Perhaps Arsene isn't looking to compete this year? I know its hard to hear but he's not stupid we can't compete with our peers finacially. With the emergance of chelsea perhaps now is as good as time as any to fade into the background for a season or two and rework our team for more success when our team is ready. Our team is rediculously young even in defence, and our midfield seems to be becoming young as well. With the sale of Patrick and Edu I just don't think Arsene is as focused on "taking the league" as he was say 3 or 4 years ago. But, I think that it is unrealistic to expect Arsenal to compete every year to be run away Champions we just don't have the cash, and we aren't willing(hopefully) to drop into massive dept to do it. People have been suggesting buying ballack to replace Patrick but to my understanding the whole reason we sold him(PV4) was because he is getting older, so why replace him with the same deal? Some people would call it blind faith, but I like to think that taking a look generally at Arsenals signings over say a 2-3 year span have been leading in the direction of a fade and return. Reyes - sure he impressed in his first few months, but no expected him to certainly not me atleast, though I had him slated as Pires' replacement, he just doesn't have the game to compliment Henry Cesc - 17 nuff said Flamini - not much older, hardly a complete player but well along the way RVP - I'm really surprised how far he's come in around a year, I honestly didn't expect to see him in anymore than 5 league games. People are expecting AW to go completely outside of his nature to make us feel better about lossing our Captain, but he has a policy thatr eflects his education, and I don't believe he doesn't have Arsenal's best interests at heart, and in his head. I'd be willing to missout on league titles now if it means that in 4-5 years I'll be able to watch Cesc, flamini, RVP, Song, Toure, PS, Reyes, Helb, Lupoli, Quincy, Clichy lifting the EPL trophy after taking ManU apart at home.
EXACTLY - calm down, calm down. Wenger is gonna be tight-lipped from here on out. I think it's obvious that he's looking for someone - no way he's gonna rely on just the kids. He knows he needs more experience. Just like he knows Bobby was crap in mid last night (and when asked if he would continue to play there, said "not necessarily"). Not necessarily my ass, how about never?
Are you high? Of course he's looking to compete. No manager would plan to "chill out" for a few seasons and come back to win later. Think about - you think our talented youngsters wanna stick around at a team that isn't challenging for top honours? No way. And Cesc is 18.
understandable uneasiness. however, there seems to be a surplus of them at the lane. some pretty decent talent is going to have trouble getting into the team, let alone onto the pitch, given our current glut. perhaps you lot could float some numbers up to N17, and some business could be done. of course, you'd still have to come to personal terms with the players. and they still have pride, so nothing's a given. --ah, good clean fun. for what it's worth, i probably wouldn't come here and take the piss if i thought that you lot were in genuine angst. that wouldn't be funny, now, would it? those sweating should take heed of the voices of reason - you're not exactly destitute, are you? deep breath. anyway, have at it, if so inclined. all in fun, mind.--
Actually, a Livingston fan (he only supports ManU to give us some stick.. ) Teso's not a bad sort. He actually has been the voice of reason many times (although quite a few of them have been on the Politics board)
Plus I like his name because it has transformed in my head from Teso Dos Bichos to TD Bichos to TD Bitches to Titty Bitches. And Titty Bitches is funny.
I appoligize I should know we're born the same year The point being perhaps long term is better than short term. We could spend all of the money avaliable buy Ballack, buy Owen compete this year maybe next and then what we're in exactly the same boat. Only thing that would have changed would be everyone is 2 years older. But if Arsenal say we aren't realisticly going to be compteting for top spot. Instead look to make a team that will be unrivaled in 3 years or so, maybe even finsh ...4th(that hurt to say) whats to say we aren't better for it, we wouldn't be any worse off. And, we'd be in a better position finacially to get players who we want. The Ballacks and PVs of the future.
Shrewd? I don't see Spurs as being shrewd. They've been buying players left and right and hoping that a couple of them stick. With Davids they have 7 or 8 that can play that part of the park alone. There's still time to add a couple players to the squad. And I think had Real been able to land Robhino w/out the mess it became, they probabally wouldn't have bought Baptista for €20m. And had they not done that, there's a good chance Wenger lands him and this thread doesn't even get started. All's it takes is one good signing.
I think he means "more shrewd" since their recent buys are certainly better than the usual junk they bought in the past. Only the Davids transfer looks to me like a mistake and its not like they paid a price for him. I wonder how the "don't panic" crowd here will feel if Sept 1st comes and we've only added Hleb and maybe Song to our squad. I rate Hleb very high but its hard to argue that we've had a good summer with only those purchases. I'm hoping Wenger had a good backup plan for missing out on the Beast, Robinho, Proto, etc. and is also bringing in at least some depth. If you look at the top clubs (defined here as CL teams) from the England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, which teams have we done better than in the transfer market this summer? I'm asking because I think that is a good measure of whether we're moving forward, holding steady, or falling behind our major competitors.
I would like to remind you that we play Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea (2wice) by the end of August. I for one believe there should have been plan a, b, c, d...all to have been executed by now in the areas we need to strengthen. A couple of losses early on, with the way chelsea are playing right now, means that the premiership is lost. Funny how so many other big teams take people 29-32 (even on loan)...and go on to do well in their leagues and the CL (thereby paying for themselves). I guess AW is just smarter than any other top manager in the world. I just hope Fabregas/Flamini dont get overwhelmed by Lampard and Makalele in the Charity shield.If this happens we could be on the end of a real hiding...meaning the troops would lose confidence. This could lead to a Manu style collapse ...before the season even begins. It took us 3 months to get out of the last one. The no panic brigade need to wake and smell the coffee. We need Ballack, Owen & dacourt (on Loan if poss). Why didnt we go for crouch? I seem to remember he tortured our back 4 everytime they played him. Would have been great coming off the bench. I guess the no panic brigade thinks Benitez is stupid.
well hopefully we lose the community shield and history repeats itself. However, it wouldnt surprise me that if money can win leagues, it can also rewrite history.
I remember When Fabregas and Flamini played against Lampard and Makelele, they did quite well if not better than them, so why should we expect Fabregas and Flamini to be worse this season? We looked realy bad against Ajax, but there is a lot better than the team that we field, which if palyed will give all the supportes the confidence and the belief that we are as good as anybody else, even with kids. A lot of supporters love and expect Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg to be our heros again this season, to those people I say expect that we play as bad as we did against Ajax a lot this season, and fourth in the league. The solution will be to play the team without them, or consider them as super subs. I would like us to play a younger team against Chelsea in the Charity Shield, and I would realy fancy our chances to beat them if the team was: 1) Goalkeeper: Lehaman 2) Left back Cole or Clichy 3) Center defence: Toure 4) Center defence: Senderos or Campbell 5) Right back: Ebou 6) Left winger: Reyes or Hleb or Clichy 7) Center midfield: Gilberto or Flamini 8) Center midfield: Fabregas or Hleb 9) Right winger: Hleb and Bentely as a quality sub 10) Frorward: Henry 11) Forward: Robin van Persie or Hleb Note: 1) Wenger can change a lot of players positions, but as long as these players are on the field we will always be good. (they have the legs, quality and the will to do better). 2) Hleb, Bentely and Reyes can play Left wing, Right wing and Forward, and I would give Quincy a chance too if van Persie isn't ready yet. 3) Where I stated this player or that, I have full trust that the two will do the job very well. 4) Two more experienced players will be make us even better by depth aspect. 5) It's something realy nice from Wenger to not panic and buy anyone, since he said that he doesn't need a good player only, he must be a real plus (special) so he would get him. Every body cheer.
While I'm not thrilled that we put so much effort into Baptista, only to watch him go to Real, I don't quite get where all the doom and gloom is coming from. Yes, Vieira is gone, but, at this point last year, a lot of people on these boards were so sick of him that they were ready to say good riddance anyway. He wasn't even our most effective CM last year on offense or defense! And how quickly everyone forgets that, with a squad that didn't have Vieira, at times, included Cygan, we ran out to a fantastic start, scoring goals aplenty. We now come into this year with Senderos and, hopefully, RvP starting, Cesc and Flamini having an extra year's experience and Hleb providing some playmaking in midfield. They join an already solid and experienced side. Depth is a problem, but not big enough where everyone can sit here and say we're going to have a terrible year.
depth is, ONCE AGAIN, going to be a major issue with the arsenal. was the one thing i brought up in april that we needed desperately. not superstars, but quality depth.
I should just add this to my sig, but... This club has never conducted its business in the papers in the Wenger era. When something happens, it will happen under the radar, and you'll probably say, "Who the hell is that" at first... just like you did with all the other household names. Arsenal build champions, not buy them.
This is true, but AW himself said in the beginning of the summer that he was looking to buy stars this year.
Rep and siggage to you, sir! As Phishy just repeated, and as I and others have also said, depth is what we need, not bigger stars. Our talent can compete with anybody, if we're in top fitness and relatively free from injury. Therein, of course, lies the rub. We depend a great deal on luck. Chelsea have bought themselves some luck, in that they have interchangeable parts to sub in if somebody goes down. Now, lets say we do have a hard year or two (not saying we will, but it depends on the breaks, and "hard" in this context still means near the top of the league anyway -- it's not like we're going to become Fulham), but all of our young talent continues to mature and improve. By that time we could look very deep indeed.
There you have it. Depth yes, but quality depth as Wenger has said. If you're thinking of signing the likes of Dacourt just to have another body, you might as well play Larsson or Djorou which is more beneficial in the long run.