Arsenal Transfer Rumours And General Chat

Roddy23

Galvaesan, www.101greatgoals.com

Walcott played very well last night, and I thought that was Bendtner's best game. I was a but worried when Adebayor came on, as himself and Bendtner don't tend to gel too well, but last night their link up play was very good, although it was only Derby.

ImDave

My summer targets 08 would be:

Joe Harte - Man City
Micah Richards - Man City
Mikel Arteta - Everon
David Villa - Valencia
Diarra - Madrid
Curtis Davies - Ason Villa

UNREALISTIC:
Thierry Henry
Kaka

L'prof

Here's the link.

Play the main video on the page!

Morf

jasonorr wrote: »

Here's the link.

Play the main video on the page!

Wow . . just wow!

Frisbee

EI-DAV wrote: »

My summer targets 08 would be:

Joe Harte - Man City
Micah Richards - Man City
Mikel Arteta - Everon Meh
David Villa - Valencia
Diarra - Madrid Meh
Curtis Davies - Ason Villa Meh

UNREALISTIC:
Thierry Henry
Kaka

There are better players out there than these three. Villa, Richards and Harte would be nice. somehjow I cant see City selling us there keeper and CB though. And we really need to look to keep together the squad we have(read: hleb and flamini)
Getting rid of Senderos, Galls, Eboue and Bendtner would be nice aswell...

Mossy Monk

jasonorr wrote: »

Here's the link.

Play the main video on the page!

Absolutely brilliant. I love that video.

Pepe LeFrits

Love the bird.

Royale with Cheese

So with Chelsea and United with one eye on the Champions League final...

Arsenal to win the league anybody?

L'prof

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

So with Chelsea and United with one eye on the Champions League final...

Arsenal to win the league anybody?

:rolleyes:

Royale with Cheese

Uh it was a joke...:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Look how many rolleyes I can do

OPENROAD

Still possible.

jank

if we were 2 points nearer maybe but no it wont happen.
Really frustrating. So ****ing close!!!!

L'prof

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Uh it was a joke...:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Look how many rolleyes I can do

Yeah I know, but I've seen too many of these posts so all I can do is :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Pepe LeFrits

jank wrote: »

Really frustrating. So ****ing close!!!!

Indeed, worth remembering for those who think we need to go out and buy half a new team (I'm not pointing the finger at you).

L'prof

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Indeed, worth remembering for those who think we need to go out and buy half a new team (I'm not pointing the finger at you).

I reckon we need about 4 players who can challenge for the first team...if Hleb & Flamini go, then we need 2 experienced players as well for the first team!

Pepe LeFrits

I don't.

Obviously any key players who leave need to be replaced with players of equal measure but beyond that we're only short 2 players from a title winning team.

On a different note, Edelman quits: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/01/arsenal.premierleague

gosplan

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

I don't.
Obviously any key players who leave need to be replaced with players of equal measure but beyond that we're only short 2 players from a title winning team.

I worry about replacing Flamini. I'm not so sure there's a ready made replacement that Arsenal can get.

I'm confidant in Wenger's ability to find a suitable player but we might need them to be playing at Flamini's level from the start of the season. I think that narrows the options down to about 10 players in the world. We never buy big but we can't afford to give anyone two years to find their level as happened with Flamini.

Denlison to do a Flamini and come back next year as an awsome DMF?

Similar to last year, I think we'll have a really strong start in the coming year so this might paper over any crack that's there and give someone a few months to settle in.

On another note, I hear Flamini was offered €60,000 per week by Milan. We're offering 55? Surely he gets a massive signing-on bonus from the Italians as well?

Pepe LeFrits

High comedy, courtesy of TheSpoiler:

Kamel Ghilas to Arsenal

Arsène Wenger’s team of dehydrated football forragers have once again resurfaced in their mining helmets with soil on their faces muttering like crazy people about an Algerian Kamel. At the moment he plays casual football for Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes, but next season he looks set to be entertaining Arsenal crowds, who love sexual football and Cesc Fabregas.

jank

I cant believe it that Arsenal has let it come to this.
I know we are tight on the purse strings but penny pinching is seriously hurting the club IMO. Especially when you consider we paid 10 Million for Henry in wages and sign ojn bonus's last year.

Absolutely disgraceful.

jank

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Indeed, worth remembering for those who think we need to go out and buy half a new team (I'm not pointing the finger at you).

All we need is a good experienced winger and experienced defensive cover. Evertyhnig after that is a bonus ( new keeper etc). However, if we lose Flamini & Hleb then we will be taking 2 steps back. I cant see us signing 4 players if the above mentioned leave, which then leaves us next season with the same weakness we had this year. Not enough strength and depth.

Groundhog day or should I say groundhog season!?

Pepe LeFrits

Arsenal never had a chance of competing with Milan and Juve in the size of the offer they could make Flamini, because Milan and Juve can include a very large signing on fee.

Were Arsenal to break the wage structure for Flamini, every other player could rightly demand parity and the club would be ruined.

I think Arsene will surprise us in the transfer market this summer. He knows the club needs to start winning trophies again, and soon.

jank

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Arsenal never had a chance of competing with Milan and Juve in the size of the offer they could make Flamini, because Milan and Juve can include a very large signing on fee.

Were Arsenal to break the wage structure for Flamini, every other player could rightly demand parity and the club would be ruined.

I think Arsene will surprise us in the transfer market this summer. He knows the club needs to start winning trophies again, and soon.

I hope you are right. If there is another trophyless year, then i can see him under huge pressure, especially if there are new owners of the club.

yahoo_moe

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

I think Arsene will surprise us in the transfer market this summer. He knows the club needs to start winning trophies again, and soon.

It doesn't even need to be that big a surprise - with 2 games to go, Arsenal already have 9 points more than they got in all of last season and last summer's transfer activity was Henry out, Diarra in (basically for a cup run and then out again in January), Eduardo in (and he's been out since March) and Sagna in (shows the importance of the right key signing in the right area). That's not an obvious 15-21 point difference.

Assuming Flamini goes, we need to replace him at this season's standard, internally or (most likely) externally. If we can keep Hleb, I think we need a decent winger to give us better options with where Hleb and Theo play and provide cover for Rosicky/compete with him. Then we need either a Vidic-type 'attacking' centre-back (note: this is not Micah Richards) or a high-quality 'utility defender' to cover across the line, preferably the former so we can start heading balls out of defence again for the first time since Campbell left.

David Villa is not the priority (especially not at the price he'll probably fetch) - scoring goals ain't often the problem, especially if Walcott can start next season at his current level, which I think he can.

I think all that, combined with the experience gained from blowing up a bit this year, is about what we need to go a few points better than this year.

EDIT: Also, why do so many people want Bendtner out? All this "squad morale" stuff is s**t as far as I'm concerned - nobody's calling for 30-goal Adebayor to leave, I see, and he was involved too. Personally I think Bendtner's almost there and just needs to consistently step up to the level of his early season performances to be a genuine rotation option.

AnCapaillMor

Um hurray?

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,23629132-23215,00.html

arbeitsscheuer

Ha, that would be such an Arséne Wenger signing i.e. completely out of left-field!:D

By the by, I agree with Pepe. Aside from replacing whoever leaves in the Summer, we really are only 1 or 2 top quality players short of a truly great team. Keep the faith.

OPENROAD

We are being linked with Man City Michael Johnson as a relacement for Flamini.

http://football-corner.blogspot.com/2008/05/gunners-line-up-manchester-midfielder.html

PHB

jank wrote: »

All we need is a good experienced winger and experienced defensive cover.

I think you need someone who can replace Fabregas sometimes. Look at United, there's Scholes Carrick and Anderson who are all quite creative central midfielders.

Flamini and Gilberto and defensive, and Denilson is pretty defensive too.
You need to be able to rest Fabregas from time to time, he can't play every game and maintain his levels. Also in some games, it'd be useful to have 2 attacking central midfields.

gosplan

Can't remember where I heard it (probably arseblog this morning) but people were saying that the fact Edelman has gone might signify a change in the way we spend money.

Basically they were saying that Edelman is a total penny pincher and was the perfect man to oversee the move from Highbury and get the Grove built on time and on budget - which he did, take note Wembley/Landsdown road lot!!

So they figure whoever comes in might be a bit looser with the auld funds.

I'd like to see the wage structure stay but being able to splash out on semi-proven young players would be great.

Man U do this with players like Nani, Anderson, Ronaldo etc - Arsenal to date have had to buy them that little bit earlier before anyone's heard of them and hope that no-one finds out about them till they've signed on the dotted line.

I think this would be a real step forward for us. If you comibine the increased money in the premier league with Arsenal's increased coverage as one of the most stylish teams around, we've got a massive draw for skillful young players.

Evil_Clown

PHB wrote: »

I think you need someone who can replace Fabregas sometimes. Look at United, there's Scholes Carrick and Anderson who are all quite creative central midfielders.

I think Rosicky can do that job (if fit), he does that role for the czech national side to good effect.

PHB

Problem is he is almost never fit. You just can't expect Fabregas to play every game of the season, it's just impossible. IMO he would have challenged Ronaldo for player of the season had he been able to be rested every once in a while.

Galvasean

Bye bye Flamini?

Is it just me or has Fabianski been consistently ballsocks for us?

Pepe LeFrits

He's been OK.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Just on what PHB is saying regarding resting Fabregas next season. Maybe a midfield of Denilson and Diaby could work for some of the games against the weaker opposition. Denilson is more defensive then Cesc yes but he also has a fairly good range of passing, and i feel despite his shortcomings on the left wing, Diaby deserves a chance in his proper position to show what he's capable of. Also as said, Rosicky or even Hleb(touch wood) could play there, dont know why they havent in the past. That said i'd definitely want someone to come in to replace flamini since he seems to be gone.

Fabianski has been alright in the few games he's had, seems like he has the ability though and he should improve with more experience

Pepe LeFrits

Wenger needs to either start trusting Diaby in central midfield or sell him, because playing him on the left is doing nobody any favours.

It looks like PSV are going to sell their keeper Gomes, I'd love it if we went for him.

Galvasean

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

It looks like PSV are going to sell their keeper Gomes, I'd love it if we went for him.

If he's as good as he is in Football Manager... Any idea of price?

Pepe LeFrits

He has fallen out with the powers that be at PSV, so maybe £10-15m. That's a lot for a keeper but he's only 27 and those I know who've seen him regularly rate him about as good as Buffon, Casillas and co. I've mostly only seen him in highlights and when he and Alex knocked us out of the CL last season, but he certainly looked the part.

keano_afc

http://gunnerslive.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/exclusive-news-flamini-will-stay-at-arsenal/

Great news if its true.

OPENROAD

keano_afc wrote: »

http://gunnerslive.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/exclusive-news-flamini-will-stay-at-arsenal/

Great news if its true.

thats quite an old post mate, so we will just have to wait and see, hope he stays.

Galvasean

Really hope he doesnt leave, but Im getting pessimistic. It seems like such a waste to sign a young player, nurture him and then when he's hitting the form of his life, lose him on a free transfer.

LuckyCharms

Can't believe the flamini situation got to this stage , looks like he is off tho, kinda smacks of being an unloyal git if you ask me.

For next season, A quality centre back , winger and attacking midfielder is whats needed imo .Fabregas looked totally wrecked these last few weeks, badly need some cover for the chap.

Wengers track record when it comes to splashing the cash on big players may not be great, but its badly needed this summer otherwise more key players might leave the year after.

OPENROAD

LuckyCharms wrote: »

Wengers track record when it comes to splashing the cash on big players may not be great, but its badly needed this summer otherwise more key players might leave the year after.

Splashing the cash is not a guarantee to success, as Arsene has said the club has to spend within its means and to be honest I agree 100%, we have just missed out on the league,if the penalty against Birmingham had not been given I believe we would have gone on and won the league and we were very unlucky in the champions league. Why are players going to leave? Flamini is leaving down to money, his contract is up and has the right to move on,I think he will be making a mistake, very very few players leave Arsenal and go on to better things, all our other players are on contracts. Arsene will spend but he will not go out and pay stupid money like some clubs have done for very average players. We will strengthen but within our means and where needed.

PHB

LuckyCharms wrote: »

Can't believe the flamini situation got to this stage , looks like he is off tho, kinda smacks of being an unloyal git if you ask me.

If all fairness, considering how he left Marseille it's not at all surprising. If you play with fire etc.

LuckyCharms

OPENROAD wrote: »

Splashing the cash is not a guarantee to success, as Arsene has said the club has to spend within its means and to be honest I agree 100%, we have just missed out on the league,if the penalty against Birmingham had not been given I believe we would have gone on and won the league and we were very unlucky in the champions league. Why are players going to leave? Flamini is leaving down to money, his contract is up and has the right to move on,I think he will be making a mistake, very very few players leave Arsenal and go on to better things, all our other players are on contracts. Arsene will spend but he will not go out and pay stupid money like some clubs have done for very average players. We will strengthen but within our means and where needed.

No offence but the way you talk about them , you make Arsenal sound like a mid table team, saying the whole season hinged on a penalty not been given is rather naive. What exactly do you consider within your means?

You really think sunderland can go out and splash 40-60 mil this summer? They will have to if they are to progress in this league.If Arsenal are content being perennial cl qualifiers then your grand with spending within your means but if you plan on challenging seriously for the league and Cl then you need a top class squad, not just 1st 11.

The reason ye lost the league this year was not because of a penalty decision, it was down to lack of transfer activity within in January, ye ran outa legs at the crucial moment to put it bluntly.

Saying players dont go onto better things when they leave can mean 2 things , either Wenger makes them better then they are and they fall away when they leave or your talking about Arsenals status within the world game? If its the former, then in some cases your right, if its the latter then your wrong imo.If hleb goes to inter, its as step up for example.

How long do you think Fabregas and Adebeyor will be content with winning nothing?World class footballers are they way they are because of ambition, and if their current club doesn't fulfill that ambition they will find one that will( etoo is a case in point, look what he said about being trophyless at barca).

Players on contracts?Since when has a contract ever stopped a player leaving?

OPENROAD

Lucky Charms, the way people talk about our season you would think that we are a mid table team that is need of serious cash injection which in my opinion is not needed. We have gone very very close in the league and the champions league and yes we got two very bad decisions in the champions league game, who knows what would have happened if the penalty had been given in the first leg, as for after the Birmingham game we were mentally shattered after that match and we never really recovered from that dropping stupid points at home.


As for going out and buying in January, it is an extremely hard to go out and buy during this time, possibly yes maybe we should have gone out and bought a centre back, but who was available?

We have just moved into a brand new stadium which does have a debt attached to it, yes we have extra revenue streams coming in from matchday/tv and property but let us say we do meet Flaminis wage demands, this will create unrest within the rest of the team with other players wanting the same. Arsene has decided to base his spending on money that is actually available from revenue as opposed to putting the club further in debt. As I said to you, you do not have to necessary go out and splash the cash, how much was Eduardo, Sagna, Adebayor?


I'm not talking about club status, I'm talking about in terms furthering your playing career, and not many players that have left over the last ten years have gone on to much better.

I do agree with you regarding winning things and we really have to next season, we have come so close this season and hopefully we can address this next season.

~Rebel~

I'm not sure how bad what Flamini's doin' really is..

Last summer effectively his replacement was signed in Diarra from chelsea. Its all well and good talking about loyalty, but if its there, it has to go both ways. He probably wouldn't have been given a new contract if he hadn't upped his performance levels the way he did. Its a bit hard to blame him for looking out for himself, even if it does sting the club.

LuckyCharms

The flamini situation is negligible, the guy turned out to be a money grabbing prick, these things happen but you get all this talk from the club about how there is money available for players to be purchased and when wenger doesn't buy anyone and ye end the season trophyless then ppl are gonna lay blame at his door and rightly so.

If ye don't have money to spend then why doesnt the club just admit it instead of protesting that there is a sizeable chunk available for squad investment.Your right that you don't have to spend alot of money on players as wenger has proven but eduardo still cost the best part of 9 mil.

My overall point is that if hleb goes along with flamni, 40 mil will have to be spent to strengthen the current squad and make them capable of challenging for the title.

You can count that man u n chel will stregthen in the summer as will spurs, villa, pool.There is quite a gap between being top 4 and being title contenders as liverpool found out this year.

OPENROAD

The board have always maintained that money is available but they have never actually revealed what this figure actually is.However the sum available I beleive also would include the wages for te player comming in also. No doubt if Flamini does leave and Hleb follows him we do need to replace them, as for saying we need to go out and spend £40m, we won't spend that amount imo, high transfer price does not necessary equal quality.

OPENROAD

Interesting.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=563830&in_page_id=1779&ito=newsnow

LuckyCharms

Maybe i shouldn't have put an exact figure on it.Basically when i said 40 mil, i meant what it represents to me which is basically a top notch centre back, a 1st choice winger and a attacking midfielder

Galvasean

OPENROAD wrote: »

Interesting.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=563830&in_page_id=1779&ito=newsnow

£25million? Wahey! We have less to spend than the relegation battlers.

Read on arsenal.com that Wenger has put Flamini's deadline back to Monday due to 'negotiation problems'. i think we all know what that means..

Flamini: "Gimmie more money".
Wenger: "No."