Summer Transfer Speculation and Shit

[Dein-machine]

No chance was Ozil a "panic" buy. An opportunistic buy, maybe. Lots of things have to be juggled for a transfer to happen these days, it's no surprise at all if one move depends on another. I guess Ozil wouldn't have been available at all if Bale had not moved. We must have done plenty of groundwork beforehand on the offchance everything fell into place. Inconceivable a move like that would be hashed together at the last minute, too many palms to grease and lawyers to appease. I'd agree though, we'd probably have signed nobody if the Ozil deal fell through.

Of course the transfer window should be shut before the season starts.

When you have between £40-£50mill to spend in order to strengthen a squad you do not leave it till the last day to spend - its the ultimate panic buy. Wenger knew we needed a quality striker because he had already worked out that Giroud was not very good.
We made the bid for Suarez, a club record but a pathetic attempt to activate the buy-out clause & Wenger couldn't understand why Liverpool wouldn't sell him. He got very upset by this & decided the transfer market is a horrible place where nobody wants to play his games ( mainly because he hadn't played with the big boys for so long ), so he did fuck all for the rest of the window when we were desperate for a striker.
We get humiliated at home to Villa & the fans want him out - low & behold we buy an attacking midfieder when we already have enough of them for £43 mill to show the fans he can spend money - apparently £3 mill more than we were prepared to offer for Suarez who unlike Ozil is a proven match winner. Come on Wengerites pull the wool from over your eyes.

[Letters]

And Walcott.

Enough firepower in the squad. I don't think we'll have a 30 goal a season player but between Walcott, Sanchez, Giroud, Podolski, Campbell and Ramsey there's enough there to spread out the goalscoring burden. Where we suffered last year, especially in the big games, was no pace. If we can get a good season out of Walcott when he returns, and now adding Sanchez and Campbell we've got players who can run in behind.

Keeping the goals out is more likely to be a problem. Hopefully we can press harder this year with maniacs like Sanchez and Ramsey closing down.

That's what I think. We haven't got a Suarez (thankfully, frankly, we could do without that level of mental) but we've got plenty of firepower. Still not sure we've got a player who can nick a goal in a big game when it's tight but otherwise we've got plenty of goals in the squad.

[Niall_Quinn]

Lets just look at who's where when it comes to out & out strikers - World Cup or NO world cup.

Man City = Dzeko, Aguero, Jovetic, Negrado.
Liverpool = Sturrudge, Lambert,
Chelsea = Costa, Torres
Man Utd = Van Persie, Rooney
PSG = Faclao, Ibrahimovic
Madrid = Ronaldo, Benzema
Barca = Suarez, Messi, Neymar
Bayern = Lewandowski, Muller, Mandukic

& then Arsenal = Giroud,Sonogo,Campbell.

These are the teams we have to compete against in the PL & CL - we have been linked with good strikers like Suarez, Benzema, Hugiuin & recently Martinez but Wenger won't pay what's required to get a world class striker.

Man City = Dzeko (marginally better at best - MBB), Aguero (not gettable - NG) , Jovetic (MBB), Negrado (MBB).
Liverpool = Sturrudge (NG), Lambert (We'd have shit ourselves in rage if we signed this guy),
Chelsea = Costa (Deal was done long ago), Torres (LOL)
Man Utd = Van Persie (NG), Rooney (NG)
PSG = Faclao (Overpriced x 4), Ibrahimovic (NG)
Madrid = Ronaldo (NG), Benzema (NG)
Barca = Suarez (NG), Messi (NG), Neymar (NG)
Bayern = Lewandowski (NG), Muller (NG), Mandukic (Most agreed, no upgrade)

So Dzeko, Jovetic, Negredo, Mandukic and even Lambert for argument's sake. Doubt the gypos would have sold to us at all but say they did, are we now winning the league with one of those players up top? Not for me. Dzeko was mentioned for a while. For every good game he has has he's beyond awful in another.

I don't see the big striker options that were out there and available. Fair enough, Giroud, Campbell and Sanogo is inferior to all the strike forces mentioned. But stick Walcott and Alexis on the list and we aren't as bad as some make out. Surely with Alexis in the team, Ozil in his second season and more games from Walcott it has to be good news for whoever ends up playing front man? We were within 7 points last season. Why should things suddenly be catastrophic if we add Alexis and Walcott to the mix. Plus I think we're going to see a huge season from Ox. He could turn out to be the pick of the squad this year. The signs are there.

For me, there's a lot of wildly overrated players in football these days. I think the World Cup showed us exactly that. Super hyped players like Rooney who can produce in ideal circumstances versus genuine talents like Muller who couldn't give a shit what stage he's on - he performs. Doesn't mean all these players are shit, just means the gap between them and the rest isn't as wide as the pundits make out.

[Dein-machine]

You really are having to scrape the barrel now to find things to criticise Wenger for

The last decent striker we had left us for our rivals because of our lack of ambition - Giroud, Campbell & Sonogo, if we don't play Sanchez as a striker - its possibly one of the weakest forward lines in the EPL.

[Niall_Quinn]

"DM, maybe. CB maybe, but it's tough to find somebody who is happy to sit on the bench"

That is where you have been brainwashed by wenger.Surely at a club as big as arsenal you want to buy players for competition so that your 2 starters merts and kos dont go stale.Chelsea didnt go for a midfielder just to sit on the bench whilst oscar and hazard played every week.No they bought fabregas to give them competition .Rememver competition for players is healthy and brings the best out of a player.

I don't think you need to be brainwashed to watch Tommy walking out the door. The chavs and gypos can throw around massive bribes to get players to trade in their starting spot. Like most others, we can't. We'll see what happens with the chavs and Fabregas, no conclusions can be drawn yet. You;d have thought they could find some rotational action for Mata, but they didn't.

[Letters]

The last decent striker we had left us for our rivals because of our lack of ambition - Giroud, Campbell & Sonogo, if we don't play Sanchez as a striker - its possibly one of the weakest forward lines in the EPL.

Syn has already dealt with that. We have plenty of goals in the squad.

Also, last season Giroud got 16 PL goals. Dzecko got the same, Aguero one more.
Obviously I think both are better than Giroud but he's not as bad as some make out.

[Niall_Quinn]

The last decent striker we had left us for our rivals because of our lack of ambition - Giroud, Campbell & Sonogo, if we don't play Sanchez as a striker - its possibly one of the weakest forward lines in the EPL.

But it wasn't a lack of ambition, was it? It just looked that way as the financial plan wound out. Ozil and then Alexis isn't exactly a lack of ambition. In the end it was van Cash who lacked ambition. Instead of sticking it out as the plan unfolded he ran off for the instant gratification. How is that ambitious? It's the easiest of easy options. And then he saw that you can't predict anything in football. I wonder what decision he'd make given hindsight? How about Fabregas? And all the others who scarpered? When you have to run a business rather than a circus sometimes it's not possible to instantly satisfy every overblown ego.

[Niall_Quinn]

This is what happens when we go a whole week without signing a multi-million quid player, or go several days without winning a trophy.

[Letters]

We get humiliated at home to Villa.

, by the way.

[Dein-machine]

the concern for me is that our signings whist being £70 mill + may not be much of an improvement. Debauchy is no better than Sagna, Chambers is cover for RB & CB & Sanchez may not give us any more as an attacking right side player than a fit Walcott can give us. The 2 biggest issues for us last year was the need for a top defensive midfielder & a proper finisher up top. We have done nothing to strengthen in these areas. Yes we have more options as an attacking force but how much of the ball will we win against the better teams with Arteta in the team & how many chances will Giroud miss or not be on the end of in these games. Others have strengthened where they needed to - we haven't.