We just have to hope he only had 1 year left in those little legs of his, Run him into the ground this season and he can hobble off for free with our blessing next summer
This is just rubbish. We hadn’t sold a world class player since we got rid of RVP and we’ve signed Ozil and Sanchez so that completely contradicts the notion that there has been no shift in our transfer policy. Even this summer, we’ve identified two areas that needed improvement on and have acted swiftly to address that. Wenger has stated he wants to keep Sanchez and is also almost certain to bring in another one or two players.
Our transfer policy has clearly changed.
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Almost certain? Where have you been the last ten years? I hope youre right but I’m not sure we will see one or two more good signings tbh. And if he does he’s as usual keeping ahold of deadwood players on high wages.
I’m personally going to wait until the end of the window before I decide to believe that.
A lot of time left for this window to end up underwhelming.
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I see myself being disappointed at the end of this window, I think there’s an obvious area of the squad that needs improvement and there’s so far been nothing to suggest we’re interested in addressing it.
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Pretty inarguable our transfer “policy” has changed if you just look at the numbers; however, one could equally argue it hasn’t changed in the most important way:
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We still carry massive reserves compared to the rest of the world
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We haven’t shown results nearly good enough, so we are either:
a) Sh*t at transfers
b) Not keeping up with the Jones’ due to TV and other exploding money in EPL
c) Haven’t quite clicked yet in the new era
d) Manager is keeping us back with poor squad management or tactics compared to other top clubs
I tend to think it is a bit of a combo of all of the above if I am honest. I do see progress, but I think we still lack a killer instinct and ability when it comes to the market and we persist with too many “ok” players… and while I think the tactical criticism is overplayed a bit, some of the players who continue to get so many minutes (this coming year and before) really aren’t good enough for a team that is serious about title.
Not saying we can’t win it… LC won it and then Chelsea (granted a really good squad) won it after a shambles of a year, but I would put us consistently in the 4th/5th favorites category and worryingly seeing Spurs and Pool very, very close (or even edging us)… Would have loved, loved, loved… had we picked up Laca AND Salah…
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Since we sold RVP we have bought two world class players in four seasons and one of them wants to leave.
That is hardly a shifty, especially as we are sitting on 200m to spend on players, and have gaping holes in the first team and are out of the CL.
And here is you thinking we can just pick up WC players because we have the money like they dont have a say if they wanna Join Arsenal or not or the club of said WC player wants to release them. Its not fucking football manager there is far more that goes into transfers than that. How many truly world class players have moved recently?
We’ve just broken our transfer record and made Lacazette the second most expensive player signed by a PL club this summer. By all accounts there has been interest in Mahrez, Mbappe and Lamar. I think it’s indicative of a clear shift in our policy. You are wrong because you said we still sell our world class players when that just hasn’t happened in five seasons now.
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How many have come in?
Just because we are interested in Mbappe means nothing.
We are interested in, and try for players regularly, but it’s no good if we don’t get them and our rivals do.
We have waited an astonishing four seasons to get a striker.
What other top European club can boast such a record?
Other clubs buy players of the quality of Lacazette every season, we only do it when we are desperate.
We will probably get Lemar to go with Lacazette, but this should have happened ages ago, not because we had the worst season under Wenger.
We will also probably see our best player leave, so we are getting a striker, who we should have had after RVP left, and a midfielder to replace our best player.
All we are doing is the bare minimum which is what we usually do.
In that time we have only had two world class players, who were both bought during that period, and one of them wants to leave and the other still hasn’t signed a new contract.
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Yeah. But that has more to do with the fact we had no world class talent, or any kind of talent, to sell rather than a change of policy.
I see you just disregarded my post. How many other clubs have picked up truly WC players in that time? How many decent strikers have been available to move much yet want to come to Arsenal recently. Only one that moved was Ibra for stupid money for one season and guess what Manu finished below us so how much did he help them for like £40-50m for 1 season of work. It is not as easy as 'we need a WC play in XYZ position i will just go buy one…there arent very many WC players on the market to buy to start with do you think if someone has a decent prospect they will just be like ‘oh Arsenal has enquired we will just let him go there’ The WC players are already mainly at WC clubs already and if they arent they are at clubs with so much money they dont need to sell and sure as fuck wont strengthen within their own league etc.
Please give up with this ‘we havent picked any world class players up’ bullshit, what other clubs have? Fact of the matter is WC players are hard to come by to begin with much less to get to move from their respective club hence why no fucking club have been picking them up!
Is that not more a case of not having them than anything else though? The Ozil & Sanchez contract situation is the first real test for us in regards to keeping world class players post van persie and there is still 6 weeks to go before we find out how that will truly turn out for us.
I do agree we seem to have changed in regards the transfer market overall though. Any other summer I could have seen us chasing Mbappe up to late August and ending up with fucking nobody whereas this year we filled the gap with our next choice.
If you’re talking about strikers, we haven’t even bought any that have been better than Giroud, let alone world class.
In the five seasons since we sold RVP, we’ve had Giroud, Welbeck, Sanogo, Perez etc, and none have been what we need.
There is no other top European club that have waited so long, or have had worse striking options than us.
I would see if he was willing to sign and if the answer is no, I’d tell him that he can pick his destination as long as it’s outside England or play out his contract and just run him into the ground. Play him every game, every week and ring every last minute out of him before he walks on a free (presumably to City).
Our transfer policy has clearly changed. why is this even a discussion
Would you consider keeping Alexis to see out his final year as a dramatic shift in direction for the club? I think I would, once you sell to a rival it seems that football has taking the backseat over finance.
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Indeed I would. Wish we’d done it with van persie.
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I’m split because on one hand I think without further significant additions (Lemar doesn’t even move the needle) we’re 4th favourite for the title at best, the most likely scenario is we have our usual season of being mostly irrelevant in the league. £50m is still major money in today’s market, before bonuses more than our record outlay.
But on the other hand selling arguably the best player in the league to a rival would really really really suck.
I think I’m at a point now where I don’t really care either way.
I’m also split on whether it shows a dramatic shift in direction, significantly improving the squad to get the most out of your final season with Alexis would be a dramatic shift. Keeping him whilst going into the season with obvious holes would be so Arsenal.
This is my thought as well. Even with Sanchez this year I feel like we will be short b/c of our midfield issues and the improvement of other clubs (lets not forget how far behind the top we really were points-wise last year).
I love Sanchez and want to see him play with us, but if it meant we moved onto next phase and invested in younger players who will be here for longer and set foundation for next manager, I kind of lean that way…
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