Arsene Wenger says that Arsenal must invest this summer, but insists it’s not an easy job, and points to player development as a way of improvement.
With some senior players leaving, and the future of some under-performers in question, the Arsenal manager says that the club have improve the squad, but as ever highlighted how difficult it can be.
Speaking after the press conference today, he said, “We have to strengthen our squad but it’s not obvious to find the players despite the money the English clubs will have. We are already working but we have to find the players and that is not easy.
“You cannot dismiss that the players are young. Alex Iwobi is 19, Mohamed Elneny is 23, Francis Coquelin 24, and they will be stronger next year but you need to keep a core of players and strengthen where we can.
“The team is going the right way.”
As ever though, he pointed to stability as a way to to improve, and suggested that just because Sp*rs might finish above Arsenal there won’t have been a shift in the North London dynamic.
“First of all, we are not behind Spurs yet,” he said. “Tottenham have been 18 years behind us and they’ve survived. So let’s be realistic.”
And on Leicester, who look set to win the title, Wenger hasn’t given up, saying, “If Leicester win on Sunday it does not affect us, it does not change the fact that we absolutely have to win our game against Palace. Let’s prepare for that no matter what the result is.
“We need a perfect run. They can drop points on Sunday but if they go until the end of the season having lost only three games what can you say … well done, congratulations, even if it’s Leicester that nobody expected.”
I will say ‘Blasljdauhsdiuhsieh 8u324 uoa sjhd ashjd kjahsd alshd youhg fojhsdgfa” because nobody can pronounce it.
And just buy the goddam players.
I dunno, I think I can pronounce that.
And we will probably sign a 17 year old who’s already broken his leg twice but who scored 17 goals in 13 games for some league 2’s U-16 team a year ago.
This “world class” being bandied around isn’t the priority IMO what we need are players who really care about the club and the fans. I’d rather have a team that gives everything instead of some who just drift in and out of the game like Theo or Giroud who seem to be more concerned about their hairdo.
I don’t buy the ‘the players don’t try’ explanation. I’d be prepared to consider it if it were just the current squad who were flaky, made stupid defensive mistakes, had too many off days and whose heads dropped every time we went a goal down, but it isn’t, is it? The players change but their replacements within a season or so turn out to be exactly the same, year after year after year. The players don’t lack ‘mental strength’ or a ‘winning mentality’ as part of their DNA. They just lack it under Wenger’s regime. The Invincibles routinely turned into… Read more »
I don’t think it’s fair to criticise Giroud as someone who doesn’t give everything, I think he does. Just that he isn’t quite that top level of player who can be effective whatever their level of form/fitness/fatigue. Over his Arsenal career he’s had to go for very long spells without a break or even any competition, it’s natural that he’ll go through some mediocre phases.
Theo is a half arsed barely talented fraud though I agree.
It might not be fashionable these days but i got a lot of time for walcot and giroud and all the players that helped to end the “8-7yr trophy drought”. (unlike a few players who some people still hold love for, who did not acheive nothing with the club and abandoned ship when the going got tough). If they achieve nothing else at least they got that monkey of our back and i for one am glad i dont hear that taunt any more but its been replaced by the “12 yr without winning the league title” headline and if… Read more »
I love this post
I think this one comes under “No shit, Sherlock”
Realistically, though, the players we’re looking for need to be absolute world class. We all want a “striker like Suarez”, but how many are there?
… I suspect we’ll be a leetle beet disappointed.
We’re 13 points off Leicester and you actually believe the players ‘we’re looking for need to be absolute world class’. Why? No other club in Europe has this policy.
I honestly don’t believe that you’ve actually watched us this season and thought ‘you know what only world class can improve on this lot’. You’d have thought the way Elneny has come in and improved the team that the ‘only world class can improve us’ narrative would’ve been binned straight away.
I still find it funny that people believe the answer to our defensive issues is to simply buy a World Class CB. As if our issues don’t run deeper than one singular entity on the pitch.
Wenger teams want to play defense by starving the opposition of the ball. A possession oriented midfield is essential, and we simply haven’t had that for the majority of the season. It’s our greatest need in the summer.
That’s exactly it, Wenger fought the gods of injury and good form and he lost. And our avg possession and avg shots on target numbers have been matched by teams with fewer “world-class” players than we have!
I understand him thinking only “a few additions” will sort things out, but for God’s sake man, the very least this season of only two signings has taught us is everything we didn’t want to know, but secretly dreaded about too many players in this squad. The same ruthlessness that saw Ospina replaced by Cech needs to extend to the other 10 positions.
I agree with Dr Headgear. I love Elneny but with a fit Cazorla Elneny does not play. We are where we are because we are not scoring enough goals. We don’t need another 15 goals a season striker to replace the one we have, what would be the point. We need someone that will break 22 goals in the PL, ergo, world class.
what happens IF liverpool win the Europa and Man city win the Champions league. Will only the top 2 in our prem’ qualify?
No, the prem can have up to 5 teams in CL
So if Arsenal finish fourth and City Fifth, and City and Liverpool win their European tournaments, then Arsenal are in Europa League. Yes?
it will not affect position 3 but instead 5 teams from bpl will qualify for UCL
That’s about the size of it, yes
Correct.
There’s a full chart of all the possible outcomes on Times journalist Oliver Kay’s Facebook page, for both CL and EL. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1116265795092030&substory_index=0&id=382327408485876
Getting his excuses in early again!
Sounds just like it, doesn’t it !
He had every opportunity in the summer window to act. He deliberately chose not to and yet he knew the injury situation with Wilshere and Webeck. That was a mind numbing misjudgment. I wouldn’t put it past him to do the same, this summer.
At all events it should be his last season as Manager, with us. Should be : but whether it is or not ?
It does make me nervous that he’s starting with the lines about how difficult it’s all going to be – before the window is even open! I understand the whole managing expectations game but still …
I don’t get Wenger anymore. One minute he’s telling Ozil and the fans to believe that we can still win the title and then the next minute he’s telling us to be realistic about spurs finishing ahead of us. I don’t get how he can say ‘let’s be realistic’ when he’s been talking us up for the title for so long. If Leicester win on Saturday it obviously affects us. Wr need them to drop plenty of points and if they win it’ll mean one less game for them to drop points in. I don’t think any other manager talks… Read more »
It’s impossible to find what he wants.
Look at the circumstances of signing Ozil, Sanchez and even Cech?
Do you think he would’ve been proactive in signing any of them despite being world class?
I think the problems is that he cant always find what he wants at the price he wants. Transfer and wages m
Same thing every summer.
Don’t expect any more then one good signing each summer from now on(If that even at the most). regardless of where the team needs strengthening. Ozil-Sanchez/Cech(Elneny in Jan) have come each transfer window with only youth signings being made within that time(+Welbeck & Gabriel). It’s not a coincidence either as the fees for top players have become even more ridiculous these days & unless It’s Ozil Wenger’s not going to ever pay those crazy fees regardless of how good or how much that player would help our team.
What like 50 mill for sterling or maybe even 20+mill for lovren and don’t forget depay at Utd was 25mill there all treading water and are not worth any where near the money paid for them,
De bruyne?
Same story…heard it all before.
and next up, on this weeks episode of “state the bleedin obvious” ……..
I dare anyone to read that, particularly those who genuinely believe Wenger will have learnt his lesson from this season, and be filled with a sense that this summer will not in any way shape or form not work out almost exactly like every previous summer.
I can see the “we don’t want to kill Welbeck/Akpom” line in a few months.
You’re spot on but I think it’s interesting how differently the various papers/sites have spun this week’s enthralling instalment. Arseblog has opted for the encouraging, ‘We have to strengthen’, whereas most of the broadsheets gone with, ‘Don’t expect any signings’, or words to that effect. Pretty much any headline would have done as well as any other. We can still win the league; We must be realistic; It’s not a disaster that we’re finishing behind Spurs; We have to strengthen; We can’t strengthen because the players aren’t available; We don’t need to strengthen because we’ve lots of young talent; We… Read more »
No offence, but what the fudge does your last sentence mean? Also, you’ve made some very good points above, but this post is a bit over the top. You act as if Arsene Wenger is a senile old idiot, making contradictory statements and not knowing a jot about anything. I agree with your view that him leaving would be in Arsenal’s interest, but I’m not going to pretend he is anything other than intelligent and insightful. His problem is that he has become increasingly more risk-averse as the years have gone by. His transfer strategy is like Goldilocks choosing her… Read more »
Nope, I’m not presenting Wenger as a senile idiot, just as a manager under pressure trying to answer questions in an upbeat and truthful way, when upbeat and truthful are unfortunately becoming increasingly hard to combine. Wenger actually always tries to tell the truth; he just doesn’t tell quite the whole truth. Hence all these seemingly incompatible answers. Everything that he says is perfectly true in a way. It’s true that we need to strengthen and it’s equally true that we can’t because the players we want aren’t available; just as it’s true that we don’t need to buy because… Read more »
One season too late, Arsene.
If we’d strengthened sufficiently last summer (and by ‘sufficiently’ I don’t just mean ‘more than one goalkeeper’) then we would be top of the league.
Wenger made a bollix of the previous summer window. Strengthening this summer is too late – next year we’ll be lucky to finish top four when all the big teams start getting good again, and that’s regardless of whether or not we strengthen.
I wish I could vote you down twice for this comment
Ah well, I just hope we enjoyed our days in the sun 12 years ago. Mid table obscurity is on its way.
Im actually optimistic.The GK position is perfectly manned. The defence is the 4th best in the league. Thats not too bad. With Elneny, Carzola, Coquelin and Ramsey, im happy with the DM/CM. The creative boys are decent enough with Iwobi (recent revelation) and Ozil (Campbell subbing). The problem is therefore the attack, that’s the weak link. So buy one mad finisher and we’ll be ok. There is a problem if Ozil get injured as he is likely to do next season given the number of games he’s played this season.
No it’s not. You could change your name to glass empty though that would be realistic
It’s really not about signings anymore. It’s about organising your team, whoever is in it, to play with some sort of shape, guts and tactical awareness.
I’m in full agreement of your statement. If we give Wenger the benefit of the doubt, isn’t part of the problem the fact that he doesn’t know how to rather than not want to instill the teams with tactical awareness? Let’s be fair, Wenger was the “Pep” of the late 90’s/early 00’s. He brought a distinct style of football to Arsenal; attacking punctuated with grit and determination, a winning combination, which was the envy of the whole of Europe. Wenger is still respected across Europe till this day based on his early endeavours and rightly so. Notwithstanding the influx of… Read more »
This is the most accurate statement so far.
Exactly. We have 2 top quality full backs, a world cup winning CB with 100 caps for Germany ( you know, that team where they win stuff regularly and don’t give out caps as though they were free newspapers) and another top quality centre half in Kozzer. It really isn’t about improving the players. It’s about doing some , any kind of defensive drilling so that we don’t give goals away like a drunken sailor spends his money. What doe sBould do, if not defensive drilling? Or should I say, what is he allowed to do…..
And yet nothing changes…
They did drop per when they realised with him in the team they wouldn’t win it.
Per winning the world cup = John Terry winning the cl
You’re probably right about Bould not being allowed to do anything but strangely the under-21s when he was in charge of them also were shocking defensively, so perhaps limiting his influence may not be such a bad thing. OK, perhaps he wasn’t allowed to coach them defensively either or perhaps they were all fairly talentless, but it’s also possible that he’s just not very good teacher – excellent players sometimes make terrible coaches and vice versa. Whatever the explanation, the sad reality is as you say and there’s no excuse for the fact that it’s gone on for so long.… Read more »
Well I for one am expecting Arsene to smash fuck out off our transfer record.
I think next season will be his last and he will want to go out on a high, bearing that in mind I am looking forward to a plethora of the worlds best players rocking up at the club..
(For some reason I’m picturing the scene from escape to victory, where the players introduce themselves)
The number one takeaway from press conferences from an under-fire manager is that you should not try to take too much away from them. They try to tone down the hysteria, they try to bring the focus back to the here and now, and they try to downplay fears about the future. Every manager does this every single time, except Mourinho, who always has to insult someone. The only valuable piece of information we should expect to get is the fitness report, and the occasional non-football related insight. He’s not going to divulge the club’s thought process on recruitment, squad… Read more »
Finally a voice of reason!!
There is no point fans saying we should buy this player and that player etc while we still have the same manager. We could have the best 11 players in the world and they still wouldn’t win the league with our lack of tactics, match preparation and zero in game management. Wenger is simply a shell of the Manager he once was and has been at the club far too long, although forever grateful for what he has done since 1996 I cannot wait until the day he goes and a new manager and a new footballing infrustructure is introduced.… Read more »
Well said, sums it up really.
Leicester wins the title having lost only three games and two of those are against us. Seems to be the only positive for us from this season. Actually Leicester winning the title is one tight slap for Wenger and any other Arsenal fan (including myself)who has ever trotted out the “money wins” argument. Granted they had low expectations, comparatively few games to play and largely injury free season. But where we havn’t had a proper sniff in years, they are walking the title with games to spare. I’m not even thinking about the alternative of Leicester not winning the title.… Read more »
Money does win, most of the time. This year the association with wage bill and league table position has not been linear, which is unusual for the PL and probably represents clustering of clubs as everyone’s wage bills have risen given the ever increasing TV money. Wages seem to be a diminishing return beyond a certain point. The greater point here though is that exceptions do not disprove rules, they only reinforce them. This is the first time a non-moneyed club has managed to break the hegemony of rich clubs in PL history. It’s similar to the chances of cardiac… Read more »
I get your analogy, but the season is 10 months long and they lead for most its length. Contrast this against our inability to consoiidate on advantage gained and it brings out a sad picture.
Chances of them (or another club with similar resources) doing it again might be remote, but its undoubtedly an eye opener about what Arsenal could have acheived.
Dortmund win Bundesliga: “They got lucky with scouting, it’s an anomaly”
Atletico win La Liga against the two richest club in the world: “They got lucky with injuries, it’s an anomaly”
Leicester win PL: “They got lucky with scouting, fixture list, injuries, other team underperforming. It’s an anomaly.”
So we’ll sign 1 CM to replace Arteta, Flam and Rosicky. Promote Toral to the first team, and possibly a bargain CF/CB if we’re very lucky. Cohesion is the new LANS.
I think we need a strong, authoritative CB to provide competition for Kos/Mert. Someone really vocal as we don’t have enough vocal voices when we go down.
People keep talking about world class this and that but I don’t think Wenger will buy one.
A striker to provide genuine competition for Giroud (not Walcott or Welbeck whose strengths aren’t in finishing)
There wasn’t the top top top top quality We want to sign and aren’t afraid to spend money They need to be better than what we’ve got We could sign half a dozen top players but our tactical shortcomings and lack of character will mean we fall at the same hurdle time and again Oh Klopp. We could have been so good together. Looking at Liverpool and the way he’s got them playing at times with another managers players is gutting. Next season the way he guardiola Jose and conte plus pochetino will have our major opponents playing will leave… Read more »
I am sure Arsene will hold his own against all those managers next season. Mentioning him in the same sentence with Mclaren is rather disrespectful to Arsene for all the work he’s done for this club. He is not that far off. If – and that is a big if – we are spared on the injury front, Arsenal will still be there or thereabouts next season.
Sorry but Klopp really hasn’t pulled up any trees. They’re 8th in the league…..
But we’re closer to 8th than we are first
They do have quite a realistic chance of winning the Europa League.
Roy Hodgson got Fulham into a ‘realistic chance of winning the Europa League’.
Not exactly proof of a great team or great manager, but I guess when you’ve nothing else to play for then it could be considered on a level with the FA Cup…
The reason it’s not easy to find players is because clearly our scouting and negotiation team have not been good enough. Every other team in the top 6 has managed to buy at least 1 player in the last two Windows who has improved them. Granted we did get Elneny but that had the feel of a neccesesity to appease the fans rather than a pre-emptive move to improve the squad. There are hundreds of players out there who could improve us, of course no teams want to give up their best players, but what the he’ll was building the… Read more »
I disagree that there are 100’s of players that will improve the team. We have a very good team, just very short of quality in the striker position. Put Lewandowski in this team and we win the league, all things being equal. Same goes for Aubamayang and Aguero. We would all agree we are creating tons of chances, we just need that icing on the cake.
No, if we could defend properly as a team we would have won the league
It’s funny how other teams find good players but arsenal can’t. This guy is fucking ridiculous. Simeone with the arsenal squad would have won the league.
So has he found none?
Koscielny, Bellerin, Monreal, Coquelin, Elbeny. Just 4 off the top of my head. The world is largely great. Not polarised as black and white. Let’s keep the arguments grounded in reality.
Apart from the fact that that is actually 5.
Maffs is for nerds.
And while we could do with some of the effort and yardage Simeones teams put in, I for one don’t want to go back to playing a souped up version of Graham’s 94/95 football.
I get part of what Wenger is saying, we need players who can strengthen this team but this summer in particular is going to be seriously difficult with the money coming in, so yes it likely we wont buy four or five players so the only option is to promote from the junior side and bring in maybe two top top players for the outrageous monies they will ask for, as bilic said, buying the kante’s of this world will be difficult for the big clubs.
Judging by the comments on this page, it seems our legendary manager has now lost the faith of the majority of fans.
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Funny how the team has been going “the right way” for about 10 seasons now, 2024/2025 title, here we go!
I reckon Wenger’ll bring Diaby back for a laugh
Do we all think he is the one who doesn’t actually want to spend the money? I’m finding that increasingly hard to believe.
Oh just fuck off Wenger. To quote the great Chris Hudson, “I’ve had about e-fuckin-nough”
Reus, Aubameyang and Griezmann. Should do the trick.
I’m sure their heads will drop after we conceed two silly goals as our midfield and fullbacks overcommit going going forward because our build up play is so slow that the other team has got us locked out.
For the sake of what little dignity he has left, he must go. I can’t take this groundhog day bullshit anymore. Just go and give a young and hungry manager a turn. He’s had his fun, he’s made 8million a year for God knows how long. He must have 100 mil plus in his bank account. The excuse for 10years was the stadium, I get that, but we were misled and missold a dream. We were told we would be able to compete with the big teams like Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich. Since the stadium debt has been… Read more »
If football was as easy as you suggest then why did Barca lose this week? U am not sure the manager has such a great impact. Yes, they set the pattern of play and influence the squad but getting a winning team is much more complex, part luck, part accident and part inspiration. If money was all that is needed, then the richest clubs would always win. This is just not the case. Yes money can make a difference but there is no absolute certain relationship with spending and results. Look football management is like leadership. It is an art… Read more »
another excellent post. thank you. it’s refreshing to read such sane comments in a sea of negativity. i can’t believe some of the stuff i’ve read on here lately.
“consistently successful”???
Finally some sense….thank you!
If you define success as finishing in the top four and a tournament trophy here and there thrown in, then yes. But, the problem is we have clearly not maximized our input for the best possible outcome, whether it’s financially, tactically, mentally. It is a form of cheating. If I had an IQ of 150 with an aptitude for science, mathematics, yet I chose to do janitorial work for my career, I could be the best damn janitor in the world and I would keep my charge spotlessly clean. In a way, yes I am successful, I am keeping my… Read more »
I’m not sure I understand your point. You say the manager doesn’t have a great influence but then go on to say that it’s not about money or superstar players as long as you have a great leader and illustrate your point by referencing Ranieri, Revie and Clough, suggesting perhaps that the manager does in fact have a huge influence.
Jesus, if I was a barca fan I could shrug off losing a game now and then, based on your model for success barca has had a whole lot of luck, accidents, and inspiration over the years. At least they are not deathly afraid to change their manager.
We are not missing the players, maybe one or two, we are missing the proper coaching
You’ve used Barca as the worst example.
Barca lost to a lesser team because that team set themselves up tactically to attack their strength and not play into their weakness.
Something Wenger has consistently not been able to do in recent years.
sign one new manager. no other signings necessary.
get the goons/plastics out = 1 trillion times better!
I like how from the same quotes, the Guardian’s title is tremendously different from this one’s. Have a look: “Arsène Wenger says Arsenal’s summer transfer activity will be limited.” Journalism at its finest. Kind of curious coming from the Guardian.
Anyway if we don’t seriously buy what we need in the summer, then I think some high positioned members of the board must go for letting such a farce continue for years. Obviously since they are high positioned, they won’t. *Sigh*
The problem I see it is we are so predictable its so easy to play against us. He doesn’t have to buy a lot of players just a few to help as switch from the pocession based game he seems to love now to the lethal counter attacking style that made us so successful and not employ the same tactics every game . Even bergkamp said beautiful football without results is useless
I mean to be able to play procession based football against some teams and counter attacking against others depending on how our opponents set up
can anyone with a good memory tell me when the last time that wenger bought a player that had a bit of fight
and aggression, sancez being the exception. he refuses to buy players that have an opinion and are willing
to stand up to be counted when times get tough so that leaves us with a much smaller pool of players to go
for. only the shy and timid and people that can be bullied are on his radar
I believe in Arsene and I trust him within the next transfer window!! We need to strengthen our CB – Dragovic would be nice AND cheap – Did you hear me Arsene?? Another decent signing would be Alaba. Arsenal – Arsene – Alaba -> perfect match! He could play every position in midfield and in the defence too. But the importnant singning would be a world class striker -> Aubameyang? Morata? Griezmann? We need to splash the cash for one of them! But why do I trust in Wenger?? There are a lot of players in which he lost his… Read more »
He says it is not easy, But why then can every other club in Europe manage it and not us? Why is it exceptionally difficult for us compared to anyone else? We could have had Higuain 3 years ago but lost out over a couple of mill to Napoli. Our financial muscle trumps that of Napoli by quite alot, yet we let ourselves get bullied out of the deal. 34 mill Napoli reportedly paid and we could not be bothered to match that for one of the best strikers in Europe. Ironically we then went for Suarez for 40mill and… Read more »
Everything he says now just winds me up even when he talks sense it just grates with me. And when he talks tranfers I feel like I’m going to explode.
Fuck this shit I really need to stay away from any form of media until the tranfers window shuts again. Same bolox talk same excuses same manager same fucking groundhog season this year then next.
He doesn’t say anything provocative unless you really want to see it this way. Xhaka seems on his way for 30M, and ElNeny/Xhaka a huge step up from Flam/Arteta. Striker is the most difficult position. As much as I want Wenger to buy a WC striker, options seems limited. Is Higuain available. My dream is more towards Ousmane Dembele, who has everything to be the next big thing in this position. Break the bank for the kid Arsene ! We can’t snatch WC players from Real/Barca/Bayern/City/PSG unless they are ready to sell, but we don’t sell our WC players anymore… Read more »
The answer is not to sign a star player like some here have suggested but to look critically at how the team spirit can be reinforced and establish a pattern of play that suits the players available. Leicester have been fortunate with injuries. They also play a defensive counter-attacking game based on snuffing out the opposition’s attack. Football is not about individuals but it is a team game. I would challenge any team that loses its Midfield through injury to win the premiership. Perhaps what is required is to get to the root cause of these injuries that have impacted… Read more »
If the answer is not to sign “star players” then no problem! We did just that this season.
Honestly, cautioning Arsenal against unnecessary spending is the height of absurdity. We rarely spend, so we rarely waste money. Arsenal is the very last of the traditional big 6 clubs that needs to be squeamish about potentially gambling on transfers.
And the flipside to your argument is that the onus should fall on the manager to maximise the playing resources available to him. I think everybody has their own views on how that’s worked out this year.
Even if Arsene has lost our faith, he still deserves our respect – something scantly seen while scrolling down the page.
For God’s sake, you don’t know how much of a good thing you have until you’ve lost it. Even if one feels that we need a new manager, what harm could it do to support the current one as we finish the season?
We should all show Arsene the respect he deserves.
amen!
He deserves respect, but what about respect for the fans? Calling us customers, lying about a warchest to gt people to buy season tickets, saying no one is available to buy… anytime+this is disrespectful to me as a fan.
If that was your defence in a court of law Dan you would be going down sir.
You strike me as the type that would stay in an abusive relationship, knowing every sorry would truly be the last.
At least you get a sorry.
Something tells me that influx of youth team talent we’ve been seeing is no coincidence.
Could be another round of replacing Fabregas and Nasri with kids.
Cause kids have no problems fitting into our archaic wage structure.
What is the evidence for an archaic wage structure please?
We don’t sign quality players anymore because all other good clubs pay more in wages than Ozil or Sanchez, both of which are drastically underpaid. Wenger is quoted on how he doesn’t like to upset the team pecking order by paying players lesser in quality wages that are the same or more than our better players. we only have 5 players making over 100K, Ozil at 140k, Sanchez at 130k, Walcott at 110, Giroud and Cech at 100. Recent players we may have signed: Fabregas 156k, Benteke 140k, DeBruyne 150k, Sterling 180k. Schneiderlin 100k There’s a disparity, and Arsenal are… Read more »
Not one of the 5 players you mention (2-faced Spaniard, Benteke, DeBruyne, Sterling or Schneiderlin) have shown they’re worth over 100k this season. Would you like to have another go? or wait until next season (the 2nd for 4 of those) when some of them may start to look like 100k+ per week players?
Another round? Flamini and Arteta, with all due respect, aren’t Fabregas and Nasri. The days of selling world class players are over. In addition I have no complaints with embedding our youth into the first team. Iwobi and Bellerin haven’t exactly disappointed…
Just say you have to strengthen the squad, then go out amd do it. Don’t qualify it, don’t make pre-excuses.
So, so predictable. How naive would you have to be to believe we’ll strengthen significantly this summer.
Oh, yeah, so we need to strengthen, but it’s hard? We’ve heard that one before, Arsene.
Sorry if this offends anyone but do people actually have any idea how football transfers work? Because Arsenal are such a huge club, it means that when they enter the market for a certain player, let’s take Mahrez as an example, we will get an inflated fee offered to us. If we had signed Mahrez from the Ligue 2 Reserve team he was playing for, we would have paid far and above what Leicester paid for him. Unfortunately, this means that players who are ‘very good’, are subsequently valued by the selling club in the top bracket of ‘world class’… Read more »
I said Wenger must have over 100 million in HIS personal account. And I bet he shops at Lidl while his wife told him to go to waitrose
Aubameyang is not worth 45million plus? In the current market he could go for 60 or 70 million. Is that overpriced? You damn right but when you want to compete with the best you have to pay the prices the best pay for their players. Barca paid 70 plus million for Suarez. Real paid 85 million for Bale. Why can’t we pay 60 plus for Aubameyang or Lewandowski? I thought the whole point of stadium debt payment was we could compete…
Sorry but when you’re spending as you say £60mil for Aubemayang (seriously I have no idea how to spell it), that means that he must be a guaranteed 30-goal a season striker. Suarez was one, Bale was one. And they have both proven it against Premier League opposition, which is why the foreign clubs they both went to were happy to fork out so much. Also look at the way Real Madrid and Barcelona go about their transfer business. Arsenal simply cannot afford to sink that much money into a player and have him flop. Real Madrid could, and still… Read more »
And how do you propose we get Lewandowski from Bayern? Should he make miniature Pep Guardiola figurines and send them by post?
It’s not going to happen.
If they’d joined us, neither Vardy or Mahrez would have survived the ‘fans’ abuse long enough to have succeeded. Vardy has been at Leicester 4 years and only had one decent year before this ‘stellar’ season. Whilst Mahrez looked really poor for his first 12 months but has been pretty awesome in his 14 months. Our problem this summer will be that very few new signings have a great 1 season. Less than 25% of transfers are a success in their first year and 25% never make it at all. So we’ll have to rely on our existing squad in… Read more »
yawn yawn yawn. dont forget to take you pills mate
There was a time these comments (that most of us loyal and mighty Gooners could predict word for word) what frustrate the crap out of me and have me shouting at the screen but now they’re just boring and sad.
“It’s a difficult job” Sounds like we are making excuses already :/ Maybe it is a difficult job, but don’t make it sound like you’ve already given up. I’m not demanding pogbas of this world (but that’s the level of players we should try for imo). But Leicester and Atletico madrid have shown us this season that you don’t need superstars rather a hard working group, which we did have in start of the season, but poor player management poor management and lack of passion from owners has cost us the title again. *insert something positive about manager and club… Read more »
I’m numb to this now.
All talk and no action
Why did Arseblog/Guardian leave this part out that appeared on The Express article of his press conf:
“But, Wenger added with words that are likely to further infuriate Gunners fans already unhappy after what has so far been another season of under achievement: “We will not be making too many changes to this squad.”
Actually Arseblog is the only outlet that I’ve seen that actually has put a positive spin on his interview so far. Though to be fair, I’ve only read Arseblog, Guardian and The Express articles on the same press conference.
Fair question. But also I don’t think we need a overhaul of the squad. A very good goalscorer and top defender and we may get away with it. But that still won’t account for the lack of tactical nouse or the managers inability to rouse this team from the slumber it normally goes into every couple of games.
The team lacks belief and the mental strength to win a title and that has to come from the manager and his ability to motivate. Sadly that’s not going to change next season. More of the same
He has started regurgitating the same nonsense he does year after year. Who is he fooling apart from himself? The guy is just happy to pocket his hearty salary. How can a manager worth his salt be content with the squad he has with the impending competition from the incoming managers and financing of other teams? Arsenal football club surely deserves better than the has been. Look at how Atletico nullified Barca, it was the managers’ tactical astuteness. Look how Benfica fought Bayern, if it was Arsenal, we would have conceded 5 goals! Something need to give surely this can’t… Read more »
In all honesty I don’t think our problems lie with investment on the pitch I think it’s down to problems off it namely Stan kronke and Arsene Wenger
the problems lie with the goons who think they know more than the Manager!
All I can say is common Leicester. It’s the only thing we can take from this season now. It’s just killing me thinking that ‘that lot’ could win it if Leicester don’t !
Nothing to see hear folks, move along please.