Ex-Gunner Frank McLintock is unimpressed with Arsene Wenger’s signings this summer.
Arsenal managed to acquire 8 new players (one on loan) this summer, with Gervinho, Per Mertesacker, Andre Santos, Yossi Benayoun and Mikel Arteta being the stand out signings of the lot.
However, McLintock reckons that the north London club’s transfer policy is ridiculous, and although he wants Arsenal, as well as the players, to be successful, he still believes that they are in for a tough season.
He told talkSPORT’s ‘Kick Off’ show:
‘I’m not impressed with the names, I hope they do very well. I’m not going to be out there looking to criticise, I want to give them all the support I can.’
‘I think we got about £70 million in transfers from players leaving the club and yet again we seem to be after the second best [players] nearly all of the time. It’s a reaction rather than being already prepared.’
‘I can’t understand why, if we’ve got two billionaires on the board, they couldn’t just put in some money, buy three players in preparation so we’re not scrambling around at the last minute. I’m really disappointed.’
McLintock, who made over 300 appearances for Arsenal, then singled out some of the club’s new signings:
‘I’m not wishing them any bad at all and I’m hoping they have a great, successful time at Arsenal but if you look at Santos for instance, we know very little about him, he is a Brazilian, evidently he’s just come to the fore in the last three years.’
‘Can [Park Chu-Young] jump from France to our division because the two Frenchmen who came last season, only one of them did reasonably well the other one just couldn’t cope with it at all.’
I agree with McLintock to an extent. My problem that I have with The Arsenal Board is that of the the 2 billionaires, the wrong one, Kroenke, along with his sidekick, Gazidis, pulls the strings. Usmanov would have ensured that the purse strings would have been eased. He would really have competed with friend ‘Abra’. Racism cost us dearly by the selling of shares to Kroenke instead of the Uzbekhi Usmanov! The sellers even sold sold their shares at a lower price that Usmanov offered them
i totally agrre with frank mclintock, he was an arsenal great in his day, but not i could have said exactly what most people feel, i feel kroenke,gazidis,and the old farts on the board are only interested in money not the success of the club, they still use a 1980’s transfer policy, believeing that the best players are on a minimum wage, they have gone out their way to sell our best players only to bring in what is classed as second class players, wenger can not be blamed for that, this board panicked bought, after the man utd game, they have no clue on football only how to line their pockets, i definitly think the supporters should call for kroenke to go and gazidis to find a job he can actually do, and the rest of the board should go back to their holes, and leave this club, we will be fighting relegation, and i believe it is not wenger that should be sacked but kroenke and the ridiculous idiots on the board, they have killed the club most supporters have a deep love for, what is interesting if they spent well and we qualified for champions league next year they would have earned 50 million plus, is it not worth then spending, due to their stance it is more than likely they will not qualify, that is not down to wenger but down to these baboons who have ruined this club. it is called greed!!
i agree with your sentiment about the board being stingy, but, that arsene bought second best that’s quite unreasonable because you’ve not given them the chance to prove what they can offer or do you judge players performance according to there sign on fee?
Talk about mourning defeat before the race is run. No he’s not right. He may have been a good player but he’s lost in a romantic fantasy of his glory days.
Newsflash idiots: No big name player wanted to come to a club who just sold Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy. A club who may not have been able to guarantee Champions league football this season at the time, who haven’t won anything in 6 years, who’s supporters are vicious and bitter, and who pay crappy wages.
The reason we couldn’t buy sooner in the window is because of the Champions league thing and the other reasons I stated.
Can Park make the transition? I don’t know but does a player who can score the kind of hat trick he scored last night make a difference? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tA-RdXEO1A
You tell me. Can Arteta a proven premier league player with years of experience help us? You bet he can. Can Benayoun give us another option from the bench? You know he can.
McKlintock is a dreamer just like the other posters here. We’re not a rich club, there is a reason for our wage structure and there is a reason we can’t make marquee signings. Besides money does not equal success in England there are tonnes of big name players that cost a tonne of money that flopped and our club is proof of that. Henry, Van Persie, Wilshire, most of our greats were cheap and relatively unknown.
I have to with you bongo. Before the Man U game they put pressure on the board and Wenger but now players have be brought into the club but they still opening they big mouths. Football is not about one, talent has nothing to do with money so the fact that we got them at a very low price don’t mean they can play. Look at the likes of torres at chelsea. 50 mil and what has he done? Fukol but the players like drogba who have proven record of scoring goals at crucial moments against any team in the world have to suffer and warm the bench just because the man cost more then they did.
So people should fuck the up.If yo’ll don’t like the way the teams runned get a new team and give players a chance. Support them every where they go. Maybe Nasri was right when he said some of our fans fans lack Passion. Give us a break please!!!
Well, how many English players have done well anywhere the last couple of decades…
English media and English fans have a too high impression of the quality of EPL. A couple of years ago, EPL was able to compete with La Liga but when they changed the tax policies, the £/€ went down, the very best players suddenly had alternatives. Let´s face it, the English weather doesn´t really attract anyone. “Everybody” are able to speak English but few English players can speak any other language, etc, etc.
Mertesacker looks to be a tremendous signing for Arsenal. He has 75 caps in a team that consistently does better than England, he has played more than 50 games in Europe for his club, he is only a year older than Cahill (who many believes would´ve been a better signing), at 6´6″ he has a physical presence about him.
Gervinho, a full international who has so far played very well for Arsenal, let´s hope he keeps it up. Santos is an experienced LB, full international for Brazil, Arteta has a number of times been mentioned by the English media as a good fit for Arsenal. Arsenal buys him and suddenly, it´s panic. The media has asked for experience and we buy Benayoun, an experienced EPL player. The media asks for leaders and back up to RvP and we buy the captain of S Korea, Chu Young Park, who in his first game after becoming an Arsenal player bags 3 goals in an international game.
Torres was a top striker at Liverpool, PL experience and cost £50m… Well, it took him almost half a season to adapt to the game at Chelsea and has so far, IMO, not lived up to the expectations or the transfer fee. Expensive players do not necessarily make good players. IF UEFA is able to implement Fair Play, Arsenal will be in a tremendous position. Let´s hope the PL will impose something similar. The clubs need to live within their means to avoid situations like Leeds and Portsmouth.
really? i resent the insinuation that Arsenal bought second class players.Fuck off my face u wanker. . . . Maybe you want Arsenal to sign Fernado Torres for £50m who on twenty appearance hit the net twice. . . . .Wenger is gonna make the second class players genius, just watch out. . . . .Arsenal is gonna be like shark on the field trashing the so called giant spenders
Bongo mate this Is twice this week you talk shit.Wenger has signed 2nd class players maybe with mertasaker as exception.look who left look who came in.anyway after man uu Wenger should have resigned
Arsene Wenger should just stop criticizing others for spending so much money on players and mind his own business. Maybe with that, it might not be too difficult for him to spend as well. What use is an $18M Oxdale, if he is not good enough make first team immediately ? That is not a cheap buy at all for what he offers the team, an expensive buy in my opinion.
I couldn’t agree more with McLintock. The entire board is just greedy, selfish and do not care about the fans. Initially I thought all the problems emanated from Arsene, now I know better. I wish the club their best season in season.
GUNNERS 4 LIFE
I wish the club their best season in six years.
GUNNERS 4 LIFE
Frank McLintock is just saying that the transfer business should have been done before the season started and he’s right about that.
To say Kroenke should have bought 40 Million worth of players before the sale of Cesc and Nasri isn’t very realistic. What if the players stayed?
Ok he’s not impressed with the names, that’s allowed, but he wouldn’t have been impressed with the names Pires, Vieira, Henry, Sagna, Vermaelen, Petit, and so on…
I agree with Kiki, the players need a chance – like he was given once.