They're certainly my picks. They play good football and they're self-sufficient financially.
Arsenal's title credentials...
- Thread starter Lynk
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
But our fans are cnuts, and would be insufferable if we actually won a tin cup.
The chances he misses are mind boggling at times
I'm rooting for you all to win the league solely because I know my wife's gonna do new stuff in the bedroom. Please don't screw this up!
That's a good enough reason.
My cousin is an Arsenal fan, he's already unsufferable when they don't win anything, the day they win the league, I'll just have to sever all ties with him!
At no point.
Why would you want to see Arsenal win the league and use that to attract more Ozils etc, when its inevitable that in the next 18 months to 3 or 4 years that both City and Chelsea will win the league at some point anyway? If Arsenal win the league City and Chelsea will spend their way back on top. So that'll be 3 teams out of reach for us
If however Arsenal do an Arsenal and lose their momentum, it'll be back to normal with Arsenal being a rival for us. While City and Chelsea continue to be out of reach
This. If United aren't gonna win it then I don't really give a rats who does, as long as it's not Liverpool. I'm certainly not going to start rooting for Arsenal to win matches.
You don't like the layout of your bedroom?
United overcame Blackburn's bought title, prevented Newcastle's attempt to buy a title, overcame both Arsenal's rises in the late 90s and early 00s, overcame Chelsea's bought supremacy, and overcame City's lavish spending.
They can do it again. Oh wait... Moyes.
feck.
January 8th, and no big bids yet. Get on it Arsene. The clock is ticking.
Both United and Arsenal fans will be hoping for big recruitments but I think both will be left disappointed. Both Wenger and Moyes have said that January isn't the best time to buy.
I think Arsenal will get a striker on loan whilst United will end up with Coentrao.
Who do you want Wenger to go for realistically?
I see no harm in activating Costa's release clause. He might well tell us to do one, but activate it and see.
It's an awful time to buy but when a player has a release clause, it's slightly easier. We should also be sniffing around Remy if QPR are able to sell him whilst he's on loan.
1. Costa won't want to move
2. Spanish release clauses are complicated. Just ask Woodie woodpecker.
1. Atletico are basically touting him about - they came out to confirm his release clause almost to encourage bids. Costa might be pushed. Yes, far fetched.
2. I'm hoping that we're not quite that incompetent.
Despite fans dreaming of who we should sign it is incredibly hard to find players in January, most clubs aren't going to do business when they know more often than not in 6 months they'll still be able to sell for similar price and have plenty of time to find replacement and bed him in over the summer.
Personally I think eventually we need someone better but good thing is at the moment we are ok in that position. Someone who can deal with being pressed more efficiently, both of them imo can't move the ball quick enough and efficiently enough when being pressed.
Another problem with Flamini imo is his passing isn't as good nor is his movement to receive a pass, important that he is an outlet for the defenders as well as attacking player. All of our defending & attacking starts from there, I've discussed this with Gladiator before but my view is Arteta the better option for us.
Personally I think eventually we need someone better but good thing is at the moment we are ok in that position. Someone who can deal with being pressed more efficiently, both of them imo can't move the ball quick enough and efficiently enough when being pressed.
Well what happened with the Suarez business? Anyone with half a brain would have run a copy of his contract past a lawyer to see if it was going to work out before we bid the £40,000,001.
I don't think we ever saw the contract. I reckon we were told by the agent that the £40m clause existed and we believed him. There are levels of incompetence we're talking about here - at least we didn't sign Fellaini for over the release clause.
Spanish journalists think we want to sign him but not sure if he wants to move in January. I can see why, well settled, in a world cup year and then it might take him time to fully settle in England so from his point of view why take any risks? His club are going strong in the league and CL as well, with him being in such good form & if he has a good world cup his agent will probably tell him more clubs might be interested in the summer.
If we activate his clause and he says no we end up looking a bit stupid imo. After the Suarez saga I'd like to avoid that.....
I think the club was told the clause was watertight and took his agents word on it, even after we made the bid his camp seemed to be adamant the clause existed. Not sure the agent or player would probably be too keen to give us a copy of his contract to us anyway.
It's odd. That one has never really been explained. The original story was that he had a clause in his contract, though the clause may have been vague as to whether it allowed him to be notified about a bid or whether Liverpool had to negotiate beyond a certain level (which doesn't seem to have any legal force). Then it was that it may have been a gentlemen's agreement. Finally the Mirror reported that the clause had been removed the season before. It's hard to imagine that Arsenal didn't have sight of something that encouraged them, or that they weren't told unequivocally by his people that he could be gotten at that price.
Chelsea and City's money is different. And we had Sir Alex to stay ahead while Chelsea messed around firing and hiring Mourinho
I doubt Costa wants to leave Spain at all. He's just been naturalised, hasn't he? After all of that to up and leave the country would be slightly odd.
Signing Fellaini was the incompetent bit not the couple of million over the top. (Though plenty of Arsenal fans (now very quiet) wanted him too)
The arguments for him staying are, as you intimate, much stronger than the ones in favour of his departure.
Our only chance is if Atletico want to sell as soon as possible, and with their financial situation, it's not that unlikely. It's still a less than 20% chance. I'd imagine we'd tap up the player before putting the money down as well.
With finances in that league being so favoured towards R.Madrid & Barca other clubs don't have much of a chance to hold onto their players, can't pay them enough and they need the money. Also the players realise at the moment no other club is likely to topple the big two either.
I don't think their financial situation is that dire they need the money right now, especially when they know they'll get the same in the summer. Oh I'm sure we are in talks but his agent (Mendes) supposedly doesn't get on too well with Arsenal or Wenger, well according to twitter anyway.....
what up jazz! What do you make of Arsenal fans who want to see Ramsey and Wilshire paired up? You have a lot of options in that departmentArteta and Flamini are both fine but it's clear that a top class replacement will be Wenger's first target this summer.
But that level of incompetence was possibly on par if not worse than signing a Fellaini. One club paid over the odds for an average player (fair enough, who hasn't - Carroll etc). The other penny pinched their way out of the deal of the century even at £60m. Had you bid 50-60m you'd have Suarez right now and you know it. Stuff the contract and clause.
Wenger just isn't ambitious enough. A bloody good manager, but a little scared. Too set in his ways. Expect another Sonogo type (loan?)signing this month. Ozil was a one off (almost panic) buy.
That's absolute rubbish.
Suarez' value has increased since the end of the transfer window. He was serving a ban, there were serious concerns over his disciplinary record, and £40m was probably about right as a bid. I'm not entirely sure Liverpool would have sold at any price.
Ozil wasn't a panic buy - don't be ridiculous. Just because it took us a lot of time to get him doesn't mean he panicked.
Maybe the owners wouldn't have sold. But, like you say, he was in the middle of a ban and acting like a cnut. Maybe we would have sold at around £55m. We definitely wouldn't have sold at 40m+1. And you went down the definitely no chance route.
If Wenger was ambitious enough he would have said f*ck it, I can change this man. I can make him a legend on the field. But he didn't. He's lost that verve from the Bergkamp/Henry days. Still a great manager, just not a true winner.
If Wenger was ambitious enough he would have said f*ck it, I can change this man. I can make him a legend on the field. But he didn't. He's lost that verve from the Bergkamp/Henry days. Still a great manager, just not a true winner.
Btw is Yaya sa no go? Haven't seen him play at all.
It's just not true. You can't just add £15-20m to a fee and pretend it doesn't matter. This is a huge amount of money, and with the ban and record, it would have been difficult to justify.
Then we agree to disagree. If you don't shoot, you don't score. Never has a saying been so true for a club.
I think in Wenger's eyes he wants Jack to develop into a deep lying midfield player but that will take time. I think this season Jack needs to get through without injury and then next season we will see. I think it is important though for Jack to trust Wenger rather than be led by the media. After Ramsey's goal scoring this season some already are saying Jack should score more but he isn't really a goal scoring midfielder whereas it was always clear Ramsey got himself into goal scoring positions early on his career.
Like I've discussed here many times, Ozil was not a panic buy. It was left late because the Spurs kept delaying the Bale transfer and R.Madrid would not sell unless Bale was signed. This left us with very little time and I think from our point of view we wanted to keep it as quiet as possible. Last season we played Rosicky in his position (not Cazorla like some seem to think) and we needed a top class player there and we got him.
As for Suarez, the two owners get on well and I think your lot had made it quite clear you weren't gonna sell at any price to us so Kroenke fed that information down hence why we didn't bid more. At the time I thought we should of tested your resolve more but at the end of the day your lot held all the cards. You got a rich owner who can turn down silly offers so it is all speculation to say more money would of done it. We all knew he was worth more than £40mill but his troubled on the pitch meant your lot weren't going to get that fee the past summer. Works out best for you because if he stays clear of any trouble you'd think he'll go for £60mill+ in the summer.
I've heard that Costa is a horrible cheating, diving little scrote. Is this true?
Jazz G, you're suggesting both clubs owners are friends/colleagues yet you went in with an insulting bid but not a proper one. Strange. Suarez was Bale - £20m value while banned. Now he's Bale + £10m. A decent director / manager would have known that in the summer. The excuses so far are very unconvincing.
Wenger's problem with strikers is incredibly similar to Ferguson's with midfielders minus the silverware to back it up.
Grinner, when we were linked with Costa there were videos of him gobbing on players.
Wenger's problem with strikers is incredibly similar to Ferguson's with midfielders minus the silverware to back it up.
Grinner, when we were linked with Costa there were videos of him gobbing on players.
Wenger's problem with strikers is that the best ones are always too expensive and traditionally beyond our reach. Maybe this has changed now.
Well played sir. I was called an idiot when I valued Suarez at Ronaldo money in the summer. Everyone laughed too I believe.
Wenger has an allergy to silver. That's fair enough. He has all the talent but has lost the balls to take risks. My opinion. You may follow it up with a laughing smilie.
Wenger has an allergy to silver. That's fair enough. He has all the talent but has lost the balls to take risks. My opinion. You may follow it up with a laughing smilie.
I don't see how the term 'panic buy' can apply to an absolutely world class player anyway. I highly doubt that Wenger had any reservations in the build up to Ozil's signature.