A Midsummer Night's Dream- Transfer Thread

Again, where is that eternal unblinking stare emoji?

Are you the same guy that said Wickham can do everything Giroud can and more?

 

Anyway, in terms of DM's anyone familiar with Milan Badelj?

 

The main difference between us and City and Chelsea of old is what economist call "opportunity cost." Arsenal, City, and Chelsea all have the capability to spend a lot of money, both on transfers and wages. We could compete for Sterling or KDB if we wanted to. However, and this is the key part, the opportunity cost is much higher for us. When we invest big, it has to pay off. When they invest big, it doesn't.

City and Chelsea, at least in the earlier days, can afford to make mistakes that cost 30 million pounds over and over again.

For us, even now, even if we can throw around big money like never before, we can only do it so many times. This naturally lead us to being a bit more conservative.

This is why we can't just spend for spending sake. We can't afford a Cuardrado. Making a big financial mistake will severely limit our future plans. So whenever we spend big, we need to make sure it works, unlike City who can try and try over and over again.

 

No it doesn't, because a bad footie team can score zero every week. An NBA team is going to score at least 60 every week, and someone on the team will get those points. That does not apply in footie at all.

Also, when Aguero (or Alexis) is on your team, then they draw attention from the defenders, and then you are more open when you (Giroud) get the ball. Whereas when you are the one good striker on a relegation team, all the defenders are always all over you. So it is harder to score for a relegation team than a Champions League team.

A striker is as good or bad as the defenders he faces.
This is why Giroud does well against mediocre teams, and nothing against Liverpool.
A year ago, you would have laughed if anyone had suggested that Austin was better than Falcao. Yet Austin scored 18 goals and Falcao scored 4 goals.
When faced with Premier League defenders, Falcao did very little and Austin continued to do as well as he had done in the Championship.
Irregardless of what team they played with, all the above three players would be the top scorer in League Two, because they are much better than League Two defenders.
Its when they are up against top defenders that they score less - or not.

No (I did not even read that post, much less write it).

 

I remember there were a couple posters here who were upset when I was less than enthusiastic about Sanogo. With hindsight it's even worse than I feared. Not so much that Sanogo sux even, but the timing of it has fcuked our numbers in the worst way. If we'd gotten PEA or Benteke or somebody we'd at least have #2 option but now we've got the numbers but now we really don't even have that. If they bombed we could at least move them on instead of remaining in an unmanageable muddle.

 

Not just that, but LVG actually made a productive player out of him which they needed considering Falcao, RVP and DiMaria were poor to mediocre.

 

Charlie austin? Might as well buy Lee cattermole or jack combat to solve our dm issue

 

We would be getting a Kallstromesque player simply to cover Wenger's ass against criticism that he didn't sign a single outfield player over the summer.

Even if Benzema does a 180 and is all signed by deadline day, it's not going to be enough to challenge for the title. Which makes one wonder, wtf is Wenger hired to do? Top 4 is no longer important from a financial stand point, and we are not serious about title-challenges, so what is left?

 

Wenger's job is clearly to annoy all the Internet wannabes on this board who are absolutely convinced they know more about football than he does.

The shoot from the hip and hyperbolic statements on this board are so much fun to read.

 

Wenger definitely put us in our place when we showed us he only needed 3 CBs last season.

 

Opportunity cost implies that you could do something more profitable with the money. Other than expand the stadium, hire a new manager, increase wages of current roster, really the only thing the club can do to grow its business (fans) is to win or otherwise satisfy the fans. Signings definitely satisfy the fans and also can increase wins.

Even when players don't work out, it doesn't have to be a huge loss. Negredo, Adam Johnson, Rodwell, Schurrle, de bruyne, David Luiz come to mind. None of them were world beaters when signed and none were when they left, but they managed to recoup most of the funds or even profit and they contributed some as depth or actual performances. For every one of those, there are also Torres and adebayors i understand, but I think the risk is way over blown. You can look at their overall squad value and they are not losing as much as people think. There is the case of dimishing returns, which is more of a problem than opportunity cost. Basically, every point you buy by spending on players is more expensive then he last point. So to go from 5th to 4th is way less expensive than from 3rd to 2nd.

The trick I believe is to not chase hype. There have to be 1-2 players in the 25-35m range that have something to add to the squad. I just think AW is happy and unless he can get one of his dream players, we will get shite this summer.

 

Two questions:

Other than Sterling and Schneiderlin, which of the players whose transfers were completed before the season started did you want?

With all the smoke, how do you know Arsene didn't have a plan to try to sign Benzema? There are two parties in a transfer, three if you include he player, and sometimes plans don't work out, e.g. Chelsea and Stones.

 

That's a serious post from a guy who must have set the land speed record for getting carded here on BS. Joined yesterday, had 16 other posts, as a Madrid fan no less, and got carded.

 

If I had known Pedro was available, I would have wanted him.

 

Wenger used to a wizard, per Donald Rumsfeld, of the "known unknowns". Wherein we would querily inquire, "where did the guy come from? "

Now apparently, people only expect the easily identifiable stars who the click baiters prop up on a regular basis.

I would be very happy with a "known unknown", if he could be an immediate difference maker on the first team

 

Yep. I don't really care about the name, I care about the performance. The last example of that was Kos, whom none of us had ever heard of. I'm sure there are players that would help us.

 

the world has changed since that point. Even then he just got this Jeff kid that gave us all erections at the Emirates Cup.

But its hard to find those talents now with how sophisticated scouting has gotten

 

I think we would all be happy with some relative unknowns who can come in and make a positive contribution this season and be a worthy addition to the squad going forward, but it appears Wenger has lost interest in such players (especially considering how far off the mark we were on Sanogo - not unlike one his "shots" on goal).

We are going to pick up an extra 60-70m a year in TV money next season so it's not as if gambling on some of these players now is going to prevent us from purchasing readymade quality in the future.

 

Just for the record, when Arsenal signed Kos, a lot of fans were screaming bloody murder. He was an unknown entity and some here were advocating for Chris Samba, of all people.

 

Maybe it is the case that there are none of these out there, but I'm thinking along the lines of Suarez at Ajax, Torres/aguero at atletico, bale at Soton, etc.

Is it really the case where the only player that can improve our attack is a 50m+ and plays at a mega club? Maybe it is, but it's a little hard for me to believe.

 

Do you realize I was being snarky when I responded about a United fan hoping (in jest) that we would buy Charlie Austin?

 

There are not many quality strikers out there, period. At any stage of their professional career.

 

Yes it does. Even bad teams have players who score goals, because bad teams play other bad teams. Virtually every Premier League team is going to score at least 30 goals in a season. Someone has to score those goals.

WTF. It's easier to score goals for a relegation team because teams don't park the bus against relegation teams. Space is a LOT tighter when you're an attacker for a top of the table team. There's a reason top teams almost never sign strikers from mid-table or lower-table teams unless those players are young prospects (< 24). The skillsets required are different.

Giroud has scored multiple goals against Liverpool, scored against Man United, and scored at the Allianz and the Etihad. The only team he hasn't scored against is Chelski (and a lot of that is some good saves by the GK). And some of those have been excellent goals (both goals against Liverpool last season, the goal at home against Man United).

I'm still laughing. The tactics opposing teams take make a rather substantial difference. Plus, football is a team game. A striker's movement off the ball, first touch, and passing ability are all vital for most teams: its why Kun Aguero is a better player than Diego Costa.

Irregardless is not a word. Stop it.