I was thinking after the loss yesterday that at some point, AFC decided to go the LA Clippers route. Buy young, sell high, make money. Not a bad business plan but these are testing times for fans. United and Liverpool stepped up with mixed results when the world changed but AFC took the safe route out. Maybe now we will win 7-8 games in a row and everyone will be in the land of sunshine but this hurts bad right now. How can a club that makes so much money just piss away their real capital...our fan base and performance on the pitch?
So Arsenal loses out on a 14 year old... Blow for Arsenal as promising Colombian kid Poveda chooses Barcelona.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...Arsenal-want-Andre-Schurrle-Lewis-Holtby.html Holtby is a great prospect, and he should be playing for the German NT now but he has some sort of agreement with the DFB thats why he's still playing in the U21. If he is British(well, he is half british but he plays for the German side and the English media wont overhype)/French/Spanish, he would cost Arsenal 10mil quid more. A 22 years old, skillful playmaker with NT n CL expereince? Yes i m not kidding, remember Liverpool paid 35mil to Newcastle for just Andy Carroll? Walcott, Carrick, Jordan Henderson (25mil?), Bentley were all overpriced and overhyped I think Wenger realized this n thats why he rarely brings in British players. Price for French players is inflating and i think among the better football countires, german players are still undervalue.Mertesacker cost something round 6-7mil? He is well expereinced, has played in 4 major international tournaments and is a high character player at he age of 27(when he joined) I understand why Wenger wants Holtby. Player of his calibre, at the price around 12-15mil, is a bargain in my opinion. And Pierre Lasogga may not cost more than 4mil quid........but the kid has huge upside, has the killer instinct n is EPL ready physically, so its a low risk, high reward choice.
holtby is a quality player, mad if he goes for free, he was on loan at mainz i belive a couple of years ago and was excellent
The problem of course being that the person tasked with doing this is the same one that bought Santos for when Gibbs is out just a year ago. I'm not sure why we even have a transfer thread. GK, CB, MF, striker... These have all been problems for years.
Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim) can play both left and right. Just had a typical assist against Schalke. Not sure about his defensive skills, not that they are not any good. Still trying to figure it out. Could it be he defends better on the right side? With Sagna leaving (?) it wouldn't be dumb to get a guy who can fill in at either side. He can play mid/wing as well.
No slight against guys like Johnson but we can do much better than that. I'd like to see someone like Leighton Baines or Fabio Coentrao.
I was thinking of Johnson as adding depth and flexibility without shelling out a fortune in consideration of Sagna being on the fence. Baines would be fine but he would replace Gibbs. Incredibly, Baines would give AW a left back that actually plays AW's type of game. Imagine that. Jenkinson and Baines would be a good pair. I doubt Baines goes to Arsenal in January though. Coentrao is great and can play many positions, I believe, but not sure we are shelling out his kind of money for that position when the forward line needs an injection that is likely going to cost a lot.
Baines can stay healthy. Gibbs cannot. What good is a player that cannot last more than 3-5 games a stretch? Gibbs has a ton of talent but so does Diaby.
Don't need a flavor of the month type. Need proven performers. Preferably EPL qualified. Big fan of Baines.