Well, seeing as the summer has gone properly west there's only one thing for it....

[Classic Jorge]

.....MASSIVE AWIMB BITCHFIGHT!!!!

:music: Redfag do your job, Redfag, Redfag do your job :music:

[The Tony]

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

[Classic Jorge]

[Classic Jorge]

Who needs a trophy when you have atrophy?

[Rich]

the bid and that will be that.

We'll probably sign a French winger of some kind for £7million from Tolouse.

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

[Classic Jorge]

Sorry, did that say "allies"? It shouldve read "paymasters"

[Classic Jorge]

I wonder if we could turn Lewandowski's head.

Alternatively I could make some joke about you having slaves, just for old times sake like.

[Rich]

hands in a transfer request after we've qualified for the Champions League.

Problem here is, though - Bale won't go to Madrid imo, so they'll bid for Suarez and Liverpool will likely accept £40million from them.

Don't know much about Lewandowski, but from the small amount I have seen he's not going to be exactly what we need. I also wonder why there hasn't been many big clubs lodge any formal interest in him.

[Classic Jorge]

[Brentwood]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2357852/Ro bert-Lewandowski-join-Bayern-Munich-year.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2357852/Robert-Lewandowski-join-Bayern-Munich-year.html)

[Hillary]

1) We should have offered £41m rather than £40,000,001 because £41m would be less insulting. Not only that but it may mean Liverpool won't talk to us ever because they're so insulted. :rolleyes:

2) Only we sell players to rivals. No other big clubs sell players to other big clubs EVER. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

3) Top players won't come to us because they don't believe we are 'players' anymore. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

JW

[Classic Jorge]

I think we've all gone a bit garrity over the summer though, clearly

[Luis Anaconda]

last player we sold to Liverpool Michael Thomas in 1991

[Peter]

I mean, how do you know for a fact that we are an attractive proposition to top class players?

The possibility that they might see plenty of other clubs as a better bet doesnt seem too far fetched to me. Just depends on the list of other clubs i suppose. I think we can all agree that there is a list of some sort.

[Peter]

[Hillary]

[Peter]

Certainly if one of the big spanish or italian clubs came in and matched it he would choose them wouldnt he?

I am only basing this on the rumours and it is what they suggest.

[Hillary]

I mean, that he would not even counternance the situation under any circumstance. Are you really saying that?

[Peter]

Doesnt even remotely resemble what i said.

I wasnt suggesting that no top player would ever join us. I merely asked whether the list of better options was longer than it used to be/than we think it is. The longer it gets, the harder it is to sign the best players.

I think most of us accept that if chelsea, city or united come in for someone then we have virtually no chance of beating them to him. We may have believed that previously this was because of money but i dont think we van genuinely argue that anymore.

I think we have to accept that finishing a distant fourth and looking pretty off the pace in the champions league makes us less attractive. How could it not?

[Bergkamp's Brain]

Why would he chose Napoli in the "we're not seen as serious players" context. That argument would be valid had he gone to Juventus or Milan, but Napoli?

[Peter]

But let us not read too much into examples of top players NOT joining us :hehe:

The move to napoli possibly suggests that if you want a top player, and you arent necessarily a natural first choice, you have to pay over the odds. Basically what city did to establish themselves. Now they do it just for fun :-)

[redgunamo]

I'm not sure the player was ever in a position to demand to be sold to us for less.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

Peter was saying in a different thread that perhaps we aren't seen as a big player compared to some other clubs. I was saying that, that is not strictly true. Had we really wanted Higuain, we'd have gone out and got him. Napoli got him which made him perfectly feasible for a club in our positron. I'm assuming that the £23m was a red herring because if it was true, we should have done the deal in hours before real realised what a cock up they had made.

[Hillary]

Quote:



I suppose we thought that once the money was back players would sign up knowing they were with a big club, a great coach, and proper resources to compete.

Maybe they dont believe it. Maybe they just see the lack of success and consider us also rans.





We have only actually (as far as is publicly known) attempted to sign two top players this summer and one is clearly interested, while the other target dropped away for reasons we know not. Your quote above doesn't really appear to be based on anything at all.

[redgunamo]

made the difference here?

[Bergkamp's Brain]

This is all within reason, of course. If Wenger comes out with the "there were no top, top players available line" he is talking out of his horses arse a his position at the club becomes harder to justify.

[redgunamo]

can it?

Whoever's-job-it-is OUT! Obviously.

[Ashberto]

He's the escape goat.

[Classic Jorge]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

It is all about credibility. It might be harsh, but if the squad needs strengthening then he does need to fight to make it happen. If others are falling in getting things done, they need to be removed.

[redgunamo]

be some teething (ha!) troubles as we learn the ropes. Don't forget we are now dealing with many of the biggest sharks in the waters.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

of course my fear is that we will sneak through the qualifying round of the CL and it will be a case of arriving at 1am to the night club to find all the fit birds have been pulled and Arsenal are desperate to get laid, so you make do, then wonder wtf in the morning. The panic buying would be a lot worse.

Remember 2011?

Arteta - Good player but a bit of a panic buy
Benayoun - panic loan
Mertesaker - Good player a bit of a panic buy
Santos - panic buy +
Park - there is panic, then there is a whole new scale!

We don't want one of those to happen again

[redgunamo]

And the clubs who can afford to shop there can also afford to pay top money in July as it mostly makes no difference.

There's nothing we can do about that.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

It is a no win situation for the club. They make brash statements, then fail to live up to them, then claim everything was against them.

As you say, we need to learn to be a wealthy club all over again. 1st thing to do is to keep schtum on money.

[redgunamo]

then say those things once Higuain etc. are already in the bag. Or at least one of your expensive targets.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[redgunamo]

Although notice that IG was careful to pass the ball (we have money) straight to Wenger, who has Himself immediately tried to return that hospital pass (we are trying).

[Bergkamp's Brain]

Not sure the we're trying comment was red x enough back to IG et al. The our squad can challenge as it is was the stupid one from Wenger. I bet he wishes he didn't come out with that now.

Of course PHW used to tell us that there was £50M in the bank. Nobody believed him because he was a gibbering old fool. Is IG officially now the the new PHW? :-)

[redgunamo]

however if you want to talk about £50 million strikers then go and talk to IG.

Have some of that, Ivan! basically.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

In that battle only one wiener

[redgunamo]

I found it interesting that Real Madrid denied that we'd made a play for Higuain. It may even be true. But they know how this game works and that nobody likes having their failed "swoops" being made public at the time. A year or more down the line perhaps but at the time it's just embarrassing.

Of course, it could be that we (and IG) are just out of our depth for the moment. If we get Suarez though, just watch the whole organisation's confidence soar :-)

[Peter]

I suggested that maybe it was.

And that was a separate conversation which didnt mention suarez.