Winter Transfer Missed Opportunities and Regrets

[HCZ_Reborn]

Trossard

My response to this, is the same to my response to a piece of work I was asked to do this morning

Fuck right off

Don’t want him, too old, not that good and sounds like he’s a prick. Honestly don’t see the point.

The only possible benefit to signing this player is that Spurs want him. So that would amuse me, but not enough to make it a good signing

[HCZ_Reborn]

Starting to fade
They play on carpets all year round and are spoon fed to within in an inch of their lives.
Years ago we had one sub and very small squads to play an average of 55 matches per year on thick mud and sand.

And the game was no where near as Athletic or involved as much running.

Players were still smoking in the dressing rooms until the 1970s at least

[Letters]

Aye, it's an invalid comparison, the game was very different back then.
I saw Adams interviewed recently, he famously used to play drunk or hung over. He said you couldn't get away with doing that these days.
We don't have £60m players sitting on the bench who can affect the game like City do.
BUT, we are a young squad which should mean they last better. We will need to be lucky with injuries though and fingers will be pointed at Arteta and Edu if squad depth does cost us.

[Mac76]

My response to this, is the same to my response to a piece of work I was asked to do this morning

Fuck right off

Don’t want him, too old, not that good and sounds like he’s a prick. Honestly don’t see the point.

The only possible benefit to signing this player is that Spurs want him. So that would amuse me, but not enough to make it a good signing

like i said above, given his zero-tolerance attitude, Arteta would have sounded out his character with Ben White before going for it

as long as we don't offer a silly deal, i'd take a player who's got 7 goals and 3 assists in the PL this season, to help us over the line

and as you say there's the Spuds aspect

[HCZ_Reborn]

like i said above, given his zero-tolerance attitude, Arteta would have sounded out his character with Ben White before going for it

as long as we don't offer a silly deal, i'd take a player who's got 7 goals and 3 assists in the PL this season, to help us over the line

and as you say there's the Spuds aspect

Well I’ll be honest I hope this is a transfer we don’t get done

[selassie]

My response to this, is the same to my response to a piece of work I was asked to do this morning

Fuck right off

Don’t want him, too old, not that good and sounds like he’s a prick. Honestly don’t see the point.

The only possible benefit to signing this player is that Spurs want him. So that would amuse me, but not enough to make it a good signing

I don't want him either, but he adds depth to the squad, he is a decent player too.

Kind of reminds me a bit of when Liverpool bought Shaqiri.

[Chippy]

Trossard

Pretty good for the January transfer window imho.
He would be a useful addition to the squad.
Let's wait until summer to bring in the bigger signings. (Unless those kants from Chelscum interfere).

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

A bit touchy here?

First - I did not personalise my comments re the 21/22 transfer season, nor re Vlahovic. As far as you personally are concerned, I was responding to your criticisms of our lack of busines this transfer window - that hasn't closed yet.

My reference to our recent very good transfer business was to put this criticism in context. I am no mouthpiece for the Kroenke's (if this barb was directed at me). What I like to see is balance, and to lament our failure to get Mudryk over the line (with the additional implication that we screw up transfer negotiations) fails to acknowledge the fact that we have been very good at securing the right players over the past 18 months, and this has been shown by our performance so far this season. For me, acknowledging our successes in the transfer market as well as criticising the 'failures' (and particularly with player sales in recent years there have been plenty) represents independent thought.

There is no contradition in praising our recent transfer business while also recognising that we still need reinforcements. Rome was not built in a day, and for me the club has earned the right to my faith that there is a proper strategy when it comes to doing so. Acknowledging there there will be some setbacks when we are competing with clubs for whom money is irrelevant does not make me a self-appointed 'accountant'. It makes me a realist.

I am pleased that you cite the leukemaia example, because this proves my point precisely. Cancer treatment can still be regarded as successful even if it achieves remission for a number of years rather than complete eradication. It is usually part of a process, and 100% success is often not possible. We should strive for perfection, yes, but in football as in other businesses there are many factors that mean you have to compromise. I respect and understand where you are coming from re the Auba transfer - that is consistent with your condemnation of our transfer dealings with Mudryk - and I don't seek to change this. But there is validity in my view that he was done at Arsenal, and getting rid of him was neither silly nor childish, but part of the process of moving the team forwards - that has proven justified.

I don't have 'blind faith' in those running the club, but I do have confidence that manager and board have a plan, and prepared to trust this.

Still - enjoying the debate.

To think I re-edited the post like 7 times so it wouldn't seem "touchy"....


Anyway, at this juncture I'll probably have to say fair enough mate, if you want to trust in the "process" (whatever that means) and sing kumbaya like everything is fine, it's your prerogative. My sincere hope is that you are proved right.

Till then, I am going continue bellowing about any weakness I spot till we fix it. Just the kind of guy I am..... BTW miss when you use to drop critical posts like this, but hey...

Maybe this thread is a bit previous, given that we have a few hours of the transfer window left - but the noises coming out so far suggest it won't be.

I've been trying to get my head around both the attitude of our manager.

I think its generally acknowledged that we are severely lacking in options up front - and a Giroud injury away from having a serious goalscoring problem. We ran a massive risk not investing in another proper striker last Summer - and are very fortunate that things have worked OK so far - but that's been down to a large extent on Ramsey - whose form had nosedived even before his injury (and who will doubtless now only play a bit part for the rest of the season - we are looking at 10 weeks or more on current prognisis for him to return and hit form again), and Theo, who is out for the season. We might be 'surprised' by Wenger signing a 'stop gap' before 11pm tonight, but even if he does our experience tells us that this is unlikely to be a signing that maintains a realistic title push.

The risk continues in defence - and even in the DM position. We have got where we are this season laregly because of the Merts/Kossy pairing. Vermaelen may be an adequate replacement, or he may not. But beyond him we are in trouble. If Sagna gets injured, Jenkinson has shown frailties. In DM we are relying on a free transfer who has faded since the season began, and is a potential red card waiting to happen (this is not to do Flamini down - but to point out that he is a risk in many respects), and Arteta, who is getting on - and in any event, not a real DM. Our understudy, Coquelin, has been farmed out on loan.

So why is Wenger operating what amounts to a skeleton squad in all these positions? What does it mean in terms of our title/silverware aspirations? To me, its bare minimum CL position preparation. No more.

Yet he spunks 42M on Ozil. With another manager, Ozil's signing would seem like a serious statement of intent. And if it wasn't for the other factors, I'd have said it represented Wenger's first genuine atempt in years to win something. But ATM (and seemingly for the forseeable future) Ozil is like buying the best rifle scope on the market then attaching it to a bog standard rifle. And that's not to mention that Ozil was added to a squad already bloated with attacking MF's. When you consider that Wilshere; Ramsey; Gnabry and the Ox are all AW's pet developmental players, while Rosicky; Cazorla should be considered top first team players it is very strange that he would spend so much on a player who will stunt the development of other players - an excuse that he has regularly used to explain non-investment in other areas.

Even this transfer window appears strange. Spending effort on trying to bring Draxler to the club when first there is no incentive whatsoever for Shalke to sell below his release clause, and secondly he would be very unlikely to make a big difference to our chances of winning something this season anyway. Massive echoes of Suarez in the Summer, really.

And its becoming increasingly difficult to suggest that Wenger's choices are imposed finacially.

This is not supposed to be yet another thread bemoaning lack of transfer activity, its an atempt to understand WTF is going on in Wenger's head. With the perennial injury situation that only an idiot would not anticipate - why is the manager so obviously tying one hand behind his back? Does he honestly think that a gamble that has lost for so many of the last 9 years will succeeed this time? Has he effectively conceded the league to the big spenders - and if so why the Ozil signing? Or does he think that Ozil was necessary simply to keep our CL slot?

If he's conceded the league this season, and with the likes of Ozil and Draxler is looking to future success - why future and not now? Because to me the only likelihood is that its going to get progressively more difficult to compete against financial doping going forwards.

Or is the reality that the world's 4th highest paid manager is more interested in playing the game in his ideal aesthetic way than trying to win serious silverware?

There are bound to be posters who (if they can be bothered at all) reply to this saying that I'm bitching and moaning when we're 1 point off the league - and that Wenger's achieved much simply to get us where we are. For me that's not the point. If we win something this season - great, and well done Wenger. But the reality is that this will be more through luck than planning. What I simply can't understand is why we don't seem to be taking the obvious steps that are in the club's power to make silverware more likely. And that has nothing to do with either improvement or current league position.
http://www.goonersweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2723

This was in January, 13/14 season. We were one point off the cusp. We eventually finished 4th, 7 points behind Citeh. Maybe if AW had taken your advice then, maybe he'd still have a job. Who knows ...

[Marc Overmars]

I don't want him either, but he adds depth to the squad, he is a decent player too.

Kind of reminds me a bit of when Liverpool bought Shaqiri.

Yeah and I’m inclined to back the recruitment hit rate at the moment because the majority of our signings over the past 2 years have been slam dunks. I don’t believe we would have been panicked into this, it’s opportunistic granted but the player is PL proven and has also been playing in a good footballing team for a while.

Exciting? No. Smart? I’d say yes. We just don’t the options in this area of the pitch. Marquinhos is for the future, Nelson is rarely available and who knows what kind of Smith-Rowe we’ll see.

[selassie]

Yeah and I’m inclined to back the recruitment hit rate at the moment because the majority of our signings over the past 2 years have been slam dunks. I don’t believe we would have been panicked into this, it’s opportunistic granted but the player is PL proven and has also been playing in a good footballing team for a while.

Exciting? No. Smart? I’d say yes.

Yeah that's how I see it MO. He is a decent player, he is kind of at the wrong age to be called a long term investment hence why I'm not completely keen on him, but he will certainly add quality depth over the next few seasons and we are desperate for quality depth now.

I can definitely get on board with this signing, I suspect we may go big for another attacking player in the summer assuming CL is confirmed which it should be.

I agree regarding our recruitment, it has been spot on. We are also a very well drilled machine now so obviously have a clear plan for Trossard.