"Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Bender pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."
"Thank you, Simone."
More seriously, now that the fixtures have settled down just a bit, we can peer through the dust and the wreckage and figure out just what's next. Yes, we have a few more fixtures to plow through, including the addition of an FA Cup fifth round tie against Brighton and Hove, but we've at least got breathing space enough to consider just where Arsène might splash a bit of cash. One name that hasn't quite been on everyone's tongues for a whiles is that of Lars Bender. At a risk of invoking Wenger's Law, he might be worth a quick kick of the tires.
To be clear, I'm not indulging in any flights of fancy. Bender wouldn't be easy to prise away from Bayer Leverkusen. Then again, some of us are drooling after Southampton's Morgan Schneiderlin, who (a) threw a hissy-fit after being denied a chance to join Tottenham, and (b) currently plays for a club just a few points above us on the table. Anyone thinking that we're securing Schneiderlin anytime soon should contact me with their banking information, as I have a rather-unique investment scheme that I hope they'll invest in. In other words, the chances of Schneiderlin leaving Southampton amount to two: slim and none. As much as it might indulge our spite-tooth to sign him, we'll have to find ways of overtaking Southampton other than signing way their best players. Liverpool went that route, and let's let them walk alone on that.
Looking at Bayer, it's similarly hard to see why they might part with Bender. They're currently third in the Bundesliga, albeit a distant third, 17 points behind Bayern, and they've advanced to the Champions League knockout-phase, drawn against Atletico Madrid, who are celebrating the return of Fernando Torres. In this light, it's difficult at best to see the likes of Bender depart. After all, he's been central to Bayer's success thus far.
However.
There are rivals to consider. Nipping at Bayer's heels in the Bundesliga is one Borussia Mönchengladbach, who might owe just as much of their success to a young defensive midfielder as Bayer does to Bender. In this case, we're talking of Christoph Kramer, on loan from Bayer to Mönchengladbach. If he could be recalled to Bayer, well, that might be sweet and dandy like sour candy for Bayer, as it would sap a rival of a key player for the Bundesliga's run-in. Kramer is widely seen as one of the rising stars of German football, and depriving Mönchengladbach of his services might go a long way towards ensuring that Bayer finish towards the top of the Bundesliga. Could Bayer, who own both Bender and Kramer, pull off a move through which they recall Kramer and sell us Bender? Crazier things have happened.
As for us, I hope we'll all agree that, on our list of priorities, shoring up the defense has to be at or near the top of the list. As of this writing, we've dropped as many as 12 points in the Prem, enough to restore us to somewhere in the top two or three. That's not all—we took a lead over Southampton in the League Cup only to lose, for what that's worth, and there is of course the infamous 3-3 draw with Anderlecht, in which we went up 3-0 only to concede three to drop two precious points—enough to see us win the group. That we drew AS Monaco anyway is small consolation.
We do tolerably well at finding a lead, but we're abysmal at keeping it. Perhaps worse, we often concede early and have to fight back. On eleven occasions—eleven—we've found a goal in extra time to steal a point, if not three. While that's dramatic and inspiring and all, I'd rather we put a few matches to bed a bit earlier if it's all the same.
If we could add a defensive midfielder of Bender's quality to the squad, it would go a long way towards stabilising and even strengthening our Prem chances in the second half of the season. I'm not one to hope for negative results as a method for achieving positive ends, but for as much as the loss to Southampton may have closed the door on Schneiderlin joining Arsenal, we can hope that it may have opened the door for Bender.
What do you think? Would £20m be a tolerable transfer-fee for the services of a player like Bender, or should we focus on other, higher-profile players like Schneiderlin, Cavani, or Carvalho?
"Thank you, Simone."
More seriously, now that the fixtures have settled down just a bit, we can peer through the dust and the wreckage and figure out just what's next. Yes, we have a few more fixtures to plow through, including the addition of an FA Cup fifth round tie against Brighton and Hove, but we've at least got breathing space enough to consider just where Arsène might splash a bit of cash. One name that hasn't quite been on everyone's tongues for a whiles is that of Lars Bender. At a risk of invoking Wenger's Law, he might be worth a quick kick of the tires.
To be clear, I'm not indulging in any flights of fancy. Bender wouldn't be easy to prise away from Bayer Leverkusen. Then again, some of us are drooling after Southampton's Morgan Schneiderlin, who (a) threw a hissy-fit after being denied a chance to join Tottenham, and (b) currently plays for a club just a few points above us on the table. Anyone thinking that we're securing Schneiderlin anytime soon should contact me with their banking information, as I have a rather-unique investment scheme that I hope they'll invest in. In other words, the chances of Schneiderlin leaving Southampton amount to two: slim and none. As much as it might indulge our spite-tooth to sign him, we'll have to find ways of overtaking Southampton other than signing way their best players. Liverpool went that route, and let's let them walk alone on that.Looking at Bayer, it's similarly hard to see why they might part with Bender. They're currently third in the Bundesliga, albeit a distant third, 17 points behind Bayern, and they've advanced to the Champions League knockout-phase, drawn against Atletico Madrid, who are celebrating the return of Fernando Torres. In this light, it's difficult at best to see the likes of Bender depart. After all, he's been central to Bayer's success thus far.
However.
There are rivals to consider. Nipping at Bayer's heels in the Bundesliga is one Borussia Mönchengladbach, who might owe just as much of their success to a young defensive midfielder as Bayer does to Bender. In this case, we're talking of Christoph Kramer, on loan from Bayer to Mönchengladbach. If he could be recalled to Bayer, well, that might be sweet and dandy like sour candy for Bayer, as it would sap a rival of a key player for the Bundesliga's run-in. Kramer is widely seen as one of the rising stars of German football, and depriving Mönchengladbach of his services might go a long way towards ensuring that Bayer finish towards the top of the Bundesliga. Could Bayer, who own both Bender and Kramer, pull off a move through which they recall Kramer and sell us Bender? Crazier things have happened.
As for us, I hope we'll all agree that, on our list of priorities, shoring up the defense has to be at or near the top of the list. As of this writing, we've dropped as many as 12 points in the Prem, enough to restore us to somewhere in the top two or three. That's not all—we took a lead over Southampton in the League Cup only to lose, for what that's worth, and there is of course the infamous 3-3 draw with Anderlecht, in which we went up 3-0 only to concede three to drop two precious points—enough to see us win the group. That we drew AS Monaco anyway is small consolation.
We do tolerably well at finding a lead, but we're abysmal at keeping it. Perhaps worse, we often concede early and have to fight back. On eleven occasions—eleven—we've found a goal in extra time to steal a point, if not three. While that's dramatic and inspiring and all, I'd rather we put a few matches to bed a bit earlier if it's all the same.
If we could add a defensive midfielder of Bender's quality to the squad, it would go a long way towards stabilising and even strengthening our Prem chances in the second half of the season. I'm not one to hope for negative results as a method for achieving positive ends, but for as much as the loss to Southampton may have closed the door on Schneiderlin joining Arsenal, we can hope that it may have opened the door for Bender.
What do you think? Would £20m be a tolerable transfer-fee for the services of a player like Bender, or should we focus on other, higher-profile players like Schneiderlin, Cavani, or Carvalho?
Too many rumors and too little action. Arsene the Miser is back in charge. Witness the debacle with the 17 year old Polish kid. Hard to believe it has taken more than one round of offers and, I'm suspect , if Arsene gets him it will be for more than had he offered 2.5 million to start with. Does he bargain for packs of Galois?
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this transfer window we will be left with rumors scattered on the floor and no new players but a few shown the door. At the end of the season we will be left out of th CL and maybe the Euro Cup and maybe Arsene out the door.
Wenger is not buying anybody, period. He has a "new signing" in Coquelin. That will do. Thank you
ReplyDeletepalladio-
ReplyDeleteYou actually think Arsene Wenger is negotiating the price himself? We do have people employed for that.
You are either a slave to the media or playing too much football manager.
There is nothing wrong with trying to get the best deal possible for us. There are plenty of legitimate ways to criticise AW but this is childish and frankly ridiculous.
Dave
ReplyDeleteI'm do not believe there are Arsenal operatives sitting in Warsaw or wherever who have free rein to negotiate without a specific range of salary options and a max price established by AW. The difficulty is that every year we see potential stars get gobbled up by opponents because we under bid and because, as we dawdled, others swept in.
Whether the young Pole is worth more than 3 million at this time is unclear but if you want to get him you also have to respect the market and, even more importantly, the seller. If you insult them with a low ball offer you run the risk they will turn to other buyers and also that others get to move in while you are "nickel and diming" (or the Euro equivalent) them
The primary concern for me is that the team has weaknesses that are obvious to both supporters and opponents. Those have been there all year and were not addressed last summer. Now Arsenal stand to fall below 4th and the amount of money they stand to lose will far exceed the incremental amounts they could and should have spent on players that would have prevented this from happening.
By the way who do you think is establishing the price? We know it is not Stan. This is a Board that has allowed an AKB attitude to pervail, whether on or off the pitch. Arsene may not be involved in every day to day detail but if you believe he is not establishing prices do you also believe he is delegating other details such as set piece tactics, game lineups, and placement on the pitch?