Summer Transfer Window 2013/2014 aka Arsenal , we can afford folks and the mancs really want Fellani

this_is_gav · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:40

Breeze said:
He's one of those players that actually gets better in fans/pundits eyes when injured.

Indeed, after he spent all those months on the sidelines, when the point came close to him returning the media went into a mini-frenzy, and I just sat here thinking "WTF, he wasn't that good", but clearly it's worked out well in his head and he's came back a far better play than he was injured.

I thought he was fantastic for England last week, and especially so in the first 20 minutes of the match.

Monkeymatt · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:41

Apparently Norwich have signed Elmander. Always thought he was a decent(although rather unspectacular) player while he was at Bolton. If he really has joined us then that means we now have 3 strikers(As Becchio is not part of Hughton's plans) which would allow us to play 442.

Good news if true but was hoping that we would sign a centre half as that is where we are short.

Yas786 · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:43

Gooner Leroy said:
We'll come 4th

Your optimism is cute

At best if we dont buy or get any players in, i think we could possibly end up 5th or even 6th. The way Spurs are buying, i dont think we have enough to compete with them but then that depends on how all those new players at Spurs gel together. If they do then its not only Arsenal that need to look out but also Chelsea, City and Utd to an extent.

Gooner Leroy · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:49

DiCe! said:
Behind Spurs or ahead of them?

Who then drops out.

God knows. We'll see at the end of the season. Tbh we may get top 4, we may not. Season after season people write Arsenal off saying this is the year they will drop out of the top 4 and we prove them wrong. One game has been played so far this season. The transfer window is still open. I just think people are a bit premature about writing teams off so early on. 1 game down, 37 more to go. 111 points still up for grabs. We'll have a better indication by christmas.

Liquid_Entity · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:51

Exactly why as a Spurs fan I am saying nothing about our position come the end of the season. I just hope we play damn good attractive football (and finish above Arsenal)

NeedAUsername · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:57

Yas786 said:
Your optimism is cute

At best if we dont buy or get any players in, i think we could possibly end up 5th or even 6th. The way Spurs are buying, i dont think we have enough to compete with them but then that depends on how all those new players at Spurs gel together. If they do then its not only Arsenal that need to look out but also Chelsea, City and Utd to an extent.

Only Arsenal need to look out for Spurs and Liverpool as one of them will steal the 4th spot from you and then the other CL spot may end up being taken by Spurs/Liverpool in place of Man City. Spurs are not contenders for the top spot.

kidloco · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:58

Liquid_Entity said:
Exactly why as a Spurs fan I am saying nothing about our position come the end of the season. I just hope we play damn good attractive football (and finish above Arsenal)

Quoted for truth

BaZ87 · 21 Aug 2013 at 16:58

Purdy said:
I thought it was 5, but we still look pretty bad at LB going on what I've read from Valencia fans and not sure Kolo will last all year.

Also would rather Coutinho in the middle where he is far better and another wide player signed.

Cissokho supposed to have been poor at Valencia but I remember him at Porto where he was fantastic - his teeth were the only thing stopping him moving to Milan in a massive transfer iinm.

This pic, taken when Porto played at OT a few days after we played there, will make you like him a bit more:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bHazcK7scYA/Sdyzje7_DwI/AAAAAAAAEnY/HfCj0ioCR2U/s320/dsc00216ttj.jpg

Also, we don't need to sign anybody to play Coutinho central - Suarez can play left (or right) in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Coutinho behind Sturridge.

edit: and on Toure. People forget we've still got Skrtel. Despite the season he had, he's still a more than capable CB and if he plays like he did the season before last, he's exactly the type of CB we need.

Yas786 · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:03

NeedAUsername said:
Only Arsenal need to look out for Spurs and Liverpool as one of them will steal the 4th spot from you and then the other CL spot may end up being taken by Spurs/Liverpool in place of Man City. Spurs are not contenders for the top spot.

At the moment on paper as i said Spurs seem the most likely to take 4th off us and perhaps even 3rd depending on how well the team gels together this season.
Not really sure about Liverpool, i dont think their squad is strong enough to topple us from 4th although that all depends on Suarez and if he gets his head down and scores plenty of goals for Liverpool.

For me Arsenals main threat to the top 4 is Spurs at the moment but that could all change depending on what Wenger does and who he buys in the next week or so.

Tunney · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:04

Yas786 said:
The way Spurs are buying, i dont think we have enough to compete with them but then that depends on how all those new players at Spurs gel together.

Manchester City finished 5th in their first season after being taken over. Signing loads of players isn't a guaranteed path to success.

Yas786 · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:07

Tunney said:
Manchester City finished 5th in their first season after being taken over. Signing loads of players isn't a guaranteed path to success.

Of course it isnt but if you are buying the right players for the team then it makes success a tad bit more easier to achieve especially if your rivals havent strengthened when they need to.

Newbie007 · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:27

BaZ87 said:
Cissokho supposed to have been poor at Valencia but I remember him at Porto where he was fantastic - his teeth were the only thing stopping him moving to Milan in a massive transfer iinm.

This pic, taken when Porto played at OT a few days after we played there, will make you like him a bit more:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bHazcK7scYA/Sdyzje7_DwI/AAAAAAAAEnY/HfCj0ioCR2U/s320/dsc00216ttj.jpg

Also, we don't need to sign anybody to play Coutinho central - Suarez can play left (or right) in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Coutinho behind Sturridge.

edit: and on Toure. People forget we've still got Skrtel. Despite the season he had, he's still a more than capable CB and if he plays like he did the season before last, he's exactly the type of CB we need.

Toure is younger than Gerrard and hasn't exactly played a lot of games recently, I expect he could last all season if called upon. I would expect us to move for Papodopolopopopopus in January though.

BaZ87 · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:32

I'm not concerned about Toure's fitness, I'm just not convinced he's good enough or suited to playing alongside Agger. Agger's first choice and we need a big, powerful, dominating CB alongside him - I'm not sure Toure's that.

Newbie007 · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:36

i think Agger is more 'at risk' than Toure of being dropped

FrankJH · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:53

Robbo said:
So Spurs aren't getting Coentrao, it's 'just' £93m for Bale. (Di Marzio etc)

even the inverted commas are laughable

Azza · 21 Aug 2013 at 17:55

Gary Barry looks like a go-er. Would rather him on loan for a year than spend £15m on friggin McCarthy.

fez · 21 Aug 2013 at 18:06

Tunney said:
Manchester City finished 5th in their first season after being taken over. Signing loads of players isn't a guaranteed path to success.

Whats that got to do with anything. Their team in the first few years was nowhere near good enough to beat the top teams. They were coming up from a position of nowhere so they had to use good players as stepping stones to their current squad. It wasn't a case of having a great squad and the results not representing that, it was that they were not good enough.

Spurs had a very good squad before this summer and now it is much better. If a team like Everton wanted to do a City they would not be able to do it easily in one season either.

drunkenmaster · 21 Aug 2013 at 18:09

Breeze said:
He's one of those players that actually gets better in fans/pundits eyes when injured.

No he's one of those players people who haven't seen him in ages simply assume he's not as good.

This is largely because when he's come back from injury he's both still carried a problem and never been fully fit.

I haven't seen him even once approach 1/2 of the form he showed before his ankle injury. Last season when he finally got some games he had the screw part sticking out of his ankle which is something that had to be removed at the end of last season. So effectively since the first injury at the end of his first season with Arsenal he's been recovering from a fracture in his leg/ankle, and then been running around with a screw sticking out. He's not been training to much(or hadn't been) because they were reducing time he spent hurting it.

He IS that good, he hasn't played at that level in basically two years now because of not surprisingly, Arsenals severe mismanagement and mistreatment of what started off as such a freaking minor injury.

It's perfectly fair to ask if he'll ever hit that same level of form, is his ankle screwed long term, very possibly. But don't místake not being at his initial form to not being that player ever. You can go back and watch games from his first full season playing for Arsenal, he's unbelievably good.

Against Villa it was 100% a case of WIlshire nowhere near his best, not a case of Wilshire at his best and we all misjudged how good he was. Also don't forget he did have surgery over summer and he wasn't involved in a lot of preseason, IIRC his first participation in preseason was 60-70mins in the first day of the Emirates cup, so early August. Villa was probably his third game of the season while most other players the first game of the season would be 8-10 weeks after preseason started and anything from the 6-10th game of the season.

Psycho Sonny · 21 Aug 2013 at 18:18

Tunney said:
Manchester City finished 5th in their first season after being taken over. Signing loads of players isn't a guaranteed path to success.

LMAO

please recall how many players they actually signed when they were taken over.

they only bought 1 player and it was robhino

"On 1 September 2008, the final day of the Premier League summer transfer window, Robinho completed a €42,500,000 (£32,500,000) move to Manchester City, on a four-year deal. This occurred on the same day the club was bought out by the Arab investment company Abu Dhabi United Group"

Purdy · 21 Aug 2013 at 18:24

BaZ87 said:
Cissokho supposed to have been poor at Valencia but I remember him at Porto where he was fantastic - his teeth were the only thing stopping him moving to Milan in a massive transfer iinm.

This pic, taken when Porto played at OT a few days after we played there, will make you like him a bit more:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bHazcK7scYA/Sdyzje7_DwI/AAAAAAAAEnY/HfCj0ioCR2U/s320/dsc00216ttj.jpg

Also, we don't need to sign anybody to play Coutinho central - Suarez can play left (or right) in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Coutinho behind Sturridge.

edit: and on Toure. People forget we've still got Skrtel. Despite the season he had, he's still a more than capable CB and if he plays like he did the season before last, he's exactly the type of CB we need.

This is assuming Skrtel doesn't actually act as a 12th man for the other team again.

I don't mind Cissokho, any competition is good for the brain dead donkey.

Who do we play on the other wing then, Aspas? Doesn't leave us with much cover except Sterling/Ibe and not sure either is good enough for top 4 atm. We do create a lot but would be nice if someone could also score more than one past Stoke.