Or do you think he conversation might be ' I really wanted to stay at Arsenal but when the board reappointed Wenger I knew the club had no ambition and I was wasting my efforts. He lost the change room last year and he is a once great manager trying to relive his glory days. I have ambition I needed to move on.'

It's a reckless piece of transfer business. He will never see out that contract and they will end up paying him off to get him off the books.

Can you see them wanting to pay an ageing declining 32 year old Sanchez half a million quid a week.

So would that also be reckless business to buy a 29yo player named mh, who has never performed well in he EPL and indeed had only one good season in Germany and probably pay him a large wad of money. Given the last 2 cast off signings from Man U being Wellbeck and Silvestre have been failures, I am not sure I would be pointing fingers.

I am really disappointed in the club doing any business with Man U let alone selling them one of our best players.

For United it isn't that much.They have been buying glory since the sixties. If they win the Chaampions League and/or Premiership in Sanchez's time they will see it as great business. They've probably already sold a million shirts with his name on the back. To put it in perspective £100m is only a bit more than relegated clubs get as a parachute payment.

Sanchez will do us a turn and score the winner. We need Spurs to lose.

Don't forget folks, I added a few shortcuts :

Typing the letters ' a u b ' together will give : Aubameyang

Typing the letters ' m k ' together will get you : Mkhitaryan

I've only watched one NFL game all season and that was to see my Philadelphia Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings to go to the Super Bowl. They probably won't win. They are playing the 'Real Madrid' of the league but hopefully we will get our first Super Bowl. I'd have given anything for a Super Bowl win as a kid. Now its the same for Arsenal and the CL. I'd give anything for us to win the CL.

Perhaps Andy Green is the only one who cares about the Eagles..lol..or perhaps not.

I think we will see Stan's LA Rams in the Super Bowl at some point in the nexst 5 years or so. Just my guess. The league wants the LA market to blossom and its Stan's mission to get them there.

Our new boy didn't seem too happy to join us. Understandably. Juxtapose that with Walcott and he was all smiles. Assume the same for Sanchez. Lord I hope Sanchez fails miserably. I want Walcott to do well but Everton to sink. Yes, my fat Sam hatred is still alive. If he was on this forum, I'd block him.
There is no question whatsoever he hates Wenger and by extension The Arsenal. Not that the Walcott deal wasn't good money. It was decent money but I just didn't like fat Sam benefiting. Crash and burn Sam.

I don't think top 4 is out of the realm of possibility. Without Sanchez it seems unlikely. With Özil mind thinking of exiting this year and not wanting to be injured for the summer, it may seem unlikely. But you never know. We often play well when not expected to.

The sale of Sanchez to Man Utd matters. The point difference this season doesn't matter. Its also about next season as well.

Alexis, good luck to you. You gave your best to the team until it was not worth it.

You had a manager who made empty promises about bringing in real top class talent. You had a manager who gives very weak attempts at signing top players. You had teammates who were not pulling their weight. You had teammates who, as favoured individuals, could not be bothered to give as much as you. You had Captains who inspire less than you feel they should, and in fact, don't inspire at all. You tried, but when you had enough, everybody forgot that you were the most influential player for a long time.

I don't think 'Mkhitaryan' prefers to be at Arsenal than at MU. But he had a manager who was unwilling to field him. The Arsenal today isn't the choice of many players. Wenger has demonstrated how he made players worse after they joined. Lacazette is the latest victim.

'Aubameyang' will be a great addition if we can get him in

Although I've been bashing Wenger left and right, I hope he finally find a properly balanced team, and make Arsenal exciting to watch again. The first 20 or so minutes against Palace is the type of Arsenal play we have been missing. Sadly, the team started to ease off, and fell back to their casual self. And in the process, gave away a goal. It is this casualness that must be coached or forced out of the team. We must have a truly inspiring Captain on the pitch to wake the players up, or a manager who drops players who coast. Come on Wenger, be more purposeful!

hear hear

In relation to Aubameyang I understand from one media source that we have offered them 10mil less than asking price but will increase our offer but they want to obtain a replacement first.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... talks.html

This is not true. Why do you talk about a player you've clearly not watched?

Welbeck being a failure is another silly idea. Good squad player and was probably never meant as anything more.

Are you just trying to top everyone else now that the mood is generally negative here?

If he had any respect for the club he'd leave the country. Spain, PSG, Bayern, Juve, he couild be at a big club overseas and win things. Henry and Fabregas at least had enough respect not to go to a direct rival after they left. Fabregas at least tried to come back as well.

My guess is Mkhitaryan is going to play well so he can go somewhere else soon thereafter. Arsenal is now a stepping stone club , not a final destination for great players.

Yes, Fabregas forcing a move and refusing to play while under contract really showed how much he respects the club.

Not especially and there was little by way of glory in the 70s and 80s.

Yes they made some big signings but the key to their most sustained period of success was a manager who knew how to develop and nurture youth, pick up excellent bargains, and build and motivate teams with a combination of flair and utility. One of the most interesting things about Ferguson as a manager was his understanding of the importance of unglamorous players like the Nevilles in teams that contained players like Giggs and Cantona.

Compare and contrast to our own manager (I know I know, it is SO unfair to pick over and "deconstruct" what he says to the newspapers but a cat can look at a king sometimes) and the analytical brilliance of: "I just play the good players they can always play together".

From now on, whenever someone says the world’s smallest violin is playing they will be wrong, because the smallest violin in the world by far will forever be playing for the guy who just signed a £100m contract, after his terrible ordeal at Arsenal where he was paid close to £200k a week to kick a football around.

So you think anyone who hates Wenger hates Arsenal. You must feel loads of Arsenal fans hate the club they support then. Because hearing what many of our fans say and what many write about Wenger, I'd suggest a large number could reasonably be defined as hating Wenger.

Also, if you didn't block so many people you might have spotted a post detailing what Allardyce said of his relationship with Wenger. It didn't sound like hatred at all to me.

Actually in relation to Mkhitaryan an article I read recently said that Klopp could not get anything out of him but it was the next manager who got him playing well and his figures bear that out.

As for Wellbeck - joined us on 1/9/14 and managed only 68 league appearances for 13 goals. Spends a lot of time injured. This season he started in the losses to Liverpool, Stoke, Watford, Bournemouth, Notts Forest, Cologne. He came on as sub in the loss to Man U. Scores overall at .21 goals per game in his EPL career. Remember he has played at CF for us on some occasions. I have heard people say he is good for the team. 18 assists in his whole EPL career.

Overall EPL stats
Premier League Record

Appearances 186
Goals 39
Assists 18

That'll help kiwi a lot Rog; he can't even spell 'Ramsay' properly.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/sanchez- ... a8f42cw5ov

What an *rse!

Enjoying the longcut that replaces "evidence-ignoring, semi-whimsical apologia for gibberish-spouting manager trading on past glories - based largely on selective evidence, special pleading, faux-nostalgia and rank conjecture" with the letter Z

The truth hurts. Most of what he said is the truth.

His first season in Bundesliga he had 9 goals and 10 assists as an attacking midfielder. Would not describe that as not getting anything out of him. It was an excellent debut season. Second season he struggled (as did Sanchez for Arsenal, by the way), and had a couple of injuries. Third season he was widely recognized as one of the best players in the league. Overall his spell att Dortmund was seen as a big success.

I have my reservations about how successful he'll be at Arsenal, but let's not pretend there's not a fantastic basic talent there.

As for Welbeck, no need to cite his scoring record – never called him a goalscorer because he’s not. I called him a good squad player. Works hard, creates space for teammates and can chip with the odd goal here and there. He’s also versatile and can play in a couple of different positions. You don’t need to look further than the FA Cup final that saw us dominate Chelsea to see what he brings to the table. He didn’t score in that match, but was one of our best players anyway.

Shush ...... we are but a minority view on this, don't attract attention

In your opinion - but whatever the 'truth', it still makes him an *rse.

He's a grown man, earning a massive fortune, supposedly used to dealing with pressure. And how does he know he's going to be 'loved' at that place?

I see the point your Making about Aubameyang however if reports are led to be believed his mooted wages are between 170k to 200. Sanchez is on 500k a week, plus they paid 10 million to his agent. It's considerably more risk.

I agree with you on our signings from united, they would never allow a player to join us from them that would provide a massive improvement to our team like we have. There was a reason Alex Ferguson helped broker the Welbeck move, they had a look at him and didn't see him as a valued addition to their squad and wanted to move forward. Mhiki is slightly different as we dangled a carrot and clearly he's a decent player but they weren't about to let us have Martial or anyone else they saw with a decent future.

AW never dropped him, did he? The first time Mourinho does the sulk will return.

I'm hoping Mkhitaryan will replace Cazorla and that Xhaka will become the squad player that he is.

If Aubameyang come Welbeck will find it harder to get a game. Ramsey will have to learn to adapt to playing on the right so our only erious problem hereon in is going to be our defence.

Hopefully the bubble will fit in and Kola will learn to defend so our only real problem will be replacing Kos eventually.

Forgot the goalie, well enough said.

Plus on Welbeck he's now 27 years old.

I'm not againest him and think he's a decent addition to the squad and can on occasion make a positive contribution but he's 27 years old now and has at no point set the world alight in his career. His contract apparently is over 100k a week with a renewal discussion due this summer as he will be in the Sanchez situation this summer with 1 year to run. The club are at a fork in the road with the player and I bet they must be considering cutting their losses.

Top Gun, Manchester United's coach said Ferguson would never have sold Welbeck to Arsenal if he'd still been manager. Also, well AFTER the transfer Ferguson said Wenger would have been mad not to sign Welbeck. That doesn't sound like brokering the deal to me.

Alex Ferguson said that ? Wow I'm convinced, he'd never want to do one on Wenger would he. He's clearly got our best interests at heart.

I suppose you would let Barnier sort out Brexit on his own as we can trust him would you.

If he was that good United would never have let him go. Get real

Read my post. Ferguson said it well AFTER the transfer. Also the coach at the time said Ferguson would never have sold him to Arsenal. You're making this brokering the deal stuff up.

Van Gaal and his spotless transfer record strikes again. That same summer he spent roughly £150m on Herrera, Rojo, Shaw, Di Maria, Blind and Falcao, so clearly he could not have made an error in judgment with regards to Welbeck.

Or maybe Ferguson said he wouldn't have sold Welbeck because, as Daz said earlier, Ferguson understood you needed solid squad players to win.

yeah you've only just staggered back into the ring because the Latvian has waved a bottle of battery acid under your nose and said "Go get him Tiger "

For goodness sake mate, he was their academy player. They had to say positive things about him as they saw him grow up from a boy to a man. He was one of their own but it sadly hadn't worked out as he hadn't made the grade so they let him go with good grace and a host of positive comments.

Also another important factor is being missed. Arsene didn't want him either ! We were completely screwed as Giroud had got injured and arsene wanted a short term loan if you remember but united refused and a last minute transfer was scrambled through. I guarantee you Bernard if united had loaned him to us rather than sold him permanently he wouldn't still be an arsenal player today as Wenger wouldn't have made it permanent.

This isn't answering Bernard's point though.

Battery acid? meh. It was the 'Tiger' that did it for me - I felt the love and I needed to be loved.

I'm not a huge fan of Welbeck by the way and don't think he's much of a squad player certainly not compared to Giroud who is almost the embodiment of that role.