Arsenal’s search for forward improvements this summer is obvious, and Julian Draxler has long been mentioned as a potential candidate.
The German international has been on Arsene Wenger’s radar for some time, but any hopes of signing him this summer appear to have been snuffed out after Klaus Allofs refused to countenance a sale.
In an interview with Sport 1, the Wolfsburg manager was asked specifically about the future of Draxler, and seemed definitive that the 22 year old was going nowhere.
Pressed on whether or not he’d be wearing a Wolfsburg shirt next season, Allofs said, “With Draxler it will be 100% like that. He will stay at VfL. There is no discussion.
“It is not the time for any vow, but we will not sell Julian. Our plans are clear.”
Whether or not Arsenal have Draxler on their shopping list this summer is another thing, of course, but if we do it looks as if our sights are going to have to set elsewhere.
Arsenal also have reported interest in Wolfburg’s left back, Ricardo Rodriguez, who the club have already admitted could leave. However, there was no mention of him or his future in this piece.
They are playing hard to get…
But then again, I know we are going to have a satisfactory summer. For one I doubt that we’ll shell out 55mill for anyone this summer. Especially someone we don’t need badly and Draxler is one such. Also the Higuain links fading with the sun “understanding” he has agreed terms with Juventus. Still convinced we’ll do well in the transfer window.
i’m still convinced you have your head in the clouds.
I do like your optimism, however.
“we don’t need badly”
I think we need someone like Draxler pretty badly. Sanchez is one winger, but we’ve been essentially holding auditions for the other winger for the past two seasons. If we can get some end product on a third forward in our games for a change, it may be the missing threat we’ve been hoping our midfield can cover.
As I heard on the radio the perfect wenger signing. Fast with no end product
Rumour has it we bid £30m + £1 and he asked if we were having Allofs.
What a surprise. None of Arsenal’s supposed “targets” seem to be going anywhere…except other clubs.
And the thing with Draxler is, that’s exactly what happened last season. He went to Wolfsburg for peanuts, why in fucking hell we didn’t try to sign him then I’ll never know. Actually I do but this is not the place to question the manager, even if we have been too passive in the last 3 summer windows.
Because he wasn’t playing well. Simple.
2015/16 was going to be a big season for Ox, who was as big a talent as Draxler. Unfortunately Draxler improved and Ox didn’t. Luck of the draw.
Yeah and Ox can fill up at CF when needed right? A position which Draxler has played in for both Germany and Schalke? And even for Wolfsburg occasionally. We’re clearly light in the CF department and people are still making up excuses for Wenger. Goodness.
He said he didn’t think he was ready for a move abroad apparently
And wasn’t Draxler coming off a serious knee injury at the time?
Good thing trying to buy a player is not the same as asking a girl to have sex. I’m guessing Wolfsburg will come around in lets say 3 weeks.
They say “pimpin’ aint easy” but it sure seems easier than the transfer market.
A 100 no’s and 1 yes still means yes
Try telling that to a judge and see where it gets you.
Not a family guy fan then
Actually enjoy Family Guy very much, but completely missed your reference. Well played!
It feels more and more likely it will be a CF signing out of leftfield or none at all. It simply has to be something though, even a gamble. Surely we have to show some ambition? I don’t believe for one second there is no one out there worth taking a chance on as competition or back up to Giroud?
The Walcott experiment looks dead and Sanogo is not even close to being a premier league player. It’s OK to be realistic and know that right now an elite CF isn’t available, but there are certainly options..
Cometh the hour, Cometh the man.
Joel Campbell, our new striking saviour?
SAVE US WHILST YOU CAN, JOEL.
I dont know which kind of summer makes me more uncomfortable.
The pre RVP era, where our best and brightest were continually linked away. Or this, somebody coming? anybody? please? era
Pre-RVP era was depressing
Those were dark, dark days… Remember this awful quote? “Imagine the worst situation, that we lose Fábregas and Nasri; you cannot convince people that you are ambitious after that.”
I’d take this era of trying to upgrade a decent team, over rats scurrying off the ship, any day of the week!
That was the period I became a fan: figured any team that went through all that sh*t and could still play beautiful football deserves a follow.
I don’t see how we can convince people we are ambitious if we don’t upgrade our attack after last season. Just makes us look stupid all of this, which we did already.
Nobody’s going anywhere. We aren’t signing anyone.
What will happen is Wenger will say he is happy with his squad, that they finished second, and that this year they will fight. We will lose our match to Liverpool, and probably drop points against those sides we should be beating. It will get to almost the closing of the transfer window, our season will probably be over by then, AND THEN Wenger will try and sign someone. He’ll end up over paying for someone who isn’t quite box office. Either that or it will be some sort of stop gap. I’m struggling to have any hope for this… Read more »
Isn’t this always the case though? Even now our hopes of signing one of the only available top Centre Forwards is diminishing as Juventus seem to be in the lead, if the rumours are to be believed.
No way, Juventus cannot pay the big money asked for Higuain. We have more cash than them.
It’s not only about how much cash you have. It’s also about willingness to spend it. At the end of the day some coaches will happily blow any amount of cash if they think it will improve their team, and don’t really give a damn about the knock on effects. They leave that to the chairman etc and will spend whatever budget they have.
Arsene, for better or worse, considers the whole picture as he sees it, and refuses to pay when he doesn’t see value.
They have the cash if they sell Pogba
Higuain is just not good enough for the asking price, though. that much is pretty clear.
It doesn’t seem like it but if there’s only one top striker for sale and the buyers have the money I guess you can charge it …
I feel sorry for all the poor sods that renewed thier season tickets on the strength of the granit signing thinking it was a sign we would actually go for it this season. I said weeks ago that the signing was made early for precisely that reason and I have a horrible feeling we will go with what we have. The season tickets have been renewed the money is in the bank and the club can take the piss again. I’m sure some on here will find an excuse not to sign a striker. But this is now 4 years… Read more »
I have four season tickets for my family and would love a fifth! Cannot get one near me for love nor money. Box Office have a big waiting list.
I feels to me like you just have an axe to grind against the club I and many others love.
Can you please go elsewhere
I really don’t get the point your trying to make. I should go else where because I have a different opinion from yourself? I had a season ticket for 35 years up until 2 years ago. Travelled all over Europe watching arsenal.
During the 80’s and 90’s when we were truly shit but an honest club I went most away games too. I think I have earned the right to an opinion even if it differs from yours.
What are you on to have such a positive attitude towards the club at the moment? I want some of that please.
Ozil and Alexis are begging for top level players to help them in the pursuit of winning trophys. It’s an insult to their level of talent that Wenger just buries his head and continues to ignore the obvious holes in arsenals line-up. If Wenger continues his normal lack of initiative in the transfer market I fear that they will both move on to greener pastures. Or at least to a team that is willing to compete on both their domestic league and in the champions League.
You forgot to mention that we’ll still end up in 2nd or 3rd place, ahead of at least 5 top managers who we envy (Mourinho, Klopp, Guardiola, Pochettino, Conte, Ranieri, Koeman)
Or we may not. But if finishing 2nd or 3rd is acceptable to you then that’s fine. I’m not sure Ozil or Sanchez or the paying arsenal fans will agree with you after last season.
We will soon lose players and fans if we don’t invest in the forward this team has needed for 4 or more years.
You’re absolutely right. 34 million for Xhaka, one of the best players of the Euros we signed well early.
Clearly pissing in the wind.
Technically, you can still be pissing in the wind even after a good start. Take 2 seasons ago, Alexis to kick it off then we doze off when a centreback was clearly needed. Cech last season and the need for a striker was never addressed afterwards. This season Xhaka is necessary considering all the midfielders leaving us, and now as far as things are looking we clearly are pissing in the wind.
Too early mate. The window has LONG way to go, and there is a ripple effect of deals still happening.
The biggest clubs have all played the same waiting game as us. City with De Bruyne, Madrid with De Gea, Arsenal with Ozil, etc, etc.
Get used to it, regardless of who our manager and board are.
Waiting game for Ozil? We were not even after him. No club was after him. Real decided to sell him at last minute to alleviate the cost of Bale. If Ozil was put in the market, no chance that we got him.
Spot on. .we are going nowhere again this coming season ?
Another frustrating transfer window.. I hope Arsene has a plan!!
Jeez, this whole transfer window thingy gets really boring over the years, Come on people! We won’t sign anyone (at least not anyone who will provide any kind of impact on the team), haven’t you learned anything from the guy who signed absolutely ZERO field players last summer?
To be fair, he’s the same one who signed 5 the summer before. And Gabriel the next January.
And do you mean ‘outfield players’?
Yes, I do, english isn’t my native language. Anyway, it’s not so much about not buying players (though, it is a major issue IMO), it’s the fact that we always start a season with an unbalanced squad and a lot of ‘holes’ in some positions – the summer of 2 years ago was pretty positive, but we still had a major problem with our defence, defensive midfield and strikers. Sanchez, Welbeck, Chambers, Ospina and Debuchy solved none of these problems, It always seems like Wenger is a bit ‘sleepy’ during the summer transfer window and that there are no real… Read more »
There doesn’t seem to be any transfer strategy either with incomings or outgoings. Over the past couple of seasons we’ve also become very reluctant sellers, despite having numerous underperforming players. What are Gibbs and Debuchy still doing at the club? When players like James Tomkins, Andros Townsend and Jordan Ibe can all be sold for £10m + each surely there are buyers for those two? What’s the purpose of having Xhaka, Coquelin, Cazorla, Elneny, Ramsey and Wilshere at the club playing for two positions when the sale of one of them could go towards the financing of the striker we… Read more »
Hey Ramsey on the right was actually not that bad, just not an ideal tactic
He was terrible, he’s not a right winger and if we have any ambition of winning the league or champions league we need to buy a real right sided attacker.
Seriously blogs, you’re telling us you believe he’ll sign the players (CB & striker) we ‘actually’ need?
Let’s look at the evidence: he signs an unknown Japanese player who’ll go straight out on loan, he’s after Draxler a player we just don’t need and in the last window we were the only top for team in Europe not to sign an outfield player.
Yep, I’m excited.
I think he will. Of course I could be wrong but I don’t see how signing the Japanese guy is some kind of evidence that our transfer business closed. Re: last window, I’ve said repeatedly that it was a mistake not to sign anyone other than Cech, but to imply he never buys players is clearly wrong. Since August 2013: Ozil Alexis Chambers Ospina Debuchy Welbeck Gabriel Cech Elneny Xhaka Outlay of £150m, more or less. Of course we could do more, but we haven’t done nothing. Also, I don’t know why Draxler would be dismissed as a player we… Read more »
Buying 10 players, where some of them are prospects (Chambers, Elneny) and some are just replacing others who left (Gabriel, Debuchy) really isn’t strengthening the squad.
Ozil and Sanchez are amazing buys, but let’s not fool ourselves – We only bought them since they were rejected out of their previously clubs, my problem with that is that we can’t rely on other clubs ‘rejecting’ the players we need and because this isn’t how a normal club should behave during the transfer window.
Spot on.
Not signing any outfield players last year was definitely a mistake, yet we still managed to finish above all the big teams who spent millions. So sometimes, signing a player for the fuck of it isn’t the solution. Maybe there was no-one available last season, but I don’t think the same excuse can be made this season. I think the issue is not with signing players but rather signing players who are 100% necessary to take us to the next step. The only 2 out of all those are, perhaps, Ozil and Alexis (maybe you could make a case for… Read more »
Out of that list, Ozil, Alexis, Cech are the only players other big clubs would have bought. We got no competition to sign other players on the list. I am not saying there are not good players. All the three players above had bad experience with bigger or richer clubs and seemed to be looking for a club like Arsenal where they could have a steady and valued experience.
Your reason and logic is just not what the fans want. No matter how sound it is.
Dortmund also said the same about Mkhitaryan but Utd did what was necessary to secure his services NOW. We need to stop pussy-footing around the transfer market and do what is necessary. The money in football is unreal and we are more than capable of competing financially. It’s just a question of true ambition
Patience.
I remember people panicking last season at how long Cech was taking.
This
I’m expecting an article on the official site within the next couple of weeks to read : Welbeck is recovering faster than expected..or some other crap like that in a way to justify why we didn’t buy anyone this summer..this is utter bollocks..I’m keeping my hopes low on anything significant happening
Around the end of June each year, I get excited about transfers. Then around a couple of weeks later (like now for this year) I resolve to solve my growing frustrations by ignoring every rumour floating out there.
I’ll just wait for an official announcement.
By the end of transfer window, Wenger will tell you our business is completed with three major signings: Akano, Xhaka and Welback(new signing after recover from injury). Top 4 is our ambition. #bullshit
You can’t just go out and pick up a striker, and there are so few around at the moment that their clubs are hanging on to them because they can’t replace them. If a club won’t sell they won’t sell, and I don’t see many quality forwards moving this summer. We know we need another striker, and I’m sure the club is working on it, but it’s no good spending silly money on someone just for the sake of it. Whoever we buy will probably come out of the blue, so it’s no good getting worked up by silly stories… Read more »
Woah, man!
All the nonsense the monsieur has been pumping us for years has really gotten into your head, didn’t it?
We’re talking about the same guy who relys heavily on Giroud up front for the last 4 (!@#) seasons, He’s a dinosaur…
That dinosaur just guided us to 2nd in the league, and finished above man city, Chelsea, man united et al. If he’s a dinosaur, what are you?
When those teams had their worst seasons in ages. Do that again next season then you may have a point. I’m already dreading our clashes with Mourinho.
Second behind Leicester ?
Would you prefer 9th place, just ahead of chavski?
Olivier Giroud isn’t a dinosaur, and he isn’t the problem. The problems we had last season were the ones around him. If Theo and Ox had been on their game and scored a few goals we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. We’re probably going into the first few games relying on them, so we’d better hope they step up. If being realistic is a problem it’s a problem I’m glad to have.
I’m pretty sure he thought that Wenger is a dinosaur, not Giroud. But I agree with you that Walcott and Ox should have contributed much more. It doesn’t mean that we cannot find a better striker that Giroud still.
err.. are you arsene in disguise?
Je suis Charley
Well said, Vonnie. Doing your level-best to prop up the EQ level of the Arsenal fanbase.
There are plenty of strikers around, it’s just the willingness to pay. Let’s face it, the market has changed, and you have to roll with it. Maybe the lack of strikers that are perceived to be better than Giroud are few and far between. But there are plenty in world football that alot of top clubs look at as having the potential to become one. I see barca after Vietto and think, why don’t we look at him? Correa, martial and batshuayi. Janssen, Lukaku, icardi, Morata, jese are just some that are spoke about often…but it’s because they are the… Read more »
Seriously? Look at the lad at dortmund. He was staying until man utd made an improved offer. Sometimes you have to pay over the odds. He needs to get over himself and offer what the selling club wants. that charade with suarez is a prime example
We need a fast striker – higuain is not what we need
The transfer stories get increasingly downbeat with each passing day. Why is it that other clubs can get deals done so efficiently and we can’t? There is still a month until the first game but surely we’d want to bed any serious additions in as soon as possible.
Exactly you would think they would want to allow the new player to have as much time to settle and get to know his new teammates as possible
Were a shambles
Another summer with just one senior signing is coming and going ???
Screw it, so desperate I’d like to see us take a punt on Yarmalenko and play him up front.
why isn’t anyone going after him? he’s pretty good, actually
Vardy’s looking pretty decent right about now..
why not go for Mahrez?
Pretty worrying Arsene wants Campbell to leave the club over Walcott
Is he the CF we’re desperate for?
In case you haven’t noticed – our right wing is as garbage as well.
So you want a winger instead of a CF?
Does that mean you’re happy with Asano?
Or do we have enough in the transfer fund for Granit, a winger and a CF (and a CB?)?
What do club managers know lack of money from Volkswagen may move this deal on let’s hope so.
I’d rather we go for Marco Reus anyway. Wonder why theres no talk about him?
He’s perpetually injured, which is the last thing we need. Fine player though.
Yeah that part of the squad (walking wounded ) is already taken by Welbz
He’s also a genuine BVB fan so it would be highly unlikely to sign him. I do wish he was ours though.
Didn’t he do a cruciate or something?
Remember that song by Air Supply
Making Love Out of Nothing
Kind of like most Arsenal rumors. They are made …
Out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all
Higuain is coming people .
I understand this guy is highly rated but the numbers bandied about seem ridiculous, especially considering he’s not a specialist striker but one he can be converted into?
We’re stocked with wingers and attacking midfielders- what we need is a specialist striker- no Henry type experiments
I hope Wenger just gets a CB and a Striker and that’s that.
Attacking midfielders yes, but how are we stocked with wingers? Welbeck is out, Walcott is patently not good enough. Ramsey and Wilshere are both awkward fits who prefer to play centrally and lack real pace. The Ox has had big injury and confidence problems for a while now.
I know I’m just a regular guy who neither works in football management nor has inside information about the inner workings of Arsenal football club, so I basically know nothing. However, I have to ask: if getting Draxler is a long (and expensive) shot, why not go in for Gotze? Bayern are looking to sell with one year left on his contract, looks like he’s rejected interest from Liverpool, probably on the grounds that he wants Champions League football, and reports from Germany suggests he’s close to resigning with Dortmund. We already missed out on Mikhitarian (I can never spell… Read more »
Campbell and Chamberlain, Iwobi can play there too.
Sanchez and Iwobi on the left.
I think that’s sufficient
Let’s get ready for yet another season with Giroud as the main striker.
It’s not just buy CB and CF we all know. Not just for the sake of it. Blogs in the upper comments mentioned 10 signed players from 2013 till now. Okay then. Out of 10, 2 are top signings (Sanchez and Ozil), 1 is very good (Cech), 1 good (Elneny) but still dodnt have enough time to change things. Xhaka is yet to be seen and all the others (50%) are players not good enough, players with bad attitude, players who didnt do anything to have an impact of the team. So 50% of the signings in the last 3… Read more »
50% of the signings have been total failures? Good lord, with fans like this, we deserve what we get.
The only signing on that list a reasonable person can say was a “total” failure was Debuchy. And even he looked like a decent enough bit of business until Arnautovic savagely dislocated his shoulder for no reason.
It’s hard to tell if that diatribe is meant to be a serious opinion, or if it’s just trolling. Assistant ref is absolutely correct. Before Debuchy got twatted by that cunt Arnautovic, he really looked the business. And Debuchy only because his own special brand of cunt when he couldn’t cope with Bellerin forcing him out of the team.
*Assistant ref –> Assistantref
*because –> became
Even proofread it before posting, and still missed two typos. Need more coffee this morning.
Another statement from a club right before selling
http://news.arseblog.com/2016/06/dortmund-mkhitaryan-not-leaving/
Hopefully Wenger is working on some things behind the scenes and we’ll have news of a signing or two shortly, but my fear is it is another Summer of little ambition (beyond Xhaka) by him and more frustration for the fans especially as the pre-season is about to begin. I hate to say it, but maybe what the club needs is to miss out on the top 4 one year in order to make some real changes instead of the mindset of “hey we got 2nd place last year and just need to keep doing the same thing with one… Read more »
Arsenal: Wenger is signing no one.
Silver lining if he signs no one then he’s not renewing his contract
Yet… If price cools, he may yet leave. The problem with bringing Draxler in to convert into the middle is the risk factor in transition. OTOH, should price come down on other players, Wolfsburg may also be compelled to come down on pricing. I think they were rumoured to be asking 55m which is exorbitant to say the least. Price should be closer to 40m or under IMO. This will of course be weighed against say if/should Morata be allowed to leave (issue is whether Real need him if Crobnaldo is crocked and the buy back price…Real wanting to put… Read more »
Meh. I’m Arsenal through and through. I don’t give a fishs tit who we sign. Come week one, I’ll be behind whomever is on the pitch. All the rest is for the birds.
People tend to get themselves mixed up with thinking we have not been spending but we have been spending since Wenger decided to revamp the squad when he realised the Denilson generation was not going to work. Arteta, Metersecker, Podlski, Giroud, Koscielny, Ox, Santi, Ozil, Alexis, Chambers, Elneny, Gabriel, Monreal, Cech to name the more prominent. I think the view that we do not spend was mainly coloured by the Ozil summer when we bought a couple of smaller spends and then brought Ozil in very late on compound with last summer’s capture of just Cech. COnsistently as well, Wenger… Read more »
Draxler – I think he can bring plenty of versatilty covering our wide area but he has seemingly all the sort of raw ingredients Wenger needs to convert himinto the CF role. He has the technical talent, the pace, but also good height and shooting power. Most of all he seems to have good creative intelligence on the ball to find pockets of space. He reminds me so much of RVP but with added pace. This sort of hybrid striker has been extremely hard to come by. If price comes down to 40m mark, I can see Giroud considering a… Read more »
In our favour, Wolfsburg have no CL and flatter to deceive. Draxler can be moved. BUt question is price. they still have a good hand on his contract having just signed him. PLayer can be motivated.
If you trust wenger to sign a player we need and require at the appropriate time, Shame on you
He doesn’t have the heart nor the gumption.
Draxx Them Sklounst!
Draxler is worth £55M in this market, which is inflated more than the usual inflation due to the new PL media contract. If West Ham can contemplate dropping £30-35M on a player, we can afford to go £55, easily. If anyone watched Germany and Draxler in particular, you would also probably agree that he is worth £55M in this market. Goetze barely saw action in the tournament, while Draxler was the impact sub or starting out on the wing. He was a menace, regularly taking on defenders and beating them down the wing for crosses or shots. I think he… Read more »
Totally agree. Unless Wenger is going to get a better forward, he should do it! With Giroud up top and Drax, Ozil and Alexis, supported by Ramsey and Xhaka, I think the goal tally would rise a lot!
I agree and it’s hard to understand why Wenger wouldn’t go all out for him. He has repeatedly voiced his admiration for the player. Young but still very experienced. Considering we didn’t sign a player all last season you’d think he’d have the money for it.
(*Outfield player)
I’m all for Draxler but he’s not obviously better than Gotze. One needs to look at the long view in these things: Gotze was one of the biggest young stars in world football when he was at Dortmund. Draxler has yet to make that kind of impact in his young career. You don’t become crap between 21 and 24 (I’m guesstimating; I didn’t bother to look at his exact age), unless injuries permanently change your body. The move to Bayern didn’t work out for a variety of reasons; this can happen when a young player moves to a massive club.… Read more »
So many managers in here, why aren’t you all out there managing football clubs.
We don’t just need a CF though, we also need at least one CB