You would think that in the pre-FA Cup final press conference, the questions might revolve around … oooh, I dunno … the showpiece event at Wembley on Saturday.
It’s a huge game for both clubs with Arsenal looking to retain the trophy they won last season and Villa looking for their first FA Cup win since 1957.
So, bearing that in mind Sky, who don’t show the final, stayed on point with questions about the goings-on with FIFA this morning and of course their favourite subject of all – transfers.
Rumours of Arsenal interest in Karim Benzema and Arturo Vidal were shot down by Arsene Wenger who insisted he was focusing only on the game against Villa.
“You can suspect that at the moment I am not in a transfer mode,” he said.
“We’ll deal with the transfers after the FA Cup final. It’s all suspicions. Does anybody know if that’s true or not? I don’t know.”
And when pressed on the Chilean international teammate of Alexis Sanchez, about whom there’s been a lot of online chatter this week, he said, “If I tell you I like him, you will announce the transfer just after that. If you want me to say I like Arturo Vidal, yes I like Arturo Vidal.
“Are we in a transfer mode? I say, no.”
For a good look at all the Vidal stuff, this from Sport Witness is well worth a read.
Yawn. Let’s wait until August (unless you want to waste time over the summer, then go ahead and speculate on transfers).
Come on dude, you got to love the transfer merry-go-round. See it for what it is but enjoy it all the same. How boring would the next three months be if it there were only reports written when a transfer was rubber stamped? I absolutely love reading the various gossip columns, youtubing talent we’re linked to, speculating about the probability of said talent. I know it’s 95% bollocks but still great fun. Like Brendan Rodgers.
There has to be something better to do – watching The Ashes/other sports, sunbathing, eating/drinking etc etc etc than waste time on b*llocks speculation. Most of Wenger’s signings I hadn’t heard of or wasn’t expecting (Gabriel, Monreal, Ospina etc) and far less than 1 in a hundred players linked actually join. It’s a game designed to generate website clicks (‘this German player is linked to Arsenal’) that is played on Arsenal, Man U and all fans, sometimes together (‘Arsenal and Man U target Vidal open to Premiership move’). If you want to play the (journalists’) game, please do. I’d rather… Read more »
Well I hate cricket, suffer from crippling hay fever and I’m a recovering alcoholic so that just leaves eating. And I don’t want to look like Charlie Adam by August. Do I really care that my clicking keeps spurious websites afloat? Not what so ever. Good luck to them. Being a football fan is as much about dreaming as it is reality. Imagine if we won the champions league, imagine if we spanked Jose’s Chelsea 3-0 at the bridge. Why not, imagine if we signed Benzema and Vidal, how cool would that be? I’m going to be clicking away like… Read more »
Have a fantastic time!
I guess you just play FIFA or Football Manager all summer, then.
Good luck with the booze thing mate.
I heard about the Monreal, Gabriel, Ospina transfers days before they became official, but then again I check the transfer news every day. It’s a sport in itself, learning with time which rumours are bolocks and which are realistic.
I get what you are saying – if people could have a laugh over the what – ifs and maybes but they don’t – they take it all too seriously. And the result? Bile spewed forth on here and other fan sites. If Wenger doesn’t do this he’s lost the plot. If he signs him he’s lost the plot. And bla bla bla remember last summer? The crap about him having a game of volleyball was built up like a club crisis. We had dozens of people posting abusive messages. They KNEW in June we’d sign no one of any… Read more »
Should change your moniker to The Hammer, because you just hit the nail straight on the head 😉
Would like to thumb this up an infinite number of times but don’t have the patience to keep clearing my cache. Fantastic analysis, absolutely spot on.
Too true mate. Great post.
The wishlists I’ve seen over the years have included the likes of Carlton fucking Cole, Samba, Diame, Shane Long, Steven Fletcher, Kevin Doyle, Joe Cole (the shit version that went to Liverpool), Tiote, Paulinho and more.
Yes, Wenger got it wrong a few times, but he gets it very very very right most of the time.
Carlton Cole in an Arsenal shirt… I can’t breath….
awesome comment.
I need to find the lonely thumb downer and ask them to have sit in the corner of the room and have a quite word with themselves
Might have dropped his/her dialing wand.
Great comment that
Not that I’m sticking up for the whiners… But all those “successes” were signings for Arsenal ie not homegrown. They just weren’t instant successes. People have been saying for years a DM is needed, worked out quite well didn’t it? Sanchez, ospina, wellbeck, ozil, Ramsey, mertesecacker, kos… None of them homegrown. Why shouldn’t we get excited about signings again?
Was there anybody seriously botherd by Wenger playing volleyball? Maybe my opinions are coloured (or cleared) by not being on Twitter, but surely that was a very small minority?
I do take the point, but there will always be a small number of people outraged and transfer watch is (kinda) fun if you have any sense of perspective. Not sure what my point was, but the silly season does amuse me.
Okay, so Vidal is definitely coming
Man U fans have the same rumour on their sites for supporters…
un día tan largo No google ella.
what a day. I even have time to type sh*t in a foreign language.
Do we really need vidal?
Of course not…. especially with diaby almost fit again
So who would you bench for vidal?
Ramsey Wilshere Cazorla ox rosicky?
I reckon he would play in place of Coquelin
I think vidal played as the most defensive midfielder in the juve squad, although admittedly I didn’t watch very many of their games. Vidal would probably be a slight upgrade on le coq, or at the least provide competition. It’s not as if we’ve ever gone a season without massive injury crisis, so extra cover is welcome in my opinion.
Vidal was originally a defensive midfielder, of the destructive type like coq, but in recent years has become more attackiing – probably due to his quality and juve’s dominance – and now more closly resembles a ramsey or toure style player.
Distribution is not his strong point, so I wonder where he’d fit. Still sign him if we can afford it thouhg.
Plays as a number ten in the European games with 3 midfielders behind. Pirlo holding, Marchision and Pogba either side. Vidal just behind the front 2. So don’t think we need him.
Tough to say but he could slot right in once Ramsey Wilshere and the Ox are all out injured
Lets not forget injuries will occur and back up is needed to help prevent the injuries as well as fill in for them when they happen and we all know they will, unfortunately.
I should have read the two posts above mine!
Coat on and gone :-(………
Exactly this, right now we are still an injured Coq away from Flamini being on the pitch again! Ain’t nobody got time fo dat
In a word…yes
Did we need Özil? Not really but he is a quality player and I’m sure that if he were to come the boss would have a plan.
He is just like Ozil but at diffrent position
Ozil was not the player we needed most when we bought him,But you should never miss the chance of signing the player like him if he is available and we can afford
Disagree completely. I think we absolutely needed Ozil. Cazorla was the only creative play in our team and without ozil we would have finished much lower than 4th
Rosicky says hi.
No doubt he’s definitely been forgotten about then, if people thought Santi was the only AM we had at the time, let alone the fact he basically came to our rescue for the previous two seasons.
There’s even some level of debate that, when on form, Rosicky is possibly our best AM (if not the one capable of taking the game by the scruff of the neck and making something happen).
Even with Rosicky, a guy in his 30s who you can’t rely on to be fit, we needed another creative player.
And I could never agree that Rosicky is better than Santi or Ozil, love the guy but he simply isn’t on their level for consistent, creative play and I’m not sure he can take the game by the scruff of the neck much better either. No shame in that though.
That’s what I said last September about Fàbregas. But we didn’t sign him…
In my opinion signing him is absolutely vidal.
Now you’ve made me hope we sign him just so that i may use that pun in the future.
But we usually wait til the last week of transfers…would we really sign Vidal Sassoon?
Can someone cech his stats is he really worth that much sterling?
Beautiful
Morgan worth the Sterling if he helps fill Arturo-phy cabinet.
So well done.
That comment about liking him though, doesn’t it coincide with his previous point or is he just basically saying ”Ok, fine. I’ll give you what you want. Now go away!” ?
Yes!
With all the talk of the Lyon players and cech, Vidal sounds so much like an arsene signing. I think he’ll be an arsenal player soon and him in the middle of our midfield dictating play would be amazing. Love the coq but no one can deny this guy is absolute class
I used to bat away the idea of being linked with players like Benzema and Vidal..but our recent acquisitions of Özil and Alexis have made transfer season a different kind of experience. It makes such rumours easier to believe..
Given we used to sign players like Squillaci and Silvestre, I’m not complaining.
agreed! I don’t feel like I’ll be let down like we were when paying for the stadium. I think I would be sad if Theo left, but I think he is replaceable with our new financial power.
Up the Gunners! I’m really excited about the FA Cup final; Villa have been pretty poor of late although I hope we don’t play like we did against Hull in those first 10 or so minutes.
Assuming Arteta is happy playing second fiddle to Coq, we only need a GK this summer. If something amazing comes up, then possibly a striker.
lol
that ambition
Does anybody actually think we’ll sign Vidal? seriously? he’s a great player, but he’s 28 and would cost at least £40m. Not your classic Wenger signing, but then, I think of our activity in the market in recent years and it wouldn’t surprise me as much as it would have 3/4 years ago.
Khedira is going to Juve according to “rumors”. Don’t hit the messenger.
Might be Pogbas replacement
Pogba plays as the furthest forward midfielder now, so that would be unlikely.
No he doesn’t. Vidal does.
that would be a perfect signing, even better than Schneiderlin
I read this article on Arseblog News and then I see the headline “Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger confirms interest in Arturo Vidal transfer” on the Metro website. Laughable really
If Khedira is off for the Old Lady he could replace Vidal. However that doesn’t mean the chilean is an Arsenal-Player. If Vidal is available I think it depends on the price for Wenger, but it’s likely to skyrocket with all the buzz going on and will atract clubs who enjoy throwing money around for fun more than us.
But we’ve got Alexis, and Wenger likes his players to have national compatriots. English lads, Spanish lads, Germans arrived within a year of each other, Polish keepers, of course the French connection. Alexis needs a buddy!
Not to say it’s a done deal, but I see a pattern.
Wooden! Vidal in the bag. Now just get Felipe Melo, Chris Samba and Stan Laziridis and the title is ours.
Don’t forget Yohan Goucuff.
Only a Sebastian Frey signing away from winning the champions league
That meant to say woohoo. But maybe this is the start of something. Wooden, wooden, wooden!
Wóden – The old english name for the Norse/Germanic god Odin
Well, it is Woden’s Day today…
I thought that. I also thought a good name for the next Danish noir murder mystery coming to your local arthouse cable channel.
“the transfer”
“THE transfer”
…
Will love lacazette signing
So with a bum knee and age you all seem to think vidal is better than schniederling? Seems strange because I’ve read earlier this season people wanting the frenchman big time to come in! Now with le coq its changed yes but in my opinion we need quality there and I’d prefer a premier league tested player like schneid or kongdogbia
Vidal n le coq, just like Viera n Petit..Vidal will have the freedom of going up n down, le coq will break some legs..hmm loving it already
I heard the Solomon Kalou signing will go through this time!
Wenger never shows ambition in transfers. Why won’t he sign Kalou? Clearly quality.
He missed out on “World Class’ Falcao too and bought Welbeck instead of media annointed obvious quality Balotelli.
Now he wants to get Benzema who has about the same strike rate as Giroud.
The only thing that keeps me sane during Silly Season is the poo-o-meter
This is a news site. I hope it only reports on news.
If it isn’t on arsenal.com or a reputable site like the BBC, it shouldn’t be on here. Feel free to go to Arsenal Rumours (it does it exist) to get your fix on dodgy transfer rumours.
I’m just gonna thumb everything down this is stupid
Wenger keeps referring to how big the squad is (which it is) and how quality players have to be left out of the squad, but that is what happens when you are strong enough to win the title. Look at all the players left out of recent PL winning squads. We certainly have as deep and talented a squad as we’ve had for many years, but most would agree it’s not a title winning squad (PL or CL) without some additions. We have and will be linked with every top player as usual, but it does appear that Wenger knows… Read more »
What’s with the Vidal replacing Coquelin thing? Even if this made up story was true why would it be a good idea to replace a defensive midfielder with a box to box player? Does everyone know that he isn’t the same type of player as Coquelin? It reminds me of when people used to say ‘We need a Yaya Toure to protect our back four’
Excellent player but I’m not sure we are lacking box to box players. Granted not all are as good but we have other priorities such as, well you know a defensive midfielder.
Whats happen to the South Koren player “Da Ting” that so many people on here want us to sign??
🙂
*happened…and I’m here all week folks” 🙂
Vidal would be so sexy wow. Him in our midfield would have me browning my whites due to sheer excitement.
For those numpties who think world class is the answer ala Falcao last summer or say Benzema (who has similar percentage conversion rate to Giroud), Ospina has the highest save percentage at 80.7% this season (See BBC statistics)
A wiser man than I once said:
“There are three sorts of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics”
Yeah because giroud would score the same number of goals as benz in a team with Ronaldo and bale.
Stop deceiving yourself…Benzema is a HUGE upgrade over giroud anyday of the week. Only the staunchest of giroud fanboys would deny that.
Cech is also an upgrade over ospina as well.
“It’s all suspicions. Does anybody know if that’s true or not? I don’t know.”
I fucking love this.
I think one of the biggest things in the past couple of years and going forward is that we are a club that players want to come to now (and players want to stay at). They know that they’ll have CL football each year along playing half of their games in a great stadium on a great pitch regardless of the weather. The whole “we don’t have ambition” thing is getting further and further away in the rearview mirror. Wenger has the ability this Summer to show his ambition with some key signings. Even if we don’t get a striker… Read more »
WAFFLES on big signings. Had to rely on PRACTICALLY SUBSTITUTES fresh off THE PHYSIO’S TABLE to beat West Brom. Struggled against READING in Cup semi-final. Missed FALCAO, DI MARIA, and DAVID LUIZ! WENGER OUT!!
/sarc
though this is sarcasm, di maria would have been a decent signing for us, he would be 2x as good playing alongside ozil, and in london i doubt his house would have been broken into (i mean we dont even house players for the first 6 months, hotels) which massively upset his game/life.