Arsenal

[wev]

Bet Cesc feels like a bit of a gooseberry.

[Rev]

Can't we just sit him on a train station platform again? That was genius.

[chamberlago]

Bartley has signed a new contract

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/bartley-signs-new-contract-with-arsenal

Interesting development as the last I'd heard his future was in the balance. Hopefully this doesn't mean the end of our ambitions of signing another centre back (who am I kidding?). I'd much rather see Bartley get a chance ahead of Squillaci at any rate.

[hercules]

I'm glad Bartley has signed a new contract but I do believe it is another sign that we won't be signing a centre back just as miyaichi getting a work permit means that we probably wouldn't sign a replacement for nasri or fabregas if they went

[Daley]

Eboue has signed for Galatasaray for £4m. Not bad money and despite the comedy I never really liked him much as a player but that suddenly leaves us really short in the full back areas.

https://twitter.com/#!/rosssarsenal/status/98855995610112000

No surprise but this:

Philippe Auclair says Nasri will play out his final year at Arsenal and leave on a free next summer. AW has agreed to this.

is a bit shit but that's the risk you take if you let players contracts run down.

And finally:

Rubin Kazan, F.C Zurich, Twente, Odense & Udinese.

Take your pick. Odense maybe?

[Art Vandelay]

What is the actual point in keeping Nasri for a season? What it boils down to is paying £20m just to have him play for you for less than a year. Sounds to me like Wenger is sticking his heels in good and proper because the board can't be that happy about this surely?

[toythatkills]

What is the actual point in keeping Nasri for a season? What it boils down to is paying £20m just to have him play for you for less than a year. Sounds to me like Wenger is sticking his heels in good and proper because the board can't be that happy about this surely?

Yeah, if we're going to do that we may as well put him on a five year contract for an extra £20m. This is absurd.

I think Wenger genuinely must think he'll be able to convince him to stay after we've done the quadruple.

[Art Vandelay]

There is literally no reason for him to stay. If he's after money then he'll get more elsewhere, if he wants to win loads of stuff, again he's probably better off elsewhere. To be fair though he has put us in a right old catch 22 - we can't show him the ambition he might like to see until he either stays or we sell him and buy a replacement, which makes no sense when you think about it.

I'll be glad when this transfer window is finished so we can crack on and get this season over and done with.

[SeanR]

Eboue has signed for Galatasaray for £4m.

[Rocafella]

It will end up being some kind of sick joke when next year Man City sign Nasri on a free for £200k a week, when I'm sure they'd pay £15-20 mill for him tomorrow.

[Rev]

On the one hand, Nasri might play extra hard to get a good contract elsewhere. On the other hand, he might be shit as he has, give or take, no affiliation to Arsenal at all. You have to get rid, really, unless you're going to offer him as much as they will at the end of the season.

[Art Vandelay]

One other quick moan before bed, Wenger has set himself up for yet another fall unless Nasri has an absolutely astonishing season or signs a new contract at some point. Why set yourself up for a fall if you can avoid doing so? The results are so predictable.

[carlito]

I think that not having your two best midfielders leave in the same transfer window is worth a few quid.

[Rocafella]

When neither of them want to be there? Nasri definitely doesn't look the motivated type. I can see him putting in half assed performances for most of next season.

[Rev]

I think that not having your two best midfielders leave in the same transfer window is worth a few quid.

Ramsey and Wilshere are going as well?

[toythatkills]

Ramsey and Wilshere are going as well?

He meant Eboue and Denilson

[The Fox]

I think that not having your two best midfielders leave in the same transfer window is worth a few quid.

Not if you go out and replace them. Well, not Cesc as trying to find a direct replacement would be fruitless, but Nasri ain't all that. But then that would involve actually signing players, which the club seems to have forgotten how to do in any sort of efficient fashion.

Turning down £20m so a demotivated Nasri can stay on for one season is mental and I can't believe you'd try and spin it any other way.

[hercules]

This whole summer has been mental and a real let down. After all the promises that we would see a big turnover of players it's just been like all the others. It's a shame really aswell as I actually believed they would follow through.

[Daley]

We should know something about Cesc soon I reckon. It's members day and team photo day today so we shall see if these ridiculous rumours of two photos (one with Cesc and one without) are true. Also, more interestingly, the draw for the CL qualifiers is on Friday, and if Cesc plays in the first leg on the 16th/17th he will be cup-tied.

[Art Vandelay]

I'm still hopeful we'll sort something out but this Nasri/Fabregas fiasco has meant this summer has been a write off. Having said that, even the business we've done so far has crept the average age of the squad down a bit more again so I'm not sure what to think. I'm just waiting for us to hijack the transfer of David Weir to the old folks' home to add a bit of experience.

[Petrousgyre]

Well, not Cesc as trying to find a direct replacement would be fruitless

Ramsey, for me, would be Cesc's replacement.

[Daley]

I'm still hopeful we'll sort something out but this Nasri/Fabregas fiasco has meant this summer has been a write off. Having said that, even the business we've done so far has crept the average age of the squad down a bit more again so I'm not sure what to think. I'm just waiting for us to hijack the transfer of David Weir to the old folks' home to add a bit of experience.

Every summer is shit. My expectations are at zero every year. I fully expect this scenario to be repeated in 12 months time with RvP, especially as Darren Dein is now his agent too. We just can't do summers.

[The Fox]

Ramsey, for me, would be Cesc's replacement.

Well yeah. I just mean you can't sell Cesc and then buy a direct replacement. Players like Sneijder, Pastore etc would cost just as much, would want more money, and aren't even as good. But Nasri is clearly replaceable with plenty of guys out there. He's a great player but he's not at Cesc's level and probably never will be.

I take all the transfer tittle tattle with a pinch of salt, but if it really is true that we could have sold Nasri for about £20m, knowing he had no intention of staying beyond this season, and bought Juan Mata for about the same amount of money (almost certainly paying him less than we'd offered Nasri), then quite frankly that just boggles my mind that the club hasn't gone for it. Why the hell would you not go for that? I don't understand at all.

It just seems that something is horribly wrong with the way we're handling transfers these days. Bidding less for Jagielka than the amount Everton rejected last year for instance. Assuming that's true, it's just ridiculous. Why would you do that? Especially when we complain about Barca lowballing us over Cesc.

Even Gervinho, a player we actually managed to sign, wasn't handled in what we think of as the Arsenal way. It was all over the press for one thing (though of course that's not necessarily our club's doing), but then it dragged on and on for ages, and then Arsene just mentioned off hand that the player had actually signed about a week beforehand, only the club hadn't bothered to tell anyone. It was just weird, frankly.

[Daley]

It just seems that something is horribly wrong with the way we're handling transfers these days. Bidding less for Jagielka than the amount Everton rejected last year for instance. Assuming that's true, it's just ridiculous. Why would you do that? Especially when we complain about Barca lowballing us over Cesc.

Don't forget that he has actually signed a contract in the past 12 months so it's not even as if his value has fallen for that reason, which makes our actions there even more ridiculous.

I really can't believe Arsenal, with Arsene Wenger calling the shots, can be that bad at conducting transfer business so the only conclusion I can come to is that we are skint.

[Petrousgyre]

Well yeah. I just mean you can't sell Cesc and then buy a direct replacement. Players like Sneijder, Pastore etc would cost just as much, would want more money, and aren't even as good. But Nasri is clearly replaceable with plenty of guys out there. He's a great player but he's not at Cesc's level and probably never will be.

I agree there are more players like Nasri than Cesc but I'd be wary of making direct comparisons as they're quite different footballers despite being central midfielders - you could have a similar debate about Iniesta and Xavi. For my money Nasri is outstanding.

[The Fox]

I really can't believe Arsenal, with Arsene Wenger calling the shots, can be that bad at conducting transfer business so the only conclusion I can come to is that we are skint.

The accounts show we're not skint, though.

At the moment, there seems to be a bloody good chance that we're going to end up recouping a lot more than we've spent, AGAIN, despite Wenger saying he'd be "very active" in the transfer market. I can only assume it was actually a troll and "very active" actually included selling everyone.

I mean, if everything mooted comes off, we're probably looking at: £7m for Clichy, £3m for Eboue, £6m for Bendtner, £35m for Cesc (ugh), and maybe a tenner for Almunia. Total around £51m.

Then incoming we've got Gervinho at £10m, Jenkinson at £1m. I guess another centre back around £14m. Probably no Mata unless Nasri leaves, so I'll forget that. Total £25m.

Total net spend: -£29m

So our "very active" transfer window involves spending MINUS TWENTY-TWO MILLION POUNDS.

Brilliant.

[Rev]

Don't forget that he has actually signed a contract in the past 12 months so it's not even as if his value has fallen for that reason, which makes our actions there even more ridiculous.

I really can't believe Arsenal, with Arsene Wenger calling the shots, can be that bad at conducting transfer business so the only conclusion I can come to is that we are skint.

There does seem to be a hint of arrogance to it too - of course such and such a player will come, and so and so will stay. But with good players leaving, without that much money and with no trophies - and there are enough teams in Europe that can offer Champion's League football as well as high standard league football which is the big selling point - it just seems a little bit pathetic.

[Art Vandelay]

The thing is though, unless Wenger buys some players of a decent quality before September he must realise that we've only got to lose a couple of games in what is a very tricky month for his position to become almost untenable in the eyes of the supporters. Half want him gone already and the others were Ok with him on the proviso this so called 'active summer' happened. Unless we're really good before christmas it's going to get really ugly.

[The Fox]

Today's Arseblog smacks of misdirection as well. Yes, everyone knows Barca are a bunch of horrid cunts from top to bottom. We don't need another big article saying that. But the fact is that Arsenal could have nipped this in the bud long ago. He mentions it in the blog but doesn't really criticise enough there for my money. I think the club deserves a lot more stick for the way it's handled the Cesc situation this summer.

I mean last year it was just a flat out "Piss off". This year, if the player wants to go, then ok. Explain to him that we'll countenance a sale, but only at this price and if it's concluded by this date, and if it's not done then he's staying on till next year when they're welcome to try again.

What we actually appear to have done is nothing, apart from had the odd whinge in the press about how "It's not ideal" and "We'd like it sorted out soon". Other than that we've put up with all Barca's bullshit, and got ourselves into a situation where we still don't know whether the club captain and best player is going or staying, a week before the season starts. And we seem to be willing to let it drag on further, right up until August 31st (or at least the 17th when we need to decide whether to CL cup tie him).

I mean what the fuck happened? Last summer we made a real strong stance that we won't be bullied into selling players we want to keep who are under contract. Twelve months on we're bending over and taking it like a bitch.

[Rev]

The thing is though, unless Wenger buys some players of a decent quality before September he must realise that we've only got to lose a couple of games in what is a very tricky month for his position to become almost untenable in the eyes of the supporters. Half want him gone already and the others were Ok with him on the proviso this so called 'active summer' happened. Unless we're really good before christmas it's going to get really ugly.

But who would come in?

It's terrifying either way.