Wenger said, in August I think or possibly early September, that he didn´t buy a defensive minded CM due to the emergence of Frimpong.

He said the same thing about Wilshere too.

asajoseph wrote:

For me, Hazard, Lukaku / Neymar, and Cahill would be an absolutely perfect summer.

What this man said.
I think that Hazard / Cahill is a reasonable request of the manager given the years of underinvestment in the squad. Would also make up for the money we wasted last summer on Koscielny, Squillaci and Chamakh. In hindsight, that was an awful transfer window.

I think we can forget about the Lukaku/Neymar part, but I genuinely think there is a real chance we'll get Hazard, and am keeping my fingers crossed we get Cahill.

I wouldn't want want Neymar anyway. Brilliant talent, but I think he'd want to move on from us pretty sharpish. 1-2 seasons max. At least with someone like Hazard I can see him spending a good amount of time at the club.

i'd rate last summers window as one of the worst under wenger

Yeah, our best new players were the kids-Shezny, Djourou and Wilshere.

I don't think we need another CB as long as Vermaelen's injury is a one off. Djourou has kept up his form long enough to be our second choice. Kosicelny has been fine as third choice and with room to improve and I think he will grow because that's one thing he's been pretty consistent at. Squillaci has been our best fourth choice defender in years and he's finishing the season strongly - ahead of Kosicelny atm.

Generally speaking we've chopped and changed our goalkeeper and center backs and still joint-second in the least number of goals conceded which I'm pretty pleased with. And partnerships do need time to form while players settle down, I think we'll only know where we stand if we can finally go with a majority of Szczesny, Djourou, Vermaelen, Kosicelny playing together for a season to see whether they can work together and be a unit.

Put it this way, I feel that our existing defenders and goalkeepers will improve. I do not feel Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Chamakh and Vela will ever make the step up. Therefore, I feel we need a striker, winger and midfielder before we start reeling in defenders.

General Mirth wrote:

I don't think we need another CB as long as Vermaelen's injury is a one off. Djourou has kept up his form long enough to be our second choice. Kosicelny has been fine as third choice and with room to improve and I think he will grow because that's one thing he's been pretty consistent at. Squillaci has been our best fourth choice defender in years and he's finishing the season strongly - ahead of Kosicelny atm.

Generally speaking we've chopped and changed our goalkeeper and center backs and still joint-second in the least number of goals conceded which I'm pretty pleased with. And partnerships do need time to form while players settle down, I think we'll only know where we stand if we can finally go with a majority of Szczesny, Djourou, Vermaelen, Kosicelny playing together for a season to see whether they can work together and be a unit.

Put it this way, I feel that our existing defenders and goalkeepers will improve. I do not feel Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Chamakh and Vela will ever make the step up. Therefore, I feel we need a striker, winger and midfielder before we start reeling in defenders.

Thats entirely true tbf, especially the first para.

With Miquel or Bartley as fifth choice, thats as good a 5 defender as you can find anywhere in europe. Vermaelen's injury for the whole season has sold us short and really compromised's Squid and Kos adaptability time. Where can you find a better 3rd and 4th defender elsewhere? Its a fact these 4 defenders is the best quartet of defenders in Wenger reign.

We need a striker. If we're so obsessed with carrying on with Wenger's ethos, we need to sign the best young starlets out there, youngsters who have 10 years in them and are capable of contributing in the here and now. There's no point buying deadbeats like Chamakh or Elmander or Forlan.

Tim wrote:

I wouldn't want want Neymar anyway. Brilliant talent, but I think he'd want to move on from us pretty sharpish. 1-2 seasons max. At least with someone like Hazard I can see him spending a good amount of time at the club.

You wouldn't want 2-3 years of impact? Strange.

I just get the feeling with Neymar that he'd come with a shit load of baggage. He's probably got a billion 'agents', or people claiming to work for him, a huge entourage and hanger's on. Plus he seems a bit mental and immature. Maybe I'm a bit too cynical when it comes to Brazilian 'wonderkids'.

If we did get him I'd be very excited though. Cant deny that. I'm just not sure exactly what we'd be getting.

I think you're exactly right, Tim - he would come with a lot of unwanted crap, but can you imagine how good that boy is going to be in the next 2 or 3 years?

There is no denying that Hazard would be a much better fit into our team than Neymar. Having said that, getting any of them would be huge.

I'm with Tim. If you sign Neymar, you're signing 173cm of petulant nothing who already thinks he's too good for Arsenal, and England to boot, and his circus. And at this point you're probably paying 25m+ for him.

When has he ever said he's too good for Arsenal or England?

I'd be delighted with Neymar, but it would be a fairly risky signing.

Burnwinter wrote:

I'm with Tim. If you sign Neymar, you're signing 173cm of petulant nothing who already thinks he's too good for Arsenal, and England to boot, and his circus. And at this point you're probably paying 25m+ for him.

Yeah, but even if he leaves after doing the business we'd have had 2-3 years of god football out of him and probably be able to ship him out for £40m+ by then.

Fine. Get lukaku whilst Chelsea worry about Neymar then. Done. Like i said, no point mucking about with 2nd rate crap again.

It makes me laugh that you hard-nosed pragmatists are talking about solving anything with untested kids like Lukaku and Neymar.