[Locke Lamora]

I agree with most of what R7 said except Wenger does spend alot of money, it just goes fairly un-noticed. Chelsea only spent silly amounts because they had to, for example SWP cost them £24m, but I bet if somebody else went in for him, he'd only have cost around £15m But Chelsea are actually at a disadvantage because they have the money and people know it, so they are forced to pay much, much more.

In fact, I think Wenger is very bad in the transfer market. People hail him as a genius.. but £8m for Jeffers, £7m for Lauren and £13m for Wiltord, another £8.5m on Gio and £6m on backup GK Richard Wright. (Remember that this was at a time when £7m was considered alot, forget £13m!) and that's £42.5m on 5 players who in my opinion were very bad at Arsenal. That's £8.5m per player.. and with recent inflation on prices, we could be talking probably £12m/£15m per player when you talk in relation to todays money, and that's not good business, not even close.

He did get a few players like Viera who was fairly cheap, who turned out well, but he even paid out decent amounts of money for Pires, Henry and Overmars that you would expect them to perform. But we're talking about a time where the EPL didn't have much money, and it was the Spanish and Italian clubs paying the big prices. So while I'll praise Wenger for his succes back in the late 90s/early 2000s, he was only competing against Man U, and was simply pricng any other team out of the title, they just couldn't compete with the money he was spending. /end rant.

500 000 pounds for Kolo Toure. End of triumphant rant.

[I_Rossoneri]

Sky sports reporting that David Bentley to have medical at Spurs tomorrow(30th July).

[kurtsimonw]

500 000 pounds for Kolo Toure. End of triumphant rant.

I'm sorry, but if you think one good signing like that means that it makes all the previous mentioned transfers irrelevant.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

As for Spurs, Bentley is exactly what they don't need. Imagine a midfield of theirs with bentley, Modric and Dos Santos! They're all about 5'8 and 150 pounds, they'll just get bullied! They need a striker ASAP if Berbatov leaves, otherwise they're in trouble.

[Locke Lamora]

I'm sorry, but if you think one good signing like that means that it makes all the previous mentioned transfers irrelevant.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

As for Spurs, Bentley is exactly what they don't need. Imagine a midfield of theirs with bentley, Modric and Dos Santos! They're all about 5'8 and 150 pounds, they'll just get bullied! They need a striker ASAP if Berbatov leaves, otherwise they're in trouble.

Fabregas. End of triumphant rant 2; Return of The killer triumphant rant.

Oh and Henry: 10.5 million for 226 goals and a huge chunk of assists. End of the Triumphant rant trilogy.

[kurtsimonw]

Fabregas. End of triumphant rant 2; Return of The killer triumphant rant.

Oh and Henry: 10.5 million for 226 goals and a huge chunk of assists. End of the Triumphant rant trilogy.

Fabregas was free.. As for Henry, yeah, good signing wasn't he? But he signed for a decent amount of money back then, so wouldn't you expect him to be good?

A good signing is like you said before, Toure for £500k or Vieira for £3m. And his transfers that rank as "shockingly bad" still outnumber his "good" transfers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

And talking of north London clubs, apparently Spurs have agreed fee's totalling £36m for Bentley & Arshavin. Obviously no good team wanted the latter and he was too up himself and has now made himself look ratehr foolish. After the Euro's, Arshavin stated he would not consider a move to a team not in the CL, even mentioning Spurs by name, now he's going there.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Locke Lamora]

Fabregas was free.. As for Henry, yeah, good signing wasn't he? But he signed for a decent amount of money back then, so wouldn't you expect him to be good?

A good signing is like you said before, Toure for £500k or Vieira for £3m. And his transfers that rank as "shockingly bad" still outnumber his "good" transfers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

And so the Triumphant rant saga goes on...Sagna for 6.1 million, 250 000 for Clichy, Anelka bought for 500 000 and sold for 22.3 million, Kanu for 4.2 million...End of Triumphant rant v.2 "The rant is renewed".

[misha]

And so the Triumphant rant saga goes on...Sagna for 6.1 million, 250 000 for Clichy, Anelka bought for 500 000 and sold for 22.3 million, Kanu for 4.2 million...End of Triumphant rant v.2 "The rant is renewed".

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


@Kurt. Wenger is 12 years in Arsenal and of course not all his transfers were great (he's human after all), and you cannot expect him to hold a perfect record during so long time especially when dealing mostly with young players. But he more than proved himself, and if you compare his 'good' and 'bad' transfers, he did a good job.

This post has been edited by misha: Jul 30 2008, 02:43 AM

[Habitant]

I'm sorry, but if you think one good signing like that means that it makes all the previous mentioned transfers irrelevant.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

As for Spurs, Bentley is exactly what they don't need. Imagine a midfield of theirs with bentley, Modric and Dos Santos! They're all about 5'8 and 150 pounds, they'll just get bullied! They need a striker ASAP if Berbatov leaves, otherwise they're in trouble.

thats exactly what i was thinking, theres also aaron lennon (5"5) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

theres also jamie o'hara and Taarabt (i've tracked in football manager hehehe, my youth squad with milan is disgustingly sick)

and bale and gunter as fullbacks (whom i rate as highly promising players, especially bale) but both small.

i mean it isnt in the end of the world cuz bentley (who will probably pushed ou on the left (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) ) and lennon play out wide.

you need balance in your midfield, meaning they have no choice but to play either zokora or huddlestone.

This post has been edited by Habitant: Jul 30 2008, 04:02 AM

[kurtsimonw]

And so the Triumphant rant saga goes on...Sagna for 6.1 million, 250 000 for Clichy, Anelka bought for 500 000 and sold for 22.3 million, Kanu for 4.2 million...End of Triumphant rant v.2 "The rant is renewed".

Sagna for £6m, aren't you meant to be defending Wengers' transfers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif)

And Kanu!? You paid that much for Kanu!? What a joke! I'd turn him down on a free if my team already had 3 or 4 strikers. Just a difference of opinion on Wenger, don't take it personal. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

@Kurt. Wenger is 12 years in Arsenal and of course not all his transfers were great (he's human after all), and you cannot expect him to hold a perfect record during so long time especially when dealing mostly with young players. But he more than proved himself, and if you compare his 'good' and 'bad' transfers, he did a good job.

I'm still skeptical on whether he's good in the market, my opinion is that he isn't. That's why he has so many different players. His squads rarely last very long, who's Arsenal longest serving player at the moment?

Just a difference of opinion on how good he is in the market.

thats exactly what i was thinking, theres also aaron lennon (5"5) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

theres also jamie o'hara and Taarabt (i've tracked in football manager hehehe, my youth squad with milan is disgustingly sick)

and bale and gunter as fullbacks (whom i rate as highly promising players, especially bale) but both small.

i mean it isnt in the end of the world cuz bentley (who will probably pushed ou on the left (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) ) and lennon play out wide.

you need balance in your midfield, meaning they have no choice but to play either zokora or huddlestone.

O'Hara and Taarabt's Spurs careers are over unless they're happy to be getting onto the bench every now and then and maybe playing 4 or 5 times a season.

Bale isn't an LB to me, before he got injured last season they put him at LM and he was very impressive. Not the best defender ever, just good running.

Bentley will play on the right, GDS on the left, Modric, Arshavin & either Jenas/Zokora/Huddlestone in the middle with Bent up front, so Lennon is gone in my opinion. Spurs have 2 choices in my view 1) They have no muscle, tackling or defensive priority in the middle of the park and play 2 or even all of Arshavin, Modric and Jenas - I suspect they'll get humiliated a few times like this, but also score a tonne on other teams, or 2) they play Huddlestone & Zokora in the middle of the field and risk pissing off Modric, Arshavin, GDS, Lennon, Bentley, Jenas - at least 2 of these. So having too many good players can be a curse. They could finish top 4, but they could also just implode and finish somewhere in midtable. I have to respect them for this though, especially after losing so many top players lately.

[dst]

I don't think Wenger pays too much for the players he brings in.
But he does earn very little for the players he lets out... particularly Overmars, Vieira and Henry. Should I mention losing Flamini on a free?

Anyway... Bergkamp's Arsenal is one of the best teams I've ever seen. Amazing football and effective. But Wenger has lost it lately and his record is not great anymore... and it won't be as long as he only signs virgins.

[LaPalma]

Didn't they get 40 million Euro for Overmars (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) I think that's a lot of money by any means.
But except that transfer....yes. Arsene should have gotten much more money for Vieira and Henry. That'd they lost Flamini on a Bosman is unlucky...but something like that can happen do any club.

[dst]

My mistake, I did not mean to mention Overmars.

Well Flamini's wages were minimal so it would not hurt Wenger to renew him for at least another year.

[LaPalma]

Well...he couldn't expect such a great season from Flamini. He could have tuned out be useless as well. He would hvae wasted money then. And I'm quite certain he tried to renew his contract in January but it was probably to late then.

[Locke Lamora]

Sagna for £6m, aren't you meant to be defending Wengers' transfers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif)

And Kanu!? You paid that much for Kanu!? What a joke! I'd turn him down on a free if my team already had 3 or 4 strikers. Just a difference of opinion on Wenger, don't take it personal. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)


I'm still skeptical on whether he's good in the market, my opinion is that he isn't. That's why he has so many different players. His squads rarely last very long, who's Arsenal longest serving player at the moment?

Just a difference of opinion on how good he is in the market.

Sagna for 6 million is a great buy. We're talking about a player who runs for 90 minutes week in and week out, almost never injured, strong physically, good in the air, good positioning, well-timed runs and NEVER makes mistakes. I have watched every Arsenal match this season except two or three, so I should have an idea of what I'm talking about.

Kanu was another good buy.

To end this, it is a FACT that Wenger has used less money during his 12 years at Arsenal than Mourinho did in three years at Chelsea, and Wenger has earnt back almost everything he ever used on transfers with the sales of Overmars, Petit, etc.

[Jack Sparrow]

He has a degree in economics. He has an unfair advantage over Mourinho. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)