"Arsenal Linked With Wigan Athletic Midfielder James McCarthy"

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:I just cringed and vomited a little after reading the words James McCarthy, Cesc Fabregas and REPLACEMENT in the same freakin sentence.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Good things come to those who wait.

One thing I find laughable about some of the fans' frustrations is that they seemingly believe Wenger and the board are just sitting there doing nothing. If you truly believe that Wenger is happy with his squad and doesn't want to strengthen it then you, I'm afraid, are wrong.

I know people are worried and whatnot but I find the lack of patience extremely irksome. Just one look at the current market should tell you all you need to know: unless you have a hell of a lot of cash to spend, every single team in the world is being careful.

Case in point, United and Liverpool pay some grossly inflated fees for a few players since they have money to blow, while everyone else in the Premier League either have only made one decent move or no moves at all.

Don't confuse caution in the market with complacency and not wanting to spend. Wenger says time and again that he wants to strengthen the squad and even recently said a defender is his top priority. Now that may not be too reassuring to us cynical people but the truth is that he's looking for players and has targets in mind. The problem is the inflated fees. Arsenal are never going to pay £17,000,000 for Cahill or £20,000,000 for Jagielka or even £10,000,000 for Scott Dann.

Then you have to consider that Arsenal are still trying to get rid of some players, sort of the futures of a couple more and are in the midst of their pre-season. Wenger even said that he can't do business if the future's of some of his players are uncertain.

Basically, Wenger wants to spend and strengthen, but at the moment his hands are tied. We, the fans, just need to be patient.

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Look while I agree with what you are saying for the most part, I still feel that the pricing of players have gone up and at best will remain stagnant in that plateau. Contrary to the popular beliefs, this has not been our motto in the past. Now i am no economics major, but if we were not hesitant, and could well afford to spend 10 million back in year 2000, we should have no problem paying 20mil (give or take) for half decent players now (given that our teams income has sky rocketed)! What stopped wenger from not spending 11 million on Henry, knowing that just 12- 13 years back Napoli bought Maradona for 5 mil? Prices of players in general have gone up and will not drop down.

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Look while I agree with what you are saying for the most part, I still feel that the pricing of players have gone up and at best will remain stagnant in that plateau. Contrary to the popular beliefs, this has not been our motto in the past. Now i am no economics major, but if we were not hesitant, and could well afford to spend 10 million back in year 2000, we should have no problem paying 20mil (give or take) for half decent players now (given that our teams income has sky rocketed)! What stopped wenger from not spending 11 million on Henry, knowing that just 12- 13 years back Napoli bought Maradona for 5 mil? Prices of players in general have gone up and will not drop down.

Something called the Emirates Stadium and £400,000,000 worth of debt might be your answer.

lenear1030 wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Look while I agree with what you are saying for the most part, I still feel that the pricing of players have gone up and at best will remain stagnant in that plateau. Contrary to the popular beliefs, this has not been our motto in the past. Now i am no economics major, but if we were not hesitant, and could well afford to spend 10 million back in year 2000, we should have no problem paying 20mil (give or take) for half decent players now (given that our teams income has sky rocketed)! What stopped wenger from not spending 11 million on Henry, knowing that just 12- 13 years back Napoli bought Maradona for 5 mil? Prices of players in general have gone up and will not drop down.

Something called the Emirates Stadium and £400,000,000 worth of debt might be your answer.

the ol' stadium excuse.

I do agree with you though that we shouldn't look at players like Jagielka, Cahill and Samba and immediately say "now THAT'S what we've been missing." Unfortunately, there are not many undisputed, top-quality defenders on the market right now. Arsene is doing all he can.

I understand your point of view and of course agree with English players being over-inflated. And I share your thoughts about preferring the talent coming from the academy to be English. I must admit, back in April, when we were playing you lot and we had to throw Robinson of 17 year old at LB because of injuries, and seeing how well he coped with Walcott, I felt greatly happy inside. Even if it was only one game, but seeing an English talent, representing an English club brought an smile to my face. I felt like we could have a Scouse Maldini in the making, etc.

I don't say English players are always 100% more committed and loyal, After all...2 of our 3 best Academy players of 90s (Macca and Owen) both lied to the fans and ditched us for next to nothing for Real Madrid.

Maybe I am being naive, but I don't trust Foreign players much after Alonso jumped the ship at the first opportunity that Madrid came along with twice the wage offer, AFTER SEEING US ABSOLUTELY RAPE THEM INSIDE OUT. I don't buy into his excuses, He saw an opportunity to go back to his home, with a newly born son, and much higher wages at lower tax rate, and he even handed in a transfer request for that. That killed my faith in 'em.

Of course you can never please everybody...but seeing Gerrard ignoring Torres in goal celebrations and Carragher shouting at him for not running down the channel to chase a throughball when we lost 2-0 @ Goodison, just confirmed my thoughts that local and English boys simply care more about the club.

In summary, Yes. British players require inflated fees. But in long term, they have advantages that could potentially outweigh the initial big fee scare. Most of them come at lower wages than their foreign equivalents (at least ones I know at my club), They are more likely stay with the club through thick and thin, and if they settle and become a success, then the reward is very very very long term and great that makes people forget that initial fee paid for them. The clearest example was 60M pounds a decade ago (what is it in today's inflation?) paid for Rooney and Ferdinand, or 11M for Lampard in 2001. I am sure those fees were deemed as Unbelievable and totally OTT, but who's having the last laugh now?

Sepi wrote:James McCarthy is an excellent young player..of course not on the same patch as Cesc, but still an excellent player for his age...

I get the feeling that most Arsenal fans, over time, have inherited Wenger's anti British policy and get disgusted when being linked with English players simply because of their nationality, without acknowledging that a solid British core is key for long term success of an English club in both domestic league and CL.

Man United have proved it for over 25 years and Ferguson has preferred to spend 16M on Young with a year on his contract after his worst season for Villa, instead of for example NZogbia who is younger at almost half the price and wages....and don't tell me Fergie is stupid for that. He knows the importance of having a British core in success and continuity (hence buying mostly British)

Same goes with Chelsea and the massive roles that Terry and Lampard have played in their success of past few years...and if you notice it well, it's their foreign players who sulk when things going well and that's where a strong British core shows it strength.

I made a topic in United's section about this whole Anti-English thing going on here ... and Arsenal fans, have inherited Wenger's dislike of buying English IMO, when it's exactly what they LACK in your team, and especially with a great British core of Wilshere/Ramsey, you are a couple of those players away from ultimate greatness...Fact is, British players care more about the club, and don't whore themselves around when Barca/Real Madrid come sniffing

English players would be rated more highly if they didn't have boring last names ....

GoonerJay29 wrote:

I do agree with you though that we shouldn't look at players like Jagielka, Cahill and Samba and immediately say "now THAT'S what we've been missing." Unfortunately, there are not many undisputed, top-quality defenders on the market right now. Arsene is doing all he can.

Most of that is media-driven, I believe. The media harps on about how good Cahill and Jagielka are and says they're the answer to our problems. A lot of fans have just gone with it.

You are spot on, though. Judging the squad now would be foolish, since we can never be sure who will step-up next season. Last year we had the likes of Fabiasnki and Djourou make significant improvements, Wilshere broke into the first team and Nasri and Walcott both raised their games.

At that time, people were all saying that Fabiasnki had to be sold, Djourou wouldn't make it, Wilshere had to go on loan and Walcott needed to find a brain.

If the squad gets its confidence back then it can compete again. All I really want Wenger to do is sign a left back and promote Bartley and Lansbury to replace Squillaci and Denilson.