Arsenal fans going through the meat grinder today.
Spurs are about the drop £70m on Ndombele, one of the best young midfielders in the world. United have landed Waan Bissaka for £50m. TEARS ALL OVER THE STATION FLOOR.
Meanwhile, David Ornstein has Arsenal out here contemplating selling Auba to find Wilfried Zaha (Palace trying to remove his sell on clause whilst negotiating with United), whilst also chasing Saliba and Tierney.
I’m not that fussed about losing Auba, he’s a very well paid 29-year old I’m not sure we have the luxury of having at this stage of our decline, certainly not if we’re going to have to up his salary. However, those goals are going to need to come from somewhere and it’s a huge ask to expect Zaha to double his output this season. Or are we thinking about giving Eddie a more senior role?
Unless the manager thinks the whole system lacked a good wide player, which will make the entire team score more goals. I mean, he could think that catching X on the overlap just needs better parts… in that case, I really am worried.
It’s frustrating to read around some of the Arsenal accounts trying to find reasons as to our decline when it’s been staring them in the face for years.
No club in the world has consistently made more bad decisions than Arsenal over the past 5 years.
We were way ahead of Spurs and Liverpool 5 years and we’ve blown our lead by giving £350m to a busted manager who spent it in a half-arsed way, we’ve given contracts to players that didn’t deserve them, we hoarded players and lost them for nothing, failed to give actual talent deals quick enough, refused to move our wage bill to one that was more meritocratic, gave Wenger a new deal despite him being on life support, sacked him and spent £17m to undo the mistake, then doubled down on our mistake by hiring in a head coach that has managed to make the whole scenario worse.
It’s even starting to look like we’ve blown a whole summer waiting for Edu to arrive at the club.
We don’t stop doing making the wrong moves.
Still, the one thing you can take from all of this… success isn’t permanent. Things can south pretty quickly in world football. They can also move north pretty quickly.
If Edu comes in and he’s made of the sort of stuff I have heard he is, then we might be capable of making a climb back to the top.
We need a vision, a footballing philosophy and someone that is going to hold people accountable for delivering. There needs to be a proper plan in place. Football shouldn’t be that complicated. It always has and always will start with hiring in great people. Your structure means fuck all if there are talent holes in it. Currently, we look like the aftermath of a drive-by shooting.
This season is already setting up in mediocre fashion. Europe is waiting to see what happens with our dross, so they’ll likely be with us at the start of the season. We are struggling to push deals for our targets over the line. There seems to be no hope of moving on Ozil. It’s also looking unlikely that we’ll be adding any sort of volume to the setup. 3-4 players max, with the rest being made up with internal promotions and return loanees.
… but there’s still time to make things happen. So don’t lose faith yet. But do realise this, we are in another transition year, because Edu is going to come in with new ideas and we’re most likely going to see what peak-Emery looks like… it won’t be pretty.
Let’s just hope the next manager has some really talented kids to work with. Let’s hope some of the youth step up when given a chance this season. Let’s hope Freddie can offer up a little bit of something special. Let’s hope season two of Matteo and LT is the next level.
The most important signing will be Edu. If we’ve blown that move, we are heading into longterm irrelevance as meteor-like speed. He really has to bring the goods and he has to be utterly ruthless in implementing his ideas.
Right, that’s me done, see you in the comments x
Cesc
“If Fenerbahce come in for Mustafi I guarantee it is a loan.”
Honestly, it would be so bad to send Mustafi away on loan with an iron clad obligation to buy.
If Lampard is having a mare come Christmas what are the odds that Mourinho has a third crack at Chelsea?
*It wouldn’t be so bad to send Mustafi away on loan with an iron clad obligation to buy
Dissenter
Do you mean it wouldn’t be so bad?
If Lampard is having a mare come Christmas what are the odds that Mourinho has a third crack at Chelsea?
____________
Oh God .. yes please.. I would enjoy that banter. Although he would absolutely destroy Pulisic.. which wouldn’t make me happy.
The prevailing attitude on here was that we’d just waltz back into contention post wenger. All we needed was a manager who was better tactically.
That’s not accurate. The prevailing attitude was that he was doing an awful job and he was responsible for a lot of bad things that were happening to the club and the buck stopped with him
Midwest
I have it form a source that there’s still a member of staff he hasn’t fallen out with yet – it’s sort of like cosmic karma needing to rebalance.
“If Fenerbahce come in for Mustafi…”
PLEASE GIVE HIM FOR FREE!!
*TO THEM…
lol
Highbury
You’d make a fucking lousy salesman!
CA Dominick could be a very good buy for the reported 10-15m, already looks great at 18, if we can’t get rid of both Mikhi and Ozil, which I doubt we can, it makes sense to buy a promising younger player to ease him in, it’s not like Ozil can play away or against any physical opposition so he would get plenty of playing time. Wouldn’t mind Hagi either, looks like he has the vision and execution of a young Cesc, been linked for under 10m I think. Don’t think we’re going to see any big changes in midfield unless… Read more »
I do think the fans can help in getting Ozil and Mykhi out by January next year.
If the fans make it known that they aren’t welcome then they will be gone quickly; boo them at the Emirates, mock them on social media.
Ozil looks like the sort of cry baby who will allege gooners of anti-Turkism and scuttle off to Fernabache as the consummate victim.
Mykhi will just call us Turk-like Armenian haters.
Dissenter
As long as there is an obligation buy.
Freddie
I agree.
If we still have Xhaka and Ozil as 2/3 of our midfield we’re going to struggle regardless of buys.
‘Lemar actually admitted to it he said it happened too late that he needed time to think about it and turned us down.’
Give one more example of when a player says he wouldn’t go because the bid is too late, and one more example of when a club like Monaco bad-eyes £90m on the table because the bid is too late, and finally one more example of when The Arsenal put £90m solidly on the table for a one season wonder.
When you walk on a bundle of bullshits, you should be able to smell them.
Intersting read
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/jun/23/manchester-united-mystery-director-of-football?CMP=share_btn_tw
Marko
The problem at Arsenal always went beyond wenger, but most posters on here seemed unable or unwilling to accept that.
It’s been kinda quiet on the midfield front that’s for sure but if I’m being honest the links to Pellegrini, Hagi and Palacios they kinda had me going a bit. I would very much like to see us target Sangare though before he completely blows up and everyone wants him or before Lyon buy him for sweet fuck all a year before selling him for a kings ransom
ES
The most realistic prospect of the Kroenkes leaving may be a Corbyn / McDonnell majority government.
If American investors realise that UK government policy is to confiscate 10% of shares in all companies with X number of employees, to give to staff, that capital controls could be re-imposed to block international capital from jumping ship, and that sterling is going to continue to slowly slide down vs the dollar, they will dump their UK holdings and look elsewhere.
It’s ALMOST worth voting Corbyn in for!
The problem at Arsenal always went beyond wenger, but most posters on here seemed unable or unwilling to accept that.
Again you’re reimagining things Alex. People knew he had to go and that was it. Nobody expected to be instantly challenging for anything post Wenger but they knew with absolute certainty that every season he was still there that we weren’t going to challenge. We also knew that until he was gone we weren’t going to be able to tell truly how bad Kroenke is as owner
Alex H._ I think Joe was about the only one who thought a new manager would waltz into Arsenal post Wenger and start winning trophies right away within 2 years.. and to be fair Emery should have won a trophy. I’ve always said we need to get rid of Wenger so we can hold people accountable… and not be stuck with underperforming managers and players for ages. So I know what your angling at.. we need to hold Kroenke accountable, too but that has always been the case it’s just Wenger got in the way of that. So I don’t… Read more »
Alexanderhenry “The problem at Arsenal always went beyond wenger, but most posters on here seemed unable or unwilling to accept that.” AH Wenger was very much part of the problem and is still linked to the problems at the club. He wanted to win the Man City way spending a pittance in comparison to them. This pittance though only applies to Man City and a few select clubs. There was no excuses for Wenger not to have put together a responsible team that could defend with the players bought and transfer money available. Spurs are an example of putting together… Read more »
Ac Milan are preparing a bid to sign Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira on loan, with a view to a permanent transfer. The Serie A club will make an offer in the region of £4.5m for a two-season loan, with an additional fee of around £25m to make the Uruguayan’s move permanent at the end of that period. Either arsenal are completely incompetent and accept this? Or it’s complete bullshit. We bought him for 26 million a year ago why would we sell him for a million less and a 4.5 million loan fee. Damn that’s lazy journalism and I use… Read more »
Mystic
Never believed you as you got the player’s name wrong in the first instance.
it’s Andersen
Grabs it’s totally bullshit at this stage and I think it always was to be honest. We all knew that they couldn’t afford him and now we know that Lucas isn’t going to force a move and has infact said that he’s happy at Arsenal. I think this all came about cause he was honest in his answer about how shit the weather is in England
U4GN
It’s click bait – banner headline “Milan bid for Torreira” and a hundred thousand clicks later.
Marko Sangare at the reported 22m would be a bargain and would go a long way towards fixing our leaking midfield. Would be foolish to let Everton have a free run at him, they’re already catching up to us as it is. Like a couple of other teams behind us if we keep fucking around. with Sangare and if Bielek steps up we wouldn’t run any risk of being bullied in midfield anymore that’s for sure, add Saliba to that next year and we’ve gone from a bunch of short weaklings to having some proper height and physicality in the… Read more »
Elmo
Small problem with your socialist paradise saving Arsenal. Who do the Kroenke’s sell to?
The only odd links there’s been are also foreign investors.
Sal-
Yep.. Read that article. Man. U and our problems with structure are very similar… and the transition to a modern one. They also had a manager for decades making all the decisions and sucking up all the oxygen. Seems like they ignored the DOF position to their own detriment.. so hopefully Edu… can help us get our act together so we turn out better then them.
Up4G
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an involved owner giving a soundbite to the press re Torreira:
“What’s that guy Gazidis smoking over there at the San Siro?”
Sangare, Torreira and Pellegrini/Palacios could be a very tasty midfield three
Marc and Marko, yeah I know, it’s click bait and it’s also put out to frustrate arsenal fans with the lack of transfer activity for us.
The press know arsenal fans will be foaming at the mouth, if they can stir it up enough.
It generates more stories for them, without actually doing any work.
Elmo, Stan won’t say a word.
Stay in the shadows and let someone else take the flak.
Suppose it could be worse we could be owned by Mike Ashley!
Marc
That’s the issue. There aren’t many super-wealthy British people, as opposed to super-wealthy international capital who just happen to reside in the UK for now.
Jim Ratcliffe (Ineos) bid for Chelsea last year, but he’s a Chelsea fan so would have no interest. We’d have to hope for the usual type of oligarch who buys a club as a status symbol, and to legitimise their shifty past, who comes from somewhere more precarious than a commie UK, so wouldn’t care about the political climate.
I’m actually keen to see a few arsenal youngsters added to the squad.
Maybe they won’t be ready but we won’t know till we try. And let’s be honest they can’t be worse than mustafi ozil or xhaka.
If bielik or Nelson can make the step up even as squad players it’s save money for bigger buys.
Marco, I’d swap Palacious for a Tielemans or Van der beek
“Wenger was very much part of the problem and is still linked to the problems at the club.”
And right now he is strongly linked to Barcelona.
*Marko
And right now he is strongly linked to Barcelona.
Is there a a french female rapper with daddy issues called Barcelona? Huh
“Is there a a french female rapper with daddy issues called Barcelona? Huh”
Low blow!!!
Silverhawk yeah, I doubt we’re going to spend 40m+ on a CAM when we have a 350k a week albatross around our neck, most likely not even if we can get rid of him. I’m all for a hard reset with youths this summer if they’re of the right quality. Saliba, Konate/Upemecano, Tierney, Sangare, Dominick/Hagi None of them would break the bank, Upemecano/Konate are probably the most expensive there at around 30-35m. 4 players in, (Saliba on loan) 110m spent with the Saliba fee backloaded, should be more than doable if we can offload some shite. If we have anything… Read more »
I’m not as worried about the defensive mid because Bielik is certainly ready to contribute.
I’m sure we are moving out Elneny
‘Upemecano/Konate are probably the most expensive there at around 30-35m’ I think they will be way more than that. We’ve just bought an 18 year old for £22 Million. You’re looking at more like £45 Million or more for each. I really think what is likely now is that Comert or Izzo (if we can get him for below £20 Million) to give Emery an option now. I doubt Arsenal will spend over £30 Million on any one single player. The idea behind signings like Szoboszlai and Hagi might basically be low fees, low wages and they develop as talents… Read more »
I’m ready to keep Elneny if that means to get rid of the 3 stooges.
(Xhaka, Mustafi & Ozil)
Elneny is one of the most useless players we’ve ever signed. He’s bland at everything.
You can sell Elneny and use his fee for something else, Bielik or Willock can take his place.
Elneny has a bad attitude as well, prefers to sit on the bench collecting his wages, prats about in training. No competitive instincts or pride at all. Probably why he’s such pals with Ozil.
CA
I’m not so sure, Upemecano has 2 years left of his contract, Konate has 4 so probably out of our reach though.
It’s a pipe dream for sure but it would set us up for the next decade without having to scramble around looking for CBs every fucking window.
Comert would be very underwhelming, not sure about Izzo either.
Think either of Hagi/Dominick would be brought in as backups but would very quickly establish themselves ahead of Ozil, not hard to replace 2 assists and 0 defensive contribution.
Loving this Chav transfer ban I have to say.
They’ve just signed Kovacic on a permanent for 45m. Complete rip off for a player that did fuck all for them but they’re over a barrel as he’s literally the only player that they can sign lol.
Not bad Freddie. I just want someone a little bit more established for that role. we need to go back to controlling possession away from home.
Why does Ornstein get all of the Arsenal goss in particular?
On his past record Stan will never willingly invest in the Club. Circumstances might stir him into some kind of action, but he will do the least he can get away with, and almost certainly never enough to return Arsenal to the Elite.
The Club must somehow do that themselves.
I’d want us to copy a Liverpool style setup. 4-3-3.
Physical midfield, Crazy attack play. I wont mind binning Laca for a Ziyech and Carrasco combo.
Izzo has a name made for chants.. so I could get behind that. Athough, he looks a bit too much like Pauly Shore (Sorry bad movie 80’s reference) with a neck tat.
Led the league in interceptions though or aerial duels or something like that. Has to be better them Mustafi, surely.
Carrasco is closer to Ozil than Mane, Firmino or Salah.
He turns up when he fancies it and is soft.
Yea, I forgot. Bielik should be given a go too. Willock, Nelson, Eddie, Bielik.
Apparently with Saliba in the bag and Tierney almost in (the difficult parts have been agreed, we are talking about staggered payments and add ons now), Palacious or Szobola… a possibility, 2020 will be very tasty.
ESR and Saka are not ready
Silverhawk
Maybe we can start a collection so Pierre can finally buy Ozil for his sex dungeon? Only way we’ll get rid of him.
Would like someone established too but we have so many holes to plug it’s near impossible to do it in 1 window. If it was up to me only Leno, Torreira and one of Laca and Auba would start next season and we’d get 8 new starters in, that’s how bad I think this squad is, not going to happen though.
Pauly Shore looks like he died in 1989.
Cesc Appeal, Elneny may be an average player who we should sell but I think that you’re way off about his ‘bad’ attitude. If anything I would say the opposite, that his attitude is good. Do you honestly think he prefers to sit on the bench than play? Can’t see any evidence of that. ‘Prats about in training’ – you mean the pictures that the PR apartment put out which always seem to show very happy footballers, or have you been to training sessions and seen signs of a bad attitude? He always puts in effort as far as I… Read more »
Hahahaha Eagle yeah maybe.. but I looked at a picture of Izzo and all I could think was Pauly Shore.
Eyes on Mason Mount too. Big big talent. Chelsea always have a way of getting good young players that actually perform on loan
Why does Ornstein get all of the Arsenal goss in particular?
Cause he makes for the best memes
Mid
Let’s hope the lad is more sentient eh, if he has a pulse he’s already tied with Sokratis as our best defender.
looks a bit too much like Pauly Shore (Sorry bad movie 80’s reference)
Making copies (pronounced cappies)
Derby must be so fucked off haha, a cunt hair away from PL football and now their gaffer and two of their star men in Mount and Tomori reefed out from under them.
Perhaps we can do a deal with Salzburg and buy Szoboszlai off of them and give them Smith Rowe for the season in return, pay his wages as well. Might get a bit of money off the fee and it’s a sweetener for them.
Eagle.. well that’s life at the bottom of the table. Soon as you get ahead everyone steals anything of value.
“Maybe we can start a collection so Pierre can finally buy Ozil for his sex dungeon? Only way we’ll get rid of him. ”
Has anyone considered that maybe Pierre has already kidnapped Ozil and replaced him with a gormless idiot who after plastic surgery looks identical.
It would explain why he’s gone from being a World Cup winner to less than 5 assists in a season.
CA
Who is the lad with the unpronounceable name?
Wenger Eagle
Tomori and Mount are Chelsea players, aren’t they.
Be careful not to celebrate too early because Lampard may be the vent that the Chelsea academy has been waiting for. They’ve had one of the top-2 academies in England for the past decade and this transfer ban may work out well for them.
They have all these loanees that are the best players in the clubs they play for…too many good young players.
I thought Redtruth was the only one with a weird sex dungeon.. in his mom’s basement.. Pictures of Gus Caesar everywhere.
Well yeah Dissenter I get that. Was more sympathising with them than seeking to understand the situation.
Top 2 academy? Not sure about that.
Southampton are definitely up there as are Man City.
I thought Keyser was the dude with weird sex dungeon.. at mums.?
Ho hum just another day on Le Grove.
Sal-
Hahaha it’s so hard to keep peoples weird sex dungeon’s straight over the years. You could be right.
My sources tells me Keyser is locked in Pierres dungeon, that’s why he hasn’t been around, he’s living a horrible life being forced to give daily lessons on arguing in circles to CC, terrible I hear.
His only hope of release is if Pierre can replace him with mister googly eyes himself.
Sex dungeons, tea and Mustafi chat with the usuals policing it all, living the dream.
Haven’t see Redruth round here for ages.
Wenger eagle
I bet to disagree with you about the Chelsea academy
I was being conservative nice when I wrote top 2. Chelsea’s academy has made them more money than Southampton transfer sales. They have had a lot more success than City’s.
Chelsea’s academy has won two of the six UEFA Youth League finals since its formation in 2013. They’ve been in two losing finals, including this years where they lost to Porto.
The rate limiting factor was always that lack of opportunity so they loaned them out and that became lucrative so they kept doing it.
Samesong
Have you ever heard the saying “speak the devils name and he will appear”?
Chris Sutton saying that Celtic should be asking far more for Tierney based on Wan-Bissaka fee.
He’s too busy pulling himself off to Ospina’s consecutive clean sheets in the Copa America.
Dirtying his own sheets in the process. Or socks.
**I beg to disagree with you about the Chelsea academy
I was being conservative when I wrote “top 2.”
Typing while distracted is bad for me
Top 2 academies? Chelsea? Who produce fuck all home grown players? Nah big nah
Mystic.
Mount is a gem of that there is no doubt .
Chelsea also have Ampadu and a player called Reece James who is going to be a top right back.
Add to that lot Hudson-Odoi who they seem to think is the best of their academy.
My point is that far from being a negative for them I just wonder if the two window ban isn’t going to be the pit fall some are expecting.
“Chris Sutton saying that Celtic should be asking far more for Tierney based on Wan-Bissaka fee.”
That’s they type of bollocks that drives people mad.
Someone ought to ask Chris Houghton if he has ever handled a single player [other than his] transfer in his life
These pundits don’t know their limits. His ‘expertise is limited kicking, running and heading balls.
This window is starting to piss me off ,still no departures or signings ,why are ozil mustafi xhaka monreal still being paid by Arsenal? Saliba is a waste of time if we have to loan him back,we need new defenders ready for August 2019 not 2020
Sutton is possibly the biggest melt in the entire punditsphere which is quite outstanding work really when the competition includes Danny Murphy, Michael Owen and Andy Townsend.
He takes the cake for me because of that constant smirk imprinted on his mug. You can tell he wanks off to himself in the mirror at home.
It’ll be July soon….
Yep if Messi failing miserably in an Argentina National match doesn’t bring Red out of his basement hiding spot to comment then.. nothing will. I can only assume he is wandering homelessly around the streets looking for free internet service to get back on Le Grove under another alias.
Luckily people like Sutton and Hartson aren’t in a position of significance so who cares what they say
Looks like a semi final of Brazil vs Argentina could be ON, that said its the Copa América with upsets a hallmark of the competition.
Agree with wenger eagle that c** t Sutton hates us.always has.used his elbows more than Felaini as a player & that’s saying something.f*** no no mark.
Sal-
Yep.. that would be the odds on favorites.. in regards the Copa. Meanwhile the US take on Curacao…in the mighty Gold Cup. bonus points if you know where Curacao is without googling.
Dissenter
Chris Sutton, as we all know, is a complete and utter pillock.
Chris Houghton on the other hand, is not.
What does the latter have to do with things?
I believe Redruth has an Ospina shrine in his safe place…
How he ‘worships’ is anybody’s guess. Trying not to imagine….
So the only thing that seems semi-done is a Saliba that can’t play for us immediately.
Not that I don’t like the Saliba move, but since it’s being done for the future, it should be done in the background while urgent businesses are prioritized.
Unless there are already lots of movements the press can’t spot, this seems like a Wenger’s transfer window.
Last summer was way better.
And we should be talking about Wilfred Ndidi.
Hardworking, focused and rugged.
Plus he plays in the prem already.
The kind of DM that puts Xhaka to shame.
Bid £20m for Ndidi and see what Leicester say.
That guy improves Arsenal a lot.
That’s the kind of men we need now.
Imagine Wenger buying a DM and all he concerned himself with is ‘ can he pass?’
”Yes he can pass….. sideways….. never finding a guy running behind defenders.
But he can pass.”
‘Okay. Ignore Kante, I’m not sure Kante can pass. Pay £35m for Xhaka and bring him here, I will give him wages that would make him blink happily.’
Isn’t the reason Chelsea have a transfer ban because they were “buying up” under age players?
Their youth system is based on the idea of buying up loads of talented youngsters pre FFP and then selling them to help finance the club after FFP.
“Bid £20m for Ndidi and see what Leicester say.”
Is this the same Leicester who are quoting £80 – £100 million for Maguire?
The Le Grove comment section seems to have the ability to transverse alternative realities.
Graham
“Chris Sutton, as we all know, is a complete and utter pillock.Chris Houghton on the other hand, is not.”
Not the first error I’ve made today. Thanks for going easy on me.