I remember the last hot prospect Utd signed from Palace. That one turned out well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
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I remember the last hot prospect Utd signed from Palace. That one turned out well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
A lot of money but Wan-Bissaka is worth it. Unlike Micah Richards years ago, I think he'll go the distance.
Richards was a City youth player wasn’t he?
Errr... I think so.
Spurs on the verge of signing Ndombele. Outrageous if they pull it off.
The flats shouldn’t have been an issue - if the housing market suddenly crashed then we could have just sat on them and rented them out until it picked up again. No way those properties don’t get snapped up in about 5 seconds in London.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
As you say, the problem has never been the stadium itself - we’ve just had a bunch of idiots in charge who have lurched from one mistake to the next for more than a decade. If anything, the fact that they haven’t managed to leave us in administration is probably a testament to the financial power of this club!
Even now it’s recoverable. The club generates everything we could ever need to be successful, with the potential to earn even more with CL finishes (and the higher marketing potential that goes with it), but it’s probably going to mean a year or two of aggressive changes and hard work to get back to that point. If it happens it certainly won’t feel like any miracle - it will feel more like surgery followed by a recovery period...
Yes true, but the flats have nothing to do with football, we were building a stadium not a residential area, that's my point really, the people in charge got a bit greedy and decided to try and cash in (not necessarily thinking about the club) and in the end it backfired somewhat.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
Yes we did, no doubting that and they were kept in charge for far far too long, for sentimental reasons and because it just suited everyone.
I hope you're right, but with so little money and a manager who IMO based on his career and what he showed us last season really isn't an elite coach it may prove to be beyond us, club above us will have more money to spend, as will Man U and we'll probably be lumbered with overpaid average or under performing players like Ozil, Xhaka, Mustafi, Mhkyktaryan, Iwobi, players that aren't going to drag you to the next level that we just can't sell.
Right now given the situation, it's hard to see how we're going to be competing in the near future, even qualifying for the CL which brings more money will be a push, Emery had it handed on a plate to him last season and he failed to capitalise and then got hammered in the EL final, there's a mentality issue with these players and without wholesale changes that's not going to be any different next season. Add to that the fact we lost Ramsey probably one of our best players last season and it's hardly looks rosy right now.
We're probably going to have to give most of them away for nothing in the end. I'm actually not to bothered about that - the only problem is we'll probably hold out until the very last minute to see if we'll get any kind of fee for them, so it probably won't help us much this window.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
The more I think about it, the more I don't understand how we haven't simply terminated Özil's contract? Whether it's on the grounds of the club itself having to make cutbacks due to loss of income, or sustained poor performance on a personal level (in spite of what must have been numerous warnings since Emery joined), or his appalling attendance record, or showing disrespect to his manager in public, or being a PR and marketing disaster for the club... there must be something legitimate there, surely?
Granted, it could set a dangerous precedent in the game, and there's a worry that players might think twice before joining us in future if we play this card, but surely the footballing world would accept that Özil is a unique case? I mean, the guy "earns" enough money to pay 5 players and he doesn't do his job, he disrespects his manager, he has every other week off, and in a PR- and marketing-critical industry he's somehow managed to alienate his own fans, his home nation and he asked a fucking dictator to be the best man at his wedding! Short of taking a swing at Stan, I'm really not sure what more he has to do to get his ass fired?
You can't terminate a contract on any of those basis. Even when players have refused to return to their clubs they have still remained in contract until they are sold. The club would be left wide open for a messy, protracted and expensive lawsuit, that would then tell every agent to advise their players to avoid us like the plague.
We're stuck with Ozil and any other player that doesn't want to leave.
You're probably right about that, on top of all the players we've lost for next to nothing or nothing, we're probably going to have to settle for releasing those players as well as there don't seem to be any buyers right now, which kinda highlights just how bad a bit of business it was to sign them in the 1st place.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
It's pretty shocking how we were left, next to no saleable assets and several players we couldn't give away if we tried, how often does that happen at a big club? Emery got dealt a bad card, I'll give him that, but I must admit to also having been underwhelmed by his first season in charge, it wasn't so much where we ended up as how we did it, IMO there hasn't really been enough clear direction or change from the previous manager which is very disappointing, I feel a more elite coach would have stamped his authority more, I guess we'll see what he can do next season, but so far our business has been very slow, we should really be desperate to get some signings over the line so we can bed them in, the players we seem to be going after are also you could argue a bit underwhelming as well, time will tell who we end up with though I guess.
Re Ozil, it the fact we'd have to pay him off that's the issue isn't it, let's face it it is, but then we seem to be the kings of poor decisions, what were we thinking by offering Xhaka a new contract last summer and of course how did we get ourselves in a position where we had no choice but to give into Ozils demands in the 1st place.
It is what it is at the end of the day, Ozil might be too expensive to release, but Mustafi probably wouldn't be, Mhkytaryan again is another player who's very poor value for money, 200k a week going on this guy with precious little to show for it, we can add Xhaka to that list now as well.
That's about the size of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMatthews
The end of the season was an utter shower of shite and really worked to make sure we could not move forward as far as we should be this summer.
If Spurs actually sign Ndombele I will be sick. There was a time, people were saying he was nailed on for City (Though far too many top players are said to be....they can't sign everybody) and now he might end up in our area....but playing for another team.
Honestly!
i thought we made a profit on the flats and were doing quite well at selling them. Thinking a few years ago the property company was making a large profit.
unfortunately you cant sack players without paying out there contract unless they have done something criminal. also no one releases a player who a club still believes has some value. like scrapping a £5k car just because it occasionally misses a gear when driving.
i have a feeling that these players will just end up running their contracts down and all leaving on a free so once that has finished in a couple of years we will be able to rebuild and under a new manager.
on the plus side never heard of ndombele, so i don't know what we are missing out on. baffled why Zaha would want to come to us as Spurs have been interested and is the sort of signing Chelsea would make if they weren't under a transfer embargo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice
we really do have a chance next season to finish top 4 with the Chelsea embargo and selling Hazard and a new unproven manager, United either selling pogba/lukaku or having an unhappy pogba/lukaku and having to repair there defence and midfield.
so why cant we speculate to accumulate, push the boat out this summer and if it doesn't work reign it in next summer but the window of opportunity is small.
The problem is we only spend what we generate but we don't generate anywhere near enough to compete for serious players thanks to a mixture of poor coaching and poor business decisions over the years. We've fallen well behind off the pitch as well as on it, it's been 15 years since we won the league which means there is an entire generation of young players coming through who only know Arsenal to be the butt of all jokes.
I know Gazidis was getting a lot of praise towards the end, but he did a terrible job IMO, our stock no doubt fell badly with Wenger failing to challenge for the big prizes and accepting being 2nd best, but we could have done a lot better with the deals with someone better than Gazidis in charge, someone who could have pressured Wenger a bit more to deliver and acheived better deals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
For years we could see this coming and yet we still continued to hold onto the old guard, now we're paying the price I'm afraid, all because we decided to indulge a few underperformer year after year.
I'd much rather we remained a club who only spent what we earn. I can live with whatever we become as a club as long as operate that way. As soon as someone starts to invest their own millions, I'll lose interest, cos it's just a dick contest then. Wenger blew the best part of £300m in this last 3 years at the club - the money spend on Lac/Auba/Ozil and Miki was meant to be a last roll of the dice, a team built for 'now' to get us back into the top four, but it hasn't worked. I don't think we're seen as a 'joke' club at all in reality. Players still want to come here - Zaha is a good case in point if that rumour is true. We're a big club and will remain that way, but we're just not seen as 'serious' contenders, which is a problem that can only be changed gradually.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
The self sustainable model is a thing of the past, two decades ago it might have been a good idea but to maintain this is frankly ridiculous in a modern era when almost every big club is owned by billionaires who can afford to invest (most importantly including ourselves). By all means let's keep the self sustaining model going year on year if we want to be also rans for the foreseeable future, you have to speculate to accummulate as they say, if you invest and succeed you'll reap the rewards, a middle of the road club get very little reward and rarely moves forward.
We're starting to lag revenue wise, all the clubs that have invested have either surpassed us will soon surpass us, our profits are falling quite a lot as well and on the pitch we're a shadow of the club we were 15 years ago, not really a great way to run a football club or indeed a business if you want it to be successful.
Besides it's not a fans job to worry about finances, fans care most about what happens on the pitch.
I don’t suppose there’s any way we can justify fining him exactly £350k a week until he leaves?Quote:
Originally Posted by SMatthews
Bit more paper talk on Auba to United.
Don’t know about anyone else but I’d be absolutely livid if we sold him to raise money for Zaha.
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
This kind of goes back to what I was banging on about during last season - should we sell a big player to raise funds if our transfer pot is small. It also ties into the self sufficient argument. There’s on only one team in the Prem that doesn’t operate that way anymore, even Chelsea have changed their model. But the difference is, we don’t have CL money to help. Should we sell Auba or Laca to raise money? We maybe don’t have much choice. But to Utd? That would be hard to swallow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Edit: Although, he does have two years left on his contract and if he isn’t going to sign and Raul is going to stick to his word, then he could well be a gonna.
Me too, Auba scores lots of goals, one of the few players I want to keep hold of, Zaha won't score that many goals and to be honest is a bit overrated IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Be just like this club to do something that stupid though. Are there any Man U rejects we can take off their hands as well?
If we do have to sell our biggest assets then fine, as long as the players we bring in are of a similar standard.
Zaha is definitely not worth 70m or whatever if it meant losing a 30 goal striker.
Yup agreed, if we sold Auba to fund a top quality player, preferably a striker to replace him who will score goals, then fine, but for someone like Zaha......please.
I don't even particularly want us to sign this guy anyway, there's better out there for less money.
I guess the thinking would be to spread goals across the team, which we need, and more creativity out wide. Zaha hasn’t scored a lot for Palace, but he’d be in a team who have the ball more and create more chances. I’m not 100% sold on the idea of Zaha at all, but if we sold a big player I think the money would be spent on another position. Still, the transfer market in the Prem has been bloody slow - either July is going to go nuts, or it’ll be a very quiet summer for everyone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Lyon have said the Ndombele transfer isn’t close at all :lol:
They’ve apparently bid £40m but nothing more.
A lot of these rumours are created with the premise of destabilising a player to be honest, Ornstein mentioned we'd need to sell Aubameyang to buy Zaha, now it's come out in the papers.
Unfortunately this can sometimes lead to a transfer as a player can suddenly fancy a move to that club and if the club are interested a move can happen. I hope that's not the case but if Man U decide they're interested then we might have a problem, he must see how little we have to spend and how little ambition we have. That's the trouble with this model we use, top players don't want to hear you're going to sign nobodies and you have no money for top players, they want to hear that quality signings are going to be made so we can challenge for top prizes.
RVP had it spot on with the club, he had to move on to win stuff and he did, players/fans have been complaining about our transfer policy for years and it's always fallen on deaf ears.
Aulas said:
Doesn't look like he's saying he wants 72 million to me, just that he's worth more than 40 million.Quote:
Speaking on RMC, he said: "If I wait another eight days, it will be €80million (£72m).
Tottenham made us an opening offer worth €45m (£40m). Then, we discussed more. Nothing is done, I can assure you. We are not in a hurry either.
"Tanguy has shown his qualities with the French national team. He is one of our best players. How much is he worth? I do not know, but not just €45m.
It's being reported Bielik wants to leave, so not sure he'll be sticking around for us to use him so that option might have gone out the window for us.
Is being champions and the "butt of all jokes" the only two options?Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
How many clubs have been more successful than us in that time?
Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, City, I guess you'd have to add Leicester :wacko:. Who else? Spurs haven't won a thing to our 3 FA Cups so not them.
We're not where we need to be and with our owner I'm not convinced we'll get there but some of you lot need to have a word with yourselves. We are far better placed to succeed than most clubs.
Are you going to call someone a cunt again?Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
:lol: That was funny last time.
Maccy removed it though :sulk:
(Rightly so, to be fair.)
“Most clubs” are not our measuring stick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
The top 6 clubs are the only ones we need to be looking at.
If that's true, and I guess it is, then you know who to thank for that. We were never a consistently top 4/6 club back in the day. #justsayin'Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
But yes, that is the level we are at now and while within that group we are struggling to compete, we are fairly well placed to with the right ownership.
The stadium move had to be done, it wasn't quite the silver bullet we were all hoping but we did it just as the billionaires started to have a big impact on the game and Fergie was still in his pomp.
Not much we could have done about any of those things but longer term it was the only option (that's a response to some of the posts over the last few pages which seem to suggest we shouldn't have done it).
Classic Aulas!Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
He will drag this one out and extract every single penny he can out of the Spuds.
Yes it's Raul's 'sell or resign with two years left' rule that makes any Auba rumours credible (though not necessarily true)Quote:
Originally Posted by SMatthews
And it's 'goner' btw ;)
we probably could justify it but probably not legally.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by I am invisible
How much would that putrid club need to offer for us to sell Auba? Far too much should be the answer.
Even if we got 150 mill for him, I'm not sure wqe would sufficiently reinvest it.
Aubameyang, Wan-Bissaka and a top manager would probably turn them into title challengers!
And could we not have hijacked, Godin or hummels.... heck the both of those deals! Then Just go youth ahead of the backline.