Benzema in January then?

[Billy Goat Sverige]

:cloud9:

[Jake]

Though there is a general stirring in the loins for any striker.

[Lord Roose Bolton]

Can play any forward position

[andy smith]

Would be lovely to get someone in but it'll be difficult as no one will want to sell...whoever we get, he'll need pace to give us a different option to Giroud and generally bring more variety to our attack. Have no doubt Arsene is fully aware of this and looking forward to having Theo back for this reason.

Can't see anything in the Llorente rumours as he's very similar to Giroud.

[andy smith]

and Giroud's ahead of him in the national team I believe. Can see why he doesn't get your blood pumping.

Always seemed talented though and is a bit of a crowd hate figure in Madrid. Think he would be good in a more supportive environment.

Benteke looks a great option. Probably not as strong as Giroud in the build-up but five years younger and far quicker.

[Winston Wolfe]

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

[Peter]

Being spent just yet.

[Monty91]

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[Peter]

Although predicting we wont spend anything has been a pretty safe bet over the last 8 years.

Not now though, so i am really sticking my neck out here :-)

[Monty91]

that you were insistent that we would pretty much never spend any money ever again (under the current regume, at least) and would slowly deteriorate as a club to a point where you claimed "relegation was not out of the question".

A.W.K.W.A.RD.

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

self cleaning fannies in your ugly little bulldog snout?

[Billy Goat Sverige]

been none of what you describe.

[Rich]

[Snin]

cap ? maybe you can fill his cap with spunk if you ask nicely enough ?

[Peter]

Hardly the same thing.

Still, i suppose it is to you.

[Monty91]

that you do not think something will happen, then yes, it is precisely the same thing.

[Rich]

[Peter]

We all discussed endlessly about us turning the financial corner at some point. My position that we had heard it all before and that i would believe things had changed when we acted was entirely rational, and entirely reasoable. It was also consistent with your repeated assertion that none of us actually knew anything about the finances.

The conclusion your draw from this statement is laughable. :hehe:

[Snin]

rub special on friday so aSSUMED YOU WOULD BE ALL OVER IT

[Monty91]

Even with our limited knowledge of the club's finances, the only rational position was to assume that, at some point soon, we would start to spend more money.

I genuinely have no idea why you rejected this position. Perhaps you can explain?

[Peter]

For one thing. You either predict it or you dont.

After your prompting and nonsense i suggested that a relegation battle wasnt impossible a few years down the line, with further financial restrictions, wenger gone etc etc....

And of course, it isnt impossible. The most absurd part pf the argument was that you had argued precisely the opposite for years when i suggested that we couldnt win the league. That outlandish possibility that we might somehow assemble a challenge was fine for you then.

I didnt reject that possibility. I said that i would believe that hings had changed when they changed. This was based on the following

A) the undeniable fact that we knew nothing of the club's finances
B) the also undeniable fact that the club themselves had been less than transparent over our financial position
C) the repeated assertions of the club that finances were going to change (the emirates factor, the real estate sales, the tv money etc) which made no difference over 7 years or so.

Based on those, any belief on what we were told or what we thought was going to e faith-based. I chose to wait and see it happen first rather than believe. Rational.

It is also worth noting that i suspected that things had changed, and said as much, over a year ago and especially when we signed monreal.

[Monty91]

bull****. Your relentlessly negative, pessimistic voice has betrayed an irrational belief that things were going to stay the same, and were likely to get worse (infact, I think you've used exactly those words on more than one occasion).

To now claim that you were simply adopting an attitude of "let's wait and see" is very. very impish. Some would say dishonest.

On a footballistic note, it is also laughable that only a matter of months ago you were bemoaning the lack of quality in the squad, and all it took waa one marquee signing in a position I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) you felt was not a priority and a midfielder on a free and suddenly you are gushing about our abundance of quality.

[Peter]

It hasnt escaped my attention that you have shifted hugely from what you initially claimed i said. You are now attempting to shift further by introducing new claims about how gushing i am being.

Can we devote some time to why you keep on getting this stuff wrong? The relegation thing, my position over spending which seems to have moved from 'it will never, ever change' to 'even if you didnt say that you have been generally negative'

For example, 'lets wait and see' i didnt claim anything even remotely like that. I said i would believe it when it changed. Until that point i assumed we wouldnt e spendig money. That is just not the same at all. Can you not see that?

The relegation thing we have done a million times and yet still you come back each time with the same nonsensical starting position.

Why is it that you find it so difficult to respond to what people say without distorting, misquoting or imposing your own meaning? I think we need to clear this up because, lets face it, it is goig to come up again and it is quite frustrating to have to deal with over and over again.

You are an intelligent enpugh lad. So what is it? Come on, share :-)

[Monty91]

Well it is a claim based on the fact that just a few months ago you bemoaned the lack of quality in the squad and more recently you posted something about our abundance of quality. What part of this have I got wrong?

I do not know how anyone could have drawn any conclusion from your relentless negativity and pessimism, combined with your assertions that things were likely to get worse (to the point where we could get relegated) than that you were certainly expecting this to the course the club would take.

Given the extent of your negativity and doom-mongering, I do not think anything I have said is an embellishment or distortion of your position. On the contrary, I think I have been entirely fair and even given you the chance to justify yourself – a chance I do not think you have taken with both hands).

I know it’s petty, but all I’m really picking you up on is the fact that you were wrong. You were wrong in your negative expectations that things were going to stay the same and probably get worse. And, on a footballistic level, you were wrong by you own implicit admission to say that we had “a genuine lack of quality” in the squad (given it’s only taken two additions for you to claim the direct opposite).

[Peter]

You really are all over the place. It is impossible to keep up with this. Amd i see you have decided to plough on with the lack of quality/ oh wait, loads of quality line of argument.

I dont recall gushing about how much quality we have. Yes, i thought flamini was a superb signing (as you know, having ridiculed me for years for saying that we missed him) and of cpurse ozil is a huge slice of quality. Two good signings can make a difference. I am pretty sure that was my point each year when i said we couldnt sustain a title challenge.

I dovrecall saying we were a centre back short. We clearly need a striker as well. I think i have been fairly consistent on this so i dont really know where you are going with it. We have plenty of midfield quality but there are two key squad issues. For the avoidance of doubt, that is my position. Is that ok?

As far as being wrong is cncerned, this relies wholly on the notion that i said things were getting worse and predicted relegation, a notion tht you have already tacitly accepted as being *******s.

If you want to have a go at me for beig negative when we were ****, do it. I was, i agree. I saw us beig **** and i moaned about it. I will do it again next time (that isnt a prediction that we are going to be **** again).

But dont make thins up. And if you must insist on drawing your own conclusions, have the good sense to distinguish between those and what i actually said. Your impressions are not my opinions.

[Monty91]

I recall you recently saying we had an abundance of quality. I did, and still do, find this a big shift given your view of the squad just a few months ago. However, since it was one isolated post that I recall, I will accept your explanation on this occasion, though you should know that I remain suspicious.

In terms of your protestations about not being wrong because you didn’t explicitly, say “WE WILL GET WORSE” or “WE WILL GET RELEGATED”, I repeat from my previous post:

“I do not know how anyone could have drawn any conclusion from your relentless negativity and pessimism, combined with your assertions that things were likely to get worse […] than that you were certainly expecting this to be the course the club would take.”

(I have removed the part about relegation intentionally and I trust you will understand why)

And yes, I will have a go at you for “being negative when we were ****”, because your negativity was unfounded. Things did get better, we did spend money, we probably will spend more, and we probably won’t get relegated any time soon.

I’m sorry but you aren’t in a position to deny that you were wrong. You cannot now lay claim to a moderate middle ground as your territory all along. The extent of your negativity means you don’t get to pretend you were always secretly hopeful things would improve. You decided to be a voice of relentless pessimism and now you have to pay the price by being reminded that you were wrong.

[Peter]

If i went too far in the dark days i apologise. Really i do. And you are right, i will have to live with what i have done. By way of redemption i promise i will take no part in the celebrations next time we win something. Not that we ever will of course (ha ha, see what i did there)

Now you can f**k off.