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

comfortable

signing from Madrid for sure , possibly 2 players. 

Still no cover at CB, DM

quite odd to be prepared to gamble this. 

ozil would be lovely but seems like such a odd choice considering we dont have a back up striker or no dmf or decent cb cover.....man how good was giroud this morning....ramsey continuing his great form, i love the workrate he puts in. flamini looked out of place for a bit but i think he will come right. Really wonder what wenger is plotting

Giroud is so dreamy.

Great win - him and Ramsey easily our standouts.

Arsene knows. I've been critical of our transfer dealings (or lack thereof) but you have to admire the sheer stubborness in Wenger's dedication to his  principles; quality over quantity, no doubt.

Don't agree with the re-signing of Flamini however; especially on a 3 year deal. He looked off the pace.

I think Flam will go well, but might be Nov-Dec for he's at the top of his game

paul, yeah I mean CB, GK

if either of DeMaria , Kaka, Ozil come in , add to a fit midfield (Arteta, Jack , Diaby , OX all back) then yes I agree #1 midfield in the EPL. 

enjoy the Wenger press conference on ArseTV but:

turn the questions feed up, can oly hear 25% of what uis asked

sort Wenger's mic!!! It's all E.Q. vibrations here....

Surely if Ozil is brought in, the plan is to use Poldoski/walcott up front as  pure striking option... given the likelyhood of 2 further midfield buys...?

i like that flamini's a talker on the pitch, not much of that goes on in our team

great game lads! I wish we had put a few more in. any news on jack? ive heard both he was sick and he got injured?

also, on the market, ive heard we have approached ba, ozil, fellani (again), and been rejected by di maria and benzema, any other wild claims out there?

KALOU

wild

Wenger:

on Jack Wilshere…
"He has a stomach bug, but nothing that will stop him from playing for England."

on if it's the same bug as Sagna had…
"Yes. What has happened to us, happened to Tottenham a few years ago."

that's awesome, bringing up 05/06 for no real reason, man i love arsene

In Wenger We Trust

who?

https://twitter.com/johncrossmirror

This. Amazing Derby, absolutely amazing. Watching Flamini slot it and just boss that midfield was fantastic. He is the most talkative midfielder I've seen from us in a long time! So passionate.

Had the most amazing seats, 2nd row back from the upper tier, clock end, all the action down our end. Including that last 5 minute siege. Chant of the day "1-0, and we spent fudge all"!

Interesting on here, most people saying they didn't think Flamini was that impressive. Everyone over here is absolutely raving about his performance, just the signing Arsenal needed etc etc.

Ozil sounds very close. John Cross is talking about Demba Ba. Still think another defender wouldn't go astray. A certain West Ham #2 would fit nicely into our squad I reckon.

i rated flamster massively yesterday - when jack signalled to come off I thought it could all go wrong, wilshere had played rather well up to that point and spurs' midfield was supposedly their strong point. Flamini farken bossed it though, looked like that was where he'd wanted to be all his life - in our midfield. Screamed, ran like a madman, crunched into tackles, generally he was 'boss' as el cholo would say.

I'm in agreement with you bopman. 

On the signings, wow, sh*t is going down... Ozil announcement expected any minute, cant believe that, what a player to sign. 

Viviano signed on loan apparently with an option to buy - that's Italy's 2nd choice GK to compete with Szczesny/Fabianski, so bit of depth in there now. 

Starting to sound like we're not going to get a striker with a late bid for Demba Ba turned down. Apparently Bendtner is set to go to Crystal Palace but only if we sign a striker. Not a bad option to hold onto until Jan if we've got no one else to back up Giroud, particularly with Poldi's injury. Bendtner hasn't played a while so is a gamble, but he knows Arsene, our systems and our style, it's all on Arsene to prepare him mentally which will be the problem. 

No sign of a CB. The only thing that is worrying me slightly now. Could've been so much worse though, so far we've signed a young striker, an experienced DMF who can cover fullback, a decent GK, and (hopefully) one of the best play-makers in the world. Not to be sniffed at?

We did get rid of a lot of dead wood as well. Still disappointed no new CB or striker.

This is pretty funny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO5nfQEqGOg

Bendtner is staying apparently, as the loan for Demba Ba has fallen through.... (Bendtner was going on loan to Crystal Palace)

The ozil deal was all but done, announcement expected any minute as of a couple of hours ago... but still nothing. Anyone else getting nervous now?

Sounding like it will be announced, maybe as late as tomorrow.

rumours that Ozil's former teammate at Werder, Per Mertesacker, was instrumental in getting him here.

That's five germans in our first team or reserves now, very good to have a gaggle of germs given their relative strength and depth in world football these days. 

ManU fast becoming the comedy act of the transfer window. Rumours that 'imposters' were involved in their failed negotiations for the midfielder Herrera, which has now fallen through. Unbelievable. 

Now the rumours are saying they could even miss out on Fellaini who was considered a lock at the start of the day. 

Oh my would that be funny. 

Do we have more money than them? It would seem so.

In saying that they'll probably hijack our Ozil deal and make me cry.

Ozil on sky sports germany saying he can't wait to play for arsenal,  apparently. Real have told LaLiga he has left. It's done

https://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/german-international-ozil-joins-arsenal  !!!!!!!!!

Ozil is a great signing. BUT it doesn't plug the gaps, alla striker/CB.

At CB we have

Vermalen, Kos, BFG, and cover from Sagna & Flamini.

It's not idea, but it's not terrible.

If you take the approach that with Theo or Lukas (when fit again) can play up front, with Sanogo as well, we're not too badly off, and tbh, given Giroud's form at the moment....

Oh.. and unless something changes in next 25, we do have Bendtner....

wow

we got him, that is huge

TV5 back from injury after the international break, guess arsene sees that as enough. Not sure myself. 

So our signings this window have been;

Sanogo (free)

Flamini (free)

Viviano (loan with option to buy)

Ozil (42.5 mil pounds apparently - nearly triple our previous transfer record - 15mil for Arshavin)

pretty stoked, didnt originally think we didnt a cam but ozil is pretty awesome. I think we paid a fair price for him. I still think we missed a trick by not getting a striker

I always assume 1 midfielder, 1 striker, and 2 defenders out injured our suspended...

Currently we have 2 strikers, 1 midfielder, and 1 defender out of action.

It could be OK, or it could be nervous...

i guess wenger must see something in sanogo that we cant, Bendtner isnt a bad striker but not the quality we should be offering up front. i guess once ox is back theo could be used as a striker? i still think he's best when playing out wide. Seeing united struggle to get players is funny as hell

I'm pissed we didn't sign a striker.

And, I'm pissed we didn't sign a defender.

However...

MESUT. FUCKING. OZIL!!!

I think the market has been difficult for strikers, that's why we haven't got one. Madrid were never going to let Benzema leave without getting Suarez. 

We obviously weren't interested in Soldado or Negredo.

Rooney stayed put. Suarez stayed put. Dzeko stayed put. 

Falcao and Cavani were always going to Monaco/PSG for big money. 

The ones we actually missed out on in my opinion were only Higuain and Jovetic. Don't think Arsene wanted to pay that much for Jovetic, who is still relatively un-tested, and Higuain I honestly think was a f*ck up from us. Sounds like we had that in the bag and let it slip.

Who is left? There were scratchier options floated like Kalou, but I wonder if we're just going to try again in Jan - maybe for Suarez or Benzema again, and try and hold the fort with what we've got til then.

Ozil. Get in! Cazorla and Bug-face running the show is going to be beautiful. Like Cesc and Nasri x10.

Would've loved if we got Ba. We are still looking very thin striking-stock wise. If we had gotten Gustavo and Higuain we'd be well on our way to a title-winning team.

This signing is a huge statement of intent.

And if you believe Gazidis (and look at our financial reports), we've still got more big cash available. 

Somehow I feel that transfer windows will be a lot more exciting for us in our brave new world!

yea i would've loved Ba too. Wenger has always liked him - apparently he was the plan B if the Giroud deal fell through last year, which it nearly did, because Bayern were interested, but luckily for us they signed Mandzukic instead. 

Ozil's signing is a huge statement of intent from Wenger and the board - finally we splashed some cash and got quality into the lineup! He'll slot right in to the 11 and give us the star quality we've been lacking. Next window will be the time to pick up the striker and/or CB.

This is quite a good piece on it;

https://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/arsenal/id/2220?cc=3436

Loved this:

"At this point, I would like to thank Tottenham Hotspur. While I think there were deals Wenger could and should have gotten done earlier in the transfer window, he did maintain that things would happen in the market generally near the deadline. Gareth Bale's move to Madrid has undoubtedly caused the domino effect of the club being willing to let Ozil go. Had Spurs resisted Madrid, I can't see how Ozil to Arsenal would have materialised. So after losing the North London derby, Spurs have also lost their best player and inadvertently helped Arsenal make one of their most exciting signings ever."

So this is our current injured list:

Podolski

Diaby

Oxlade-Chamberlain

Arteta

Vermaelen (probably due back next game though)

Obviously things will change in the next cupla weeks, but perhaps we're looking at line-up like this come our next match;

                    Szczesny

Sagna-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Gibbs

             Ramsey-Wilshere

          Walcott-Ozil-Cazorla

                      Giroud

ooh can you just imagine ramsey, wilshere, cazorla and ozil passing it amongst themselves? 

Crikey that's even without the likes of Arteta and Rosicky. We have midfield depth up to our eyeballs.