Mkhitaryan's salary is stupid. That's probably why he went to United. They're paying him like he's a superstar. That's because they're desperate to stay relevant after failing to even make CL 2/3 seasons. As for the other guys, hard to say if we ever wanted them or not. Prime example of the "Yann M'Vila trap" that our supporters fall prey to every offseason. 1. Player is dubiously linked to Arsenal. 2. Fans take rumor at face value and start to get excited about player coming to Arsenal. 3. Player signs elsewhere. 4. Fans get disappointed, and act like we somehow "blew it" or "failed", even if there's no concrete evidence that we ever tried for the player. It's hard to take any of these news stories at face value right now. Di Marzio says we might be close to Icardi. That newspaper says he's staying at Inter. Maybe tomorrow he'll be taking pictures in a Chelsea kit. Unless it's Ornstein or Arsenal.com, I feel like it's just smoke and not necessarily fire.
I'll say this about Pogba: Love him, but if anybody thinks United will win the league if they have Pogba, they're insane. Payet did much more for France than Pogba did. Sissoko did what Pogba should've done against Portugal.
Almost wish he'd run into trouble trying to build his NFL "Disneyworld" to the point where he has to sell Arsenal in order to pay for it.
As crazy as it sounds, you might on to something. Wenger's done good business with Real in the past (Ozil). Madrid might want to offload Benzema; partly to fund the Lewa transfer, partly to stay away from a potential off-field scandal with Benzema which would hurt their brand. If and when the lid of L'Affiair de Benzema blows off, Wenger will be pursuing other matters.
Honestly, I think Benzema is a real good guess. Definitely under the radar. May need a fresh start with all the madness he's been through.
I think if we buy Benzema we will need to sell Giroud and bring in another striker. Giroud will be quite displeased with that purchase.
To be fair, that's partly because the way France was set up. Pogba played well when he was the one playing the more advanced role, with Kante sitting behind him. It's not like Sissoko ever showed the form Pogba does at club level. I do agree though, he's ridiculously overrated. He might reach Messi/CR7 level, but so far, not even close.
Polish press is all over lewandowski possible move to Real... I don't see it this season as Bayern is very protective of its prized asset. Lewandowski feels fine at Bayern and he should do well under Carlo. Massive wages could be tempting as his agent always looks for big bucks.
Really ... I saw a number of Real games this season and I found Jese to be "meh" What games did he impress?
Jose will be not much different and he will likely have a better attack and will at least have shaw back. I think he will manage defensively just fine. It's more a question of if things click for them--God I hope not. Would like to see them lose the first 5 games and put him in a position to throw the players under the bus.
If you are trying to argue that the United's defense last season was suspect, no argument from me. It was at least as good as anyone else in the league is all I am saying. Shaw returning hopefully will be massive. And Bailly looked good against Liverpool in the EL and the one friendly we have played so far so reasonable to expect some uptick in the defensive personnel.
Last season. City's wage bill is an underestimate by about 25m because of creative/dodgy accounting Premier League Clubs Wage Bill For 2015-16 Season NO# CLUB 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 3 Chelsea £190m £192.7m £215.6m 1 Manchester United £187m £215.8m £203 m 2 Manchester City £216m £205m £193.8m 4 Arsenal £166.4m £180.4m £192m
See transfermarkt. City and United are around 330m euro net since start of 2013/14, Arsenal are next at around 200m net.
agree. honestly, it isn't as if de gea will have gotten worse, they will have shaw coming back and a year for that defense to have played together. mourinho's defensive-lean will not harm that defense any and his poison personality will not have had a chance to break things down. yet. even ignoring pogba, if you have mikwhateverhisnameis, ibrahimovic, and martial isolated up front to try to work their magic while everybody else concentrate on defending . . . isn't that his general prefer play? IF you add in pogba and he gets to be the most advance central midfielder with someone like schneiderlin and herrara holding in the back then it gets gnarly. now, give mourinho 2 years to alienate EVERYONE . . . then it's a different discussion.