In terms of willingly selling a player has wenger ever done a worse deal than selling szczesny to Juve for £10m?

People laugh at Jose for getting rid of de bruyn and salah but at least in his defence those players weren’t good enough to get in his chelsea team at the time. Szczesny was sent to get experience and to mature - which is exactly what he did and then we sell him for a bargain price when we are crying out for a long term gk.

Hi Rich,

Which guy is it on twitter?

Twitter handle is The Football Mole. The other to look at is The Plug AFC

Both claim or appear to have a source at the club where they get their info. I haven’t followed them for long, just the last window and all the information they gave was good. The way they both write isn’t like your usual guy who pretends to be ‘in the know’

If you just like reading any arsenal news they are worth following - Make up your own mind how much weight you give anything

Giroud with a very Giroud like assist for hazard.

Having mentioned him, against Spurs what was our plan B way of playing late in the game. We have now taken the Giroud type of play out of the equation.

I realise we actually wasted a couple of chances late on despite not having a plan B so maybe it was not such an issue.

However I would like to see us try Eddie or someone else who dribbled in the box as plan B in the future. We never really tried a lot of high balls either probably because no one is much of a threat in the air. We might have spent some money but we may have restricted our ability to change direction during a game which really is a small step backwards.

The Mole guy was posting this summer that Lemar was 100% done. So whether or not he has any inside info who knows, but I'd take it all with a massive pinch of salt.

Wenger might smell this coming so he will probably sign a 2 year contract extension before we exit the European games.

I can see it now - we beat Man City in the cup and Kroenke personally gives him another 2 years the next day. I would love to read the forum on that day.

I'd say Welbeck has the rest of the season to prove his worth. Two cruciate injuries is hard to come back from, but there is no doubt that his combination of attributes makes him a very useful player when fit, even if a flawed and inelegant one. If he can stay fit til the summer, i'd assume he'll be here next year. With Aubameyang being unavailable for the Europa League, Welbeck could yet significantly rebuild his reputation.

Just for the record, I do not exonerate Wenger, particularly from 2013ish onwards. But I do feel that the board's self-interested parsimony 2003-2013 was far more damaging than any of Wenger's failings in that time. Now? I'd replace both given the choice, but Wenger has looked a busted flush for long enough to make it very hard to make an argument for retaining his services.

I didn't say it would be at his own behest. Much Like Wenger is with players, Stan is super loyal with coaches & GMs until he changes his mind and then they are toast, regardless of what went before. Wenger is achieving diminishing sporting returns and accordingly comparatively undermining Kroenke's asset, particularly in comparison with John Henry's (and the two hate each other). I still think its top 4 or Europa League win or bust.

I just looked at the table and you're right. In sixth place Arsenal are 7 points behind the fifth placed team Tottenham, with a goal difference worse than them by 13. In effect that contrast in goal difference, which I don't see us making up, means we'll have to win 8 more points than them over the last 11 games of the season. How likely is that? Not at all in my view.

But Arsenal are 9 points better off than the seventh placed team Burnley, with a superior goal difference to them of 18. That means to overtake Arsenal, Burnley are going to have to win 10 more points than us over the last 11 games. It's just not going to happen. So you're correct. Arsenal are miles off fifth place, and even further away from seventh place. I'd say the chances of Arsenal not finishing sixth are extremely small. Probably much less than 'extremely small'.

Only the latter would be as shock.

Timo Horn is a decent keeper on an upward trajectory with a friendly release clause -even more so if Koln go down.
Manolas we have been after since before he went to Roma, and we tried to get him in jan.
Malcom has been eyed up by us and spurs for 18 months.
Max Meyer was scouted by us a lot a couple of years ago. His form has dropped off, but he'd be on a free.

I got excited when we signed Ray Hankin NOW such is my apathy I couldn't give a sh**t who we sign ; nothing will change .

Until we sign a man mountain midfielder and learn to attack at pace we will produce the same sterile performances .

What about Everton , Chelsea cup final you scream ..... sure once in a while the stars align but all too often Bournemouth , Swansea , Spurs , West Brom performances rear their ugly heads .

I hear ya Lom but Stan has stuck with managers with multiple bad seasons in the past. We simply don't know what his "line" is with Arsenal? Maybe it is as you say. A manager of his stature getting the sack with just a year left on his contract? Hmmm...not so sure. I could easily see Stan not renewing his contract in 18 months.

Remains to be seen, 6th place seems our place this season unless we go on an incredible run and Chelsea implodes a bit. Neither of which will likely happen but the squad has surprised us in the past when 4th place seemed not in us in the winter.

If you had the ability to restructure our squad, money no object, how many of this current squad would you keep in order to create a team who put in a genuine title challenge? Ignore the manager situation because I know we could sign a world 11 but not challenge while wenger is manager. But how many of this squad are simply not good enough?
Compare that to Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, spurs - who I would estimate have at least 5-6 players each in their starting 11 good enough for a title challenge. For us it is maybe 1 or 2

Even if/when wenger goes there is huge work to do with this squad. As much optimism as there was in January all we really did was replace our best player with an inferior one who’s best position is the same as our best player and signed a very good striker which has shunted our other high cost striker to the bench.

When you see Kolasinac and Lacazette on the bench and potential midfields with Wilshere and Ramsey this team has hardly changed in the last 5 years

Özil, Lacazette, Aubameyang, Mhikitaryan, jack and Ramsey all worth keeping. The rest are past their best or not good enough to regularly play in a team that intends to compete for the title.

Hi AG,

I would have thought that the only thing that might worry Silent Stan is if the share price starts to fall which it shows no sign of doing.

Talk that Usmanov is set to launch another bid but I suspect it would have to be silly money to even begin to even begin to tempt Stanley and Usmanov doesn't seem the sort to just throw money at it.

Valencia to face no further charges for his facekick. It was seen by the officials.......................

The Spurs game was our last chance to move into contention for 3rd, 4th, 5th. We are doomed to the purgatory of 6th place for the rest of the season. Unless something is done, we are likely to repeat that next season. We are the best of the also-rans, and it is hard to see much movement in any direction.

Indeed. I doubt these chaps ever even glance in the direction of the trophy cabinet.

Soc,
The reason I doubt Wenger will be shown the door is related to what you said about the share price. Stan has had to put a lot of money into the rebranded Los Angeles Rams, formerly St. Louis Rams. He also faces a possible lawsuit in St. Louis, a breach of contract suit if I am not mistaken (and I often am )

So, for Stan, right now he's looking at the bottom line. I don't know if the lack of CL money has started to affect the bottom line as yet. Furthermore, Stan has always been a long term holder and sells when the market is drying up and no longer profitable (like many of his shopping malls).

He's older and the future of Arsenal rests in his son who will inherit us. If you want to know where the Arsenal will be in 15 or 20 years (assuming mortality rates for a man of Stan's age), its with his son. I'm curiou sto know what he thinks of us. Will he sell? Does he know the sport?

Anyway, Stan knows that pretty much any new manager we get will ask to spend money and spend lots of it. It will give Stan some pause if he isn't reasonably a assured that the spending will result in higher league positions and a title which to him means more money (CL, share prices, merchandising, global branding for tours, etc.)

We have to remember Stan is first and foremost a businessman.

Chatting with a spurs supporter this morning and while he thought aubameyang was a good buy he was a little mystified because Lacazette is so similar.

I wonder if Wenger might sell Lacazette. By the end of the season we might decide that neither of them is able to score enough goals. But I think the problem that needs to be sorted is midfield which produces very little in effective balls into the box. All the midfielders have good pass numbers but most of them are sideways and not the defence splitting passes for Aubameyang or Lacazette. Did your mate make any comment on our defence and midfield.

Hi Gaz,

To me the Aubameyang signing looked like one last desperate (and expensive) throw of the dice to try and land us a CL spot. It did not seem like a Wenger signing at all.

The fact that we were so comprehensively outplayed by the Spuds and now have little chance of a CL spot coupled with the fact that he can't play in the Europa League means that within two games he has become something of an irrelevance for this season.

I suspect that your friend is no more mystified than Wenger himself.

I wouldn't be surprised if both players are sold on.

Is Lacazette injured?

Just saw he's out for up to 6 weeks

Craig Pawson's reward for being a useless referee is to ref the League Cup Final.

The Fa really are a load of wankers.

Give Eddie Nketiah a start against the Swedes.

I was thinking more age-wise. He's 29 in June.

'on paper' being the key part there. I think our attack is very unbalanced. Wenger seems to have created an attack with good individuals but no idea how to form it in to a cohesive attacking unit and has an abundance of players with a very similar skill set.
I've long thought that Ramsey and Wilshere struggle to play in the same side. Lacazette and Aubamayang look similar, as do Özil and Mkhitaryan.
There is no natural width, no players who dribble and beat a man, giroud gone loses the target man in the squad
I'd be looking to definitely add a couple of young quick wide men in the summer. Pace, trickery, dribbling and an end product. Obviously everyone is looking for players like that. Ask defenders what they like to face and what they hate to. They are ok facing the attacking style Arsenal have because 95% of it is in front of them and little movement. In the small moments we get it spot on most defences can't cope so there is little to lose any sleep over for them. They hate facing pace and direct dribbling.

Juventus 2-0 spurs inside 8 minutes.

What can we do to tempt allegri to take over from wenger?!

Hi Rich, I know you're arguably part of the fan titillation culture with transfer gossip. But I'm sorry as I don't think it's too much to do with the players. You clearly think deeply about styles of play, tactics, and players who would fit them. But what's the point? If you named a world eleven you'd want as the team, with Wenger as manager we'd finish sixth. I strongly suspect you realise it as you've hinted you do. But I'm with kiwipete's reply to one of your posts last night. What's the point?

Players aren't the most important factor. The manager is. Let's start discussing players once Wenger has finally sodded off.

So who’s the best manager in the premier league?

Pep

Didn’t think Bernard rated Pep?

Hi Bernard, I agree with a lot of what you say, but I still enjoy talking about football and arsenal. I’m bored of constantly writing and talking about the same mistakes and having the same resigned nature with arsenal so occasionally I let my mind drift in to what it could be or what it would take to fix us.
Clearly nothing changes until wenger leaves and I would like to see a new manager with the same players but at the same time there are some things that happen on the pitch that can’t be wenger’s fault. I blame wenger for creating a culture with no consequences for mistakes but when Čech miss kicks straight to a Swansea player to score it is clear we need a new gk.

If we don’t talk about players because wenger is the problem then we are only left to talk about wenger and the board. That depresses me more than pouring over the mistakes of our players.

But for some talk about the board I think gazidis has taken a lot of flak and some of it very justified but I am of the opinion that he does want change. He has made some good behind the scenes appointments and I think he does want wenger gone. Put it this way, of all board members I feel gazidis is one of the few who do want us to push on and win things

So Pep could take our squad to a title but Wenger wouldn’t win it with city’s, I think I get it now.

Guardiola has done his stuff at huge or rich clubs. How can you not win the Bundesliga with Bayern (I'm being flippant as I know they don't win it every year. My point is the Champions League is the measure of a Bayern manager, not the poxy Bundesliga). He's a good coach and I'd now welcome him at Arsenal. But I'd rather have Pochettino.

2-1 now. Kane scores again.
To be fair since they went 2-0 down spurs has been the dominant team and have had enough chances to be level at least

Mystified he may be little Granty Boy .... but Arsene's vision was such that he knew Lacazette was going to need a knee operation that would keep him out for six weeks .

"Six weeks "......translated ....that means we will see Lacazette back playing sometime in November .

Diaby Mkhitaryan 2 [ Welbeck ] our only striker on the European front .

Aubameyang ineligible , Lacazette injured , Sanchez or Giroud sold ..." all our chickens have come home to roost " ... big time .