Might've got us the Carling Cup. Doubt he would've won us the league.

Hate reading about us failing to pick up average players in the transfer market. I always assume it's because we've gone in too low, although there's no confirmation that's what happened in this case yet.

This is what Wenger was talking about when he said he would have signed a defender if he knew Vermaelen would be out for so long.

Isn't every big busness supposed to have a 'closer'? Someone that can go and negotiate and make the other guy feel like he's getting this amazingly great deal and your doing him a favour by offering the amount your offering?

We'd be better off sending Gunnersaurus to negotiate our transfers. Or Eboue.

No amount of sweet talk is going to make someone sell you their ferrari for £100.

No no no no no.

No point sending good money after bad. Samba solves one problem, and creates another - he's one of the slowest, most lumbering CBs I've seen. Sure, he was great at the weekend for 15 minutes, but he sure as hell isn't the solution to our defensive woes.

No one player can solve our defensive woes.

It's not impossible but that player isn't Samba.

our midfield often leaves our cbs exposed. samba would struggle in our side in that regard as he lacks the mobility of our other boys

having said that, he'd be useful at places like stoke and bolton, and at the very least would give our defense a fear factor again. hes like 6'6 or something and a brick shithouse.

id have him for no more than 10m.

I'd have him for €10.

He's a donkey. Would never handle our high line. Only suited for teams that are usually under siege. I don't believe for one second that Wenger actually wanted him.

A lot of people are saying that this player and that player couldn´t "handle playing in our system". Hernandez couldn´t play as a striker here, Valencia couldn´t play wide here, Samba would be a useless defender here and so on.

I really can´t see what´s so great about this system of ours. Static and boring in attack, constantly vulnerable on the counter, constantly leaves our FBs exposed. Is it the system that dictates that we can´t defend set plays by the way?

As a plus though we can play 150 meaningless passes in a row between the back 4 and the midfield! Not when it matters of course, like when we are winning. Then we can´t string 3 decent passes together.

Maybe we should just abandon this stupid system so that a lot more players can actually play for us? Just an idea.

Humble Rex wrote:

A lot of people are saying that this player and that player couldn´t "handle playing in our system". Hernandez couldn´t play as a striker here, Valencia couldn´t play wide here, Samba would be a useless defender here and so on.

I really can´t see what´s so great about this system of ours. Static and boring in attack, constantly vulnerable on the counter, constantly leaves our FBs exposed. Is it the system that dictates that we can´t defend set plays by the way?

As a plus though we can play 150 meaningless passes in a row between the back 4 and the midfield! Not when it matters of course, like when we are winning. Then we can´t string 3 decent passes together.

Maybe we should just abandon this stupid system so that a lot more players can actually play for us? Just an idea.

Fair enough. If you'd change the system of course other types of players would fit in.

But as things stand, Wenger is the manager and the system is the system, and within that framework he wouldn't work, neither would Valencia. Hernandez might work well, but most likely from the bench.

As for set pieces, you could argue that by opting for mobility in our defenders over brute strength and size we are at an disadvantage. But the counter argument to that would be the resultant lack of quality in possession resulting from our defenders staying far deeper when we have the ball. I think we'd score less goals, or let in more if we tried not to change the defensive system but only change the players.

We have a lot to go on purely tactically on set pieces, and we've definitely conceded too many this season. But lower teams will always focus on set pieces as it is one of the few ways they can regularly get into the box and cause a chance. I'm pretty sure you'd find lower league teams score a higher percentage of their goals on set pieces v. top level teams than against their own level teams.

It's not the system, Samba is just average.

If Samba's too poor or slow to play our defensive "system" (heh), why was he scouted / why were we bidding on him?

I'm sure the assessment process for signings takes factors like pace into account at least to some extent.

My take on him is that he's a reasonable, if not ideal defender who would probably slot straight in ahead of Squillaci and maybe on form Kos/Djourou in the pecking order as it stands.

My take on this kind of thing is that whilst the likes of Samba may not be as good technically as your Squillacis, the qualities Samba does have would be more beneficial to us as a team and squad. No doubt Wenger brought Squillaci in to inject some experience into the squad, but he doesn't really offer anything that fixes the problems we have on the pitch other than that. Whilst Samba's physicality, organisational ability and handling of pressure would all massively benefit us, even if it's just from those around him learning from his experience in the Premier League as well as on the pitch.

I don't think we did bid for him, I think this is something his agent came up with during negotiations with Blackburn to strengthen his position. I have no doubts that he wouldn't tell his own player the truth. We scout every team in the league, and it would be fairly easy to point at our scout at Ewood saying he's there to look at Samba, and that Arsenal are considering a bid.

The key words Samba used in this interview are "I think"

So in the last two transfer windows we've nearly signed Mark Schwarzer and Chris Samba?

Jesus wept.

well when you put it like that....

jokes aside, the overall standard of the epl is rising. imo the top 4 can find more value at the smaller clubs than they could, say, ten years ago. players like valencia and smalling dont look out of place at united despite the middling clubs they came from.

He's experienced, he's physically capable of winning every battle, he's the leader of Blackburns defence and he's the right age. All our other defenders are quick and Samba isn't as slow as he's made out to be. I don't see why we can't cope with a single slower defender, United manage fine with slower defenders. Not everyone has to be a peak Kolo Toure. Defence is about balance. Samba has alot of the attributes we're missing. I'd definitely take him for under £10m.

We'd also benefit hugely from a player who's been drilled for years at defending set pieces in the Premiership. WE all know we aren't doing it so buying in someone with that experience would help us out alot.

And Gazza M is right about the talent within the Premiership. People seem happier to sign midtable players from lesser leagues like Italy, Germany and France than to sign proven Premiership players.