Kenny Dalglish Won't Be Delivering the Module: English Premiership 2011-12

Arsenal have just spent what £12m on a promising teenager who probably won't improve the first team for a couple of years.

^^ this.

Even is 25m is fair, having faith in Arsenal for splashing cash on a top player, for once, is kidding yourself imho.

Even if

xxxp haha ok soz bateau. i just find it frustrating when there's deserving criticisms to be made but people kneejerk into little england mode and make wenger look like the sanest man in the world

On the other hand if they take some of the money and land Gotze before the end of August I take it all back. Hope they don't tho.

players arsenal bought that were already somewhat good, out of the current lot

Vermaelen half broke
Van persie 75% broke
Arshavin half wages half bothered
Rosicky fully broke
??????

This is not bargain shopping this is being conned. I can see why arsene doesn't want to spend- he's no good at it these days.

ok my bad.

but this is so wrong:

"oohh well we can get a really good player back for that money!". Which never happens.

― I for one am (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 12:24 (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

Vermaelan post Toure? Pires post Overmars? Henry post Anelka? Nasri post Hleb? etc.

It's cool rtc :)

I've a lot of love for Wenger but if I gave the impression he's the sanest man in the world I do apologize ;)

I just think Arsenal should have said: enough is enough: Nasri and Cesc aren't leaving. If it means the former leaving on a free next year, so be it. We finally want to win a fucking prize this year.

Urgh, Spurs fan doing the proven track record ting, really?

isnt the gotze cat kinda out of the bag now? ie the way people are talking about him now it seems unlikely he'd go for under 30m.

then again i have no idea of what dortmund's finances are like and what bids they can withstand

Also, Nasri has already been replaced? By a guy who scored 15 last season and won a league?

Ok Sam, maybe not *never*, but way too little. And Nasri was hardly the player leading the team when they bought him. He was a highly talented youngster that still needed a year at least to start blossoming iirc

probably correct r/t/c. I just always assume that German clubs other than Bayern take the money chucked at them. Having said that don't know why Arsenal would be more attractive to Gotze than Dortmund tbh

we're talking about wenger.

Nasri hasn't delivered, six months one season in three doesn't allow you that claim.

Vermaelen is too broke, he's good besides.

The others were ten years ago.

Citeh fucking stupid to 'ave a go for a player who's had six good months in the past four seasons.

yeah it's a good sale

Wenger's ability to make great signings has pretty much declined with the French football team. I wonder whether he's got the same level of contacts that he used to.

BTW I agree you with you guys on most of this, it is just the way you all decide to gang up on me like you are teaching me a lesson is the stupidest shit.

For example, Nasri won France's YPOTY and then POTY in the same way Hazard and Gotze have just done (think Gotze just won YPOTY iirc?) - so why is he an example of not buying good replacements but Gotze will?

BTW I agree you with you guys on most of this, it is just the way you all decide to gang up on me like you are teaching me a lesson is the stupidest shit.

This seems projection on your part, not how I am feeling this at all tbh

Wenger's ability to make great signings has pretty much declined with the French football team. I wonder whether he's got the same level of contacts that he used to.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 12:46 (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Players he has bought who have been experienced French internationals: Pires, Squallici, Wiltord, Petit... I think Nasri had like 7 caps.

Well on the point that Wenger rarely buys like-for-like experienced replacements, we agree yes LBI?

That he rarely does that? Yes.

Steering clear of most of this mess:

-Rafa Honigstein was asked on Twitter recently about Gotze going, to Arsenal or elsewhere. His reply was 'Messi is more likely to leave.' I don't know whether he meant this summer only, or after that as well.

-darragh, do you know offhand how much Rosicky & Van Persie cost, or are you just assuming they were somewhere in the ~15m range and thus can be lumped with Arshavin as examples of Wenger getting conned?

Using the Nasri money to sign Messi, eh?

nah, i know they were cheap. Vp was only 3m odd, rosicky about 7m

The problem is that they are, esp rvp, first team players in all but actuality. We have the same with King. Limbo where you don't replace them with real quality and their inferior 'cover' plays more games than they do.

And my point was, even at cheap prices, part time world class footballers are a false economy.

So, tbf to me, no i was't just having a clueless dig there for a change

Wiki:

Disagreements with coach Bert van Marwijk culminated in a change of club and van Persie moved to Premier League side Arsenal for £2.75 million in 2004 as a long-term replacement for Dennis Bergkamp.

arshavin is probably his best first-team purchase for years, rivalled only by vermaelen? Who is broke.

Broke in so much as he is fit to start the season?

Van Persie: seven seasons, 230 matches (avg. 32.9), 95 goals. You'd have to include Ledley King's last nine seasons to get near the same number of matches, even if you politely set aside the issue of their relative quality w/out further comment.

ledley king easily as good as rvp imo

how many matches do arsenal play a season? 55? 60? So RVP played about 60%? Okay, I guess.

Yeah, OK is about right - not ideal, but not '75 % broke'.

Meanwhile Vermaelen has a slightly sore back, Achilles is fine. Rosicky is healthy, just not pacey like he once was, but compared to say Huddlestone he's a young Joe Cole.

I know it's all about winding up one poster in particular, but the standard of veracity could be better imo.

king was a really good player a few years ago but rvp is a level ahead of that

your standard of veracity is being used to downplay rvp's injury record

You can keep it tbh

In fairness RVP is pretty lethal whenever he's not injured. As far as coming back from injury goes he's probably in the top three players in the world.

also, i wasn't comparing rvp to king- both equivalently talented players imo as it happens- merely pointing out that each being central to a team yet being available ~ half the time is a huge handicap. I dunno can it be overstated tbh.

rvp is a 14 goal a season striker.

Pav is that.

No joke tho, pav at arsenal would be a good fit.

vermaelen and rosicky are fit today, fair fucks.

king was a step ahead of rvp a couple years back but his injury situation is a total joke. His knees have us hamstrung.

xps: Absolutely a huge handicap. But it has precious little to do with Wenger's more recent signings, and whether he's lost his touch.

Last relevant comment on that topic itt was probably Matt on the recent failures of the highly rated young French players. Gourcuff, Benzema and Menez not exactly a golden generation.

but would do a job at arsenal atm non?

jury's still out on benzema imo

Maybe Benzema, but if Wenger paid more than 15m for him he'd be getting conned, and I doubt he'd go for less than 30m.

The others, don't think so.

Gourcuff, Benzema and Menez not exactly a golden generation.

― boxall, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 15:27 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

idk, all kinda mismanaged no? or not suitably motivated. def been flickers of world class in there

Also Wenger's contacts would be for the French League as a whole presumably, not just French players. tbf understandably priced out of drogba, essien, malouda

contacts should preclude being priced out of those deals, though not every time tbf

he could have had drogba (and ibra, and yaya) early on tbf

yeah weren't blackburn offered drogba for 9m the year before?

didn't know that. was just questioning the idea that the current poor crop of French players (tho i rate benzema quite highly actually) is an explanation for wenger's transfer dealings over the last 6 years.

we had a bid accepted for drogba when he was in the french second division, for 300k, but couldn't get the work permit iirc