Winter Transfer Despair and Bafflement.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wage bill reduction I get, but we've sold our only proper defensive midfielder and are looking at selling one of the fastest and most productive players in the squad. Neither have shown any kind of form this season but that doesn't mean there haven't been times or won't be times till the season end where they would be useful.

We've got this far in the Europa on a misfit 11 alone....that has kept first team players fresher. We've still played crap in the league but we might have been even worse if we couldn't rotate. If the league is a write off, the Europa league is still all to play for (which is looking like a major piece of the rebuilding puzzle if it gets us CL!) unless people actually want us to throw the league all together NOW and just play the first team in the Europa league at the expense of the domestic league when it's called for.

I've never been comfortable with transfer windows where we don't actually make any quality signings.....and so far we haven't. Wenger is expecting some diminutive Brazilian I'd never heard of to replace Sanchez!?? They're about the same height...I give him that, but that's not what I had in mind.

Sounds like Coquelin was desperate to leave. "I wish I'd have gone sooner..." And Wenger wasn't playing our only DM anyway. Now he says Maitland Niles, who he's stuck in the wrong position since the start of the season, can step in. You see the problem? We could splash big on a proper DM but Wenger would still find a way to fuck it up because he's not on the same wavelength as the rest of the football world. He's off on some delusional trip brought about by the endless power trip of two decades in charge of his little kingdom. He can't see outside his bubble. Wenger has done what many feared he would do, he's dragged this club down to second tier status and we run the serious risk of falling further. The absolute priority now is to prevent him doing more damage. You really think this guy is going to lead us to European triumph? Not a prayer. First team, reserve team, they both play the same way, they both have the same flaws, neither can defend, Wenger won't fix it and be certain of the fact we won't be spending the 200-300 million required for major surgery in the next couple of weeks. Won't happen. So bring a couple of players in, maybe Mahrez, maybe Draxler, whoever, what difference does it make in the Wenger's weird world? None at all. As I was saying earlier, as fans we need to start thinking about how much damage a Europa Cup win might do to this club long term. A unique dilemma in the annals of football. Nothing worthwhile happens until this guy is gone and anything that does happen is just another opportunity for Wenger to fuck it up, which he will seize.

[Niall_Quinn]

The Wenker effect normally takes hold after a few months.

We could get just enough out of Malcom for the end of this season before the disease takes hold at the start of next season.

Don't think Malcolm has ever played CB though.

[Power n Glory]

Two things

1) Are Walcott or Coquelin going to have any impact on where we finish this season. I’d say not.
2) Would you expect Wenger to sell either of these players (especially Walcott) if the decision was solely his. Again I’d say no

On its own I totally accept it doesn’t mean a lot, but it doesn’t really do us any harm. But it’s just as I’ve said the slightest glimmering that we might be more ruthless with non performing players.

What I would say is it clears the wage bill so when the summer comes we have no excuse to hide behind if we end up dithering again.

It’s not a massive step, it could mean absolutely nothing. But it’s not I don’t think something that will come back to haunt us either.

Short sighted.

1 – As things stand, Theo and Coquelin won’t have an impact on our season. But that’s speaking as of how we’re playing now. We will have more injuries and Wenger may be forced to go back to a 4-2-3-1. It’s a long season. We’ve seen occasions where we’re forced to playing a very inexperienced youth player in a position they weren’t ready for and that alone harm the development of a young player.

2 – You have to kidding. Theo Walcott was frozen out of the team last season. Coquelin has hardly played football and was phased out this season also. These aren’t Wenger’s favourites if we’re looking at how they’ve been treated recently. This could just be a case of players kicking up a fuss, demanding a move with Wenger caving in as usual. We’ve seen that happen plenty of times.

A clear indication of progress would be if the Board sold Ozil and Sanchez, brought in real replacements and told Wenger to get on with it. Fuck your opinion, use what we’ve given you.

Remains to be seen if this will come back to haunt us but I remember the year we sold Diarra because he was complaining about a lack of games, we ended up picking up injuries at midfield and right back and we suffered for it. I think I recall us going through something similar when we decided to loan out Coquelin. Coq is the only midfield destroyer we have. Selling him when we have some pretty poor defensive midfield players will never make sense to me.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Are you suggesting you don't want us to sign another player until he leaves NQ lol?

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Short sighted.

1 – As things stand, Theo and Coquelin won’t have an impact on our season. But that’s speaking as of how we’re playing now. We will have more injuries and Wenger may be forced to go back to a 4-2-3-1. It’s a long season. We’ve seen occasions where we’re forced to playing a very inexperienced youth player in a position they weren’t ready for and that alone harm the development of a young player.

2 – You have to kidding. Theo Walcott was frozen out of the team last season. Coquelin has hardly played football and was phased out this season also. These aren’t Wenger’s favourites if we’re looking at how they’ve been treated recently. This could just be a case of players kicking up a fuss, demanding a move with Wenger caving in as usual. We’ve seen that happen plenty of times.

A clear indication of progress would be if the Board sold Ozil and Sanchez, brought in real replacements and told Wenger to get on with it. Fuck your opinion, use what we’ve given you.

Remains to be seen if this will come back to haunt us but I remember the year we sold Diarra because he was complaining about a lack of games, we ended up picking up injuries at midfield and right back and we suffered for it. I think I recall us going through something similar when we decided to loan out Coquelin. Coq is the only midfield destroyer we have. Selling him when we have some pretty poor defensive midfield players will never make sense to me.

Exactly right, especially on Theo. Wenger cannot wait to see the back of him! Nothing about his sale will tell me Wenger is losing power.

[Niall_Quinn]

Are you suggesting you don't want us to sign another player until he leaves NQ lol?

Yes, I've just about reached that stage. After his big splurge on mediocrity last time around I have zero faith in him being able to identify useful targets and even less faith in him being able to use any signing effectively. He couldn't even push us on when Ozil, Alexis and Cech arrived. That's a world cup winner and recognised global star, one of the top talents in world football and a player with a mountain of experience winning it all. And we got worse! Then he has the ultimate brain fart and brings in Xhaka, Mustafi, Chambers, etc. And he can't use those either, and we get worse. Why would any sane owner give this man a chequebook in this wildly inflated market? Recipie for disaster and only serves to take away funds from the new guy coming in. If that ever happens.

No, don't let the guy waste another penny. Ot at least the club should prove he's out of the transfer picture and has no more say in selecting the targets. But still, there's that problem of him fucking up everything he touches. If the new team signed Messi and Ronaldo on a free we'd still get worse. It's what Wenger does and has been doing for over a decade now. Kroenke must be so ignorant of the game to have let this dinosaur steer things.

[Marc Overmars]

I do think Theo's time here as been wasted but he needs to look at himself for the stagnation of his career. It's been clear for years Wenger doesn't fancy him but he's stuck around for no reason other than the money.

[Niall_Quinn]

I do think Theo's time here as been wasted but he needs to look at himself for the stagnation of his career. It's been clear for years Wenger doesn't fancy him but he's stuck around for no reason other than the money.

He never bad mouthed the club. Not ever IIRC. And he's taken plenty of abuse in return. So whatever the reason for his departure, I'll say goodbye and good luck to him. Yes he sat there and watched his career go down the pan which shows a severe lack of ambition. But there were many players who were unlucky and coincided their time at Arsenal with Wenger's decade of destruction. Trouble for him is we didn't plunge off a cliff, we slowly died. He's like the frog slowly boiling in Wenger's pot.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Short sighted.

1 – As things stand, Theo and Coquelin won’t have an impact on our season. But that’s speaking as of how we’re playing now. We will have more injuries and Wenger may be forced to go back to a 4-2-3-1. It’s a long season. We’ve seen occasions where we’re forced to playing a very inexperienced youth player in a position they weren’t ready for and that alone harm the development of a young player.

2 – You have to kidding. Theo Walcott was frozen out of the team last season. Coquelin has hardly played football and was phased out this season also. These aren’t Wenger’s favourites if we’re looking at how they’ve been treated recently. This could just be a case of players kicking up a fuss, demanding a move with Wenger caving in as usual. We’ve seen that happen plenty of times.

A clear indication of progress would be if the Board sold Ozil and Sanchez, brought in real replacements and told Wenger to get on with it. Fuck your opinion, use what we’ve given you.

Remains to be seen if this will come back to haunt us but I remember the year we sold Diarra because he was complaining about a lack of games, we ended up picking up injuries at midfield and right back and we suffered for it. I think I recall us going through something similar when we decided to loan out Coquelin. Coq is the only midfield destroyer we have. Selling him when we have some pretty poor defensive midfield players will never make sense to me.

Really so we haven’t been stuck with players for ages that hardly ever play but we can’t get rid of

I don’t rate Coquelin. I think Cazorla made him look a far better player than he is, every time he tried to play with anyone else he was a disaster. Not I will say from any lack of effort on his part but simply because he’s not really any good and for me playing or not....not a miss for us.

And Walcott, look at how many times he was benched by Wenger not just this season but for years on and off. We always thought we’d be rid of him, but Wenger dithered and kept chopping and changing his mind on Walcott.

[Cripps]

Wenger ruined one of the most promising talents.

Theo was quick, agile, speedy and effective when used properly. He reminds me a lot of Sterling; Sterling needs guidance and to be told what to do. Almost micro managed. Theo is exactly the same.

Unfortunately for him he's under a manager that is laissez faire. The complete opposite of what he needs.

If you swapped Sterling and Walcott now I have no doubt Walcott would be showing Sterling's form.