😆

Lets just agree to agree I'm right.

It's a bit hard to call, really, with Sunderland not really looking to do damage, and Stoke going mainly route 1; plus Art, everyone agrees, was doing very well, and our back 4 as well. Trying to isolate in said conditions just how much blocking the easy path through the center is down to Diaby (for Song) or else - pffft. Think we'll know more against better opposition.
For what it's worth I share captain's hunch. Though some anti Diaby voices early were a bit OTT, he's definitely not the messiah (with or without the ball), and I sure would like to see any of Sahin (ouch), Wilshere or Song there instead. If it wasn't Stoke (Crouch, etc.), I'd have liked to see even Ramsey there for him.

I would love to see Cabaye in an Arsenal shirt, one of the best midfielders in the league and likely to get better. No way will Newcastle sell him so soon and not for the money we're likely to offer.

I honestly can't believe Wenger, who have such great connections and scouting network in Ligue 1, missed out Cabaye for 5m.

Neither can I. I was telling my friends the season before Lille won the league that Cabaye would make a great Arsenal player. Aggressive terrier who hunts all over the pitch and can play football as well. I'm so envious and annoyed at how Newcastle went from no-hopers to CL challengers on the back of budget signings. No value in the marketplace, mon oeil!

If I remember correctly, Newcastle signed him before the window had even opened. Similar to how we managed to wrangle Cazorla off Malaga before anyone else noticed an opportunity.

Cabaye had been one of the best midfielders in France for several years by that point. Everyone rated him as being good enough to make it in one of the top leagues. Definitely a failure on Wenger's part, as he was too busy with the Denilson/Diaby/Song project, and look how that ended up.

Or the Wilshere/Chamberlain/Arteta "project".

I'd prefer Dembele over Cabaye but I'm glad that this is type of midfielder that we're reportedly looking at. Really want nothing to do with pure DM's like Tiote, De Jong etc.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Or the Wilshere/Chamberlain/Arteta "project".

Nail on head.

To be fair to him, Song was a better and more established player than Cabaye. We didn't have much need for the latter at the time he left Lille. It's easy to say in hindsight we should've signed him but maybe, just maybe, his form for the last twelve months has something to do with playing regularly in the best league in the world. He wouldn't necessarily have had that opportunity at Arsenal.

Except spaceman apparently wanted him before Lille even won the league. So it's not hindsight.

spaceman spiff wrote:

I was telling my friends the season before Lille won the league that Cabaye would make a great Arsenal player.

I know he did. I said we didn't have much use for him at the time.

You don't think he'd have been a good buy early last summer?

Ben Arfa is the one to get from newcastle.

We don't buy players based on need, we buy them based on opportunity.

I think he'd have been a good buy. I don't think we would've gotten the Cabaye who performed so well for Newcastle though. He needed a season of regular Premier League football to become that player.

We all know that even by our standards last summer was terribly mismanaged. Cabaye was long gone before we got around to thinking about replacing Cesc and Nasri. In the end though we got Arteta, and were massively unfortunate that Wilshere missed the whole season.

This was back in 2009, so we were still fitting square pegs in round holes in the "3rd midfielder" spot, behind Fabregas and ahead of Song - who played his best football that season imo - just shielding the back four. Cabaye was a bit more of an aggressive forward player back then, making forward runs from deep a la vintage Lampard but still filling the gaps in CM, he plays a little more tamely at Newcastle, but it suits them.

Arteta/Chamberlain and Wilshere are neither here nor there. We signed the latter two only last year, and Wilshere was an Arsenal youth that we probably weren't seriously thinking of promoting as soon as we did - think Jack forced Wenger's hand a bit with those early mature performances after Diaby got crocked, and anything that can get Arsene/the Board out of spending money sounds good to them. We definitely could have used Cabaye this past few seasons, instead of Denilson/Diaby, don't tell me otherwise. Whether or not he would have reached another level here instead of at Newcastle, is of course up to debate, but I think he would have been a first team starter for us, even last season.

In any case, it's not like I think he's world class or anything, but we would have had a better midfield the past few years with him in it, that's for sure. Now it's too late. Newcastle have no reason to sell - this season, at least.