Clichy has left. And Nasri in talks with Citeh.

[Boss]

He is going to get much, much better as he is still learning. I believe that under a different coach he would be up there with Messi and Ronaldo. SO why are some on here so eager to get rid?

Quite a few people on here are too blinded by emotion and idiocy to use common sense.

[selassie]

There's an even bigger problem than us losing him - Utd getting him. He'll be stellar for them. They were going to have a massive problem with the loss of Scholes and Giggs, fortunately for them it looks like we're leaping to their rescue. I'll say it again, if we sell Nasri to one of our domestic competitors it underlines beyond all reasonable doubt the total lack of ambition that now exists at the club.

If we sell Nasri to any of those Big 3 clubs (Man U, Chelsea or City) they will keep on coming back for our stars.

Selling Nasri to any of them sends out a message that we're easy pickings and willing to do business with our rivals when it comes to our star players. It could damage the clubs reputation IMHO.

[Power n Glory]

Ramsey is a Man U fan and Walcott is a Liverpool fan. We'll keep em warm until a bid comes in.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger could solve all this by moving decisively in the transfer market and bringing in the players we need to mount a serious challenge. Instead he's talking about waiting around until everyone else makes a move. I guess this means he's waiting to sift through the scraps once the big clubs have fed. We'll reach the transfer window close with less quality in the side and then Wenger will tell us we are going to win the league. Been here before.

[Toronto Gooner]

He is going to get much, much better as he is still learning. I believe that under a different coach he would be up there with Messi and Ronaldo. SO why are some on here so eager to get rid?

Up there with Messi and Ronaldo? What are you taking? I am sure that the pharmaceutical companies would pay billions for a hallucinogenic drug of such potency.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

If we sell Nasri to any of those Big 3 clubs (Man U, Chelsea or City) they will keep on coming back for our stars.

Selling Nasri to any of them sends out a message that we're easy pickings and willing to do business with our rivals when it comes to our star players. It could damage the clubs reputation IMHO.

What stars if we sellthebig 2 this season we won't have any so no they won't.

[Toronto Gooner]

Bang on NS.

If it's true that we really are stuck on £13M for Chaill when the demand is a mere £4mill more, then that sums it up for me.

Well, aside from the fact that no one has actually provided proof that this is true, the fact that you consider £4 million (approx 30% of Arsenal's alleged offer) a mere pittance (that can easily be found down the back of the sofas in the director's box) shows a profound lack of comprehension of how to run a business so as NOT to bankrupt it.

Pretty much everyone (including me) accepts that Arsenal need at least 4 new players without having to replace any key players who leave. If each new player costs a mere £4 million extra, then they will spend £16 million which could have been used to buy another high quality player! Is that good business?

Anyway, here's my prediction for 2011/12. Wenger will fail to fix the problems, we'll sell more of the spine, we'll get in mediocrity, we'll cling to a top 4 spot (hmm, I'm not absolutely sure about this one), we'll collapse at the end of the season, we'll suffer horrible humiliations throughout, RvP will get fed-up and leave and the board and Wenger will claim another great season with increased profits and European football secured. Sad isn't it? How predictable it all is.

If this does come to pass, then here is my prediction: All those "fans" who support Arsenal because they were successful will cease to support the club, leaving it open to the fans who support the club and not the success to continue. Considering that I have a plaque in Armoury Square indicating my support of the club since 1965, I am not certain that I would be too disappointed with such an outcome.

[Niall_Quinn]

Well, aside from the fact that no one has actually provided proof that this is true, the fact that you consider £4 million (approx 30% of Arsenal's alleged offer) a mere pittance (that can easily be found down the back of the sofas in the director's box) shows a profound lack of comprehension of how to run a business so as NOT to bankrupt it.

Pretty much everyone (including me) accepts that Arsenal need at least 4 new players without having to replace any key players who leave. If each new player costs a mere £4 million extra, then they will spend £16 million which could have been used to buy another high quality player! Is that good business?


If this does come to pass, then here is my prediction: All those "fans" who support Arsenal because they were successful will cease to support the club, leaving it open to the fans who support the club and not the success to continue. Considering that I have a plaque in Armoury Square indicating my support of the club since 1965, I am not certain that I would be too disappointed with such an outcome.

There you go again, you and your fucking plaque in Armoury Square. Even so, I'll let you know when I need you to tell me what constitutes a proper Arsenal supporter, if that's okay with you matey? 1965 has the edge on me, by a few years but not many. It just so happens I don't like seeing the club getting raped by a bunch of greedy cunts in Savile Row clobber, okay? If you want to suck their dicks and sing about the good times and the bad times then you get on and do that. But I want the business of the club to be conducted on the pitch rather than in some fucking estate agents office. It's about WINNING, sunshine - haven't you managed to figure that much out in 40 years? Not every year, not even most years. But you enter each and every fucking season with the intention of winning everything and finishing top of the tree and you try your damn hardest to ensure all the pieces are in place to ensure that happens. If you are happy to conclude that 6 years of neglect in the transfer market hasn't left AT LEAST £4mill down the back of the sofa in change then fine, but I'll stick with my assessment of how trivial that amount is considering how many pennies we've pinched over the years. We can moan and whine and fucking bleat about Chelsea and City all we want or we can spend the FEW QUID required to take us on to what we've been threatening to do for years, fucking win something! Wenger is full of shit. He's happy to spend £13million on shit like Koscielny and Squillaci but he can't raise the funds for a proper fucking defender. He'll stalk a pile of shit like Chamakh until he can get him for free (the tight wad) and then he'll pay the cunt who the fuck knows what in wages, but he won't pay Nasri the going rate (a rate which other clubs are prepared to pay). We can do the fucking poundstretcher thing all we want and the end result will be the same, everyone knows it including surely Wenger. Even he must have got a clue by now. How many years has he been fucking around with the defence just so he can avoid spending proper money on proper players? How much money has he pissed down the drain in the process? How many fucked-up games where the defence has killed us? I suppose it takes a real fan to just accept that and applaud every time the accountants give the thumbs up.

So here we are. A bunch of fucking losers in the boardroom. A fucking loser as a manager. A team of the most ridiculous losers you're ever likely to encounter in the history of the game - who collapses like us after all? And to be a good fan, well guess what - you need to be a loser too and you need to like it! Nah - not my style at all. I guess we've both got long memories and it's a long time since I've seen such a losing attitude at this club and I don't think I've ever seen a losing attitude held up as a virtue. Fuck each and every one of the losers, get me some winners and if they cost a MERE £4mill more than that tight wad is prepared to pay then fuck him out the door and get someone who will do what's fucking required to win. It's sport, not an accountancy lecture. I'll agree with this "prudent" shit once Man Utd, Chelsea and City are out of business - bankrupt.

Ain't happening - is it! Oops, another one of Wenger's grand theories hits the shitter.

[Niall_Quinn]

Up there with Messi and Ronaldo? What are you taking? I am sure that the pharmaceutical companies would pay billions for a hallucinogenic drug of such potency.

Or you could just bum some of Wenger's stash.

[IBK]

I agree with most of your post mate but can someone tell me why the bolded part is the correct decision? Ive yet to read an intelligent post about why its a good decision not to do a little bit extra to sign him. Is this all because its a matter of principle? Ive never seen a fan base so obsessed with money moreso than Arsenal fans.

Sometimes as a manager, you have to pay that little bit extra to get that extra special something. You ask any Manager/GM in the world is this is how they operate aside from ours who is as stubborn as they come. This has held us back in our trophy run for years. Wenger is too stubborn to shell out the extra $$$ here and there on players for key positions.

Nasri for me is worth the extra money and this is why:

- Hes 23 and still has not even reached his peak physically or on the mental side

- His first season he was solid. 2nd in our team player of the year on Arsenal.com and voted player of the year on here.

- 2nd season he started out missing 2 months with a broken leg. This affected his whole year and he even admitted that this was the problem. He battled fitness issues all season and this affected his performance.

- This past year he had his most successful year. Bagging 15 or 16 goals from the midfield and was even talked about as WPOY. Sure he tailed off at the back end of the season but he was the MAIN reason why we were so successful at the beginning. His run of goals look awfully familiar to Pires's run back in the Invincible day.

- Hes a France international who his a designated captain. I like to believe that Blanc is a man who knows what he is doing and I highly doubt that he would put someone with a poor attitude into that position. Ill take his judgement over anybodies on here any day.

He is going to get much, much better as he is still learning. I believe that under a different coach he would be up there with Messi and Ronaldo. SO why are some on here so eager to get rid?

I'm glad you raised this point, mate. The reason I think AW is correct is that by all accounts, Nasri wants upwards of £110K per week - parity with Fabregas. Now I agree 100% that we shouldn't be selling him to our rivals, and I've made my position on wholesale changes quite clear. But for me, the bottom line is twofold.

First - IMHO he hasn't done enough to merit either his demands or his behaviour. Injuries or no - he has given us barely 4 months of performances that merit what he is asking for, and tellingly he epitomised the team's falling off at the business end of the season. The highest paid player in the team should be carrying it - as Cesc has done in previous seasons - not being a passenger. And following the Adebayor debacle, AW is rightly wary of going the same way with a player who is not prepared to give 100% for the cause. Christ knows we have enough of these in our team.

Second - whatever Nasri's talent, I am inclined to be wary about what this episode says about him. Yes, its part of the modern game. But Tevez; Rooney and co. held their clubs to ransom having put in a lot more than 4 months of decent play. Refusing to sign a contract last Summer indicates to me that this move was calculated, and suggests a player, like Adebayor, motivated by money and arrogance. Will he suceed at Manure; Citeh or the Chavs? Well they can perhaps afford to take the risk more than we can because all their eggs aren't in one basket. It may be that more stellar company will bring the best out in him, but I'm not sure that this is a guy we want to depend on.

Where Wenger messed up was not loosening the purse strings just a little last season, the season before, to give Project Youth the tools it needed to win silverware, and encourage the likes of Nasri to commit to the club rather than running down their contracts. Trying the close the stable door after the horse has bolted by being panicked into giving this particular player more than he deserves now is not the right move, IMO. I'd rather the manager paid Cesc £150K per week to get him to stay. At least he has earnt the right to be the top paid player. Give Nasri north of £110K pw and every player who has given the club 15 good games will be wanting the same.