Monday, January 5, 2009

No Signings for Arsenal? Wenger Says No To Inler

Don't you know about the bird? Everybody knows that the bird is the word. What's up everyone? Not a whole lot going on today. The main story is that Jack Wilshere signed a pro deal, but I already posted that three days ago so that isn't even news. The other big news is that it was my dad's birthday yesterday. So how could there possibly be any more news than those two stories?

Well, there isn't much, but in transfer news, Arsene Wenger is no longer interested in Udinese's Gokhan Inler. When asked if he was interested in him, Wenger responded with a pretty blunt, "Yes, in the summer. But not anymore." I don't think you can get more clear than that. I have no idea what has made him not want him anymore, but I think you can rule him out of the transfer targets.

Wenger's interview went on with a scary thought however.

"At the moment I feel that if we do add somebody, we need to add somebody who has a special class because we have good players.

"Take a player like (Aaron) Ramsey. They show that they grow. Of course they still show lapses, a lack of experience, but they have quality and they can grow quickly."

This is not good. It's showing yet again that Arsene thinks that signing ANYBODY would stunt the development of the young players. Aaron Ramsey is facking 17 though! Can't he develop in the reserves like all the rest of the 17 year olds? We clearly need a midfielder and he's kind of saying he won't buy one just because we have young players. It's completely ridiculous and while I love Ramsey and I think he'll be very good for us one day, today isn't that day. I suppose he won't buy a winger because that might stunt Little Jack's growth and he won't buy a defender because of course we have the defensive stalwart Havard Nordtveit coming through. It's nothing against all the young players it's just that right now they aren't good enough to play regularly for a team like Arsenal. How can we expect to win when it's Deco or Gerrard against Ramsey? Maybe that will work in 3-4 years but not right now.

We need to make some signings, and I think everyone with the possible exception of Arsene Wenger knows it. It's a scary proposition to think of no players coming in this transfer window, because nobody knows exactly what "special class" means to Wenger. We know he won't spend big so it isn't going to be an established world class player, so who could it be? Read the first sentence of his quote, it says "If we DO add somebody." If? There shouldn't be an if. With Cesc out, and Theo out, and the defense playing badly, how can you look at the team and say we shouldn't bring somebody in?

I love Arsene Wenger, but in the case that nobody is brought in during this transfer window, when Champions League qualification is really in jeapordy, then serious questions have to be asked about the direction he is leading this club. He has brought us to new heights but now we are falling from those heights because of a lack of quality in the squad. A squad that Wenger seems very reluctant to improve. Stubborness will get you nowhere in this business and sometimes you have to be able to admit that your plan has failed. Come on Wenger, bring in some new players and let's right this ship.

Champions League football for next year should be the paramount goal for the rest of the season. In order to do that we need Villa to slip and we have to be better than we have been so far this year. I think we can do it with a few of the right players brought in. Let's pull it together Arsenal and get the job done.

Cheers all.

5 comments:

JT said...

Hmmm, does anyone here know Arsenal's budget this transfer season- in pounds?
Answer would be mch appreciated

Andre said...

Patience... he'll sign people.

Anonymous said...

nobody from the public would ever known, cause this is quite confidential stuff...if we disclose our budget, our negotiating power would be significantly lower..

all these reports saying we have 70 or 40 or 30 million are just made up figures by the media. after all, this is what will attract readers right?

Same for man city, at the start, the sun reported that the transfer budget for jan is in billions, then it somehow was 'reduced' to 40m, and now its all of a sudden 100m..so there you go, the answer to how much budget we have is
''we'll never know'' :)

JT said...

Good point- thanks anyway

ArseNole said...

Yeah if teams released numbers for what they are willing to spend other teams would be able to use that against them to drive up transfer fees. If someone offered 15 million for your player and you knew they had 40 million to spend, you'd probably ask for more too.