Was this our most wasted summer transfer window yet?

[Niall_Quinn]

Well, either this place is moderated or it isn't. If it is then it is for me, and the other mods, to decide. You might disagree with me and that's fine, but unless it's a completely unmoderated forum someone has to do it.
I don't have to know people personally or worry about their relatives reading comments in order to think things offensive. As I said in the Olympics I made a joke which a couple of people thought was over the line - those people didn't know anyone I mentioned personally either but fine, I took their comments on board and deleted the post. Democracy doesn't work as we found out last year so this place is a benevolent dictatorship which I think we can all agree is the best form of government.

Changed your name back.

Thanks.

My point is, it's not for you to decide what's tasteful. Sure thing, if somebody posts something that might cause the forum owners grief in terms of the law or unwarranted adverse publicity you have a right to protect your property. But judging when a joke is "too soon" hardly falls into that category. In fact if it was too soon then you imply it wasn't beyond the pale anyway and could be acceptable at some future date.

[Niall_Quinn]

My response to either we have mods or we don't

Is there need for mods

No one here is going to earnestly call for violence to be done to another user, no one will publish personal details of another user, and no one will use this as their alternative to deep web activities.

Agreed

[Xhaka Can’t]

Do something useful and make a formal apology to Cripps. The Real Cripps. NQ is doing a bad impersonation.

This formal apology.

Would I have to do it with a straight face?

[selassie]

the best teams in Europe have over the last few years registas like Xhaka.

He is exactly the sort of player we need. The problem is we have the wrong manager to use him.

Good article on Xhaka's positioning and him getting Wenger'd

http://first-11.net/2017/01/arsenals...-granit-xhaka/

Either way, Wenger has wasted yet more money trying to fit circles into squares, he can't help but try and reinvent the wheel, everybody says Xhaka is a deep lying playmaker, Wenger says he's not and tries converting him into a mobile box to box Midfielder. It's all a load of shite, Wenger should have just tried to upgrade on Santi in the summer, we needed a technical midfielder who is mobile, yeah maybe Jack in the future...not now as he's constantly crocked at ARSENAL.

Wenger found a solution, Santi and Coq, upgrade on them, don't try and reinvent the wheel.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I am just stating the things on here that personally aggravate me. It's your forum you can do what you like, my suggestion is don't try and pre-empt people getting offended.

The Big Four Forum ended up on the front page of Sunday newspapers with one of its members on the cover, taken to court and prosecuted.

We don't remove offensive posts, but we will remove those that risk the same thing happening here.

That said, I can't remember the last time I removed a post.

[Power n Glory]

the best teams in Europe have over the last few years registas like Xhaka.

He is exactly the sort of player we need. The problem is we have the wrong manager to use him.

Good article on Xhaka's positioning and him getting Wenger'd

http://first-11.net/2017/01/arsenals...-granit-xhaka/

I've seen a few articles about this online and I agree that we're probably not getting the best out of him. The regista/deep laying playmaker is nothing new. I just think Xhaka isn't a very good one. Play Pirlo, Xavi, or Xabi Alonso in this role and they wouldn't look this average. Also, it's not as if we've never seen how a deep laying playmaker can operate in this system. Cazorla's new role as CM is what we should have been looking for. Cesc is a deep laying playmaker but was coached badly here at Arsenal and played in a number 10 position because of Wenger's obsession with goals. Same goes for Rosicky who should have been playing there as soon as we signed him.

We've got a long running history of Wenger playing talented guys out of position but for guys like Cesc, Rosicky and Cazorla, despite how they were told to play, they never looked average. That's the problem I have with Xhaka and he's going to have to improve his game. Difficult under current circumstances but I don't expect to see the heavy touches and ball getting poached from under his feet when pressured.

[Marc Overmars]

Anyone have a link to the Big Four scandal? Couldn't find it on Google.

Fancy a bit of light reading before I leave the office.

[Özim]

This is where it all gets a bit weird and personal with you and Wenger. You have French blood in you so what, is he your dad but he abandoned your mum when you were a baby and never saw you or something?
You don't attribute Arsenal's successes under Wenger to him alone, but you do seem to think our failings are entirely his fault? You can't have it both ways. The buck stops with the manager. He's part of a team, of course, but the manager is responsible for a club's success or failure, it's always the manager who gets sacked when things go wrong, no-one else. And before you say that Wenger hasn't been sacked for his failures, Wenger has always delivered what the board have required. I don't see what he had to risk has to do with anything. And while I'm talking about the board, although a manger is responsible for our success or lack thereof, it's the board's job to hold the manage accountable of he does fail. Ours don't because to them he is achieving success as they define it, and it suits them that he pretty much runs the show. And that is where I agree Wenger is hard to replace because he's not just a football manager, he's been allowed to take far too much control and you have to blame the board for that, they are his bosses after all.

Overall though I think he'll leave us in a much better place than he found us. I just hope he doesn't "do a Clough" and stay far too long and things start to go seriously downhill.

lol

No I blame the owner/board for being so indifferent about success and being mainly really interested in money and having no real interest in football, sadly that isn't going to change until the owner chooses to sell up.

The manager however I blame for the failings on the pitch (this has been going on for years), he doesn't sign the right players, the style of play is woeful, he never learns a thing and his tactics and subs are rubbish. In the end I care about what happens on the pitch and he's the one to blame for that. Sure the owner/board should have got rid of him, but in the end ambition also comes from a manager, if he really wanted to be a sucess he'd do more to achieve it. He's too principled and stuck in his ways and too interested in finances to do a good enough job.

Yes he's been part and parcel of the sucess and boy did he get lauded when we had success, the board etc never got praised, so likewise now he has to take his failings on the chin, which incidentally he doesn't seem to do very well, whenever people question him he get very defensive and comes out with stuff like the 20,000 subsitutions comment.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't recall this and can find literally nothing about it on google

That's not me saying i disbelieve you because three/four seperate people have mentioned this now

But you've left me something damnably intriguing in the form of nothing but breadcrumb trails

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Anyone have a link to the Big Four scandal? Couldn't find it on Google.

Fancy a bit of light reading before I leave the office.

I thought it couldn't just me who gets bitten by the old morbid curiousity bug