Wrong once again imo. If you were Martial and your manager had you 3rd or 4th in line as a forward wouldn't you want to move?

I'd rather have Rashford but if Martial was available I'd congratulate AW if he pushes for him even if we don't get him.

Martial...an AW pick, French, 21. Rotation chances in line up of forwards.
Then again, choice being go to Arsenal or to the Catalan kingpins.

Mustafi injured on international duty. What's the betting of all the prem stars injured during the international break that mustafi's is the longest time out?

Not good news obviously on Mustafi. How are we doing with available center backs?

Don't panic. Wenger was trying to sell him so he must be surplus to requirements. Unless Wenger is not doing a good job. We have Kos to hobble around for the season. We decided not to buy, so Holding and Chalmers must be up to scratch. Want to hope Monreal doesn't get injured. Plenty on here are always criticising Musafi so they have their wish.

Don't forget Mertesacker. Indeed my first choice back three would be Koscielny, Mertesacker and Mustafi as Holding hasn't had a good season so far, which makes Mustafi's injury even more of a concern. Monreal can be the left wing back as I'd be tempted to have Kosalinac adding physical strength to the midfield.

As I said yesterday, it would mean Mourinho selling a top prospect to Wenger. Unless we offered a totally barmy fee, the chances of getting Martial are so very slim, as you say, I'm not sure it's even worth talking about. Which makes me wonder why I've written this post.

Shkodran Mustafi has been added to the Injury Room.

He has suffered a thigh strain injury and he is estimated to spend around 12 weeks on the sidelines.
The average time lost for this particular injury is 31 days, based on a sample size of 18 injuries of the same type.

True but Wenger looks as if he lost faith in him. Injury wise I think Kos looks like a man with some real issues. Even in he preseason he looked restricted in his movements. Not sure if Mert is up to an extended run. May be back to 4-4-2.

In reality next season we must address the defence wih some serious cash. Kos Mert(going) and Monreal are all nearing the end of their careers.

Could you spend a second of your time and consider signing this petition please. UK residents only.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/201785

Signed with extreme pleasure...........

Signed it.

Done.

Very happy to oblige Ex

Done!

On the boys in Green

Iceland have qualified for the the WC. Definitely a good news story about team work

Signed

Me also. Having said that I did it on my mobile and when I was confirming the email address, the battery expired as I pressed the send key so I've no idea if it got through. Hopefully it did.

done

Interesting if true. Report that Overmars has been appointed as Arsenal's Director of Football for next season.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football ... ene-Wenger

The question should be is 'will he be a yes man or will he stand up to AW and tell him that for the sake of the team he must either change or go'.

City rumoured to be back in for Sanchez for £20m in January. Would you sell him?

I'd have snapped their hand off for the £60m in the summer irrespective of whether we had time to get a replacement in, ridiculous decision to write off £60m

Given that before the transfer window closed our challenge for the EPL was almost over I would have sold. We had 2 defeats by 27/8 and had a number of days to sell it probably would have been good business. But having said all summer we would not sell, we had not properly arranged a replacement.

Torn ligament confirmedfor Mustafi. I'd be amazed if we see him before February. Kos is continually nursing an injury. Mert as very little game time in the last 18 months. Holding is still learning. Chambers is injured and Monreal should only really be used there in a back 3

Yet another poor management of the squad. We always suffer some shockingly long injuries during every season. These aren't 2-4 weeks, these are 4-6 months and hugely affect our results in a season

All in all yet another completely amateur and botched transfer window starting with the awful decision to retain the man who has overseen every step of our downfall.
The summer WAS the opportunity to change, even if wenger walks away in 2 years the job will be so much bigger than it would have been for a new guy on June 1st this year.
One look at the squad and who will leave for free soon and who isn't good enough leaves us in a shocking state......and yet wenger believed buying just 2 players and turning a profit in the window was the best course of action. Beggars belief

I would sell him, and I definitely would have done in the summer for £60m. As you say it was a ridiculous decision to write off that sum. Pure idiocy.

We are just becoming like all of Kroenke's other sports investments - rubbish, we will have to get used to it if we allow him to stick around. It doesn't surprise me at all that we made a net profit this summer on transfers, fully expected Arsene "the accountant" Wenger to follow the companies policy of cost cutting now we have dropped out of the CL.

Overmars as DOF?, not good enough either, is he really going to have any pulling power with big name players?, Henry, Vieira or Bergkamp probably would but then they might have too big a personality for Arsene to deal with and I can't see them working for a average sports franchise anyway.

I desperately want to find some modicum of positivity about the future of the club but really it is hardwork looking for any, we can't move on until Kroenke does and he is going to take some moving, just like Wenger.

But when one person retains total control of the clubs business then you are looking for trouble.

I maintain my earlier view that 200mil is required to be spent next year just to maintain the same level at the club. We need defenders, a CM who is creative and to replace Sanchez and Özil. Can you see that happening.
If the last window was any indication you get very ordinary players for 50 mil.

Would love to be at the club for the weekend match when Ramsay and Alexis will be totally down about missing the WC. Getting them mentally back on track will be a project in itself. Neither need to shine to earn a WC starting spot and already the EPL looks like a dream rather than a possibility. Plus Ospina's errors probably cost Chile their place. Alexis may set the dogs on him.

Just watched the Columbia game. Not sure I would call it an Ospina error like the press reported. Not sure Alexis could complain

Our problem maybe that players are not interested in coming the other way.

We really don't have any say in Kroenke sticking around. We're at his behest until he decides to sell.

We have 6 players in the squad to cover the centre back positions. There are limits on squad size so the choice was to sell one or more of Per, Holding and Chambers and replace with a better player or stick with what we have. Even if we did that we would still have the same number of players.

Don't buy tickets/merchandise, that is about the only thing one can do to try and put him off, sadly there will probably be enough people who continue to finance "his investment" and the ludcrious TV money as well, I don't get how anyone can get interested or excited about a team he owns though, they are all absolutely dire and we are heading the same way.

Depressing isn't it?, I think the only solution is to go cold turkey until he goes, anything football related gets the shredder treatment and any mention of Arsenal gets a shrug, there is really very little left to like about Arsenal or football in general for that matter, if that makes me a bad fan I really don't care!, I'm sure there are 1,000 Malaysian superfans waiting to take my place.

If I had the finances myself I would try and get some sort of protest going but I don't, if anyone else does I'll do my best to attend, unless something changes in the next 9 months or so then it's cold turkey time, it's too painful to watch a once great club become nothing but a midtable cash cow for a greedy billionaire.

Old question but begs an answer. The G.O.A.T?

a. Pele b. Maradonna c. Messi d. write in: van Basten, Cryuff, CRonaldo, Bendtner (he thinks so)

I am not sympathetic to Sanchez.

Tickets will soon mean very little once the next generation of TV deals kick in. Each club will eventually be able to negotiate their own TV deals. I think this is what he's waiting for. Merchandise is another one I guess, but if my 9-year-old wants an Arsenal kit for example, then he won't understand he can't have one because Dad thinks the owner is a *%^@ who needs to be taught a lesson. He just wants to wear his team's colours*. It is depressing, you're right.

*He wants the blue kit. FML

The thing is, if Wilts is right that Arsenal under Kroenke simply becomes a replica of all the other KSE owned US sports teams, mediocre on the pitch (and I suspect he is), it's a bit of an own goal for Stan letting Arsenal get like that if you're right about the clubs negotiating individual TV deals. Because the best TV deals will go to the clubs with the biggest fan bases, who long-term will also be the consistent trophy winners.

Historically, it is success on the pitch that routinely goes hand in hand with the clubs that have the most supporters (I accept things like plane crashes and glamorous players like Best or Beckham can also have an effect). I once read 75% of Scottish football fans support either Rangers or Celtic. They're also Scotland's biggest trophy winners by a million miles, despite Rangers' difficult recent few years. Real Madrid and Barcelona are easily the best supported teams in Spain, and are also the biggest trophy winners. The same thing goes for Juventus, Milan and Inter in Italy. Apparently 25% of all German football fans support Bayern Munich. Look at their honours list compared to the likes of Dortmund, Hamburg and others and you'll see why.

Before Abramovich took over, the three best supported English clubs were Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. No coincidence they had also won the most trophies. But since Abramovich's arrival, according to the evidence Chelsea have now overtaken Arsenal's support because their success has been far greater than Arsenal's over the last fourteen years. Recent success is more important than past success in terms of capturing fans.

If Kroenke wants to maximise Arsenal's profits, he should do everything he can - meaning financially - to bring trophies. The problem is, I think he's more satisfied with good profits rather than maximising them, so Arsenal winning trophies isn't a big priority for him. If clubs do end up being able to negotiate their own TV deals, that will backfire on him because other more successful (on the pitch) clubs will be able to negotiate better TV deals (by 'better' I mean more financially lucrative) than Kroenke's Arsenal. That will make it even harder for Arsenal to win things, so the downward spiral for the club under KSE will continue on its current trajectory.

Let's hope you're right Bernard. But the evidence from the States relating to his franchise teams which aren't the trophy winners suggests he isn't considering trophies as the most important factor in his thinking.

Does Kronke know that AW blew £60million by not selling Sanchez?

Would he not be unimpressed?

Has anybody told him?

Depressing, isn’t it?

I’ve been in America for the last few weeks and the EPL really seems to be taking off here. At this time of the year in most bars whatever the theme, there’s always wall to wall American Football. Now though, it’s quite noticeable that there are a couple of screens of EPL, which is favoured over any other European league. If Amazon and Facebook get involved in the rights auction, that presence will only grow.

There’s already a reasonable knowledge of the EPL. In particular, once people become aware of my allegiances, there’s general sympathy because of the Kroenke connection; he really does have a widespread reputation for delivering mediocrity, whatever the sport.

I hear what Wilts is saying about boycotting the Club but as a third generation Gooner who has produced a further two generations of Gooners, it isn’t that easy. Arsenal is woven into the fabric of my extended family and most of my early friends’ families too. It’s a large part of who we are.

As I say, deeply depressing.