Or if they do sell to you at the last minute, they make you break the bank and set your own transfer record for a 29-yr old midfielder... oh wait, we've done that before?
[rant] Mods please ban the word Sneijder from this thread and anyone who mentions him again. Not only would he break our wage/transfer budget but far more importantly him and RVP ********ing hate each other! It is a damn non starter and bringing him up repeatedly will not change that fact. You think Adebayor and Bendter was a bad locker room combo. [/rant]
I didn't think he looked that bad, but he didn't do anything to impress me. Then again it was a friendly against Poland back in June. Still he could be useful. Now the two players who I would love to come to Arsenal who might not destroy the wage budget is Xherdan Shaqiri(Basel/Swiss) and Ericksson(Ajax/Denmark). I think these two would be realistic in terms of both the transfer fee and wage demands. Now in terms of players buying players like Sneijder, we could afford the transfer fee. we could not afford to pay his wage demands. If you read the BBC gossip page, even man u are saying he would have to reduce his wage demands. That should tell you something right there.
BBC is reporting that the Nasri deal could be concluded within 24 hours !! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14563989.stm? !!
There's more: Well that's gonna help entice players to come to Arsenal. What? You don't want to spend much on me? Why because I am "average"? Really? We were close? Well I guess on the Carling Cup (if that's what you're shooting for), but no where's near close any of the others.
This philosophy would be valid if the club remained strong enough to provide guaranteed Champions League football and stout competition for trophies. Alas, now that they're on the cusp of losing that esteemed status Wenger will have to overpay simply to provide the bodies needed to TRY for 4th-6th let alone run with ManU. Recent incidents mean he can no longer be picky in looking for the best value, but he instead must address the most pressing needs.
If true, then Wenger will have about 11 days to spend about 60m (plus whatever, if anything, was left over from the amount they were going to spend this summer anyway). What is the over/under on the total that is spent between now and 8/30? I'd put it at 17m.
I'll go 20M, if only because I suspect one signing and everyone will have a steeper asking price after seeing Arsene's overflowing warchest.
in fairness, the rumor is we asked for Lucho on a loan deal, not an outright purchase. and Lucho's family is unsettled at Marseille, his house was burgled. A bunch of Marseille players homes were burgled, and so a lot of them want out ASAP including Lucho. I think Marseille would be willing to sell.
The point would remain the same. If they don't think they have enough time to replace him during a loan spell, I doubt they think they have enough time to replace him permanently.
Just get it over and done with, as its been far too late. I would hope that also we would have a signing or two completed prior to the departure as well. That's how it should be..
Lucho, Elia, Jadson & Lucas Moura please. We sign all 4 for 10 mill each, there we go, bring on Barca.
LOL @ you. please leave or remove your allegiances to Barca and Milan. what a joke, i dont get people these days.
Lucho? Thanks.....but no thanks. The dude is as slow as a turtle. He makes Riquelme look like Usain Bolt. Marseille has been trying to unload him after an ineffective season and still cant find a buyer even at a reduced price of less than 10 Million Euros.
well, i'm just going by what my german and italian mates tell me ... but, no, i don't think it meant that much. or put differently, raul and maldini would have been the very leaders that they were, and would have been viewed by their teammates exactly as they were, even if someone else had been wearing the armband. as for maldini with the italian national team, the only reason he wore it when he did was seniority. as i understand it, they just automatically give it to whomever has the most senior caps. it's a mere formality. now, that doesn't mean that the best leaders in a spanish or italian team won't get the armband, of course ... only that finding just the right player to wear it isn't a priority, and it's not the same kind of 'badge', if you will. it is, my mates will say, primarily english players who view captaincy as a marker of leadership, which may (in fact, probably does) make it more important in a team full of englishmen, but it simply doesn't mean the same thing to continental players. and mr wenger does come off a bit 'continental' at times. pure speculation on my part ... i have no idea. i'm just saying that if his choices of captians seem difficult to explain - or appear explained by the 'secondary' motive of securing a single player to the club - it may be because he just doesn't rate the armband's 'leadership qualities' as strongly as most within the english footballing culture in which he works.
Twitter has more or less broken the Nasri transfer before it's made official, as they did with Cesc last week. One report has the fee at £25 million. Oh, and here's the new transfer thread for when this one gets shut down soon.
Let's just note this is complementary to what we were told in June and July, "How do you know we're not trying to buy X right now?" We don't, in fact we still don't but it's way past time to indulge any excuses. Let's finish up the window, buy Hazard, Mata, Gonzalez, Cahill or whichever quality players are available. Then let's get rid of Wenger and get a good coach. Let's not forget that for whatever Wenger's failings in the transfer market (and I've bitched about it as much as anybody), that's actually his strong suit. It's Wenger the coach who is incompetent. And it's Wenger the coach who hamstrings Wenger the general manager and prevents the team from achieving any measure of success.
Independently, 25M for Nasri on the last year of his contract is great business. Better still if it helps City fail FFP. Assuming anything remotely over 20M was on the table earlier in the year, however, I can't help feeling that Arsene's/Arsenal's hubris hurt them in dealing with Cesc and Nasri's sales. Bottom line is they end up leaving for about the same total value as rumored from June 1 (or thereabouts) and now Arsenal are left with 10 days to fill the voids. Brilliant. - - - - - Value wise, what's the best collection you all could see coming in and salvaging a Top 4 finish? Has striker become a must-buy? Parker, Cahill, Odemwingie and Martin?