The playing season is over for all English club teams now, and while some of us will settle for watching the Champions League final, the European Under-21 Championship and the Copa America, the vast majority of Arsenal fans will favour the will-they wont-they speculation of the summer window to talk about.
Here is a few talking points which are doing the rounds, and start with the shortest-lived story, and work my way up to what I believe will be the longer saga.
Nacho Monreal is being linked with the exit door, although the only basis for the story is the fact the defender has 12 months remaining on his contract. The Spaniard has been linked with Athletic Bilbao because of their strict transfer policy, but Arsene Wenger is a known fan, and he will most likely enjoy his summer holiday, before signing a new contract soon after his return.
James Milner is reported to have held talks with both us and Liverpool, and while I believe he would be a great signing, and the offer of Champions League football should put us in the driving seat, he wants guaranteed football, and our midfield is hardly short of numbers. He wants to leave City to be a regular starter, and I cant see Wenger convincing that him he will play ahead of Coquelin, Ramsey, Wilshere and Cazorla week-in week-out. Shame…
Arsenal are lining up a move for Borussia Dortmund Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang this summer, if the Metro is ever to be believed. The striker scored his 25th goal of the season as his side lost the DFB Pokal cup final to Wolfsburg, and is said to be on our radar. Cant see much substance in the report, but you never know…
Last but not least, Man United are said to be looking to hijack our move for Morgan Schneiderlin, although in reality, we don’t appear all that interested at present. He enjoyed a good season with Southampton, and is keen to play in the Champions League, but I don’t think he will get his move to the top-four this summer, although the rumours will likely continue until the move fizzles out on deadline day.
I know these are all unlikely, but I really wouldn’t mind if a couple of them came true!
dont rate milner at all liverpool can have him, there is no way he is going to start ahead of all the players mentioned.
Be very surprised if we get Milner, Wenger rates him obviously and I think he’s a good player…..but we don’t pay good players 130k+, Ozil and Alexis are on that kind of dough and Milner is not in the same division. Otherwise I could see us bringing him in.
very surprising indeed, there is absolutely no need for this guy. there is a huge traffic jam in midfield already.
OK so if we sign a ST then what of Welbeck? We will then have a WC ST, Giroud and Welbeck fighting for the same position.
Welbeck back up for Sanchez and Giroud also when we are away against tough opponent himself and Sanchez will be solid if Ox unfit. Welbeck may get better theres always that.
I actually think Milner would be a good signing. Could appease the fans who want another DM but want Coq to be starter, Milner would be decent back up and he solidifies RB RW even further. I would prefer getting someone in who is tops at what they do best though.
We need a left back Gibbs to be loaned out as he is not consistent, and he seems a bit week in defending and passing forward CB
One of the worst suggestions I’ve seen on here.
Got ya going Charlie CB
We dont need any of those players
Cech and Schneiderlin
and a miracle medical team
and we are ready to rumble.
Sell Podoltsky 10 mill.
25 mill net spend.
we need a top striker
Giroud and walcott are good against average teams
Yeah rght. Like Giroud vs Man City, Man Utd (home) and Liverpool both home and away. And like Walcott vs Man Utd (away). Lets also forget the fact we have Sanchez. This trio is a very formidable line up.
C’mon mate lets drop it, Giroud has scored 58 goals in 135 games. Not to simply reduce him to goals-to-games figures but we all know he’s not a 25+ goals a season man and neither is Theo by a long stretch. Both very decent as OPTIONS in a similar vein to Kanu and Wiltord…..but we definitely need a Thierry.
Higuain is on the market, we’d be foolish not to have a look. We don’t have a ST who will score 25+, and on top of that be THE difference maker in big games coming up with individual moments to win points etc. Giroud fluffed his lines vs Monaco, vs Chelsea last year. ST’s like Higuain are difference makers.
You drop it!! 18 from 29 apps……… How’s your maths skills Charlie?? Considering he played 60 odd games the seasons prior?
Seems you’d rather focus on his dry spell end of season. Higuain scored 3 goals in his last 9 games. Two of which came in the last game. In his last 9 he didn’t get on the score-sheet or register an assist in seven of them. You cite those game changing moments. What about Higuain’s multiple missed penalties at game-breaking moments this season???
You cite Giroud’s missed opportunities vs Monaco.. What about Higuain failing to score in the 2 matches that saw them knocked out of the UEFA league by Dnipro???
People cite these strikers only looking at their goal tallies or highlights on youtube. Failing to realize that a lot of them have inferior stats and performances to Giroud in much, much weaker leagues.
I’m not going to sit and argue for Higuain over Giroud, if you genuinely think he’s better I have no time to waste on the issue. Messi misses penalties, Ronaldo misses sitters, Suarez goes MIA. Fact is Giroud is less effective far more often than Higuain who is a grade above.
Are you one of those who thinks Cavani is pony too? Probably.
You criticize Giroud, for not being the ‘difference maker’ and then I simply pointed out that Higuain has gone MIA for Napoli as well this season. Napoli finished 6 points off third and their run in was horrible which included Higuain. A few easy games lost, and they had a lot more to gain in being a CL club than our dry spell end of season.
You keep referencing these numbers but neglect the fact that Giroud was well on course to hit the 25-30 mark had he been fit for more than half the season. And that Theo’s last full seasons stats were phenomenal, as I stated before. You keep palming it off as luck he scored a great hat-trick in one half’s football or the opener in a final. But maybe he’s just picking up where he left off….
No, I’m a big fan of Higuain, and I think Cavani is capable of brilliance in the right system, but on his off days he is terrible.
But your criticisms of Theo and Giroud haven’t really been backed up by anything except purely your opinion.
They’re based on watching Arsenal. Giroud can be on course to do whatever but until he does it there’s no use talking like he DID it. He’s not a 25-30 goal ST and has never done that in his career.
While Theo has had 1 stand out season in 9 years at Arsenal but that one is his apparent standard.
Higuain plays for Napoli…. decent team but are you going to tell me they’re better than Spurs even? Don’t think so. His career he’s proven himself as a class player with goals to boot on every stage there is. There’s really no debate, if you think Theo and Giroud is enough then you’re entitled to think that. Anyone who’s watched Arsenal the last few years will know that’s not the case
Why do you guys knock your team players and want to bring in others who have not played in the Premior lg + can’t get in there own teams. Give the guys like Walcott a chance to prove themselves and stop trying to think you all know best. CB
Come on now, how can you be so disparaging about Giroud, Walcott and Alexis with their recent goal/game ratios and be worshipping at the altar of St Higuain. He is a fully paid up just about a goal every other game merchant. 16, 17 and 18 league goals a season for last 3 years. Not sure how many games he was the “difference maker”. Must have been a fair few “fluffed lines” in there as well.
Again you miss the point…..the debate is the central ST position NOT the entire forward line. Giroud and Theo as a ST do not compare to Costa/Aguero etc and we can use the transfer window to buy someone who is capable of that level of input.
Once more, I’m not going to protest Higuains superiority over Giroud….it’s a waste of time, he’s proven himself on the biggest stages time and again and the debate is worthless. He’s a far better ST than Giroud.
I’ll let you in to a secret – I agree with you, Higuain is a better CF than Giroud. But nonetheless I don’t think that he is a quantum leap forward in terms of likely goal-scoring return and also that £25-35M could be better spent elsewhere. Let us return to Costa at the end of next season see if he improves on 20 goals all comps. Aguero a given – a couple of leagues above all three of the above but we ain’t getting him are we?
We are probably talking a cross purposes anyway when it comes to what we need. I haven’t given a single thought to any allusions of UCL glory and would prefer to walk before we can run with a decent attempt at the PL. I was channel flicking earlier and it was scary just how much more difficult UCL has become in the last 7 or 8 years. Saw Liverpool in the 2007 final with Finnan, Kewell, Kuyt, Pennant and Crouch on the pitch. Wow.
And I don’t think talking about our forward line as a whole should be a redundant issue. Forward play and playing systems are just so fluid and flexible nowadays – Aguero has rarely been deployed historically as a CF for either club or county. When people reel off all the forwards at other clubs in order to denigrate our own CF contingent, especially when they cite the Manchester teams where they normally play with 2 forwards, it seems unfair to omit Alexis, our 25 goal second striker/wide forward call him what you will.
Off sub
I see publicity shy Beckham has managed to gain a box at the Wembley.game and am so pleased he’s posted congrats. with the usual self portrait.
I’ve instructed my family not to allow him to my funeral when pas away. Well he does go to every f***in event for a photo of himself doesn’t he?
1 comment
We needed a cdm, a striker and a cb before d start of dis season. However d emergence of coquelin and Walcott as cdm and striker respectively means we are no longer lacking in dat department, doubts still remain about depth at cdm though. We bought Gabriel in January so cb is done, any rumours regarding cb will b a waste of time, as we hav 4 already. So wid cb done, doubts still remain over depth of cdm and a first choice striker, along wid d arising need of a top gk. D situation here is really complex. Buying someone inferior to coquelin wud mean only adding a squad player, buying someone superior to him wud mean showing lack of faith in coquelin, and it wud b hard to convince vidal by saying dat u will b competing wid an improved 24 year old instead of being d first choice directly. Same for striker, we hav giroud, Walcott and welbeck , none of Dem a 30 goal a season striker ( Walcott showing signs though) . And as for keeper, its really a dilemma because ospina had been very good and szcesz has been a academy graduate and Wenger wudnt ditch someone from d academy so easily. But lets say cech comes in, then how will we manage 3 keepers? One of Dem will not even make d squad, let alone start.
As of now, Wenger mayb thinking very differently to us. He bought Sanchez because he can play anywhere in d front 3. I reckon we will buy someone can fill in at both wings, thus allowing Walcott to b striker.
So basically if we go back at d start of d season, we needed a gk,cb,cdm and striker. We already hav fulfilled 3 of Dem. So d priority is a gk along wid a versatile winger and not a striker or cdm.
OT:
It looks like many of you on here believe that ST position is well equipped if walcott decide to stay and play as ST … Well let me put it like this WALCOTT is not a striker (maybe striker under study) what he has is pace and finishing that’s all … we need a well established ST and not only a hot prospect …
I can’t see us break the like of Chelsea, RM, Barca, and Bayern with Giroud/Walcott unless we get a proper striker, all round one with good finishing and positioning with fair pace and dribbling skills … EPL title and CL challenge need that … Get real and don’t overrate our players
can you please define a “proper striker”…for clarity sake
I mean give example
I believe Arsenal has a team of scouts who are responsible to identify “proper striker” in names, what I can see is that Giroud/walcott/Welback are not in that definition (The later two may have a prospect) …
The definition of “proper striker” depends on the team class and ambition, Austin is a proper striker for QPR the same as Suarez now is a proper striker for Barca … Giroud is a proper striker for Arsenal being 3rd/4th in England … I think you already know the definition
I agree. Compare Giroud/Theo as a strike force to the best teams in England/Europe and we don’t stack up. We need some star quality leading the line and Higuain is there for the taking.
Where does 25 goal Alexis fit in to your grand scheme of things? You will probably tell me he is not our CF so he isn’t part of the discussion on our forward line. Perhaps in the same way Messi and Ronaldo are not part of the equation at Barca and Real.
out;Podolsk,Campbell,Ryo,Diaby(very sorry for him),Wellington(good but no space for him for a tiitle contender),Flamin,Toral.
Loan out:Zelalem,Jenkinson,Hayden,Sanogo
Give more playing time to-Gnabry,Chambers,Bielik and Akpom mostly in Capital one as FA wont be for experiment since we want to retain it for the third time.
Get; Back up Dm as Le Coq has nothing to prove to me anymore, another Striker(WC) then we are good to go in all four fronts
None of these players are top quality and Wenger said he’s only going to sign TOP Quality players
As far as AW believes he has all the top quality players in the world, as much as I like Arteta why o why are we keeping him and let’s see who els will renew their contract who has passed their sell by date,
All doe I see that smirk on AW face lately which means something good and big is on the horizon but I would like arsenal to flex their muscles on intervuess by saying YEA WE ARE IN THE MARKET FOR THE TOP PLAYERS instead of saying we are not in the same league finaceualy as the clubs who always manage to sighn the players we are always after, AW must play the mind game by playing big to the potential future Arsenal suporters after all you don’t have to pay what clubs and players want but pretend that we are as good as those big clubs if we chose.
Exactly. Was what I was saying yesterday when I managed to inflame the sensibilities of the AW gestapo.
Show some ambition and push the club forward by procuring the ”required strength and quality in depth” so we are not found short again. This also means telling your fans (and the rest of the world) YOU CAN COMPETE (even if you can’t on some players Messi/bale et al).
Does anyone really think it’s some sort of amazing and clever psychology ploy anyway to say you can’t afford to purchase players in the remote hope this will actually keep their market value down!?
Let’s push on and speculate to accumulate!
The funny thing is what are we to do with all the money sitting in the bank and more to come again soon?
Gain interest?
The thing is with Wenger there is always a likelihood of falling short with players. Wenger cares and respects all his players so will never overload the squad with quality. Whereas mour would have three to four top players in each position if he could knowing then that the perfect fit is in there somewhere. Wenger on the other hand will spend as little as possible and if he had a limit in which he could not go under but can go over as much as liked he would stay on the exact number of limit. Say the limit is 25 well he would get 25 players in and he would give each of those players 3 to 5 years in proving themselves.
Mour on the other hand will not give them over a season or two if they are not performing. I guess what im trying to say is Arsene is not ruthless enough. The imaginary 25 limit i spoke of, if now we can bring in three players it will solidify us some more but Arsene like with our play at times trys to get it perfect. The simpler thing would be to bring in some top players and if they dont prove themselves more promising than certain squad players well then sell them on, if they prove themselves our quality goes up… but instead Arsene will sell the squad players on and bring new ones in for as little as possible giving them as long as they want to come good. Is it not better to go over the number like mour would then knowing you have the perfect balance in there somewhere and the season for your players to prove themselves. Im a big fan of Wengers but i do believe he lacks a ruthless streak.
Wenger has found a new way of saying that we will do very little,yet again, in this transfer window . “I am not at the moment in the transfer mode”. He is more likely more comfortable in a complacency mode. Having seen his team play well in the Cup final, but beating after all a very poor Villa team. We have a lot of good players, but surely isn’t this precisely the time to strengthen and get the business done quickly. I fear that we may have to prepare for the usual Groundhog experience. Are you ready..
Milner in no way will get the regular starting spot ahead of so much of world class talent already packed up in MF. But ideally i would not mind him to have as an impact sub. Remember pellagrini uses him in city as an impact sub only. He shows 100% commitment and fight when on the pitch and never stops working for minute. When the game is going slow or tiredness/complacencys is kicking in our MF (which can happen quite often), the introduction of Milner can inject life again. Also considering Rosicky, he can fill his place quite well. But if he is looking for regular starting spot, then i am sorry Milner, you need to join a mid table team in Liverpool.
It seems some faexpected. Some will believe them. an inferiority complex, I don’t blame you, I get it pundits tell you every year that your not good enough. You take whatever they tell you and don’t think for yourself. I know we need another striker and higuain is great, but to say he’s a class above giroud is an overstatement. He can be very frustrating that’s why he got so much stick in Madrid. Napoli play through him and he isn’t as clinical as people think. Giroud isn’t the best but arsenal don’t play through him and he’s done great.
Rvo only started scoring 20+ when Wenger changed the system to suit one goal scorer. Giroud hasn’t been given a chance as focal point of the team. You praise Diego Costa and say he’s miles ahead of giroud but the truth is he gets the vast majority of chances for chelski.
If you want giroud to score more, he’ll take some of Sanchez’s goals. Benzema doesn’t score 25-30 a season because he assists others as well, he does what giroud does. Costa does have any assists( maybe 1). The inferiority complex might be cured when we eventually win the league and ecl but even then I have my doubts as pundits will claim that we had an easier run and that it should be expected