Topic: Arsenal

[RyanBabel19]

Never seen a goalie come in, be so utterly shit and nervy and yet get so little criticsm as Leno has done this season. He's woeful, spills and flaps throughout so many games

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Yeah he's properly shite, I'd even rate Mignolet and Karius higher than him, they're gonna need a monumental clear out, but so few of their players have a good resale value, gonna cost them a total fortune.

[ScottishGoon]

Never seen a goalie come in, be so utterly shit and nervy and yet get so little criticsm as Leno has done this season. He's woeful, spills and flaps throughout so many games

That's because most Arsenal fans think he's done a decent job in his first season at the club. I've no idea what his stats are like, but from my memory he's certainly saved us way more points than he's cost us.

Sure, there's things he needs to work on, he punches too much, & obviously high balls in general & getting used to the physicality of the league, but I'm not seeing anything in say someone like Kepa that tells me he's 3 times the goalie of Leno.

Add in the fact that unlike Kepa he's not had a settled defence in front of him all season, it's been constant chop & change, & we all know we need 2 improve there. Koscielny is back in form now, & Sokratis was our best defender before that, so the hope when he comes back from injury in the next week or so is that they can form a more stable partnership to see us through to the end of the season.

[Barneylfc∗]

400k a week for Ramsey 

[deFacto please, you bastards]

400k a week for Ramsey 

 

[Chris~]

Good for him/his agent i guess.

[exiledintheUSA]

FML. 400k-a-week.

[Dim Glas]

football is a shit show, well in some leagues at least! Ridiculous from Juventus. So what they are not paying a fee, those sort of wages, holy crap    And for a very good, but not top class player too, madness.

[ScottishGoon]

Wow, fair play to him. Bet he thinks he's won the lottery, I'm sure the 1 he thought he'd agreed at Arsenal was for about half that. Now he gets double that, with a much better team & almost guaranteed trophies.

Anyone any idea what the Juve wage bill will be like?

[The Test]

400k a week for Ramsey 

There must be another Aaron Ramsey we don't know about. A wonderkid from that weird part of Brazil where everyone speaks Welsh.

[Xabi Gerrard]

Wow, fair play to him. Bet he thinks he's won the lottery, I'm sure the 1 he thought he'd agreed at Arsenal was for about half that. Now he gets double that, with a much better team & almost guaranteed trophies.

Anyone any idea what the Juve wage bill will be like?

Figures above are in millions of Euros per year.

Convert £20m into Euros and add that on.

[jonkrux]

Patagonia is argentine isn't it?!? I'm welsh so should know that haha..

400k per week thought. Juve are dull as fuck

[Robert_B]

Never before in the field of professional football has so much been earnt by someone so average.

Genuinely outrageous.

[BrandoLFC]

Think this should be more for the Seria A thread or starting a Juve thread in regards to Ramsey.  All this goes to show is how Juve has pulled away from the rest of the Italian teams financially and it's not even close.  Without a change in the near future you're going to have to start looking at Seria A like Ligue 1 in that it's just not a competitive league when it comes to the title.

[Xabi Gerrard]

Think this should be more for the Seria A thread or starting a Juve thread in regards to Ramsey.  All this goes to show is how Juve has pulled away from the rest of the Italian teams financially and it's not even close.  Without a change in the near future you're going to have to start looking at Seria A like Ligue 1 in that it's just not a competitive league when it comes to the title.

Think that boat sailed a long time ago mate. Won the last 7 titles, most of them at a landslide. Cruising towards their 8th on the bounce. It's been a long long time since Serie A has been able to call itself competitive.

[Brian Blessed]

From the BBC:

Ramsey, who joined Arsenal from Cardiff City in 2008 for a fee of around £4.8m, held preliminary talks with Barcelona and also received an offer from Paris St-Germain.


What are these absolutely top tier teams seeing that we aren't?

[Xabi Gerrard]

Never before in the field of professional football has so much been earnt by someone so average.

Genuinely outrageous.

I think he's got it in him to be a brilliant player, just like I thought of Ox at Arsenal - both of them were just at the wrong club to maximize their potential. Played in his preferred position, like he does for Wales, and in a much slower league, I think he's going to excel over there.

[Dim Glas]

From the BBC:

Ramsey, who joined Arsenal from Cardiff City in 2008 for a fee of around £4.8m, held preliminary talks with Barcelona and also received an offer from Paris St-Germain.


What are these absolutely top tier teams seeing that we aren't?

A good player available on a free transfer I would guess? A good addition but not necessarily a first 11 player. Although those mad wages still make him an almighty investment for Juventus.  Maybe PSG and Barcelona where not willing to go anywhere near those wages. I'm sure other good prem teams may have been interested too but not at those wages.

[Brian Blessed]

A good player available on a free transfer I would guess? Although those mad wages still make him an almighty investment for Juventus.  Maybe PSG and Barcelona where not willing to go anywhere near those wages. I'm sure other good prem teams may have been interested too but not at those wages.

Yeah, it's the wages. Although I assume a sizeable signing on fee was rolled into them. Still if that was 20 mill he's still on 300K a week.

[ScottishGoon]

I think he's got it in him to be a brilliant player, just like I thought of Ox at Arsenal - both of them were just at the wrong club to maximize their potential. Played in his preferred position, like he does for Wales, and in a much slower league, I think he's going to excel over there.

The only thing with that is that im not even sure Welsh fans are sure how good he is, because he just so inconsistent in terms of his general play. Us Arsenal fans always had the same discussion as well, but when digging found out there's the same level of debate about Ramsey for Wales as Arsenal fans have.

[Xabi Gerrard]

A good player available on a free transfer I would guess? A good addition but not necessarily a first 11 player. Although those mad wages still make him an almighty investment for Juventus.  Maybe PSG and Barcelona where not willing to go anywhere near those wages. I'm sure other good prem teams may have been interested too but not at those wages.

I think he would have been excellent under Klopp in the Keita role. Not as good as I think Keita will be but if we didn't have him I'd have been very happy with Ramsey.

(Although I'm not sure how injury prone he is? If he's another sicknote then maybe he's not robust enough for us, but apart from that he'd excel under Klopp).

[Tobelius]

He's a good player no doubt when fit,but i genuinely wonder where football is going when players who are really not special are being paid £400k/week wages.

Their money of course,and i'll happily watch the players play with my 6k/year income.

[rscanderlech]

Emre Can, Aaron Ramsay...who will they snap up next on a free transfer and pay obscene wages to? Alberto Moreno? Adam Lallana?

[Xabi Gerrard]

The only thing with that is that im not even sure Welsh fans are sure how good he is, because he just so inconsistent in terms of his general play. Us Arsenal fans always had the same discussion as well, but when digging found out there's the same level of debate about Ramsey for Wales as Arsenal fans have.

Yeah I remember you lot saying exactly the same about Ox - much worse even. But sometimes you can just see the attributes a player has and that it's not being utilised in the style of play their team uses and so they come across as inconsistent, or even just not very good players. I think Juve (and Barca and PSG) must know exactly what he can and can't do and are willing to play to his strengths if they're willing to pay that much.

Re: Wales - whenever I've seen him he's been really good for them but I'll defer to the Welsh fans.

[BrandoLFC]

Think that boat sailed a long time ago mate. Won the last 7 titles, most of them at a landslide. Cruising towards their 8th on the bounce. It's been a long long time since Serie A has been able to call itself competitive.

Again we should start a new thread on this to discuss further but I'd argue the first couple of titles were more due to the Milan teams mismanagement and then from there it's just snowballed into just a crazy financial advantage for Juve.

[Redman78]

Never before in the field of professional football has so much been earnt by someone so average.

Genuinely outrageous.

[Jon2lfc]

Maybe these non-UK teams look at players who've played in the PL as being a bit more hardy, i.e. if they've cut it in the PL with all the aggression and pressure that goes with it, they'll be even more effective in our 'slower' leagues..
So they're more likely to pay more for Ramsey than a PL team would. Dunno.

It's like the opposite argument we always make for players new to the PL - "ah, he's not used to the speed of the PL as he's only played in Serie A..."

Etc.

[Brian Blessed]

The stadium seets about 41K, so the first 10 euros of every ticket sold covers Ramsey's wages, for the weeks he plays at home.

[Ray K]

Marcotti says it's 250k gross/140k net per week.

Still a huge chunk, but it doesn't put him in the top 10 of world earners which would've been utterly bonkers.

[ScottishGoon]

Yeah I remember you lot saying exactly the same about Ox - much worse even. But sometimes you can just see the attributes a player has and that it's not being utilised in the style of play their team uses and so they come across as inconsistent, or even just not very good players. I think Juve (and Barca and PSG) must know exactly what he can and can't do and are willing to play to his strengths if they're willing to pay that much.

Re: Wales - whenever I've seen him he's been really good for them but I'll defer to the Welsh fans.

Oh, don't get me wrong, in this Liverpool team I think Ramsey could do a very good job, I just don't think it's fair to say he's been held back the same way Ox was at Arsenal. Ramsey was the mainstay.of the midfield the past 7 years or so, Wenger had full trust in him & was was basically allowed to play how he wanted.

Ox just couldn't get any momentum, got too many injuries & shunted around far too much, he never got the trust in any particular position & during most of his time at Arsenal we just had more effective players for his positions. I can fully see the reasoning that the environment at Arsenal held Ox back.

[Xabi Gerrard]

Oh, don't get me wrong, in this Liverpool team I think Ramsey could do a very good job, I just don't think it's fair to say he's been held back the same way Ox was at Arsenal. Ramsey was the mainstay.of the midfield the past 7 years or so, Wenger had full trust in him & was was basically allowed to play how he wanted.

Ox just couldn't get any momentum, got too many injuries & shunted around far too much, he never got the trust in any particular position & during most of his time at Arsenal we just had more effective players for his positions. I can fully see the reasoning that the environment at Arsenal held Ox back.

Thought Ramsey had been shunted out to the right to allow Ozil to play as playmaker for most of that time? I think Ramsey is best suited to playing that ozil position, albeit in a different style (more Fat Frank-esque than Ozil-esque).

[planet-terror]

You what now[emoji102]?

[Flaccido Dongingo]

I'm sure, to borrow a phrase from the rat Emre, "it isn't about the money", wouldn't it be refreshing some time to hear one of these mercenaries just come out and say, "yeah, I moved solely for the money, so what".

[Zizou]

I bet Ramsey couldn't believe it either.

[ScottishGoon]

Thought Ramsey had been shunted out to the right to allow Ozil to play as playmaker for most of that time? I think Ramsey is best suited to playing that ozil position, albeit in a different style (more Fat Frank-esque than Ozil-esque).

He did play right sometimes, but for most of his time he played as part of a 2 man midfield behind Ozil. We tried him further forward when Ozil didn't play & we all thought logic tells you that would be his best position but he just didn't seem comfortable there. He seemed to get more space & into better positions arriving from deep, & that's where he played his best for us (his best season 2013/2014 was when he was playing alongside Arteta believe it or not).

In terms of team performance & balance, certainly the Ozil / Ramsey situation caused us problems in big games. Perhaps playing as a 3 in midfield, without a number 10, where the creativity comes from the wide players, would perhaps have been better balanced. Funnily enough, I know a certain team that plays that way. 

[Lush is the best medicine...]

The £400k probably includes the signing bonus

[rafathegaffa83]

He's a very good player when fit. But the reported fee is mad considering the fact he's always injured

[OsirisMVZ]

I'm sure, to borrow a phrase from the rat Emre, "it isn't about the money", wouldn't it be refreshing some time to hear one of these mercenaries just come out and say, "yeah, I moved solely for the money, so what".

That's what every European-based player has said about going to China. 'A great financial offer for my family' etc.

On a side note, whilst I appreciate how financially aggressive Juventus have been over the last couple of years, with the Ronaldo transfer they are clearly determined to win the Champions League and are actually doing something about it compared to other teams like Bayern, but why are they paying people sooooo much to join them? Their wage philosophy should be more like New England Patriots, aka run a tighter ship and get people to join because they are going to win things (practically guaranteed the league every year now for example), not pay average PL players like Ramsey and Can €40m combined a year to warm the bench. I don't get it.

[Red Beret]

From the BBC:

Ramsey, who joined Arsenal from Cardiff City in 2008 for a fee of around £4.8m, held preliminary talks with Barcelona and also received an offer from Paris St-Germain.


What are these absolutely top tier teams seeing that we aren't?

Dunno.  Plenty of Arsenal fans were smirking when we signed Ox though.

[Red Beret]

I'm sure, to borrow a phrase from the rat Emre, "it isn't about the money", wouldn't it be refreshing some time to hear one of these mercenaries just come out and say, "yeah, I moved solely for the money, so what".

What are you talking about?  Gareth Barry certainly never moved to Manchester City just for the money.