IF RVP were to leave would we really have a chance of bringing in someone of Benzema calibre? My guess is that if we were to sign some WC players before the summer than RVP is NOT going to leave. If we do not sign some WC payers going into the second half of the summer transfer then RVP will probably be looking to move on and if he wants to move on then I just do not see other WC players coming here.

Good thing we don't sign world class players then, isn't it?

Lukas Podolski scored tonight for Koln against Mainz. Scored a trade-mark goal with his left-foot. http://bit.ly/uTkGaD

And here is Podolski again, scoring two excellent goals and assisting another as Koln beat Freiburg 4-0 last week http://bit.ly/uJsor4

German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung: Podolski is playing the best football of his life - 13 goals in 14 Bundesliga starts, plus five assists

We need to get podolski ASAP , This guy can fit into our system so fast

Well i already Signed him in PES 2012 , And he is doing a terrific job with RVP

Samuelj29060 wrote:German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung: Podolski is playing the best football of his life - 13 goals in 14 Bundesliga starts, plus five assists

A left footed striker playing the best football of his life...Sounds familiar...



Can we have two of those please?

MJGunner wrote:

Samuelj29060 wrote:German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung: Podolski is playing the best football of his life - 13 goals in 14 Bundesliga starts, plus five assists

A left footed striker playing the best football of his life...Sounds familiar...



Can we have two of those please?

No problem .


Brisbane Times? .

^^

I think Yaya took those cheap shots as revenge for Mata probably getting the better of him while they were both still playing in Spain.

beatrixasdfghjk. wrote:

MJGunner wrote:

Samuelj29060 wrote:German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung: Podolski is playing the best football of his life - 13 goals in 14 Bundesliga starts, plus five assists

A left footed striker playing the best football of his life...Sounds familiar...



Can we have two of those please?

No problem .


Brisbane Times? .

lol trollllllll

Apologies, as Podolski scored again on Tuesday night, he now has 14 goals in 15 Bundesliga starts.

Torres Available for 20m apparently. Any takers?

The talk today is all about whether Arsenal will splash out in January and bring in a few players. We are talking about this because the manager was asked about it last week at a supporters Q&A at Emirates Stadium last week.

We all know the problems we face come January. When Chamakh and Gervinho head off to the Africa Cup of Nations for six weeks, we're down to Robin van Persie and Ju Young Park as our only recognised strikers. For a club with the ambitions of finishing in the top four, I would suggest, this isn't good enough.

Robin can't play every game and Park has yet to play a minute of Premier Leauge football. When the Korean can't get ahead of Chamakh, who hasn't scored a goal in the league since September and only managed to find the back of the net twice more in this calendar year, that is saying something about the player.
.....
The problem as I see it isn't about money. We know that the Transfer Proceeds Account (TPA) still has around £50m in it from the sales we made in the summer, plus the left over cash from Manchester City's purchases of Adebayor and Toure.

No, the problem is the Premier League's 25 man squad rule. Arsenal currently have their quota of no more than 17 'non-homegrown' players filled, which means if the manager wants to buy a player who is older than 21 he will have to remove one of those currently on the list.

There are three unused spaces. When the club submitted its squad to the Premier League back in September, there were only 22 spaces filled. Which means we could sign a player who has been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday.

This is why Wenger is targeting players like Mario Gotze, who is 19, and Eden Hazard, who will be 21 in January. Of course players like Karim Benzema and Lukas Podolski have been linked with moves to north London but both fall into the category of 'non-homegrown', which would mean the manager would have to make a decision.

We know January is a tricky window to work in. Last year would have seen us sign Phil Jones from Blackburn had we extended the price we were prepared to pay to £10m. We all know what happened last summer, when we were out maneuvered by Manchester United for a player we could have signed six months earlier for £7m less than what Alex Ferguson paid.

There are fringe players which the manager could look to move on like Manuel Almunia and Sebastien Squillaci, neither of whom have started in a Premier League game this season. But I would imagine both are on good money and won't be prepared to except anything less than they're currently on. Could it be a case of Wenger deciding to cut his losses with both?

It's a tough decision but it's one which the manager is paid his £7m a season to make. He can't stand still in January, that's for certain. We know that this squad will need striking options because of the time Chamakh and Gervinho will spend at the Africa Cup of Nations. We aren't blessed with options at full back either and we know what happened when we waited and waited for Thomas Vermaelen to return from injury last season.

This time round we can't be in the same position. Wenger needs to make the signings and then make room in his squad for them, if they're joining from overseas. Alternately he could sign someone with Premier League experience.

There is an alternative to our striking issues. Recall Nicklas Bendtner from his loan at Sunderland. If Martin O'Neill doesn't like the look of him, he'll be surplus to requirements and kicking his heals on Wearside. We could do worse than repay Sunderland some of the loan fee and get big game Bendtner back in the squad. He's be classed as homegrown because of his time in the Arsenal academy, so wouldn't mean we'd have to sacrifice one of the other players currently making up the 17 'non-homegrown' players.

________________

From Ashburton Grove.

The homegrown issue is one point nobody here has mentioned yet iirc wrt the transfers.. Makes an interesting case that we could think about too..

Btw, Bendtner recalled? What d'yall think about that?

srigooner wrote:Torres Available for 20m apparently. Any takers?

that's 20 m too much.

I say no to Bendtner. He's just a drain on morale. We don't need that at this point.

The homegrown players thing was something I had thought about, but I wasn't sure on the number of home-grown players we still had, so I didn't bring it up.

Of course, the simple solution is let someone leave first and just replace him. Chamakh on loan somewhere, for example, would be enough to free up a space.

As for Bendtner, does he really offer anything more than Park or Chamakh at this point? I don't think he does.

We don't need to buy more defensive options. I don't get why everyone is jumping up and down and starting to list players that we could/should go for.

We have Gibbs, Santos, Sagna and Jenkinson for options at LB and we have Koscielny, Djourou, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Miquel and Squillaci as CBs. Koscielny and Djourou can play RB, Vermaelen and Miquel can play LB as well, and Song can be moved in as a CB if necessary. If we don't count one of Squillaci and Song, we then have 6 CBs who are all fit, and the only reason they are all getting play-time is because our 4 fullbacks are currently injured. When everyone is fit, we will have 10 defenders for 4 positions. Do we really need it to be 11 defenders? No, we don't. Even if we sell Squillaci in January, we don't need to buy. With the current fullback crisis, Squillaci has only stepped on the green twice, and both for meaningless competitions (CC cup with the kids, and a meaningless CL match after we had already qualified). Hardly a notable contribution of any sort

In any case, two of the fullbacks will be back by the time January comes in. Even if only one comes back, our CBs have done a good job at covering the flanks; obviously not as good as having a proper fullback, but nowhere near as bad as having to go out there and buy someone else. Other than adding more needless wages, we'll be taking away from the play-time of players that we have only recently acquired a couple of months ago. A loan option seems extremely unlikely for any player at this point, so we can only buy.

Offensively, we would definitely need to buy unless Park somehow turns into God-mode, but I don't see a need to even look for a defensive player. We're set, and we can't just keep on buying players every time a few are injured. That is not how this club is run

Iceman wrote:We don't need to buy more defensive options. I don't get why everyone is jumping up and down and starting to list players that we could/should go for.

We have Gibbs, Santos, Sagna and Jenkinson for options at LB and we have Koscielny, Djourou, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Miquel and Squillaci as CBs. Koscielny and Djourou can play RB, Vermaelen and Miquel can play LB as well, and Song can be moved in as a CB if necessary. If we don't count one of Squillaci and Song, we then have 6 CBs who are all fit, and the only reason they are all getting play-time is because our 4 fullbacks are currently injured. When everyone is fit, we will have 10 defenders for 4 positions. Do we really need it to be 11 defenders? No, we don't. Even if we sell Squillaci in January, we don't need to buy. With the current fullback crisis, Squillaci has only stepped on the green twice, and both for meaningless competitions (CC cup with the kids, and a meaningless CL match after we had already qualified). Hardly a notable contribution of any sort

In any case, two of the fullbacks will be back by the time January comes in. Even if only one comes back, our CBs have done a good job at covering the flanks; obviously not as good as having a proper fullback, but nowhere near as bad as having to go out there and buy someone else. Other than adding more needless wages, we'll be taking away from the play-time of players that we have only recently acquired a couple of months ago. A loan option seems extremely unlikely for any player at this point, so we can only buy.

Offensively, we would definitely need to buy unless Park somehow turns into God-mode, but I don't see a need to even look for a defensive player. We're set, and we can't just keep on buying players every time a few are injured. That is not how this club is run

I share your sentiments Iceman. I believe we only really need an attacking player who can play both on the wing or as a striker. (Reus, Reus, Reus).

If we really must buy some1 non-homegrown, sell Arshavin.

Was Torres THAT good before the last 2 years of floppage anyway?

Torres has scored 20 league goals in a season only once in his career (07-08).

Samuel, these are exactly the same doubts that other clubs had about RVP when he was getting injured all the time. We Arsenal fans have defended RVP to the death before, and now that he is on-form and injury-free, he proved us all right. Liverpool fans have defended Torres as well, and we have all seen how good he was back then.

I don't need more proof of a person's talent than seeing how good he was. With that said, I doubt Chelsea will see him and I doubt that we will be going after him anyway

Arsenal Alerted as German Superstar Hints at Exit

German striker Lukas Podolski has hinted that he would be open to a move to Arsenal after declaring that he is not prepared to move to another Bundesliga club.

Arsenal have been heavily linked with the 26-year-old in recent weeks and it seems as though his time with Cologne could well be coming to and end either in January or at the end of the season.

German newspaper Bild has reported that Arsenal would have to offer around €20million to land the striker in the New Year or wait until the end of the season when they would be able to land him for €15m.

"If I leave Köln, I'd be tempted to go abroad. It's hard to imagine moving within the league," revealed Podoloski.

The prolific forward has spent the vast majority of his career with Cologne but did have a short spell with German giants Bayern Munich where he struggled to find his best form.

Arsenal are keen to strengthen their squad in the January transfer window and manager Arsene Wenger attempts to find a partner for in-form striker Robin van Persie.

Podolski has a wealth of experience at the very top level with numerous appearances in the Champions League when at Bayern, while his record for Germany is quite stunning with 43 goals in 95 appearances.

Whether Arsenal would be prepared to offer as much as €20m in January is unknown as Wenger prefers to do the majority of his business in the summer.

However, the Gunners have recovered from a difficult start to the season and are keen to maintain their momentum and make sure they achieve Champions League football next season.

http://www.sportsvibe.co.uk/news/football/arsenal-alerted-as-german-superstar-hints-at-exit-14240/

Iceman wrote:Samuel, these are exactly the same doubts that other clubs had about RVP when he was getting injured all the time. We Arsenal fans have defended RVP to the death before, and now that he is on-form and injury-free, he proved us all right. Liverpool fans have defended Torres as well, and we have all seen how good he was back then.

I don't need more proof of a person's talent than seeing how good he was. With that said, I doubt Chelsea will see him and I doubt that we will be going after him anyway

But Van Persie has always scored goals. Torres hasn't for the past 18 months, even though he has played very often.

RVP has never been through such poor form as Torres is in now. And RVP has missed more months through injury than Torres!

Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath confirms interest in Rosicky.

http://bit.ly/ttAm9T

Torres is having a torrid time right now, I never disagreed with that, but so did Bergkamp and Henry at some points in their careers, and Wenger was the one to revitalize their careers. Of course, they were much younger then than Torres is now, but the point is there. I don't doubt Wenger's ability to revive his career.

I'm talking of Torres as a player. He showed class, but he's having a poor run right now, but that doesn't take away from the years of class that he once showed and if there is one manager that I trust to do well with him, it's Wenger (and Rafa). Not to mention, Chelsea's midfield doesn't exactly help Torres while ours definitely would. He'd fit in more here, and his runs would be picked out.

Sometimes you need to look a bit more beyond the statistics Sam

Iceman wrote:Torres is having a torrid time right now, I never disagreed with that, but so did Bergkamp and Henry at some points in their careers, and Wenger was the one to revitalize their careers. Of course, they were much younger then than Torres is now, but the point is there. I don't doubt Wenger's ability to revive his career.

I'm talking of Torres as a player. He showed class, but he's having a poor run right now, but that doesn't take away from the years of class that he once showed and if there is one manager that I trust to do well with him, it's Wenger (and Rafa). Not to mention, Chelsea's midfield doesn't exactly help Torres while ours definitely would. He'd fit in more here, and his runs would be picked out.

Sometimes you need to look a bit more beyond the statistics Sam

He still has class that much is obvious. I think he'd be more comfortable at the Emirates but it would probably kill his morale to be transferred for 30m less than he was bought for. To be abandoned kind of. And his poor run has been almost 2 years now, so is it just poor form or a decline?

Why we even talking about Torres no way we can afford his wages. Get Godoski he is twice the player Toreass is.

Torres has skill but serious mental issues. Raptor's right, anyways. No way we're affording his wages.

Only guy with that sort of wages I'd even think about is Eto'o, and that's in my dreams.

torres has the class, but the thing that's wrong with him is the same thing that's wrong with Chamakh right now. it's between their ears. they lack confidence.


besides torres hasnt been that awful at chelsea. he's doing mostly everything else decently except putting away his own chances. he's not the guy we should buy though imo

TBH, I prefer Chamakh to Torres. I posted the bit about him being available for 20 million to gauge reactions; the thought that some of you might want him never crossed my mind.

Btw, one question. Is his class the only reason you wouldn't mind him joining, although it ticked quite a few people off when we signed Benayoun [Chelsea reject] and talk of us linked with Kalou [another reject] surfaced? And I thought class is permanent, you can't play without class for close to 2 years.