And so it came to pass. And pass. And pass. And pass. And pass and pass and pass and pass and pass. Dear God, has this transfer not happened yet? Ts have been crossed, rubbed out, crossed again and there is a veritable dot-to-dot above the Is. In a certain light I’m told it resembles Herbert Chapman.
But finally today, we’re told by the BBC from London (or Salford but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it), subsequently ‘verified’ by every media outlet, that Santi Cazorla is an Arsenal player. Well, not quite. He’s joining the squad in Germany which is normally a sign that a deal is done. It surely can’t be jumping the gun to believe that this one is finally sealed although until either party announces it, there is still room for something to go wrong. The presumption has to be that whilst the paperwork has finally found its way to the right office on the fourth floor, international clearances are still awaited.
He might well be an Arsenal player by the time you read this. We wish you well in your Arsenal career. Expectations are high, the pre-season demanded activity in terms of transfers and that has more or less been delivered, the less or the more depending on your outlook. Cazorla may not be the last with strong rumours that Sahin will join this week, the season-long loan suiting the club’s short-term purpose with Jack Wilshere out until October and Tomas Rosicky sidelined through injury.
The squad has not been named by Arsenal, presumably to allow them to herald the arrival of Cazorla – like a surprise birthday party that everyone knows about, including the birthday boy or girl – although Nicklas Bendtner and Sebastian Squillaci are not amongst those who have travelled. If they thought there might be a way back for them, this pretty much nails it that they have no part in the plans for the coming season at Arsenal.
Andrey Arshavin is in a similar boat but it is slightly different; you suspect that the manager would not mind him staying but won’t stop him leaving. Long linked with a move to the banks of The Thames, Arshavin appears unimpressed by the Cottage on offer – and if that is the case, he won’t be impressed by the properties on Loftus Road either – he may like the banks of The Bosphorous more; Galatasaray have registered their interest with an opening bid of £4m. Arsène is having none of it; £7m is his asking price but I wonder how set in stone that is, particularly if he has still got to pop down to the supermarket for one of the bargains on offer. The Joselu promotion has finished with Hoffenheim snapping up the bargain although it is not clear if Wenger had actually seen it.
All of which lifts the mood around the club. Until you then read Alisher Usmanov’s broken record interview in Forbes Magazine Russia. With two billionaire investors unwilling to talk to each other, the battle for Arsenal is as much about hearts and minds as it is about shareholdings. Kroenke has the power, Red & White the PR armoury. The latter came to the fore when van Persie’s statement gave a gratefully received opportunity.
Yet the mileage gained in that moment is beginning to unravel. Opinion has turned against van Persie. Many would happily see him leave the club, maybe most. Many, maybe most, would see him play out the final year of his contract but leave next summer. The prevailing attitude is that Arsenal are far bigger than any player; we have been stung too many times in recent seasons by key players leaving.
In seeking to continue the debate over ownership, R&W have misjudged the mood. Signings – confirmed or not – have bouyed the atmosophere around the club. There are still issues on the pitch to deal with but the over-riding feeling is that they are being addressed. Whether that comes to fruition or not depends on events in a fortnight and beyond. It’s not that I don’t care about ownership, I don’t want to think about it right now. I want to be excited by Cazorla’s arrival, by Podolski and Giroud being here now, imagining them all to be chomping at the bit for the coming campaign.
We know and understand that R&W view that the club should be funded differently. I would agree that the football landscape has changed, irrevocably but not to the exclusion of Arsenal. Misrepresenting the club’s ambition is trite, easily seen through., ambitions are to win the Premier League but beyond that it is widely accepted that from a commercial point of view, qualifying for the Champions League is preferrable to the domestic cup competitions. Are R&W stating that this not the right prioritisation? If so, their commercial plans are flawed.
There are holes in R&W’s arguments and they cannot be ignored. More than anything else, Mr Usmanov, Mr Moshiri, consider this quote from the interview,
Disregarding the series of trophyless seasons, you have to accept that a few of the current board of directors were at the helm during the greatest moments of the Arsene Wenger era
True yet let me pose this question. How many of your proposed board have any knowledge of success in football? One? David Dein? David Dein made an immense contribution to Arsenal; he drove the club into the modern era, ensuring that we were at the forefront of the game, no argument will be brokered to the contrary but he did not act alone. Nor is he or has he claimed to be, flawless. He wanted us to at Wembley every season so much that he wanted to buy the stadium. He introduced you to the club, he introduced Stan Kroenke to the club; he was thede facto architect of where we are now.
If Dein is not involved then their argument is even more specious. That is not a defence of the current board; I have little time for them either, simply that R&W made it an issue. No doubt they will be making Henry, Bergkamp, Overmars, Ljungberg and Adams directors should they accede to the Arsenal throne.
Dein is a problem. As much as he has ambitions for the club, his son creates an issue which cannot be ignored. Darren as a player advisor precludes Senior returning unless Junior relinquishes his contact with the staff. Anyone who believes otherwise would do well to heed the warnings of problems caused by Allardyce and Ferguson offspring in this area. Even if a professional relationship were maintained, there is no doubt that inferences would be drawn. It is utterly inconceivable that both could be sitting on opposite sides of the fence.
Too much of this is PR; not enough substance. If Red & White has a genuine blueprint for Arsenal, publish and be damned. Let the argument move onto specifics; this isn’t an election, there is no democracy for sale.
’til Tomorrow.
Hahaha Dex, I’m not very sure you listen to the manager much. Either that or your just a revisionist trying to defend some previously held position that doesn’t add up anymore. I wonder why you have to bother. Arsene himself implied that he’d change from his youth vision due to it not working out as hoped (can’t recall exact quote but its out there).
I have to confess I’m surprised by the speed of the change. I thought he’d hand on to the youth vision/project/whatever for longer.
But you can go ahead and claim that you always knew this would happen, Mr ITK.
Limpar;
Apparantly Cazorla cost less than £12m man.
@Henristic
Rise of ticket prices last season might’ve played a part why we now have a bit more cash to spend. And obviously the sponsorship deals we’ve signed over the last 12 months.
George:
I don’t intend to go back and look up the stats but I suspect the 13 seasons in a row contradict the point I think you are trying to make. I know the last 8 seasons do, but have it your way.
Henristic
Are you are annoying in real life as you are on here? Or as patronising, dull, unfunny?
The quotes and finances were freely available.
You have zeroed in on shit that doomers on le grove spouted, that says it all.
Evil @ 10:09
Yeah right.
Evil – also the circa £28 million from the Queensland Road housing development. The whole of our transfer policy is intrinsically tied to the stadium move and all the plans and projections that came with that – and the subsequent property crash that saw them delayed.
Dex,
IIRC, the ‘we have to make 25 Mill comment’ came out this year or last, not before Ade was sold. Or please clarify what you mean?
In anycase we made profits in the years after we sold Ade, profits AFTER loan repayments mind.
There was clearly a time shortly after the stadium move and before the property deals paid off that we were relatively skint.
But that didn’t last long. We structured our debts and started making profits, so again, I believed Arsene and board members when they said we ‘had funds’. Why don’t you? Or are you denying such statements where ever made?
Lets have a closer look shall we;
henristics (janudiced/doomer) view;
Wenger has had money freely available to him, but has refused to spend it as he was hell bent and obsessed on only buying/playing inexperienced kids.
The other way;
Before the stadium move the manager stated we would be skint for 5+ seasons and would need to ‘get by’/ 5+ seasons later and OMG! We have spent a bit more than usual.
Its not like I have suddenly come up with this idea. I have known about it and mentioned it (here and elesewhere) for years.
But petty, can’t stand to lose an argument henristic the doomer can’t handle it.
Dexter – Benik 3, Tranmere 1, fantastic.
Here he is celebrating the opener: http://twitter.com/#!/OfficialBWFC/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FSxAB7SA9
I have high hopes for him, expect him to come back to us at the end of the season fully tooled up, the same way that Jack did.
Here we go, Henristic – http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/club-agrees-sale-of-queensland-road-site
That’s what we have to thank for Santi Cazorla – not Arsene going aw fuck it project youth is over. I’ve had it with cultivating and trusting young talent. After it’s kept me in the CL all these years.
No. It’s more controlled and considered than that, thank Christ.
It came out orignally in the news of the world about 4 years ago (not 100% on exact time scale)but I was living in a different gaff to the one I am in now (been here nearly 4 years.
to be honest limpar i think we are long, long passed phase 2..
unless we are only talking about AW’s era?
then id agree..
but it is a policy we had before wenger came..
graham built his sides on a youth policy..
its not something new.
its been the arsenal way for years.i could go back to don howe..
arsene just took it one step further becuase he was told there wasnt going to be any money avialable for a bit.
*Note to self* Never ever get involved in a ‘debate’ with henristic!
Thanks Clerkenwell Gooner. Yeah man, me too.
Right – too much excitement for me today. Football overload. What a season we’re in for.
Come on, The Arsenal!
C’mon now Dex. You should know by now that the ad hominem stuff doesn’t work on me. Calling me dull a zillion times will not make your argument for you.
We all know the quotes are available. But how does that help your case? If you don’t want a discussion with a dull annoying person, why repeatedly join one?
Shit, maybe Stan has finally opened his wallet and we are all fucking wrong!
Honestly, who gives a flying fuck? Why would anyone need to know why we have signed 3 top class signings?
Can we get back to enjoying the good vibes n shit please?
Fuck me, sorry everyone.
Exactly, JonJon.
And yeah – I meant stage 2 after we were told we weren’t gonna have much money for a little bit. Exactly.
Duke I made the mistake of looking at Gunnerblog,I wont be making it again.
Henristic;
I know dude, maybe our ‘styles’ just clash? Fuck knows, but its all niether here nor there innit really. And forgotten about, well as far as I am concerned anyway.
the profits from kolo and ade helped pay for AA as well as putting it with the money from Highbury and we put it towards a 130mil lump sum payment to rbs…
You can be a bit dull Henristic – he has a point.
Night!
Good breakdown on the Song situation by Passenal. Let’s hope it works out. He’s an important player for us.
I’d be delighted if we went into the season with the current squad. Let’s hang onto RvP, Song, and Theo. Happy if Arshavin stays on as well.
Quality, depth, competition, rotation= Arsenal’s best season since 07-08, maybe since 03-04! Why not? Maybe we get the league cup early, have the depth and freshness to avoid a winter/spring drop off, go deep in the FA cup and CL competitions while challenging for and ultimately winning the league. If we can defend a bit better, I think our attack looks very powerful. Purple double, as Aman might say.
I am genuinely excited to see Cazorla play for us. I hope he adapts well and quickly, providing the creativity and a bit of fantasy that was missing last year, at least to me apart from RvP up front. He should be reconsidering now if he has an honest bone in his body–clever Spanish midfielder to feed you delightful through balls… what more do you want?!
Ewww gunnerblog, no thanks. GilbertoSilver is a decent blogger but the posters there are just fucked up, even more so than henris…. Oops!
Evil/Limpar,
I agree that the Queensland development and ticket prices are somewhat plausible explanations for an increase in funds available to spend.
But there have been equally plausible revenue increases in the past (player sales, for instance) that didn’t lead to such transfer market activities. Why now?
Out of interest, did either of you think we would spend this much, in this manner (without having to sell first) at the beginning of the summer? Or is this a bit of hindsight talking?
and after all this weve still been getting CL
imagine what we do when the man goes out and gets the top talents?
this reminds me of the build up to the invincible year..
over the 2000-01 summers i think, we bought the likes of edu, bertie, lauren, pires, wiltord, kolo etc etc
one year we even spent 30mil..
the years after that squad was built were amazing..
hope we can get that feeling again..
im very excited to be honest
i always go into the new season thinking we’ll win something but i do actually think this squad is capable of PL..
Project youth is not dead but its being replaced by a hybrid “middle ground” model that relies mainly on experienced proven players and supplements the squad with youth from the academy and an occasional exceptional outside youth like the Ox. Seems like the ideal system to me. Kudos to the boss for heading in this direction.
Hahaha Limpar,
We can’t all be as interesting as Dexter now, can we?
Cheers.
Another thing is that adding quality experience to the squad like we’re doing now doesn’t guarantee trophies or any such thing. But if at the end of the season we fall short, it won’t be because we didn’t spend what we clearly could afford.
JJ;
Thats how I see it too man. AW hasnt been able to go out and spend like that, till now. But now he can and he has done.
Henristic and dear ol Bill can believe what the hell they like, it’s unimportant really.
The important shit is we have a serious squad right now and the season should be an exciting ride.
Why is it so hard for some to believe that Arsene really thought our previous squads were good enough to challenge for trophies? He didn’t HAVE to spend money just because he has it. I know he’s criticised for that, but so what? He clearly had funds. We were declaring profit after tax ffs.
Some of the key players he based those squads on have jumped ship so he’s left with two choices, rebuild or go back to the tried and tested approach. In my opinion he chose the 2nd option a couple of seasons later than he should have but its was/is his prerogative. He might have done so and still we don’t win anything.
LimestoneGunner (10.27) – agree 100%; if we can keep the squad together (ie, retain Song, Walcott, Arshavin, RvP and get Jack and Diaby back firing on all six cylinders) then I feel very confident about our ability to challenge on all four fronts.
It certainly makes fiscal sense for us to plan for long runs into all competitions as the match day revenues on all our home ties are very significant.
The new NextGen Series will also make positive contributions to the coffers.
As our debts wind down, even incremental increases in income become ever-more significant. As we feed in the benefits of enhanced TV money alongside our new sponsorship deals AW’s ability to build and build (rather than simply replace) will in turn grow and grow.
Where the club scores disproportionately compared to any other club on the planet is in AW’s incredible abilities to pay sensible sums for top, top players. As the monetary surpluses grow, AW’s ability to ratchet up the amounts he pays will also make for ever-interesting times and the transfer window will be something we can all look forward to without dread.
But Dexter and others are absolutely correct; none of this should be taking anyone by surprise and even the most casual observers of the club have been expecting this to happen.
It’s one of the fundamental reasons most on ACLF are so appalled by the Dein driven Doomer Cult that has emerged in recent times; our touchiness on the subject is also somewhat predictable.
Oh give it a fucking rest henristic. You are chatting shit, as usual
Dull, boring shit at that.
Sent me to sleep, laters Andrew.
Night Dex.
“But Dexter and others are absolutely
correct; none of this should be taking
anyone by surprise and even the most
casual observers of the club have been
expecting this to happen.”
Really? What casual observers expected us to spend this much on 3 experienced pros while hardly recouping any of the funds spent yet (through players sales)? I read this blog and most of the comments just about everyday and never encountered what you’ve claimed before all these signings.
I do recall few posters hypothesizing that we may start seeing the opening of the purse strings, but only in 2014 after new major commercial deals are signed. One opposing argument was that there was no need to wait till 2more years, since the those increased revenues were pretty much assured.
Night Dex
Henristic – you’d need one far better informed than me to give you detail but I’m surprised that you appear so taken aback by the gradual loosening of the purse strings.
I’ve no idea what your actual expectations are/were but surely you weren’t expecting 2014 to dawn to a chorus of a stream of high value purchases with little happening in the run up?
Gradual AA?
What’s gradual about the number of pros we’ve signed in last 2 summers? Arteta, Mert, Santos, Poldi, and Cazorla. Without recouping anything major yet, mind.
Seriously, did you expect this number, class and manner of signings?
You’d notice its not just even really their prices that surprise me. Its the manner we’ve done it.
Last post should read “It’s not even really their price tags…”
Unlike others, I believe we’ve had the amounts we’re spending now for a few seasons, so no real surprise there.
Apart from a few bob here and there for Nas & Fab, presumably …
@Henristic
The only thing for that has been surprising about our transfer activity is that so far we haven’t sold a lot of players. I was always expecting us to be in the market for a striker and a creative midfielder because besides Rosicky (and Arshavin, to an extent) we have no one who can play there. I was a bit surprised we signed two strikers, but if we look at the context, as a pre-caution and to strengthen our hand no matter what Robin does, it makes a lot of sense.
But you are acting like what’s happening right now has never happened before when in fact, say, in 08/09, we spent a similar amount on new players while only really selling Hleb to make up for it. I think we made a transfer deficit of -15 or 20 million that season. If we would manage to sell all the players we want to sell at this point (I assume that’s Bendtner, Arshavin, Squilacchi, Vela, Chamakh, Park) we would be looking at a similar figure for our net spending. I think the only difference in our spending this season compared to before is that we are able to outlay a bit more cash. But this could have several reasons. It should also be noted that we have a guaranteed CL spot without any of that qualification round bs that allows us to already plan ahead with the CL money.
theres been mistakes henristic..
everyone saw it all imploded last year, everyone felt it.
but heres the thing..
look at the squad now..
as it stands none of the past matters.fuck it
im fucking drooling at the thought of cazorla and arteta combining in our midfield and a load of shit hot strikers..all hells going to break loose its going to be 80% possession and 3-0 up after 20mins again..
proper wengerball..
look forward fella..
Evil,
Assuming your figures are correct, what sort of new players did we sign then compared to now? Do you not agree there’s a significant change in type of players coming in now?
At least you agree that our not waiting to sell is also kinda surprising, but of course understandable from hindsight.
That we signed such quality replacement(s) for RvP in anticipation of his leaving is also not very typical (look what happened with Cesc), but again understandable under the circumstances.
JJ,
I am excited about the coming season. Do I have to repeat that everyday or something?
Andrew,
You didn’t answer my question at 11.31pm though…
nah man
but that doesnt mean you can chat shit every day either
weve just signed cazorla dude..stop being a grumpy sod, thats georges job, and lets not go to bed angry with eachother…
get a jeremy on your chevvy.
I’m with JJ and have indeed found myself looking forward to Carzola and Arteta linking up and even the most jaundiced of Gooner must have a spring in their step today, our options look incredible even if RVP goes. Our front three alone could mix and match Theo/Ox/Gerv/Carzola on the right Poldi/Giroud/RVP? in the middle and Poldi/Arsh/Gerv/Carzola, that looks pretty tidy on paper.
Maybe Cazorla will be deployed in the midfield, maybe RVP stays but I think the three new signings build on the much derided transfer activity of last year. Who’ll be our star next season i’m going to tell you all right here tonight the one and only Mikel Arteta. Oh and Songs agent can fuck right off £15million for Song to Barca on the never never. In the history of football never has one club owed so much in outstanding transfers mostly to us by the way, their fucking broke infact their insane if they think they can land Song for £15 million. Infact if I were Arsenal i’d simply leek the amount of money they still owe us and embarass the state sponsored, debt ridden Catalans. I wouldn’t be suprised if they still owe us money from Hleb and Henry ffs.
Today’s post: Cazorla Signs & Is Our Song Off Ki With Replacements Cheikhou’d Out? http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=9058