[law90026]

Originally Posted by daedalus

i do not see how it is "another season of struggling to hold on to our better players" when this is really the first time that there has been a major exodus against mr. wenger's wish. the only two players who have really left previously when mr. wenger has not been willing or ready to let them go has been anelka and cole.

See transfer saga of Viera and Henry. While they might not have left, it's hard to argue that they didn't perform at their best the season after the rumours started.

Put it another way, there is no way Hleb or Adebayor can play as well as last year and they are leaving now, it's just a question of when. And that hurts because these are good players (albeit with their own flaws) and the club should be building on to last season's success instead of having to find new players to replace them again.

even ignoring that, if/when hleb and adebayor leave, i fully expect mr. wenger to buy a replacement for them. in much the same manner as he did with buying eduardo to replace henry when he was sold. and i would prefer that they do leave, given the lack of class they have shown. we do not need anyone who does not wish to be with us.

I have my reservations about AW's transfer policy to be honest. I think he's caught in the past when transfer fees were somewhat reasonable. Unfortunately things have moved on since and he doesn't want to pay what the current market insists is the going rate for top notch players. I don't disagree that Adebayor and Hleb should go because of the way they have handled the situation but, at the same time, I don't think Arsenal handled the matter very well either.

Let's take Adebayor for example: the rumour was that we wanted to sell for 36 million. Now it appears that figure is far-fetched and the likely price will be around 22 or so million pounds. It makes the club weak or appear to be weak.

thus far, i am perfectly satisfied with the summer. the only thing that would make me happier would be for adebayor, hleb, gallas and eboue to find new addresses and 3 players of the sagna/eduardo brought in - a striker especially if barazite does spend a year on loan, an attacking midfielder who can play out wide right and a defender who is able to play left back at the premiership level. if gilberto silva also leaves, i would like an extra defensive-minded midfielder.

And here's the other concern I have with Wenger's transfer policy (I hope he proves me wrong!). He doesn't necessarily buy to replace, because he has faith in his youngsters. This coupled with his failure to keep his word (he had promised replacements within before Euro 2008) and the suggestion that Arsenal has to sell every year (the interview Wenger gave which, to date, has not been rebutted by anyone) suggests there are perhaps fundamental problems behind the scenes right now. I don't see Wenger buying another 4 players .. it's just not his way and I just hope that the players we have coming back (Vela, RvP, Rosicky) will be sufficient.

Now if he would go out and buy Aguero and Barry, I would be a happy man