Summer Transfer Speculation and Shit

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Rather have Welbeck than Giroud in all honesty

Don't be silly.


Giroud's got his problems (well documented) but Welbeck is worse. He's about WBA/Palace level in all honestly. I'd much rather have Chamkah back than Welbeck tbh.

[Munchies]

Better get used to it - his lack of interest in another forward means he thinks they are good enough - no one else at the club has the balls to tell him otherwise. This lack of ambition to invest in real quality all over the pitch is the reason why players have left & I don't blame them

Yeah, we came into this transfer window with two major priorities, a CDM and a striker.

Still haven't signed anyone and it doesn't look like happening anytime soon.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

All bookies odds dropping on Khedira coming home aswell. If the injury to Arteta has provoked Wumger into pulling his finger out & we end up signing a Khedira or a Carvalho then it would amount to Arteta's best contribution for years.

Spot on.

[saintnickle]

Utd in the hunt for Khedira now - and they can pay his stupid demands.

what are his stupid wage demands??Are they higher than what we pay our manager???

[Globalgunner]

what are his stupid wage demands??Are they higher than what we pay our manager???

Our manager is worth it. He is the sole reason the Spuds havent caught up with us after all these years. He`s also the reason why we wont win the big prizes till he fecks off. Sigh!

[Power n Glory]

Getting pissed off that Wenger is playing Giroud/Sanogo ahead of Campbell

I don't get it either. He should have been playing Walcott through the middle ages ago and I hope we're not discussing this same sort of issue with regards to Campbell and Sanchez. I just don't see the need to start a player like Giroud. He's built for the more physical game and would suit a team like Palace, Stoke, West Ham.....a hit and hope type team. Teams that make use of the big man up front. We don't.

We don't play it long, or go wide and swarm the box trying to get on the end of crosses. It just doesn't make sense having this sort of player unless he's the Plan B. We play short quick passing, we don't try to muscle our way through opponents on attack, we evade them and dizzy them with quick flurries of passes and whilst they try to close us down, that then opens up space behind them. Pulling them and stretching them all over the pitch to then go on and score. Well, that's what we used to do. We depend on mobility and speed and for some reason we've got this odd one out in the mix.

With that sort of style, it makes no sense to have players in the squad too slow to lose their marker, especially not the main striker. Giroud just doesn't fit the bill. He tries to work the wings, drifts into deep and wide areas but he's not quick enough to make up the ground once drifting that far out. He can't lose his marker. His touch isn't even all that to be venturing out that far either. Why not give a player like Walcott/Sanchez/Campbell a chance to play there instead? People say they're not big enough but we don't want a striker on the edge of the box wrestling for space all day. It's like Giroud is trying to play the false 9 but he's way to slow to cover the ground. Why not give the opportunity to someone quick and mobile. They dip into deep pockets of space and out wide, if defenders mark tight, it then opens up space for others behind them. If defenders stand off him too much, they'll be left flat footed when up against pace. Messi does it for Barca but he's the best in the world. But seeing how Sterling terrorised Italy in the World Cup should be an encouragement. We should be brave enough to try this and I would have thought Wenger would have at least tried it more in the pre season. We're missing a trick here. Especially after his comment about Giroud needing to make smarter runs. He obviously sees the problem with Giroud telegraphing his runs but he's yet to act on it.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Giroud is going to be 28 this year and he''s not going to get any better. That's the difference. I can't stand Welbeck but he at least has some sort of potential. We're seeing Giroud at his peak and it's not good enough.

I'm curious PowerRangerG, why can't you stand Welbeck?

WC displays are always a poor guide for these things - you've got to go off club form really, and in that respect I don't think anyone can argue with Cavani's record of 30+ goals in each of his last 3 seasons in Italy, and 25 goals (from the wing!) in his first season in France. Whichever way you turn it, those are big boy stats!

I also think those figures that are being chucked around for his wages could be a little misleading? Don't forget that France have an eye-watering top-rate tax band of 75% now, so he'd only be trousering about a quarter of that as his take-home pay (about 75k a week). And if we're talking euros instead of pounds here, then you can probably knock another 20% off again to get to what he'd be earning in this country (we're getting down to about 60k a week, take-home, now). If I've done my (admittedly very quick and rough) sums correctly, then that means that a comparable offer of wages for a PL club would be between £110-135k a week gross (give or take), with anything above that representing an increase? That kind of salary would still make him one of our top earners (if not the top earner), but you never know - it might actually be more doable than it looks on first glance?

(* Incidentally, that 75% tax rate was approved in December 2013, after Cavani and Falcao et al moved to France, so that might explain why they're all suddenly so eager to get out, and why clubs like Monaco and PSG might genuinely be open to selling? If a large chunk of their squads are demanding pay-hikes to bring their take-home pay back to where it was before, then they may actually be keen to offload some of them?)

It still seems like a pretty unlikely deal though (for us, anyway) - even if we can afford it (and I suspect we could, given all our new commercial deals, the massive amount of extra money we're all getting for this new TV deal, and the added possibility of CL football), it's still a big outlay for a player that will be 28 in February, and who we may not actually need, depending on what the plan for Alexis is?

The voice of reason.

£80m is the going rate for the Spanish clubs. That's the bar they've set for themselves and nobody else. If those two clubs aren't interested in a player, you can slash that fee in half. But we've never been the sort of club to go toe to toe with our rivals in a bidding war. Why shy away all the time. If the path wasn't clear for Sanchez or Ozil, I doubt we'd have pursued so hard.

That's one matter but I'm more concerned with our scouting. We should be able to find players like Aguero, Suarez, Falcao..etc before the mega rich get to them but we're scouting garbage like Chamakh, Giroud and Sanago in the French league. Wenger's too far removed from France and he doesn't know that market anymore, hench the blunders. Before he left France, he knew of the talented young players around the country but years have passed since then. Now we're reduced to scouting the lower divisions of the French and English leagues for our talent. We need a serious upgrade.

I don't agree that Wenger no longer knows the French market. He is still a football obsessive recluse. Just ask his wife and kid.

I do agree that we should be cherry picking a few more of the Aguero's and Falcao's around the globe before they reach the 20 pieces of silver they will cost.... I realise this is not easy, but Wenger is still one of the most refined talent spotters and nurturers in football. Or at least we should be gambling relative amounts on the good batch before the become the very select and few crème de la crème.

[Niall_Quinn]

Just wanted to say that I got my hands on a bottle of Talisker. The rest is history.

[GP]

Yeah I heard you're partial to a 12-year-old.

[Power n Glory]

I'm curious PowerRangerG, why can't you stand Welbeck?


The voice of reason.


I don't agree that Wenger no longer knows the French market. He is still a football obsessive recluse. Just ask his wife and kid.

I do agree that we should be cherry picking a few more of the Aguero's and Falcao's around the globe before they reach the 20 pieces of silver they will cost.... I realise this is not easy, but Wenger is still one of the most refined talent spotters and nurturers in football. Or at least we should be gambling relative amounts on the good batch before the become the very select and few crème de la crème.

He reminds me of Dirk Kuyt. A worker with no real end product. His work lacks finesse and it's always rushed.

Oh and that bloody haircut of his. It looks ridiculous and I've never seen him with a fresh trim.