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Gooners' View is the Arsenal Roundtable at Bleacher Report where we ask the Gooners in the Arsenal Community various questions about Arsenal!
For this edition of Gooners' View we have Maire Ofeire, Mike Griffin and Alex Stamp who give their views about the close season at Arsenal.
1. Do you feel that Real Madrid and Manchester City's spending sprees might be a good thing for Arsenal, considering that Wenger can do his transfer activity in a relatively quiet manner?
Maire: I think so. Wenger likes to conduct the transfers quietly and behind the scenes to a degree. The Vermaelen deal only came to light through the player himself with both Ajax and his agent staying quite. The Arshavin deal on the other hand was a media disaster but all things considered we got our man in the end. I think the spotlight may have been on Arsenal to see if we would buy anyone but with Real Madrid buying up every big name they can find they are well and truly in the spotlight while the English media will be fishing to see how Manchester United see fit to replace Ronaldo.
As for Manchester City, apart from Robinho and the reported Kaka deal they haven't really been too loud about their transfer going ons, not from where I'm sitting anyway.
Mike: I believe that those high profile amounts and players will allow Wenger to go after deals in a quieter manner, which will be good for the club. And one more positive (when compared to last year) is that now that Gazidis is with the club, Wenger doesn’t have to do it all alone this time around.
Alex: Arsene typically conducts his transfer dealings under the radar, so the spending of Real Madrid and Manchester City should make little difference. Arsenal are forever linked with players because the media receive little pointers about who Arsenal will sign so they often have to guess for themselves. It must be understood that when Arsenal are linked with a player then other team's instantly become interested because Arsenal's scouting system and the quality of players they bring in mean that other teams will naturally want to sign their targets.
2. Which of the current players do you see leaving (defenders in particular) considering that Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax has signed?
Maire: Hopefully none. Is there always a need for Arsenal to sell so we can buy? Even Wenger himself said it is not necessary this season. I do sincerely hope that Kolo Toure and William Gallas are kept with Tomas Vermaelen creating competition for places and been able to fill in for Toure in January when the ACN is on. Johan Djourou and Alex Song are capable squad players in that position while I see perhaps Phil Senderos and Mikael Silvestre been left go to whoever is willing to buy them. Emmanuel Eboue has been making noises about leaving but I expect him to be here come September.
The only player that seems a strong possibility of leaving is Emmanuel Adebayor and even that is diminishing by the week as other clubs seemed to have lost interest.
Mike: I think Wenger may need to sell one or two players to bring in additional transfer funds. And with the Vermaelen signing, I can definitely envision a defender leaving the Emirates this summer, although Wenger recently commented that there wouldn't be any departures from among first-teamers this off-season. If he really needs cash for some major signing, maybe Wenger will allow a Toure to go to Man City, or perhaps he'll reduce the fee needed to complete a Felipe Melo signing by including Senderos as part of a swap deal with Fiorentina. In addition, I do feel that if there is any other Gunner player on his way out, it would be Emmanuel Adebayor.
Alex: Personally, I think it could be two out of Senderos, Gallas and Toure. I actually think Wenger wants to keep Gallas. He is experienced, and as a defender is probably our finest defensively minded player. Bearing in mind that Toure, for all the fans love him, is not a world class defender, but a good defender who relies on his pace to bail him out of trouble. At his age, his physical attributes will decline and thus his worth as a defender will diminish remarkably-hence why Wenger is keen to sell.
I think Wenger believes in Djourou, and will retain Silvestre as a mentor to the younger players also-who often speak of him as kind of father figure. As for other departures, I think Wenger wants to retain the squad he has, though I'm sure he is as aware as any that in the next couple of seasons he's going to be overloaded with attacking midfielders, with the likes of Randall, Merida, Wilshere et al pushing for first team football.
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