Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013

EuropeanSon

tayto lover wrote: »

Hey hey hey look what I found -

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1499711/arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger-waiting-spectacular-signing?cc=5739

Funny how "you all want me to announce a spectacular signing" becomes "I'm waiting on a spectacular signing" with no explanation.

speedboatchase

tayto lover wrote: »

Hey hey hey look what I found -

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1499711/arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger-waiting-spectacular-signing?cc=5739

Clever damage limitation. Basically he's influencing people to be happy with just one big signing and he's also laying the foundation for the eventual "Well, we tried didn't we? All those club record bids..." statement in a few weeks. So many now brainwashed to accept mediocrity for fear of any change in the status quo.

speedboatchase

farna_boy wrote: »

Yep.

We already have 3 CBs and two good goalkeepers. We finished second last year in terms of goals conceded. Last count, we have about 40 midfielders that we can't even organise properly to play with each other i.e. Cazorla, Wilshere, Ramsey, Arteta, Rosicky etc etc and I don't think adding more will help that.

Up front, we have Giroud and Podolski who will only be playing their second season in England and who will only be playing their second season together. Also given that Podolski was injured for a few months last year, I reckon both of them (given the chance) could score 20+ goals each this year. We also have Walcott, who can give us another 20 goals, not to mention the likes of Chamberlain and the rest of the midfield who will contribute to goals.

In fact, unless we are signing a player who will score 30+ goals in the season, I'm not sure about adding a new "good player" who won't be used to playing with the team and who could disrupt whatever harmony is there.

Also, I don't think Wenger will ever replace Song. We don't play that formation anymore and I don't think we will next season either.

We need more than just 3cbs in the squad, especially since losing Djorou and Squillaci. Hence, we need a back-up at the very least. Our two keepers are good, but not good enough in my opinion. Midfield is packed but lacking in dfms, especially since we loaned the Coq and Diaby will inevitably get injured.

And we desperately need a world class striker leading the line. Giroud might have 20 goals in him but I just can't see it in Podolski. That we might lose out on all four of our reported targets after faffing about for 2 months though is infuriating. Chelsea and City are very serious about strengthening their already impressive squads and apparently United aren't finished in their pursuit of Cesc. I can't see how we climb higher than 4th right now without ambitious investment. Higuain and Fellaini are on a plate for us if we just push a little.

cathalio11

I have to agree with the above poster. Vemaelen is already out for 3 months. That leaves us with Koscielny and Mertesacker. Hardly the most reliable players when it comes to fitness.

Considering that 2 years ago, our back 4 in our 8-2 drubbing to United was:

A raw Carl Jenkinson
Koscielny
Djourou
Traoré

And I think we had around 5 defensive injuries then so imagine starting in the Prem with:

Jenkinson
Mertesacker
4th best CB
Miquel

So to re-iterate, I agree that 3 centre backs is FAR from enough.

emergingstar

I think we will see 2 signings

CF and CM

Break the bank on both

Give youth a chance on the squad places
Gnarby, eisfield, zelalem, bellerin.

That's 6 new additions to the first team squad.

I would be happy with that

cathalio11

I don't believe that Zelalem or Bellerin are anywhere near ready for the first team.
Eisfeld is a bit closer but not really.
Gnabry could put in a few good performances but once more, I don't think so.

TheGunns

cathalio11 wrote: »

I don't believe that Zelalem or Bellerin are anywhere near ready for the first team.
Eisfeld is a bit closer but not really.
Gnabry could put in a few good performances but once more, I don't think so.

Have to take the chance on them at some point, just like we did with Cesc

emergingstar

cathalio11 wrote: »

I don't believe that Zelalem or Bellerin are anywhere near ready for the first team.
Eisfeld is a bit closer but not really.
Gnabry could put in a few good performances but once more, I don't think so.

Squad players the odd game and a few mins at the end of a game that's all I would expect from any of them

I also think your wrong about bellerin I reckon he could he sangas replacement not Jenks

cathalio11

It was, I assume, very clear in training and younger squads that Fabregas was miles above the rest though. Like Wilshere, he blossomed in the underage squads and was quickly brought up.

I feel that if the 4 mentioned already were ready for the team this year, they would have been given much more chances last season.

Just my opinion though. I would love for all 4 of them to come out and prove me wrong

emergingstar

cathalio11 wrote: »

It was, I assume, very clear in training and younger squads that Fabregas was miles above the rest though. Like Wilshere, he blossomed in the underage squads and was quickly brought up.

I feel that if the 4 mentioned already were ready for the team this year, they would have been given much more chances last season.

Just my opinion though. I would love for all 4 of them to come out and prove me wrong

There talking about zelalem the same way they talked about the other 2
Up to him to live up to it though

cathalio11

I like Jenkinson a lot. I think he is very good at squaring up to defenders and not letting them past. He lacks something though and looks extremely awkward all the time.

I should be less ignorant and take the time to google their names first before I judge them on their reputation 3 months ago. Just read some interesting articles on Zelalem. Let's see what he can do over the course of the Asia Tour and the Emirates Cup

meriwether

I thought the Argentinian cat was in the sack, but it appears we didn't close the sack in time.

.jacksparrow.

Verm out till mid October, so we will be signing a cb, probably Williams.

extra gravy

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Verm out till mid October, so we will be signing a cb, probably Williams.

I think it's more likely that Sagna will become the third CB if needed, especially after Wenger giving him a run out there today. Whether he'd be good enough in that position against a top strike force begs the question though.

wandatowell

cathalio11 wrote: »

I like Jenkinson a lot. I think he is very good at squaring up to defenders and not letting them past. He lacks something though and looks extremely awkward all the time

Corporal Jenkinson is a handy player. Great attitude and works hard. You are right though he looks like he doesn't belong on a football field at times

speedboatchase

Two evening updates:

@dylan_fahy: #Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis: "We are working for Gonzalo Higuaín, but Chelsea have offered a lot more."

And:

"Fabregas has decided to stay 1 more year at Barcelona. Unless he has changed his mind." - Arsene Wenger [back page of Thursday's Guardian]

EDIT: Wenger on Rooney possibility, mentioning RVP move last summer:

"It happened to us. It can happen to them."

Unfortunately, Wenger also says "We work hard but we are not close to anybody."

batistuta9

Mourinho said today it was Rooney or nobody

speedboatchase

"We work hard but we are not close to anybody."

Let's all just let that sink in, 2 months into the summer transfer market...

Quazzie

Same old bullshít from the manager and Board.

WoollyRedHat

Following Arsenal in the transfer market is like some kind of Theme Park ride, and right now it's a drop ride, we've already bring brought to the top, and now have been brought right back down to earth.

cathalio11

The media do not help at all.

But I admit, I look at every single report and get quite excited even though I know inside that it just won't go through.

I do wish that we heard no rumours and that the official club websites are all we heard from.

Remember though, out of Podolski, Cazorla and Giroud; I think only Giroud was a long rumour dealing. Podolski was out of the blew to me anyways and then Cazorla came on very short notice too. Even Monreal.

So I do think that Arsenal are always working on things that we do not know about.

Quazzie

cathalio11 wrote: »

So I do think that Arsenal are always working on things that we do not know about.

But they really are rubbish at it. They have the scrimping and scraping down to a tee, and all the talk about spending big was bullshít to quieten fans and sell season tickets
:mad:

speedboatchase

cathalio11 wrote: »

The media do not help at all.

But I admit, I look at every single report and get quite excited even though I know inside that it just won't go through.

I do wish that we heard no rumours and that the official club websites are all we heard from.

Remember though, out of Podolski, Cazorla and Giroud; I think only Giroud was a long rumour dealing. Podolski was out of the blew to me anyways and then Cazorla came on very short notice too. Even Monreal.

So I do think that Arsenal are always working on things that we do not know about.

With the exception of Giroud, all of those players came from bankrupt or relegated clubs. This summer we were assured, over and over, that things would be different and we wouldn't have to look for bargains from distressed clubs. At the very least we actually bought players and bought them early last summer.

meriwether

speedboatchase wrote: »

Two evening updates:

@dylan_fahy: #Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis: "We are working for Gonzalo Higuaín, but Chelsea have offered a lot more."

And:

"Fabregas has decided to stay 1 more year at Barcelona. Unless he has changed his mind." - Arsene Wenger [back page of Thursday's Guardian]

EDIT: Wenger on Rooney possibility, mentioning RVP move last summer:

"It happened to us. It can happen to them."

Unfortunately, Wenger also says "We work hard but we are not close to anybody."

Fucking LOL.

I mean, honestly.

Corvo

Between United and Arsenal, we must have combined a fair old list of "targets" at this stage.

So far we have:

Garay
Baines
Thiago
Fabregas
Modric
Bale
Marqunios
Strootman

Never mind the Rooney, Nani and Evra saga's.

Ye nearly have a list the same length, if not longer.

I can't take anymore

tayto lover

Quazzie wrote: »

Same old bullshít from the manager and Board.

Con-job again it seems.

gosplan

speedboatchase wrote: »

Clever damage limitation. Basically he's influencing people to be happy with just one big signing and he's also laying the foundation for the eventual "Well, we tried didn't we? All those club record bids..." statement in a few weeks. So many now brainwashed to accept mediocrity for fear of any change in the status quo.

If Wenger's smart enough to do that, then he's smart enough to know it won't work.

It's obvious that if Arsenal don't sign someone big then the boos and empty seats will start before the first ball is even kicked at the Emirates.

Wenger will be blamed for it regardless of how the team do and it would make his position very difficult.

Even if Giroud becomes the player we hope he can and bags 25 goals, he simply can't lead the line for 38 league games, the CL and the cups. Even if we finished second, Wenger would be blamed for costing us the title with his stinginess.

This is why I'm positive about the whole thing. Anyone can tell you that the Arsenal supporters simply won't take any more. They just got away with it last Jan through the last bit of faith the supporters had and a run of jammy results on the run in.

They have to spend.

bad2dabone

They'll spend. The problem is will the targets be gone before they do and we end up with ****.

Gringo180

speedboatchase wrote: »

"We work hard but we are not close to anybody."

Let's all just let that sink in, 2 months into the summer transfer market...

Thats a load of bollockz I am sick to death of hearing this ****e :mad::mad:

keano_afc

"Not close to anybody"

"I cannot give you any names"

Seriously, does he even realise any more that he throws out the same lines window after window? We have a team working "round the clock" in the words of Wenger, and we're not close to anybody. Can I please have a job there? Sounds like a bloody holiday camp.

Gringo180

And another thing is why did we let Djourou go on loan ridiculous decision with only having 3 notable centre halfs and now one is injured. So were left short again, same old same old crap. We need to sign quality, 3 or 4 players is what is needed and not just squad players these should be players who can come in and make a difference in the starting XI!!!!

bad2dabone

He's just playing the game.

speedboatchase

gosplan wrote: »

If Wenger's smart enough to do that, then he's smart enough to know it won't work.

It's obvious that if Arsenal don't sign someone big then the boos and empty seats will start before the first ball is even kicked at the Emirates.

Wenger will be blamed for it regardless of how the team do and it would make his position very difficult.

Even if Giroud becomes the player we hope he can and bags 25 goals, he simply can't lead the line for 38 league games, the CL and the cups. Even if we finished second, Wenger would be blamed for costing us the title with his stinginess.

This is why I'm positive about the whole thing. Anyone can tell you that the Arsenal supporters simply won't take any more. They just got away with it last Jan through the last bit of faith the supporters had and a run of jammy results on the run in.

They have to spend.

They have to spend but with each passing day big players pair off to different clubs and as such, the longer Arsene waits the less he'll ultimately spend when for example, Rooney (Chelsea), Higuain (Napoli), Benteke (Spurs) and Suarez (Real) go elsewhere. Our main target has been a forward and in the past two months Gomez, Tevez, Neymar, Cavani, Falcao, Villa, Llorente, Aubemayang, Negredo and likely Jovetic and Hulk have moved.

I'm not saying we should've targeted any or all of the abovr but there's never been a summer with more top forwards available - most of whom we can actually afford and for what is our acknowledged problem position - and yet.... all we've got is an injury-prone free transfer from Ligue 2.

cathalio11

I would actually prefer that Djourou doesn't play for Arsenal ever gone. Committed guy and put in some good performances in his day but he just isn't good enough.

He might come in for a game and wow us, but then he will just completely let us down.

I hope he has a successful career elsewhere.

Gringo180

cathalio11 wrote: »

I would actually prefer that Djourou doesn't play for Arsenal ever gone. Committed guy and put in some good performances in his day but he just isn't good enough.

He might come in for a game and wow us, but then he will just completely let us down.

I hope he has a successful career elsewhere.

He is good to have as a backup, it saves us going out and spending on a player that we dont really need as Djourou is well able to do a job on a temporary basis, its a DMF, winger and centre forward thats needed and maybe a goalkeeper.

emergingstar

So Madrid hiked up higs price to €40m

Yet we still blame wenger and the board

extra gravy

Seriously what do people expect Wenger to say in response to these questions? Do we want him to be like Mourinho spouting his mouth off about the players he wants? He's never divulged information about potential transfers in the past so why would he start now.

Gringo180

emergingstar wrote: »

So Madrid hiked up higs price to €40m

Yet we still blame wenger and the board

He's worth it, if you pay peanuts you'll get monkeys its not as if we havent got the funds. If you look at it this way, we got €30 million for RVP last season so all we need to do is add an extra €10 million to replace him with a world class striker who has his best years ahead of him.

speedboatchase

extra gravy wrote: »

Seriously what do people expect Wenger to say in response to these questions? Do we want him to be like Mourinho spouting his mouth off about the players he wants? He's never divulged information about potential transfers in the past so why would he start now.

He could've declined to comment rather than say we're "not close to anyone". The counter argument there is that maybe he was bluffing, but why would he lie and rile up the fanbase? After two months of nothing I'm inclined to take him on his word with that statement.

speedboatchase

Here's the Times report (£Paywall):

Arsenal received a jolt in their bid to sign Gonzalo Higuaín last night after they and Napoli were told that the Argentina forward would cost €40 million (about £37 million).
The North London club seemed confident that they would be able to complete their first signing of the summer, for a sum of close to £23 million, after informal conversations with Real Madrid last month. It is unclear whether the Spanish club have moved the goalposts amid interest from Napoli, whose coffers have been boosted by £53 million from the sale of Edinson Cavani to Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite reports that Arsenal had already agreed personal terms with Higuaín’s agent and father, Jorge, the move has stalled and Real claimed that they have not received a formal offer from Arsenal, who seemed to switch their attentions to Luis Suárez, of Liverpool.
Napoli would be reluctant to meet Real’s demands for Higuaín and believe a deal to sign Leandro Damião, the Brazil forward, from Internacional for about £22 million is far more likely.

extra gravy

speedboatchase wrote: »

He could've declined to comment rather than say we're "not close to anyone". The counter argument there is that maybe he was bluffing, but why would he lie and rile up the fanbase? After two months of nothing I'm inclined to take him on his word with that statement.

Part of the problem is that a lot of the fanbase are too easily riled and think they're experts because they follow a few journalists on Twitter and take rumours seriously. The reality is that none of us know what's going on behind the scenes and getting pissed off and impatient in the middle of July when there's still 6 weeks of the window to go is a waste of time. If Wenger said nothing, then the media would probably just invent a story anyway so either way, he can't win.

wandatowell

Arsene on Cesc

http://goonertalk.com/2013/07/17/wenger-confirms-cesc-release-clause/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wenger-confirms-cesc-release-clause

“Fabregas has decided to stay one more year at Barcelona. Unless he has changed his mind. I don’t know”, revealed Wenger.

“But that’s what I have been told. We have the clause in his contract so we would be on alert but at the moment that’s not something we are after.”


Read more: http://goonertalk.com/2013/07/17/wenger-confirms-cesc-release-clause/#ixzz2ZLLw7Awv

Its interesting that Arsene said that Cesc will stay for only one more year. I wonder who told him that? Cesc himself?

tayto lover

emergingstar wrote: »

So Madrid hiked up higs price to €40m

Yet we still blame wenger and the board

Wenger is like the old miser hanging about the Tesco check-out just as the shop is about to close on a Saturday evening waiting for the "bread is now reduced" announcement.

bad2dabone

I hate real Madrid.

farna_boy

speedboatchase wrote: »

He could've declined to comment rather than say we're "not close to anyone". The counter argument there is that maybe he was bluffing, but why would he lie and rile up the fanbase? After two months of nothing I'm inclined to take him on his word with that statement.

Why would he lie? Is it not obvious at this stage?

Apparently we were close to signing Higuain. However, it was "leaked" that we were interested in him and those close to him and Real decided to put up the price, even though terms had been agreed. Next thing we know, Chelsea are throwing money at him and Real.

But the fans want to know what exactly is going on and who we are interested in. Is nobody else seeing a trend here?

I would prefer we didn't hear anything and let whoever just be unveiled instead of giving everyone else a heads up and essentially be their scouting agency.

There is a reason why we sign so many players just before the deadline. Expect more of the same this year.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

I can't understand how people still allow themselves to get riled up over what Wenger says. He said he had never heard of Cazorla right before we signed him for christ sake!

Don't pass any heat of him, it's just the way he does things and I would have thought ye would have learned by now not to take it at face value.

The club will get ravaged by the fans if they don't do anything and I'm sure they know it. So for this reason, and the fact we've lodged bids well over our transfer record already, would suggest to me their not just sitting on their holes.

wandatowell

speedboatchase wrote: »

Here's the Times report (£Paywall):

Arsenal received a jolt in their bid to sign Gonzalo Higuaín last night after they and Napoli were told that the Argentina forward would cost €40 million (about £37 million).
The North London club seemed confident that they would be able to complete their first signing of the summer, for a sum of close to £23 million, after informal conversations with Real Madrid last month

I would understand Real looking for a few million more, nothing wrong with playing hardball but looking for an extra 14m is crazy.

I dont think Higuain is a €40m striker

wandatowell

tayto lover wrote: »

Wenger is like the old miser hanging about the Tesco check-out just as the shop is about to close on a Saturday evening waiting for the "bread is now reduced" announcement.

Im guilty of that.


Stale bread rolls with ham and cheese after a feed of pints! Lovely

Fuzzy_Dunlop

tayto lover wrote: »

Wenger is like the old miser hanging about the Tesco check-out just as the shop is about to close on a Saturday evening waiting for the "bread is now reduced" announcement.

Ah come on, I'm all for spending the cash to get things done, but at the same time you can't have clubs taking advantage of you like that and just bending over to their sudden changes of mind.

speedboatchase

A positive backpage update from the Mirror. Real won't go above £25m for Suarez:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-transfers-arsenals-luis-suarez-2060488