It appears the transfer window is going to close with Arsenal making just the one signing, that of Petr Cech.
The disappointment of the majority of fans is clear. They wanted more.
They see what they think are weaknesses and can’t understand why these weaknesses have not be addressed. Which is fair enough really because every fan wants to see the team getting stronger and more competitive. Every fan, all of us. To dismiss this feeling of being let down is stupidity. It exists and as such it can’t be ignored.
I read things like this all the time:
“You are not telling me with £70 million we can’t buy someone better than Flamini.”
Well actually no one is telling them that – because we could.
Then you get:
“If you can’t get world class, you strengthen the squad.”
Now this is when it gets tricky, because this is logic that is undeniable.
It’s a fact that if you replace any player in the squad with a better player, then the chances of winning are increased. The only possible argument against this is that squad harmony could be upset and the famous “cohesion” might be weakened. But that’s a very flimsy argument to say the least. So why not give ourselves the best possible chance of winning?
It’s simple right?
Unfortunately, it’s anything but simple. It never is.
Let’s run with the £70 million figure that seems to be doing the rounds.
If we had used that to buy – let’s say Benzema – that might have given us a 25% (ok, I know I’m pulling figures out of thin air, but bear with me) better chance of winning the league. That’s decent value and money that might be well spent. However, we couldn’t get him. Or Lewandowski or Cavani or Aguero. In fact no one who would increase the chances of winning by that sort of margin.
So let’s say instead we bought Schneiderlin, he is better than Flamini.
Right?
But he is not a DM and so would he be better than Coquelin?
So would he play? Yes he would have been cover, but he might have increased our chances of winning by 1% or 2%. So the outlay must be compared to how much of a better chance it gives us.
Whether we like it or not, football is a business and has to adhere to the basic rules of business and ‘value for money’ is one of those rules.
Someone, be that Arsene, Stan, Ivan or anyone, has to decide how the money is best used.
With transfer inflation it might just be that we can only buy one world class player every other year.
The only thing I know for sure is that I don’t know all the facts and so I can’t really draw any worthwhle conclusions as to why we have not spent more in this particular window.
It looks like we were willing to, but couldn’t find the player or players that would meaningfully increase our chances.
We march on as we are.
Positively Arsenal 
I’ve woken and read the last half dozen comments. The sun is shining.
Feels and looks like a good day.
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Good news for Akpom
Submitted 16 hours ago by hollowcrown51
West Ham have signed Jelavic from Hull, which will likely help Akpom get more game time as Striker at Hull and help him develop further. Just a silver lining for the day.
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A couple of big games coming up for Aaron over the next few days, against Cyprus on Thursday and Israel on Sunday. While as an Arsenal supporter the Euro qualification prospects of Wales are not top of my personal agenda it clearly means a lot to the player. To be part of a side that got Wales into the finals of a major football competition for the first time since 1958 would be a huge boost to his confidence.
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When you have a squad so good that Tomáš Rosický can’t get near the first team why the fuck d’you want to buy anyone else?
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Good god. YW has taken off the mask, gone full Le Grove today.
George – I know you said “I would rather stick hot needles in my peepers” but seeing is believing.
Ablogger did what I expect. Played it straight down the middle. Safe, very safe.
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Lots of emotion around and it seems very few are thinking with their heads. When did our fans become so easily led by the media? We have got people comparing Wenger to ex lovers who have cheated and the whole nine its absolutely mental. We have a very good squad and there is absolutely no reason for the hysteria. I wish people would just come out and say they hate our players and want new ones instead like a real man would instead of cowardly trying to undermine their position in our squad with lavish targets that aren’t even available. Its pretty sick stuff and the way football is headed men like Wenger will become a rarity. Its become all about money and buying and what fun is that? Same teams same outcome every year the football is just a sideshow at this point
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“I wish people would just come out and say they hate our players and want new ones instead like a real man..”
One of the best lines I have seen about the transfer window Loomer – take a bow
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I had a spin through the media today and it seems the closing of the window has not sated the journos’ appetite for the topic.
Highlights are Real Madrid and ManYoo are allegedly at daggers drawn over who was/is responsible for the De Gea non transfer; Berahino and the WBA chairman Peace also allegedly on the verge of strike v lockout action at the Hawthorns and to cap it all Adebayor’s move to the Boleyn Ground did not go through because young Emanuel was “waiting from a sign from God”. (!)
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Charlie Austin, Charlie Austin, Charlie Austin, Charlie fucking Austin, yes Charlie Austin the the reason for the AAA/WOB meltdown, well this is what many of them have told me, you see they are not fuming that we did not manage to sign a world class striker like Lewandoski or Cavani or Benzema, this reasonable lot understand that it was almost impossible for AFC to get one of those, without something big happening at their clubs, so despite this mobs conviction that Arsenal needed a World Class striker to win the league/cl, they are not in meltdown over the failure of AFC to sign said WC striker, no, its cos we did not sign Charlie Austin, available it seems for £15M, yet not one BPL club actually made a serious bid for him this summer(according to QPR), and he will play in the championship this season, as he has done for most of this career, he has played one year in the BPL, and scored 15 goals from play in 35 games.
Their argument is that he is either better than Giroud, or better than Walcott or better than Welbeck, or for some he is better than all 3. Why is it that with so much money available in the BPL if this guy is so good that not only Arsenal, but no club bought him, why did LFC spunk £35M for Benteke when a £15M bargain was there to take, why did spurs bid over and over, reaching £25M for Berahino, did they not know aobut Charlie Austin, why didn’t all the clubs in the BPL who do not have a world class striker(that for me would be everyone of them bar Man city who have Aguero) not sign him. Could it possibly be that there is something the clubs and managers know about Austin that the expert fans do not.
So please spare a thought for the AAA/WOB when they go into meltdown, cos there is “no excuses” for us not signing Charlie Austin, why did mean old “senile” Arsene Wenger not give them a shiny new player so they could dissect and dismantle his game, as they are bored dissecting and dismantling the game of those we already have.
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shotta who or what is YW
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Eddie – I am not in any fight with another blog. See earlier posts by Loomer and Andrew Nicoll.
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Arsenal with the 5th most expensive squad in the BPL, at £305M
http://dailycannon.com/2015/09/arsenal-fifth-in-premier-league-squad-expenditure/?
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Well George I think I might have topped you on twitter I’ve been abused by Ian Wright whos considered opinion of me is I’m a Fucking idiot so I think I’m now twitter famous
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I am SO jealous AoB ……!
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The Meedjah are attempting to claim that the de Gea disaster for Utd is six of one and half a dozen of the other, when Madrid must be doubled up in laughter and arrogance. They’ve just snagged a top keeper for free!
Newscorp is indeed to the Mancs as Madrid is to Marca. Verified gibberish.
Part of me admires the manic ego of LVG, for taking on the uber Special Agent beloved by grittish hacks above all others. But if he wanted to go down that route he’d have been best advised to follow the path taken by AFC. Then there’s the consideration that his owners also want him to burn his way KLF styleeee through the debt I mean cash, sorry.
If their owners want him to overspend on purpose then he’s doing just that.
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AorB – I am not seeing you on my TL as I used to. Have you changed your twitter handle?
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Rants it’s interesting isn’t it.
Steve Bruce an good manager with an experienced record in bringing through young players. What has he seen in AKPOM that made him let his experienced CF go? The same thing that made him say “Wow”?
Odds are that Chuba and some others who have also impressed will be demanding a first team squad spot reasonably soon.
If Gnabry who missed out on the last WC, if Campbell who played at the last WC, if the others like young Jay Jay II coming thtough with Akpom are not forwards then what the fuck are they? For the record the one who is furthest ahead of the curve is Maitland-Niles who as we saw for the first team last season is more of a midfielder.
Anyone choosing to ignore these prospects whilst demanding that AFC purchase some journeyman can be safely classified as Arsenal-holes.
It’s the Football stupids.
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AoB I beat you to that teat by about 3 years. He got very uppity hen I suggested he was a bit Dolly-dimple.
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As for the other place, you can check the archives from the second 5pur2 match and make the observation that these people were incapable of celebrating such an important victory, very important result upon the path to the two back to back FA cup victories
That’s not an opinion but a very easy to make observation.
So. If people can be clearly observed to no longer capable of celebrating their team winning a n.london derby then I don’t believe that they are worth listening to. Or reading.
They are not discussing the Football.
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Steve_I @ 11.11
I too can understand why some people believe some of those things you list.
What I can’t understand is those who believe ALL of them.
Their lives must be really miserable and normally I would feel sorry for them, but in this case I just yawn. Masochists are not to be pitied – it’s self-inflicted pain.
Still looking forward to a great season.
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So by the obsessive buyers’ definition we’re overachieving? I’ll take that.
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Eddy
In case you don’t get the nick-names, some of the old regulars here used to be active on another Arsenal blog, called A Cultured Left Foot.
Still the occasional pot shot fired in their direction….
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I don’t give a flying feck-ah-rooney what we call the Arsenal players who can bang in the goals.
All are expected to make a contribution in that department, bar the GK’s.
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I’m still seebs@arse_or_brain not changed it Shotta.
George I should’ve guessed you had beaten me to it although I wasn’t even talking to him he just latched on to a thread and abused me.
The funny thing is at the end of season event for AISA and other supporters clubs he was right up Ivan’s bum, maybe he’s a bit forgetful
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Good point, Fins. The football has become an afterthought. Just a bunch of crypto accountants with an ax to grind now. Dkgooner makes a great point as well. Masochism innit? Sickos
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Reckon Ainsley is ahead of Issac eh Fins? Interesting. Haven’t seen him for Ipswich but going off Mick’s quotes sounds like he is doing the business. Ive always liked Mick he is top class in my book. A proper football man
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Llew @BundesLlew 20h20 hours ago
Not sure why the AST are demanding of an investigation into our scouting structure. Gilles Grimandi can’t convince Real to sell Benzema.
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http://www.allarsenal.com/2015/09/news/arsenal-hero-attacks-fan-on-twitter-and-slams-embarrassing-gunners/
its made A N N —
(seebs you little devil AN)
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If I were Stan I might be minded to take AST’s demand for a thorough inquiry on board.
If I were Stan I would think carefully who might carry out such a sensitive and potentially important analysis.
And if it proved John Chilcot were still tied up elsewhere I would turn to good old KSE Inc who have provided such valuable services to the club previously.
Their fees for the inquiry you ask ?
About £3 million I understand
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Now to be fair enough Stan isn’t that cheeky
But if I were him ….
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It’s a long story bout AST, but they’re partly pissed at no longer having club shares,which in turn came about cos they had experts at the top who fed negativity to meedja and fans alike. Pushing Poison and destabilisation, they continue abound.
Fins
Exactly. And let’s not forget Sanogo. Oooh I’d love him to be successful at Ajax,mother come back here and spread his chaos factor to all of our opponents. ( Remember the previous cup final, and the Ems cup that followed)?
Our cup runneth over.
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I don’t know I’d I should be posting this (and I’m sure some of you have seen it before), so I ask for your forgiveness, as I know it’s depressing enough that I couldn’t get beyond 5 minutes.
This is also a reason I don’t like AFTV. they invite all the negativists to pile derision on AW and the board, inc. Piis Moran, to whom they gave 30 or 45 mins to spout bile.
The video is from summer 2013. Over to you Timmy P:
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Loomer
I think Hayden’s a great prospect and coming in cold for the Southampton game he put in a near flawless performance . Which in context was ridiculously impressive. It takes footballs to say publicly that you model your game on Thiago silva!
I’d put him behind AMN only because of the long time out with injury, and cos he is ultimately wanting to be a CB (the coaches out there and not on the ast appear to want to keep young CBs as developers and not starters until they are past 23 as with Smalling ooop North etc.)
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Loomer
If only they were crypto accountants perhaps they’d be willing to ask themselves why models based upon medieval debt peonage are overspending whilst the, um, the more Modern example of a model that does not aspire to bankruptcy iand consequently peonage.
Corbynomcs hehehe.
(For those outside the UK according to sane academic economists that is the popular term these days for non-sociopathic economic theory. )
You’d have hoped that angry middle aged crisis’ from Islington would be able to tot it all up.
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PG, I see someone has blamed you for an article on Untold!
Euros 80 millions equals £58,702,480! IF Manu are that mad, then one avoids the market, until sanity prevails.
I assume the player’s agent tapped Mr Wenger, for a steal?
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The AST was set up and funded by AISA to do one specific job, namely make sure the club was not subject of a hostile bid and that fans would always have some shares. Now the picture has changed and there is little chance of a hostile takeover they really have no reason to exist. AISA are now very concerned and often embarrassed by their baby.
It would be interesting to know if AST ever plan to pay the money back.
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I’m fuming that Arsenal didn’t sign Cavani or Benzema, why can’t we act like the other big clubs, Man Utd bought Reus and Bale, Chelsea bought Stones and Pogba, so what is Wenger’s excuse for not getting in his targets. He has none I tell you, cos there can be “no excuses”, especially now that we have the stadium payed off(Yeah I know, this was news to me too)
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Thanks a or b. I’d forgotten how AST was set up. (If ever I knew).
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edu
At least they had INTENT, and wanted to make a STATEMENT with a MARQUEE singing (who they’d loan out or sell after a floppy season).
And when they ship someone out and they think they’ve made a mistake, they’ll bring him backMatic and see them sub-flourish, again.
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If only, fins. Now they’re going after Silent Stan which I find hilarious. Consolsbob says he doesn’t want a shoddy capitalist but two seasons ago it was down with socialist Wenger. Which is it? Like most respectable government its a healthy mix of both innit? We have a strong mix of hungry youth and proven vets like most top teams have I just do not see the problem. We can shuffle numerous players around to do the job. Keeping our powder dry for the next circus is no bad thing.
Interesting squad for the CL. Reine Adelaide in is a huge statement. He is going to be the business
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Loomer,
Can’t really comment on the finance side of things, primarily because I don’t care but also because I don’t know anything about it.
But I don’t have to be a noble winning economist to work out that Gnabry’s, Akpom’s etc’ agents were writing their letters of thanks to the Super Agent following Utd’s recent signing (Martial’s agent of course – there go the rumours of LVG falling out with Utd’s favourite agent)
How many £35M u21s do AFC have? Heh,
–
it’s just very cool that a club called the royal arsenal were also a factory team, a healthy mix of both.
IBSF
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Pop Quiz!
How much do you all think the England national team’s leading goal in recent seasons scorer be worth? Probably better exc. 2015 because of injury, that’s not a clue by the way.
A) as much as that lovely chap Greg Dyke’s pin up boy for English Football? Harry Glorious Hotspur Kane?
One hundred million billion dollars?
Too low?
A Zillion?
B) a measly Fifty million pounds Sterling? The big five o
C) fifteen as in one five million pounds? Check your pulses I’m not mincing about here that is a serious suggestion.
Answers on a postcard, cheers.
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Second question!
In an era where broadcasting revenue may outstrip stadium revenue (that’d be the information era then!) do you all think that people who think about such things everyday (some of them because it their job) might have thought about such things?
Like. I don’t know? The effect that might have on the league?
To be fair lots of people have spoken about the above.
Do they also consider the increase in the number of people on the planet, the number of people on the planet playing football, and how that might have interested the stattos who have existed in this world since the dawn of sport? Im thinking of the only club that has its own analytics department.
And the scouts that they work with? (Some of whom will say they don’t always look at or need the analytics. Which is also true)
And how that all might affect how they scout? Or recruit? Sure other clubs have copied the scouting model but out of need AFC brought young players through and now they have the experience and crucially in recent years better loans for the prospects. Resulting in a clutch of decent youth players a frightening large number who look like they could make it in the modern PL? How many of these players could be enquiring after a spot in the first team squad over the next 12-24 months?
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Isn’t it something, Fins. Went from fighting fascists to letting fascists dictate their taste in football. What a wacky world we live in. If it wasn’t so absurd it’d be quite sad. We know what Wilde said about cynics though. They always know the price of everything but know the value of nothing. What happened to all the guys like Alan Watts over there? He knew the perils of excessive cynicism. I guess thats what makes me different. I can enjoy modern football and still appreciate Watts. Ah well I know what’s right and people can go down the cynical road all they want. I see what they mean when they say its a one way road with likely no return
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Mills, in case you wondered if you put a post up with a link like the Wrighty v Seebs Twitter spat last night with little or no text it gets trapped in the spam filter.
Most mornings it is full of Air Jordans, Raybans and sundry promotional link bollox.
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Don’t worry Seebs,we still love you mate!
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Merson is the embarrassment, gibbering idiot willing to trot out inane nonsense fed to him. He may have been good with a football but in front of the camera he has the presence of a performing seal.
Thank gawd he never learned to read and write.
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Fins isn’t England’s top scorer in the Euro qualifier group also the top scorer of all the qualifying groups. But I’m told he is “shite” and can’t score.
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anicol the one thing that always needs to be remembered about Merson is that he is a Chelsea supporter, oh and yes a gibbering idiot.
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A very interesting piece on PL refereeing on Untold today, well worth a read whether it chimes with your view or not imo;
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/46103
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