Summer Transfer Speculation and Shit

[GP]

Suarez is anti-Semitic* so I doubt it.


* I have no proof but he is anyway.

Isn't everyone?

Kikes :haha:

[BlindFaith_8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdGDDwivoVo

I thought we all needed a laugh, reminds me a bit of Wenger's quartley review with the board :) :haha:

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Rodgers and Rafa :bow:

[GP]

Brenton :bow:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkEvSjdDfiA

:bow:

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

apparently monaco are about to bid 44 million pounds for cazorla. i dont know where they stem from, there was just loads of talk on twitter about it.

i wouldnt be surprised if we did sell him either

No offence but there isn't a single player in our squad whom i wouldn't sell for 44m.

[GP]

No offence but there isn't a single player in our squad whom i wouldn't sell for 44m.

While £44m is ludicrous money for anyone, there's little point taking the money, because it'll ultimately make us weaker.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

for as long as i can remember i don't remember us spending any more money on transfers into the club than what we have received on transfers out of the club, but with 44 million and a reduced wage bill we could probably spend probably as little of half of that on a player equally as good if not better than Santi anyway.

I think if silly money is offered for any of our players we should take it.....i don't think there is a single player in our squad who is irreplaceable.

[GP]

for as long as i can remember i don't remember us spending any more money on transfers into the club than what we have received on transfers out of the club, but with 44 million and a reduced wage bill we could probably spend probably as little of half of that on a player equally as good if not better than Santi anyway.

I think if silly money is offered for any of our players we should take it.....i don't think there is a single player in our squad who is irreplaceable.

Ok, fine, but realistically, who would we replace him with?

[Cripps_orig]

Arsene Wenger is determined not to raise Arsenal's £40m bid for Liverpool striker Luis Suarez - even if it means the transfer going to the wire.
Full story: Daily Mirror


Looks like he isn't coming then.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Looks like he isn't coming then.

He's coming all right, and mightt just

[KSE Comedy Club]

Looks like he isn't coming then.

Same old shit.

Shoulda paid up the £30m for higuain and be done with it.

Fucking incompetence, plain and simple.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Same old shit.

Shoulda paid up the £30m for higuain and be done with it.

Fucking incompetence, plain and simple.

Fuckers had no intention to spend apparently. We didn't buy an on par Higgy for less than £30 mil, but we were going to pay £45+ mil for Suarez. :haha:

[Niall_Quinn]

Looks like he isn't coming then.

Bring it home Arsene, all the way to the close of the window. Might as well be a £70billion transfer fund because we won't be spending a pound of it unless it's on special offer. Gareth Barry is also past use by date so he has to be favourite for a last minute plunge into the transfer skip.

[Niall_Quinn]

Looks like he isn't coming then.

We've baulked at at £40,000,001.01

[Harland]

Bring it home Arsene, all the way to the close of the window. Might as well be a £70billion transfer fund because we won't be spending a pound of it unless it's on special offer. Gareth Barry is also past use by date so he has to be favourite for a last minute plunge into the transfer skip.

I'm starting to think that we'll be 'lucky' to end up with Barry.

Wenger is a master at adjusting expectations. Sigh.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I'm starting to think that we'll be 'lucky' to end up with Barry.

Wenger is a master at adjusting expectations. Sigh.

Why would we be lucky to end up with Barry?....surely if it got to that stage we would be luckier to have no-one sign....for me he's one of the few premiership players out there almost as awful as Aaron Ramsey.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I stopped caring a while ago about our lack of transfer activity i think it was abundantly clear from about three weeks ago that we wouldn't be signing anyone, Wenger has spent his career being stubborn and agonising over transfers.....his original plan i believe was to sign both Higuain and Fellaini but i believe he didn't want to spend the money the players respective clubs were asking (because he has a degree in economics he feels he needs to look at everything as value for money), than there is Suarez who he appreciates as a player he is trying to move from one premier league club to another will probably cost more than market value.....therefore 40million is bid.....but because he has no intention of paying a penny more than a pound more than that this is now dead in the water. And because Wenger is stubborn it's either these players or no-one, Bernard might have been looked at and enquiries made about him but i doubt anything substantial came of it.
For me i will only really care if on top of not signing anyone the guy is awarded a contract extension.....if that happened i would bend my red membership card until it snaps.

[Harland]

Why would we be lucky to end up with Barry?....surely if it got to that stage we would be luckier to have no-one sign....for me he's one of the few premiership players out there almost as awful as Aaron Ramsey.

hence my use of inverted commas. Believe me we will have a fair share of fans who will use a signing like Barry to absolve Wenger (or the board) of blame for another failed summer in terms of transfer dealings. Ollie, I am looking at you.

[selassie]

Been reading in various places that the Guardian's Amy Lawrence was on BBC Radio last night and apparently the board and Arsene are at odds over spending. Allegedly, the board want to spend big but Arsene doesn't.

Obviously I do not know or claim this to be fact, but Amy Lawrence is a pretty good journalist IMHO, she writes fairly balanced articles and is very pro-Arsenal, she's a fan isn't she?

Anyway, I really hope this is just a rumour and not true.

[Cripps_orig]

Sounds true

[Harland]

Been reading in various places that the Guardian's Amy Lawrence was on BBC Radio last night and apparently the board and Arsene are at odds over spending. Allegedly, the board want to spend big but Arsene doesn't.

Obviously I do not know or claim this to be fact, but Amy Lawrence is a pretty good journalist IMHO, she writes fairly balanced articles and is very pro-Arsenal, she's a fan isn't she?

Anyway, I really hope this is just a rumour and not true.

This is especially disheartening to me as I have always chosen to believe that Wenger was the fall guy for our greedy board. If even a nuance of Amy's report is true, it truly is mind baffling and disappointing.

Our greatest manager ever suffering from delusions of grandeur and what would otherwise be an Arsenal legend spoken about in hushed tones is now smeared and destroyed because of a refusal to adapt and improve.

[Power n Glory]

Was reading about this on Arseblog. Far from surprised if he doesn't want to spend big and the axe will ultimately fall on him if things go pear shaped.

[LDG]

Infuriating.

£0.00

[Özim]

Was reading about this on Arseblog. Far from surprised if he doesn't want to spend big and the axe will ultimately fall on him if things go pear shaped.
Yup totally agree, as I've said before he's risk averse, if he spent big the pressure would be on him to deliver trophies, it's pretty clear he's not convinced he can thus not spending an getting 4th place (the lower pressure option) is much more appealing.

He'll still come out with the usual, we can still win the title and were are going for the CL, but noone believes it because there's isn't a chance in hell without investment, his teams has failed and failed and failed again in the last 8 years.

[Marc Overmars]

I've said before what we do this summer with the money is entirely down to how brave Wenget is.

Some big money flops would hurt him deeply because he wouldn't be able to claim the high ground when talking about other big spenders.

[LDG]

I've said before what we do this summer with the money is entirely down to how brave Wenget is.

Some big money flops would hurt him deeply because he wouldn't be able to claim the high ground when talking about other big spenders.

Well, surely. SURELY, he knows that he can't NOT spend.

Regardless of the obvious areas that need strengthening, we don't have the numbers, let alone thinking about quality.

[Grebbo]

Well I kinda agree that there's no point in spending money unless you can buy significantly better players than what we've got. The thing is we've got lots of good players but no great players. And trying to buy a great player is bloody difficult because Arsenal is not their first, second or third choice... we probably rank somewhere around 10th on the most desirable clubs to join.

There are of course players out there we could spunk our load on that might get us challenging for second but is that much better than challenging for 3rd/4th? To win the league you need world class strikers, no team has ever won the league without world class strikers. But every top team is after a world class striker so they're not easy to get.

I sound like a Wenger lover but I'm not really, I gave up my season ticket a couple of seasons ago because I was so fed up. But I can see he's logic in not spending unless you can sign a superstar. Would Paulinho and Soldado improve us significantly? I don't think so.

If we sign Suarez then we're up there with the big boys challenging IMO. The problem Wenger's got is his trademark was always finding good players and turning them into stars but he hasn't done that for several seasons. For example the lad Coutinho at Liverpool looks a proper player and he was £10m or so.

It's obviously a very shit summer as usual so far but it could still change. Man Utd signed RVP on deadline day last summer didn't they? So they basically won the league with their deadline day signing.

[Grebbo]

I mean seriously what is up with these players? What's wrong with a trial? I'm sure Arsenal pay all his costs and he gets to look around the club at the same time. He's supposedly an Arsenal fan as well....


Godfrey Oboabona has criticised Arsene Wenger and accused the Gunners of disrespecting Nigerian clubs, after he was offered only a trial at the Emirates. The 22-year-old Nigerian international is contracted to hometown club Sunshine Stars but is believed to be eager to play in Europe this season.

The Metro believes both Arsenal and Newcastle United are tracking the defender, who started all three of his country's games at June's FIFA Confederations Cup; the Super Eagles finished third in group B after defeats to Spain and Uruguay. Oboabona also started all six games at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, as Nigeria claimed a third continental title.

The centre-back already has 25 senior caps to his name and believes he deserves more respect than Arsenal have shown so far. However, there seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding Oboabona's transfer claims.

An earlier report by The Sun (from March) claims Wenger has already had Oboabona on trial at the Emirates, prior to a possible £1m bid. At the time, the youngster confirmed his desire to play for the north London side, saying: "Arsenal are my favourite club from childhood. It is the club I want to play for."

However, in a more recent report, The Sun quotes Oboabona as saying: "Arsenal's management tell me to come for a trial when I won the African Nations Cup. I think I should be above such requests. It is high time some of these clubs started respecting Nigeria."

[LDG]

Well I kinda agree that there's no point in spending money unless you can buy significantly better players than what we've got. The thing is we've got lots of good players but no great players. And trying to buy a great player is bloody difficult because Arsenal is not their first, second or third choice... we probably rank somewhere around 10th on the most desirable clubs to join.

There are of course players out there we could spunk our load on that might get us challenging for second but is that much better than challenging for 3rd/4th? To win the league you need world class strikers, no team has ever won the league without world class strikers. But every top team is after a world class striker so they're not easy to get.

I sound like a Wenger lover but I'm not really, I gave up my season ticket a couple of seasons ago because I was so fed up. But I can see he's logic in not spending unless you can sign a superstar. Would Paulinho and Soldado improve us significantly? I don't think so.

If we sign Suarez then we're up there with the big boys challenging IMO. The problem Wenger's got is his trademark was always finding good players and turning them into stars but he hasn't done that for several seasons. For example the lad Coutinho at Liverpool looks a proper player and he was £10m or so.

It's obviously a very shit summer as usual so far but it could still change. Man Utd signed RVP on deadline day last summer didn't they? So they basically won the league with their deadline day signing.

We need much more than one striker though.

Utd had Ferguson. He organises, drills and gets every last ounce of effort out of the shittest of squads.

Wenger relies on his team to think for themselves. Play for themselves. Motivate themselves. (See yesterdays article for the words straight from his own mouth!)

In order for us to win the league based on that, we need two or three worldies, rather than one.

[Grebbo]

We need much more than one striker though.

Utd had Ferguson. He organises, drills and gets every last ounce of effort out of the shittest of squads.

Wenger relies on his team to think for themselves. Play for themselves. Motivate themselves. (See yesterdays article for the words straight from his own mouth!)

In order for us to win the league based on that, we need two or three worldies, rather than one.

Well yeah but one worldie is a good start.

Time for Ferguson to come home.

[Niall_Quinn]

Nani is talking to Moyes today about his future. Let's hope that nasty prospect doesn't crop up again.

[Power n Glory]

Well I kinda agree that there's no point in spending money unless you can buy significantly better players than what we've got. The thing is we've got lots of good players but no great players. And trying to buy a great player is bloody difficult because Arsenal is not their first, second or third choice... we probably rank somewhere around 10th on the most desirable clubs to join.

There are of course players out there we could spunk our load on that might get us challenging for second but is that much better than challenging for 3rd/4th? To win the league you need world class strikers, no team has ever won the league without world class strikers. But every top team is after a world class striker so they're not easy to get.

I sound like a Wenger lover but I'm not really, I gave up my season ticket a couple of seasons ago because I was so fed up. But I can see he's logic in not spending unless you can sign a superstar. Would Paulinho and Soldado improve us significantly? I don't think so.

If we sign Suarez then we're up there with the big boys challenging IMO. The problem Wenger's got is his trademark was always finding good players and turning them into stars but he hasn't done that for several seasons. For example the lad Coutinho at Liverpool looks a proper player and he was £10m or so.

It's obviously a very shit summer as usual so far but it could still change. Man Utd signed RVP on deadline day last summer didn't they? So they basically won the league with their deadline day signing.

We had a chance to sign Higuain but we let that one go and if we won’t Suarez then we know we have to up the bid or move on. It’s too much of a cop out to say we need world class signings to improve on what we have. Let’s not make out as if we have solid players in every position.

[Grebbo]

We had a chance to sign Higuain but we let that one go and if we won’t Suarez then we know we have to up the bid or move on. It’s too much of a cop out to say we need world class signings to improve on what we have. Let’s not make out as if we have solid players in every position.

Yeah I suppose we should have signed Higuain, but Suarez is much better so I can see why we didn't.

We need to bid £50m for Suarez and give them a week to sell or just be done with it.

[Grebbo]

Nani is talking to Moyes today about his future. Let's hope that nasty prospect doesn't crop up again.

I'd take him tbh

[LDG]

I'd take him tbh

Dear Lord, no.

[Marc Overmars]

Nani is talking to Moyes today about his future. Let's hope that nasty prospect doesn't crop up again.

As a replacement for Gervinho, sign him up.

[Grebbo]

Dear Lord, no.

I just contradicted what I said about only signing super super quality

:lol:

I suppose that's how desperate I am for signings

[gunnerrrrr]

This is so hugely frustrating, for the first time in a long time we dont have to sell and have good money to buy and seriously strengthen the squad. However the malaise that has effected Wenger over the last x amount of years has not disappeared.

From looking like we would be buying Higuain and Fellani, to now playing a game of roulette with Suaraz shows how ineffective and backwards the whole transfer plans are.

I think everyone wanted us to buy quickly and quietly, pay market value and then focus on the upcoming season. However yet again its the same bs being headed by Wenger....so frustrating.

[BlindFaith_8]

Was reading about this on Arseblog. Far from surprised if he doesn't want to spend big and the axe will ultimately fall on him if things go pear shaped.
I have always felt for quite some time that AW had the boards backing to serious funds, but had perfected the 4th place comfort zone which meant the board would be happy with income from UEFA and they couldnt sack him coz he's delivered thier target without spending a penny, the media would congratulate him based on the fact he doesnt have the money or strong enough team to compete with Man Utd, Chelsea and City, so he is always going to be viewed as the miracle worker with no funds and brining through 4th rate players, simples. He will retire a very rich man with his dignity still intact, no wonder they call him Le Professor.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Been reading in various places that the Guardian's Amy Lawrence was on BBC Radio last night and apparently the board and Arsene are at odds over spending. Allegedly, the board want to spend big but Arsene doesn't.

Obviously I do not know or claim this to be fact, but Amy Lawrence is a pretty good journalist IMHO, she writes fairly balanced articles and is very pro-Arsenal, she's a fan isn't she?

Anyway, I really hope this is just a rumour and not true.

She is a good journalist amd am arsenal fan however she said the exact same thing at an ast meeting either just before the end of season or just after. While I'm not saying she knows nothing, I just wonder if this is new news or is jut old stuff being recycled.

It then brings to another point, it's all very well gazidas wanting to spend, but he's more then happy not too and hide behind wenger letting him take the blame. Gazidas needs to man up

[I_Killed_Kenny]

Dont know if anyone watched the arseblog live hangout thing last nite. one of them made a valid point. If we are prepared to pay £40m odd maybe up to 50m for Suarez why did we not just go out and try and sign falcao or cavani at the start of the summer. They reckon we were not expecting for suarez to cost this much and now we are caught short without a fall back option. We can still afford him though, thats not in question.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Dont know if anyone watched the arseblog live hangout thing last nite. one of them made a valid point. If we are prepared to pay £40m odd maybe up to 50m for Suarez why did we not just go out and try and sign falcao or cavani at the start of the summer. They reckon we were not expecting for suarez to cost this much and now we are caught short without a fall back option. We can still afford him though, thats not in question.

Because they were at clubs already in champions league (I think) amd therefore we aren't a massive step up for them. Suarez is at Liverpool with no European football. Arsenal is a step up for him so that increases our chances of getting him, ESP as it seems Madrid amd others don't want to sign him

[selassie]

Well yeah but one worldie is a good start.

Time for Ferguson to come home.

We still haven't quite got the balance right, we had worldie's up until the point of RVP leaving. What Wenger has done and fair play to him is add balance to the side/squad, but we still lack quality.

We need more than Suarez, ideally we need a Suarez, Fellaini and maybe a top class AM or CB.

We need to spend every single penny of that 70mill or whatever the budget is if we really want to challenge for PL & CL.

[Grebbo]

Dont know if anyone watched the arseblog live hangout thing last nite. one of them made a valid point. If we are prepared to pay £40m odd maybe up to 50m for Suarez why did we not just go out and try and sign falcao or cavani at the start of the summer. They reckon we were not expecting for suarez to cost this much and now we are caught short without a fall back option. We can still afford him though, thats not in question.

Because they're on about £300k pw (in Falcao's case tax free) and both Monaco and PSG would outbid us in transfer fee and wages.

The only reason we're in with a sniff of signing Suarez is because the richest and top clubs don't want him, although that will probably change if RM don't get Bale.

[LDG]

Dont know if anyone watched the arseblog live hangout thing last nite. one of them made a valid point. If we are prepared to pay £40m odd maybe up to 50m for Suarez why did we not just go out and try and sign falcao or cavani at the start of the summer. They reckon we were not expecting for suarez to cost this much and now we are caught short without a fall back option. We can still afford him though, thats not in question.

Yeah, I listened to it last night.

There is definitely something funny going on behind the scenes. There always is at Arsenal.

The one thing which makes you wonder, if the fact that most other teams are so decisive when it comes to going about their business. We're always told that Arsenal are very private when it comes to dealings, yet we actually seem to create more of a fuss than anybody else.

[Power n Glory]

She is a good journalist amd am arsenal fan however she said the exact same thing at an ast meeting either just before the end of season or just after. While I'm not saying she knows nothing, I just wonder if this is new news or is jut old stuff being recycled.

It then brings to another point, it's all very well gazidas wanting to spend, but he's more then happy not too and hide behind wenger letting him take the blame. Gazidas needs to man up

Gazidis has been the one addressing the fans and trying to make the intentions of the club as clear as possible while Wenger isn’t being straight at all. The plenty of money, but little quality quote is absolute rubbish.

[selassie]

She is a good journalist amd am arsenal fan however she said the exact same thing at an ast meeting either just before the end of season or just after. While I'm not saying she knows nothing, I just wonder if this is new news or is jut old stuff being recycled.

It then brings to another point, it's all very well gazidas wanting to spend, but he's more then happy not too and hide behind wenger letting him take the blame. Gazidas needs to man up

What can he do? If for argument's sake Wenger is happy to spend but only on "his terms" driven by his principle then what are the board going to say?!! There is nothing they can do.

Wenger is in charge of the Footballing side of things, if he has been given a budget, identified the players, but instructed Ivan or the negotiators to only offer a certain amount as he has other targets then there is not a lot Ivan and Co. can do, what do they know about the quality of the player Wenger is going after?

[selassie]

Gazidis has been the one addressing the fans and trying to make the intentions of the club as clear as possible while Wenger isn’t being straight at all. The plenty of money, but little quality quote is absolute rubbish.

Yep, that's how I see it too. Gazidis pretty much put the budget on Arsene's head earlier this summer with his "He has money to spend, it's up to him to spend it" speech.

[Grebbo]

Yeah, I listened to it last night.

There is definitely something funny going on behind the scenes. There always is at Arsenal.

The one thing which makes you wonder, if the fact that most other teams are so decisive when it comes to going about their business. We're always told that Arsenal are very private when it comes to dealings, yet we actually seem to create more of a fuss than anybody else.

When have we created a fuss about bidding for a player? Wenger says no comment about every player. Moyes has been wittering on about Fabregas for a month now but Wenger has hardly mentioned Suarez.

Arsenal bidding £40m for Suarez is quite rightly causing media focus - it's the story of the summer because it's so unusual.

[Power n Glory]

What can he do? If for argument's sake Wenger is happy to spend but only on "his terms" driven by his principle then what are the board going to say?!! There is nothing they can do.

Wenger is in charge of the Footballing side of things, if he has been given a budget, identified the players, but instructed Ivan or the negotiators to only offer a certain amount as he has other targets then there is not a lot Ivan and Co. can do, what do they know about the quality of the player Wenger is going after?

Exactly. The 'quality' of a player is something he has to judge on. Nobody else can make that call. Wenger found players like Sagna, Eduardo, Hleb....it's hard to believe he can't find anyone on the market to improve this squad when he know has an even bigger budget.

[LDG]

When have we created a fuss about bidding for a player? Wenger says no comment about every player. Moyes has been wittering on about Fabregas for a month now but Wenger has hardly mentioned Suarez.

Arsenal bidding £40m for Suarez is quite rightly causing media focus - it's the story of the summer because it's so unusual.

Sorry, I meant the causes of our actions. No, we don't "talk" about it. But what we do creates more fuss than anybody else.

Firstly in the media, liek you say above.

But also, it seems that everyone we deal with (See Barca, Fergies comments, Perez (cunnt) comments, Liverpool just recently), says we're a nightmare.

[Niall_Quinn]

As a replacement for Gervinho, sign him up.

Another one of their cast-offs? No thanks. That's not a great Utd team and he can't get in it.

[I_Killed_Kenny]

Because they're on about £300k pw (in Falcao's case tax free) and both Monaco and PSG would outbid us in transfer fee and wages.

The only reason we're in with a sniff of signing Suarez is because the richest and top clubs don't want him, although that will probably change if RM don't get Bale.

these players werent on these big salaries before they signed. So if start of summer we said we will splash 50m on a striker, we could have gone out and tried for falcao, put him on wages that were high to us and that he would be happy on. we could have gotten things wrapped up before others had a chance to blow us out of the water is more the point i think they were making

[I_Killed_Kenny]

Yeah, I listened to it last night.

There is definitely something funny going on behind the scenes. There always is at Arsenal.

The one thing which makes you wonder, if the fact that most other teams are so decisive when it comes to going about their business. We're always told that Arsenal are very private when it comes to dealings, yet we actually seem to create more of a fuss than anybody else.


its always a merry go round with us. someone also said he wouldnt be surprised if we failed with suarez we would bid for rooney, going from 1 rejection to the next. there seems to be no structure. maybe we should have put bids in for hig, rooney and suarez and then seen which is most likely before upping them if needed. going from one to the other allows us to miss out on players as we have dilly dallied too long on 1 particular player.

huge frustration here as its not pre-planned it seems. got loadsamoney just dont know how to behave with it!

[Niall_Quinn]

You hear these stories of our scouts watching players all year long, 50 games. So far the result has been Sanogo who (coincidentally I'm sure) was free. It's not like we hit August and then start hunting around, we should know who we want and have the bids ready to go the minute the window opens. You don't use the window to find players, you use it to negotiate and get the deal done. This business about it being hard to find top players is utter bullshit, we've had a whole year to do that.

[I_Killed_Kenny]

You hear these stories of our scouts watching players all year long, 50 games. So far the result has been Sanogo who (coincidentally I'm sure) was free. It's not like we hit August and then start hunting around, we should know who we want and have the bids ready to go the minute the window opens. You don't use the window to find players, you use it to negotiate and get the deal done. This business about it being hard to find top players is utter bullshit, we've had a whole year to do that.

after last year you would have thought they learnt they did well and to carry that on. as in getting poldi sorted before the window even opened. getting giroud in early ish. it can be done. other teams lined up deals before the season ended (like we did with poldi) and then sorting things once it opened (schurlle). we did it last year so WTF happened this year!!!!

[Özim]

after last year you would have thought they learnt they did well and to carry that on. as in getting poldi sorted before the window even opened. getting giroud in early ish. it can be done. other teams lined up deals before the season ended (like we did with poldi) and then sorting things once it opened (schurlle). we did it last year so WTF happened this year!!!!
We knew we were selling RVP then, that's the difference.

[Özim]

She is a good journalist amd am arsenal fan however she said the exact same thing at an ast meeting either just before the end of season or just after. While I'm not saying she knows nothing, I just wonder if this is new news or is jut old stuff being recycled.

It then brings to another point, it's all very well gazidas wanting to spend, but he's more then happy not too and hide behind wenger letting him take the blame. Gazidas needs to man up
Seems believable to me, he's always come across as quite frugal when it comes to spending, in everything he says and does.

Gazidis came out and said we had money to spend, he's doing a rubbish job yes but he didn't hide in this case, it's Wenger hiding behind his comfort blanket knowing that if he spends expectations from the board will naturally be higher. He's been deluded about the ability of his squad for far too long now, 8 years without a tin pot trophy and he still says the same about the quality, if they're are so good why have they not managed to deliver anything, that's the question?

[Power n Glory]

these players werent on these big salaries before they signed. So if start of summer we said we will splash 50m on a striker, we could have gone out and tried for falcao, put him on wages that were high to us and that he would be happy on. we could have gotten things wrapped up before others had a chance to blow us out of the water is more the point i think they were making

The whole lot of them are short sighted. How long have we known we’d have money to spend? It must have been known ages ago. I’m not even worried about the Cavani’s of this world. I doubt we’d have been able to compete with PSG and Monaco anyway. Those strikers have known months in advance that they were due a massive pay increase. Club prestige doesn’t mean a thing to them if they’re going to France. Forgot those guys. I’m still baffled as to why we’re now looking to spend silly money on a world class striker when we already had one a year ago. We should have just kept RVP and upped his wages but I suspect the being told to sign better players dented Wenger’s pride and that’s why he shifted him off to Man Utd. That’s what I gathered from the interview in Japan anyway. He doesn’t like to be challenged and shifts players out when they do. We shouldn’t be in this position. It seems like there is no forward thinking.

[Niall_Quinn]

Seems believable to me, he's always come across as quite frugal when it comes to spending, in everything he says and does.

Gazidis came out and said we had money to spend, he's doing a rubbish job yes but he didn't hide in this case, it's Wenger hiding behind his comfort blanket knowing that if he spends expectations from the board will naturally be higher. He's been deluded about the ability of his squad for far too long now, 8 years without a tin pot trophy and he still says the same about the quality, if they're are so good why have they not managed to deliver anything, that's the question?

Gazidis isn't doing a rubbish job, he's doing a fantastic job. Just not a job that coincides with the interests of the fans. He's building the finances and therefore Kroenke's investment year on year. He now says we have £70mill a year excess, doesn't mean anyone at the club wants to spend it but supposedly we have it. You can't fault Arsenal as an investment vehicle, nobody else is even close to us.

[I_Killed_Kenny]

We knew we were selling RVP then, that's the difference.

that doesnt matter. the point is we can arrange things early. so whether or not we were selling anyone this year or not we could still have arranged things earlier or had clearer idea of who we are after. how could we supposedly be in for players like capoue in jan and not the summer. if we didnt manage it in jan, carry on dealing with the club, arrange it to happen in the summer.

[I_Killed_Kenny]

Gazidis isn't doing a rubbish job, he's doing a fantastic job. Just not a job that coincides with the interests of the fans. He's building the finances and therefore Kroenke's investment year on year. He now says we have £70mill a year excess, doesn't mean anyone at the club wants to spend it but supposedly we have it. You can't fault Arsenal as an investment vehicle, nobody else is even close to us.

AFC - Arsenal Financial Company :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger hasn't been deluded about the quality of the squad. Every year they've delivered that 4th place which is exactly what they were supposed to deliver. It's done in a soulless and depressing way, grinding out averages rather than putting in impressive and entertaining displays on the pitch. But the results keep coming in, season after season. Again, their definition of success is different the fans' definition. We want to win stuff, they want to stay near the top of the game so they can keep on increasing the revenues.

[Niall_Quinn]

AFC - Arsenal Financial Company :bow:

The North Bank (for the journey if not the win) :bow:

[Grebbo]

these players werent on these big salaries before they signed. So if start of summer we said we will splash 50m on a striker, we could have gone out and tried for falcao, put him on wages that were high to us and that he would be happy on. we could have gotten things wrapped up before others had a chance to blow us out of the water is more the point i think they were making

Well no, not really. Players have agents and those agents will be aware of the clubs that want their client and the money on offer. You'll never win a bidding war against PSG or Monaco. Falcao isn't just going to say to himself "well Arsenal are doubling my salary I better sign for them quickly" instead he'll sit on a beach and wait for the offers to come in and make his choice - which just so happened to be a tiny club in Monaco with tax free status paying him £300k pw net.

There's no such thing as "wrapping things up" when it comes to signing a top player. There's a long protracted bidding war if other top clubs want the same player.

[Grebbo]

Sorry, I meant the causes of our actions. No, we don't "talk" about it. But what we do creates more fuss than anybody else.

Firstly in the media, liek you say above.

But also, it seems that everyone we deal with (See Barca, Fergies comments, Perez (cunnt) comments, Liverpool just recently), says we're a nightmare.

Maybe but I'm sure Perez thinks Levy is a nightmare as well. Fergie wanted to pay £12m for RVP and we got £24m out of him so that's a small consolation I suppose. Even if we bid £50m for Suarez Liverpool would still be moaning because they don't want to sell their best player.

[Özim]

Wenger hasn't been deluded about the quality of the squad. Every year they've delivered that 4th place which is exactly what they were supposed to deliver. It's done in a soulless and depressing way, grinding out averages rather than putting in impressive and entertaining displays on the pitch. But the results keep coming in, season after season. Again, their definition of success is different the fans' definition. We want to win stuff, they want to stay near the top of the game so they can keep on increasing the revenues.
I'd say he's been deluded, after all he's claimed we're in the title hunt more than once.

[Özim]

Well no, not really. Players have agents and those agents will be aware of the clubs that want their client and the money on offer. You'll never win a bidding war against PSG or Monaco. Falcao isn't just going to say to himself "well Arsenal are doubling my salary I better sign for them quickly" instead he'll sit on a beach and wait for the offers to come in and make his choice - which just so happened to be a tiny club in Monaco with tax free status paying him £300k pw net.

There's no such thing as "wrapping things up" when it comes to signing a top player. There's a long protracted bidding war if other top clubs want the same player.
I don't think it's quite that simple, Monaco and PSG signed these guys because they offered full whack to the selling clubs, but given a choice between those clubs and Real or Barca pretty sure the players would choose the latter (they'd still be earning shedloads). Thing is those clubs never bid the amounts required.

It comes down to the appeal of a club as well, it's not just money despite what some would have you believe, if there's no other feasible choice then yes I guess money does become appealing if a club is willing to spend big to move up in the world.

[Grebbo]

I don't think it's quite that simple, Monaco and PSG signed these guys because they offered full whack to the selling clubs, but given a choice between those clubs and Real or Barca pretty sure the players would choose the latter (they'd still be earning shedloads). Thing is those clubs never bid the amounts required.

It comes down to the appeal of a club as well, it's not just money despite what some would have you believe, if there's no other feasible choice then yes I guess money does become appealing if a club is willing to spend big to move up in the world.

Well yeah I agree, but we're not RM or Barca. We're possibly the 10th most attractive club to sign for.

[Power n Glory]

Wenger hasn't been deluded about the quality of the squad. Every year they've delivered that 4th place which is exactly what they were supposed to deliver. It's done in a soulless and depressing way, grinding out averages rather than putting in impressive and entertaining displays on the pitch. But the results keep coming in, season after season. Again, their definition of success is different the fans' definition. We want to win stuff, they want to stay near the top of the game so they can keep on increasing the revenues.

Wenger is deluded and if we don’t bring in quality this season then he’s to blame and it’s his decision. It makes no sense for Ivan to make such a big fuss about our spending power and place all that pressure on Wenger if we were only interested in settling for 4th. If he knows Wenger can deliver 4th on the cheap, then why rock the boat like this?

[I_Killed_Kenny]

Well no, not really. Players have agents and those agents will be aware of the clubs that want their client and the money on offer. You'll never win a bidding war against PSG or Monaco. Falcao isn't just going to say to himself "well Arsenal are doubling my salary I better sign for them quickly" instead he'll sit on a beach and wait for the offers to come in and make his choice - which just so happened to be a tiny club in Monaco with tax free status paying him £300k pw net.

There's no such thing as "wrapping things up" when it comes to signing a top player. There's a long protracted bidding war if other top clubs want the same player.

I disagree there. monaco sorted things pretty quickly and easily for falcao cos they can afford to pay giant fees etc, same with PSG and cavani so yes it can be done to avoid a bidding war (but yes i know, we arent in that bracket, just saying is all)

theres no harm in starting the bidding war either. til monaco came in for falcao the papers were all saying it was roughly 30-35m for chelsea i think. At that stage we could compete and bid. who knows if that would have made monaco look elsewhere and left him to us and chelsea to fight it out say. they didnt even try to bid, they just paid the asking fee and thats it.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger is deluded and if we don’t bring in quality this season then he’s to blame and it’s his decision. It makes no sense for Ivan to make such a big fuss about our spending power and place all that pressure on Wenger if we were only interested in settling for 4th. If he knows Wenger can deliver 4th on the cheap, then why rock the boat like this?

Because Ivan's audience is the business community. He'll view the deal with the Nigerian bank as our top signing of the window.

[JonasTC]

Well yeah I agree, but we're not RM or Barca. We're possibly the 10th most attractive club to sign for.

I dont know about that in pure "attractive" sense, i only see clubs like Barca, RM, Bayern or Man Utd as more attractive (if i should be impartial ofc, otherwise we're nr1 without a doubt >_<). But alot of clubs beat us on money, like psg, chelsea, city, monaco, etc.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'd say he's been deluded, after all he's claimed we're in the title hunt more than once.

Of course he says we're in the title hunt. The club charges the highest ticket prices in the world, you need to have a sales pitch to fill the seats.

[Grebbo]

I dont know about that in pure "attractive" sense, i only see clubs like Barca, RM, Bayern or Man Utd as more attractive (if i should be impartial ofc, otherwise we're nr1 without a doubt >_<). But alot of clubs beat us on money, like psg, chelsea, city, monaco, etc.

Whilst I include the sugar daddy's in the clubs more attractive than us it's also worth noting that Arsenal haven't won anything for almost 10 years. So a 27yr old player in his prime hasn't seen us win anything since he was a teenager. That's a pretty big deal. Chelsea are a small club with a big owner to us but to a footballer they're a bigger club than us because they have consistently won trophies in the past decade. And not just trophies but major trophies.

[selassie]

Whilst I include the sugar daddy's in the clubs more attractive than us it's also worth noting that Arsenal haven't won anything for almost 10 years. So a 27yr old player in his prime hasn't seen us win anything since he was a teenager. That's a pretty big deal. Chelsea are a small club with a big owner to us but to a footballer they're a bigger club than us because they have consistently won trophies in the past decade. And not just trophies but major trophies.

Yep, if we want the best then we are certainly going to need to pay up in both the transfer fee and wages. It's no good chasing elite talent if we are still in the mindset of paying low fees and wages.

Clubs are not going to roll over for us and let us cherry pick their stars at prices we dictate. The selling club dictates the fee and the buying club more often than not will have to pay as close to the fee as the selling club dictates, that's how the market has always worked.

[Power n Glory]

Because Ivan's audience is the business community. He'll view the deal with the Nigerian bank as our top signing of the window.

That still makes no sense. If Wenger's his golden goose, why put all the pressure on him so he gets the chop if all turns sour this summer? If we're content with 4th and Wenger delivers what's required, why risk losing him when he's so good at keeping costs low?

[ENSKIED]

Whilst I include the sugar daddy's in the clubs more attractive than us it's also worth noting that Arsenal haven't won anything for almost 10 years. So a 27yr old player in his prime hasn't seen us win anything since he was a teenager. That's a pretty big deal. Chelsea are a small club with a big owner to us but to a footballer they're a bigger club than us because they have consistently won trophies in the past decade. And not just trophies but major trophies.

Well basically bought the trophies . . . .

[Power n Glory]

It’s all bought. Football just isn’t a pure sport anymore.

[LDG]

It’s all bought. Football just isn’t a pure sport anymore.

Pretty much.

We keep asking Wenger to wake up and get with the programme. We can't expect him to if we're living in the past ourselves.

Football as we knew and loved it is now fucked, and you can either choose to go along with it and shrug your shoulders, try and do something about it (LoL) or just not pay any interest.

All this "buying trophies" malarky is the way it's done now.

I hope that the arse falls out of it at some point, and we get our game back, but for now, we're stuck with it, and no amount of whinging or moaning about it is going to change it.

[Grebbo]

Haven't the best players always gone to the best clubs with the best chance of winning things?

So the game hasnt changed that much.

[ENSKIED]

It’s all bought. Football just isn’t a pure sport anymore.

Ahh yes all too true PnG; its very Biggggggggggg Business now, on a global footing and any purists like Wegner and one or two others will pay the price in terms of trophies NOT won, if you know what I mean. Even managers quote trite adages such as " it's a result driven business" and so forth. While for me Man City and Chelsea are more or less proof positive you indeed now "buy" the title.

[Power n Glory]

Pretty much.

We keep asking Wenger to wake up and get with the programme. We can't expect him to if we're living in the past ourselves.

Football as we knew and loved it is now fucked, and you can either choose to go along with it and shrug your shoulders, try and do something about it (LoL) or just not pay any interest.

All this "buying trophies" malarky is the way it's done now.

I hope that the arse falls out of it at some point, and we get our game back, but for now, we're stuck with it, and no amount of whinging or moaning about it is going to change it.

Pay no interest. Mind and money!

[JonasTC]

Im getting rumours from danish media, that we're trying to trade Bendtner for Jesus Gamez (malaga) who is their captain and plays right back, i dont know much about him, but he captained a side that did pretty well in champions league, i just dont know what the idea with him should be, we already got sagna and jenkinson to take over for him soon.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Im getting rumours from danish media, that we're trying to trade Bendtner for Jesus Gamez (malaga) who is their captain and plays right back, i dont know much about him, but he captained a side that did pretty well in champions league, i just dont know what the idea with him should be, we already got sagna and jenkinson to take over for him soon.

ive seen those rumours too. dont know much about gamez other then he is a right back, it suggests to me that we are moving Sagna to centre back.

he played a lot of pre season there

[Xhaka Can’t]

How many times have we got rid of Bendtner now?

[LDG]

How many times have we got rid of Bendtner now?

If only we had :(

[JonasTC]

to be fair, malaga were probably never out, they've just both been playing the waiting game and hopefully bendtner will lose that game

[Marc Overmars]

He's a shameless **** who'll probably end up going out on loan again at the last minute.

I never liked Santos but I do respect him for cancelling his contract and moving on without a fuss.

[GP]

Gervinho is supposedly taking a big pay cut as well.

Bendtner needs to be euthenised.

[Power n Glory]

He's a shameless **** who'll probably end up going out on loan again at the last minute.

I never liked Santos but I do respect him for cancelling his contract and moving on without a fuss.

Forget sending him out on loan. If he’s going to be a prick, I’d rather we let him rot on the bench during a World Cup year.

[Marc Overmars]

He probably doesn't even care it's a World Cup year, the Danes hate him as well.

[Niall_Quinn]

Pay no interest. Mind and money!

Come on. We're all on here when we should be working talking about transfer deals that some poxy journalist has pulled out of his arsehole. Pay no interest? We're addicts and they know it.

[Niall_Quinn]

That still makes no sense. If Wenger's his golden goose, why put all the pressure on him so he gets the chop if all turns sour this summer? If we're content with 4th and Wenger delivers what's required, why risk losing him when he's so good at keeping costs low?

It makes sense if Ivan doesn't pay any attention to the fans whatsoever, beyond the usual PR obligations. That's Wenger's secondary role, to sit there and take the flak when football matters interfere with the business of the company.

[Power n Glory]

Come on. We're all on here when we should be working talking about transfer deals that some poxy journalist has pulled out of his arsehole. Pay no interest? We're addicts and they know it.

I'm killing time! But they're not getting any more money out of me.

Alos, what is your agenda? Why keep making out as if there is nothing anyone can do?

[Niall_Quinn]

How many times have we got rid of Bendtner now?

You have to hope some sort of lesson is being learned here. Demand the players produce something before handing them 52K a week.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm killing time! But they're not getting any more money out of me.

They have blokes ready to chase the bus for 5km. Not saying your decision doesn't mean something to you, just saying it doesn't mean shit to them.

[Niall_Quinn]

He probably doesn't even care it's a World Cup year, the Danes hate him as well.

In the world of Nick everybody loves him except the haters.

[Power n Glory]

It makes sense if Ivan doesn't pay any attention to the fans whatsoever, beyond the usual PR obligations. That's Wenger's secondary role, to sit there and take the flak when football matters interfere with the business of the company.

That’s not even logical and your imagination is running wild.

[Niall_Quinn]

That’s not even logical and your imagination is running wild.

You're boycotting the game because it has sold out but it's illogical for me to suppose some of the principal figures involved in that sell out don't give a shit what the fans think or want?

[Power n Glory]

You're boycotting the game because it has sold out but it's illogical for me to suppose some of the principal figures involved in that sell out don't give a shit what the fans think or want?

It’s illogical to make out that Wenger is a fall guy and Ivan is dropping him into expecting him just to take it. This is Wenger’s final year of his contact and they should be keeping him sweet. Also, I doubt Ivan would have taken his time to address the bloggers and fans if he didn’t give a shit. Even the slickest politician and business knows how to play it smart and keep people on side.

Plus, I can't understand why you of all people would be against boycotting games or belittling people that choose to spend their cash elsewhere.

[Ollie the Optimist]

It’s illogical to make out that Wenger is a fall guy and Ivan is dropping him into expecting him just to take it. This is Wenger’s final year of his contact and they should be keeping him sweet. Also, I doubt Ivan would have taken his time to address the bloggers and fans if he didn’t give a shit. Even the slickest politician and business knows how to play it smart and keep people on side.

Plus, I can't understand why you of all people would be against boycotting games or belittling people that choose to spend their cash elsewhere.

it isnt and hes done it before

[Özil's Panoramic View]

it isnt and hes done it before

when?

[Ollie the Optimist]

when?

by finally admitting this summer that wenger had a limited budget. before that, he said we had this 70 million warchest and could spend, therefore it puts the blame on wengers door and off him

[Power n Glory]

So Ivan is going to piss off and risk losing his number 1 asset? But he doesn't give a shit about what the fans think or do so why do use Wenger as the fall guy? A PHW response would be more than efficient! It's illogical even from a business perspective.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

by finally admitting this summer that wenger had a limited budget. before that, he said we had this 70 million warchest and could spend, therefore it puts the blame on wengers door and off him

but Wenger himself did say he had money to spend, but would only spend big on top, top quality.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I do find the arguments about the board being satisfied with just 4th somewhat illogical, firstly if that was the case than they would have invested more in the squad simply to guarantee that fourth place finish and they certainly wouldn't be pleased with Wenger for cutting it so fine in the last two seasons

Second of all when you are marketing something for making money you don't forget that your selling a product and the product in question is a football club, and with business as with everything else perception is key and sponsorship and business investment is more likely to be forthcoming for a club that has on the field success, and this is why there are clubs in Europe whose oversea marketing is far, far superior to ours and generally our record profits come from player sales.
That is mainly because Ivan Gazidis is an incompitent cretin....not because we have won zero silverware under his tenure or he has not really overseen any marquee signings (which isn't anything to do with his role at the club anyway) but because the guy has been a big failure at marketing the club.

If however this rumoured Puma deal comes to fruition alongside the re-negotiations with Emirates Airline for the stadium sponsorship he will have gone some way towards redeeming himself, although i don't believe the sheer level of muppetry that caused him to try and broker business negotiations with a Russian Telekoms company without bothering to do any research (which had he bothered to do so would have shown that this company was owned by personna non grata Alisher Usmanov) can be easily forgotten.

Which leads me to my next point if they are so concerned with running the club at minimal cost to maximise profit only why would they not accept Alisher Usmanov's offered hand out especially if he claims that the offer comes without strings attached.
The point has been made that even if a mass boycott ensued that the club would not care because of the amount of corporate investment it would garner through marketing the club to foreign fans (such as the far east), firstly i don't see how this would be tenable long-term unless the club was succesful in winning trophies because foreigners who have no geographic or emotional ties to the club will just jump ship and support a more succesful club at the first oportunity.
Secondly the same point is made somewhat self-contradictory that the promises of marquee signings ensured that Season tickets were renewed and so fans would accept the high ticket prices levied on them, so really if 4th was all it was about and the fans were unimportant why bother promising them anything in the first place.

I think it is down to Wenger on this occasion and i am not even entirely convinced by the argument that he is only afraid to make big signings because he is afraid that even with large investment he doesn't have the ability to win silverware. I don't think confidence has ever been Wenger's problem i think his problem is stubborn failure to adapt and to an extent a failure to take on board the counsel of others, Wenger is essentially i believe buying into his own bullshit that would make spending on a large scale a form of cheating in his eyes....i think he is actually entrenched in his own puritanical philosophy. And the board naturally cautious are unwilling to push him too much towards the big money signings they think the team needs, and they would like the club to have in order to market the club abroad that much more successfully. Simply because they are afraid that he won't sign a new contract and they don't see anyone around that can take on the responsibility that Wenger has.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

any heard the rumour that Valencia are interested in Giroud now that Soldado is en route to the shower from down the road?

[Master Splinter]

Confirmation that we're signing Suarez tbh.

Or just more nonsense.

I'm going with c).

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Confirmation that we're signing Suarez tbh.

Or just more nonsense.

I'm going with c).

remember we already have the crippled postman who can play there.

[Niall_Quinn]

It’s illogical to make out that Wenger is a fall guy and Ivan is dropping him into expecting him just to take it. This is Wenger’s final year of his contact and they should be keeping him sweet. Also, I doubt Ivan would have taken his time to address the bloggers and fans if he didn’t give a shit. Even the slickest politician and business knows how to play it smart and keep people on side.

Plus, I can't understand why you of all people would be against boycotting games or belittling people that choose to spend their cash elsewhere.

It's really difficult having any kind of discussion with you because whatever is said you ignore it and then create the other side of the argument so you can knock it down. I didn't say Gazidis was dumping Wenger in it. I said both guys have their roles to play. And PR is all about presenting information in a way that will be appealing to a specific target audience. Sometimes you send that message directly, other times you send it indirectly.

The last sentence is just crazy. Twice I have said I understand the personal position of people who don't want to play along with the corporate agenda. I said in addition it doesn't mean a shit to the corporation, that's not the same thing as me agreeing with that corporation and it certainly isn't belittling the protester. This is your problem. If people don't agree 100% with your position you take the areas of disagreement and magnify them tenfold to try and make your opponent's position seem ridiculous. That's not an honest way to argue.

[Power n Glory]

I do find the arguments about the board being satisfied with just 4th somewhat illogical, firstly if that was the case than they would have invested more in the squad simply to guarantee that fourth place finish and they certainly wouldn't be pleased with Wenger for cutting it so fine in the last two seasons

Second of all when you are marketing something for making money you don't forget that your selling a product and the product in question is a football club, and with business as with everything else perception is key and sponsorship and business investment is more likely to be forthcoming for a club that has on the field success, and this is why there are clubs in Europe whose oversea marketing is far, far superior to ours and generally our record profits come from player sales.
That is mainly because Ivan Gazidis is an incompitent cretin....not because we have won zero silverware under his tenure or he has not really overseen any marquee signings (which isn't anything to do with his role at the club anyway) but because the guy has been a big failure at marketing the club.

If however this rumoured Puma deal comes to fruition alongside the re-negotiations with Emirates Airline for the stadium sponsorship he will have gone some way towards redeeming himself, although i don't believe the sheer level of muppetry that caused him to try and broker business negotiations with a Russian Telekoms company without bothering to do any research (which had he bothered to do so would have shown that this company was owned by personna non grata Alisher Usmanov) can be easily forgotten.

Which leads me to my next point if they are so concerned with running the club at minimal cost to maximise profit only why would they not accept Alisher Usmanov's offered hand out especially if he claims that the offer comes without strings attached.
The point has been made that even if a mass boycott ensued that the club would not care because of the amount of corporate investment it would garner through marketing the club to foreign fans (such as the far east), firstly i don't see how this would be tenable long-term unless the club was succesful in winning trophies because foreigners who have no geographic or emotional ties to the club will just jump ship and support a more succesful club at the first oportunity.
Secondly the same point is made somewhat self-contradictory that the promises of marquee signings ensured that Season tickets were renewed and so fans would accept the high ticket prices levied on them, so really if 4th was all it was about and the fans were unimportant why bother promising them anything in the first place.

I think it is down to Wenger on this occasion and i am not even entirely convinced by the argument that he is only afraid to make big signings because he is afraid that even with large investment he doesn't have the ability to win silverware. I don't think confidence has ever been Wenger's problem i think his problem is stubborn failure to adapt and to an extent a failure to take on board the counsel of others, Wenger is essentially i believe buying into his own bullshit that would make spending on a large scale a form of cheating in his eyes....i think he is actually entrenched in his own puritanical philosophy. And the board naturally cautious are unwilling to push him too much towards the big money signings they think the team needs, and they would like the club to have in order to market the club abroad that much more successfully. Simply because they are afraid that he won't sign a new contract and they don't see anyone around that can take on the responsibility that Wenger has.

:gp:

Nicely put! Some logic.

[Niall_Quinn]

I do find the arguments about the board being satisfied with just 4th somewhat illogical, firstly if that was the case than they would have invested more in the squad simply to guarantee that fourth place finish and they certainly wouldn't be pleased with Wenger for cutting it so fine in the last two seasons

Second of all when you are marketing something for making money you don't forget that your selling a product and the product in question is a football club, and with business as with everything else perception is key and sponsorship and business investment is more likely to be forthcoming for a club that has on the field success, and this is why there are clubs in Europe whose oversea marketing is far, far superior to ours and generally our record profits come from player sales.
That is mainly because Ivan Gazidis is an incompitent cretin....not because we have won zero silverware under his tenure or he has not really overseen any marquee signings (which isn't anything to do with his role at the club anyway) but because the guy has been a big failure at marketing the club.

If however this rumoured Puma deal comes to fruition alongside the re-negotiations with Emirates Airline for the stadium sponsorship he will have gone some way towards redeeming himself, although i don't believe the sheer level of muppetry that caused him to try and broker business negotiations with a Russian Telekoms company without bothering to do any research (which had he bothered to do so would have shown that this company was owned by personna non grata Alisher Usmanov) can be easily forgotten.

Which leads me to my next point if they are so concerned with running the club at minimal cost to maximise profit only why would they not accept Alisher Usmanov's offered hand out especially if he claims that the offer comes without strings attached.
The point has been made that even if a mass boycott ensued that the club would not care because of the amount of corporate investment it would garner through marketing the club to foreign fans (such as the far east), firstly i don't see how this would be tenable long-term unless the club was succesful in winning trophies because foreigners who have no geographic or emotional ties to the club will just jump ship and support a more succesful club at the first oportunity.
Secondly the same point is made somewhat self-contradictory that the promises of marquee signings ensured that Season tickets were renewed and so fans would accept the high ticket prices levied on them, so really if 4th was all it was about and the fans were unimportant why bother promising them anything in the first place.

I think it is down to Wenger on this occasion and i am not even entirely convinced by the argument that he is only afraid to make big signings because he is afraid that even with large investment he doesn't have the ability to win silverware. I don't think confidence has ever been Wenger's problem i think his problem is stubborn failure to adapt and to an extent a failure to take on board the counsel of others, Wenger is essentially i believe buying into his own bullshit that would make spending on a large scale a form of cheating in his eyes....i think he is actually entrenched in his own puritanical philosophy. And the board naturally cautious are unwilling to push him too much towards the big money signings they think the team needs, and they would like the club to have in order to market the club abroad that much more successfully. Simply because they are afraid that he won't sign a new contract and they don't see anyone around that can take on the responsibility that Wenger has.

As an example, why do banks have Indian call centres when their customers very plainly don't want them?

[Özil's Panoramic View]

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/07/30/liverpool-close-to-completing-20m-deal-to-re-sign-chelsea-striker-fernando-torres-150k-a-week-deal-on-the-table/

:popcorn:

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

No.

[Power n Glory]

It's really difficult having any kind of discussion with you because whatever is said you ignore it and then create the other side of the argument so you can knock it down. I didn't say Gazidis was dumping Wenger in it. I said both guys have their roles to play. And PR is all about presenting information in a way that will be appealing to a specific target audience. Sometimes you send that message directly, other times you send it indirectly.

The last sentence is just crazy. Twice I have said I understand the personal position of people who don't want to play along with the corporate agenda. I said in addition it doesn't mean a shit to the corporation, that's not the same thing as me agreeing with that corporation and it certainly isn't belittling the protester. This is your problem. If people don't agree 100% with your position you take the areas of disagreement and magnify them tenfold to try and make your opponent's position seem ridiculous. That's not an honest way to argue.

Don't start with the 'this is your problem' talk. Make a stronger case or clarify your position. If we're talking in the realms of business, what your saying doesn't make any sense at all.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

No.

why not?

[Master Splinter]

No.

At least try to insert a shred of believability into your absurd transfer bullshit masquerading as an article.

Even two-bit drug dealers and Simon Cowell take more pride in their scummy work.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

As an example, why do banks have Indian call centres when their customers very plainly don't want them?

I'm struggling to understand what point of mine that actually answers, yes of course big companies don't act in the interest of their customers and are about maximising profit......but firstly as i've said the best way to actually do that is to make your product sellable (in this instance a football club, and corporate sponsorship and business deals are going to be more forthcoming with success).
Stan Kroenke won't actually gain any dividends from us withholding transfer money, he surely is only going to make a profit from the club increasing it's share value.....and this is going to happen with better commerical deals which come as a result of on the field success.

[Master Splinter]

Malaga manager Bernd Schuster has told Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner to forget about money and focus on getting his career back on track.

Bendtner has fallen badly out of favour at the Emirates and the Dane endured a nightmare year on loan at Juventus last season, making just 10 appearancesand failing to find the net.

Bendtner’s wage demands have already scuppered a move to German side Frankfurt, and Schuster says they are making a deal impossible for Malaga too.

“It’s a very difficult economic issue for the club, it’s almost impossible, we are not at that level,” Schuster is quoted as saying in El Mundo.

Schuster remains keen on the 25-year-old, however, and believes a good year at Malaga could see him secure a new lucrative contract.

“He wants to keep earning money,” he added. “He is a player who has not done too well in recent years, he needs to make up ground but he has to decide what he wants to do, make up ground or keep making money.

“That’s where we are. I favour the first option, to make up ground, have a great year with Malaga and then make money again.”

http://www.london24.com/sport/arsenal/malaga_boss_tells_arsenal_outcast_to_stop_thinking _about_money_1_2306871

I wonder if this will get through to the moran.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

At least try to insert a shred of believability into your absurd transfer bullshit masquerading as an article.

Even two-bit drug dealers and Simon Cowell take more pride in their scummy work.

Even Suarez to Arsenal makes more sense than this. Just.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

At least try to insert a shred of believability into your absurd transfer bullshit masquerading as an article.

Even two-bit drug dealers and Simon Cowell take more pride in their scummy work.

I find the insinuation there deeply offensive, even two bit drug dealers take immense pride in their work....they work their f**king fingers to the bone....because they believe in what they do.

[Edinburgh Gooner]

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/07/30/liverpool-close-to-completing-20m-deal-to-re-sign-chelsea-striker-fernando-torres-150k-a-week-deal-on-the-table/

:popcorn:

Caught offside.... Awful site. Although i do frequent the mobile app as it is good for a laugh.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Even Suarez to Arsenal makes more sense than this. Just.

I think he was responding to the comment you were responding to rather than to you directly....i could be wrong.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

http://www.london24.com/sport/arsenal/malaga_boss_tells_arsenal_outcast_to_stop_thinking _about_money_1_2306871

I wonder if this will get through to the moran.

I doubt it...Bendtner's personality bordens on Clinical Narcassicism....unrelenting self-love. Bendtner won't see what has happened to him as his faullt, he will see this as standing up for the wages he deserves despite his obvious genius going unrecognised. Still though top marks for Bernd Schuster for saying what he did.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Caught offside.... Awful site. Although i do frequent the mobile app as it is good for a laugh.

ran into the link on another forum and thought I'd share.....

also, always be mindful that the tread title says "and shit", too.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

I think he was responding to the comment you were responding to rather than to you directly....i could be wrong.

I know. I meant that even Suarez going to Arsenal makes more sense than Torres going back to Liverpool. *that creepy wink smiley*

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't know....if he started scoring goals for you again...would he be forgiven for joining that shower?

[Edinburgh Gooner]

ran into the link on another forum and thought I'd share.....

also, always be mindful that the tread title says "and shit", too.

if you want shit, check out the daily mail arsenal page. the "in news from around the web" section there are some horrendous piles of shit.

[Edinburgh Gooner]

http://justarsenal.com/arsenal-get-transfer-boost-with-suarez-house-hunting-in-london/25475

probably for when he signs for Chelsea

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

I don't know....if he started scoring goals for you again...would he be forgiven for joining that shower?

In a flash.

But he won't. He'll only get worse.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

http://justarsenal.com/arsenal-get-transfer-boost-with-suarez-house-hunting-in-london/25475

probably for when he signs for Chelsea

Surprised Chelsea haven't gone in for him to be honest, he could room with John Terry and they could have fun on evenings in watching old episodes of the black and white minstrel show.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

In a flash.

But he won't. He'll only get worse.

I personally just don't think he fits in with the style adopted by Chelsea even when his old boss Benitez was there

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

I personally just don't think he fits in with the style adopted by Chelsea even when his old boss Benitez was there

He's lost most of his main attributes from when he first moved to England, not least his pace.

He's just a glorified work horse now, an admirable hard worker lacking in any confidence who still manages to scrabble +3s against FC Nordsjaelland Reserves but ultimately he's withered away into nothing. It's quite sad really, because he was a frightening player at times for us, now he's just a shell of a man.

[Master Splinter]

He's lost most of his main attributes from when he first moved to England

He's just a work horse now, an admirable hard worker lacking in any confidence who still manages to scrabble but ultimately he's withered away into nothing. It's quite sad really, now he's just a shell of a man.

Leave Wenfer alone.

[Grebbo]

He's lost most of his main attributes from when he first moved to England, not least his pace.

He's just a glorified work horse now, an admirable hard worker lacking in any confidence who still manages to scrabble +3s against FC Nordsjaelland Reserves but ultimately he's withered away into nothing. It's quite sad really, because he was a frightening player at times for us, now he's just a shell of a man.

Who was the better player for your lot out of Suarez and Torres?

[Master Splinter]

Surprised Chelsea haven't gone in for him to be honest, he could room with John Terry and they could have fun on evenings in watching old episodes of the black and white minstrel show.

Or this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_gN7zlpnz8

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Or this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_gN7zlpnz8

Suarez wouldn't like that at all...he'd think the black man should know his place and be thankful and flattered that the white man is ogling his wife.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Who was the better player for your lot out of Suarez and Torres?

I'll fudge the answer. Best all round player is Suarez, no question. Simply as a goalscorer and striker, Torres.

But if I could only choose one, Suarez. Ignoring all the crap that comes with him.

[Master Splinter]

Ooh it's like This Is Your Life.

I'll fudge the answer. Best all round player is Suarez, no question. Simply as a goalscorer and striker, Torres.

But if I could only choose one, Suarez. Ignoring all the crap that comes with him.

The fact Torres played in a much more settled, balanced and quite simply higher-quality team in every area of the pitch also bolsters the case for Suarez.

#TeamSuarez.

Sorry.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Don't start with the 'this is your problem' talk. Make a stronger case or clarify your position. If we're talking in the realms of business, what your saying doesn't make any sense at all.

I thought his position - particularly the point in relation to understanding why people don't want to play to the corporate agenda was crystal clear. In fact NQ's entire posting history pretty much supports not parting with money to support a corporate agenda that is almost completely unaligned to the interests of supporters of a football club.

To reach the conclusion you arrived at is baffling.

[GP]

Jens' Face woz rite.

[Power n Glory]

I thought his position - particularly the point in relation to understanding why people don't want to play to the corporate agenda was crystal clear. In fact NQ's entire posting history pretty much supports not parting with money to support a corporate agenda that is almost completely unaligned to the interests of supporters of a football club.

To reach the conclusion you arrived at is baffling.

Good for you!

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm struggling to understand what point of mine that actually answers, yes of course big companies don't act in the interest of their customers and are about maximising profit......but firstly as i've said the best way to actually do that is to make your product sellable (in this instance a football club, and corporate sponsorship and business deals are going to be more forthcoming with success).
Stan Kroenke won't actually gain any dividends from us withholding transfer money, he surely is only going to make a profit from the club increasing it's share value.....and this is going to happen with better commerical deals which come as a result of on the field success.

But the better commercial deals are on the table now and they haven't been linked to success on the field at all, unless the constant 4th place finishes are viewed as success in the business world. Undoubtedly they are and this is where the huge disconnect with the fans exists. And the share price has the potential to rocket to looney levels with Usmanov already overbidding for every share he can get. The fact is, if you look at it from a business angle Arsenal is a tremendous success, the model example. They've managed to do all this without paying a blind bit of attention to the fans asking where the quality has gone or criticising the lack of ambition. I'm saying as long as we continue to look at this as fans (which is of course understandable) we probably don't get close to what the agenda of the club actually is because we're not looking in the same places.

[Niall_Quinn]

Don't start with the 'this is your problem' talk. Make a stronger case or clarify your position. If we're talking in the realms of business, what your saying doesn't make any sense at all.

Seriously though, I have made the case so many times it even bores the shit out of me. You want me to clarify and strength something you refuse to acknowledge exists. What's the point of that?

[Niall_Quinn]

I doubt it...Bendtner's personality bordens on Clinical Narcassicism....unrelenting self-love. Bendtner won't see what has happened to him as his faullt, he will see this as standing up for the wages he deserves despite his obvious genius going unrecognised. Still though top marks for Bernd Schuster for saying what he did.

He said that in an interview recently. Everyone who doesn't see it (precisely) his way is a "hater". The guy should be in care.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I actually think the amount we make in commerical revenue is quite paltry compared to what we could get, unless your saying the Board is greedy but they are not that greedy.
I think you'd also have to use a magic wand to explain away the wage bill before what your suggesting makes sense.
i think we have made two major deals commerically in the last 6-12 months....one is the re-negotiation for the Emirates stadium naming rights, the other is the spoken about in hushed tones kit deal we might have with Puma from 2014 onwards....other than that our marketing strategy has been extremely limited....it wasn't until two years ago that the board put it's foot down with Wenger and told him he had to start taking the squad to Asia on pre-season tours because we were missing out on the potential cash cow over there.
And you think about the profit we have generated it's largely been through player sales....i discussed this with a friend the other day.....i can't think of a season in the last ten years where our outlays were in excess of the money we generated on selling our players. I don't really see that as a genius business model it's like a billionaire industrialist in china only turning a profit by selling twenty percent of his factories every year....which would be fine if you were a asset stripping venture capitalist....but these people seem to be here for the long haul.
And for Arsenal this form of profit generation is rather short-termist because you would agree i think that we don't exactly have that much on offer left to keep the money coming in.
All in all i think your giving the board and people like Gazidis a credit for something they don't deserve, the board in itself are very conservative and are adverse to any risk taking of any kind and i think this has hamstrung them because if they were in it to make money (which is not in itself a bad thing) they would be doing much more than they are currently to make us a global brand which we are not.

[Marc Overmars]

Our commercial deals were so poor to the point where if we didn't sell our best players we wouldn't actually make much of a profit at all.

[Niall_Quinn]

Our commercial deals were so poor to the point where if we didn't sell our best players we wouldn't actually make much of a profit at all.

And that was the hidden asset value in the club that attracted the likes of Kroenke. He's not here for the long term. Get in, get out. That's what this guy is all about.

[Niall_Quinn]

I actually think the amount we make in commerical revenue is quite paltry compared to what we could get, unless your saying the Board is greedy but they are not that greedy.
I think you'd also have to use a magic wand to explain away the wage bill before what your suggesting makes sense.
i think we have made two major deals commerically in the last 6-12 months....one is the re-negotiation for the Emirates stadium naming rights, the other is the spoken about in hushed tones kit deal we might have with Puma from 2014 onwards....other than that our marketing strategy has been extremely limited....it wasn't until two years ago that the board put it's foot down with Wenger and told him he had to start taking the squad to Asia on pre-season tours because we were missing out on the potential cash cow over there.
And you think about the profit we have generated it's largely been through player sales....i discussed this with a friend the other day.....i can't think of a season in the last ten years where our outlays were in excess of the money we generated on selling our players. I don't really see that as a genius business model it's like a billionaire industrialist in china only turning a profit by selling twenty percent of his factories every year....which would be fine if you were a asset stripping venture capitalist....but these people seem to be here for the long haul.
And for Arsenal this form of profit generation is rather short-termist because you would agree i think that we don't exactly have that much on offer left to keep the money coming in.
All in all i think your giving the board and people like Gazidis a credit for something they don't deserve, the board in itself are very conservative and are adverse to any risk taking of any kind and i think this has hamstrung them because if they were in it to make money (which is not in itself a bad thing) they would be doing much more than they are currently to make us a global brand which we are not.

Yes, I agree with you. This is definitely short termism, absolutely no doubt about that. The possibility of short term takings is a huge bonus for investors. I mean Kroenke has gone way beyond having to plan for his retirement, right? It was the fucked up state of the commercials that had been put in place by people absolutely desperate to drive the share price and then cash out that likely attracted the Kroenke shark in the first place. Somewhere along the line our previous shareholders had a dramatic change in philosophy, I'm betting after DHW died and that utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, **** PHW took over. I think that's when they realised they could cash in on the new money laden, mega TV deal version of football (the version we don't really recognise) and turn their £7.52 investment into a £500mill cash out. And I think everything that has been done at this club since then was in line with that agenda and I also think a repeat performance is playing out as we speak.

To see it I think you have to set aside being a fan for a moment and look at it from a business point of view. The fucked up commercials were gold dust in reality. What;s the whole point of corporate investment? Buy low sell high. That's Arsenal in a nutshell. And you've spotted the short term nature of the deal. Yes, of course, the club has to die once all the profit taking has concluded.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Yes, I agree with you. This is definitely short termism, absolutely no doubt about that. The possibility of short term takings is a huge bonus for investors. I mean Kroenke has gone way beyond having to plan for his retirement, right? It was the fucked up state of the commercials that had been put in place by people absolutely desperate to drive the share price and then cash out that likely attracted the Kroenke shark in the first place. Somewhere along the line our previous shareholders had a dramatic change in philosophy, I'm betting after DHW died and that utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, **** PHW took over. I think that's when they realised they could cash in on the new money laden, mega TV deal version of football (the version we don't really recognise) and turn their £7.52 investment into a £500mill cash out. And I think everything that has been done at this club since then was in line with that agenda and I also think a repeat performance is playing out as we speak.

To see it I think you have to set aside being a fan for a moment and look at it from a business point of view. The fucked up commercials were gold dust in reality. What;s the whole point of corporate investment? Buy low sell high. That's Arsenal in a nutshell. And you've spotted the short term nature of the deal. Yes, of course, the club has to die once all the profit taking has concluded.


Peter Hill-Wood became chairman in 1982, if he was asset stripping the club (which really wouldn't do him much good as his stake-holding in the club is pretty small...less than 1% i think) he's taking an awful long time about doing it. Hill-Wood is no different to his father they are all from a long line of semi-aristocratic Tories from the city....that's why we were known for years as the Bank of England Club. Stuff shirted immovable old buffers who don't like change remember the "we don't need his sort here" quote from everyone's favourite octagenerian in 2007 regarding Stan Kroenke. Kroenke was welcomed to the club as the lesser of two evils to Alisher Usmanov who really is a vile human being with links to human trafficking amongst other things.
Kroenke is hardly a philanthropist by any stretch of the imagination, but his history in sports investment hardly indicates a cut and run approach....his Colorado based franchises he has owned for 10-15 years now with no indication that he is looking to sell at all.
He likes our self-sustaining model because it means he can be as hands off as he likes, i think if he had his way he'd never come over to England.....and he is tolerated because he doesn't interfere in the day to day running of the club.

[selassie]

Surprised Chelsea haven't gone in for him to be honest, he could room with John Terry and they could have fun on evenings in watching old episodes of the black and white minstrel show.

brilliant. :lol:

[Xhaka Can’t]

Peter Hill-Wood became chairman in 1982, if he was asset stripping the club (which really wouldn't do him much good as his stake-holding in the club is pretty small...less than 1% i think) he's taking an awful long time about doing it. Hill-Wood is no different to his father they are all from a long line of semi-aristocratic Tories from the city....that's why we were known for years as the Bank of England Club. Stuff shirted immovable old buffers who don't like change remember the "we don't need his sort here" quote from everyone's favourite octagenerian in 2007 regarding Stan Kroenke. Kroenke was welcomed to the club as the lesser of two evils to Alisher Usmanov who really is a vile human being with links to human trafficking amongst other things.
Kroenke is hardly a philanthropist by any stretch of the imagination, but his history in sports investment hardly indicates a cut and run approach....his Colorado based franchises he has owned for 10-15 years now with no indication that he is looking to sell at all.
He likes our self-sustaining model because it means he can be as hands off as he likes, i think if he had his way he'd never come over to England.....and he is tolerated because he doesn't interfere in the day to day running of the club.

One of the Colorado based franchises he owns is the Colorado Avalanche. They were a premier club in the NHL. When Kroenke bought them they were top class and laden with stars. Shortly after his purchase they won their 2nd President's Trophy and went on to win the Stanley Cup. The team also held the league record for consecutive games sold out. Since then, they have regularly traded away their top players and at points have just about paid above the salary cap payroll floor (the minimum spend on wages an NHL team can make) http://www.capgeek.com/payrolls/

The team as a result, suck - big time. Have a look at the league table for last year http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm?type=lea#&navid=nav-stn-league

But its OK because the Avs are a profitable team.

[Ollie the Optimist]

suarez clause is nothing but an inform him of the bid. they want 50, we wont pay it.


we're signing gareth barry and thats it.


fuck this

[Özil's Panoramic View]

suarez clause is nothing but an inform him of the bid. they want 50, we wont pay it.


we're signing gareth barry and thats it.


fuck this

please, god, no. :ilt:

[AKBapologist]

LOL, even ollie's cracked.

Worst summer ever.

[Xhaka Can’t]

LOL, even ollie's cracked.

Worst summer ever.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, surely there;ll be worse to come.

[AKBapologist]

Spurs buying Suarez?

[Ollie the Optimist]

Suárez has made no representation to the Premier League to seek adjudication on whether Arsenal’s provocative bid of one pound over £40 million obliged Liverpool to sell.
Arsenal believed their offer, submitted last week, would trigger an exit clause in the Uruguayan’s contract, a suggestion the Anfield board rejected instantly.
Liverpool are unmoved by any suggestion there is any ambiguity and are adamant if the Premier League was to adjudicate on any dispute the club’s position would be validated further.
The lack of any approach does not suggest confidence on the part of the striker’s advisers. Club lawyers and those of Fenway Sports Group are definite about the details of Suárez’s contract and believe the 26-year-old’s agent, Pere Guardiola, is well aware Arsenal’s £40 million bid was far too low.
“We’ve all examined the clause in detail,” a senior Liverpool figure said. “All it obliges is for us to enter good faith negotiations about Luis’s future. There is absolutely no obligation to sell and that is very clear.”
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Liverpool themselves could request the Premier League to ask Arsenal on what basis they bid £40,000,001. It is contrary to League regulations for a rival club to be given access to confidential contract details of an opposing player. There are no Liverpool plans at this stage to pursue a complaint against the Londoners, although at the highest level of the Merseyside club there is a feeling bidding an additional pound was "rubbing Liverpool’s noses in it".
It has ensured no further approaches by Arsenal are welcome at Anfield.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have agreed a loan deal for Benfica left back Lorenzo Melgarejo but will require a work permit if they are to proceed with signing of the Paraguay international.

thats done it for me. i was completely wrong, and we got fucked over by an agent too. pissed liverpool off, after believing an agent when its now clear there is nothing there. ive got this wrong and ill hold my hands up to it. the lot of them can fuck off. bidding that extra quid has now cost us any chance of getting him at all. no excuses.

[AKBapologist]

Spurs buying Suarez?

http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/30/gareth-bale-departure-could-see-tottenham-hijack-arsenals-bid-for-luis-suarez-3905440/
:lol:

[fakeyank]

Dear Lord, Ollie is also depressed... we might as well shoot ourselves now :ilt:

[Power n Glory]

Seriously though, I have made the case so many times it even bores the shit out of me. You want me to clarify and strength something you refuse to acknowledge exists. What's the point of that?

I acknowledge it, I just don't agree with it. As said, if we're talking in the realms of business and greed, it makes no sense for the club to play such games with their number 1 asset and not in his final year of contract. I've never understood why the Board let the wage bill increase but act so cheap when it comes to transfer fees. It doesn't make sense at all for them to be okay with the wages but not with the fees. Surely they'd look to keep both at a low cost?

I think Wenger's latest interview gives a lot away. He prefers to work with young players and to nurture talent. He values hard work and as a result we lost key players because they were unwilling to wait. The numbers and sales match the theory. I find it hard to believe that we'd penny pinch on transfers but nobody blinks when it comes to signing contract extensions.


"The egos are big, but you must know that a person, no matter how big a star he is, is ready to listen to you if it meets his needs," he explained.

"Unfortunately in management, you cannot cheat for a long time. When you are in a squad of 30 people, the players detect at a huge speed the weakness in your personality. If they think you are the man who can help them, they will respect you.

"The next step for them is deciding whether they are in a squad who can help them to be successful. We had that problem when we were under financially-restricted conditions.

"At Arsenal we have fought against the policy of only buying stars. For some players, we didn't have enough stars to be successful as quickly as they wanted to be."


"One of our strengths is young people know we will give them a chance. We try to look all over the world to find players who have the talent and desire," he explained.

"But what we look for is their motivation to be successful. You also need consistency in your motivation and that is what we try to test in players as well.

"For me that is a very underrated quality. It means they are determined and they are ready to hurt themselves to be successful, and that's the type we are looking for - the people that are very demanding with themselves, and each other for a long time."

[Power n Glory]

thats done it for me. i was completely wrong, and we got fucked over by an agent too. pissed liverpool off, after believing an agent when its now clear there is nothing there. ive got this wrong and ill hold my hands up to it. the lot of them can fuck off. bidding that extra quid has now cost us any chance of getting him at all. no excuses.

It's a bloody shambles. Deadline day it is then.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I'm done trying to make sense of what is non-sensical.

The Owners, Board, CEO and Manager are all money grubbing ****s.

[Ollie the Optimist]

It's a bloody shambles. Deadline day it is then.

deadline day? there wont be that this year. fucking pathetic

[Power n Glory]

One of the Colorado based franchises he owns is the Colorado Avalanche. They were a premier club in the NHL. When Kroenke bought them they were top class and laden with stars. Shortly after his purchase they won their 2nd President's Trophy and went on to win the Stanley Cup. The team also held the league record for consecutive games sold out. Since then, they have regularly traded away their top players and at points have just about paid above the salary cap payroll floor (the minimum spend on wages an NHL team can make) http://www.capgeek.com/payrolls/

The team as a result, suck - big time. Have a look at the league table for last year http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm?type=lea#&navid=nav-stn-league

But its OK because the Avs are a profitable team.

Was that down to Stan or due to the salary cap ruling? I really don't know much about NHL but it seems unfair to lay the blame on Stan if a salary cap gets imposed.

[Power n Glory]

deadline day? there wont be that this year. fucking pathetic

I think there will be. We'll sign players but there won't be any high profile stars moving here. But it really is pathetic. We're going to gamble again.

[Ollie the Optimist]

I think there will be. We'll sign players but there won't be any high profile stars moving here. But it really is pathetic. We're going to gamble again.

whats the point of signing players who wont improve us? the club knew we needed big players, and have completely failed to act on that. its august this week and nothing. i was optimistic and hopeful we would go big, but the board and wenger havnt. they've fucked around, no one has stood up to wenger and done what they should have done and hes dithered. its unbelievable.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Was that down to Stan or due to the salary cap ruling? I really don't know much about NHL but it seems unfair to lay the blame on Stan if a salary cap gets imposed.

The salary cap has a ceiling (max you can spend) and a floor (minimum you can spend).

Guess where Stan took the Avs to?

[Edinburgh Gooner]

http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/30/gareth-bale-departure-could-see-tottenham-hijack-arsenals-bid-for-luis-suarez-3905440/
:lol:

no champs league football there. any signings we make will be after the cl play off imo.

[-Xs-]

I knew this summer would play out like any other

The bullish statements in June about the war chest, the frenzy of media activity linking us to everyone. The hint that we are close to signing a top quality player only to miss out due to us not paying the amount required. Same shit every year. This one went even further though by linking us with really unrealistic deals which made no sense. Prepared to pay 40m on a player with so much baggage its ridiculous, from a club determined to not to sell, yet unwilling to pay considerably less than that on a player who was available and at one stage seemed to be being pushed towards us.

Just what the f'ck is going on with this club?

[Niall_Quinn]

I acknowledge it, I just don't agree with it. As said, if we're talking in the realms of business and greed, it makes no sense for the club to play such games with their number 1 asset and not in his final year of contract. I've never understood why the Board let the wage bill increase but act so cheap when it comes to transfer fees. It doesn't make sense at all for them to be okay with the wages but not with the fees. Surely they'd look to keep both at a low cost?

I think Wenger's latest interview gives a lot away. He prefers to work with young players and to nurture talent. He values hard work and as a result we lost key players because they were unwilling to wait. The numbers and sales match the theory. I find it hard to believe that we'd penny pinch on transfers but nobody blinks when it comes to signing contract extensions.

Okay.

Let's say you are approached by a greedy coscksucking son of a whore piece of shit rat bastard **** who wants to sell you a company. The company has a machine that costs £100 a year to run. The company has a manager that has historically secured 10 customers for the last 10 years each paying £20 for the goods produced by the machine. You are being offered the company for £100.

You know if the manager keeps performing you get £100 per annum profit if all things remain equal. The customers are a bit pissed off with the product you are producing and angry they have to pay £20 for inferior goods. But they need the goods and there are no other suppliers. A monopoly then.

So let's say you want to get a quadruple return on your investment. How long before you can sell out and take your profit? 4 years.

Question. If you are happy with the quadruple return (as part of a portfolio of similar investments) why would you ever want to rock the boat? Now if that manager does indeed go on to consistently earn the target figure and you see your investment growing, if the machine is not worn out yet and still has enough life to get you through to the cash out, would you buy a new machine? Would you fuck with the arrangement in any way at all? No, not if you were smart.

By greedy I mean the guy is using the club and everything it stands for as a machine to yield a desired return. As for the manager, it's a job well done isn't it?

The only way this is bad if you start looking at it from the point of view of the customer. Or the fan.

[Niall_Quinn]

I think Wenger's latest interview gives a lot away. He prefers to work with young players and to nurture talent.

And by a happy coincidence that's the cheap option.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Actually, what is all this shit with the £40m bid being made out to be derisory???

It's a club record bid for arsenal and its being treated like we offered them a tenner and spat on their shoes as we held it out!?!?

Fuck off you scouse ****s!

[Harland]

Actually, what is all this shit with the £40m bid being made out to be derisory???

It's a club record bid for arsenal and its being treated like we offered them a tenner and spat on their shoes as we held it out!?!?

Fuck off you scouse ****s!

Well tbh maybe Wenger expected them to act like us when we sold RVP to Man Utd.

What Wenger didn't consider was that Man Utd are actually willing to stump up that extra cash for a player in his last year.

On the other hand, I would have liked to take pleasure in Ollie cracking, but honestly it just eats me up all the more. The lack of regard this club has for loyal fans is ridiculous.

[JonasTC]

Seriously, even the media has given up and stopped doing transfer rumours about us.... this looks really bad :s Besides Suarez and Fellaini, is there actually any players available that could improve our squad as much as those 2 would?

[Cripps_orig]

Arsenal will have to pay £55m if they still want Suarez after the striker dropped his pursuit of arbitration as a means of leaving for less.
Full story: Daily Mirror

Suarez has not requested Premier League intervention in his contract dispute with Liverpool, one week on from Arsenal's club record bid of £40,000,001 for the Uruguay international.
Full story: the Guardian


Suarez to Arsenal :rose:

[Globalgunner]

The only problem we have is a football manager who has usurped the authority of a business manager and because of his earlier success has hijacked all powers to determine the ethos and philosophy of this club. Face it, the club and Wenger are indistinguishable from each other.
I personally do not believe he was ever a great manager, not in the pantheon of Shankly and Ferguson at any rate. He was fortunate to identify some unique young talents from his early days at Monaco such as Vieira and Henry who were unappreciated at Thierry respective clubs and brought them over, mixed them with the best of what existed in Roich s team and it was a magic formula. That team didn't need coaching. It just needed to be sent out each day to do it's thing.A geat coach would have reached incomparable heights with our squad of 1998-2004.

Unfortunately, Fergie killed the dream, his relentless will stymied us from winning again in 1999 and it took the addition of Pires to see us triumph again in 2002. Wenger is no manager, he is just a glorified scout whose eyesight is now failing. Yet he looks in the mirror and still sees Einstein and Picasso rolled into one.

The board are guilty of giving him too much authority thier judgment clouded by the early successes. Now he is responsible for determining everything at the club. Wages, staff hiring etc. Winning has been redefined to what HE thinks is ethical and not what the club is capable of achieving. Hehas retreated into the safety of 4th place achievement because winning outright has become too hard. What with the monster of Chelsea and City now Turing a once 2 horse race into a do or die dash for CL cash. in this will window he probably wanted Higuain more than anyone else but felt miffed by Madrid s raising of the price after all had supposedly been agreed. A more pragmatic manager would have swallowed his pride and paid the extra that RM wanted and we would have all moved on to other targets but now we are floundering and likely to get no one. Therefore all his recent jargon about nurturing youth and such twaddle. If Gazidis had any authority at all he should have insisted we pay the 35m for Higuain, he may have even said so but I am guessing Wenger simply told him, he no longer wants the player, never wanted him all along.
We may likely sign no one, as we are beholden to Wenger wishes. An owner who cares not for winning with a manager who has forgotten what the word truly means. The only silver lining is that he will do his best to qualify again for the CL as he will want once again to prove the doubters like me wrong who refuse to believe that you can make a great menu with poor ingredients and a great team with average players.

The killer signing for me will be Wenger getting a new contract, which I have no doubt he will. Ergo, the death of Arsenal as a superclub

[Harland]

Seriously, even the media has given up and stopped doing transfer rumours about us.... this looks really bad :s Besides Suarez and Fellaini, is there actually any players available that could improve our squad as much as those 2 would?

Gareth Barry and Loic Remy

[Marc Overmars]

Damn, it was Ollie's blind faith that was keeping me going.

Now that's even gone.

Arsenal. :rose:

[Özim]

We supposedly bid £40 million and then bid an extra pound, it was bound to p*ss them off to be honest, I've never seen anyone make a bid like this before.

[server too busy!]

If we're not getting Suarez then we should be going all out for other signings.

Also if we're willing to go to £40m then just meet their valuation at £50m and call it what we'd make from Gervinho.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Liverpool should just call our bluff and watch Arsenal shit themselves.

[selassie]

Liverpool should just call our bluff and watch Arsenal shit themselves.

To be honest I think we have already walked away from this deal. I can't see us going any higher than what we have offered, that offer IMHO was based on the assumption that it would have triggered his release clause, hence the additional penny!!!

That's it, no more room at the Inn, the powder will be kept dry. :faint:

I personally can't see Wenger entering the market unless he wants to purchase "squad filler" material which I doubt he does seeing as he's having a hard time of shifting the last remains of the rubbish.

We have well and truly screwed up this Window.

[KSE Comedy Club]

On a different note, according to The Sun,
Daniel levy values Bale at £125m :blink:

:haha::haha::haha:

[GP]

He's been accidentally calling him 'Gareth Stadium' all week.

[ENSKIED]

Actually, what is all this shit with the £40m bid being made out to be derisory???

It's a club record bid for arsenal and its being treated like we offered them a tenner and spat on their shoes as we held it out!?!?

Fuck off you scouse ****s!

I say steady on old bean surely it isn't Scouse ****s per se if anything it's more Americano ****s possibly plundering one of European's great football clubs? Is there a Parallel in there somewhere? :getcoat:

[Power n Glory]

Okay.

Let's say you are approached by a greedy coscksucking son of a whore piece of shit rat bastard **** who wants to sell you a company. The company has a machine that costs £100 a year to run. The company has a manager that has historically secured 10 customers for the last 10 years each paying £20 for the goods produced by the machine. You are being offered the company for £100.

You know if the manager keeps performing you get £100 per annum profit if all things remain equal. The customers are a bit pissed off with the product you are producing and angry they have to pay £20 for inferior goods. But they need the goods and there are no other suppliers. A monopoly then.

So let's say you want to get a quadruple return on your investment. How long before you can sell out and take your profit? 4 years.

Question. If you are happy with the quadruple return (as part of a portfolio of similar investments) why would you ever want to rock the boat? Now if that manager does indeed go on to consistently earn the target figure and you see your investment growing, if the machine is not worn out yet and still has enough life to get you through to the cash out, would you buy a new machine? Would you fuck with the arrangement in any way at all? No, not if you were smart.

By greedy I mean the guy is using the club and everything it stands for as a machine to yield a desired return. As for the manager, it's a job well done isn't it?

The only way this is bad if you start looking at it from the point of view of the customer. Or the fan.

It still doesn’t work and I’ve stopped looking at it from a fan perspective a long time ago. I understand share appreciation/value and what you’re trying to say but I disagree with it. Why allow the wage bill to rocket when that’s a serious drain on resources? Why spend money in the transfer window at all in fact if we’re trying to keep costs low in order to sell high?

If Stan wanted a quick return on his investment, why not sell his shares to Usamov? I’m sure there are plenty of billionaires still sniffing about so why not sell to them? PSG and AS Monaco have new oil rich owners right? Why didn’t he sell to them if he wanted a quick buck? New stadium, a London club, we’re an attractive proposition. He must be able to get his money back with interest but that doesn’t fit Stan’s profile. He runs a sports enterprise and has yet to sell any of his other clubs off. History shows that he’s a long term investor and you have to question why the original board sold their shares to him instead of selling off to some random oil baron for the highest price. Wouldn’t they have made more money off the sale? Also, Stan would surely stand to make more money if we were a successful club actually winning titles. Wouldn’t a one off season of investment generate more money? Shirt sales and other commercial deals…he’s missing out on all of this. It makes no sense to scrimp when he make a lucrative amount of money by just investing a little more.

Also, that example still doesn’t answer why Gazidis would throw Wenger under the bus when he’s the golden goose to this operation. This summer has rocked the boat and the discontent amongst Arsenal fans is pretty high. If Wenger is the only manager that can bring in results at a ‘low’ cost then why throw him under the spotlight? Why the PR stunt if they’re unconcerned with the outcry? If this is a monopoly, why the PR stunt and spin? It’s unnecessary if they have a monopoly and it certainly makes no sense to throw your moneymaker under the spotlight to try and pull the wool over our eyes. This is Wenger’s final year and he won’t appreciate being made to look a fool.

[Özim]

To be honest I think we have already walked away from this deal. I can't see us going any higher than what we have offered, that offer IMHO was based on the assumption that it would have triggered his release clause, hence the additional penny!!!

That's it, no more room at the Inn, the powder will be kept dry. :faint:

I personally can't see Wenger entering the market unless he wants to purchase "squad filler" material which I doubt he does seeing as he's having a hard time of shifting the last remains of the rubbish.

We have well and truly screwed up this Window.
Pretty much, but this deal was doomed from the off, I could never see this happening for many reasons. We should have gone for more realistic targets (still top quality), but instead went for the pipedream signing IMO and now it's pretty much August we've signed noone of note and it'll only get harder to find players with the new season drawing closer.

A job well done by Wenger and co, they've stitched the fans right up once again as predicted.

[Marc Overmars]

To be honest I think we have already walked away from this deal. I can't see us going any higher than what we have offered, that offer IMHO was based on the assumption that it would have triggered his release clause, hence the additional penny!!!

That's it, no more room at the Inn, the powder will be kept dry. :faint:

I personally can't see Wenger entering the market unless he wants to purchase "squad filler" material which I doubt he does seeing as he's having a hard time of shifting the last remains of the rubbish.

We have well and truly screwed up this Window.

We will end up with a couple of nothing signings, just like Man City last year with Rodwell and Sinclair who only came in to keep face. That's what we'll do.

[Özim]

We will end up with a couple of nothing signings, just like Man City last year with Rodwell and Sinclair who only came in to keep face. That's what we'll do.
We work very hard, we are non-stop working throughout the summer. I am positive because we have good quality and a style of play that is known by the players. So we want to add not quality but super quality.

[server too busy!]

Thing is we're weaker than when we started, we got rid of people like Arshavin, Santos , Djourou etc. Ok they weren't the best but they would still work as squad players, who have we got now to step in...Miguel doesn't look up to it and god knows how the other youngsters will turn out.

[Cripps_orig]

Damn, it was Ollie's blind faith that was keeping me going.

Now that's even gone.

Arsenal. :rose:it has?

When and where?

[Grebbo]

We've still got a month until the window slams shut. Chillax

We wont sign any superstars but as Arsenal fans we're used to that. We'll certainly buy a few players though - there is no doubt about that. Wenger wouldn't have cleared out the dross if he wasn't going to replace them with inevitably more dross.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Sky are getting desperate for some transfer action too. Bale turns up to training was their news alert earlier.

[selassie]

We've still got a month until the window slams shut. Chillax

We wont sign any superstars but as Arsenal fans we're used to that. We'll certainly buy a few players though - there is no doubt about that. Wenger wouldn't have cleared out the dross if he wasn't going to replace them with inevitably more dross.

Grebbo, old habits die hard. Nothing has changed, nothing will change with that "control freak of a man" in charge running everything from training sessions to approving the canteen menu.
Whilst I was always skeptical of us making "statement" signings, things did start to look quite promising earlier on in the summer.

All of that optimism has now been removed, we've reverted to type, refusing to meet clubs valuations...dithering....then the excuses, defiancy will set in soon, expect stuff such as "this is the best squad I have ever worked with", "everybody in england thinks buying is the solution", all that kind of rubbish.

What we need is top tier quality, nothing else will do IMHO.

[Grebbo]

Grebbo, old habits die hard. Nothing has changed, nothing will change with that "control freak of a man" in charge running everything from training sessions to approving the canteen menu.
Whilst I was always skeptical of us making "statement" signings, things did start to look quite promising earlier on in the summer.

All of that optimism has now been removed, we've reverted to type, refusing to meet clubs valuations...dithering....then the excuses, defiancy will set in soon, expect stuff such as "this is the best squad I have ever worked with", "everybody in england thinks buying is the solution", all that kind of rubbish.

What we need is top tier quality, nothing else will do IMHO.

I think everyone knows we need top tier quality, even Wenger himself.

We've bid £40m for a top tier striker. You and others will probably say "but what's the point of bidding below the players value?"

Well two things....

1. £40m for Suarez is a very fair offer, we haven't low balled them whatsoever. £40m FFS!! How many teams in the world have paid £40m for a player??? People will say "just bid £50m and get it done" well it's not that simple. You can bid £50m and Liverpool still won't sell, bid £60m, bid £70m etc where does it end??

2. Then you've got the player. Arsenal are not high on the list for desirable clubs for top players to join, fact. Suarez would rather play for Madrid so even if Liverpool except your offer Suarez might hold out for RM. He's got no need to rush, he's suspended for the first 6 games. He can wait until deadline day in the hope for a top club to come in for him. Why would he move to us now, much better to keep his options open. Then what?? Move on to the next top striker available.... who's that??


One of the biggest clubs on the planet is going to have to pay £80m+ for Bale. A relatively small, non-Champions league club is getting RM to beg and ultimately over-pay for a player who's undoubtably very very good but £80m+??

That's how tough it is to sign top players.

[Fist of Lehmann]

We will end up with a couple of nothing signings, just like Man City last year with Rodwell and Sinclair who only came in to keep face. That's what we'll do.

Please God not Rodwell and Sinclair.

If Arsenal wanted to sign players as a sop to fans (which they don't) they'd need to go large at this stage.

Semi-legged pubbers won't cut it no more.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Sky are getting desperate for some transfer action too. Bale turns up to training was their news alert earlier.

Not having Sky Sports is already enhancing my life.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I think everyone knows we need top tier quality, even Wenger himself.

We've bid £40m for a top tier striker. You and others will probably say "but what's the point of bidding below the players value?"

Well two things....

1. £40m for Suarez is a very fair offer, we haven't low balled them whatsoever. £40m FFS!! How many teams in the world have paid £40m for a player??? People will say "just bid £50m and get it done" well it's not that simple. You can bid £50m and Liverpool still won't sell, bid £60m, bid £70m etc where does it end??


With Giroud up front and Yaya Sanago on the treatment table.

[Bury Da Bwoy]

I think alot of people are not grasping how much of a piss take that £40mill bid was.


Now don't get me wrong, £40mill is a very big bid and nothing to turn your nose up at.


But the fact that we believed a bid above £40mill would trigger a release clause so we put only £1 above the barrier to get the job done, clearly would piss anyone off. The arsenal board and wenger included have got to be absolute retards to think liverpool would accept that bid. If they would've made a bid of £41mill I doubt anyone would have anything to say. It just comes down to us being utter twats with that extra £1

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Grebbo, old habits die hard. Nothing has changed, nothing will change with that "control freak of a man" in charge running everything from training sessions to approving the canteen menu.
Whilst I was always skeptical of us making "statement" signings, things did start to look quite promising earlier on in the summer.

All of that optimism has now been removed, we've reverted to type, refusing to meet clubs valuations...dithering....then the excuses, defiancy will set in soon, expect stuff such as "this is the best squad I have ever worked with", "everybody in england thinks buying is the solution", all that kind of rubbish.

What we need is top tier quality, nothing else will do IMHO.

:haha:

I remember this. And people were defending it too.

[Ollie the Optimist]

I think alot of people are not grasping how much of a piss take that £40mill bid was.


Now don't get me wrong, £40mill is a very big bid and nothing to turn your nose up at.


But the fact that we believed a bid above £40mill would trigger a release clause so we put only £1 above the barrier to get the job done, clearly would piss anyone off. The arsenal board and wenger included have got to be absolute retards to think liverpool would accept that bid. If they would've made a bid of £41mill I doubt anyone would have anything to say. It just comes down to us being utter twats with that extra £1

i dont think it would have been wenger adding on that extra £1, he probably would have said 40 million but left it to the board to offer teh money. but if it was a release clause, liverpool wouldnt have had a choice over accepting it, they would have had to accept it. be it 1 pound or 1 million.

but they club got fucked over by agents and then fucked over themselves. we look like dicks, its cost us anohter striker and its absoutly infuriating

[Letters]

With Giroud up front and Yaya Sanago on the treatment table.
Don't forget we also have Diaby who can lie there.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

i dont think it would have been wenger adding on that extra £1, he probably would have said 40 million but left it to the board to offer teh money. but if it was a release clause, liverpool wouldnt have had a choice over accepting it, they would have had to accept it. be it 1 pound or 1 million.

but they club got fucked over by agents and then fucked over themselves. we look like dicks, its cost us anohter striker and its absoutly infuriating

Isn't there some kind of protocol that is observed when dealing with all matters surrounding transfers, bids and release clauses? Or do the Club go by word of mouth of a few shady agents?

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

I do hope that was the case and the agent got it completely wrong, and that it's set in stone that there is no release clause.

Not because it's Arsenal or even Suarez but because it's about time an agent, one as slimy as Pere clearly is, got slapped down. He'll have thought all along that he had the club by the short ones but actually he's just made himself, his player and [unfortunately for you] the buying club look like mugs, and probably strengthened our resolve in the process.

[selassie]

I think everyone knows we need top tier quality, even Wenger himself.

We've bid £40m for a top tier striker. You and others will probably say "but what's the point of bidding below the players value?"

Well two things....

1. £40m for Suarez is a very fair offer, we haven't low balled them whatsoever. £40m FFS!! How many teams in the world have paid £40m for a player??? People will say "just bid £50m and get it done" well it's not that simple. You can bid £50m and Liverpool still won't sell, bid £60m, bid £70m etc where does it end??

2. Then you've got the player. Arsenal are not high on the list for desirable clubs for top players to join, fact. Suarez would rather play for Madrid so even if Liverpool except your offer Suarez might hold out for RM. He's got no need to rush, he's suspended for the first 6 games. He can wait until deadline day in the hope for a top club to come in for him. Why would he move to us now, much better to keep his options open. Then what?? Move on to the next top striker available.... who's that??


One of the biggest clubs on the planet is going to have to pay £80m+ for Bale. A relatively small, non-Champions league club is getting RM to beg and ultimately over-pay for a player who's undoubtably very very good but £80m+??

That's how tough it is to sign top players.

I do see your side of things but ultimately it's the way we go about negotiating and our seemingly hap hazard transfer policy that really gets me. At the end of the day, Liverpool have made it clear to us what they value the player at, right now we're a good 10mill short.

If we offered the amount Liverpool see fit, then Suarez would have a decision to make, fair enough if he doesn't commit to joining us, we would have tried as much as possible but the player didn't want to come. The fact that we've now stalled on the deal doesn't do us or him any favours, we've made it easy for all parties involved.

It doesn't matter how many clubs have paid 40million for a player, the bottomline is we want an elite talent off one of our rivals and ultimately we are going to have to pay through the nose if we want him.

Sure we are not high on players wishlists of clubs to join, that's why we are going to need to either pay a high fee or wage, maybe both in some cases to entice a player to the club.

If the S*um value Bale at 80mill then that's what Real are going to have to pay to sign him, sure his value is astronomical but that's what they value his worth at.

I do appreciate that these big deals take time to complete but we are all kidding ourselves if we think Liverpool will let Suarez leave on deadline day without a replacement. Yet again we have been let down by poor planning and hopeless negotiations.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Isn't there some kind of protocol that is observed when dealing with all matters surrounding transfers, bids and release clauses? Or do the Club go by word of mouth of a few shady agents?

its seems on this one they've gone by shady agents. get us involved, get suarez wanting out, make sure liverpool dont deal with us, get him his dream move to madrid and bumper pay day for agent.

what protocol would there be? any bid over x amount and the club have to sell? why not bid 1 pound over isntead of a million?

[Cripps_orig]

Apparently Valencia want Giroud.

I don't particularly rate the pubber but the chances of buying a replacement are virtually nonexistent so keep him

[Niall_Quinn]

The £1 was always going to be picked up by the media. It was designed to insult Liverpool and harden their resolve. It worked.

[gunnerrrrr]

Our whole approach to the transfer market is condescending and full of disdain, the same disdain that the **** PHW used to show towards any fan brave enough to voice an opinion which didn't match his.

The bid of £40m plus £1 was small minded and arrogant, in fact we looked like wankers. As per usual we have completely fucked up the transfer window.

When i heard us being linked with Higuain and Fellani i was estatic that we would get our targets, and do so quickly.

The whole Rooney, Suaraz etc sideshow has made us look like bumbling idiots and we are in real danger of either now seriously over paying for one of our targets or worse being left with a paper thin squad which is clearly majorly weak in key areas.

Whatever Wenger and Gadazis are smoking they need to stop and start reviewing the market more ruthlessly.

Its basic business skills....supply and demand. Right now we have a major need for a defensive midfielder and class striker. The supply of such players is limited so we either move quickly and snap up a bargin or we pay the market value or asking price for our targets. not live in fucking dream land where idealist views mean fuck all.

Arrogant priks.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

I think there will be. We'll sign players but there won't be any high profile stars moving here. But it really is pathetic. We're going to gamble again.

Didnt we get rid of more than we brought in last year (I am including those that went out on loan)? - to do so again this term is totally detrimental to the club especially as you can consider TV5 out for the start......shit I would be happy with the signing of a crap CB, at least we show we are trying to keep things evened out!

not to mention that players have gone on record saying how the club needs to sign more quality and the thought of it doing so makes them excited.......not the first time players have said this though at this time of year so we can expect the club to just ignore them.......difference though is the last lot that opened their mouth knew that they would be off if nothing happened......Arteta and Giroud dont have a hope in hell

[Özim]

The £1 was always going to be picked up by the media. It was designed to insult Liverpool and harden their resolve. It worked.
Apparently it was perfectly reasonable to bid the extra £1, personally I think it's a sure way of patronising a club into never selling the player to us.

As for this clause thing, I've always been amazed that noone was actually sure about this clause, how is that possible when the contract is negotiated by all parties in the 1st place.

Sounds to me like the club went with some internet rumours!

[Grebbo]

i personally don't see what the fuss is about the extra pound. It was designed to test the supposed clause. £40m + £1, £41m, £45m whatever... if there's a clause then it doesn't matter how much you supposedly piss off Liverpool.

I wouldn't be offended if a club did it to us. How else are you supposed to find out if there's a clause?

£40m is a massive bid, it would be the second biggest transfer in Premier League history IIRC.

The fact is the player isn't willing to take this clause down the legal route to put it under scrutiny, I can understand that. I'm sure he would have done to join RM but not for us. It's not worth the abuse from scousers, press etc etc

[Kano]

Don't forget we also have Diaby who can lie there.
:lol:

[Özim]

i personally don't see what the fuss is about the extra pound. It was designed to test the supposed clause. £40m + £1, £41m, £45m whatever... if there's a clause then it doesn't matter how much you supposedly piss off Liverpool.

I wouldn't be offended if a club did it to us. How else are you supposed to find out if there's a clause?

£40m is a massive bid, it would be the second biggest transfer in Premier League history IIRC.

The fact is the player isn't willing to take this clause down the legal route to put it under scrutiny, I can understand that. I'm sure he would have done to join RM but not for us. It's not worth the abuse from scousers, press etc etc
It's a p*ss take simple as, noone ever bids that.

As for the clause, if noone is sure, then there isn't one I would have thought that's pretty clear. If there's a clause then it would have been negotiated when the contract was signed, there's no way Suarez or his agent wouldn't know about this.

Liverpool don't want to sell they've mad it clear, they also made it clear no bid under 55 million would be entertained, on that basis bidding £1 is a joke and bound to rile the club up, but maybe that was the idea all along so we're guaranteed to spend no money!

If I had a car for sale at £5k and someone came in and offered me 3k and I rejected it and then then decided to bid £3001 I'd laugh at them whilst walking them to the door and consider them a p*ss taker and not a serious buyer.

[Grebbo]

I do see your side of things but ultimately it's the way we go about negotiating and our seemingly hap hazard transfer policy that really gets me. At the end of the day, Liverpool have made it clear to us what they value the player at, right now we're a good 10mill short.

If we offered the amount Liverpool see fit, then Suarez would have a decision to make, fair enough if he doesn't commit to joining us, we would have tried as much as possible but the player didn't want to come. The fact that we've now stalled on the deal doesn't do us or him any favours, we've made it easy for all parties involved.

It doesn't matter how many clubs have paid 40million for a player, the bottomline is we want an elite talent off one of our rivals and ultimately we are going to have to pay through the nose if we want him.

Sure we are not high on players wishlists of clubs to join, that's why we are going to need to either pay a high fee or wage, maybe both in some cases to entice a player to the club.

If the S*um value Bale at 80mill then that's what Real are going to have to pay to sign him, sure his value is astronomical but that's what they value his worth at.

I do appreciate that these big deals take time to complete but we are all kidding ourselves if we think Liverpool will let Suarez leave on deadline day without a replacement. Yet again we have been let down by poor planning and hopeless negotiations.

Fair enough. I still don't think the negotiations for Suarez have been hopeless. We've bid what we thought was a release clause and we now have to decide if we're willing to bid the £55m that may or may not secure the player. I think we all know that we wont do that so the deal is dead.

Let's see what happens over the next couple of weeks. Two weeks is a long time in football, we could easily sign some excellent, but not world class, players.

Yeah right...

:haha:

[Özim]

You can spot unrealistic signings a mile away, Suarez always was.

Higuain, Fellaini, Cesar etc were more realistic however I doubt we were really every seriously interested in signing any of them, too much money involved, all we want is cheap bargain basement nobodies so that it doesn't upset the karma in AW's squad and doesn't make youngsters jealous that someone is earning more than them (it creates bad team spirit apparently).

[Grebbo]

It's a p*ss take simple as, noone ever bids that.

As for the clause, if noone is sure, then there isn't one I would have thought that's pretty clear. If there's a clause then it would have been negotiated when the contract was signed, there's no way Suarez or his agent wouldn't know about this.

Liverpool don't want to sell they've mad it clear, they also made it clear no bid under 55 million would be entertained, on that basis bidding £1 is a joke and bound to rile the club up, but maybe that was the idea all along so we're guaranteed to spend no money!

You think it's a piss take, I don't.

If nobody is sure about the clause then they only way of finding out is to bid the supposed release clause, which we've done.

The deal is dead so let's move on.

As for making bids that we know wont be accepted as some kind of publicity stunt - I don't buy it. All it does is winds the fans up even more. "You've got £40m, shoulda bought Higuain etc etc" . It would make much more sense for the Board to have not bid £40m and instead use excuses such as "we're not in the Champs Leg yet so cannot do business" or "our new sponsorship deals don't kick in until next season" etc

I'm as cynical as anyone but bidding £40m for players makes no sense from a PR point of view.

[PGFC]

The Chimp has told AVB he wants to leave, time for a cheeky bid?

[Power n Glory]

Didnt we get rid of more than we brought in last year (I am including those that went out on loan)? - to do so again this term is totally detrimental to the club especially as you can consider TV5 out for the start......shit I would be happy with the signing of a crap CB, at least we show we are trying to keep things evened out!

not to mention that players have gone on record saying how the club needs to sign more quality and the thought of it doing so makes them excited.......not the first time players have said this though at this time of year so we can expect the club to just ignore them.......difference though is the last lot that opened their mouth knew that they would be off if nothing happened......Arteta and Giroud dont have a hope in hell

Lord knows what sort of effect this will have on the dressing room. They've all been talking up signings recently. Wenger should know what sort of effect this has on team spirit by now. But I guess when he sees guys like Ramsey and Giroud beaming from ear to ear and working their butts off in training, he’ll feel some sort of vindication. ‘These guys are ready to fight, look at that motivation. An underrated quality’ he’ll say to himself. Bless their enthusiasm. Like amateurs preparing for a showdown with Mike Tyson. When it comes to the crunch they won’t deliver and it doesn’t matter how willing or encouraged they are.

[Letters]

The Chimp has told AVB he wants to leave, time for a cheeky bid?
£80,000,001?

:patrice:

[Özim]

You think it's a piss take, I don't.

If nobody is sure about the clause then they only way of finding out is to bid the supposed release clause, which we've done.

The deal is dead so let's move on.

As for making bids that we know wont be accepted as some kind of publicity stunt - I don't buy it. All it does is winds the fans up even more. "You've got £40m, shoulda bought Higuain etc etc" . It would make much more sense for the Board to have not bid £40m and instead use excuses such as "we're not in the Champs Leg yet so cannot do business" or "our new sponsorship deals don't kick in until next season" etc

I'm as cynical as anyone but bidding £40m for players makes no sense from a PR point of view.
Fair enough, then you must be surprised that Liverpool got so touchy about it.

As I've said there's no way nobody can be sure, if you sign a contract you have a copy and know what's in it.

I don't think the club see it that way, I think they'll see it as "we made big bids, people can't claim we didn't try to sign players", it's the perfect excuse. It's better than bidding for noone and making it look like you just don't want to spend money.

They know fans aren't going to buy these excuses suggested, why would they we've had 8 years of them and the fans have had enough, they've played it cleverly this time, it was clear Liverpool would never sell for 40 million, particularly to an English club, in addition Suarez wanted a move abroad, it all points to an unrealistic signing. Higuain on the other hand, well he may well have come, that's why we didn't pursue it, we might end up having to pay up.

[Özim]

Lord knows what sort of effect this will have on the dressing room. They've all been talking up signings recently.
Nothing new I'm afraid, it's been happening for years and we've never gone and signed top players, ultimately as Wenger insinuated they eventually leave as they don't feel we have the quality to be successful (and who can argue about that?).

[Letters]

As I've said there's no way nobody can be sure, if you sign a contract you have a copy and know what's in it.
Top players can't wipe their own arses these days let alone understand all the clauses of a legal contract. I'd expect his agent to know but I doubt he would.

I don't see how you can say:


I don't think the club see it that way, I think they'll see it as "we made big bids, people can't claim we didn't try to sign players", it's the perfect excuse. It's better than bidding for noone and making it look like you just don't want to spend money.

(especially as previously you said you didn't believe we were making bids at all)
And then say:


They know fans aren't going to buy these excuses suggested

You can see from the mood on here that no-one is going to think "oh well, at least they tried". After 8 years of declining standards and increasingly bullish statements about our ability and intent to compete people are expecting action this summer.

[Grebbo]

As I've said there's no way nobody can be sure, if you sign a contract you have a copy and know what's in it.

It's clearly not that simple. The contract wont just have the clause written in a simple sentence, it will have been written in legal jargon and can be interpreted in several different ways. For example I've heard the clause (whatever the clause is) only applies to clubs in the Champs Leg which we're technically not.

The player's agent obviously thinks there's a buy out clause otherwise we wouldn't have been encouraged to bid it.

The club think otherwise.

The only way you'll find out for certain is to get the lawyers involved and even then one lawyer will say the opposite to another lawyer and you're back to square one. Ultimately Suarez would have to get the move by handing in a transfer request and going on strike but he wont do that to join us.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

its seems on this one they've gone by shady agents. get us involved, get suarez wanting out, make sure liverpool dont deal with us, get him his dream move to madrid and bumper pay day for agent.

what protocol would there be? any bid over x amount and the club have to sell? why not bid 1 pound over isntead of a million?

By protocol, I'm not referring to the tenner bid.

I'm talking about taking steps to ensure we're not being duped, mislead or blighted by scum agents.

Apparently, that's what happened to us here, where we seemed to have gone by an agent telling us about a phantom release clause which led us to make an embarrassing bid which in turn ticked off the scouse ****s. For all we know, we could have been purposely deceived by the agent in getting us to bid an amount that wouldn't land Suarez, but at the same time hoping to draw Real's interest, who aren't known to be penny pinchers.

Massive pay day it would have been for the ****.

[Özim]

Top players can't wipe their own arses these days let alone understand all the clauses of a legal contract. I'd expect his agent to know but I doubt he would.

I don't see how you can say:



(especially as previously you said you didn't believe we were making bids at all)
And then say:



You can see from the mood on here that no-one is going to think "oh well, at least they tried". After 8 years of declining standards and increasingly bullish statements about our ability and intent to compete people are expecting action this summer.
That's true, however agents can and would know about a clause, it's a simple case of looking at the contract if you're not sure (they have to have a copy).

I didn't believe we'd bid that, as it turns out I was wrong and it appears we did, but I think you're underestimating the ability of the fans to forgive and forget as well, sure there will be a few moans of discontent initially (incidentally I do think we'll sign a couple players, but they will be the usual panic buys not up to the standard we need - but may well be enough for some who will claim they are just what we needed), but once the season starts it'll be forgotten and the stadium will be full and fans will just say get behind the players we have, we're stuck with what we have now.

I don't believe it's going to change, seen it too many times, last season was a very poor season despite getting 4th and yet it seems to be remembered in a positive way. Before Christmas we had some disastrous results and people were pandering for signings, a few results later and no signings made and it's all forgotten and we then end up stumbling to 4th with some overall woeful displays but people seem pleased enough.

[Özim]

It's clearly not that simple. The contract wont just have the clause written in a simple sentence, it will have been written in legal jargon and can be interpreted in several different ways. For example I've heard the clause (whatever the clause is) only applies to clubs in the Champs Leg which we're technically not.

The player's agent obviously thinks there's a buy out clause otherwise we wouldn't have been encouraged to bid it.

The club think otherwise.

The only way you'll find out for certain is to get the lawyers involved and even then one lawyer will say the opposite to another lawyer and you're back to square one. Ultimately Suarez would have to get the move by handing in a transfer request and going on strike but he wont do that to join us.
I disagree, when you negotiate a contract with a clause like this it's because you've asked for it..otherwise the club wouldn't bother. On that basis you would know exactly what it represents.

There's actually no reason for Liverpool to insert a clause like this unless it's requested, how would it benefit them?

[Letters]

once the season starts it'll be forgotten

That rather depends how the season starts.


last season was a very poor season despite getting 4th and yet it seems to be remembered in a positive way.
By who? Of course people are pleased we finished above Spurs again (I think most people care more about that than the fact that in order to do so we had to finish top 4), but I don't think anyone (certainly not on here) remembers the season in a positive way.

[Marc Overmars]

We should just bid 50m and be done with it. If Liverpool are annoyed and don't want to do business with us anymore then so be it, move the fuck on and look elsewhere. What the hell is going on? The season starts in 2 weeks, it's so typical that the one time we do have some cash to burn we even manage to balls that up. Awful club that needs to get with the times.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

It's not like we do much business with each other anyway...

I doubt we'd really care if you paid what we were asking. I doubt we really care about the whole £1 business; we'll be more annoyed with the agent.

[ENSKIED]

By protocol, I'm not referring to the tenner bid.

I'm talking about taking steps to ensure we're not being duped, mislead or blighted by scum agents.

Apparently, that's what happened to us here, where we seemed to have gone by an agent telling us about a phantom release clause which led us to make an embarrassing bid which in turn ticked off the scouse ****s. For all we know, we could have been purposely deceived by the agent in getting us to bid an amount that wouldn't land Suarez, but at the same time hoping to draw Real's interest, who aren't known to be penny pinchers.

Massive pay day it would have been for the ****.

Are you John Le Carre by any chance? Your analysis is plausible, entertaining and certainly intriguing JG - the only caveat for me is your "scouse ****" to be more precise it perhaps should read "American ****" or even "FSG ****" but that might just be me.

[Grebbo]

I disagree, when you negotiate a contract with a clause like this it's because you've asked for it..otherwise the club wouldn't bother. On that basis you would know exactly what it represents.

There's actually no reason for Liverpool to insert a clause like this unless it's requested, how would it benefit them?

It benefits Liverpool because they got Suarez to sign a contract extension and command a transfer fee of £40m. If he hadn't of signed his extension he'd be worth less and have less on his contract leaving them in a more difficult position.

The player and the agent think they have the clause but they're obviously not willing to challenge it legally.

[Grebbo]

We should just bid 50m and be done with it. If Liverpool are annoyed and don't want to do business with us anymore then so be it, move the fuck on and look elsewhere. What the hell is going on? The season starts in 2 weeks, it's so typical that the one time we do have some cash to burn we even manage to balls that up. Awful club that needs to get with the times.

That's the logical next step. Bid £50m and see what happens. You can only really do that though if you're happy to let it drag on until deadline day and risk being left with Giroud as your only striker.

I'm not sure why we're not bidding for Lewendowski or whatever he's called. Sure... He wants to go to Bayern but Dortmund would surely be tempted in pushing him to us if they get £40m.

Ibrahmovic would also make sense.

[GP]

Dortmund are adamant Lewandowski isn't for sale. They've sold a few already so obviously want to keep him.

I'm not sure I really want Ibrahimovic. The wrong side of 30 and on silly wages.

[Xhaka Can’t]

That's true, however agents can and would know about a clause, it's a simple case of looking at the contract if you're not sure (they have to have a copy).

I didn't believe we'd bid that, as it turns out I was wrong and it appears we did, but I think you're underestimating the ability of the fans to forgive and forget as well, sure there will be a few moans of discontent initially (incidentally I do think we'll sign a couple players, but they will be the usual panic buys not up to the standard we need - but may well be enough for some who will claim they are just what we needed), but once the season starts it'll be forgotten and the stadium will be full and fans will just say get behind the players we have, we're stuck with what we have now.

I don't believe it's going to change, seen it too many times, last season was a very poor season despite getting 4th and yet it seems to be remembered in a positive way. Before Christmas we had some disastrous results and people were pandering for signings, a few results later and no signings made and it's all forgotten and we then end up stumbling to 4th with some overall woeful displays but people seem pleased enough.

I don't think it has been remembered in a positive way. The best thing about the season was the misinformation spurs were fed during the final game of the season. And that is it. We are playing some of the most boring football I've seen ever.

[Letters]

I don't think it has been remembered in a positive way. The best thing about the season was the misinformation spurs were fed during the final game of the season. And that is it. We are playing some of the most boring football I've seen ever.
92/93 :bow:

[JonasTC]

We should kidnap some of the players comming for emirates cup, like hamsik, jackson martinez, etc... Only chance of getting some decent players before the season starts.

[Özim]

It benefits Liverpool because they got Suarez to sign a contract extension and command a transfer fee of £40m. If he hadn't of signed his extension he'd be worth less and have less on his contract leaving them in a more difficult position.

The player and the agent think they have the clause but they're obviously not willing to challenge it legally.
Again though if you have a clause like that you know what it is as you would have requested it, the club wouldn't put that clause in otherwise.

[Özim]

I don't think it has been remembered in a positive way. The best thing about the season was the misinformation spurs were fed during the final game of the season. And that is it. We are playing some of the most boring football I've seen ever.
Yeah I agree that was good particularly that clip of them thinking Newcastle had equalised :lol:

As for the season, I still think the end of season has deflected a lot of pressure and criticism, I'm not talking for everyone but there's a number of people who don't think we're that far away, analysing last season would suggest otherwise. The fact the stadium remains full and that there's little in terms of discontent suggests last season was decent to many.

[Bury Da Bwoy]

i dont think it would have been wenger adding on that extra £1, he probably would have said 40 million but left it to the board to offer teh money. but if it was a release clause, liverpool wouldnt have had a choice over accepting it, they would have had to accept it. be it 1 pound or 1 million.

but they club got fucked over by agents and then fucked over themselves. we look like dicks, its cost us anohter striker and its absoutly infuriating


yeah but what i'm saying is if we had bid say like 41mill we wouldn't look like twats due to the agents fucking us over. That £1 does make us look like twats because there is no release clause

[Letters]

As for the season, I still think the end of season has deflected a lot of pressure and criticism.
Yeah, this place has been a non-stop party since.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Yeah, this place has been a non-stop party since.

it was directly after teh game, for a couple of weeks with the talk from Arsenal too. now no one is enjoying this and everyone is pissed off. i dont know many people optimistic anymore, on here, facebook or twitter. everyones pissed off at the club

[Letters]

it was directly after teh game, for a couple of weeks with the talk from Arsenal too. now no one is enjoying this and everyone is pissed off. i dont know many people optimistic anymore, on here, facebook or twitter. everyones pissed off at the club
et tu, ollie?

:hug:

[Marc Overmars]

We are gathered here today to mourn the passing of our dear friend Ollie. :rose:

[Ollie the Optimist]

et tu, ollie?

:hug:


yep, was optimistic. felt we would go big and get some real world class players in, and now we wont. suarez news about the clause, him not wanting to challenge it. thats it for me.

[AKBapologist]

Watching City's new signings tear a new one out of AC Milan. Navas and Jotovic look the business....

Not looking forward to our preseason game vs shitty.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Seems like Soldado is close to joining Spurs as well.

:rose:

How would Arsenal fans generally react a bad summer window? Would it be an apathetic drip of lower attendances, replaced by more corporate schmucks eating their swan salad focaccia, or would there demonstrations and marches and all that business?

[Ollie the Optimist]

Seems like Soldado is close to joining Spurs as well.

:rose:

How would Arsenal fans generally react a bad summer window? Would it be an apathetic drip of lower attendances, replaced by more corporate schmucks eating their swan salad focaccia, or would there demonstrations and marches and all that business?

i can see home attendances dropping slightly, but away games will still sell out i reckon. The thing is, im fucked off at teh club but still paid for a ticket today, people will still go to games. At the end of the day we all love the club and wnat to support it so that for reason i cant see people not going to games. But i reckon there will be a lot more chanting about the board/wenger and a lot more aggresion at bad results, booing, chants etc to get the message accross.

there isnt much we can do really. Apart from a mass boycott of games, which isnt going to happen People like me who cant go often will jump at tickets that dont sell so tickets will always sell. Guess its going to have to be marches, and then boycotting the shops, only drink in pubs not at the club. not much we can do really