I am usually Mr Positive. My Happy-Go-Lucky. Over the last 9 years, I have stood by Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal transfer policy knowing that things will get better. That as new commercial deals were signed, we would have untold rich’s, that the new stadium, once the re-payment’s were under control, would ensure that we could compete with the Real Madrid’s, Barcelona’s and Bayern Munich’s. But I sit here, a little down, a little depressed, wondering if Arsene Wenger has misspent £66 million.
Before you all jump up and see ‘typical She Wore, always moaning’ check the writer of this piece, it is not GC (who does love a moan). Look at other blogs, you will see I am usually positive!
But back to the £66 million that we have spent. It is a big chunk of change, and has got many people very excited:
Alexis Sanchez – £35 million
Calum Chambers – £16 million (Rising too)
Mathieu Debuchy – £12 million
David Ospina – £3 million
On paper it looks like a very productive summer. But in reality, what have we actually done?
Swapping Goalkeepers
Lukasz Fabianski OUT – Free
David Ospina IN – £3 million
David Ospina had a brilliant World Cup, but Lukasz Fabianski had a brilliant cup run. The change in goal keepers has made us no stronger. It is simply a case of one out, one in. Some might argue that Ospina is marginally better than Fabianski, but this opinion would be based on a handful of World Cup games.
In the last 3 years, Fabianski has played 5 league games. Whilst it is important to have a decent keeper in case the worst happens to Szczezny, the fact is, the £3 million spent will not improve our first 11 next season. It is a nothing transfer
Replacing Bacary Sagna
Bacary Sagna OUT – Free
Calum Chambers IN – £16 million (Rising too)
Mathieu Debuchy IN – £12 million
So we lost Bacary Sagna. Whilst I was not too upset to see him go, as his wage demands were unreasonably high for a player in his 30’s, it has required us to buy 2 players to replace him, costing £28 million.
2013/14
Bacary Sagna – 1st choice right back / 4th choice centre back
Carl Jenkinson – 2nd choice right back
2014/15
Mathieu Debuchy – 1st choice right back
Calum Chambers – 2nd choice right back / 4th choice centre back
Again, on paper it looks like we have made big steps forward. We have signed Mathieu Debuchy, who kept Sagna out of the French side at the World Cup, and is 2 years younger. We have also signed young Calum Chambers. Is he a better right back than Carl Jenkinson? Yes. But £16 million on a second choice right back is a lot of money. Debuchy has averaged 31 league games a season over the last 6 years. So we have basically spent £16 million for a player to play 7 league games a season at right back.
Yes, he also covers centre back, but how many games did Bacary Sagna actually play at centre back last season? The answer is 3 in all competitions. So what have we done? We have spent £12 million on a 1st choice right back, and another £16 million on a bloke who will probably play 10 games next season.
Yes, Chambers has potentially, and could well push Debuchy hard for a 1st team place, but that £16 million, could it not have been better off spent elsewhere.
£28 million in total to swap Sagna / Jenkinson for Debuchy / Chambers seems a lot.
Alexis Sanchez
The only truly brilliant player we have signed. The only man who has not come in as a replacement for other players. The only man who improves our 1st XI dramatically from last year. A World Class signing. I have no complaints.
For all intents and purposes, we have spent £31 million on a reserve goalie and a replacement for Sagna. The signings of Ospina, Debuchy and Chambers do not improve our first XI from last season. They do not move us forward. And we are only marginally better in terms of squad depth at the back.
My worry is we have papered over the cracks a bit. People are looking at the £66 million spent and getting excited. What they fail to recognise is that only one of the 4 players makes us stronger than last season. The rest are merely replacements for players who have left.
The biggest issue is last season we were short two players. A striker and a defensive midfielder. At this moment in time, a couple of days short of August, we still have not signed a striker and a defensive midfielder.
There is talk of Alexis Sanchez playing upfront and Jack Wilshere playing defensive midfield. These are not acceptable solutions.
Yes, spending £66 million is exciting. We have 4 new faces. But let’s look beyond this and realise it has perhaps been £66 million misspent. We are still a striker and defensive midfielder short. The squad has not massively moved forward. I feel like we have been blinded by the lights, spun a good yarn. If we fail to get in the striker and defensive midfielder, it would mean we are only better in one position than we were last season.
We are making steps in the right direction, yet are still short. It is too early to be excited.
Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Even if we get Messi, Ronaldo and Zlatan, y’all will still find something to moan about. It’s already in your DNA. Pathetic !
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But we didn’t get them. ….. and with Wenger in charge we never will, we only get the next best level, the guys who play when the real stars can’t!
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Sanchez and Ozil are on the same level as Ibrahimovich.
Only two clubs could keep Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, and it’s the ones they are at, and their choice of club bears no relevance to the manager – I can’t imagine that Ronaldo signed for Real Madrid in the expectation that he would serve under the same manager for the time he was there, considering how often they change.
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Technically Zlatan snubbed us at 17 yrs age
Wenger did confirm we lost out to Ferguson by a little bit for Ronaldo.
As for Messi… I rest my case.
I understand your frustration Kevin… but how about a followup article on this where you tell us what exactly you would had like the club to do.
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oh how id love just one big signing like a bergcamp ,henry or ian wright.
those were the days .
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hey this guy is bang on .
we havent signed a striker .sanches is a winger .
were are kahidira or lars bender ./ rumoured to be coming all summer ./ we need a def mid.
the two places we needed to fill .what are we doing about it ? ,giving girould a contract extention he doesnt even need yet and no doubt more money ?
now vermearlin monreal and jenks all told they can leave .?
weres the defencive cover ? one lad who can do everything. it looks like he may have to.
3 players gone 3 players going at least . we have in 4.
2 short on what we had last season and only half our budget spent .
at a pinch we could buy balotelli ,kahidira and bender and still have change .
at £16 milliom i would have taken lars bender over chambers all day long ..
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Sanchez has played as a striker, and successfully, Wenger has even stated that is one of the positions he intends to play him. So you’re wrong there.
Also you seem to have some bizarre notion that it was an either/or scenario in regards to Bender or Chambers, but there are three parties involved in a transfer, and we have no reason to believe that Bender was willing to come (in fact his statements indicate that he doesn’t want to leave his club at present), nor that his club are willing to sell him.
I don’t want Balotelli anywhere near the club, the bloke is a circus, and his strike rate isn’t an improvement on Giroud.
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your forgetting that a fit diaby is a great defensive midfielder
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I really, really that is a sarcastic comment?!!!! If it’s not then you must be Wengers mum!!!
When fit Diaby is a dangerous liability ….. a maverick who you just wait to commit an act of lunacy or self destruction on behalf of the team ….. have really good look into his play and be honest ….then you will see the truth. We have been sooooooooooo fortunate that he has only been able to play so few matches in the Red! Otherwise the example of the ludicrous og headed for manu a couple years ago would have been repeated in sooooo many other ways!!
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sorry man but diaby is the man,he broke his leg if you remember at sunderland early on in his career,why has wenger kept him? he knows more about football and players then a 100 of us could ever know
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you’re wrong. it’s not 66 misspent. if you have players leaving then ofcourse we need to fill these spots. If we didn’t then you’d be talking about how we have gaps in our team for the players that just left the club. arsenal have done very well this summer.
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perhaps if Wenger had opened negotiations with Sagner & Fab earlier, plus offered a bit ,more then we wouldn’t have had to waste 66m … and spent it on what is really needed in the side. But hang on it wouldn’t cost 6 m to get a new MANAGER!!!
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Fabianski clearly stated that he left because he wanted to play every week. Do you think Swansea are paying him more than us? They promised him first team football. They can deliver on that now because they sold their first choice keeper in Vorm. And Sagna said he wanted a different challenge. I think he really wanted more money, but what he was asking for was unreasonable. You can’t just shatter your wage structure for one person, unless he is your world beating star. We broke our transfer and wage record for Ozil. We are paying Sanchez similar wages and Ramsey’s new contract sees him earn about 120kpw or so. So the club is doing what is necessary to keep its star players. We have also extended contracts of all our important players.
We have found good replacements in Debuchy and Ospina. And we have bought a very talented youngster in Chambers who can cover multiple positions. How is that a waste of money? We paid 15m for Chamberlain and 12m on Walcott when both of them were 16. Do you also think that was a waste of money? Wenger thinks he is a talent for the future and now he has the money to spend and buy the players he wants. Reports from credible sources also say that we are in for a defensive midfielder. And we have brought in a world class fitness coach to help with injuries.
When we did not have money to spend everyone was up in arms to spend every penny we had. Now we are competing and getting our targets and people moan about spending? We are in a much better situation now than in previous windows and have done business early. There is still a ways to go in the window so let’s all be patient, supportive and see what the next few weeks bring.
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we have gaps .
no world class striker no defensive midfielder other than flamini.
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girould getting a new contact .wow its like a new signing to us
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I can see your point, but do not agree. Debuchy is a better player than Sagna, therefore I see him as an upgrade, ie an improvement, having chambers as back up is also an improvement on Jenko, although I love Jenko and his passion for the club he needs a season out on loan to see if he can cut it. Sanchez is a class signing, huge improvement. Ospina had a good WC, we are all aware of that side of him, but he has also been class in France over the last couple of seasons since Lloris joined spurs. they are big shoes to replace but he did it comfortably. Fabianski wasnt consistent enough, hence the nickname Fumbleumski, great cup run in his final season but he had enough chances over his AFC career to prove himself and didnt.
I agree we need a DM, that is the biggest position we were lacking in last season. Joel Campbell is back from loan, I hope we keep him as hes looked a lot more level headed than sanogo. with the attackers we have, Sanchez, Giroud, Poldi, Sanogo, Campbell,Walcott. I think we are better off than last season, it wouldnt hurt to bring another striker in but then do you go for a seasoned pro or a young talent? its a difficult call, who would be happy at sitting behind Giroud on the bench?
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campbell has supposedly been told to look for a loan club again this year .either west ham or southampton sanogo also is to be loaned and jenks to west ham ,
monreal and vermearlin told they can leave , do you realy think diaby is that much better than sanga ? chamberlin will have to be good right across the back.
,hes all well realisticaly have as cover . no new striker
no new defensive midfielder . over £60 million still in the bank .
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Think of it another way…if we hadn’t replaced those players who’ve left (and let’s remember we couldn’t stop them leaving), would you be pleased about how much money we’d saved?
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A poorly thought out article. Ospina may not be hugely better than Fabianski but that is irrelevant, Fabiannski had gone. We needed a keeper and £3M for Ospina is a great bit of business. Where will you get a better keeper for less?
Similarly Sagna had gone. We had no control and getting Debuchy fills the gap really well. Again, tell me where you would get better for less…
As for Chambers, he’s one for the future and by all accounts an outstanding prospect. As he’s English you pay a premium but we need an English base.To look on him as filling back up right back and 4th CB is daft but if you choose to, he improves both those positions.
So if you have to complain, it should be about us letting contracts run down…we were powerless and had to let both Sagna and Fabianski go. However, in these cases I think this would be flawed too as they both served us well and (for different reasons) and deserve chances elsewhere. I’m not sure Sagna made the right choice though…
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firsly fabianski wasnt the only keeper to leave .
secondly casillas . free thats free . better keeper £ 3 million in the kitty.
thirdly chamber £16 million ? a lot of wonga for one for the future
fourth if we need an english base why sell a pefectly good right back who played 22 games for us last year .?
fifth debushy is 29 ,how long has he got left .2 maybe 3 years at top level ?
we have money ,lots of it to spend ,but in terms of numbers ,it looks like we will be short again .
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100% agree. Still a striker and defensive mid away from competing on all fronts
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So much wrong in your argument, i cant even be bothered to disect it. I will just say that some people are never happy.
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1st: You insist on 66m being wasted, while you admit Alexis was a good choice, so it’s 31m, if it is a waste.
2nd: As Wnger has mentioned, Chambers can play other positions as well as RB, so I don’t find it a bad choice.
3rd: You can do nothing about Fabianski, because he wanted out no matter what, and we couldn’t have offered him first-choice keeper (in my opinion), so we needed a new keeper, and since Ospina is a new face with a pretty successful World Cup experience, he is not considered a second-choice for granted keeper (the way Fabianski was considered for a long time), so he will provide better competition for Szczesny.
4th: After this window, the concept of the team will change. We will become “a team who are not afraid of signing and have ambitions” and this will help us get better chance of signing players who weren’t willing to join a team who always fight for “the 4th trophy”.
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like schniederlin .hell hes so impressed hes going to spuds .
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In the grand scheme of things we only needed a striker Alexis (only a winger at barca) is what we needed we had enough players but we just had too many injuries which the German fitness coach is trying to sort out coupled with the return of Campbell although I feel he’s still a bit raw we have done exactly what we needed to do.
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1 sanches is not a striker ,hes a winger .
2 have you seen just how many players wenger wants to out ? including campbell.
the fact is as it stands as of today we are going to be well short of numbers and depth again this year .
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Sanchez is a striker check his record only ever played on the wing for barca played up top for udinese and plays there for country
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I think you’re Worrying over nothing
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i realy hope so .
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I agree with the general theme of the post, i.e. 2/4 signing needn’t improve our team. I rate Debuchy slightly higher, just slightly higher than Sagna; even so I believe Debuchy is a good addition that will strengthen the team. Given the “chemistry” Giroud and Debuchy ( cough, totally not about the kiss cough!) have being in the same national team together, they might produce more from the Giroud-Sagna pairing.
Callum chambers was always a “sign-the-potential-star-before-he-gets-costly” transfer move. Even then he is reasonably good quality; English and potential star, bound to cost that much (I remember folks rating Wilshere at 60 M pounds once).
Ospina, I really don’t know. My knowledge of Ospina is a good cheap buy in FIFA :). Haven’t watched his games, saw the WC matches, he was good in those. I hope sitting on the bench doesn’t too comfortable or destroys his quality.
Good post; but NO Arsene isn’t pissing away club money, so to speak. The signings are all required. GK position needs a good quality backup to call up when necessary. With all the problems of lacking depth last year and injuries; I’d rather have numbers (as long as they are qaulity) than just first team players.
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When I said Debuchy and Giroud are in the same national team, I meant both are in the first team and played often together for France.
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sanches ,a great signing ,ospina good ,not outstanding debusy ,realy nothing in it .chambers ? £16 million ? . lars bender is the same price .
the big problem is arsene is now chipping away at that depth .
jenks virmearlin monreal campball sanogoall told they can look for a move today ?
wheres the numbers wheres the cover .?
i think we will be caught short again when we pick up injuries again this year .
look what that cost us last year .
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Where and when did you see the rumors you’re spreading about Wenger asking all these guys to leave? Last I was aware of Wenger said Campbell was going to be with us and he was going to be watching him during the Emirates cup. Moreal is the back up for Gibbs, and Vermalaen is our 3rd choice CB. Oh yeah! Calum was also bought for 12m to potentially rise to 16m.
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You can’t even spell the players names ‘Sanchez’, ‘Debuchy’; Chambers isn’t £16m, its a lot less that could rise to £16m if he plays a cewrtain amount of matches and win a number of trophies but lets not allow the truth get in the way of a good moan.
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sanches is top signing but we need lots more goals to move up the table .i dont think hes enough on his own .
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My word are u serious about this article! Unbelievable seriously stop writing stop writing NOW your a dumbass! At least the song is better than your website. I hate fans like you attempting to bring down the feel good factor! Bet your that fucker that sits next to me at the emirates silent and miserable only celebrating when we score and when the games over and the gunners have won, you still piss and moan! ‘Should of been 4-0 really, mesut ozil does fuck all on that pitch’ yea piss off you miserable bastard and support tottenham, at least you can be miserable there and enjoy your thursday nights more!
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do people not have a right to an opinion where you come from. or should we all be dumb and clap like you at an average team ,when we want a bit more .
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You’re argument is flawed. If Sanchez improves our side then his fee is not a waste. The right back & keeper positions had to be filled, period. We her did not think, oh I’ll let those two go and spend money on replacements. They chose to leave. Therefore replacements were necessities. Yes a DCM is required and possibly a striker but as well as, not instead of. So money not wasted…….. Just my time!
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sanches really is the only outstanding signing . chambers is too much the point is were still 2 signings short and now triming back on the depth we had gained ..
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what happened to van perse coming back .thought he had done a deal with arsene ?
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Your argument is at best mathematically flawed.
You state what you believe is the total cost of the players concerned, but you certainly are only guessing. For example, if the total was £66m (?) you have already admitted that Sanchez is a terrific improvement on last season’s squad – so keeping tabs [£66m – £35m = £31m]
You also say that Debuchy is an improvement on Sagna (and the France manager agrees) then he is not a wasted expenditure either so [£31m – £12m = £19m]
You also surmise the top end of the rumoured salary (and Arsenal said the fee was not revealed), so it probably was £7m with stage payments if he appears in the CL, or makes an international appearance, and so on. If he doesn’t, it’s £7m, if he does make the appearances he will be worth every penny. So [£19m – £16m = £3m]
To get a top class goalkeeper for £3m is a wonderful piece of business.
Let’s see [ £3m – £m = £0m]
The answer to your question is that Arsenal have not wasted a penny of the supposed £66m you mention.
So back to the drawing board.
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sanches £35 million
debushi£12 million
Ospia was about £3.4 million
chambers £ 16 million
thats over £ 66 million fact .but the point is we made money on player deals so have about £50 million left.so why are we cutting squad players out ? . where is the out and out striker /? weres the defensive midfielder >?
two big signings here and keeping our squad depth and we could be there .
so near but stii so far .
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Stupid article. Having a go at AW because he’s replacing players that left?? Fact is we’ve improved a lot. I’ve watched and read about Ospina quite a bit over the last few years and I’d go as far to say he might actually take the No. 1 spot of Sczcesney, so that’s a big improvement on Flappyhandski.
Debuchy is a like for like replacement for Sagna, simple as that.
Chambers is a player who in 12 months time will prove to be a bargain, just like a certain Aaron Ramsey started to do before he got Shawcrossed. Chambers’ versatility will be key, and I’ve got a feeling he’ll be deployed at CB/DM as time goes on. £16 mil will prove to be a bargain.
And I don’t even need to mention Sanchez.
All in all I think you’re one of the few Arsenal “fans” that will never be happy with our transfers unless every player we sign is £30 mil plus and a world class star.
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Exactly when or what team do you feel we have improved a lot on????
Next you’;; be saying we’re buying star players like Ozil!!! (Powder puff player who disappears… oh sorry no he gets tired and needs to rest!)
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Oh and when have we ever signed a superstar???? The last one I can remember was Denis Bergkamp!!!! And that was not a Wenger signing!
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i think thr point is he could and perhaps should have done more sooner , with sanga it was money ,
he had no pay rise in 6 years .
he is now offering girould an extra 2 years on top and a pay rise
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Is that the best thing you’ve got going for you this summer? Get a life!
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yawnnnnnnnn,another Wenger cant do right for doing wrong, thingy..v poor try harder plz.
PS Flapianski just could not control himself he was good up until the final..wont be missed
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the guy only won us the f a cup you ungratefull twat ,
pleny will miss him .and wish him well this year
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“is it too early to be excited”?
Well its hot out, the window is wide open and a cool Chilean breeze just whispered ‘watch this’ in my ear.
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The author is mathematically challenged cunt!
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Dat means chelsea have wasted there dollars too… Costa for the departed eto’o, fabregas for the departed lampard… Can u remind me who they got for david luiz?… Oh, think i rememba now, felipe sometin…
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They may not improve the first XI, but so what? They were not the issue last season, depth was. We faltered as injuries mounted. These signings should show their worth deep in the season, and Sanchez will provide the pace necessary to unleash Ozil.
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they would have filled the gaps ,but noearsene is looking to out that depth we so need yet again . when will he learn you need a big squad to chalienge in all competitions today
looks like we will be short again this year .
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You talking shit. Money well spent for now and the future.
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wait and see how many are on the way out in the next few days jenks vermearlin monreal sanogo campbell gnabry all given permition to look for new clubs .
no ones saying dont spend money .spend more . keep the depth in the squad . if we dont and were out of the top four .then ill remind you whos talking shit .
your just not capable of thinking bigger.
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in 3 years debushy will be finished .jenkinson will be gone and we will have to start again, how is that worth £12 million
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If i am not completely mistaken i seem to remmeber Chambers having a stunner against us when we drew 2-2 at Southampton.
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U re a fool…..wenger signed quality players…mofos still complainin
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Completely fallacious argument. Since when is a transfer/purchase NOT a replacement? The squad has to be pruned either through selling or losing players to enable players to come in. Only question to be answered is: have we improved the quality of the squad – yes. Chelsea have just spent £80M+ on three direct replacements; Luis for Cole, Fabregas for Lampard and Costa for Ba/Eto – has Mourinho got it wrong as well?? LvG spent £60M on two replacements. Not sure what Brendan Rodgers is up to though.
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Chaps,
You forget the 11m that we got from release clauses from Vela and Fabregas, which you could consider Wenger having used to make a speculative punt on Chambers (12m + bonuses). While I question buying Chambers as a utility (since he’s not yet proven in one position, should we really be using him as a stop-gap in several positions), it’s basically a free transfer.
So we got 35m for sanchez, 11m for debuchy and 3m for ospina. We’re looking for another two players (defensive midfielder and striker), or three if Vermaelen leaves. I am increasingly skeptical that Wenger will outlay for the two other required players, due to his fear of disrupting the squad, but here’s hoping that we get a DM at least! I think Sanchez, Walcott and other chaps can fill into a mobile front three if Giroud gets injured, or needs a rest.
But I would be a bit frustrated if we don’t get our world-class DM and that extra 26m could’ve been sitting in the bank when it could’ve brought Fabregas back to Arsenal.
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you just know walcott will pick up injuries again
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he always does hes so fragile .
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why are we paying othrs £ 130 k a week but the board wont let arsene get kahidira for the same another world cup winning player is a most welcome signing .and he just what we need
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Wasn’t that “the main reason of your moaning”? I always heard your complaints about how Wenger has not brought worthy replacements for our outgoing players. Now when he does that, you still got the balls to moan. So when you’re saying we wasted 31m just for replacements, i would like to ask what did you want this time?
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i dont think its moaning ,i think hes stating the players in [4] only really replace those that have gone already [4 ]
the three main problems will still be there . 1 no new striker 2 no new defensive midfielder 3 not big enough squad if he outs jenks vermealin monreal sanogo and campbell up for grabs as reported this morning .
not counting campbell that will be 7 out 4 in thats a fact obvously sanches is way better than bentner and chambers may well be one for the future ,but what about this year ,what about injuries .
two big names in where we need them ,keep the depth in numbers and we could be real contenders.
if thers nothing else coming in and players going ,i realy fear for forth place this year .
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if AW buy 3 new striker plus 2 DM plus whatever then AW have to sell 3 old strikers 2 old DM plus whatever else….so whats new ? YOU DONT BUY WITHOUT SELLING and YOU DONT SELL WITHOUT BUYING…or else there will be overflow
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a striker a defensive midfielder .whos said their not worthy . they are , but with the exeption of sanches over bentner not by much . is chambers ralely better than jenks? 22 GAMES HE PLAYED LAST YEAR . ,. .
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Stupid article….ospina cost 3 million but is younger and better than fab, along with szceney we have two goal keepers to challenge each other for the next 5 years.
Debuchy is 2 years younger than sagna and can fill the Rb pos until Jenkinson or chambers become effective players. Chambers also has the upside of being able to fill in different areas of the pitch. Both players can see us through the next 10 years if they mature.
I would say that it’s hardly money wasted. Yes they are covering for positions vacated at the club but fab never fully showed he had the confidence to excel for a club like arsenal and sagna was approaching the twilight of his career. If it wasn’t this year than it definitely would have been next year that we brought in new replacements and who’s too say a player like chambers would have been available at his current price, look at Luke shaw.
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I have been critical of Arsene’s transer business (or lack thereof) over the past few windows. But it feels like something has changed. You say Debuchy is just a replacement for Sagna and therefore just an even swap. How many of us were expecting Arsene to sign no one and leave it to Jenkinson and Bellerin to cover RB position? In my more pessimistic moments I know I was. But Arsene didn’t do that – instead he went out and signed arguably the best RB on the market for a decent price.
Chambers is a versatile player who will add depth to our defense. Yes he was expensive but we all know English players are.
Sanchez is an amazing purchase and will change our attack completely. He can play either wing or centrally.
We criticize club for not spending and now we are criticizing them for how they are spending. IF we let TV5 leave without replacing him, or let Nacho leave then your argument might have some weight. But right now with the window still open and Arsene getting business done before August for once, it just seems like meaningless bitching.
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do you really think wenger will keep him when he sees the pound signs if he sells himto man u
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im fed up with us selling our best player to man u .
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you must be the SMARTEST and the MOST EDUCATED IDIOT IN THE WORLD to write this
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do any of you happy idiots still not see girould is our main striker ? is that really enough for you ./ dont you expect more now we have funds to do it ..
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Well Chambers can play at LB or CB. So he’s available to cover 2 positions. Although probably not ready to have a full season at Arsenal in any position. As for Ospina Fabianski needed replaceing and Sancez is as well all agree a top signing. I’m not complaining
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what has happened to shneiderlin move?
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chosen totenham over us .how bad is that .
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This was an excellent article/topic and here’s why….Read thru all the comments and look at the dialogue it created amongst Arsenal fans..Not the same ol’ reprints of other articles I am accustom to reading in the US where the author just repeats the same garbage they’ve read somewhere else. I feel there is going to be some sales now (Verm, Jenks (loan), Monreal and Santi) and one target still to come in..Nobody talks about Christian Benteke anymore since the injury, but he’s almost back to training-could be very inexpensive.
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Sometimes it takes a little common sense to analyse before we comment. Lukas was great but couldn’t get the #1 shot stopper start, don’t forget for his international future is affected since Szczesny is also Polish how does that work for both players at the same club vying for a place in a national squad? A decision had to be made which was the best one for Lukas career. What would you have rather we play the kid Martinez as backup and not spend 3 mil on a quality replacement in Ospina? Don’t be silly. Calum is overpriced because he’s and English player nothing more, but look at Luke Shaw, what do you make of his price? Jenkinson is a player and a fan but not good enough in my opinion, he’s too inconsistent and erratic with his passes in the box, he should be loaned out maybe that will improve his game. Chambers is better in the position as a backup to Debuchy and also covers other areas such as CB and CDM thats what we need coverage in more area the author forget to mention that in his article CDM. On the talk of Alexis, I share this concern somewhat however I still think he can play centrally, who remembers wingers converted to strikers by Wenger who became prolific? Henry and RVP, Alexis skill set is perfect in fact maybe a better gamble with his pace and his direct play running at defenders, he’s a goal shark and possibly be even more prolific given a chance centrally, he’s south american and has the same attacking flair and tenacity as Aguero, Tevez and Suarez. Giroud is only ok and offers something different for us, but a player who sits too deep and hold the ball up well as a striker worries me, how many offside traps Giroud have broken last season? As a forward this means whether or not you make the right run determines how close you are to the defense, Giroud plays like he’s a midfielder. We need a CDM not Khedira as my first choice as I have a problem with his injury record to date, why invest in a injury prone player when we need to win titles? Shneiderlin is a fool to think her should come to Arsenal and expect to just slot in with the starting 11, so let him go to the Spuds, no ambition both player and club.
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Arsenal lost heavily last year – 6 goals against in all three away matches – against 3 teams who finished above them in the league. Basically we lost all three matches because of our soft centre in the middle – covered by an ageing Arteta who is not and never has been a DM. Not one of the four signings so far have dealt with this important position which was top priority. I sincerely hope that Wenger is not going to use Wilshere in that position – who would be worse than Arteta – and get the right player in well before the season starts because it could cost Arsenal a place in the top four! I notice all the swear words used so far in this post come from AKB ‘s who think the manager cannot be critisized for any of his decisions. Dialby cannot be relied on for this position as we know he will last only a few matches before he is out for the rest of the season – again! Gunner90
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“These are not acceptable solutions” – says a guy who has managed, wait for it, ZERO professional games in his entire life.
Stop moaning and look on the sunny side mate. There are people who are paid good money to do what they do best. Let them do the over-analysing. People like yourself, taking a few minutes off from your day job, to write a blog, while commendable, is like putting your behind outside the window to get butt-slapped by passersby. But this whole comment is invalid if you are into that kind of thing.
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David, as an Arsenal fan, and I believe you are one too, just can’t believe you are bitching about this transfer window so far. God knows this has been our best transfer window in a while, and we still have about five weeks to go. Stop complaining and let’s wait till the end of the window. Personally I don’t think we need more than 2 more players, you can’t just keep buying players without someone leaving.
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.i dont understand why our midfield targets have all gone nowhere this window ,its themost obvios need we have ,?
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How can spending money on replacements be a waste? It’s a necessity! As for Sanchez, he IS a striker..can play anywhere along the front 3.
You say “has Wenger misspent”. Yet say Sanchez is a brilliant signing?!
Don’t think I’ve ever read such nonsense in my life. Purely agenda driven
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I wonder if people moaned about Wenger buying a young French winger to play up front all them years ago?
You’re a blogger fella and a shit one at that. Stick to the writing and let Wenger worry about converting a winger from FCB (striker at Udinese) play up top for us
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Do you know much about petanque? Cos you know fuck all about footbal mate.
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We is looking forward to strengthen his squad. He has so far signed 4 players. I know he is ready to sign more.
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Wenger is looking forward to strengthen his squad. He has so far signed 4 players. I know he is ready to sign more.
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