Claudius wrote:

we should get him in for two seasons. that wouldn't get in the way of his future Old Trafford ambitions. might re-animate us.

I'm thinking two seasons of winning fuck all with us might well get in the way of his Old Trafford ambitions. He needs to keep his Special One sheen if he wants that job.

We couldn't just go from Wenger to Mourinho straight away it would be like going from 0-100 in 2 seconds.

when Wenger goes we are going to get a yes man, 'cos Wenger is simply going to retire to the board and no manager worth his salt wants Wenger the all powerful hovering above him pulling the strings.

keeping Wenger about in a senior role would be a disaster. he should have no direct football influence. even a job of chief scout would be too destructive.
he can be an ambassador, handing out footballs in Bamako somewhere and ranting about financial fairplay at football conferences

13 days later

Mario Gomez on his way to Chelsea apparently.

RMC Radio (the one who broke Ibra to PSG) says Cavani has signed for PSG for 40m.

That's almost reasonable.
I suppose his salary is insane

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

He wants Jack

😆
I'll assume that you don't mean "he wants nothing"?

We'll get Jove, and Wenger will try to mould him into a central forward - we might suffer from it in the short term though.

Bild reporting Mourinho and Falcao to Chelsea is a done deal

Kolo is to leave city in the summer but wants to stay in England. Would we?

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Bild reporting Mourinho and Falcao to Chelsea is a done deal

As reliable as the Gotze scoop then.

We are so left out of the feast at high table. Should've sold out to some monied Russians or Arabs. I know guys like Capi think there is light at the end of the tunnel, but the stratification is set. Teams like Real, Barca, Bayern, etc will continue to grab the big players and pay them big money, and we'll be stuck feasting on scraps. We missed out by not investing big 3 or 4 years ago.

Things ARE moving in our direction. Ever so slowly.

there is no chance, Rex. just look at how much less money than United we make. this summer, they are going to add some good players to what they already have and we will add some Gervinhos. I think Chelsea are more or less established at a wage level somewhat above ours. Not clear what will happen to Citeh given how much less money they make. However, in Europe, we will for the foreseeable future be far behind Real, Barca and Bayern. I just don't see us competing at home or abroad. Selling Fabregas/van Persie and not replacing them was probably the final nail in our coffin.

Think so too.

Captain wrote:

We'll compete at home.

Rex wrote:

Think so too.

Dean H ‏@DeanLDN22 Protected account 2m
Arsenal are currently in negotiations for a striker and a goalkeeper.

Confirmed.

This guy seems to be of the same opinion:

And Mannone did go to Hull, so i am inclined to believe him, whoever he is.

Adler and Jovetic obviously.

C'mon, that Twitter account is obviously run by Scorpion …

Lets hope its Adler and Jovetic?

Anyway Fabianski deal runs out in 2014...

Quite a few early movers in the transfer market so far. De Bruyne to Dortmund, Osvaldo negotiations with Spurs.

Rex wrote:

Things ARE moving in our direction. Ever so slowly.

not on the pitch.

It's all relative. If it moves in our direction off the pitch it will translate onto the pitch too.

See it moving the other way tbf, city & Chelsea will be aiming/spending for the title & we will be further of the pace.

y va marquer wrote:

Mr X knows - Jovetic and Adler sewn up.

That would be a great start.

Add in a quality ball winner or wide forward and I'd be delighted.

Kel Varnsen wrote:
Rex wrote:

Things ARE moving in our direction. Ever so slowly.

not on the pitch.

Well, we have 1 loss in our last 12 in the league or something like that, and a good percentage are wins. It seems clear that the squad has gelled, and they are of late playing like a team. We still lack quality, but for the first time in ages we are approaching a summer where we do not look like losing someone really important apart from Sagna.
So, I'd say we are making progress on the pitch as well.

Nope, sorry Rex.

You can't get away with claiming we've made progress based on recent form when we've barely fashioned a single result against a top side (or at least one with everything to play for) all season.

Ian Ridley of the Mail on Sunday says

“There is going to be a fire sale at QPR. They can’t afford to keep people like César. [Arsenal coach] Steve Bould wants a new goalkeeper, but Arsène Wenger wants to be proved right about Wojciech Szczesny. But the rumours won’t go away and I could see this one happening, as César’s a proven keeper at international level. I think this is a seven out of 10.”

So there's a 70% chance of us getting Cesar, because he's heard loads of rumours and he can see it happening.

I think Szczesny will be a good keeper, but if we want to seriously challenge next season we need a new one, preferably an experienced winner...

y va marquer wrote:

Ian Ridley of the Mail on Sunday says

“There is going to be a fire sale at QPR. They can’t afford to keep people like César. [Arsenal coach] Steve Bould wants a new goalkeeper, but Arsène Wenger wants to be proved right about Wojciech Szczesny. But the rumours won’t go away and I could see this one happening, as César’s a proven keeper at international level. I think this is a seven out of 10.”

So there's a 70% chance of us getting Cesar, because he's heard loads of rumours and he can see it happening.

And there's still a 30% chance of it not happening.

It's a rumour only and sometimes it looks like journalists are talking crap even though there was something genuine in the initial revelation.

I remember when people were pissed off we didn't get Baptista first time around even though we had a 50% chance. That means it was just as likely we wouldn't get him.

Fwiw i think this is rubbish too but just a general point about transfer gossip.