Winter Transfer Despair and Bafflement.

[Özim]

It doesn't really matter whether it's much of an achievement, it definitely isn't average. And if our squad IS average then surely an "awful" manager would drag them down and we'd be nowhere near the top 4.
We cannot have an "average" squad AND an "awful" manager and still finish has high as we do.

My take is we have a squad which is better than anyone's apart from City, Chelsea and Utd. It is not average, not should it be given our resources. We have a manger who while not as poor as you make out is making some weird decisions and is not getting the best out of that squad. If we got a different manager then I don't think we'd be sweeping all before us - City, Chelsea and Utd all have resources to equal ours and more. I'd say where we are is about par, the 3 sides currently above us have more resources than us. But we have a squad which I think should be challenging all of them and that's where Wenger repeatedly fails.

In the context of our club, it is average, for a club of our resources, our stability, our finances 4th place is average for sure. Yes Chelsea, Man U and Man City have more resources, but for us to be above average we should be competing with those teams and doing better in the CL to boot. Man U have become a big club through success mostly, they won tite after title, the CL etc etc this brought them the finances in the 1st place to grow their brand and make them one of the biggest clubs in the world.

Our policy of being 2nd tier doesn't grow our brand, if anything it diminishes it, less fans, income from sponsors, less merchandise sales, inferior deals etc etc.

Wenger isn't much of a manager IMO, his squad (and circumstances) often drag him to 4th place, despite being average overall we have a few star quality players who drag us back up to top 4, sadly they won't stick around long. We're lucky we have those star players because without them we'd be nowhere, Wengers tactics and motivational ability are non existent, it takes players on the pitch to drag the others with them.

A manager of a top club lie ours that hails top 4 as a major achievement is IMO by definition average, any other manager would be talking about winning the league and CL as success, not a spot in the top 4.

[Cripps]

Dude. Seriously. I'm being schooled

[Letters]

In the context of our club, it is average, for a club of our resources, our stability, our finances 4th place is average for sure. Yes Chelsea, Man U and Man City have more resources, but for us to be above average we should be competing with those teams and doing better in the CL to boot. Man U have become a big club through success mostly, they won tite after title, the CL etc etc this brought them the finances in the 1st place to grow their brand and make them one of the biggest clubs in the world.

Our policy of being 2nd tier doesn't grow our brand, if anything it diminishes it, less fans, income from sponsors, less merchandise sales, inferior deals etc etc.

Wenger isn't much of a manager IMO, his squad (and circumstances) often drag him to 4th place, despite being average overall we have a few star quality players who drag us back up to top 4, sadly they won't stick around long. We're lucky we have those star players because without them we'd be nowhere, Wengers tactics and motivational ability are non existent, it takes players on the pitch to drag the others with them.

A manager of a top club lie ours that hails top 4 as a major achievement is IMO by definition average, any other manager would be talking about winning the league and CL as success, not a spot in the top 4.

Hmm. Worryingly, I pretty much agree with most of that.
In the context of our resources I agree, top 4 is par. And we should be mixing it with the rest of the top 4, not trying to hang on to their coattails.
It has to be acknowledged that we are mostly in that group of clubs because of Wenger and the success he brought in the early years but it's increasingly clear we are not going to be competing for the biggest prizes under him again.
It would be interesting to know how we'd have fared in the last 10 years ago without Chelsea and City buying their way in, we will never know but only Fergie managed to get the better of them and while I don't think Wenger is as bad as you make out, he's no Fergie.

[Cripps]

Letters finally sees sense

Shall we frame this moment? Or save the responses somewhere so that next month when Letters argues the opposite we can save time and just paste the responses?

[Cripps]

Might be in for Jonny Evans apparently, eyed up as a replacement for Mertesackers impending retirement

[Özim]

Might be in for Jonny Evans apparently, eyed up as a replacement for Mertesackers impending retirement

Not this one again, why do we get linked with such rubbish, he's not really much of a replacemement he's 29 himself and not even all that.

[Cripps]

Not this one again, why do we get linked with such rubbish, he's not really much of a replacemement he's 29 himself and not even all that.

Seems to be highly rated by the likes of City. Maybe it's just his trophy cabinet under a Fergie era that skews view and people rate him so highly

Reckon MK Dons centre back Scott Wootton might be a good shout.

[Letters]

MK Dons

[Marc Overmars]

I don't think Evans is a bad CB in all honesty but for his age and what he'd cost, it would be a massive waste of money.

We need to think long term with Merts gone and Kos getting on a bit. Get someone in around 25-26 about the enter their best years and can partner Mustafi.

[Niall_Quinn]

I don't think Evans is a bad CB in all honesty but for his age and what he'd cost, it would be a massive waste of money.

We need to think long term with Merts gone and Kos getting on a bit. Get someone in around 25-26 about the enter their best years and can partner Mustafi.

Fingers crossed this is just a leftover from the Wenger/ Law dickfest and now we have some competent people in we'll soon start seeing credible targets.