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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:12:19:00:17 by eduardo.

so at what point (amount) spent by the club will anyone who signs the petition spend on club merchandise, will it take just one £20M signing, or will it be a £30M signing, what is the figure that is deemed the right amount

the new kit next season has already received more pre orders than any kit for at least 3 years. Win FA Cup and that will surely rise, buy any big name player and it will go through the roof.

It seems like a good idea, but in reality this you spend we spend thing is doomed to fail.

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

Wenger recently commented that he had the chance to buy Hazard but he felt he couldn't justify the money. Hazard ended up at Chelsea. This is a story that keep repeating itself. Another example is Mata. I have been an Arsenal fan all my life, but this is the first time Wenger has made me feel ashamed to be an Arsenal fan. The defeats by Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton are very hard to accept. This was totally Wenger's fault, anybody who thinks different needs to have their head examined. Wenger is about to sign a new contract worth £8 million a year. In his latest interview he confirms he is not looking at a busy transfer market and he claimed it is impossible to buy players before World Cup. I totally support the petition I hope many of you do sign up and refuse to buy the new Arsenal top until he start spending some money.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:07:21:02:06 by Padre Pio.

wenger never said it was impossible to buy player before the world cup,

and as asked in my first post, at what point of AFC spending will you spend on the new top

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

For a second there I thought gooners everywhere where becoming a bit apathetic.....

You don't spend, we won't petition?!

Not sure that'd get anything sorted!

I want Arsenal to compete to win Trophies next season. Wenger needs to invest in World class players. He needs at least five quality players. I don't care how much he spend. I am surprise you are defending Wenger. What I care the most as a fan is to win trophies but not about how much money the club is making. If we don't spend money on players Kronke will only take money out.

so now its wrong to point out falsehoods about what Wenger said, or as in this case did not say.

Kroenke has taken no money out of AFC

If you don't care how much AFC spends then you actually miss the point of this thread, you know the you spend we spend petition

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

Not that it'll surprise anyone, but, while the ticket prices do need lowering, I won't be signing this petition.

Arsene has said many times, if a top player who would improve our squad becomes available, he'll bring them in.
He brought in özil. As good a player as you can find for that position. But that's a panic signing to placate the fans?! No. It's exactly what he has always said he'd do, given the opportunity.
That being the case, if that is the quality of player he's looking to being in, how many strikers of that level are available, ever? Cavani? Falcao? We're we ever going to be able to compete with Monaco or PSG?
Nooooo, let's just label öz a panic buy, instead of listening to the fu(king man! Sheesh.

As far as I'm concerned, arsene has proved he is happy to spend if a player is good enough. And, rightly, he's tried to lower expectations of this summers transfers, because everyone thinks we can pick a player and bring them in.
IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE!!!!
He will spend, hopefully before the season starts (please arsene).

There was a degree of panic surrounding the Ozil deal. Unequivocally so, in my view.

When did we start to panic? I don't know; it could have been after Luis Suarez slipped through our fingers or after Aston Villa beat us 3-1, but something or someone lit a fire under Wenger at one point toward the end of that summer because he certainly didn't go into that window planning on smashing our record transfer fee with the £42m signing of Mesut Ozil. No chance.

As is often the case with Wenger, there was absolutely no contingency plans in place - or was Luis Suarez our plan-b option incase we missed out on Higuain? Was the better, more expensive player our fall-back option? Was he f*ck. Wenger acted as he went along rather than knowing in advance what he was going to do. I know this because, despite trying to sign a very good striker, we didn't get one.

We went from Higuain, to Suarez, and then a last-minute loan bid for Demba Ba. Does it look like Wenger planned that sequence of events or was he just making it up as he went along?

We swept an entire summer's worth of negligence under the carpet the moment Jim White announced that we signed Ozil but, as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and Wenger never, ever learns from mistakes. He has a worrying tendency to repeat them.

If Wenger has learnt from previous mishaps he'll know right now who he's going to sign to make Arsenal better, and we'll know soon enough whether or not he has learnt from the errors which led to him speaking German to Mesut Ozil last September.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:07:23:53:01 by Shane.

Quote:

Shane
There was a degree of panic surrounding the Ozil deal. Unequivocally so, in my view.
When did we start to panic? I don't know; it could have been after Luis Suarez slipped through our fingers or after Aston Villa beat us 3-1, but something or someone lit a fire under Wenger at one point toward the end of that summer because he certainly didn't go into that window planning on smashing our record transfer fee with the £42m signing of Mesut Ozil. No chance.

As is often the case with Wenger, there was absolutely no contingency plans in place - or was Luis Suarez our plan-b option incase we missed out on Higuain? Was the better, more expensive player our fall-back option? Was he f*ck. Wenger acted as he went along rather than knowing in advance what he was going to do. I know this because, despite trying to sign a very good striker, we didn't get one.

We went from Higuain, to Suarez, and then a last-minute loan bid for Demba Ba. Does it look like Wenger planned that sequence of events or was he just making it up as he went along?

We swept an entire summer's worth of negligence under the carpet the moment Jim White announced that we signed Ozil but, as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and Wenger never, ever learns from mistakes. He has a worrying tendency to repeat them.

If Wenger has learnt from previous mishaps he'll know right now who he's going to sign to make Arsenal better, and we'll know soon enough whether or not he has learnt from the errors which led to him speaking German to Mesut Ozil last September.

Preach it, Brother!!!

I'm not saying Wenger planned to buy Özil on the last day. But panic wouldn't be my choice of word. Opportunist, would be. It may not have been a player in the position he wanted most, but, at least he backed his words up when he saw a chance and spent big on a player who is one of the best in the world at his role.

Quote:

Shane
There was a degree of panic surrounding the Ozil deal. Unequivocally so, in my view.
When did we start to panic? I don't know; it could have been after Luis Suarez slipped through our fingers or after Aston Villa beat us 3-1, but something or someone lit a fire under Wenger at one point toward the end of that summer because he certainly didn't go into that window planning on smashing our record transfer fee with the £42m signing of Mesut Ozil. No chance.

As is often the case with Wenger, there was absolutely no contingency plans in place - or was Luis Suarez our plan-b option incase we missed out on Higuain? Was the better, more expensive player our fall-back option? Was he f*ck. Wenger acted as he went along rather than knowing in advance what he was going to do. I know this because, despite trying to sign a very good striker, we didn't get one.

We went from Higuain, to Suarez, and then a last-minute loan bid for Demba Ba. Does it look like Wenger planned that sequence of events or was he just making it up as he went along?

We swept an entire summer's worth of negligence under the carpet the moment Jim White announced that we signed Ozil but, as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and Wenger never, ever learns from mistakes. He has a worrying tendency to repeat them.

If Wenger has learnt from previous mishaps he'll know right now who he's going to sign to make Arsenal better, and we'll know soon enough whether or not he has learnt from the errors which led to him speaking German to Mesut Ozil last September.

Brilliant and well argued, there was also panic around the signing of Kallstrom, a player with a broken back, Wenger should have been sacked for that.

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

Quote:

Padre Pio

Quote:

Shane
There was a degree of panic surrounding the Ozil deal. Unequivocally so, in my view.
When did we start to panic? I don't know; it could have been after Luis Suarez slipped through our fingers or after Aston Villa beat us 3-1, but something or someone lit a fire under Wenger at one point toward the end of that summer because he certainly didn't go into that window planning on smashing our record transfer fee with the £42m signing of Mesut Ozil. No chance.

As is often the case with Wenger, there was absolutely no contingency plans in place - or was Luis Suarez our plan-b option incase we missed out on Higuain? Was the better, more expensive player our fall-back option? Was he f*ck. Wenger acted as he went along rather than knowing in advance what he was going to do. I know this because, despite trying to sign a very good striker, we didn't get one.

We went from Higuain, to Suarez, and then a last-minute loan bid for Demba Ba. Does it look like Wenger planned that sequence of events or was he just making it up as he went along?

We swept an entire summer's worth of negligence under the carpet the moment Jim White announced that we signed Ozil but, as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and Wenger never, ever learns from mistakes. He has a worrying tendency to repeat them.

If Wenger has learnt from previous mishaps he'll know right now who he's going to sign to make Arsenal better, and we'll know soon enough whether or not he has learnt from the errors which led to him speaking German to Mesut Ozil last September.

Brilliant and well argued, there was also panic around the signing of Kallstrom, a player with a broken back, Wenger should have been sacked for that. ...among other things

Quote:

Shane
There was a degree of panic surrounding the Ozil deal. Unequivocally so, in my view.
When did we start to panic? I don't know; it could have been after Luis Suarez slipped through our fingers or after Aston Villa beat us 3-1, but something or someone lit a fire under Wenger at one point toward the end of that summer because he certainly didn't go into that window planning on smashing our record transfer fee with the £42m signing of Mesut Ozil. No chance.

As is often the case with Wenger, there was absolutely no contingency plans in place - or was Luis Suarez our plan-b option incase we missed out on Higuain? Was the better, more expensive player our fall-back option? Was he f*ck. Wenger acted as he went along rather than knowing in advance what he was going to do. I know this because, despite trying to sign a very good striker, we didn't get one.

We went from Higuain, to Suarez, and then a last-minute loan bid for Demba Ba. Does it look like Wenger planned that sequence of events or was he just making it up as he went along?

We swept an entire summer's worth of negligence under the carpet the moment Jim White announced that we signed Ozil but, as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and Wenger never, ever learns from mistakes. He has a worrying tendency to repeat them.

If Wenger has learnt from previous mishaps he'll know right now who he's going to sign to make Arsenal better, and we'll know soon enough whether or not he has learnt from the errors which led to him speaking German to Mesut Ozil last September.

Spot on

Who should Wenger have signed out of Higuan, Suarez and Demba Ba?.

You know what annoys me the most.

Sometimes we do not have to spend that much.

Example:

Would Arsenal really have been worse off if we'd paid out Bendtners contract a couple of years ago, Signed Peter Odemwingie for Cheap, And never spent however many millions we've spent paying out a wage to Park.

Wenger actually had the chance to Sign Anelka when he was very good and out of contract. For Nothing. And let Bendter go.

Sometimes you don't even need to spend a Lot of money to improve.

Anelka or Odemwingie instead of Bendtner for that chance at the end of the game vs Barcelona?

From 2008 we knew, everyone knew we needed a goalkeeper.

Not a world beater.

Just a very good very solid goalkeeper. Not neccessarily technically brilliant. Just a goalkeeper with a lot of bottle.

Brad Friedel we could have got him from Blackburn.

Wenger could not see that Almunia was not strong enough.

He couldn't see how it would help the young guys coming through: Fabianski, Sczezney to learn from a guy who was maybe not great technically, but mentally on top of his game.

Brad Friedel was available for next to nothing from Blackburn. He would have jumped at the chance of Champions League football. But we didn't go in for him.

(It would have been good business for us (and for the league as a whole) to have The U.S. No 1 in a team competing for domestic honors.)


When Friedel was taken. We could still have got Schwarzer for a very decent fee.

It took Fabianski and Almunia producing absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to ignore Horror Performances for Us to finally put in a half arsed bid for Mark Schwarzer.

Fabianski. as a young goalkeeper died in that game vs Porto when he

a) the pressure got to him and he scored a very soft own goal from a cross which he had caught.

b) picked up a back pass under absolutely no pressure after we'd worked hard for an equalizer


c) was not watching his goal or anywhere near his goal line as The Ref gave the free kick to Porto. The Porto players organised themselves for the free kick. And The ball was shot into an empty net.


We knew we really needed to get in someone.

And Mark Schwarzer really wanted to come.


But we had to haggle over a nothing amount.

Had we got Schwarzer in goal in the cup final crumble v Birmingham, Would he have made a rookie error like Sczezney, Leaving his line to go for the same ball as his CB without any kind of communication to go with it.

To answer the question:

How much is enough for Arsenal to spend.

Whatever is required at the exact moment we have a chance at signing a player who will improve us.

If that means £0.000 to sign Anelka in 2008 then enough = nothing.
If that means £50.000 000 to sign Suarez in 2013 then enough = £50 000 000.

Joel Campbell is someone right away who can improve us. It helps that we already own him. He cannot be less effective than Nicklas Bendtner or Yaya Sanogo or Park.

Giroud might as well be sold off. Whatever we can get from him can go towards absorbing the cost for someone like Cavani. The money we won't be paying him in wages if we sell him can go to absorbing the wage cost of someone like Cavani.

Selling off one of Podolski/Cazorla to absorb the cost of triggering Reus's release clause would not be a bad idea. The wages we wouldn't be paying them could go towards absorbing the cost of his wages.

Enough = Whatever it takes.

Arsenal Times | [www.gov.uk]

wenger allows extraneous matters like loyalty, pride, sentiment, and protecting fragile egos to interfere with making common sense roster management decisions.

he does not construct a proper side.

he leaves positions staffed by weaker players that he chooses not to replace.

he ignores depth behind the quality players that we do have, he overplays the talent, and then bleats pitifully about his "bad luck" when their bodies break down.

he carries a lot of dead wood along with their wages on his final roster.

for someone who is so enamored with bringing in youngsters in the academy, he does a horrible job of actually using and developing that youth at the top level.

Quote:

Shane
There was a degree of panic surrounding the Ozil deal. Unequivocally so, in my view.
When did we start to panic? I don't know; it could have been after Luis Suarez slipped through our fingers or after Aston Villa beat us 3-1, but something or someone lit a fire under Wenger at one point toward the end of that summer because he certainly didn't go into that window planning on smashing our record transfer fee with the £42m signing of Mesut Ozil. No chance.

As is often the case with Wenger, there was absolutely no contingency plans in place - or was Luis Suarez our plan-b option incase we missed out on Higuain? Was the better, more expensive player our fall-back option? Was he f*ck. Wenger acted as he went along rather than knowing in advance what he was going to do. I know this because, despite trying to sign a very good striker, we didn't get one.

We went from Higuain, to Suarez, and then a last-minute loan bid for Demba Ba. Does it look like Wenger planned that sequence of events or was he just making it up as he went along?

We swept an entire summer's worth of negligence under the carpet the moment Jim White announced that we signed Ozil but, as they say, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and Wenger never, ever learns from mistakes. He has a worrying tendency to repeat them.

If Wenger has learnt from previous mishaps he'll know right now who he's going to sign to make Arsenal better, and we'll know soon enough whether or not he has learnt from the errors which led to him speaking German to Mesut Ozil last September.

just saw this.

Theodore roosevelt - In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Quote:

Ares
You know what annoys me the most.
Sometimes we do not have to spend that much.

Example:

Would Arsenal really have been worse off if we'd paid out Bendtners contract a couple of years ago, Signed Peter Odemwingie for Cheap, And never spent however many millions we've spent paying out a wage to Park.

Wenger actually had the chance to Sign Anelka when he was very good and out of contract. For Nothing. And let Bendter go.

Sometimes you don't even need to spend a Lot of money to improve.

Anelka or Odemwingie instead of Bendtner for that chance at the end of the game vs Barcelona?

From 2008 we knew, everyone knew we needed a goalkeeper.

Not a world beater.

Just a very good very solid goalkeeper. Not neccessarily technically brilliant. Just a goalkeeper with a lot of bottle.

Brad Friedel we could have got him from Blackburn.

Wenger could not see that Almunia was not strong enough.

He couldn't see how it would help the young guys coming through: Fabianski, Sczezney to learn from a guy who was maybe not great technically, but mentally on top of his game.

Brad Friedel was available for next to nothing from Blackburn. He would have jumped at the chance of Champions League football. But we didn't go in for him.

(It would have been good business for us (and for the league as a whole) to have The U.S. No 1 in a team competing for domestic honors.)


When Friedel was taken. We could still have got Schwarzer for a very decent fee.

It took Fabianski and Almunia producing absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to ignore Horror Performances for Us to finally put in a half arsed bid for Mark Schwarzer.

Fabianski. as a young goalkeeper died in that game vs Porto when he

a) the pressure got to him and he scored a very soft own goal from a cross which he had caught.

b) picked up a back pass under absolutely no pressure after we'd worked hard for an equalizer


c) was not watching his goal or anywhere near his goal line as The Ref gave the free kick to Porto. The Porto players organised themselves for the free kick. And The ball was shot into an empty net.


We knew we really needed to get in someone.

And Mark Schwarzer really wanted to come.


But we had to haggle over a nothing amount.

Had we got Schwarzer in goal in the cup final crumble v Birmingham, Would he have made a rookie error like Sczezney, Leaving his line to go for the same ball as his CB without any kind of communication to go with it.

To answer the question:

How much is enough for Arsenal to spend.

Whatever is required at the exact moment we have a chance at signing a player who will improve us.

If that means £0.000 to sign Anelka in 2008 then enough = nothing.
If that means £50.000 000 to sign Suarez in 2013 then enough = £50 000 000.

Joel Campbell is someone right away who can improve us. It helps that we already own him. He cannot be less effective than Nicklas Bendtner or Yaya Sanogo or Park.

Giroud might as well be sold off. Whatever we can get from him can go towards absorbing the cost for someone like Cavani. The money we won't be paying him in wages if we sell him can go to absorbing the wage cost of someone like Cavani.

Selling off one of Podolski/Cazorla to absorb the cost of triggering Reus's release clause would not be a bad idea. The wages we wouldn't be paying them could go towards absorbing the cost of his wages.

Enough = Whatever it takes.

This is why Wenger needs to go and why blaming everything on City/Chelsea simply does not work.

We didn't need to spend £100m.

League was there for the taking in 07/08, 09/10 and 10/11.

Almost everything on this thread is spot on. Its anything but a moaner's thread.

The GK situation, playing arshavin up top, playing silvestre and sol vs barca, are just some of the times when spending even 4-5mn could have made a difference.

Sept 1st 2015 is the real break point for me.

Like tiger's already said, we can easily cut down the 60-65mn price of someone like Cavani by selling Giroud for 15-20.

There is unspent money in the account as confirmed by AST.

Even if it isnt Cavani and its loic remy, i'd be ok if we have strenghtened the squad with perfect replacements for sagna,fabianski, a new DM like bender etc.

The figure for me is atleast a net spend 50mn excluding contract improvments.

Whatever the plan, it cannot revolve around a recovering diaby even if he has a wonder season as that plan is not logical. Its wishful thinking at best

As long as Wenger is charge, it will more of the same for next season. As long as Arsenal is financially successful on the pitch and off it, Silent Stan will not make any changes.

If we sell Giroud to get cavani, who will the back up be?
If we sell everyone to get upgrades, we'd still need 3 extra players. Or does everyone honestly believe if we buy better players, then we won't have injury problems, or a need to rotate?!

I'm not even going into they 'Wenger will never change' argument. Suffice to say, Wenger has always worked within his means, he just has a whole lot more means to work within now.

Quote:

CazOnARola
Almost everything on this thread is spot on. Its anything but a moaner's thread.

You can't say it's not completely a moaner's thread when you have someone like Tigre posting three times in 22 posts. That Trojan fellow, Padre, gunnersingh, PK and Karsene, they're all bunch of moaners. Shane's got a decent post to be fair, but it's built entirely on things he has no clue about. So why say it unless he's just moaning? Put all their posts together and you have more than half of the thread saying nothing but moaning.
The best posters on this thread remains Eduardo, Philly, and a constructive criticism by Ares. It's hard to argue with what Ares wrote really, but one thing I'll say to him is, there was a time when spending an extra 2 million looks like climbing mount Everest at Arsenal. And why wouldn't that be when our two main sponsorship deals was worth only about £12m per annum? Add that to the fact that the world was in economic melt-down, we had stadium debts to pay, and we were practically selling out best players to stay at the top. From this perspective one can see why giving an extra 5k to Flamini or to Ashley Cole might be deemed too much by those running the club's finances. Wenger went for Alonso when most people didn't rate him so highly, even Loserpool thought it was ok to sell him to a rival, but paying an extra 2m was too steep for the club. It's all looking easy now after seeing us spend 42m on Ozil, but the truth is, no one knew the realities of Arsenal finances at the time. Some fans don't seem to know where we're coming from - they don't seem to understand why the club owners are eternally grateful to Wenger.

"A club is a union between players, supporters and directors". - Wenger.
Arsene wenger has done an absolutely masterful job within the constraints he has... Every single year, he has outperformed our spending every single year he has been manager. It is extraordinary. -Gazides.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:08:23:52:27 by De Times.

De times,
the reason i said its not a typical "moaner"s thread is because most of the criticism on this thread is surprisingly constructive.

I completely agree with you that we were a selling club adn sold our best players to balance the books.

But i dont agree on the 2mn part, simply because we could easily have been out of the champions league and where would the 15mn come from then. So obv there must be a contigency plan.

If i remember correctly, you get more money when u finish higher in the table or progress to the next round of the UCL.
Am talking about esp the GK and CB crisis. Not getting schwarzer cost us badly that year.

I dont think we could have done anything in january this year seeing as chelsea couldnt get a ST.
As far as B2B to replace ramsey goes, we had less than a week for that which is not enough time to get someone of that ilk to come to you for 4-6 weeks.

The mistake was made in the previous window. At some point one has to hedge our bets. Even if it meant signing higuain and not getting ozil.

Philly,
We played with Giroud an entire season, why cant we take the same gamble with Cavani?
After all, sanogo has more exp under his belt and you can have joel campbell and Akpom to replace Bendtner and Park.

Plus like many been saying, theo and podolski are "good back up strikers".

I'm willing understand that mistakes were made in the past and the management took a decision which they thought was prudent.

But Sept 2015 is judgement day for me

Because we got lucky this year Caz. You wanna take that risk again?
As for theo and podolski being good back ups. tbh I'd say theo has a fair shot at it, but after his injuries this year, is it not a gamble to rely on him again too? IMHO we need upgrades to put everyone farther back in the selection list. Not to get rid of the back ups (theo should stay at rwf, or else we'll need to spend money on that position too).

Stop moaning about other posters and say what you have to say about the issues De Times.
If you ran this forum it would read like a Maoist wall poster or Pravda and we would all die of boredom.

Arsenal are a wealthy club with a war chest of at least £100 million, the debt is of normal business proportions not like Mna U that is carrying over 500 mill of Glazers debt.
Yet the club puts up ticket prices by 3% and due to cup rounds most regular supporters will ahve to pay 10% more next season, most of these supporters havent had a pay rise on 6 years, but poor little Arsenal are hard up. Well if they are hard up so are the rest of us but even more so.
Except they are not hard up next season the revenue will be 2nd highest in the league, plucky poor little Arsenal doesnt wash anymore.
We started the season with only one proper striker and surprise surprise he got exhausted.
Arsenal have scored only 60% of the goals that Citeh and Poll have scored. If you want to win league you ahve to have quality goal scorers.
So if they dont spend we wont spend. Next sson apart from my ticket I am not buying a programme, merchandise or a drink off them, if everyone else did the same it would pressure them into acting.

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

I haven't bought any merch' for about 3 years anyway.
Stopped going before this season started too. Not sure they noticed tbh.
Makes no difference for me. It's not like i'm going to blow all my savings on a new replica kit if they buy Cavani!

Caz, most of the criticism are not really constructive if you look at it closely. Shane's for example, not one line is based on fact. It's a post built entirely on cluelessness, assumptions and misconstruction.
But like I pointed out, Ares has the only constructive criticism in this thread. Still, a large part of it has been answered by Philly's post. What we need are two strong players per position, you can't sell Giroud because you want to buy Cavani. We didn't do poorly in that department because Giroud was poor but because there was no one to replace him when the burden was too much. For a start I don't even think there is too much gap between them, and I don't think Cavani is nearly as healthy as Giroud. You see the number of minutes Giroud has played for us this season, only Drogba in recent history can do that as a lone striker.
Yes, you can sell either Caz or Podolski to help get Reus, but Caz is a different player to Reus, Caz can play as the attacking midfielder when ozil is out. And Podolski offers more goals than Reus. It's easy saying these things when you're not the manager. The main thing for me is, give a target to a manager, allow him to do it his way, if he doesn't meet it he's failed if he meet it he's succeeded. Simple. No need pretending to be the coach.
As for not signing Scharzer and the likes, I was one of the earlier people who first got mad at our not being able to pay the few extra penny to get what we needed. Ribbery for example, I thought it was a done deal, and really got mad when we couldn't seal the deal because of a few extra bucks (now I'm pretending to know more than I do). But the fact is it went on for too long, happened too many times for it to be utter stupidity to not seal off the deals because of a few bucks. Common sense will then tell you we were operating an extremely tight budget. We were losing very loyal quality players because we couldn't pay them an extra 5k per week (2.6m per annum), why then do you think we could've agreed to pay the same amount towards acquiring the services of an aging keeper like Scharzer, when Almunia at the time was even considered good enough for England. Perspective, common sense and logic. Getting silvestre for 750k, bringing Sol Campbell back, bring Henry back more than once, bigging Bendtner up to be something special when he was clearly a dogshite. The things people use to mock him with. It was either Wenger was extremely stupid or helpless, and I know which is the likely possibility. But like I said, people don't even know where we were coming from, yet the club owners are eternally grateful to Wenger.

"A club is a union between players, supporters and directors". - Wenger.
Arsene wenger has done an absolutely masterful job within the constraints he has... Every single year, he has outperformed our spending every single year he has been manager. It is extraordinary. -Gazides.

All arguments here are redundant. If Wenger stays, nothing changes. It will be more of the same. Deja vu.

I agree with you on the fact that we cannot claim to know the exact truth since none of us are in that board room and everything is speculation and hearsay at best.
I have had no issues with our policies till now if things change in the future, that clearly justifies what been done before.
I'm even willing to forgive us waiting for an entire window and noy signing a st as long as things change next year.

cause what is not speculation is that the balance sheet shows something else. since the new deals come into force this year I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for protecting this pile as contingency.

But with the new deals and a relatively stable first team, it will be very disheartening for me if we didn't take slight risks this year.

selling giroud was just a suggestion. I mean the same thing as you. we all know we have to improve in certain areas. as long as the manager does so, I don't care if it's Cavani or Remy as long as we improve our points total again next year and challenge beyond March and do better in the big games

Quote:

CazOnARola
Almost everything on this thread is spot on. Its anything but a moaner's thread.
The GK situation, playing arshavin up top, playing silvestre and sol vs barca, are just some of the times when spending even 4-5mn could have made a difference.

Sept 1st 2015 is the real break point for me.

Like tiger's already said, we can easily cut down the 60-65mn price of someone like Cavani by selling Giroud for 15-20.

There is unspent money in the account as confirmed by AST.

Even if it isnt Cavani and its loic remy, i'd be ok if we have strenghtened the squad with perfect replacements for sagna,fabianski, a new DM like bender etc.

The figure for me is atleast a net spend 50mn excluding contract improvments.

Whatever the plan, it cannot revolve around a recovering diaby even if he has a wonder season as that plan is not logical. Its wishful thinking at best

Caz, I believe that you have confused me with somebody else. I have NEVER suggested selling Giroud. He is a perfect no. 2, complemental striker. And we definitely need to have more than one quality front man on the roster.

My complaint has always been that wenger knew that Giroud was not a no. 1, that wenger dithered last summer instead of securing a no. 1 striker, and that he FAILED to do his job to construct a proper squad. And nobody can say that poverty was a valid excuse for that level of neglect. Instead, wenger kept bendtner on the active roster - seriously, he really did that. Our scoring suffered badly.

In fact, I am amazed at Giroud's level of stamina.
I pointed out elsewhere that Giroud gave us 3007 out of a possible 3330 minutes in the League this year. That is superhuman stuff. It is not Giroud's fault that he had to play so much - IT IS WENGER'S FAULT.

IMO, Giroud is an unsung hero - sure, he got worn down as the season went on, but we would have been a shambles had he not put in those shifts.

Credit to you Tigre for finding an unsung hero in Giroud. But you admit that he's a "perfect no.2 complemental striker", and you admit that "wenger knew that" as well. If that is true, then it makes perfect sense that Wenger was right to go for a striker better than Giroud, a number one striker. Also, if you admit that Giroud has put in something like a "superhuman stuff", then you will also agree that it takes a striker of the calibre of Suarez to put him on the bench, which means that Wenger was right also to pursue only the strikers in that bracket. Considering this simple logic, it means that Wenger knew what he wanted and actually went for it, which therefore debunks the ludicrous assumption by Shane and co that Wenger didn't know what he wanted. I don't know of any one coach who is more forward thinking than Wenger.
The moaners are saying Wenger should've signed just any striker, as long as he's better than Bendtner. The moaners are talking in the short time and with the benefit of hindsight, but Wenger has a duty to take actions that affect our future. Going for Ba on loan and keeping Bendtner when the loan move for Ba wasn't successful were actions meant only for the short time. Going into the season with Giroud, Podolski, Walcott Bendtner and Sanogo as our main strikers was again an action meant only for the short time. Assuming both Podolski and Walcott didn't miss most of the season, we would've still won the league. Trying to add an average striker, a lot of who cost a lot of money nowadays, just so he can play for six months is taking preparation for the short time too far. It's the sought of thing managers who can't manage properly do, and something only clubs with unlimited amount of money can afford. Still it wouldn't make any difference like Chelsea found out in the case of Salah. But Chelsea can live with a trial an error approach like that, what some people would call speculate to accumulate. Arsenal on the other hand don't have that same luxury. We account for every penny we spend, and spending on one player you don't really need in the long time is taking away some of the resources that would've helped you acquire the player you really need in the long time. Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

"A club is a union between players, supporters and directors". - Wenger.
Arsene wenger has done an absolutely masterful job within the constraints he has... Every single year, he has outperformed our spending every single year he has been manager. It is extraordinary. -Gazides.

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

Chelsea did not sign any striker in Jan but did signed Eto in Aug. We need a quality striker and we have two transfer windows to do business and yet we signed a useless french who nearly became a postman. Answer me then. Why didn't we sign any decent striker in any of the two windows?

DT, yes, we agree that wenger's intentions during the summer window was appropriate. we needed a no. 1 striker to be backed up and complemented by giroud. last year, giroud was no. 1, but played like a no. 2, while gervinho was a no. 2, who simply and completely lost confidence.. that was not good enough so wenger sold gervinho and sought to add a true no. 1.

higuain adapted well in italy and he probably would have done the same here and with him, we might very well have won the league. wenger came close to getting it right. his instincts were on target.

but wenger blinked and could not close the deal.
perhaps he naively got charmed or misled by the suarez camp?
perhaps he got cold feet when napoli upped the ante with its bid?
whatever happened, we lost higuain and he was probably our best chance to upgrade the striker position.

then, after an eternity, we were roughly told that suarez was not for sale.

then what?
Time to implement the safety net?
what? There was no safety net? how can that be?
there was no contingency planning whatsoever.

you say that wenger cannot be held responsible to add to the squad by simply making a deal for the short time. BUT, the summer is when you construct the squad for the upcoming season and all of the potential glory that it offers. planning for an entire season is NOT short time. you are supposed to prepare at the start of the season.

you talk about podolski and walcott playing at striker as if they were considered to be viable options there by wenger. that is just not true. both pod and walcott have been tried there briefly, but with limited success. wenger was actively looking for a top striker instead of those longshot choices.

the point is that wenger dithered and got caught short.
he did not even give himself enough time to have a meaningful chance to even get another no. 2 striker to split time with giroud. Having two no. 2s would have been a LOT better than having one lonely no. 2 striker. Ba would have fit that category, but did anyone besides wenger really believe that mourinho would loan us Ba? let me know the next time that Jose does Arsene a favor.

a couple of days ago, DT, you made the most excellent observation that fatigue is a very big problem in sport.
I agree.
and injuries happen, too.
That is why I am so meticulous about watching our depth at every position and why I am so critical of wenger's roster management when he leaves holes in the depth chart and overplays his starters to the point of breakdown.

there is no way, NO WAY AT ALL, that anybody can look at what wenger did with the striker position last summer and agree that he did his job.

Nobody can justify Arsenal playing an entire season with a back-up striker - supported by a raw youngster and a cast-off malcontent.

wenger did not get a second striker for this club.
he dithered and danced and he FAILED.

the team, and Giroud in particular, suffered for wenger's FAILURE to properly construct this team.

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

Nonsense post, Chelsea let better strikers than we have go out on loan, Mourinho didnt feel he was down on strikers

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

oh padre, how many times this season has Mourinho lamented his lack of quality in the striker department, he even said he did not have any real strikers, he has again this week said its his priority to sign a striker this summer as its their most pressing need

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

That's the mentality of a loser. If my neighbours don't cut their grass, it doesn't mean I don't have to. Look at yourself first, you can't affect what others do, but you can affect what you do.

Few points for you Tigre:
1, Planning for the entire season may not be short term, but getting a striker for only one season is preparation for the short term. We have a 25 man squad, we can't have 3 players for one spot. Besides, your average player would've become one of the deadwood with which to slate Wenger when this season starts. I can't go on explaining to you why signing an average striker for just this season mean spending millions in preparation for the short term, which in-turn translate to mismanagement for a club competing with 3 rich clubs.
2, In the system we play, Walcott and Podolski are considered as strikers, they don't have to play in exactly the same position as Giroud.
3, You talk about our squad depth, we have two very capable players per position. Compare our squad to that of Chelsea and ManCity, they don't have more numbers. The difference is we were unlucky with injuries. Cazorla was injured from the start of the season, then Podolski and AOC followed after an excellent start to the season. Can't even remember when Walcott got injured. Take away these four players and what happened is the remaining players got overplayed. Look at the defence where we even have less personnel, but it's all gone well because they were all fit and available. Monreal and Gibbs can't complain about match time. Vermaelen has had a decent run in the team despite mert and kos needing to form a long term stability. So, saying Wenger overplay his first team players, while ignoring the injury that force him to do so, is merely moaning for the sake of it.

"A club is a union between players, supporters and directors". - Wenger.
Arsene wenger has done an absolutely masterful job within the constraints he has... Every single year, he has outperformed our spending every single year he has been manager. It is extraordinary. -Gazides.

Quote:

De Times
Few points for you Tigre:
1, Planning for the entire season may not be short term, but getting a striker for only one season is preparation for the short term. We have a 25 man squad, we can't have 3 players for one spot. Besides, your average player would've become one of the deadwood with which to slate Wenger when this season starts. I can't go on explaining to you why signing an average striker for just this season mean spending millions in preparation for the short term, which in-turn translate to mismanagement for a club competing with 3 rich clubs.

I apologise if I do not understand your reasoning here, but:

~ wenger DID carry Bendtner on Arsenal's 25-man squad this year. Don't you agree that bendtner has been Dead Wood for at least three years?

~ Does it not appear that bendtner was on the roster as a "short term" solution to not signing a no. 1 striker? It sure seems like it was a last-second decision.

~ wenger DID carry giroud, sanogo, and bendtner on the 25-man roster - that is THREE players for one spot.

~ did wenger overplay giroud?

~ with 2 players at every position, there are three spots left over 25 = (11x2) + 3. Ideally, where would you add those extra bodies? generally, I believe that a third striker makes sense ... if you have three who can contribute, that is.

~ FYI, walcott started the first 7 games with only 1 goal and 1 assist. He then missed 13 games following abdominal surgery of an undisclosed nature. when he returned, he initially made three relief appearances followed by 6 consecutive starts in which time he accumulated 5 goals and 2 assists. he tore his ACL in a non-contact injury vs totts ... it was the only game in which he started as the striker.

Quote:

Beyond

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

Chelsea did not sign any striker in Jan but did signed Eto in Aug. We need a quality striker and we have two transfer windows to do business and yet we signed a useless french who nearly became a postman. Answer me then. Why didn't we sign any decent striker in any of the two windows?

I'll answer your absolutely transparent avoidance of a proper question when you answer DT's. Might I also point out to you that Chelsea's 3 strikers between them have been out done by Giroud on his own. Plus we can still win a trophy. Who needed a striker more?

Quote:

gunnersingh

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

That's the mentality of a loser. If my neighbours don't cut their grass, it doesn't mean I don't have to. Look at yourself first, you can't affect what others do, but you can affect what you do.

Who's the loser? Giroud out scored Torres, Ba and Eto'o together. Yet we fu(ked up because we didn't buy a striker?
Who's still got something to play for?

Absolutely shocked with some of the bs on this thread.
Unbelievable.

Quote:

tigerline
I apologise if I do not understand your reasoning here, but:

~ wenger DID carry Bendtner on Arsenal's 25-man squad this year. Don't you agree that bendtner has been Dead Wood for at least three years?

Players you call deadwood are players you don't use because you have better players in that position. Now we have Giroud, if last summer we'd bought an average striker for this season, say Ba, and then in this summer we sign a first choice striker for next season, say Falcao. Then we would have Falcao, Giroud, and Ba for one spot. Giroud can play over thirty league games
a season, and so can Falcao. Ba would eventually become your new deadwood, howbeit one that cost us millions to acquire. And we've seen that it's almost impossible to sell them straight up unless you're a club who don't mind how much you lost. So, it is because we're trying to avoid another case like Bendtner, that we didn't sign an average striker last summer.

Quote:

~ Does it not appear that bendtner was on the roster as a "short term" solution to not signing a no. 1 striker? It sure seems like it was a last-second decision.

Rewind the season back and it will always remain a last second decision, reason being that, we do not intend to buy any player in that type of bracket, unless we could find one on loan, someone like Ba. Besides, it appear Chelsea had agreed to give us Ba on loan for sometime, but changed their mind after they saw that we bought Ozil.

Quote:

~ wenger DID carry giroud, sanogo, and bendtner on the 25-man roster - that is THREE players for one spot.

Sanogo is an U21 player, like Gnabry, they don't count in the 25 man squad.

Quote:

~ did wenger overplay giroud?

Giroud played more than he would've played if we had Walcott and Podolski available for most of the season.

Quote:

~ with 2 players at every position, there are three spots left over 25 = (11x2) + 3. Ideally, where would you add those extra bodies?

Three goalkeepers, so 2 spot left over. Those two spots are not normally filled, in the event that you lose all of your goalkeepers and may have to bring one more in, or bring in a Kalstrom etc. It would be poor management not to have those two spots unfilled.

Quote:

generally, I believe that a third striker makes sense ... if you have three who can contribute, that is.

That is when you're playing fantasy football.

Quote:

~ FYI, walcott started the first 7 games with only 1 goal and 1 assist. He then missed 13 games following abdominal surgery of an undisclosed nature. when he returned, he initially made three relief appearances followed by 6 consecutive starts in which time he accumulated 5 goals and 2 assists. he tore his ACL in a non-contact injury vs totts ... it was the only game in which he started as the striker.

Prove that he can actually start as a striker. But he didn't need to start as a striker to reduce the burden on Giroud.

"A club is a union between players, supporters and directors". - Wenger.
Arsene wenger has done an absolutely masterful job within the constraints he has... Every single year, he has outperformed our spending every single year he has been manager. It is extraordinary. -Gazides.

Apologies, it was Ares.

And I mean the same thing, do whatever it takes to improve every year.

The biggest thing is not losing players, continuity is the single biggest factor in a team game. City's core players have been here for a while now.

My only gripe was our fkups with GK and CB situations.

Nobody is perfect, Arsene has made mistakes like any human being would have.
I'm sure initially podolski was targeted to play as a 9, but he failed to blossom there, he started there more often at the start of his career with gervinho,theo and giroud all taking turns till arsene finally settled on his best team this year.

I think signing higuain would not have improved us as much as ozil did or both would have, cause we were creating less chances than anyone else in front 4.

We have suffered again this year in the second half because of injuries to ozil,walcott.

As ive said at other times on here, i dont think we will sign a 50mn ST cause we have a squad to build and even 70mn is not enough for that, but if we spend and buy decent players for all those positions, all will be forgotten and we will be stronger next year

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

Beyond

Quote:

Philly the kid

Quote:

De times: At his very best...
Why is it somehow acceptable that Chelsea didn't sign striker in January because they couldn't find one good enough for them, but Arsenal is slated for not signing just any striker?

Bra-fu(king-vo!!!!

DT, take a bow mate.
Any takers care to answer this lil gem of a question?

Chelsea did not sign any striker in Jan but did signed Eto in Aug. We need a quality striker and we have two transfer windows to do business and yet we signed a useless french who nearly became a postman. Answer me then. Why didn't we sign any decent striker in any of the two windows?

I'll answer your absolutely transparent avoidance of a proper question when you answer DT's. Might I also point out to you that Chelsea's 3 strikers between them have been out done by Giroud on his own. Plus we can still win a trophy. Who needed a striker more?

Philly it's not which strikers are better. It's why we failed to buy one in any of the two transfer windows when we clearly needed one. Mourihno knew he needs a striker after he failed to buy Rooney and he bought eto. Yes eto is not that good anymore but at least mourihno did what he needs to do. What did wenger do? We have the money and two transfer windows to buy a striker and which striker did he buy? You know who he bought and that's unacceptable.

Mourinho, while pro-active, now has a $hit striker with massive wages stuck on his books.
If there were better options available, why didn't he take them?
And, If there weren't better options available, who was Arsene supposed to bring in?

Quote:

Philly the kid
Mourinho, while pro-active, now has a $hit striker with massive wages stuck on his books.
If there were better options available, why didn't he take them?
And, If there weren't better options available, who was Arsene supposed to bring in?

I laughed when people like you who said there are no better players available or no better manager who can replace wenger. This is a lame excuse people keep using to defend wenger. There are better options around. If wenger failed to buy a quality strikers in the upcoming transfer window are you going to say the same thing and the same for every window?

Laugh it up all you want, I'm not seeing you make any better suggestions.

As for "will I still make the same excuses this summer if you're right". No, because he'll probably nail it this summer. Whatever will you moan about then?
And if he doesn't, well, I'll feel more angry and let down than any of you negative fans.

Quote:

Philly the kid
Laugh it up all you want, I'm not seeing you make any better suggestions.
As for "will I still make the same excuses this summer if you're right". No, because he'll probably nail it this summer. Whatever will you moan about then?
And if he doesn't, well, I'll feel more angry and let down than any of you negative fans.

Is signing sanogo or Kallstrom better option? Dun make me laugh man. There are a couple of better suggestions but i see no point in telling you.

Good luck to you for keeping the faith with him. Even if he "nailed" it this summer it does not take away the fact that we have been trophyless for 9 yrs since 2005

Sanogo is one for the future. We did release a lot of youth players last year.
I've already said Kallstrom wasn't a great signing. But, it's not like there was much choice out there. He is a decent enough player, but, past his prime. He hasn't wasted our money, and he's off in the summer. What's the big deal?
We might not have won a trophy for a while, but we have got a new stadium. And now a decent squad with which to build upon, and , more importantly, the funds to do so.

I would rather him not signing any player. So what if he's free? He signed a injured player to cover for our injured players. What a joke that is. Besides he's not even good enough. What a utter stupid and meaningless signing that was just like park.

Wenger mentioned that he would not have signed him if he had two or three more days to do something. A whole month to do something + extensive scouting network + money and yet he can't find someone who's not injured and decent? Who are you trying to kid?

This isn't a moaning thread indeed.

"A club is a union between players, supporters and directors". - Wenger.
Arsene wenger has done an absolutely masterful job within the constraints he has... Every single year, he has outperformed our spending every single year he has been manager. It is extraordinary. -Gazides.

If wenger has done his job properly we would have kept the moaning just in the bedroom

Chelsea would still have 3 playable strikers for one position e.g. Torres, Ba & Eto whereas Arsenal had one.

Theodore roosevelt - In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Quote:

karsene16
Chelsea would still have 3 playable strikers for one position e.g. Torres, Ba & Eto whereas Arsenal had one.

our 1 striker has scored more goals than all 3 of them together.
Your point is?.....

Beyond you will find Mourinho did not do what needed to be done, his signing of Eto'o did not stop mourinho saying he has no strikers, or that he needs real strikers this summer, it got nothing done more than filling a squad place by someone Mourinho clearly did not rate good enough, in fact if anything Mourinho fecked up even more than Wenger by loaning out Lukaku who scored more goals for Everton than Eto'o, Torres and Ba managed between them for Chelsea.

and its funny you moaning like a little @#$%& about the Kallstrom signing cos he was injured, when you say you would rather he had signed no one at all, Kallstrom may not have featured much at all, but he had one major impact for us this season, scoring an important penalty in the FA Cup semi shoot out, for that alone he was a worthwhile signing, especially if we go on to win the FA Cup next saturday

*Signing Ozil is a signing Bergkamp type moment for Arsenal. It changes things utterly.*

Kallstrom signing was bizarre but it needs to be made clear wenger didnt have a month the sign him.

Without ramsey's set back, agger's tackle on wilshere, flamini's suspension, i doubt Arsene would have signed anybody for 6 weeks.

If anything, he brough him in as cover for ramsey in case he doesnt make it in 6 weeks since wilshere was out long term.

Ramsey suffered the set back in the last week of the window and Arsene had about 3-5 days I think.

Besides, Kallstrom just complained about pain and nothing came up on the x ray, he wasnt confirmed injured till he was having the medical and by then it was too late.

You may say why leave it so late, well tell me something when you have 5 days to find someone with some exp knowing fully well that the player would not feature at all when ramsey came back how easy is it to find such a player of any sort of quality who'll agree to sign for 6 weeks only to be benched/left out later.

The only reason Kim came was because he wasnt playing. SO his league and MLS were probably the only options.

And mourinho probably didnt make a blunder by letting lukaku go.
Lukaku wouldnt put in the defensive shift that his other strikers do.
How many did Ba score at newcastle and how has he performed for chelsea?

Mourinho can only play a certain way and when other teams set up to counter attack themselves, he 's found wanting.

Lukakau probably wouldnt have scored the same goals he has scored at everton.

Ba would have outscored giroud had he come here only loan with ozil,ramsey.cazorla, lukas here.

Mourinho will get his drogba like striker who's ready for a battle when chelsea go long, (costa probably) next season.

And he will back playing the same style he has been playing for years.

He admitted in several interviews when chelsea were having a tough time at the start of the season that the owner wants a different style of football( i think it was after the draw with everton at home).

Chelsea came back strong after they started playing hoof ball again cause he started feeling the pressure.

Lets not talk about Mourinho, he has been worse than Moyes since moyes actually doesnt have any pedigree anyway and stepped in to fill fergies shoes

Signing the worlds top assister will be one of the ingredients that make next season the real start of a new era for the gooners. People go on about Suarez, but if we had bought him we wouldn't have been able to sign Ozil.

We will sign a world class striker in the summer, then we'll have Ozil to supply him plus our other runners like Theo. There's just one more piece of the puzzle to be completed, plus a bit more muscle in central defence.

If I was a chelsea fan I would be criticising Mourinho for not buying a better striker.

However, I think what most people are trying to get at is that whereas Chelsea's problem was their lack of a star striker, all we really needed was just an alternative to giroud.

And anyways, just because chelsea didn't do something doesn't mean it's okay for wenger to follow suit.

As gunnersingh said, that is a mentality of a loser. I guess that's what winning F*** all for 9 years gets you.

I don't think it's so much about making the comparison there. More that we needed an upgrade on OG. And Chelsea, for all their money couldn't find someone of the level required either. There simply weren't any top drawer strikers available in January.
Had we signed someone who wasn't top quality, people would be back moaning about getting more deadwood again.