yeah man, you barca fans must be high fiving each other saying "our plan has worked! Yippie"

We all knew it was a matter of time.

As for the second, ya think?????

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...as-samir-nasri

If its really 35mil up front, and not in payments, that could be a good deal. I'd much rather have the money and available to spend then get 4 payments of 10mil a year for 4 years.

Also in the above quote, Valbuena, ah please no. Hazard seems super unlikely, so Mata then. Okay.

lol weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Arsenal shareholders just got a hard-on

£60m is great money but i'm not sure it would outweigh the impact on the club as a whole that these two departures would bring.

edit : In fact, i'm sure it wouldn't come close.

Losing Cesc is the one that hurts. Seriously, Nasri had like 4 good months out of 3 seasons.

I'm not sure if the Arsenal shareholder stuff is serious or just a joke but Arsenal haven't paid out dividends in forever. The reason we've been breakeven or thereabouts in the transfer window for forever while aiming for a Champions League spot is because we've needed to be breakeven or thereabouts while getting Champions League spots in order to stay afloat. The financial planning of Arsenal is just really not as robust as people at Arsenal make it out to be. Here's an excellent article by Swiss Ramble about it.

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011...er-budget.html

Basically we moved into a brand new shiny stadium while accepting poor long-term commercial deals in the belief that matchday revenue would be the boom of the future football economy. As it has turned out, it's really commercial deals that have turned out to be the boom of the future economy. As it is we're probably leaving 30 to 40 million pounds per year on the table and I heard that we're set to fall behind Tottenham in commercial revenue in the upcoming season. God only knows why Kroenke hasn't bought out of the current deals. If the Arsenal board could have predicted the future I think there would be some wisdom in at least delaying the building of the Emirates for a few years. It's seven years later and it's still holding us back.

Edit: Nasri will be successful at City but he really isn't that big of a deal. Mata is more talented and Gervinho's qualities fit what the team needs more. Cesc is a beast though. He's simultaneously consensus top 10 player in the world and pretty underrated at the same time. I honestly think he could find his way into Barca's starting lineup on merit without them changing their tactical shape.

No trollfacing but is Wenger managing PSG next season?

he's got 2 years left on his deal. Can't see him quitting, but he probably gets canned if everything goes busto this season.

0% chance maximum.

This.

I snap call that amount for Nasri esp with his contract. Ces is the one that is really going to kill our season, i would love to see our games win % with him and without him. We have no one even close to his ability that can turn a game, his direct vision to create a goal out of air is better than Xavia or Inesta i.m.o

Our best bet, w/o him, is to change our style of play, which may not be a bad thing. When you look at our three of our four most recent signings, all are direct wingers, one a RB. Then interest in Joel Campbell and Mata, again more direct players. I think Cesc could play in a more direct game as well, but I think w/o him we are going to need to play that way. Ramsey and Wilshere are more box to box than Cesc was. I don't know if this is Wenger completely changing our style or simply a last ditch effort to save his job

Last 3 EPL seasons
Win % w/ Cesc: 61
Win % w/o Cesc: 43
Win % w/ Nasri: 50
Win % w/o Nasri: 64

In Nasri's breakout 2010/11 season
Win % with: 46
Win % w/o: 60

Yes, I have those numbers in the right order.

Cesc is the best CM in the world
it seems like his hammies are ****ed tho, big concern

my reaction:

Sneijder deal officially off?

Apparently Utd unwilling to pay 200k a week.

^ Source?

Dzagoev linked for £12m
Wouldn't be terrible...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...esley-sneijder

I wonder if it was a team other then Barca wanting him if he would be able to pass a medical for them. Cesc at 30% is better then 90% of the EPL. The game where he came in vs Spurs in a boring 0-0 game, scored 2 quick amazing goals and went off after re-aggravating his hamstring was one of the best cameo appearances in EPL history. But he hasn't been the same since, and it was probably a mistake playing him in that game, even though he single handedly won it for us.

He's our best player, either is or will be a top 3 player ITW within 2 seasons, but what if he had another season or two where he couldn't shake his hamstring issues? Then what? Keep building a team around two players who are only healthy half the time and aren't on the field together for much of the season?

Luke - define "commercial revenues" - I seriously doubt you are about to fall behind Spurs in any meaningful way financially.

Commercial revenue = corporate sponsorships. Basically kit sponsorships and stadium naming rights. For what it's worth, here's a graph of the commercial revenues of the top teams during the 09/10 season from the link I posted.



Didn't Tottenham sign a big kit sponsorship deal after the 09/10 season? I'm not positive about Tottenham overtaking Arsenal in commercial revenue but the fact is that it's at least sort of close which is disgraceful. Emirates and Nike bent us over the table all those years ago.

Arsenal Arsenal.com
TEAM NEWS: Fabregas and Nasri not in the squad for Saturday’s game against Newcastle

Wenger: "I expect nobody to leave the club. At the moment there is no news."

For what that's worth.

Fabregas was never going to be in the squad independent of the Barcelona stuff due to his lack of a preseason. Wenger claims Nasri is sick.

We claim Nasri is sick/hurt to miss Benfica, he heals up, plays for France midweek, then gets sick again? Unlucky Samir.