₦airaland Forum

RVP dey vex, both he and our resident Kung-fu expert should just bring that kinda form back to the emirates.

Anyone discussing Wilshere with Sharon would do better to start heading a wall, the muppet probably still believes Ravel Morrison is better, pure beef 

manmustwac:
Spurs turn down 40 million pounds on a deal for luka modric and Chelsea defender Alex na woa

I don't want to be anywhere near the fumes of the pot those chaps in your boardroom are smoking. 
or can it be that Harry just wants to big up the club?

slimshay:
@Dudu let me be clear, I understand we are all trying to manage our expectations. We should. Big signings or not, a new assembly of players need time to gel.

That said though, I will be more than disappointed if anybody officialy linked to the club made any statement that sounds like we are settling for top4. I mean, what then was the point of asseblying all that experience, extensive player turnover, having 9 or so national team captains, etc etc. . .to compete as also rans? I dont think so.

Definitely, no one will come come out to say such, those are my personal conclusions. With the state of our squad compared to our rivals though, I don't think the board demanding the league trophy as a requirement for Arsene makes sense. I'm only saying I'm keeping my fingers cross to be surprised by these new signings and the new crop of youth as out of the 06/07 generation, only Diaby and Theo remain and of those that emerged right about the end of the invisibles, only RVP remains, the player turnover is too high compared to Chelsea and Manure while investment is too low compared to both as well as City. Add that to an already poor start and the prognosis isn't good at all.

coogar:
i am willing to bet on that with anyone on this forum. united will win the league over and over again this season.
debarring fergie kicking the bucket, united will finish at least 6 points ahead of the runner-up. people underestimate the squad fergie has assembled.

This I will dispute and I'm willing to bet on it. Whoever wins this league will not have such a points difference to the runner up.
If yu're still so bullish about Manure's chances come December, I might be willing to take you up on the other.

Erm Ibime, why are you mentioning Newcastle? are you forgetting the Andy Carroll story? 
by the way, why you nor get one of those Sat Navs wey dey give traffic info and route diversions? abi yu sef dey scrooge like Arsenal?

slimshay:
£50m, not to disparage them or anything. But once again people mixup expensive signing and good signing.

I didn't say they were not stronger. But much stronger. If quality in depth was the issue, might as well give it to the lesser scummies and call it a day.

That is precisely the problem, if it was straight up between us and Manure maybe we could have taken advantage of any slip ups, it is not likely that all 3 would slip up at the same time. That is what assure's DK's donkeys a Bundesliga trophy at least once every 3 years or thereabouts. 
If its any consolation, the league is also not sure for Manure this season.

I'm not saying we can't win any of the cups though, if we're lucky in the draws and don't meet difficult opposition during the the 2 game per week stages when the UCL is in full swing, we could win one of those but to win this league is a difficult ask, not sure we're ready for that just yet.

slimshay:
You have to admit that's your personal opinion stated as official club stance. ManU seen as favorites, please how exactly are they much stronger than we are at the moment. (No 8-2 jokes please)

They've already done it 3 times before and have further strengthened and rejuvenated their squad, all they've lost from last season's championship winning squad is VDS and Scholes and they invested close to another 50m if I'm not mistaken. Smalling and Jones are the 2 best young CBs in the English game at this point in time, hence why we were in for both.

We on the contrary have lost our 2 best players (both just reaching their primes) and have mostly settled for what you would term inferior quality or would you boldly stick your chest out and say Arteta is better than Cesc or that Gervinho is better than Nasri? while there might be some dispute over the latter, the former is very clear and certainly not in dispute.

[quote author=dipo+ link=topic=743413.msg9058293#msg9058293 date=1314906441]Jeez Christ! Why does nobody ever seem to recognize Bacary Sagna? [/quote]You are right. I was mostly looking down the spine. Bac is even more critical this season considering Jenkinson needs to be brought in gently but then Bac guarantees that every season anyway.

slimshay:
^^^top 4 is target because? We make all this signings and you think we are targeting top4?

Player for player, which of the other top 4 squads is weaker than ours? In terms of squad strength I'd say this is the order:

1. Man City
2. Chelsea
3. Manure
4. Arsenal

Manure hold the advantage of having a largely unchanged squad with high confidence and little pressure coming off the back of a championship winning streak while Chelsea and Man City might have to deal with blending their squads, we have to do with a weaker squad and bedding in new recruits as well. If I'm not mistaken, neither Park nor Mertesacker speaks English.

I'd never say we can't win the league but winning it would be a massive bonus.

4llerbuntu:
or u have joined dudu in believing that buying overpriced youngsters and paying them oversized salaries is the best thing for the club?

@4ller
Certain signings are made for certain reasons, nationality being an important one. You can't make a call on OX for now considering the way Theo has come back to haunt some of us. Having an English core is important and a call has to be made in getting OX now at that price or getting him for much more and getting trumped by Manure when it becomes an highest bidder issue after he becomes better known as we did with both Smalling and Jones. If Theo made it with us then I can assure you that boy will be worth 25m pretty soon. How much do you think Theo would go for if we ever made him available for transfer?  
It is also not true that our players earn oversized salaries, the wage bill differential between us and the top 3 is there for a reason and I pointed out that the difference in wage bill between us and Manure would comfortably pay the wages of 4 players earning the same as our highest earner in Arshavin. In the last year I think we were also overtaken by Liverpool.


I'll burst a few bubbles with the predictions thingie, I personally still wouldn't stick my neck out for a trophy this season, next season maybe when I see how these boys come along (Miyaichi, OX, Jekinson et al) they are the new generation and most of these buys like Arteta, Benayoun and Santos are still stop gaps in my opinion Mertesacker aside who I always believed we would buy, the big failures in Arsenal as we all saw last season IMO were people like Arshavin and Rosicky and they are the ones being supplanted as Arsene will still find a way to play those youngsters. If Nasri and Cesc hadnt left, we would never have bought Arteta and Benayoun.

On the whole, I doubt that we've improved over last season and the competition has not been static, I am certain we will make top 4 as usual as that is a given and I wouldn't expect us to collapse if we come as close as we did last season. Right now for Arsenal top 4 is the primary target and anything more is a bonus, that is the reality of things and we are still banking on youth because our squad depth is still largely filled with youth hopefully on the edge of greatness, I will find time to make an analysis of an age breakdown of the squad pretty soon.

The critical players that will determine Arsenal's season are RVP, Gervinho, Arteta, Wilshere, Szczesny and TV5. If 5 of those are able to give us at least 35+ games each, I'll be very optimistic indeed particularly if another Wilshere emerges this season.

Arteta: 10m
Mertesacker: 7.9m
Santos: 6.2m
Benayoun: .5m to 1m Loan fee
Park Chu Young: 3m
Ox: 15m
Campbell: 1.2m

Total spent: Approx 44.3m.

coogar:
arsenal fans owe ferguson big time then!
if the match had ended 2-2 on sunday, i doubt wenger would have copped so many players.

the only way to appease the fans after that monumental humiliation is to pretend he's actually trying to fix the squad.
see how deborah has suddenly brightened up, ritchboy is laughing again, dipo2much has gone back to his general muppetry and mumuface is few hours away of predicting quadruple for arsenal.

like deborah would say. . . .hope springs eternal.

Typical Goebelism on display as usual, the club was always working on those signings, only trying to cut deals in their usual conservative manner.
What Debo and I always said was to wait till the transfer window closure, the books are still balanced in typical Arsenal fashion.

dayokanu:
First of all none of Bayern star players would ever play for Arsenal in their prime, How can someone leave Oxford for Iree poly.

I don't see any Arsenal players in their prime heading in that direction anytime soon too, even our rejects prefer to go to Sunderland on loan, didn't Kaiser want Bendtner? 

proudly9ja:
I must confess, Ive not seen much of Per to decide how good he is and that's why Ive not contributed to all the convo about him being slow or not, etc

He is definitely slow, it isn't easy to have Theo  type pace with a 6' 6" frame if you aint a miracle of nature like Usain Bolt. 
I think defending is more about anticipation and decision making reading the game though, for him to play for such a successful german team, he must have that in abundance.

The only underwhelming signing for me is Benayoun, not knocking his ability but I don't like a loaned player from a rival in our dressing room.

Things haven't changed much from last season attacking wise though, so I'm still only holding my neck out for a top 4 finish. I would say that Arteta has replaced Cesc, Gervinho has replaced Nasri and Park Chu Young has replaced Bendtner. what that means is that from last season we have 1 extra attacking player in Benayoun along with the new attacking youngsters (Miyaichi, OX and probably Afobe) we want to bed in who I presume will eat into Arshavin's playing time and play CL and probably FA cup matches.

Defensively, we've definitely improved strength in depth in the CB positions,  right back (backup) position is a bit up in the air depending on how Jenkinson comes along and any injuries to Sagna who is relatively resilient and the physical shape of the team has also improved in Mertesacker and Arteta, good job Arsene, now let the season begin anew.

mukina2:
dayo and coogar need new toys to play with  

Get both of them inflatables of yourself, then maybe they'll leave us alone in peace.  

The Meireles deal went through?  
some people are mad.
Sky sports is also confirming Arteta's signing.

ritchboy:
M'Vila would've been brilliant, but they were demanding a limb and a torso

Arteta and Benayoun don crash Arsenal site

You know say dem be stop gaps sha, good to allow these upcoming boys some competition so they don't just walk in like that Denny/Diaby set. I think a lot of them were complacent cos they got things on a platter instead of upstaging somebody.

Arsenal.com home page not available. I got HTTP 404

tunnytox:
According to sky sports Mikel Arteta's deal has not being officially announced though it looked like a done deal

Tooor, as DK would say. I would have preferred M'vila sha, but PL is different from Ligue 1.

dayokanu:
You see the vets? really? For bestiality enhancing drugs?

Naa, thats more up your alley, I leave that extra freaky stuff to you.  

dayokanu:
You have something to say SMEAGOL?

Totally understandable, you haven't seen your Vet lately.  

Haba Folahann, let us not start making up stories becos we feel a bit scorned, Samir didn't force through a move.

mukina2:
mehn i am feeling sorry for na na na na you c$%$# b
sweeerat you aint seen nothing yet

leaf the boy alone, wanna be starting someting like the english press?

dayokanu:
what message are you trying to communicate? Cos what you typed sounds retardeeed, I bet dipo+ can understand and probably edoyad

BTW can you ask someone to translate cos I dont speak Gorrila  

You don't need to, your chest thumping delivers the message loud and clear.  

folahann:
Stoke is the story going round.
Which chance you wan give am again, you wan kill J Y Park's career?

I thought Tony Pulis killed the Stoke story earlier in the day, they already got Cameron Jerome.

Someone should tell Per to do the bare feet shuffle jare. Does he think he is too big for it?  

debosky:
Deboskysports understands Rennes wanted £30m while Arsenal offered £22m. #dealisoff

Oh well, Arteta is a good compromise sha, but if that deal can be reactivated, I won't be complaining.

folahann:
Looks like Michael Owen knows about something we don't know
themichaelowen michael owen
Tough night for Everton fans. A small squad seems to be getting smaller. Exciting times for QPR, Stoke and Arsenal.
27 minutes ago

Even Wilshere is asking for news on Arteta from Sky sports so there must be something concrete there.

What happened to M'Villa? did he get lost on the way?  

debosky:
Deboskysports understands the Arteta deal might be back on. . . . .

Rushes back into prayer room.

Proud Gooner, I stand by my club and its manager through thick and thin. I'm made of sterner stuff.