According to the BBC’s David Ornstein, Arsenal are yet to agree a fee for Shkodran Mustafi and are exploring other defensive options as they keep funds for the purchase of a striker.
There have been numerous stories suggesting the German international is close to a move to the Emirates, but this evening it seems an agreement is some way away yet.
Via his Twitter account, the BBC reporter said that the Gunners are looking at Turkish international Omer Toprak and Fenerbache’s Danish centre-half Simon Kjaer.
Arsenal yet to agree fee for Mustafi. #AFC considering Omer Toprak & Simon Kjaer as alternatives but Mustafi remains priority & keen to join
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 15, 2016
Mustafi would cost around £25m and with Arsenal having already spent £40m on Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding and Takuma Asano, it seems there’s a reluctance to do this in case it takes up too much money which would then impact the club’s chase of an unnamed striker.
Price the issue. Arsenal want to hold back funds for possible striker signing. #AFC transfer budget factors in fee, salary, agent commission
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) August 15, 2016
Of course funds could also be recouped from a sale or two as the transfer window draws to a close. Arsene Wenger said last week that his squad was already ‘too big’ in terms of numbers, so it’s not impossible that one or two could leave.
Despite this news, Mustafi seems to be the number one choice of defender and Arsenal may be muddying the waters a bit as they try and make Valencia think all their eggs aren’t in one basket.
After the 4-3 defeat to Liverpool yesterday, reinforcements are paramount, so let’s hope we see some action this week.
FFS stop bartering, there’s plenty of money there for a defender as well as a striker. Just strike a deal and get them in ASAP!
Hahaha! Like what the fuck are these cunts talking about!! Hold back ‘funds’ ?!?! Hahahah!! What the near on half a billion pounds cash in the bank? Hahaha yeah! We are so fucking tight for cash at the moment. Oh, let’s also forget the fact we have a two billionaire owners hahahaha, one of them who consistently says he wants to give Arsene the money so he can fucking buy players. Lads, we are getting taken for a fucking ride here, 100% Gazidis, Wenger and Stan, are all sitting in KSE HQ doffing on 200$ Cuban cigars, lighting them off… Read more »
Cheapskates are running the club
and collecting the next 3mil dividends
If we don’t sign Aubameyang for 70 or 80 Mil this window, I don’t think any money saving for a striker counts. Higuain gone! Benzama not coming. Suarez, Neymar, Aguero, are the other top strikers worth that much and they are not coming. So who is this mystery top striker worth so much money that they have to save up for him!
Lewandoski
Wenger’s the victim of his own loyalties and values and these are being expolited by the people that run the club. Whatever you want to say about the man he often takes blame upon himself. I’ve never heard Gazidis, Kroenke or sincerely from the players ever say they fucked up on something. If all goes to shit one man will take the fall and then everyone else will carry on as usual. It is a shame this a likely scenario. Wenger is not stupid, he sees this, perhaps he is resigned to his fate. Or he is out Wengering himself… Read more »
As I said earlier contrary to what Henry suggested, players are willing to come, it is their clubs that causing the problem.
I’m no Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, nor even an Enos Stanley Kroenke, but I think we can easily afford to buy Mustafi and whoever it is that is the Striker option and still have plenty of money left in the bank earning interest. The only difference is, though, that there’s an even better chance that we’ll win the Premier League, possibly more silverware, and place a real challenge in the Champions’ League over the next couple ‘er few years if we make those investments and when we get our rested and injured players back, no? Our bank account will be… Read more »
No?
Well considering the base rate of interest in England is 0.25% and inflation in the cost of players is probably 20-20%, there’s no business argument to be made in keeping so much cash, so it makes sense to spend. But if this story is true, which is a distinct possibility knowing Wenger, i’d be surprised if we buy any more players this window. Come the first press conference after the window closes i expect the same script from Wenger again “We try every day to sign players…..It’s not like going to the supermarket…..internal solutions……inflated market blah blah blah” and it… Read more »
All meaningless drivel of course
Apparently we have booked his flight and medical already, but the£20 boots voucher expired last year and we forgot to do the online check in on the Ryanair website.
Reports suggest that Mustafi wanted Platinum travel insurance but Arsenal were unwilling to part with the extra £10 to do so. This was due to Arsenal wanting the £10 to add to their striker fund.
The only area which we didn’t need to strengthen was midfield, and we spent 35mn on that. Why did we not save that money to buy a 65-70mn striker? Why do we have to save money from positions that really need strengthening. Why? Why?
Why god why?
Okay, I am going bonkers, I think. I better walk out.
We lost Rosicky, Arteta and Flamini. Santi is 31 and won’t play forever. Injuries happen. And having proper DM backup isn’t splurging, it’s good planning. Should also enable us to dig in and secure tight wins when needed.
Planning? By not addressing your critical need first? Its like installing new stronher locks but your roof leaks!
Going for Lionel Messi then
Just to fucking annoy Pep 🙂
Just take the fucking foot out and cough up for both. We have way more money than we will ever need. Sick of it.
Arsenal is owned by a man who moved an NFL team 1,500 miles for the sake of money. You think he doesn’t care about money? Think again, he doesn’t care about fans.
Not to mentioned he moved the team from his HOMETOWN.
I am convinced this nickel and dime approach to transfers is directly connected to Kroneke’s negotiations to build the LA stadium. Why else would we be so obsessed with maintaining ridiculous levels of cash reserves? Arsenal is lowering Kroenke’s loan rates.
I hope this means the striker we are chasing is extremely expensive, because it might just be that mystical unicorn. Then again, when trying to chase unrealistic dreams, we might end up with no one…
Why would the mystical unicorn want to come to team with no defenders…
Mystical Unicorns, mate, can not only score goals but play a brilliant *smash* and grab form of defense leaving blood and entrails in their galloping wake.
They are real buzz kills when it comes to headers though, always popping the ball
Why would anyone want to play for a shit team with little or no ambition. Arsenal are an organization that holds know one accountable. Wenger can flounder in mediocrity and nothing is done. And that mentality filters down to the players. Fuck Wenger I’m done defending him. Bring on simeone. Someone needs to right the ship.
simeone or someone
The Great White Buffalo
*whispers* The Great White Buffalo
It will be disappointing option, Lacazette…we could have gotten a much better striker any of the last few years…or even now! Aubameyang, HELLO!!?
‘Lionel, the Unicorn’
🙁
i am trying to be optimistic…
again
.
.
.
but this time, it’s really really hard.
It certainly is
Fuck optimism. It’s overrated and useless.
Yep. Nigh on impossible to read this story and be positive. Arsene has two weeks to win me back…
You’re making me hard too……hard as Granit !
I wouldn’t be surprised if Xhaka ended up being our only major signing of the summer. Anyway, who cares. By the time a new recruit comes in, adjusts, etc., we’ll have dropped even more points. Wenger has put the club in the worst possible position to start a season, thereby drastically reducing our competitiveness from the get-go.
Pathetic management.
We lost a match. It happens. Deal with it.
I reckon Wenger is waiting for deadline day.
Remember when we got Ozil? You didn’t see that coming two weeks before it happened.
We’ll be fine.
‘After the past few seasons, our optimism is a bit less sharp, a bit jaded’
ROFLOLLIPOP
saving money for a “striker signing.” better actually bring one in then. can’t make that statement and then not follow through, the fans would absolutely murder everyone involved
No they( fans ) won’t and they(cnts running the club) know it.
The only person who made that statement was a BBC journo, it’s not the official line from the club. Fingers crossed it means we’re actually looking for players though, rather than sitting around with our dicks in our hands. Because sometimes you have to wonder…
They are playing with fire…
Don’t play with me cos you’re playing with fire !
Madness???
Tomorrows just another day !
It’s getting to the point where I dread watching us. We have never looked more of a shambles on or off the pitch. I’m very tired of this now, it’s like waking up with a hangover every day supporting this club. I think the time has come for a big big change at the top. Wenger will never win a league or a champions league with Arsenal again. It’s time. Put as out of our misery….please.
Let’s be honest, the start of the season we lost 8-2 was much much more of a shambles.
This is the least shambly we’ve been for a long time
This is more of a shambles because Wenger and Co. did not learn the lessons of being unprepared from that 8-2 drubbing.
That season was Kroenkeshambles!
All this doom and gloom. First game of the premier league season. And if we’re honest we lost our way for 20mins and Liverpool punished us. We still have some massive players to return to the side. Yes two new signings would be nice. My honest opinion is they were coming regardless of what happened at Liverpool.
if you rub it more they come faster
Sell Theo Walcott if you need extra funds! He must be worth £30m+ in today’s crazy market.
He’s looking like one of our best players so far. To be fair to him he has been before.
Sell one of the wide players. Since wenger doesn’t seem to like joel, he can do a cash plus joel campbell offer for him. We need mustafi. Not toprak and certainly not that pipe kjaer.
Arsenal wake the fuck up!!!!
No way – Campbell one of the few real performers in the run-in last season. Sell Walcott – even if they only get 15m for him because of wages, then it still means on anet basis not much impact on funds available for striker.
ps remind me again, why are Arsenal’s tickets the most expensive in the world?
It’s like a man is bleeding out from his foot and his head.
And he has only enough bandage to cover one wound.
He’ll die eventually.
We aren’t that guy, ffs buy some more bandage. Or use the one you would have next season.
I’m not sure that’s a saying but it should be!
Brilliant analogy.
I tip my cap to you sir.
Watch out as we will end up without defender or striker for being this stingy
“We cant spend it all because if it goes wrong we dont have any left to correct it”
Well let me break the news for ya, it went wrong and it’s time to go all in
If we end up buying Simon Kjær, I don’t know if I’ll watch another match this season. Not that I don’t want to support the team, and not that I don’t think they’ll entertain me plenty of times. But the amount of mediocrity and lack of all ambition that it would signal might be too much for me to handle, I’m afraid it might actually spread into other aspects of my life and make me content with shitty results in everything I do. We’ve tried to defend it, we’ve attacked those that claim Arsenal just want 4th and don’t even… Read more »
Hope we don’t stingy for 5 to 10 million pounds. The benefits of finishing in a champions league spot and a higher league finish will compensate for it. Arsenal can afford both mustafi and a striker so bring out the cheque book Gazidis.
Getting to that final two weeks of the transfer window. The ultimate frustration of looking daily at all the sports news we can come across hoping and praying for vital bit of much needed activity. Then to find a big fat fuck all at the end. Followed by a press conference along the lines of “we tried to sign a player who could improve our squad but none were available”
Sigh hope I’m wrong!
I’m getting tired of watching this comedy channel over and over…all its showing is repeats. It’s need to be upgraded at all costs. Hoping the managers see this and acts.
Financial health to a FOOTBALL club is not having lots of money on your war chest, that works for market companies. To football clubs, financial health is not spending more than you actually have, so if we have the money, just spend it all.
With the ‘if you have money, spend it all’ it’s no wonder that you are not CEO of any company. And to be honest, it would be no wonder if you would have no money either.
Some of the ‘opinions’ that are being repeated here are so out of touch one wants to cry. But hey, what do I know.
Your comment suggests that Arsenal FC have no predictable or repeatable revenue and are akin to a child breaking open their piggy bank to spend all their money on a frivolous toy having already lost all of their baby teeth and leaving no prospect of refilling said piggy with further copper coins. We’re not that kid…
In light of an Arsenal supporter’s woes, the best nick ever 🙂
Unless we indeed have a piggy for the next manager, right? I’m yet to see a proper analysis of how much money Arsenal can spend per window without digging into the reserves. It’s nice and all we had 250m two months ago, but some 70-100 out of this is used to actually run the club over the season, 35m is the necessary debt reserve, and the club may easily owe 80m for past transfers (it was 66m one year ago). And we bought the Xhaka guy. So how much we can spend because ‘it will come back’? I don’t know,… Read more »
Fucking hell, they just can’t help kicking the fans when they’re down can they? All that money in the bank, just BUY THE FUCKING PLAYERS WE NEED, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
I’m sorry but I’ve really had enough of this nonsense now. Wake me up when there’s a massive sea change to the way this club is run.
Take a break from football for a year buddy… next season hopefully there will be change
They make us look like a newly promoted championship team competing with big clubs, well a championship team finishing 4th is an achievement ….
This smacks of being a little leak to try to drive Valencia’s asking price down a bit – David Ornstein is often ‘used’ by Arsenal in this way. It might work, it might not. But all clubs do it, believe me, and Ornstein has been Arsensl’s preferred output…
If that is true it is such a cheap thing to do…
I’m going cookooo
Wenger should just pay up and save us all these disgrace. It’s not his money but our clubs money. He should quit treating Arsenal like his personal enterprise.
can’t believe that there are still fans on here defending Wenger. He should have gone when Fergie left Utd. Excuse after excuse. I’ve had enough and won’t be going to another match ’till this hoax of a club sorts it’s act out. It’s time to be heard, fellow Gunners.
@kentish gooner …can i buy your tickets then??
He’s probably never been to a game!!
Been going since the Highbury days mate – 20 long years. Have you ever been to a game? Callingit tedious is being kind.
@kentish Gooner.. i travel over from Ireland 4 or 5 times a year and each weekend cost €500 – €600. For the few games i see it probably cost the equivalent of 2 or 3 season tickets. I would gladly take any spare tickets you don’t want and i dont have much money at all. I’m a fan (my house is called HIGHBURY, postman almost fell of his bike laughing when he heard) and will keep supporting my team through good and bad.. you won’t support them anymore because we lost 1st game and you are not happy with the… Read more »
Give me a fucking break. We were supporting the team even when 4-1 down. We were loud. Can’t use that bull shit support the team mantra.
That being said, the chickens have come home to roost… nobody took last year’s Time For Change protest seriously, and instead, started chanting one Arsene Wenger, so now i don’t think anyone has a right to moan about Wenger
I Can’t stand blind faith / ‘loyalty’.
If you are loyal to this club and can’t accept a fall from greatness then you boycott.it’s only when the club starts to lose revenue that they will start to wake up from this bizarre tolerance of mediocrity.
Hope the barn door would hit you on your way out, Kentish Gooner!
May your country not be in a position to have to depend on you.
I typed cuntish instead of kentish the first time around.
What has their country got to do with it?
It’s game 1 of 38, still 15 days until transfer window closes, and players returning from time off… a bit early for some of the reactions on here. Liverpool better prepared to take advantage of their 15-min burst after half-time, which killed the game – fair play to them. We still scored 3 and missed a penalty.
Anyone here ready to have this conversation again after the 10th game (away to Sunderland)? We’ll have a better idea of where we stand by then both in the league and the CL.
so you think we will win the league? The strong reaction here isn’t about just the one game. It about the last many years of mismanagement. Its annoying hearing this “its just one game”… “wait for the season to begin”. You guys sound like we’ve been running away with the league for the last decade and we are over reacting just because.. nope mate that’s not it. There are no signs that this season will be any different and thats what the complaining is about.
I have decided not to blame Wenger anymore after seeing the following. I always assumed Stan was a giant piece of shit, but evicting people from his newly purchased land really makes him a solid cunt. Land he will never spend any time on…
dailymail
Billionaire-Los-Angeles-Rams-owner-Stan-Kroenke-tells-hundreds-fixed-income-residents-Texas-newly-bought-land
If true, what a total farce. Even now some fans still hold our club up as if its the way to run a football club. 200 million or so in the bank and for what. Its out pissing money for fucks sake, without the fans no big sponsors , no big sponsors no tv money etc etc. This is driving people absolutely mad, year in year out the same shit. This isn’t a football club anymore, its a business run like a private enterprise by Wenger for Wenger. Everyone is on the take except the poor fans who are getting… Read more »
How very typically arsenal. We have a player keen to join with ask but the fee agree and we then start fucking him around!
We are a joke
Transfer negotiations with the handbrake on. How very arsenal. Roll on September
Come on wenger or else I will hate u all of my life
Good god this is like pulling teeth…
Why are we acting as if we`re broke , Didnt we recieve the most amount of money from the TV deal? Wheres it gone? This is a farcical situation , my gut tells me that the Board is putting the brakes on these deals for us , maybe something to do with Kronenkes impending relocation of the ST Louis Rams to LA which is effecting us because he needs all the funds he can get to see this through . Until Stan leaves or relinquishes some control for others to come in , this reluctance to spend is going to… Read more »
That’s baloney. The money sitting in the business bank account, he’s not taking dividends so the money just sits there. He can’t use it for anything else.
Ok he gets these shitty payments for services but they are a couple of million. We have hundreds in cash reserves. Why does a business need, especially a football club need to have something like 70℅ off revenue held as reserves I don’t know. Any other business would either take dividends or re invest. We do neither?
They’ll need the reserves to cover the cost of the empty seats, reduced tv coverage and missing CL revenue next year! Wenger seems to be an economist who’s never heard of inflation or the laws of supply and demand. If you wait long enough for the price to come down, you’ll end up broke! If he’d spent it last year, he wouldn’t be faced with the impact of 10% post-brexit fall in value of £. Effectively his lack of buying last year cost us the League (for this year too?) and the inflated prices we’re now spending. Would he have… Read more »
No player is coming before the transferwindow closes. Wenger will say…. “We could not find a player that fits our needs and money we are willing to pay”. We will not pay over the odds. Lets stick with inexperience and close our eyes and hope for the best.”
Im guessing first 5 matches results. 4 loss and 1 win. Atleast im being honest and realistic.
Mark it here…Wenger will not sign anyone else this transfer window nor will he do so in 2017. Been there done that too many times to care any more
Sell OG12
Sell Campbell
Sell Doubucy
That could all add up to £30 for mustafi
Take the rest of the cash buy Lukaku for £70 play
Alexis lukaku Ox
Up front 20+ goals plus from each
Cech 20 clean sheets
Win the premier league, AW retires and Arteta comes to coach we go on a 10 year run with 2 champs League trophies 7 EPL trophies and our young guys win FA Cup and league cup a couple times
Am I right or am I right?
You are neither of those 2 options.
Hope your hangover this morning gets better! You must have been p****d when you wrote that☺
Oh the delusion!
Sell your wife, kids and cutlery.
Sell Campbell, our best youngster and OG12, our only striker??
Nice.
What’s Squillaci up to these days?
Haha, Partner him up with Igor Stepanov!
Can only get better.
Good grief….we are so tight.
Spend OUR money!!!
ORRRRRNSTEIN you are meant to deliver good news only bbc media bias George Bush ffs
What the flying fuck is wrong with this fucked up club?
It’s exceptionally annoying having our extremely wealthy club pleading figurative poverty when Arteta, Rosicky and Flamini’s wages have just been taken off the books. Not only is this a terrible signal to any potential signing but does the club ever think what Özil and Sanchez think of such parsimony? Is Wenger aware that we get a cut of the TV deal too? Does he know that UK interest rates are at a historical low so keeping cash deposits actually results in capital erosion. Yes, it’s costing us money keeping cash rather than investing it. This is all making me very… Read more »
Could always bring sol Campbell back o suppose…
If you’ll excuse me, after reading this I feel the need to smash my nose in with a neon pink mallet.
I’ve checked in all pockets and down the back of the sofa and I can honestly say, I’ve run out of fucks to give.
I’m dreaming for 2nd of September to come as fast as possible so this nightmare to be over.
Wenger is having a giraffe!!! Well someone has to replace our BFG!!!
Nobody actually knows what is going on behind the scenes, not even Ornstein.
In the first half of that game we could/should have been 2/3 goals up.
If that had happened we could have run out 4/5 nil.
It’s all about such small margins.
People say that what Wenger has done or not done is shocking.
I think the fans booing at full time is shocking and unproductive.
Remember the seven straight wins after the West Ham defeat?
Get behind your team chaps!
Rant over. COYG.
Run out 4/5 nil … It’s been 12 years, yep it’s always about those small margins…
STFU.
I was so shocked about your response to my post, I thumbed you up by mistake! 🙂
Penis.
Go shove a rake up your arse.
Yes, we can respond to defeats well, and we can have good streaks, but we manage to f. it all up in the end, and get back to our comfort zone, 3/4th place.. So it does not really matter that we respond well man. It is the same old story. We should have been prepared better for the 1st match of the season, in every way possible. It is not bad luck, you can attribute it all to bad luck than if you want, for years. Liverpool deserved to win, they have better tactics, stronger mentality and it all came… Read more »
Hahahaha, striker search? now I know u are kidding. excpect terrible and underwhelmig panic buys.