The REAL rebuilding phase

It was said that we bid 20 mil for Hazard, 24 mil for M'vila, and 28 mil for Goetze.Whats great is that , our board members are looking to pursuit those players come January as well(esp Hazard and M'vila). It has to be said that I am pleasantly surprised to read that our board is not stopping with the transfer now. What happens this season is forgivable, because our staff have got the squad, and are now looking to add in the final pieces to create an epic team. I am fully behind them and can look past one crap season if they are truly going after those players mentioned above. It shows intent on our part, It makes other players want to come here. Forget the Fabregas generation, I think the rebuilding process begins now!

What is your take in this folks?

In my opinion, those bids only happened because of the circumstances of the summer window. The fact that the squad was already short, further compounded by the 8-2 defeat at United probably made the board desperate. In other circumstances, the club would never have made such high bids for M'Vila or Götze. The club never made an official bid for Hazard.

The club has now secured an alternative and I would not be surprised if they didn't bid for them again. Arteta is an ideal singing for a number of reasons, but the most significant reason is that he'll be 33 by the time his deal with us expires, and by that time Ramsey and Wilshere will both be approaching their mid-twenties and their primes. Likewise Frimpong and a few other young players at the club.

To me, the next phase of rebuilding will be promoting from within and not splashing on these wonder-kids who, by the time Arteta's deal expires, will most likely have moved to other top clubs.

Of course, not everything is set in stone and all it takes is a bad season or two for things to change, but I think that if the club really had intentions of rebuilding by signing a real wonder-kid, they would have done so much earlier. There was only interest in Hazard, while bids for M'Vila and Götze came in the dying stages of the window. The rather haphazard nature of our transfer window suggests that there was no specific plan in mind at all.

What do you make of the officials of the club saying that they will still persuit Hazard and M'vila in January. The fact that they were ready to splash 50-80 million in one transfer cannot be a knee jerk panic shopping. Apart from Goetze, we made those inquiries b4 the 8-2 thrashing. We went after quite a lot of marquee players this summer. Were are either trying to pull a Harry Rednapp, or were we genuinly going after those players then?

What do you make of the officials of the club saying that they will still persuit Hazard and M'vila in January.

Who's said this? This is the first I've heard of it.

The fact that they were ready to splash 50-80 million in one transfer cannot be a knee jerk panic shopping.

On the contrary, it screams knee-jerk. Up until Nasri left, the club had signed one first team player, which was Gervinho, and spent the majority of the window either fighting with Barcelona over Cesc's fee or haggling with other clubs over a transfer fee. Best example of this is the Juan Mata situation.

It seemed that the club did want another marquee attacker, but the fact that they didn't want to pay the necessary amount to get Mata and weren't prepared to meet Lille's valuation of Eden Hazard suggests to me that the reluctance to pay high transfer fees was very much still there.

But then things went south, and to further back-up my point about most of our business being knee-jerk, or rushed, look at the circumstances surrounding the player we brought:

Mertesacker - Deal close to expiring, Bremen doing poorly, wanted to leave.

Santos - Fernerbache caught up in match-fixing scandal and may have been relegated.

Arteta - Forced a move in the end because he wanted Champions League football.

Benayoun - Wanted more first team football and was surplus at Chelsea since they got Mata.

Park - Was on the way out since Monaco got relegated.

I'm grateful we signed these players, but if the club actually had a plan in mind for this window then I bet none of them would have been signed. I don't think the club, at the start of the summer, decided that they wanted Andre Santos, Benayoun and Park (there probably was some fleeting interest in Mertesacker and Arteta).

Were are either trying to pull a Harry Rednapp, or were we genuinly going after those players then?

As I said, we had a very disorganised transfer window. We spent too long dithering about on the Cesc and Nasri situations and pretty much had to resort to raiding the bargain bin, so to speak. Again, I don't think the club wanted to be in this situation but that's just how it turned out. It's not like Redknapp, who seems to delibrately wait right until the end to get his 'triffic' bargains.

To the OP you are misinformed. The board never bid for those players as well as this they wouldn't back Wenger when it counted. Case in point M'Vila, Wenger was desperate to get him, board felt otherwise as I explained in a previous thread, Arsenal's transfer budget is highly misunderstood by fans and journalists. I think it's in one of the Man United reaction threads, if you want to read it.

The board sold Nasri, Wenger did not. Wenger is self generating his transfer budget, for the past six years. Wenger always says he will spend, if he can find the right player. The fact is the board do not back Wenger when it comes down to the crunch, he spoke about the wage structure alluding it was flawed. Clearly the board are to blame and have failed Wenger and the club.

At Goonerjay, I know for a fact that Arsene has wanted Hazard for years and M'Villa for the past 6 months at least. Wenger's transfer targets are kept guarded to his chest unless, 1) He is confident the player will come regardless of other interest 2) Or to warn other clubs off almost a form of bluffing.

Gotze I have no clue on however I doubt it. It is so easy to make a super rumour, however Jack Wilshere is rated so highly by Arsene Wenger I really doubt he would spend that amount on a player he see's inferior to Wilshere.

Majority of the players we have bought are short term gap fillers or squadies. Arteta, Benayoun, Santos, Park are there to ease the load on our starlets. While players like Campbell, Miachi, AOX are nothing more than reserves right now.

Now with that said, Are you telling me that we cant do any better to improve our starting 11?

And goetze and Wilshere do not play the same position.

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Majority of the players we have bought are short term gap fillers or squadies. Arteta, Benayoun, Santos, Park are there to ease the load on our starlets. While players like Campbell, Miachi, AOX are nothing more than reserves right now.

Now with that said, Are you telling me that we cant do any better to improve our starting 11?

And goetze and Wilshere do not play the same position.

What are you on about? I am stating the fact that the board do not support Wenger when it counts to take the team to the next level.

In regards to Wilshere. His natrual position is no.10, always has been throughout the youth and reserves, he would play the odd game on the left. Wenger is playing him in a deep lying playmfaker to improve his defensive abilities.

Benry wrote:

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Majority of the players we have bought are short term gap fillers or squadies. Arteta, Benayoun, Santos, Park are there to ease the load on our starlets. While players like Campbell, Miachi, AOX are nothing more than reserves right now.

Now with that said, Are you telling me that we cant do any better to improve our starting 11?

And goetze and Wilshere do not play the same position.

What are you on about? I am stating the fact that the board do not support Wenger when it counts to take the team to the next level.

In regards to Wilshere. His natrual position is no.10, always has been throughout the youth and reserves, he would play the odd game on the left. Wenger is playing him in a deep lying playmfaker to improve his defensive abilities.

Sorry apart from the goetze debate, the rest of my response was for GoonerJay . Should have used quotes, my bad

At Goonerjay, I know for a fact that Arsene has wanted Hazard for years and M'Villa for the past 6 months at least. Wenger's transfer targets are kept guarded to his chest unless, 1) He is confident the player will come regardless of other interest 2) Or to warn other clubs off almost a form of bluffing.

I'm not denying Wenger's interest and desire to sign these players. In fact, this just emphasises the fact that Wenger and the board weren't unanimous on what they wanted to acheive this summer. It seemed like Wenger only got his way in the final week or so of the window, but by that point it was too late.

Majority of the players we have bought are short term gap fillers or squadies. Arteta, Benayoun, Santos, Park are there to ease the load on our starlets. While players like Campbell, Miachi, AOX are nothing more than reserves right now.

Now with that said, Are you telling me that we cant do any better to improve our starting 11?

You're ignoring the cirucmstance of our summer window. Wenger's intention probably wans't to sign these short-term options and squad players, but in the end had to due to there being very little time. I'm sure if he had his way, things would have different.

As for our "reserves"; they aren't reserves, really. Campbell will be playing first team football for Lorient, a decent side in Ligue 1. Ryo wouldn't have been given a permit if we didn't have intentions of using him in the first team. Besides that, Wenger thinks very highly of him. Chamberlain's transfer fee suggests we rate him high enough for first team action, too. I've never known us to sign a player for potentially £15mil and not use him in the first team.

All it takes is one injury or suspension to one of Benayoun, Walcott, Gervinho and Arshavin for either Ryo or Chamberlain to be in the first team set-up.

Wenger is the boss, the board does what he says, Wenger is not afraid of any of them and the only reason why he still our manager is cus the board backs him for everything.

How can the board sell Nasri, when Nasri wanted to leave and give them no option.All the players we sold, because they wanted to leave, we didn't sell a player cus we wanted to.

I believe we will sign 2 of these guys Hazard, M'vila, Goetze. All the players we have signed, were due to our short squad, we will sign more and better players.

We are not a selling club, we have money and we can buy any player we want, its comes down to being smart.

atm it's all speculation really. The board and Wenger, who control who, it's hard to see through.

I agree with Jay on this one consider the circumstance and all transfers we brought in. Wenger was stubborn and tight ass, Gervinho and Mata saga proved it. Gervinho should be the easiest deal consider he himself only wanted to play for Arsenal and it took more than a month, Mata with 5 mil more, he would be ours. Everyone knows Mata is above Yossi & Arteta in term of quality. If Wenger had his way, he would brough Mata in the 1st place.

The last three days in the market, I don't think it's well though plan by Wenger, it's just what available. It lacks direction, the only common things in those transfers are experience ( which is more like coincidence) and all of them want to jump ship <--- that's the reason why we can get them so easily. Did Wenger have Mer, Yossi, Santos, Arteta in mind when he think of rebuilding? I don't think so. It's quick fix but as a fan I'm happy with it at least Wenger realized that.

I also think Wenger focus was wrong this summer, instead of planing for life w/o Fab and nasri, he put to much effort on keeping them.

I believe if Wenger wants a player to board will buy him. The only thing about Wenger is he wants to do it his way and make a player a big star.

I think if we some how tied the game at United or only lost 1-0 or 2-1 no way he would have gone out and buy the players.

Wenger said few weeks ago that he does not think other EPL teams are any better then Arsenal squad.

i just wished we paid an extra 3m for marvin martin...

January we will sign one or 2 more players, quality players.

Problem is that Gotze wants to go to Bayern, M'Vila to Man U and Hazard to Madrid. Only true shot is Hazard because Madrid is after Neymar... But Zidane has a pretty tight foothold with Hazard and they may jump on him if Neymar doesn't materialize this winter.

Lille prez is pretty pissed with Wenger right now too, which doesn't help.

Marvin Martin then..

sportsczy wrote:Problem is that Gotze wants to go to Bayern, M'Vila to Man U and Hazard to Madrid. Only true shot is Hazard because Madrid is after Neymar... But Zidane has a pretty tight foothold with Hazard and they may jump on him if Neymar doesn't materialize this winter.

Lille prez is pretty pissed with Wenger right now too, which doesn't help.

agreed. i've previously said that we probably missed the boat on these guys when the window closed. not saying it's impossible to land any of them, but it will be increasingly harder because of other factors (other suitors, prices will increase, our club's standing in the table, etc.)


i have a feeling Sochaux will be hearing from us again soon, even if arteta and benayoun do well

Put Afobe in the squad already, I wouldn't be suprised if he turns out to be the next Samuel Eto.

If I'm not mistaken, I think Arsenal thought Marvin Martin wasn't quite ready for a big move yet. Last season was the first season where he really excelled and the club probably wants to see if it wasn't just a one-off. I'm sure we'll go back in for him next summer if he has another good season.

benik afobe and chuks aneke (sound like super nintendo charecters) ... yes i love saying those names. Are they in our immediate future plans? From the clips they look really talented.

I'm sure Afobe is at least better than chamakh in Arsenal's system.

ragbirjosh wrote:I'm sure Afobe is at least better than chamakh in Arsenal's system.

Afobe is better then Chamakh right now. I dont know what is wrong with CHamakh.

This could be a great thing for you guys. Promote some players , see how they do , who knows in 5 years..................

But serioulsy the Afobe kid is great.Promote him at least.

I have seen Afobe play few times, the kid has a great future ahead of him.

ragbirjosh wrote:This could be a great thing for you guys. Promote some players , see how they do , who knows in 5 years..................

But serioulsy the Afobe kid is great.Promote him at least.

I literally got nauseous when you said 5 years LOL