Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[Niall_Quinn]

Gypos close to shelling £45mill on a player ironically named Sane.

Football has officially become a loony bin. This money is obscene. We are seeing the end game of the whole 20 year project. Inflate the bubble, grab as much as you can, we know what comes next. This at a time when we are "all in it together" on the austerity trail. Banksters get it in the neck, rightly so. But where's the widespread condemnation for the shit going on in football? And the added insult - the games are BORING. As boring as hell.

I really couldn't give a shit who we sign or don't sign. I have looked at all the names floating around, watched (endured) them playing and I'm thinking yeah, so what? Bloody average players. Fuckers who can't string a couple of passes together, beat a man or put a decent cross in. The real stars are few and far between and they are well locked down. The rest are just contract cows, like this Pogba who is one of the better players I suppose and has plenty of potential, but £100mill? WTF?

[Özim]

Gypos close to shelling £45mill on a player ironically named Sane.

Football has officially become a loony bin. This money is obscene. We are seeing the end game of the whole 20 year project. Inflate the bubble, grab as much as you can, we know what comes next. This at a time when we are "all in it together" on the austerity trail. Banksters get it in the neck, rightly so. But where's the widespread condemnation for the shit going on in football? And the added insult - the games are BORING. As boring as hell.

I really couldn't give a shit who we sign or don't sign. I have looked at all the names floating around, watched (endured) them playing and I'm thinking yeah, so what? Bloody average players. Fuckers who can't string a couple of passes together, beat a man or put a decent cross in. The real stars are few and far between and they are well locked down. The rest are just contract cows, like this Pogba who is one of the better players I suppose and has plenty of potential, but £100mill? WTF?

Frankly who cares how much we spend as long as we get the players, the TV deal has made transfer fees irrelevant, it's not our job to worry about that, we should just worry about the team. Like I said before Palace and West Ham are willing to Shell out 30 million plus, on that basis 90 million is what we should be able to afford comfortably as we're much bigger and richer than those clubs.

Noone is putting any kind of limit of transfer spending so it will continue to rise, not for us to worry about.

[dazthegooner]

Arsenal to swap Giroud for Higuain



Arsenal are willing to pay Napoli €50 million plus Olivier Giroud for star striker Gonzalo Higuain, Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport are reporting.

The Argentina international scored a remarkable 36 goals in 35 league appearances for Napoli last season, and would be the top class striker Arsenal need to mount a serious title challenge next season.

The Gunners will face competition for the 28-year-old though, with West Ham also said to be lining up a big money bid but they hope offering Giroud in part exchange will persuade the Gil Azzurri to cash in on their most valuable asset.

Reports have suggested Higuain has already turned down a staggering €50 million-a-year offer from China.

Erm Arsenal or West Sham no brainer! Why have a burger when you can have steak?

[Munchies]

[Niall_Quinn]

Frankly who cares how much we spend as long as we get the players, the TV deal has made transfer fees irrelevant, it's not our job to worry about that, we should just worry about the team. Like I said before Palace and West Ham are willing to Shell out 30 million plus, on that basis 90 million is what we should be able to afford comfortably as we're much bigger and richer than those clubs.

Noone is putting any kind of limit of transfer spending so it will continue to rise, not for us to worry about.

Well who is paying these fees in the end? At a club like Arsenal it's the fans, the TV viewers, the people who buy shirts, the people who have to fund the sponsorship deals through increased pricing for related products. None of this is coming out of the clubs or the owners pockets. Look at how shit the TV deal is for fans now. Have you seen the prices Sky charge? BT's "free" offer got a whole lot more expensive. Live games have been removed entirely from the terrestrial channels. Look at how much a shirt costs. It's fine to say don't buy it, try telling that to the kid when all his mates are running around in the latest gear and he's in an ASDA T-shirt. The kid doesn't understand exploitation or slave labour or any of that, he just doesn't want to be teased by his mates. It's not as simple as saying it's not our money, because ultimately it is our money. And we should be getting a fucking awesome product for the prices being charged. But we aren't. The product stinks. This can't go on. So in the end we're only shelling out to fund a bubble that has to burst. And a few fuckers will walk with the proceeds having wrecked the nation's traditional sport.

It is, in fact, an absolute disgrace that we should all be pissed at. Why don't the thieving bastards at least, at the very least, give us something we can watch without falling asleep? This is a one way street now, everything flowing in one direction and fuck all in the other.

[Niall_Quinn]

For me it's:

1 SECOND - Higuain! £60mill? That has to be a joke!

[alexander]

Gypos close to shelling £45mill on a player ironically named Sane.

Football has officially become a loony bin. This money is obscene. We are seeing the end game of the whole 20 year project. Inflate the bubble, grab as much as you can, we know what comes next. This at a time when we are "all in it together" on the austerity trail. Banksters get it in the neck, rightly so. But where's the widespread condemnation for the shit going on in football? And the added insult - the games are BORING. As boring as hell.

I really couldn't give a shit who we sign or don't sign. I have looked at all the names floating around, watched (endured) them playing and I'm thinking yeah, so what? Bloody average players. Fuckers who can't string a couple of passes together, beat a man or put a decent cross in. The real stars are few and far between and they are well locked down. The rest are just contract cows, like this Pogba who is one of the better players I suppose and has plenty of potential, but £100mill? WTF?

each year a little bit of my love of football and the Arsenal dies. Next summer we will be seeing £150mill players. I actually believe that. I know a few people who have given up on the premier league and now have season tickets for Colchester, Ipswich, and other local teams. They feel more a part of the club and players. One was formally a spurs fan, and one a Chelsea.

This is kind of madness, even with the SkyTV hype machine in overdrive, can't last another 5-10 years at this rate surely?!

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

each year a little bit of my love of football and the Arsenal dies. Next summer we will be seeing £150mill players. I actually believe that. I know a few people who have given up on the premier league and now have season tickets for Colchester, Ipswich, and other local teams. They feel more a part of the club and players. One was formally a spurs fan, and one a Chelsea.

This is kind of madness, even with the SkyTV hype machine in overdrive, can't last another 5-10 years at this rate surely?!

Where as in most summer transfer windows i am feverishly looking for any hint of moves and ultimately making myself very frustrated and disappointed, i very rarely bother this time around. If we don't sign the players we need i will be disappointed, but i can't say i will be surprised or angry.

You start to give up hoping for anything better to happen.

[dostoy]

Where as in most summer transfer windows i am feverishly looking for any hint of moves and ultimately making myself very frustrated and disappointed, i very rarely bother this time around. If we don't sign the players we need i will be disappointed, but i can't say i will be surprised or angry.

You start to give up hoping for anything better to happen.

I agree.

Its very nearly got to the point now when I hope Wenger does NOT sign anybody else and we have a Chelsea season.

Its possible, only possible, that if that happens HE might leave.

We can then start fresh with somebody new who will sign top class players next summer.

If we finish in the top 4 next season, there will be a 3 year deal waiting for him to sign.

[Niall_Quinn]

I agree.

Its very nearly got to the point now when I hope Wenger does NOT sign anybody else and we have a Chelsea season.

Its possible, only possible, that if that happens HE might leave.

We can then start fresh with somebody new who will sign top class players next summer.

If we finish in the top 4 next season, there will be a 3 year deal waiting for him to sign.

Whichever permutation you try to figure, it really doesn't matter. When the value of the club jumps half a billion quid in a single year then placings and trophies and all that stuff just doesn't register. The chavs had a chav year and the value of the club increased by £300mill. The flood of money in the game is wiping away all other considerations, the actual football is a very distant second priority. Look at the Euros, teams filled with supposedly 30, 40, 50, 60 million quid players. 100 million quid players! What a shit fest. Boring football. A plunging standard. But it doesn't matter, the hype juggernaut just keeps rolling. The arseholes are talking about Ronaldo being the greatest of all time. He missed a few free kicks, dived a bit, went off after 25 mins in the final. Irrefutable proof he's the best to ever play the game. Your Cruyffs, Peles, Zicos, Beckenbauers, Bests, forget them. Guys on a few quid a week, playing on wasteland like pitches, hacked to bits, still managing to pass, cross, shoot, actually perform at the very top level. Nah, Ronaldo with his sun tan and his acrobatic dives, the greatest. There's no football, only hype. You're watching shit and they are telling you how great it is, and you sit there and endure it because you hope some of the stuff you grew up with might somehow happen. But it won't because these players aren't even capable.

No, we could finish 15th and the board could find a way to spin that. Share price would still rocket and maybe they'd sign a major hype merchant to appease the fans. They have so much money they can afford the best PR in the business. That's if they are even bothered what the fans think. Which they aren't. All they are bothered about in relation to the fans is the wrong message being sent out that might spoil the fantasy. That's why they tour away grounds nicking non-PR friendly banners. Now they are trawling Twitter and Facebook to make sure nothing bad reflects back on the money cow, banning fans who say the wrong thing in an arena that has fuck al to do with Arsenal and over which they have precisely no jurisdiction.

This is Winston Smith's Arsenal. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a claw reaching into a wallet — forever.