Even though Robin said he wants to leave, Arsene/the board have obviously learnt from last season, and gone ahead and signed players despite this. I think as the old (and idiotic) cliche goes "no man is bigger than the club". Arsene knows that his actions were the cause of the poor start last season, and he essentially dug himself from a self-created hole by finishing third.
And your point, in creating this thread, would be? Yep....that's what it was. A self - created hole, by finishing third.
I agree, if this is what you are saying that seeing players wanting to leave and having to deal with that I give them credit for how they handled it. Even if it is their 'job'. It is a player's 'job' to play for the club, but when they play well people praise them. Therefore I think the board and Wenger should get some praise for the way they handled the situation.
I think the point is that we've been critical of Wenger, clearly departing from the Wenger-Knows days, and the OP just wants to give credit where credit is due. FWIW, I agree.
I have never been critical of Wenger, however, I may have been too critical of this thread. Sorry guys...long day at work.
wenger has done amazingly well, i admit doubting him last year but he has proven me wrong i just hope this season we can challenge closely for the league and with a more experienced team win the elusive cl trophey! if the chavs can do it....
waits for daprince to throw a strop as he tries to rustle up a posse to silence you for pointing out the truth behind the headlines...............
boring anyway, i'm fairly confident for this season. we're still a little shy on the defensive side, but i don't think runners up spot or very close to it points wise is unreasonable
This is premature, you can roll up this thread and throw it in the bin if we sell RVP to Utd. Terrible management if it goes ahead.
We've signed three decent players despite our best player wanting to leave. It seems Arsene is resigned to let Robin leave, but is still planning ahead. Compared to last season, this is an improvement, since Arsene/the board erroneously banked on Cesc and Nasri staying, and of course had to buy on the last day of the season.
Yeah I was pretty damn shocked when we bought Cazorla, and that was after 2 forwards earlier this summer. Has hell frozen over? My main concern (and it's been this way for a year or more) is our fullbacks. I just don't think we have adequate quality cover. So let's just pray Sagna & Gibbs stay healthy and that Arsene's offensive investment seems prudent. But in answer to the OP, yes I agree there are some kudos due... perhaps caving to some pressure from fans outside or directors inside... whatever the reason, nice to see. Should be interesting.
I wonder if Coquelin play RB well enough to cover for Bac. I'm not a believer in Jenkinson, at least not yet. I'd rather try Coquelin or Yennaris out there if Sagna misses any time.
I'm with you on this. Wenger has done great...so far. There is still plenty of time to screw things up, so I'll reserve judgment for Sept 1.
One thing we all can agree on is that Arsène Wenger is one hard headed man, not easy to change his ways. He has never sold a player to Manchester United, and I think this instance would be the wrong time to change habits.
i thought coquelin looked good back there last year but i may be biased because i like what the kid brings to the table. he's nowhere near a finished product and probably needs at least a good 10 game run to get over making the odd mistakes. i think a big thing for him will be to get a string of those games in without yanking his hamstring like he kept doing last year (man, that sounds familiar). i actually like jenkinson's potential also (i'd love to see him loan out to a championship club) but i feel like coquelin is further along, even out of position at right-back. i thought koscielny did a great job out there when he filled in. he tends to be comfortable with the ball at his feet anyway and, unlike vermaelen, didn't get timid when he moved outside. my main concern is, if he has to move outside, that leaves only vermaelen-mertesacker inside unless bartley is ready to play with the big kids. or djourou is ready to turn back the clock to two years ago. maybe that's why we've been linked with wanyama?
i'm pretty ambivalent about it all, but not too bothered.he may or may not have a great season at man utd. i'd have much preferred £15m and abroad and not risk it. then again, he may end up as their new owen hargreaves or chelsea style torres.it's undoubtedly good money for the situation.to make the most out of it though at least half of that money needs to still be spent. what about a semi cheap, versatile, right sided defender with a stay at home attitude who would give us a couple of alternative options? or a no frills, proactive dm (which becomes an absolute necessity should we cave in and also sell song...which i think would be a terrible idea, certainly right now)?a couple of years ago i said we needed to gut the squad and bring in fresh blood. i didn't quite mean sell ONLY our better players, but i still think the influx of fresh blood will be a good thing. the squad was stale.let's be honest, lots of millions more for him to stay in england....? it's a tempting risk. we have to do something with that money though. if the club wanted to keep him AFTER the current signings then that money is NOT needed to pay the current outlay. it's extra.the one thing that really gets to me about our transfers out isn't who goes or for how much, but how the club handle them. the comments and statements are just so...i dunno.......amateur?they could have projected themselves much better by stating outright from the start that "he can go if we get an offer we can't refuse" instead of looking like they are backtracking at every step or flitting from one position to another. it's really not a good image to portray. btw. all these ex-united or non-arsenal pundits feeling sorry for arsenal are driving me nuts. what's to feel sorry about?
he has gone, but i'm not bothered that much also. i still believe arsene has done better this summer, relative to the last. he banked on cesc/na*ri staying, and when both left he bought en masse on the last day (most of whom turned out good to ok, granted). he went and made three good additions, so despite robin leaving it has been a summer of plusses.