AyeDubbleYoo

And the last thing Wenger needs is another creative midfielder.

Yes and no imo. We look a bit more settled in defence, we look to have a decent pair of wingers this time around, and Carroll may be able to get 10+ goals this year if we're lucky. However, Harper looks too easy to beat, we have a clear problem with the right back slot, our midfielders are all very slow, lacking in creativity, and none of them are good at protecting the back defense, and aside from Carroll, we're probably going to be hopeless in attack. Furthermore, if we get a couple of injuries to the likes of Jonas/Enrique/Carroll, we're probably fucked. True, but we had all of the those problems last time around. I'm not saying we're brilliant, I'm just saying we're better than before. Bearing in mind that if we had managed to pick up a single point more over 38 games, we would have survived last time anyway. It could go wrong, but it could easily go fine.

That's quite a swing in opinions, based on not very much at all. how? i see nothing that suggest's he is backing the team and manager as things stand But how has that changed since January? Jan = Mike is alreet, he's trying to invest. August = Mike is a cunt, he's taking the piss.

Have you not just imagined that? We don't really know what the asking price is, what we have offered or what Ashley has done or not done. We always knew our transfer budget was tiny, to even be linked with a £5m player was a major surprise. We probably always wanted him on loan only.

That's quite a swing in opinions, based on not very much at all.

City are losers in this anyway, they should have just played him... he's a very good player in the Prem still.

FFS, can we stop talking about relegation one game into a brand new season? It's depressing as fuck.

That always got me So it's terrible and unforgivable when we have no fight and no team spirit, but when we do have some it doesn't make any difference? That's weird. It's nice to have fight and team spirit, but it doesn't act as a substitute for quality. I agree to a certain extent, obviously it's better to have better players. But look at what teams like Stoke and Birmingham have done through organisation and hard work.

That always got me So it's terrible and unforgivable when we have no fight and no team spirit, but when we do have some it doesn't make any difference? That's weird.

We were always very unlikely to get Ben Arfa, surely we all knew that?

TBH, we could easily have ended up with a 3-1 or 4-2 result against Man Utd, and we could end up with another couple of good players by the end of the window. I'm not saying we're great, but it seems the mood has gone sour pretty quickly because of the (apparent) failure to sign Ben Arfa when we were all excited about it.

Also, gambling by spending costs money, gambling by not spending costs nothing.

He's class, if available we should be looking. I doubt he'll leave Man Utd on loan though, he was breaking through a bit towards the end of the season. Is he really that good ?? I know a few Manure fans and they all reckon that apart from having a cracking shot on him he's got very little else. That said that's still more than what Smith has in his locker! Talking of Stoke rumours going round that we're after Fuller I've been very impressed whenever I've seen him. He seems strong and mobile enough, good range of passing as well. Obviously I'd have to defer to Man Utd fans like, I've haven't seen him that often. Fuller tore us to shreds last time didn't he, that was embarrassing.

we may have a better team, but the team that went down had far more quality On paper yes, but they never performed or tried, did they? IMO we're better equipped to stay up than last time.

We're still a significantly better side than we were when we went down, and even then we only got relegated by a point.

Then go and get yourself a fucking car! I've got a car!

He's class, if available we should be looking. I doubt he'll leave Man Utd on loan though, he was breaking through a bit towards the end of the season.

If we were signing the players Blackpool are signing we would be giving the club dog's abuse.

Would have fancied Stephen Ireland. I would honestly be tempted to just play Vuckic from now on... he must offer more than Nolan.

Also, Hughton knew the situation before he took the job, so there's no reason for him to walk out or to try to force Ashley's hand.

Possibly, but I doubt Perch is a very good left winger.

Have to agree, he's one of our most dangerous players and one of the only one that actually occupies the opposition when we attack. He also puts a lot of work in tracking back etc (barring the hair arranging incident).

Barton and Smith do get far too harshly treated for relatively minor fouls. There were a couple against Man Utd for sure.

Journalism is dead Dave, it's a fact. Nowadays seven or eight papers reporting a story is as much value as one, because they're just reprinting what they read on someone else's blog... or quoting another journo saying he 'understands' something to be happening. it's madness that these people are professionals.

Aye, I am surprised by the LB thing, although signing a player who is prepared to be back-up to a player as young as Enrique is obviously a challenge. But then again we were equally threadbare in other positions before we made some decent signings. With Taylor's fitness we were in need of at least 1 CB, and before the signing of Routledge we had zero right wingers. I'm not saying we've been amazing in the transfer market, but with the low budget we've set ourselves we have managed to make some decent additions. Fingers crossed for the rest of the window.