Ah, the classic Wenger semi-bluff

Abou can also play there.

Claudius wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Those who are saying Wenger is clueless, could we give him another 24 hours at least to judge? It's not like there's really anyone available out there with regards to striker.

This is a summer in which Balotelli, Lewandowski, Mandzukic, Costa, Lukaku moved.
Cavani, Benzema and Falvao all rumored to be in play, one of them signing an extension.
Finally, if all we wanted was a Sanogo upgrade, this is a summer when Ba, Eto'o, Lambertini, etc moved. Others like Remy and the Swansea boy are probably attainable.
Either Wenger does not want a striker, which means he's blind to squad quality; or he's incapable of getting a deal done.

No chance of Lewandoski, Costa, Lukaku and Ba. The latter 2 because Mourinho won't sell to us, the former 2 because we didn't have any chance from the start. The deal was agreed.

We didn't pursue Balotelli and Eto'o for obvious reasons. Cavani and Benz isn't for sale, Falcao is out of Wenger's price range.

There's a reason why Liverpool couldn't get Bony, was way overpriced. The only one that was gettable is Remy.

but somehow all these other teams were able to snag these players.
as for your Ba theory, read the interviews. Ba says Mourinho would have let him come to Arsenal this summer.
Clarence, we've gone 5 transfer window since losing Robin van Persie with no progress towards getting an adequate replacement.

Plenty of strikers, midfielders and defenders available who would improve our first team.

Claudius wrote:

but somehow all these other teams were able to snag these players.
as for your Ba theory, read the interviews. Ba says Mourinho would have let him come to Arsenal this summer.
Clarence, we've gone 5 transfer window since losing Robin van Persie with no progress towards getting an adequate replacement.

I have read the Ba interview, he said Mourinho "might" let him come to us if he waited longer if this window, I don't think so.

I get what you are saying totally and I agree it's unacceptable for us not to get a striker in. Like I said, I would be happy with Remy, but looks like now nobody is coming in so it's all on Wenger if Sanogo fails to live up to his promise.

Watch him score a hattrick now once I said that.

Clrnc wrote:

Claudius wrote:

This is a summer in which Balotelli, Lewandowski, Mandzukic, Costa, Lukaku moved.
Cavani, Benzema and Falvao all rumored to be in play, one of them signing an extension.
Finally, if all we wanted was a Sanogo upgrade, this is a summer when Ba, Eto'o, Lambertini, etc moved. Others like Remy and the Swansea boy are probably attainable.
Either Wenger does not want a striker, which means he's blind to squad quality; or he's incapable of getting a deal done.

No chance of Lewandoski, Costa, Lukaku and Ba. The latter 2 because Mourinho won't sell to us, the former 2 because we didn't have any chance from the start. The deal was agreed.

We didn't pursue Balotelli and Eto'o for obvious reasons. Cavani and Benz isn't for sale, Falcao is out of Wenger's price range.

There's a reason why Liverpool couldn't get Bony, was way overpriced. The only one that was gettable is Remy.

I agree that getting in that marquee signing is a bit ask since they won't come cheap or easily and the likes of Bayern, Madrid, City and Chelsea seem to be stockpiling talent these days and maybe Wenger has genuine reasons why Mandzukic or Balotelli aren't suitable for us.

However,

We could do better than Sanogo.
We could do better than our current defensive midfielders.
We could do with another defender.

There are very few people calling for a Cavani or nothing, most reasonable fans would be fine with Giroud up front this season if they knew that we were genuinely trying to cover the cracks elsewhere.

As it stands, the my feeling is we've only bought Ozil and Sanchez to further consolidate our hold on the top four places now that there seem to be more challengers. Anything else we get from this season is a bonus.

Clrnc wrote:

Claudius wrote:

This is a summer in which Balotelli, Lewandowski, Mandzukic, Costa, Lukaku moved.
Cavani, Benzema and Falvao all rumored to be in play, one of them signing an extension.
Finally, if all we wanted was a Sanogo upgrade, this is a summer when Ba, Eto'o, Lambertini, etc moved. Others like Remy and the Swansea boy are probably attainable.
Either Wenger does not want a striker, which means he's blind to squad quality; or he's incapable of getting a deal done.

The only one that was gettable is Remy.

Mandzukic wasn't gettable?

Costa was gettable. Deal was done this summer, not back in January. Chelsea refused to meet Atletico's asking price for months.

There may be some dominoes that will fall. Currently rumours that Chicarito is going to Real, which means they have either given up on Falcao, or that they will get Falcao too and give up Benzema.

Actually, if the Chicarito thing turns out to be true, i'd be quite surprised if Falcao is still going there. We might have a chance.

Klaus wrote:

Costa was gettable. Deal was done this summer, not back in January. Chelsea refused to meet Atletico's asking price for months.

Mate, he was not. Mourinho back in Jan: "you will see in the summer why i didnt bring in a striker now". The deal for Costa was agreed back then and he was never going anywhere else once Chelsea stepped in.

marv3llous wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Costa was gettable. Deal was done this summer, not back in January. Chelsea refused to meet Atletico's asking price for months.

Mate, he was not. Mourinho back in Jan: "you will see in the summer why i didnt bring in a striker now". The deal for Costa was agreed back then and he was never going anywhere else once Chelsea stepped in.

True.

There was no deal for Costa in january. Up till the summer he wasn't even sure he'd leave according to Simeone.

Costa had a clause (around 20m) last summer , weren't our scouts aware of his ability?

Liverpool activated the clause and he was very close to joining them but he turned them down at the last moment. Would have been daft to leave a CL side for a mid table PL side (which Liverpool were at the time).

it doesn't matter when the deal was done, guys. January or June. we haven't had a striker for 2 full seasons. we should've been all over Costa like bling on 2 Chainz

Klaus wrote:

There was no deal for Costa in january. Up till the summer he wasn't even sure he'd leave according to Simeone.

It doesnt matter. Fact is, once Chelsea stepped in, he was always going there. The deal might not have been 'done' in January, but it was certainly 'agreed'.

Wilshere wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

The only one that was gettable is Remy.

Mandzukic wasn't gettable?

Apparently to the Spanish, we bidded for him but he chose Atleti.

Tactics wrote:

Costa had a clause (around 20m) last summer , weren't our scouts aware of his ability?

Liverpool activated the clause and he was very close to joining them but he turned them down at the last moment. Would have been daft to leave a CL side for a mid table PL side (which Liverpool were at the time).

Fairly certain this is wrong. Liverpool's bid got rejected time and time again, so they didn't sell Suarez.

Anyway, every man and their dog knows that Costa was going to Chelsea. Mourinho and him share the same agent and during the pre-match of the UCL tie Mourinho already hinted that they already got their man in January, that's why they didn't bring a striker in. It's like the Lewandowski to Bayern deal, everyone knew 2 seasons ago he was going there.

Of course it matters. It matters in the context of whether a deal was done in January or not. We could have pushed hard for him at any given moment between then and this summer. We could have pushed for anybody we wanted. There are plenty of strikers who would have moved for stupid money.