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

Headed goals, hold up play and possibly near post finishes. They're completely different strikers. 

They are different, but Vardy showed this season to be better at all those things. It would be a upgrade and a massive signal of intent. Exotic names from foreign leagues can sometimes take a long time to settle and often flop despite big price tags so to sign the top scorer from this season's PL champions would be a huge coup. 

He plays a completely different type of football that Arsenal play, so either he will have to change or Wenger will.

Can't see AW changing.

My point is that I don't think Vardy is better at what I just listed. I'm not saying it's a bad signing by any means, I just took issue with your statement that Vardy was better than Giroud in every facet of the game. 

He's got wheels, he's hungry, and he can finish

Would suit Wenger's style just fine

I think the recent signings of Elneny and Xhaka indicate a change to a more fast counter attacking style and Vardy would be consistent with that too. In fact even signing a quick defender in Gabriel was a start, even if he may look like a bit of a dud at the defending part so far.

Didn't we activate Kante's release clause a couple weeks back? Don't think we will actually sign Vardy tbh, just seems unlikely.

24 goals this season ,5 last season. Is it a one year wonder. Maybe AW thinks that RVP did it so can this guy.

RVP was a class above Vardy and after watching England yesterday it was all too obvious. 

I like him but I'm glad he won't be coming to us.

He was never going to, he said he wants Champions League football. 

Actually on further inspection, 5 goals last season was when he was played out on the wing. This season he was played at centre forward. His form is too good for him to be left out so Hodsgon is playing him out of position on the wing so he can find a spot for Rooney. Playing players in the wrong positions in order to fit others into the team is something England managers always seem to do when it comes to the major tournaments. The smarter choice would be to play him and Kane up top and leave Rooney out.

He already has CL football, so why change. Neither club is going to win it anyway.

Surely by now you know which way the Europa League is. ?

https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/arsenal/news/...

Not sure how may CL titles you have won-- Please confirm.

Good piece from Arseblog on Vardy, pretty much nails it for me:

"It’s one of those stories that challenges you. Firstly, it’s a bit unexpected, because if there was a Leicester player we were after you’d have thought Riyad Mahrez would have been it. And if there was a striker we were going to try and buy, I wouldn’t have had him near the top of the list. Then there’s the fact Vardy is 29, a bit cheaty and a somewhat unpleasant character.

However, he scores goals. And as we know, in football scoring goals is more important than anything else. Being cheaty, racist, rapey, drunk drivey, druggy, or just generally evil, all of those things can be conveniently put to one side as long as you’re banging them in. And Vardy banged them in last season, no question about that.

The other thing that might give you pause for thought is the nagging feeling there’s a touch of the Michael Ricketts off him. He was a Bolton striker whose goal scoring hot streak saw them promoted to the Premier League and in his debut season had scored 15 goals by January and got called up for England. Then he stopped scoring, and his career trajectory crossed what’s known as the Jeffers Line, and he faded from memory like an old Polaroid.

Now, I think Vardy is better than that, but one glorious season in the Premier League at the age of 28/29 is still very much an outlier in terms of his career, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to harbour a little concern. I know he was a late bloomer, and I know that Ian Wright didn’t join Arsenal until he was 28, but Ian Wright was, you know, Ian Wright.

Still, I guess one of the things people wanted from this summer was to see something of a change from Arsene Wenger. He’s been criticised for being too cautious or too stuck in his ways, and if he’s going full out for Jamie Vardy, then that’s certainly something different. It is not the safe or easy option by any stretch of the imagination."

Yeah, arseblog usually echoes my thoughts.

I don't want him, personally. Man Utd have sold their soul and have gone for Mourinho (and now are getting the 2nd biggest egomaniac in world football, albiet a more entertaining one)

Who do you think it's going to prevail? Mourinho with his defensive, cynical tactics + Ibra, or Arsenal and Jamie f*cking Vardy? 

It's just not worth it to have a racist, scummy, cheating git like Vardy. He's not good enough to off-set those traits at all.

Seems like a Liverpool signing to me.

Agree with that. If he really only costs 20 million then it does seems a no brainer and he would be an upgrade. But I still believe in Victoria Concordia Crescit and I never wanted Suarez at my club for the same reasons so I guess need to be consistent. I don't think it will happen anyway.

With ManU getting ibrhamamovic by the sounds, this reminds me a little of two seasons ago when everyone said we'd missed the striker boat - them signing Falcao and us signing Welbeck was seen as our failure.

That turned out to be a good sign of the striker market. The best ones in the world (supposedly) are expensive and have no experience in this league. So very risky. 

Seems we've again attempted to take the more sensible step. Even with Welbeck's injuries we got the better end of things that time around. 

In fact no one except Chelsea with Costa has signed an overly successful striker in the past 2 seasons that I can think of of the top of my head just now? Striker is the toughest market when it comes to transfers so 20mil on Vardy is really an easy gamble in my opinion. 

Everton - Romelu Lukaku

That would only make sense if Giroud was leaving

I was trying to make the point that in last 2 years Everton signed Lukaku, who has experience in the league, etc. It's not impossible. 

I take your point though that it's problematic and variable.

I actually think Vardy would be an excellent signing for Arsenal - and at GBP20M good value. He's basically the finished version of the striker Theo Walcott wants to be. 

Sorry liberty, I get what you mean now. Yep he's one that didn't come to mind - definitely an example of a successful recent striker signing. 

I'm getting more excited about this potential Vardy signing (latest rumours suggest a medical tonight). Looks to me a direct upgrade on Walcott in the central striking role - so we have horses for courses, the big man we can play off in Giroud, and the fast finisher in Vardy, stretching the defence. With Welbeck to come back in mid-season as well. Good depth for one spot. 

Strong rumours persisting around the Dortmund attacker with the name I can't spell as well. 

Sounds like we're trying to get this done before England leave for the Euros tomorrow. Wonder if Wenger is trying to do a Ferguson in signing the best striker in the league in one final desperate attempt to win the title before retiring next summer.

Perhaps, but 2nd best striker in the league.

Player of the year, so I suppose you could in fact say best player.

Gabriel doesn't like eggs, doesn't watch television, and has never read a book.

We've had a drink driver captain our club before. In fact we even made a statue of him. So i'm not buying that argument at all.

Think it's a little fair to lump Tony Adams in with Suarez tbh. Adams had an incident off the pitch (not that it excuses anything but relevant to note he crashed into a wall and noone was harmed - when I was a kid my Dad told me he killed someone presumably trying to turn me away from Arsenal to join him) but turned his life around. Some people call alcoholism a disease, not sure what you call the things Suarez does. Don't believe his actions on the pitch ever made you ashamed to be an Arsenal fan. He was never a diver, racist, cheat or biter on the pitch. 

This guy usually seems reliable. Doesn't seem like us going so far with this with the player still undecided. Usually we have everything agreed with the player then it's down to agreeing the price with the club. Though I suppose it's different with there being a release clause.

Sounds basically confirmed.

Haven't been so torn on a signing for a long time.

Reminds me of Andy Carroll to LFC/any other English player to LFC. Has it ever worked out?

Daniel Sturridge

When did they last sign the player of the year and top scorer from the champions though? 

So perpetually injured then? 

Tbf i was more on about us signing Vardy, given Valeo's comments on the matter then you breaking out Victoria Concordia Crescit.

We have had divers in the past. Amongst current players Sanchez is guilty of it from time to time. Calling Vardy a racist because of one isolated incident is harsh and i think a little wrong personally. He knows he fudgeed up, he's since apologised, the apology was accepted, he has then been on a behavioral course and obviously wants to move on from the incident making sure he never repeats it in future.

We need to forget about this high and mighty bollocks, it's got us nowhere. Xhaka is meant to have a nasty streak about him, let's hope he does.

Totally agree, we've been crying out for some mongrel, and when we get it we need to be ok with some unpleasantries such as the odd red card and misdemeanor off the field.

Bring on Vardy, Xhaka, a quality CB and a backup goal keeper with Ospina going!

I'm all for a bit of mongrel on the pitch but I feel like there's a difference between toughness/aggression/mongrel on the pitch from someone like a Vieira or Xhaka and the shame and disrepute someone like say a Mourinho or a Suarez can bring to a club. But I guess with Vardy his assault thing came when he was 20 and the racist thing does appear to be one isolated incident where the word used may have just been ignorance or a lack of education more than anything else so he probably deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Deadline for the decision is 11.30 UK time (so 15 minutes from now) according to Ornstein. Not sure where it leaves us if he goes off to the Euros still undecided. Do we sit around waiting for England to get knocked out leaving all our eggs in this basket while the other big clubs have a chance to sneak in with an offer?

Video on Facebook of the England squad boarding their plane so hopefully he has given us an answer either way.

I'd say it's been done but they're giving LCFC time to find a replacement OR get Mahrez into the deal too (lol).

Bit of talk around that Vardy's changed his mind. Certainly were expecting this to be more or less confirmed overnight, but it hasn't been.

Interesting.