Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 10/11

OPENROAD

Pierce_1991 wrote: »

From what I can gather Nasri wants to leave so he can win trophies, why would he stay if we sold our best player? Can't see him being affected that much by being played out wide

Grasping a straws here Wouldn't mind if it happened though

Pierce_1991

OPENROAD wrote: »

Grasping a straws here Wouldn't mind if it happened though

Wouldn't be too bad. I've said a good few times that I wouldn't be devastated to see Cesc go, but its always there in the back of your mind, those incredible passes he's capable of making. Its difficult to let a guy like that leave

OPENROAD

Pierce_1991 wrote: »

Wouldn't be too bad. I've said a good few times that I wouldn't be devastated to see Cesc go, but its always there in the back of your mind, those incredible passes he's capable of making. Its difficult to let a guy like that leave

He would be a loss but having said that I would expect the transfer fee received for Cesc to be reinvested back into the team with ready made players, of course it is possible Cesc might actually stay, I just hope it is clarified one way or the other pretty quickly.

It does seem from the outside that in recent summers we always have the possibility that a key player will leave, meaning we are going off on pre season tours not knowing what our team is likely to be come August.

Frisbee

OPENROAD wrote: »

He would be a loss but having said that I would expect the transfer fee received for Cesc to be reinvested back into the team with ready made players, of course it is possible Cesc might actually stay, I just hope it is clarified one way or the other pretty quickly.

It does seem from the outside that in recent summers we always have the possibility that a key player will leave, meaning we are going off on pre season tours not knowing what our team is likely to be come August.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

AnCapaillMor

When cesc was out and Nasri covered for him in the middle, he didn't exaclty set the world on fire.

djan

The Gunners will send Ignasi Miquel on loan to Bolton if it helps them land a deal for defender Gary Cahill. (Daily Mail)

Arsene Wenger has reiterated that he has no intention of selling either Samir Nasri or Cesc Fabregas - despite Nasri having just a year left on his contract. (The Sun)

Lets hope atleast the 2nd one is true

premierstone

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

When cesc was out and Nasri covered for him in the middle, he didn't exaclty set the world on fire.

Oh contrare that is exactly what he did, and it was no coincidence hes form dipped dramatically once Cesc came back.

I for one, hope Nasri leaves and Fabregas stays.
Wenger will still have to strengthen the squad, and i rather it not be as a result of selling our best midfielder.

Quazzie

RVP 11 wrote: »

I for one, hope Nasri leaves and Fabregas stays.
Wenger will still have to strengthen the squad, and i rather it not be as a result of selling our best midfielder.

Why delay the inevitable. If they are willing to spend this year, then let Cesc go and use the money to strengthen the squad in critical areas.

Frisbee

Can't wait for the Q&A this evening now. Hope Gazidis has prepared himself well as I can see there being a lot of very direct questions that may be uncomfortable for him to answer.

Andre80Johnson

Frisbee wrote: »

Can't wait for the Q&A this evening now. Hope Gazidis has prepared himself well as I can see there being a lot of very direct questions that may be uncomfortable for him to answer.

This is gonna sound silly but will it be shown online or just reports afterwards? Thanks.

Quazzie

Quazzie wrote: »

Why delay the inevitable. If they are willing to spend this year, then let Cesc go and use the money to strengthen the squad in critical areas.

You really think they will spend all of the money? :pac:

Frisbee

Andre80Johnson wrote: »

This is gonna sound silly but will it be shown online or just reports afterwards? Thanks.

I'm hoping I'll be able to find a stream for it. Otherwise will jsut have to make do with transcripts.

AnCapaillMor

Andre80Johnson wrote: »

This is gonna sound silly but will it be shown online or just reports afterwards? Thanks.

A few guys on arseblog attend it, so blogger usually has a report up later in the evening or in the morning.

IF you paid me a million quid i wouldn't take Gazi's place.

Andre80Johnson

I was reading some old stuff about David Dein, nothing major or anything. And I started thinking, if he wasn't ousted, do you think he would have let Wenger take the youth approach like he has done the last number of years or would there have been another way of doing things?

To me he would have told Wenger that the idea was a good one, but keep adding experience.

gosplan

RVP 11 wrote: »

You really think they will spend all of the money? :pac:

It's been predicted for a while but I think if Fabregas were to leave and Arsenal didn't bring in some serious proven talent, they'd be looking at fifth place.

Deleted User

Post from Jan:

Deleted User wrote: »

If Fab gets injured, I can see Nasri finding his scoring boots again. I don't think they compliment each other at all.

Dedicated to Fab and Nas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpLxqTd0Mo

Pepe LeFrits

gosplan wrote: »

It's been predicted for a while but I think if Fabregas were to leave and Arsenal didn't bring in some serious proven talent, they'd be looking at fifth place.

Agreed.

Galvasean

We saw Nasri's best form when Fabregas was out and he was let play in the central role. If Fabregas wants to go I think we should sell him, but drag 40million plus a player or two out of Barcelona. If they don't offer enough, offer Fabregas to Real Madrid and watch them up their offer! If we hold Fabregas against his will we will never get the best football out of him.
Get somebody like Hazard for the left and a good striker to replace RvP when his knee inevitably explodes. Suddenly we have a strong attacking line up again.

If fabregas does leave who is everybody's pick for captain? I was thinking Vermaelen but I would worry about him getting injured again. Personally I think RvP has the guts to be a captain, but again way too injury prone.

keano_afc

Galvasean wrote: »

We saw Nasri's best form when Fabregas was out and he was let play in the central role. If Fabregas wants to go I think we should sell him, but drag 40million plus a player or two out of Barcelona. If they don't offer enough, offer Fabregas to Real Madrid and watch them up their offer! If we hold Fabregas against his will we will never get the best football out of him.
Get somebody like Hazard for the left and a good striker to replace RvP when his knee inevitably explodes. Suddenly we have a strong attacking line up again.

If fabregas does leave who is everybody's pick for captain? I was thinking Vermaelen but I would worry about him getting injured again. Personally I think RvP has the guts to be a captain, but again way too injury prone.

I dont think RvP is a good captain. Seem to remember him not getting involved when one of our players was in trouble with the ref towards the end of last season. Cant remember the exact incident off hand but I rmember thinking "eh where's the captain?". I think Vermaelen would be a good captain, before he got injured last season he was a regular.
My fear about seeling Fab is that the money wont be invested back in the team and Ramsey gets the nod instead. Nothing against Rambo but he aint up to that standard yet.

Frisbee

gosplan wrote: »

It's been predicted for a while but I think if Fabregas were to leave and Arsenal didn't bring in some serious proven talent, they'd be looking at fifth place.

Even if Fabregas stays and we don't invest we could be looking at fifth place this year. We're still the best positioned of Us/Pool/Spurs to get fourth but you can guarantee both those clubs will spend big, whereas there is no gusrantee we will do so.

Depending on who we bring in there's every chance we'll lose CL football next year.

jmayo

sonic85 wrote: »

i never said he was crap but hes most definitely not arsenal quality. to have a chance of winning anything we need proven quality world class signings. this guy is none of those things. do you see barca or chelsea or united after players like this?

I think there is a greater need for solid dependables.
You can't compare Arsenal to Chelsea, Barca or united.
They have bigger wallets and are bigger draws to players due to actually winning things.

sonic85 wrote: »

i like honda - good player. similar player to nasri so if we make a concrete offer for honda it could mean nasris on his way out

Could be a very good commercial move.
Japanese market is massive and at mentioned by earlier article some of the commerical contracts are coming up for renewal.
And from memory in WC he wasn't too bad and seemed to be trier on the pitch.

Andre80Johnson wrote: »

I was reading some old stuff about David Dein, nothing major or anything. And I started thinking, if he wasn't ousted, do you think he would have let Wenger take the youth approach like he has done the last number of years or would there have been another way of doing things?

To me he would have told Wenger that the idea was a good one, but keep adding experience.

To me his exit was Arsenals biggest personel loss over the last 5 or 6 years.
AFAIK most if not all of the big deals were masterminded by him.
But for him, Wenger probably would never have been at the club, nevermind have won doubles or have the great invincibles side.

Kroenke could do worse than bring him back.

L'prof

Galvasean wrote: »

If fabregas does leave who is everybody's pick for captain? I was thinking Vermaelen but I would worry about him getting injured again. Personally I think RvP has the guts to be a captain, but again way too injury prone.

Wilshere

Realistically Vermaelen : p

Sútalún

L'prof wrote: »

Wilshere

Realistically Vermaelen : p

I think he's too young. There's absolutely no doubting his passion, and he'll certainly be a future captain, but I reckon he's far too immature at this stage.

L'prof

Sútalún wrote: »

I think he's too young. There's absolutely no doubting his passion, and he'll certainly be a future captain, but I reckon he's far too immature at this stage.

Which is why I said Vermaelen

Sútalún

L'prof wrote: »

Which is why I said Vermaelen

I see...

Good choice!

As long as he stays injury free think he's the obvious choice. This is all assuming Cesc leaves, which is far from a certainty.

I know it's nuts saying our best player should leave, but he should. With our blessings. He's already going to be a legend of the club (Only aged what, 24?-that's insane). However, we have bigger fish to fry.

A club should never be built around one man. Especially one who we knew will leave back to his boyhood club/picks up injuries etc. It's something that's not often talked about by us gooners.
Barcelona haven't built their team round Messi, Xavi or Iniesta. They built a team.

I really don't think his heart is in the club anymore. We need more team displays, which I saw more of when Cesc wasn't playing.

All imo of course

sonic85

if we sell cesc were screwed. nasri is nowhere near cescs level and unless wenger goes straight out and buys a top class replacement then kiss goodbye to a top 4 finish

I honestly think that Cesc had a much better season the season before last. I didn't think much of him this season. Most noticeably in the spurs game where he was playing with his head held low after conceding. He's meant to be the captain. He should be geeing the lads up, but you could tell his belief was gone after the 78th minute or so.

He may be a great player, but he isn't a great captain.

Sútalún

sonic85 wrote: »

if we sell cesc were screwed. nasri is nowhere near cescs level and unless wenger goes straight out and buys a top class replacement then kiss goodbye to a top 4 finish

People said the same when we sold Henry, when united sold Ronaldo. As others have said, we've played better in a lot of instances this season without Fab in our team. We can certainly live without him.

Frisbee

Ya think they'd put the Q&A on the new Player on the website wouldn't you?

I'd have paid whatever the daily charge is to watch it.

Bounty Hunter

if you could get the fee you deserve for Fabergas he might not be a terrible loss for the squad overall if the money was to be invested wisely

Sell Fabergas

get in Hazard, Baines, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for about the same money for example only using these names as they have been linked and are realistic.

With the emergence of Ramsey plus Hazards signing meaning Nasri could play more central plus other areas of the squad improving like LB would mean the team overall could perhaps benefit especially if there was then a 10/20m invested along with the Fabergas money and any money brought in from other transfers like for example Clichy who thanks to baines would now not be needed. Cahill, Hangeland, Subotic, Sakho whoever in CB could be a needed addition or maybe competition for Song in DM or even a replacement for Bendtner who could also bring in another 10 or so million, maybe someone who could potentially partner in a 442 if Arsenal want to mix things up.

L'prof

Frisbee wrote: »

Ya think they'd put the Q&A on the new Player on the website wouldn't you?

I'd have paid whatever the daily charge is to watch it.

Free for red users this season if it's any use?

emergingstar

Q&A on now nothing of too much interest yet

Pepe LeFrits

Galvasean wrote: »

We saw Nasri's best form when Fabregas was out and he was let play in the central role.

I keep seeing this said - when? what games?

Nasri being better centrally than the in the front three has the look of myth to me.

enfant terrible

emergingstar wrote: »

Q&A on now nothing of too much interest yet

Where are you watching it?

sonic85

Sútalún wrote: »

People said the same when we sold Henry, when united sold Ronaldo. As others have said, we've played better in a lot of instances this season without Fab in our team. We can certainly live without him.

name me one game where weve looked better without fabregas. every time ive seen us play without fab weve looked out of ideas and lacked a cutting edge. its delusional to think we could sell our only world class player and somehow be better off for it. he has poor games like everybody but when hes on form not many can touch him.

you mention henry - we may still be clinging on to a top 4 spot but weve done absolutely nothing of note since hes left. as for ronaldo - thats a totally different kettle of fish. he was sold for a record fee and ferguson wasnt afraid to use some of it to strengthen his squad.

if we get 50 million for cesc it wont be reinvested back into our squad - ramsey will just be given a more prominent role.

sonic85

http://therepublikofmancunia.com/stats-uniteds-spending-vs-arsenal-chelsea-liverpool-city/#comment-338243

great read that

Galvasean

Whats all this nonsense I heard today about us signing Defoe?

Really??? No chance!

OPENROAD

Might be a good signing.

Souless

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/13758021.stm

Didn't see the questions and answers but this is how the BBC has reported it,

"It is clear we had some shortcomings and in this close season we are going to see some turnover of players," said Gazidis at a supporters meeting.

"After last season I share with you a sense of profound disappointment."

"Some new signings will be coming in and some of our existing squad will be going out. As manager Arsene Wenger has said, it will be a busy close season for the club."

All sounds quite promising even if taken with a pinch of salt but then he says...

"It is important to recognise that [last season] was not a disaster," he said. "We have a young squad and we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Think most of us would term it a disaster particularly the run in! He adds to this

"The trick will be to identify which parts to keep and which parts to turn over. And we will do that within our financial capabilities."

So lets hope they've finally realised that we need a new defence

Anyway lets hope it's gonna be a very active transfer season with a lot of the deadwood being shipped out as well as some good experienced new signings

OPENROAD

http://www.arsenalinsider.com/arsenal-news/2567-ftk-blogivan-gazidis-qaa-with-ast?

This evening before over 200 members of the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust, Ivan Gazidis the CEO of Arsenal Football Club flanked by senior directors of the Trust replied to questions from his audience.

Before doing so he made a 15 minute statement., he prefaced these comments by reminding the audience that the meeting was being televised and that this would be going out on the official website of the Club. As such he indicated that he would not be giving ammunition to the circling media vultures who presentation of the meeting would probably not be as accurate as the meeting itself. Indeed, some of you may already had early news of what was discussed, via the various social media networks like Twitter. So given that the meeting is going out on Arsenal Player at 10pm tonight, this blog will short and hopefully to the point.He started by reminding everyone of how proud he was of the values that underpinned Arsenal Football Club, throughout what struck me was that Ivan Gazidis is a slick and very eloquent communicator. He never allowed his face to reveal any emotion in response to some of the difficult questions. Given his undoubted eloquence, I have to say that I came away frustrated because of his reliance upon the usual formal Arsenal rhetoric. I am not suggesting that Mr Gazidis was unhelpful or insincere, however I do believe that as CEO he acted in accordance with the word that we heard repeatedly throughout. “Balance”

Key points:

This was a profoundly disappointing end to the season which ended in a familiar way, with expectations dashed in the final stages of the season.

Arsenal FC’s primary function was to be a social institution, yet it was also a business and there had to be a balance struck between the competing interests in the short and long term. These being the self sustaining model of the Club’s revenues and the need to remain at the top of the game. Arsenal had laid down examples of what it stood for. It had obligations to the fans, the local community and of course the wider game in general.

He addressed the issue of ticket price rises head and said thatArsenal FC had been mindful of the likely discomfort of fans in taking the decision to increase ticket prices. He went onto counter criticism very oddly by saying seeing as there had only been two price rises in 6 seasons, the club could have increased the ticket prices by a greater amount given that running costs of the stadium had doubled in some areas.>

He was tasked with increasing the commercial revenue streams of the club, and in order to do this AFC had invested in a world class Commercial team. They has been working well and he now saw the green shoots of recovery.

He detailed the ownership status of the club, with SK owning 66.6% and AU owning just under 30%. He said that SK had grown to love AFC following his involvement and understood what the club stood for and was 100% behind the self sustainability model of the financial model.

Questions ranged from the predictable to the unexpected and IG adhered firmly to his brief

He was not going to discuss specifics such as individual players, neither was he going to give away commercially sensitive information.

He played a straight bat throughout and my impression was that he only answered questions directly where there was not likely to be any media controversy arising from his responses.

He acknowledge the failings, and expressed that changes would take place, but he was not at liberty what changes and when.

He gave AW his 100% backing and refused to acknowledge that AW was either stubborn or error prone. He acknowledged that player wage inflation was making the business model difficult, and the challenge was to increase revenues by activities such as the pre-season tour to Asia.

In response to a question which suggested that AFC needed a David Dein, he said that there were no plans to bring him back.

Several questions were highly critical of Arsene Wenger and his seemingly unaccountable control of the club, the wage budget was there and IG refused to say if AW had spent all of it last season. He mention balance repeatedly, and referred to having to balance the need to spend at the right time compared to the final benefits of those decisions. He refused to explain how it was that we had two players who were close to doing a Matt Flamini and being able to walk away from the club on a Bosman, or being sold at far below the real market value.

AW was in charge essentially as he knew the real values of the players. He appealed for unity, and in response to a question highlighting some disrespectful comments about the attitudes of fans made by our Chairman and AW himself. He conceded that we could all do better.

He refused to state whether SK had taken out loans to pay for his purchase, and certainly on the subject of the introduction of share dividends, SK was committed to what had gone on before at the club, and had taken pains to reassure fans.

He said that he would look at the possibility of safe standing areas in the stadium, but his intial thoughts was that any rearrangement might be too expensive.

The rest of the questions failed to prise anything of note bar the following

There were gasps of astonishment as he replied to a question from the Le Grove Blog about who was AW accountable.

He said Arsene Wenger was accountable to the fans, and it was the fans who could in theory make it unsustainable for AW to remain at the club. Happily later on he conceded that AW was also accountable to the Board, and the vision of widespread fan protests and adverse chanting faded from my mind.

I asked a question about reducing the debt on the club by asking the two Billionaires to buy out the existing loans on the stadium in strict proportion of their current share holdings. This was considered by IG as being too expensive in business terms, and there were doubts if the proposal would meet the UEFA fair play rules. I had the opportunity to get him to clarify how much this would cost, after the end of the meeting and he indicated a figure of around 50 million pounds. So if the debts are 230 million, it would cost under 300 million to release 20 million pounds a season. I still think that whilst we are waiting for commercial revenue streams to come on tap. Some alternative must be found rather than expecting the loyal fans to pay for the inflationary costs.

The meeting ended as it had begun, with rounds of applause for passionate questions from longstanding fans of the club. IG would not indicate if changes might take place to the coaching staff, or which players would be brought in. It was all a question of balance.

He received a polite round of applause, but I left there thinking that I had been witness to a very diplomatic and professional defence of the Club’s reputation and this was balanced by acknowledging the failures of last season and the disappointment of fans who had been effectively priced out of the club.

Check out the actual content on Arsenal player later, because sadly after the first ten or so questions, I could have given the same answers myself. i.e I am not going to reveal any sensitive information, we are all in this together, and we can do better. Remember, it is all a question of BALANCE.

FTK .

OPENROAD

Lads, tonight's Q&A is available to watch for free

http://www.arsenal.com/home

SDTimeout

Defoe is a good striker, very quick and would be two fingers up to Spurs, a modern day Sol.

I'll take, but not if it means we wouldn't be after Benzema etc

Drexel

Just seen on SSN that lille have confirmed talks with Arsenal over Gervinho.

http://www.skysports.com/football/transfer_clockwatch/0,23710,14896,00.html


I dont know too much about him really. There doesnt seem to be any other big clubs linked with him(spurs??). Is he the type of signing we need???

amiable

jonny666 wrote: »

Just seen on SSN that lille have confirmed talks with Arsenal over Gervinho.

http://www.skysports.com/football/transfer_clockwatch/0,23710,14896,00.html


I dont know too much about him really. There doesnt seem to be any other big clubs linked with him(spurs??). Is he the type of signing we need???

Liverpool, Man City, Spurs, Newcastle and PSG have all shown an interest in him.
Lille have said they don't want to sell to another French club.

Drexel

What type of player is he??

amiable

jonny666 wrote: »

What type of player is he??

Winger/Forward.
He's not what Arsenal need IMO
He's good but not great IMO

Drexel

Lets hope he'll be another Anelka and not a Wiltord or Reyes!!

Can i ask people...who would be on your wishlist. From readin through this thread it seems no one we've been linked with is good enough