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Thursday 29 August 2013

Arsenal make a signing to get the blood flowing

Not quite what we were hoping for


A signing! A new player! Can you feel that excitement? No, neither can I. All I can feel (and see) is resentment from Arsenal supporters at the arrival of yet another player for free. It's all a little unfair, maybe, on Flamini and I'll address that below. However, it is a symptom of the way this Summer has been for Arsenal fans that Flamini has not been so much welcomed as dismissed. Surprisingly the reaction has largely had little to do with the way he walked out after playing well for three months of his previous Arsenal career.
With the squad situation as dire as it is we should be lauding the arrival of Flamini. Here we are getting a player who always gives 100%, likes a tackle, and can play in three different positions. He provides us with quality cover and the sort of grit and needle that we've been sorely missing. In the absence of Mikel Arteta he is a player who has the discipline to protect the back four, albeit not the out and out top class holding player we really want. The fact that he hasn't been welcomed, as such, is simply down to the failure to bring in top class players for big money. If we'd signed, for example, Begovic, Fellaini, Higuain and Suarez/Rooney, as well as Flamini and Sanogo I reckon we'd all be very happy bunnies right now. As it is we have only the latter two, both on free transfers, despite being told by Ivan Gazidis that this was the year things would change. Arsene Wenger has simply ignored that and carried on his merry way.
Our transfer business has been a joke. There has been no apparent plan. There has been no strategy. What exactly are we trying to bring in? Is Wenger after a striker? Does he realise the need for a holding midfield player? Why is he going after yet more creative dwarfs to play in a creative role? There is seemingly nothing coherent about the targets we've chased. As for the way in which the business has been gone about you can only describe it as amateurish. Meanwhile the lies have been mounting up.
Arsene Wenger told everyone that nobody had spent any money. That was a lie. He told us that there were no top strikers available in Europe in this transfer window. That was a lie. He told us Arsenal work 24 hours a day to bring in new players. That was a lie. After all this he then asked the press to tell him names of players that were better than we've got already. That was just plain embarrassing. All of these statements reek of contempt for the supporters. We are the great unwashed, who know nothing about anything.
His favourite soundbite this Summer has been to keep telling us that transfers require the agreement of all three parties. Of course they do. But it's not really that difficult to get that agreement - other Clubs find it very simple. Why? Because they are keen to spend to improve.
The main reason we have been unable to buy top talent this year is Wenger's complete refusal to spend anything above his own valuation of a player. Once he sets his limit that is it. That's why we don't reach agreement with the selling Club. He fails to realise that his valuation is pretty much irrelevant if he really wants the player at Arsenal. The selling Club sets the price. You either match it or negotiate it to find agreement. If you want the player you pay the money. That is all there is to it. Transfers are really not that complicated, I am sure. Certainly the talks are not always honourable, as we saw with Real Madrid's apparent raising of the price for Higuain, but that's the way it is. If we wanted Luis Suarez we should have gone to Liverpool and made an offer they couldn't turn down. Instead of that we messed about thinking we were being clever. The end result was that we didn't get the player. Whatever my views on David Dein you can not deny that he got business done, usually with the minimum of fuss, and the minimum of publicity. It is a shocking state of affairs and Arsenal's men that matter should be ashamed of the balls-up they've made of it all.
By the way, welcome back Mathieu.

9 comments:

  1. i welcome the signing. adds a bit of depth to a paper thin squad. i'm resigned to the fact that we will not complete any business before the window due to our ineptitude. what's more i welcome the ire that our across all levels incompetence will generate. i'd sooner wenger didn't waste any more money on 4th rate dross in a mad last minute scramble. it will hasten his departure and whoever next comes in will at least be able to start afresh without having to worry about getting rid of any of his newly pruchased highly paid rubbish.

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  2. So celebrate the signing - and a good signing it is( I believe). We need able bodies in our squad, regardless of whomever has not been signed before or as yet or in the future to be. Rather than moan like feck about who we haven't got and the botched Summer transfer, lets debate whether or not Flamini is a good signing or not. Will he enhance the overall quality of the squad, I believe he will.

    To say that I have heard 101 different versions of why we have failed in this Summer market, I'd be only telling the horrible truth.

    Lets stop moaning about what we don't have and concentrate our resources, spiritual or otherwise on making whomever we have feel supported. There's a very good team and yes it is a very thin squad - we KNOW!

    Can't we move on from moaning and complaining about every likkle rumour of a player we are "supposedly" interested in who has gone to another club. Most of you Gooners sound like bitter, spoilt children. Wenger is right lots of you are brainwashed.....not everything is negative-NOT BY A LONG SHOT!

    Stop wishing for the past, David Dein, it's almost as pathetic as Chelsea supporters pleading so desperately for the return of Jose.

    The way you are going on, is like they have bankrupted the club and have watched the foundations burn. Last time I looked we are in Pot 1 in the CL, recovered from our 1st game defeat and starting to look good with the huge shadow a NLD looming this Saturday. Ah, Spurs-our antithesis in the transfer market........2-1 to the Gunners and lets move FORWARD, resign the past to memory, embrace today and the future as the club is doing.

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    1. i want us to move forward and embrace the future. the problem is the people who are running the club don't.

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  3. RedandDread You're delusional!!

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    1. No you are attacking the view held by many - stop wait to see what the final look of our squad looks like in a few days time. Wenger will get us quality purchases saving millions and make u all look like impatient fools

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    2. the men in the white coats will be along to come and take you away very soon.

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    3. Most Arsenal fans who belong to the 'In Arsene We Trust' brigade seem to be forgetting the facts. At the end of last season AW said it was important that we do our transfer dealings early and that he will sign top quality players. Lies! We have 48 hours left of the current window and nothing has changed. I'm open minded about the return of Flamini because if we get anything like the player that left it'll have been a coupe. You all have to remember that the problems we faced against Aston Villa have not been addressed. There has been no improvement. What is Gazidis doing to rectify this? Seemingly nothing.
      I'm speculating but what I don't understand is why Arsene has so much power at Arsenal. AW has a valuation of a player and if he thinks that player isn't worth the money, then he won't pursue him. It's not his job to value the players. His job is to identify a player and it's down to the board to decide whether the player is too expensive or not. This is the difference with most clubs in the EPL.
      Now I'm not saying spending £50m on one player is the solution. Far from it. But if you have money to spend (which we do. Just look at our financial figures from last year) you have to spend it in order to improve the squad. It's better to have spent some serious money and fail that not to have tried and failed.

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  4. i'm amazed that midst this wreckage you are still getting people like since66 who believe that:

    "Wenger will get us quality purchases saving millions and make u all look like impatient fools"

    Absolutely staggering.

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