By Nick Lander
Deadline day 2012 was supposed to be really exciting for Arsenal fans, 2011 had been a late sweep that heralded the arrivals of Andre Santos, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Yossi Benayoun with Park Ju Young joining on the 30th. This year was all set to smash that, Arsene Wenger had conceded that he was searching for a new defender and a new midfielder and it had been let on that he was also after a new striker when Kevin Mirallas told how he had snubbed Arsenal to join Everton.
Despite the optimism that Arsenal would be active, it turned out that the only action that the club saw was two players leaving on loan, with Park Ju Young joining Celta Vigo and Nicklas Bendtner heading to Juventus. Both unwanted and both unable to seal permanent moves away.
Going into deadline day, there had been expectation that any of Angel Rangel, Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Michael Essien, Edin Dzeko, Ibrahim Affelay, Daniel Sturridge, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Yann M'Vila would arrive at the club, but no-one did.
The consensus between Arsenal fans was that it was imperative to bring in a replacement for Alex Song, who was unexpectedly sold to Barcelona, along with a new striker to try to lessen the impact of Robin van Persie's departure. Ideally the club would bring in a new defender too, with past injury crises weighing heavy on the mind as well as continuing doubts over the defensive quality of Arsenal's full backs.
Fans reacted with disappointment, one saying that "Gazidis and Wenger are going to face some serious questions [over Arsenal's lack of activity, whilst] making a £10m profit for the window, and arguably not replacing Alex Song or Robin van Persie properly." Another was disappointed that neither M'Vila nor Anderlecht's Lucas Biglia (who was offered to the club for just over £6m) were signed to replace Song.
I have seen a number of quotes attributed to Arsene Wenger about the club definitely being active in the January window if his targets were unavailable today. Surely January activity will now be a must, but for many fans the worry is that it will be too late. There was optimism that with the right couple of signings, Arsenal might have been able to challenge for the title, now there is real worry over the club's ability to finish in the top four.
With no goals scored or conceded, Arsenal fans will be hoping to have some of their fears allayed against Liverpool on Sunday, arguably the only Premiership team to have had a worse transfer window than Arsenal.
See all of Arsenal's ins and outs by clicking on the 'Arsenal Transfers' tab at the top of the page.
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This money hungry board will keep sucking the money out of the club and lining their pockets by selling our best players, raising the ticket prices and pocketing the Champions League revenue (at about £40m if we reach the knock out stages) until one year we don’t finish in the top 4. The bubble will burst and they’ll have made their money and leave, leaving the fans with a mediocre club which was at one point the pride of English football. Arsenal fans need to stand up for their club, our club, or risk becoming like other former big clubs such as Aston villa. Let them know that they’ve worn out their welcome. “in arsene we trust” should be “under kroenke we rust”. Stage a protest, fight for our club! Goober for life! Don’t let these business rats destroy ruin our club!
ReplyDeleteFair enough running the club sustainably, I’m not saying do a Chelsea or city. But look at spurs, they receive 25m for modric and put 22m bid in straight for moutinho. Yeah they didn’t succeed, but they still tried! We’v sold Adebayor 25m rvp 24m cesc 35m song 15m nasri 25m Henry 16m clichy 7m toure 16m and not even spent half that money! Not to mention the HUGE profits from ticket sales and 40m a year from reaching the champions league knock out stages! I’m not saying spend money we don’t have, but spend some of it we do have to make sure we don’t fall lower, rather than giving it to the board to line their pockets!! “under kreonke we rust!”
the only debt we have is the stadium debt, which is by NO MEANS very much at all compared to those annual figures ive just mentioned. If their model is so “sustainable” then it shouldnt rely on that 40m a year obtained from Champions League football, and so that 40m should be a bonus. As well as that, any transfer market profit should also be a profit, cos a “sustainable model” wouldnt rely on selling players. I know for a fact that our stadium debt and player wages are more than covered by our ticket revenue, so where does all the other money go that i quoted? straight to board members’ pockets. AND on top of all this, they spend preseasson in the far east to boost more commercial revenue, and all the while our players come back from preseason unfit, unpracticed having only played a couple of matches, meaning it takes ages for our season to kick off! but the board don’t care, cos theyll sacrifice the start of our season for some stupid commercial revenue for the far east. Is that how “our club shoud be run?” obviously not.
Dont blame wenger, he obviously has no power. We’v seen this when he’s been adamant to not sell nasri, rvp or cesc, but all of them have been sold cos the board forced his hand. If he could spend he would, he’s not stupid. The board won’t let him. Perhaps in the future he’ll admit it in an autobiography or something, but he cant say anything now or he’ll get sacked, and he’d rather still try and keep the club successful. Its the board who are the villains
UNDER KROENKE WE RUST
I think we all as arsenal fans should be patient because we still are in debt for tr stadium & Wenger hasn't failed us yet. So as disappointed as i am with lack of signings I'm happy we didn't just buy players for buying players sake we aren't man city or Chelsea who managers think its football manager.
DeletePlus with wilshere coming back if ur look at our 1st team I honestly believe we can rival the likes of man city & man utd if we can just get that fluency that defines arsenals.
But the match against Liverpool will be the answer to all our queries.
Afc for life !!!
Just to let you know, when you post a comment that long, most people skip it. Start your own blog if you feel the need to write that much.
DeleteTwo words for wenger and the arsenal board. Fuck off!!!
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteAgreed 2
DeleteCannot believe how sick an disgusted I am so frustrated at how average the squad is now can't even give the deadwood away !! So angry right now I can't type the words here absolutely furious and gutted !!
ReplyDeletefuck off board
ReplyDeleteIt would take a very simple task to force the greedy hands of Arsenal board. Who pays the club? The fans do, so we should boycott our team. Yes it will be bloody hard to do but frankly its the only way they would take us seriously. We not asking for a 70 million spend. It just doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we will not pick up any trophy's for yet another year... So a one month boycott: no ticket sales etc lets see how greed manages with a huge revenue knock!
ReplyDeleteYet again we bring in no one! The board are just money hungry pricks! How can the spuds get players in, when arsenal can't and we are in the champions league? Simple they fucking spend! So sick and tired of this shit. Maybe they should start a mickey mouse league for average teams, because that's all we are. At least we would win that one. Who is our back up if Oliver giurod is injured? No one!!! No strength, no depth no chance! Best start scouting the grounds in the championship because If we have a shot couple of months and send no one in January that where we may end up next season. It's a sad and frustrating day. Maybe Wenger has run his cause get in Pep next year and put Wenger in a higher position. Maybe a manager with ambition will be able to snap the board in to reality. In kreonke we rust!!
ReplyDeleteTHE SICK MOTHERFUCKERS DID IT AGAIN SHEARING 41 MILLION POUNDS TO THEM SELVES WITHOUT REPLACING SONG AND VAN PERSIE PROPERLY.....NOW I HAVE SEEN Y SONG AND VP LEFT....AND AS FROM TODAY I RESIGNED AS AN ARSENAL FAN AFTER 11 YEARS AS A FAITHFUL ...AND I COURSE THE DAY I JOINED ARSENAL MAY WENGER AND THE BOARD MEMBER AND THEIR FAMILY DIE A PAINFUL DEATH AMEN!! THIS GUYS ARE JUST DOING BUSINESS WITH OUR BELOVE CLUB..REMEMBER WENGER IS AN ECONOMIST AND AM SORRY FOR THE FANS WHO HAVE PAID THE SEASON FULL YEAR TICKET...YOUR MONEY JUST WENT TO THE WRONG HANDS!! ARSENAL,ARSENE WENGER AND THE BOARD ARE FULL OF SHIT!! THESE GUYS ARE THIEVES MOST ESPECIALLY KREONKE!!
ReplyDeleteWtf thought wed sign atleast one out of mvilla,cabaye, capoue, bigila, essien or tiote and defo thought wed sign a striker weve got rid of rvp,vela,bedntner,park and brought just giroud n podolski in i rate both pf them but podolski will b used more on the flank n if giroud gets injured we will only have chamack as a replacement also we prob only sold song to cover the fees spent on new players so we could turn a profit
ReplyDeleteWe needed to get some key expirenced players in, i thought that berbatov would of been a good signing but missed out on him, last season thought chris samba (former Blackburn captain and defender) would of been perfect but Arsene didnt go for him even though we were struggling in the back and Samba wanted a way out. Used to think Arsene knew what he was doing but now im not too sure. I think if we don't win anything this season then Arsene will be in trouble and a lot of spending will need to happen next season!
ReplyDeleteSome of our players have massive potential. But potential takes time and won't help us in this season. Even when our bright young players shine and turn into stars we get rid. All most as if it's some kind of business of simply developing then selling for a good return.
ReplyDeleteNow
Personally I would rather see this deadline day to one where we sign the likes of Park others we will neither play just wasting our wage budget.
I have high hops for Jan transfers cos If not some serious questions need answering.
Afc legend in the making Santi Cazorla
you forget mikel arteta, yossi benayoun, andre santos....who played big roles in last year's turnaround........and mertesacker who i believe will prove to be a great defender
Deleteim actually goin crazy and dont know what to do, we lost rvp and alex song, and didnt replace either of them, podolski and giroud were both needed aswell as rvp, wenger cant say that there werent any quality players available for the right price, heres a list of players we could have brought for a good price, and these are prices actually quoted by their clubs or the price clubs paid to get them :
ReplyDeleteremy-15mill
adrian lopes-14.5mill
dembele-15mill
dempsey-6mill
mbiwa-7mill
van der weil-5mill
mvila-15mill
biglia-6.2mill
capoue-9.8mill
granero-9mill
affelay-loan
huntelaar-17mill
javi garcia-16mil
n.de jong-4mill
maicon-3mill
lucio-free transfer
marin-8mill
k.toure-3mll
and many more
why did we not sign any 1 of those players, all would have improved the squad, and all are very affordable, i dont get arsenal, i will always support the club, but im contemplating supporting the board and the manager who run it, enough is enough, maybe it is time to take a stand
Disgrace to the supporters. We have been taken for mugs. Our team looks quite low with the lack of players. Our defence has a few injuries and we are fucked with no cover. Again the same up front. We have a few on the injury list who has no comeback date. Spurs have bought well. We are lucky to be in top 6 this season and again no trophies. 18 players gone from whole squad and only 3 brought in. Whets all the money going. I think it's time for Wenger to leave and a change in the board is needed. Someone with money who can make us great again and catch up with Chelsea and city. We are now a mid table selling club. We will lose to Liverpool and Wenger still won't get sacked. Something needs to be done ASAP or we will carry on down that downhill slope. Even Spurs are getting bigger than is and that hurts to say.
ReplyDeleteThe way forward is simple and strait. You've got a board replete with shortsighted money-mongers.The chairman once asked what the complaints are all about. According to him,it's not as if we have been relegated.Their thinking,you see, is that once Arsenal is not on relegation,we are doing good.A great club like Arsenal?Relegation? This board must be shown the way out.Let the fans stage a PROTEST.Let no fans show up at all football stadium for the next one month.Buy no Arsenal souvenir for the next one month.No nothing! Let's watch the matches on TV. Let's make a statement.When the money stops coming, the greedy board will understand they are no longer welcome.
ReplyDeleteThis year Arsenal will be very lucky if we finish at the 5th-6th position, At key spots we have weak players, i.e diaby, jenkinson, gibbs, players that in a club which aims for the Premier League wouldn't even be on the bench. AW failed for one more year to keep our best players, and once they left he failed to replace them with better or equal players, in key positions like a defensive midfielder, with the replacement of Song to be diaby and coquelin. It's just rediculous. Wenger you failed us again, I hope you and our board enjoy the profit you made once again.
ReplyDeleteToday, has shown we are a club in decline under the current old board. How can a team with the most expensive tickets in the league sell two to three first team players every year and not replace them.Cole, RVP, Nasri and the rest of them are right to leave this club. No ambition and yet again no silver ware for another season, difference being this year we won't even finish in the top four. We have the 5th most income in the world according to some football rich lists yet we cannot even compete with Fulham and QPR in the transfer market now. Remmember we finished miles behind City last year yet their manager is complaining about lack of depth in the squad. Both Champions League finalist have spent heavily improving their Squads. Podolski is not a striker and Giroud hasn't got the experience, granted when they get used to the league they might get a few goals but neither will replace what RVP gave us up front. Cazorla is a good signing, but I wonder how long will he stay at the club when the big clubs come calling for his signature. How can you not even contemplate getting Huntelaar for £17 million, who would give everyone a lift, when we have £24 million from the RVP sale. We keep rewarding players that can't do it at this level with stupid wages. We are willing to pay the likes of Park 50K a year and Denilson 60K a year yet we keep talking about a wage ceilling. If you look at the difference between us and the spuds it is that they can get rid of the rubbish whereas we can only put ours out for loan and let their contracts run down until they leave for nothing as the take precious funds to line their undeserving pockets. I don't blame Wenger, he can only do what the board tells him. It is time for the Silent Man to silently leave the club before we end up like the Villas and Liverpools.
ReplyDeleteFuck off arsenal..
ReplyDeleteIT TIME NOW TO SEE 1ST HALF RESULT FOR WHAT WENGER FOMULAR BUY NOT ACTIVE DURING THE WINDOW CLOSED. IF HE FAIL 1ST HALF WE SHOULD LEAVE THE CLUB NOT WAITING TO LONG ....I BELIEVE LIVERPOOL WILL BEATING ARSENAL TONIGHT
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of whining,ignorant plastic fanboys infest this site! None of you fantasy football wannabe managers have the foggiest about anything Arsenal...yet you slag Wenger for not buying at the deadline, when last season you whined about him waiting until the deadline!
ReplyDeleteAw knows what he is doing and unlike you lot, he's actually been there and done that more times than you morons wipe your arses. Either support your club or go to Shite Heart Lane where fickle fanboys like you lot thrive.
mate you need to wake up and take your tongue out of wengers ass... you may be content with fourth place finishes and selling our best players but i am not and so are a whole lot of other fans. Arsenal is a feeder club. How could you be happy with that?? We support the club and just want it back from the american money grabbers. Love your club mate and worry bout its health.
Deletewenger is lier...fuck off!!!!
ReplyDeleteI loved Aesenal, but as of today I will not support them. Broken promises, money hungry board and Arsene who keeps sayin we are buyin quality players, BS!!! Do u really think we will sign a player in the winter transfer? When's last time Arsene bought players in for that transfer period. I don't blame Nasri, Song, Van Zpersie, any of them. They were right, Arsenal lacks ambition to win trophies, but would rather see their pockets get fuller. Fans it's time for you to take a hard stance and give it to the board.
ReplyDeleteWell said
ReplyDeleteWe know exactly what Wenger is goin to say:
ReplyDeleteWe do not need to sign more players, Wilshsres return is like a new signing. We have enough players and will take time to adapt.
Wenger are u really retarded or somethin, we will finish lower than 6th. Year in year out all we needed were a couple signings and we would have won the league. But no, perhaps Wenger doesn't wanna win trophies.
AGREEEED......#@£€*$!!#!? ;(
ReplyDeletefuck off AV!!
ReplyDeleteI hope and I greatly hope that this unreasonable mockery of Wenger will finish this season. I can't take it any more...... I am exhausted as a fan of Arsenal........
ReplyDeletecommon guys, are u all arsenal fans? I mean are u all in possession of some kind of time machine? Well I am just asking it because it looks like u all made a time travel to a different scenario where there were only new signings and they would have won us the league, how idiotic!!! I mean its ridiculous thinking as if only d existing squad players are d only ones capable of sustaining injuries during each and every match while the new signings will be injury free for rest of the d season as if protected by some sort of shied!!! Yes I am also sad that there were no signings on the deadline day but then so what! Let me remind u that the MAN who has been managing the club is holding his seat for past 16 years, guaranteeing the club top football and it was under him that we achieved the title "INVINCIBLES". Yes we are without a trophy for past 7 years but that doesn't means the solution to get a trophy is to buy each and every player we are linked to. Everybody says the board has done nothing to replace RVP, well let me remind u all those who are pinched by this question each and every time, it took 8 YEARS, FUCKIN 8 YEARS for rvp to be what he is today. lets say we bought each and every player but then again are u all going to give them the time needed to gel into the team u all impatient buggers. Seriously guys, have faith in the club and show some patience!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's not avoid buying every single player, it's about buying players to fill those important roles. What's wrong with buying a player like Dempsey for $6 million dollars to backup Giroud if he gets injured? I remember when we needed a CB, like Samba to help fill in for any injured CB, we got Squillaci and what happened? Why are we paying 60,000 for crap like Squillachi and others where we can get rid of these crappy players and sign a quality player. It's about signing at the right time. The incincibles are now history and remember Arsenal is bigger than any person, including Wenger and the stupid board. You are sayin in Wenger we trust, it's been 7 loong years while these goons are pocketing money. I was a die hard Arsenal fan but enough is enough and im tellin u there are a lot of die hard fans who can't tolerate this crap anymore. To be an ambitious club you gotta take some risks. All we needed this year was a backup striker and a CDM and trust me the fans wouldha been happy. What's success of being an Arsenal fan, comin in 4th place? Well let me tell you, no one gives a rats ass if u finish below 1st. Wenger and board must go, and I think Wenger needs to go to a team that spends money (Chelsea!!) and Umanov needs to buy this team from that stupid idiot Kronke.
ReplyDelete