I don’t think Wenger had any intention of getting Lemar anyway.
There is no way a top footballer would come here after watching our start to the season and lack of ambition in the market, and Wenger, as usual, was making a bid knowing that.
Just like the rumours of Mbappe, it’s all made up to try and placate the supporters.
There are other top footballers in Europe, not just Lemar, that we could have had, and Wenger knew the situation and had the whole window to sort it out and he didn’t.
I don’t believe him.
If he wanted a top class player like him he had the whole transfer window to do it before our rubbish start to the season.
As I said, there are other players, not just Lemar, that we could have had and he didn’t get those either.
Wenger does a lot of bidding and trying but it’s amazing how often nothing ever comes of it.
There is a definite pattern in our transfer business.
If he really intended to sign him, he’d have made a bid acceptable to Monaco all those months ago that we were actually chasing him.
It doesn’t make any sense to me that Wenger would baulk at the thought of going higher a few months ago then suddenly be willing to bid €100m on the final day of the window a couple hours before Lemar was due to play for France. I feel like he knew it was a no go anyway.
Or maybe a bid of that size required the Sanchez money in order to happen? Hence why we didn’t bid that much earlier, when we had resolved to keep him AND add Lemar.
I mean that’s a possibility. But at the same time I ask myself why a club as wealthy as ours would not be able to spend the €100m anyway? Something’s not right somewhere. That’s for sure. It’s a very negative situation for Arsenal fans. I don’t enjoy disliking Wenger and questioning his every move but it’s gotten to that stage unfortunately.
You were saying, before the window opened, that money wasn’t a problem when we were supposedly interested in Mbappe, and Lemar was a lot cheaper before Monaco had started selling all their best players.
If Wenger had really wanted him he could have bid 50m for Lemar right at the start of the window and then if they would accept any increased offers gone for someone else.
Wenger was scrimping and over a few million over Gibbs and others, and always haggles and says he won’t pay more than “meets with his valuation,” so I hardly think he is going to splash out around 100m on Lemar when he probably could have got him for a fraction of that last season.
It’s not like Lemar is an elite player, there are others as good as him as well.
I wonder if Wenger got some dirt on Oliver. The way Oliver defends Wenger’s ineptitude is astonishing.
Wenger is wholly responsible for the shambles this club is in. He is involved in all areas of the club, but the one he should excel at “finance” and “coaching” he performance worst at. Yeah, granted, he gets himself a nice paycheck every time he extends his contract and gets two more years of running the club into the ground.
I don’t think the fee is the issue, although Wenger spending 100m is not going to happen, it’s more to do with Lemar not wanting to come and play in a midfield comprising of Ramsey, Iwobi and Walcott, that makes this transfer unrealistic.
Hey Monaco, you know how we agreed a deal for 92m for your boy Tommy? Well that was like, the Alexis money we hoped to get and a bit on top. We don’t have that Alexis money now, so how about a new deal at 45m?
If he has another good season he probably moves above Arsenal anyway.
Wenger knows he has most likely missed the boat to sign Lemar, that statement was a way of attempting to placate the fans “oh don’t worry we’ll be back in for him”. Yeah sure he’ll want to join with Alexis gone, Özil perhaps gone and a squad full of mediocre players without CL football, oh and let’s not forget the clueless dinosaur running the show.
Could say it was a nice try but just like Wenger I’d be lying through my teeth.
There’s a difference between doling out the £75m + £17m in add ons out of pocket and selling a player for £55m + £5m in add ons, the second case is more like buying Lemar for £20m + £17m in add ons, it’s more responsible.
What doesn’t make sense is why we waited so long to offload Alexis, instead of doing it earlier in the summer and going for Lemar then, though tbh we all know the reason behind that: Wenger was under the delusion that we could keep Alexis and go for the title.
no worries, we will keep ozil and lacazette and get griezmann and add lemar into the mix oh and we will finish this season winning the epl too, thats how we will attract these players. You heard it here first
Kinda doubt that, more likely City saw the shambles we are against Liverpool and thought they could test our resolve with another bid. Rumour is that City have been trying to bid for Alexis all summer long and that we haven’t been listening, surely if we were “listening” earlier we could’ve sold him. If anything earlier in the summer we could’ve got more for him, when there was potentially more than one suitor.
Obviously, you don’t come out and put a for sale sign on him, you do like we did with Nasri or van Persie in previous windows.
