&&$*#(#*#(#*!#^$#FFS! This is a Transfer Thread??

We didn't have a sense of urgency the past 3 yrs. A sense of "we'll always be top 4" coupled with the lack of veterans at the end of their career made the kids imvho feel like "Well there's always next yr, next game, etc".

Now you have guys who know how short a playing career is. I've seen it many times how veterans can transform the mentality of a team and push younger guys to new levels of achievement as well as become invigorated by new challenges, etc. This team could surprise

 

I dare anyone to watch this video and say Benayoun is a bad signing:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QcGSJrRnFQ"]Yossi Benayoun All Goals For Liverpool - YouTube[/ame]

 

While I think this is accurate, I disagree with it as our approach for this season. We needed to show a lot more ambition this season (lay the ground work for a future title challenging side, and if we are doomed to 4th at least hang around close to the top 3 rather than duke it out at Liverpool's level), or we risk facing a similar exodus next summer.

 

Someone posted this quote from an article already but they left out another paragraph which baffles my mind as well.

From goal.com, mirrorfootball article etc:

"Arteta then intervened, offering to reduce the length of his deal and his salary by around £10,000-a-week.

It is a bizarre scenario that Arsenal, a Champions League team, had to persuade a player from a side lower down the Premier League pecking order to take a pay cut to join them.

But that perhaps represents the state of their finances at the moment, and no-one at the Emirates will be complaining after Arteta's personal plea made the deal happen."

This is INDEED what worries. Bizarre that a CL team like Arsenal has to persuade a player at a club like Everton to take a pay cut. What EXACTLY is the state of our finances? The entire world saw a near 90 million pound profit before we started spending this summer.

I just worry that Nasri was right re: our transfer policy and capable ambition. No matter what anyone says Cesc left partly due to the same reasons. No star / killer support coming in being that "last piece" in the drive for silverware. It just so happened that one of the best teams in the world happens to be his hometown club and that's the excuse for his departure.

RVP is next out the door I fear

 

Arsenal's lineup after today: Szczesny - Sagna Mertesacker Vermaelen Santos - Song - Wilshere- Arteta - Walcott - RVP - Gervinho

I like it!

On a different note, AW brought in Mertesacker, Santos, PJY, Benayoum and Arteta for less money that Pool spent on Andy Caroll ( 35 M Quid).

He still has a lot of money in hands to make a big splash if needed in December.

 

Hmm..perhaps some thought and reason would lead to an explanation that doesn't defy common sense.

Why would you overpay for a guy like Arteta who's getting on in years and has had some injuries? FWIW I read he offered a pay cut because we put the kibosh on the deal at his weekly rate.

 

i am happy with the signings. i just wish we made them 2 months ago.

it'll be interesting to see how wenger incorporates the new players into the team.

 

Killer post - totally agree, although I don't believe we'll have a cup run.

 

Park, Santos, Mertesacker, Benayoun, Arteta

All in all, not a bad haul for four days. I would've loved to get Hazard or Goetze or someone of that ilk, but neither of them would have put us on the level of City or United this year, anyway. What this team needs is leadership, and Wenger recognized that. We've got a good crop of young players, but it's unfair to expect Wilshere, Frimpong, Coquelin and Ramsey to all be key cogs in the midfield when none of them are old enough to buy a beer in the US. This team needed to do two things this window: shore up the defense and gain depth and experience, and that's what Wenger did.

I think with this squad we can compete with Chelsea and Liverpool for 3rd and 4th and make a good run at a domestic cup.

It could always be worse; we could be Tottenham fans today.

 

Well, I'm going to buy my home jersey now.

 

F' this shit, im totally fuming...

Our bs policy has got to stop.....why cant we break the wage structure, matter of fact...fk the wage structure if it means to stopped us signing Tevez & Kaka....that's we want.

Highest ticket prices in the fkin country, big ass stadium this is total bs.....im tired of it. We spend like were Notts County.....it's like we want to go backwards.

This is my local club but i am truly dissapointed with the Transfer dealings, i dont know the facts so im not gonna blame the Manager, just know as a club we are really failing right now.

 

I'm pretty content with the signings. The only one I'm bitter at is Benayoun. He's been suffering with an injury and I don't see why we could bring in a player like Marvin Martin for only 12m or Xherdan Shaqiri for about 10m. All in all I'm really glad for Mikel Arteta. He deserves CL and he's a proven player. Excellent player and I'm sure he will fit in nicely.

 

i agree. i think all of the business done is/was good.
arteta isn't fabregas but can do well in that role
gervinho could be considered a replacement for nasri and he looks the part
mertesacker, we've needed another center back
santos will be probably be at least as good as clichy
chu-young should be better than bendtner, and he's captain of south korea
benayoun is a quality player if healthy and captain of israel, should be decent on the wing. chelsea replaced him with mata so i think he's a player of some talent.

we've made decent loans and sold off players like traore, eboue, got a couple of younger potential players.

the planning has been absolutely nightmarish, but i'm not sure it was all down to wenger's pugnacity and frugality.

really losing to utd away and drawing with newcastle away aren't tragic pts-wise, but the only really big disappointment as far as the standings go was the liverpool game.

we have experience now with players that i expect to have a little more drive and pride. i still think we could let a few more guys go, but this is a solid team.

 

yeah, thats the one thing that we cant take as a positive

these guys are older and are hungry.

 

Yeah, I wasn't addressing what I thought we needed to do, only what I thought we were doing. If we really wanted to aim for more than fourth we needed more.

 

Nah not really.

 

Kevin, Arsenal offered 15 million quids for Marvin Martin but it was rejected.

 

Arsenal.com announced he was joining the club on a four year deal, so i don't think they negotiated a shorter term contract. If he took the pay cut, props to him, but i have a hard time believing that a club as broke as Everton was paying him 80k a week.

 

What name you getting?

 

I believe Arteta was the highest paid player on Everton's payroll, so not a total stretch.

 

IMO it says as much about Everton as it does about Arsenal.

If my understanding is correct, their policy is to retain their key players by using their transfer money on salaries instead. Hence why they pay above market value for their players and why their finances are in such bad shape.

 

I agree with you about Benayoun; he is a player over the years who at times has been able to pull out a big play when it was really needed and that's something you guys need. Wish you guys the best.

 

If you look at who we signed we can't really bitch at all. I feel like a prick for being super pissed off about not signing Yann, Marvin, Hazard or maybe even Gotze but at the end of the day I'll support the Arsenal if we didn't sign anyone.

We wanted proven, experienced players. Wenger went out and got.
Germany defender with 70 odd call ups and one of the most level headed players around in Per, who is massive enough to cover on set pieces and who never gets carded.

We wanted a playmaker and Arteta fits the bill. He's been massive for Everton and honestly don't know how he's been there so long. He's old enough to have experience and young enough to still fight for titles and now that he can possibly do that with us he'll be well up for it.

Same goes for Andres Santos. We had Clichy ffs, he can't get much worse and not only that we still have Gibbs and Vermaelen who can help out.

Benayoun, I'm still not too happy about but he's definitely a good player. If he manages to stay healthy he could be a very good squad player.

I still think it will be harder than ever to finish 4th but only because City and Liverpool bought so many players. However, Liverpool doesn't scare me in the slightest still. And City is a meltdown ready to happen.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS! Season starts for us against Swansea.

 

We are a better team than we were 7 days ago. We added some experienced depth to our squad. We knew that Arsenal were never going to go crazy spending the money...we made some intelligent additions to the squad. When our normal players get healthy we have a pretty decent team. And also I think there are a lot of options for Wegener to play around with in the midfield.

Are we going to finish first? No. Second? Nope. Third? Maybe...but we are in a better place than we were 7 days ago.

BUT...we should have done all this in the summer and not cocked around like we did.

 

One thing I like about these moves...

This is basically the only chance that Arteta, Santos, and Park will have at CL glory. For them, we are the destination and not the stepping stone. I like that. These guys might not be the most talented players on the planet, but I have a feeling they will give 110% to this team.

As for the prospect of losing RVP and Walcott next summer, isn't that part of the reason why we went out and got Campbell, Chamberlain, and Miyaichi? Maybe 1-2 of those guys can develop into a key player in the near future.