I think it is more than media speculation - at least on the spectrum of “BS rumor” to “verified 100%,” I’d say that we were trying to work something out with City at the end and pulled out. Ornstein is certainly one of the most reputable and reliable - most people here “wait for Ornstein” on transfer rumors. We’ll probably never know the full truth of the situation.
I understand. I am concerned about morale as well.
But at the end of the day, Sanchez’s default position was to leave and our default position was to keep hold.
He was always going to be pissed off had we not entertained offers as well.
And Sanchez should be pissed off at City for bidding so late, leaving no room for Arsenal to compensate for his departure.
The whole move smells to me as pandering to Sanchez to show him that City tried and he would then consider the same in January when he decide whose offer he wants to sign in summer. Much like the move Real Madrid tried to pull on De Gea.
Coming back to Arsenal, If we ignore internal frustration and look at the situation broadly. Holding onto 2 big players & not trying to cash in on them, should be considered as positive.
We look shite atm but chances of us getting something out of this season only increases with those 2 around.
Who knows Ozil might sign.
Yep. Because now we’re going to be seeing it for free next season and all we’ll have to show for it is another empty January transfer window.
It’s not a forgone conclussion whatsoever though. He could go abroad very easily, or maybe even resign with us. A lot of stuff can happen between now and then.
Whatever. We aren’t challenging for the title any time soon so what difference does it make? Plus we’re all used to it anyway.
I agree keeping the players is positive… I think the problem is that it doesn’t feel like we are building towards something… Caz career is ending… Kos is aging and injury prone - Per done, Ozil and Sanchez more likely than ever to leave next year, our CM pretty shambolic.
Having said that, we DID get rid of some dead wood, but we need to be serially investing in both promising young players or core top talent to start… Laca and Kola I am happy with, but we really needed more, especially if you look at the context of the rest of our aging squad and contracts (next year we will have even more on last year)… and maybe the morale situation is overblown, but it is going to be brutal this year any time things go wrong - AW left himself and his squad zero margin for error and nobody here really believes that it will go particularly well - does anyone really doubt that the environment around emirates and the club could just get diabolical this year?
We just can’t afford 1 step forward 2 steps back any more (or even 2 steps forward, 1 step back)… we need a run of 2 steps forward.
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Because as a person who enjoys watching Arsenal play, being my favorite football club and all, I’d much rather be watching Sanchez scoring goals and playing for us than Danny Welbeck or Alex Iwobi. Lol funny that you of all people would be in favor of selling Sanchez and taking money from City that will go directly into the bank never to be heard from again.
Oh no doubt the home games will be toxic. Any game where we don’t score early, crowd will become restless.
Its going to be a long season and I personally don’t wish to watch matches live to avoid heartbreak. I have had heartbreaks to last a lifetime anyway.
The squad is a depressing one. Holding & Iwobi are only players that look to be in future. Every other player I either suspect will retire or be injured or be sold or leave or be too average to matter. I see no future in this squad. it needs a rebuilding.
What I am hoping is we have decided to save up the cash to spend big in upcoming windows.
The optimistic in me is thinking, maybe next couple of windows will be easy considering clubs like City, PSG are stocked.
Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona don’t spend like those 2 do.
So we can rebuild better than we did this summer.
But this is Arsenal. We are probably planning contract extension for Theo.
PS - Hey @morrisc311 how are you?
How is your kid doing?
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But it’s going to happen next season anyway and we won’t be able to properly replace him because he will leave on a free.
He might even go to Man U which would be even worse.
I’m not that bothered about a player who doesn’t want to be here anyway.
I’ve seen so many like him before leave and become successful, either abroad, or in the PL I’ve got used to it.
Get the money and buy a decent player that does want to play for us.
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You are in fantasy land. We dont replace players for years. If Alexis leaves you are watching Welbeck waste chances all season. And like I said before I’ll venture that if Alexis leaves he’ll go out of the country. And there’s always the chance we will sign him to an extension as well.
Hey Trion I am well and hope you are as well. Kiddo is doing great he’s a walker now so he’s a handful!
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I’m a firm believer that you don’t want players on a team that don’t want to be on the team. And that’s at any level and for any sport.
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This is similar to the position Man U were in when Ferguson left.
They were an old team, going nowhere and needed a rebuilding project that was going to cost them hundreds of millions.
But the difference between their situation and ours is that they have the ambition, and they did what was necessary to get back to challenging again.
We won’t, because we never do.
We will only do the bare minimum, which is just about what we have done in this window.
Great. You were not around when i heard you became a dad. Congratulations.
Do your kid a favour. Don’t introduce him to Football & Arsenal. Let him live a happy life.
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Yeah I can’t argue too much with that. Still though, with how disfunctional Arsenal are at the moment and our results lately, which one of our players aren’t going to jump at the chance to make a move to City who are title favorites and are second right now to only PSG in attempting to buy their title.
By the way there’s a huge difference in a player who’s relatively happy but willing to move to City for various reasons, and a guy like RVP or VVD who come out with a statement and say, let me leave please. Which one of those is Sanchez? We don’t know. Give him a week to get over it and he’ll be right back to normal.
That doesn’t sound that awful to me. It’s that or Mourinho holding up the PL trophy, or fucking Chelsea winning it again. I prefer the scenario with £60m in the bank.
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I agree, we don’t replace players, certainly until after a few seasons of trying cheaper alternatives.
I want nothing more than Sanchez and Ozil to get us a top four place and to play to their full potential even if it is only for this season but I just don’t see that happening, especially Sanchez who seems to have a volatile and slightly childish personality.
As for going to a foreign club, again I hope you’re right but I think he will go to the club who give him the best chance to surround himself with similar quality players and the most money, which clearly rules him signing for us.
If that club is Man City, Man U, Chelsea or Bayern Munich he, like several other top class players we have had, will go wherever suits them and not worry what the supporters think.
Nah fuck City and Pep. And £60m does us no good. If we were BVB or someone similar I’m with you. They could take that £60m and turn it into 3 really good players with a ton of upside. That £60m would go in the bank and stay there bruh, you know this as well as I do, dunno why everyone is acting like it would help us build a team or something.
Yes but we’ll have had Sanchez vintage 26-29, while wherever he goes next will be Sanchez aged 30-34. We’ve had the best of his career and for the sake of 60m we’ll have another one of his peak years.His next club will pay him 20-30m a season, so let’s say 100m over 4 years and 2 of those seasons he’ll probably be past it.
Also passing up 60m may be the difference between CL football and no CL football. If we get CL football we probably cover the difference in 60m fee, give or take.
We might be rich enough now to actually replace next summer with a year to plan replacements knowing it’s coming.
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