Winter Transfer Speculation

[selassie]

He's hardly going to say "we're screwed if we don't sign any outfield players", is he?
I don't believe he wasn't trying to sign anyone.

As usual you have to go to extremes to justify Wenger's mismanagement of the squad, there is no middle ground with you Letters!

Wenger does the bare minimum every single window, he leaves us short in areas of the squad every single season and has been doing this for quite a number of years, it's not like I am calling him out for making a small mistake with the squad, the season before we went into it with 3 CB's of which one of them hadn't even played their at a professional level, it was utterly ridiculous and he continues to do this every single season with various areas of the squad.

What I don't understand and can't get my head around is why he does this? He has everything he needs to build a competitive squad and keep us stocked in all areas, he's building the squad the way it is by design, it's totally unnecessary.

I know we've discussed this to death and Kano is right in as much as it's becoming kind of boring to discuss but I don't understand how you can justify Wenger's actions or lack of them? It's not difficult to buy players or add to the squad, it's only difficult if you make it so.

[Letters]

I don't understand how you can justify Wenger's actions or lack of them?

I'm not. I've said repeatedly he should have done more last summer
I just don't buy that he didn't try to. But, ultimately, he failed to land a big signing and he is responsible for that if it costs us.

[selassie]

I'm not. I've said repeatedly he should have done more last summer
I just don't buy that he didn't try to. But, ultimately, he failed to land a big signing and he is responsible for that if it costs us.

Fair enough.

When you say that you don't buy he didn't try, do you think he actively tried to add outfield players to the squad but had bids rejected?

[Letters]

I don't know really, who knows what goes on behind the scenes.
Zim said in another post that he didn't try hard enough and, for once, I agree with him.

[dostoy]

If Messi walked through his door and said he was free as he had left Barca and that he would play for £100 pounds a week, then Wenger might say yes after trying to get Messi down to £50 a week of course.

Other than that forget it.

Seriously, Debuchy, Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky all out in the summer.

[selassie]

If Messi walked through his door and said he was free as he had left Barca and that he would play for £100 pounds a week, then Wenger might say yes after trying to get Messi down to £50 a week of course.

Other than that forget it.

Seriously, Debuchy, Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky all out in the summer.

[Munchies]

Watford buying a French CM for £8m

On top of Mario Suarez from Fiorentina

[selassie]

I don't know really, who knows what goes on behind the scenes.
Zim said in another post that he didn't try hard enough and, for once, I agree with him.

Right so we are all in agreement then?

[IBK]

I'm not. I've said repeatedly he should have done more last summer
I just don't buy that he didn't try to. But, ultimately, he failed to land a big signing and he is responsible for that if it costs us.

Wemger's latest comments

Arsene Wenger says any further signings before the transfer deadline are unlikely, but that you can never say never if something exceptional presents itself.

..and that sums it up for me - something has to 'present itself'. You can say that this is just a soundbite, but it seems closer to the truth given the years of evidence that we have. There seems to be an element of players falling into the manager's lap, or otherwise being ignored. Whether its principles or something else, if a club happens to want to release a player whom Wenger has long admired (Ozil; Sanchez; Cech), he will go for them. Otherwise, the manager seems to be hamstrung bu his obsession with not paying over the odds for proven talent - and even where we have a pressing need for a player getting 'value' seems to trump the manager's desire for success.

And frankly - based on the evidence at Arsenal and the increseing quality of signings elsewhere in the league, I don't the manager is 'trying' in the way he should to find players who will kick on from what we have. I hope that I am not one of those on here who is so blinkered that they can't see any merit in our manager at all, and in Bellerin; Monreal; Coquelin; Koscielny - even Campbell, he signed players with promise who have become first team regulars. But he has been fortunate wth a number of our 'developed' players - who have often not been on the track to the first team, but been given their chance via circumstances outside the manager's control.

Whether it is that the omnipotent Wenger is spread too thin, or because our scouting/administrative network has become complacent...or perhaps that the manager has too much faith in existing squad players, our performances in the transfer windows are not strong, and even seem to be getting worse. It seems astonishing that such a well paid and regarded manager seems every season to be content with getting by on a wing and a prayer rather than being more pragmatic and doing what it takes to give his team the best opportunity to win. This, rather than the minutiae of his tactics are what I think pisses so many of us off.

[Munchies]

The Daily Star says Messi wants to move to London, and Arsenal are his preferred destination, but his eye-watering £600,000-a-week wage could price him out of any deal.