Can we buy on Ebay?

January 23, 2015

I have bought over 300 items from Ebay  and have a 100% rating, granted throughout those 300 items I have been disappointed with one or two items. Buying things from photo’s and a short description, can leave you exposed to the odd dodgy item but read the description and many times you read in them what you want to read, only when you log back in and read it all over again you can often find something you missed.

I have always bought, but I have just entered an item for sale, a set of alloy wheels, and the amount of questions i have been asked has surprised me.I know we send scouts out to watch certain players, and yes a player may look good on the field. But what about his personality his sexual persuasion or even his record, sickness discipline or even a police record, surely for the amount of money paid out you would expect a 4 page dossier, but we have still signed injured players.

Now I read that we have added 8 year old kids to our academy, even Beckham’s boy has come and played a bit and i have to ask myself what’s the point. Young kids who don’t even know what its all about, being propositioned by scouts agents or even parents, lets face it they are kids who still have a lot of growing up to do before you start nurturing, a talent that may never come to anything.

Now when have we ever found a talent in the lower divisions, there are plenty who play, and when we play some of them in the cups we see guys who look as good as some of our multi million players, but no we spend millions on a 17 year old kid who plays in a foreign league who most of us have never heard of.

Now with all of the holding midfielders and central defenders in the lower leagues who are all used to English football surely some of them are good enough to play in the premier, but how often do we even look. If we search the world for 8 year old maybe’s, and hope they grow to six feet 2 or 3 and will be strong enough to play top flight football who are we trying to kid.

A few seasons back when we were struggling we could have bought Cahill or Samba and we never, we buy Squilachy instead  I don’t think the right questions were asked then, do you. I feel we have to buy players who have a bit of a track record, a player who is six feet 2 or 3 already players who have shown they are resistant to playing in rain sleet and snow, players who have a bit of fight in their bellies, and leave the Chamakhs and Eduardos Gervinhos  to other teams.

We have in our fold Wilshere Walcott Ramsey Diaby Gibbs who seem to spend most time injured, fairly good players who have shown when fit are decent talented footballers, but when these players are injured the team seems to struggle, so what do we do.

Maybe like Ebay we should ask more questions, ask them early in the window so when an answer comes back that casts a doubt we can scroll through the others on the list. Research, and lots of questions before we part with our Wonga.

written by Steve Palmer

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Posted by Erik the Red

Arsenal – Hardball or Soft Sell?

August 30, 2012

Today’s post derives from a comment posted by Adrian yesterday. It is fair to say that his opinions are not in keeping with many on this site but they do represent an interesting counterargument that is worthy of debate.

RVP, Song and now maybe Walcott – although the latest reports suggest he may stay. Fabregas, Nasri and Clichy last year. Anyone want to guess whose turn it is to shine this season only to be sold by our great owners at a minimum of 200% or higher profit to the highest bidder the next transfer window?

I’m sorry, but those who are insisting that we are good enough to compete for silverware need a reality check. Don’t get me wrong, the 3 players we brought in are very promising prospects, but so far only Cazorla has truly shone. Even then, you need to remember that Cazorla is no Fabregas and Podolski/Giroud is no RvP.

The point is, the club has been continually selling its BEST players and replacing them with decent players but in some cases not as good as their predecessors. Just take a look at Chelsea/Man city’s squad, it is very unlikely that we will have the squad depth or quality that can match theirs even though we have a fairly decent squad. Diaby is too injury prone, Arteta and Rosicky are getting one year older, Wilshere will be back god knows when, Ramsey is very inconsistent although promising. Therefore while it may appear on paper that we have a decent squad with enough depth, at a closer look you’ll start to notice some cracks and problems.

The last thing we need now is for Theo to leave. I simply cannot understand why some people have mentioned that the business end of the club is being well run. For heavens sake, its 2012 now and wage inflation has already been going on for some time. As of now, it is the norm for the better players to get around 100k a week. For those insisting that players getting 100k a week to play football is unreasonable and absurd, you need to ask yourself this, does 70k and a 100k really makes a big difference? Clubs everywhere are already paying these type of wages to their players for many years and it is time for Arsenal to go along with this concept and start being competitive salary wise, considering that Arsenal season tickets are the HIGHEST in the EPL. For heaven’s sake, we are Arsenal, one of the top clubs in England, not a 1st division side.

As mentioned above, a quality winger would easily cost 10m+, so why the big fuss over the 6m increase in Theo’s salary? Taking a stand against player contracts is very admirable, but once again you have to question the way the board acts in a business sense. Why only take a stand in the LAST THREE days of the transfer window? If they were not prepared to accede to a demand of above 75k (which is absurd as losing 3 vital first team players in a transfer window for 2 seasons consecutively should not happen in any top club), why didn’t they make it clear weeks or even months ago? Why only take a stubborn stand when there are only 3 days left to the transfer window thus leaving us with even less time to find a replacement?

For those saying that the Ox will be a great replacement in the unfortunate event that Theo leaves, he is good but not polished or fully established yet and depth as mentioned before is  vital when we are challenging in 4 competitions. And Gnabry, seriously? You expect a reserves squad member to step up and instantly hit the ground running in the EPL? As for those who mentioned Affelay, he will only be available ON LOAN. Some of you slagged Theo saying that he doesn’t want to play in an Arsenal shirt. What makes you think Affelay who is only on loan from Barca will play for us with all his heart IF he does come, as the club in his heart is Barca?

I must say I am very disappointed with the way the club has operated in the transfer window this season. I thought what happened last season would not be repeated this transfer window, but clearly I was wrong. For now I can only hope that this will not happen again next year. I strongly believe that Theo should be kept and is a vital part of the squad. Too many changes will do us no good.

Written by Adrian

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Posted by Rasp