This story proves so much about "journalism" and how the public perceive the story's the print. Essentially they can make up anything and people will believe. Very few people ever question the facts.
This is especially true for us Arsenal fans because we're all so disillusioned anyway that we'll believe anything they print about Wenger and Arsenal. Which then feeds into the negativity and makes us more desperate for stories so we keep clicking/reading them etc
It's sickening.
Really interested to know if you actually believe this?
Wenger get's a lot of stick for missing out on Suarez/Higuain but I actually don't think you can blame him or the club.
We had an offer accepted for Higuain and then we thought Suarez was available. We met his release clause (supposedly it was disrespectful but that's rubbish) and the bid was rejected. Liverpool called our bluff that we wouldn't push it and take them through legal proceedings. As someone has already mentioned Suarez wasn't that bothered about coming to us so he didn't push it either. Had he really wanted to come to us, I think the deal would have been done. The real issue is that we lost out on Higuain in the meantime as Napoli took their chance while we were concentrating on Suarez.
We added £1 to the buyout clause. One pound. If we were determined to open up meaningful meaningful discussions with a club that didn't want to sell then that was the absolute worst way to kick things off. It's a smart arse move and all it served to do was reinforce the idea the club is cheap. If we were serious - and we certainly needed to be very serious indeed given the shite we've had playing up top for us these past few seasons - we'd have slapped £50mill on the table and said we wanted the player. Instead we did the £1 thing and it all descended to recrimination and farce. In a nutshell, we fucked it up. That's because we're one of the least competent clubs in the transfer window and if you don't believe that's true then take a look at Wenger's, "almost signed him", list - another comedy item that much amuses opposition fans. If we really did miss out on all those players then we must be seriously fucking incompetent, don't you think?
The stupid one quid fiasco aside, we should have had Higuain on the go too. Keep both channels open until you get a result from one of them. Where's the rule that says you have to shut down one deal as soon as you open another? More incompetence.
And here we are, still looking for that striker. It beggars belief. How anyone can defend these bastards is a complete mystery.
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You're right about this.
However I would like us to put in a big bid for him and test Dortmund's resolve. If we bid 50 or 60m then would they be able to turn that down? It's unlikely to work out but let's at least try.
The Mkhitaryan thing annoyed me. It seems like from media reports were were interested, Dortmund told us he wasn't for sale and we just said "thanks, bye". Utd enquire, again they're told he's not for sale and their response is "What about if we offer 26m?" They sign him. Now i'm pretty sure we would have paid that to get him if we had to the chance but we didn't test their resolve. We're too nice in the transfer market for our own good.
I'm quite surprised we didn't go for Jansson. He seemed like a Wenger signing. Young, decent and let's face it cheap. Spurs have signed him.
In fact as much as it pains me to say, Spurs are doing what we should be doing if we're not willing to spend big money. They're signing young, upcoming players for relatively cheap prices. They've signed Wanyama for 12m! We paid three times that for Xaka. In fact they got Jansson and Wanyama for less combined than Xaka.
I'm pretty sure no club in the history of football has willingly paid £10m over a player's release clause for no reason other than to show we're not cheap. His release clause was anything over £40m and we met that.
The problem is we were naive to believe he really wanted to join us. I suspect his agent misled us because Suarez wanted out of Liverpool and we fell for it.
The Wenger "almost" signed him list is another misnomer I think. I suspect most top managers have one of those lists. The difference is Wenger talks about it when he shouldn't. He's specifically asked about it now which makes it worse. It's all "news" and the fans are so desperate for it we'll read this crap.
I'm not "defending" Wenger or the board, they have a lot to answer for. However i'm also not one of the fans who believe he's a twat or a cunt or whatever you want to call him, or that he's a crap manager that's lost the plot. Neither of those things are true.
What is true is that the transfer market has evolved and Wenger hasn't. That doesn't automatically make him the worst person in existence. It does mean he should be (carefully) replaced if we want to move forward as a club. That leads us on to our second problem. The board.
The board won't sack Wenger because from their point of view he pulls a rabbit out the hat every season. We always finish top four and we always make a profit. That's all they care about. As fans we care about winning and little else.
Last edited by bignev; 30-07-2016 at 05:13 PM.
You're trying at least.
As said to Letters the other day, if you want a sensible debate, push the debate elsewhere instead of constantly moaning about what others are saying.
I post on a regular and talk to most people on here about whatever.
I contribute a lot. You've been away for too long.
The release clause was meaningless, as we found out. Suarez DID want to join us, he went on strike t try to force the move. It was Liverpool that said they wouldn't sell under any circumstances. When they agreed that release clause it would have seemed a high figure, but then when he became virtually priceless in terms of his importance on the pitch (I think we can now see he carried the likes of Sturridge and certainly the ordinary Sterling) £40mill must have seemed small consolation. Small enough for Liverpool to say sod the buyout clause, we're keeping him and we don't care what the agreement says. So in that context, our smart arse £1 bid just served to get the heels dug in deeper. Would £50mill have tested their resolve? Who knows? But one quid certainly moved their resolve in the wrong way. Deal over. We fucked it.
In a way I'm glad the deal for Suarez never went through because he'd have been gone like shit off a shovel had Barca come knocking, which was highly likely. Then again, under Wenger's tutelage for a season you never know, maybe he wouldn't have scored a goal, maybe he'd have been injured all season. The point is, the way we do things in the transfer market is obnoxious. Miserable cheapskates always turning up with lowball offers and then dithering around instead of acting decisively to get the players we need. There have been strange exceptions, like the last minute Ozil deal and the trend bucking signing of Alexis. But in the main you get the impression of a bunch of hapless, out of touch economy shoppers browsing and tutting while everyone else fills their trolley. One season, two seasons, maybe three. Okay, maybe you can call it bad luck, strange circumstances. But here we are on the verge of season five since RvC pissed off. And fast approaching the kick-off. Yet again we aren't prepared, we aren't properly stocked and we are talking about where we are short rather than approaching the season with confidence.
It's negligence, incompetence and it's caused because the priorities of this club lie somewhere other than the football pitch.
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