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

Nastasic rumors are still lingering.

If we can get him or a defender of his ilk I'd be pretty happy with our summer.

Let's be honest, we were never going to pay someone over £300k per week...

Well if City need to get him off the books, and are willing to drop a few million quid of his price, that coin can be converted into his salary.

We did it with Sol Campbell, ten years ago he was on 150k per week, as we got him on a free.

Nothing forthcoming on the CB/DM front.

Very disappointing. 

i dont mind welbeck but it just seems like a rushed/random decision....and  for 16mill for could have got Balo or Remy and a CB. Very very poor from gunners, No CB or DMF.

I'm not disappointed regarding getting Falcao.....300k thanks but no thanks

Huge error not getting that CB in. We may survive until Jan but we better blimmin well get one then. 

Apparently we've asked for an extension to complete the Welbeck deal after the window shut (4 mins ago)

Can't believe we do this every summer, scrambling to do business 2 minutes before the close of the window.

Welbeck is pretty pony and was never good enough for United but has to be better than Sanogo at least. Plus he's English and still young so shouldn't be hard to resell to someone like Stoke or West Ham if it doesn't work out. Have we ever signed anyone from United who was any good though? Or have we usually ended up with their dross while they have taken our stars?

Inexcusable and negligent to leave the defence in this state though. 6 defenders, one of them being Gibbs who is injured half the time and one being the 19 year old Chambers who is covering three fourths of it.

So if we assume Welbeck has signed then we get our "A" and "B" sides as something like this;

                      Szczesny

Debuchy-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Gibbs

                 Arteta-Ramsey

            Sanchez-Ozil-Cazorla

                         Giroud

                        Ospina

Bellerin-Chambers-Ajayi/Hayden-Monreal

                 Flamini-Wilshere

      Walcott-Chamberlain-Podolski

                       Welbeck

Plus: Rosicky, Campbell, Diaby, Coquelin, Zelalem, Sanogo, Gnabry

Plenty of depth except for at CB. To be honest If we get injuries there I suspect we'll see Monreal or Flamini before we see Ajayi or Hayden.

Bizarre decision to let Miquel go after all that transpired. Can only assume that Wenger was happy with Monreal's progress at CB in pre-season.

Selling Miquel is just Wenger at troll level 1,000. 

Can easily see us going to the Nou Camp in the CL 2nd round with a backline of:

Bellerin-Chambers-Monreal-Flamini

Walcott comes straight into the first 11 for me when fit.

Same for me.

Only chucked him in the B team to keep it neat and tidy with two for each position.

With Giroud out I'd play Walcott at striker ahead of Welbeck or Sanchez to be honest. I really think Theo will excel there given a chance this season and next. His finishing is excellent and he loves the outside-in run which Ozil would be lapping up all day.

Last season we had Kos, Mert and Verm, this season we have Kos, Mert and Chambers. RB we have Debuchy and Bellerin, LB we have Gibbs and Nacho. that's 7 very good defenders, some of whom can fill in other positions when needed. I'm Happy. I'm going to ignore this thread until the teen angst/transfer rage dies down... see you in 2015

That's our intentions of aiming for 4th place again.

United who don't have Champions League to offer can still go after Falcao while we get their leftovers in Wellbeck (still 100% unconfirmed I know). We charge the highest season ticket prices in Europe and pay the highest salary to a manager in the league yet we have 6 defenders and a front line trio of Giroud-Sanogo-Wellbeck (?).

Uber you're happy being let down time and time again? Angst is unjustified?

3 games into a PL season with a team that is better than the one that only finished 7 points short of the title winners. I think the hysteria is childish and a little ridicoulos

Nice spin. We could of done with another decent CB though. Competing in 4 competitions, one or two injuries and we are toast.

Everyone is running through all the worst case scenarios, speculating about the things they have no control over, and crying about things that haven't happed yet. Time will tell, but getting worked up about it achieves absolutely nothing but indigestion and shortened life expectancy.

Your post the other day about staying out of here last season had an impact on me... I was thinking about how much more I would've enjoyed the season as a whole had I stayed out of this thread.

Surprising stat time...

Goals per 90mins in the EPL last season;

Well, you need a place to discuss things with fellow fans but not everyone will hold the same opinion, that's life. Some will feel positive and upbeat, and others will have concerns about the strength of the squad compared to our rivals. At the end of the day we all want the same thing and debates and discussions wouldn't be much fun if we all agreed.

Fair call ajc28 but the negativity and whinging does get over the top at times.

Welbeck done deal.

He'll be missed :(

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/506592020480393216

100% this!

Basically if you post that you are unhappy about something in here you get shouted down by a number of people.

I can't understand how people can be taken for a ride by Wenger and the club though. We are that close to winning the league but we will fall short time and time again with the way things are. I wouldn't be so bothered if we didn't have a flash new stadium that was meant to take us to the next level, pay exuberant wages to players that are worth half of it and we had no money available but that's not the case.

Good stat about Wellbeck, though it also highlights that our top player is a midfielder and he's 15th on the list.

Man City at home in two weeks should be interesting. Could do without a few injuries even more so this time around and/or a few to City players.

It's every fan's right to moan about their team I guess. Anyway window closed and that's all done, now onto the football! Thankfully Koscielny as withdrawn from the France squad due to the head knock and he should be ok for our next game. With Merteseacker done with internationals that gives them both a nice break.

Its tit for tat Buffy, people rage as much at the positive attitudes as the negative ones.

Official

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140902/arsenal-sign-england-forward-welbeck

Don't particularly rate him but he's than Sanogo which is what we needed. At least he has scored goals at this level. Has to go straight into the side at CF at least until Walcott is back. Adds to the British core and he may even be friends with people like Walcott and Wilshere.

Please.

I am the only one who attempts to shout down negativity around here (Uber's recent comments aside, although he's hardly shouting), and invariably I get shouted down for that anyway (case and point = this conversation).

Just looking at Red Cafe and United fans are absolutely gutted about this. Local lad who has been there since he was a kid and all that, guess it's kind of equivalent to us selling Wilshere to them.

Haha fair points above, I'm sure I would still have a few extra things to complain about even if we won the league. Unless it was at the sh*thole.

Wellbeck in at centre-forward with Walcott and Sanchez either side for me. Stop wasting Ozil and put him behind Wellbeck. I'm sure there's an article somewhere that says Wellbeck is a lifelong gooner too....?

Sums up the feeling over at Red Cafe:

Welbeck only player in Arsenal squad to have a Premier league medal!

True. Joins a few World Cup medals, you lot got any of those?

Loved that we signed a player with a quality fresh prince of bel air hair cut. And apparently he was off to spurs this morning!!!even better!!!

as the dust settles we still dont have a world class DMF. And that is what I am most disappointed in. we have had the entire window to get one. But never looked close. Yes we need defensive cover. But what we needed more was some to be a rock in front of the back four, who would stop an attack before it started. I think we have really missed the boat with that one. However, in wenger we trust.

(And at least we didn't blow cash on a forward for 1 year when our defence is defenceless:)

We have also won 2 trophies since Welbeck last experienced winning a competitive match.

Woo hoo! Savage! Like!