Naturally and as usual, Arsenal have lost quite a few players to injury. We have been losing players at a regular rate ever since the season started, with Kieran Gibbs, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Flamini and others picking up little knocks, while Nathieu Debuchy and Olivier Giroud have had to have surgery and will not be available until some time around the new year.
And this has stretched the Gunners squad a bit thinly for a few games this season, especially the defence. But you cannot blame this all on bad luck, because Arsene Wenger admitted that we were a bit short in this area a week or two before the transfer window closed. But the Frenchman did not sign anyone, despite the recent financial figures showing that the club has the best part of £200 million in the bank.
Wenger was asked about this today, as reported by ESPN, and the reason for him not signing a centre back or a utility player before the end of the window, which many Arsenal fans were left baffled by, although at least we did get a striker in, even though the signing of Danny Welbeck may not have happened if Giroud had not been injured. So why did Wenger not bolster the defensive side of the squad when he knew it was vulnerable?
He said, “There is not a lot on the market and if you look at the other clubs, they had exactly the same problem. If you went anywhere, everybody is looking for defenders.
“I feel that we made a very good buy with Calum Chambers and we are a bit unlucky to lose Debuchy and Monreal at the same time together. No matter how many players you buy, you cannot have three players in every position because it is impossible to manage.”
Maybe two players in every position might have been an idea though, especially with our history of injuries. Assuming Chambers is a centre back, that leaves another central defender and a right back that we are missing. Yet we could not find a decent player for either role with all that money at our disposal.
Now I am not suggesting that Wenger should have spent £50m to get someone or that there were some real top players on offer, but surely we could have got some decent cover for not too much money. Is it time for the Prof to get some more help in his transfer dealings?
So basically, he wants to tell us that there was no defender better or at the same level of Mert available last summer … BS
For what special reason was Jenko loaned out????? Arsene Wenger shocks me. Thin at the back and u loan out Jenko who in my opinion had developed quite a lot since joining.
Yep we could have got David Luiz for £50m
Wow thank fcuk we dodged that one.
OT: I think I will go out and down a quick one at the nearest corner joint. Too nervy for Tomorrow’s derby…
Of course it is ridiculous. It could be that Wenger had his eye on a single defender for a certain price and it did not work out so the stubborn Wenger through an internal temper tantrum and decided to just forget it.
A decent backup CB could be found everywhere for 5 mil or less. The entire episode is just an example of Wenger’s shocking carelessness.
The only possible excuse would be that Wenger believed his reserve players were ready but as he has never really tested them at 1st team level even that would be a massive gamble.
I agree, his only excuse should be that there were no players out there better than our under 21s, but I still don’t like relying on an inexperienced teenager in a CL game against Dortmund, that’s not good for the player nor the team.
it’s easy to understand.
whenever he says “players were not available”, just simply translate that to:
“players were not available for the borderline-laughable offer I made that had nothing to do with the market rate and was based on my own crazy internal valuation”
We are not morons! Why would Arsene tell us everyone is looking for defenders, that’s crazy. We needed TWO defensive players to balance our squad but he failed to get anyone. BAD!!!
Exactly. How many capable CBs around the world would do anything just for the chance to play for Arsenal?
Wenger has become total politician. He thinks he can say any ridiculous thing and the idiot-public will just believe it. Very insulting.
Thats the word Bro, “insulting”
we should have found one
OT: how do you make your own avatar again?
Go to – gravatar.com -.
You just register
Then up load an image to your account.
Easy instructions
Good avataring 🙂
I have noticed you change your avatar according to an upcoming game but isn’t weird having spurs avatar.
Yes change to the next
team we play 🙂
And yes having the Spurs avatar
by my name since Thursday
has been a challenge 🙂
thank you
Mr Wenger should kept Bacardi Sagnas!!! Or purchase Mat Hummall!!!!
Don’t forget that he had bought Squilacci!
He was really good! Hey Mr Arsene Wenger?
We should have gone all out to bring back the squid. Some say he’s now a completely different fish.
@Young Gun_AFC
Senderos is a new man…
the mans nonesense comments know no limits….he is a 4th place junkie and his transfer policy is geared to feeding his habit…its that simple
Until Wenger gets/finds/acquires/develops a good DM, there will be a defensive uncertainty surrounding every single game Arsenal play. Kos has been brilliant, but he cannot do it all.
Bullsh*t, I’m sure if you look in all the european leagues, in all the teams that are not in the top fourr in their respective leagues, you will find atleast 2 decent centre backs that are willing to come play for arsenal.
There are also many fine young CBs playing in lower division English Football – the kind of players who would very competently perform as backups until they are fully developed.
Also there are CBs with other clubs in dozens of other nations who would kill just for the chance to play with Arsenal.
@mohawk
I said the same thing awhile back about poaching the lower league for defensive players and people on here laughed at me. Screaming about AFC only wants world class players. Those guys in the lower leagues are seasoned hard grifting professionals as well.
Certainly the preference would be to obtain a top quality CB. But with only days left in the transfer window, it would be better to give an impressive lower division / lower table defender a chance rather than leave the club completely exposed for the next 5 months.
Instead Wenger has left the club vulnerable to even lower-table clubs. After only a few weeks from the close of the transfer window, Wenger had exactly ZERO defenders on the bench for the Aston Villa game. Criminally negligent.
@mohawk
Seamus Colemaan came from the Airtricity League in Ireland for soemthing like 600k. Real talent is everywhere.
There is a lot of talk now about the club wasting money on Poldi, Rosicky, Arteta, Flamini, Diaby. There is some truth in it. With the current glut of midfielders, Arsenal do not need all of these players.
But I would offer some caution. Last season when Arsenal lost so many midfielders to injury players like Poldi, Rosicky, Arteta, and Flamini kept the team afloat and performed very well – Rosicky was still lively and creative and Poldi was scoring often –
Some fans/pundits are going crazy because of Tuesday’s debacle but we should not go knee-jerk in wanting them ALL dumped immediately. Besides, you cannot just dump players mid-season- there are such things as contracts.
Clearly, however, Arsenal no longer need all of these players. 2 or 3 could be let go without really hurting the club. It may even offer players like Campbell or Gnabry better opportunities.
i think roz would come good if he just had some game time.
why not play him in CL? he seemed to light up the field.
pod’s a different matter: i was totally pro-pod but now i think he just cant be bothered; he’s just collecting his $ until wenger pushes him out completely.
And on top of that he loans out Jenkinson on the deadline day, when he knew exactly we have few defenders, now we’re in a crisis, we played with no real defender on the bench against Aston Villa. I’m really doubting the decision making skills of our manager now.
I think Wenger had a plan in his head, but that is where the plan stayed.
4 Major problems Wenger has not addressed.
1. No defensive cover/back-up.
2. No quality DM.
3. No left winger that Wenger wants to use – keeps using CAMs.
4. Glut of midfielders which restricts playing time and match sharpness.
The failure to add another quality
defender is a consequence
of the Invincibles success and
the inability to adapt quickly to the changing
EPL landscape.
After the invincibles in 2004
Wenger understandably believed he was the master.
Then Chelsea, Roman Abramovich
and Mourinho arrived big time.
Ferguson and Utd recovered and
more recently Man City and the
Abu dhabi crew arrived en masse.
Arsenal also built a new stadium. The new owner
unlike City and Chelsea does not spend money on players.
So Arsenal fell behind to become 4th best.
Wenger the Management and
to be fair we as fans have
taken ten years to adapt
to the changed circumstances.
Selling top players and replacing them
with much cheaper versions generally failed.
The club amassed a huge pile of deadwood
which furthere complicated a deepening malaise.
The 8-2 was a water shed
and to be fair the clean out
has begun and finally quality
is once more becoming the Arsenal hallmark
Ozil, Sanchez Chambers.
Next summer Arteta Flamini Rosicky Diaby
Ryo Coquelin Podolski will go I believe.
Sanogo Giroud and Campbell will probaby be retained
but the ten year adaption process should be close to completion
this time next season with a quality CB+ DM + LW added.
Interesting insight I hope its true, but then Welbeck? Is he an improvement?
it’s easy to understand.
whenever he says “players were not available”, just simply translate that to:
“players were not available for the borderline-laughable offer I made that had nothing to do with the market rate and was based on my own crazy internal valuation”
It has indeed been a torturous last ten years
and AKB and AO have banged heads over
the clubs status endlessly 🙂
The worst is now over and the team is generally very
sound if not stellar. Good times ahead for Arsenal AFC 🙂
I’m worried Wenger will sign a Silvestre or Squillaci type player in January.
Silvestre was the only United player Sir Alex let us sign. I still believe Sir Alex did it for a laugh. We repaid him by selling him RVP, we basically handed him the PL trophy.
I wish we could have kept Vermaelen and Jenkinson. I heard Verm scored a few days ago for Barca
This guys bs drives me mad. Yoy telling me to name three of the top of my head, (that are better than per imo) that Winston Reid prefers to play for wh? Caulker preferred qpr to us? Vlarr prefers villa to us? Cl qualification and a half decent wage would bring them knocking on our door. Wenger pis*ing about woth the u21’s and monreal at cb in the hope of saving some bucks, tight ar*e!!
@Ronny331
You can’t make a team sell if they don’t want to dude. Look at Schneiderlin. I’m sure glad we didn’t get Carvalho also. Dude looks lazy and doesn’t seem to know where he should be.
Also I believe he fooked up and the clock ran out. Would he have really loaned jenks and sold miquel otherwise? He never plans for contingency unless it means buying a multitude of mf midgets that he struggles to accommodate, always considered wenger shrewd and smart but for some time now I’ve questioned his decision making behind the scenes and during a game.
I know this may sound a little crazy but if there were no defender’s available then why not keep a hold of Vermaelen and Jenkinson???
It’s was idiotic and naive of wenger to allow these 2 to leave without bringing players in 1st
Wenger urges Ramsey to go back to the basics. COYG!
@nygunner. You are of course right but money talks, and we did get 15m for tv5 rhat could have been reinvested. Alderweikd moved, (albeit on loan), eric dier went to spurs, im sure with a decent offer we could have gor someone. Re carvalho your Spot on he looks poor, as we have said before it’s kondogbia all the way for me.
Fabian Schar, Ron Vlaar……to name a few surely for far less than 50m. They are out there but want regular game time.