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.’
@T2T
Gervinho has played well???? WTF are u tlaking about, his played 1 premier league game agaisnt newcastle where he was piss poor like every other played and got sent of, and 1 game agaisnt the so called 4th best team in a poor italian league and ur saying his played well?
this is the thing with AKB bastards they distort everything to try make wenger look like jesus.
Are u on drugs pires was well know french player and was widely tipped for a move to madrid but chose Arsenal. henry wanst known? jesus christ he played in the world cup winning french team and was already playing at juventus, to think nobody heard of him is more lies Vermalen is no world beater, his bene part of the defence for the past 2 years thats shipped in goals, apart from last season, so lets not try make out his some ferdinand or vidic., and b4 he came Arsenal he was a well established international. So lets not pretend bought players nobody heard of b4. if thatw as the case there is a whole premier league where managers are buying players and then selling them for millions compared t what they paid for them. If this was the case, hell Ronaldo at Man utd beats every single player wenger bought, not just an excpetional player, but at the time the best footballer in the world. So lets not start saying wenger has bought players nobody heard of b4, yes he bought a few like all managers do.
You’re nuts if you think Thierry Henry was well known when we signed him. He wasn’t a big name at France ’98. At Juventus he had one season and a terrible one at that. Nobody else was interested in signing him. Robert Pires was only noticed after Wenger showed interest in him, and because Real Madrid also wanted him. The same with Henry, who Wenger also managed when he was the manager of Monaco.
I have heard of most players from watching international football tournaments. Are you going to say Koscielny was well known because he played for France, or that Vermaelen was well known because he played for Belgium. You remember Honda in the last world cup, name 5 more players from the team? No, the names I mentioned above would have been unimpressive to McLintock like I said.
Maybe you should read the bit “not impressed with names” … which has nothing to do with how well known a player is. Frank is saying he considers the names we bought as “second best”. He would’ve thought the same with Pires, Henry, Vieira, etc, when we signed them -> like I said.
You want to know how greedy the board are? You go onto the website which the club controls and gets probably a huge income from with their player. The fact they charge to watch interviews, and other vidoes is beyond a joke. You go to man citys website and youtube channel, you will see interviews, cam vids everything for free, along with man tds etc etc. The money grabbing board at Arsenal are even charging fans to watch bloody intervthats how sad and pathtic the board are.
Franck stop jumping on the band wagon of critics don’t judge players who haven’t kicked a ball for arsenal yet who was nasri b4 he came who was fab b4 he came wenger has a neck of making good players into world class I wonder what Frank said when arsenal got veria from ac Milan sec team and Henry from juv sec team so mr Franck do the talking at the end of the season not 3 games in
I don’t get it: what does he really want? First, he doesn’t like the caliber of the players that have come to Arsenal. Then, he’s afraid kids won’t do. Then, he demands more kids. He obviously doesn’t know how firms operate on the open market. It’s not like anyone could just “splash the cash” and that’s it. It’s a laborious process that requires taking control of the board which sanctions expenses. Furthermore, as was already pointed out, the fact that Arsenal buys relative unknowns comes as no surprise and shouldn’t be a source of fear. Arsenal1Again’s got that right, plus, this time we’ve got several rather “hot” names, like gervinho and Mertesacker, whose international experience will inevitably prove invaluable. Another thing – you don’t grow talent by limiting yourself to the London streets. I’m sorry, but most of the football talent comes from outside the capital, even outside of England. If Arsenal didn’t buy those kids, the academy could prove rather worthless, and it would surely limit the potential of the club. The fact that McLintock doesn’t know a player or didn’t see him eat fries at the stand opposite to where he lives doesn’t mean a player is worthless or won’t make it in the EPL. Playuers such as Park are always question marks, but with the experience they have, the doubts are fairly limited. Besides, of the players that were brought in, those that would no doubt feature regularly in the 1st XI soon are not Park, Oxlade, Jenkinson et al., but precisely Gervinho, Mertesacker, and Arteta, talented and experienced players. If McLintock doesn’t like talent and experience, perhaps he should stick to watching youth matches, prefereably on a lower level. Or he could just set his own argument aright.
the only thing I really want, is to see David Dein back… HE was a man who actually cared about football and not only money.. and, he was kicked out from the board.. trust me, if we want to get rid of these money sucking people, we need to get David Dein back…
Shut up martie,you come on here about the history of some players you read and claim that you knew them! Henry struggled as a winger at juve,viera was an unknown,dennis blossomed under wenger(even though wenger inherited him). Because arsenal did not buy english players,the ones bought re not worth it? How is cahill better than metersacker? How is parker better than arteta? So football is now a thing of race rather than entertainment? We should be grateful that dortmund turned down 35mil for their 19yo. We ve been linked to arteta,metersacker,benayoun before now and with the club’s large scouting network,there is no doubt we must ve been looking at parker and santos,especially with the way we ‘stole’ parker from lille. I am disappointed that the english press call these players ‘panic buys’. I wonder how the new players will feel reading things from a moron whom i find hard to believe is an arsenal legend.
You are absolutely spot on Mic, well said mate.
*Claps* well said
If you want the best players to come to Arsenal again we need David Dean back
OH shut up frank, i listen to you every weekend moaning about wnger and arsenal, and when the invicibles did the do you all shut up and were speechless, you are just greeey footballers who couldnt make it in management and are getting paid to talk drivel. There is a clear difference between being a player and a manager, and the gulf is there to be seen by everyone, even ian wright is so negative about the gooners in endless articles, it realy quite amazes me. At the end of the day they are just pundits and thats all they will ever be.
mclintock is a moron???? Mic just go and die u akb cunt. Mcclintock knows more about football then you ever will.