If there is any midfield + attacking to be offloaded the likes of Diaby and Eboue are certainly more liable to offloading than Denilson. Will be very harsh on Denilson IMO.

I'd rather Wenger buy no one with names like Arteta, Upson being thrown around. Their no better than what we already have.

To be frank, I think its good selling of Bendtner. To me he is totally not Arsenal quality. Just wait till Eduardo is back and he is sitting on the bench for good!

Yes! Sell Bendtner!
I really hope that the Bayern's rumour of bringing him there is real.
Or swapping Podolski is even greater.


I'm wondering why is AW's been linked to tons of players from Given, Upson, Arshavin, Niko and NOT closing any of them?

Is he trying to give a hint to our Arsenal players to "Buckle up, b4 u r benched for life"?
For instance, if he's not satisfied with Almunia....and he goes about trying to bring Buffon in, just to scare the sh*t out of Almunia.

Btw, anymore new transfer updates?

nevertheless we shud offload gallas.. i really think tht he's gonna mess the team. serious wif the club players disliking him.. it's better for him to go=).. i would rather have other defender.. havent get any yet.. perhaps we shud wait wht aw will do..

dont hope too much from aw.. there's a high probability tht he might disappoint us wif his current policy.. tht's wht i can say.. just wait.=)

ya denilson is a decent player bt he cant fit the bill by playing defensively.. i see him more like an attacking player of type.. btw he has been playing in most of arsenal games. still havent reach to teh level we expect for an arsenal player..

Cisse's career has been plagued by injuries which may have impeded his career. Even so, his record at Liverpool, Marseille, and now Sunderland wasn't exactly too bad for an attacking player. In fact his league performance this season is pretty close to Robin's and better than Ade's !!

I don't think we need to talk about Torres as we already know his qualities.

What I'm trying to get here is that Arshavin has proven himself as a consistent performer over a longer time period. There's no guarantee that Arshavin will become the next Bak where he'll slot in seamlessly in no time, but for now statistics are the only yardstick that we can depend on. Kranjcar's advantage would be his younger age and prior experience in the EPL though. I won't go all out and say I'm an Arshavin fan, but I'll admit that he caught my eye even before the Euro08 when Yuri Zhirkov's name was being mentioned on foreign forums - I actually felt Arshavin would fit us better than Zhirkov back then and I stick by my opinion.

Like you, I'd be glad if either of them comes; but the current signs are suggesting a deal with Arshavin rather than Kranjcar - who knows? Maybe the Russian assassin is just a smoke screen for the Croat lengzhai's arrival?

Denilson was not groomed to be Matty's successor, if anything he's more likely to be nurtured into a Gilberto with better passing abilities.

The Kolo-Willy debate will never end, and most gunners will feel more connected to Kolo than Willy. As mentioned before, both of them have put up pathetic defensive displays this season, yet Willy has still managed to score important goals so maybe that's the reason he's slighty ahead of Kolo in terms of selection.

Exchanging Nicky with Upson is NOT a good deal. It doesn't necessarily strengthen our defence, while we'll be losing another option in attack. Fair enough, Nicky hasn't been able to reproduce his last season form, nor has he shown enough improvement to warrant a starting 11 position. But why do a deal which doesn't solve our problems nor bring any benefits to the team?

Upson is not any better than our current defenders. I still don't understand why people are hyping him up so much. Are we that desperate for signings that we are looking at mediocre players ? If there aren't any better defenders for sale this January I'd rather see Arsene save the money.

Because most of the time the tabloids are merely rehashing old garbage rumours that was already in use during last summer.
If you've been supporting Arsenal long enough you'll learn to understand the way Arsenal negotiate deals - the more prominent a rumour is, the less likely it'll come to fruition. The more ambiguous Arsene talks to the media, the more likely something is going on (but no guarantees it'll go through).

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Jan 8 2009, 05:07 PM

Latest paper talk:

Barca wanna buy RVP and Fabregas for a deal of 45million in the summer.

too many rumors la..dont too gype about any signing.
just stay calm and wait who who come..

i think arshavin is cmg to arsenal...
he already say goodbye to his team mates...

If he comes for 21m...
He will be the club most expensive signing in history~

zenit reduce the price edi wat...
12m..

12 million pounds was the quoted price, not in euro. So its still quite high for a player his age.

hmm... not sure but sportcenter said like tat...

arshavin's never ending news is getting on my nerves... which is weird, coz when nasri's never ending news was going on, i was looking forward to his arrival and i was excited abt him. but not arshavin. i cant work up any enthusiasm abt him.. hmmm. give me arteta/alonso/kranjcar/silva annytime!! =)

I don't think offloading anyone is nessary , like i said , denilson shouldn't be playing all the games anyway it could well damage his developement and confidence as well. from this stage, if arshavin comes in, he can't play in CL where denilson can play instead, and perhaps AW will opt to use denilson over arshavin in FA cup as well, keeping arshavin for EPL. He did express concerns over his recovery rate.

Selling bendtner was only viable if upson comes in AND another striker (tevez i choose that time but very unlikely now i guess). I understand that the abundance in attacking player but we are very well short now, depth is what we need. if we have to eventually offload players who are not playing enough, that should be in the summer not now. We can't rely on injured players coming back to hit top form immediately too. right now our full on attacking options are:: (1st team)

RVP, ADE, NASRI .... thats it... beyond that... you'll find diaby, song, denilson, ramsey, vela.. (some of which great potential but shouldn't be thrusted into the deep end too soon else we'll be complaining again that this youngsters can't heck it. just see what happened to the "great youungsters of man utd" in CC .. their fans were praising them and now suddenly even rafael is rubbish.. ) such is the inconsistency. the very thing we need for the PL push is that what we're lacking from the youngsters. It is too much to ask of them and then to get on their backs further makes things worse for their developement. (note im talking about those available now and not injured)

walcott, cesc coming back from injury for another couple of weeks.. we need reinforcements now, we barely survive christmas in the chase, now's the time to bring in much needed aid. and how long to hit form ? eduardo and rosicky are long term absentees, eduardo would take longer to bed in again and rosicky is something for next season really..

thats a 3 1st team namers for a squad of potential 5 positions (midfield and attack, excluding DM, and mayb 6 because AW may want to get rid of DM position ? ) thats why we often complain why our squad so weak..3 1st team names ... 6 positions... the other 3 is bound to be : eboue, diaby, song, denilson, ramsey..

there is no surprise then that we are inconsistent. this is not the way to bring through youngsters.. im all for giving them chances but players like cesc came in with flamini in a team of invincibles, with them being surrounded, protected, learning from them. More importantly, winning was more important then it seem. Now it seems (note i said it seems, im not condeming AW, i know he wants to win more than ever) that Arsenal as an academy is more important than Arsenal as a footballing team..

defense may take a back seat but we have the personnel for the job, if anything, the defense usually rotate far less than the midfield and upfront. I think the rotating of the back 4 has also contributed to problems. AW hasn't found his preferred pairing until recently i guess. anyways, Arsenal has always been known since AW days to be weak in set pieces etc even with the likes of sol campbell etc in it.. AW is just much better in attacking, and should just work towards just that, getting us into our free scoring ways to outscore the opposition again. AW never really had a great defense with a great defense he inherited instead of sigining. I hope to see a great defense like man utd's back four which allows the rest of the team to go attack leaving only the back 4 to defend deep. but AW's traits and current situation means that we have to be realistic too.

---

Added on January 8, 2009, 9:43 pmoooh i like silva (david silva right?) he definitely won't come cheap... definitely more than arshavin i think... but if we're gonna spend that much on arshavin i rather it on silva! or perhaps alonso..

as much as arshavin is good etc, i rather AW do another sagna and eduardo. Unknown but able to come in and do the job immediately.. something tells me AW is doing something 2 fold (besides adding of cuz) , is to shut up the ranting fans for lack of "big signing" and to bolster squad confidence and prove the club's ambitions match the players. etc...



This post has been edited by chronic_blade: Jan 8 2009, 09:43 PM

yea, i was talking abt david silva. i agree with chronic! if we are gonna splash, splash on silva instead of arshavin!hehe.. i think valencia is pretty broke now-they might be willing to sell silva. maybe arsene should think abt this...

nah,if he comes for 12
i wouldnt say its expensive
id say standard
just because our trend here have not practice purchasing old players n such for a long time
thats why we as fans,had our mentality built to follow Arsenal trend. which is youngters and low cost

yaya i agree.. i like his pace lol

rosicky contract due in 6 months time =(

Gallas out for three weeks

French defender suffers hamstring problem

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that key defender William Gallas could be facing up to three weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

The Gunners are already without Mikael Silvestre, who has a thigh complaint, and now Wenger has been rocked by Gallas' fitness setback.

France defender Gallas caused controversy in November when he was stripped of the club captaincy after criticising team-mates and revealing rifts in the dressing room.

But the World Cup finalist remains one of the most experienced members of Wenger's squad and news that he faces a possible 21 days out of action comes as a blow ahead of Bolton's arrival on Saturday.
Toure boost

"Unfortunately we have lost William Gallas with a hamstring problem," Wenger told Arsenal TV Online.

"We lost Silvestre too with a thigh problem last week. I think Gallas and Silvestre will be out for three weeks."

Wenger, though, will be boosted by the return of defender Kolo Toure (groin) and midfielder Denilson (back).

"Kolo and Denilson will be back available," Wenger added.

"So we have lost two players from the game on Saturday, but we have gained two."

Sky

Good news for Toure he won't be leaving Arsenal then