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Havearsenalspentanymoneyyet. Replica Soccer Jerseys .com. You probably already know the answer without needing to check out the website, but the answer is there in two big bold letters - NO – with a countdown clock that signals there are 12 days left until the transfer window closes. Thats 12 days remaining for exasperated Arsenal fans to dream of their club making the big signings that have been promised but have so far failed to materialize. The natives were getting restless in North London well before Saturdays home defeat to Aston Villa in their opening match of the Premier League season, but the way the Gunners crumbled against a Villa side that will likely be looking at a mid-table finish magnified the problems facing Arsene Wenger. To make it even worse, if early prognosis is correct, an injury layoff for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will deny Arsenal one of their main attacking threats until at least Christmas. Saturdays loss came after what looked to be the perfect start for the under pressure Wenger. Just six minutes in, Olivier Giroud exposed some horrific Villa defending to tap home the opening goal of the game. However, 84 minutes later, Gunners fans were heading for the exits at the Emirates having seen their side concede two penalties, finish with ten men and lose the match 3-1. Even on the opening day, it was clear to see that one of the best pieces of business done in the Premier League this summer was Villas ability to keep hold of Christian Benteke. Its not that Arsenal hasnt tried to strengthen. They have already had a couple of bids for want-away Liverpool striker Luis Suarez turned down, and lost out to Napoli for Gonzalo Higuain. Wayne Rooneys name has also been front and centre on the Emirates shopping list. But talk is cheap. Signing a striker will not cure everything. Arsenal are so far behind the top three clubs and now also trailing behind their North London rivals Tottenham in terms of quality. As well as attacking help, the also need to improve at the back and in midfield. Their inability to get big names to sign on the dotted line is an indication of how far the club has dropped in the minds of Europes top players as they perceive a lack of ambition. Earlier this season I had the chance to chat with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry when he was in Toronto with the New York Red Bulls. We discussed some of his best memories from his time at Arsenal and the players he was alongside in the team that won two championships just after the turn of the century. While there was great attacking quality in that side with flair players such as Henry, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp and Freddie Ljungberg, the heartbeat of that team was Patrick Vieira, driving them forward from midfield. Arsenal are really lacking that kind of leadership in their current squad. There quite simply is zero comparison between the level of quality Wenger had at his disposal in that team and what he has available now. The clubs current predicament has been largely self-induced. It didnt help when they gift-wrapped the title for Manchester United last season by handing over the Premier Leagues top striker Robin van Persie. Every goal the Dutchman scores seems to be a reminder of how far Arsenal have fallen. Also, as my broadcast partner Jason deVos keeps saying, if youre going to make promises in sports, you better be able to keep them. When addressing an Arsenal Supporters Trust meeting in June the clubs Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis talked of an increased spending power that would allow Arsenal to compete for the top signings and give Wenger the ability to put together a squad that would be able to end the clubs eight-year trophy drought – but so far theres been nothing. When they won the title in the 03-04 season, Arsenal went all season without losing a game. It was only the second time a team in England had achieved that since the formation of the Football League in 1888. They were great times for Arsenal, but a decade later, the club is a shadow of its former self. If the Gunners fail to add any big names to their squad before the end of the month, a long and painful season lies ahead. Cheap Soccer Jerseys . With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play. Soccer Jerseys Online . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. https://www.cheapsoccerjerseysjustwholesale.com/ . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. With Mondays release of the McLaren report (aka Sochi report) commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, here are some frequently asked questions and quick takes on an unprecedented situation:Q: What is the McLaren report?A: An investigation ordered by the World Anti-Doping Agency in May, and led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, after WADA was backed into a corner following revelations by former Moscow lab director Grigory Rodchenkov in a May 2016 New York Times report.Q: What were the major findings of the McLaren report?A: To the shock and surprise of no one who has been paying attention over the past 18 months, the same government-supported Russian sports bureaucracy shown to have systematically undermined anti-doping efforts in track and field was shown to have done the same across multiple sports, summer and winter.Q: Isnt this a little late in the game?With all due respect to the investigators, who appear to have done a massive amount of work in a very compressed time frame, anyone interested in any semblance of fair play should be livid that this avalanche of information has emerged only 18 days before the start of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. It creates enormous potential legal and political complications with little time to resolve them. WADA should have acted to expand the investigation right after Part I of the independent commission report was released in November -- something its own athlete committee urged.Q: What are some highlights in the findings of the McLaren report?A: The WADA-accredited Moscow lab, in McLarens words, operated for the protection of doped Russian athletes within a state-directed failsafe system using the disappearing positive [test] methodology. Positive samples from protected (i.e., medal-contender-quality) Russian athletes were screened and deleted from the records. The aptly named Center for Sports Preparation collected and stored clean urine to be swapped for dirty samples at the Sochi Olympics lab. Supposedly tamper-proof sample bottles were, in fact, messed with. Secret police (whose office in Sochi was steps away from the IOCs and WADAs) actively participated in the scam. The conspiracy was orchestrated by the Ministry of Sport and affected more than two dozen summer and winter Olympic sports. After the WADA independent commission investigation began, a pre-announced visit by investigators resulted in some 8,000 samples stored at the Moscow lab being destroyed. (Click here to read the full McLaren report.)Q: Hadnt we heard this before?A: Yes, just not in so much detail. WADA released a two-part independent commission report in November 2015 and January 2016, a probe commissioned after it was backed into a corner following revelations in an investigative documentary by the German television network ARD. The documentary included substantial evidence of organized doping, cover-ups and bribery within the Russian track and field federation, much of it gathered by Russian whistleblowers Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov. The report mentioned that Rodchenkov had destroyed 1,400 samples of athletes from multiple sports and secret police were present in the Sochi lab. Because track and field is not a winter sport, the logical deduction was that the same corruption had permeated beyond that federation.Q: What does all this mean?A: Were about to find out whether the International Olympic Committee has the spine to eject a wealthy superpower from its festival tent -- a country that deliberately subverted anti-doping efforts for years, made a farce of the 2014 Winter Games and cheated some unknown number of clean athletes out of economic and psychological payoffs.Q: What will happen next?A: The IOC has called a teleconference for Tuesday to discuss possible sanctions. In recent months, through its actions and the statements of president Thomas Bach, the IOC showed a reluctance to issue wholesale bans, citing the rights of individual Russian athletes said to be clean, while failing to address the individual rights of other clean athletes denied fair results for years because of the Russian system. The IOC also could toss tthe eligibility question back into the laps of individual international sports federations (i. Soccer Jerseys For Sale. e., FINA for swimming, FIFA for soccer, etc.) which have neither the time nor the investigative capability to determine one by one which nations or athletes should be permitted to compete in Rio 18 days from now.Q: What is the reaction so far?A: WADA has called for Russia to be barred from participating in the Rio Games. A leaked letter prepared by U.S. and Canadian anti-doping officials indicated those entities would jointly ask for the same. Members of the WADA athlete committee and IOC athletes commission are expected to issue their statement opposing Russian participation in Rio shortly. WADA athlete commission chair Beckie Scott, who called for an expanded investigation of Russian sport in November, reached out to other athlete and anti-doping groups to solicit support for a ban. Scott has specific moral authority on the subject, having been fleeced out of an Olympic gold medal by two doped Russian cross-country skiers 14 years ago.Q: Isnt the Russian track and field federation already suspended?A: Yes, but individual athlete eligibility became the focus of a tug-of-war between the IAAF, tracks world governing body, and the IOC. The IAAF wanted to grant only limited exceptions to the ban, for Russian athletes who had lived and/or been extensively tested outside the system, and to have those few athletes compete under a neutral flag. The IOC countered by saying it has sole authority over flags, which is vastly comforting to everyone watching the credibility of global sports governance and anti-doping systems collapse. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is expected to announce its rulings on Russian appeals this week. Its uncertain what would happen if CAS rules in favor of some individual athletes and the IOC (or individual international federations) ban Russia from Rio. Confused? So is everyone. This is uncharted territory being traversed unnecessarily late.Q: Hasnt Russia started some reform efforts?A: The country has indicated that is the case, but the McLaren report strongly implicated officials who continue to occupy key positions in the sports-government complex. In addition, anti-doping personnel from the United Kingdom assigned to carry out additional testing this year encountered substantial obstruction and obfuscation. Reforming a system and culture that took years to create and implement within a matter of months is a ludicrous proposition. Its also a slap in the face to athletes around the world who have competed cleanly or were punished for minor, inadvertent infractions.Q: Is Russia the only villain?A: No, its just the most apparent, front and center. Global anti-doping needs an overhaul and a critical, objective review of purpose via the efficacy of testing, intelligence and handling of whistleblowers. Theres a lot of blame to go around, including WADA, the IOC, numerous international federations, national Olympic committees and other alphabet soup associations where ignorance -- willful or not -- often trumped commonsense analysis. Journalists need to look in the mirror, as well. Investigative reporting played the most important role in bringing corruption to light in recent years. But for far too long, the anti-doping infrastructure did not receive sufficient media scrutiny. It is, and was, subject to the same corrosive forces of conflict of interest and geopolitics as the rest of the industry of international sport.Q: How could this affect the Rio Games overall?A: The actual sporting competition is perhaps the only aspect of the Rio Games anyone is looking forward to amid the myriad social, economic, infrastructure, security, environmental, ethical and public health issues threatening these Games. If Russia is allowed to compete, controversy rather than accomplishment will dominate any event involving a Russian athlete. Olympic officials would get the Games they deserve -- one that is compromised in every way. ' ' '