Winter Transfer Despair and Bafflement.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'll miss his secret team meeting after our next pummelling at Liverpool.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I do think Theo's time here as been wasted but he needs to look at himself for the stagnation of his career. It's been clear for years Wenger doesn't fancy him but he's stuck around for no reason other than the money.

Precisely

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Wenger ruined one of the most promising talents.

Theo was quick, agile, speedy and effective when used properly. He reminds me a lot of Sterling; Sterling needs guidance and to be told what to do. Almost micro managed. Theo is exactly the same.

Unfortunately for him he's under a manager that is laissez faire. The complete opposite of what he needs.

If you swapped Sterling and Walcott now I have no doubt Walcott would be showing Sterling's form.

Not an unfair statement. I think neither Sterling or Walcott are especially intelligent or technically brilliant footballers but both have pace to burn and can finish off chances laid on for them by far better players

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger ruined one of the most promising talents.

Theo was quick, agile, speedy and effective when used properly. He reminds me a lot of Sterling; Sterling needs guidance and to be told what to do. Almost micro managed. Theo is exactly the same.

Unfortunately for him he's under a manager that is laissez faire. The complete opposite of what he needs.

If you swapped Sterling and Walcott now I have no doubt Walcott would be showing Sterling's form.

Was watching our 2-2 with Barca in ??? when he came on and terrorised them and turned what had been a merciless beating at the hands of Barca into a fighting comeback. The way he used to get the ball and just be gone, straight at goal, with defenders scrambling in panic. A gift to any manager. Except Wenger. Long time ago now and he's been a nothing player for years.

[Marc Overmars]

He never bad mouthed the club. Not ever IIRC. And he's taken plenty of abuse in return. So whatever the reason for his departure, I'll say goodbye and good luck to him. Yes he sat there and watched his career go down the pan which shows a severe lack of ambition. But there were many players who were unlucky and coincided their time at Arsenal with Wenger's decade of destruction. Trouble for him is we didn't plunge off a cliff, we slowly died. He's like the frog slowly boiling in Wenger's pot.

It's sad really that someone with over 100 goals for the club is so poorly thought of but oh well. If he does go, good luck to him.

[selassie]

Yes, I've just about reached that stage. After his big splurge on mediocrity last time around I have zero faith in him being able to identify useful targets and even less faith in him being able to use any signing effectively. He couldn't even push us on when Ozil, Alexis and Cech arrived. That's a world cup winner and recognised global star, one of the top talents in world football and a player with a mountain of experience winning it all. And we got worse! Then he has the ultimate brain fart and brings in Xhaka, Mustafi, Chambers, etc. And he can't use those either, and we get worse. Why would any sane owner give this man a chequebook in this wildly inflated market? Recipie for disaster and only serves to take away funds from the new guy coming in. If that ever happens.

No, don't let the guy waste another penny. Ot at least the club should prove he's out of the transfer picture and has no more say in selecting the targets. But still, there's that problem of him fucking up everything he touches. If the new team signed Messi and Ronaldo on a free we'd still get worse. It's what Wenger does and has been doing for over a decade now. Kroenke must be so ignorant of the game to have let this dinosaur steer things.

I feel exactly the same, I wouldn’t give Wenger a penny to reinvest and would show him the door at the end of the season.

Wenger has proven without a shadow of a doubt that he is incapable of improving us even with funds.

If anything he could actually make us worse by buying more duds.

[GP]

The Greek Kid and Malcom are Sven targets so I don't mind going for them.

[Niall_Quinn]

The Greek Kid and Malcom are Sven targets so I don't mind going for them.

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.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Oh I think keeping Mavropanos was Wengers idea as much as signing him was. In the sense that Mislintat scouted him but Wenger gave it the green light.

No it would be daft to say Wenger has lost all his power, but there are as I say glimmerings that it has been eroded ever so slightly and that can only be seen as a good thing

Wenger now loves that stats DNA program and if someone comes to him having used it properly to say “Arsene this guy could be really good” he will probably go for it.

But there was dithering over Rob Holding and there wasn’t over this halloumi muncher, which suggests whilst Wenger still probably has to sign off on players he isn’t handling the transfer negotiations like he clearly was when Dick Law was going in with one armed tied behind his back.

Speculation at this stage of course but I get the impression that we are learning about this because Baldilocks is briefing the press on it.

[Power n Glory]

Really so we haven’t been stuck with players for ages that hardly ever play but we can’t get rid of

I don’t rate Coquelin. I think Cazorla made him look a far better player than he is, every time he tried to play with anyone else he was a disaster. Not I will say from any lack of effort on his part but simply because he’s not really any good and for me playing or not....not a miss for us.

And Walcott, look at how many times he was benched by Wenger not just this season but for years on and off. We always thought we’d be rid of him, but Wenger dithered and kept chopping and changing his mind on Walcott.

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.