Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

greendom

Why are these stories coming out now though? Who's feeding this stuff to the press and for what purpose. Strikes me as somewhat odd anyway.

And the youths drew 2 - 2 at Stoke this evening. Not a great result but bears no resemblence to those pre-season friendlies

overpronator

There's a bit of a stench of Red&White off these stories.

overpronator

overpronator wrote: »

There's a bit of a stench of Red&White off these stories.

David Dein is the chairman of Red and White and i cant imagine him dragging the clubs name through the muck like that.

cathalio11

Alan Pardew, the great hypocrite.

His blasting of Wenger buying foreign players in 2006 only to be followed by him completely spamming French players 6 years later.

Now complaining about the timing on Wenger's bids. I would be very interested to see if Newcastle were so delicate in their bids for French footballers.

pandaboy

Deleted User wrote: »

Greatest player in the world izzit?!

FYP

pandaboy

cathalio11 wrote: »

Alan Pardew, the great hypocrite.

His blasting of Wenger buying foreign players in 2006 only to be followed by him completely spamming French players 6 years later.

Now complaining about the timing on Wenger's bids. I would be very interested to see if Newcastle were so delicate in their bids for French footballers.

To be fair though, without defending Pardew too much. Have a look at the parties involved in most of those transfers, Kia Joorabchian.

Newcastle United

On the 12th of January 2010, it was reported by outlets such as ESPN that Joorabchian had been appointed to the position of "Football Advisor" at the club, and would be leading a clear-out of players, bringing in talented youth from around the world.[56]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Joorabchian#Newcastle_United

WC next year, Ashley looking to turn a buck with a full French team. They're showing promise, but I think it's going to back fire. How many if the current Newcastle squad are first teamers for French National squad compared to last year? KJ being the main man in a lot of transfers.

Looper007

Deleted User wrote: »

God you really changed your tune. It was all doom and gloom and now all of a sudden despite us still being in the same place we were having made yet another derisory offer for a player and now you have a shopping list done up?

No changing the tune until this market ends. Then it be either "we have a chance" or "We're Screwed". I'm not happy we are after just the one person, we need more then that. I haven't changed my tune, still think we are in **** if we don't seriously improve this squad.

I can't believe how many on this thread are happy the way things are going at Arsenal. All I'm reading is one or two signings and we be ok and Keep your feet on the ground nothing to get worried about. Are you seriously joking? Our Team is nowhere strong enough or talented enough to win anything.

Looper007

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/8879230/jamie-carragher-says-arsenal-bid-for-yohan-cabaye-is-a-sign-of-panic

Carragher speaks the truth.

TheGunns

Wenger missed on other targets and is now going to Cabaye, what's the problem? Hardly panic buying

Everyone's jumping on the **** Arsenal bandwagon now, it's one result so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

That article is rubbish as well; Arteta done ok? Mertesacker not for me? The only thing he got right was about Santos and tbh who could actually think he did a good job?

wawaman

emergingstar wrote: »

Ashton absolutely hates arsenal

Thats the truth for sure. I had a reply from him on Twitter last season when i questioned him on why he was telling lies that Arsenal were going to play basically a reserve team in the 2nd leg in Munich. His excuse was that he was led to believe from someone in the club that the lineup was changed at the last minute. I have never known him to write anything remotely positive about Arsenal

Quazzie

Was just listening to the radio this morning and imagine Dragons' song It's Time came on. The opening lyrics kind of apply to Arsene.

So this is what you meant
When you said that you were spent
And now it's time to build from the bottom of the pit
Right to the top
Don't hold back
Packing my bags and giving the academy a rain check

I don't ever wanna let you down
I don't ever wanna leave this town
'Cause after all
This city never sleeps at night

Marty McFly

Good interview with Tim Payton of the AST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mK6kPTtio

Kirby

TheGunns wrote: »

Wenger missed on other targets and is now going to Cabaye, what's the problem? Hardly panic buying

Everyone's jumping on the **** Arsenal bandwagon now, it's one result so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

That article is rubbish as well; Arteta done ok? Mertesacker not for me? The only thing he got right was about Santos and tbh who could actually think he did a good job?

It wasn't an article though was it? I heard him say that stuff on air last night on Sky during the game. It was fairly off the cuff and conversation like. And I agree with most of what he said. I think Arteta is a good player and was a good buy but Mertesacker screamed of panic. He is the exact opposite of the type of player to play in a Wenger system. It made literally no sense.

danlen

Kirby wrote: »

It wasn't an article though was it? I heard him say that stuff on air last night on Sky during the game. It was fairly off the cuff and conversation like. And I agree with most of what he said. I think Arteta is a good player and was a good buy but Mertesacker screamed of panic. He is the exact opposite of the type of player to play in a Wenger system. It made literally no sense.

Arteta and Mertesacker have both very much been successes. Two of the first names on the team sheet imo.

beer enigma

Maybe not panic buying, but there's a big difference between buying a 'Game changing' player & buying the likes of Cabaye. The Arsenal board unusually went very public over the transfer kitty that supporter expectations have been justifiably high.

I've supported the club for over 40 years and don't recall starting any season with this amount of publicity/negativity. Not helped by the likes of Giroud going public in L'Equip, but again I'm sure the players also felt the same level of expectation that we could now compete financially.

We've had a pre season where both Liverpool and Man Utd have taken a stance not to sell their top players to competing clubs, we however didnt seem to have that same resolve when it came to RVP and I wonder where that decision was made.

I worry that even if a small piece of the Daily Mail article is correct, there are much bigger organisational issues within the club - if the timings of the OX's appearances hold any truth then I'm seriously concerned.

I've supported them for too long to throw mud...that helps no one, but I'm beginning to think this will be a season of massive change - Wenger to be offered a new deal ? I wonder would he even take it, a lot depends on whether he is a willing party to the clubs line. The CL match has now taken on a massive significance and the wolves will be baying if we lose.

Ironic that Nina BS has publicly said that she regrets selling (before removing the tweet) - its just a shame some of these Arsenal 'Guardians' didnt think more about the club than their pockets at the time. Denis Hill-Wood will be turning in his grave.

Kirby

danlen wrote: »

Arteta and Mertesacker have both very much been successes. Two of the first names on the team sheet imo.

Which is part of the problem. Inability to identify a major problem by the fans. Mertesacker costs you goals and the fact that you still have him as the first name on the sheet is pretty damning. You are playing a high line, with a slow defender, without a defensive midfielder.

So what's going to happen? Eventually the other team is going to win the ball and because arsenals midfield is full of talented, attacking players....nobody is pressing the new ball carrier and the opposition has all the time in the world to pick out a through ball and Mertesacker gets left for dead.

Look at what happened a few seconds after the Kos red card tackle? Mertesacker lunged in, didn't win the ball....Villa are straight through on goal. Now, it was pulled back....but this is what happens when you play a high line....even when the defenders drop deep they end up in 1v1 situations which you don't want.

It's a disaster waiting to happen in every game and it effects the mindset of all the players playing alongside him. He is simply a player not suited to the system the manager plays. It doesn't mean he's an awful player....it just means he isn't suited and was a bad buy. We saw the same thing happen again and again with Terry when AVB was at Chelsea. If you play a high line and have slow defenders, you are going to get caught and concede soft goals. It's as simple as that.

It's not your only problem, but sorting out your defence is a big one. You shouldn't be conceding 3 goals to the likes of Villa. I imagine if Wenger ends up with Ashley Williams, Mertesacker will be slowly phased out of the team. Williams suits Wengers style a lot more.

Paulegend

danlen wrote: »

Arteta and Mertesacker have both very much been successes. Two of the first names on the team sheet imo.

thats because he is one of very few defenders at your club

speedboatchase

Why are we in for the Valencia sub-keeper, rather than Begovic, who is available and is the best keeper in the league?

Soldado, Paulinho, Capoue, Chadli, Willian (if latest Russian reports are true).
Potentially Cabaye, Williams, Guaita.

Can you guess which is a CL club and has £180m in cash?

G1032

speedboatchase wrote: »

Why are we in for the Valencia sub-keeper, rather than Begovic, who is available and is the best keeper in the league?

I don't know. It's very strange. The last reserve Spanish keeper we bought didn't work out too well

Pepe LeFrits

It's amazing that Koscielny gets sent off and it's Mertesacker that gets the criticism from that passage of play.

Per's fine. Compliments Koscielny well. He's not the best CB in the world but we have far, far bigger issues in the team.

Kirby

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

It's amazing that Koscielny gets sent off and it's Mertesacker that gets the criticism from that passage of play.

Per's fine. Compliments Koscielny well. He's not the best CB in the world but we have far, far bigger issues in the team.

In the match thread I criticised Koscielny at the time. It was a stupid sending off and he deserved it. You don't lunge in like a mad yoke a few minutes after getting booked. It's asking for trouble.

I was using that passage of play to highlight the issue with Mertesacker because it's fresh in everyone's mind having seen it plenty of times over the last few days, that's all.

speedboatchase

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

It's amazing that Koscielny gets sent off and it's Mertesacker that gets the criticism from that passage of play.

Per's fine. Compliments Koscielny well. He's not the best CB in the world but we have far, far bigger issues in the team.

I agree but I would prefer a new CB to partner Koscielny and we should be targeting a higher level of player than Williams; someone like Sakho maybe. In all honesty, with the exception of right-back all of our trolley dash targets should be players who would walk into our first team. We've had reactionary signings to 'make do' for long enough. By comparison, the majority of Spurs signings over the past two years (Lloris, Vertonghen, Paulinho, Soldado) have been new first teamers who would walk into our lineup.

Pepe LeFrits

Kirby wrote: »

In the match thread I criticised Koscielny at the time. It was a stupid sending off and he deserved it. You don't lunge in like a mad yoke a few minutes after getting booked. It's asking for trouble.

I was using that passage of play to highlight the issue with Mertesacker because it's fresh in everyone's mind having seen it plenty of times over the last few days, that's all.

You've described a situation where Arsenal's midfield is a complete cluster**** and laid the blame at Mertesacker's feet. When the midfield is as dysfunctional as it was the other day you could have Usain Bolt at the back and you’ll still leak goals.

Arsenal’s ‘system’ when it works generally means the team retains possession well and pushes the team back into their own half. Mertesacker is valuable then as he’s strong in the air, he takes up good positions, works the offside trap well and is a steady influence at the back. He makes it difficult for opponents to get out (when the team is working properly as a unit), and on the occasion that a player gets in behind, you have the recovery pace of Koscielny to cover.

On the other hand, we’ve seen what happens when the quicker Vermaelen and Koscielny are paired together. Major struggles every time a long ball is pinged towards the centre-forward and an increased problem in defending set pieces.

cathalio11

Finally. Someone who isn't romanticising over Williams.

Soups123

We're we not best defence in the league last year with Mert at the back?

Liverpool explayers, fans saying we don't buy we'll??? For fcuking real Liverpool are the king of it.

According to Pool fans Coutinho in the new messy already and Lucas is world class

Pepe LeFrits

Until Spurs actually finish above us I'm not going to be as effusive in praise of their players.

cson

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

It's amazing that Koscielny gets sent off and it's Mertesacker that gets the criticism from that passage of play.

Per's fine. Compliments Koscielny well. He's not the best CB in the world but we have far, far bigger issues in the team.

The bigger issue for me is what we do when Per is unavailable. Clearly TV and LK do not work as a pairing. Transfer wise we should be concentrating on getting a CB who can pair with TV or LK in the absence of Per. Maybe its Ginter, maybe its not. I'm not one for spending huge money on CBs to sit on the bench but right now beggars can't be choosers and I'd much prefer us to 'waste' £10m on Toby Alderweirald, even though I don't think he's a good fit for us, than have Aaron Ramsey doing a job at CB. You just know if we still had Alex Song with us that AW would be saying we're well stocked at CB and would stick him in there no problem.

Tbh it speaks volumes that we're in for Cabaye. It absolutely smells of utter desperation and a serious lack of planning. All our ducks should be in a row from the get go of the summer. Its basic ****ing planning that goes on in the most mundane of organisations. You identify player A as target 1 for CB, player B as target 2 if we can't get target 1 etc etc. I genuinely cannot fathom how in a club with the resources we have that they cannot compile a scouted list of players and a strategy to get one of them. Take for instance our need for a holding midfielder (this Cabaye thing reeks of a square peg in a round hole solution to it). Target A - Lars Bender (Budget £25m); Target B - Luiz Gustavo (Budget £15m); Target C Etienne Capoue (Budget £10m). Go after all of them early in the summer and with a competent level of negotiation you get one of them in. Holding midfielder position sorted; move onto the next area of priority; striker. Target A - Luis Suarez (Budget £40m), Target B - Gonzalo Higuain (Budget £30m); Target C Stevan Jovetic (Budget £20m). Get one of them and move onto the next postion; CB. And so on so forth. The players are out there; deals are there to be done. The only conclusion I can come to is that our scouting team and negotiating team are incompetent. There is simply no other reason why the above strategy could not have been pursued. City, Spurs and even Southampton seen to have no problem doing it.

speedboatchase

Soups123 wrote: »

We're we not best defence in the league last year with Mert at the back?

Liverpool explayers, fans saying we don't buy we'll??? For fcuking real Liverpool are the king of it.

According to Pool fans Coutinho in the new messy already and Lucas is world class

I don't think we've bought well at all over the last few years. As I said earlier, we've targeting distressed or relegated clubs for knockdown prices (Malaga, Koln), ignored problem positions for years (dfm, gk) and in most positions decided to 'make do' rather than seek out world class, guaranteed new starters. The dross far outweighs the great signings (Cazorla, Arteta), which is best exemplified in the fact that we cleared £500k in weekly wages this summer with overpaid and unwanted junk.

speedboatchase

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Until Spurs actually finish above us I'm not going to be as effusive in praise of their players.

I praise the fact that they address their problem positions and are able to bring in new starters of a calibre that is quite rare for non-CL clubs. Hate Sp*rs but gotta admire Levy and his ambition.

Soups123

speedboatchase wrote: »

I don't think we've bought well at all over the last few years. As I said earlier, we've targeting distressed or relegated clubs for knockdown prices (Malaga, Koln), ignored problem positions for years (dfm, gk) and in most positions decided to 'make do' rather than seek out world class, guaranteed new starters. The dross far outweighs the great signings (Cazorla, Arteta), which is best exemplified in the fact that we cleared £500k in weekly wages this summer with overpaid and unwanted junk.

I think budget dictated that but for the budget we had we bought well in most parts obviously with some exceptions.

I'll have no interest of defending the club if this window is the same

Looper007

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

It's amazing that Koscielny gets sent off and it's Mertesacker that gets the criticism from that passage of play.

Per's fine. Compliments Koscielny well. He's not the best CB in the world but we have far, far bigger issues in the team.

That's the problem we need one of the best CB's in the world if we want to compete . Utd, Chelsea, City even Spures have great CB pairings . Part's Fine but is fine what we should settle for. A top quality CB will cut out those mistakes we always make.

Looper007

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Until Spurs actually finish above us I'm not going to be as effusive in praise of their players.

If Bale stay's they will top us, he's a world class player who can change a game and with their additions I fear for us. If he leaves, I think with a few quality signings we can keep in front. It's amazing they went out and spent brilliantly while we look in disarray and that hurts for me to say.

2ndcoming

Andip wrote: »

Maybe not panic buying, but there's a big difference between buying a 'Game changing' player & buying the likes of Cabaye. The Arsenal board unusually went very public over the transfer kitty that supporter expectations have been justifiably high.

I've supported the club for over 40 years and don't recall starting any season with this amount of publicity/negativity. Not helped by the likes of Giroud going public in L'Equip, but again I'm sure the players also felt the same level of expectation that we could now compete financially.

We've had a pre season where both Liverpool and Man Utd have taken a stance not to sell their top players to competing clubs, we however didnt seem to have that same resolve when it came to RVP and I wonder where that decision was made.

I worry that even if a small piece of the Daily Mail article is correct, there are much bigger organisational issues within the club - if the timings of the OX's appearances hold any truth then I'm seriously concerned.

I've supported them for too long to throw mud...that helps no one, but I'm beginning to think this will be a season of massive change - Wenger to be offered a new deal ? I wonder would he even take it, a lot depends on whether he is a willing party to the clubs line. The CL match has now taken on a massive significance and the wolves will be baying if we lose.

Ironic that Nina BS has publicly said that she regrets selling (before removing the tweet) - its just a shame some of these Arsenal 'Guardians' didnt think more about the club than their pockets at the time. Denis Hill-Wood will be turning in his grave.

This all sounds great in theory except we had the second best defensive record in the league last season, with Mertesacker there for all of it.

He's not the problem, Arteta (or any holding midfielder worth talking about) missing was, along with a series of unfortunate events necessitating several reshuffles to the back four throughout the game.

I think the club have no excuse not to seek to add at least 4 first team quality players in the next week and a half, but the sort of crazed hoo-hah in the press this week as if losing 3-1 at home to teams like Villa is going to be the norm this season because we didn't buy Luis Suarez is frankly f**king ridiculous.

wonga77

speedboatchase wrote: »

Why are we in for the Valencia sub-keeper, rather than Begovic, who is available and is the best keeper in the league?

Best keeper in the league but he is sub-keeper for Valencia? What am I missing here?

Edit - reread your post properly Sorry

wonga77

Any news of anything this morning? Is there any truth to the links with Pogba and kongdobia or is it paper talk I wonder?

Looper007

speedboatchase wrote: »

I don't think we've bought well at all over the last few years. As I said earlier, we've targeting distressed or relegated clubs for knockdown prices (Malaga, Koln), ignored problem positions for years (dfm, gk) and in most positions decided to 'make do' rather than seek out world class, guaranteed new starters. The dross far outweighs the great signings (Cazorla, Arteta), which is best exemplified in the fact that we cleared £500k in weekly wages this summer with overpaid and unwanted junk.

If we were a club like Swansea, West ham or Fulham then that's respectable business. But we are a mega rich club that brings in a massive income, yet we come off like a bunch of cheap gits counting every penny. Carzola and Arteta in the last few years have been are best signings and as you said the rest have been dross or not good enough. I'm known to be hard on Giroud, but that's cause he should never be our number 1 striker. A squad striker no problem but we should be aiming higher then that.

Looper007

wonga77 wrote: »

Any news of anything this morning? Is there any truth to the links with Pogba and kongdobia or is it paper talk I wonder?

Is that Pogba of Juventus, why would he come to us? He's winning leagues in Italy, has a better chance of winning CL's at Juventus. Plus he only joined them last summer. I don't buy that one at all.

No rumours as of yet.

keano_afc

cson wrote: »

The bigger issue for me is what we do when Per is unavailable. Clearly TV and LK do not work as a pairing. Transfer wise we should be concentrating on getting a CB who can pair with TV or LK in the absence of Per. Maybe its Ginter, maybe its not. I'm not one for spending huge money on CBs to sit on the bench but right now beggars can't be choosers and I'd much prefer us to 'waste' £10m on Toby Alderweirald, even though I don't think he's a good fit for us, than have Aaron Ramsey doing a job at CB. You just know if we still had Alex Song with us that AW would be saying we're well stocked at CB and would stick him in there no problem.

Tbh it speaks volumes that we're in for Cabaye. It absolutely smells of utter desperation and a serious lack of planning. All our ducks should be in a row from the get go of the summer. Its basic ****ing planning that goes on in the most mundane of organisations. You identify player A as target 1 for CB, player B as target 2 if we can't get target 1 etc etc. I genuinely cannot fathom how in a club with the resources we have that they cannot compile a scouted list of players and a strategy to get one of them. Take for instance our need for a holding midfielder (this Cabaye thing reeks of a square peg in a round hole solution to it). Target A - Lars Bender (Budget £25m); Target B - Luiz Gustavo (Budget £15m); Target C Etienne Capoue (Budget £10m). Go after all of them early in the summer and with a competent level of negotiation you get one of them in. Holding midfielder position sorted; move onto the next area of priority; striker. Target A - Luis Suarez (Budget £40m), Target B - Gonzalo Higuain (Budget £30m); Target C Stevan Jovetic (Budget £20m). Get one of them and move onto the next postion; CB. And so on so forth. The players are out there; deals are there to be done. The only conclusion I can come to is that our scouting team and negotiating team are incompetent. There is simply no other reason why the above strategy could not have been pursued. City, Spurs and even Southampton seen to have no problem doing it.

Spot on. Would love a journo to ask Wenger that if Cabaye was a target why we werent in for him earlier in the summer. Knowing the answer already of course. The level of incompetence at our dealing this summer really is mind boggling.

danlen

Kirby wrote: »

Which is part of the problem. Inability to identify a major problem by the fans. Mertesacker costs you goals and the fact that you still have him as the first name on the sheet is pretty damning. You are playing a high line, with a slow defender, without a defensive midfielder.

So what's going to happen? Eventually the other team is going to win the ball and because arsenals midfield is full of talented, attacking players....nobody is pressing the new ball carrier and the opposition has all the time in the world to pick out a through ball and Mertesacker gets left for dead.

Look at what happened a few seconds after the Kos red card tackle? Mertesacker lunged in, didn't win the ball....Villa are straight through on goal. Now, it was pulled back....but this is what happens when you play a high line....even when the defenders drop deep they end up in 1v1 situations which you don't want.

It's a disaster waiting to happen in every game and it effects the mindset of all the players playing alongside him. He is simply a player not suited to the system the manager plays. It doesn't mean he's an awful player....it just means he isn't suited and was a bad buy. We saw the same thing happen again and again with Terry when AVB was at Chelsea. If you play a high line and have slow defenders, you are going to get caught and concede soft goals. It's as simple as that.

It's not your only problem, but sorting out your defence is a big one. You shouldn't be conceding 3 goals to the likes of Villa. I imagine if Wenger ends up with Ashley Williams, Mertesacker will be slowly phased out of the team. Williams suits Wengers style a lot more.

How many games did you watch last season? We were so much better defensively when Mertesacker played.

Ashley Williams never replaces Mertesacker in a million years. Come off it.

emergingstar

I think he was a target we scouted him alot last season

He was just down the list

We didn't get our primary targets so were moving down the list

It's not that hard to understand

Alfred Borden

sakho can play the Mertesacker role and to greater effect too in my opinion, dont know why we dont throw 10-12 million at PSG now.

batistuta9

the cabaye bid to me is a reaction to the injuries/knocks picked up on saturday (chamberlain, rosicky, ramsey, wilshere) rather than a panic signing

not too long ago wenger said we were well enough stocked in midfield something like that, so thats why cabaye wouldn't have been targeted before

Mickeroo

Looper007 wrote: »

Is that Pogba of Juventus, why would he come to us? He's winning leagues in Italy, has a better chance of winning CL's at Juventus. Plus he only joined them last summer. I don't buy that one at all.

No rumours as of yet.

There's rumours we've offered 20m and Juve are willing to talk. Most likely won't happen but there are rumours.

Pudders

emergingstar wrote: »

I think he was a target we scouted him alot last season

He was just down the list

We didn't get our primary targets so were moving down the list

It's not that hard to understand

What other midfielders have we bid on? Lars Bender?

I'm not sure I'd be as confident as you that this isn't just a panic bid to appease the fans. £10-12M is a ridiculous bid. It gets some press but Arsenal are never signing him for that.

slingerz

What makes it worse for Arsenal fans is that london rivals spurs are really splashing the cash this summer

batistuta9

Pudders wrote: »

What other midfielders have we bid on? Lars Bender?

I'm not sure I'd be as confident as you that this isn't just a panic bid to appease the fans. £10-12M is a ridiculous bid. It gets some press but Arsenal are never signing him for that.

bender & gustavo but neither of them are the same type as cabaye

like i said a few posts ago i think the cabaye bid is more to do with the injuries/knocks to the others in midfield rather than him being a panic signing

Mickeroo

batistuta9 wrote: »

bender & gustavo but neither of them are the same type as cabaye

like i said a few posts ago i think the cabaye bid is more to do with the injuries/knocks to the others in midfield rather than him being a panic signing

Did we definitely bid for Gustavo?

GeorgeBailey

slingerz wrote: »

What makes it worse for Arsenal fans is that london rivals spurs are really splashing the cash this summer

Welcome to the party Captain Obvious.

Pudders

slingerz wrote: »

What makes it worse for Arsenal fans is that london rivals spurs are really splashing the cash this summer

And boy are they letting us know about it.

slingerz

Pudders wrote: »

And boy are they letting us know about it.

Adding Willian in with the prospect of Lamela means Arsenal must be worried about missing out on the top 4 this season. I think Spurs could challenge for the title if they keep Bale