Arsenal sign Mesut Ozil: Gunners splash cash in big way

Still now world class striker, Now imagine the proff had actually gotten Suarez... Dis Arsenal team would be 3 players away from PL title, as they stand they're still far off, let alone CL glory.

Seems ManCity actually checked which colour was closer to their sky blue this time for a Sydney club, if this is true: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1166269/Sydney-snubs-Man-City-approach Are they going to move up the F3 on to the mariners or Jets? Maybe Tinkler will get some cash back...

Arsenal have a frightening schedule ahead of them...here are a couple of excerpts. Nov 2 vs Liverpool Nov 6 at BVB Nov 10 at Man Utd then a month later.... Dec 7 vs Everton Dec 11 at Napoli Dec 14 at Man City Dec 21 vs Chelsea toughest schedule in Europe? i reckon so. if by year end they're top 3 in EPL and top 2 in their UCL group i will be genuinely impressed and sold on the quality of this Arsenal squad.

(Double post) - and above 'daviurite' should be favourite...damn iPhone autocorrect...

LOL nicoldschool, if the fools are parting with their money, I'm sure Özil won't mind an extra pair of boots polished for training. Correct on Kaka - back at AC Milan on free transfer after four seasons at Real Madrid. Didn't feature much past three seasons, and so is looking for regular game time to try and get back into Brazil World Cup squad. I don't think he went cheap to RM, and now is back at his 'daviurite' club. Wonder again on which part of the triangle of player:club:agent has a say in these moves at times. http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/milan/news/1166155/Kaka-makes-dream-return-to-Milan

Yes same here griffo, dunno if Bale will slalom in tighter Spanish defences the way he did in the EPL. I still don't get how they could afford him and let Kaka go for nothing ( I thing I read that too a couple of days ago, back to ACM?). I don't remember how much Kaka was bought but I would imagine they must have lost a lot of money on him! I like Ozil too and I think he will fit in the squad with the Walcott and Giroud. I see him having the same role as Rosicky before. I would iron his socks AND polish his boots for half the money you would ask btw! :).

Also on Bale, who hadn't trained, was going to be fined by Spurs, and who had apparently a foot injury...now have the CMO of Real Madrid saying he is fit and ready to be used, while in the same breath the club is going to ask Wales to allow Bale to remain at his new club for their two WCQ coming up so he can go through a fast track pre-season... I wonder sometimes if here players have to qualify for an increase in pay-rate after a certain experience is gained. if we were the only ones doing it then we would loose more youth overseas sooner for the $$$, however if applied universally, then this pay scale removes money as a prime motivator, reigns in costs, and would maybe put a clubs overall success as a motivator for players movement elsewhere.

Oh and how i am glad WSW didnt sell for AUD20M to ManC or any other european club!

Also I think Platini had financial fair play in mind when commenting about the (potential but likely) Bale move at the time. Certain clubs are going to afford to offer and continue to offer ridiculous sums for players regardless. I wonder how Bale will do at Real Madrid and whether he will be seen to be worth the investment, especially when you compare the (at the time) record signing of new team mate Christano Ronaldo. I think Bale is overpriced but Ronaldo has justified his price in the end. Perhaps Bale will, too. Can of worms though on F1 driver salaries - especially when you consider a passion/hobby at 6M/year... ...and I think of Ozil earning $225k-odd a week (good player IMO) - I'd look after his boots for at least triple my current salary...I think he or club could afford it :-P

Yes its all over the shop in Europe. We have the one example there of a player from Ireland going for peanuts to Everton & doing well ,whereas you quote Bale(he aint worth half of that IMO). You see Torres went to Chelsea for 50 million pounds & gave no return IMO for at least half the season. Your right all I'm asking for in Australia is that sanity prevails as you say & we are respected enough to get a fair price for our players. Most young Australian players are going too early IMO & need to be tearing the A-League apart before heading off overseas,but Milligan is proven for me & the split deal offered is obviously not what Victory want.

Yes, all euro leagues start in August or late July for some and I think to end the transfer window at the beg of Sept. doesn't make sense. IMO, players managers are the real issue. The more often they sell their players, the more coms' they make so it's a bit like consultants, they try to get you a job then tell you there is another one you might be interested in. I agree with Towser we still have a bit of sanity here when it comes to transfers and I hope it goes on for as long as possible. The European market is just all over the place and each transaction makes things worse. Is Bale worth that much? I love the player, sure he will sell jerseys and attract viewers but seriously, 100M euros! OziI is good value at 50M but still! I read the other day that Fernando Alonso the F 1 driver had bought a whole Spanish cycling team, all the riders, staff etc, for 6M euros/ year! You get Thauvin's right leg for that. Unbelievable!

Apparently Platini has noticed as well...but then eludes to unifying the European transfer window so that it isn't as big.

Yes it does happen. Seamus Coleman was bought for 60,000 GBP from Ireland. Name one player coming out of the A League who would make that much of an impact in such a short amount of time? Australians generally have grossly unrealistic expectations of what they can expect for their players. Most do not go for multi million deals. It's just that everyone thinks that is what is occuring because a few clubs are cmpletely out of control with their transfer dealings (Liverpool anyone?). If it isn't worth it, don't sell. That's fine but everyone in this country thinks that players are worth far more than they actually are because we can get decent transfers from the Middle East, China or see what's occuring in some of Europe's biggest leagues. How much did Michu cost? Now compare that to what we expect for our players and ask who in this country is going to deliver such an outcome? No one, so what would our transfers be worth?

Alot cheaper yes but how is it better Jason,and how would you apply it to European football?.You would have to completely get rid of promotion/relegation for starters which ain't ever going to happen.You don't have the luxury that say the GWS have in where you can send out a bunch of tops draft picks and hopefully they progress into top players after 4 or 5 years,in those 4 or 5 years a team in Europe would tumble down the leagues into oblivion.

Which Nick & Franko leads to what I admire about Ange & Milligan. I've seen football develop over many years into the global "money monster" it is today. Whilst in individual developing football countries like Australia/USA we can employ salary caps to keep some clubs from dominating, its way too late in Europe,the dye is cast through years of tradition,bad & good administration,regarding matters on & off the park & so on. However getting back to Ange & Milligan IMO he was right to reject Palace's split payment offer. Somewhere along the line Australian clubs have to get onto the World Football gravy train despite the salary cap. A-League clubs cant ever hope to emulate what Lille did with Thauvin if they doff their hat to overseas clubs every time a decent Australian player is up for transfer. The question to be asked is would a European club treat another European club( regarding a player of equal status to Milligan) the way Palace are negotiating with Victory. Judging by Lille & Thauvin highly unlikely unless we start to behave like them.

Hahaha me too, am not a fan of Le Nord either ( we have many bad jokes about 'les ch'tis ' btw ;). Tbh, Seydoux their president didn't want to sell Thauvin at first but when he saw the little t**t didn't want to train nor play he had no choice. And as far as am concerned, if a young lad like Thauvin doesn't want to play I think the best thing is to sell him for as much as possible as quickly as possible. What a joke though! Football stock market indeed!

I like the way Lille have gone about it, they bought Florian Thauvin with some of the Hazard money (€40M) and have used it to make more money! they also sold Digne to PSG for €15M Payet to OM for €10, though Payet has started very well. All this profit that they are making is being ploughed into paying off their new stadium, a 50,000 seater that cost about €300m to build, but includes revenue making assets like hotels! Usually I don’t like Le Nord, but I like the way their chairman is going about his business.

Some indecent amounts really. I followed closely what is, as far as I can remember, one of the most stupid transaction I have ever seen in my life : a young French player Florian Thauvin, just 20yo, was bought in January by Lille for 3.5M euros and loaned to Bastia, his actual club, until the end of the 2012-13 season. Nothing too crazy so far. But in the last couple of months the youngster has decided that Lille wasn't a big enough club for him after all (keep in mind he is 20 and hasn't shown much ) and wanted out of his contract without having even played, or trained with his new team! And what happened this morning, Marseille finally offered 15M euros (aud 22-25M) and got him, as Lille president said it was just a 'too good enough offer to refuse'. So Lille has sold him 4 x the price they bought him for 7 months ago, and the guy has never played for them. What a world!

And haven't these European leagues heard of a thing called the draft? Much better drafting players than signing them up for $A150 million.

Whatever happened to Global Financial Crisis?