Arsenal’s chances of signing Thomas Lemar are seemingly over, with Arsene Wenger declaring the deal ‘dead’ at his press conference this morning.
The Gunners had been linked throughout the summer with the midfielder, but were unable to get the deal across the line.
Now it looks as if there’s no chance of it happening after Monaco have closed to the door on the 21 year old’s departure.
Asked about the potential signing, Wenger said, “It’s dead, because Monaco has closed the door definitely.
“They are still on cases like M’Bappe, Fabinho, they already lost Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Bakayoko … Monaco is at a stage where they have basically closed the door.”
Pressed on whether or not this frustrated him, he continued, “We have the numbers, we have the quality to deal with that.”
Stay tuned to Arseblog News this morning for further press conference updates, including:
- Wenger throws gauntlet down to the Ox
- Wilshere’s red card and future
- The final week of the transfer window
- Refusing to rule out Mustafi’s depature
This sucks
And yet was completely expected given our record in the transfer market. We won’t sign anyone until the last day of the window when we panic buy for £15m and then refuse to play them all season.
What was Laczette? Not a panic buy. And Ozil was last day of the window!
And we put have made 3 very good offers for Lemar. So keep calm and carry on!
Our approach in the transfer market is more opportunistic that strategic, I’m not sure we go into the transfer market with any specific targets in mind, If when we do, we are not just proactive and aggressive enough in our pursuit, Lacazette is only our player today bcos Atleti are banned from making any signings till January.
And Arteta!
It sucks, but I hope Arsenal are being sensible here, and instead of throwing silly money at Monaco for Lemar, they instead throw silly money at somewhere else on the pitch where investment is more needed.
Just a shame I don’t think that is going to happen.
A high price this summer is a barging the next.
Lemar deal is ‘dead’ as Monaco dig in
and Seri and … others….
“We have the numbers, we have the quality to deal with that.”
I look forward to the news that he is signing some for someone else next week then… In all seriousness, we seem to be one of the few big clubs who take no for an answer. If we want him, and they don’t want to sell, we need to make an offer they can’t refuse and hope the player pushes for it too. We just seem a bit too ‘nice’ in the transfer market.
100% agree with all of his. Our niceness is endemic within the club, it’s a large reason why we don’t complete either in the transfer market or on the pitch.
I dunno, I kinda like not being a bunch of twats. Actually – I’m pretty proud of that considering the state of world football.
There is a difference between being nice and twats. I want some more steel, determination and bloody mindedness both on the pitch and in the transfer market, I doesn’t mean we have to be twats about it.
Spending 24m net, when you are earning well in excess of 200m, is on the other end of the twat spectrum.
I agree with the sentiment Anthony but sooner or later we have to join the cunt party or get left further behind! What this comes down to, is we should have moved quicker for Lemar and offered more to secure the player we want, and not dilly dally about. 60mil paid this summer, when next he could go for 80mil, just get it done. Of course there’s a point Monaco have to say sorry we can’t let any more go. But no, let’s bid 40mil because WE says we should be sensible.
The problem is he isn’t worth 60m. If we did offer that and they still refused then everyone that wants to overpay will say why didn’t we just offer 70m? Then if we did purchase him for 60m he doesn’t have the impact immediately there will be backlash just like how everyone complained Mustafi wasn’t worth the 35m last summer or Xhaka
The invincible team could be called ‘twats’, others will just call them competitive. I personally miss the one-upmanship in the team that we had back then. Every player was trying to outdo the other.
Arsene’s comments earlier in the summer and also his comments on United buying Martial, sum Arsenal up in a nutshell.
I genuinely think the club are completely clueless.
The earlier, success-driven version of Wenger would have signed Martial. I was at the Monaco home debacle and Martial (then 19, wouldn’t have cost much) ran our defence ragged.
Watch Lemar leave Monaco for someone else before the window shuts.
OK so a lot of their 1st team have left, but other clubs have just acted faster as usual.
But it’s less a matter of being nice than paying up what’s expected. Wenger doesn’t seem to understand valuations anymore, he has this number in his head that no one in the world but him agrees with and thinks he can get away with. Monaco named their price. That’s how transfers work in essence, either you pay more or less or you don’t get the player. It doesn’t matter what you think he’s worth.
agreed! looks like we’re the only team that can’t buy a player from Monaco this year…
And then slag off AW if he does the same with sanchez?
Weak as piss, Wenger and Ivan.
Oh I dunno, my piss is quite strong especially if I’ve had sugar puffs or asparagus the night before
So every other club who has wanted a Monaco players appears to be able to buy them….except us.
After all these years we are still a disaster working in the transfer market, we never learn.
I was sluaghtered here when i said it here a ago:)
*a month ago, sorry for the typo
also I should mention that this is a Manager who previously had/has his pulse on the French market. There are many exciting young French players playing around Europe and we haven’t signed any of them.
Wenger has supposedly held sit down talks with M’Bappe and Lemar I believe….we haven’t been able to sign any of them.
We can’t get Oz, Ozil or Alexis to sign new deals with the club.
What does that tell you about the Manager and the club in general?
Also ran’s as always since the move to the Emirates….
Totally agree, the manager’s inability to attract the best young players or convince his own stars to sign on is particularly damning. Then there’s being led down the garden path by the likes of Walcott and Ox. Things look like they’re going to get worse before they get better.
I take your point Glocken but “every other club who has wanted a Monaco player appears to be able to buy them….except us” is bit of an exaggeration. The only two clubs who’ve bought “star players” from Monaco are City and Chelsea. I’m honestly not defending our transfer strategy. Your point about us being also-rans since we moved to the Emirates is the cold, hard truth. We spent years squandering the prestige earned by annual Champions League qualification on banterous signings like Gervinho and Kallstrom and today we cannot compete for a player in a straight fight with a rival.… Read more »
Kaius – Mendy – Gone Silva – Gone Bakayoko – Gone M’Bappe – Going Lemar – Sorry Arsenal your bid of £25 quid and a packet of pork scratching’s isn’t enough I’m afraid. Fact is, if we pushed hard enough & pay the money we could get him, the club just doesn’t have it in themselves to push the boat out and actually compete. We are scared of competing and more comfortable with glorious failure. It’s endemic and comes from the Manager and the owner. Agree that Gervinho & Kallstrom were horrendous. I’m glad you appreciate my other points, thank… Read more »
On the face of it, the failure to sign Lemar fits with our idea of Arsenal’s transfer policy as “too little, too late”. But the truth is Monaco said early they would sell 3-4 key players but would absolutely keep Mbappe, Fabinho, and Lemar at Jardim’s request. Leonardo Jardim is the factor people don’t consider when they talk about Monaco letting players go – they can’t afford to lose Jardim’s ability to work with young players and rebuild teams that stay competitive deep into the Champions League. I may be wrong and Monaco might buckle but that was their plan… Read more »
“special relationship”
I really hope we don’t sell Mustafi or loan him out. We would surely have to sign a replacement if we did. This is going to feel like a long week until the window closes.
I cannot fathom what good could possibly come from doing either of these, to say anything other than eff off to inter is madness unless he has an absolute ace up his sleeve, which i severely doubt. Given the instability of our defence and all us being on tender-hooks this is a silly thing to even hint at that one of our only centre backs that he appears to trust could be moved on this close to the end of the window. Unless he plans to bring gibbs back in and have three left backs flanked by two more left… Read more »
Lemar would be good but we need a DM more IF we keep Sanchez. Hope we sign him next summer though.
But this is Arsenal logic.
We’ll refuse to pay for example £60million this summer.
He’ll go to United next summer for £80million.
And we’ll end up with an inferior player we don’t really want and hasn’t been thought out, signing for us on August 31st 2018.
Who we’ll then spend the vast majority of our summer 2019 trying to recoup what we paid.. and probably failing and loaning him out on August 31st 2019 at 23.59.
“Hope we sign him next summer though”. How much will Lemar cost next season? This window would have been the best piece of business: £50m, bed him in for a year and then a seamless transition when Alexis is gone. If Lemar has a stormer of a season – which is looking likely bar any serious injury – how much do you think he’ll be worth next summer? Nothing less than £80m in my opinion. And we’ll still have Arsene Wenger in charge *gnashing my teeth in sorrow*. Perish that hope bro; it ain’t gonna happen.
He’ll have one less year in his contract. Hopefully we will be in the champions league by then so we will have more money and a stronger hand in the transfer market and in negotiations with players. Costs go up when you are not in the champions league. Lemar said he wanted to play under Wenger, apparently. So we have that on our side.
This is one player that was born to play for Arsenal. Everything about his style is us.
I’m beyond gutted.
To be fair, this transfer would have been great but we seriously need to use the money elsewhere! We do already have enough attacking talent, he really needs to realise we can’t keep shifting in goals like we do, as we aren’t always guaranteed to score 2-3 goals every game! Let’s get some decent, long-term, tough and ready defenders to come at the back and take charge and let young talent like Holding and Chambers grow in games in the cups and Europe.
If you snooze you lose.
Time to lower our expectations and accept that the clubs definition of a successful season is a profitable business model that doesn’t take any unnecessary risks.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the year we drop out of the CL is the season we’re no longer reliant on that income due to increases in turnover elsewhere.
#KroenkeOut
So…how many people gutted to miss out on Lemar have actually seen him play for extended periods? Be honest. Seri, too, while we’re at it.
Oooooh… Blimey!
https://soundcloud.com/arseblog/ooooooooh-blimey
It’s Not That Easy to sign a player of Lemar’s quality… It was always 50/50 anyway. If There’s any Justice in the World we’ll keep key players fit and hang on to Alexis.
ha, was the deal EVER ALIVE, yes we have numbers, but the numbers are crap you stupid idiot.
We have the numbers but we do not have the quality hence why we finished FIFTH.
Delusional old fool…
I would rather have Fat Sam than Wenger as Arsenal manager.
At least he would get off his arse and do something..
Behave.
Could it be that Monaco is just irritated by a penny-pinching manager and his team? We were told the young man was agreeable to the move. Weren’t we? Would that door be closed if, for instance, a silver haired man from Manchester or a balding one from the same city were the ones who came knocking?
This is why Arsenal will never compete for major titles as long as Arsene Wenger is in charge. The workings of the modern day transfer market is beyond his yesteryear tactics. Sad times!
Yeah, I don’t think he understands valuations anymore. He has these weird lowball numbers in his head, that no one agrees with (rightfully). Why would Monaco sell arguably one of their most important attacking players for 40m? They can easily get that and more in the next years considering the inflation of prices.
They did that with Silva. Even if AW offered 50m that would still be too much for him but at 60m? If he doesn’t play like a 60m everyone will say AW got played by Monaco.
So? Who cares, he got the player then. I don’t care about the money, I care about the football-
Yeah because those clubs are the ones who are willing to pay 10-30m more then what a player is worth. Its easy to get transfer business then if you are willing to pay ridiculous amount
But what is a player’s “worth”?
Go and get Draxler & Aurier
Not sure about Aurier?
Isn’t he a right back?
We already have our right winger playing at LWB and when he’s not playing there we have our RB at LWB
Meaning our two left backs now play centre half.
I remember Arsene used to hoard no10’s.
I wouldn’t put it past him to sign another right back and then play him as a striker whilst moving Lacazette to central midfielder.
I love Arsene but he was finished a long longtime ago….
Aurier because the Ox is off. When he is not being a biggot (read up about comments to Blanc) he is a decent footballer.
I live in hope that we are secretly working on Draxler and Van Dijk…..hence the rumours of Mustafi leaving. To be honest, Mustafi is a liability who dives in all the time, would rather stick with developing chambers/holding
I don’t think we ever wanted to buy him. Did Wenger and the board really think believe that bids in the range of 45-50m were going to be successful? Average players are fetching 50m. And we are here talking of an extremely promising young prospect who is to become a future superstar. How could they think that 50 odd million would suffice! Even the revised bids were only like 5-10m improvements. That’s such poor and half-hearted approach towards things.. I have even come to believe that all this was just a hollow exercise to keep the fans interested..
Is it too early in the season to ask who at the Emirates is in charge of negotiating contracts? Is it still Dick Law or has Silent Stan delegated the task to his son?This is dragging on longer than the Walking Dead.it’s time for regime change #gunnerchange.
Waited and waited and waited and watched as Monaco best players were sold till they remained with a few good ones. it such a shame. Football has changed, the approach to transfer of players has changed, Wenger and Arsenal have to change or we will be left behind.
LOOKS LIKE WE’RE STUCK WITH THEO FUCKING WALCOTT FOR ANOTHER SEASON THEN – YAY
Also, if you look at the names Wenger just mentioned on whom Monaco had closed the doors or have sold, they are those players for whom sizeable bids have been received, unlike what they have received from us for Lemar. We have spent only 24m on net basis for God’s sake!
I am sure if someone (definitely not us) comes with an attractive bid for Lemar, the doors will open!
FFS just go and make a 150 million bid for M’bappe. It’s not like we will be blowing money when he has such a high re-sale value. I don’t think Monaco would wanna sell him to their rivals. If we make a huge bid they might change their mind. FFS just send a fax to Monaco as soon as the Liverpool game is over. Maybe even loan Iwobi to them for a season.
I’ve given up on defensive signings. Even Sergio Ramos will be more of a goal scorer than a defender at Arsenal.
Same old Wengersaurus..
Still wonder if he’ll be taking EL seriously with this large group of players, but small group of quality.
Hoping for more than last year, but with the old dinosaur stuck in his ways, and Stan off hunting it’s hard to find optimism.. In the meantime, up The Arsenal! ?⚪️
If we were really keen on him we’d have shown them the cash before they sold mendy bakayoko n co.
Forgot to add the 2 most important words that sum up this deal: dicking around
I’m tired of this rubbish… absolutely no effective management of our transfer policy, contracts or youth structure.
Honestly, I fear for the immediate future of this club. I think I can safely say we will not win the league this season now (if I had said that earlier in the summer, I would’ve been downvoted to Bolivia). So with the unlikeliness of winning the league, we now face… – Losing our best player (an asset worth over 100m) for free next year (likely to City). – Losing our second best player and most creative outlet for free next year. – The young player of whom Wenger was willing to sacrifice so many other young players at the… Read more »
Yes, this is the future, the future of a Kronke franchise that exists as a money making operation for said US billionaire.
We have the number yes but we definitely do NOT have the quality!! It literally is groundhog day when it comes to Arsenal
Guaranteed Lemar will go to someone, probably Utd
Big defeat to Liverpool and all the dead deals could be back on, but for a far greater price. Or we’ll panic buy. Same old same old.
I’m not one to get worked up about transfers and obviously there’s a lot of info we’re not privy to but this was so predictable given the way Monaco’s players were targeted and in many cases sold in this market. He seems like if we were serious about signing him then the deal should have been done expeditiously as we did with Lacazette and the other clubs did with the other monaco players. perhaps monaco had no intention of letting m’bappé and lemar go this window
Arsene, why the hell are are you going for a player if, when you unsurprisingly don’t sign him, you are just going to say “We have the numbers, we have the quality to deal with that.”? There must have been a reason you went for Lemar in the first place and surely that reason still stands!?!! It drives me mad that when you don’t sign a player you then say, like a petulant fucking child, it doesn’t matter anyway and we don’t need him because we’ve got enough ‘quality’ already. If the Lemar deal is truly dead then you need… Read more »
They promise to change a lot in the summer, my question now is what have they really change? 1. We can’t spend big 2. We can’t sell unwanted players. 3. Wenger is Wenger 4. Gazidis still sound like a politican 5. Dick Law still maintaining the Law 6. Stan Koronke remain silent as usual 7.The board in business as usual (Don’t rock the boat, keep just moving ) 8. The team cannot defend as usual. 9. Fans still divided 10.on the positive note LEHMAN the irrational German is back to add steel and winning mentality. Eyes wide open ???? The… Read more »
Was quite happy Wenger signed a contract extension and we went on a decent winning streak, 2 cups, two qualities players added. 2 games in and all seems to be falling apart. This monaco/Lemar situation seems like it’s down to money once again. Basically monaco are happy to sell m’bappe and fabinho as they will be getting more than there worth. So Arsenal could get in fact get lemar it’s just that they won’t pay that little bit extra for the player they really want. You can guarantee next season he will be at chelsea/city and will be another “almost… Read more »
Consider the last ember of my hopes for this season extinguished. So bored already. Wake me up in a couple of years.
A bit like they closed the door on Martial, only for Man U to sign him?
We don’t really need him now that Alexis is staying. I would prefer us signing a good CM/DM instead
“We have the quality to deal with that”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Season Over
Buying Mbappe will only ease the pain, even for £200m knowing he will be worth £1b in 2 years time
If we have the quality you wouldn’t have been pursuing him.
This is another flaw that he hasn’t changed in himself. If he needs a player, he needs to get the player. If he is unable to get this particular player, he should have another target.
Not getting a player he needs and claim his team has the quality to deal with it is going back to old ways that failed in the past.
Happy with the strength of the squad? Did the loss at Stoke not happen then? Why wont he be honest for just once in his life and say Lacazette was brought in to get season tickets sold and he has no intention of building up an already weak massive squad who couldn’t do the job last season and will struggle even more for the forseeable future as long as He, Gazidis and Kroenke have anything to do with the club! Its time he left and took Pinocchio Gazidis and Scrooge McKroenke with him and let Usmanov have his time and… Read more »