Transfer window: B-, good effort, but execution could be better

by .

Why not?

Why not?

Yeah, I hear you, where is the post on the fitness centre? Where’s the inside gossip on Rosicky’s hammy’s? Where is that post?

You’ll have to tweet James. He’s holding the content hostage.

Me? I’m wondering if I can get in touch with the Arsenal fitness team and ask them if it’s possible to self-diagnose that your broken wrist is better after 3.5 weeks because it doesn’t hurt and it has good rotation? Can you heal quicker than 4 weeks? Am I… super human? How do you test it if you don’t have an x-ray? What did the people of olden times do?

Who knows, but I’m clocking mad word count this week.

In Arsenal transfer deadline day news, there wasn’t any. Kike Marin said we’d dropped a last gasp £100m Dembele bid, David Ornstein slashed his news down with a vicious tweet. I mean, as sexy as the rumour was, it certainly didn’t make sense that Arsenal would drop a speculative record transfer bid on the final day… despite us doing that for Ozil and Lemar last summer.

So, we are where we are.

My takeaway from the window is it’s been pretty fucking solid.

There are a lot of people complaining it was shite, but seriously, let’s all take a second to remember how banterful our summers have been for 15 years and absorb what has happened.

The Brief: Get the club back into the top 4

The Strategy: Hire in very experienced players to make it happen, peppered with a few very exciting prospects

The execution: It’s been a touch bland, but largely spot on

Lichtsteiner and Sokratis are winners and leaders. They know how to defend on paper, the big question is whether they can deliver it in the pace of the Premier League. Add Bernd Leno into the mixer, a keeper with cat-like reflexes, a more tactical approach to distribution, and an all-around more contemporary vibe and you have the beginnings of a group of players who can work in a much more rigid defensive system.

We have a lot of defenders this year. Mavrapanos, Bellerin and Holding all have a lot to prove. Kolasniac, Jenks and Mustafi are lucky to still be about. Monreal is obvs a baller, and I’m glad he didn’t get sold. Overall, that’s an iffy mix of names. I hope the lack of reinforcement doesn’t cause us problems.

That’s the key to our backline this year. Accountability, smarts to operate as a unit, with enough experience to see us through a fall season. The system is more important than the individual talent.

Midfield is looking legitimately solid and exciting. Torreira and Guendouzi look a level up from what we’ve been playing with. Both have a turn of pace, the desire to marshall the back four and a delightful range of passing to release our attack to do their thing. Can I just reiterate the above point… we now have 2 deep-lying midfielders who actually want to play in that position. We also have the very exciting AMN to look forward to… he was Wenger’s last ever sub, will that be a parting gift or a curse?

We didn’t lose Ramsey either. Think what you like about that, for the time being, let’s be positive and assume he’s staying because surely the club wouldn’t take a chance on keeping a distracting storyline on the books. ESPECIALLY AFTER LAST SEASON. If Ramsey is focused, he’ll be an asset this season, IF he can keep fit. Ornstein says the talks are positive, but the parties are a long way off… you’ll know it’s over when Arsenal leak he was asking for £350k a week and a parking space on the pitch. Fingers crossed this isn’t delaying tactics from his agent who can now smell a mega payday next year.

Moving forward, we have an abundance of talent, even if our attack does look a touch narrow. Mikki and Ozil are very creative if they find form, Auba and Lacazette are worth 50 goals at a minimum. Iwobi, Reiss, Rowe, Eddie, JOEL CAMPBELL and Danny W. There’s something there with a bit of coaching and a big bag of HOPE.

ANYWAY. Rome wasn’t built in a summer people (Roma was).

Remember all those people telling you for years how complicated football was? Well, the backroom team rebuilt the entire club in 6 months. This season, we’ve laid the groundwork. If we make the CL next summer, we’ll have more than £70m to spend, and I’d imagine we’ll be able to attract a higher calibre of player.

The big hope now is that the players gel, the manager’s ideas sink in, the players stay fresh and uninjured this season and we have a lot of luck.

I’m positive, because why wouldn’t you be? We’ve spent 10 years being miserable, it’s boring. Plenty of time to cry when things actually go wrong.

Also, how hilarious was Spurs summer? My whining spud mates reckon Poch was promised a pot of gold to spend… and he was given NOTHING. HILARIOUS. I know Spurs have a good squad, but bringing in new blood after a failed season is essential… unless you think finishing potless is a success, which to be fair, is kind of a Spurs attitude.

Let’s hope we can have a good run and put them out of the CL at an important time in their rebuild.

Right, see you in the comments! x

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Receding hairline

Marc isn’t it astonishing that some are already moaning before a ball is kicked

This blog has been very hard to read today.. I mean we all have our reservations but must u go on and on daily. Misery likes company I guess

Champagne charlie

Marko

Still incapable of understanding that arsenal bought several players for similar money to ONE outstanding prospect. Remind me if Hazard was Chelsea’s only recruit that season?

Fact is arsenal haven’t the financial muscle to compete on the market in the way you’re claiming Wenger avoided. Chelsea spend money to make money, Arsenal hasn’t and don’t.

Nobody seems keen to answer who is more focused on footballing success out of Roman and Stan. Just a few hell bent on continuing to lay it all at Wengers feet and ignoring the guy that’s still actually here to affect the future.

Marc

alexanderhenry

Fuck me you see some negative in something (anything) one of the Kroenke’s has done or said.

Biggest surprise of the season there who would have thought?

Fucking muppet.

Marko

I seriously wonder if the ManU hierarchy are all ready regretting their decision to give him a new contract

How could they not. Shocking decision

raptora

Guys think that James Maddison would do well in the EPL? He’s been somewhat of a star for Norwich. As attacking midfielder 14 goals, 8 assists, 8 MotM, whoscored score of 7.43, first for Norwich, second one has 7.10 so first by a mile. 21 yo so extremely young. Sounds like a good prospect.

Terraloon

Marc

Chelsea in the RA era.
2004 loss £86 million
2005 loss£140 million
2006 loss £ 80 million
2007 loss£75 million
2008 loss £66 million
2009 loss £ 44 million
2010 loss £ 70 million
2011 loss £ 67 million
2012 profit £1 million
2013 loss £51 million
2014 profit 19 million
2015 loss 21 million
2016 loss £70 million
2017 profit £16 million

If that’s running in a self sustaining way for several years then god help us.

raptora

Look at the last 6 seasons though. That’s the period where things starting to even up between the two teams. Abramovich not putting a lot of money, as well as Arsenal being able to spend much more than before that. Say whatever you want. NET spent money says it all. And we’ve been spending more than them in the last 6 years. That’s a huge period. Half a decade. Cannot spin facts. They’ve had success with their buys. We didn’t. Not because we didn’t spend the money. We did. They went for nothing. On dross.

Sanmi

I wouldn’t say Fred is terrible, because every offensive player that’s not big tall, turns to shit under Mou.
How can Mata, Martial, Rash, sanchez!!! All become shit suddenly?

Marko

Still incapable of understanding that arsenal bought several players for similar money to ONE outstanding prospect. You make it sound like it was planned. It wasn’t and you’d be shameful as fuck to say it was. That summer he did fuck all all summer long until we lost Cesc and Nasri and got humiliated by United. Then he went and bought shit players in total desperation. So this idea that you are trying to paint that we didn’t sign Hazard because he wanted to sign up a few other players in key areas is total nonsense. Fact is arsenal haven’t… Read more »

Marc

Terraloon

Premier league net spending last 5 years prior to this summer.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/revealed-premier-league-net-spending-table-sparks-a-debate-over-managerial-achievements-36861511.html

Now who has the higher net spend?

Marc

Your Comment Here

TheLegendaryDB10

AH

I don’t trust the Kroenkes one bit. But that comment was not heavily publicised for starters.

But the “sugarcoating” was AW promise of always finishing in the top 4 when this did not materialise 2 seasons in a row. The one thing the Kroenkes cannot afford to see is Arsenal lose money and hereby lose value. They need it as leverage for their 2 massive loans (the LA stadium and now the 600 million to buy Usmanov’s shares).

raptora

CC is speaking like we couldn’t afford to spend 35m+ on ONE marquee player every single year since 2012. We could and we had. So stop with the bollocks. Thank you. Wenger is the one who was spouting sh*t that he doesn’t buy stars, he makes them. He’s the guy with the idea to pay up similar salary to every player in the team so the rest don’t feel bad about themselves and there’s no hate in the dressing room. He’s a commie. His ideas in the last 10 years are what put us in the position we are today.… Read more »

Marc

Abramovich pulled the investment for a new stadium once his visa was rejected. He is now no longer even allowed to work in the UK for a couple of days. Let’s see where his commitment goes from now shall we?

Terraloon

Marc

Not arguing with the net spend figure . Chelsea sold a lot of players for decent money and all the while spent big.

You continually state Chelsea have been running a self sustaining financial model for several years and that is clearly not the case.

raptora

How is it not the case if they spend NET less than us, they are as big as a club as us if not with better sponsorship deals, and we are on the self sustaining model? Is it not the case?!

Terraloon

Marc

He did indeed cancel the project around the time of his visa issues but even by a back of a fag packet calculation the numbers being talked about had grown to a point where it would be folly to spend north of £1 billion to grow what had become the 3rd largest income stream stream by what £30 million a year .
There had been strong rumours that a major rethink was being considered well before the visa issue . Word very much was U.K. PLC gave him his opportunity to pull the plug

Marc

If that was a booking then Fred should’ve been shown a red in the first half.

raptora

I mean the sales from players are part of the self sustainability, no?! You raise a player so you can sell it afterwards?! Then with that sale you buy other players. But the money you’ve earned are from the player you’ve sold, not from the owner. And the other money you spend is from sponsorship deals, EPL tv coverage, matchday profits etc etc.

Wallace

CC/Terraloon

if they haven’t grasped it by now it’s probably because they don’t want to.

Wallace

God, Utd are f*ckin’ dire to watch. he can’t last.

Marko

if they haven’t grasped it by now it’s probably because they don’t want to.

I’d like to point out I’m not involved in this conversation about Chelsea and just more the Gervinho Hazard thing

Marc

Wallace

Wow a moment of clarity – Abramovich chucked shit loads of cash into Chelsea some years ago and Kroenke doesn’t – if only I could have worked that out. Watch out Einstein Terraloon and Wallace are about to prove the theory of nothing.

raptora

Wonder if we could have bought Schmeichel for say 30m pounds and maybe give them Cech. Good keeper. Belonged to a better team imo. Surely winning the league with Leicester was unforgettable though.

Marc

Wallace

“God, Utd are f*ckin’ dire to watch. he can’t last.”

Something I think we can all agree on!

raptora

Fk me Iheanacho is so bad. Another one that Vardy would have likely put in.

Marc

Terraloon

So the Spud’s building a new stadium at a cost of circa £800 million was seriously bad business?

Champagne charlie

“CC is speaking like we couldn’t afford to spend 35m+ on ONE marquee player every single year since 2012. We could and we had. So stop with the bollocks. Thank you.“ No I’m speaking like we needed more than the one player we could afford at that money. We had that money for an entire summers business, Chelsea have that for god young players and beyond. Could we have afforded Hazard? Yea for sure. But it would’ve been at the expense of our budget for buying other needs in the squad. Can’t dumb that down anymore than that. Terraloon just… Read more »

Alex Cutter

Jamie Vardy’s having a festive event that will be attended by many people!

raptora

CC, Our argument is that you’ve said how we’ve never been at Chelsea’s financial level since Roman came in. My point is that we have. In the last 6 years we’ve spent more money. Simple as. And 6 money is a long period in football. Long enough to be able to equalize the difference between two clubs if you keep outspending it 6 years in a row. Which we haven’t done. We haven’t went closer to them. Just now that they’ve turned shit, because probably they haven’t spend as much as you think they have. Because they are at our… Read more »

Kayciey

Alexis Sanchez is a pale shadow of former self.

Wallace

Marko

“I’d like to point out I’m not involved in this conversation about Chelsea and just more the Gervinho Hazard thing.”

nobody outside of le grove thinks we passed on Hazard because we wanted to sign Gervinho.

UTarse

Love the sound of those groans everytime Sanchez gives the ball away

Marko

But it would’ve been at the expense of our budget for buying other needs in the squad. Can’t dumb that down anymore than that

Yeah but he had no intention of buying up Mertesacker and Arteta and Park and Santos and Benayoun until the embarrassing defeat to United took place and then it was so blatantly obvious that we needed players and fast. All those players were signed August 31st Park August 30th does that sound like a plan.

Alex Cutter

So, none of you Nigerians are going to mention how well Pogba’s played today?

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Sanchez a shadow of the player he was at ours,

Crowd moaning on all his errors.

Gone in January

Marc

I’d love to see a stat on how many times Sanchez has lost possession / made a pass that went to the opposition?

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Gray is a player who could do well arbours.

Alex Cutter

“I’d love to see a stat on how many times Sanchez has lost possession / made a pass that went to the opposition?”

Seven.

Alex Cutter

Eight

Marc

I’ll say again without de Gea ManU finish mid table.

He’s always wanted to join Real and it almost happened till ManU sabotaged the paperwork a few years ago. With Courtois having made the move he’s got to be crushed.

Marc

Alex

And counting?

Marko

Not sticking up for the lad and god knows he can be frustrating but are we counting times he tries to pick out an attacker in a decent position? Seems a bit unfair

Samesong

Good goal that.

Terraloon

Marc You clearly haven’t a clue There are major major differences between the Spurs project and the mooted Chelsea one. Simple little things like restrictions as to the number of events that Chelsea would be allowed to stage whereas Spurs are looking toward their stadium be far more multi functional. No pop concerts, NFL etc for Chelsea. Chelsea would have had to de camp for 4 years initially it was going to be far less time away but their project was far became far more complex as plans were drawn up.No doubt that just like most projects as complex as… Read more »

Marko

Jose’s delighted like he planned on winning 2-0 with about 35% possession

Alex Cutter

They’ve controlled the second half.

raptora

Pereira has had a very bad half from what I’ve seen. Goal’s on him.

Sanmi

Is this maguire really worth £80m? Mou is sick

Leftsidesanch

Leicester have had more possession but not clinical. Could have had a couple.

Sanmi

Lukaku is hit and miss

Alex Cutter

He had enough time to take a touch.

Marc

Terraloon

Clearly we are very different and I just can’t be bothered to argue with a dickhead who’s single desire is for a rich owner to subsidise the club. Just to give an example of how different we are at 3pm on Sunday you will be googling Russian oligarch porn whilst I’ll be in the Tolly having a final beer before the match.

Could I give a fuck about your opinion no and neither do Arsenal.

Alex Cutter

Jamie Vardy’s having a festive event that will be attended by many people! Food and drinks will likely be served! Gifts optional!

Samesong

Gray is quality.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

United will be happy with the win

But the style will disappoint.

He will be gone soon.

UTarse

Leicester controlled the game. Maureen parks the bus …. v Leicester…. at home ? Wtf

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Whatever the budget is
Lump 35m on gray in January

Sanmi

Gray’s end product is questionable

Sanmi

Sanchez getting a roasting on blogs. Phew! We offloaded him at the right time!

Terraloon

Marc

You sir are a total Prick.

Where have I ever said that my desire is as you say?

You enjoy your pint no doubt pontificating to your disciples who can’t be arsed to voice an opinion because you know it all. Or is it know nothing?

raptora

“massively overpaying kids thatll never play for the 1st team.”

That’s basically what Wenger has done, except that he’s overpayed average players with not even remotely what is needed to play at the level we want to be. His communist thinking of all players having roughly the same salary led to our 2-nd and 3-rd reserves earning more than spuds stars like Walker, Rose, Eriksen, Dembele etc etc.

So spare me the knowledge. Your posts never make any sense anyways.

leon

Marc I for one do not care about possession football and I don’t care how pleasing on the eye we are just as long as we win. As I remember when George Graham was in charge, we were boring as fuck but we won games and atbof the day that’s all that matters.

Champagne charlie

Raptora Uruguayan Pitbull just laid it out for you. You’re conveniently ignoring the massive investment in the years prior and comparing a title winning juggernaut to our tin pot top 4 squad. It’s such an ignorant (or dishonest, you pick) pov that talking about it further is probably a waste of time. Chelsea and Arsenal didn’t start from the same point 5 years ago, the marginal spending differences since (idk what the numbers are I’m taking your word) require context or the view is contrived as can be. Roman takes financial hits to make his team better, he pays massive… Read more »

raptora

leon,
to be honest I would like us to be pragmatic. But Jose has good enough players to dominate his opponents. At their own stadium. He chooses not to do that. I’m not sure that is proving to be a winning strategy for him lately. It almost cost him the game today as well.

I would be ecstatic if we win this way vs City though. But City are a better team. Leicester shouldn’t be a better team than United.

raptora

You guys keep bringing 14 years ago. How hard is it to think about the last 6 years. Like City emerged, that’s how Roman have tighten their budget. A lot of things happen in 6 years. Including us and Chelsea having the same financial level. Did I say that it was the case before those 6 years?! Why you think that 10 years ago matters still today?! If it was the case then QPR should have been in the EPL. 14 or 10 years ago we weren’t at Chelsea’s financial level. In the last 6 years we have been. How… Read more »

raptora

Marginal numbers – 100m NET spent less in the last 5 years. If that’s marginal okay. Probably offset by higher salaries and what not. But never the point we are ahead of their financial level. Just that we’ve been at the same level as them in the last 6 years, ever since Roman stopped giving as much as before that.

raptora

* ever since Roman stopped giving as much as before and ever since we’ve started to spend reasonable amount of money on the market. 6 years ago.

Champagne charlie

Raptora

Continuing to show your lack of comprehension.

You can’t look at the last 6 years in isolation. We didn’t start at the same point 6 years ago, they were full of title winning elite talents AND mega kids like Lukaku etc.

We had middling players sprinkled with talent who were worth a third of the price. You want to ignore that though and act like we both started from scratch 6 years ago.

Go lie down.

raptora

Who’s saying where we’ve started?! We’ve spent more money than them by a 100m pounds. It kind of means that we are on their financial level no?! Why you put football level next to financial level?! It’s not the same. Seriously…

Champagne charlie

Raptora

Must have missed the part where we spend 72 mil on a GK. You’re right, it’s a toss up when we go head to head for a player….

Terraloon

Raptora

Including this window and looking at the 15-18 period Chelsea’s net spend is £254 million Arsenal’s is £149 million.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

I’d take the draw Sunday right now,,

Then beat Chelsea…

raptora

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-arsenal/alletransfers/verein/11 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-chelsea/alletransfers/verein/631 Chelsea year by year: 2015/16 – Arrivals £81.45m, Departures £78.74m – Net minus ~£3m 2016/17 – Arrivals £119.52m, Departures ££97.56m – Net minus ~£22m 2017/18 – Arrivals £234.54m, Departures £180.54m – Net minus ~£54m 2018/19 – Arrivals £123.30m, Departures £35.10m – Net minus ~£78m A total of minus £157m NET spend. Arsenal year by year: 2015/16 – Arrivals ££23.85m, Departures £2.25m – Net minus ~£21m 2016/17 – Arrivals £96.30m, Departures £9.32m – Net minus ~£87m 2017/18 – Arrivals £106.97m, Departures £109.98m – Net plus ~£3m 2018/19 – Arrivals £71.10m, Departures £5.76m – Net minus ~£66m A total of… Read more »

DaveB666

Got to say I am loving the take the Spuds fans I know are putting on the window….. “It was important we kept the squad together” – what’s that the squad that has won sweet FA? Getting Harry to sign a new contract – he went missing after the WC group games and lets face it at the end of the season either Barca or Madrid could buy him out. Delli Alli – for me the worst England player at the WC. Trippier – keeping him I will give them some credit. Alderweireld – this one is Wenger-like. Letting him… Read more »

Marko

Alderweireld – this one is Wenger-like. Letting him get into the last year of his contract

They tried getting rid of him this summer because apparently his clause drops down to 20 or 25 million next summer. He’s got two years I believe

Alex Cutter

“Got to say I am loving the take the Spuds fans I know are putting on the window…..”

If you can’t take pride in your own teams achievements, being happy about the failures of others is the next best thing!

raptora

^ lol

Elmo

“The new manager confirmed that Laurent Koscielny, currently out injured, would be his main captain, but that he would be backed up by Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka.” Kos is out long-term with an Achilles injury, Cech is one poor performance away from losing his spot to the new £20m+ keeper, Ramsey hasn’t signed a contract and may destabilise the club this season, Ozil isn’t a leader, and Xhaka may well lose his place sooner rather than later. Obviously you can raise a concern about anyone if you look hard enough, but how is it so… Read more »

DaveB666

Alex Cutter -” If you can’t take pride in your own teams achievements, being happy about the failures of others is the next best thing!” I take a lot of pride in the Gooners achievements but I also drink in a pub where the majority are from the wrong side of North London so when I listen to their take on things I want to post it here for us all to see!

NW9 gooner

Raptora you are a good poster but sometimes you just don’t want to see something different to your belief. Chelsea had spend loads of money in the first few years of Roman’s purchase and they have reaped the fruits of that spending these last 3/4 years . Just see the amount spent on new purchases not the net spent and you will see why it is so. Where we lost out and Chelsea have been outstanding is they bought players with great potential and really profited from it. Arsenal and AW overlooked the fact that players are their biggest assets… Read more »

raptora

Elmo, I share your view. If Ramsey had signed the contract already he’d be the closest thing we have to a leader. At the moment I wouldn’t even mind to give it to someone that by the look of it, is adored by his team mates and fans – Aubameyang. He’s well committed to us for seasons ahead, is going to start in every game and is the best player in our team. Henry wasn’t that great of a captain though, maybe Auba will not handle it good as well. From the rest of our team Cech is a good… Read more »

raptora

“sometimes you just don’t want to see something different to your belief”

Guilty. Just like every other person.
Entirely agree with the second part of your post.

BacaryisGod

Good post on the captaincy problem Elmo. My guess is that while Ramsey is still at the club he’ll be a total professional and there should be no problem with him as captain until or if Kozzer is able to return.

Emiratesstroller

There are two elements when you discuss our transfer business. The first is that Arsenal [£67.9M] were this summer only the eighth largest spender in the transfer market behind Liverpool [£176M], Chelsea [£124.6M], Fulham [£106.3M], Leicester [£98.1M],West Ham [£96.8M],Everton [£88.7M], Man U [£73.0M]. Arsenal’s net spend is of course generally larger than many others because our players when sold seem to realise poorer outcomes. That is due almost certainly to their grossly inflated wages. The reality is that Arsenal have been uncompetitive in transfer market and that is reflected in our performance in league. Kroenke will need to justify ownership… Read more »

Dissenter

Emirates
Good points on the last post.
When all is said and done, most people will agree that Wenger’s genorosity with wages nearly ruined the club.
I’m not sure the new regime are trying to revers or slow it down though. Most of the gains from the Emirates move were squandered on wages.

raptora

“I’m not sure the new regime are trying to revers or slow it down though.” They’ll need to do better with the planning because Chambers signing an improved contract 6 months ago, then followed by another improved contract just couple of weeks ago, only to be loaned, is nothing else but bizarre. With three years left on his contract was Iwobi who also renewed. Xhaka is another one that renewed with three years left on his contract. Elneny renewed when he could have been sold and the money used to buy a better midfielder, one that could make a claim… Read more »

gonsterous

well that concludes the window for us. Personally I think we had a good window, everyone thought we would get more bodies in that’s why everyone seems disappointed and it has masked the fact that we were very active at the start of the window. Unai will want to see how the players gel and perform and I’m sure in January if he feels we won’t make top 4, he’ll bring in some more players.. I’m optimistic about this season, bring on city. a draw would be fair, it’ll motivate our players and hopefully sink the city players motivations. they… Read more »

Unai

Raptor,

“Pretty weird that the players that renewed all four of them, I consider players that we should have part ways with this exact summer. The directors in the club picked another option. We’ll see who was right and who – wrong.”

All depends on a part of the equation we don’t have, actual salaries.

If they are on the lower end of the scale it’s not that big a deal as were just ring fencing our investment.

I will be disappointed if we revert back to the days of Bentner 52.

Redtruth

Business and sport don’t mix.
Arsenal were/are more interested in bookkeeping than running a football team.

UTarse

Spuds growing money at transfers ? I’ve heard it all now.

Emiratesstroller

Last night I examined at length the stats of all the major football club transfers in EPL comparing Arsenal’s expenditure on transfers with those of Chelsea and Liverpool. In the case of Chelsea their spend on transfers exceeded ours in every financial period [season] in last 10 years. In the case of Liverpool supposedly a poorer club than us they managed to spend more in transfers in NINE out of ten seasons. In most cases that can be explained by expenditure more or less being covered by sales plus perhaps an element of commercial income. This season Liverpool have sold… Read more »

Ishola70

So stodgy Man United were stodgy again last night in their opening win.

Just like they were last season.

Thing is this stodge sees them pick up points although not seen as good enough for them.

Unai needs some stodge games that sees the team pick up points.

Emiratesstroller

The idea that sport and business don’t mix is ridiculous. Professional Sport and in particular football in EPL is now big business.

The leisure industry is now one of the largest employment sectors in this country.

However, Arsenal’s weakness is that whilst we may pay top dollar in wages we fail to compete in the transfer market.

Kroenke’s responsibility is to at least match the spend of other clubs.

Samesong

Is anyone going to commenting on actual football and not net spend bollocks the season has started!

Samesong

Ishola.

Pogba looked like he had his Quaker porridge oats yesterday what did you think of his performance and Luke Shaw?

Dissenter

Emirates “However, Arsenal’s weakness is that whilst we may pay top dollar in wages we fail to compete in the transfer market” ….which has all the makings of a strategic blunder because we are throwing good money at overly rewarding average players. We get average players with average transfer fees….then overlay them with wages which make it hard to move them on when their contact is almost due…that way we can’t even recoup any funds back. The strategy ought to be buy super talented young talent at low rates with good scouting, pay market rate wages and then sell for… Read more »

Ishola70

Samesong
“Pogba looked like he had his Quaker porridge oats yesterday what did you think of his performance and Luke Shaw?”

Didn’t see it . Will catch up and watch it to see how shit Man United really were as there does tend to be exaggeration on how bad they are.

Early goal sometimes means a team will sit back.

Ishola70

Lindelof is carrying a few too many pounds.

His guts hanging out .

Fat fucker.

Get on that treadmill boy.

Samesong

Ishola

It’s all those pounds he’s spending lol.