afc Arsenal Summer Transfer Window

[darkman]

Stupid club I support

Run by an idiot

[TF S4DK]

Refuses to be trol.led

[TF S4DK]

The financial outlay Arsenal were required to make was a key reason behind the decision to pull the plug on a deal, but Wenger also added: ‘He (Sahin) wouldn’t necessarily be a replacement for Song because Sahin isn’t a defensive midfielder.

‘We have (Jack) Wilshere coming back quicker and he is a similar type of player. I see Sahin more in the attacking department — not in a deep midfield role.

‘If you look at the numbers you will see that Song was more of an offensive player than a defensive one.

‘We have (Mikel) Arteta who can play deeper — the kind of (Andrea) Pirlo role — we have (Abou) Diaby, who is a very strong defensive player.

‘And of course, Sahin wants to play. He wants to join a club where he will play (every week). We have nine midfielders and they all need a chance to play.’

Wenger will go into the final week of the transfer window on the look-out for defensive midfielder and a versatile defender.

But there is one player in particular Wenger wishes he could have signed this summer.

‘The one player I would like to have signed? Eden Hazard,’ revealed Wenger.

‘We would have considered him, yes, because we were on the case a long time but there was such a competition for him.

‘Manchester City and Chelsea, they fly a bit higher in the sky.

‘We tried to sign him two years ago, we were in touch with Lille but they never wanted to sell him.

‘They had a clause and they decided only this year to sell. He was a very young boy, he is still a very young boy.

‘He is a guy who has something special, as you have seen already.’

[TF S4DK]

Asked which player he would most like to have signed this summer, Wenger replied: "Van Persie."

[Heero Yuy]

would have been like a new signing.

[Lethaldabizzle2008]

How long till the window closes now? A few days?

This is gonna be a last day ting!

[TF S4DK]

Next Friday.

[Afroman]

tiote

seems to be the talk of the evening/2moro

12m bid

not a special palyer we were promised.

loses the ball alot more than song

[TF S4DK]

"I was close to building a team that would have had more than enough quality to win trophies," Wenger said. "Fabregas, Adebayor, Van Persie and Nasri playing together would have been very successful, but we lost them all in a short period.

"It's has been so frustrating to see a young player come to Arsenal, make their Premier League debut with us, prove themselves to be top players and then go somewhere else. My judgement on them was proved to be right, but another team is getting the benefit.

"The problem has been that there has been nothing we could have done to stop this. I don't want to go back over the reasons why we have been forced to sell these players, but it has been taken out of our control and it is hard to accept."

Wenger's transfer misery has persuaded him to change his approach, with the manager who fielded the first all-foreign squad in the Premier League setting his sights on moulding an Arsenal team oozing with local talent, as he seeks to uncover a way to hold on to his carefully nurtured starlets.

"It feels like we have had to start all over again after so many top quality players left us, and we are building a new team using a fresh mentality, with a core of British players who should have more association with a local club," Wenger said.

"We have Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Carl Jenkinson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming through now and they can all grow up having an affinity for Arsenal. Maybe then they will stay here longer if they are tempted to move.

"Look at what happened with Fabregas. He was grateful for what we did to him and developed a real love for Arsenal, but he could not resist Barcelona when they came for him as it was his club. This is what happens when you have a foreign player: at some point, he will always want to move on."

[gattsu]

yes just what we need another project

[Drift]

if wed won the trophies we were supposed to win most of these niggas would still be at the club.

07/08 we throw away a 5 point lead who knows what that could have pushed us onto... 10/11 we allow birmingham to mug us off, league was there for the taking as well.

[Captain Planet]

Need to buy some winners imo players that have actually won a major prize and are hungry for more

[gattsu]

if wed won the trophies we were supposed to win most of these niggas would still be at the club.

07/08 we throw away a 5 point lead who knows what that could have pushed us onto... 10/11 we allow birmingham to mug us off, league was there for the taking as well.

this is what so annoying people like nasri leaving to win stuff but its bottlers like him the reasons why we have not

[TF S4DK]

if wed won the trophies we were supposed to win most of these niggas would still be at the club.

But would they REALLY?! It would have made their justification harder, but bar Fabregas all of them got HUGE payrises.

[Drift]

if wed won the trophies we were supposed to win most of these niggas would still be at the club.

But would they REALLY?! It would have made their justification harder, but bar Fabregas all of them got HUGE payrises.

except for adebawhore, flamini and maybe hleb with his gassed self, most of these man said they left arsenal cos they wanted to win sh*t. and i believe them. when we were winning sh*t we had guys like sol campbell and bergkamp taking PAY CUTS to stay at the club under our wage structure... the payrises rvp, nasri and them man have got just come with the territory due to the clubs theyre going to imo.

[TF S4DK]

Campbell didnt take a pay cut, his bonus just ran out. Thats a different era anyway, as its before Chelsea & Man City. But if we wanna look at that era we could look at the fact that Vieira was winning sh*t & every summer he would look elsewhere cos he wanted more money...

[TF S4DK]

Man Utd won the same as Arsenal last season (if you discount the Charity Shield). Bar finishing 2nd in the league, Arsenal actually progressed further than them in all other comps.

They then had spent more money this summer than Man Utd, and RvP still joined them... I think the 200k a week has a LOT to do with it. He might tell you he didnt talk money with Arsenal but I'm sure Kees Vos did with all of the clubs...

Like I said the lack of trophies justify it, and Arsenal can only blame themselves for that, but I just dont buy the trophies and winning things, when I see the difference in financial incentive.

[TF S4DK]

Chieck out: Arsenal plot £15m raid for Newcastle's Tiote

Toon midfielder tops Gunners' wish list to replace Song - and Wenger is also after Montpellier defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will make an ambitious bid this week to sign midfielder Cheick Tiote.

But the Gunners boss faces a huge battle to convince ­Newcastle United to sell. And Wenger will also make a move for a utility defender before the transfer ­window shuts at 11pm on Friday, with Montpellier’s Mapou ­Yanga-Mbiwa high on his list.

Tiote is now Wenger’s top ­midfield target, ahead of Rennes star Yann M’Vila, even though Arsenal know Newcastle are ­desperate to keep the Ivory Coast international. Chelsea and Manchester City have previously been quoted over £20million for Tiote and remain ­interested, but Wenger will test the water with a bid of around £15m.

Tiote earns £40,000-a-week and Wenger would offer the 26-year-old a healthy pay rise.

It is understood Tiote is aware of Arsenal’s ­interest and believes the London club will make a firm offer for him once today’s game against Stoke is out of the way.

He missed Newcastle’s game at Chelsea yesterday with a calf ­injury.

If Wenger cannot get Tiote or gets outbid by Chelsea or City, he is still interested in M’Vila and could ­persuade Rennes to sell for £10m. Toulouse’s Etienne Capoue has also been watched.

Wenger also wants to strengthen his defensive options and is ready to firm up his interest in Yanga-Mbiwa, 23. He has been scouted for a while and could be available for £7m as his Montpellier contract runs out at the end of the ­season.

Arsenal will this week resume contract talks with the representatives of Theo Walcott, as the club attempt to tie the England winger down to a new five-year deal.

[BSOM]

Tfs been indoctrinated by Wenger

[BSOM]

You should have kept RVP and Song, if you did and added a utility fullback you would be challenging for the league

[BSOM]

But you basically admit defeat by selling your best players.

[TF S4DK]

ALEX SONG today lifts the lid on his shock £15million move to Barcelona and insists: I wanted to sign for life at Arsenal — but they fobbed me off.

The Cameroon midfielder is the latest star to join the mass Emirates exodus.

In his first interview since signing for the Spanish giants, Song, 24, reveals how he:

• Wanted to stay at the Gunners for life.
  

• Was cold shouldered every time he tried to arrange talks over his future.
  

• Was distraught when he read stories from “club sources” claiming he had a bad attitude and was constantly late for training.
  

Song said: “I woke up and read those things in the paper and was really surprised and disappointed. I love Arsenal, I never wanted to leave.

“I was ready to commit my future to the club. All I wanted were talks about a new contract but each time we were due to sit down, the club postponed it. I was fobbed off.

“I wanted a new five-year contract at Arsenal. In the end I got one — at Barcelona.”

Song made 197 appearances for the Gunners since joining in a £1m deal from French club Bastia in August 2006.

Last season, he played 46 times, led the way in goal assists and came second in the fans’ Player of the Season poll behind Robin van Persie.

Ironically, both players have now joined the annual Arsenal exodus, with RVP signing a four-year Manchester United contract. Song was midway through his six-year, £55,000-a-week Arsenal deal when he followed RVP out of the Emirates.

The midfielder first asked in November about the prospects of talking over a new deal.

Song was keen to show his loyalty to the club at a time when a glut of stars had quit.

However, he claims he was told to wait until the New Year.

January came and went and Arsenal indicated talks would begin in March or April.

Song insists those were postponed and he was asked to wait until the end of the season — then until after Euro 2012.

Finally, he was told the club would let him know when they were ready to start negotiations on any new deal.

Song added: “I had been trying for eight months to start talking about a new long-term deal but the club kept postponing me all the time, saying ‘You have three years left’.

“I hadn’t talked about money I just wanted to sit down and discuss a new deal — I wanted to commit my career to the club I loved.

“Then out of the blue, Barcelona came in for me.

“And, suddenly, I was wanted by the biggest club in the world and they wanted to give me a five-year deal.”

Arsenal said they would talk to him in September or October, after the transfer window.

But he felt he was being duped into snubbing Barca without any assurances.

Song said: “Barcelona were prepared to offer me a five-year deal. I had asked Arsenal for eight months for the same.

“When the best team in the world recognises your talents it means you must be doing something right.

“If Arsenal thought I wasn’t enthusiastic in training then maybe it was I didn’t understand that I was contributing on the pitch and they didn’t want to sit down with me.”

Song’s move to the Catalan capital was quickly agreed but Song was furious when stories appeared — from Arsenal sources — accusing him of being lazy, having a bad attitude and being late for training.

He added: “I’m really upset. These accusations are hurtful, they are slurs on my character.

“I have the utmost respect for Arsene Wenger. I loved him like a father and he is a fantastic coach.

“He made me the player I am and I am indebted to him for that.

“There was never any trouble between us, so for someone within the club to suggest that really upsets me.”

Barca clearly believe they have captured a gem and have inserted a staggering £63m get-out clause in his contract.

Song is reunited with former Arsenal captain and close pal Cesc Fabregas in a side crammed with superstar talent like Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

The Cameroon star said: “I will always love Arsenal but Barcelona are the best team in the world. I may not start every game but I can’t wait for the challenge.

“I would have stayed but when the Barcelona train comes in for you, that is a once-in-a-lifetime chance and you just can’t miss it.”</p>

[Drift]

Campbell didnt take a pay cut, his bonus just ran out. Thats a different era anyway, as its before Chelsea & Man City. But if we wanna look at that era we could look at the fact that Vieira was winning sh*t & every summer he would look elsewhere cos he wanted more money...

Arsenal have yet to discuss details of their proposals to the England centre-half Campbell who, with 10 months to run on his contract, has attracted interest from Juventus and Chelsea, though the champions have indicated he must accept a pay cut if he is to stay.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2004/jul/20/sport.comment1

as for vieira but he always stayed in the end though right? i remember hearing before the unbeaten season when he was about to cut to real they were able to convince him to stay right at the death. i know people are saying cos they wernt offering him that galacticos money but believe if the team wasnt competitive he would have left regardless.

Man Utd won the same as Arsenal last season (if you discount the Charity Shield). Bar finishing 2nd in the league, Arsenal actually progressed further than them in all other comps.

They then had spent more money this summer than Man Utd, and RvP still joined them... I think the 200k a week has a LOT to do with it. He might tell you he didnt talk money with Arsenal but I'm sure Kees Vos did with all of the clubs...

Like I said the lack of trophies justify it, and Arsenal can only blame themselves for that, but I just dont buy the trophies and winning things, when I see the difference in financial incentive.

like i said it think the money comes with the territory, youre going to a club like man utd or man city primarily to win things as theyve proven themselves to be competitive in recent years, you might as well get a nice pay rise as you know they aint got the rigid wage structure like we do.

if man like dembele was to leave for real madrid, hed probably quadruple his wages in the process, but that wouldnt be his primary reason for leaving, hed go there cos theyre a bigger more competitive club than fulham, the money comes with the territory.

[TF S4DK]

Campbell was being paid his basic wage, I think 48k, plus another 48k in bonuses as part of his signing on-fee for leaving Spurs to join us for free, Arsenal needed to get him to re-sign and was making him aware that he will get a rise on his basic wage but the bonus payments would stop, so a wage increase, but also in effect a pay cut.

/

If Madrid hadn't tried to par him, he would have played for Madrid... Same way if they hadn't parred Makelele he wouldn't have joined The Chavs.

/

Man Cty have won the league and the FA Cup in two years, and probably the same in ten, and we probably have won the same in ten years, lol. Man City have spent to win, but the year they won the FA Cup you couldnt say they was more competitive than Arsenal, other than there competitive streak was displayed in their desire to spend bigger money than everybody else...

Dembele has a year left on his deal. If Arsenal tapped him up and wanted to do the deal next week, and Fulham was prepared to offer him the biggest deal to any player in their history, Arsenal could match it and more now he'll say "he wants to test himself in the Champions League", "at a higher level" blah blah blah, my point is you can always find a justification. When players was joining City 2-3 years ago and they was champions or Champions League players at their current clubs, it was for an "exciting new project" I don't buy it, they see the money...

[Drift]

the players man city were bringing in 2-3 years ago, apart from yaya and balotelli none of them came from winning teams. all kolarov, silva, de jong and them man, some of them might have been champions league players but they wernt winning things like that. money probably was the motive for them man but i dont think it was for guys like nasri and rvp.

nasri wouldnt have joined them at that stage, he joined them after they went on that mad run basically finishing joint 2nd bagging the fa cup on top while we threw everything away that same season, they were a club going places, we wernt, fabregas had just left, the money was secondary.