Re: Official WOB thread.

by Hapless_Hans Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:35 pm

MJ wrote:
Hapless_Hans wrote:In what position are you in exactly?
I fail to understand why most of you seem to believe you are entitled, or predisposed, to do so much better.
Is your team better than the top 3 of PL? No.
Have you spent nearly as much money in the last decade as the top 3 of PL? No.

You can be frustrated about certain things, obviously, but I don't see with what justification this total sense of outrage exists.

Should we be improving after an encouraging season last year with considerably more money than we have had in recent years and with gaps in the squad? Yes. It's as simple as that. We have the money and we have gaps. We shouldn't.

I know. But then you can't DEMAND things like that.
"After 8 years of financing debt with player sales, we've now spent 2 years and we MUST be top 3 after 15 games played".

Noone is denying you didn't have a good start.

As for the gaps.
Wasn't it always like that? Wenger is quite simply far less a transfer muppet than fans. Fans don't like Flamini or Monreal, not without reason, but Wenger brought them in.
He clearly doesn't think they are as rubbish as most of you think.

That's probably a weakness of his, trusting his players too much.
But then he's always been like this, I'd classify this summer transfer window as actually surprisingly active tbh.

You can't separate the good from the bad. Wenger has his strengths and weaknesses, funny thing is that after so many years people take his strengths for granted, but seemingly can't get used to his weaknesses.

by MJ Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:42 pm

I don't mind having Flamini and Monreal at the club, I don't think that that's the problem.

The fact that they have to start consistently when we can afford better players (and Monreal at CB, I mean, he's a decent LB) is what bothers me.

I haven't gotten so impatient that I expected the league this year but after challenging for it for so long last season you'd at least expect to maintain the status quo rather than have our worst ever start to the season when we're supposed to have more money than ever.

And I was very happy with our transfer activity until we sold Vermaelen without replacing him. I think we'd be a lot better off if we'd signed a CB or DM. Wenger said it himself, he said "for sure we will replace Vermaelen" and this was after having already signed Chambers so he wasn't talking about him.

by Hapless_Hans Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:37 pm

I think what was happening was that Wenger was weighing up getting Carvalho for a lot of money, then the Giroud injury happened and he spent 20m on Welbeck (because without the Giroud injury I'm pretty sure he would not have bought a striker), so perhaps not enough money was left for Carvalho.
You net spent something like 85m € this summer after all, I don't know if 30m more would have been within planned range hmm

No excuse for not having enough defenders, sure

but then I don't think you can say Vermaelen was not replaced, seeing that Vermaelen won't be able to play a single game this season anyway lol.

by MJ Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:51 pm

Unless Wenger sold Vermaelen knowing that he'd be out until his grandkids would be old enough to sign for Barcelona then I'm not sure that that can be counted as a preemptive decision lol. But he identified the need to sign a CB himself and didn't.

If Carvalho is too expensive at €30million then surely there are CBs out there who are good enough to at least provide depth for less than that? Unless he really wants to play Chambers as a defender rather than as a defensive mid and wouldn't settle for less than whichever DM he put as his priority (Schneiderlin, Carvalho)

but that's very risky (obviously, we've paid the price now) as you're banking on a 19-year-old progressing well in one position where there are more options on the market (We need a DM good enough to start, we need a CB good enough to provide competition)

by Raptorgunner Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:13 am

Before the Stokeshity game Wenger said Arsenal will win the league in 2017, first win the game and then talk about 2017. Wenger would never get fired and he would never walk away from Arsenal. My only advise to the fans is instead of making a fool out of yourself just stop going to the games. Arsenal fans have been the most patient and tolerant, we keep getting lied to by the board and Wenger and we stood by them and now the fans cant take it anymore after paying one of the highest ticket prices to watch a team lose game after game.

He responds today to the fans booing him by saying "judge at end of the season" so another top 4 struggle and we should be happy with that?
I dont agree with the fans but Wenger will never get why the fans were angry at him, is not the loss to stoke, it just he never learns from his mistakes and willing to change.

by Raptorgunner Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:31 am

Hapless_Hans wrote:I think what was happening was that Wenger was weighing up getting Carvalho for a lot of money, then the Giroud injury happened and he spent 20m on Welbeck (because without the Giroud injury I'm pretty sure he would not have bought a striker), so perhaps not enough money was left for Carvalho.
You net spent something like 85m € this summer after all, I don't know if 30m more would have been within planned range

No excuse for not having enough defenders, sure

but then I don't think you can say Vermaelen was not replaced, seeing that Vermaelen won't be able to play a single game this season anyway lol.

Wenger had no intention to sign anyone else. The Giroud injury was a stressful one for him, we got Welbeck by luck. It was just paper talk and Carvalho was never a target imo, and the money is not an issue. Wenger just loves Gambling and proving the media and fans wrong but all he does is prove us right. Wenger doesnt have to spend 30m on Carvalho, he could have signed a DM and CB for that price if he wanted to. Remember Wenger always says his phone always ringing and players being offered to him.

I guarantee you Wenger would have signed a CB and DM if the whole world was not begging him to sign them.

by 1991 Wed Dec 10, 2014 8:51 am

Yep, he's proven time & time again that he'll be a dick with his team selection/formation just to be a dick so I'm sure the same thing applies to his transfer policies. Doing it his way is more important to him than actually winning, which is the main reason why he should be sacked. He treats our football club as a vanity project and has the temerity to condescend the fans who question it. For goodness sake Gazidis had to push for the Welbeck signing, If it was left up to Wenger (as it usually is) we'd have Sanogoals upfront every night Laughing

by Peccadillo Mon Dec 15, 2014 1:57 am

all quiet on the WOB front for one week

by Raptorgunner Mon Dec 15, 2014 10:18 pm

Peccadillo wrote: all quiet on the WOB front for one week

We dont get any pride in this, We all want whats best for Arsenal and if Wenger changes and learn from his mistakes still is the best option.

After all, if it was not for Wenger many of us would not have been Arsenal fans.