As things stand this is the squad Arsenal go into the first game of the season with:
Goalkeepers:
Szczesny
Fabianski - not good enough
Defenders:
Sagna
Mertesacker
Vermaelen - long term injury
Koscielny
Monreal - medium term injury
Jenkinson
Gibbs - severely injury prone
Midfielders:
Rosicky - severely injury prone
Arteta
Wilshere
Ramsey
Cazorla Diaby - severely injury prone Frimpong - not good enough despite the Twitter banter Myaichi - hardly a realistic option
Forwards:
Podolski
Giroud
Walcott
Oxlaide-Chamberlain Sanogo - hardly a realistic option Park - ah here Bendtner - ah here Chamakh - ah here
Might as well forget the ones I’ve put in italics, they are only nominally first team players. That leaves a squad of 2 goalkeepers, 7 defenders, 5 midfielders and 4 forwards.
And the only first team transfer iron they have in the fire is Suarez? A transfer that looks incredibly difficult to complete. My word.
I’m going to the Spurs game on September 1st and to be quite honest it could be very very ugly.
I couldn’t disagree with you more. Look at Liverpool, or even Leeds. Arsenal don’t have a divine right to finish in the top 4 every year. I think it’s an underrated achievement and if you take away their CL pedigree then they could fall away and spend 20 years trying to become even halfway competitive again.
There is some positive news though, Arsenal have had a 27 year old Moroccan midfielder on trial from French club Angers in the last week and they are now set to offer him a contract. That would be the second free transfer from Ligue 2.
He has 63 less caps for Morocco than Chamakh (that would be no caps) so we shouldn’t expect him to be anywhere near as good as Chamakh, but still a great addition to a limited squad.
Matthieu Flamini is also training with the club at the moment and is available on a free, so fingers crossed for that one.
Lads we’ve had this every year for the last 4 or 5 years yet Wenger delivers Top 4 year in, year out. Expect this season to be no different. Between Chelsea and City for the title and United, Arsenal and Spurs for the other two spots. Chelsea, City, United, Arsenal are the top 4 this year for me.
Flamini would be a great signing for Arsenal, he regained a bit of form towards the end of last season for Milan. They have real missed someone with his nastiness in midfield since he left. As for Arsenal this season - they are fucked.
Brian, you brought on a player called Sebastian Perez today who is on trial from some Colombian side. I was very impressed with his brief cameo, plays a very similar position to Pirlo in that he collected the ball very deep but he also looked to be very creative and a good passer as well as containing a spiky personality. He reminds me a lot of a young Fernando Gago which some may see a very unflattering comparison. I don’t think it is as Gago has the attributes to be a top class midfielder but lacks the mentality.
I am going to add his name to my “Relatively unknown players to look out for” thread. The fact that he is Colombian makes no impact on my decision.
I’ve yet to watch the highlights but I’m pleased by what Monkey Allen[/USER] and [USER=1052]Rudi have highlighted about Perez already.
People are screaming for big name signings but they’ve cut twenty something players so plenty of squad players needed (ignoring potential work permit issues for the m9ment).
So the Suarez move is off - not that I ever thought it would happen. Sends a great message to Darren Bent when they finally sign him, yeah Darren - it was you we wanted all along.
This has to have been one of most disastrous transfer windows in history, worse even than losing Cesc and Nasri. Also in years gone by I could harbor the hope that hope that someone I’d previously written off (Diaby, Arshavin etc) might come good but they’ve bloody shipped all the dead wood out already (bar Bendtner).
Expect some fairly vociferous booing at the Emirates on Saturday. I can’t see how Dick Law and Ivan Gazidis can stay in their jobs after this (unless there is a dramatic turnaround).
Swiss Ramble did an excellent blog on the state of the company’s finances this week:
Shows that Arsenal have a cash pile almost as big as the rest of the Premier League combined and that just 1% of operating cash flow over the last five years had been spent on new signings.
Don’t see why Barcelona would want Luis Gustavo. While he is an excellent holding midfielder he doesn’t really off much in terms of his range of passing which is fairly conservative and they have Macherano already there if they are looking for someone just to play a holding/stopper role.
He’s the executive responsible for player contracts and transfer negotiations. This is the guy who spent a week in Costa Rica at the end of the summer 2011 transfer window trying to sign Joel Campbell (yet to make an appearance for the club). It’s just incredible really.
Someone rightly pointed out that the clubs having the best transfer window so far are Spurs and Man City - two clubs with excellent executives in charge of transfers.
I’d be optimistic he wouldn’t want to swap being a bit part player at Bayern for being a bit part player at Barcelona so Arsenal might have a small chance still.
I’m in no way knowledgeable enough to comment in a meaningful way but I understand he’s capable of covering at the back also so would make perfect sense for Arsenal.
[quote=“briantinnion, post: 817473, member: 6”]I’d be optimistic he wouldn’t want to swap being a bit part player at Bayern for being a bit part player at Barcelona so Arsenal might have a small chance still.
I’m in no way knowledgeable enough to comment in a meaningful way but I understand he’s capable of covering at the back also so would make perfect sense for Arsenal.[/quote]
He played centre back as a stop gap a few times for Bayern but I wouldn’t consider him as a viable option there barring an injruy crisis.
I wonder how likely they ever were to get Luiz Gustavo. He was linked to Wolfsburg from the very start and they have plenty of cash, plus some shared ownership with Bayern.
Arsenal don’t need to splash out crazy money as the 70m reportedly available will not see them break into the top 3. There is no serious contender as things stand to prevent them from winning their annual 4th place trophy either.
Wenger is playing a blinder here as far as I’m concerned.
[quote=“Special Olympiakos, post: 817912, member: 366”]Arsenal don’t need to splash out crazy money as the 70m reportedly available will not see them break into the top 3. There is no serious contender as things stand to prevent them from winning their annual 4th place trophy either.
Wenger is playing a blinder here as far as I’m concerned.[/quote]
From a strictly business point of view they are indeed running a great ship. From a supporters point of view you’d be demented from following them I’d imagine.