Should Fans be Encouraged by Gazidis’ Recent Comments?

Oh nice, thanks for share!

Apparently we've just had a bid for Jagielka rejected: 

It is now claimed that the Gunners have lodged an offer in the region of £10 million for Jagielka, £2 million less than their last approach, and this has been swiftly rebuffed as Everton look to retain the centre-back.

"Okay, so 12MM isn't enough?  How about 10MM then?"  Sometimes I feel this is the AW negotiating strategy.....

Or, as with Schwarzer: "How about 2m? No? What about.... 2m? 2.0m?"

Dangit, I was just preparing to blog about that.  Well I'll do it anyway.  Y'all can't stop me. I have admin privileges.  

Ya big girl. 

Barcelona have agreed to pay an initial €26million with an additional €11.5million in add-ons. [For Sanchez]

guess that means cesc is staying put. shame about sanchez though. and affelay. and chygrnskiy. and hleb. just making a point

Alexis Sanchez to Barca is now official. 26m euros up front (and 11.5 in variables) leaves them with some money left to keep up their hunt for Cesc. 

really? that sucks. i thought their transfer budget was in the area of 50m euros? i was relieved for a second. thanks brenton :/

Yah, I was originally hopeful but if you look at the Sanchez deal, you have to think they would propose something similar for Cesc: 25m up front and 20 later, or something like that. 

Top ten replica jerseys

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.u...

is it just me or are all the good left backs being snapped up? eg taiwo, jose angel, fabio contreao, capdevilla, and probably heinze and michel bastos. if i was paranoid i would declare a club wide conspiracy against arsenal is in the works.

no but seriously CAN WE BUY BAINES BEFORE HE GETS BOUGHT TOO. i swear if he gets taken too im doing a martin and switching allegiances to the other side of london.

Francesc is not going to Germany. I'm getting the feeling he's not really injured, I think he's basically throwing the towel in...

BBC reporter says the players were told two weeks ago that Fabregas would be sold this summer. 

Wow, if thats true, then I guess it makes sense why so many of the players have been so forward in saying, "We'll be fine....we'll move on...he can be replaced...etc."

I haven't seen that report.  Where did you read that?

The almighty twitter. 

Another day arrives with no sign of Wenger getting
off his backside and doing what he is paid £6million a year for. All we
hear are stories linking us with players whilst we all know nothing will
happen. Wenger is too busy firefighting with Cesc and Samir both
desperate to escape Wenger’s team of bottlers to bring in the 4/5
players we need just to stay in the top4. The small band of
disillusioned members of the Wenger is God fan brigade have run out of
excuses there only defence being to claim there are 6 weeks left before
the transfer deadline. What they will say on Sept 1st I don’t know, no
doubt they will tow the line once Wenger has cracked the old three line
whip and they will convince themselves that Wenger has assembled the
greatest side in the history of football. If Wenger doesn’t deliver in
the window, and he hasn’t in the last 14 then this must be his last
season. The excuses wont wash anymore and even our BofD will have to
draw a curtain across the man with the biggest head in football.

Valencia now saying they are willing to sell Mata, Emery told Marca. 

"So, if there is a large financial offer from any club, that is good for both us and him, we will have to let him leave."

Tottenham are also believed to be interested in the winger, but Arsenal's potential to offer Champions League football next season is understood to put the Gunners as frontrunners for Mata's signature.

I saw Clichy play on Monday. There were a few yells from Arsenal fans in the crowd. He started the second half of a friendly against Vancouver, along with most of the second-string Man City players. 

Are their second-string players the ones they only paid £20 million for, instead of the ones they paid £35 million for?

Bingo.

A few of their younger players got some action: Weiss, Boyata, Savic, and so on. What I found most surprising was how big the team is. Hart, Toure, Kompany, Lescott, Richards, Balotelli, Barry and Dzeko are all massive. De Jong is huge but shorter.

I saw them play last summer when they toured the US. Which isn't relevant to anything except to say that I screamed like a schoolgirl when Vieira came out and over to my section, and he looked up, saw me in my Arsenal shirt, and pointed at me and winked. I'm not sure exactly where this ranks on "great moments of Martin's life" list, but it's probably embarassingly high.

Yah, wasn't quite the same with Clichy. But I was surprised at how starstruck I was in general. That's Yaya Toure, right there, on the field, playing against the Whitecaps! And there's Joe Hart, saving a free kick from Camilo, our pint-sized Brazilian. 

I saw the Pixies in May, front row, and at one point Frank Black looked down at me and gave me a nod. Fame and our attraction to it is an odd duck. 

I agree brenton, those guys are huge, esp that kid they had playing up front with Balotelli. Clichy was prob their smallest on the field along with SWP.

Agreed, they are becoming an imposing side physically, pretty much the polar opposite of the Gunners right now.  Think about having those guys plus YaYa on the pitch at once....

I also seem to recall during introductions before we played Barca, even our players seemed to tower over theirs.  And all they did was run circles around us.  So unless a MMA or boxing match breaks out, I'm not too worried just yet.

Problem with playing big teams is we CANNOT defend them on set pieces & corners. They simply push us out of the way or get a head on the ball before we're there.

Except that some are also very mobile. Balotelli, Toure, Boyata, Richards. 

ah, the good old quotes..Sairax come and be mommy 'cause I am about to go cynical again :(}}I think Gazidis, Weger, Hill Wood, Kroenke and any who actually said similar things, should add: "but, sadly, even if we have money and want to invest, we do not know how to negotiate, or bargain, instead of taking our own example when we say that Cesc is not for sale, but we are willing to sell him if the price is right, and we do that because we know things, well we seem not to know that other teams may (wow, big surprise) know stuff to, btu again, we do not know how to do this, we only know how to buy cheap and young, we dont seem to get that, as a big club, we are in the big leagues, and among the big boys, spending big sums..sorry for that, gooners"

So did anyone like the video clip?  

Chirp.... chirp

This Cesc Fabregas saga is beginning to do my head in a little bit.

I'm
starting to feel like I'm having a Déjà vu.

I'm starting to
feel like I'm having a Déjà vu........eh? I swear I wrote that a minute
ago.

To be honest I'm still very confident that Cesc will be an
Arsenal player next season.

I know he is suffering at Arsenal,
so much so he'd rather join Millwall than stay with us, but
unfortunately Barcelona don't seem to value him that much.

If
they did, then they would put his transfer as a priority over the
Sanchez deal.

Instead they continue to flirt with Cesc like the
time, and I swear on this, Rihanna did with me in a strip club one
night.

Then I woke up. Sweating.

Barcelona continue to
flash their knickers at our skipper in the hope he will put in a
transfer request to pull those knickers down.

Well, I can't see
him doing that because;

A) Despite him being in an Arsenal 'hell'
he does genuinely love us,

and,

B) By all accounts he has
a mega monster munch whack of loyalty money he would miss out on if he
asked for a transfer.

Now Pep Guardiola has said his club have
until 31 August to do a deal with us for Cesc.

Arsenal should say
bollocks to that. And they should say it in public too.

And by
the way, I would love to see Arsene Wenger saying bollocks.

Call a
press conference and tell the whole wide world and its entire stinking
existence that Barca have until 30 July to meet our terms or they can
just jog on.

After that date we will ignore them like my guvnor
does me when I ask for a pay-rise.

This saga is taking over our
summer and I'm sure that preparations for the new season must be being
affected by it.

If we are spending all our time fighting Barca
off then how can we concentrate on getting the players in that we need?

Also
these players might want to see if Cesc is still at Arsenal before they
sign.

It is fast turning into Farcelona more than Barcelona and
this farce needs to end before I go more loco than Britney Spears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Forget the "Zanka" Jorgensen rumours...he was just made cap. of FCK so he is not going anywhere. Personally I would go for Kjær - Aggers partner in the danish national team. I trust le boss and Glazidis to sort it out. It all depends on Cesc/Nasri situation as in which position do we need to strengthen the most. We wont buy five top class players. So Just one and the rest will be squad players.

You'll still be disappointed because you're hearing Gazidis wrong just as you heard it wrong last summer. You read "we have money to spend" as "we'll spend it buying someone just to appease some fans" you read "we know the weaknesses" as seeing the same weaknesses as you do. Few saw the buying of Sagna when we did as remedying a weakness at the time yet it was. Much that will go on in this transfer window will depend as much on who goes out but who comes in will always be a value buy that will satisfy few fans immediately.

Agreed

Hey guys. Nice blog. I share your sentiments Homey, not that I dont trust the words of the professor or the board, but like the saying goes, " the proof is in the puddin." I think this transfer period is different from previous ones, because I think there is a need for quality signings this season more than any other time in Wenger's tenure and he realizes that. Also, if Man City offer 20+ mil for Nasri, and Wenger decides against it, I think the Arsenal Board will step in and sell Nasri. My reason for this is that a player in the last 10 months of his contract being bided on for that much money, it's absurd not to sell and is definitely good business. At the end of the day, Football is a business. Don't get me wrong, I want the guy to stay because as an Arsenal fan it hurts to see one of our own leave esp for a shitty team like City, but it doesn't looking encouraging right now. Also, I think either Cahill or Samba would make us better. Better communication, better decisions, and more experience in the back, this would also compliment the Verminizer in my opinion. Like Perry said, let's have some faith and hope our board has our club's best interest at heart both on and off the field and make the decisions that will see us win the trophies we crave and remain a business model for success. Gunner for Life. 

Football is most definitely a business, but so is winning. And maybe Wenger thinks Nasri will help the team win. Maybe Wenger wants to keep Nasri beyond next season. If so, it would not be absurd to pass on 20mil for nasri now. It's possible Wenger thinks Nasri is going to improve over last season and it's possible Wenger may be right. Nasri has held out on signing an extension and has made some noise about leaving and Wenger knows that this is a common technique players use to gain leverage in negotiating their next contract and does not necessarily indicate a player wants to leave. Further, I don't believe reports in the press and in blogs about teams making bids. Agents frequently start rumors about teams having interest in certain players and bidding certain amounts on them. I have no doubt that teams do the same. And I would not be even a little surprised to learn that teams conspire with one another to artificially inflate or deflate player valuation. So this whole Nasri story, to me, is pure fiction. Show me legitimate documentation of a team offering 20mil for Nasri and we can talk.

Mmm, You could be right, but then again Mancini came out this week and said they're interested in Nasri for which Wenger got upset and put him in his place. It could just be talk or a serious interest, who knows. Seeing that I'm not in the backroom like u are, and seeing that this story is being reported in numerous places that the player MAY want to leave to win trophies, I guess it's hard not to believe some of it. If it is indeed rubbish, it makes sense to keep Nasri and hope that we can persuade him to sign on for another few years, if not, the reported fee of 20+ mil is a lot to lose for any player. I hope ure right, or maybe u need to take your advice about that drugs thing. 

I'm not in the backroom. Farthest from it, in fact. I'm a newbie to the footballing world. I didn't mean to sound critical of your comment; re-reading my post, it kinda seems like i was directing my comments at you, but i was just making them generally. You know, it could be Arsenal planting stories about other teams offering exhorbitant sums for a player. They would benefit from it because it would (or could) drive up the price on a team making a legitimate bid. This could all just be a ploy created by Arsenal to drive up the price on Nasri if, for example, the plan is to sell Nasri at the winter transfer window if he doesn't play well or if he decides the team is not clicking and wants out. And "Drugs are bad, mmmkay" is not really advice. It's a quote.

Yes, thats a possibility. At the same time tho, Arsenal has never been a club of drama, and this sounds like a bunch a drama to me. Then again, I'm not versed on the tactics clubs use to boost player values, but ur claim doesn't sound far fetched. What I do wish we could improve on is that as soon as we become interested in a player the whole world finds out. I remember Man U being interested in Ashley Young a couple of weeks ago, as soon as the news broke they bought him. We need to adapt and perfect the art of being covert. I think this will benefit us in capturing some of our main targets. Furthermore, when Wenger makes an inquiry about a player this means he's all ready done his homework, it just a matter of the dollars and cents. So either buy the player or just don't mention it. Furthermore, it seems as though the name Arsenal is the name everyone mentions when the want some attention. It upsets me that players who aren't even Arsenal material try to associate themselves with the club as to inflate their value. 

Heard all this rubbish before and it made no difference. Its just the lizard Gazidis telling gullable fools what they want to hear and of course they lap it up.

i kinda agree with you biscuit but i'm bored of being mr pessimist all the time. We need to get behind our team and give them some real support - so fed up with the groans that erupt every time someone makes a mistake both at the emirates and online. Sometimes I wonder if we might have won trophies recently with really amazing support at home to match our away fans. Obviously Gazidis had said stuff like this before but our financial situation is reportedly much better than it was 2 years ago. It doesn't hurt to believe once in a while.

I have faith in Wenger this season too, and yes, I do think Cahill and/or Samba would make us significantly better. We fizzled out last season because we had no depth in the backline.  I would accept taking one of those senior players as well as one other lesser known, younger defender (Sakho, Subotic, etc).  Lukewarm on Enrique, myself.  Seems like a type of leftback pool would settle on.  

I think Wenger settled on Melo a while ago.  Maybe he's such old news that we're trying to forget that he's the type of hard-man in the middle that Wenger knows he should add to the squad; we can be critical of the Mascheranos, De Rossis, Gattusos and De Jongs of the world, but the Premier league is going to be a much tougher place this year considering the additions the other top two teams have made and are still yet to make.  i believe Wenger is very likely to go for Melo and get a great bargain-basement price on him.  Yes, the deal may drag on through the summer, and Melo may have some behavior problems, but I'd like to think playing for Arsenal could really offer a quality player like Melo a renaissance, and frankly, give us balls in the middle.    

I agree with everything you said, except Melo being quality. Juve is my second fav team and Melo didn't display that quality in Serie A all of last season or seasons before and is among the reasons Juve came in 7th this past season. His passing is poor, decision making even worse, he's rash, wins very little balls in the midfield. If the boss decides to get him, it should be on the low, nothing more than 8 mil I say, because he didn't live up to his price tag and Juve is in hurry to rid themselves of surplus like him. Maybe if Wenger decides to bring him to Arsenal he can rediscover the attributes that made him a sought after player, but for now he is mediocre in my book. 

Have faith, its a do or die kind of season for the prof. He's going to sign a defender or two.

I will sing Iron Maiden's "aces high" to le boss if he fails haha, (born, live to fly, fly to live, do or die, aces high)

You like iron maiden? I can now officially declare you "awesome". :D

Yeah man, me do like the Maiden...then I am awsome? :))))
We could also sing "die with your boots on" to Cesc and Samir hahahaha

Would Samba or Cahill make us significantly better?

If it comes down to using Verm as LB over Gibbs, then yes, they will make us that much better. Not to mention, I'm a HUGE proponent of more depth in this squad. As you mentioned below, we have 3 good options at CB, but I still think we could use one more quality player in that position. I agree also about really needing a solid LB...how many goals have been the case due to Clichy & weakness in that position?

who would YOU sign for LB? some1 whos realistically affordable and would actually move to arsenal.

i would have said taiwo. too bad he went to AC milan

Michel Bastos. 10 million pounds and he's ours. He's being courted by Juventus at the moment, but I don't know why the hell did no other team pounce on a player of his quality. Impressed me in the WC, and from what a couple of Lyon supporters told me, he was consistent if not brilliant in the league. Also, he can speak French. Wenger, go get him. Now.

That would make too much sense for the professor Orion. Hahaha. I saw where we were supposedly opening talks for 22 mil Ribery, dont know how true that is. I like Ribery, but we coulda signed him in the past, and don't know why we would chose to sign him now. He's still a pretty good player, but he's also 28 and its not Mr Wenger's custom to sign players that old. 

Well I think Baines would be the top choice.  I know there's a big price there, but so what? Make that the top priority and get it done.  
Aside from that, I don't know enough about all the guys - Izaguirre, Enrique, etc.  But I know for sure that I would not just hand the LB spot to Gibbs, who has never earned it.  And I wouldn't name Traore as the primary backup.  That's just brutal.

Yes, I totally agree we need one more solid CD option.  But we're still doing better at that spot than last year.  We had Kos in his first season, Djourou coming back from injury, and then Squizz right behind.  Wow, not good.  But still, we need to go four-deep to be solid.
At the LB spot, I'm not convinced we even have one good option.  And certainly not two.  So that's my biggest frustration on the team right now.

even if gibbs does prove himself to be a good defensive option for LB, hes more or less injured every other week. chances are song is gonna get moved to LB for a large part of the season. or traore steps up into defending manhood.

... the traore thing probably isnt gonna happen but optimism never hurt right?

I am not sold completely on any of them, but they seemed solid with their teams, generally speaking.
IMO the key issue in bringing these two, or one of them, or any defender, is to make our back line stronger in depth. As TV5 comes, he is a great player, if he pairs  with Djourou who was generally good, we look fine, if Gibbs doesnt slip that much, with him and Sagna we look solid...but then if someone gets hurt, we d still have solid, already proven players to fill in the blanks.
But again, we have to check if they are willing to be behind Joahn and Thomas, right?

honestly im not that excited about samba or cahill since vermaleen is probably back for this season and djourou has proven himself to be quality stuff. both seem pretty pricey too.

maybe get some1 like onuoha who can hold his own but wouldnt automatically slot into the first team?

Yeah, I still don't understand all of it.  I think we have three decent CD options, but at the moment, nobody at LB who I'd trust.  And yet all we hear about is how we need another central defender.  

and goalkeepers! thats rlly pissing me off. everytime i see a rumour about a gk every1s like "Oh arsenal should definitely go for (insert name of keeper)." this was especially true about shay given. infuriating

Yeah, I agree, although I don't hear those rumors nearly as much.