Two days. Five signings. One goal: Regeneration.
I expected activity from Arsenal. I hoped for three, maybe four additions. But five signings in two days is more than I could have wished for.
The 8-2 defeat to Manchester United brought the club to its knees. But it also brought a change of ideology. Arsene saw how on that day how vulnerable his young squad was, and has moved decisively to reinforce it with experience and quality. The cavalry has arrived.
On Tuesday we completed the signing of Park Chu-Young, and Wednesday afternoon saw us secure the anticipated signings of Andre Santos and Per Mertesacker. That saw the defence and attack sorted, but huge concerns remained about the midfield. As night drew in and the 11pm deadline inched closer, fans were deeply concerned: could Arsenal really go in to the season without adding to a midfield shorn of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas?
They needn’t have worried. An impeccable source tells me that Mikel Arteta was at London Colney as early as 6.30pm. After some haggling over wages – it seems Arteta may have taken a pay-cut to secure his four year deal – his signing was secured, right on the deadline. Not only that, but he was joined by Yossi Benayoun, on a season long loan from Chelsea.
The signings all bring a wealth of experience and character to the table
Per Mertesacker – 26 years old, Former Werder Bremen captain, 75 Germany caps
Andre Santos – 28 years old, 22 Brazil caps
Mikel Arteta – 29 years old, 161 Premier League appearances – more than any other Arsenal player
Yossi Benayoun – 31 years old, Current Israel captain with 83 Israel caps
Park Chu-Young – 26 years old, Current captain of South Korea with 53 caps
And all that for a total outlay of about £28m.
The negative element of the fanbase with complain that we haven’t made a marquee signing – someone of the stature of a Cesc or a Nasri. To a degree they’re right – although I consider Mertesacker and Arteta to be unusually high profile signings for Arsene. What we have done is significantly strength the squad – certainly since Sunday, and perhaps even since last season. I expect Santos, Mertesaker and Arteta to make a significant impact on the first XI this season, whilst Benayoun and Park will provide capable options in attacking areas.
The big German centre-half is what we’ve been crying out for, and I’m looking forward to him forming a mean looking partnership with Thomas Vermaelen. Santos will provide stiff competition for Gibbs – you don’t play for Brazil regularly without being a half-decent footballer – and Arteta is an absolutely vital addition. He knows the league inside out, he can pass the ball, and score goals. We’ve seen how someone like Ashley Young has stepped up to another level since joining a Champions League club, and I believe Arteta has the talent to do the same.
I think Benayoun is regarded a little harshly by Arsenal fans, perhaps because he’s played for several rival clubs. I believe he’s talented and capable of scoring goals – and he hasn’t cost us anything yet! Remember, this is the man who scored the goal for West Ham that put us in Europe ahead of Spurs after lasagne-gate, so we owe him a little goodwill. Park, meanwhile, seems like a very solid pro who will fit right in to our technical style of football.
It’s all unprecedented for Arsenal on so many levels. To make so many signings – and this kind of signing too. Mertesacker is the tallest player Arsene has ever bought. He’s added two veterans of the Premier League. He’s signed players who are ready to go now – and for some of whom time is actively running out!
For those who wanted a global superstar: Arsene will tell you that within twelve months, the likes of Wilshere or Gervinho could reach that level. These players will provide the platform they need to do that. My favourite aspect of deadline day was seeing the tweets flood in from young Jack:
Maybe Arteta will give him the support Cesc needed but never had. Against Manchester United, we saw an Arsenal team that didn’t believe in themselves. Now, they might just have a reason.
There were departures too. Henri Lansbury joined West Ham on loan, and with his contract close to expiry he may not be coming back. Nicklas Bendtner also joined Sunderland on a temporary deal – his long-term future is harder to call. We might get him as a proven Premier League goalscorer. Gilles Sunu got himself a four year deal at Lorient, who have also taken Joel Campbell on loan for the season.
It is a radical overhaul of the squad. At a glance:
Out: Denilson (loan), Clichy, Fabregas, Eboue, JET, Vela (loan), Nasri, Traore, Lansbury (loan), Sunu, Campbell (loan), Bendtner (loan)
In: Jenkinson, Gervinho, Chamberlain, Miyaichi (WP granted), Campbell, Park, Santos, Mertesacker, Benayoun, Arteta
I’ve probably missed some out – but still, you get the point.
Over the international break there’ll be plenty of time to analyse each signing individually and their potential impact on the side. For now, I’m exhausted, and need to rest for a long time.
It’s a new look Arsenal squad. It might not be good enough to win the league, but it’s certainly good enough for Champions League qualification. Also, it’s one I can take pride in, which is more than I can say for the situation last week. I’m glad that Arsene, too, seems to have shown some humility and amended his transfer policy. It was, I’m sure we all agree, entirely necessary.
The season starts against Swansea. I can’t wait.
Mertesacker, Arteta, Benayoun look good signings.
The other will “Wait and See”.
Would have liked to see Parker bought and Rosicky sold too.
Completely agree with you. Parker would have been a great addition and a little surprised Arsene didn’t try and steal him from Tottenham’s grasp. Rosicky needs to go and hopefully the rest of the midfield will stay fit and keep him out of the side.
Amazed that Wenger FINALLY has brought experience to the side. Bit worried still the fact it took an 8 vs. 2 defeat to light that rocket up his ass and get things done. Did he really believe before the United game that we had a strong enough squad to compete this year??? hmmmm
per, santos good signings. the other two are average crocks and show we have no ambition. 66mil out plus ebo, deni, NB?
chamahk was a non signing last year as was squilaci.
So by any reasonable measure we are a quantum level weaker.
wenger out.
According to Arsenal.com, Lansbury signed a new long-term contract with the Gunners in January 2010. That must surely be for more than 2.5 years? I can’t see Arsenal loaning him out if that was the case. We’d just sell him. We rejected offers from QPR? for him today.
I think it was about 2.5 years from memory….
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/henri-lansbury/profil/spieler_44794.html
according to this site, which is not often wrong, his contract lasts through June 2014. on the other hand, I think I remember Young Guns Blog (who I would trust more than transfermarkt) saying his contract expired at the end of the season. so somebody is making an uncharacteristic mistake.
I’m quite happy with the signings.
I wanted Samba from the start, but Mertesacker is completely fine with me.
Doubt we will win the league or even come 2nd, but these signings have brighten my day.
Mertesacker has the same physical weaknesses are Samba (relatively slow, not agile). The difference is, he has spent the last 5 years of his career playing for a all-out offensive team that plays a suicidally high line. Samba has spent his career playing for teams that defended very deep, and relied on physical force to get results. So even though they are similar players in many ways, Mertesacker has more experience playing the way Arsenal play. That could make him a better signing than Samba in the end.
Your comment on Jack is spot on.
An important aspect of these signings is that they augment the talented young players already part of the set up. These signings enhance the squad and players without compromising the valuable pieces already in place.
You really nailed that point about growing the marquee players from within the club.
Great post and excellent work today on Twitter with all the updates. Top man, GS.
GS
I expected activity from Arsenal. I hoped for three, maybe four additions. But five signings in two days is more than I could have wished for.
++
Is it just about numbers? Surely the standard must be important as well. The standard of Per and Santos is certainly very tidy. But the rest… really? Yossi? Has been bang average for years and was never great. Dumped by pool and chavs but is now a great addition to AWFC??
No I cant accept that.
An average striker from a relagated french team??
No, sorry.
Yossi wasn’t dumped by Liverpool – they didn’t want to sell him but he jumped ship to Chelsea. You honestly don’t think Arteta is a good signing?
OK I stand corected on Yossi and he is a loan anyway so OK. Do I think arteta is a good signing? From where we are of course he is. But is he fit to lace the boots of cesc OR nasri? Not a chance. Have we progressed as a team by dumping cesc and nasri and signing yossi and Arteta.. not a chance.
We addressed the defensive issues well, and created problems in other areas and AW made his +20mill transfer KPI to get his salary.
Its been a huge success for wenger and the board and another blow for AFC.
I see your point – though I think your comments about Arteta and boot laces is a bit insulting…. I look at it from the perspective GS has taken in the blog. JW will grow into a world class player and Arteta is the perfect foil. We could never go like for like when replacing Cesc but developing Wilshere whilst bringing in a bloke who can have an immediate impact is a sound strategy in my opinion.
Just my take on it.
Munitionsman, who would REPLACE Fabregas? In todays market those kind of players come along with a hefty price and the likes of Hazard will take time to adapt in the Epl. Arteta would provide experience and depth in our young squad.
Nasri is already replaced by Gervinho who is more than capable.
Yossi Benayoun is underrated! He has an effective style of play similar to Hleb
Good points Sean but both Arteta and ben-Ayoun are just as good as their replacements Samir and Cesc,and they both like to get forward which is Arsenal,s current problem
Ramsey and Wilshere playing far to lateral
when a quick through ball down the middle is
much more effective ,so let,s wait for this weekend,s home game vs Swansea and hopefully
a change in style ,straight through the middl
e with both Mikel and Yossi in the midfield
and Rosicky ,instead of Ramsey,to provide the forward impetus,plenty goals is what,s needed and all three points ,nothing else,up
the Gunners ?
for God sake nasri & cesc ve gone
i think u shld just be happy for the signing
arsenal is surely a good side we just need these kind of signing of arteta per santo………ha EXPERIENCE
you got to be kidding me. who are fabregas and nasri when they came to arsenal? are they world footballer? are they very good at their previous club? not as good as they were at arsenal. wenger develop player. gallas was a trash for chelsea but atleast wenger help him to play at his highest level. not every player is good at every club he played for.
It is hard to replace Fabregas, Wenger will have to change the game according to the players he has.
muuitionsman….. its about time u get ur head out of ur back side and go with the program….i am sure you didnt really know both cesc and nasri before they were arsenal players……and here is a question for u…..who made those players???? did we get them as top class as u say or AW made them the players they are today???? look in the end football is a spot and if u really feel the need to support a team of already 100% made players plz move and start supporting Man.City………3years down the road if any of those players say they want to leave i am sure i will see ur silly comments again saying what u are saying rite now……time to pick your side and stay there…. G4L
Arteta’s free kicks excites me.
OK Yossi on loan… I can accept that. Apologies GS
The negative element of the fanbase with complain that we haven’t made a marquee signing
+++
that would be me then
Now we need the most important signing, to bring back David Dean to hold it altogether
Indeed the season starts against Swansea. Now I wish it was this weekend. Hope all our players come back from their national teams injury free.
Vela also probably won’t return. His number 11 is now taken over by Santos
Santos is def taking no 11?
yep
GS thanks for your efforts. Really appreciate it. Love GB and glad its come back to life.
+
It’s a new look Arsenal squad. It might not be good enough to win the league, but it’s certainly good enough for Champions League qualification. Also, it’s one I can take pride in, which is more than I can say for the situation last week. I’m glad that Arsene, too, seems to have shown some humility and amended his transfer policy. It was, I’m sure we all agree, entirely necessary.
+
I agree and feel the same way. I know we cant win a trophy but I feel we will fight and allow our gems to learn from folks with the right spiwit, who have grown up having earned their stripes, not been given them for nothing like TWBSE (NB52)
Guess Areta is going to wear number 8 and Yossi number 22
Oh yeah – I forgot the no 8 is now available. I’m pretty sure I’ll get an Arteta jersey this season. Was my fave player in the Prem Lge outside Arsenal…
We still have 35 league games to go, will definitely win a trophy this year
well i cant see this new look team coughing up the CC the way we did this year thats for sure.
These guys have an opportunity to win something that they will never get again.
Love to win more than citeh and stick to na$ri
Great overview of the day and terrific updates all along on twitter! Really looking forward to getting Jack back in the fold with Arteta and Song.
Here’s hoping big Per settles in quickly and forms a good understanding with TV.
with a fit arteta and Yossi LOL
crock central. At least TR will have company in the sick room
grrrrrrrr8 signings…no we say ”In Arsene We Trust!!!
grrrrrrrr8 signings…now we say ”In Arsene We Trust!!!
where were these signings when we needed them like the other clubs did. Man U didn’t do nothing nor did barcelona because we are doing now what they did months back. Takes time to have everyone gel. Just ridiculous
The other clubs like ManU, Chelsea and City had already Champions in their pocket and they could offer that to their signings. AW had to wait until we had secured Champions to do the signings.
GS best blog covering transfers for AFC.
well done
on a plus Yossi looked VERY good in pre-season so surprised Chelsea pushed him down the pecking order so low but good news that Meireles is gone from Liverpool as it should weaken them. That was just crazy depth for them and we will probably fight out 4th with them.
agree on meireles. Wd have rather had him than yossi but he was 12 and yossi free.
wenger out
Loool @ Munitionsman…calm down mate, you are too emotional. Just relax, we had a good team already but unfortunately our better players were injured and/or suspended against Man U. The new players will add some much needed maturity, steel, and depth that we lacked! Don’t worry too much fella, should be a wicked season for the Arsenal! Gooooooner for LiFe!!!
Overall happy with signings , although maybe another I’m defensive mid knowing song and frimpong could both potentially be of , mvila was mentioned alot. Think. Benayoun and qrteta are great additions and ramsay as a solid backup is brilliant . Agree with u about the marquee signings from within . I think if we’d gone and got goetze or hazard for ridiculous money then it wouldn’t have done us or the player any good asking a foreign teenager to come in and give us 20 assists and 15 goals with a hefty pricetag is a bit much and we could get them in next summer . And there is also January to restrengthen if we have to
Arsen wenger has done a lot of wonderful things since few days ago,
yes except fucked off.. that would be the most wonderful thing
Grow uo already kid and desist with the kid,s
crude language as this is a public blog,not
your personal complaints forum ?
GS – I’m a bit worried about how the club went about it’s transfer business. We seem to have pissed off a number of clubs with tactics which I believe are a bit underhanded – Bolton, Lille and Everton. Bolton was a strange case but I think our attitude with regards to gazumping Lille and placing Everton in a lose/lose situation was a bit poor.
I understand it’s all business etc but goodwill still carries a long way in football.
woooooo… hoooooo… hoooooo… In ARSENE WE TRUST. BARCELONA WE’RE READY 4 U
no idea sheep… barca we are ready for you to showcase cesc finally playing in a team worthy of him at the emirates… should we get of the group stage
Munitions man, why don’t you get a life, you insatiable pillock
MuniMan has a life and a pretty good one.
I dont think you know what sarcasm is.
Wel let hope in the squard we had now,perhaps we’ll get what we hoped for. For me the signings are fair.GUNNERS 4REAL
Gotta say, Arsene surprised me today. Makes me wonder, could we have gotten Arteta for less than £20M prior to the deadline? Sure doesn’t sound like it–Everton wanted the same valuation they had on Jagielka.
So, in effect, Wenger traded three weeks of sweating bullets for a £10M savings plus whatever wage discount AFC got on the next four years. I’d say that’s a significant return if you consider the number of big names that need to be re-signed by 2013.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but AFC now has at least £20M in the bank for the January window, right?
Ballin’.
I am really surprised to still see some fans being completely negative about the signings we did in the past 2 days.
I seriously think the 5 players we got will be great additions to the squad. Of the 5, i see 3 as starters (per, santos and arteta) while the other 2 (yossi and park) will provide a much stronger bench for us.
I see people criticising Arteta stating that he was never a Spanish international. In my opinion, that’s no shame considering the options the Spanish team has. If he is from other countries incl. England, he would have been capped ages ago! Saying that, I do believe that Arteta might have been picked had he been on a more “glamour” team. No offense to Everton, but if Arteta was in a big Spanish team or one of the Big 4 in England, my bet is he would have been picked as I see him as Cesc’s equal in terms of skill, technique, vision and passing ability.
OMG you couldnt make this up. Arteta= cesc but cesc gets picked up cheap at 40 while arteta goes for 10 and a pay cut….
where do these folks come from?
Get lost, you all knowing moron. I bet you never been to the emirates before, can’t be a paying fan
The difference here is the age factor as well as the market perceived quality of cesc vs arteta. Like i said, arteta was not picked by the national team, was a star in a non-Big 4 english team which is not as “glamourous” as the likes of cesc. Also, cesc made his name at a very early age giving him much more publicity compared to arteta. This all drives the market price of a player up. The price of a player is not the only determining factor when it comes to quality. Look at players like Henry who was purchased at a relatively low price. Are you telling me he is not as good as CR7 who was sold for 80mil? I don’t think so as I think Henry is on par with him!
Why not look at it as being Arsenal getting a bargain at 10 mil for arteta instead of just saying he is not as good just because he is cheaper?
Cesc >>>> Arteta.
Just to be clear, I rate Cesc higher than Xavi.
If I’m not mistaken, Cesc was #1 in chances created in the top 5 leagues since 2006-07; but Arteta was #5 in that same list!
His assist number is greatly deflated because Everton haven’t had a consistent, top quality striker at any point over the past 5 years. The closest examples are Cahill (not a striker) and Saha (always injured). I’m sure playing with RVP, Walcott, and hopefully Gervinho / Park will help out in that department.
Arsene I think did a great job of making this squad that much stronger. Are we good enough to be title challenger’s? Maybe. Are we good enough to at least get to 4th and hold our Champions League place? Absolutely.
Besides, I see Yossi as more of a patch until we can get our hands on Hazard next summer
. I also think that Arteta will be a good role model for Wilshere and Ramsey. He is a good experienced premier league player that has proven he can perform on the biggest stage. Plus he is now our most experienced premier league player.
I think our best XI (when we get healthy) will now look like this:
SZCZ
Sanga – Per – Vermaelen – Santos
Song
Arteta – Wilshere
Walcott – RVP – Gervinho
with a bench that looks like this:
Fabianski
Koscielny
Gibbs
Frimpong
Ramsey
Arshavin
Park
But when asked if they would be adequate replacements for the departed Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, Keown added: “No they’re not, it’s very hard to replace those players.
“I think back to the [Dennis] Bergkamp era, the impetus those players brought. Arteta is a great passer, Benayoun is not getting into Chelsea team. It’s a mixed bag for Arsenal fans.”
++
Agree with Keown,
Who,s Keown,remind us as the game has progressed remarkably since the 1990,s and early 2000,s,new players,different mentality?
yossi is a waste of space and will be doing a bischoff before pissoff next year.
Chelsea offered Liverpool £8m plus Benayoun for Reds midfielder Raul Meireles on Tuesday, but that deal was rejected.
He joined Blues from Liverpool for £5m in July 2010 but was restricted to 10 appearances last season because of an Achilles injury and has seen only one minute of action this time round.
Vermaelen was also out for all but a handful of appearances with an Achilles injury as well… people do come back. I think Benayoun would defo be an impact sub, but be able to do a job when required to start games.
He left Liverpool because Benitez was a cunt, and Chelsea have enough money to throw at new players to cast off others at will. Doesn’t mean they are necessarily shit tho.
In any case, he’s on loan, and if he’s shit, we get rid of him at the end of the season… but if he dribbles around five Barca players, one-twos to himself off the post, chips it up to himself and scores with a bicycle kick to win the Champions League Final he be worth it!!
Absolutely agree with False Nine in terms of the line-ups and gotta say, that line-up looks great!!! Imagine santos and gervinho bombing down the left flank!!!
I think the players in also gives us more options to rotate… santos can move forward to the left winger spot if needed and Yossi or Ramsey or even Wilshere can fill in Arteta’s spot with Frimpong or Rosicky coming in.
Would like to see Arshavin playing in the hole too instead of on the wing. I think the fact tat he is stuck on the wing might have been the reason why he is doing worse and worse as he had always said he want to play in the middle.
Considering he is probably the star and captain of the Russian team, he might be emotionally hurt when his pleas are not heard by Wenger and that’s why his form drops so much. Perhaps a stint in the middle might motivate him again as I so want to see the old Arshavin back….
Honestly the defensive signings are exactly what we needed. People might complain here and there that we don’t have players with the caliber of Cesc and Nasri but with a solid defense that wins balls, Wilshere and Van Persie will dominate the league more than they ever had. The players that we acquired are hungry for success because they have’nt really been to the top yet, so are willing to give everything they have to the club. And the rest of the team is tired of loosing and ready to prove every one wrong.
IDGAF we will win the league this year.
Gud signing am hapi 4 man game
I salute you Mr Asene Wenger for bringing in matured and experienced players.
Dats a good one for all Arsenal fans. We hope to lift trophies cos we now have legends in our midst. Welcome! per, young, Artete, santos and Yossi to Arsenal world
Well done arsene! you had some serious decisions to make and have made some brilliant signings. Mertesacker is a beast, he ain’t that slow (faster than terry thats for sure and he is ok!), Arteta is a huge signing (goetze would have been better and he was priority but they rejected 35 million pound). Proven goal scorer and assister from mid! Song Jack and Arteta is a brilliant midfield, the best in the league bar none! Santos i don’t know much about but 22 brazil caps means something…
Don’t underestimate Park, being from Australia i have seen him play a lot of internationals and he has amazing technique, great 1st touch and impeccable work rate, perfect foil to RvP. Yossi will add good depth and will be a handy super-sub, he can do some amazing things!!
We were never going to replace cesc with same quality but we can hope jack gets there and nothing says he won’t and he’ll be 100x more committed, and this will ease the pressure on Rambo who needs a step back.
overall couldn’t be happer with the final 36hrs of the transfer window (unless goetze arrived, sorry the time was not right for hazard)
Well,I think d signing is okay but its not all abt it.The problem is WENGER:He should Resign
Wow pretty good signings, all the players with a lot of experience, i wanted some other signings, but i am quite contented with the ones that are signed.
What i hate is the people saying that the league is already finish with just 3 rounds of matches that have been played, yea we had a set back drawn out transfers
When this two weeks is over i have all confidence we will get our business on track
I salute you Mr Arsene Wenger for bringing in matured and experienced players.
It is relly a good day for arsenal 10q winger we trust in winger
yea the signins are great,serously we av enuf now i tell u wit gud support i see arsenal suprisn lots of people. Ok take a look at man utd u cant compare most of dem to our its jst d support they get.cleverly doesnt hav as half d xperience of wilshere let alone arteta, i could go on n on but the truth is we jst got it right n r ready for that epl cup believe its gonna be tough arsenal ain’t no more kids show d ages of those players plus xp is gud no 20 yr old there frm 26 above out of wch we av three captains from different teams u can b sure dats enuf for us
Nasri/fabregas are both gen world class, are benayoun/arteta? These are the nas/fab replacements?!?!? Are u taking the piss! U sell 60 million pounds of talent & spend 10 million on there replacements and arse fans are HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT BEGGERS BELIEFE we will not even make top 4 with this squad and yet we are the arse!!! we should be challenging for TITLES
We will challenge for titles, mistermeaner…take a chill pill and give the signings a chance to settle in and perform. They certainly are the sort of players we’ve been lacking, and provide good depth to the squad. With everyone fit and firing on all cylinders we’ll be very hard to beat! What the team needs right now is everyone’s support, so let’s stop crying over split milt. Gooooooooooner for life!!!
*Spilt milk, that is! Lol.
I remember wen we was great and it pains me greatly to see my team loosing ground to out rivals, its a sorry inditement of where we are wen we are happy to sign avarage players like benayoun
3 of our new signings are deadball specialists. park, arteta and santos.
i also think you are underrating park chu young because he’s cheap. i hope arsene agrees with me coz it will be painful to see arshavin doing the usual while our tireless korean is sitting on the bench.
more a case of watching no feets chamahk while our tireless korean sits on the bench
its sad we loaned out nb52 and kept chamahk… but its all about passports i guess
@multi
What u fail to understand u moron is that arsenal will now plat a slightly different way, 1st we will b more direct , none of this touch round the box stuff, 2nd for cesc and nasri to be such stars we won nothing with them with there style of play, arteta will look for and earlier direct pass not wait for the perfect one like cesc and gerviniho will replace nasri not youssi and gerviniho love attacking with pace getting behind players, also arteta will have a crack at goal instead of always passing which might encourage others to do same, also last yr we had best defensive record in open play and the most from set pieces, which suggests we lack hight , 6ft 6 german will sort that!!
And how would you know we’d play differently? What if Wenger insists on sticking to the ‘philosophy’ and we end up negating the strengths of the new signings, like we have already done with the likes of Arshavin and even Bendtner?
Well said Jim as Arsenal needs to employ a more direct route ,to goal,which Arteta,ben
Ayoun and Rosicky know how and plenty more shots from distance,hopefully this weekend,s home game vs Swansea should allow Arsene to experiment a bit ,while Song,Gervinho,Frimp
ng and Wilshere aren,t yet available to play?
We’re all surprised and grateful anything happened at all, let alone 5 signings.
But looked at coldly, the ‘profit and 4th place’ model is very much in place. Now they’ve got us to accept that. Expectations have been managed down whilst prices have gone up and another profit has been made in the transfer market this summer. The pressure is off Wenger and the board for another year. Coolly done.
“It’s a new look Arsenal squad. It might not be good enough to win the league, but it’s certainly good enough for Champions League qualification. Also, it’s one I can take pride in, which is more than I can say for the situation last week. I’m glad that Arsene, too, seems to have shown some humility and amended his transfer policy. It was, I’m sure we all agree, entirely necessary.”
Out: Denilson (loan), Clichy, Fabregas, Eboue, JET, Vela (loan), Nasri, Traore, Lansbury (loan), Sunu, Campbell (loan), Bendtner (loan)
In: Jenkinson, Gervinho, Chamberlain, Miyaichi (WP granted), Campbell, Park, Santos, Mertesacker, Benayoun, Arteta
let me prove to you we are weaker
eboue > jenkison
nasri > gervinho
JET > chamberlain
clichy > santos
bendtner > park
miyaichi > Vela
lansbury > cambpell
denilson > benayoun
fabregas > arteta
mertesaker > squillaci
europa league here we come, how can the rest of you fans be too stupid to see our squad is a joke of what it once was
Loooooool, come one chap, your post is ludicrous and even you should know that. Come back on the forum when you’ve calmed down and ready to use your head rather than your heart. “george the realist”? More like “George the emotional”. We are a different team now, but not necessarily a worse team as every player brings something different to the table…you should know that! Give the signings some time to at least kick a ball before sounding so doom and gloom.
I was in the bath the other day and did a very wet fart that had more skill than Denilson these last few seasons. And Clichy went missing so often in defence (or tried to dribble it past Barcelona forwards!) more times than I wish to remember.
Denilson is ten times better than useless Walcott,who has to play regularly to appease
the English press in the UK and Arshavin who does zilch the whole game despite his 75-000
pound a week wages,catch a wakeup mister?
And which philosophy is that Jimm ,care to remind us as Arshavin,like Walcott is rubbish
and passed he sell by date a season ago ?
The only joke is on you George so look it up
in the Oxford English dictionary what the real meaning of realist is ,but stupid is your nickname,now go post bs somewhere else?
Sorry my comment ment for mistermeaner
mistermeaner!
please cheer up a bit. first at arsenal we signed 9 players in one single transfer window. i am sure wenger wished he had time to add more. i am sure we will buy more in january. gary cahill turned down spurs to stay with bolton. maybe he’s signing for us in january.
benayoun is just an addition and he was not wenger’s first choice. we almost signed a brazilian called renato augusto from bayern leverkussen i think they backed down because of work permit coz he only has 3 caps.
credit goes 2 Arsene,thanks le professeur…metersacker,santos and arteta,great!we now can stand out tall and say oyeee gunners,4 swansea m sori,yo time has come at a bad one,I CAN`T WAIT GUNNERS,WE GOOOOOOOOO!!!
Munitionsman, go to bed you miserable fucker. There are only 2 or 3 people on here making negative comments, and you’ve made about 15 posts all saying the same thing. Who exactly were you hoping we would get in in place of Cesc and Nasri who would be as good? There were absolutely no players in that bracket. We are not Man City or Barcelona. We do not have the wages and transfer funds available that they do. Feel free to fuck off to Man City and be a plastic fan with the rest of their goons. Personally, I enjoy supporting a club that won’t leave us fighting relegation if our financial backing leaves.
We needed to sign players with experience. We have signed players with many international caps and, in Arteta, signed a player with more EPL caps than ANY player we have.
We get it, you don’t think the signings are good enough, and you want Wenger out. Congratulations, now go away.
Out of interest, who exactly do you suggest we get in in place of Wenger? Big Sam perhaps? Maybe Alan Curbishley, I hear he’s at a loose end these days. The only managers that can hold a torch to Wenger are SAF, Mourinho and Guardiola. None of them are coming.
well actually I was rather hoping that nasri and cesc would stay, rather than be talking about their replacements. Had the club been more ambitious they may well have. As for supporting +enter club x+ well we hear that every day. If we dont support wenger we dont support Arsenal. Its a tired and empty statement. As for wengers replacement, well lets face it he turned up from grampus 8 with no pedigree so…. a bit like a lesser andre villa boas I guess. And as wenger robs more in salary than fergie and ancelotti and probably capello I dont think it would be that hard. Because you see our famous wage structure does not extend to wenger.. but as a “true” fan you would know that well.
If you unload over 60mill worth of players and bring in about 30 you dont get a stronger squad.. unless of course you lap up wengernomics like catnip.
you are dismissed
Muni… come on mate… i know we’ve been through a really bad patch lately but don’t be so pessimistic and gloomy about the team. We’ve made some good experience signings. It’s everyone’s opinion on how good these new signings are but personally, I think they are great signings. Of course we will find out more when they actually play for us (which I am confident that they will do well for us). But one thing for sure is they are all experience, are better than many of our current available players and have definitely strengthen our team by giving us alot more good options when it comes to team selection. Be happy with who we got!
Frankly speaking, had we gone for the likes of M’Vila or Martin (2 other players that we are linked) or even Hazard, I am sure there will be people saying Wenger has spent crazy money on some unproven french speaking young players with no experience, etc, etc…. So for me, I am just happy with who we got. They, to me, addresses the obvious problems that the team has. Yes, they came late, but they are here now and there’s every reason to be optimistic and happy.
I think it is important now to support the team and see how they go before voicing out all the negative comments about them. Give them a chance to show us what they can do! Go GUNNERS!!!
fair comment. dont worry I will support the team, I cant bloody help it sadly
but I cannot support wenger. I have a maor problem with dishonesty, and he has a major problem with truth.
as for the board, well they are all as one.
I never balme the players as its not their fault (mostly)
What do you mean you never blame the players as it,s not their fauly(mostly)so who,s fault is it if Arshavin collects his 75-000 pound a week but doesn,t perform ,match after
match ,it,s not Arsene,s fault when the club
captain van Persie can,t put his penalty kick
into the back of the net as against Trash United or Walcott constantly misses plumb in front of goals,week after week,so you should
stop crying already while making an absolute
fool of yourself, on this blog?
Dude!! Are you an Arsenal supporter? If yes. why all the doom and gloom? Cesc and Nasri are gone. forget them!! Focus on who we have now, and the fact that we are stuck with them until atleast the Jan transfer window. Once you do that, remember that we already have a good team and all that was needed was some experienced support. When yo got Wilshere and Arteta playing in the same midfield, I fail to see why you are not satisfied.As for Benayoun, id rather him any day over Arshavin. He is a good impact sub, especially for those games where its 0-0 or 1-0 at the 70th min. Our back line is now much stronger. And dont discount the effect new signings have on the team itself. Look at the reaction of Wilshere. All in all, you can criticise all you want but it won’t change a thing about the squad. So why not stay positive, let the haters hate, and support your team through it all?
Exactly right about useless Arshavin who should be sold as soon as possible with Yossi
ben -Ayoun a much better overall player taking his place,in midfield ?
@ samuel above, YOU are the fool. Wow, it must be that evil Russian Mafia boss Arshavin who is the cause of all our troubles, eh? How brimming with evil from head to toe he is that we let in eight goals because of him. And our captain and top goalscorer van Persie – such a lazy disloyal scoundrel to miss that penalty that could have made the score against the scum 3-8 instead. And wicked Walcott who missed seven chances otherwise we would have actually won 9-8!
And poor, poor misunderstood Wenger. On 6.5 million a year, yet he can’t help but stand and watch and spout bullcrap excuses every time we roll over to supposedly inferior opposition. Not only that, we now can add getting massacred by our nearest rivals to that list!
It must be the evil Arshavin that is the problem. Kick him out!
Cmon! Stop complaining about the signings we made, compared to the City’s and chelsea’s. last I checked it’s 11v11 on the pitch. Im sure its nice to be able to pay a Tevez and Berbatov to sit on the bench.With a squad at full strength, we will be dangerous! We will win something this year!
gud signings,am sure afta the international break wit injury free players,arsenal wil be a team with a force to reckon with…go gunners go.
man u molestin arsenal was d worst moment in d history of our club(sorry 4 reminding u guys) but in my opinion i tink we owe sir alex,rooney nd d rest a tank u message 4 singing ‘go spend dat money nd spend it on experience’ in2 AWs ears.AW did wat he shud hav done 3 month ago in 4 days after dat match.Gud signings nd pray they dont 4uck up.wud someone say a big amen 2 dat
Aaaaaaaaamen, Nicky! Goooooooooooner for LiFe!!!
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wen ger hav help us well.
This transfer window confirms that we have given up hopes to challenge for the PL title. We are only interested in fighting for 4th place.
We had the money – we could have bought better players than Benayoun and Arteta – and tried to strengthen our squad to the level of ManU, City and Chelsea. Instead we waited for a 8-2 mauling to confirm to us that our squad is wafer thin – and then go on a mad dash for midfielders. Very unprofessional of a club that is one of the biggest in the world financially.
I’m not angry, I’m just depressed. We just don’t seem to have the will to challenge for trophies anymore.
Stop telling the truth, you will frighten the sheep
Korchha, who will be the players that you think we need to bring in? Kaka? Benzema? Hazard? Cahill?
Both Kaka had said they are keen to stay in RM. Hazard is probably a no go due to Lille reluctance to sell (but who knows if we can get him next Jan or summer). Cahill, well, we’ll probably get him cheap or free now and that should rub more salt into Spurs’ wounds. =)
What I am trying to say is, the players that came in a quality signings. We should now be happy we got them instead of comparing with what other teams have. As for a PL title challenge, why are we writing off our chances so quickly without even giving the team a chance to show us what they can do?
Have faith people, have faith….
that might be because we are already fully 8 points off the pace and just got the biggest pasting in over a hundred years. people can be so unreasonable by writing of our chances of winning the league. Even those nasty betting people are blind
http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/winner
giving us 28/1 when manure are 6/5
but never mind, here have another handful of grass.
In 2007-08, Man Utd had only 2 points from their first 3 games, against Reading (who were relegated), Portsmouth (8th place), and Man City (9th place). they came back to finish with 87 points and won the title… you never know!
I am a realistic Arsenal fan – I dont think any player playing in the Real Madrid first team will come to Arsenal. Benzema and Kaka are fantasy football transfers – will never happen in the real world.
What I did expect though was someone like M’Vila or Hamsik or Gotze. I would have really bitten someones hand off for M’Vila – we have Song doing defensive mid work for us and are jizzing ourselves chanting “Frimpong, Frimpong” – a 19 yr old who was sent off in the only PL game he started. Why not Hamsik? He’s a nutter, aggressive and very effective. Miles better than Arteta. Benayoun was not even a regular first teamer at Liverpool, forget Chelsea. I don’t rate him at all. Yes, both are better than what we have now – but we could have done so much better than this – especially if we had made a concerted effort during the window, and not on the last day.
Most fans are just relieved that we signed somebody in midfield. Why should that be the case at a club like Arsenal?
My entire point is that everyone – including Arseblogger, Gilberto Silver, and most optimistic Arsenal fans moan about Arsenal not having the money to compete with ManU, Chelsea and ManCity. This transfer window proved that money is not the problem. We had close to 60 million pounds burning a hole in the bank – but we go out and buy Arteta and take Benayoun on loan.
So next time, please do not dole out the “money” excuse anymore.
We have enough money to challenge.
We just don’t have the will to challenge ManU, ManCity, Chelsea anymore.
4th place is all we aspire to.
So who then are these so called better play
ers Arsene should have bought already,care to name them for the rest of us fans ,here?
OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK THEY ARE ALL AROUND. Our rivals have signed some of them. I wont even waste time answering this waste of space question
is the protest still on for the swansea game or did the mere mention of the word make the board rush out and buy 5 players, and hence make the protesters “judge wenger in may”
how long its gonna take for most gonna fans to know that cesc replacement is jack wilshere but he’s just too young to be given full responsibility so arteta is here to mentor him. as for nasri, we have gervinho, miyaichi and alex chamberlain.
the most important signings we made this week was an santos for left back position and mertersacker.
maybe wenger could have bought a goalscorer but brought in park chu young. perhaps walcott will play in the middle all seasons and get us goals.
but i am happy with all the signings although i wished we done it before the season starts.
Arteta and Benayoun are not the signings that will make us among the Title hopefuls. These are two players who are very good for team who will finish 3rd-4th.
I agree with MM in every way. These two were bought simply to add experience and help in numbers.
There is no replacement for Cesc. The only guy that comes to mind is Thiago Alacantra.
Good signings to finish 4th.
wilshere is our replacement for Cesc! it’s impossible for Arsenal to sign a player who is currently as good as fabregas, or henry / vieira / bergkamp / pires for that matter. we can only gamble on young players and hope to develop them into a similar type of player. that’s why we spent so much money on Chamberlain and Gervinho, and why we are giving Ramsey, Walcott, Gibbs, Szczesny so much faith. of course we needed today’s signings because our squad was so short, and it’s true, Arteta / Benayoun / Park are not world class players. but it’s a rebuilding process: this year hopefully we finish 3rd or 4th. next year, we improve, and the year after that…. who knows.
yes our new number 10 is jack wilshere.
i wished we bought marouane fellaini instead.
i just guessed that he wasn’t going to be cheap.
hopefully we will raid the market again in january.
Munitionsman – please replace Wenger since we really want to see you manage Arsenal.
thanks for the vote of confidence but I am busy slaughtering sheep at the mo
wenger said its impossible to assimilate more than 2-3 player change in one window…so he goes nad changes what 8 at least??
arsene knows
But anyway its me thats confused cos AW has stated clearly we are not a big club and proved it with the sale of nasri and cesc.
strangely enuf i am happy with the fact we are changing out style
we lost 3 of the players against our will (4 if you count Bendtner). he had no choice; I’m sure he wished we had enough depth to only make 2 or 3 signings, but after the Man Utd game, that was obviously not true…
im happy to see some changes and i will be more happier to prove csc, nasry and clichy wrong. since they can bring title to there club.some people can make it happen. they want already made club. let them watch us now. thanks to u all
now that we have our squad we should get behind our team and support them . i think we should do well this season. because i feel this squad will do well against teams like new castle, west ham etc. and have a very decent chance for cl spot. go gunners go
There you go.
Ambition.
AW nd The Boards has done our club (Arsenal Fc) a wonderful nd solid squads.Our storms has stop bn humiliated or massacred d rivalry ll b limited.
I can’t wait 2see swansea bn treated d way were dealt wt.
IN ARSENE WE TRUST.
proper english, please.
More ambition.
Lets do to Swansea what ManU did to us.
*facepalm*
why are you already conceded that we will finish 4th? and we only played 3 games.
how about winning the league?
we just made a whole change and have a new team now lets see how they play. its like man city and united won’t drop points all season. oh yes they will.
just because man u and liverpool beat us means we cannot finish above them yes we can even overtake them before xmas.
Boy, are you deluded.
Have you even taken into consideration the fact that we are EIGHT points behind the leaders just three games into the season?
Have you watched Arsenal long enough to even recognise the Black November period where we can’t win to save our lives?
Have you even supported Arsenal long enough to know that we always start better than we finish? We are no Man United. We have never recovered from huge deficits or even 5-6 point deficits in the past 5 years thanks to Wenger’s ludicrous last-minute quick-fix deals, or sometimes, not even that.
Overtake them before Xmas? Probably in the Goals Against Column, perhaps.
Oh..wait..we’ve already achieved that.
To be really honest after watching manure and citeh play we are a million miles away and thats to be expected because our billionaires dont want to invest. I dont expect to win the PL while chavs and citeh are pumping in such obscene amounts of money. What I do expect is investment in keeping with revenue, in a timely fashion. Giving usa the best chance with what we have within a sustainable model.
We havnt seen that. We have seen asset stripping on a grand scale until the board realised at the 11th hour that even they had gone too far and believed wenger too much and hit the panic button.
what we see isnt the result of a plan, but rather a hasty recovery and it remains to be seen it they have pulled it off.
marquee signing? Lille not selling this season and Hazard never put up a transfer request too….. Tell me how to do business with them and still blame the fault o Wenger and the board? Moreover lets just put a assumation that Lille want to do a deal would you thought anything less than £35 million would be okay with his limited international caps? To me really hype price and unjustified. He is an almost product not not for that price but £15m -£25m would be a piece of great business to add real quality.
Guys remember the monies we had reserve for the squad covers not only the transfer fees of players but not inclusive of the new sign players wages demand, our current players open to re-contract wages talks, and some others. FIFA 11 suits you if you buys buys woithout ant thought process behind.
==========================================
7amkickoff had this to said about Arsenal always un-contented fans:
I know what you like.
I know what you want.
You want a signing.
And when you get one, you’ll wish it was taller.
And if it’s taller, you’ll wish it was faster.
And if it’s faster, you’ll wish it was stronger
And if it’s stronger, you’ll wish it was more experienced.
And if it’s experienced, you’ll wish it was better with the ball.
And if it’s good with the ball, you’ll wish it was English.
And if it’s English, you’ll wish it was better value.
And if it’s a good value, you’ll wish it played a different position.
You won’t get consensus from Arsenal supporters until the club sign XI new players in every position, all world class, youth prospects, on the cheap, who are tall, powerful, adept with the ball, experienced, English, and childhood supporters of the club.
And then you’ll wish we hadn’t signed so many players.
==========================================
We will go back for Fan M’Villa, Eden Hazard, and maybe Marvin martin or someone else or even see the step up of a Arseal youth.
To me I am excited that he got the experienced we called for, the depth we want (thou some dead weights still to go but they need time to offload as well) and our club is in good hand for years to come..Thank God
Kudos to wenger and AFC board for pickn a challenge after the horror dafeat by M-UTD. We have signed many,may God give them the wisdom to impact the club and restore the pride of they fans. Best of luck. All gunners we thank god 4 the changies.
For a start to clear up the ‘ marquee’ signing issue..arshavin was deemed world class but we all know this pretty much isn’t the case,I also remember Alot of excitement about reyes who ended up on the floor more than the back pages …how long have u lot been watching football!? I mean I see sumone say arteta isn’t even a international!?? All well and valid if he was from Canada but he’s Spanish for christ sake!! Lol so what if he ain’t..maybe now he mite be!! Jesus get positive ffs
Arteta would be an internaional if he weren’t already behind Xavi, Iniesta and Alonso, plus the new kid on the block, a certyain mr Fabregas!
Confess to doing a mad little dance and whooping when the deal for Arteta went through; he’s one of the few players I coveted for our squad… the other was Tevez!
Wenger has pave way for us again. God C us tru dis season.
GS, Wenger hasn’t shown any humility? He’s never shown any humility. All he’s ever done is given bullshit excuses. The last 48 hours has been all about him saving his job. After Sunday, it was clear to all Wenger had 2 days to appease the fans.
And judging by the comments on here, he has succeeded.
6 years of Project Youth totally blown out of the water in a matter of days. 6 years of wasting our time with utter dross.
A change of ideology? More like an acceptance that we were going down the toilet.
But we’re now back on course to claim our 4th place trophy, which is the height of fans’ expectations.
And Wenger comes out of all this smelling of roses. 48 hours of panic buying to salvage something. Trying to remedy years of neglect in 2 days, and he is applauded for this?
So once again we’re back to the old ‘judge me in May’ syndrome.
we know Wenger has rejected Real Madrid, PSG, England, and France to stay at Arsenal. he also rejected Bayern Munich to stay at Monaco 20 years ago. who knows how many other clubs (Chelsea? Bayern again? Man City?) offered him a job that he rejected. why would he make these decisions just to keep his job? why would he be content with 4th place every year, when he could resign and get offers from huge clubs, possibly even bigger than Arsenal, very easily? the only reason he is still at Arsenal is because he loves the club, and believes he can win things at the club. the man is 60 years old; how many years does he really have left? if he thought we should give up on winning the title, I’m sure he would go somewhere else. he still hasn’t won the Champions League, and he’s never won a World Cup… I’m sure there are “easier” challenges out there than rebuilding this Arsenal side yet again.
hahahahaha…
The crap some Arsenal fans come out with…managing/rebuilding Arsenal more challenging than Real Madrid.
hahahahahaha…
why is it easier? because of his job security? managers’ contracts are guaranteed money. if he had gone to Real Madrid, even if he got sacked, he would still have made 2 or 3 times as money as he is making on his current contract at Arsenal. on top of that, if he got sacked, he could have taken *another* job after that and made *even more* money. so even if the guy cared only about money (which is obviously not true based on his actions), Real Madrid would have been an easy way out for him.
I’ve got 2 words for you: JOB SECURITY
HAHAHAHA. Now say BAAAAAAAAAAAAAA loudly. Now thats a good boy. Arsene would not last 6 months at Real Madrid. FACT
Also why r people whinging about sumone to replace cesc and nasri..yeah both top players but I can’t remember the last time I even saw cesc! The guy was either on the injury table or in auto pilot last yr!…as for nasri he hah a good half season and during most of the big games did very little..let’s just remember neither of these players won anything with us….let’s go to plan b and have a team rather then a couple of stars who think the world owes them something….Comon u gunners!!
Nasri was just playing for a new contract. Lets see his fire this season.
You are missing the point.
The point is that we had 60m to buy 2 quality midfielders. We had money to challenge.
We bought Arteta and took Benayoun on loan.
We missed an opportunity.
at some point you have to reject a team’s asking price. let’s say Lille asked 40m for Hazard (plus wages), Dortmund were asking 40m for Dortmund (plus wages), Sochaux were asking 20m for Martin (plus wages)
is it really worth signing two of those players (let’s say Hazard + Martin)? what if one of them is a flop (which is quite possible), or gets a serious injury, or something else happens? as fans, we only think about the short term. as the manager, Wenger’s job is to think about the short and long term. at some point, Hazard / Goetze / Martin are going to want to leave the club, or run to the end of their contracts, and that will lower their asking price. or who knows, maybe Ramsey will take a huge step forward. maybe Wenger will find the next Fabregas on the street.
look at this Cahill deal. how smart would Wenger look if he could sign Cahill on a free transfer at the end of the season? what would you rather have:
Vermaelen, Koscielny, Cahill, Djourou, Squillaci for 5 seasons
Vermaelen, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Djourou, Squillaci for 1 season then Vermaelen, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Cahill, Djourou for 4 seasons
who knows? maybe Lille will fall out of the CL, fall out of the title race, and Hazard will request a transfer in the winter. maybe the same thing will happen to Goetze.
All these signings would have been good if both Cesc and Nasri would have been here. We would have won the league. Had Arsene got them this time last year, we would have won the league and one of cesc/nasri would still be here.
who knows what could’ve happened? Mertesacker had the worst season of his career at Werder last year, possibly because of fatigue from the World Cup. Santos would’ve been twice as expensive. Arteta had one of the worse seasons of his career too. and Park would have easily been 3 or 4 times as expensive, since Monaco were not relegated yet…
not to mention, we had a much higher wage bill with Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, and everyone else still on the books. so the money is not a trivial factor.
So Arteta and Per have just had the worst seasons of their careers and Park was relegated.
And thats a good thing??
We also got rid of Alot dead wood and replaced them with hungry players who want to be at arsenal for there careers like aoc,miyachi and park there effort alone will bring more than bendtner and denilson ever did…Alot to be positive about for the time being so let’s get behind them
Now w kan reklaim our name GUNAS & IMAGE, am apy 2 c wenger signin new playas but y not b4 now?
In my eyes this past couple of months is extremely shrewd management from AW. Think about it, how often has our season collapsed after a beating from Man U. Last year they won the league then went and strengthened their squad. Cesc was always going and AW knew Na$ri would likely go. They were always likely to beat us, even with any new signings we may have made. So what does the manager do?
…if it was me, I’d wait three games, hope to get *some* points from them (alright, 1 point probably wasn’t what he expected!) and envisage the trip to OT as a throw away game – albeit I wouldn’t expect to lose quite as bad as we did! Ok, 3 games in, everything still to play for and traditionally our toughest game and the one that cocks our season up is played, now I would by some experience and quality to bolster the squad and give everyone at AFC a new lease of hope. Makes sense to me.
The big gamble was the CL qualifier, I reckon AW thought he had enough talent in the squad to win that one, and turns out we did.
So hats off to you Arsene, I dunno if it was tactical, but it’s certainly how I’d have played it. Cracking management!
I don’t think Wenger treats any game as a throwaway game, but I think he was following that general strategy. With the squad we had on August 1, I think you could reasonably have hoped for 4-6 points from the first 3 games (beat Newcastle, draw or beat Liverpool, lose to Man Utd). That’s respectable enough, and we weren’t too far away. Against Newcastle, we never looked like losing, and only 1 moment of madness from Gervinho (not helped by the referee) cost us that game. Against Liverpool, we could easily have kept a 0-0 draw if not for another moment of madness from Jenkinson. And if we had achieved those 2 results (and avoided the suspensions), I’m sure the Man Utd result wouldn’t have been half as bad.
8-2 is a terrible result but in 6 months, we’ll just remember it as a bad game, not the life-ending tragedy that fans are treating it right now (unless, of course, we lose out to 4th place by goal difference… that would indeed be a tragedy).
I am speechless
Speechless doesn’t even begin to describe it. Perhaps we should have lost 0-20 to the scum so perhaps every step from then on would be an improvement for the next 100 years, eh?
Yeah but Wenger doesn’t buy for the sake of it..if he’s planning for hazard but cudnt get him then his not gonna spend that money on a last minute replacement..he obviously see Benayoun as a cheap useful and temporary stop gap for now,true he cud have done this earlier but I believe he genuinely thought he cud keephold of nasri for now..I’m not so sure hazard signing now wud have done us any good anyway..Alot of pressure wud have been on him and if he flopped all u lot wud b saying is he’s too young and we need experience
Congratulation to all gunner fans,dis is beginin of sucess,all we need is gud (90-95%)team work,fightin spirit,we can win any team,bcos a tree cant make up a forest,likes barca,manu dat wat dey got notin more.i jst pray we achieve d all d best in dis season.
5 signing in 2 days! Great, wonderful and suprise, but i love the signings.
It would have been a bigger tragedy to have lost maybe 4-2 and have our heads drop after realising our new signings couldn’t do anything against MU. Even with an 8-2 thrashing we all seem positive about the rest of the season.
That’s my point
You are either a complete imbecile or a closet scum fan. I’m sorry now that we didnt lose 20-0 so at least we could feel good for the rest of the 115 years knowing there’s only one way up from that point onwards.
IN ARSENE WE TRUST!!
The writing of this blog is a f**king idiot.
quite happy with a few of the signings but for me this squad is still weaker than last seasons.we cant compete at the top level no more our signings prove that not one marquee signing(hazard,mata,mvila)such a shame to have the finest stadium in the league but a team who are not capable of winning trophies.for this team to be able to do that the structure of the club needs to change especially the transfer policy and wage structure lets hope we dont have to go through the same again next summer with rvp and theo.big players leaving because of lack of ambition no big name signings and wages that dont compare with the big 3
David, I don’t understand a word of what you are trying to say.
Each and every argument you make is prefixed with a “what if” and ends with “who knows?”.
Here are some similar arguments:
1> What if a car mows you down when you are walking down a footpath? Lets not walk on the footpath anymore.
2> What if the plane you are flying in crashes? Lets not do air travel anymore.
Get the drift?
Starting XI : Szczseny Sagna Per TV5 Santos Song Wilshere Walcott Arteta Gervinho RVP
Bench : Fabi Kos Jenkinson Gibbs Frimpong Yossi Ramsey Park
Coming up next : Ryo AOC
This team = DEPT + QUALITY = TROPHIES
Im no Wenger fan but Im delighted by these signings. Wenger has shipped out most of the chokers and replaced them with good fighters. Mertsacker is class and will show it soon enough. Benayoun is a decent player and miles ahead of some of the shit we have. Arteta despite what some of you are saying is a good fucking player and has more fight in him than Nasri ever had. This guy does not go missing when things are tough. The rest we should give time to as they will become decent. Someone allready pointed out here that Cesc hardly done anything in the last few years for us and I for one was sick and tired of listening to the greedy little cunt forcing the Barcelona agenda all the time. Nasri was totally overrated and will soon be sorry he left as he wont get away with playing in half the games at city. I totally wanted Wenger out 2 days ago but only because he failed to get players in. Now hes done that im willing to get behind him again. Arsenal will qualify for the champions league again and mabey win a cup with these new guys, I for one am excited again by being an Arsenal fan.
I think we AFC fans need to be very careful about believing we pressured Wenger into buying these players of great quality. We must be careful in believing we have the right to voice our opinions on how Arsene operates. He’s spent 15 yrs changing the game for football in a way that other teams have had to follow and greatly respect. We must remember bar 2 players, we still had a strong team last season.
If we keep pushing the boundaries in criticising Arsene, don’t be surprised to end up with q hi profile manager who only lasts a couple of seasons and the legacy of AFC to go down the drain with the lack of spending power of a Man city or Chelsea.
Don’t forget or disrespect Arsenes great exploits for our club.
In future let the media be the media and the faithful fans remain the faithful fans, through thick and thin.
Another mega-deluded Arsene FC fan here.
“We must remember bar 2 players, we still had a strong team last season.”
Kindly point out to me which are the two players who are such incredibly evil demons that their mere presence caused us to collapse at the end of last season with a single win against Blackpool in the run-in, let a 4-0 lead become a draw, let the Carling Cup slip to a relegated team, let Chelski and Citeh overtake us, not only for second, but third and an automatic CL spot, and many many more.
“I think we AFC fans need to be very careful about believing we pressured Wenger into buying these players of great quality. We must be careful in believing we have the right to voice our opinions on how Arsene operates.”
Of course we have the right to voice our opinions. Our heaviest annihilation in 115 years and you still think Wenger is beyond reproach. How to make people like you see the light is beyond me. What will it take – a 20-0 defeat? A 10-year stay in the Championship? Relegation to League One?
Simply put, you are saying Arsenal FC = Tyranny.
Noone is allowed to question Arsene the God because what he does ultimately is always right. Perhaps you come from a country with such a dictatorial leader.
That is not supporting a club. That is hero-worshipping and it is extremely unhealthy.
am so glad for the unbeleiveable signings arsene wenger made in the past two days but mr winger is still missing some for the replacement of cesc though he has find someone for the replacement of nasri..mr wenger should have sign d’villa,he is a quality player of a high potential..bt never less he made a good signings at least they can renforce our team
I haven’t said this entire summer but i’ll say it now : “IN ARSENE WE TRUST”
one thing I will say is that Arteta taking a pay cut to join us is a very very good sign and I do 100% agree the players we have signed have more fight and bottle than those that we have let go. (I dont include cesc or nasri in that last BTW)
Ds will be another dimension 4 my great club. The Gunners.
These are great signings by any standards. Come on Arsenal, its all systems go now!
Don’t get why people are dissing Benayoun. Much better than M’Vila and Marvin Martin in that he’s experienced in the EPL and a decent playmaker when given the chance. Rafael Benitez was probably either a halfwit of the highest order or some anti-Semite to keep playing him out on the right. Injuries are a problem though.
But seeing that it’s just a loan move and nowhere near a risky signing like 20million + for Martin / M’Vila, I say we’ve got nothing to lose. Bit like Bendtner really. Keep him on the club’s books, let him go out on loan to someone like Sunderland or Newcastle. If he scores 20 goals or something for them as a target man, bring him back. Otherwise, leave him there. Win-win situation in both cases. In any case, Bendtner is miles ahead of Chamakh who should be warming the bench at a club like Wigan or Stoke.
Arteta is something else entirely. Wilshere could definitely learn loads from him. Am not at all happy that we didn’t get someone in to challenge or displace Song though. He’s not good enough for Arsenal FC and another example of the bigheadedness of youth that embodies the culture at this club.
Do you really think it will be good enough for ECL qualification? I’m really still not convinced. The signings are good, and better than I could expected Arsene to produce (was he really in charge though or was he pushed into them). Only exception being Benayoun – I really don’t get that one, what can he do that Chamberlain can’t?
EPL and CL experience. Chamberlain’s only game of note outside League One was last Sunday, and we all know what happened.
@gunnerblog your coverage of the transfer window has been amazing. Following you on twitter and seeing you miles ahead of Sky Sports was really impressive. Shows just how much top bloggers know these days!
People r just being negative for the sake of it now..how can people say we r weaker this season? We mite b in terms of 2 individual players but we have MUCH better balance now- last season was a disappointment so it’s hardly good evidence to say we.re better than now!! We needed more strength and experience and we got so perhaps as a TEAM we will be stronger than last year?
In arsene we trust.
Takin’ the optimist’s side here..
Like many of you allready pointed out, Cesc is irreplacable. He’s absolutely up there with your xavi’s, Sneijder’s, etc.. And at this point in time I don’t think we can attract players of that level, no matter what wage-structure we adopt. The emirates has put us in this mess by constricting our transfer-kitty for years, but naturally it had to be built sooner or later.
Except from cesc, we haven’t lost anyone irreplacable. Clichy – average left-back. A few fringe-players and the massively overrated Nasri. This guy is certainly a very good player, but he definitely lacks the outstanding vision that makes cesc a footballing-god. I truly believe that Gervinho has everything Nasri can offer + speed.
Good luck to all the new gunners!
Marquee signings wont guarantee you trophies. Our invincible team was never comprised of marquee names. It evolved into a team of marquee names over a period of time.
At this point as gooners, we need to trust Arsene Wenger and the team like the 3000 odd people who travelled to Old trafford to support the team. Consistent support and confidence needs to be shown for the team and most importantly believe! Every team has a bad run. If you can cherish every win, you should be able to accept and come to terms with defeats as well.
These are very good signings and I see great potential into the team turning into the good ol’ flamboyant team. Believe in the team and show the players some love and support. It will be reigning trophies again.
Gonner forever!
GS… like MM i’m not blown away with the signings…
maybe the german could be good, arteta is a crock who will spemnd more time with diaby on the medic bench tahn he will on the pitch!
shocking!
bukyangabepanka lelo luno bawede
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i no dat wenger is nw openin is pchological brain but he shd work to bring new striker.up arsena we are winin
It’s sad to see how many people are satisfied in us bringing these only average players to our club. We sell two of our best players and replace them with a bench warmer and a player who is okay but has a “wonderfull” injury history, well he’l prob quckly be best friends with rosicky, diaby, gibs aso… The two defenders are not much better what we have/had before and it will take time for them to adapt to the prem so don’t see them making any impact any time soon. Park is pretty lazy when things arn’t going good so again no better than bendtner. Some people write that the season starts against Swansea, wake up people it started three weeks ago and 1 point against average teams is not good enough. Sorry guys I still havn’t accepted that Arsenal has become an average feeder clubs for the top teams. And these signings just show how little ambition there is at the arsenal, this team can’t even win the carling cup against a side who was relegated, this just shows how low we have sunk!
I agree we could only replace Cesc & Nasri with a Hazard, Mata, Xavi, Ineista or the likes of and none of these has any premiership experience.
What Arsene has done is found a short term fix which we clearly needed. Our main problem was failure to defend properly hopefully Sagna and Vermalen are fine now Per will address the problems defending high balls and Santos will be more consistent than Clichy (Gibbs already is – if he can stay fit).
We now have a better selection of players in midfield. Holding is either Frimpong or Song and we can swap out Arteta, Benayoun, Wiltshire, Rosicky, Ramsey – and hopefully Diably will finally start to use his talent that is only seen 1 game in 10!!!!
In Attact Walcott, Gervinhio and RVP will be pushed by Park, Arshavin, Chamackh(ha ha!!)
It also allows us to intergrate the youngsters and allow them to learn from players who have proven international experience. Miyachi, Chamberlain, Afobe, Campbell (shame he could not get a work permit) shoud all eventually come good.
This now allows Arsene time to evaluate the squad and next season push. Maybe then we will get our marquee signing?
Cahill, Hazard Benzema or the like off could be bought to elevate us from a top 5 team to a real title contender once more!!!
IN ARSENE I MAY NOT TRUST -but- IN ARSENE I HOPE!!!!!
Top 5 team? You are joking right? Mate, We finished in the top 2 for 8 continous years, We havent finished outside the top 4 for 15yrs.
Arsenal fans have the mentality of a deluded 6yr old.
So you honestly think that we are guaranteed to finish in the top 4 after what has gone on since the Carling Cup Final. Be serious mate I too am a true gooneer but I am realistic. This is the first season I can remember many Arsenal fans thinking we will not win anything or challenge for the league. These transfers have given us a little hope, they need to gel and gel quickly, but this season we are in a 3 way fight to finish 4th with Liverpool & Spurs – obviously I hope we finish top or at least win a trophy but I think this is a period of change!
“1 point against two average teams and one top team is not good enougt” that’s what i meant :0) sorry…
We needed a centre back and reinforcements at both LB and RB. We have all three. We needed to replace the two CMs we lost; we have Gervinho [who has looked exceptional value so far] Arteta [who has the vision, the skill, the PL experience and the grit that we've been lacking] and in addition to this we have Benayoun, whio in his time at liverpool [don't forget I have the misfortune of residing with a liverpool fan!] was a tricky, intelligent and determined player who wasn’t afraid to take on a shot.
We’ve added a striker who is captain of his country, and in addition to this we have a work permit for a nippy, tricky left winger in Myachi [who may in turn give Arshavin a kick up thew jackseye in the process!] and the obligatory talent for the future in Campbell and oxlade-Chamberlain.
We’ve rid ourselves of plenty of deadwood, farmed out to others those who still potentially have a use to the club…
…and still they moan, lol!
Ok,if money were no object at all there’d be plenty of other players that would top a shopping list ahead of those we’ve bought, and there would be very few that everyone would agree on. But we all know that money at AFC is a very major factor and we all know the reasons behind it. To my mind AW has done really well; obviously we will need to see the evidence on the pitch before we congratulate him too much, but I’m far happier with the squad we now have than the one we finished last season with.
your twitter coverage of transfers yesterday was fantastic, second to none, congratulations and thanks.
Great Blog Post GS as always and the Wilshire bit is something that put a huge smile on my face, as it did seeing his updates yesterday. As fan’s we love players like him who love the club so much! Future Arsenal captain without a doubt.
Great signings made, better than we could hope for in the short space of time and all will help Arsenal get back to winning ways THIS season, but more needed in January and next summer.
Ok, now let’s talk for real now, transfers behind us and start asking questions to our manager. Did he really believe that before the 8vs2 loss that our squad was capable of competing for the premier league this year? Because with the frantic transfer activity, it shows me that he actually didn’t want to sign anyone. Am I the only one that is majorly concerned by this?
I am a huge Arsene Wenger fan, and never ever thought his job is even close to being on the line, but he needs to now start being honest with the fans. The young signings hasnt worked for him and he has gone for experience, something that all Arsenal fan’s have been calling for in the last 5 years. Why has it taken him so long to sign the players?
And let’s not forget about the out of date board that I have wanting to change for a few years now. They have to go! Why are the tickets so high, but the wages of players still so restricted, preventing us from attracting the big big players to the club? This has to change! Football has changed. Arsenal FC need to change with the time and unfortunately that means paying players even more money. The board might not like it, but they need to do it or get out and let others do it.
I can’t stand the fact that our majority shareholder is a business man who couldn’t give a rat’s ass for Arsenal, just his bank balance.
Changes still needed
Samuel….your deluded
We have a good team… now it’s time to win us some matches!
C’mon Arsenal, we’re all behind you!
Unfortunately I cannot see the way the club conducts business changing overmuch until there is one multimillionaire in charge of the whole kaboodle. Usmanov and Kroenke have similar stakes and therefore similar say in what goes on… main problem is neither is willing to invest their own cash whilst the other stands to benefit. Unless either they both agree to place an agreed sum on the table for player purchases or one or other of them backs down and relinquishes enough shares for a takeover to go through we are stuck…
On a brighter note, when the UEFA trading rules come in, we will be sitting very prettily!
Rural, do you really expect UEFA would ban clubs of the stature of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Milan, Inter and Juventus from the Champions League?
I think Usmanov wants to spend money on the Arsenal – whether because of a genuine love of the club, or because he wants public exposure to guarantee that he won’t get dragged away when Putin turns on him – and he doesn’t necessarily care about the money side of it.
I think Kroenke bought the Arsenal as a business investment and he’s willing to let the club tick along unless we’re in danger of missing 4th place. He’s going to sit on his investment and speculate that business revenue will explode when someone figures out how to make the internet (and 500 million casual global gooners) pay. Why should he sell now, when everything’s fairly stable?
To all those chaps who are trying to figure who’s lying to whom, whether we’re bankrupt or skint, whether Wenger’s covering for the Board or he’s just lost his good sense….
Forget about trying to figure it out. We’re outsiders. We aren’t privy to enough information to make informed observations, so why bother?
Regard the Arsenal in the light as you would your favourite soapie. They do pretty crazy shit on TV, but you don’t question the writers for the plot lines, you just like to watch pretty girls in bikinis strut around the environs of Summer Bay.
These are the three fundamentals of the club:
1. Champions League qualification is vital to our economic strategy.
2. We’re looking to cut costs in every endeavour aside from qualifying for the Champions League.
3. We will throw money at players if Champions League qualification is at risk.
So what does that tell us, chaps?
Nothing’s going to happen, nothing’s going to change. We have enough resources and stature to maintain 4th placed for the foreseeable future, but we lack the will or ambition to strive for anything more. Expect The Arsenal to bounce around mid-table until January, whereupon the transfer kitty will be opened once again for a few judicious purchases to nudge up back up into 4th place.
And then we’ll sell van Persie and Walcott in the summer.
I’ve said it before, many times before. You lot carp on about the same tired old shit, but you don’t seem to realise that everything youse say is like pissing into the wind.
Pretty much sums it all up right there.
For some people pissing in the wind does not wet the face. But for those of us with normal endowments it tastes salty and stings the eye’s
Too many grumpy fans who are only looking at ways to criticise are club you might as well not support the club with all the constant negativity, look On the bright side of things we have strengthend all areas needed and got rid of wasted space like denilson and on top of the we gained a 15mil profit
So Bub you have never said a negative thing about your club? Because I do not believe that one bit.
Fan’s have a right to ask questions of the club right now, and without answers coming from the club, fan’s will continue to keep asking these questions. How can we be happy when it’s very obvious that we have been drifting further away from the top of the premier league? We expect the best because thats what we’re told from Arsenal that we are up there with the best.
Bub how exactly does 15mill profit help the team? I understand how it helps Stan but…
Amazing. I honestly thought I’d stumbled on to an archived 2004 forum judging by the comments on here.
So yesterday’s transfers should give us the domestic double all but wrapped up. Another ‘high-profile’ signing in January should see us add the Champions League.
Shrewd management I read on here by our genius for leaving his Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve?
Thankfully, this is Wenger’s last throw of the dice. Wenger has always hid behind the ‘they are young’ excuse after every fuck up or spineless capitulation. After Sunday’s episode where United had a young team too, this excuse couldn’t be rolled out again.
So now, we have added ‘maturity’ and ‘experience’ to the team. The AKB’s on here are over the moon with these ‘proven’ signings. I ask though, what excuses will you roll out now, if we carry on withering away. You will think of some, I don’t doubt it. But Wenger must be cursing his luck that he’s had to plunge for experienced players. What can he hide behind now?
Also, weren’t the mighty Arsenal punching above their weight in previous seasons finishing 4th? That was banded about because Wenger’s hands were tied, and we had all that dross in the team, yet we still won the 4th place trophy. That must heap a bundle of pressure on the new guys. We must surely expect better than 4th now? Surely?
But no. The mindset of the AKB’s is still 4th. Got it fucking programmed in their brains like robots! AKB’s programmed to accept and put up with shit.
You’ll angle things to make Wenger out to be a genius. If we finish 4th this season, it will be a fantastic recovery from our poor start. If we fail, then the poor start that was out of Wenger’s control will be used as an excuse.
Wenger’s wrangled a stay-of-execution. This should be his last season though.
I know what your talking about and kinda agree but it isnt really the time to be judgung our team and with the the kroenke situation you may just have to give everything time to pan out, on a positive at least were not 300 mil in debt and dont rely on only one owner to keep our club running at a fairly high level.
Above comment for james g
The response of our new team in the next couple of months will be determine how good they are going to be and where they will compete in the Premier league this year.
The debt is great, the Kroenke sittuation and the rest of the board is the most worrying thing. They are out of date and only care about filling their large pockets with the cash the club makes. Raised prices of tickets is an exploitation of fan’s, especially when their not willing to properly invest in the club.
The fan’s need answers
Wow I see after a couple of days of panic buying, all the AKBs have crawled out from Arsene’s ass to trawl the place with mindless hero-worship again! So very very predictable. A bit of perspective for you mindless lot:
- We have made some decent signings, but they’re hardly in the top bracket of players. These signings should have been made to complement the few world class players we have like Cesc and Nasri, who are BOTH GONE. Question, have we truly PROGRESSED from last season? Or the season before last?
- It was only in the aftermath of an 8-2 drubbing that Wenger saw fit to buy any players at all. That speaks volumes about the way this club is run.
- Can you see us challenging for the top honours with this current squad? Look at how Man U, Shitty and the Chavs have strengthened. We have wasted countless years dicking around with average players trying to implement our stupid ‘philosophy’ while our rivals have gone from strength to strength! Wenger has now successfully managed to ingrain the unambitious small team mindset such that 4th place is truly a trophy!!
We need more gooners to stand up and face the truth and give this place a bit of perspective. Guys like Stevieo, Shandyman, Munitions and Not-Deluded who are in touch with reality. WENGER OUT!!
To Munitatingwhatevershitman.
You seem to judge players based on their value. Benayoun sucks cos he’s free. Arteta is 10 mill, a far cry from Fabregas’ 40, and hence is 1/4 his quality. That what you saying?
Because if that’s the case, you should support Liverpool or Man City. Carroll must be your favourite player then, since he costs 35 mill, or maybe you worship Fernando Torres from Chelsea?
If you do not agree with what I just mentioned above, you must have been drunk when you were ranting on and on.
Please if you’re not contented still, you never will be. Why not throw shit in their faces like what you are doing now only if the players turn out to be as crappy as you say they are in the next few matches?
“you are dismissed.”
So you must be the only person out there that believes a players quality is somehow independant of his market value. Man if only Mourino and SAF could have your insight. So tell me when you go to the supermarket you get scotch fillet for the price of dog food and caviar for the price of sardines.
O and the land flows with milk and honey in Wenger world. Its the same old crap. If you are not satisfied with the club banking 20mill a year and the squad getting stripped then you should go support +enter team X>
and for the record I would rather have carrol or toress than chamahk… does that mean I should go support spuds??
But who could you ever replace him with who wont be sacked within a day? If you can answer that then fairdo’s otherwise support the full club
Ohhhh Wenger is terrible. Wenger out. New manager. Same board. What can he do?
Oh new manager out.
You don’t just change things because things are not going right. You do not support Birmingham just because Arsenal lost to them the CC.
Just keep the faith and stop whining.
Yeah its the board’s fault that Arsene keeps persisting with inept players.
Its the boards fault that Arsene stuck with Almunia for 4 freaking years. Its the boards fault that Arsene refused to address the key flaws of the team which every blind man and his dog could see.
Its the board’s fault that we have no proper tactics, game plan to nullify our opposition, and hence the likes of Stoke, Blackburn, Man U, Chelsea outwit us on a regular basis.
Its the board’s fault that our players collapse mentally year after year. Its their fault that Arsene didn’t do his job to instill mental strength (lol) in them.
Its the board’s fault that we collapsed from 4 goals up at newcastle, and exhibited relegation form which has spilled over to this season.
I could go on and on, but I think I should heed your advice, stop whining and ‘keep the faith’. LOL. You deluded AKB
the fact of the matter could well be that these signings were underaken by the board and not wenger. Thats why wenger was in france on a eufa junket while all these signings happened and they are not wenger signings, judging on history.
So maybe the board is the one you really love.
Frnakly the board and wenger are one. They all need to go.
weg your mood seems to be down… everything all right old bean… or have you a problem ??
i think we will sign cahill in january, but on a privisional to join us next summer! as a replacment for tv4 WHO WILL BE COURTED BY MAN CITY…
TV is injured again and its possible he may stay with us if this continues
before i see Wenger out of Arsenal, i believe the BOARD MUST GO FIRST. IT IS THEM that is holding the money in the banks, not Wenger.
I am not a fan of the way Wenger has been managing lately, but when someone asks me who I would want to replace him, I usually can’t find an answer. What do you all think?
Rijkaard?
Henry
surely you aren’t serious?
My fave signing is still PM. Think he will bring the right spirit and have enough confidence to match the Verminator for a mean defence.
Wenger is one season too late though. We might have a chance to keep some of our boys had we bought good experience last season. No point speculating though. I have a feeling AW is saving some cash for Jan. Some of these feel too short term for me. Or he might be banking that this buy time for the likes of the young boys to get bled in slowly in the first team.
This team looks alright.
Arteta is a good buy to give Wilshere space to learn and grow into and Ramsey to learn from. Benayoun is hard to call. He definitely has the qualities but something is not clicking. Park seems like a Eduardo type to me. Quietly effective but not crazily talented like RVP. I hope Santos is the missing link to the strong defensive 4 but it seems we all don’t think so.
I actually think we can win something this year. It’s something like an underdog psychology. We don’t look like a big threat but are still capable. And realising that each individual player is not as great as their predecessor, more teamwork might arise. When we aim for top spot, we got forth. When we aim for fourth, there is no telling where we will end up.
Arteta and Benyoun aren’t bad signings in my opinion ditto Mertesacker. I haven’t seen Santos play so won’t comment on him or Park for that matter until I do.
The above signings would have made me smile HAD it been at the beginning of the summer and then we kept Cesc for at least one more year (a distracted Cesc is still a formidable player). However I feel like its a little to late. A case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
Anyway as it stands I think we’ve replaced Nasri adequately with Gervinho as he is far more direct and it’s what we need. How many times in his Nasri’s AFC career have you seen him skin a full back? Not many.
Anyone who thinks Arteta or can replace Cesc must be smoking some top crack! Arteta is a solid player but he isn’t no Fabregas. He lacks the vision of Cesc. However his set piece skills are far better than Cesc’s and also he seems to have a bit more pace too. Arteta will be ok for us and who knows he may even raise his game up a level or two for us. Most inportantly though it gives Wilshere room to grow and hopefully we won’t wear him out like Cesc and Henry!
I moaned that we bought players with no PL experience but with Arteta and Benayoun at least there won’t be a acclimatisation period to worry about. Would have loved to see a top striker but hey beggars can’t be choosers innit?
RVB,
Park will come good I know it. You are right, no where near the talent level of RVP, but who is really.
What said it all to me was watching his interview. He is incredibly humble, he will be a servant to the club for sure, he stressed that he will work very hard and never give less than 100%. I think this [Korean] mentality will go a long way to influence a few players on this team.
Per was a great signing and I think his height + positioning + calm/clean approach will balance well with Vermaelen’s aggressiveness and attacking approach.
All the summer signings brings experienced and a healthy mix of stability to Arsenal. All are shrewd buy and I’m sure Arsenal can strongly challenge for BPL and become champion. I am convince and come January transfer widow re-open Wenger will buy Fann M’Villa and Mertz Goertz with Eden Hazrad next season transfer. We can get into semi-final of Champions League but we will be a strong force next season. Barcelona will quiver and nay sayers will again not pay tribute for Asene Wenger amazing achievements.
Post of the day!
I am convinced by next summer Wenger will also buy David Villa.
Can’t wait for next season.
Judge Wenger in May 2013…
Post of the day! You can’t even get your spellings right. Who or What the heck is a Fanny M’Villa – the offspring of Fanny and Aston Villa or something? And who or what is a Mertz Goertz – Mertesacker and his goat?
I’m sorry as one of the ‘naysayers’ that I didn’t pay tribute to a fellow’s whose amazing achievement is absolutely unmatched in 115 years –> shipping in EIGHT goals in a single game, and FIVE in a single half!!
My simple reasons …. All the Arsenal brought players are fighters not quitters like Samir Nasri. We know Squillichi and Almunia are fighting to play only in the reserve (God Bless them and they will get their clubs soon). The youth like Wilshere can blend to learnt their experienced as well as more breather when required. Most imporatnt due to the squad depth in strength which we can afford to play in a few team formations. We can turn draw matches into winning streak or win matches with huge score lines. Man City, Chelsea, ManU will quiver and only Barcelona is our worthy opponents. Who cares what negative comments said of Arsenal as they will all go dumb and speechless
Wow.
Wow.
And wow again.
Bare AKB’s flooding the Blog with everything I predicted i.e stock answers like:
- Any criticism (regardless of point) of yesterdays shambles is met with “Go support Club XYZ”
- “Get behind the Team”
- Every signing automatically becomes class, regardless of their dubious or non existent pedigree (see Chamakh, Rosicky, Schillachi for previous)
- Every ex Arsenal player becomes poo regardless of the glaring quality gap (See Nasri/Gervinho, Fabregas/Arteta)
- Wenger has suddenly become a GENIUS GOD again.
- The smoke and mirrors deception continues with Arsenal being the only top 4 club making a PROFIT after spending
- Delusional dreams (only to be brutally shattered in December) of winning the CL emerge in early September
- “Judge Wengers signings in May”
- Loads of inevitable teeth gnashing precludes
the sleight of hand from Papa Wenger about making one or two mega signings to win us the League and Cup in January
- Come January we take Kalou on loan (mega quality,PL Experience, proven goalscorer,international blah blah heard it all before)
- Early Feb we get knocked out of all 5 comps (UEFA as well)
-”Judge WENGER in May”
- 4th place immediately becomes a ‘trophy’
- Rosicky becomes like ‘a new signing’ after sitting out the crunch games
- Arsenal hammmer XYZ 6-0 suddenly:
- “Arsene has proved his critics wrong”
- “We’re rebuilding for next season, Jack and Rambo will be bigger and better players”
- Season ends with a scrap for 4th with QPR
- Arsenal clinch it by virtue of a +1 GD as Manu rape QPR to collect their 20th Title
- Again “Arsene is the right man for the job” despite a shambles of a season
- Arsenal qualify for Europe
- Ticket price increase announced above rate of inflation by 5%, Arsenal fans are paying the highest ticket prices in the World for a football match.
- Wenger promises super quality signings but ends up recalling Niklas Bendtner back from his loan spell after Bendtner scores 15 tap ins against shit opposition and hails him as a ‘new signing’
- Vela is unveiled as the replacement for RVP(gone Barca) at 23.59 on the day the transfer window closes.
- AKBs say we are much stronger……ad infinitum
Too right! WAKE UP YOU DELUDED AKB
BOOM Manga Hentai POTD
Maka, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
It will all end in tears as usual. Then the blame will be laid at the feet of the Board, the home fans, the away fans, UEFA, Blatter, referees, injuries, forces of nature – anything but Wenger.
We see it every season, and we’ll see it again.
Worth saying that Arsene hasn’t bought “super quality”.
I am a big gooner and defender of Arsene – but lets be honest super quality means ‘Nasri, Modric, Aguero, Gotze’ etc – or even Phil Jones.
He has however bought QUALITY.
And our squad a week ago was mediocre, so we should rejoice.
After all, Wilshere, Ramsey, Gibbs, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Miyaichi will hopefully become super quality as well.
Stevieo, we had £100M+ in transfer funds yet we signed Benayoun on loan, an ageing Arteta and spunked £12M on Oxlade Chamberlain – I would swap all three for the class of an Aguero in an instant.
AKB’s still dont get it that were still asset stripping, hence why we didnt get any REAL quality but disposable players that can be moved on, sold for a HUGE profit or released easily …. its called propping up the investment not strengthening the team…
I think the problem is that you are under the illusion that this club can actually afford to pay star players their star salaries.
One of the best signings we could have made was Juan Mata – we actually could afford the transfer price but we couldn’t afford the wage bill. So he went to Chelsea.
I’m fed up like everyone else (Wenger & the board must go)- but you need to display a little intelligent and understand the economics of AFC. We have a gigantic debt in the form of a shiny new stadium and training facilities. It aint gonna be paid off any time soon despite ticket prices going up – this is where all the cash goes.
Simply put – AFC can’t compete when it comes to buying big names because we can’t pay them their salaries. The only way AFC will score star players is by getting lucky and buying them before they are stars. Problem is… for everyone 1 star unearthed, there’s half a dozen duds. And by the time they are stars, most want to leave to play in teams at their own level.
Thats the reality.
Spot on. The reality is that we cannot [for whatever reason] meet the wage demands of these players… hell, Arteta has taken a pay CUT of £10,000 a week to play for us, and he was at Everton who have no money at all!
great piece mate
Manga Hentai, go easy mate. Your truth can kill a shoop at 100 paces
One of your last comments was dead right. I agree that this might not be enough to win the league (would love to proved wrong) because these really are signings we could’ve used last year for the squad WITH Cesc and Nasri. Still, that thought won’t stop me from cheering the team on and seeing how far they can go. It’s good to get that nasty summer behind us! Go Gunners!
NB52… so grateful for all Arsene has done for him. Anyway who cares we have happy feets chamahk!!
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3789733/Sunderland-loan-star-Nicklas-Bendtner-Ill-never-return-to-Arsenal.html
But there are question marks over most of them. Mikel Arteta is a fine performer with great technique but rarely shows it in the games that matter. And has he recovered from his cruciate injury?
He has also been responsible for Wenger tearing up his own rule-book. Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp never got much more than a one-year contract out of the Arsenal boss once they had gone past 30.
Arteta, who is 30 next March, has squeezed four years out of him. And there will be no sell-on value, either.
Yossi Benayoun has hardly played in the last four years — just 56 starts — while why go for a massive, slow-turning vessel like Per Mertesacker, for whom the Premier League might come as a shock while everyone knows Phil Jagielka and Gary Cahill CAN do it?
And Chu Young Park? I suppose he’ll sell a few shirts.
Cahill’s contract up next year… free agent then and desperate to come to us. My gut feeling is he’ll sign January.
incredible guy is our JD, when he is not being pushed over by 6 yr olds he is talking it up..
JOHAN DJOUROU is not worried about Per Mertesacker’s £9million arrival at Arsenal.
And the Swiss centre-back, 24, has already shaken off the shock of being thrashed 8-2 at Manchester United on Sunday.
Djourou insisted: “I can assure you I was able to sleep after the defeat. My morale is good and I have a smile on my face.
“It was everybody’s fault. We were not good and Manchester United were a class above us.
“Mertesacker’s arrival may mean direct competition for me.
“But I am used to it — it does not frighten me.”
“I can assure you I was able to sleep after the defeat. My morale is good and I have a smile on my face.”
Sums up everything that is wrong with this bunch of cunts
exactly
course he’d have a smile on his face he’s getting paid 1000′s a week when he should only be on a plumbers earnings a week
JD – so dumb,so shite,so gay with that heirstyle
we should’ve got rid of squallici and djourou
and get cahill and samba STILL!!!
if wenger still doesn’t go and buy in jan or next summer he should fuck off!!!
Ummm….. can sum1 tell me the full form of akb? I know it has to do with people who worship Arsene, but can sum1 tell me the word2word full form…??
Arsene Knows Brigade
http://le-grove.co.uk/spotting-an-akb/
Arsene Knows Brigade
you will be able to check if you have any symptoms here
http://le-grove.co.uk/spotting-an-akb/
If Arsenal did go ahead with what you guys want….We will go bust and BPL elegated….. You run the club and then comment on here if that was practical.
£100M+ in transfer funds can buy you many quality players, but like you said sign Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill, Mertz Goertz, Eden Hazard. Can you guarantee all can turn into performances Arsenal want… Any signings always carried risk and Arsenal fund covers players wages (not forgetting to open talks on re-contract on RVP, TV5, Walcott), and yes the dead woods we crave to get rid off are mostly gone. Almunia, Squillichi, Rosicky, Arshavin would be gone in a heart beat coming this Jan ’12 and next season. We can see that Wenger will get M’Vila, Eden Hazard, Gary Cahill & one of them Martin Marvin/Mertz Goertz. That my friends is exciting time ahead for us. He added experienced with the youth learning their ropes and that is shrewd business and make lots of sense, so why complain when you know we cannot afford to spend like Man Shitty. Apple to orange comparison?
only way we are making those additional signings…
“Wenger will get M’Vila, Eden Hazard, Gary Cahill & one of them Martin Marvin/Mertz Goertz”
….is if:
1) Wenger leaves and we get someone who actually isn’t scared to spend money
or
2) We get another whooping of 8-2 or similar then wenger will again feel forced to buy players!
what a mug you are for still…blindly follow that pathetic mug of a manager..wenger!
fool!
After the 8-2 loss, I just kept the faith and told myself that I shall judge wenger at the end of august. If we would’ve signed shit quality or no players, I would’ve also said “WENGER OUT”. But his signings (tho I still feel there are 1 or 2 required) are pretty good. Ok we are not close to winning the prem unless more signings are done in Jan but now the squad looks much better and experienced with these signings. Atleast we have higher chances of winning the fa cup and the cc now. Earlier some weeks ago I only got bhind the team 4d sake of it but now things are starting 2 look up. There is no need 2 make ur minirants here coz arsene’s ain’t gonna hear it. I’m feeling a little better and want to get bhind the team with my heart now. I think u shud too.
I’ve changed my date. I’m gonna judge him in dec 2011. Keep the faith, guys.
Frankly if M’Vila brought then I suspect Alex Song can be leaving Arsenal then unless Francis Coquelin is sold off to offset the 25 FA rules,otherwise that is highly possible. Hands up M’Vila top quality player. Not excited moaners?
Eden Hazard we are know how good he was, so he will replace Arshavin. Not excited moaners?
Gary Cahill replace Squillichi come Jan’12 or next season. Not excited moaners?
Martin Marvin/Mertz Goertz replaced Squillichi. Of course I prefer both that would means Diaby off as well so can I dream as Wenger seems to like him but not me. Not excited moaners?
Wow, I’m too sure Cahill is going to come in January when everybody knows he is going to a club with REAL ambition a la Man Ure, Chavski, even Liverpool or the scum, on a free in the summer. If you believe Wenger is going to spend money on a player who is going to be for free in half a season, you’re more off-track than I thought.
Not so excited now, Wenger worshipper?
Cortion above: Martin Marvin/Mertz Goertz replaced Rosicky. Diaby is not an Arsenal quality I want to see week in week out.
This closed transfer window saw Wenger is changing the rooster where there was balanced on experienced/youth in the mix. With true quality players coming next season I am Arteta was brought now to compliment our strength in depth for the future, so Wenger is reading the situations into the future and you guys still moanings? Really hard to please lot
Methinks you really need to know how to spell.
And who or what the heck is a Mertz Goertz? I keep seeing his name mentioned. Perhaps a 17-year old superalien with 10 limbs and 5 arms that can bring us the EPL title, the League Cup, the FA Cup and the CL in one season?
Every great teams was built around a few personals and for Arsenal Fabregas was the case. So Wenger is now in the process to build another around Wilshere as his core. The team progress start only after Wilshere begins to integrate coming back from injury hit and hope Goertz/Martin can provide that rotation axis with Ramsey/Wilshere for different games.
Of course realistically only Goertz or Martin will be brought but can I complained for this revolution which I see Wenger biulding for the future? Tell me name me who is the candidates to replace his legacy?
The Arsenal Board have been aware of this problem for 6 years now, and have taken steps to overcome Wenger’s eventual demise and replacement.
Each summer, Wenger goes to Paris, where he is embalmed, pickled and rubbed with cow foetuses in order to prolong his life. All up, this process takes two months, which explains why there’s no transfer activity until the last couple of days of August. The Wenger you see sitting in the stands is one that’s been borrowed from Madam Tussaud’s.
It’s all part of the Arsenal way. Eventually, the Board will figure out a way of cloning Wenger, and then we’ll gut the current model, stuff him, and place him outside the office’s front door like a cigar-shop Indian.
Wenger is irreplaceable. Long live the Arsenal.
Tell me name me who is the candidates to replace his legacy?
OK…We have
Martin O’Neil
Owen Coyle
Bergkamp with Keown..or adams
Rijkaard
Gus Hiddink
take your pick – can’t wait til wenger fucks off…despite the signings..and even if we win anything..HE MUST GO!
I agree, he must leave. The only way he can redeem himself now is if he wins the treble, or quadruple.
What pathetic blind sheep fail to see is that there are plenty of superior managers out there who are AVAILABLE. Asides from those listed here already, there are already 2 who have won more than Wenger can ever hope to and who are available at the moment – Carlo Ancelotti and Louis Van Gaal.
You can go play FA 11 …deluded
Why can’t u just SHUT UP fool?? We all know Wenger has mistakes…. bt that doesn’t mean u hav 2 THROW EVERYBODY OUT, c*nt. Don’t get so hyper. FOOL.
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maybe the club will retire the no52 now…
we can only pray!
I think we just need to wait and see of these signings will be effective. Looking forward to the next game.
I thk arsenal is goin start winning again nd becoe d best.arsenal 4 life.