They’d also be pretty upset if the money they spend on watching and supporting the team wasn’t actually spent on the team. Being fortunate and all that, good and right, but you can expect a football club to do their best and make use of the resources they generate. After all Arsenal Football Club isn’t a charity and any of the match goers aren’t spending their money to support some other cause besides seeing Arsenal doing the best they can.
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Before we signed Özil we were interested in Higuain, that was the summer of 2013. Three years on and we are still searching for that top class striker. If we take it to the brink this summer and fail then we won’t sign one uni at least next summer at the earliest. That’s where I got three/four years from.
So what I am asking you, is do you care if it takes three or for years for us to sign a top class striker? Because the chances are that if we don’t sign anyone and instead gamble on signing a world class striker we’ll just end up going into the season without adequate options at centre forward, again. After a certain amount of time it is no longer acceptable to sit around doing nothing to improve our options in the vain hope that we’ll be able to land that mythical world class striker.
The bit about settling for Danny Welbeck seems remarkably unambitious. He would never have been signed in the first place if Giroud wasn’t injured at the time. Wenger didn’t buy him because he was the best player Wenger identified to be our centre forward for years. He was bought at the last minute reluctantly because United wouldn’t loan him to us. I like Welbeck and he’s a good squad player, but that’s it. I don’t rate his signing as being a serious attempt to improve our options, pretty much all of us knew he was average/good when we signed him and he’s done nothing to suggest he’s ever going to be anything other than that.
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But once again, here’s what you said in your original post to which I was specifically responding:
The only excuse for not already having someone like Janssen on our books is if we sign someone better.
What does that mean if not that Arsenal should already have bought somebody like Janssen? I was not disagreeing with the part where you said Arsenal should sign a striker. I was disagreeing with the part where you said they should already have signed “someone like Janssen.” Your general statement in the previous two sentences that Arsenal should sign a striker (and your feelings about Wenger if they don’t) do not change what you said in the sentence to which I was responding. “Not already having someone” means just that – such a signing should already have been done. Language is my lifelong profession. I know what these words mean, even if you don’t. If you want to tell me that’s not what you meant, then fine. But that’s what you said. You said “already.” Which means before now.
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He’s saying that if we aren’t going to sign someone better, we should have long gone for someone like Janssen. You actually made his point right afterwards. In short, you two are in agreement on his initial statement, but you’re just not seeing it for some reason.
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That’s completely irrelevant to my original statement which was that I don’t care if it takes until the last minute of the transfer window (that I was talking about this transfer window and not some murky transfer window three or four years from now should have been understood). I was talking about a choice between signing “someone like Janssen” early or continuing to search for that top class striker. What happened in past years is the past. I would rather keep trying for that top guy right now than settle for a second rate option just to get it done really early.
You guys really need to stop rehashing the past all the time and focus on the present.
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Actually, I demonstrated that Arsenal made a bid for Lacazette two weeks after Spurs signed Janssen. So no, we aren’t in agreement because I don’t believe Arsenal has no intention of signing anyone better. Had Arsenal bought Janssen, that would have ended the striker search for the summer. And you know it. Now, had he said “If Arsenal can’t sign someone better, they should settle for somebody like Janssen” I would have been in complete agreement. But I don’t agree they should have already done it.
Again, where did I say that I don’t believe Arsenal has any intention of signing someone better?
I really can’t believe this is so hard. It’s a simple proposition:
- IF (!!!) Arsenal don’t sign someone better than Janssen,
- then they have no excuse for not having someone like him already on our books.
It’s so bloody simple I can’t believe how many turns and twists you’ve somehow managed to give it.
EDIT:
Wow, just wow. For the 5th (!!) (or 6th??) time, I copy and paste what I said. This time I will even bold the key words for you. I hope you can figure out this grand mystery.
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Why do you mention Jansen multiple times in every one of your posts? Bit weird
I understand this point, I did all along. If we play your proposed game of brinkmanship then it will end up meaning a four year wait for a world class striker. That is the reality of the situation. I was asking if you thought this was acceptable.
Telling me to not rehash the past and focus on the present answers that question, as you’ll only be seeing it as a one year waitfor a top striker rather han the four year wait it actually would have been, because apparently the past doesn’t matter to you.
The problem with that is if we are in the same position in a years time (still searching for a centre forward), you’ll still want to just discuss it as if that summer’s transfer window exists in isolation. You’ll be telling us again to ignore the past and focus on the present when at that stage we’d then be looking down the barrel of a five year wait.
People bring up previous transfer windows because they are evidence of a pattern of behaviour that is still being repeated in the current day. I’m not bringing up failed transfer windows during the austerity years of 06-12/13, what I’m bringing up is transfer activity since we emerged from that period. It’s completely relevant to what is happening now.
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60 new replies to this thread and thought, “Hmmm, something fairly major must’ve happened today surrounding Mahrez”.
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There’s nothing to be proven wrong. In simple terms:
If we don’t buy good striker > buy prospect
if not -> fail
You’re taking a detour to the moon on this. It’s really that simple.
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Even Musa, who instantly looked like a decent forward, only cost £15m. You don’t need to spend fortunes to get a good striker.
Musa isn’t really a striker I think… more of a wide attacker. To the point though, we could have had Sadio Mane’ for 30 million and he surely would have improved our attacking options… Musa for 15, Mahrez for x, etc. Again, this notion that it is all or nothing over and over again has just lead us to… NOTHING over and over again.
None of Giroud, Welbeck, Podolski, were truly good enough but at least Giroud and Welbeck are acceptable level for depth… Less said about Sanogo the better.
I think the basic premise that we are doing everything in our power to win the title is so clearly and unavoidably false that I don’t understand why people persist with defense, unless they are ok with that basic idea. And for people like me, I am not. No way in hell have we been proactive or decisive or successful enough either on the pitch or in the transfer market IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR BANK BALANCE AND CASHFLOW SITUATION.
And as one commentator said today “it is no longer “knee-jerk” when it comes to Arsenal - it is just so damn predictable over the last 10 years…” If Arsene/AFC felt under pressure and were determined to pull out all the stops (reasonably) to win, they would have acted differently over the last 3-5 years - the evidence has just piled up too long and too high. Occam’s razor my friends… takes too many leaps of logic and faith to conclude that AW and the Board are acting anywhere near acceptably from a fan perspective.
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I don’t know what the cause or reasoning is behind the lack of movement. I don’t know if we have the money to spend. I don’t know if Wenger is full of shit, the board is full of shit, or they’re all full of shit. But I do know this… It takes us too long to fill the gaping holes in our lineup. How long were we calling for a decent holding mid-fielder? 6 years? Sure, some people want Wenger to spend 100 million on a single player, but those people are few and far between. Most people just want the glaring deficiencies fixed. We’ve needed a CB for 2 years now. We’ve needed a decent striking option since Van Persie left. Yet we get more #10’s that we try to shoehorn into wide or deep positions every year. Ox, Cazorla, Ozil and now Xhaka. It’s beyond excusable at this point.
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Again, I’m not disagreeing with the “someone like Janssen” part. If Arsenal can’t sign Lacazette or somebody such as that, then “someone like Janssen” as an alternative will be better than nothing. The part I’m disagreeing about is the part that I bolded. I disagree that buying “someone like Janssen” should already have been done. Why is this so difficult for you to understand? Buying “someone like Janssen” will end the striker search. I would rather Arsenal continue to try to get somebody better. I don’t want to settle just to get it over with quickly. If “someone like Janssen” were “already on the books,” the striker search would have ended. Arsenal isn’t paying that sort of money for a third or fourth string striker. They just aren’t.
It’s the example he used. Who else would I mention?
This is honestly surreal. Please read again. And again. And again. Maybe you will figure out what it is you are missing which should be obvious to the rest of the english speaking world.
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The past is the past. We can’t change it. That doesn’t mean I should want to settle for Cuellar’s “someone like Janssen” just to have someone yesterday when there’s a chance of acquiring a top striker over the next couple of weeks. If buying Danny Welbeck didn’t count in your four year time period, then buying Janssen wouldn’t count either. So buying Janssen does nothing to bring your wait to an end. You’ll still be waiting. I’d rather try to end that wait before this transfer period ends.
FFS you are pedantic and completely missing the point and it is clear you have no desire to understand… amazed Cuellar keeps responding in the hope of clarity for you.
So you’re telling me that you didn’t say that such a striker already should have been bought this summer? Because that’s what the words you used mean (the ones I bolded). Or are you saying that you believe Arsenal would actually pay £17 million for a striker and then go ahead and pay another £50 million or more for another striker? Because that’s fantasy land.
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