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The Hypocrisy of Arsenal’s Signing of Chamberlain:

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Arsenal’s latest signing beggars belief; but not for what they have done in the transfer market, but rather for what they have not done. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will no doubt, I’m sure, turn out to be worth – in football terms – the £15million that the Gunners have shelled out for his services, but why Arsene Wenger and/or the board are willing to stump up that kind of money for a player who has only one full season in League One to his name and not for experienced, although still relatively young, players such as Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka defies logic. The tried and tested formula of grabbing youngsters before any other clubs and then nurturing them has conjured up some good players, but in terms of trophies won, it is a procedure that has not worked.

If Arsenal want to win trophies from now then they need players who are already or more or less the finished article. Going by past evidence of bedding in young players before giving them a regular shot at the big games, Chamberlain can only expect to make ten, fifteen or so appearances this season as a substitute and in cup competitions, which, with the squad they have, is not enough to once again seriously challenge Manchester United, Chelsea and now Manchester City or maybe even Liverpool for that matter, particularly after the way they finished off last term, coupled with the array of new signings that they have made over the summer.

Personally, I think it is good news for Wenger’s side that Cesc Fabregas seems to finally be leaving. The rumours surrounding him, the club and Barcelona have been nothing but a burden to everyone involved as new signings could have been brought in if the club knew for certain that he was on his way out. So if Arsenal are going to receive £35million for him then I feel that it is a good bit of business. David Villa cost less than that and has proved to be a hit at the Nou Camp whereas Fabregas’ injury problems should bring down his value a peg or two, so £35million? Yes please!

I know many fans will say that it’s a football club, not a business, but the Spaniard’s lingering presence is likely to have an effect on the pitch as well. United sold a far superior player in Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 and survived. In fact, they have parted ways with many important players at the peak of their powers many times in the past and still the dynasty has continued: Jaap Stam, David Beckham and Carlos Tevez to name just a few. Each time United did that they had a stronger squad to fall back on, but it proves that no one man is bigger than the club.

As far as Chamberlain goes, he is not going to be playing many games in the next three years unless he turns out to be that increasingly rare breed of footballer that comes into the first team straight away like a Ryan Giggs or Wayne Rooney. He had an opportunity, like many players, to become a legend at the club where he first tasted professional football, but has instead chosen the ‘nurturing’ route behind closed doors. There will be players who are not as half as good grabbing the headlines and gaining valuable match day experience, whilst he will be confined to training pitches, the reserves and substitute appearances. Players who are and were already at big clubs such as Tom Cleverly and the young David Beckham went on loan to side’s lower ranked than the ones they were contracted to – Wigan Athletic for Cleverly and in Beckham’s case it was the fourth tier of English football with Preston North End – but Chamberlain, like Theo Walcott before him, has done the opposite. They are both very young and there is a lot that can happen, but I wonder how they will feel at the end of their career when looking back at their early years in Arsenal’s reserves as opposed to setting the world alight in a lower division or at another Premiership club.

Fans of the Gunners don’t want to be waiting another six years for a trophy so why they have not brought in anyone, bar Gervinho, who is the ‘finished article’ is beyond me. The signing of Chamberlain makes all their deliberating over signing Jagielka and /or Cahill all the more dumbfounding, so it begs the question, why?

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  • nilo says:

    who say’s he will not be in the team and play many games this season? walcot did, jack did, gibbs is doing and if he takes his chance then so will he. time for arsenal fans to stfu and get behind the team and stop with this bitching all over the net. the time for talk and bitching was the close season. now that we are under way it’s time to shut up and attack the enemy instead of ourselves.

    • Ricky Murray says:

      I’m not saying they shouldn’t have signed him; I think they should have before anyone else gets him, but the Arsenal board are well known for their prudence in not paying for players that have been available, so why pay that amount for him then refuse to do so for a player like Gary Cahill? Who knows, Cahill still may be signed.

  • GoonerDave says:

    Although this signing seems unnecessary and badly timed due to our current needs, I fail to understand how its hypocritical.
    Jagielka is 29. Thats not young, even in relative terms.
    I realise we are going through a bad spell trophy wise and yesterdays final ball and finishing wasnt good enough, but we need to lay off the negative articles. Its seeping through the fans like a disease and our team isnt getting the support it needs.
    This pessimism and negativity is beginning to get very boring. No stone has been unturned in our quest for new reasons to belittle the manager,players or even each other. Its all been done to death at this stage.
    The season has kicked off and 2 of our best players are about to leave. Our team needs us this season possibly more than any other.
    As for Chamberlain – this was a player in demand and we got him. We should be happy. Heres hoping he takes the league by storm!

    • Ricky Murray says:

      It’s hypocritical because in the past Wenger and the board have used the excuse that players’ prices, ones that they have been linked with, are too extortionate, ones that are more proven than Chamberlain, but then seem to have no qualms in stumping up the money to pay for him rather than someone like Gary Cahill. Although Gervinho looks decent despite his sending off.

  • Chris Tennant says:

    Does the writer even know what the word hypocrisy means? Terrible article, absolutely shocking.

  • EZ Macdoom says:

    Not to mention the hypocrisy of signing Chamberlain from Southampton for a club record fee (theirs not ours) then having the gall to complain about clubs coming and stealing our players after we put all the work into developing them, as he did post-Newcastle.

    Clearly he was talking about City but his record of buying players from other clubs for a pittance using the trainee fee ruling is just as reprehensible.

    I have no problem with him doing it, but to blame Man City for trying to sign our players, when they clearly want to leave to join a club showing ambition to win something rather than simply remain on the CL gravy train is pathetic. If you wanted to see these players playing for Arsenal in their peak you should have given them a reason to stay.

    Giving big long term contracts to the likes of Eboue, Vela, Denilson, Squillaci, Silvestre and making Almunia no.1 for 3 seasons is not the way to go about it!!

    I am now sick of his hypocrisy and his whining. The board should stick a muzzle on him and restrict him to football matters. If he doesn’t like it he knows what he can do.

  • John says:

    Do you actually know what hypocracy means? What a shocking post; how dare you post such tripe like this. You really think, despite needing players now, we shouldn’t also be signing players for the future? You are totally clueless about the running of a football club.

    • Ricky Murray says:

      Aw, dear. Another moron. I didn’t say they shouldn’t sign him. I said he’s sure to be a good player, but to refuse to sign certain proven players in order to keep the books balanced then pay the same amount for Chamberlain that they would have had to stump up for those players, THAT is hypocrisy. The excuse for not signing certain players in the past has often been, ‘they’re too much money and anyway, at least we are financially secure,’ and then they go and pay virtually the same amount for a player with only one season of League One under his belt.

  • EIE says:

    John, don’t be a knob! Wenger out!

    • trugun says:

      EIE,
      The only knob is you sport, take a tip read Gary Nevilles piece on Wenger, and if after that you still think Wenger should go then perhaps your supporting the wrong team.

    • Ricky Murray says:

      Thanks for sticking up for me against the big, bad bully EIE, although I think Wenger should stay.

  • Jimmy Jive says:

    To the writer, you need to dislocate yourself from your club allegiance to some degree when writing for football. I’m sure many Arsenal supporters have read this and basically they were given a Man U article.

    • Ricky Murray says:

      I’m neither Arsenal or Man Utd, but United are a great example to how clubs are and can be run. Their success speaks for itself. They’re obviously doing something right.

  • James gunner says:

    Arsenal need some big names and Wenger signs a wc kid for a big sum.He better get some monster sized guys for cd. As for the defensive md,please get one in the Veira mould,big and strong.
    If he doesn’t change his obssession with the future by neglecting the present,the gunners will be unable to fight for the epl trophy.
    You can forget about the cl.First I expect the gunners to be eliminated.Then Wenger will go on a massive spending spree on the best kids in the world.
    Then finally when the kids don’t deliver as they will inevitably,he will quit or be axed .Of course this is the worst scenario. Things can change or improve if he were to invest in the finished product,preferably non African.Then the gunners will have a chance.

    • ct says:

      Do you mean non-African because of the ACN? Or because you just don’t want any more African’s at the club in general?

  • Matt says:

    This is getting ridiculous. There is no need to be this negative. The season has started. Time to discuss football not the paranoia that you bloggers and media were feeding us. we have a team in transition that needs our support more than anything at the moment. Not this.

  • Reddies says:

    trouble is for the last 5 or 6 years the only teams winning trophies are those overspending. so unless you are advocating Arsenal take a chance on possibly following Portsmouth to win something most clubs had better hope UEFA are strict with the FFP and reel in the big spenders. Man U may be the way to run a club but they’ve only made an actual profit once in the last 4 years and that was when they sold Ronaldo.

  • Ryan says:

    How can you say it’s hypocrisy when no-one knows how much Arsenal paid for Chamberlain – the fee was undisclosed, so all the talk about ten or twelve million is purely newspaper speculation!

    Plus, how do you know the price of Cahill? For all you know, Bolton might be holding out for stupid money like £25 million, in which case it’s no wonder Wenger is reluctant to buy.

    And I’m not quite sure it’s wise holding up Manchester United (massively in debt to the tune of billions) as a paragon of how clubs should behave in the transfer market

    Surely it’s better to be frugal now, pay the outstanding bills on the Emirates Stadium, and come back stronger when we are debt-free, rather than saddling the club with even more debts?

    The biggest hypocrisy I see here is that someone is making knee-jerk reactions about Arsenal’s transfer policy before the club’s transfer business has even been concluded.

    It’s a bit writing a film review of The Sixth Sense without having seen the ending – pointless in the extreme!

    • Ricky Murray says:

      Assumption can make an arse of you and me, but I think it’s safe to assume that Chamberlain didn’t cost something in the region of £2/3million. Much of the content in newspapers is bullshit, but not EVERYTHING is made up so I’m sure many of the prices bandied about are true. Reports said Alan Shearer moved from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United for £15million in 1996. Like 99% of transfers nothing has come out SINCE and said ”actually, the papers lied about the price; he REALLY cost this much…” Papers said he cost £15million and it appears that he did in fact cost £15million.

      You’ve made some valid points, but that’s an exagerration concerning Man Utd: ”in debt to the tune of billions.” They may be millions in debt, but they can soon make that up in television money, gate and match day income plus commercial aspects. ‘Billions’ would be a different ball game.

      Even the most avid economist would find it difficult to get down to the bare bones of EVERY piece of financial business so I can’t say that what either United or Arsenal are doing is the right way, but there have been players on the market in the past that the Gunners didn’t snap up – ones that went for relatively cheap in today’s football terms – whilst they pay what is said to be much for Chamberlain. We don’t know the true ‘true’ figure yet; time will tell I suppose. All I know is that United can look back on this period of history (2005 to now) and say, ”we won four league titles, three League Cups and one Champions League plus reached two finals of the latter competition only to lose to one of the best teams ever.”

      They haven’t done badly have they? And I’m sure they won’t end up like Leeds.

  • jide says:

    I understand what your opinion is, but because one deal is done earlier than another doesn’t mean the club isn’t after other targets.W’eve been trying to sign AOC for a while now and the deal was done fst enough. That does not mean the club should have put the AOC deal on hold to finish the Defender deal first. Secondly i am in support of criticizing AW, but the negativity around the club is shameful. In this times where the media are slandering us and people are writing us off, we fans should stick together. Fans talk like they know AW isn’t trying to sign anybody, they talk like Arsenal can financialy compete with other clubs like LFC, spuds,MU,MC. if we could compete business would be done sooner.I am just as anxious to see a CB and CAM(to replace FAB) signed before the deadline, but one conclusion i refuse to come to, is that AW and co are not trying to sign players. Our defense seems to have improved from what i saw vs NCFC, though we are yet to be tested by tough teams like LFC, MU,Udinese,but i am still optimistic we can challenge if we sign a CAM and CB.
    ARSENAL FOR LIFE!!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXAZJ28s1rU <—–P.S this dude is a legend.

    • Ricky Murray says:

      He looks like Jack Wilshire. Very clever song although I do disagree with the ‘Rioch had a mare’ line: he got Arsenal to fifth place having finished the season before in 12th, so it was quite an improvement then he got sacked in September of the new campaign.

      I don’t think Wenger should be sacked; he revolutionised and changed the face of English football and he’s tried to get players, but for some reason, hasn’t been able to purchase them; maybe, according to what he and the board say, because of prudency, which they didn’t show in signing Chamberlain and nor should they have, but if they didn’t show that in getting him then I don’t why they haven’t signed proven players in the past.

  • freddy says:

    to the writer.i don’t think this signing is hypocritical.reason?even manure were after him,and if arsene failed to sign him,you would hav still criticised him.cesc came as a 16 year old,he was given the chance and now he is one of the world’s finest.even barca signed alexis b4 cesc & he is younger than fabregas.as 4 the signings criticisms,why is arsene criticised yet he has already signed 4 players? i think the media and EPL REFS AND BOARD generally hate arsenal.

    arsenal till i die.
    In Arsene we trust,and in Arsenal we love.i wish a nice season to all arsenal diehards.

    • Ricky Murray says:

      Yep, he was so hotly pursuited that even horse faeces were after him! I’m not saying they shouldn’t have signed him, but I was a little perplexed about why they signed him and not others who went to other clubs lower than the reported price they paid for Chamberlain. I’ve stated countless times why I think it’s hypocritical: the board have used excuses in the past about not signing certain players, who have then gone to other clubs, whilst they pay over the odds for Chamberlain.

      Gervinho looks good despite his sending off.

  • Dino Abby says:

    I don’t know how many more times RM have to repeat what he meant when using the word hypocrisy. He was not against Wenger buying of AOC for such fee but why being so petty when it comes to buying proven quality players for same amount or a meager few millions extra.

    Wenger also mentioned that it’s not about how much it cost but rather bringing in the right quality is what he is concern with. But everyone knows that Arsenal did make a bid for Jagielka, Samba, Mata to name a few but got rejected because they couldn’t agree on the price. So, is it about the right quality or disagreement over a few million differences. Samba admitted that Wenger tried to recruit him last January but the deal didn’t go through and I can bet you it was the haggling over a few millions that saw the deal failed. I’m still hoping though that Wenger will bring in a few experienced quality players, in a few much needed areas, that are ready to deliver.

    I have not come to the point where I want Wenger out but if we don’t bring in the required reinforcement and Arsenal fail to remain in the top four, I’ll shout at the top of my voice that Wenger’s time is up. For whoever that says I should go support another team I have this as my reply..” Why don’t YOU follow Wenger when he’s out from Arsenal to manage another club” Anyway, I’m hoping it wouldn’t have to come to this as I know all of us love AFC. Go Gunners..!!

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