So how is everyone feeling over transfer activity

[Slacker]

Ting I don't understand is where the Mancs are getting all their cash from. They are allegedly in financial dire straits yet they're chucking it around like Citeh. Sounds like their management is taking a flyer because their best players are past their sell by date. Arsenal don't do that anymore and what good has it done?

I understand Arsenal being a bit cautious but you do wonder that perhaps with Dein, Fizman and Edelman no longer around and Hill-Wood wheeled into the cupboard where he can't say much, the new guys are shit scared of Wenger and a little wary of making a bold decision. Basically if Arsenal carry on under-investing it won't be long before we do a Liverpool and get panicked into bringing back has-beens and buying untried and expensive British players.

[selassie]

Ting I don't understand is where the Mancs are getting all their cash from. They are allegedly in financial dire straits yet they're chucking it around like Citeh. Sounds like their management is taking a flyer because their best players are past their sell by date. Arsenal don't do that anymore and what good has it done?

I understand Arsenal being a bit cautious but you do wonder that perhaps with Dein, Fizman and Edelman no longer around and Hill-Wood wheeled into the cupboard where he can't say much, the new guys are shit scared of Wenger and a little wary of making a bold decision. Basically if Arsenal carry on under-investing it won't be long before we do a Liverpool and get panicked into bringing back has-beens and buying untried and expensive British players.

Well we can all be rest assured that won't happen with Arsene in charge, he won't buy from PL period.

[Slacker]

Let's hope Heile mate.

Cahill might be a go'er but the thought of Jagielka brings me out in cold sweats. It'll be the shortarse shuffle all over again as the long ball / long throw is pumped into the mixer over our ridiculously short backline. Samba is a donkey who will need a quickie behind him. Do we really need to be carrying that kind of player? Sure Lucio and Samuel were both slow but they would have had serious problems in the EPL because they would not have had the respect they had in Italy.

Arsene, this is England. Surely after 15 years you might have started realising that sometimes a hoof or a punt or a long arrow throw needs to be defended in the same manner that it's presented. Shitkicker in and before it's in the net, shitkicker out, you effing donut.

[Alan B'stard]

I dunno...when problems are there for all to see and for whatever reason the Manager doesn't adequately rectify them, frustrations grow over a period of time.

This team with Arsene in charge is capable of more, this team with a bit of PROPER investment in the right places could be capable of winning major trophies.

Arsene built up the expectations through building brilliant teams in the past and maintaining our status as one of the leading clubs in England and Europe. Now is the time for him to deliver or at least improve the team in the areas it needs improving, we were use to success in the past and seeing the team improve, why should that change now?

Arsene has the tools, and should deliver the improvements by any means necessary excluding bankrupting the club.

What are we all waiting for?

youre approaching this from the standpoint that we are a football club first, and put trophies before profit. We havent been that for a long time. The idea is to put the minimum into the team that we can get away with, subject to the constraint of keeping bums on seats and CL money rolling in. Any spare resopurce we have earns a far greater return when ploughed into property development anyway so thats what we focus on these days.

[selassie]

youre approaching this from the standpoint that we are a football club first, and put trophies before profit. We havent been that for a long time. The idea is to put the minimum into the team that we can get away with, subject to the constraint of keeping bums on seats and CL money rolling in. Any spare resopurce we have earns a far greater return when ploughed into property development anyway so thats what we focus on these days.

I know, I just want my Arsenal back, the football club that is.

[Alan B'stard]

Dream on mate.
McFootball at 1600* quid a season and thats your lot.


*Or whatever the average season ticket costs now

[Joker]

youre approaching this from the standpoint that we are a football club first, and put trophies before profit. We havent been that for a long time. The idea is to put the minimum into the team that we can get away with, subject to the constraint of keeping bums on seats and CL money rolling in. Any spare resopurce we have earns a far greater return when ploughed into property development anyway so thats what we focus on these days.

This is hugely depressing but unfortunately true.

[Alan B'stard]

I dont think there is much getting away from the fact that its now McFootball.
However the cronies who sat around refusing to invest and
-warring with each other
-refusing to put any cash in
-subverting the club's growth into their own capital gains
...are now no longer in control.

Instead AFC is in theory run by one man who has an interest in making sure his investment does well both on and off the field. Anyone who thinks this means we get the AFC of old back is naice. However you;'d think he'll be more dynamic and decisive than the previous regime. So I think there are grounds for cautious optimism, even if he isnt going to be an abramovich type figure.

whether we've lost the will to live by then is another matter.

[Coney]

I dont think there is much getting away from the fact that its now McFootball.
However the cronies who sat around refusing to invest and
-warring with each other
-refusing to put any cash in
-subverting the club's growth into their own capital gains
...are now no longer in control.

Instead AFC is in theory run by one man who has an interest in making sure his investment does well both on and off the field. Anyone who thinks this means we get the AFC of old back is naice. However you;'d think he'll be more dynamic and decisive than the previous regime. So I think there are grounds for cautious optimism, even if he isnt going to be an abramovich type figure.

whether we've lost the will to live by then is another matter.

Agree about the cautious optimism - I think Kroenke, while doing a business investment, knows that the success of the investment is best made in the long term by getting results, which in turn generates even more income than the present status quo. For that reason and statements from Gazidis/Wenger over the past weeks, I am expecting a definite and visible change in how we handle the transfer market and target not just CL football but also silverware. You sell a lot more shirts in the Far East if you have some trophies to hold up in the advertising.

As far as 'Old AFC' is concerned, one thing that will never return - at least, while we have seating only stadiums - is the atmosphere you got with good crowds standing near the pitch. The atmosphere in the 1970s (when we were way less successful than under Wenger) was fantastic and I think standing on terraces and behind the goals was a major factor in that. 65,000 standing on a Wednesday evening for a big match was something special. And because there were cheaper fans entrance fees for the non-sitting people, the riff-raff could make a lot of noise and generate the atmosphere you should have at a match.

[Alan B'stard]

Gazidis sayys he is open to exploring safe standing though how feasible it is when they didnt build an 'end' is debatable.
At the very least letting people swap seats so that those of us who want to make noise can congregate would be a step in the right direction.

For the rest we had a bunch of old fogeys sitting around, fearful to invest when nobody else does and just haning on while their shares go up. That bred infighting but no dynamism to take the club forward.

Even if Kronke is greedy, he has control and doesnt need to get through an old etonian comittee meeting when he wants to make sure the value of his asset and its naming / shirt rights goes up. In theory there is less standing in the way when he decides its time to bankroll a trophy or two.

I think we will still get squeezed for merchandising and we will still be slamming the soulless cameldome that is em*rates stadium but I do think more money will find its way into the squad in a 'speculate to acccumuatae' sense.