Monday, July 17, 2006

Arsenal's summer transfer activity: will there be any?

It's been rather frustrating of late, seeing the usual cryptic pronouncements of Arsene regarding our transfer policy. Apparently, we're now out of the race for Saviola, and, even though Arsene's interested, he's not going to pay £10m+ for Curtis Davies. I agree with him on the excessive price, but we do need new players.

Arsene's seeming reluctance to buy any one except proven quality at knock-down prices still surprises me slightly, despite his obvious desire to bring through the youngsters. Does he really think players like Bendtner, Lupoli and Aliadiere are going to come through anytime soon, and turn into blazing, title-challenging calibre players? It's all especially hard to bear when you see other clubs around us making positive and sensible inroads to getting new players. The Spuds now seem to be closing in on Duff after getting Zokora, while United are highly likely to get at one or two of Carrick, Gattuso, and Torres. Seeing Torres at United would break my heart. He's an Arsenal player if I ever saw one; I'd be willing to part-exchange Jose for him as well. Not that I'm one of those particularly anti-Jose people; I just think a deal such as this might be best for all of us. He's clearly not happy in England - despite what he says - and I'm not sure whether he can take the next step up in consistency and ability that Torres has.

Still, I'm with Arsene on not rushing to buy players from the Serie A car-boot sale. Of all the Juve players available, Buffon is the only one I see as a possibility, and at the mooted £12m he would be a steal. Even with the inevitable conflict this would cause with Jens, we have to start planning for his replacement - unfortunately - and this seems like too great an opportunity to pass up on. The only other players I'd like us to put in for would be Cannavaro, Gattuso and perhaps Thuram. We need an experienced defender, and a central midfielder to cover the Gilberto role. Unfortunately, Cannavaro is almost certainly on his way to Madrid, while I can't see Arsene bringing in Gattuso. All the other players involved in the relegation/points deduction are overpriced and/or we don't need them. I do hope Man U don't pinch Paddy though. *shudder*.

On a seperate note, it's good to see some justice handed out to these clubs. What'll happen to Juve now is anyone's guess though. I imagine that the massive 30 point deduction is merely a starting point for an inevitable appeal. If it stays that way, who's to say they'll won't get relegated to Serie C? Tough times for Juve, but their ex-board brought in on to themselves. Might also make next years Champions' League a bit interesting.

It seems whatever Arsene's transfer plans, and I'm confident/hoping he has some, we won't be able to go over £12m net spending per season, which is a condition of our new, re-negotiated bond. Considering that our net spending over the last couple of years has only been around £8m this isn't as big a wrench as it may seem.

Especially as we may be receiving £16m+ for Ashley Cole soon. He seems to be on a mission to leave the club. However, I think that the reasons that the alleged content of his book is coming out now could be an act of brinkmanship to keep himself at the club. He's still essentially waiting to see if the board give him the respect he so craves. Because, at a base level, this is what the entire Ashley situation is about. He went to Chelsea as the board were taking him for a ride over his wages. Then, instead of realising how near they'd come to losing one of their best players, they disrespected him further through reporting him and Chelsea to the FA. And the blood has been bad since.

I think Ash is acting a little like a spoilt child. But I do agree with Anti that just because he is an Arsenal player doesn't mean he can't criticise the board when he feels he's being mistreated, which he was before he met Chelsea. However, I think he's now pushed his comments beyond a reasonable level of criticism. I still want him to stay because I think he is such a good player, and all it would take is a nice contract to appease him. Something that would be far easier to do than looking for a replacement. Especially as Clichy is looking a little like one of those perma-'sicknote' players.

So my hopes for the summer is that we aren't a selling club. That we don't just cash in on Ash, and only get Rosicky. We need one or two new players of proven calibre if we're serious about next year. Otherwise even more youngsters are going to have to be blooded, which could turn one transitional season into two.

Meanwhile, does this guy ever shut up?

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

glad to see that u have not jump on the transfer panic bandwagon. Davies was simply too expensive for a still unproven player and saviola did not make sense.I however still beleives that wenger will bring in at least a central defender. Cannot agree with your cole argument though as i think he is a selfish player who has put his own interest too far ahead of the club. Anti is one of those people who only way of keeping people intersted in his site is by baiting. in other word he is a cunt

Anonymous said...

Buffon would be an excellent signing although its clear he prefers the italian option, if there is one. Cannavaro is a superb player but he is going madrid & even if he wasnt there would be no point arsenal signing him because he isnt even 6 foot tall & that would make our defence way too short for the premiership.

I suggest all arsenal fans hold on until after the 25th July because we wont make any signings before that time. The board are in the middle of this bond deal & will not know if they can proceed with it until after the EGM next fri. If as expected they get the ok the refinancing will be sorted around the 25th & at that point arsenal will then know how much money wenger can spend. With the current interest on the debt the club are severly tied so unfortunately us fans will just have to be a bit more patient.

Anonymous said...

Im with you Gelbs!

Anonymous said...

Gelbs, say something different. Everyday you wibble on like some sort of...girl who's....trying.... to have a period. It's July 17th you fool!

Anonymous said...

Dear fellow Gooners,
I love Arsenal to the bone!!!
If there is ever going to be a good summer to buy,this is it!!!
We have to get Buffon!!! £12M is under priced by far!!
Sell ashley cole and getTorres in part exchange or loan a couple of youngsters to them with the money from Cole.
sell cygan,He's too slow.Sell Lauren to finance a few more players.We Definately need a central defender to replace sol and senderos is out for 3 months.
Buy Ribery and we are sorted for the midfield flank .We don't need any one else.

Buffon for sure
ribery for pace
Torres a must
I can't understand why we didn't get Kompany form Anderlecht so get Davies.We need these guys to grow together and we will be the the very best squad for 15 years to come.

Nino Santoro London

Anonymous said...

Gelbs- What would sacking wenger achieve? If the board havent got money to spend then sacking wenger & bringing in a new man wont help either. We are tied to a net spend of 12 million for the next 3 seasons so whoever is managing the club is not going to be able to spend big anyway. At least wenger signs decent youngsters another manager might not even be able to do that & then we would really be in trouble.

Anonymous said...

I get the sinking feeling what we have is what we will stay with! I expect Wenger is happy with the young swiss kid (Djourou?)to start at CD while Sederos is out. Expect Lauren to play a more midfield role as back up to Gilberto. If we have the same injury prone season as we did the last our title challenge will be over by Xmas.
Come on Wenger, for fuk sakes man, surely you cant be happy with the balance of this team?

Anonymous said...

Why is everyone panicking about transfers ? Wenger said very clearly yesterday that we'll get at least one, maybe two new players before the seanson starts. That means a new midfielder (probably Yaya, at a push maybe Appiah) and some defensive cover while Phil is out injured.

And that's fine, exactly what we need. No point paying out for new attackers when we're already overloaded up front. Incidentally, I think a lot of Gooners would like to see Lupoli and Bendtner get a chance - they've both got massive potential and they're proper Gooners who've grown up at the club.

Gelbs apparently wants Wenger to replace most of the first team, he's an angry, angry man. I think he should go on holiday and calm down...

Anonymous said...

Wenger wouldnt give Lupoli or Bendtner a chance last season when we had no fit strikers & even preferred playing freddie upfront so I cannot see them getting a chance this season. He also doesnt appear to have any confidence in walcott at present although he's not going to say that having paid 5 million for him with much more to add on.

Anonymous said...

Torres won't go anywhere. Not to Man Utd, not to us, not anywhere. He'll stay in Madrid like he always does.

Ribery and Davies are massively overpriced and un proven.

Wenger's got faith in Djourou for good reason. Anyone see him against Italy for Switzerland before the World Cup ? He's at least as good as Davies and we've already got him.

How about Thuram on a seasons loan though, I think that would make sense.

Come on you glorious Gooners !

Anonymous said...

Gelbs- can you name all these other clubs that have strengthened then? Admittedly spurs have but who else? Dont say chelski either because no team can do what they do. Have man utd bought anyone? NO, have liverpool bought great players? Bellamy is decent but they sold cisse who was better than he got credit for & morientes.

Anonymous said...

Gelbs is the Arsenal equivalent of that scouse bloke with the loudhailer on Oxford Street. LIsten to him, we'll all burn in Hell at the Emirates...

Anonymous said...

Gelbs,

You're a spurt really aren't you eh???

Some of us are frustrated by the lack of transfers. BUT last season was the only season where we had problems. And all the transfer ill-feeling was due to us not getting a replacement for Paddy.

Have a bit of faith in Arsene. The man is a genius and knows what he's doing. We can't have another season injury-wise like last year (if we do then we're pretty fucked), but last year was a freak occurence.

Just calm down, take deep breaths, replace the batteries in your loudhailer and start singing sweet sweet Arsenal songs.............. a-one-two-three-four.........

-Scooch

Anonymous said...

I wholeheartedly agree with yr view on our transfer agenda except for this one:

"He's clearly not happy in England - despite what he says - and I'm not sure whether he can take the next step up in [i]consistency and ability that Torres has[/i]."

I don't know how much Primera Liga you watch last season, but Torres is way inconsistent compared to Reyes. His scoring rate dropped each season, and he's playing at the club which plays the system focusing on him and yet, he stills fail to turn on his game when it matters. And he leads the Primera Liga last season for losing the ball the most. And no player can beat Torres when it comes to selfishness. He's a ball hog and a huge nuisance with his mediocre dribbling skill. If Reyes considered as inconsistent, Torres is byfar the most inconsistent player in world football right now. One good WC and everyone's jumping to his bandwagon and suddenly he worth 30 mil pound, how ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

wenger sweetie wake up you've been sleeping for almost 2 years since
the undefeated championship.
oh and you should know the rental store asked you to return the DvD you live in...
you cant win 1st place without spending,or with 10 year old kids...
10 mil for curtis davies is too much, and 5 mil for a school boy isnt?!
newcastle spend more than we...
boro , spuds, even pool which owe something like 70 mil...
if you want arsenal to be a biggest club in north london you better spend
money,jeremie wont turn into a 'Henry' and djourou doesnt show any signs of turning into a high class player,yeah his 18 so what...
kompany is 19 and he is world class. curtis is 21 or so and he is a captian.and why dont he make a move for torres he is the best at his age, better than RVP better then rooney(sorry i'm not english)
he will be the next 'Henry' and he'll let him go to man utd without a fight?!?! he never fight.
not madrid not chelsea not man utd. he fights no one,he refuses to fight he always forefit. and why do we always sign players secretly like its a sin?! players wont come unless you show clear signs of interest in them in the media, a thing AFC never do because its too volgaric,we are a classy club we are "The Arsenal".ribery wont come because of that, torres wanted to come but we didnt show any signs of interest so he passed to man utd, and eventually also curtis will give up and go to liverpool.
wenger is still admiring the trick he did with sol. but sorry it cant be done again.gj for that trick but let it go man.
the bottom line is :
spend money ,show our "ARSENAL" to the world.wenger sayd 3 signings(means plural) so
stop playing tricks on us(Arsenal fans, we worth 3 world-class signings a season)
got one two more to go.
buy some players,show ambition
this will give us piece.

Anonymous said...

^^^

1 - We're not rich club let alone a Roman's pet, so Torres 30 mil pound (although he's nowhere near the value) is way out of our budget.

2 - Vincent Kompany is not world class. I see him more as a DM rather than a competent CB. And yes, i'm a Belgian.

3 - We just splash a huge amount of cash on the new stadium, and we still have to worry about filling up the stadium than some losing battle competing with other rich club for player's signature.

4 - AW will sign two more players, i'm pretty certain and we still have 40+ days before the transfer windows closed. So stop worrying and stop labeling Arsenal a rich club bcoz we are not.

Anonymous said...

I know where Glebs is coming from, arsene says 'if we can sign a player who can play central and left defence then we'd be alright' then i read Hoytes off to Norich???
He doesn't seem to trust alot of these young guns.......
Lupoli and Bendtner never got a chance last season both light weight along with Aliadiare and Cesc (his cescy ability makes up for it tho!). then we go and get a similar player to Helb in Rosicky.
We never replaced Vieria and we will never replace sol, arsene wont be quick enough!
Sell cole for 16 mil, ok but then get torres for 20 mil, if cole is worth 16, torres is definately worth 20!!!

And i agree with Glebs as to where our path has led us since the unbeaten run (i know chelski have somethin to do with that) but we were THE team to beat, THE best, better than brazil (if you can remember what people where saying back then).
And that goes for Henry (wheres he gone, u know the player who was UNSTOPPABLE)


Does anyone remember Edu??? Class!

Tombo

Anonymous said...

GunnerPete says...first to Gelbs. Mate I love your pasion for our great club, but two points. 1) Using all that s**t as part of you argument only leaves you as a loser. 2) Arsene is the best manager of a club Ive ever seen & Ive been at Highbury for 57 years, and seen some right morons.

If you analyse what we already have after the departure of Bergy, Sol & Bobby, you will see a fantastic squad, which need only two world class players to finish above all the rest.

I would love Cannavaro (but AW does not) & he will not buy from Italy. So, Davies & hopefully Mascherano would do. Yaya, has been messing AW about for too long, he had his chance when on trial but chose the Greeks. I cannot see Torres arriving unless Reyes goes. What I do not see is AW rushing into a thing....& this is where I do agree with your rant Gelbs. AW, is the worst Ive known for waiting too long to invest. An example = 3 years ago I wrote to AW asking him to watch two players ( Carrick & Davies) total cost then £4 mill the pair. Carrick was on his way last year but AW suddenly said no. Davies was sold for £3 mill last year.Now we are talking stupid money £ 26 mill for the two. So Aw has made another goof because they were English?

I mean he didnt hesitate to spend £7 ? mill on Adebajour Or £10 mill on Hleb, and to my mind they are only good class NOT world class.

I expected him to surprise us this year with some unexpected buys ie: Belamy, Zakora, Sidwell, Kirkland, all as good as you can get, but again mostly Brits, and AW does not do Brits, unless they are kids.

Risicky is world class and a steal, but all he replaces is Bobby. Fabregas, tries to replace Bergy & PV4, so why not get Pat back for a one season loan ? Then with a world class defender we could win the lot.

Yes I know Im dreaming, but sometimes a great squad only needs one inspirational signing, and they take off.

Anonymous said...

Would that be some some cheap unheard of like Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Cesc Fabregas, Philippe Senderos, Freddie Ljungberg, Robin van Persie, Johan Djourou, Gael Clichy, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Edu, Nicolas Anelka?

Anonymous said...

Gelbs, most of wengers unheard of's are cheap. The ones listed by anon at 3.38 were mostly cheap ljungberg apart. He buys cheap talent & gives them a chance, if they dont work out then thats fine we sell them on & get a new one in. You seem to be comparing us with chelski who can do the above with established talent but that cannot happen at arsenal. If shevchenko doesnt work out then can sell him for a fiver next summer & not think a thing of it.

Goonerboy said...

I partially agree with you Gelbs. I don't think we need to panic buy - and I'm glad Arsene isn't - but if we go into the new season with no new signings because no-one of 'proven quality' has become available at a rock-bottom price, I'll despair. I will also despair if he starts with Cygan above Djourou.

I think we need a new Centre-back of either definite potential - Davies - or an experienced stop-gap - Thuram. I'd like to see a tackling holding midfielder: even Hargreaves might be worth a look.

A striker might not be too much of a priority, but it'd be nice to have some-one who is guaranteed 10+ goals a season.

I just think it'd rejuvinate the squad, and send out a positive message to our rivals if we got a few new boys of decent calibre in. But i would agree with Arsene that we shouldn't pay over the odds.

Anonymous said...

I've always liked Hargreaves. Unfortunately, he was a possibility two season ago, but doubt he would move now - he's an integral player at Bayern who are the dominant team in the Bundesliga, but would be a squad player here. I think we're stuck with the possibilities of Davies and Yaya and then someone we've never heard of, though with the internet and more close following of younger and younger players, those are becoming fewer and fewer. Appiah's story seems a lot like players in the past, including Hargreaves, who've talked up Arsenal in the press, but weren't wanted by Wenger.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, its on Channel 5

Anonymous said...

GunnerPete says....I hope Im right as I have a strange feeling that I know what Arsene (God) is up to !

I think he has known all along that Gallas wants out of moneybridge, and wants to come back to playing stylish football. So, im ready to bet that BratCole will go to the Kensington Dump, and AFC will get Gallas + £13 mill.

This would mean Arsene (God) has done it again because, he could play the following team when Senderos is back, and note the new Midfiled ???

Lehmann

Eboue Senderos Gallas Flamini

Toure K.

Hleb Fabrigas Rosicky

Van Percie

Henry.


Subs : well this is the hard bit!

Almunia, Djuoru, Reyes, Adebajour, Bentner.

I know it may come as a shock but this is the guts we need in midfield and centre back. If we had done this before we would have won the Champs Final. Yes I am not forgetting some players have been missed out. Now I would make money on them.

Lauren, Freddy, Cygan, and a few more could bring us in £ 10 mill. Add that to the spare £13 mill above and when Arsene (God) wants to he can buy either Torres, or Teves, or some Great UK star when he is found!

This will give Walcott plenty of time on the bench and being played when injuries are bad. Have a look its some powerful team up there, and player for player a class above moneybridge & Manure.

6:58 PM


By M. B. Zaidi

There have been a few figures thrown out in the media of the potential value of Ashley Coles transfer fee to Chelsea if that ever does materialise which it seems it will. Ashley Cole is a fine defender, he is at a perfect age, is English and has vast experience at both club and international level. I cant think of a better left full back to sign in the entire world and think he is a class act for sure.

Ashley has grown up at our club and has always been a crowd favourite…that is of course until the stupid tapping up affair with Chelsea ruined his reputation with the fans and the club. He now for some reason feels that the club has betrayed him even though he was the one going behind the clubs back doing illegal things…anyway forget that its all in the past…the point now is we are about a week or so away from the Champions League tie on the 8th August and Clichy has been ruled out for the beginning part of our season along with Diaby, Lauren and Senderos. If Cole was to play in that match he would be cup tied for the Champions League if he was to move to Chelsea, which would significantly reduce his transfer fee.

It all seems a bit stupid to me that people are happy with the squad we have, even though most I have talked to are extremely worried about our lack of signings that are actually solid enough to be considered acquisitions that have improved our squad. Signings like Hleb…who cost a bit at the time but has slotted in and his class has shone threw…Hopefully this time next season I will be saying that Rosicky is another signing that made an immediate impact.

The price that Chelsea apparently wanted to pay was a mere £16 million…at a time where Carrick has just gone for a stupidly high price of £17.25 million. Other figures thrown out have been £20 million and £26 million. I read on another site that we are being greedy and I 100% DON’T AGREE WITH THAT…why the hell shouldn’t we be greedy…he is our asset, has 2 years left on his contract and is arguably the best left back in the world…YES £26 million is higher than he is worth to a normal club, but this is Chelsea…not just that they have the spending power of Mr. Abramovich but also because they are one of our biggest rivals in terms of winning the title. AND also that they pay stupid fees for everyone else that is a nobody or scored a few goals in the champions league for one season, or was highly rated on championship manager….We are giving up a player who is quick, strong, defensively quite brilliant and attackingly superb…

Let me take you back to a few seasons back where Shaun Wright Phillips was about to leave Man City…apparently we wanted him too as well as Liverpool….he got a bit greedy and went to Chelsea and how many games has he played?...EXACTLY MY POINT….Chelsea purchased him just so their rivals couldn’t…so if that was £21 million (from the top of my head) then why the hell would we settle for anything less…

Chelsea would pay £26 million JUST TO weaken our side…and I for one cant wait until it is all over with…im getting bored to death by it and think it will do everyone good once he leaves…Traore looks a real talent and Clichy and Flamini are competent…£26 million that can be invested in making our squad stronger (the debt repayment of our new stadium)…

More on what I think is necessary for us to spend on in the transfer market later but I will say we shouldn’t settle for anything less than £20 million…anything higher is a bonus…Beg to differ? Leave your comments by clicking that little comment thing on the bottom right…more later all…good day…
posted by ArsenalReview.com at 4:08 PM on Aug 01 2006

Anonymous said...

i think arsenal need three new signings defender, mid and a striker, those would be abidal, ribery and eto'o. thats if arsene coffs up and stop hiding the money