(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 1)

everyone seems to be after jovetic and higuain seems like he's going to Juve :( back to square 1 for us

So we keep our current squad - add a couple of frenchman who've had a good season in Ligue 1 and that's our lot?... hmmm.

i'm sure we will pick up someone decent....who and when is the question

When asked in an interview Wenger said "who would say no to rooney?"

Hate Rooney but I guess that would be the type of signing to please a lot of fans. 

i can't see us smashing our wage structure to get rooney, he's a good player but not a great one.....i'm not a big fan either mate

So Rooney handed in a transfer request 2-3 years ago saying ManU lacked ambition and that they needed to sign higher quality players. 

They sign van Persie, he pushed Rooney out of the starting lineup, now he's handed in another transfer request.

LOL

Does anyone else get the impending sense of doom when you hear of Chelsea and City getting involved in the strikers we're keen on?

I don't get the buzz about Jovetic, he doesn't seem to have the goods like Higuain does.

Outside thought, apparently Gomez is available...thoughts?

The hard part is Giroud had a good season, 17 goals isn't something to be sniffed at. It would be a shame for us to get someone epic and then have him turn into Chamakah.

If we got someone Epic, Giroud could turn into the tooth fairy for all I care. The point is whoever is up front needs to produce results. if some new guy comes in and keeps Giroud on the bench, then that's only good for Arsenal FC

I rate Giroud... 

Gomez for competition would be nice. Yea Jovetic is getting linked with everyone now so I doubt that will happen.

I reckon we'll either get Rooney or Benteke. In other words, Benteke.

I've seen some unverified rumors today that Higuian is currently negotiating with Arsenal, which is interesting.

I've also seen some verified statements from him that Arsenal is appealing. Both are two very different things.

Fair point UG, the club comes first.

As for Benteke I wouldn't say know, even if we did land Higuian, he'd be a fantastic player to develop further, but I guess it would be at the exepense of other youth players coming through.

Oh, and Arshavin, Denilson, and Squillaci all confirmed gone for next season. That's got to be good for the wage bill! Combined they'd probably be on 150,000 pounds per week?

Arsh and Squillaci were reportedly on upwards of 60k per week each, and denilson is one of the last products of our ill-fated youth era where we terribly over-payed some of the young guys, only for half of them to leave and half of them to play crap and take lots of wages

the Sack busting out some fancy feet and leaving drogba in his wake!

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/per-mertesacker-unleashes-spin-move-didier-drogba-ballack-213805919.html?

apparently Tevez is going to Juve so that should ease their interest off higuain

I've read a number of times that we have the 4th highest wage bill in the EPL which surprised me. Obviously Chelsea, Man City and probably United are the three teams above us. The media always go on about our strict wage structure though.

This makes for pretty exciting reading;

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/ivan-gazidis-arsenal-can-now-take-on-big-boys-in-transfer-market-8648534.html

We do have a strict wage structure in that we don't pay anyone 'ridiculous' wages (highest is Theo on £100k,compared to the likes of Rooney and RvP on £250-300k, Torres, Terry, Lampard, Aguero,Yaya Toure on £200k+, etc).

I love that he talks about new revenue streams. All these years of frustrations because they've been building a business, rather than a chequebook champion type club, is very very appealing.

I read somewhere today that Wenger tried to spend in the summer but couldn't find the right players. Hopefully with a longer off season and some unsettled/relegated players (Rooney, Cesar, Higuan) there are some more appealing targets.

Lots of reports around that we've triggered fellaini's release clause, in the region of 20-25mil.

Don't know how true these rumours are but Skybet's odds on fellaini going to arsenal have gone from 16/1 to 6/4 overnight

WOW really, i'd be happy to have him on board

Happy?... I've got a semi!!!

like the cheque book chanpions reference

It is hard not  to get excited about the Fellaini rumours.

Like you all I hope this materialises, then we get Higuian/Benteke/Jovetic - still personally want Higuain by far the most of those 3.

Wanyama/Grenier rumours have gone cold in the last 24 hours, it is always so hard to know what is true and what is bs.......

Agreed, I'd be a happy little camper with fellaini + 1x world class striker + keep what we got

If we get Higuain I will be very happy. Classy striker with 107 goals in 187 for RM. 

Fellaini  would be a beast too...

Don't want to get too excited though, of course, I know how these things normally end. 

Higuain will go to Juve, I reckon. Fellaini is a possiblity, though.

Heard Tevez was possibly going to Juve. It's all bullshark anyway though really.

anything could happen

excitement like this usually ends badly

We've certainly had a good clear out:

 Andrey Arshavin, Samir Bihmoutine, Reice Charles-Cook, Denilson, Sead Hajrovic, Conor Henderson, Jernade Meade, Nigel Oldfield Spence-Neita, Joshua Rees, Philip Roberts, James Shea, Sebastien Squillaci, Sanchez Watt (all released), Kyle Evecilio (Twente, undisclosed), Martin Angha (Nuremberg, undisclosed), Craig Eastmond (COlchester, free).