Arsenal

[Lucky]

Park has been selected in South Korea's World Cup squad but I don't fancy his chances of getting a game.

Former Monaco striker Park will be going to his third World Cup for South Korea, despite playing only once for Arsenal and twice during a loan spell at Watford this season.

"Among Korean forwards, I couldn't find another attacker to replace Park," said coach Hong Myung-bo, who will oversee South Korea's ninth appearance in the World Cup finals.

[Rev]

As a veteran of quite a number of Arsenal summers now, I think throwing names like this around is a total waste of time. Throwing any name at all around is a total waste of time. We'll sign one guy no one has ever heard of from Bosnia or something, and then there'll be nothing until deadline day on which we may or may not sign someone at 11pm.

I think we've given up on that now, it'll be familiar players but I'm not expecting an Ozil unless someone becomes very clearly available. I'm going to say Corchia and Vela will be it.

Corchia has a brilliantly informative on his Wiki page:

"The 2008 winter transfer window, it is tracked by Juventus . [2] But he finally extends Mans . The end of the season is excellent , so much so that many believe media already see him as a "great" future [3] . In MUC , it is advised by the experienced Paulo André , before it goes back not to the country."

[Steve007]

Nope

Tbh I think if Shaw does go, it'll be to Chelsea or Utd for a lot of money.

With all the cash Arsenal have raked in over the last few years, plus with the promise to buy 'exceptional players that would improve the team', Shaw fits the bill. If they don't even bid for him then I'll just assume the club are full of shit like they always are.

He would be an immense signing. He's a player a club like ours should be busting a bollock to sign.

[wev]

I highly doubt we'd spend the kind of money that will be hanging around bids for Shaw on any defender

[Steve007]

Considering our defence got pulverised various times throughout the season, I think spending a few quid on the defence rather than on yet another midfielder should be a priority.

Shaw can bomb forward but he can actually defend which is more than can be said for Monreal and admittedly to a lesser extent Gibbs (when he's fit!).

[Rev]

Shaw is going to be £35m/£120k to give us 3 decent left sided defenders. And Jenkinson.

[carlito]

Gibbs is an absolute baller.

[Steve007]

Shaw is going to be £35m/£120k to give us 3 decent left sided defenders. And Jenkinson.

We haven't got a top quality left sided defender.

Gibbs is questionable when it comes to defending but he can push forward quite well, but lacks any sort of final killer pass. Monreal can't really defend or attack very well. Monreal is a moderately decent backup player and that's the best thing that can be said about him.

I think Southampton would have to sell if any bids of around £20m+ came in for the player. Only a bidding war would push it towards silly money territory. If Arsenal are serious about competing then they can't shit the bed when top players demand top wages. However, I doubt Shaw would be able to command any more than £80k a week at this stage of his career unless he has one hell of a World Cup.

[wev]

We're in need of a quality replacement for Sagna more than we need to add another left back. I like Jenkinson alot, but hes not first XI

[Steve007]

We're in need of a quality replacement for Sagna more than we need to add another left back. I like Jenkinson alot, but hes not first XI

I agree that a right back is more pressing but when these players are within our reach you have to nab them before Man City, Chelsea or Man United grab them. As he's so young Shaw could be our left-back for the next 10-15 years, therefore he's a better investment than a big name European player that would stick around for 5-6 years max.

IMO going after players like this is a no brainer. Fergie paid over the top prices for young British talent but they were all long term investments. Ferdinand cost about £31m and at the time this was an outrageous fee but many would argue it was money very well spent. Same for Rooney. So as I said, when these players come along you have to go and get them before someone else does.

[Rev]

We haven't got a top quality left sided defender.

Gibbs is questionable when it comes to defending but he can push forward quite well, but lacks any sort of final killer pass. Monreal can't really defend or attack very well. Monreal is a moderately decent backup player and that's the best thing that can be said about him.

I think Southampton would have to sell if any bids of around £20m+ came in for the player. Only a bidding war would push it towards silly money territory. If Arsenal are serious about competing then they can't shit the bed when top players demand top wages. However, I doubt Shaw would be able to command any more than £80k a week at this stage of his career unless he has one hell of a World Cup.

I'm sure there's already a bidding war, Man Utd and Chelsea both require a left-back and any team other than Chelsea is going to have to pay enough to not make him play for his boyhood club - Man Utd will have to make up for no Champion's Cup too in their wage packet too which will raise everything.

I'm sure we could afford him, but it's a ridiculously large sum for something we don't really need. If he was a right back I'd say go for it, mind.

[humdrum]

Fuck it! Buy all the players!

Coleman, shaw, draxler benzema and balotelli !

[humdrum]

Double fuck it! Everyone else wants out of Bayern apparently so let's add lahm to that list and have Coleman as backup/cup right back

[Rev]

I've always thought that Neymar would do a good job of Podolski's position y'know, although he does seem to be working quite well with Messi. Mind you I presume we're buying Fabregas so we might as well just take all 3.

EDIT: Also Lorik Cana.

[Dude Ranch]

I think we should go for Shaw too, and others like him. We can't let everyone else have a free run. He'll cost a bit but with FFP having at least some impact (remains to be seen how much) then surely we're at least as well placed as anyone else financially. That's been the whole point of the last decade for us. And the fee has to remain semi sane nowadays. If we want to compete we have to get the purse out.

[hauk]

I agree we should be going for players like Shaw, but not necessarily Shaw in this instance. Gibbs is not quite as good as Shaw, but he's decent and hopefully his injury record will improve. Plus there really are other areas of the squad that need improving before next season.

[johnj]

Dunno if this has been posted yet but I found this an enjoyable read about growing up with Arsenal

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/my-dad-and-the-arsene-wenger-years-by-james-nolan

[anders limpar]

My fucking ticket for the final has fallen through as the useless cunts at Halfords who ran the auction managed to sell the tickets twice. Struggling to even type I'm so fucking angry.

Needless to say, if anyone hears of a spare I'm all ears.

[Steve007]

Ah for fucks sake. How did they manage that!

[The Fox]

[toythatkills]

Luke Shaw just looks like one of those "we need to send a message" kind of signings. We don't need him, we're just meant to buy him so he doesn't go to Chelsea or Man Utd?

I kind of get what Steve's saying about how he's a player for the next ten years, but the fact is that he won't be here in ten years if we're not challenging for titles, and if we spend most of our transfer budget on a player we don't need in a position we have cover then we're not going to be challenging for the title. Arsenal's pockets aren't bottomless, if they buy Luke Shaw then they don't buy someone else who we probably have a much greater need for. As nice as it would be, it should be WAY down the list, and if that means he goes to United then whatever.

[Steve007]

As nice as it would be, it should be WAY down the list, and if that means he goes to United then whatever.

But being ok with him going to United is exactly why we have a small-club mentality that drives me mad.

United, City & Chelsea stockpile players to stop other clubs getting them. They also loan a lot of these players out giving them top level football to aid their development. They can then bring them back when they have developed to the required level. This is how it's done. This is what Arsenal need to start doing. I know it's a case of 'spend spend spend' but that's exactly what we need to do. We only need to go mad for a year or two then so the squad is beefed up to an acceptable level where we can compete.

Of course I know this isn't going to happen, but I can hope. The club is run as a business by an American that knows less about football than my mum. And she detests football.

[The Fox]

We don't have infinite resources. We can spend now way more than we could a few years ago, but we can't splash the sums that City & Chelsea have in the past, merrily buying £25m reserve players. That's simply never going to happen.

As such I can't get my head around why anyone would want us to spend north of £50m (w/ wages) on Luke Shaw when in terms of depth we have possibly the best left-back options in the league behind Chelsea. It's literally the last area we should be looking at.

[toythatkills]

But being ok with him going to United is exactly why we have a small-club mentality that drives me mad.

United, City & Chelsea stockpile players to stop other clubs getting them. They also loan a lot of these players out giving them top level football to aid their development. They can then bring them back when they have developed to the required level. This is how it's done. This is what Arsenal need to start doing. I know it's a case of 'spend spend spend' but that's exactly what we need to do. We only need to go mad for a year or two then so the squad is beefed up to an acceptable level where we can compete.

Of course I know this isn't going to happen, but I can hope. The club is run as a business by an American that knows less about football than my mum. And she detests football.

Steve, maybe one day you should try and come up with a better solution to Arsenal's problems than "THROW MONEY AT THEM" because it just makes you look like you know less about football than the American that runs us.

Trophies are nice but the future of Arsenal should always come first. Saddling us with obscene amounts of debt to sign players we don't need just because you're scared people won't think we're a big club is insane. Where do you think Man City are going to be if their owner gets bored of them one day when he realises he's just pissing money away on nothing? League Two if they're lucky. Their business model is not sustainable. Sorry to use the B word, but it's 2014, Arsenal is a business. Obviously it's a football team first but if it's not run as a business then one day it's going to cease to exist and future generations of your family won't have this club. You'd threaten this just for short-term success?

I've probably said this before but you obviously wish you were supporting Chelsea, why the fuck don't you?

[The Fox]

Taking a stab at a 'No injuries pls' XI for Norwich:

Viviano - Jenkinson, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Flamini - Diaby, Kallstrom - Wilshere, Rosicky, Bellerin - Sanogo

[toythatkills]

I love the idea of playing Diaby in a "No injuries pls" XI.

Szcz won't play the final, will he?

[Dude Ranch]

We don't have infinite resources. We can spend now way more than we could a few years ago, but we can't splash the sums that City & Chelsea have in the past, merrily buying £25m reserve players. That's simply never going to happen.

If FFP is to have any impact it will be now. So if a player like Shaw (example) is a big chunk of our transfer budget the same applies to Chelsea, City, United etc. Clubs, hopefully, can't realistically be buying five £30m players this summer. That must have an effect on transfer fees. Or you'd like to think so. In any case, if other clubs can afford a player within a fair budget why can't we, if we really want him? We've gone through the pain to arrive at that very point. We should be able to go toe to toe and compete for the best.

As for our left back options, I like Gibbs but he's regularly injured. Monreal isn't really up to it in my opinion. I'd like two new fullbacks if Sagna goes.

[SeanR]

I love the idea of playing Diaby in a "No injuries pls" XI.

Szcz won't play the final, will he?

not if fabianski is doing the offs, no.

[The Fox]

Monreal is a good player IMO, he's just struggled for form and fitness lately. In the winter, when Gibbs' excellent early season form tailed off, plenty of people (me included) thought Nacho deserved an extended run as first choice, as he'd impressed when sporadically called upon. When he's in form I can't think of a better reserve LB in the league besides Cashley.

As for Gibbs, he has his flaws but he's still one of the better left-backs in the league. Shaw and Azpilicueta are superior. Beyond that I'm struggling. I don't see how it's a problem area for us at all. Surely these are far bigger concerns:

- We'll have one goalkeeper come the summer

- We'll have Jenkinson & Bellerin as right-back options as things stand, which clearly isn't good enough

- We have two options in holding midfield; one needs Ramsey alongside him to do his running and is generally woeful in his absence, and the other is quite frankly a mid-table player

- We have two strikers; one needs Walcott or Ramsey in the side to be effective in any way, and the other looks like he's not currently up to it

We need to be canny with our funds, we can't be spunking £50m quid on a position that we're already fine in. Man Utd and Chelsea will fork out loads of money for Shaw because a) they have more money than us and b) they really need a left-back for the future as Evra/Cashley are waning.

We also shouldn't discount the financial impact of contract renewals for Cazorla, Ramsey (apparently now earning in excess of £100k a week), Mertesacker and Koscielny this season, all of whom will have had pay increases. At least we'll finally be losing Bendtner's hefty salary to offset some of that.

[Rev]

I bet Messi could play right back.