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

What a signing Sanchez has been, if only Wenger realised that you have to spend big these days to bring in World Class players to win things.

I would still take Wanyama in our midfield every day of the week.

Yeah Wanyama looks like the DM beast we are after

Also Nathaniel Clyne at RB is really impressive, a big club will pick him up in the next 12-18 months

Wanyama gives away 1181 fouls a game. Not what we need.

Wanyama gives away 1181 fouls a game. Not what we need.

Wanyama puts himself about, unlike the rest of our team. Do you remember a certain Patrick Vieira back when we had something about us and weren't a laughing stock to other big clubs?

I'd have him in there ahead of both Arteta and Flamini easy.

YIP completely agreed, we were linked to before. Saints got him for 10mill i think, he's allways been a beast

DMF usually do

We were pretty sh*thouse untill Giroud came on tbh. I know Poli's defence is cr*p but i still feel we should give him way more gametime then he gets.  Ramsey was lucky not to be subbed instead of Ox i thought. Massive 3 points for us

Where's Wally??

FFS, he went out and splashed 40m on Ozil last season and 32m on Sanchez this season. He does spend big and bring in players. He just doesn't have the City/Chelsea/United/Liverpool funding to buy 3 players per season at that rate.

What more do you want to see?

I'd suggest a fairer comment on Wenger's transfer business is the CB & DMF we needed but didn't sign, that's a balls up. But additionally that man you'd like to see in that DMF role cost 10m...not exactly spending big for world class ;)

Did his groin while with England...out for a bit longer.

With Giroud back and The Ox on form we can afford him taking his time.

People just like harping on about the same crap - just like whenever Theo plays, every single commentator says that he can't finish and has a lot of speed but no 'football brain'

So true Brumbys and Valeo.

Wenger is obviously very aware that you need to spend big to get world class players, it's an absolutely ridiculous statement to make. 

The problem is he hasn't had the money to do that until now thanks to us having to knuckle down and build the foundations required to be a big club. Clubs like Spurs have not done that, they've been faffing about with their stadium ideas etc for years and the bottom line is they're still where they were 10 - 20 years ago. 

You go back to 1995 or so and both clubs were in the same boat with a stadium seriously limiting matchday revenue and no presence in the champions league. We've done the hard yards now, we have the foundations, and that's why Wenger for me will be held accountable for what happens on the pitch from basically last season onwards only - that's when he's had the money to challenge for trophies. Last year we challenged for one, and won another, this year we need to do at least the same. 

So we have huge cash reserves yet he doesn't want to spend a vast amount of it and instead has Sanogo in our squad and Diaby stealing a wage. No question that he knows world class players cost big sums but his refusal to spend the extra bit is what gets my frustration.  I want to see changes and something different because I'm tired of the same thing every season. If people harp on about the same thing usually it's because nothing has changed.

Wanyama is not the best we could get through the door but certainly a leg up on what we currently have. Regardless, the last 2 results have been positive and I'd hope Sanchez gets wrapped up in cotton wool every time he steps off the pitch. I also liked the link-up play a few times of Wellbeck and Giroud.

So you're saying you want him to go the extra mile and spend big on the world class player but in the same post saying we should settle for someone who's 'not the best we could get through the door'?

I'd rather we held out for the world class player in that scenario to be honest. Although it should be noted I'm not saying that Wanyama isn't, I haven't seen enough to know.

I think the ironic thing is that that is exactly what Wenger has been trying to do.

We didn't get a striker last year because Wenger went balls out for Suarez and wouldn't settle for anything less. When Ozil came available he snapped him up in a heartbeat. This year he went all out for Sanchez and got him. 

And if reports are to be believed, we were in for Carvahlo from Sporting and we went down to the wire trying to get him in, without settling for a lesser option (which ultimately cost us). Sounds like the same thing happened with our CB hunt - we didn't get the player we wanted and so got no one. 

Sounds like we've identified an issue where we aren't able to get the deal for the world class player we want over the line, and that's why we've hired McDermott. I expect to see results in January from that appointment. 

And complaining about not spending the cash is silly. We just spent more than anyone else in the last transfer window.

Correct, because there's little chance in Wenger actually going all out so I think Wanyama is realistic and better than what we have.

As you say though, if we get that world class player I think we are all happy.

Complaining about not spending cash when we still have it is certainly reasonable. Salary wise we have players well overpaid and a manager that should be the best in the land based on his wage amongst other financials. Also for one, United spent more than us and two, this is only the second window when he has pulled finger. The Sanchez and Ozil ones are interesting, where some stories suggest he may not have been the proactive one.

Do you actually read the posts youre replying to and have you watched us for the last 2 years? We bought Ozil and Sanchez ffs and from all reports attempted to sign Khedira and Carvalho too. If that's not going all out, I don't know what is.

His biggest failing this season was his lack of urgency to sign cover at CB.

Also, having cash to spend is all good and well but actually getting the right players to sign for you is a whole different story.

Believe it or not, my frustrations stem from watching every game over the last 2 years and witnessing the same things over and over. How have Ozil and Sanchez improved us from 2 years ago? Without checking the financials I believe we have more cash put away today than we did prior to those 2 years as well.

Going all out is a pretty basic definition associated with acquiring players, as Man Utd did this off-season rather than just making bids like the local Sunday league team.

As I've said often before, if we were still at Highbury having not turned into a cash cow for an American investor charging through the roof of everything then my expectations would be more limited. However we aren't and I'm not going to sit back and be fed the rubbish that a lot of people are.

We do not have the financial power of Man Utd - I'm sorry, but there is a difference between wanting more and being completely unrealistic. We smashed our transfer record twice ffs; what more do you want? The solution isn't always to buy more expensive players; though I agree we need to invest in a DM because Arteta is on the way out and Flamini isn't good enough. Do I think that Wenger already knows this? Yes. Do I think he's tried to get someone in already? Yes; Carvalho, Khedira, Gustavo etc.

All you're seemingly doing is parroting the English press who have been harping on about the same crap for years without actually seeing what is going on at the club.

Agreed, money isn't the only way to succeed but the way the club is currently run is far from the best option and unfortunately spending $$ is a reality of today unlike when Wenger first started.

I think the English press have given Wenger and the club quite an easy ride of things lately to be honest.

2 wins and 2 clean sheets in a row has been a long time coming, Koscielny makes a massive difference to the BFG and the rest of the defence. A testing next 4 games with Stoke away never our best away ground, the scummy Turks away, Geordies who are doing well at home and the red mickeys at Anfield after -wouldn't mind helping Rodgers out the door that day.

Anyone else impressed with Martinez in goal?

He seemed really calm and almost looked like he belongs, time will tell of course as consistency is the number 1 key for a keeper, but gee it was refreshing.

Maybe we turf the crocked Ospina to number 3 and have Martinez bumped up to the bench.....

He's not really an Arsenal supporter in my opinion Valeo. It's not his hate of Wenger I'm basing that opinion on, he slams basically every aspect of our club, all the time.

He was in support of the Bayern homophobic banner.

He was in support of Spurs fans giving it large to Henry.

The other day he implied that Bergkamp coaching at Ajax and not here was our club's fault, despite us offering him a job as soon as he retired which he declined.

He's just ridiculously implied that we didn't want Sanchez and Ozil here, that they somehow forced themselves into our squad, I mean that kind of takes the cake, just farcical. 

How have we improved from 2 years ago?? Seriously, you couldn't make this stuff up. How about a trophy? Our highest points total in 6 years? 

We're 14 games into this season, I'm not ready to judge our entire season on the first third of it when we've suffered from a world cup hangover and serious injury problems. 

Going by Pride of London's logic, Mourinho should've been sacked last season when he couldn't find the striker Chelsea so desperately needed - I mean that did cost them the title didn't it. And he had all the money in the world. Using ManU as an example of good spending is ridiculous, they've got bigger squad holes than us. 

righto, 3 points at the windy Britannia and no injuries please

both Ox and Rosicky should play. 

POL, there was a few rumours around Wenger and the Ozil signing process. I lean to thinking that it's just scuttlebutt and clearly AW was mad keen on Alexis and it would be fair to say that even  this early in his first season he is a great buy.

Agree to disagree then lads. No need to take the debate any further when opinions are chalk and cheese. 

We can all agree on something right, let's hope we get in a CB and DMF. Going back to the Wanyama discussion, I'm not averse to a player of his capabilities coming in - but we can certainly do better. Is January the time for that though? 

Anyway, great to get the 3 points this morning. About to watch, sounded like a struggle. 

Fair call HW.

Pride of London gets me hot under the collar, it's been seen before round these parts... I shouldn't really bother with it but my fingers get itchy on that keyboard and I lose a little control with him in particular!

Ask goofy666, he grew up with me!

went to the game last night and it was very......nothingy (it is a word) until the last 5 minutes (when Southampton were down to 10 men).

Ramsey looks like he has the yips and could do with a couple of weeks rest, but there is no one else who can currently play in the middle of the park (Wilshire and Arteta injured, Chambers having to play at fullback cause Debuchy is injured, etc). This is where the frustations of Pride of London (and many, many others) come from - the total imbalance of the squad. There are a huge number of small, techincal players who can play in and around the striker, and basically no depth in the defensive areas. All this talk of "going all out to sign players" is a massive smokescreen and the bottom line is that Wenger royally fudgeed up the transfer window (and a number of the last few transfer windows). Knowing you need someone (anyone) to play a specific position like holding midfield and not getting anyone because you balk at spending the extra couple of million to get them is terrible management, and the bottom line is that is Wenger's job.

Not that I am suggesting that they should get shot of him - it is just an attempt to try and explain how a growing number of people who are forking out huge amount of money feel. 

How do you keep getting tickets Frankie? Red membership?

Anyway, 2 wins with 2 clean sheets is just what we needed. Let's hope this is the start of a run now. Managed to avoid the result all day, but then had a work dinner this evening so have only just finished watching it. Will catch up on the last couple of pages of debate in the morning.

yeah - I have 3 red memberships this season, so I tend to head along to games that other people I know want to go to. 

A bit of reasoning from a Hammer, what is happening!

Paul, I can tell I get you riled from time-to-time (mutual) so it doesn't bother me, but suggesting I'm not Arsenal is ridiculous and I won't go through all of them but the major one how you misconstrued my comments about the yid fans I wish to clarify. I loved the look on their face because of how much suffering they had towards Mr Henry and how it showed what he was all about. 

Faol, absolutely agree with you about Sanchez - either way he is class above what we have. 

Fair to say there is no shortage of passion of the Arsenal on here which is one we surely all agree is a positive.

FYI, Dennis took the role at the Ajax academy as it was part of a ex player revolt who took control of the club. He was invited in to it by Cruyff.

^ yep

After turning down an Arsenal offer upon retirement, saying he wasn't interested in coaching/management.

Fair call on the Henry/Spurs thing Pride of London but to be fair almost all of your posts have a dig at our club in some way and I just don't understand or identify with that. Each to their own I guess. Despite last season being our most successful since this forum began we probably saw less of you in here than other recent seasons. I guess we're just different people.

F-Mac, I do understand why people are frustrated with Wenger, I get that way too (believe it or not!), but it's not because of some perceived reluctance to spend an extra few million. That may have been true when we were poorer but it's not any longer.

He is prepared to pay extra for a player if he thinks they're worth it, like Ozil, Chambers, even Koscielny, all being examples of him doing this in recent seasons. Those three in particular were bought in for sums higher than what most would have expected Wenger or Arsenal to pay.

I believe the problem is a lack of a plan B - we have an un-balanced squad, I definitely agree with you on that. We clearly went for Carvahlo, and another CB, but we didn't get the ones we wanted and nobody came in, leaving us short in those positions. Short at CB in terms of numbers, and short of quality at DM. As I said before, even the much lauded van Gaal and Mourinho have had this issue in the last 2 seasons. Van Gaal too has shown that if you need to make a lot of purchases in one window it's not easy. We made a lot of transfers in the last window and filled a lot of holes, but fell short by two. That's why McDermott has been bought in so I like that we're looking at a solution at least, similar to the Forsythe appointment for our injury issues. January should tell the tale.

Cheers for the clarification on DB10.

My frustration stems from the way the club is being run of late and maybe its because I get a lot of my stories/news from an "alternative" forum used by a lot of long-serving fans where they look at a lot of issues beyond the playing team and are very old-school. Agree to disagree yet I'm sure we will be here again in the future :)

Jan I think we need another CB, DM/midfielder with some physical presence realistically but ideally we need a few more. Jan is always tough to buy unless there's a lot of early movement which triggers a sell-on effect.

The lack of plan B is exactly it Paul. He decides on the player he wants and his valuation and we don't get involved in bidding wars. So if the club don't accept what he wants to pay, instead of getting someone else we often just go without and end up a couple of players short every season. This works in cases like Ozil and Sanchez for instance where their clubs had decided to offload them quickly to make room for new superstars (Bale and Suarez) and were happy with Wenger's valuation because they just wanted to get rid, particularly with Ozil happening on deadline day there wasn't time to fight over a few million (Sanchez seems a bit of a steal too), but when the club doesn't need or want to sell, we're not going to get the player unless we pay the asking price.

As for January, we clearly need a CB and a DM. Especially with Arteta and Wilshere both out there is no excuse for not getting someone. 

Anyway, really frustrating game yesterday. Great saves from Forster, especially from Giroud's header and just seemed like one of those days it just wouldn't go in. Great work from Ramsey to keep going when everyone else stopped to appeal for what should have been a penalty. Is it just me or has Ramsey been a lot better in the last 3 games? Nowhere near last season of course, but I feel he's been gradually finding some form and starting to settle into his role now. What a player Cazorla is in his natural position in the middle too. Funny how some players just tend to play their best football in their best positions isn't it?

Also, it was the first time I had let the PLP stream run right to the end (mostly because I was struggling to keep my eyes open at that stage after a long day!) and I never realised we got some post-match interviews as I usually stop it after the final whistle. Sky never used to stay with it long enough to get them so I'd always assume it was the same. Was good to see Ramsey and Mertesacker's interview.

I think it's tough to cry lack of depth in any area but CB. Last night with Wilshere, Arteta, Walcott, out we still had Joe Campbell (banging them in for Costa Rica at the W/C), Lucas Podolski (won the world cup), Rosicky (captain of Czech Republic), and Sanogo on the bench (captain of France U21's, scoring for fun for them and recently helped us beat Dortmund).

We're yet to have to blood any of our non-first teamers given this depth. Look at Liverpool, Chelsea, City this year and how they've faired with injuries, key players often available. Look at United and their struggles, their squad lacks depth and they've copped a fair few injuries (Falcao, RvP and Rooney + all of their LB's).

If Ramsey & Flamini got injured before the next game you could still dump Rosicky & Cazorla into midfield at a strech. Or move Chambers in there and play Bellerin at RB. This squad is full of options, we're just unfortunate that some of our first stringers aren't available.

Personally I think this team's struggled this year as it adapts to a new formation & style. The game of football is constantly evolving. There's been times when the Arsenal have lead these revolutions. There's been times (like now) when they've struggled to catch up. The top side in the EPL right now is a quick, clinical, counter attacking team with a bruising defence. Our squad is built on possession, and are attempting to get quicker on the counters & tougher on defence. But without wholesale changes to the squad that isn't going to happen in a hurry, and I'd hate to see us do a Sp*rs.

I think we underestimate the impact of the world cup on most of the big teams. Chelsea haven't been nearly as impacted with guys like Costa, Fabregas, Matic etc not playing big roles there and ultimately having a lot to prove post world cup.

Ramsey has indeed started to look a wee bit better in the last few games. 

Having Kosc and Giroud back is absolutely massive, they were up there with our most important players last season. 

The biggest annoyance is that Utd are still doing better than us this season despite them losing most of their team to injury at some point and playing with 5 year olds at the back for most of it.

I don't think Kosc will last past the Xmas break. He's obviously still carring that achilles problem.

Paulm vs POL is like this forum's version of Claude vs TY

Haha well said, Paul do you have the headphones? Can't say I have the trackjacket (intentional wind-up)