Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[cricketsi]

Oxford English Dictionary:
2. The wanton destruction or spoiling of a place: "the rape of the countryside"

As I previously said. The word is entirely appropriate.

Except with your previous usage of "fucking" and "self gratification" clearly equivocated your usage of the word with the other meaning.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

Palace agree 32m fee for Benteke.

Good player, especially in a team built to his strengths i.e. actually crossing a ball occasionally.

He's an absolutely nailed on to score against us now too.

[alexander]

Looks like the club have pulled the wool over my eyes again. I fell for it again, all the talk of spending and players coming in.

Im such a mug.

From the looks of it, the way we do transfers, we go in for a player, club say "we want a bit more money", then we walk away. Its all total BS. We have fallen a long way this club. Im thinking we actually wont sign anyone now, I thought we would, but I just think if we wanted anyone we would have done it by now.

Joke of a manager and owner.

[Power n Glory]

Good player, especially in a team built to his strengths i.e. actually crossing a ball occasionally.

He's an absolutely nailed on to score against us now too.

Sometimes you get good players that go to a team that doesn't fit the system. It happens. I haven't totally wrote him off.

[Niall_Quinn]

Palace agree 32m fee for Benteke.

It really is quite mad. It's all well and good Wenger complaining, yes he's right, the fees in comparison to the dross they purchase are shocking. But does that mean we refuse to compete? With Crystal Palace? There comes a point where you put aside your personal opinions and get with the reality. If the aim of football was to be financially prudent then you could say participating in this insanity is contrary to the principles of the sport. But of course that's not the aim. So what is he really compromising if he gets his chequebook out? Profit. That's what he's fighting to uphold. Not principles.

[Niall_Quinn]

Except with your previous usage of "fucking" and "self gratification" clearly equivocated your usage of the word with the other meaning.

Yes indeed. Both definitions could apply. One metaphorically, the other literally, with maybe the primary definition being less suitable because the numbers being abused in the case of Arsenal is extraordinarily high.

[alexander]

Palace agree 32m fee for Benteke.

realistically, what would this make Messi/Ronaldo worth if they came to the PL? Although the money doesnt always correlate with actual quality it seems.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

So you don't know what you're talking about.

This is all air. You're saying nothing about the structure, how it relates to us and yes, he's a cunt, but how does his cuntishness differ from the other cunts running other clubs? You can't answer that... cool. Move on. But it would be good to hear from someone that really knows about him or how other clubs are run. I'm genuinely interested and wrongly assumed you knew something more. If you don't know the point of the discussion, quit trolling and approaching every conversation as if I'm your opposition or as if their is some sort of devious agenda that's out to make Wenger look bad. When you look at things from all angles, things may start to make a little more sense even if you don't agree with it.

Your condescending tone aside, no I don't think there's a devious agenda I just think too many people are setting themselves up for a fall. The Rams is just one example, Stans entire sporting portfolio is one of under investment and total lack of interest of anything these franchises do in a sporting sense.
You need to get over yourself and stop assuming that people who disagree with you are trolling, I do understand that yes franchises move in the NFL, I am also aware that there is a draft and a wage cap structure so the owner cannot influence in the team the same way a rich benefactor would in the EPL....I have read enough about what was going on to know that it was an Oportunistic dick move that sums up the man.
We don't have the benefit of knowing that he will push off if he gets bored because he hasn't invested in us for that reason, and if the Wenger is the one thing holding us back than Kroenke is the one to blame there because he won't get rid of Wenger whilst he is still bringing him in the money.
But fine you don't agree with that assessment

[Power n Glory]

Your condescending tone aside, no I don't think there's a devious agenda I just think too many people are setting themselves up for a fall. The Rams is just one example, Stans entire sporting portfolio is one of under investment and total lack of interest of anything these franchises do in a sporting sense.
You need to get over yourself and stop assuming that people who disagree with you are trolling, I do understand that yes franchises move in the NFL, I am also aware that there is a draft and a wage cap structure so the owner cannot influence in the team the same way a rich benefactor would in the EPL....I have read enough about what was going on to know that it was an Oportunistic dick move that sums up the man.
We don't have the benefit of knowing that he will push off if he gets bored because he hasn't invested in us for that reason, and if the Wenger is the one thing holding us back than Kroenke is the one to blame there because he won't get rid of Wenger whilst he is still bringing him in the money.
But fine you don't agree with that assessment

Neither of us really follow the NFL and I wouldn't use the Rams or any of his other American clubs as a case study. As said, they have a draft system, salary cap and the teams have different financial structures in place. With that in mind, neither of us can really identify what makes for a well run NFL franchise. Off the top of your head, you wouldn't be able to tell me why the Patriots are successful and well run compared to the Rams. That's why it's a bit a pointless. Neither of us can distinguish between the good and bad structures in NFL. Heck, I swear Kroenke got some sort of award for sports exec of the year. We're still unable to pinpoint where he should be investing if there is a salary cap and draft system in place. That's why I ask for someone with more knowledge to shed light on how that works.

As for Wenger and what happens without him...I don't know. I think of Arsenal before Kroenke and when we had just moved to the stadium and we had the same sort of problems, going into seasons unprepared and hardly any new senior signings. People would often complain on here about the old Board not supporting Wenger. That was even with Dein here at the club and Stan out of the picture. Maybe it's revisionism. You even mentioned Peter 'Thanks for your interest in our affairs' Hill Wood as if he is somehow better for the club and cares about football. He kicked Dein out, welcomed Kroenke in and presided over this whole debacle for years without stepping in. He handed Wenger the power when Dein was booted and to me it looks like Ivan is trying to wrestle some of that back from Wenger and change the structure.

But putting all that aside, I think it's possible to balance commerce and art. We're not totally broken as a club, I just think Wenger has lost his way and the focus is lopsided on his part. It would be better if we had an owner/s that was totally drive by football and success, we haven't had that in the past but that didn't stop Wenger from achieving because he had a focus to produce something magnificent on the pitch and financial success came from that. Now I believe he has his priorities backwards. Even with an owner that has no passion for football, that shouldn't kill Wenger's drive or the future manager of this club, should it?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Neither of us really follow the NFL and I wouldn't use the Rams or any of his other American clubs as a case study. As said, they have a draft system, salary cap and the teams have different financial structures in place. With that in mind, neither of us can really identify what makes for a well run NFL franchise. Off the top of your head, you wouldn't be able to tell me why the Patriots are successful and well run compared to the Rams. That's why it's a bit a pointless. Neither of us can distinguish between the good and bad structures in NFL. Heck, I swear Kroenke got some sort of award for sports exec of the year. We're still unable to pinpoint where he should be investing if there is a salary cap and draft system in place. That's why I ask for someone with more knowledge to shed light on how that works.

As for Wenger and what happens without him...I don't know. I think of Arsenal before Kroenke and when we had just moved to the stadium and we had the same sort of problems, going into seasons unprepared and hardly any new senior signings. People would often complain on here about the old Board not supporting Wenger. That was even with Dein here at the club and Stan out of the picture. Maybe it's revisionism. You even mentioned Peter 'Thanks for your interest in our affairs' Hill Wood as if he is somehow better for the club and cares about football. He kicked Dein out, welcomed Kroenke in and presided over this whole debacle for years without stepping in. He handed Wenger the power when Dein was booted and to me it looks like Ivan is trying to wrestle some of that back from Wenger and change the structure.

But putting all that aside, I think it's possible to balance commerce and art. We're not totally broken as a club, I just think Wenger has lost his way and the focus is lopsided on his part. It would be better if we had an owner/s that was totally drive by football and success, we haven't had that in the past but that didn't stop Wenger from achieving because he had a focus to produce something magnificent on the pitch and financial success came from that. Now I believe he has his priorities backwards. Even with an owner that has no passion for football, that shouldn't kill Wenger's drive or the future manager of this club, should it?

The board have always been tight with money, that's never been under any dispute.....and often we went into season's unprepared because the money was not there to spend on players to begin with, whilst i think the club's financial constraints were exaggerated....it's in no way a coincidence that in the summer when the stadium rights were re-negotiated and we got ourselves a better deal for kit sponsorship that we bought in five players and our gross spend was 82million and our net spend was 67 million. What has become apparent in the last few seasons is that we can spend money and Wenger is choosing not to, well actually he is not choosing not to he is prevaricating and agonising over price/value and in doing so is allowing targets to end up elsewhere.
What is factually true is that since 2012 we have not had to sell players, and be in a situation where the money we bring in for transfers exceeds our transfer outlay.
Often Wenger would seem to spend any money he did have on player wages, often giving people contracts based on potential to stop them from being poached and then finding out that these players were useless and struggling to get them off the wage bill.
I don't have the figures but i'd like to see how much an average season ticket has gone up in terms of % since 2011, and compare that with the five years previous to that....Kroenke's philosophy is that if you are selling out the stadium you are not charging enough for tickets.