Arsene Wenger says Alexis Sanchez will be 100 per cent committed to Arsenal this season despite the fact the Chile international had a move to Manchester City scuppered by the Gunners just hours before the close of the summer transfer window.
The Gunners are believed to have accepted a £60 million package from the Citizens for their star striker but pulled the plug when it became apparent they would not be able to replace him with Monaco’s Thomas Lemar. It’s a decision that infuriated City and one could pave the way for Sanchez to leave the Emirates on a free next summer.
“It’s difficult for me to talk about that because what I want from the player now is to focus on his career, on his season and on Arsenal football club,” Wenger told beIN SPORTS.
“I spoke to you before about integrity and values and I always think first to make sure the commitment is at the level that is expected from people who pay me and have confidence in me.
“On the players’ side, I think it’s exactly the same. 100%, he is committed. I have no doubt about that.
“I cannot tell you everything that happened. When you decide to let a player of that calibre go you need to replace him because nobody would understand that you let the player go.
“When you cannot do it, you keep the player and you make a financial sacrifice. At the end of the day, what you want is to have a team who has a good potential and top quality.
“That means two things, Alexis Sanchez, like Mesut Ozil, will go into the final year of his contract and you find a way to extend the contract. Or, at the end of the season, they go for free.”
Exclusive: Wenger is confident that @Alexis_Sanchez will stay "100%" @Arsenal and committed this season. #TransferTalk #AFC pic.twitter.com/KOV3JHIvRU
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) September 1, 2017
Speaking about the failed attempt to sign Lemar, Wenger also revealed: “The player has chosen to stay at Monaco and you do not want to talk too much, you have to respect what happens in the negotiations.
“I know we live in the era of transparency but at some stage to respect everybody you have to not talk too much about that.”
The issue for me is not about Sanchez or Lemar, the squad needs investment, we lost OX and now don’t have a right wing back up option to Walcott who shouldn’t even be in the starting 11 anyway. The world and and his wife knows how delicate the fan base is at the moment and yet all we did was sit with our d*cks in our hands whilst our midfield our midfield got even weaker. I didn’t rate OX anyway but Something’s wrong at our club and whilst some blame should be directed to wenger there’s some serious issue higher… Read more »
Cech
(Ospina)
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Kolasinac
(Chambers) (Holding) (Merte) (Monreal)
Xhaka Ramsey
(Coquelin) (Elneny)
Özil
(Wilshere)
Alexis Giroud Lacazette
(Walcott) (Welbeck) (Iwobi)
I was gonna take you seriously for a second till I saw Wilshere (whom I like, but is obviously not even in wenger’s plans).
I’ll just ignore your idea for our shiny new striker to play on the wings, because that must mean you’re part of the Arsenal coaching team.
plus as evidenced by the mugsmaher game, that midfield pairing is dire, almost interested to put our coq in there and drop ramsey. granit’s long passing game is what we need, ramsey in no way shape or form is a playmaker or ball distributing midfielder
Miss you santi lad!!!!
If we get him back that will make a difference
I would play Coquelin, Ramsey and Xhaka in a midfield 3 to protect a back 4. A kind of 4-3-1-2 with Özil – Alexis Lacazette up front.
Sounds a great tactic but only one obvious problem. Wenger will never catch on. Previously it was square pegs in round holes to make 4-2-3-1 work. Now it’s still square pegs in round holes to accommodate 3-4-3. It’s bloody annoying. When you look at Zidane (although fair enough his squad is absolutely talented), and the kind of variation he gets out of his team and STILL maintaining high quality output, it’s hard not to think Wenger is outdated tactically. Not to mention our evident inability to create space for a shooting opportunities outside the box. We still insist on build… Read more »
Then send Ramsey on the right wing for backup 😀
What’s ‘mugsmaher’… confused
A Liverpool supporter (stemming from a childhood trauma involving Blogs, his Liverpool-supporting brother and an Arsenal mug).
I must admit that a small part of me hoped that Ozil would go to Barca last minute.. Not because i don’t like him as a player, but because I don’t feel he aand Ramsay fit. If Ozil were to go Ramsay could fill that higher midfield role and leave either Coq or Elneny to partner Xhaka.
I also thought the exact same thing. Sell Ozil and try Ramsey further up (or buy a replacement), given Mezuts off for free in a year anyway. Appears not to be a popular opinion! Also, I have 0% confidence that Alexis and Ozil will be adequately replaced when they leave for free next year … seems madness not to cash in on either to get funds for a replacement, unless money really is no object and we can find £150-£200m to replace them, IN ADDITION to all the signings needed for the rest of the squad. I doubt that… Next… Read more »
I suspect our lack of a transfer kitty this year is because we could be letting them go for free. I would think Wenger had the choice of selling and spending or keep but no funds made available so we have the cash to replace next year.
Still, I agree we are unlikely to adequately replace.
Its incredibly important we have a good season (bare minimum back in Champions League). It’s hard to persuade top players to board a sinking ship, even if we have money. Look at Lemar, who (apparently) rejected us.
Sad that I’m now defining success as top 4. I’ve always been starting seasons hoping for the title.
A French young player who rejected Arsenal. We are no more The Arsenal I knew of. In Wenger, we trust, loooool.
The market when we got Sanchez and Özil was £50mil will get top players. The market now is £100mil will get you top players. We don’t have that kind of money or ambition. Add to that next year Wenger is in his last year of his contract, would you let him have £300+ mil to fix the team?
No Fucking way lad!
The money is there but not the ambition.
Wengers own arrogance will ultimately undo him. No director of football, or sporting director whatever the f$&k you want to call it, and a transfer group that could be out manueverd by Larry, moe and curly. Wenger has lost the team, the locker room and finally me. Arsenal is a pathetic shell of what it once was. And now we seem poised to sit in mid table mediocrity and Stan the man and the rest of the board are all to happy. A loss to Bournemouth followed by a Europa league loss and finally culminated by a thrashing at the… Read more »
Sell Ozil to who? Like any club came in for Ozil. What is happening at Arsenal is a result of lack of planning. Simple!!!!
“Next season looks set to be Arsene’s worst (and last). It’s going to be unbelievably humiliating when our best players walk away on a free, and we most likely fail to find anyone to replace them.”
Yup, because knowing the future is soo easy. As you are blathering about B.S. on this blog, you surely have club insider information. Ridiculous.
similar to my thinking,although i would dump ramsay all day over ozil
Ramsey should be benched for either of elneny or coquelin otherwise we play with the frailty of a juande Ramos led Spurs side. Wenger should haul off ozil and replace him with Ramsey if he plays like he did at pool. Ozil has ZERO effective competition in Wenger eyes and therefore in ozils reality. I’ve long said I rate Ramsey over ozil for overall creativity/threat and workrate. Wengers terribly inexplicable pattern of man management rewards recalcitrancy and mediocrity of players like ozil and Walcott and punishes the hard work and results of players like Perez and campbell and dare I… Read more »
To be perfectly honest, I doubt Wenger had a plan regarding which players he’d like to keep and which not. He said he will definitely keep Chambo, then sold him. He said the same about Alexis, then was willing to sell him, then decided to keep him. He wanted to get rid of Mustafi, now he has to work with him. He was ready to “open the door” for players like Giroud or Elneny but is fine or even happy with them staying too. All of that doesn’t really sound like he has actual plans. So I think he will… Read more »
Tldr but mate Giroud CHOSE to stay at Arsenal after Arsenal allowed him to go IF HE WANTED TO because he has been such a good servant for the club. What was Wenger gonna do to Giroud for accepting a sub role in a WC year? Dock his wages??
Like how do you even spin loyalty fron Giroud into ‘Wenger has no transfer strategy’? Gosh.
Not sure if it is 100% loyalty.
If reports are right, Giroud would be in Everton or even back in France by now, had it not for his wife wanting to stay in London.
Giroud loves his wife more than he loves his career. Him staying on as a “supersub” never made any sense, till now.
And Mr Wenger,
1. was happy for him to go.
2. Now knowing Giroud is stuck, can happily leave on the bench.
Poor Giroud.
Come on. Wenger just said he doesn’t like to talk to much in the press. If you’ve been following Arsenal for any number of years you know this is true.
And the Ox – always liked him but never really rated him – asked for a transfer – demanded on is more how I read it. He was expendable and 40M for that plonker is an absolute steal.
And regarding Wilshere, if he’s completely fit again I’m 100% sure Wenger will get him game time. Maybe only in the LC or the EL but he will get his chance to show that he can be important for this team. I saw him in the U23 against City and I just love to watch him play football. Given the fact that Santi won’t be back soon and with Chambo as one possible candidate for the CM position gone, I have the feeling Jack could be needed over the season. And then it’s up to him to show what he’s… Read more »
The issue I have with this is that Wenger tried to get of at least 4 of them, and hasn’t shown much faith in Mertesacker either.
Wenger is going to have a hard time keeping the team convinced they should have faith in him.
*tried to get rid of at least four of them.
@Berlingoon.
The sanchez thing is far from over.wenger says he will be commited to the team I just cant see that.
He’s a certainty for his country he doesn’t have to play his way into his team.he has to stay fit granted but he can do that without being commited to us.
And the others Wenger tried to sell.who knows what state of mind they will be in. What a fuck up of a window.
In my opinion, and I would love to be wrong and see him smash in 30 goals again, is that Sanchez is going to be an utter disgrace this season. I thought we should’ve sold him the minute he rejected the last contract offer early in the summer and reinvested immediately.
Sanchez is committed. He didn’t exactly say he wanted to go to Man city. Rumours that he told his teammates he was going to Man City are false according to Vidal. Sanchez is not the type who would not give his all. He didn’t hand in a transfer request, after all. As for the others who almost got sold, they should be more motivated to prove they have what it takes. As people have discussed above, a formation change is what we now need. Then again we haven’t played our strongest XI yet!
I hope you’re right, but I can think of a few games in the last 12 months where Sanchez didn’t give his all.
He always starts a game giving his all, but he did have a few games where he was clearly unhappy at how poorly he started the game (missed passes, lost balls and poor shots) and lost some motivation. His effort seemed to then come in fits and spurts for the rest of those few games, but he always started the next game ‘up for it’.
Just wrong.
Cech
Boss per sead
Xhaka
Theo ozil Rambo bellerin
Lacca alexis
Koscielny is overrated. He is not a leader and concedes too many fouls. He is not world class
Except iwobi monreal and holding, nobody of the subs u mentioned are even good enough for the bench!
Every word out of Wenger’s mouth is either cryptic, evasive or a complete bold face lie. How do people still believe anything he says?
Jose Mourinho is a massive c*nt but at least he tells things how it is, and when he lies or cheats he does it to win.
He must get out!!!
Err.. No. Just no.
Great working midfield pair you and Wenger got there. Works like a charm…Only coach on earth who thinks a DM is not necessary. This is a coach who had players like Petit and Gilberto Silva and now believes we don’t need one…
Agreed. The number of thumbs up to Berlingoon’s line up scares me. Haven’t you all been watching the games this season? Xhaka-Ramsey partnership is absolutely horrible and the most permeable one in the league! We’ve been so obsessed with Alexis’ and Ox’s sagas lately that we completely fail to noticed the most pressing matter – the absence of defensive mid. Tim Stillman had a great take on it earlier, here it is: http://7amkickoff.com/index.php/2017/08/20/its-going-to-be-a-long-two-years/ Also, I don’t understand the hype around here about going back to back four. Back four system was abysmal this spring and we did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING over… Read more »
And that is even before you consider how injury prone Ramsey is…
I agree. But I’ll have Elneny instead of Coquelin. I just feel more confident in Elneny’s defensive acumen. He doesn’t look to mess about. He just does the simple things very well.
The problem is not the system or the lineup or the players . The problem is arsene Wenger . If Ramsey plays the same position for Wales he will look good. He is not stupid , if he’s given a role he will do it . That’s why he is Wales best player. When playing for arsenal it was apparent from the start that the way xhaka Ramsey midfield plays will land us in trouble . The signs were there even before the season . And at the start of the season too we conceded 3 goals against an ok… Read more »
Yen, 7amkickoff is Tim Todd, not Tim Stillman. Not sure Tim Stillman has ever written for that blog (might be wrong).
As i said in my comment the line up was made on the basis of what we got, not what we should have. Therefore it has a back 4, because since we have sold Gabriel and Chamberlain, we don’t have a back up for Hector apart from Chambers, who already isn’t that comfortable as right back but if you’ll play him as a wing back, his confidence will be gone for ever after 3 games. On the left we need Nacho and Kolasinac as left (wing) back. We have a lot of games, they’ll have to rotate so I’m not… Read more »
And viera
You forget debuchy. He didn’t leave did he? (Genuine question)
He left the club along time ago imo merely trains with us under contract as nobody will take jimmy for free
What makes you think we’ll go back to four in the back?
This is almost the same team Liverpool smashed. Why is this your hope for the future?
Cech
(Ospina)
Hector Kos Mustafi Sead/Nacho
(Chambers,BFG, Holding, as above)
Rambo, Coq, Xhaka, Alexis
(Theo, Elneny, Wilshere, Welbeck/ Iwobi)
Ozil
(Rambo/Iwobi)
Lacazette
(OG, Theo)
Bodge job of a MF I know, but would like to see Ozil as a 10, & see how we go.
Not exactly the Invincibles though, is it?
With the FA cup, Europa league and the League everybody will get game time in this squad. But, if we get long term injuries in key positions we are fucked as usual. Our starting 11 is good enough to challenge until January. Hopefully we can get a couple of players in January and push on from there. Right now i would consider a free transfer for Bacary Sagna on a year long deal just to be safe. It doesn’t hurt to bring in an experienced head at the back. I’m not sure if he is good enough but at least… Read more »
Cech
Mustafi. Kos. Monreal
Bellerin. Kolas
Coq. Xhaka
Ozil
Lacazette. Giroud. Sanchez
*Correction. I noticed 12 players in squad lolz. Lacazete & Sanchez as strikers. Giroud to sub Laca.
The only way to get this man out is for the players to full on revolt. It unfortunately has come to that
Apart from the footballing perspective of your comment, I do believe you are drunk. Right?
Patrik I’m always drunk
And know things.
Wenger keeps talking about this 100% commitment yet the player throws a tantrum and a shocking display of unprofessionalism right in front of him and the entire world. I’d like to know the dictionary Wenger uses.
I see it as a not-so-subtle message to Sanchez.
When was that ?
When was that ????
Is that Martin or Martian.
Sorry thought you were referring to @George “not-so-subtle message” not @Looney’s original post.
Do we still have debuchy? LANS lol?
Was he even mentioned during the window? Poor bugger!
You’re assuming we will stick with a back 3, we won’t.
It was another of wenger’s ‘on a whim experiments’ that failed. He will abandon it soon, I guarantee it.
No RWB backup? Bro, we still gots Debuchy!!
‘The world and and his wife knows how delicate the fan base is at the moment’ i’m sorry but this is not a solid argument. The world and his wive also know that the media will torment these delicate flowers on purpose and troll relentlessly. Result = a plethora of babies crying. You say you didnt rate the ox anyway, and we got 40 million for him…. ‘Something is wrong at our club’ …in what sense? That they dont spend like M.City? In that they prioritise profits over vanity projects? I will ask you a serious question and would appreciate… Read more »
“Do you hire a wenger type and sleep safe at nights? Or one of those types who will knock on your door every week: ‘ boss sorry we need new players again, got another billion?” The answer: Neither – you just hire the one who spends the money we have readily available and spends it on the right players, creating balance in the team where there was previously imbalance. You hire the one who will field the strongest team, with players in the right positions, and you hire the one who can motivate the players and make them give 110%… Read more »
You obviously have never run a business, because when you have a business you never sleep soundly at night
You do if you have a guaranteed customer base regardless of how shit you perform
On point Salmok absolutely on point.
Lol
What a fu**ing mess.
#KroenkeOut
And take Wenger with him.
Wow, after all this we’ve still got a lot of fans defending Wenger and thumbing down Wenger out posts.
I can only assume it’s some sort of Stockholm syndrome. Snap out of it. Yes Kroenke out, yes Gazidis out but yes Wenger out too. He’s as culpable for all this as any feckless muppet at our club.
I know mate, the mind boggles.
Then we’ve got people saying we should go back to playing Ramsay on the right wing.
Could be Stockholm syndrome or could be proof of the theory that your average football fan actually understand very little about football.
And then we have Arsenal supporters who can’t even spell the names of our own players. 😉
Then again, I guess if we put Gordon on the right, he can cook up some tasty lasagne.
How about starting (Wenger-fans out) campaign too …
Auto correct mate quite obviously
Spell these cunt names however you want. Who give a fuck? Can you argue how shit this board coachs or half our players are? Or did I misspell a word too
I just can’t figure out what would it take for these guys to finally realize he is destroying this club. Even if arsenal gets relegated under Wenger there still would be fans cheerleading for him. Sigh….
I want change at arsenal but I agree with what wenger just said.
I can barely understand his incoherent ramblings these days let alone agree with them:
“I know we live in the era of transparency but at some stage to respect everybody you have to not talk too much about that.”
WTF?!
and i can barely understand how you all expect the private matters of the football club to become public consumption…..
absolutely 100% the clubs dealings are a private matter.
do you ever hear any other company in any other industry telling you their moves? please show me one. Or maybe show me another football club that shows this transparency.
Are M.City, chelsea, M united transparent about their transfer moves/deals? is any club for that matter?
From the day we decided to build that stadium, leaders at this club have dissembled, spun, and remixed the truth and their public statements about the club’s strategy.
It’s one thing to maintain an element of confidentiality about the club’s processes. It’s entirely another thing to gamble with the trust of a fanbase in the reckless way this club has.
The meaning, one might assume, Dave, of the ‘incoherent ramblings’is that despite the fact we live in an sporting age of 24 hour media coverage, phenomenal social media exposure and a general environment where nothing is sacred in terms of a individual’s privacy. Wenger, in the previous paragraph mentioned that Lemar decided to stay at the Monaco. So the respect to all parties involved, ie: Tomas Lemar and his club Monaco. Not to mention City and ARSENAL. Wenger has generally always refused to be drawn on details of interest in other clubs players as he feels this respect and discretion… Read more »
The meaning, one might assume, @DaveM, of his ‘incoherent ramblings’is that we live in an sporting age of 24 hour media coverage, phenomenal social media exposure and a general environment where nothing is sacred in terms of a individual’s privacy. Wenger, in the previous paragraph of the statement that I read mentioned that Lemar decided to stay at Monaco. So an explanation has been provided. So the respect to all parties involved, ie: Tomas Lemar and his club Monaco, Not to mention City and Arsenal, Wenger,as he generally always has” is refusing to be drawn on details of interest in… Read more »
Have you learnt nothing for the past 20 years? Wenger is a bold faced liar. Yet Gunners will keep on lapping up his bullshit and calling it caviar.
You do understand this is the same guy who said he will never sell Sanchez just a couple of days ago and proceeded to try and sell him at the last minute . The same guy who did the same shit with Van persie , fabregas . I mean how can you trust a word he is saying . He is less a manager an d more a mouthpiece for kroenke right now
Our midfield is shocking with Ramsey in it. He would not get in any top team. It’s nothing less than negligence from Wenger
I’m not a Ramsey fan, been saying for years he’s not good enough. He gives the ball away and always stays forward. I can’t see what Wenger sees in him. He had one good season when he had a great eye for goal…. but he’s been poor since
Ramsey is a good player in the right system. He does not work well in a system that includes Xhaka and Ozil however. But to claim Ramsey, one of the best players of the Euros and has shown in the past he can be the standout performer of a team when he nearly single handedly kept Arsenal in CL, is ignoring all the facts of the circumstances.
Yep he really was superb against Iceland, Russia, Slovakia, England, all top teams ??
I remember in that season, if you even dared to say “erm, outside of his wonder goal, he was shit” you got jumped on by Fans for not believing in the Welsh Jesus myth.
I was one of them. During that season I thought he had the potential to be better than peak Stevie G. For two seasons in a row his goals dragged us through tricky Champions League qualification ties when the rest of the team was still in woeful early season form.
But after three years of consistent inconsistency, continuing to play him is (to use a Wengerism) destroying the development of another player who deserves a chance to succeed at Arsenal.
Thing is, during Ramsey’s good season he led in all midfield stats, such as tackling and interceptions, and his form improved when he began to focus on the basics. Why Wenger can’t bring him back to that form is baffling, or kind of predictable…
Maybe not enough has been made of Arteta’s on field influencing and coaching of Ramsey.
Maybe that’s the difference?
Call me crazy, but I kind of like/miss Ramsey on the right. That is crazy isn’t it?
Not crazy at all. Ramsey’s movement towards goal stretched defences, and his tendency to drift inside meant we often dominated midfield. He was also more efficient with his passing in that position.
Oh my god, really? I would really like to know how Ramsay’s movement towards goal stretched defences, more so than a winger getting in behind or offering width would stretch a defence. Ramsay out wide was on a whim and yet another attempt to fit too many playmakers/centre mids into an already broken midfield. It made our shape lopsided and while it momentarily worked in patches. On the whole it failed and was abandoned, entirely predictably. Next to be abandoned will be the 3 at the back, mark my words. We don’t be to reinvent the wheel here. I think… Read more »
Mata, Lemar, Cazorla, Silva, Rooney, Isco, Erikson, Sigurdsson, Ozil, Coutinho, Insigne, Moutinho (a very underrated player I think would be perfect at Arsenal), Turan, Alcantara, Gotze,
Just a couple names of predominantly midfielders that often slot in as wingers to help control the tempo of play when needed…
Slot in as wingers yes. Start most games out wide, not many of them.
Plus almost all of those players are technically better than Ramsay, are more creative and have better dribbling ability, hence they are actually suited to playing a wide attacking midfielder role
Mate, his name’s Ramsey. And for fucks sake, he’s our player and he’s won us a couple of FA cups. Give the lad a bit of support eh.
Sorry dude my phone always auto corrects ‘Ramsey’. I’ve got nothing against him, but he’s not a wide player is he?
If we take a couple of the most successful examples you gave, coutinho and isco. Both are really number 10s, but they often play in a system that excludes a number 10, So they start wide with the license to roam and dictate play. Ozil is used in this manner by Germany sometimes, we could do that too and then give ramsey (spelt correctly lol) an attacking midfield role, his best position i feel. I know we tried ozil there and it wasn’t a great success but that’s bcos we expected him to track back. Countinho and isco are not… Read more »
Another number 10 who starts on the right wing (though that may change now) is called Lionel Messi. He is also pretty successful.
He wasn’t listed in the post i was replying to 😉
I agree we should scrap three at the back.
As far as masterstrokes, we’ve not really had any for a while.
If a 100% committed performance looks like the one Sanchez put in against Liverpool we’re screwed. I was behind the idea to keep him for the year before losing him on a free next summer but after the Liverpool game realised that one his heart’s not in it and two, with a manager who has lost the plot we aren’t going to get the best out of him anyway. Should probably have cashed in.
I understand the anger and surprise at our lack of signings… But I honestly believe we have (on paper) a better squad than last season… Hopefully after the market closed, everyone (players, coaches, staff and board) can get on the same boat on getting a good campaign … Toxic environment in the stadium can only make things worse by us fans…. Id go back to 4-2-3-1: Cech- bellerin kos (mustafi) holding (monreal) kolasitank- xhaka mustafi – alexis ozil ramsey – lacazzete No more cdm in opposite box … No-nonsense football… We have a very creative attacking midfield and a great… Read more »
@maxJ Yes I’m convinced that “you” are drunk!!!
Unbelievable…
“We live in an era of transparency” except when it comes to WTF is happening at our club.
That should really say ‘Any PL Club’ or maybe ‘Any football club’, rather than ‘our club’ …
“On the players’ side, I think it’s exactly the same. 100%, he is committed. I have no doubt about that.”
Like you believed Ox would sign?
What a joke. This whole episode is a joke, and Wenger is becoming one.
No doubt neither Ozil or Sanchez will extend their contracts, and I highly doubt we’ll get top 4 let alone bloody win the league. Great.
Oh and “the player has chosen to stay” is a bit differently from pulling out.
Top 4 is drifting away every year Wenger stays. Who are we going to surpass? City, Utd, Chelsea are out of the question and Liverpool and Spurs look much better than us as a team with much better tactics and balance. And that’s with a fully committed Alexis…
Just so long as Sanchez is as committed to Arsenal as he is to himself.
I’m looking forward to the next time he’s substituted.
This is just phase 1 of the PR.
The next step is when he, alludes o poor performances being caused by fan unrest and how it is the responsibility of the fans to get behind the team and effectively lay blame on poor home performances on the fan atmosphere.
Do you think the poor atmosphere during games actually helps the team then?
Probably no more than, say….
Starting players out of position
Not pressing teams
Not having a coherent game plan
Not drilling the defense
Not improving areas of weakness during the transfer window
Making a profit during the summer rather investing in the team, etc
100%. OK.
We have enough quality and numbers. All that lacking is desire
Whether we kept Alexis and Ox or not, we still investment as how the squad is comprised right now is not good enough to win the league. Wenger did finally get a striker everyone had been calling for over the last few years, but did nothing about our deficiencies in central midfield and central defender. He sells one of the top three ones we have in Gabriel for 11 million and tried to sell/loan mustafi without bringing a central defender in unless he considers Kolasnic a center defender. We finished 18 points out and all those teams above us and… Read more »
Cech
Bellerin, Mert, Kos, Kolasinac
Coquelin, Xhaka
Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis
Lacazette
Better balance with centre halves with holding/chambers in for mert, mustafi for kos if needed. Coq gives more protection and gets Ramsey into a more forgiving part of the pitch in the Freddie role. That’s what I’d do I think.
Except mustafi is right footed and Wenger won’t play him on the left. He will use monreal or kolasinac in place of koscielny there.
Looks like the best we can do.
Arsene we do live in the era of transparency you really need to get with the times.
No PL club runs it business in that way…
Isn’t this the part where Wenger says he’s happy with the business of AFC in the transfer window and we’ve got a squad good enough to be title contenders? Wenger needs to find a replacement for Sanchez, maybe get a deal in principle sorted to bring Lemar to the Emirates in January instead of making a bid for him a few hours before the transfer window shuts just before he steps out to play for France. Secondly, we’re too exposed in the centre of the park. Ramsay isn’t a defensive midfielder and Xhaka is mediocre at best. Looking back over… Read more »
Read a comment in the ‘Guardian’ which sums up Wenger. Old has been, no interests in life except football, frightened of retiring (even though he’s worth millions) wife left & divorced him etc etc. Such a sad case, can’t he volunteer at a refuge or somewhere & stop destroying this club. It’s not his club never will be even if Kroenke left it to him in his will!
lets regroup, and build the team around Ramsey
Any bets we’re gonna let is contract run down into next season if we were to do that (he has 2 years left)?
No point listening to anything Wenger says anymore, means nothing. Alexis won’t turn up between now and December because he will want to join City in 4 months and will make sure Arsenal knows how he feels both on the pitch and off it. Two defeats already, no Champions League and no chance of competing for the title, why on earth would he go full throttle?
Sanchez wants to go, Arsenal refused to sell because they need him.
What’s more likely?
He plays out of his mind so Arsenal still refuses to sell him or
He plays like shit, Arsenal gives up and sells him on January.
Pretty clear what a disgruntled player will do.
Please God remove Wenger from this club!
Wenger has far too much trust in his players. His greatest weakness.
So honestly what will take for change lol
Keeping Sanchez is ridiculous he doesn’t want to play for us and I for one will smash his face in if I see him!!!
I don’t know if any of you have ever felt this way…But for me, it is like when you enter the final stages of a relationship. You look at the other person. You see their lips move, but you don’t really hear a word. All you can think is: “What happened to you?”. “Is it me that changed? Or is it you?”. “Why can you no longer see & tell how I’m feeling?”. “Why can’t you fix this?”. “Why do your words no longer mean a thing?”. “Why don’t you seem to care?”. “I tried, I really did…why won’t you… Read more »
Feel exactly the same with Arsene! For 10 years.
In other words….. This relationship has gone stale and it’s time for a change….. like most of the girlfriends I’ve had. ?
Leave.
I think the Sanchez, Özil, Ox, Mustafi, Wilshire and Chambers things are all fine and resolvable, it’s a lot though but fine. However, we should have signed a center midfield. Goretzka would have made my window, even at the expense of Lacazette.
Could not agree more. Our midfield is rank average. To negate buying was final nail in a coffin that was already nailed shut. It was the extra nail for luck. As it stands xhaka desperately needs a midfield partner. He may come good if he has someone with a brain and technical ability next to him.
I’m pretty sure now that Wenger has completely lost it. He’s talking complete bollocks now. By allowing both Ozil and Sanchez to run down their contracts Wenger has just cost the club in excess of 100 million quid. The logical thing to have done in the window was to have sold both of them. Yes, I know that there was no serious interest in Ozil, but Wenger should have given him an ultimatum a year ago: either sign a new contract or go and train with the reserves. With enough pressure Ozil’s agent would have begun looking for new pastures… Read more »
I think the money saved on transfers will go towards wage increases for Ozil and Sanchez who will sign new contracts with buy out clauses in them.
That would be the sensible thing to do but this is the Arsenal so it’s anyone’s guess.
Ha! Ha! Dream on!
Both these players just want out. The good thing for them is that Wenger has now given them the opportunity to make on ton of extra cash as free agents next summer. I just hope that, as they are in the shop window, both players give their all until next May. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they just decided to coast through the season.
Sanchez will not lift a finger between now and January when he will be sold. Ozil, who doesn’t lift a finger anyway, will down tools months before he world cup. Why risk getting injured when there’s nothing to play for and your place in the German squad is guaranteed?
Cech
(Ospina)
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Kolasinac
(Chambers)(Merte)(Holding)(Monreal)
Xhaka Elneny
(Coquelin) (Ramsey)
Ozil Alexis
(Niles) (Iwobi)
Lacazette Giroud
(Walcott) (Welbeck)
* 4 – 4 – 2
This man lost it completely, is he smoking something?
Sorry Arsene but if you told me the sky was blue I would look to the heavens to check. You are nothing more than the lightening conductor and patsy for the board at best. AFC are toxic from top to bottom. Your speech about values is hollow – it’s like listening to a Conservative minister talking about family values whilst he’s shagging his secretary on the side.
The only values that interest the board are the value of shares.
Another day another Wenger lie.
Fans/supporters who still favour Arsène are deluded and are helping bring down the club. Why not do a Liverpool or ManU where the supporters practically forced the owners to act in their favour? Look at where those two clubs are now…
Wenger is a hypocrite, lose and a Fraud. The sooner he resigns the sooner we can start a new chapter at this club. We’ve been lied to for far too long.
Players wanting to leave, players not wanting to join, a clear disjointed relationship between Wenger and the CEO of the club, promises/lies to the fans about changes, the same tactical mistakes who everyone can see and there are people that still don’t want a change… It’s mind boggling…
This team has always needed 2 or 3 of top top top quality players to seriously compete in the league the open to change policy im still waiting to see same old at the moment. Wenger puts too much faith in players at times after the transfer saga Sanchez must be well pissed off can’t see him giving 100% to the team when things go wrong the season rollercoaster has started we get out the team where a disgrace Vs liverpool not one player turned up total disgrace the away fans should be refunded.
Neither Sanchez nor Lemar want or wanTed to play for Arsenal. That’s the reality that Wenger must realise. We have dropped so far.
Let’s face facts we have a tactically inept manager who also ignores limitations within the squad.The clueless formations and favourtism is ridiculous. The invincibles were renowned for pace and power. The current team are a bunch of spineless cowards who are more concerned with instagram than winning matches. Tje chief protagonists are Ramsey, Walcott, Bellerin, xhaka (I have never seen a less mobile midfielder even in Sunday league), and of course Ozil all of whom do not deserve to wear the jersey. Ozil has somehow gotten away with not working for years as some fans and wenger seem to think… Read more »
Wrong, Ozil delivers another aspect to the team, that no one else has. He is not a defender. What about Ramsey? Always clogging up the box, totally neglecting his midfield duties, crap technique to boot, plus no discipline, there you have one selfish loose cannon.
He’s not a defender lol. Listen, if you REALLY want to win a football match, you will do anything to win it, and that means tracking a player and putting a tackle in even if it’s not your forte. The fact he doesn’t bother means he doesn’t care.
Ozil and Sanchez need to be giveb 300k a week, a two year deal with a buy out clause at something achievable with a year left, maybe 70m quid I don’t know. That is a win for everyone
How is it a win for them if Arsenal can refuse to let them leave for another two years? Because there is no transfer fee, they can pick and choose theur destination, will get a massive signing-on fee and a wage increase to boot. Sanchez is ambitious, he would rather leave Arsenal and compete for trophies than earn £500k a week.
I blame Santi for all this. If he hadn’t been injured all this time all would be well ?
What major trophies did we compete for when he played? Zero.
Wenger is senile.
Have they trousered the tv money then?
I’m angry about the obvious swindle that is Arsenal but to be honest, I do feel like money spent by AW is almost a waste. Regardless of who is in his squad, he’ll still not be able to motivate and he’ll still fail to prepare for threatening opposition and we’ll still get turned over regularly and let in loads of goals. For the first time in so long, I was content with the defenders and I think most clubs would have been. This clown has engineered a problem and in the time that Utd have conceded 0, we’ve let in… Read more »
“Hi Lemar, would you like to join Arsenal Football Club?”
“Hahahahhahahshshshshhsgeeghshr!!!”
“You have to respect everybody and can’t talk too much about that”
When Liverpool came in, Lemar decided that he would rather go there and play for Klopp in the Champions League rather than for a fragile team in the Europa League, but Liverpool didn’t want to match Arsenal’s bid because they were holding onto Coutinho. That’s what I heard from a person involved in the deal… It’s going to be a long two years, at the very least…
Lots of people very upset about the way our club is being ruined as a force in English football. But don’t get too upset, because it’s going to get worse from here until the fans eventually wake up and do something about it. Arsenal are royally in the shit, and we gave up Highbury for this. Just remember that next time you pay to go to that stadium and buy a program or the shitty overpriced food, or a shirt with a name on the back of a multimillionaire who does what you saw at Anfield. Remember what we gave… Read more »
The man talks about integrity having performed two public u-turns on the sale of Sanchez, after a summer of saying he wasn’t for sale. Don’t believe a thing he says. The man has lost it and he seems to have little respect for the fans.
Sorry Arsene, but confidence in you is in short supply, at least from the fanbase if not the board. Sad to see this great club become such a shambolic mess. I suspect this season is going to be excructiating painful.
And a new fu*cking season with a fu*cking squad…
Why we let Monreal, Holding and Wellbeck play when we have Kolasinac, Bellerin and Lacazette?
Go away