Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[Özim]

Pretty specious reasoning tbh.

The transfer window is long; it's rare then to get transfers clogged up all in one moment so we don't usually have the problem of dealing with multiple transfers at once, though whenever it's happened we've dealt with it. See the aforementioned 2011 example or two years ago when we signed the likes of Debauchy and Alexis pretty close to one another.

Can you actually point to a specific example where a transfer was delayed/lost because we were too busy dealing with another transfer in a completely unrelated position?

Last summer and the other summers where we've struggled to sign more than one/two players and yet we seem to have these kids lined up like a conveyor belt, it's obviously impossible to prove from outside the club but it seems to me we always have some kid lined up and yet that's hardly ever the case with first team signings, if anything we don't even have a list of players we want.

IMO our focus is on kids because they're cheap and Wenger wants the credit if they ever turn out to be any good (rarely), and you're right the transfer window is long and for some reason wenger thinks its better to sign players a month into the season rather than earlier so they can adapt to their new club, we're a shambles with transfers, we're cheap, disorganised, never have a shortlist of options and are more than happy to go into a new season short, we're a big club only in name and financially, in every other way we're middle of the road.

[Özim]

Yeah totally agree.

Even Eric Dier has developed into a very promising player, he was one of Pochettino's buys. He has a very good record with young players there is no doubt about that.

As you rightly said he did a very good job with the young players down at Southampton, he did the same at Espanyol in Spain, he had no choice but the fact that they had pretty decent seasons with a team largely made up of homegrown players is commendable. Pochettino is one of if not the best coach in the world right now for developing youth.

If you're going to go down the youth route (and it must be pointed out he does mix it up with some first team signings as well) then you need a proven track record and he has. At our club we have a guy who has been persisting with the youth route for years and has totally failed and yet won't acknowledge he's not good at it and continues down the same path.

Wenger is frankly horrendous at developing youth players.

[Niall_Quinn]

3.5 million we wasted on this chump, we could have used that to put towards someone top quality. Only we could got out and pay 3.5 million for some 16 year old dud from Brazil, the amount of money we've wasted on kids must be huge.

Supposedly he's not a chump at all. A tidy player by all accounts. But how would he ever break through at Arsenal when Campbell can't get a game even when he performs well. You'd be an absolute fool to come to Arsenal as a youngster. Same could be said for many of the top teams of course, but this myth that Wenger is good for a player's development really has to be kicked into touch. It's one of the most ridiculous notions that persists in the game. So many cautionary tales, Campbell is only the latest.

what happened to that Polish wonder kid we signed a couple of seasons back? Poor bastard. I though he was going to be fast tracked through? And there's Adelaide and Gnabry and the rest. None of them stand a chance. We've been caught between bringing kids through who play proper football (i.e. NOT the Arsenal ShitBall™ Way) and bringing in established first-teamers who aren't second grade (a couple of notable exceptions of course). Really, the manager is totally incompetent. Even the accidental Coquelin is likely to end up on the bench this season.

[Niall_Quinn]

Bellerin seems okay to me. Always good to take a calculated risk on the youngsters imo. Wellington didn't work but there are plenty over the years that have, whether we kept them or sold them for profit shouldn't matter. It would be great to have a few more coming through the academy but not many of the top 10 perm clubs can boast too many there.

Trained in the basics elsewhere. Like Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp, Alexis, and so on. Wilshere is one of ours. The comparison is stark. This business of Wenger knowing how to bring a young player through is a myth. The exact opposite is true. Walcott, Ox, Chambers, promising young players who came here and went nowhere fast. Wenger has dragged on so long now that these myths are starting to be dispelled.

[Niall_Quinn]

I wouldn't. 100 million is actually a big deal for us and spending that in one transfer would compromise our efforts elsewhere ....... and anyway, with Xhaka in now I'm not sure we could really use him.

If we're going to start operating as recklessly and flagrantly as Man Utd and City, we might as well blow the big bucks on Higuain who at least fulfils a long term problem area for us. Though as said, it's a completely ludicrous price for a soon to be 29 year old.

The owners are enjoying massively inflated balance sheets, the clubs are enjoying massively inflated TV deals and charging some of the most expensive prices on the planet, the players are enjoying super inflated wages - why shouldn't the scalped fans enjoy some decent transfer activity? Especially as we haven't exactly been prolific in the past? Where's all that money going to end up? In the pockets of a few individuals or on the pitch?

It's not Wenger's money. Why the fuck does he care or even have a say in how it is spent? He's a football manager (allegedly). The old goat shouldn't be sitting there deciding what represents value, he should be focused on what he needs on the pitch and fuck the value or the onward transfer fee or anything else that is none of his damn business.

Except it is his business. Arsenal is a bonkers club. One man runs the whole show from top to bottom. Sack all the executives and use their fat salaries to buy a player. They aren't needed. Wenger does everything himself.

[Özim]

Supposedly he's not a chump at all. A tidy player by all accounts. But how would he ever break through at Arsenal when Campbell can't get a game even when he performs well. You'd be an absolute fool to come to Arsenal as a youngster. Same could be said for many of the top teams of course, but this myth that Wenger is good for a player's development really has to be kicked into touch. It's one of the most ridiculous notions that persists in the game. So many cautionary tales, Campbell is only the latest.

what happened to that Polish wonder kid we signed a couple of seasons back? Poor bastard. I though he was going to be fast tracked through? And there's Adelaide and Gnabry and the rest. None of them stand a chance. We've been caught between bringing kids through who play proper football (i.e. NOT the Arsenal ShitBall™ Way) and bringing in established first-teamers who aren't second grade (a couple of notable exceptions of course). Really, the manager is totally incompetent. Even the accidental Coquelin is likely to end up on the bench this season.

I think the kids comes to Arsenal because we do something we don't do in the proper transfer market, offer shedloads of cash to kids who've barely ever played a 1st team game, we offer to make them rich regardless of whether they are any good or not, hard for a 16 year old to turn down really. Football wise yes you'd have to be a fool but not financially.

We waste money on kids left right and centre and continue to do so even when they are crocks, we won't spend the extra few million required to sign those top class players we so desperately crave however. But yes I guess in Wengers eyes we are morally superior, despite rewarding players who have never proved or achieved anything with big money and in the process creating players who feel entitled to earn big money and instead of focussing on football, probably take their eyes off the ball (no pun intended) and lose focus due to the sudden large amounts of disposable cash that has dropped on their laps.

Once upon a time kids had to learn and earn their stripes before getting big money, then Wenger happened.

[Gooner23]

In the top four, outside the top four, I couldn't give a fuck.

Nor could I to be fair. 2nd or 5th, either way it's not first which is what we should be striving for. However the club thinks very differently to that.

[Özim]

Nor could I to be fair. 2nd or 5th, either way it's not first which is what we should be striving for. However the club thinks very differently to that.

Very few people care about top 4, there's Wenger (he's deluded and think top 4 is actually an achievement), the board and owner (because they love to see the cash rolling in) and a few misguided fans (who still believe we can win the CL and hail qualifying for the CL as if it's a major honour, all rather embarassing).

I'd rather only the Champions got into the champions league, then you wouldn't have this false sense of achievement, if anything it devalues the competition having 2nd, 3rd, 4th place teams as you get the same reward whether you win the league or come 2nd or 3rd.

We may as well have the top 5 teams or top 10 teams whilst we're at it, after all they haven't won anything either.

[Power n Glory]

There are some excellent Japenese players so who's to say he won't turn out like Kagawa or Honda. Give the guy a chance.

He could be great but given our history of not playing Asian players along with what regularly happens to players that have to go out on loan before playing for us, I think Wenger needs this message more than me.

[Power n Glory]

I have a really hard time believing that it takes up a lot of resources to sign the likes of Asano and Holding to the extent of it affecting other major transfers we may want to do. We're a big club, with scouts and staff around the world. We can probably deal with three or four transfers at the same time if we really wanted to (see last minute trolley dash in 2011).

The reason we haven't signed striker is not because we've been focusing our efforts on Asano and Holding but more that since Vardy, Wenger hasn't found anyone else that he really wants.

We don't know that. If he hasn't found anyone he really wants then why sign Asano? How has this particular player caught his attention and could he be a player he's been scouting since the guy was 15 or something? Resources and man power shouldn't be an issue but say the old goat is really banking on this player because he believes he is the chosen one?