Ricky1985 wrote:

Suarez is a good player, but he's the exception. Your point was you can get those top players by overpaying for them ~ Henderson, Adam, Downing and Carroll are not top players. Will those players get them back to the very top and challenging? Would they have spent that £100M on better players if they hadn't have been so thoroughly shit in the last few years?

Their squad was shit and bringing all those players in was to strengthen the core of the squad first. They have been doing well aint they, especially Adam and Downing. Carroll and Henderson will prove their worth soon. Not to mention Gerrard hasn't even played yet

qs! wrote:

I think Daglish definitely has a preference for British players. If you took the money they spent on Carroll, Henderson and Downing and looked abroad you'd get much better players. Its not only his signings either its that he dropped alot of Liverpools better players for English lads then. Merieles on the bench and Henderson on the pitch makes no sense. Kuyt had to basically win his spot back. Suarez had to prove he was better at CF than Carroll.

I think you're reading it wrong. He's created two teams, one with heart and one with skill. Yes a lot of the skillful players lost their places to players that had the soul of Liverpool running through em, but they won em back and ultimately the best team won. It's nice to be able to fall back on your heart when all else isn't going well. But to make the primary options (skill) appreciate and work for their places, they have to know that their selection isn't a given.

I'm after reading on twitter that Dortmund confirmed we tabled a bid of €25M. Anyone got a link to that?

i've never seen €10m and here i am thinking what's the difference between €25m and €35m. give them what they want. that's how bad it is right now. i just want super talent in whatever the costs because it's not my money. if gotze is a flop for us it won't hurt less if we paid €25m instead of €35m.

honigstein raphael honigstein
AFC first club who tabled real offer. but posturing over price aside, still don't see it happening. player and agent keen to stay

Don't get your hopes us guys. Besides we need signings that wanna play forus, not reminisce about their former clubs.

Can't believe we haven't bid for Kagawa yet. That's one Dortmund player that wouldn't have any qualms about leaving if we just showed some interest. Plus he was born to play for Arsenal.

honigstein is of the opinion that we're doing this for pr. he has no understanding of arsenal fans. we aren't impressed by throwing bids out there as if we're showing ambition and then say "awwwh shucks we didn't get our man." it's a horrible pr move to make the bid and then fail. they would bring down more heat than is necessary. no bid would be better than a bid. we weren't even really thinking about gotze until this recently came up. if the player doesn't want to leave then arsenal need to meet dortmund's demands and force the player to publicly shame us (best time to do it because we have very little left).

honigstein raphael honigstein

1. Götze: Arsenal apparently pushing very hard. but Götze camp not sure/inclined to stay one more season

Götze/AFC: this is less about the transfer fee, more about Götze making up his mind (or not). he can basically pick his next club..

The commentator for today's match against Bayern kept suggesting that the game was an audition for Goetze and FC Hollywood would do everything in their power to sign him in the off-season.

Klaus wrote:

Can't believe we haven't bid for Kagawa yet. That's one Dortmund player that wouldn't have any qualms about leaving if we just showed some interest. Plus he was born to play for Arsenal.

i'd love him here. arshavin out, kagawa in. easy peasy.

I actually want Kagawa less now than I did before. I was watching Dortmund with all their technically sound little players zipping around, passing to each other in little triangles and having nightmares about our Fabregas/Hleb days. Again, all technically superior to Walcott & Gervinho, but the latter combination just seems to have a bit more cut and thrust about it

We're all gonna have personal favourites, but I would kill for any one of; Gotze, Eriksen or Hazard. You could possibly throw Reus on to that list but i havn't seen very much of him to date.

All of those players will be leaving their respective clubs in the next 18 months or so and we need to be getting in on the action.

We need at least 2 out of those list to challenge the best in the world again.

Gunner89 wrote:

honigstein raphael honigstein

1. Götze: Arsenal apparently pushing very hard. but Götze camp not sure/inclined to stay one more season

Götze/AFC: this is less about the transfer fee, more about Götze making up his mind (or not). he can basically pick his next club..

Anyone would need their head examined if they think Wenger will pay 40M for Gotze and that he'd come to Arsenal and play for peanuts just to "forward his football education."

Unless Gotze has a storming Euro 2012 I dont think he'll cost as much as £40m Gus. And even though we dont pay our established players real top dollar we do pay younger players well and Gotze would probably be tripling or quadrupling his wages by coming to Arsenal.

Can someone give me a rundown of what type of player Gotze is and what kind of role he could play for us?

Would he fit in with our new focus on real pace and directness out wide?

I really don't want to go down the role of midget, playmakers playing out wide again. So anyone we sign there better be fast and willing to take players on.

Tim's assessment of Gotze from the Tezza thread.

Tim wrote:

I've said before that in Gotze I see a really nice technical footballer who will be a great asset in the right team. He'll rack up a lot of assists because he has fantastic vision and is incredibly sharp in and around the box. He also plays on the last shoulder more naturally than Nasri. But I dont see a player that is going to rip teams to shreds in the same way that I see Hazard or Eriksen doing.

Maybe that 'unplayable' factor for Gotze will come as and when he moves inside to play centrally.

Thanks Y va!

Tim wrote:

Unless Gotze has a storming Euro 2012 I dont think he'll cost as much as £40m Gus. And even though we dont pay our established players real top dollar we do pay younger players well and Gotze would probably be tripling or quadrupling his wages by coming to Arsenal.

Maybe 40 million Euro Tim.
I'd love us "to go Jerry" but nevertheless we've no chance once top clubs become interested.