All in all the window could have been worse. We keep Sanchez and have Lacazette, so looking forward to them playing together providing Wenger decides to. We haven't strengthened enough to make a dent in the PL but should have a good chance in the Europa. I don't think Sanchez will throw a strop as he's got to keep sharp for the up coming World Cup. The only thing left is the dressing room issue, can Wenger resolve this and get the players to pick it up?
After Sunday I really expect Arsenal to go all out in the remaining days of the window. To leave the bid until 4pm today, while the player is away on international duty is simply bizarre. I thought we liked to make things complicated!
There is something weird there. The Chile game kicks off over 3 hours after the France game and yet Sanchez was seemingly able to move. It makes no sense. It wouldn't surprise me if this whole saga comes alive again after the France game is over.
Sky are saying that the Clubs had agreed the fee (no surprise at 92m) but that Lemar said no. If that's true he's staying put as apparently Liverpool have no interest, despite rumours. He's young, so has plenty of time to move. Add to that, with it being a WC cup year, he probably wants to be in the CL shop window.
This transfer window... Well in terms of outs, it could have been worse. We only sold oxlade chamberlain that was a first team regular, and I'm not too bothered by that. However, we ended with a profit, which is disgusting...it appears the club is taking the fans for a ride. The most worrying thing by far is that our team morale is at an all time low, I was hoping this could have been addressed by selling Sanchez and bringing in someone else. The other overall theme is the club does not seem to be communicating with us as to what's going on, nor do the people dealing with contracts know what they're doing. We still have 2 players (arguably our best) out of contract in 10 months. And finally the manager. We all know about that. It's blatantly obvious now that he should not have gotten a contract, if it wasn't before. Also kroenke out.
The owner and the board at Arsenal need to go. They have consistently failed to keep our best players and failed to land our top targets. Their approach to player contracts is amateurish and they have overseen a complete mess at Arsenal, where our best players are allowed to run down their contracts and we panic trying to tie them down at the last minute. When we can't do that, we then panic in the transfer window and we still can't get deals over the line It's a total shambles. Kronke isn't even on the scene when it counts, a complete lack of leadership. There is clearly a power struggle between Gazidis and Wenger and the others on the board seem inept and ineffective. We have become a laughing stock and the **** storm surrounding the club is clearly affecting the players performances on the pitch. This summer we were promised radical changes and fresh new direction at the club. We've ended up at the end of the window in more of a mess than we ended the last season in. The next two years are going to see more of the same old **** at Arsenal, because these clowns in charge are completely inept at running the club.
My only hope is that we ended the season in transfer profit because we are storing money for next summer when ozil and Sanchez are off on free transfers and we know we have to replace them somehow.
Fingers crossed for a last minute Draxler signing. You have to ask yourself how disruptive this whole Sanchez Saga is for the team. Not sure if its really better to have ket him - I can see him being a right moody **** over the next few weeks. I'm 99% confident had we gone in with such a large bid for Lemar earlier in the window we would have signed him.
In some ways I feel sorry for Wenger. He was really damned if he let him go and damned if he kept him. We always struggle to sign ready made top players, so actually replacing him was going to be tough. Everybody is going mad and saying it is a dreadful window, but it is tough to work out a realistically possible set of transfers that would have made all fans happy. We are all too divided on our opinions about individual players and prospects, and I am suspicious that there are a significant number of fans that are so pissed off that they are going to hate anything Wenger or the club does on principle.
Well, Apparently City are furious after not getting Sanchez. If it pissed them off, I'm at least happy about something this transfer window.
You have to say that it is a result of us dicking around yet again. There was a point earlier in the window when Lemar had agreed personal terms with Arsenal but Monaco didn't want to accept our offer. Then at the last minute we go in with an huge offer that Monaco can't turn down, but the player then doesn't want to come. If we'd just have gone in with a £60m offer at the start of the window, we probably would have got the deal done. Saved £32m on our latter offer and actually got the player to agree to come. I'd like to think Arsenal would learn from this experience, but sadly it isn't the first time this has happened and with this current lot in charge I doubt it will be the last.
Lemar is a smart boy, he has seen the way Arsenal have gone about signing him this summer and can clearly tell that we are a shambles of a club, and he wants no part of it, he will impress again this season and move to a proper team next summer for a huge fee.
As ever an excellent take on things by Martin Samuel in todays Daily Fail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4841902/Lunatic-clubs-make-meal-deadline-day.html