Let's talk about Cesc baby...all summer long

Zubi said today that we won't be signing anyone if we don't get cesc and will rely on the cantera, so i don't believe that rumor.

Why would you get another CM instead of a Toure replacement? I can understand if its because Cesc is coming back but failing that, a backup DM should be your priority shouldn't it? What would you do with Arteta next year if Cesc does indeed return?

Yes to Arteta

Great signing...versatile player at a reasonable price. Suggested it last year too. Make it happen Rosell. If you look hard enough, his blue Everton shirt almost looks like the Brazil away shirt

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Interesting comments from Gaspart:

My advice, and that's what I've told him (Rosell), is that this will end by catching the plane to London and sitting down face to face with Wenger. Not by telephone, not with intermediaries - this has to be resolved with a meeting in person.

"Rosell must not be scared. If he fails, the whole world will understand but no-one will be able to say that he didn't try until the end. This fear that he is going to fail - he shouldn't have it.

"It's very difficult for Arsenal to want to keep a player who doesn't want to stay.

"The English are very English, very hard at the time of negotiating. Moreover, Mr Wenger, as a good Frenchman, knows how to play his cards.

"I have seen him in negotiations and he has ended up selling. You have to meet him face to face to know if he is bluffing.

Ties in with an article from Marca yesterday (albeit with no sources) that people close to Cesc are actually unhappy with Barça...they feel Barça have not done enough to sign Cesc

gaspart is the last man to be giving someone advise about signings

Even if I could live with Arteta leaving Everton for Barcelona and Everton would probably got enough money to buy a proper replacement, I somehow doubt it will happen. And like Jaime pointed out, I have no idea what Barca would do with Arteta next summer, if Fabregas would be bought, plus Thiago/JDS will be pushing more and more for a midfield spots as well.

Also, maybe not in the biggest games, but I could easily see Arteta playing as DM, since his defensive game is very underrated, he has excellent positional sense, he's relatively tough and for last 2 years he was playing very deep for Everton, doing a lot defensively.

Here is an excellent video on Arteta from 2008/2009 season, after he was moved by Moyes to play deep in central midfield - http://vimeo.com/7819847

arteta only makes sense, if cesc isn't coming for 2-3 seasons.

Alternatively, Arsenal could sign Arteta, sell Cesc to Barça, use the spare 25-30m for a goalkeeper and defenders, and everyone's happy (except Everton). Arteta plays a bit deeper than Cesc in midfield so not a direct replacement, but it's ok since Nasri can play as the AM and Diaby's going to have his breakthrough season.

I don't see Wenger paying enough money to meet Everton's valuation of Arteta. He would probably decide to replace Febregas with Nasri/Ramsey/Rosicky combination.

fcb wrote:Alternatively, Arsenal could sign Arteta, sell Cesc to Barça, use the spare 25-30m for a goalkeeper and defenders, and everyone's happy (except Everton). Arteta plays a bit deeper than Cesc in midfield so not a direct replacement, but it's ok since Nasri can play as the AM and Diaby's going to have his breakthrough season.

You should do stand ups Kas.

Your last sentence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f0FF1A8hJA

Wenger let the boy go.

Fuck sake what a c**t Wenger is being you're destroying the poor kid

WENGER IS A DISGRACE!

lazio just signed hernanes for 10m euros, thats a great price we should have went for him.

Messiah wrote:lazio just signed hernanes for 10m euros, thats a great price we should have went for him.

Does he have an EU passport? Because you are already at the limit. Unless Dani Alves got his spanish citizenship already?

shouldnt have signed a long term contract then he only has himself to blame.

Messiah wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f0FF1A8hJA

Wenger let the boy go.

I hope that one day in the next 5 years a club tries to tap up Messi (maybe Man City, who can offer him £500,000 a week if they want to), to see what reaction you guys have to that.

I'm already resigned to losing messi at some point.

S4P wrote:

Messiah wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f0FF1A8hJA

Wenger let the boy go.

I hope that one day in the next 5 years a club tries to tap up Messi (maybe Man City, who can offer him £500,000 a week if they want to), to see what reaction you guys have to that.

I'd also love to see whether Messi comes out in press conferences implying "I want to leave for Man. City, it's where I belong".

What proof do you have that Barça tapped up Cesc? There's no evidence that I know of that the board or coach has spoken to the player directly, which afaik is considered the definition of tapping up. Talks have probably taken place with the agent, but that's normal.

As far as I can see, the only things that are in public all indicate that it's Cesc who's desperate to move.

And if he really was tapped up by Barça, who the fuck are Arsenal to complain, considering they (allegedly) did it to Barça when he was 16. You already saw our angry reactions back then S4P, so that should give you some idea




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Not sure about Hernanes anymore, he's basically floated around without getting the big move yet that his talent supposedly deserves. So it seems to me like we fell for the usual Brazilian agent hype when they want big money for a player from a European club.

S4P wrote:

Messiah wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f0FF1A8hJA

Wenger let the boy go.

I hope that one day in the next 5 years a club tries to tap up Messi (maybe Man City, who can offer him £500,000 a week if they want to), to see what reaction you guys have to that.

Barca fans already know that feeling, mate. Ronaldo. If that was too long ago then: Figo.

The "hostile acquisition" of Cesc is not as bad as those two transfers... Its unfortunately a part of football these days. Even top clubs can lose their stars...

"The only real solution would have been if he [Fabregas] had never left,” said the Barca director in comments reported by Marca, citing Cesc's departure from Catalunya at the age of 16.

Finally someone at the club says it

He might not have turned out to be any good though. Sitting on the bench for all that time.

An obvious point that arguably isn't made enough amid all the steam of Catalan self-righteousness. He's been an important player for us since he was seventeen for fuck's sake, that wasn't something that would ever have been on the table in Barcelona. How convenient for them now to turn up and say "but he is so self-evidently one of us" now that he is something approaching the finished article, and then have the nerve to scoff at the idea that anyone might dare to cavil.

If he was an important player for you at 17 it stands to reason that he already had the ability when he first joined the club. It's not as if Wenger suddenly taught him how to pick a pass.

Arsenal fans trying to lay claim to his development.

It's a point almost embarrassing in its obviousness as I say. That he had the talent is not in question, but to talk as if the fact that he has had the opportunity to take on such an important role from such an early age and grow into it is completely irrelevant, and that Arsenal football club is similarly irrelevant in that, is laughable. You can roll your eyes all you like.

What I find funny is the spectacle of Barcelona fans vicariously claiming as "theirs" (they're fans for fuck's sake, they don't work at the club) a player who they probably hadn't even heard of when he left them at sixteen.

You are talking out of your arse. I suppose you haven't heard of kas and Messiah raving about Munriesa, Delofeu, Gai and other youth players "that nobody has heard about".

This idea that he wouldn't have been given an opportunity at Barca is a lie as shown by the fact a that Bojan et al, despite their young age, have given opportunities in the first team.

Cesc is a no show at the Arsenal team photo shoot...

Oooh!!

*apologies in advance because my spanish is rather limited*

"Déjelo ir a casa a su familia, usted los secuestradores crueles!"

Olé wrote:You are talking out of your arse. I suppose you haven't heard of kas and Messiah raving about Munriesa, Delofeu, Gai and other youth players "that nobody has heard about".

This idea that he wouldn't have been given an opportunity at Barca is a lie as shown by the fact a that Bojan et al, despite their young age, have given opportunities in the first team.

Yep. Of course, in the year when Barcelona beat us in the CL final, he would have been playing on the other side had we not poached him.

I'm pretty obsessive, but I'm not quite that tragic that I know every 16-year-old member of our youth team. A quick Google search reveals that Muniesa is 18, at least. Whoopee.

Big 4 Billy Bollocks wrote:Cesc is a no show at the Arsenal team photo shoot...

Oooh!!

*apologies in advance because my spanish is rather limited*

"Déjelo ir a casa a su familia, usted los secuestradores crueles!"

False alarm, he was just late

Allez les rouges wrote:

Olé wrote:You are talking out of your arse. I suppose you haven't heard of kas and Messiah raving about Munriesa, Delofeu, Gai and other youth players "that nobody has heard about".

This idea that he wouldn't have been given an opportunity at Barca is a lie as shown by the fact a that Bojan et al, despite their young age, have given opportunities in the first team.

Yep. Of course, in the year when Barcelona beat us in the CL final, he would have been playing on the other side had we not poached him.

I'm pretty obsessive, but I'm not quite that tragic that I know every 16-year-old member of our youth team. A quick Google search reveals that Muniesa is 18, at least. Whoopee.

But surely you have heard of at least a couple of the most promising ones? People on this board have been talking about Wilshere for a couple of years and he's only 18 now.

I think you are right in that at the time he left Arsenal were giving him an opportunity that he wouldn't get at Barcelona. Because as much as Messiah will deny this Barcelona have not been giving opportunities to their canteranos for all of history. Around the time Cesc left they were still bringing players like Rochemback, Quaresma, Edmilson, Davids, Riquelme, Deco, etc. Really only Puyol and Xavi (and maybe Valdes, can't remember when he finally broke through) were in the first team. If he stayed at Barcelona he probably wouldn't have gotten a chance with the first team until much later. And then he'd still have been behind Xavi, Deco, Iniesta, etc. (much like he will be still, if he goes back).

That said, Ole's point should be well taken. Obviously if he was good enough to play in Arsenal's first team straight away at age 16 then it's clear Barcelona gave him enough in the five or six years he was in la masia. Unless Wenger has some magic dust that nobody is aware of.