Your ideal transfer window in Hindsight

[GDeep™]

I would have done a Daniel Levy on Cesc Fabregas, Barca pay 50M or Cesc stays. The Cesc Saga for me was a cancer really, made us look weak all round.

 

[Hunta]

Yeah, we bent over for them big time, Wenger was a key part of it as well.

 

[Anzac]

AW was THE major player from our side of the fence as much as Fabregas.

Don't forget Fabregas said that AW had to convince the BoD to sell AND then to accept Barca's offer as the BoD wanted an offer of 50m to even open negotiations.

I don't think DD would have let it happen & if so we'd have done a helluva lot better & not just in regards to the Fabregas deal.
IMO it's almost like they got blinded by the $$$ signs after the initial sales to City (which was also a sign of weakness IMO).

These deals may have made good financial sense re generating profits,
but they were ALL p*ss poor football deals for the team.
Not only did we sell senior squad players but we also didn't replace ANY of them at level.

 

[FinnGooner]

Your numbers are off, we didn't spend that much and we don't have the imaginary transfer budget that's talked about.

That been said, buy Mata, Cazorla and Cabaye in summer 2011 and maybe Ba on a free. Still buy Arteta, Chamberlain and Mertesacker. Don't buy Gervinho/Park/Santos. Net total around 60-65million so I've cheated a bit but I'd counter that by spending less in 11/12. I've also left a glaring gap at LB

In Summer 2012 I'd go for Michu for 2m obviously, probably not get Giroud as a result. I'm not sure that's a good move actually even though Michu started better. I'd still get Podolski, maybe look at Dembele and Vertonghen

Fantasy stuff

Add Wilshere to that list and we'd have quite the midfield:

 

[ArsenesNO1Fan]

AW was THE major player from our side of the fence as much as Fabregas.

Don't forget Fabregas said that AW had to convince the BoD to sell AND then to accept Barca's offer as the BoD wanted an offer of 50m to even open negotiations.

I don't think DD would have let it happen & if so we'd have done a helluva lot better & not just in regards to the Fabregas deal.
IMO it's almost like they got blinded by the $$$ signs after the initial sales to City (which was also a sign of weakness IMO).

These deals may have made good financial sense re generating profits,
but they were ALL p*ss poor football deals for the team.
Not only did we sell senior squad players but we also didn't replace ANY of them at level.

We don't know what went on behind closed doors but AW may have made a gentleman's agreement with Cesc 'stay another year and then you can go', Barce found out and took advantage of it and AW kept his word :cry:

 

[mavelous]

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but obviously Mata. **** happens in football, you lose Cesc, you lose Ronaldo, Petit and Overmars leave. hell you lose Luis Figo and Laudrup. but you have to bounce back and come back stronger.

The Nasri money should've been spent on Mata. immediate improvement not only like-for-like, but also overall quality of the team. the board must've known nasri was leaving all along, nasri money alone would've been enough. especially if we hadn't wasted 10mil in gervinho.

The problem is becoming more and more of a transfer policy gone wrong, where we don't have control over our fate anymore. in the past you'd replace anelka with henry, overmars with pires, petit with vieira. now we're getting worse and worse. until last year we were riding at the back of success built before or around emirates move. cesc and rvp were brought in 2004. rosicky, song and walcott 2006. sagna in 2007, well i guess except for wilshere and nasri.