Gone For A Song

deledudu - I understand your sentiments, but getting attached to players is a natural consequence of supporting Arsenal. If Giroud or Podolski start banging in the goals, they'll be the next RvP. I can't help but feel despondent about things at the moment. When we played Cologne last week and had Song and RvP there, it felt that we actually had a squad that could challenge for the title. A week later and it doens't feel like that anymore as we have a pretty much new team that is going to take time to gel. I can almost sense in Arsene Wenger a sadness, a feeling that his vision for the club and game has gone, as losing both Song and RvP in such a short space of time must be hurting him more than anyone, he that used to purr about Cesc and RvP. Anyway, the only thing that matters is results and need to find a way of winning games in any style and getting a confidence boosting start to the season because I feel if we don't it will be very hard to come back like last season.

I also think the fee is a bit paltry as well TBH. We should have tried to squeeze a bit more out of those Blaugrana ********s.

Mr. Stillman, I was recently reading in the VitalArsenal archives (don't ask me why) and came over this: http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=40069 "I hope Alex Song leaves Arsenal and makes himself into a world beater elsewhere. If he was to score a goal to knock us out of Europe, then the universe would only be delivering sweet, sugary justice that would turn to acid in the mouths of the idiots." Your words. A bit ironic now that he's gone! ;) Though of course I agree with what you wrote...

If Barcelona paid 15 million for song then I seriously have to question the sanity of their board :P. I am not a fan of Song and I would not be surprised if the alleged fallout was over tactics, Wenger wanting Song to play more as a traditional DM. If we go out and buy a true DM like M'Vila or Capue we will be so much stronger. Can you picture one of those two with Jack or Arteta by his side? They would Boss any midfield in the prem including Man *****ty.

deledudu The best way to describe this is by a comment on a football blog I read somewhere. Footballers = Millionaires without honor...

Sahin deal done according to John Cross. He's been one of the more reliable journos this summer.

"not"

Good review of the game yesterday: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11096/8001621/Seamless-Santi

If we get Sahin, I don't think we need M'Vila. I'm a massive fan of Sahin and AW has always favoured midfielders with some creative ability, not completely defensive ones. I'd be pretty chuffed with our transfer business if get Sahin and keep hold of Walcott, even with RVP leaving. Think we are a stronger team overall than last season and think we can challenge for trophies.

I agree about M'Vila. Sahin will probably play a deeper role similar to Jack a couple years ago or Busquets for Barcelona.

I don't think we need a no-nonsense tough tackling midfielder like a De Jong or Scott Parker. If everyone's fully fit we will probably have a midfield 3 of Sahin, Arteta and Cazorla. Sahin and Arteta will share the defensive duties between them, giving Cazorla more of a free role and I think that should be enough defensively. We also have 3 very good passers of the ball that can then unlock defences. The important thing is that every player presses the opposition when we don't have ball to win it back, like Barca do.

He's not even a liverfool fan, he's just a xenophobic cock.

*Even if we don't get another striker, I'd like to see Arsene try a 4-4-2 sometime with Podolski and Giroud up front. Maybe in a cup game later in the season.

His comments just go to show how fu(king anti arsenal the media/pundits are.....all I kept hearing last night was "rvp would have scored that". I actually think as a collective we are much stronger now then last season. In song we haven't exactly lost a DM. Song was about as effective at tackling as Paul scholes. Look at our bench last year and look at it now....even more so in a couple of months with jack back. Arteta, wilshere and cazorla as a middle three im struggling to think of a team with a stronger middle 3....with rosicky, diaby and sahin for back up.....not forgetting ox can play in there. Gervinho looks like the real deal. I'm actually really excited about this new chapter. We have a very strong squad, maybe a decent right back as back up for sagna would be nice but I'm certainly not going to spit my dummy out if we don't make anymore signings. I rate sahin highly, he was the most valuable player in the bundesLiga last year so he's no mug. Wenger knows we need like for like quality on the bench to challenge for silverware and we have not had that for a long time. Last year our bench was a joke, especially the first half of the season. I think most of our core players bar Walcott are on long term contracts now which means we can't get held to ransom like nasri and rvp. I think a top 3 finish is not beyond this team.

If we bring Sahin in I'll quite happily forget Song every existed. Decent player, but as I've said countless times, he's by far the dopiest footballer ever to exist. Billy big balls will find out what kind of a player he is when he gets to Camp Nou. An avergae one. And we'll be all the better for it I think. Sahin in and I'll be well chuffed.

Looks like a big clear out is a-foot. Maybe someone has suggested to AW it's not good to have too many under-achievers in the squad so he's getting rid of most of the players that have proved consistently that they are not good enough at the very top level.It's about time IMO - sometimes I wondered how the F*** certain players ever got to pull the shirt on in the first place.

While the game is dictated by money and player wages nothing will change. Every summer the Billionaire club will look to strip us and the other closer rivals of the best players to weaken them. While nothing is done about this, the league will stumble on until fans outside the big three get bored and pressure for a containment of this money virus killing the game become essential. Players are now developed and sold as commodities to the monopolists with the biggest cheque book and highest pay packet without the balance of any sort of commercial reality. This game is now in a mess.

Talk about hypocrisy!Damn you guys are hilarious,are you seriously complaining that a richer club takes away your players?Erm...where did those players come from exactly?How many of the players in your team were in your academy at age 15 and below?Didn't they leave other selling clubs,like yourselves, because of the pull of more money and fame?Please stop embarrassing yourselves like this!

Alex I ain't Complaining about anything mate. And I think your point is about 1 persons opinion, so why exaggerate the fact? But to counteract Your argument I think the original point made was regarding sugar daddy oil rich clubs, now if your comparing us to them, then your comparing every team in the football league to them, they all scout for youngsters to join there teams! You must be a sugar daddy supporter.....either that or a sour grapes spud. Arteta actually took a wage cut to play for arsenal. Podolski was offered untold rubles to play for the Russians, even giroud was wanted by abramovich.....I'm sure he could have doubled his wages at Chelsea. We will never pay 30 million pounds for a player and we don't pay 15 year olds 200 grand a week.....15 year olds join our club to develop as footballers, if they want the pull of money and fame then they join city. Your argument is null and void.