Fabregas goes to Barca for £35million

[Niall_Quinn]

It's the players that wanted to leave though, he couldn't convince them to stay due to his inability to deliver success at the end of the day.

Bendtner, Cesc, Denilson, Clichy, Nasri they all wanted to leave (in some cases it's great)...doesn't say much for team spirit of the manager's ability to keep players happy.

They're not the first lot either.

Just unsure why when he's facing the most pressure he's ever faced he would deliberately seek to make things worse by undermining his own credibility. Also it's time for all the players to line up and be kicked in the nuts as a reminder a contract is a contract. All this ignoring contracts business suits the agents and the players but is fucking up the game. So what if they wanted to leave? Fuck them, let them go and do something else that would earn them the money we've been filling their wheelbarrows with.

[Unai Tea]

I don't know about all this liar bollox. The man operates in the grey areas, not so much black and white. If someone asks him 'do you expect this thing you don't want to happen to happen', he says 'I expect nothing'. It's just a philosophical response to a question he doesn't want to answer, i.e. 'fuck off journalist scum'.

Some of you seem to forget who Wenger works for. He doesn't work for the fans or skysports, he works for his employer, Stan Kranky.

Anyway, glad Cesc is gone. It was always going to end and really should have ended about 2 months ago.

[Power n Glory]

Maybe that was Wenger's way of telling us the board are in full profit mode this summer. I can't think of any other reason why he'd make himself look such a prick. Unless he really is going senile.

I wouldn't say that. The guy was smirking, grinning and joking about the situation like an embarrassed idiot. It's his way of dealing with things. Total denial.....'I didn't see it'....that type of shit.

Do you think he has any intention of singing a CB after his comments about Kozza and Vermaelen having a good game? He had a joke with the press saying if they screwed up everyone would be saying he needs to buy a CB.

Deceptive bastard! Can't be trusted. This has nothing to do with the board. When a man chooses to lie and mislead like this, you can't blame anyone else. Do you really think Cesc, Nasri and Clichy were 'injured' towards the end if last season?

[Marc Overmars]

It's the players that wanted to leave though, he couldn't convince them to stay due to his inability to deliver success at the end of the day.

Bendtner, Cesc, Denilson, Clichy, Nasri they all wanted to leave (in some cases it's great)...doesn't say much for team spirit of the manager's ability to keep players happy.

They're not the first lot either.

Yes, this post-2006 class is well and truly dead.

Bring on the Wilshere led era.

[Niall_Quinn]

I wouldn't say that. The guy was smirking, grinning and joking about the situation like an embarrassed idiot. It's his way of dealing with things. Total denial.....'I didn't see it'....that type of shit.

Do you think he has any intention of singing a CB after his comments about Kozza and Vermaelen having a good game? He had a joke with the press saying if they screwed up everyone would be saying he needs to buy a CB.

Deceptive bastard! Can't be trusted. This has nothing to do with the board. When a man chooses to lie and mislead like this, you can't blame anyone else. Do you really think Cesc, Nasri and Clichy were 'injured' towards the end if last season?

No, It doesn't look like we'll be signing anyone else. And maybe you're right, maybe the guy is so detached from the fans now and so secure in the knowledge the board will support him he doesn't mind laughing and joking about our ongoing decline. Fact is the whole operation at Arsenal is like MI6, everything's a fucking secret. If the fans want to know, fuck 'em. Tell then to be patient and then raise the ticket prices. This Kroenke bloke, what a cunt he is. Can't even be bothered to give a ten second overview of his intentions. Ignorant shit.

[Joker]

If we're being honest, Cesc has been extremely inconsistent over the last three seasons. In 08/09, he was injured for a long period in the new year, forcing us to rely on Denilson and Song in midfield for about three months. When he returned he failed in the big games, like Man Utd in the UCL semi final. In the more physical encounters against teams like Stoke, he disappeared and yet some supporters were blaming Denilson, claiming Cesc was being held back by Denilson's ineptitude.

In 09/10 he was admittedly very good for about 4 months at the start, but again flattered to deceive when it really mattered from March onwards. Our record against the other top 4 teams was shocking, and again our talisman didn't lead by example in those crunch six pointer matches. He again suffered several injuries during this season.

Last season was dreadful, and I genuinely think he didn't give a 100% for us during many matches. Not only did he miss a large chunk of the season through "injury", but when he did play he definitely wasn't leading by example as a captain should. The moment which summed his season up was that casual flick which saw us concede the first goal against Barca, and the way he was totally overwhelmed against Barca's midfield three throughout the second leg.

All in all, I won't be sad to see him go. When he arrived on the scene in 04-05, he was a very exciting player and you could sense that he would go on to become a top player (although weaknesses were evident even back then) He was excellent leading our charge to the UCL final in 05-06, although this covered up some suspect domestic performances that season (especially away from home) His performances in 07-08 rightly received praise, even though his form fell away in the second half of the season, coinciding with our end of season collapse.

Over the 8 years, he's been an inconsistent performer if we're being honest, and although he's obviously a talented player, if he doesn't iron out the flaws in his game, they will be exposed playing in Barca's midfield and he'll have to be content with a place on the bench.

When it comes to his character, well his behaviour this summer (and his performances last season) has lowered my opinion of him as a person tbh.

[Özim]

Just unsure why when he's facing the most pressure he's ever faced he would deliberately seek to make things worse by undermining his own credibility. Also it's time for all the players to line up and be kicked in the nuts as a reminder a contract is a contract. All this ignoring contracts business suits the agents and the players but is fucking up the game. So what if they wanted to leave? Fuck them, let them go and do something else that would earn them the money we've been filling their wheelbarrows with.

He undermines his credibility all the time to be fair, that's what has made him such a joke...constant BS...never any honesty..you can't respect a manager like this, especially when he's stubborn to the point that he hurts our chances of success.

Contracts don't mean that much we know that, they just mean you can get more money when you sell (though we seem to fail miserably on that score too these days). Nasri has to go as he'll be worth nothing next summer so we're better off collecting the money and re-investing.

What we have to accept is that without success we'll never keep hold of these players, we need to show more ambition...4th place may be a trophy to Wenger but it doesn't mean sh*t to fans or players.

Unfortunately Wenger is too stubborn to change things and give us a realistic chance of success, can you be surprised players want to walk away when the same things happens year after year with no signs of change?

[Özim]

If we're being honest, Cesc has been extremely inconsistent over the last three seasons. In 08/09, he was injured for a long period in the new year, forcing us to rely on Denilson and Song in midfield for about three months. When he returned he failed in the big games, like Man Utd in the UCL semi final. In the more physical encounters against teams like Stoke, he disappeared and yet some supporters were blaming Denilson, claiming Cesc was being held back by Denilson's ineptitude.

In 09/10 he was admittedly very good for about 4 months at the start, but again flattered to deceive when it really mattered from March onwards. Our record against the other top 4 teams was shocking, and again our talisman didn't lead by example in those crunch six pointer matches. He again suffered several injuries during this season.

Last season was dreadful, and I genuinely think he didn't give a 100% for us during many matches. Not only did he miss a large chunk of the season through "injury", but when he did play he definitely wasn't leading by example as a captain should. The moment which summed his season up was that casual flick which saw us concede the first goal against Barca, and the way he was totally overwhelmed against Barca's midfield three throughout the second leg.

All in all, I won't be sad to see him go. When he arrived on the scene in 04-05, he was a very exciting player and you could sense that he would go on to become a top player (although weaknesses were evident even back then) He was excellent leading our charge to the UCL final in 05-06, although this covered up some suspect domestic performances that season (especially away from home) His performances in 07-08 rightly received praise, even though his form fell away in the second half of the season, coinciding with our end of season collapse.

Over the 8 years, he's been an inconsistent performer if we're being honest, and although he's obviously a talented player, if he doesn't iron out the flaws in his game, they will be exposed playing in Barca's midfield and he'll have to be content with a place on the bench.

When it comes to his character, well his behaviour this summer (and his performances last season) has lowered my opinion of him as a person tbh.

In a sense losing Cesc gives us the chance to go back to basics and play the counter attacking game we we once masters of.

Having said that if anything has been proved in the last 5-6 years, it's that without Cesc we;ve created barely anything and look devoid of ideas most of the time.

I've seen many games when he hasn't played where we couldn't have scored a goal even if we'd been playing till Christmas. It's worrying IMO, we've got no quality players in when we need them the most.

[Joker]

Yes, this post-2006 class is well and truly dead.

Bring on the Wilshere led era.

Exactly, that post 2006 period (coinciding with our move to the Emirates) is well and truly over, and Cesc's departure is the final nail in the coffin. Wenger said at the time we should judge him in 4-5 years time when that batch of youngsters had time to grow, develop and play together as a team. Well, that time has passed and we see the results. It's obvious that his youth project has failed, and players like Eboue, Bendtner, Denilson, Diaby, Cesc etc in whom he placed so much faith and expected to lead us to a trophy have failed collectively (even if individually some have had some success)

I hope the new era of youngsters are of a higher standard than the last, and the signs are good tbh. However, it is so clear we CANNOT rely on youngsters if we want to win the league, and no matter how good Wilshere is, and how good Miyachi, Oxlade, etc can be, we must supplement the squad with experienced quality so that an unnecessarily heavy burden is not placed on their young shoulders

[Özim]

Yes, this post-2006 class is well and truly dead.

Bring on the Wilshere led era.

They never looked like winning.