his mentality is to some degree both a strength and a weakness. he is massively competitive and has a real winner instinct, but sometimes he tips over and does something crazy.

Whenever I have seen Suarez NOT be a complete cunt on the pitch, he has also not been very good a football player.

In essence - I think that it takes too much of an effort for him to try and not be a racist, diving, cheating, biting, elbowing, kicking cunt to also be a top footballer. So, if you want Suarez the footballer, you also have to take Suarez the psychopath. Not. Worth. It.

if the alternative is giroud, i don't care...

I do, and thankfully most Arsenal fans seem sane enough to agree with me.

Rex wrote:

Whenever I have seen Suarez NOT be a complete cunt on the pitch, he has also not been very good a football player.

In essence - I think that it takes too much of an effort for him to try and not be a racist, diving, cheating, biting, elbowing, kicking cunt to also be a top footballer. So, if you want Suarez the footballer, you also have to take Suarez the psychopath. Not. Worth. It.

What? 😆

Tell me what it is you don't understand Oft and I will explain it to you.

Has nothing with beige trousers to do though!

Rex wrote:

I do, and thankfully most Arsenal fans seem sane enough to agree with me.

thankfully it doesn't matter what you think. wenger wants suarez.

This story about Suarez's agent saying he has a 40m clause but Liverpool saying all they need to do is inform the player sounds like bullshit to me. I'd guess he doesn't have one at all.

I believe Liverpool will sell if the right offer comes in, I think the offer they want is £40mill so is now up to us to either match that valuation or look elsewhere, our options are fast running out elsewhere and Liverpool are well aware of that....

Well he signed a new deal not too long ago, so my guess is that there probably is some sort of clause in there.

tbh if i had to choose between buying suarez or keeping the powder dry/another season of giroud as our number 1 option, i'm inclined to go with the cannibal.

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

In fairness to Suarez, has there ever been any suggestion that hes been a problem in the dressing room? Problem for the club, but not for team unity.

Never heard of him being a problem in the dressing room, on the pitch as well he gives it his all. His problem is he is a bit of a dick and gets carried away, he tries to wind people up and oversteps the line.

Gawd, potential for a descent into RAWK mk II here the minute Suarez acts like "a bit of a dick".

y va marquer wrote:

Arsene Wenger has been given the go-ahead to spend £40million on Luis Suarez, writes John Cross in Nagoya .

For real?
This is happening.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/luis-suarez-transfer-arsenal-confident-2062396

Lol you couldn't make this shit up this is best off season ever.....
Gazidis has announced to the world that the money is there and it's up to Wenger, but apparently the most realistic target is a rat faced racist who bites people......Will Wenger buy him and thus be condemned as an amoral unethical bastard or will he not buy and be condemned as a tightfisted useless bastard?
Hahahaha truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Will Wenger buy him and thus be condemned as an amoral unethical bastard or will he not buy and be condemned as a tightfisted useless bastard?

Life: a series of opportunities to choose the pretext on which Wenger should be condemned.

😆

I just saw the poll now, and I remembered why it looked interesting to me: This is like a knife that opens us Arsenal fans in two, and looks at what's really inside. Look at these (aptly constructed, BW) questions, take note of the issues at hand, and look at these results. Very interesting.

A good test, or a mirror, is one that has you standing exposed, without a way to hide (from) the truth. And this one has it: we're at a point where our club and our patience have come to the deciding moment. We now have money, we can aim for the top, and we certainly cannot remain without a win any longer. It is the moment where we clearly indicate what is the truth about our identity - where are we aiming. Are we a past top team - or do we aim to be one again?

And we can have all the "what are we aiming for" questions and doubts lifted in one second: if we sign Suarez. Nobody in or outside the club will think we have another aim if we more than double the record buy. And by insisting and fighting for one (you can also add: in the face of controversy, too). The ambition is clear.

On the other hand, another angle is also unavoidable: there just is a moral issue here, as no one can ignore the moral issues Suarez is connected to. But there is also a club identity question here: do we compromise like that? (of course one needs to remember that the ambition thing also gets into the club-identity equation).

Now you can have a look and see how people move on this. It is evident that the issues are not side issues, and that people feel very strongly about them. A moral-practical dilemma is in front of us, and we need to settler this (BTW - moral dilemma? I think not. A moral dilemma occurs when two moral actions collide, and each choice one makes entails doing something wrong - wrong in the moral sense).

I feel rotten for being excited about this.

Wilshere's words very aptly represent this corner most people feel like they're in.

(myself obviously with the fuck no, though the other no's add something. But it'd be a cop out if I used them: I'd put the question to me, and others: suppose he wouldn't "disrupt", and would indeed play in a way that merits 40 mil. Won us something big, if you want to put the question at it's clearest. But remain an utter cunt, with all the moral flaws: racist, cannibal, cheat, and an embarrassing human being in general.
Would you still: fuck, no? and I say yes, though it's not with an easy heart I do. So I'm a bit like a negative wilshere - stomach ain't turning, but feeling the opposite of excited).

Is it possible to insert a clause in a player's contract that a) can dock wages in light of serious behavioural issues and b) rewards the player with an end of season bonus if the season is controversy free?

Obviously providing a bonus for good behaviour (I'm talking no racism, violence, etc.) is problematic because players who do act like civilised humans are missing out because they've never done anything worth disciplining. However, maybe if a total wage package is agreed and then a certain percentage of it is paid at the end of an incident-free season?

Probably not very realistic, but in light of the slimming of our options and our desperation to compete once again, I'm searching for ways of having our cake and eating it (or should I say of having our cake and enjoying its delicious taste while not being bothered by its level of cuntiness).

In other words Knucklehead, you'd gladly take him. 🙂

I'm sure there must be some behavioural bonds in player contracts.

I strongly doubt that one specific to racism would get up, since I don't think it would be possible to enforce, absent a specific category for racial vilification offences at the FA. Also it would needlessly insult the players.

Rex wrote:

I do, and thankfully most Arsenal fans seem sane enough to agree with me.

I think most are just desperate for a top signing, any signing really. He splits opinion like Denilson in 2008.
I'd rather have Giroud.

RE: Flobaba

No. Not gladly. Like a lot of people I am very much torn over this. Right now, cool-headed and thoughtful, I do not want for something I love to be associated with someone I consider to be a degenerate (which, among footballers, takes a mighty effort to stand out from the pack), but I won't lie and say that during a game when my hands are sweaty and the success of on-field actions becomes my only hope that I won't leap from my seat and scream if that rat pops one into the net.

There are so many things about modern football that I find difficult to reconcile with my idealistic world view, yet none of them could come close to stopping me from enjoying the experience of 22 skilled athletes and a ball in a field. Besides, I like all the bright colours.

Burnwinter wrote:

I'm sure there must be some behavioural bonds in player contracts.

I strongly doubt that one specific to racism would get up, since I don't think it would be possible to enforce, absent a specific category for racial vilification offences at the FA. Also it would needlessly insult the players.

Yeah of course, but it needn't be specific to racism. Could it not be tied to the judgments of the governing body of the competition (FA, UEFA, whoever) so that it depends on their findings? i.e the clause is activated if one of these bodies takes disciplinary action and the player is found guilty - obviously only for non-football related transgressions. This distinction is pretty clear - diving is football-related and, while deserving of punishment, is merely a breach of rules as a footballer, whereas his other more serious behavioural issues breach social boundaries, laws and the rules of being a decent human. If the club believed he had been wrongly found guilty they could waive the fine.

Ok, this is all wildly unrealistic but until we get some better rumours or this is finalised it's all we've got. For the record I'd prefer Rooney over Suarez (yet still cringe) and Higgy over the both of them.

As for insulting the players, if Suarez can't accept that he has behavioural issues and therefore the damage he can potentially do to his club, then he can fuck off until he (hu)mans up and accepts responsibility for himself, full stop.

Well, that's just it. I don't think those categories of offence are sharply defined.

In the Evra case Suarez was charged with "abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour contrary to FA rules", including "a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra."

Which is about as vague as it gets albeit including a reference to racism.

In the Ivanovic case Suarez was charged with "violent conduct".

Everyone knows what the cases were about, but I'm not sure a contract lawyer would consider that a solid ground for distinction (though what do I know). Can of worms etc, also it would smacks of social engineering on the part of the signing club, without a clear consensus from the football community.

You're right of course. So lets just sign Higuain already.

Burnwinter wrote:

Will Wenger buy him and thus be condemned as an amoral unethical bastard or will he not buy and be condemned as a tightfisted useless bastard?

Life: a series of opportunities to choose the pretext on which Wenger should be condemned.

As the thread title says:It's a moral dilemma, how can Wenger be condemned let me count the ways.....

You're still refined enough to pretend the importance of the pretext. I respect that.

Isn't it ironic though that some of those who (erroneously) criticised me for being a cold amoral Machiavellian who placed winning above everything, are now looking up at me on my high horse.

You shuttle between nihilism and moral fascism - it's only a short one-truth hop between the two after all.

Come visit the rest of us in the distant suburbs of complex reality some time. 😉

Reports this morning saying Liverpool want £55m. They are having a laugh, reckon Suarez will force his way out.

Biggus, whats your stand on all these? You rather Wenger buy him and we win a trophy or you rather we stay class?

Err remember "enlightened self interest" its easy for me to cluck tut tut and stroke my beard as my moral compass has not been tested yet.
Suarez is merely a good (in the technical sense) player in a very average Liverpool side, certainly not worth jettisoning your values for.

Now if we were interested in Christiano Ronaldo and he was clicked eating black babies..........

Fantastic.Mr.Fox wrote:

Reports this morning saying Liverpool want £55m. They are having a laugh, reckon Suarez will force his way out.

😆

Clrnc wrote:

Biggus, whats your stand on all these? You rather Wenger buy him and we win a trophy or you rather we stay class?

Biggus wrote:

I want us to be hated because we are jammy and win things due to luck not because we have cunts playing for us.

If that non CL clubs wants 55 million i hope they keep him and suffer more ridicule and ignominy from football fans worldwide. Bet they would be dying to offload him for 20 mill next season! Disgusting football club

Madrid want 37m, Liverpool 55m ... I'd say just wait the window out, they'll change their tune come late August.

This increased emphasis on maximum recoup for outgoing stars could be another side effect of FFP, which is really going to hurt Liverpool.

They earn about £170m vs our £245m which is a huge difference in "allowed" outgoings.

Burnwinter wrote:

Madrid want 37m, Liverpool 55m ... I'd say just wait the window out, they'll change their tune come late August.

You see! anyone of us could do Wengers job.