We're so sorry, Uncle Arsene, but they're so easily called away - The Transfer Thread

exactly phish, mata isn't what we need imo

we need to be mroe physical and direct when attacking to beat the 9-1 formations we come against

mata is another central player pushed out wide.....jarvis is ok, quite direct and can cross

barton is a very good player but not what we need mentally, he wouldn't have many friends here and i can't see him at arsenal, maybe at villa

if we go into the season without a strong central midfielder or a big centre half then we are as weak centrally as the last few seasons which is not good

 

mata seems to be able to do what nasri can't be arsed doing, for similar (or less) money.

 

lamb, wouldnt u rather have a solid central midfielder and a direct winger?

nzogbia couldve done a job for us on one flank imo and he was less than 10 mill

 

well, it's a juggling act, isn't it?
in an ideal world i'd like to see 3 signings, one would still be mata, another would be 1 of jagielka/cahill and my 3rd preference would be for vertonghen mostly because of his versatility to play 3 positions, dm/lb/cb, all of which we need depth in. you offer me nzogbia instead of mata, but i'd find that a second rate option tbh, despite nzogbia being more of a natural wide player. if we were reverting to a fixed 442 then i might find a player like nzogbia more appealing.
if nasri and fabregas sorted their attitudes out then mata is a luxury, albeit a very, very nice one. if either go i think mata is a more than capable replacement, certainly as good as if not better than nasri, and a player who has very serious potential to be unarguably world class. it's about making a statement of intent though and i agree, we do still need players for other positions too.

ps. valencia play liverpool away this weekend, so i'd make a guess that the mata situation might be sorted by then, whether it's to us, or staying with valencia, or to another club altogether.

 

Yeah no shit, especially the part about statement of intent.

Until we see otherwise, it's fair to assume we'll never get a senior player the caliber of Juan Mata again for the remaining life of the club.

 

This is all very well said and I really agree with it. Ideally, three signings, especially Mata, Cahill/Jagielka, and Vertonghen at those three specific areas of need, would be perfect for us right now (I especially agree with the point about Vertonghen's versatility). It's the right coverage given our luck with injuries and probably the right injection of talent and attitude to help our current squad.

The problem is, the only one that Wenger will see as necessary is Mata and that's only if Fabegras AND Nasri leave. And even then, he could go cheap and bring in another player altogether or even simply say that Ramsey will fill the need. I don't like bashing Wenger, but it is frustrating that he thinks Gibbs won't need coverage, that Squillacci and Bartley are adequate as 4th and 5th choices, and that we could honestly watch Fabregas and Nasri leave without replacing them and somehow be better for it.

That being said, I remember when Denilson and Song were vying for the D-Mid spot and it looked like they were both doing their best to lose the competition. Then Wenger just gave the job to Song and suddenly he flourished. I know there were mixed reactions to Song this season, but he emerged as a fairly dependable player. I wonder if that's Wengers approach right now: Let the players who don't want to be here leave and while spending 40-80 million to replace them might give us better options than our internal solutions, our internal solutions aren't worse than 40-80 million worth.

Most of us could probably afford a nicer car or a nicer house or whatever, but such options wouldn't give us the value for our money we feel we're already getting. It's easy to pick a Honda over a Ferrari when it's your money being spent. Wenger is getting phenomenal value for Arsenal's money. We just gripe because it's not our money and we wish he'd buy a Ferrari with it instead of settling for the old 4th place and CL spot he's got sitting in the garage.

 

This is one of the dumbest statements I have ever read on this board. Nasri and Arshavin are both players signed in recent seasons whom are comparable to Mata. On the defensive side Vermaelen has shown enough when healthy to be just as big an impact player and was signed two years ago. Deal in hyperbole if you want, but you run the risk of saying some really asinine things.

 

Whatever. It's a worst-case scenario, but not at all hyperbolic. And given what's transpired at the club recently, it's way past time to take some of the worst-case scenarios out of play. And specifically,

Nasri was 20 or 21 at the time we bought him, hoping to become what Mata is now. If Nasri wasn't our player already we'd have very little chance to sign him.

Arshavin was a near miracle at the time it happened. If we'd just got done dropping a trillion league points in an epic collapse, we probably couldn't get him either.

Verm we might have some chance to get. But if he spent one more year at Ajax, probably not. Do you think we've got any chance at Vertonghen?

We're a less competitive club than we were two years ago. We have to prove to everybody watching that we are going to bounce back instead of continuing to freefall.

 

I don't see how that helps. The only numbers we can acquire are the losing ones.

 

RE: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/tra...-hours-according-to-report-article780123.html

If the rumors are true that City are about to make a 22 million pound bid for Nasri then I see NO WAY how it cannot be accepted.

If Wenger refuses and Nasri still doesn't sign an extension he is hammering his own nail into his coffin. The supporters just won't allow him to get away with it.

Mancini has openly come out and said he wants to add a central midfielder and winger still and Nasri fits both those bills.

I cannot believe that we only bid only 14 million pounds for Mata. Of course that would be rejected. Why can't we just go in with a serious offer for once instead of going in with a dick slap offer and then having other clubs turn around and hijack everything. So frustrated.

I was out of town for the weekend but read all about the boo birds going down at Emirates during the Red Bull game. It's only pre season. Yikes.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said, but after how the season ended last year, I felt that major changes needed to be made. It's not just in the level of talent/depth either, I would bet that the morale/attitude of the team is shit due to the close of last season, and I don't feel that trying to fix it by finding the answers within the current squad, which AW is seemingly trying to do due to the lack of transfer activity, is going to work.

With that said, I think that what you said about the value of a given player is spot on.

 

in fairness, it seems like Valencia really did consider that bid. Then Spurs came in and fucced things up with their bid.

 

Heh. Well kemosabe, I've been expecting us to win the League every year since it actually happened. So my powers of pre-cognition probably won't help either.

 

You'd have to think so. If Nasri won't sign a new deal we've got to sell him especially for the money City are offering.

Everybody knows we're in a bad spot with Cesc and Nasri. The one thing we haven't mentioned is that if push comes to shove we have one decent option for Cesc: the bench. For the money that Barca is offering us he's not going to depreciate that much and he's still under contract for four more years. We don't have that option w/Nasri.

 

I agree with you totally. We could certainly use a boost in talent to help get us over the bar, but we were good enough to be title-challengers midway through the campaign, so why not all the way to the finish? A boost in talent is great, but most supporters believe with good reason that this team is already talented enough to win.

The problem is two-fold: 1. As you said, we are lacking in morale and attitude. You point out that our low morale is the effect while the cause is our poor finish, but you would probably agree that this is cyclical. Our poor finish is the effect to the cause of we always seem to finish poorly which is the effect of low morale and weak mentality. More than we need a boost in talent, we need fresh faces with fresh (and hopefully winning) attitudes. I think this could help turn around some of our other players as well. 2. We lack depth. It's tough to finish strongly when there's so much turnover due to injuries and our second and third choices just are not cutting it. Relying on Denilsons and Rosickys killed us. Just as bad, relying on players who were just coming off injuries themselves (Ramsey, Vermaelen) to be perfect substitutes really exposed us.

Ideally, I agree with Lamb that we need three solid signings. But realistically it won't happen. My point is: maybe we as supporters need to learn to be OK with that. One solid signing, say Cahill or Mata, could be just the cosmetic healing we need. Maybe it would be enough of a sign of good faith to the supporters that we would rally around Arsene again. Maybe it would be the right balance for our current players of saying "We want to win and we're bringing help for you/We already believe you're the guys that can do this". And maybe it would be just enough of a shakeup to change the morale and attitude.

Not trying to be overly optimistic, but I believe Wenger knows what he's doing when he doesn't immediately sign replacements and instead hands responsibilities off to our in-house solutions. It's frustrating that we don't do better talent-wise and that it fails to address our depth issues, but it's exciting to think that this is what opens doors for Djourous and Ramseys even if it's less a vote of supreme confidence and more a vote of "You're not the best but we don't feel like paying for anything better."

 

My thoughts exactly! Get the money for Nasri NOW and put it towards something we NEED like a world class CB!

 

Mèxic és Mèxic, parlo American

 

People keep saying that it's 'only preseason' but this is when our push should start to happen. By now Wenger should have bought a few players that can actually contribute (besides Gervinho) and we should have been making strides to perfect our faults from the PAST SIX YEARS. We all were given this bs story about how we were going to add quality to the side but this whole summer has been nothing but players leaving and Wenger being a stubborn little prick and putting up laughable bids for players. At this point there isn't reason to believe we are going to win anything, if anything it looks like we will finish outside the 4th. Even then I doubt Wenger would realize how much of an idiot he has been lately and continue to buy 8 years old for 2 dollars.
As much as I love the guy he's really starting to turn to so much hate on himself. This summer is getting the best of me already and I just hope that we manage to do well.

 

Sort of. We need the money from Nasri 'cuz if we don't take it, it's gonna go away. We don't need the money to finance incoming transfers (yet). We have enough money for that and have had it for some time. What we need is a place to spend it where we get real quality in return. And for now, it looks like Juan Mata is the only game in town.

 

in regards to cities bid, throw in silva and we should be interested

he would be a nice buy for us as he is quite direct

 

Nice little goal by Mata today..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9-yV35enMA&feature=share"]‪Mata's Goal - Hamburger SV vs. Valcenia CF (0-1)‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

Oh I see they gave Mata the armband, trying to convince him to stay or something?

 

Sign Joey Barton.....

Finally the guy to replace Patrick Vieria, Song does a nice job but I want Barton.