Winter Transfer Speculation and Shit.

[Dein-machine]

The city board, having surrendered the title to their bitter rivals had started work on their squad even before the end of last season. They did their business quickly & discreetly. When you think they got Negrado for less than £15 mill they did not pay "ramsom" money just because their are owned by billionaires. The squad was allowed time pre-season to develope & there were no last minute panic buys where the selling clubs can ask silly money. Even if Wenger had been interested in Negrado, we just don't operate like that in the transfer market so we would have missed out. Nothing to do with money, even in previous years when the stadium payments meant limited funds, we could have bought a Negrado for £15 mill. Although the Matic re-signing is a bit of a laugh due to the fact Chelsea let him go for nothing, Maureen has decided where he needs more strength & simlply gone out & done it, no fuss, no waiting until the final week letting other teams join the bidding war. This is the way we need to act in order to continue to compete. If Schalke can't stop a move for Drexler & the lad wants to come, there is no reason in the world to not sign him now. We are top of the league with the big boys breathing down our necks & with a lack of quality/pace upfront - if we leave signings till the summer doesn't it just prove that our heirachy are still more than happy with finishing 4th.

[LDG]

The city board, having surrendered the title to their bitter rivals had started work on their squad even before the end of last season. They did their business quickly & discreetly. When you think they got Negrado for less than £15 mill they did not pay "ramsom" money just because their are owned by billionaires. The squad was allowed time pre-season to develope & there were no last minute panic buys where the selling clubs can ask silly money. Even if Wenger had been interested in Negrado, we just don't operate like that in the transfer market so we would have missed out. Nothing to do with money, even in previous years when the stadium payments meant limited funds, we could have bought a Negrado for £15 mill. Although the Matic re-signing is a bit of a laugh due to the fact Chelsea let him go for nothing, Maureen has decided where he needs more strength & simlply gone out & done it, no fuss, no waiting until the final week letting other teams join the bidding war. This is the way we need to act in order to continue to compete. If Schalke can't stop a move for Drexler & the lad wants to come, there is no reason in the world to not sign him now. We are top of the league with the big boys breathing down our necks & with a lack of quality/pace upfront - if we leave signings till the summer doesn't it just prove that our heirachy are still more than happy with finishing 4th.

I wonder what wage Negredo is on.

Also, 15mil, or 100mil, there is no limit. There is no restriction on how and when they buy players.

With us (as shown by the job we did clearing the decks), we have to cull and shape the resources we have in order to make the signings we want.

[Xhaka Can’t]

If we decided to go after Negrado and city wanted him, the price to us would be nowhere near 16m. As it is, we wasted a good chunk of the window going after Suarez.

People can be critical of that but when all things are considered, we have done exceptionally well, both in terms of the talent of the squad and in their development

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I've seen up to £20 million mentioned for Negredo but it's neither here nor there. What happened or didn't happen in the summer is now largely irrelevant given that we did sign somebody like Özil and thus should make us more enticing to join especially compounded with the fact we've been the league leaders for every weekend since September.

I do concur that if we really want Draxler than waiting until the summer without attempting to get him might end up being a bit too needlessly cautious.

[Dein-machine]

I wonder what wage Negredo is on.

Also, 15mil, or 100mil, there is no limit. There is no restriction on how and when they buy players.

With us (as shown by the job we did clearing the decks), we have to cull and shape the resources we have in order to make the signings we want.

We were told by the board at the end of last season that due to the stadium being paid for we were now in a position to compete financially with the top teams to buy world class players & it was suggested Wumger had £80 mill to spend in the summer - no mention of culling or re-shaping our resources before hand. You don't have to have money to do business quickly & without fuss, with the Draxler situation, Wenger either thinks he can improve us or not - if so buy him, if not don't bring the guy ove to see your training facility.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

The undesirable dealings of January is certainly no new thing. IMO, Wenger last summer had to think along the lines of, If I don't get a forward this summer it will be a whole year before I can sign one, because of his views on dealing in January.

That ideology placed further onus on getting a forward last summer, when we were wasting time with Suarez. As a few have rightfully said, Negredo isn't the only player in the world....which doesn't help any case for the failure to sign a forward last summer, or the often mooted mantra of 'who is out there that would improve us'. Yet despite of all this we still failed to sign a forward.

In a sense that is largely the point. Even if we sit around feeling like there's not a player out there that would improve us, there more than likely is. We are just not privy to it. The man in charge fortunately has an eye for talent and scouting knowledge way beyond many of his rival counterparts and that is why it is perfectly reasonable to expect him to come up with answers that we can naturally not. Again, a signing like Negredo is endemic of that.

The sort of player who will rise to the challenge of flourishing in this league at a top club is not easy to pick out but that is a big part in why the manager has the rep he does and why he is paid as much as he is. A player like Negredo is by no means the most difficult of the lot to pick out for a man beyond the knowledge and capabilities of any of us.

If you're going to lose one of your best players.... and we infamously did to Manure with RvP, then you have to accept the challenge of replacing that player with someone of a similar ability. We've done without that kind of ability up front for a couple years now. It wouldn't be so bad if we had another world class forward already here when Sir chocolate leg left but we didn't. IMO, next summer cannot be like the last and I would be really perplexed if we don't change the situation we are in and instead come up with a load of excuses about a lack of players and/or the world cup. At this level, if we want the best players we can't expect to be the only interested and serious party, so we need to at times pay the players worth or use our street smarts that much more acutely.

Like I am invisible, I am a little sceptical of this supposed masterplan Wenger has to make Draxler the next RvP, though I don't doubt he is interested in the kid. I think Wenger himself took a lot of convincing that RvP could be a lone forward and wouldn't be surprised if Draxler played wide left for us, but whatever his plans for him are, I'd just be happy he signed the quality which is long overdue (if he is our next great forward).

[JonasTC]

Its being reported that we're paying 10m euros for the Ntep kid ( around 8 mil £ i think)

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Source....?

[JonasTC]

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com...-confirmation/

[Marc Overmars]

I think we should sign a right back and Darth Vader.