EPL 16/17 Discussion

[Cory]

Spend some money Wenger!

[Flins.]

Try being a Burnley fan.

It was a good game, but I honestly think the issue with Arsenal is beyond playing talent. The collapse in the second half was pretty dire. Liverpool were poor defensively as well. I wouldn't be too confident if I was a 'pool fan after that performance, as the two goals conceded after going 4-1 up were pretty alarming.

[Dorling]

We've (Arsenal) been mentally fragile as a team since Vieira left. I never have any faith that we'll either hold on to a lead or claw back a deficit. No leaders on the pitch. It's starting to get beyond a joke now. I'm a massive Wenger fan and we owe him a lot but I think modern football is passing him by a bit.

[Cory]

Exactly...the mentality just isn't there. Klopp had all his new toys out there, his 30m man in Mane scored a goal...we subbed our new 30m man on in the 80th minute.

Wenger has failed to adapt. There is no way we should lose to a Liverpool team in complete rebuild. There is no way Man U should look in a league of their own to open up week 1 and we look like a JV team.

Liverpool - Klopp has holes at GK, buys one (Karius). Klopp has holes at CB adds 2 (Matip, Klavan). Klopp has lack of depth in midfield, buys 2 great starters (Mane, Winjaldum).

Man City - Pep upgrades Demichelis to John Stones, and adds three quality players to play his style (Sane, Gundogan, Nolito)

Chelsea - Conte fixes Chelsea's stiking issue with Batshuayi and adds phenomenal talent in Kante.

Mourinho - Signings all over the place to win now....Mourinho has shown in one off-season more intent to win than Arsene has had in a decade. Ibrah, Pogba, Mkhitaryan all WORLD CLASS signings to have Man U (IMO) favourites to win.

Fucking West Ham has more ambition than Arsenal do.

Arsene buys Xhaka whose a great player but really we needed a depth move there, not an 30m upgrade. Coquelin, Elneny, Wilshere, Ramsey, Cazorla and now Xhaka. It's far and beyond overkill. We have no league winning XI center backs outside of Koscelny and we've known for weeks that Metersacker wasn't going to be fit and Wenger got shit on his face when Gabriel went down and we had what we saw today for defence. It's a fucking joke.

Walcott at striker? He was AWFUL last season...again exposing a great lack of clinical finishers at striker.

It's one of those things is his really that stubborn? I don't know if there's a team in the PL who fans and media alike scream at the masses that they need a CB and a striker and nothing to be fucking done....and if something is done it'll be deadline day a month into the season where we've already dropped points to these fucking areas that need addressing.

Jose Fonte is linked to man u for 12m fucking dollars....how are we not all over that?! Ashley Williams to Everton for what, 15m? ....how are we not over that....two of the most proven and consistent CBs in the Prem for chump change to Arsenal.

As for a striker, we don't even need an ELITE talent like Lacazette or Icardi.....we just need a proven PL FINISHER. We have world class service, we just have two very nonclinical finishers in Walcott and Giroud. When I see the likes of Champions League-less Chelsea getting Batshuayi, Leicester getting Musa, and West Ham getting Ayew all the while those guys would be welcomed additions to the squad it's ridiculous.

I said it all last year, and I'm saying it after just one game. WengerOut

[Rob]

Try being a Burnley fan.

It was a good game, but I honestly think the issue with Arsenal is beyond playing talent. The collapse in the second half was pretty dire. Liverpool were poor defensively as well. I wouldn't be too confident if I was a 'pool fan after that performance, as the two goals conceded after going 4-1 up were pretty alarming.

If it's any consolation Benteke thought he had signed for you...

Or at least he thought he had signed for Burnleyl

[Flins.]

Haha, that was pretty funny. He probably earns more than our entire striking line-up, but I wouldn't mind the big lump up top at the Turf.

[Rob]

Deadline day madness...

We could be signing Wilshere on loan and Sissoko

[Duckman]

Right then, that's the transfer window closed for another year.  Over a billion quid spent in the transfer window.

How'd you think your team did in the window?  What were the best transfers?  Who is going to bomb and be on the way out in a few months?  What the hell is Sideshow Bob doing back at Chelsea.

In case you don't know all the details, here's a good article on all the ins and outs from this transfer window:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/31/premier-league-2016-summer-transfer-window-club-by-club-verdicts

[Rob]

I think we improved our first 11 massively. Benteke, Remy and Townsend are supremely good players. However if we get a few injuries in midfield or defence we are fucked. Cabaye is already set to miss some weeks with a knee injury so we're extremely light, we don't even have a 25 man squad.

I don't think we should let Mariappa and Jedinak go without having a solid replacement. That being said I think we'll get to January and spend well then. Our net spend was only about £8m so that's fairly good.

[Flins.]

I have mixed feelings about the window for Burnley, as a whole I feel we strengthened where we needed to, but didn't add any luxuries. We broke our transfer record twice so our board has clearly shown the ambition that it has lacked the last two times we were in the Premier League. However, we really need a head of recruitment or some figurehead that does this job for us. The guy we had in last year, left to link back up with Warbuton at Rangers, and as far as I can tell, we didn't replace him. This lead to a mess of a window, where we were constantly getting offers rejected and overall just looked somewhat amateurish as a club. Had we met the realistic valuations of players earlier, we would have netted Hendrick for few mil less, Stephens and had the time to properly negotiate a deal with Rennes for the Polish winger we tried picking up. Though we the latter, Rennes did screw us over by trying to squeeze more out of the deal last minute, after the medical and everything had been agreed and sorted out. Shit move on their part, but it seems a common thing now for foreign clubs to try and get more money from PL clubs. Mostly likely down to some clubs over paying for players. It is like a real world FBL, and Franchise just screwed over the rest of us 

[Cory]

WENGER OUT!

[Dorling]

Arsenal were fantastic today. Monreal, Mertesacker and Holding as a patched up back 3 were sensational.

Fully deserved the win. Good end to a bad season. Honestly don't know what happens next though.

[Cory]

Arsenal were fantastic today. Monreal, Mertesacker and Holding as a patched up back 3 were sensational.

Fully deserved the win. Good end to a bad season. Honestly don't know what happens next though.

Holdini*

Really worried about whats going to happen with Alexis, he's our talisman and its not even close.