El indecido me molesta, si no me quiero, Transfer Thead 2016

Different summer. Alonso was available in the summer of 2008. He moved to Real in the summer of 2009 after Rafa alienated him by trying to replace him with Gareth Barry.

Taking Wenger at his word then is odd because he only said that sort of thing when stadium limitations were an issue, and he hasn't held off on acquiring good players because they would inhibit young players since then, and he didn't before Arsenal started having financial limitations.

Also, to be fair, Denilson and Diaby not making it does give me some sadness. Diaby, for obvious reasons, but Denilson in 2008/2009 was arguably the best midfielder in the league at 22. Led the league in passes completed and interceptions, and was fifth in tackles, while having to cover for Fabregas as well.

 

It's easy to criticize 8 years on when the circumstances at the time aren't fresh in your mind. Diary and Denison were both healthy at the time. Denilson played 51 games for Arsenal in 08-09. Diary played 36 games that year and 40 the next, Based on their youth and the potential they had shown, Wenger may have been justified in suggesting that buying Alonso for what would at the time have been a club record transfer fee, would hinder their development. Unfortunately, Arsene wasn't prescient, he couldn't know at the time that injuries would curtail both their Arsenal careers. Hindsight is always 20/20.

It's also worth noting that the season before he was initially made available, Alonso struggled with a metatarsal injury and played less than 20 premier league games.

 

My B. But we still spent 40m euros that year. The money was there. Maybe we couldn't have bought nasri and Alonso both...hard to say. But from AW's love affair with Denilson and diaby I can see why he chose to spend he money on the flank instead of centrally.

Back then it was more about controlling the wage structure and balancing incoming players with outgoing ones. The constant notion that the club was cash strapped for 10 years is bogus and we've all argued it thoroughly I think. We did need to maintain a solid wage budget so that might have had some influence, but no doubt in my kind that we couldn't afford him if AW really wanted him.

Just my opinion, But Denilson was never good. I think more modern stats like how frequently passes bypass defenders and such would have easily born this out. Denilson was a tiquitaqa player and for me represented everything wrong with Arsenal back then.

 

Along would not of been used properly then. We had Fcuking cesc and denies on as our 2 cms. He would've been hung out to dry with his lack of pace

Could've been a nice 4 2 3 1 though

 

Can't Rep this enough.

I agree about Denilson. He was never that good, not sure why Mebesajid says he was the EPL's best midfielder at 22. lool nah Fam

 

Statistically denies on was excellent but he was slow and not a great tackler. He would've been great if he had a holding player next to him imo not cesc

 

In that case, why not just keep Cesc and drop Denilson for a DM?

 

That highlighted comment is a total denial of reality.....It has been a known fact that during and after a few years after the stadium construction that the club was in a very tight financial situation and was basically cash strapped.

 

How did we spend 40m that year? The only players of note we bought that summer were Nasri, Ramsey, and Silvestre. This idea (in hindsight) that the money was there and maybe we could have spent money on Alonso isn't borne out by any evidence.

Dude, I normally respect what you say, but WTF? Arsenal's average and net transfer spend from 2006 to 2013 was negative. From 2013 on, Arsenal have spent in excess of 200 million quid. This rather supports the idea that some rather onerous financial limitations were in place.

The idea that Arsenal couldn't have made a club record signing in 2008 because of financial limitations is perfectly consistent with this.

Perhaps, but he led the league in interceptions in a team that dominated possession. That's rather hard to do. The back injury really caused him to lose a lot of his lateral quickness, and he never recovered from that.

 

This is still hindsight. Club record transfer fees are always spent on offensive players. The year before, Arsenal sold Henry for somewhere between 16m and 18m £. Does it make any sense that they are then going to turn around and spend 18m £ on a deep lying midfielder. You are evaluating this in the context of today's inflated transfer fees.

 

You think denilson was league 's best midfielder in 08/09?
Wow
That is silly

 

I also explained why. That Denilson was really, really good for 18 months (before his back injury against Everton) is something that we've discussed at length on this forum.

 

08/09 we bought Ramsey, nasri and arshavin total ~40m euros. We also had 100m pounds in cash reserves at the end of that season. So if the question is "could arsenal have paid 18m pounds for Alonso in the summer of 08 either in place of or in addition to nasri, arshavin or Ramsey?" Then my answer is yes. I believe they could. This Alonso we are talking about, not messi or Ronaldo. We could have paid his wages and fee. Like I said before, maybe we don't do all the deals we did that year or maybe we have to move someone else on (Denison or diaby come to mind), but it could have been done without stretching too much.

As to Denilson, well Coq led the league in interceptions per game in 14/15.

 

Enlighten me. How is this a fact? I never said we could spend like drunken sailors. But cash strapped we were not.

PHW in 2008

Is it consistent with all the facts? Like quotes from the board and Wenger, bank statements and the fact the club was active in the market and were at least in negotiations for Alonso?

For me, the most consistent explanation is that the 18m wanted by pool was higher than AW's valuation of the player. Just like almost every missed xfer we know about. It's not about available resources it's about AW deciding where and when to deploy them. In this case, he made a mistake--but hindsight and all. But to use the financial excuse for every AW xfer shortcoming is old, played, and not supported by facts.

 

Just to touch back on JW and the hype that surrounded him after that home tie against Barca, the one thing that has stuck in my head ever since was a quote from Pep after. He was asked by an English journo what he made of Wilshere and Pep (I'm paraphrasing now) just said "yea he is good but we have 10 guys like that in La Masia"

 

Arsenal rely on a massive warehouse in Cambodia to sign players

http://www.givemesport.com/862919-a...house-in-cambodia-to-sign-players?autoplay=on

 

I wouldn't say premiership's best, but Denilson was excellent that 2008/09 season. You know who wasn't? Cesc Fabregas, but fans shitted on Denilson because Cesc couldn't be bothered to do any defensive work.

I think he and Diaby coulda been a great pairing had the two not gotten injured. Diaby was a better version of Pogba.


Also, the Xabi Alonso of the summer of 2008 was not seen as one of the best Spanish midfielders of all time. He had a bad 15 months with Liverpool. I think Wenger should have made the move BUT there is some hindsight going on in this thread.

 

Griezman confirms Arsenal double swoop for he and Simeone

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/soccer...-leaving-atletico-simeone-150150137--sow.html

Is only way he would leave spain for london.

 

Come on mate, we are not going to litigate that again....This is almost flat-earth territory now. You are better than that.
PHW was totally talking nonsense then, and, iirc, either him or an other board member basically admitted a couple of years ago, that they were just pumping this hot air to calm the fans anxiety at the time.

 

The finances are there in black and white, it's not flat earth. While the new tv and commercial deals have shepherded in an era where top players could be purchased without shipping out players and top contracts could be awarded, that's not what we are talking about with Alonso.

We were in for him, the player said as much. Pool wanted to sell but needed a certain figure. We are talking about a difference of likely no more than 5m and most rumors had it much much less than that. So you are saying that arsenal couldn't find a few million but were able to find 15m and that was it? This "cash-strapped" arsenal narrative simply doesn't work here. We also found 12m for arshavin a few months later how?

Pre kroenke it was "we don't have money" bc the stadium development then after that was settled, it was " we don't have money to spend bc kroenke wants a cash horde for his other businesses. Last summer it was bc no players were available. Every possible culprit except for the one constant--AW himself.

The fact that people don't spend does not mean they are broke. We all know AW is strict with his valuations. This applies to wages as well as xfers fees. We also know he has immense belief in the signings he does make. So when searching for a reason we did not sign Alonso, I'll go with the pool wanted a price that was above AW's valuation. he had a stable of young midfielders "coming up" And he decided to ride that horse and save his money for a future purchase.

 

The 40 million euros spent (~31.5m £) was the summer of 09 when Alonso went to Madrid for 30m £. The summer of 08 when Alonso was reportedly available for 18m £, after an injury riddled season, Arsenal spent 31 million euros (~24.5m £) on Eduardo, Sagna, Fabianski, and Diarra. Eduardo filled a need and looked like a brilliant signing before his injury. Sagna was a brilliant signing. The other two didn't cost enough to offset much of the 18m £ fee for Alonso. Between 07 and 09 Arsenal were funding transfers with sales, they spent approximately 86 million euros on transfers in and received approximately 95 million for transfers out. So to buy Alonso in the summer of 08 they would have to have sold additional players.

 

No. Those were not 2008 signings. These were:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/nasri-agrees-to-join-arsenal-from-marseille

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/ramsey-completes-move-from-cardiff-city

Also, you all are confusing correlation with causality. We sold players because all those players wanted to leave--either for glory hunting or a huge payday or were not needed. We then bought players to replace them--usually cheaper bc AW is AW.

I suppose you drive by a few houses on fire, see fire trucks in the driveway and assume the fire department is setting houses on fire.

No. We could not spend with Chelsea, United, and the Spanish giants but we were not poor and did not need to sell players to run the club. Again we also had ~100m in the bank at the end of that season iirc.