come on Arsenal, I’m not even grabbing my torch and my pitchfork screaming for huge names. Just that we continue building on what we have now in a calculated, proactive manner, and grabbing a steal if we have the chance.
Some really interesting debate up there ‘Holics. A credit to our supporters as always. I’ve missed this place.
I’m with the Tabs / N7 / Snowy / Lars take on this.
Lars point in particular is very relevant in that we already have the core and what we are trying to do is sign some highly talented players who player for very big clubs. Not easy to do and there is ample evidence with the bids that we have made that serious efforts are being made.
I also think the timing of getting those players will inevitably be late because those clubs will want to explore every possible avenue of getting the maximum return, or in Liverpools case, try to save some face and continue with the pretence & self delusion by hoping they can sell to RM (who will probably pay less) before us.
Thats not to say that it isn’t concerning. Of course it is. It’s just that we’ve not been successful with Higuain, Bender or Suarez as yet for varying reasons. In relation to Blogs, his stance on the Suarez saga has to be the first time I’ve ever disagreed with him. As for the “negativity jibe” – its completely understandable why people are frustrated but anyone who has read blogs over the past years (which I would say is everyone on this blog) will know that the last thing he could ever be accused of imo is being negative. He’s an absolute credit to the fanbase and the club, unlike some of the other militant bloggers out there. And you all know who I am talking about.
A blast from the past courtesy of ette from the arses:
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/torres-is-not-for-sale
followed by….
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/lfc-reject-torres-transfer-request
and 3 days later…
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/torres-leaves-liverpool
On the topic of the core, I’d tend to agree that we have it but I can’t help feeling we don’t have much more than it.
If we end up with just Suarez (don’t worry Yaya, I haven’t forgotten you) we will be stronger, but will we be strong enough to push on from where we were last term?
Joe, I’m with them as well. I’m just not sure our core is big enough if we only add one world class player, and I’m afraid that the points that world class player will win us won’t be enough to offset the loss of points we will get by fielding too thin a squad over an entire season. So we need several. And I want that. I just can’t see that happening in one single summer, hence me calling for an expanded core in the same vein as the one we’ve got. Give me the world beaters any day, but if we take a long hard look in the mirror, take off our red-tinted glasses, and realise the world is full of clubs at Arsenals level in the eyes of neutrals and players that don’t have any special feelings for Arsenal Football Club. What I’m saying is, sure, if we can do it, please, but if not, another Giroud would be a great piece of business for the days when he is injured, another Mertesacker would be a great piece of business for the days he needs to rest, and another Cazorla, well, that’s almost in the segment of proper world class.
I want the biggest players in the world as much as the next supporter, but I just can’t see us getting through the season with just one and this core. That is why I’m saying that the core is too small. Not because I don’t want the additions to be world class, but because I just don’t think it’s doable to do the padding with world class alone.
Eto’o ?!?!
Cesc has just given a press conference in which he all but rules out moving this summer.
Hopefully this might free us up to get our business done in midfield.
It would be funny if Samba, who Anzhi sold to QPR in January, then bought him back from QPR , get sold this summer once again.
Anyway, Anzhi situation is very similar to Malaga’s and vultures are starting to circle. One of the vultures is highly recognizable even that high in the sky, because of his red and white feathers and ability to smell the blood from long distance.
In other words, I’d have one Willian, please.
Suarez clause. If LFC don’t qualify for CL & receive a £40m offer, then the parties will ‘agree to discuss & negotiate in good faith’.
This is clear, from where I am standing, and I hate to say it but Liverpoo have a case.
LO – controversial but why not? Someone like that could possibly give us 2 seasons with 15 goals each. Just the kind of guy I think Joe and Toby may be talking about.
Lurky
The clause is a red herring.
At the absolute most, it will be ambiguous. And any ambiguity works in Liverpool’s favour. I think it’s safe to assume it won’t force them to sell this window.
But that’s not to say it doesn’t have minor tactical significance as part of Suarez’ escape attempt.
Take it out of the equation and what are we left with: very unhappy, very moany player who very badly wants to leave and will say so publicly. One interested party. £40m on the table. And a ticking clock…
(correct me if I’m wrong…)
@ N7 506
Hysteria. Not really.
The brazilian lad Paulinho is a regular starter for Brazil. He can play a no.10 role as he did for his last 6 months at Corinthians, as a DM as he does for Brazil and also has the box to box ability to play CM. He’s just need 6ft, quick, powerful, technically sound and can tackle. A fair comparison is Fellani. You couldn’t imagine him improving our midfield?
Chadli is a Belgium international that is an actual left winger. Not a left winger that thinks he should be a CF like Poldolski. Or a right footed winger the manager sees as a CM like Ox. Again he’s quick, good technically and at over 6ft offers a bit of a physical presence. He’s also got an avg of a goal ever 3.5 games plans a few in the Champs lge. Again wouldn’t he make the squad better???
Navas is able to get starts in the current European and World champion team. He’s looked very good for Shitty in pre season and may well keep Silva out of the side. Would he not provide a useful alternative to Theo?
I don’t need to discuss Capoue, Soldado, Negredo, or Fernandinho do I?
So you see not hysterical just informed.
If we have genuinely been holding off for all of the summer waiting for Cesc to make his mind up then we are our own worst enemies.
I am all for last minute buys and last minute bargains, but don’t leave everything until the last minute. If you start for Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve then you might get some real bargains, but some are going to miss out.
I think we are way short of having a spine in place. A spine is the likes of Seaman, Adams, Vieira and Henry. Not what we have now. I would still want a top class keeper, a top class holding player and a top class striker. I will accept a club class centre back to compliment those already there.
Interesting stuff people. An enjoyable debate.
SteveT @490 – Well it’s my fault for being on twitter I suppose, but I can assure you that there was a huge meltdown there last night, and not just from the nutters. Otherwise rational people went (in the space of 24 hours) from saying that Arsenal had played the Suarez situation well to saying it was an enormous clusterfuck. My point last night was that nothing has changed in regard to the Suarez situation, other than that Liverpool had come out fighting, as surely anyone would expect them to do.
As to the wider picture, I think it’s a bit cute to describe the current concerns as to what is going on as what “I and a few of us in the minority here having been saying for a while now.”
Everybody (or at least very nearly everybody) has huge misgivings about what is going on, and these concerns have been expressed on a daily basis from day one of the Summer. Everybody (or very nearly everybody) has recognised that the Club under its own volition voluntarily raised huge expectations at the start of the Summer. Everybody (or very nearly everybody) has recognised that thus far the Club has singularly failed to deliver on those statements of intent. (See the last paragraph of the match report).
For the record, I agree with most of what Blogs wrote this morning with a couple of provisos :-
– I think the comparison with the signings of Man City and Spurs is a silly one. I’m guessing that all of Man City’s signings would improve us, but the mere fact that City were in for those players meant that we had no chance. Despite our new found wealth, there is still no way, (as IG referenced at the start of the Summer), Arsenal can compete with an unlimited budget. Had we got involved, we might have succeeded in pushing the price up for the selling Club. The player though would almost certainly have still ended up at City.
As for the Spurs signings, I’ve got no idea if Soldado, Paulinho, Chadli and probably Capoue would improve us. I haven’t seen enough of them to make a rational judgement. Good luck to you if you have. Soldado? £26m for a 28 year old seems a lot to me. Is he any better than Giroud? Time will tell, but I can only imagine the howls of anger on here if we had bought him and it turned out he was no better. Chadli? Never heard of him. Paulinho? Only saw him in the Confeds Cup. Saw him have one good game and one stinker. Jury’s out. Capoue? Seemed to fit the bill, but my enthusiasm for his signature was based wholly on an encouraging scouting report from Snir. I have never seen him play. Again time will tell, and maybe, just maybe, we have bigger fish to fry.
– I don’t think the Suarez situation is as bad as Blogs paints.
– I think that the whole weak squad thing is overblown. Lars has it spot on in my view. We have got rid of nearly all the squad fillers. Chamakh, Djourou,Denilson, Arshavin, Squillachi who all shared a grand total of zero Premiership starts between them last season. I’ll say that again, zero Premiership starts. The last thing that we need is a whole new bunch of squad fillers when it’s taken the best part of 3 years to get rid of the last lot.
Of the squad fillers who need replacing, Santos has already been replaced, and Gervinho will likely be replaced squad wise internally with one of Gnabry/Miyaichi.
The situation remains the same. This squad needs stardust – a forward, a creative midfielder and a versatile defender. In addition it needs an understudy for Arteta and possibly a keeper. Talk of needing 8/9 squad players is way off beam.
We’ve had to settle for second-best for years. I’m prepared to wait a little longer for real quality. It remains to be seen whether the Club can bring that stardust in. If they do, great. If they don’t, well I’ll join you in seeing who can howl at the moon the loudest. Might even buy you a beer in the process 😉
Camberwell,
I agree, he could be the most significant signing this year, he took Chelski apart on his own last autumn. He could solve the left winger problem Arsene has for years. He is young, but one of the trickiest wingers I’ve ever seen and he plays defense too, works his socks off. Imagine him and Gibbo on that left side, mouthwatering.
N7,
Ticking clock… I am not sure if that is more Arsenal problem that Liverpoo’s. This is not RvP situation, when it was sell him or lose him on free the next year. Liverpoo are not comfortable at all, but can afford to wait one more year, bear in mind this is WC year.
We can’t.
NB1 @ 534
All sound great.
Any idea why they’ve not been signed by champs league clubs? Seen any of them play more than half a dozen games? I can’t say I have, except maybe Navas, who is reportedly a sufferer of chronic homesickness and gets a nosebleed when he leaves Spain.
They might all turn out to be cracking players, but I can’t help feeling that their quality is being over-inflated in the minds of our support because of nervousness that we, ourselves, have not signed anyone of note.
Jovetic is another one. Not massive enthusiasm on here when we were linked with him for £20m. People were unimpressed by his goalscoring record (barely got out of double figures last season, IIRC). Signs for City for a fee rising to £28m and suddenly he’s one we’ve missed out on. It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?
£28M for a 28 year old centre forward, bought from a bankrupt Spanish club? I can just imagine the howls of anguish – why not go for Rooney or Suarez? Why not spend the extra money Arsene, and get real top quality?
Capoue. I like him. I think he’d have added nicely to the squad. But it appears that the top managers don’t share my enthusiasm, because other than Spurs his main option appears to have been Cardiff.
Obviously if the window closes and we haven’t signed anyone then it’s a shambles, but I’m not shedding any tears over anyone we’ve “missed out” on at this stage. Let’s see how they all bed in before we get too concerned about it all.
Glad you think I am cute Tabs……
😀
Haha 🙂
Lurky @ 537
It’s 100% more Liverpool’s problem than it is ours.
We can elect to go spend the £40m elsewhere. I know that some are suggesting Suarez is the only decent forward still available this summer, but that’s not so.
If we walk, Liverpool are left with a seriously angry star player who has slated the club and will push to move again in January. I also suspect that his antics will only worsen over the course of August as he attempts to force his way out.
If they wait an extra year they will do well to get the £40m that’s on offer now. Just look at Spurs; an extra year of Modric (who pushed waaay less hard for a move) reduced his value by 25%.
I should add that when I say at 538 “any idea why they’ve not been signed by champs league clubs”, I’m referring to the Spurs, rather than City, players.
What tabs said @ 536.
If he’d posted that earlier this morning I could have saved myself a lot of typing, because it sums up everything I’m trying to say far better than I’ve managed so far!
Oh, and totally agree with Steve T @ 535.
Lurky – damn, why didn’t we think of him before??
P.S. You can call me Porco… 😀
Well all I can say is that I am looking forward to cheering on the core a week on Saturday.
Everything else is out of my control so I am just doing my best to ignore it.
I’m too fecking busy at work to do anything else, if I’m honest!
Come on you Rip Roaring Core! 🙂
Arta-noon all,
Sounds like this weeks ‘actual release clause’ negotiations between club and player appear to be going smoothly.
What next? Personal terms, an agreed fee?
Well, we’re the Arsenal. What did they expect?
Heavens! 🙂
Tabs,
haven’t you noticed that the twitter meltdown yesterday evening, was between the twitter heavyweights who have one thing in common- they can’t stand the idea that our biggest target this summer is Suarez. They hate Suarez. All of them. Don’t want to mention any names, they are all Arsenal and Arsene’s proved fans, but I feel they are going to eat their words once we sign the right players and once Suarez gets 25+ goals for us.
The point is that they feel betrayed by Arsene re. Suarez. They have jumped on the other side of the fence and I can’t blame them. Maybe I am naive but I choose to be a little more patient. And I like Suarez as a footballer, the guy bought me the Happy Train FFL title last year after all. 🙂
N7 – Cheers, but having since had a little backdrink, I see that you were doing very well without me sticking my oar in. 🙂
Dr Z – Haha. Don’t worry. Even if we sign nobody come Saturday week, we shall booze and booze and sing Sailor songs. I will be told off for climbing on a table, and you will attempt to leave via a cupboard door.
And we shall be at peace 🙂
Lurky I had noticed and I fully agree with you. See @487.
N7, maybe you are right, anyhow it is a nervy situation for both of the clubs which may continue till the deadline day. That is where I think the problem of a tickling clock is.
That is the period when we have three of the most important games of this part of the season and we could lose focus on them in expense of playing the mind games with Brenda Rodgers and Henry the smoker. They know we have a difficult games in front of us, and one more thing they know is that we are under pressure to spend. I am sure they will take advantage of that.
I don’t know what I want the most anymore – for the season to be a month of so we can get our acquisitions done in peace or for the season to start now so I can forget about the fucking acquisitions.
Football, eh?
Cheers tabs.
I struggle to remember Arsenal fans being so divided. Not good. And we haven’t even started loosing 🙂
*a month or so away
Members Day was quite fun 🙂
Lurky – Aye, not good. Dreading the Villa atmosphere if signings aren’t made and we struggle to beat them.
Toby @492 – “I’m just talking about actual humans who can kick a ball …”
Can’t help thinking you’re setting the Bar a bit low there mate. Does this also mean that you are ruling out a move for Bale? 😉
What did they put on for you Wind?
Latest from Suarez …
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8860786/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Keep lubing Liverpool.
The Independent is quoting AW now as saying “The Suarez bid is on standby”. Must confess that while reading Arseblog I could feel the panic rising up in me. Our core is stretched thin and we still don’t have that ‘ go to guy’. Like CR7 ! Boy, he is something special 😉 When a fan leaped the barricade last night and embraced him, I worried for CR’s safety. But he was a good sport and showed his humanity. But getting back to reality. AW was also quoted as saying, paraphrasing here, that most of the clubs did their business early. So why didn’t we ? Why did we target a player as problematic as Suarez is, in the first place. One who can’t even play regular games until mid-October. Almost a quarter of the season, to sit on the bench !
So, Madrid it is then?????
If we don’t make the quality of signings that we need I don’t see fans being unforgiving at any of the games struggle in??? The knives will be drawn sadly.
TaBS knows @536.
If we don’t make the signings we need by the end of the window then I think the atmosphere at home games will be openly mutinous, and we will be in for a very, very long season indeed.
I would also suggest that such an eventuality would indicate (to me at least) that this will be Wenger’s last season with us.
Well, the sum of ones preciseness is constant, Tabs. So, yeah, I might have been a bit diffuse with the “can kick a ball bit” (I sincerely want a few more players that can actually head it as well) but you are spot on when it comes to me actually wanting humans. Might make an exception for red ants. Or Wolfie.
“A Champions League team (Arsenal) is making a big effort to get me and one always wants to be where they feel comfortable”
“There were a lot of rumours (about Real) that were different to reality: Madrid never called me personally or Liverpool to try and negotiate”
The plain fact is that nearly every player in the world, and certainly in the Spanish speaking world would prefer to play for Madrid than Arsenal. That is just a plain fact that, like it or lump it, we have to live with.
There is however nothing in those quotes that suggests as of yet that it is more likely that he will end up at Madrid rather than Arsenal, quite the opposite.
Those quotes were given to Marca. It is fairly obvious that he would have been asked about Madrid and he answered, as far as I can see, honestly.
People read what they want to read.
N7@561 – Completely agree (as ever).
Toby @562 – Haha, red ants get my vote 🙂
N7. You make an excellent point about what do Liverpool do if we pull out and divert our attentions elsewhere.
At the Arsenal Q&A Aaron Ramsey was asked “In one word, what do you think of Spurs?” He replied “Fifth.”
Standard fare tabs, 1st Team Light Training (Zelalem was with them), Close Ball Control with 1 then 2 players in the Middle, 1/2 Pitch Match & Fan Crossbar Challenge after but the Highlight of the Day was 30 Junior Gunners vs The 1st Team (5-3 to the JG’s!), heartwarming stuff 🙂
tabs@563: “People read what they want to read.”
Quote of the day?
Fucking hell Wind, another defeat?!?!?
Hope you booed them off! 😉
BUY ALL THE PLAYERS!!
No idea, Pangloss, you tell me! 🙂
Aaron Ramsey continuing his excellent pre-season form I see Lurky 🙂
I agree with the sentiment expressed by N7 at 561. If signings are not made by 2 September then I do not expect either the CEO or the Manager to last the season. If no signing is made before the Villa game and we concede a poor goal or miss good chances to score in that game then they may not make it to 3 September. For these reasons I expect there to be a minimum of three signings by 2 September, with at least one prior to the Villa game.
Too many posts, too many long posts, but from the bit that I have read, I nominate tabs as my spokesperson, so: ‘all of what he said’. 🙂
I’ve taken a few more minutes and still agree with what I have just said 🙂
That’s the kind of post I like Ollie 🙂
Are you speaking on Ollie’s behalf @ 575, tabs?
Porco
Seems that we have lost Willian battle before it has even started. I was hoping some bid of 20-25 mil would do the job for us considering Anzhi are in financial trouble. But it looks like City bid 40 mil. which I fear will be never matched by us.
So, I’ve already persuaded myself that he is far from a good player, in fact he is bad one, injury prone, not serious at all, never proven in a big league…
Just the usual stuff I do when we do not sigh the player I want us to sign.
heh at Lurky’s comment. I agree, he was shit anyway.
Pangloss – Heh 🙂
Lurky – If what you have just said is true, then it’s Goodnight Vienna for Nasri.
And not a single fuck will be given! 🙂
haha Pangloss, you put me in an awkward self-referential situation there, tabs!
We’ll get Nasri back, tabs, you know it 😉
@581 Haha.
@582 – Oh Lord! Hadn’t thought of that. Billy Bendtner up front, Nasri on the left, and Sol out of retirement to plug the gaps at the back. We’re getting the Band back together aren’t we?
Tabs. The last thing we need is to go back to the days when more and more arsenal players hit the bar.
Just saying.
Re: Tabs @576. Which of Ollie’s drinks do you like better, 574 or 575?
Re: Abb @559. Didn’t see it but if I did I would have been worrying more for the fan’s safety, to be perfectly honest.
@ 539
N7,
I have seen them all play more than 6 other than Chadli (only seen highlights on Eurogoals). Although there’s no correlation to seeing them play and them being any good. Arshavin looked great in the Champs lge for Zenith and in the European for Russia. He started off well with us but that didn’t last. Chamakh looked great in ligue un and Champs lge too but that hasn’t turned out too great either. I can’t imagine too many people had heard of or seen Vieira, Pires or Ljundberg play but they all turned out ok I’d say.
Soldado you could argue is in the peak of his career at 28. He was the top scoring Spanish forward in Spain for past few years and only strikers at the two Madrid clubs and Barca generally outscored him. This whilst at a club that wad forced to sell assets every year to help reduce debts. Not bad.
As for why they aren’t at other Champs lge sides who knows? I dare say though that in choosing the Spuds they chose a team that finished a point outside of Champs lge and had the best player in the league. This in what many think is the toughest league in the world. This may appear attractive from the outside looking in.
A question re Suarez. If Liverpool decide Suarez can’t leave do you think during a world cup year Suarez will decide he’s not having it? He’s suspended until October I think. So when he is available do you think he chooses to rot in the reserves or play and then start the saga all over again after he has a good world cup? Liverpool would, I imagine, have a series of suitors if he does have a good WC so may decide waiting is the better option than selling him to us. Bit risky I know but hasn’t Henry back himself into a corner?
Ollie. That is about as pathetic a surrender as I have seen in a long time. I hope those that take the pitch against Villa show more back bone. In fact, I hope those that take the Tollie both pre and post Villa show more back bone.
😀
Exclusive?
Arsenal have just signed Alharbi El Jadeyaoui from Angers.
It should be official in the next days or so. In case someone doesn’t know (be ashamed of yourselves) Angers currently plays in Ligue 2, which means we have certainly changed our approach this summer. Instead of French Ligue 1 we are now shopping from French Ligue 2.
What a way to show them all we mean business.
Lurky @548. I was wondering who that was top of the table last season. But I can’t believe you can be proud of winning the league by selecting such filth. 😉
Ha 8Ball, to be honest, I wasn’t even sure of this fan’s gender! So close was the embrace 😉
Now Lurky @ 590, Feel so much better, oh dear. And the Internationals are coming up and most of our lads will be pulling duty on distant shores. Right before Villa. Well, can’t get much worse, can it. No more griping from me today. Not much fun 🙁
NB1
No correlation between seeing them play and them being good, but I would want people to have watched them a few times before making grand statements on their behalf!
You’ve obviously done your homework on them, so far enough. Any tips for players who are still on the market now who you’d like us to sign?
Re: Suarez, I think the “world cup year” thing is overplayed a bit.
Suarez is one of the stars of the national side. He’d probably walk into the first XI if he gave himself the year off and spent 9 months building Lego. It’s not like he’s a 20 year old trying to make the breakthrough.
Rooney is a good example of this. He spent quite a bit of last season overweight and out of the Utd team. But he still started every competitive game for England when fit.
I also don’t think that “rot in the reserves” is a realistic possibility. It doesn’t seem to be in anyone’s interest. Liverpool would presumably play him in the firsts, or at worst keep him on the bench, but I think it remains to be seen how motivated he’d be, or how the crowd and his team mates would react.
The more you think about it the more I have to say – there is exactly zero chance of Luis Suarez being at Liverpool come mid September. It would be a total disaster for both player and club. The interviews he gave the other day were the point of no return.
John Henry has indeed backed himself into a corner, which is one of the reasons Liverpool’s behaviour these last few weeks has been moronic. They’re now reliant on either a third party coming in with a bid, or Arsenal putting in an improved bid. If neither of those things happen, they’re going to come out of this looking like utter twats. Far too emotional throughout this entire negotiation. Far too much posturing.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Suarez moves in the next 10 days for £50m, with the balance of the additional £10m comprised of increasingly unlikely triggered payments vs us winning the league, Suarez walking on the moon, Arteta having a bad hair day, etc.
We have international friendlies in this month apparently with almost all first team Arsenal players potentially away on duty!!!
Hopefully everyone returns back in one piece. What an odd time to arrange friendlies in the International Calendar! I thought Clubs had put these money-spinning exercises in players’ injury and burn-out to bed last year…
I am the mysterious one, bt8b.
I was not proud of myself until the moment I realized that even Arsene wants that little filth in our squad for some insignificant sum of money.
N7@593, I take your point about the Liverpoo having backed themselves into a corner. The classic move at this point is to give them a way out, perhaps by making a slightly improved offer. £4000002 would be an amusing way to improve the offer, but would sadly just make the situation worse.
I suspect that the powers that be over at Highbury House, or wherever the offices are, will now be considering the timing and amount of the improved bid. I am confident that they know more about negotiation than I do and that they are more likely to come up with an appropriate strategy.
Did anyone else notice that Surez referred to Arsenal as a Champions League team?
Ahh, when a player outgrows his club. 🙂
Oops. Somehow missed N7’s final paragraph.
SteveT @584 – Not sure I’m completely with you mate, is that a reference to “the band”? 🙂
Actually, I reckon we could do with a bit more of the old Tuesday Club. Funnily enough I was in the Compton Arms on Saturday which is where I think they used to hold it. Doubt you’d get too many players in there now. Too many lager louts 😉
8Ball @585 – Well my @576 was originally aimed at Ollie’s @574, but he snuck in with @575 at the same time as I was posting, so I’d better say @574. In truth though, I liked them both equally well. They were both on the money 🙂
Just a small point on Higgi, he outrightly said he chose Napoli because his argentinan friends there told him how nice it was playing Naples. So had Napoli made the first move, he would have been on his way, but for the protraction of Cavani and appoint of Benitez!
Shame we didn’t have the same influence. But at least he was honest and it proves we didn’t bulk at the price. AW is an often critisised (understandably) manger who sticks to his principles. Just as he does not force players to stay. He also does not force them come. I think that in the context of recent develpolents, that is certainly the way to go.
Thumbs up Arsene!
Shoots
Gah – tabsed it.
Pangloss
If I were running the negotiation, my next move would be to offer them £15,000,001 for Coutinho. 🙂
N7 @ 593,
Seconded..!!
The idea that one of the finest strikers in the world would be left out of ANY national team during a WC year carries little weight. We’re not talking about Bendtner here.
I do think though that its in AFC’s interest to bring the matter to a close quickly just in case the Bale bid dies. Its in RM’s interest to keep the Suarez story alive during their negotiations with Bale and its no coincidence, I think, that Marca have been running stories on Suarez.
Pangloss: Were you top of the class at maths..?? 🙂
Joe
I think you’ve identified the main risk here, which is the Bale bid cratering.
It may actually be hard to bring Liverpool to the table until the Bale negotiation is concluded – if I were in their shoes I’d be wanting to drag this whole thing out until it’s guaranteed that there will be no RM bid, and then sell ASAP thereafter.
Assuming we’re not going to wait, I think our next move will be to make them an offer that doesn’t materially increase the cost to us, but which somehow allows them to save face.
Also noticed that Rodgers quoted price for Suarez went back down to £50m last night.
So, that’s been £55m, £50m, £60m and £50m.
Got to hand it to the guy, he knows how to haggle.
Well in GT, a fine piece of timing there, but the glory goes to N7. 🙂
If I was running negotiations I’d buy some Joke Shop teeth, go round to Brenda’s house and smash his self-portrait to smithereens. Then, whilst he was blubbing at the devastation that I had wreaked on his little altar of self-love, I would screw up all the pieces of paper where he had written down all his meaningless cliche-ridden motivational mantras and eat them all one by one right in front of him.
As a final coup de gras I would instruct Billy Bendtner to give an interview where he said that it had always been his “dream” to play for Liverpool and that he was “deeply honoured” by Liverpool’s interest.
Play hard ball. That’ll give ’em the right collywobbles.
Too far? Ok, maybe the Bendtner bit was a bit over the top.
Joe@604. Sadly not, there was a clever(er) bastard in my year. Oh to have been home schooled…
Tabs.
You were talking about the failure in the crossbar challenge. I said about hitting bars, as in the Adams, Merson, Parlour days.
It’s never funny if you have to explain it????
Oh and Higuain has come out and said he preferred Italy all along?
Well I never. Wonder who first mooted that possibility last week? 😉
Ah face/palm moment Steve.
Must admit I quickly read Wind’s response and assumed that it was some kind of 5 a side rather than a crossbar challenge. Must pay more attention!
Still, I got halfway there. Kind of knew you were referring to the Tuesday Club. 🙂
Fiorentino Perez suggesting to the media that £85m for Bale “seems like a lot of money”.
No shit Fiorentino.
I’ve had enough of this Scunt nonsense. Why do we have to deal with such assholes?
Let’s sign Jackson Martinez, Gundogan, a decent keeper and a decent CB.
We should wave two fingers at them and let the Scunts deal with their own dirty laundry, dissatisfied employees, fantasies about their global status and collection of knocked off hubcaps.
bath
That does remain an option.
If this drags on much further, I wonder if we might open up a second bidding front (Martinez/Benteke/Rooney) so as to focus Liverpool’s minds on their predicament.
“Hooray – they’re leaving us alo…. oh, wait. Shit”
N7: “Arteta having a bad hair day, etc.”
Oh, come on – we must at least offer them something that is at least theoretically possible, right? 🙂
As for Liverpool “letting Suarez rot”, there is one aspect in this that I have yet to see mentioned and that is that unless they’ve changed the rules in recent years then you have to play a first-team player in a certain percentage of first-team competitive games (unless he’s injured or suspended of course), or you automatically give said player the option of breaking the contract meaning he can leave for nothing. Also, assuming they have Suarez training with the reserves and doing badly, they would be in an almost totally impossible situation. Taking him back would blow any morally based arguments to smithereens, you would run the risk of said player coming in and just fucking things up deliberately (why would he be bothered at that stage?) or unintentionally because he isn’t match fit due to only having trained with the youth team for three months and so on. And not taking him back would cause unrest amongst the supporters and possibly destabilising things even further. Just imagine if we had “let RvP rot in the reserves” last season, what would the reaction on Twitter and other places have been after, say, Norwich away or other disappointing games during that stage? What motivation would RvP have had to give his best for the team if we had taken him back because we were panicking over our position in the league table?
No, “letting a player rot” sounds like a good idea at first, but if it was such a good idea you can be sure we’d seen it happen a lot more often.
I would be very suprised if Suarez is still at Liverpool come September 2. Where he will be I don’t know, but I can all but guarantee you it won’t be Liverpool.
Right, off out for a quick pint as a warm-up for tomorrow when I’ll be an a boat headed for Helsinki to watch the firendly v Man City. Proper Football is almost here again!
Lars – that’s quite correct. I think it was 10% of games at the last count.
Good summary of the reasons that “letting a player rot” is unrealistic. And I totally agree that Suarez has played his last game for Liverpool.
I keep telling you guys that Arsene will not spend money on any decent player this summer. This guy actually believe that this squad can win the premier league, how crazy can you be. Like I said earlier on, me thinks this should be Wenger’ s last season but hey what do I know. Almost three months in and no player in( sanogo ) give me a break.
Gervinho to Roma confirmed. Apparently the fee is £8m.
Sad to see him go, can’t believe the bastards charged us to take him away.
On second thought – scratch that pint, I just realized it’s absolutely pissing down outside so just going to the tube would probably almost drown me 🙂
N7: 10% sounds about right, and I *think* those has to be starts as well, it’s not enough sticking a player on the bench and subbing him on in the 95th minute. I can’t find the rules on premierleague.com anymore, they used to be there but I struck out when looking for them just now.
Gervingone. Good luck in Roma.
@ tabs…..ages ago
We shall booze and booze and sing Sailor songs….
Sailor songs as in “Glass of Champagne”? (google it youngsters) or Sailor songs as in the Pogues “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash”?
Either way, this sounds like the machinations of Wolfgang Smallballs and I am predictably nervous…..
Bloomberg Sports simulator predicting the top four next season will be:
1. Chelsea
2. Man City
3. Man Utd
4. Arsenal
Spuds don’t make it with or without the Welshman.
Nor does that big club from up North from which moving to us is a sideways more for anyone wanting CL football..
Hours of statistical fun to be had, if that is your thing, on Bloomberg Sports.
https://www.bloombergsports.com/en/football/app
Choose English Premier League from the All Leagues drop down top right, then a date from the slider top left. Gives game by game predictions. Predicts we’ll win our first 10 games before losing 2-1 at OT despite having majority of possession (sounds familiar!).
@ tabs…..ages ago
We shall booze and booze and sing Sailor songs….
Sailor songs as in “Glass of Champagne”? * or Sailor songs as in The Pogues “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash”?
Either way, this sounds like the machinations of Wolfgang Smallballs and I am predictably nervous. 😯
* Google it youngsters 🙂
Good riddance to Gervinho. The Arsenal statement shold be “We’d like to thank him for his efforts, but they were so poor we’re not going to”
Can’t wait to see what they say when Chamakh and Bendtner finally bugger off. “Thanks for nothing, you shits” would be nice.
EIGHT MILLION for Gervinho ???
The world has gone mad. **********. ( insert name of favourite philosopher)
Back from the Wildlife Park – not bitten or otherwise molested by anything with at least four legs. Or two – unfortunately. 😉
Sooo many posts – loads of good work on both sides of the fence – has Ivan finished painting his yet ?
I have to say it comes as a huge relief to see that all the lawyers in here are all still agreeing with each other.
Pangloss, Porco – i would like to inform you that I shall hereinafter (winks at the lawyers) – no, winks – continue to be referred to as “Trev”.
Still, 30 points by early November wouldn’t be too shabby a start to the season.
Trev@624: We paid Lille €12 million for Gervinho in 2011, twice as much as Lille had paid Le Mans for him two years earlier. The monks at Castle Ned reckon during his time twisting and missing with us, his fair market value had fallen to €10 million. So we are selling him to Roma for a 20% discount to get him off the books. Where’s the madness in that (which is not to question your question, but to ask at which point in that chain does it lie)?
Sorry NED but I believe Arsene once said we got him for €7million.
Sorry once again NED, I’ve actually sort out the interview and re-read it; he said he was £8million. http://t.co/UVZNroYt
NED,
I think you have misinterpreted my comment.
I meant that ‘eight million’ is a huge amount to pay for Gervinho.
Eight million for a forward who cannot hit a clean shot, runs up blind alleys, is physically pretty weak and seems to confuse fans and team mates alike.
His form last season was shocking, and I think our much maligned negotiators have done a tremendous job to get EIGHT MILLION.
Actually, our generally much maligned negotiators have done remarkably well with the new sponsorship deals and a massive clearing of deadwood from the decks.
If only we had a few who could actually BUY something.
By the way Ned, as you know, I always have had, and continue to have, the utmost respect for all at Castle Ned.
Always enjoy the stats although I would be the last person to collate them.
Too many patients leave me without enough patience for that, as it were.
@ tabs ages ago…..
We shall booze and booze and sing Sailor songs.
Sailor songs as in “Glass of Champagne”? * or Sailor songs as in The Pogues “Rum, Sodomy and The Lash?”
Either way, this sounds like the machinations of Wolfgang Smallballs and i am already suitably nervous. 😯
* Google it youngsters 😉
Cent,
A word to the wise.
NEVER argue with Ned about stats. 😉
Think you can forget the champagne, zico. 😉
Gervinho was pants.
If I wasn’t surrounded by so many other clowns I might have a job for him…..
Indeed Dr F,
Apparently, when he went to leave the Training Ground, he got in his car, started the engine, and all the doors fell off. 😉
*awaits second telling off in two days from Abb*. 😉
Ned,
Exactly how many stats have you posted in this bar ? 😉
635 drinks? Astonishing. Will have to post something tomorrow…
Back in civilisation. Have to get to the eye clinic in the morning with an attack of iritis. Bugger.
So much for the high life 🙁
Hope that goes well Holic,
I’ll have to see if I can make the puns even cornea. 😉
Don’t know know if you can see that https://twitter.com/DDOHERT25295665 but I’d say someone has just created a twitter account just to be a troll. Wonder how many more posts he’ll do or if it was a one-off.
Sorry. I’ll accept 50 lashes for that one. 😉
Trust you to get an eye complaint ‘H – anything to do with optics will do, I suppose. 😉
641 drinks now Holic, and already Zico is singing soldier songs…!
Mind you, the mere mention of anything from “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” is deserving of a toast in itself..!
And to think, some people on here listen to (c)Rap…!
Evening Guys n Gals.
I can’t seem to find enough time to frequent this bar as often as I would like, not an all together bad thing, as it means the bar is keeping me busy, however I do miss this place.
Nice report Tabs, I unfortunatly saw nothing of last weekends games, so cheers for the info.
I made an effort to skim through the drinks, but there’s no way I’ll get through them all, I see that we’ve had a few name changes among the regs (I’ll ask why another time)..
If I could make a quick summary, I think we’ve made a pigs ear of this summer. Over the last few years I’ve never really expected much in the way of brand shiny new signings, we were warned that that would be a consequence of relocating to the big arse, state of the art, stadium that would eventualy lead us to the promised land of having a shed load of self sustainable cash that we would then use to help us compete with the best and see us dining at the top table with the greatest flavours the game has to offer.
At the end of last season, one of the chefs, told us, in no uncertain terms, that our time had come, we were going to expand our menu, to include more exotic tastes to excite our pallet, and to be fair, a lot of the junk was taken off the fare, only today we removed an item I can only describe as a giant spam(head), yet here we are with just over a week to go until le grande opening and instead of getting ready to sample cavier and lobster thermidor, I find myself staring at an empty plate.
Yes, yes, there are certain rumblings about us acquirng an Uraguayan delicacy, but I’m not sure if he’s to everyone taste, personaly I’d acquate him to sucking warm diarhea from a tramps sweaty sock, but maybe I’m just being picky. Still, a word to the wise, that is a dish that bites back, even if it may be to your liking on the way down, I can almost guarentee you that in the end it will leave you with a nasty bout of food posioning.
Yes I do realise that we still have time to add to the menu, but I feel we should of done this before we open for business as to find the best possible way to blend the flavours together. Seems to me that our chefs have not only spoilt the brew, but took a colective wizz in it too.
Surely we deserve better?
Trev @361, haha, noted!
‘Holic, goodluck with the eye-ppointment *get’s coat*
H2H, you’ve been missed around here. Of course we deserve better and I think we will have gotten better by the end of September 2nd.
8 million for Flipper????? I take it all back. Ivan is a transfer God. Did he put his Dick Turpin mask on?????
Bought anyone yet?????
Oh……
As Eamon Dunphy says: “I wouldn’t buy a toaster from Arsene Wenger..!”
Food for thought H2H. 😉
I reckon Suarez insisted on a get-out clause set at 40m, but Pool fooled him with an ambivalent clause that his lawyers failed to get clarified. Simple as that. I also reckon John Henry is as likely to sell Suarez as he is to sell the club … ie, very likely. Perhaps we should put in a bid for Pool, they’d make a useful feeder club, aye. 😉
While as keen as anyone to see the whole spine strengthened I also believe the squad is a lot stronger than the one which started last season – and let’s not forget that if we’d won just two of the games we unexpectedly lost last season we’d have finished second.
If we can dodge further injuries for a month or so AND sign at least 2 or 3 quality players we should be in excellent shape. Especially as I see a difficult time ahead for Manure without Fergie, Scholes and Rooney. Assuming they come back to the pack we have only to make up five points to be serious challengers.
No need for all the angst I keep reading here, imo. Things could be a lot worse.
Oskar
I hope so Cent, my friend.
===
Steve, I would of been happy if we got 8 quid for Gerviniho, anything more is just gravy.
===
Joe, I didn’t realise Arsene sold electrical appliances, I mean, how would he he find the time inbetween not signing new players? 😉
===
Trev. 🙂
In Short – while I understand the frustration of so many, I retain my silence, patience and confidence in the man who’s singlehandedly brought us to this level…!
H2H. Have you read Blogs today? You might find a lot to agree with.
Welcome back Holic. Why is it when you go on holiday, something bad happens upon your return 🙁 That was a rhetorical, generic question 😉 Trev, happy to hear you had a good day out, walking on the wildside 😉 Wind, any pics you took, post them on twitter, please.
heh Trev @ 624. Why not join the club? Changing your handle is the new keeping your name! 😀
(and copying others is the new making your own decisions)
Blimey. Bit late for all these neologisms isn’t it?
It’s a silly club, Porco.
“Certain humors can only be taken in small doses” *489
Pfft, Dr F, that’s like saying 1 nil is better than 5-0 cos the latter might get spectators over-excited! 😉
Oskar
Flamini back training with Arsenal according to reports.
Another one gone, Bernard signs for Shaktar.
Oskar
“There’s a saying in baseball about loyalty to the uniform. There’s a certain feeling you get when you put on a uniform as a baseball player and I’m certain it’s the same for most football players. When you put on the uniform it’s pretty special. I’d imagine for most footballers to put on the uniform of Liverpool Football Club is a big moment.”
Now that might actually be the most cringey as fuck thing I’ve read since I last inadvertently clicked on a Ronaldo/Ballotelli/whoeverthefuck toe-curlingly shite meme on Twitter.
I’m never going to complain about the Silent one being silent again. Ever.
I just checked it out Steve, and indeed, there’s a hell of a lot to agree with.
Before I get blamed for being too negative, is there anyone here who truly believes we’ll get the players in we’ve all known for ages, that we truly need, or will we once again be scraping the barrel in the last chance saloon at 5 to midnight on TDD?
What has happened this summer that leads you to believe that it will all magicaly work out?
I truly hope I’m wrong and I’ll gladly pose for pictures with an egg covered boat if we get the required reinforcements, but to tell the truth my faith in us seeing the desired outcome is dwindling by the day.
Don’t worry about John Henry lads.
The beauty of Liverpool is that if you give it 24 hours you’ll get an entirely different signal off them – “not for less than £50m”.
Top marks to Philippe Auclair for just cheekily tweeting a link to this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/3832913/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-wouldnt-sell-Real-Madrid-a-virus-let-alone-Cristiano-Ronaldo.html
H2H, I will reserve judgement. More in hope than in faith I must say.
We have a potentially tricky champs lge qualifier. Fuck that up with no new signings and I do not see any forgiveness. A poor start to the league season will not be treated any differently.
Unless we make 4/5 top quality signings and show significant improvements then those at the helm may just discover that all of their tolerance fund has long since expired.
Like you I sincerely hope that all of this is totally unfounded. Unfortunately, at this moment in time I just do not see.
Top link Snowy. Very amusing.
Liverpoo are in a long slow decline and are neurotic about Suarez rejecting the historically greatest team in the world (only works in a screechy scunt accent, mangled NornIrn/Glesca accent or gay Bawston accent) and moving to a club that has already developed its stadium and has played in the ECL for 16 seasons in a row and is about to leap a log beyond Scouse Cunts in quality.
We are who they would like to be.
Forget Suarez. He will be made to rot in Liverpoo for at least another year. This is not a rational response from these scunts, this is a hysterical crisis for them.
We need to move on to Option C. There fucking better be an Option C by the way.
FUCK Liverpoo.
I have been back drinking while trying ( only partially successfully ) to catch bream and take a cheeky little Sauvignon Blanc. Firstly I must say I am in the Steve T camp from this morning in that today’s Arseblog, sadly, hits the nail on the head and punctures a lot of the quite unjustified Arsene will sort it out in the nick of time Views that seem to be aired quite widely.
Some are even trying to claim that the transfer debacle of 2011 was in fact a pretty good piece of business.
Lets set that in context . After saying all close season we would not sell our best players we did just that but at a time which completely sabotaged our start of the season by doing it so late we started the season with a threadbare squad- just squeaked through the CL qualifying tie and then capitulated 8-2 to United. After three games we were eight points behind the leaders.
Our league season was in tatters after THREE games. Why could we not have signed Arteta or BFG earlier ?If we has we might not have been humiliated at OT or lost 2-0 to Liverpool when a very raw Frimpong was sent off. And signing Park was a punt apparently. OK but we needed a decent striker not a cheap one. Note today’s news re the Angers boy.
If you remember that window night we dropped out of the Arteta deal and only his keenness to take a pay cut ( ye gods! ) saved it- thank goodness. How money drives our club in a very quixotic
way. Wenger says he will write a book about that close- season one day but if he does it will come out several weeks late, be a few chapters short.,make a lot of claims that are then reversed and ultimately fail to cover what we are really interested in. I’m afraid I cannot view that episode as anything other than negligence by Wenger, Gazidis and co and to say it was pretty successful actually is just not right. Also if we remember we had bought Gervinho and AOC it was a pretty hit and miss window.
Arsene has said several times that it is only at the end of the window that deals get done. I think the earlier drinks suggest that some teams, sadly one of them being the LWCs seem to have a bit more coherence about their activity. I fear OGL lacks a degree of coherence in our thinking nowadays and I pray it does not cause us great detriment this window. Sadly I am very much in Blog’s camp.
Hang on TTG.
Don’t think anyone is saying the whole transfer window of 2011 was any good. Quite the opposite; it was a freaking nightmare, the worst window of the lot.
My only point was that the “mad trolley dash” in the final week is often pointed to as some sort of terrible disaster, but I actually think it worked out better than some might recall. Two of the three players we actually spent any proper money on ended up lynchpins of the first team (one as skipper). Could have been worse.
Not suggesting it’s desirable to do business that late, and you make a very valid point re: Arteta and the pay cut. CERTAINLY not trying to say that window was anything other than a travesty, taken as a whole. I still recall walking away from the stadium after the defeat to Liverpool, listening to them singing their Suarez song (long time ago it feels now) and wondering where on earth we’d go from there. Thankfully, we went for Arteta and the BFG. I’ll overlook the fat Brazilian.
Hopefully it won’t come to a similar late run this time.
The ‘Poo in clear failure to read the paperwork properly shock:
http://animals.pawnation.com/care-pet-capybara-1532.html
Clearly ignored point 7. And attention to point 5 ain’t looking that good right now either frankly.
Tsk tsk. Time to deploy the chicken wire and cement barrier, Mr Henry, your rodent is trying to ESCAPE.
😉
Heh Snowy @666. Great link.
I think Brenda should pay particular attention to:
“Moving slowly and respecting your pet’s space can reduce the risk that you’ll be bitten.”
If there was any truth to this all deals get done at the end of the season garbage them why not make the window the last 2 weeks in July and be done with it?
It’s utter shite Steve, just like:
“There is no movement” several weeks ago
and
“Some clubs acted very early” today
Bollocks.
Trev, thanks for the kind words, and @635, we are still working on that number….
By the way, I agree that shifting Gerv the swerve at that price was good if pragmatic business.
Cent: headline numbers you see in the press don’t always correspond with the values the deals are registered at when the player registration transfer is officially made. There can be add-ons, delayed payments, sell throughs, salary adjustment compensations — all sorts of stuff that has a value and affects the final price.
And always listen to the wise council of Trev…. 🙂
Otd and others: I am baffled by the ambiguity over Suarez’s get-away clause. Wouldn’t we have insisted on having a look at the physical contract to make sure the wording was watertight? I understand that these clauses are often written in language that players believe to mean one thing but clubs interpret legally as another. But we’d be wise to such tricks, and would want to make sure we were triggering a release at £40m +£1. Wouldn’t we?
Utterly fucked. This whole transfer shit has finally got to me and I’ve gone out on a school night and poured as much alcohol down my neck as I could.
Ho hum.
The only thing to remember through this whole nonsense is that LIverpool are utter utter cunts, always have been, always will be, and that we, Arsenal, are fucking magnificent. We are the true essence of complete perfection, and anyone who wants to slag us off can kiss my scrawny arse.
Lots of hehs up there but I will have to respond in the morning.
‘H, wish you well.
Goodnight All, Up the Arsenal.
A stroke of musical genius
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDf0j3SEseU
So, Henry is quoted tonight as saying they will not sell Suarez to Arsenal at any price, and that he has told Gazidis.
Sounds like game over.
So, every other competitor, English or European, now knows we are absolutely desparate and have loads of money “to buy a superstar” and pay top wages. Prepare to be fleeced – even if we can find a club prepared to sell at all at this stage of the season.
There are a few things I feel like saying now but I will delay a while and see if we can still pull a few rabbits out of the hat.
Willian is available from whatever that Russian outfit is called, as are the rest of their squad. Chris Samba anyone ?
This window, so far, has been a frustrating, mismanaged fiasco.
To return to H2H’s food theme, it’s always said that if you want to make an omlette you have to break a few eggs.
Well, we were using just one massive egg and someone just dropped it on the floor.
At least it looks like it missed your face, Steve T.
Just guessing, NBN, but I assume our lawyers wouldn’t have been allowed sight of the actual Suarez contract and the actual wording in it until after the release clause bid had been made enabling Suarez to talk to us. That is, we would have been advised that >£40m was key to negotiations, but no more than that. Suarez might well have been in breach of contract had he or his people discussed details prior to our +£1 bid.
Just guessing. Any lawyers here?
Oskar
And it’s not even a curate’s egg, Trev, this one’s bad all through… 🙁
Oskar
Oskar
The contract would 100% definitely contain confidentiality provisions.
Suarez showing us the agreement (or any part of it) would place him in breach of these provisions and Liverpool could theoretically sue him for doing so. You don’t generally breach these provisions if you can help it.
Suspect that Suarez agent has attempted to skirt the confidentiality clauses by giving us the broad stroke of certain clauses, without actually providing sight of them. Could be wrong.
Oh, and just to clear up a misunderstanding which the press seem to be spreading; if we have seen the contract it doesn’t mean that Liverpool could sue us – we’re not the party who owe them a duty of confidence.
Trev @ 674
Not game over. Not any more than when Arsene said we wouldn’t sell Nasri, or Fergie said he wouldn’t sell Madrid a virus, or John Henry said he wouldn’t sell Torres. Posturing.
That said, this whole negotiation is messy. Far messier than we have any real experience, or perhaps tolerance, of.
If we have another striker in mind, I think now would be a sensible moment to make a very public offer for them and see how Liverpool respond. Blind panic would be my guess.
Rooney for example, N7? Who else is there? RvP, Aguero, Dzeko??
Oskar
Torres?
Oskar
Giroud to score 30, anyone?
Good article on the CL possibilities in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/aug/08/champions-league-arsenal-play-off
I’m thinking it could be heavy Metalist but that’s just a guess. 🙂
N7 from last night I accept your point but hope the trolley dash is still Plan Z for this year although it doesn’t look like it. The pathetic excuse from Wenger that some clubs acted early is one he should be ashamed of. Please do the same Arsene and stop trying to at chicken with the big boys. Once again the club’s very long- suffering support who accepted the new stadium, Project Youth et al
without a murmur is paying the price of our ineptitude in the market and my bet is the ultimate architect, if you can call it that, of the strategy is Wenger. We keep saying a lot needs to happen in the next few days etc but it really does now. A tough CL draw won’t help morale much either. It’s almost impossible to believe how badly this has been handled AGAIN
Trev. I am sure we will do business. I think There will be new signings. I am just far from confident that at this late stage that they will be of the quality needed. Whoever they are they will have been signed far too late. The fact that the season is a week away and we have done nothing is totally inexcusable in my book.
Who knows, we might strike a deal with the scousers for Suarez? It might all be posturing. But it might not. If we do put a big bid in for another striker I really do not see Liverpool caring one bit. The way I see it is that they have one very unhappy player who is not available until October. That is a month to get back into shape after the window shuts. Henry will look an even bigger arse if he sells him now, especially to us. I have no idea what the future holds but I would not be surprised to see Suarez take the field for the scousers again in October??? Who knows???
All I do know is that so far, it has been one monster clusterfuck. There are a lot of people laughing at us right now and that hurts.
Oskar
Rooney/Jackson Martinez/Benteke/the young lad at Udinese.
Personally, I’d go for Benteke.
If we hold our nerve I expect Suarez to end up an Arsenal player. But Henry’s comments suggest that any deal is likely to be protracted and run to the last minute.
This is potentially going to be a very long three weeks.
Any deal for Suarez may well hinge on our champs lge exploits. I can see it all going quiet until then. If we get through that is when I expect the heat to be turned up. But as I said, it’s all far too late for me. Not just Suarez, all of it.
ah, my post of the morning is 657 (even if it was last night). Hi snowy!
Why would anyone on earth be surprised at this unholy mess that Arsenal have – yet again – created for themselves? I thought their repeated failings at managing a close season was down to stubbornness but now I just think they’re arrogant and complacent and they’re about to get found out, and very badly indeed.
Maybe they’ve already been found out.
Some are saying “It’ll be fine if we get X in on TDD”. It might work out alright but do you reckon the squad is ready to go and get some points on the board before these apparently non-existent signings materialise? Do you think the team morale is in the right place with half of them publicly calling for signings and nothing happening?
I know we need to chillax but I’m in a pretty pessimistic place as regards our first 2-3 games.
AS chicken-licken went one day to the woods, an acorn fell upon her poor bald pate, and she thought the sky had fallen. Then she said she would go and tell the king that the sky had fallen.
So Chicken-licken turned back, and met Henny-penny. “Well, Henny-penny, where are you going?” and Henny-penny said, “I’m going to the wood for some meat,” and Chicken-licken said, “Oh, Henny-penny, don’t go, for I was going, and the sky fell upon my poor bald pate, and I ‘m going to tell the king.”…………….
Groundhog day at the bar……
Let’s all panic because we’ve signed no-one.
After-all there’s only a month left.
Whatever we do, let’s not trust the man who has unilaterally got us qualification for 16 years into the CL on a limited budget while building a new stadium and who’s now bidding multiples of our transfer record to bring in world class players…………..right?
Because WE KNOW BETTER, DON’T WE……!!
Porco
Plenty of reason to be concerned at this stage, but…
Do I reckon this team is ready to get points on the board – yes. This is the same team that went unbeaten from Feb. Last summer’s signings have bedded in and the kids are a year older. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to sign players, but let’s not pretend this is a bad side. Their form was the second best in the country post-Xmas.
Do I reckon morale is bad – absolutely not. All the signs this summer have been of a happy, cohesive unit. Yes, they’ve spoken about the need for new blood, but not in a remotely mutinous way, and I’ve not heard any of the squad demand that Wenger spend his money by the Villa game. Morale is fine.
None of the above is an excuse for not spending. The first XI is pretty good, but the squad lacks the depth for a full season. Should be fine to get us to September though. And let’s bear in mind that our number one target isn’t eligible to play in the league until October anyway.
What Joe said.
What N7 said.
What NBN said.
What Bloomberg said.
What many of the above and various other people have been saying all summer.
Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
Joe/N7
I’m crawling under a stone. My fragile little mind can’t take the not knowing!
heh Candide….
Porco, I don’t know: the brash announcements of money money money, money available at the start of the summer was rather unusual, especially as this time it looked like Arsène was joining in the chorus.
I really expected this summer to be a little different but now I feel fooled.
Which makes it worse than last summer in many ways.
The final stretch of last season showed that we had a really really good core at last, first time in a few years I think, with proper team spirit all around, and so a couple of key additions would make it step further up again.
That’s what make the whole thing frustrating and infuriating.
It’s not over yet, true, but while we have at last get rid of most of the deadwood (and the still semi-alive one like the Swerve 😉 ), there’s a whole piece of action (aka buying) missing.
Confusing to say the least.
PS We NEED a new blog, every time I refresh I have to scroll through 400 drinks and I think my thumb’s going to drop off!
This window, so far, has been a frustrating, mismanaged fiasco.
Just about every window for the last decade has been that. Just about.
Pings a long ball from our box right up the middle as a Graham Taylor tribute move…..
Top corner?
To Mr ‘H, the Management, past Holics and all the regulars a massive thank you for your exceptional blog and the most excellent drinking that I’ve encountered as a previously passive attendee.
Also, I would like to pay my respects to Father Holic, Gooner Terry, and others who are no longer here, and who I know only through the blog and drinks, yet have enriched my life over the last few years.
The events of the last week though have encouraged me to take the plunge and enter into participating at the bar (God forbid with all the heavy-weight drinkers that dwell there). However, my sense is that as time has gone by and nothing has happened that despair and anger has escalated to a more than unreasonable degree.
I read Blogs today and am disappointed at his take on the last few days – we privately bid for a player and the pro Liverpool press and “pundits” cracked the shits and smashed the details out to the public , then it becomes Arsenal that are incompetent and classless when it comes to transfers. Irrespective of my feelings about the target, Arsene and Arsenal have done nothing more than bid, discretely, for an individual and then see the affronted team crack the proverbial shits and spread it all over the living room. Ivan and Arsene have decades of experience of the industry and how transfers are negotiated. Fuck confidentiality and tapping-up that’s the name of the game as regards agents and the clubs – God knows we’ve been on the receiving end enough times.
When I look at this close season I am as anxious as many of you, however I am reminded of what Hunter Thomson once said of the TV business (read football) – “The TV business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs”.
Things will happen, but with zero insight I have to trust the club who have the information and will not lube up ready to be shafted by the thieves and pimps.
Just be kind to the newbie..
Welcome Lloydie – exceptional timing for a first drink. Well in!
Only Liverpool lubing up if they know what’s good for them 😉
Too late for the glory position?
PS apologies all for the drunken drink last night. 🙁
Well in Lloydie -great first drink. There’s a Glenfarclas 12yo on the bar for you.
Good to see you surface, tabs. Tie for the thiamine injection?
+m
tsk
Comes in a scores with his first touch, and especially with a long post?
Wow, well in Lloyd
I think it might be Bath 🙂
Welcome Lloyd and great post you debuted with too.
Great Post Lloyd.
Thoughtful and insightful posts like that will carry a long way.
Welcome aboard..!
Fucking hell Lloydie, you know how to make an entrance! Great Hunter quote, and I agree with what you say above.
If I may draw a parallel, imagine the scene; final game of the season, we need three points for a champs league spot and we’re at a tough away ground. The score is locked at 0-0, and we’re not creating much. The opposition, who need a point to stay up, have packed their side with defenders and look comfortable.
On the bench, we have a couple of decent attacking options. The away fans have been calling for them since half time, but the manager shows no sign of brining them on.
Stressful moment. And that’s pretty much where we are right now.
How fans react will be different. Some will curse the manager and call for his head. Some will bury their head in their hands. Some will chant louder. Some will start to drink heavily.
My take is this: the manager can do what he likes during the game. He’s the one who’ll have to carry the can when the final whistle blows. If the team scores a miraculous last minute winner, he’s a genius. If they draw he’s going to take some stick. If they lose, he may well be sacked.
This one looks like going the full 90. Not the way any of us would have wanted it, but that’s the way it’s going to be.
COYG.
Lloydie,
Great post, first time or not.
And an exceptional piece of goal hanging.
Welcome Lloydie, may you post and score many more.
Porco, re excessive scrolling. Did you know that if you click on the post number before refreshing you browser it will position you to the post you were previously reading? Saves a hell of a lot of thumb action, which we must all be grateful for. (Works on Firefox fo sho.)
We’ve just drawn Fenerbahce.
Not an awful draw, by any means. Bit of a long away trip, but we should be beating Fener over two legs.
They might also be disqualified before a ball is even kicked, which would be ace.
Away leg first, which I also reckon is good news.
Yeah, Fenerbahce isn’t too bad really. And with any luck they’ll lose their appeal against being kicked out of the CL anyway!
Fenerbahce is the unluckiest draw.
They have just signed Emenike and Bruno Alves and already had Yobo, Kuyt, Sow, Emre, Meireles, Krasic. Plenty of danger there.
Not good. Not good at all.
Meh.
The main annoyance is that it’s a sort of place that doesn’t motivate me to make the away trip.
Might do the home leg instead for once.
Lurky
Surely PSV were the ones we wanted to avoid?
It’s been a bad summer, but I’m fucked if I’m going to be scared of Dirk Kuyt*
*as a footballer. As a human being he looks absolutely terrifying
Thank you everyone for the generous welcoming drinks and comments, but as for the the timing I’m afraid it was a case of “punts ball into the area,deflects of referee and two defenders before dribbling off the goal-keepers gloves into the net to score” – gives embarrassed shrug and salute to the Boss, still looking forward to actually scoring with panache and continued drinking at the bar.
When do we have to register our Champions League squad ?
Apparently if Fener are kicked out we’ll be playing Buraspor instead.
Trev
Monday, I think – the 12th.
N7, I don’t think that’s the deadline ‘cos Arteta played for us the season he was signed.
N7, why PSV?
I realy don’t understand. They have sold their crucial players like Strotman, Mertens and Pieters and bought only Maher and Bruma from Chelsea. The other thing is that they were the closest away trip.
Believe me, Fenerbahce is the most difficult opponent we could get, lets hope they lose their appeal.
Cent
Oops – misunderstood.
12 August is the deadline to register players for the qualifiers. There’s a subsequent deadline for the champs league proper.
Lurky
I think Cocu has a good little team going there, and they’ll deal with the departures.
Fener – as you point out above, it’s mainly players who got too old for the prem. They’re a decent side, but if we can’t beat them over two legs we don’t deserve to be in the champs league.
I could regret saying this, but I don’t think they’ll be as tough as Udinese. That was a horrendous draw.
It should be interesting for an Arsenal fan living in Turkey with Fener supporting neighbours. In fact, he normally wears an Arsenal shirt when we watch them and I wear a Fener shirt when they’re playing. Not sure how we’re going to work this one … 😉
As I understand it, the outcome of Fenerbahce’s appeal has been deferred until the following season? At least, that’s what the papers say here but since when could you believe the Turkish press …
12 August is indeed the date. As far as I know, the clubs can add only one player after the deadline who will be able to play in the qualifiers.
Cheers N7, Cent.
Nice post-match tabs, all be it abit late in my commendation!
Feck me!!! 700+ posts on a pre-season friendly piece! Come on Guvnor, pull your finger out! 😉 Hope the iritis’ clearing uneventfully!
Lloydie, nice first effort lad and good to have you on board!
My bespoked and cravat accessorised take on the Suarez soirée, and our transfer window “impassé”:
A top of the tree world class player [all be it flawed, which is par for the course within the realm of “genius-dom” – believe me I should know being such a gifted cretin ;-)] being held against his will by an exponentially rising classless and deluded club that has yet to reach it’s plateau of misguidance! Arsene will get his man at 50,000,001 (thereby landing the British transfer record and fecking off the whole “Arsenal don’t spend any money” cunts in one svelte swoop! How’s that for FFP management?!
Gundogan will additionally join for 20mill from Dortmund as the passing DM we require (to eventually supersede our club cappy), Cesar will be signed for experience to challenge the big Pole between the sticks whilst the little Pole will take the third slot, and last but not least, the Welsh ball-playing Swans’ captain, Will-iams, will leave the Swans-@-sea and enjoy champions league footy along with our hungry” Uruguayian! Happy days and sweet as a nut! COYBG and remember this always…..be wary of premature releasers! They are prone to retrograde releases too!
Dr Z @632 – Haha, tricky choice mate. 🙂
Trev @626 – *winks back* you old flirt. 🙂
H2H @644 – Cheers and good to see you back. Your usual (no green stuff) awaits. Sounds like you’re hungry. Pork scratching to go with it mate?
Snowy @659 – That is indeed sphincter-tighteningly, soul-corrodingly awful, and heh @668.
Question for the American Holics out there. Is Henry this much of a tit when he is wheeled out to speak on behalf of whatever American Sports franchise it is that he owns at home?
Fenerbahce eh? Piss easy. 😉
Heh, N7. Di Natale was old when he played against us, but he ripped our defenders asses of.
And, I agree if we cannot beat them we don’t deserve to be in the competition.
But don’t you agree it would have been better if we got Pacos, and take more relaxed approach transfer wise? I am afraid that now, Arsenal are going to wait to see the income of the qualifiers before they start thinking transfers. Hope I am wrong, of course.
Cheers Dan.
Fair enough N7 and Lurky.
Cheers Trev.
N7, I equally don’t believe Fener will be as tough a draw as Udinese but I don’t care if we deserve it or not I want us to qualify and win the UCL. Simple.
Good day to you all.
Must admit, I agree with Lurky in regards to the CL draw. Turkey always a difficult place to go.
I think some are slightly over rating PSV, the Ere Divisie is pretty poor and they are no longer the force they were back in the day under Hiddink
Still, it is what it is and Fene’ are the ones we have to beat.
Fener over 2 legs with the second at home…no problem at all!
The Turks don’t travel well, at least a draw at their place then a stroll at the Ems after stuffing the LWCs the weekend prior! Sweet! Welcome to CL footy Luis!!!
Incidentally, Galatasaray’s Ems Cup success was a friendly comp so comparisons should be excluded. The current first team and squad, even without the additions we all crave, should pass the test and there will be Turkish Delight!
Lurky – I was praying for Pacos. Probably the only real soft touch in the draw.
I had the others as much of a muchness, once you factor in travel. Metalist would have been a real bitch – very long trip ahead of the NLD and they’re 15 games into their season.
Bodrum
Any scouting report on Fenerbahce would be welcome, to calm my nerves a little bit 🙂
Funny stuff from Top Man Snowy last night and a fine alcohol fueled post by Tabs. 😉
Excellent maiden post by Llyody, with a goal on his debuet, one to watch me thinks. 😉
Thanks once again N7 for the legal eagle stuff.
Trev’s on song again, while Ollie makes the great point that, I believe most of us are feeling, that there’s a certain air of betrayal among the fan base. As the late Malcolm X once said;
“Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!”
Or was it Denzel Washington?
Eye-wateringly twattish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wujTSELwsPA
Heh, cheers Tabs, think I’ll pass on the pork scratchings though, most unpleasantly named snack. 😉
While on the subject of unpleasant: Why is that so many of these Richy Rich type meerkans have names that sounds like a pet name for your private parts?
E.g;
I’m gonna whip out my John W Henry and have a nice long wizz.
Hahaaha 🙂
“You show me your John W Henry, and I’ll whip out my Randy Lerner”
Betrayal, possibly H2H@740. But betrayal by whom?
By one senior member of the club who once, arguably foolishly, said something rather silly with a short timescale?
By the press who are reporting, ad nauseum what other clubs are saying we are up to?
By the club in general, for failing to tell the world exactly what they are up to?
I know who I feel has let us down, and it’s not the first or last on that list – I’m inclined to forgive a single indiscretion from the club.
Yes, I’d like things to be different, but there’s a hell of a lot of difference between “We haven’t done it” and “We aren’t trying”. And even “We haven’t done it” is largeley irrelevant until the start of the season at least and possibly until the window closes.
Lurky sums it up nicely above – if we can’t beat Fenerbace over two legs we don’t deserve to get into the CL group stages. We ar said to be negotiating with a club who appear to believe that they should be allowed to play whether they deserve it or not, indeed they seem to believe that they deserve a place because of their name. It’s just one of the things that makes Arsenal the club it is that we don’t believe that. Do we?
Erectional disfunction = Stan Kroenke.
Fenerbahce is a team we shall beat over two legs, no question about that.
Off to Finland now, will be nice to se the boys play again even if it’s just a friendly. UTA!
Have fun in Finland Lars!
Heh H2H,
“I’m gonna tidy up the ol’ John Henry with a brand new Gillette and Hicks !”. 😉
That was a generic ‘quote’ – not a personal one, I should add. 😉
Right,
Some bastard is messing with my karma.
Villa on 17th I said.
Great I suggest we meet in Moorgate on 19th I said.
What a great idea they said.
What a great idea I said – means I will have to stay in London until the Monday night. *visions of a very messy evening in the Tollington*
On second thoughts, lets meet in Moorgate on the 20th they said.
Bastard I said.
I’ll expect you home on the Saturday night then she said.
I didn’t say a bleeding thing.
N7 Gooner, I stand corrected. In the Turkish press today:
‘a pending match-fixing case involving Fenerbahce at sport’s highest court means the Turkish club could be expelled even if it wins… the Court of Arbitration for Sport has set an Aug. 28 deadline to rule on Fenerbahce’s appeal against a two-year ban from UEFA competitions. No hearing date has been set.’
What a ridiculous state of affairs – the second leg is due to be played on 27th August!
Trips to Turkey are never easy, but we are going to have to beat a lot stronger teams than Fenerbahce over two legs if we are going to have a deep run in the CL this season.
Oh and Lloydie, welcome.
Mine’s a guinness. 8)
Pangloss, I feel betrayed by the club as a whole.
I’ve never been a “spend some f-ing money” kind of guy, I understood completly that the club were in a rebuilding process, even though I may have bemoaned the fact that, as Steve T would say, we seemed to be missing out on being the best we could be, I never demanded marque signings.
What changed?
Well simple, we were told that this time it would be different, not by the press or those with other agendas, but by those in the club who actually have the power to make a difference, that was what seems like a lifetime away and absolutly nothing has been done.
I feel bambozled because I always thought we were a club that had a certain morality, yet here we are embroiled in a very public messy situation with Liverpool involving an individual who’s, to be kind, let’s say, moraly bankrupt. A dispicable cheat, who has treated every club he has been with with a frightening lack of respect, has been done for racism and the cowardly act of biting, TWICE. Is this what we strive to be? Willl he make us better?
Yes, he has an unquestionable talent, but he is a giant knobboxer and not worthy of our shirt.
WTF?
So we’re playing a two legged tie against a club who could be kicked out of the competition the following day?
What happens if they beat us and are then disqualified?
I feel bambozled because I always thought we were a club that had a certain morality
We never have had really. I know we like to kid ourselves that we do things properly but we do the whole tappy up thing, just like everybody else. Only thing is, we usually tappy up other clubs kids so nobody really takes any notice.
Cynic
I actually feel quite the opposite.
One of the few good things that has come out of the last fortnight has been the club’s conduct.
No talking about other clubs’ players
No response to being publicly slagged off by half of Liverpool
Bid made directly to the target’s club and not leaked to the press
I have no problem with any of the above.
We have absolutely no idea how much contact we’ve had with Suarez or his agent, so that’s total speculation at this stage. It appears there has been some, but the confidentiality obligation is not on our shoulders.
You will struggle to find another top level club that behaves as well as we have done over this whole thing.
It’s looking like a car crash of a summer at this stage, and the Suarez deal has a bad smell coming off it, but I honestly don’t think its fair to blame Arsenal for that – the smell is emanating from Anfield and the player himself.
OK so Mediawatch have confirmed that John ‘Smoker’ Henry took exactly the same position re Suarez over the Torres sale back when Torres was good.
Makes my rant somewhere up there look pretty jerky. Knee-jerky, for all you sniggerers at the back.
No worries Porco. I think we’ve all had moments just like that this window.
I just keep repeating the same mantra to myself: “People say things they don’t actually mean/we don’t have all the information”.
FWIW, I don’t think the John Henry interview changes the fundamental dynamic of the negotiation a single iota.
I also noted that he raised a couple of points Liverpool have previously used to attempt to drive the price up (e.g. selling to a “rival”). I think he’s trying to goad us into making a higher offer.
Sticking by my prediction: £50m. Late August. The extra £10m mainly made up of add ons. We get our player, Liverpool claim they got a great deal and we overpaid. Life goes on.
H2H@753, thanks for explaining. I don’t feel that way, mainly because while an official, senior, representative of the club did indeed say things would be different this time around, he said it once.
If he had popped up repeatedly saying, for instance, “Sorry, I know I said 48 hours, but things have taken a bit longer than expected; don’t worry it’ll only be another couple of days… Oops, make that a week… Ah! Wow! Do I look silly, never mind, it’ll definitely be within a month, trust me…”, then I would also be feeling betrayed.
As it is, he’s said something that turned out to be wrong. When he made his statement he may have had good reason to believe that he could deliver, but negotiations went badly and he couldn’t. He may have misunderstood something and no-one else ever had those expectations, or he may have been downright lying. I don’t know which of those it was, and I don’t think many – actually not any – people here do know which it was. As many have said, tabs most recently, people read what they want to read.
I still believe that there is ample time for us to make serious purchases before the window slams shut. I still believe that everyone involved in the club’s business does everything they can to make the club as good as they can. No-one on here has ever managed to convince me of anything more serious than that people working at the club have failed to make the club as good as the people on this site believe it can be.
I hope to be proved right; that’s all I can do.
Pangloss, formerly Oxon Gooner (in case you missed the trnasition).
Bollocks, almost made it through a drink without a toping misteak.
From what I heard on radio about an hour ago, if Fenerbache beat us and are then disqualified the following day, we will go through !
Perfick ! 😉
What N7 said to Cynic.
I don’t think we’ve acted in an immoral way, however, going for that player leaves a very nasty taste in my mouth. I’ve been following his career for years, he was at Groningen, before he was at Ajax, and guess what, he left both of those clubs under a cloud of contraversie too.
He’d obviously prefer to go to Real, so if, god forbid, we do get him, what’s to stop him acting like a cunt again this time next year to force through a move to Spain?
===
Cheers Panoxon. 😉
I still feel, as I always have, that it’s best to get your business done and dusted before the season kicks off. Maybe we still will get some players in and I’m being a bit of a bitch, although I’ve seen nothing but deja vu lately and the longer it trawls on the more recognisable it is becoming. Also with every passing day Gazidas is looking more and more incompetant due to THAT speach. If it was him trying to force Wenger to get his finger out and get a move on in the Transfer market then it has backfired spectecularlyand all that is left is the giant rod that has been fashioned to beat the living fuck out of the both of them.
Again, I hope I’m wrong, but here on the Ninth day of August with only speculation about a player that I would rather not have, being linked and absolutly no noise about any other position being filled, my scepticism is growing.
Spot on N7 at 757.
Indeed Christain Purloe, former LFC CEO said almost exactly that this morning on SSN. Arsenal have done nothing wrong, responded to the publicity that Suarez wanted away with an indication of interest. The player then expressed flattery by the interest and Arsenal followed that with an offer, then by a higher offer. The fact that we were clearly led to believe there was a buy-out clause at >£40m by an intermediary was somewhat glossed over but he clearly knows how it works.
The embarrassment should entirely rest with LFC (who released almost all the information in the public domain), Rodgers (who has shown himself to be a twit as well as being shown up as being an allegedly disingenuous liar (Suarez and the Swansea chairman should compare notes)), Suarez (who released the rest and misunderstood his contract), his agent and his lawyers (who bear the responsibility for the botched clause).
Time to move on Arsenal. The paucity of information does NOT mean absence of other activity. We don’t talk about our business but it is happening, rest assured. If LFC had not blabbed to the press at every turn, we would not know about bids of £35m and £40m +£1 for Suarez!
Doh, 757 -1 = 756 🙂
Pangloss,
I do admire your faith and nothing will ever destroy my love or support for The Arsenal. This sense of betrayal thing though could so easily have been avoided.
It has always been Arsenal’s modus operandi in transfer dealings, never to say anything until deals are done. As possible sellers we may have denied that players would be leaving once the press had got on the case but, as potential buyers the club has always refused to comment.
Until this summer.
Suddenly, the chief executive announced to the world that we had plenty of money to play at the top table and that some “very exciting news” was imminent in the now infamous 48 hours.
True, he did not keep repeating modified versions thereof, but his announcement was made early in the window – just before season ticket renewal time – and was, indeed, more or less a repetition of the same kind of statement made at the beginning of each window over the last three or four summers.
I don’t doubt that a driven man like Arsene Wenger is doing his utmost to be a winner again. I am completely happy to accept that we have not been in the position to seriously challenge for top honours since the stadium move.
I don’t doubt, either, that Ivan Gazidis, really did believe that he was about to announce some very exciting news.
In the circumstances, following years of patience through harder times, it would have been better to continue with a policy of silence until deals were done, than to give rise to this feeling of being cheated, or lied to, just to ensure ticket renewals were healthy.
The club chose to raise expectations sky high – we did not demand it.
The consequences are the division and mistrust that we are now left with.
Correct Trev. Ivan made a crass misjudgement. Desperately needs to rectify that by delivering somebody impressive before the window closes as well as cover at the other 3 needed positions.
H2H,
Can’t really disagree with any of yours@762.
I’d like us to get our transfer business done and dusted early – didn’t TH14 come in late and have trouble settling, and the following year we got someone in early who settled better? Or maybe someone had trouble settling, having come in late the year before TH14, who was brought in early possibly as a result. Whatever, it isn’t always possible to do the business early.
We brought in Poldi early, and Nasri too, as I recall, but have brought in people late as well. It seems to me that we get them in early where possible, and make the best of it when not.
I think Gazidis looks silly, possibly stupid. You think he looks incompetent. No disagreement there about from emphasis and degree. I think you may be overthinking and putting together conspiracy theories. Me, I’ll stick to cock-up theories until events prove otherwise a whole lot more conclusively than at present.
Speaking of “getting them in early”, drinks all round please barman. I’ll settle up as soon as the wallet gets back from Finland.
Oh, yes… Oooo errr missus. Down Wolfie.
Trev, what you say is true and constant repetition doesn’t make it any less true. Nor does it do anything to reduce the division and mistrust.
That’s exactly how it looks from where I’m sitting Trev.
Bath, that’s indeed what we need, but the clock is ticking……
Cheers Pangloss, I’m really not looking for conspiricy theories, as Trev said so well, this is a situation of our own making. I too would have been happy to trundle along and hold that little bit of hope that we would bring in additions, but we were promised, almost guarenteed that they would arrive and quickly, yet, here we are…. still.
Pangloss, I don’t believe I have tried to create or promote any division or mistrust. I was merely following up a couple of drinks between yourself and H2H, and trying to be as reasonable as possible.
If you still manage to be offended by my comments, may I suggest a look at ‘766’ to see that an eminently reasonable chap like Bathgooner appears to agree.
Incidentally, I have no wish to make you change your mind or agree with me, but I honestly don’t think I gave been making divisive comments.
Where I have criticised, it has been done with examples.
Still quite happy to leave a drink on the bar for you …..
Fuck me you lot are posting too much, so I have forgotten what I wanted to say after reading the first few.
Think there was an ‘ouch’ for zico.
On the brightside at least we’re top of the league;
1 Arsenal 0 0 0
2 Aston Villa 0 0 0
3 Cardiff 0 0 0
4 Chelsea 0 0 0
Where’s the Happy Train when you need it, eh?
Leaves on the line? Pah!
What is strange though is how the swamp dwellers have moved up three places;
14 Southampton 0 0
15 Tottenham 0 0
16 Stoke 0 0
17 Sunderland 0 0
18 Swansea 0 0
19 West Brom 0 0
20 West Ham 0 0
*source BBC website.
Trev @ 765 — Excellent points about Ivan raising the expectations very high so early on, and lot of the current consternations are mostly consequential.
However, just to be a bit fair to him, most of the fan base had been clamoring for precise information about how much money there is to spend and what our financial situation is and why we cannot buy great players now given the public knowledge of the improved commercial deals. His statements — albeit mistimed, many of us in this bard had mentioned that at that time — may have been a bit reactive. And it is not far from the truth in that Arsenal are willing to spend on transfer fees and salaries almost as much as any other club, but would still judge the valuation of a player in an Arsenal way. In those statements Ivan had also mentioned that just because there is a lot of fund doesn’t mean Arsene is going to necessarily overspend on a player he doesn’t think deserve that type of fee, nor would he buy players for buying’s sake. So there was always that caveat which is what I believe we are seeing being played out. At least based on public knowledge of our deals, which is zero bar the ScumPool’s classless tantrum just because someone privately bid for their player.
Ivan of course did play a little ‘cute’, and I agree with you that all of these could have been avoided by simply saying ‘judge us at the end of the transfer window’ without committing much.
H2H, That is so BBC.
It’s a subtle demonstration of all the pro-Spudz spin they put into MoTD every season.
Cheers Faustus.
Lars @746 – Have a good one mate.
Dr Z @749 – Bollocks I said. We’ll just have to get on it early I said. 😉
Missed that Lars – have a good trip.
“There’s a difference between “We haven’t done it” and “We aren’t trying””
Pangloss
Are you saying it’s alright if they don’t get a decent signing in as long as they did their best?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Needless to say I agree with N7 @756. People are entitled to feel that Arsenal have let themselves down by going after Suarez in the first place, if that is how they feel about the player, but as for how Arsenal have gone about the transfer, I fail to see anything that can remotely be described as “classless”. We made bids. They were rejected as is Liverpool’s right. Since then all the noise has come from Liverpool. Increasingly their right hand does not appear to know what their left hand is doing.
As for “tapping up” the player, come on, give me a break. That’s how all transfers are now conducted. You want Arsenal to stand all alone on some misconceived higher plane of morality? Sod that.
As for the “betrayal” thing, betrayal is a strong word, and I’m not sure I’ll feel “betrayed”, but if no signings are made, then I will certainly feel misled.
Pangloss – To characterise IG’s end of season message as something akin to a one off slip of the tongue is, in my view, nonsense. It was neither a one off, nor was it a slip of the tongue. And I’m not talking about the “48 hour exciting news thing” either, just the more general message that we had plenty of money and intended to spend it. IG first gave out that message when he addressed the various supporters clubs, and he repeated it when he briefed the Press a few days later. IG is an intelligent man, and a smoother media operator you’d be hard pushed to find. What he said was 100% deliberate. It was the message that the Club wanted to get out there. That message was repeated by AW early in the Summer.
As you say, there is still time to rectify the situation. If, however, the transfer window slams shut without real class having walked in through the door, then I think he should walk.
N7 – Happy Train Sir ? Here you go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1rkfQ1CCcQ