Father Ted: that money is just resting in our account! The Transfer Thread

Adebayor has to watch Man City every week, though.

 

More to the point:

Women of Milan >>> Women of Manchester.

 

So true. Never seen that many hot women in my life in one city save CPH. And there are more ugly women in Paris than Manchester or Birmingham.

 

http://www.adifferentleague.co.uk/p...-interest-returns-denilson-happy-to-stay.html

 

The only good looking woman in Manchester is usually a tourist anyway

 

lol at buying dann and johnson wehn we have bought in 2 cbs this year

both overrated, even though dann is a big prospect, blues defend as a team and play anti football so it's not really suprising they do well defensively

flamini would be welcome back here for me

 

I actually think Birmingham play pretty good, attractive football. I don't get the anti-football comment at all.

 

We could always move Arshavin along and pick up Valbuena...

 

I just might put up with that if you paid me Adebayor's salary...

 

Key word there is 'might.'

 

Yeah, like if after a year I could request a move to NYRB and watch Arsenal on a giant HD TV with my best pal, Thierry Henry.

 

I keep trying to write a post here, and than I keep deleting it. A subject of being a bit depressed I guess.


We defend a lot of our players who haven't put up much, and I wonder if it's reached the point where that needs to stop. I keep thinking Song, Clichy, and the likes. People that aren't bad, but constantly have to be defended by the group. Yeah, he's not bad, but if we had a consistently good player there, would that make a difference?

Not sure if that made any sense. Just sick of the, "well, we have 'x' player there who does okay and shows some flashes of greatness, so..."

********, I don't know.

 

I just finished writing a long rant and as I was about to post it I changed my mind. It felt good to get it all out though.

 

Nice timing on the thread title!

 

And that is why you are Mr Sunshine and Light.

At least on this board...

You're right, we do, because we get overly invested in the players. We have lots of guys who have made progress, and because we see it, we cherish it and focus on it. As does Wenger, too often to the detriment of the future. You bring up Song, and he's a good example. There was a time when I thought he was the worst player I'd ever seen in an Arsenal jersey. He made Cygan look like the second coming of Carvalho. But, yes, Song has gotten better, he deserves to be on the team, but he really is marginal at best. And given how poorly our defense has performed over the past two-three years, we need better. Clichy is another example. Clichy was a great young find (what, 6 years ago???) and he was the perfectly anti-Cole after Cashley left, and he had serious promise. But he's distinctly average on defense, has decent speed and gets upfield well, but is useless on the attack. Even Eboue, who I have had serious hate for, has improved his mental outlook and his on-field reliability, but in the long run, he's distinctly average.

We have too many average guys. And that would be OK if they played with the fire of average guys who have to work hard just to stay at this level. But they don't, and we get way too many performances like we've had to endure the past two-three weeks.

 

I agree with you...to a point. It's not that our team is average. Using a guy like Clichy, as much as his play has been disappointing for two seasons, he's still top-5 LB in the league. Top-5 is better than average, but what he's not is a difference-maker. We have far too many guys who are good, but not great. Guys who can play good for any given game, but who do not regularly have moments of brilliance.

Cesc is our only true world class player on this team. This year he has been hamstrung (pun, unfortunately intended) by injuries and our play has suffered. We have a few players who are arguably "class" (which I see as distinct from world class) -- Nasri, Arshavin (when motivated), RvP (when healthy) and then lots of the guys who are just plain ol' good.

We do not buy great players but if truth be told, we don't develop many great players either. We developed Cesc and Nasri but who else lately? I think part of this is the change in buying strategy. Look at the most successful team in recent memory -- the Invincibles. The leaders were Pires, Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Lehmann, etc. These were the players we built our team around because they were all world class players. Interestingly, we bought all these guys from clubs were in the G-14/G-18, i.e. "big clubs".

Not surprisingly, our two best players today (Cesc, Nasri) are from G-14 clubs. Big clubs have quality young talent. In recent years we passed up on players like Ribery (at the time with Marseille, a G-14 club) because he was too expensive -- how would that investment look today? We don't have the same number of difference makers anymore, in part because we have abandoned our philosophy of purchasing young talent from big clubs.

 

who have Milan, Juve, Madrid, United, and Inter produced the last 5 years that are top talents?

we should really stop with this grass greener on the other side stuff


mind you, Arsenal are crap

 

The difference is that all of those clubs have brought in quality players from elsewhere.

If you want to be a top team, you need top quality. And if you don't buy top quality, then you will have to develop top quality. There is a valid question of whether Arsenal does that.

Simply to say that some list of other teams also don't do it - when they don't have to - does not exempt Arsenal from that criticism.

 

I certainly agree with many of your points. To me, the issue is one of mentality even more than skill. We have too many players that lack character. Too many guys who make poor decisions at important times that cost the team. We lack a winning mentality because of the players we have in the squad.

 

I thought it was pretty obvious that Arsenal based its model on Barcelona's. That's not to say that we shouldn't look to make an impact signing, but if we should be comparing our transfer habits to anyone it's them as the core of Arsenal are players that have been developed at the club and Arsenal will continue to bring its core players through the academy.

That said, Barcelona signed Villa and Mascherano this season and we could desperately use a Masherano type player.

 

Are other teams winning trophies? If so, then the grass most certainly is greener.

 

we must sign Ganso

or Neymar

or Hulk

plus a World Class Holding Midfielder and a Defender (A YOUNG ONE)

I am F-ING sick of "Wenger's Way"

 

is ganso not still out for months and months recovering from an acl injury?

ps. did i read that man city have an option on him?

 

Too much of a good thing?

 

Please tell me how it's a good thing. Please. Barca does it their way but they also sign players to support the squad and we don't. We have been so stubborn, yup thats you Wenger. Almost 6 Years without a trophy is ridiculous.