yeah... my comment about being unsure was more about whether arsenal's initial valuation / bid was 12mil pounds or not... =)
transfer windows are the equivalent of a VERY high class and expensive pasar malam... hahahahh....

Yes, competition is indeed important...not necessarily to have a massive squad but experience players to let the good youngsters to look forward to.

12 mil for age 27 is good buy. at least 6 years can use

and buy youngster not necessarily cheap. like adebayor. i remember 11 million pound.

wenger can buy cheap even exprience one

This post has been edited by little_mozart: Jan 7 2009, 05:06 PM

12mil is ok la, but as kimhoong mention, there is more crucial position to fill up....

pros - creativity, versatile, goal scoring sense
cons - no CL, 27 y.o, unproven

however, for the DM and CD woes, IMO just a high work rate DM will solve both problem, barry, reo-coker, scott parker could fill the bill

Ade was relatively cheap la... If I'm not mistaken 7m Pounds...

Anyway... If the Arshavin deal is between 12-15m, I'd say its quite a good buy.

But to quote (er dunno which blog), let's hope he's more Kanchelskis than Rebrov!

yeah..hope AW can get Arshavin this january window.great player..

Arsenal look set to miss out on Arshavin because of cash demands - the 27-year-old is currently on wages of about £100,000-a-week. (Daily Star)

Guys, I don't really like this player but whether 12 or 20 mil pound is not a real matter. For squad depth wise, why not? I think he is overrated. 100 pound a week a too much. I don't a player willing take pay cut just to play for the team since there are few top teams are chasing him. and I don't think AW will break the so called 'wage structure'. I think the most important for the team to buy is to get a good DM no matter what. Our current situation is same as the season when Vieira left. A very big gap in the DM. I don't really worry about Fab's absent. I am more concern about who is playing at the DM position. We got Nasri, Denilson, Ramsey and Diaby can temporary fill Fab's position but the team doesn't have any decent player for the DM postion. Song? no way. I will suggest to get Arteta. I think that is the team's main priority.

Arshavin's chance coming to Arsenal is not as dim as you think:

Arsenal warned against inflated Arshavin price
Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...england&cc=3888

10M looks okay to me - but I still like to emphasize that the role he offers to Arsenal is not as crucial as DM and CD - despite the fact that we are losing Fabregas for a few months

This post has been edited by kimhoong: Jan 7 2009, 08:07 PM

Just wait and see,we can't argue or predict much.

Yeah, i think 100k a week is too much for Arsenal....AW will always hav backup plans....like how he missed out on CR and get reyes.....hahahahahha.....I don't think Arshavin will go to Arsenal, maybe Man City or Tottenham.....let's keep on waiting.....as AW always says, PATIENT is the key.....

100K a week for arshavin? omg, even our captain dont earn that much! anyway, the star said arsene back in for kranjcar? will tony sell? how true is it?

i'll take krancjarhowtospell over arshavin any time. think he will suit arsenal style.

me too.. i like him. he and dudu can get along well too, since play in same croatia team

it could be a bit difficult since, nico is a left midefielder/left winger... right now AW got nasri playing on that side.....
i would prefer if AW go for a central mid or center back....

Contrary to what people may believe there is a need for attack depth, notice that we are not creating much chances this season anymore, the lack of penetration, etc.. how we are crying out for eduardo to come back ? rueing the loss of theo walcott and cesc now ? lets also see who is filling in... just 1 or 2 injuries and we see eboue out on the wings when he should be a backup to RB, sometimes even on the left, denilson out on the right, diaby on the left etc..

AW believes in a more attacking approach, he has a better record of signing attacking players anyway, i think arshavin would help , provided at the right price and wage demands. i don't fancy anything above 15mil thats for sure. AW may think that CL ineligiblity might be good as he did claim that arshavin might have problems playing a game every 3 days.

I will admit however sigining a tough tackling, all action midfielder would improve us greatly. a CD depends on what AW plans for the whole defense. in terms of depth we are covered, in terms of quality there is lots to be debated. I think alot of it has to do with lack of organisation, confidence, mentality, and more importantly, lack of protection from midfield.

as i mention earlier, our fit 3 strikers comprises of 2 actually with bendtener very much still a rookie and i think we can very much agree is not 1st team material yet.. beyond those 2 strikers, we still don't have eduardo back yet, carlos vela deemed not ready.. walcott still on the wings.. no one else.. it is apparent when we lose 1 striker instead of replacing it AW goes to put nasri/diaby in the hole behind the striker ? makes sense no ?

I think we're in need of ship repairs come jan, either internally or by transfers, but patchworks in my opinion needs to focus on the industrious taclking midfielder, then an attacking exceptional talent (boosting confidence, creating more chances, creating more competition, pushing ppl the likes of diaby back.. song too when the DM comes in.. least show them it's not that easy to make the gunner's 1st team. Denilson wouldn't have to play every game as he has improved but at this level shouldn't be made to play everygame yet.

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In my dreamworld, 3 transfers would turn us to world beaters, or least be feared more.

1. Bendtner with upson swap ( i wouldn't add cash)
2. Carlos Tevez
3. Arshavin

Obviously it won't happen!! but if it did, we have just added depth to the CD, (opening up window for older players in the future to leave : silvestre, gallas) Added alot of spark in the midfield, add alot of work rate and quality/creativity up front, (replacing the industry by flamini which he did harry up in front more than in the middle really, hence the goals we concede sometimes) tevez can do that harrying, denilson/song/diaby need not be the harrying type and they are not will read the game and make the challenges beyond tevez. On paper, we make a more terryfying prospect than before. If we add Cana, no one wants to play us anymore if we hit top form.

**too much FM dreamland lol** (names i mentioned plucked out from transfer rumours - mayb i should install FM now.. )

in my dreamworld, titi, bergy and bobby would still be with us..lol.. seriously, i would have
1. arteta/alonso
2.niko
3. silva!! =)

huhh left? aiyo long time no internet, forgot everything already..

next game vs bolton? should be 3 points..

I don't believe that player who's desperate for a move will dare to demand astronomical figures, unless he's of Beckham's or Ronaldinho's fame.
If Arshavin is truly asking for such a big paycheck then he can forget about any move to the Grove. Our wage bill is already high enough.

Age aside, Arshavin is the better player. He has more experience because of a longer career, and has proven himself to be a consistent performer if you look at statistics. Granted, the level of the Russian league may not be as high as EPL on paper, but a player has to have some quality in order to become a consistent star player in whichever team and competition.

Kranjcar pales in comparison in terms of achievements and performance if you ask me. If I had to choose I'd still take Arshavin for now. The long term resale value for the latter is of course lower than the younger Croat, yet don't forget Pires was bought at a similar age and he gave us his best years during his early 30s.

well thats the thing really.. there is no "should be 3 pts" we've got no divine right to win, i remember a certain equador team i think during world cup claim they have a "divine right" (or something like that with the word "divine" in it) and they lost lol! . It is exactly our players who think alright, we should win.. and result in them just showing up expecting ppl to roll over.

And thats what im worried about as we have demonstrated time and time again we have great potential to slip into this again and get punished dearly. I think we got good chance, as bolton are not doing so well and have some important players out. But if the boys don't put in their shift, we could be in for a nasty surprise (or perhaps not so surprising this season as it happened so often)

Here's to the boys for a commited performance, a good display and hopefully be rewarded with the result we deserve (if we do deserve it that is..)

djibril cisse was a french star with quite amazing stats while he was there (and very highly rated as well), but with liverpool and now with sunderland, he's not the star that he was.

then again, torres was a star in athletico and yet wasn't consistent somewhat in spain.. now in liverpool, he's the second most important player next to gerrard (at least in my flawed opinion anyway.. heheh).

i suppose what i'm trying to get at is that despite arshavin being a top player in the russian league and him having a good euro tournament, i won't go so far as to say that arshavin is definitely a better player. he may have an edge, but i don't think anyone can compare and come to a decision with absolute certainty.... but heck, if either one comes, i definitely won't be complaining... =)

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Added on January 7, 2009, 11:44 pm100% agreed and i think it's a great post.

This post has been edited by lostasylum: Jan 7 2009, 11:44 PM