Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2011/2012

Mickeroo wrote: »

Arsenal is the only club in the league that is run in a sustainable manner. City,Chelsea even tottenham, liverpool and united, they can't go on indefinitley the way they are. the bubble has to burst and when it does arsenal will be the the club that will come out on top. I'd rather see the club stay run the way it is than spend a tonne of money and dig themselves into a massive financial hole that they'll never get out of, even if it means winning nothing for a few more years. Plus the crop of younger players in the team is the best we've had in a long time. The future looks pretty bright to me at the moment.

The wage structure is not being run in a sensible manner though, we were unable to offload Almunia, Bendtner or Denilson last summer and that can only be because of the wages they are getting, Bendtner is on 56k, Denilson is reportedly on 50k and Almunia is reportedly on 60k. We're effectively throwing millions away each season because of that policy of paying players based on their potential instead of how good they are at present and what they've acheived. We have Walcott currently on 60k and demanding 85k a week in his current negotiations! He's not worth that.

The club has to make 20 million a season for repaying that gosh darn debt, I'd like to think most fans accept that and understand what it means with regard to how the club must be run. I myself feel that we're not using the resources we actually have in the best way, I'm not looking for the club to spend more, just to use what we have more wisely.

Last summer, letting Nasri go was a good move all round, his wage demands were crazy, he had one good consistent 3 month spell, and he was no loss. 25M for him was an absolute steal.

The Fabregas transfer was insanity. 5 years left on his contract, we were in such a strong position and Barcelona embarrassed us, they got him for about 20M less than he was actually worth. But his sale really weakened the team, which posed a massive threat to how the team would fare without him, and if the team doesn't do well on the pitch that will ultimately hurt them financially. Keep Fabregas, no need to sign Arteta, and who knows- maybe the collapse at the start of the season wouldn't have happened had we kept Fabregas and Wenger wouldn't have been forced into a few days of panic buying at the end of August!

Biggest regret about Fabregas- we missed out on the prospect of combining Cesc's supply with van Persie's current form.

The club has recently announced profits of 49.5M, we sold Cesc for 29M, don't sell Cesc- we still have profits of 20.5M and one of the worlds best players on our books. (Add in the 10M we wouldn't have had to spend on Arteta and we would have made a profit of 30.5M!)

I just feel that it is possible to both be profitable, and hang on to our best players. I only believe in buying players if we have to, so I'll never call for the club to spend 50M every summer! And about our young players, it's hard to get attached to them when a part of me can't help but believe that the club will only go and sell them when they start to approach peak value. I'd love to think Szcz and Wilshere and Oxo-C will still be at Arsenal in 5 or 6 years, but the way the club has been run in the last 6/7 years tells me they'll be gone and all we'll have left is the money we made from them

amacachi wrote: »

Not that I feel like going over the whole Cesc thing again but as far as I can tell he wanted to leave. Once a player wants to leave, they're going to leave. When had he signed that long contract? Might've just been doing Arsenal a favour.

Maybe, but Patrick Vieira wanted to leave many times over the course of his career, and the club held firm. In 2001, he really tore into Arsenal, criticised their ambition, said their signings weren't good enough (Campbell, van Bronckhorst, Wright, Jeffers, Intertoto) and that Arsenal wouldn't finish in the top 6 and to forget about Europe. (Went on to win the double!!)

A player should be sold when the club says so, not when the player says so!

jordainius wrote: »

Maybe, but Patrick Vieira wanted to leave many times over the course of his career, and the club held firm. In 2001, he really tore into Arsenal, criticised their ambition, said their signings weren't good enough (Campbell, van Bronckhorst, Wright, Jeffers, Intertoto) and that Arsenal wouldn't finish in the top 6 and to forget about Europe. (Went on to win the double!!)

A player should be sold when the club says so, not when the player says so!

Can't say I know much about that with Vieira but it didn't seem to affect his performances, Cesc looked off last season to me. There's no point holding onto a player who won't do their job, different players will react differently to such situations.

Oranage2 wrote: »

Hodgson has 20 million to spend if I can remember, Kenny spent 100 odd million.

Shocking stuff really.

They need 19 points from 33 to match their points total from last year. They've a handy enough run-in to be fair so they should do. Chronic waste of money though. The justifications have been brilliant, the argument that Carroll cost -15million and now that that was the last transfer window that wouldn't be counted under FFP, sure why not just flush a few million down the toilet?