Winter Transfer Despair and Bafflement.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

And that Greek kid was supposed to be going out on loan, but there he was on the bench and now he's staying. Whose decision? The experts who wanted him in here so he could go on loan? Have they had a change of mind? Or was it Wenger stepping in so he could cheapskate his way through another transfer window, thereby fucking up the whole plan for the player? We won't find out. But it's not a leap to assume Wenger still has the primary role behind the scenes. And unless this Malcolm kid is the next big thing then bringing in a 20 year old who has never played at the top level and asking him to step into Alexis' boots while under the tutelage of Wenger is a recipe for disaster. Any signing now is more of a risk than an investment. In some ways I'd rather see Jonny Evans come in because he might hang on to enough muscle memory to counteract Wenger's lunacy until the end of the season, and it's at the back we need most help. I mean it's a joke for a club of our supposed stature to be scrabbling around for reinforcements like this, but if we do let the old fool bring in anyone at least let it be somebody solid with some experience in this league that can shore us up until the fool is gone.

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I have a feeling Sven recommended that Greek defender and Wenger in his condescending way was sceptical about it and almost dismissed the kid, because he feels under threat from Sven, but then when he arrived and trained, Wenger was shocked at how good he is and realised the kid can do a job so done a 180.

Wenger probably said the 'going out on loan to Werder Bremen' line as a way of stamping his authority and dismissing Sven's expertise.

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Originally Posted by Dumbledore

I have a feeling Sven recommended that Greek defender and Wenger in his condescending way was sceptical about it and almost dismissed the kid, because he feels under threat from Sven, but then when he arrived and trained, Wenger was shocked at how good he is and realised the kid can do a job so done a 180.

Wenger probably said the 'going out on loan to Werder Bremen' line as a way of stamping his authority and dismissing Sven's expertise.

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Could be. All any of us can do is speculate. What we can say for sure is we don't exactly have a harmonised team pulling together right now.

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

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

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I agree. The argument about cleaning the books goes up in smoke if Theo goes out on loan instead of being sold. Also, Wenger is saying he wants Theo to stay but can’t guarantee him game time. He says he doesn’t want Theo to miss out on another World Cup.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...-a3738541.html

People speculating all over the place, but just because this new guy scouted him doesn't mean this Greek kid is any good, it's a game of numbers some will turn out decent and some won't, people putting too much faith in these people just because they managed to uncover a handful of decent players of the years, what we don't know is how many they brought in that were rubbish.

Suits Wenger though, he loves to sign these young players, especially when they are unknowns, so no doubt he had his say, as it turns out now he wants him around probably to play at some point, might well be the new CB we've desperately been waiting for, except for the fact he's unproven and has no top level experience at all of course, but that's just a minor thing.

As for the quickfire sales that seem to be materialising, well we're raising money so it's no surprise we're happy, still no plan in place of course, every player we sign is an afterthought, there's never a plan ahead of time, as usual Wenger and his team are looking around (maybe they're just looking from inside the stadium with their binoculars to see if they can spot anyone super super quality :lol:), all this looking and never finding much is rather odd, we're always looking and never getting any results, almost like we don't want to spend any money.

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Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur

Where have I argued otherwise? The point is, selling them in January, knowing our record isn't smart or a sign that Wenger's power grip is being loosened. Everything else you've written below is shifting goal posts. Regardless of how you rate them, you wouldn't be able to find me a better DM in this current squad or a player as quick as Theo with a better goal and finishing record. We can always take a risk with the younger player, but as seen, Wenger has the touch of death in that area. Just look at Iwobi.

I think you're getting a little carried away by the new narrative brewing over Wenger's possible departure. How is this any different to us moving on Gibbs, Chesney and Gabriel earlier in the summer? Or Gnarby last season? Or Podolski, Vermaelen, Djourou, Gervinho, Santos....Vela....we've seen Wenger eventually lose patience with players and quickly fall out of love with players that would get game after game. Earlier this season and seasons before. But of some reason you're reading more into it. I more so have a problem with it happening in January when we haven't secured our place in Europe.

We can still make this situation worse for a new manager because they'll still need squad players and we still need to try and qualify for Europe.

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Again it’s entirely possible but the point is Coquelin and Walcott were first teamers last season and now they aren’t, and the past indicates that we let these players smell out the place for too long before shifting them.

And I’m not goal post shifting, I’m saying that Coquelin is hardly paying anyway and he’s not that good so the difference between him being our only DM and not having one is in my view anyway incredibly small.

I don’t think Wenger is even going in the summer so it’s not getting my hopes up over that. It’s the hope that we might be more ruthless with shipping players out and freeing up the wage bill when we acknowledge that a few players aside isn’t a particularly amazing one.

Coquelin and Walcott are two on the top of my list of players I want rid of, if it’s done in a timely fashion and in the case of Walcott we get over 20 million for him, I’m all for it.

If you don’t see the logic in it, that’s not really my problem. I am offering a view on the sales that you don’t agree with. I think when you consider how many players we end up shifting out on loan because of the wages we put them on, these are developments I am happy with. As I say and you won’t agree with and I won’t care, these players are peripheral to our season....which I already believe is a complete write off. I’d rather money be banked and wage bill money be freed up for immediate summer signings.

Now if said signings don’t come or don’t look up to snuff, then i was wrong.

Tottenham drop interest in £45m Bordeaux winger Malcom and clear the way for Arsenal to swoop in https://t.co/wM7s6Surwe

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Originally Posted by Özim

People speculating all over the place, but just because this new guy scouted him doesn't mean this Greek kid is any good, it's a game of numbers some will turn out decent and some won't, people putting too much faith in these people just because they managed to uncover a handful of decent players of the years, what we don't know is how many they brought in that were rubbish.

Suits Wenger though, he loves to sign these young players, especially when they are unknowns, so no doubt he had his say, as it turns out now he wants him around probably to play at some point, might well be the new CB we've desperately been waiting for, except for the fact he's unproven and has no top level experience at all of course, but that's just a minor thing.

As for the quickfire sales that seem to be materialising, well we're raising money so it's no surprise we're happy, still no plan in place of course, every player we sign is an afterthought, there's never a plan ahead of time, as usual Wenger and his team are looking around (maybe they're just looking from inside the stadium with their binoculars to see if they can spot anyone super super quality :lol:), all this looking and never finding much is rather odd, we're always looking and never getting any results, almost like we don't want to spend any money.

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It’s all speculation, but on the balance of it I don’t think we are any worse as a squad without Walcott or Coquelin in it.

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Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur

I agree. The argument about cleaning the books goes up in smoke if Theo goes out on loan instead of being sold. Also, Wenger is saying he wants Theo to stay but can’t guarantee him game time. He says he doesn’t want Theo to miss out on another World Cup.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...-a3738541.html

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It would indeed but at the risk of turning Ornstein into an oracle he has stated that loan offers have come in but we are only interested in either a sale or him staying.
If he ended up going out on loan, of course that would be absurd and stupid.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

Again it’s entirely possible but the point is Coquelin and Walcott were first teamers last season and now they aren’t, and the past indicates that we let these players smell out the place for too long before shifting them..

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:lol: How is this different from the past? We didn't sign these guys yesterday.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

It’s all speculation, but on the balance of it I don’t think we are any worse as a squad without Walcott or Coquelin in it.

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I don't disagree both were substandard, it's just that our injury record is so horrendous you could see a scenario where we'd have to field untested kids.