26 Sep 2020 19:43:15
So was it really Wenger pissing around
in the transfer market or it's just Arsenal being Arsenal.
Partey - pay the fee or move on.
Aouar - Lyon turned down initial bid £33m. Then embarrass themselves - new bid circa £34.5m - knocked back. Told pay circa £44m.
Let's put a proper bid in and get our guy (s'
If it's 44 to 45m for either - get bloody Partey but stop messing around guys.
26 Sep 2020 21:57:20
Mari Chambers and Martinelli being fit will be like new signings.
Does that one still work :-) ?
27 Sep 2020 07:38:03
Id feel pretty uncomfortable if we spent 44million on a another CM when we have a big squad, huge wage bill and, most importantly, have sacked a load of staff as we don't have the funds. Surely we need to be better than that? This club is more than the action it completes in these football manager style transfer markets. i'd hate to forget what happened to those staff members as we fet excited about the season.
27 Sep 2020 09:02:34
Very good post Sally.
27 Sep 2020 11:11:39
Very true Sally but we are a football club at the end of the day and the more successful we are and bigger we get - the more jobs we create. Be it extra cup games, competing for the league so driving up gates, mid week European games etc etc. It will help the stadium be busier, surrounding businesses busier, shop busier etc.
We can’t forget the 55 and I am very sorry for them. I believe the club did right by them on pay outs. Getting back to normal and winning will protect more.
We really do need to sign a decent CDM and Second a creative CM to compete. I’m sure other companies will still be investing despite making people redundant.
27 Sep 2020 11:23:22
I wonder if our traditional values will be visible once again when we have a balanced side in place and the madness of the transfer fees isn't so prominent Sally? Once Arteta has the squad he feels happy with I reckon things will calm down. And he needs to strengthen now to compete and therefore get the financial rewards to keep us in contention. If you look at it logically none of it makes sense, but it is what it is and in these strange times who knows where football is heading!
I've been thinking a lot about the personnel who were let go. Should the players have funded them temporarily? Should the club have kept them on a retainer in this difficult jobs market? We can only hope there won't be any more.
27 Sep 2020 11:37:13
I have to agree with Sally as well. Yes we do need a strong DM, but as we are seeing with our attempts to offfload players such as Torreira and Mustaphi, it’s become a buyers market, and only the very best are maintaining their market values. So we should not be overpaying for any targets, and instead walk away if our value for that player is not accepted. In the current environment other opportunities will come up, other teams will become desperate to sell. In a buyers market cash is king, we just need to ensure we are in a position to have cash to spend rather than being one of the many clubs needing to sell or go bust. We also need to explain to Torreira that he has failed to receive an acceptable bid, and that he will remain an Arsenal player, and hey presto, we already have the DM we want.
27 Sep 2020 12:24:45
The issue with the Partey transfer is that we would have to stump up 45m up front - the majority of transfers these days (especially the bigger transfers) are amortised as to maintain a somewhat balanced cash flow.
With Aouar, we could pay his fee in instalments as to stay within FFP. Also I don't think we were expecting to actually get a bid of 35m accepted, its just the beginning of negotiations. I'd expect us to get him for something along the lines of ~ €40m rising to 50 with add-ons.
27 Sep 2020 12:45:26
Why would Partey be upfront?
I don’t really care if it’s Partey but I don’t want a CAM before we get a CDM. Think that’s crazy and something we done too often - buy a player who we don’t need as much due to terms of deal.
{Ed002's Note - Atletico Madrid require his buy out clause to be met - and that means a single €50M payment to them.}
27 Sep 2020 13:45:20
Sally J
I agree the players could have helped protect the 55 jobs but they didn't. I think in this world you've got to be celebrate those who do go out of their way to help others but accept not everyone wants to do the same.
Mesut gives 50% of his wages to charity he's a very rare exception to the rule. I spent many years as a charity fundraiser and I very quickly learned those with the most give the least and those without that much themselves were far more likly to help others.
Last time I looked Sunderland Glasgow and another Scottish town were the top 3 most giving places in the country while Kensington was always rock bottom on the list during my fundraising career.
27 Sep 2020 12:54:57
Thank you Ed.
27 Sep 2020 14:24:24
My biggest worry is that we splash the cash on a new cm it is no guarantee to work and solve our issues! I think we all were super keen for Torreria to sign a few years ago after the world cup. I believe in Arteta but we should not put all of our eggs in one basket.
27 Sep 2020 14:35:56
I found the same when I was fundraising Gunner. I guess if you don't have much you appreciate when others are struggling. I've always found huge accumulation of wealth a strange concept and for some however much they have it's never enough. I've always been happy with a fridge full of food and enough to pay the bills :)
27 Sep 2020 15:34:46
Sally J
Sounds to me like you've cracked the secret to a happy life, if your happy to simply have enough life will hold lots of really nice surprises for you, while if your living in a state of always wanting more it's impossible to be happy for very long.
Someone told me once that
Some people really are so poor all they have is money, they were so right.
Sally91
Once again I couldn't agree more, what if spend 45 million on Partey and he isn't the answer, what then? As Pepe has shown it's not always as simple as spending to make everything come good. Again like you point out real life isn't like fantasy football manager, you have to live with and recover from your mistakes as you can't simply switch the game off and start again and hope for better luck next time.
27 Sep 2020 16:18:35
Wise words Gunner and Sally91.
27 Sep 2020 17:33:02
True 62 but that perpetual fear that a signing may not work out cost Wenger a number of signings. I don’t want us to over pay or put the club at risk but we need a decent CDM. So, we need to crack on and do our best. If the cupboard is bare because we can’t sell - fair enough. I’m ok with that. Fear shouldn’t stop us. Finances can. We will never compete if we run our club that way.
The 55 shouldn’t stop us either
Very true - the ones with less give more pound for pound and as a proportion of wealth than those better off.
27 Sep 2020 18:00:09
I wonder if Torreira is being put up for sale purely because he seems unsettled here? I love watching him play, totally committed and heart of a lion. I get a little nervous when he is defending in the box against some 6ft+ player though.
27 Sep 2020 18:49:36
Hi SY I think you've got more of a margin of error if your flush or your previous gambles have done well and increased in value but unfortunately many of our previous singings haven't worked out as well as we'd have liked and we are struggling to move them on and recoup anything from those investment at all. I absolutely agree you shouldn't let fear stand in your way but you should always be ready to lose as well as win when you gamble and if you really can't afford to lose then don't gamble are all.
Yes mate in the majority of cases those with the big houses didn't get them by giving they're money away, although to be 100% fair I did meet the odd few very very compassionate kind and generous wealthy people who were genuinely delighted to help out but it has to be said 98% of those who gave were just ordinary people most of who wages fell a long way short of the national average wage.