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

£8.7m is being reported now. Hoping it's a decent signing (although anything that stops Santos pretending to be a defender is an improvement - he can stick to LW now). 

Edit: reads like he will be decent! 

Sun win the prize for the headline: Wenger dips for Nacho

Yeah saw that one and just groaned

I dont know if I believe the 'no signings if gibbs hadn't been injured' idea.

We've apparently signed Monreal for 4 years and paid 10mil. You don't do that to cover a 3 week injury. I think this is Arsene admitting that Santos isn't good enough defensively. There are also rumours we've been trying to offload him overnight, apparently Fenerbahce were asked to have him back but declined.

Can't see Santos being offered wages like he's getting anywhere else, he'll be the new Squillaci (who, incidentally, is still under contract too).

This comment on BBC makes more sense...

"It is believed that Arsenal had been in talks with Malaga to sign Monreal in the summer, but the injury suffered by Kieran Gibbs during Wednesday's game against Liverpool brought the deal forward."

courtesy of goofy666

Also important to note he is cup-tied for champs league

Yeah we have been looking at him for awhile. The deal has been bought forward from summer I'd say.

.

sounds like a good signing, feel a bit sorry for gibbs as he has been pretty good this season but he allways get injured. a DMF would have been nice

Diame clause has been actived........hopefully by us

"This tweet just in from the son of West Ham owner David Sullivan @jsullivanwhu: "Contrary to reports there has been no bid for Diame today from anybody."

yeah i just saw that as well......

Indeed too good to be true.

Nacho is a very promising sign, just terminate squillaci and santos contracts, apparently both had loan move opportunities they turned down. Urgh.

Just re-watched the liverpool goals.

1) Sagna fails TWICE in the first goal. Firstly his basic interception of a week pass as he falls over, falling over on home turf isn't good enough. Then TV5 miscues a basic clearance on his weak foot, at this level inexecusable. Then when suarez gets the ball sagnas attempted block deflects the ball around Szy. Not good enough.

2) Hendersons goal starts with Gibbs not coming in quickly enough to back up Per, who was rounded too quickly. With both players there on the edge of the box, someone should have dropped a slide tackle. It wouldn't have been a peno, and couldn't be a red if they missed with the other player right there marking them. Then to have Szy save his shot (note Szy saves initially in both cases) dribble back into his path is bad luck. It's also bad positioning of Sagna and TV5, both of who are no where to be seen until Sagna attempts a last ditch dive, but misses the ball.

Re-watching our goals, Giroud is on fire, scoring 1 and then assiting Theo. Theo is also finishing really well, that shot was a rocket, and makes up for not slotting the previous 1 v 1 Reina saved. Personally on the half volley I would have roofed the first shot, but I'm not a prem league footballer so will STFU.

We need someone to come into that DMF role over summer who brings 1) aggression, 2) positioning, 3) the experience of winning things. De Rossi is the kind of man who would be a beast for us in that role. Also Kheidera would be a good target. M'Villa, what happened to him? Javi Martinez and Arturo Vidal would also be class.

With Arteta aging, and our other options not strong enough, we need someone to come in and anchor and protect the back 4 like never before.

I know he's hardly big and strong but i have really enjoyed Ramsey's positioning and distribution from that positiion in the last couple of games. He's made some very good tackles too. 

I'm happy with the Monreal signing. Hopefully he can be drafted into the team quickly rather than us having to endure Santos at left back. He should be helped to settle in with our Spansih contingent of Cazorla and Arteta. I've read that Monreal doesn't speak any English :( Not that it appears our back four communicate with eachother anyway at times.

Interesting letter I came across on Football365:

"In all too typical fashion, Arsenal fans are again lazily pinpointing scapegoats in Vermaelen, Mertesacker, and the defence as a whole (Santos - I'll give you that one). Here's the problem - the balance in the team has a ridiculous attacking skew. Our fullbacks are told to bomb on, we have a make-shift 'defensive midfielder' whose mandate is to get forward whenever he can. We have two attacking midfielders in Cazorla and Wilshere, and our wingers are playing like out and out strikers (hence the striker-like stats that they have). This leaves our centre-backs completely exposed, such that they are continually scampering around, dragged out of position and can never settle - hence the 'nerves'.

Almost sounds like the Phoenix situation under 4-3-3

Those are some very good insights, TBF it's normally on the counter we keep getting exposed, Poldi & Theo do often track back, but when they're coming back from the same starting point as the full back is, that's a lot of ground to cover.

Paulm you're right about Rambo in that role, but he's not a traditional Viera type in that role, and only Wilshire can track back and cover him, Santi hasn't got the tackling skills necessary.

Any guesses on Monreals squad number?  17?

Not particularly concerned about the lack of a dedicated DM if I'm honest. Arteta and Coquelin both back soon, there's your man for now and the future. 

To me the most pressing need behind a LB was a back-up striker. We only really have one CF.

Wenger was on fire in his press conference  this morning. 

Gibbs out for up to six weeks though so thank fudge we signed Nacho man.

Wenger made the interesting comment the other day that Podolski was 'signed to play striker' - but he hasn't done so yet.

I think we have enough wide options for poldi or theo to play striker if giroud is injured? Certainly better placed than we were 2 seasons ago when arshavin led the line for a while LOL

The results haven't been the greatest this season but when you look at our squad man for man it matches up with anything in the league in my opinion. 

Speaking of getting players off the wage bill here is what is happening this June and the following June's:

Park Chu-Young wtf that went spectacularly wrong

 not pretty

other results so far promising

Rafa will not see the season out? Their form is not good. I hope he stays as it will help us get 3rd.

Stoked (no pun intended) with the ground out win, this is the sort of result builds confidence as Stoke are bloody hard to break down and score against.

Monreal looked like he has been a part of the team fluidity and combination wise, and then there is his skill - he was awesome at running up and down the line/passing/crossing!!

Excellent purchase Arsene

St*ke - what a disgrace of a team.

How on earth could a normal human being part with hard earned coin to head to the Britannia to watch football-rugby (aka 'rugball').

To each of their new players:  'please leave your skills at the door; they're not required here.  Unless you can tackle, with your arms?'.

The sooner they head back down the divisions the better.

Amusing that their  net spend is 80mil pounds more than ours since they were promoted as well

 shocking tackle in their FA Cup game , I forgot to moan about it here

Pulis can cry about diving but while he selects players who break legs it'll fall on deaf ears.

As the Arseblog quoted this morning:  'Stoke are the equivalent of seeing blood in your poo'

Full report here:

https://arseblog.com/

Really tough game and I felt the ref lost control of it at times but thankfully the right decision was made when it mattered most. 

Nacho very good on debut (he should never shoot again though haha).

Had a decent view yesterday too:

Monreal looked great... early days; has pedigree, time, touch, though no right foot shot it seems (lol)... it sucks to be Gibbsy right about now unfortunately.

How funny is it that pardew used to stick the boot in on wenger for buying so many foreign players... didnt he scream 'made in england' at wenger when westham scored a late winner once?

went to the game on Saturday, and it was pretty average.  Stoke truly are a terrible team - every time Shawcross got the ball he tried to hit Crouch.  I understand that not every team has to try to play attractive football, and there is a place in the game for a long ball team, but you have to try to mix it up a little.  It was so predictable it was laughable.  Stoke have a couple of decent players (N'Zonzi, Etherington, Adam when he is fit) but it must be horrible to play in that team.  After half a dozen games you would just stop bothering to try and make yourself available to the centre backs when they have the ball as you would learn that there is no chance you would get it.

It was very funny after the game - I was sitting right by the Stoke fans at the game, and there was the usual "no, you're a wanker" "I'd so fight you if there wasn't all these police around" bollocks that you always get at games here.  When I was leaving I noticed this big guy in the Stoke section doing all the usual "grrrrr, I'm gona get you" type fist shaking, but then his demeanour changed and he started signalling to a guy in the Arsenal crowd that he would meet him outside and it was all on.  Knowing that there is no segregation once you get outside at the Emirates, I was intrigued.  As I was coming out of the stadium, I could see the big bloke and his little mate standing by the exit, trying to find the bloke he was signalling to in the crowd, and I thought "oh, it is on".  Got my popcorn out and settled in for a good giggle.  The Arsenal guy comes out and there is a bit of shouting at each other, lots of "yeah, what'ya going to do about it" and then they both realised they didn't actually know what to do next.  What made it worse is that the little bloke (who was with the big bloke - sorry if this is confusing) decides he is properly going to fight the Arsenal fan, which causes the big bloke to hold him back as it is not worth it.  The guy who raced out of the stadium with the expressed purpose of fighting this guy is now trying to stop his mate from actually fighting him.  After another 30 odd seconds of slightly embarressed posturing, a couple of stewards and a policeman wander over and tell all three of them to pull their heads in, which kicks off lots of "oh, I'd so be punching you if these stewards and policeman weren't here" type threats again.  You just know that the Stoke fans will be the pride of their council estate with their stories of the time the police had to stop them battering a load of Arsenal fans on their patch.

Not sure if this story really works in print, but it was genuinely funny to watch.