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F365's Champions League Winners & Losers

AC Milan achieved where Arsenal failed, by approaching their clash against Barcelona with the necessary underdog mentality, while Arsene Wenger is guilty of false belief...

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dryice says...

maybe. But what bit did I get wrong. Did Chelsea and Arsenal enter a big bidding war where wages were consistently upped to the point that you were priced out of it by the big Chelsea brute? Or did Arsenal leave the bidding way before it reached your financial limits? It's not a criticism btw, Arsenal set their own value on the player and Chelsea set theirs. My issue is the excuses about how you simply lost out to the russian billionaire....again.

Posted 2:16pm 25th February 2013

littler_dutch (Arsenal) says...

What's clear dryice, is that you don't honestly have a clue what happened!

Posted 1:13pm 25th February 2013

dryice says...

Little_dutch. An auction wa deliberately created, but an auction didnt actually materialise did it. From what you say it seems that Arsenal put an offer in of, lets say £60k per week, Chelsea also put an offer in of (again lets guess) £70k per week. So Arsenal pulled out of the bidding rather than try and match/exceed and sell the benefit of Arsenal over Chelsea for a young emerging player. You had the means to up your offer to keep within your budgets but choose not to. You also have cash available to change those budgets to compete, but again you choose not to. As I said before, you didnt lose anything like a bidding war with Chelsea, you assumed that you would lose so didnt bother trying to compete. I doubt you will agree because it's easier to blame others but do you still think that you were outmuscled in a bidding war against Chelsea for the player you wanted to sign which exceeded you salary cap, or that in fact you werent outmuscled but decided not to improve your offer? The latter is fine because every players has a price, but the woe is me story about the big bullies just isnt always true.

Posted 11:26am 25th February 2013

littler_dutch (Arsenal) says...

dryice, Mata's agent made Arsenal's offer very public, which is how and why Chelsea jumped in. They were hoping that a richer club would come in with a bigger offer. So an auction was deliberately created with one of the world's richest clubs. Transfers aren't just a case of hitting the enter button, they're a bit more nuanced than that. Arsenal live within a budget and the manager has to decide how much of his budget he can commit to one player when he goes after them. It's not just as simple as "f*ck it, let's plough everything into signing this one player."

Posted 8:28am 25th February 2013

themoo (Liverpool) says...

Chelsea were not 'lucky' to get past Barcelona last year. Was I the only person who watched those games?

Posted 12:58pm 24th February 2013

dryice says...

Littler_dutch - I do get it, sometimes there are other teams who can pay more than you, and if it pushes them out of your reach then you have to decline, but in this instance with Mata you seemed to have given up immediately that Chelsea were involved and walked away whilst the costs were within your range. Chelsea might have outbid you but they didn't on this occasion. You gave up before needing to, I would just be incredibly disappointed in that. Let me ave your eBay, but as soon as someone else shows an interest I would just walk away because they could possibly spend more than me.

Posted 8:36am 23rd February 2013

levi says...

I seem to remember an article by Jonny Nic (?) before the Arsenal game detailing how Arsene should set them up to challenge Bayern (in 5 points). Most of those points were exactly what Arsene did, including one that is the exact opposite of what youre now saying je shouldve done. Johnny reckoned that Arsene should play 3 central midfielders and try to win the difield possession battle. Hindsight, though, is twenny-twenny.

Posted 5:13pm 22nd February 2013

Thecolonel (Liverpool) says...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hope Wenger stays at Arsenal until he dies of old age.

Posted 2:31pm 22nd February 2013

Synergy says...

Once Chelsea showed interest in Mata, Arsenal didn't have a chance as they would pay more than Arsenal would offer as salary if it came down to a bidding war.

Also can we stop pretending Mata was a can't miss? He was in the first wave of Spanish players coming over and many felt he and Silva didn't have the physique to survive in the demanding PL. In hindsight its easy to claim Arsenal messed up, but at that time it was a risk paying big money for Mata.

Once Silva and Mata proved themselves successes its easier for PL teams to gamble on a Spanish prospect now.

Posted 2:05pm 22nd February 2013

littler_dutch (Arsenal) says...

Not entirely sure where you've pulled the £70k a week figure from either.

Posted 10:57am 22nd February 2013

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