Wenger has said that Arsenal very nearly signed Hazard before he went to Chelsea.

[Rich]

Apparently Hazard's agent was at Wenger's house discussing terms in the summer of 2012.

So for all those Arsenal fans that doesn't think Arsene wants big players :vsign:

[Ashberto]

Apparently the fact that other clubs had far more money than us was no excuse for us not buying these players.

[R.C. Celebrating the return of Trophies]

here's proof of Arsene NOT signing a big player that you give as evidence that he wants to :banghead:

[Luis Anaconda]

and the quotes and the headlines on that story don't quite add up to the nearly signing him at all

'Yes, I wanted to take him, I had his agent at my home but again the barrier was financial and Chelsea made an effort that I couldn't make."

It's like saying you nearly pulled a stunning woman because you talked to her when in reality she was always going home with her lesbian life partner at the end of the evening.


Also telling that Hazard dumped his agent as soon as he went to Chelsea, who is by all accounts a complete charlatan

[Pat Vegas]

to Wenger or not. We were told they were. But looking back at our transfer activity for those years it told a different story.

Then last summer we blew the lid off of that.

[Rich]

spread the word of god.

You are a bit special, old chap.

[Ben.]

when I remember how much we laughed at Spurs' pursuit of DelPiero, Nedved and Shevchenko.

[Monty91]

[R.C. Celebrating the return of Trophies]

the man is a pussy when it comes to tactics and spending money.
How much has the stock of each of those players risen since they were purchased by the other clubs.
I think you can say with some confidence that they all got their moneys worth, both in success and selling on.

Fortune favours the brave... He is a pussy.

[Mack]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Honestly.

[Monty91]

ahead of billionaire backed clubs?

[R.C. Celebrating the return of Trophies]

Not at all, he undoubtedly went there to discuss the possibility of Hazard joining Arsenal, realised quite quickly that AW wouldnt spend the necessary and took his player elsewhere where they are prepared to take a risk to achieve glory.
you flaccid **** in slippers

[Pat Vegas]

[Rich]

[Rich]

secure the best pay packet for himself and for his client?

Arsene would have said what the most we could stretch to was, Chelsea would have done the same and Chelsea's offer was obviously better.

Which part are you struggling to grasp?

[Pokster]

loads of big name players, but actually doing it and taking the risk by paying up doesn't seem to be his normal way of doing things.

[Pokster]

and since we are a PLC if they had blatently lied they would be in breach of stock exchange laws

[Monty91]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

What. A. Fúcking. Nightmare!

[Luis Anaconda]

[Pokster]

and from what I have seen of him he certainly seems a Wenger style player

[Pokster]

just that the money was available, we/Wenger, chose not to spend it

[Pokster]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

SO STOP FÚCKING SNIPING.

[Luis Anaconda]

just like it has a rather large mortgage :shrug: I really struggle to see why people find this point so hard to grasp

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

oh *******s to it.

[Pokster]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Pokster]

[Pokster]

[R.C. Celebrating the return of Trophies]

last time I heard that word bandied around was by Gordon Brown.

Fact is Sir C success = money.
Our recent commercial deals would have been considerbly uplifted were we able to talk to the sponsors as winners, nike know the value of being associated with the lead rather than the support act.

Also the Ronaldo fee to Madrid pretty much paid for his stay at UItd.

sometimes in football, as in life, you have to just suck it in and go for it.

[Monty91]

without over-stretching ourselves?

[Luis Anaconda]

in fact most of our current team has been purchased in the last few years so money was clearly was "available" to sign them.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Pokster]

with no possible financial benefit to us in the long run (almunia and NB to name but 2 ) , we also knew we had new sponsorship deals on the horizon and we would have known a rough idea what they would raise, we also knew that the SKY deal was going to pay a lot more, so sometimes you can spend money knowing that future increases to revenue will more than pay for it.

A bit like knowing you are getting a bonus in 6 months, you can buy now and pay it back in the future

[Pokster]

that mention amounts on them

[R.C. Celebrating the return of Trophies]

If he wasnt spunking the money away on no marks like Diaby and Bentdner we could easily have paid that.

we are an incredibly wealthy club and with some on field success could have been even wealthier with vastly improved commercial deals and retail success based on that.
You first have to venture before you can gain.

Sadly I'm preaching to small men who prefer to take a free ride on the coat tails of those bigger and braver than them.

I'll leave you to it my myopic little accountant.

[Pat Vegas]

Because we appeared to sell our best players. And make profit on transfers. It seemed like it was a necessity.

[Monty91]

at one point or another, so that argument doesn't carry any weight. A year ago you'd probably have lumped Ramsey in with them.

I asked you earlier for a precedent of a Hazard-level player joining a non-billionaire backed club. Any chance of an answer?

[Pokster]

[Billy Goat Sverige]

[R.C. Celebrating the return of Trophies]

we have two billionaires backing us, sadly not with money
Utd have a whole family of billionaires who take money out, Utd still managed to win stuff, buy and pay big name players while suffering the Glazer's withdrawals and servicing their debt.
Tottenham are a billionaire backed club... as are Liverpool.

So it seems you are asking me to tell you when wigan or Hull or Everton spent 32m on a player.

Whether you like it or not The Arsenal dine at that club, we just choose to eat table d'hote rather than a la carte and we suffer the indigestion as a result

[Monty91]

"We weren't close to buying him although something was mooted," said Moyes. "But we had Shinji Kagawa and Wayne Rooney. It wasn't something we required at that time and we were looking at different positions."

And anyway, Man Utd operate under financial constraints, unlike City or Chelsea.

[Monty91]

for whom money has literally been no object.

The club that signed Hazard - who you think we should have pushed the boat out for - is one such club who have operated with absolutely no financial constraints.

Now, any chance of that precedent?