*Official* English Football Season 2015-16

[Cabinet96]

When was the last time they finished below a smaller or poorer club than themselves? They've performed above-average for 7 or 8 years in a row while turning a profit and occasionally breaking the top 4. You can pick out individual mistakes or PR blunders but results say they're doing reasonably well.

Yeah, Tottenham definitely get a raw deal for what they've done in the last five or so years IMO. Realistically as soon as City got rich you wouldn't expect them to get top 4 and they've managed to maintain a top 6 place despite miserly net transfer spend. Pretty similar to Arsenal in the Emirates world, albeit at one level below.

 

[grecian]

So there's various rules involved in playing in the tin-pot trophy. You have to play so many players that have played in a lot of the games you've played so far. The fine is 5k, Pompey just ignored it tonight, presumably not caring much about the £5000, just a joke a team can flaunt rules like this.

Anyway means we won I suppose.

 

[Cabinet96]

btw, while Arsenal were out not buying a striker today, Giroud posted this on twitter.

Imagine wanting someone else.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

When was the last time they finished below a smaller or poorer club than themselves? They've performed above-average for 7 or 8 years in a row while turning a profit and occasionally breaking the top 4. You can pick out individual mistakes or PR blunders but results say they're doing reasonably well.

Expecting a balanced viewpoint on Tottenham from Furball (or, in fact, half of this thread) is setting an impossible standard.

It's why I'd rather chat about Colchester than the Premier League in this thread.

 

[Tangles]

Pretty sure ther was a very similar last minute fubar by United with Herrera. Find it hard to believe it's not Woodward. As if LVG would demean himself with lackey work.

The Martial deal is just crazy. A worse deal than getting Fatcow on loan last year. Saw on the BBC someone saying he would barely get 2 games before the media and fans would be on him. Unfortunately that's about right. The price tag and the clubs profile are going to make it hard if he doesn't start like a house on fire.

Would the Arsenal fans have taken him at that price and viewed it as positive?

 

[Cabinet96]

Haven't seen much of him, but I doubt he's better than Giroud now, or will be for at least a couple of years, so it's probably not worth it. I know it's kind of irrelevant given we don't know whether he'll ever play football again at the moment, but United really shouldn't have sold Welbeck.

 

[Cabinet96]

I don't think the Martial deal is awful though. It's something like €50m euros, which some of will be paid over in instalments. A lot of the add on stuff is for stuff like if he wins the PL Golden boot or the Ballon D'Or, the latter of which you'd have to say is really unlikely. Though I guess it's kind of ironic that the more successful he is the more it'll cost, meaning it won't necessarily be better value.

 

[Tangles]

Haven't seen much of him, but I doubt he's better than Giroud now, or will be for at least a couple of years, so it's probably not worth it. I know it's kind of irrelevant given we don't know whether he'll ever play football again at the moment, but United really shouldn't have sold Welbeck.

Agreed. I think LVG did it on the assumption that Di Maria and Fatcow would both work out. Whoops. After seeing the back page that called him Loopy I'm beginning to think of him that way.

 

[cpr]

Yeah it sounds a lot, but we've got one of the hottest young strikers who could go on to be a great player over the next decade for the club, and if thats the case it'll seem a bargain (OK I know I said that about Andy ****ing Carroll, **** off!)

We paid £27m for a kid called Rooney 10 years ago, imagine that at todays prices, reckon it was worth it... just.

People are calling it a panic buy, but utd have tended to spring their transfers out of nowhere in the past, we're just not a club that talks about targets in the way others do. Even when asked directly about players, LVG is being ambiguous about them. Its more than likely we've done our homework over a period (though no-one told Rooney), then decided to go for it once we'd managed to shift Hernandez.

Meanwhile we've got a world class keeper for the rest of this year, and pretty much every fan must be happy about that. De Gea has been professional throughout, and there's no reason to doubt he will be going forward. We all know he wants to go back to Madrid, but the impression I get is that he's OK with seeing out his commitment to the club, but if the chance came to go earlier he'd take it. It hasn't come to pass, so he can focus on having a good season and let his agent sort something out for next year (can't see a Jan move, he'll be cup tied for Europe anyway).

Utd have claimed Madrid tried to change the deal with 90 mins to go of the window. I'm kinda glad we didn't reply to that in time (if thats the case). Its not like we desperately need the transfer money, and a dare say another year of De Gea makes up for the lost money. It may seem a bit harsh on De Gea to stand our ground when Madrid started dicking us about (though as I said above, I think he'll be fine on the pitch still), but it was important for the club to flex its muscles on this. Being bullied by Madrid would send a signal we're weak when it comes to transfers (which would leave us ploughing millions into young 'talent' from overseas..... oh). Standing our ground says we won't be pushed about when it comes to our players (not that we've got many a big club would go for now...)

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

ITT: Delusion.

 

[duffer]

Yeah, too right. Social media unbearable as well. All the usual Wenger Out suspects out in force. The collective sense of entitlement is astounding.

Can you blame them?

 

[The Sean]

I don't think the Martial deal is awful though. It's something like €50m euros, which some of will be paid over in instalments. A lot of the add on stuff is for stuff like if he wins the PL Golden boot or the Ballon D'Or, the latter of which you'd have to say is really unlikely. Though I guess it's kind of ironic that the more successful he is the more it'll cost, meaning it won't necessarily be better value.

I tend to see it the other way, in that the more he ends up costing the better value he'll probably be as paying the add-ons means he will have been awesome.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Can you blame them?

lol

 

[sledger]

Can you blame them?

These are the same people who, after Arsenal signed Cech, were saying they'd win the league. It's just stupid reactionary bull****.

 

[duffer]

What are their arguments and what are your defences?

 

[sledger]

What are their arguments and what are your defences?

Their argument is "Wenger should be sacked because he didn't buy a striker".

There are considerable problems with this position, and I cbf to really get into them.

 

[GIMH]

The way some of the fans speak of Wenger is so unedifying though. I mean, talking generally, I guess a lot of these people who give it large on twitter have grown up with Arsenal as a top 4 side or never known it any other way, always in the Champions League, etc. But who do you think made it that way?

I mean obviously there are ****heads like Piers Morgan who are just plain ungrateful.

Wenger obviously makes mistakes but the thought of Arsenal sacking him is beyond absurd. He goes when he chooses to if Arsenal have any shred of decency as a football club, which tbh I suspect they do.

 

[sledger]

The way some of the fans speak of Wenger is so unedifying though. I mean, talking generally, I guess a lot of these people who give it large on twitter have grown up with Arsenal as a top 4 side or never known it any other way, always in the Champions League, etc. But who do you think made it that way?

I mean obviously there are ****heads like Piers Morgan who are just plain ungrateful.

Wenger obviously makes mistakes but the thought of Arsenal sacking him is beyond absurd. He goes when he chooses to if Arsenal have any shred of decency as a football club, which tbh I suspect they do.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. Can still remember Arsenal's 10th and 12th place finishes in the Prem. There's just such a stupid and inexplicable sense of entitlement amongst so many of the club's supporters these days, who seem to think there's a divine right for the team to be winning everything all the time.

Others seem to just have it in for Wenger for some unknown reason. Like you say, the guy is far from without fault, but there is just no pleasing some people. For the last few years it was "wah, no trophies, sack him." Now that line can't be used anymore it's "wah, he didn't buy a world class forward (the likes of which definitely grow on trees), sack him".

Apparently there was actually an organised protest at the stadium last night, where everyone whined about the lack of transfer activity. It's pathetic.

 

[duffer]

What's the excuse for not buying a single outfield player? If the two clubs above and below us could find better players then I can't see why we shouldn't have been able to. If it's a money issue, then do we accept that we're a tier below the top clubs and be happy with 4th or do we have to consider taking a different approach to how we use our resources (especially given Wenger's statement about FFP being dead) in order to be able to compete properly?

 

[sledger]

What's the excuse for not buying a single outfield player? If the two clubs above and below us could find better players then I can't see why we shouldn't have been able to. If it's a money issue, then do we accept that we're a tier below the top clubs and be happy with 4th or do we have to consider taking a different approach to how we use our resources (especially given Wenger's statement about FFP being dead) in order to be able to compete properly?

Presumably because the desired targets were not available, and spending huge amounts of money on players that would not represent a substantial improvement on the ones already available was not thought to be a particularly advisable course of action.

Let's not forget there is (or at least there was, a few days ago, before everyone started crying) universal consensus that Arsenal's squad was, on balance, extremely capable, and only in need of one or two additions. Just buying new players for the sake of it would have done nothing good.