Was this our most wasted summer transfer window yet?

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Originally Posted by Niall Quinn

This formal apology.

Would I have to do it with a straight face?

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A gay face would also be acceptable. Arguably more appropriate for Cripps.

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Originally Posted by Letters

A gay face would also be acceptable. Arguably more appropriate for Cripps.

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So's your face

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Originally Posted by selassie

At the moment we aren't in great shape and Wenger is totally responsible for that.

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We finished 2nd last year, it was the first season in 3 where we didn't win a trophy of some sort and we have one of the best squads in the country and money in the bank to improve it. It's not that bad. :shrug:
Agree about contract uncertainties though, that does need sorting out.

Also...found it!

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...-hatred-877225

The Chemical Tavern was the site that Marc (who isn't the person mentioned in this article although he is referenced, his username at one point was Mandela) and others set up.

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Originally Posted by Letters

We finished 2nd last year, it was the first season in 3 where we didn't win a trophy of some sort and we have one of the best squads in the country and money in the bank to improve it. It's not that bad. :shrug:
Agree about contract uncertainties though, that does need sorting out.

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If we'd bought in January to cover injuries, I think we would have won the league. With all of the big teams failing, it was ours for the taking, the one year we could have won it. Yes we finished second, in a very odd season, and we were 10 points behind Leicester!!

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Originally Posted by Goonermerree

If we'd bought in January to cover injuries, I think we would have won the league. With all of the big teams failing, it was ours for the taking, the one year we could have won it. Yes we finished second, in a very odd season, and we were 10 points behind Leicester!!

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There's always a glass half empty and glass half full way of looking at things. I tend to do the latter. But we have a squad which should have won the league last year and should be challenging this. If people didn't think we were good enough to challenge then why moan about how things are going? And we've money in the bank and sponsorship deals and a global fanbase big enough to keep us at or near the top with good management. I don't think we're in bad shape.

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Originally Posted by Letters

There's always a glass half empty and glass half full way of looking at things. I tend to do the latter. But we have a squad which should have won the league last year and should be challenging this. If people didn't think we were good enough to challenge then why moan about how things are going? And we've money in the bank and sponsorship deals and a global fanbase big enough to keep us at or near the top with good management. I don't think we're in bad shape.

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If you think we should have won the league last year and should be challenging this year, how can you see that as good?

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Originally Posted by Goonermerree

If you think we should have won the league last year and should be challenging this year, how can you see that as good?

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I don't think that's good, but if you think we have a squad good enough to win the league then how can you not think we're in pretty good shape?
Wenger should have won us the league last year. He didn't and should be sacked. But he won't be leaving us in bad shape for the reasons I've outlined.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I don't think that's good, but if you think we have a squad good enough to win the league then how can you not think we're in pretty good shape?
Wenger should have won us the league last year. He didn't and should be sacked. But he won't be leaving us in bad shape for the reasons I've outlined.

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I actually said we could have won it if we had bought in January to cover injuries. We're not in bad shape financially, but we're a football club not a bank. We want to win things, not line Kranky's pockets every time we get top four.

We've blown our adavantage somewhat IMO. we had the big new stadium to raise more revenue than others, now Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool are all getting big new stadiums and that's advantage gone, we just haven't made the most of it.

I agree we had our chance last season and blew it big time, other top clubs really stuttered and the opportunity was there, but in the end we we left behind by mighty Leicester and that was our chance gone.

Now we have no chance, whilst I think we have some very good players, the balance isn't right and we are missing some key ingredients and I put the blame squarely at Arsene Wengers' door, he could have gone out and signed the right players in the summer but he chose to go for 3 players none of us would have really seen as solutions to our problems, in doing so he also wasted 90 million.

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Originally Posted by Goonermerree

I actually said we could have won it if we had bought in January to cover injuries. We're not in bad shape financially, but we're a football club not a bank. We want to win things, not line Kranky's pockets every time we get top four.

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We have money in the bank AND a squad capable of challenging for the title. We're not a bank but like it or not good finances are important to success in football (and don't "Leicester" at me, you know that was a one-off as they're showing this year).
Overall we're in good shape.

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Originally Posted by Letters

We have money in the bank AND a squad capable of challenging for the title. We're not a bank but like it or not good finances are important to success in football (and don't "Leicester" at me, you know that was a one-off as they're showing this year).
Overall we're in good shape.

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Why can't I Leicester at you, we could still have pipped them for the title had we not faded away as per. This squad isn't challenging for the title. I think we arguing the same thing.

Any way, go easy on me, I have laryngitis and I can't type loud or fast!

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Originally Posted by Goonermerree

Why can't I Leicester at you, we could still have pipped them for the title had we not faded away as per. This squad isn't challenging for the title. I think we arguing the same thing.

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You can't Leicester at me to refute the idea that money and success in football are highly correlated. Leicester were a refreshing counter-example, they showed it's possible but they're showing this year it was a one-off.
This squad isn't challenging for the title, but IMO it's capable of doing so and should have won it last year. My overall point was and remains that overall we're in pretty good shape for any new manager.
Hope your throat gets better soon, it's good we have the internet so you can continue arguing with people without having to shout.

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Originally Posted by Letters

We finished 2nd last year, it was the first season in 3 where we didn't win a trophy of some sort and we have one of the best squads in the country and money in the bank to improve it. It's not that bad. :shrug:
Agree about contract uncertainties though, that does need sorting out.

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Last season was a disaster, we finished a distant 2nd despite the fact we fared better than all of our traditional rivals who all had meltdowns, we still failed big time though.

Anyway..my point about the contracts of Ozil and Sanchez kind of go hand in hand with the state of our squad, if we lose them we're in big trouble IMO.

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Originally Posted by Letters

You can't Leicester at me to refute the idea that money and success in football are highly correlated. Leicester were a refreshing counter-example, they showed it's possible but they're showing this year it was a one-off.
This squad isn't challenging for the title, but IMO it's capable of doing so and should have won it last year. My overall point was and remains that overall we're in pretty good shape for any new manager.
Hope your throat gets better soon, it's good we have the internet so you can continue arguing with people without having to shout.

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About Leicester, of course, a freaky season and I never said otherwise. I agree with the highlighted part too. Like I said, we think the same things, dunno why we arguing about it really. STOP ARGUING WITH ME. That little shout felt good, I shouted it in my head. It's no good only being able to whisper!

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Originally Posted by Özim

We've blown our adavantage somewhat IMO. we had the big new stadium to raise more revenue than others, now Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool are all getting big new stadiums and that's advantage gone, we just haven't made the most of it.

I agree we had our chance last season and blew it big time, other top clubs really stuttered and the opportunity was there, but in the end we we left behind by mighty Leicester and that was our chance gone.

Now we have no chance, whilst I think we have some very good players, the balance isn't right and we are missing some key ingredients and I put the blame squarely at Arsene Wengers' door, he could have gone out and signed the right players in the summer but he chose to go for 3 players none of us would have really seen as solutions to our problems, in doing so he also wasted 90 million.

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I actually agree with much of that. I think the stadium move was badly timed but you can only see that in retrospect, you can't blame anyone for that really. It happened just at the time when the billionaires were having the most effect in football and just as the finances of the stadium started to work for us rather than against the finances in football with TV and sponsorship deals and transfer fees had gone so mental that it's less of an advantage anyway. It had to be done though in my view, at times I think Wenger did well to keep us "up there" but the money excuse has gone now and while the two FA Cups were welcome after such a long trophy drought he's failed to push us on.

From what we know Wenger went for two strikers this summer, Vardy and Perez.

Vardy is an one season wonder and a total flop this season, so that would have been a disaster.

Perez has done OK, but let's face it isn't the answer to our problems up front either.

Now I know people will say who could have we got, well IMO if we were willing to pay up Lacazette who is 25 and has 16 goals in 21 games this season, Griezzmann would have been a hard one but had we gone in for a huge bid who knows, Cavani who has proven in the past he can score goals and is a very good player (though he missed some sitters against us), Aubameyang again he would have cost a lot but who knows if we'd put in a big bid, Icardi (fell out with the fans and seems to be doing well in Italy).

We chose the cheap options again and it will continue to cost us IMO, perhaps one marquee signing a one or two cheaper buys would be a better policy? I'm not happy with Wengers' policy in the transfer market to be honest, on the one hand he's always on the lookout for bargains (Vardy/Perez) and on the other when he does spend big he overspends on realtive unknowns like Mustafi and Xhaka, why won't he just bite the bullet and sign more established players and why does he wait so long to sign players, surely knowing price willl be higher later on in the transfer window?

I just don't get it, he always wants to be the one to discover top players at lower than market values, yet most of the time nowadays he totally fails to do so and doesn't learn.

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Originally Posted by Özim

From what we know Wenger went for two strikers this summer, Vardy and Perez.

Vardy is an one season wonder and a total flop this season, so that would have been a disaster.

Perez has done OK, but let's face it isn't the answer to our problems up front either.

Now I know people will say who could have we got, well IMO if we were willing to pay up Lacazette who is 25 and has 16 goals in 21 games this season, Griezzmann would have been a hard one but had we gone in for a huge bid who knows, Cavani who has proven in the past he can score goals and is a very good player (though he missed some sitters against us), Aubameyang again he would have cost a lot but who knows if we'd put in a big bid, Icardi (fell out with the fans and seems to be doing well in Italy).

We chose the cheap options again and it will continue to cost us IMO, perhaps one marquee signing a one or two cheaper buys would be a better policy? I'm not happy with Wengers' policy in the transfer market to be honest, on the one hand he's always on the lookout for bargains (Vardy/Perez) and on the other when he does spend big he overspends on realtive unknowns like Mustafi and Xhaka, why won't he just bite the bullet and sign more established players and why does he wait so long to sign players, surely knowing price willl be higher later on in the transfer window?

I just don't get it, he always wants to be the one to discover top players at lower than market values, yet most of the time nowadays he totally fails to do so and doesn't learn.

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:gp: Then he likes to play them out of position because it worked with Henry.

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Originally Posted by Goonermerree

:gp: Then he likes to play them out of position because it worked with Henry.

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Yup pretty much, he's an odd character, he has success moving a handful of players to new position then thinks to himself he can do it with anyone, but on the other side of the coin when things don't work he never ever seems to pick up on it and change.