Who Arsenal should buy? – Midfielders
Wenger has the money Part 2
Yesterday, I touched upon what strikers we could use with the recent news revealing that Wenger has £40 million to play with in January.
Looking at our midfield, it seems a bit lacking in quality at times. Without Diaby our midfield doesn’t seem physical enough for games like Stoke, West Ham, Man City etc. We were lucky against West Ham as there were numerous occasions where Diame broke free from midfield marauding into dangerous attacking positions.
My midfield suggestions are:
Marouane Fellaini: He is an absolute beast of a player. He’s had a gem of a time at Everton and is ready for a step up to a Champions league club. He’s still quite young at 23 and still has a lot to learn. But he’s a massive talent. There aren’t many players like him on the market. Big, aggressive, able to attack and defend, extremely versatile. He’ll be a very expensive player though. We’ll need to break our transfer record for him. Possibly upwards of £25 million.
Etienne Capoue: He’s another massive midfielder deployed as either a defensive, box to box or attacking midfielder. He was in the Ligue 1 team of the year last year and has been recognised by the French national team. All is going well and I feel like Arsenal could do with a player like him. He’s a budget version of Fellaini but could easily be as good as him with the right nurturing. He’d cost about £10 million. A very Wenger like signing.
All in all, I think we need one striker and one midfielder if we are going to mount a proper title challenge in the second half of the season. We’ve got a lot of depth in different positions but we just need that bit extra to bring silverware back to the Emirates.






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Out of tune?. Like or Dislike:
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Or we can wait and let Frimpong to turn into the star we know he can become.
Diaby/Frimpong/Coquelin are enough to play in CDM and rotate along with WILSHERE. A CDM is not required.
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I think etienne capoue would be a gud aquisition to d team and perhaps demba ba.
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I guess M’Vila is still on the list. We have a lot of midfielders, but when Diaby gets injured again oder Wilshere will need a breat etc. it would be great to have the chance to use M’Vila!
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No one.this is a perfect team.let it grow
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When Wilshire is fit I see himself and Diaby alternating the box to box role. Arteta and Cazorla are just too good to leave out. I really think this money (which wont be spent) should go towards an out and out winger. Theo needs a run at CF and Chamberlain to be blooded as a CAM. I mean if all our squad are playing at their full potential we are a machine!
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YANN M’VILA!!!!
This guys maturity level is amazing. He is just 22 and after having a difficult European Championship his attitude is amazing. He is solely blaming himself for not being benched in Ligue 1 and not getting a place in the France team.
He is even playing in the U21 this week.
He changed his lifestyle to get back on top.
Plus he rejected Spurs which is always good.
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The one area in our team that we have plenty of players in is our midfield. After Arteta, Cazorla, and Diaby, there are plenty of players lining up to have a shot at a first team place. We also have plenty of raw young talent waiting to show what they can do. If we were to buy any of the players mentioned in the article, they would expect a first team place. So who would we take off the pitch? I wldnt want any of our current squad out. There’s Rosicky, Arshavin, Wilshere, Ox, Le Coq, Frimpong, and I’m not even mentioning any players who are out on loan! What happens to all those players if we bring in any more? And what would another midfielder bring to our squad that we don’t already have? Unless its a an absolute top class player (I mean the type of player we a- cannot afford, & b- would never come to sit on a bench), what would we do with our current squad … Who are playing exceptionally well lately? Really don’t think another midfielder is necessary.
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Arsenal have agreed a deal to sign talented 18 year old striker max clayton from crewe alexander
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Diame was perfect for this role.. And I hate to go back to this, but if you wanted another cm, m’vila is the man.
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I still think a striker is more important than a CDM.
What if Giroud gets injured?
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We don’t need anyone! We’ve got Coquelin, Frimpong, Arteta, Wilshere, Diaby and Chuks Aneke coming up in the youth squad.
How will any of these signings fit in to this squad – it would be a waste of £15m-£20m
If we needed anyone after Song’s departure, Wenger would have bought someone – but in actual fact we didn’t need a replacement because Arsene knows best.
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hope we don’t have to start putting up with all those m’villa has signed posts again !!
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Where not going to sign any more midfielders. You dont use your head at all, If we sign another midfielder who is going to play we all ready have Cazorla/Arteta/Wilshere/Ramsay/ Rosiscky/Diaby/Frimpong/Le coq thats 8 good players competing for 3 positions meaning 5 wont be playing at all. And you wont to sign another midfielder taking it to 6 that wont be playing we have adequate cover for diabys injuries we cant be bringing any more players in unless we ship at least two out.
As for strengthening the squad the obvious position is striker but we can play podolski or gervinho there if something happens to Ollie G, Maybe a winger if walcott is sold but untill people start leaving we cant bring anymore in.
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fellaini or m villa
we do need another striker thogh 1st….
frimpong coquilin n diaby can do the job aswell….
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First choice: Yohan Cabaye
Second choice: Yann M’Vila if attitude problems have been resolved (our team chemistry is amazing and shouldn’t be disrupted)
Third choice: Etienne Capoue
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I think the best players to buy in January would be:
1) Stevan Jovetic
2) Fellaini
But in the next transfer summer we can go for Isco, M’villa, Debuchy and Ogbonna.
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whoever wrote this post needs their head examining.
Firstly the midfield is where we are too compact. you want to spend half Arsenals budget on one player that is lesser impressive than the last defensive midfielder we just sold to Barca?
If you did then how is Frimpong, Coqulin and Wilshere meant to get a start? you buy a player, you push one out.
A more sensible option would be to keep £30m for when your desperate for it, then either spend the rest on a quality center back and sell/loan Djourou.
OR Buy a right Winger to replace Walcott. So that he can either leave or sign and move to the center forward.
Dont forget the Ox is next in line for Cazorlas spot in the middle attacking role in a couple years time.
honestly.
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none
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Isco
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M’vila its perfetch for arsenal
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midfield is not where we need to strengthen. Let the young midfielders grow. Arteta, Cazorla are staples. Then we have Wilshere and Rosicky coming back. Diaby is out injured now, but he will be playing if he isn’t. I still haven’t mentioned Ramsey or coquelin or frimpong. When we don’t play 4-3-3 then we can even use walcott or the OX further back.
dont’ forget eisfeld or miyachi either. Seriously…midfield is not where we need strengthening. Cazorla literally fixed it all.
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Etienne Capoue is not that good,he can be developed but wenger needs players who can fit in real quick
n yes with diaby out arsenal needs a midfielder
fellani would be a great addition
coz he can attack as well as defend
can play at any position in midfield.
wilshere is coming back so it depends if wilshere getting going players like ramsey may find it hard to break in the first team…
if
wilshere shines wenger won’t need any other midfielder
a striker is a must….
n
falcao to arsenal is never gonna happen
coz arsenal aren’t the only club interested
chelsea,man city,real Madrid n psg would easily out bid arsenal
arsenal still need a playmaker coz the only playmaker present is cazorla
Wht if he gets injured
wilshere can play as playmaker even rosicky
but wenger needs more creativity up front n from the box to box midfielder
midfield creativity will be enhanced with wilshere’s return
but wings are naive
gervinho is like a dumb player…who doesn’t know to cross or even pass
Eriksen of ajax would be good addition coz he’s versatile an play on wings as well as playmaker behind striker….
n theo seems to be shown the door at arsenal…
dzagoev is another playmaker good n versatile with lot of experience
Isco of malaga is another playmaker good enough
he’s versatile fast n very young
wenger should use cazorla to lure him to emirates….
n arsenal’s current playing style can really attract players
Isco won’t cost much
£10-£17million would be enough to bring Isco
who can partner wilshere for the future….
wenger don’t need any holding midfielder coz he’s already got two fine youngsters
just a real classy box to box midfielder n versatile playmaker needs to be added…
wings should be more creative
coz u can see when cazorla is marked like in chelsea game
arsenal don’t Av a creative source at all….
gibbs should learn to provide proper crosses….
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Keep the money, get rid of dead wood in the summer, and judge of this good season wats need to be done. Doing this will defind our greatest in the future, FairPlay rules (we wil top dogs once again)
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I’m guessing the people here saying M’Vila don’t watch or know much about French football. The guy has been really really awful this season (esp if scouting him). And if you knew Wenger you’d know he won’t go for him if he already had the chance. It won’t happen 100%
I doubt very much Wenger will go in for a midfielder so this article is a bit pointless. If injuries occur majorly before January then maybe but with Coq, Frimpong, Rosicky, Wilshere, Diaby all fighting it out in one position Wenger will never disrupt that. Instead he’ll end up looking at a striker if Chamakh goes sooner rather than later.
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Isco…..Yarmolenko to replace Walcott (if he wants to leave)
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If there’s one part of the park where we don’t need players (for a change) it’s midfield.
When everyone’s fit, the players fighting over the central 3 positions are:
Arteta
Diaby
Wilshere
Ramsey
Rosicky
Cazorla
Frimpong
Coquelin
Not to mention wingers that can play CAM such as Arshavin and Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Then you have the youngsters coming through such as Eisfeld, Yennaris, Eastmond, Henderson and Aneke,
There’s no way Wenger will buy another midfielder.
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Only one striker/winger . Like Munian , Adrian Lopez , Alan Dzagoev , Holtby , Llorente or Falcao . We will have back Rosciky and Wilshere to help Cazorla and Arteta/Diaby , we don’t need Mid’s , one striker or one winger would be fantastic.
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@kickupthearsene
Thank you for making sense. You’re one of few who actually have a better understanding of how Arsenal works. The only point I might argue is both Rosicky and Arshavin are 31 so their spots will be at risk for the coming season and next. Yes that is 2 spots for our youth to take but I’ll rather promote one and buy experience for the other. It creates the balance that we see in our squad today. I highly rate both players for their effectiveness and game smarts. IMO Frimpong isn’t a first team player yet. He isn’t in the squad for brains but rather physical presence and brute. His passing is shocking and his fighting attitude we like but this leads to brash/irrational challenges which in turn affects the team. Frimpong needs to mature mentally on and off the pitch. We need a creative player to eventually replace the Czech and the Russian and I’ve always been a fan of Isco. I’ve known of him since he was 18. You can see why Real MAdrid tried to lure him but he rejected them due to time on the pitch. He worked extremely well with Cazorla and has terrific technical skill on par with the Spaniard. It’s about time Arsenal started tapping up players like every other team does!
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I know this isn’t totally on-topic, but I think that if rumors about Walcott, Sagna are true (just holding for more money/disappointed with lack of trophies), Arsenal should have it’s final mass exodus this year and look to “rebuild” with younger players this year.
I think the club is slowly changing it’s ways (i.e. you can’t just buy young and has started to buy “younger” veterans) but we need to kick out the people who are looking to move on and start with a new core that’s more loyal and hungry. We’ve already sold our two most transcendent players (Cesc and RvP) and now have a solid veteran core with 2-3 good years still ahead of them (Cazorla, Podolski, Mert, Arteta, although Arteta is old) to help mentor and act as an anchor for young talents to flourish, and we should now buy younger blood that can fill their ranks once they’re older and Arteta retires.
This may mean that we have to wait 2-3 more years before our nucleus develops fully, but after that, I firmly believe our club will be unstoppable due to our excellent ability to develop talent and buy bargains while also retaining some of the best facilities in Europe. All good corporations focus on long-term positives over short-run glory, and Arsenal shouldn’t be run any differently (although I’d like to see our board give us more dividends in terms of higher quality transfers rather than sitting on all that cash a la Apple) and let the fake fans rush for the flicking time bombs known as Chelsea, ManUre, and City.
COYG!
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ISCO the guy has amazing talent and young, the ball is stuck to his feet.
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i think fellaini would be a great addition to the gunners. EPL proven, and such a powerful and quite skillful player.i personally admire him. But maybe he would cost us too much and i can’t see Wenger willing to pay that much. a sensible option is surely be Capoue, i rate him higher than the overly -hyped M’vila just because he has a calming and rather reserve personal life. He is not a party boy and not much controversies surrounds him compared to M’vila. Plus what we are missing in the midfield is not much on creativity but i would think we lack in height and added physical presence. Arteta has been superb for us this season but i think it would not hurt if Capoue to be bought as a back up. M’vila is out of the question for me, because frimpong and Coquelin will eventually be as good as him in the nearest future.
An extra striker won’t hurt, prolly a poacher will be great in arsenal system.i would think if we can get a permit for joel campbell, that would be great.he reminds me of a younger Eto’o.
And lets clear out the dead wood in the squad.Get chamakh,bendtner,squillaci,Djourou,Chu-Young, Fabianski, Denilson.That would clear out our pay roll and with that we will be able to get better players in and reward the other performing players with better contracts.Thats all from me.sharing my 2 cents.
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we dnt need any mid fielder, ho0w many mid fielders will U like to put in a team


we have many clasical mid fielders n many upcoming
we dnt need any 1!
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All of the above mentioned mids would be okay.. Just not sure where they would fit in, considering we have Wilshere and Diaby still to come back.. If anywhere it would have to be for Arteta cover.. Striker more important – realistic targets – Jovetic, Llorente, Ba, Doumbia, sturridge, Lewandowski etc any one of these would be good.. A Euro 30 mio bid for a quality player is not out of the question, as that is what Wenger apparently put on the table for Goetze previously.. I guess that is his upper bound, in terms of dollar outlay.. We need someone who can score PL goals right away!!
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isco and gotze or belhanda as a backup for rosiczky and santi
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buy back alex song
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Well we all know that rosicky and diaby always get injured and since arshavin and walcott r planning to leave then why not buy people who can play attacking midfield positions—
Keisuke Honda – He is considered better than kagawa in his own country and i heard he is in last year of his contract in CSKA we can buy him for cheap as wenger prefers.
Isco – He is young and can play both as attacker and midfielder.He would be to wenger’s liking and what our team needs incase what i said above happens.
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Well we all know that rosicky and diaby always get injured and since arshavin and walcott r planning to leave then why not buy people who can play attacking midfield positions—
Keisuke Honda – He is considered better than kagawa in his own country and i heard he is in last year of his contract in CSKA we can buy him for cheap as wenger prefers.
Isco – He is young and can play both as attacker and midfielder.He would be to wenger’s liking and what our team needs incase what i said above happens.
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HUNTELAAR!!!!
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If Huntelaar signs for Arsenal he’ll become Hollands CF leaving Robin Van Herpes on the Bench!
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we need YANN M’VILA and LEWIS HOLTBY!!!!
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and possibly a substitude striker like Kevin Doyle
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or Demba Ba
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@SH
I know Arshavin & Rosicky are older. But I don’t think it’s a this season problem. We will need to replace them, but not right now. Rosicky just got a new 2 year deal, so he’s hanging around for another couple of years at least. We will either offload AA23 this next window, or see his contract run down. Either way, there is ample cover currently for that not to be a problem. Best thing for us to do is, hang onto the cash, and wait for a bargain to come up (someone like Arteta or Cazorla), or till we need to buy – hopefully by which time the FFP rules will have kicked in, and just maybe the price of players may have fallen into the range we operate in, for us to buy the very top players. I guess we will see how that turns out.
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llorente/huntelaar (contract expiers in summer) isco & fellaini as for jovetic he is going to city for 25-30m we won’t go for him
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I just cant understand some fans here. Its just not in our nature to buy up stars, even if we have a so called transfer war chest. WE develop them. i think our mid field is quite strong now, with wilshere coming back. Some very exciting youngsters are there for back up too. it will hamper their development if we go these players. I think the only position that may need strengthening is forward, that too depending on how giruod performs. if he gets going i dont see any reason why wenger would be spending this winter.
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We dont need Mid fielders, may be strikers after releasing the likes of Chamakh, park, arshavin.
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I have been impressed with the speed and strength of Giroud. I know his scoring record is fair right now but he is an athletic big CF and really looks like he will adapt. Pod and Cazorla are excellent and with time this trio will shine even more. That said, we truly do not have a guy who we can rely on week in,week out to put the ball in the back of the net. All the Big Clubs do..City with Aguero,Tevez and BAlo, Manure with RVP , Rooney and NAni, Chelski with Torres, Hazard,Mata,even Spurs with Adebayor, Bent,Bale..a guy like Falcao may be what we need to ensure we have someone who can score against the best defenses..another guy is Hulk who is a beast and can play wide or central.Huntelaar’s name has been tossed around but he is a poacher and depends on others..not a creator. AW needs to lure a proven scorer. Giuseepe Rossi is set to leave Spain after coming off his ACL.He is a true scorer who might be available although there is talk of him moving to Italy.AW is a smart man who does not like to pay huge transfer fees so it will be interesting to see who he may have earmarked for January.
As for defense, if JAck can get fit and play like he did preinjury, he adds the mettle to the defense. Fellaini is a stud and is young. He wants out and would be an excellent guy to play as a combo midfielder, much like Diaby.
I still am worried about our backs.Set a t right back for sure. But left back a concern.. Gibbs is injury prone, Santos more a winger, so a solid left back is critical as well. Baines arguably the best to look at but I dont think everton have ANY interest in selling unless Baines pushes for an out. Still, nice to dream..
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if it was possible i’d put my mortgage that arsene won’t spend more than 5m in january, sad but true, let’s hope he has another stroke of genius and buys a crazy, good cheap striker i’d still like Papiss Cisse or Isco (if TW14 is being converted into CF)
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Theres no need to spend…why spend when you dont have to….
this is another ridiculous article…..why do we sign players to warm the bench?
unless theres a major injury crisis thats fair enough…..
WOuld you spend every cents of your own money on things you dont need??
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Llorente inn out chamackh and squid
we save a wage of two players on 80k and llorente wants 75k so we can give him 80k of chamackh and we can save squid wage.
what we want in this squad is walcott to sign new contract, and llorente to have two world class strikers with giroud and llorente.
in midfield we need nobody
defence: may be 1 cb but not a must buy
wingers: we need no one
keeper: no one, just we need fabi and szescney to be fit
so what we need is a striker, to give giroud a brizer or to step in when we have injury.
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We can only hv our say buh arsene will alwayz hv his way,we r loaded in midfield so idont fink getin a new midfielder is ideal, chamack is not in d squad now so we need his replacement,not just anoda average striker dat will end up bn a Squad member buh real quality like facao,reus,castro,as much as we r clamourin 4 huntlar & ilorinte, don’t c both of dem hvin hitin it big in arsenal cos dey r both rigid strikers, arsene alwayz prefers flexible players dat can plAy up2 2 or 3 positions,we really need just 1 strong,tall, mobile defender like sagio ramos or thiago silva, hs bn in love with humels buh I fink he’s not inform dis season,pls mr arsene as much as I love u as a manager, among d 3 best in d whole world only behind mou & fergie just bcos of d numbeer of trophy dey hv won,we don’t need anoda squad member, we r loaded with dat already, we just need 1 or 2 exceptiona & hugely talented players, if we can get just facao & thiago silva in our team now blv me we will win champions league & epl,long live AW,long live AFC,long live AFC fans,admin pls send my report AW’s personal inbox
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FELLAINI!!!!!!
The arsenal team is great but i trulh believe we need that liittle bit extra to push us over the finish line and finally get the emirates its first trophy.. fellaiini is that little bit extra plz wenger
arsenal for life
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the real shame is diaby is not reliable. the only way to fit in an m’vila type signing is to say to diaby,”there is only room for 1 first choice cm and you can not be it goodbye.” that wont and probs shouldn’t happen.
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WHATS THE MATTER WITH THE MIDFIELD WE HAVE ALREADY GOT?
ANSWER NOTHING.
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jesus nevas in wing. theo playing upfront. Chamack ,squlacci packing their bags. Cdm- We dont need one. but i am really scared if Arteta is Injured !!!
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We need a top class striker and a top class goalkeeper that is all we need. The rest of the team is up to the standards of the other top teams or getting there in a hurry.
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Yes, we need Capoue and Llorente or Alvaro Lopez.
We need some one who is physically talented like Cazpoue.
We also need a goal finisher to support Giroud. I say overall we need Capoue and Llorente/Alvaro Lopez.
So team will then look like this:
Szeczny, Sagna, Vermaelan, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Cazorla, Wilshere, Capoue, Podolski, Giroud, Llorente.
Subs: Arteta, Walcott, Koscielny, Rosicky, Diaby.
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@vin
And how do all the players score week in and week out? …. They play week in and week out. Then after doing so, they gain confidence, and score … Week in and week out. That is what we are doing right now. Giroud will come good. Gervihno is also being groomed. Give it a little time and they will both be scoring week in and week out! Why people continuous think bringing “another” somebody is the solution to our squad? We brought Giroud (who by the way scored week in week out for Montpellier) and fans are still unhappy. I think we are on the right course for success with this team. Hopefully no major injuries, and we could finally start seeing our boys win silver again.
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If we do want to buy a midfielder, M’Villa to me is the best midfielder available who we can realistically get, and he would give us a type of player that we don’t really have.
That it if the team actually wants to buy a midfielder though, personally I’m perfectly happy with the group we have, if we can keep them healthy then I feel confident in this group. If we can’t keep them healthy, then it’s nice to know we have money to spend on strentghening if we need to.
Personally, I’d like to see us make some money by selling the people we don’t need – Djourou, Bendtner, Chamakh, Squillaci, then using the money from that to reinvest in the team. If we have been given 40m for January, we don’t necessarily need to spend that in January, we could wait until summer and see what we need / want / who is available.
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ISCO!! Boy can he shoot, and also play the Cazorla role since they were teammates at Malaga that also will help him settle in quite quick. He can replace Rosicky in whatever he has left, and would be a bargin with their current financial crisis!!!!
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Here we go again,BIG TALK FROM GAZIDES,THEY GOT THE MONEY AND THEY WILL BUY IN JAN.THIS SORT OF TALK FROM GAZ IS TO GET THE FANS EXCITED.WITH A BIT OF LUCK THEY MIGHT BUY A CHEAP ONE FOR TWO MILLION.THEY WILL NEVER PAY MORE THAN TWELVE MILLLION.WAIT AND SEE.DONT BE DISAPPOINTED. JUST A LOT OF BIG TALK AT THE MOMENT.
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