Category Archives: Transfer News

Arsenal Won’t Win The League For Another 20 Years!

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We hear time and time again that Arsene Wenger is “active” in the transfer market and we’re looking out for players but there are just no suitable ones out there.

So do Arsene even have a scouting network?

What are these guys getting paid for? There are thousands of players around the world, playing in different leagues and countries and you’re telling me that there are NO PLAYERS out there that could improve our squad?

It’s an absolute farce.

What is the point of Arsenal except to finish 4th, seriously?

We apparently have a hell of a lot of money available at our disposal yet we don’t spend it. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting Arsenal to go out and spend £300 million on players – I’m not that stupid – but spend some of it and so some ambition!

We hear the same old excuses:

  • Players are too expensive.
  • The players just aren’t out there / available.
  • We are in a different market to the rest of Europe.
  • Caretaker Dave left the sprinklers on so we need to save money for our water bill.

I mean it is ridiculous. Arsenal fans pay the highest ticket prices in the league yet get a team which has no motivation to win the major trophies.

It’s pretty much like going to a Michelin Star restaurant and getting soggy chips and mushy peas dumped on your plate.

Arsene Wenger is a great man, no doubt. He brought the glory days back to Arsenal – but we are stuck in a vicious cycle which will never change.

Arsene only has to answer to the owners and as long as he makes them a profit every season (by getting 4th in the league) then they are over the moon.

There needs to be huge changes but this isn’t going to happen for a long long time.

Arsenal is just a business and the fans just don’t matter.

 

No Signings & Small Club Mentality Mean Arsenal Will Finish 6th This Season

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Here is how the top of the Premier League will finish next season:

1. Manchester United
2. Manchester City
3. Chelsea
4. Tottenham Hotspur
5. Liverpool
6. Arsenal

We’ve seen the rest of the big guns from the Premier League learn from last season and strengthen their squads – realising that after the shock triumph of Leicester City that they need to spend big to compete this season – apart from Arsenal that is.

We’ve signed two players so far this summer, Rob Holding from Bolton Wanderers and Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach.

After 12 barren seasons having to carry out our business on a show-string we’re finally in a position to spend big and really compete for the title – yet the whole ideology of the club is wrong.

We’ve spent big on Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez but apart from that shown no ambition whatsoever to do better than finish in the Top Four. We might have the money to buy the best players yet we still have that “small club” mentality. We have no ambition to actually compete at the very top.

Take players like Gonzalo Higuain and Luis Suarez for example, two world class forwards we were seriously in for a couple of summers ago.

In 2013, Arsenal were looking for that world class striker (and typically, we’re still “looking”) and Higuain was available as Real Madrid wanted to recoup some money for the Gareth Bale signing. Arsenal were willing to bid up to £32 million but no more, and after a long long summer the Argentine striker ended up going to Napoli for £35 million.

In that same summer, Luis Suarez was desperate to leave Liverpool and Arsenal bid £40 million and £1 to trigger his release clause. Arsenal wouldn’t go any higher and the striker would end up staying another season at Anfield and then move to Barcelona a year later.

And that pretty much sums up Arsenal. We could have signed Higuain for £35 million (£40 million tops) and signed Luis Suarez for around £50 million. And look at those same players now.

Gonzalo Higuain has just moved to Juventus for £76 million and Luis Suarez went to Barcelona in 2014 for £75 million. If you’re talking about Luis Suarez in 2016, you would find it hard to argue that he wouldn’t command a fee of less than £100 million.

So that’s where we are. We are a club that loves missed opportunities, always finishing second (well fourth, it’s a figure of speech) and never risking anything to win a major trophy.

For me, this just sums up how I feel about Arsenal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YH3263wAy8

 

Arsenal Need To Cancel Vardy Transfer

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The Vardy transfer saga trundles on and doesn’t look like finding a resolution any time soon – Roy Hodgson has made it clear that while on England duty that no players get involved in transfer deals or contract negotiations – and rightly so in my opinion.

So it’s been accepted that we aren’t going to find out Vardy’s decision until after the Euros have finished.

But that is exactly why Arsenal should count themselves lucky and pull out of the deal while they still can – take the offer away from Vardy before he does decide he wants to play for Arsenal.

Vardy is torn between staying at Leicester and moving to Arsenal for several reasons. The first is because of the contract situation – Arsenal have apparently offered a 3 year deal and £120k a week, while the Foxes have countered that with something around the £90k mark but have offered that on a 4 year deal. So the supposed dilemma is deciding which deal is better.

But surely we should only want players who want to play for Arsenal? If he doesn’t want to come then don’t! There’s plenty of other strikers out there.

Some of Leicester’s players have also “begged” Vardy to stay and that has apparently made things much harder for Vardy.

Let’s be honest, this whole saga is a bit of a joke and at the end of the day if he thinks he can get a better deal elsewhere or is waiting for a better offer then good riddance I say. 

If he doesn’t want to join The Arsenal, then just don’t come – we’ll still move on and move forward.

There have been reservations about whether Vardy can cut it at Arsenal anyway and it would be suicidal if Arsenal were to wait until after the Euros had finished just to see if Vardy wanted to come – in that time we could have been lining up other deals for other potential strikers.

So I beg you Arsenal, cut your losses and move on! 

 

Vardy Delay Means He Won’t Be Signing For Arsenal

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At the weekend we were told that “Vardy would decide his future” on Monday morning, with reports suggesting that 11.30am was the “deadline” for Vardy to choose whether he wanted to join Arsenal or stay at Leicester City.

The financials are that after being on £40k a week at Leicester, Vardy signed an improved deal in February which earned the England striker £80k a week. Arsenal have apparently offered Vardy £120k a week while Leicester have apparently offered an improved deal, which will probably be close to what we’re offering given the generous owners at Leicester City.

After the 11.30am deadline passed, we were told we’d have s verdict later in the day. Now a decision still hasn’t been made and people are wondering what is going on.

The bottom line is Vardy isn’t convinced about joining Arsenal and has probably has assurances for the Leicester City owners that they will strengthen the squad and have a real go at retaining the Premier League title.

Claudio Ranieri has always said he hopes all the players stay one more season before deciding weather to move on and considering the heroics and good faith he’s earnt over the last season, you wouldn’t blame some of the players staying on and entering a new exciting era at Leicester.

People, incorrectly I might add, have assumed that Vardy to Arsenal was a done deal, because we’re a big club. Well if you compare Premier League titles over the last 12 seasons, Leicester beat us don’t they? Maybe Vardy isn’t excited about finishing in the Top Four year after year and would actually like to play for a team with great team spirit and actually fights to win matches.

If I was Jamie Vardy I would think twice about joining Arsenal. Yes, you would play with some top players but do you want to play alongside warriors and fighters like you have at Leicester, and have fun while playing – or be comfortable in a side that quite frankly, are full of timid, pampered little boys who have no leaders or direction on the pitch?

Jamie Vardy is 29 years old and this would be his last big move so is weighing up all his options. Would you join Arsenal?

Vardy is waiting for a better offer and won’t be joining Arsenal.

 

Arsenal’s New Signing Is Vastly Underwhelming

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Arsenal have started early with their transfer business, signing Granit Xhana from German side Borussia Monchengladbach for around £25 million, which could rise to £35 million depending on various add-ons, etc.

Just like the signing of Mohamed Elneny, it is another uninspired acquisition. Like the Egyptian I have no doubt he is probably a decent player but it smacks of hypocrisy from Arsene Wenger. After years and years of not signing players, using the excuse that he would only add players of “top, top quality”, Arsene has signed two players who, let’s be honest, no-one had really heard of before joining Arsenal.

Of course, just because they’re not a well-known name doesn’t mean they’re not good, but by the same token an established name is just that because they have a reputation of performing at the highest level. Elneny and Xhana don’t strike me as the “top, top quality” Arsene keeps on harping on about.

Unlike most Arsenal fans I’m not afraid to admit (like when Elneny arrived) that I’d never heard of Xhana. And why would I? He comes from a mid-level team from Germany, so unless you’re a German football enthusiast then you wouldn’t have heard of him either.

Both Elneny and Xhana weren’t cheap either, costing a combined £40 million (and that’s a conservative figure). We have money in the bank to strengthen the squad but why not buy established talent?

Midfield is probably the one area we are well-stocked and Elneny and Xhana are probably more likely reserves to players like Cazorla, Ramsey, Wilshere and Coquelin – replacing the outgoing Flamini, Arteta and Rosicky. Much more important to strengthening the squad would be signing a couple of central defenders and a striker who can actually score on a regular basis.

Unless Arsenal make some real top signings this summer, we are going to struggle badly next season.