(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 2)

Lukaku wants Champions League

So why mention The Chq Book Chumps as a destination for him

First up best dressed

Lukaku is like for like with Giroud. I agree with Foal in that we don't want both of them in our squad. 

Morata is clearly more of a risk, but he's more the rapid style of striker Arsene's been looking for for years now - Higauin, Suarez, Walcott and Welbeck were all supposed to be that guy, first two didn't get over the line, Walcott hasn't delivered, and jury still out on Welbeck with this injury.

Welbeck was never supposed to be that guy to be fair. He was a deadline day panic buy because Giroud got injured and though he often leaves us short in a position, having seen Sanogo even Wenger wouldn't leave us with absolutely nothing. The alternative option at the time was Balotelli so we made the right choice, but he was never supposed to be the upgrade we need. Don't know how we failed to close the Higuain deal when it seemed done. For all our faults, the major problem is goals and with the amount of chances Ozil created we would have won the league this season with someone like him.

I would say it was more taking advantage of a bargain, given the cheap fee and his homegrown status. 

I'd also call it one of Wenger's gambles - Welbeck has all the skills, so may still end up being the striker we're talking about, but failing that he'd be just as important as a squad player for us if he doesn't reach those heights.

He would certainly offer more off the bench than Walcott, since Walcott appears to make zero impact as a substitute, and even perhaps more than Giroud considering Giroud can only play one position. 

I like having Welbeck here, good for the team, homegrown, and the potential is still all there, as we saw with his impact at the end of this season.

Jose Antonio Reyes won his fourth europa league this morning...

Has also won La Liga, the Premier League and the FA Cup, not bad!

He wasn't in the matchday squad though was he because I was looking for his name

Apparently not... does that mean he doesn't get a medal? Not sure...

If he does, it was actually his fifth europa league, left one out! 3 with Sevilla and 2 with Atletico.

After the final rounds results I had an acquaintance berating me that Arsenal were 'the most undeserving 2nd place team in the history of the BPL' as he tried to come to terms with Sp*rs bottling it. I just laughed it off knowing that spuds, SOTON, and the hammers were all his 'back up team'.

However karma is a b*tch - he is first and foremost a Liverpool fan.

What a choke.

Sour grapes. 

Table doesn't lie sunshine, we were the 2nd best team in the league this season.

We bottled winning this league against the lower teams - we never lost a game to the other top 4 sides, and we beat the champions twice. 

If we'd lost to all the top teams constantly but finished so high simply for being consistent against the poorer sides, then perhaps I'd think he has a semblance of an argument. 

In a knockout competition anything can happen on the day. But over the course of a league season the best team wins and everyone ends up where they should do.

Mirror reporting that the Xhaka offer was actually only 19mil... sounds like he really wants to come here, we've agreed personal terms, and now we're trying to lowball them... good tactic if it works, bad tactic if they get f*cked off and sell him to someone else!

Higuain again?

Meh, he isn't so good that I care about us lowballing him. If we get him, we get him. If not, we go for someone else.

It makes sense to lowball when considering how much he wants to come here + seeming lack of interest from any other big club.

Wasn't our opening bid for Sanchez reported to be 19 million? Must be a Dick Law tactic.

Didn't see this on the day...

Not arsenal but didn't know where to post this. Pretty interesting.

read that we are keeping walcott and but selling Sanchez! ahaha got to love the transfer rumour mill.

During the EPL era when SAF was at Man Utd, they won more EPL titles than Bayern Munich won Bundesliga titles.

Edit: and now that Leicester have won, the Bundesliga and the EPL have had the same amount of different clubs winning their leagues.

goofy666 just emailed me, saying that arsenal new zealand have said on their facebook page that today is the last day to register interest in their Sydney 2017 tour... not sure if people will want to go on their own or be part of a tour, but if you want to register interest, go here;

https://www.arsenalnewzealand.co.nz/supporters-club...

Interesting how times change.

The Bundesliga had four different winners between 2004 and 2009, but only two different winners since then (Dortmund twice, Bayern the rest). 

The EPL had only three different winners between 1996 and 2011, but has now had four different winners in four years...

The woodwork table: https://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2015-...

We would have won the title had every shot in the BPL gone in instead of hitting the woodwork!

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see this happen.

I believe Ozil will stay, but Sanchez is up in the air.

Probably do our own thing and make a holiday out of it for 1-2 weeks but have registered interest to see what deals they have too.

Why would he go? I know we didn't win anything this year but he hasn't exactly finished the campaign at his best. Nor have any of the traditional big 4 he could go to in the EPL outperformed us.

I think there's at least another season with both of them depending on the buys Wenger makes.

Because he can see the limitations of what we are doing and deserves better. I think he would look outside the EPL, it's hardly the best league in the world right now.

In saying so, I hope Sanchez and Ozil stay while other larger changes occur.

I'll be there in Sydney next year, hopefully its on the back of success next season.

Both Ozil and Sanchez will stay

It's  also highly possible we sign 2 big guns in the next 10 days and they both fudge themselves up playing international football.

what's your twitter name (handle? I'm a rookie) surge?

Keen to be involved Surge (am not on Twitter), and help if there's something I could assist with. Would be cool to get a Wellington thing going like the Liverpool guys have done.

Years ago I got in touch with the Arsenal NZ guy to try and help out from down here, but I got busy and I basically failed him miserably. 

Would be very keen to try again, and get a bit of a thing going down here. 

Thanks Paul and AJC, my Twitter is: www.twitter.com/smithyinwelly or you can email me: cory@surgedevelopment.co.nz give me a shout :)

We're also going to start doing a bit more on the Facebook page, so keep an eye out there over the coming months - it's going to be a big year to be Gooner down in this part of the world!

Cheers everyone!

Cool, just needs a group of us down here to get something happening.

So keen Surge! Keen to help out if possible. Those scouse bastards make me jealous as hell :-)

Yeah, they've done really well - can only doff my lid to them.

Though there's nothing stopping us doing similar - and now the team is coming to our neck of the woods next year I reckon it's a great time to get off our Arsenals and make something happen!

The main upshot of this is I now realise  SurgeQld is just Surge

I could see him going to Bayern to join Vidal.