It is hard for me to disagree with the former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry about anything but I am going to do it anyway. The TV pundit declared last weekend after watching Arsenal fail to break down the heavy defence of Chelsea, that his former boss needs to make four big moves in the summer transfer market to make sure we beat Jose Mourinho and give him the blues next year.
To a certain extent I agree with Henry but I think we only need three, as I do not agree with him saying we need a top class keeper. We have one in David Ospina, and if Szczesny is willing to stay and fight for the number one spot, that will do for me and for Wenger as well it seems.
I do agree that we need another quality central defender and although I would love it to be Mats Hummels I canot see the Gunners being able to beat Man United to his signature if they make the Champions League. But how about the Holland international Ron Vlaar who is out of contract with Aston Villa this summer. Big, powerful, hugely experienced and free, what could be better?
For me the midfielder we need to sign is Morgan Schneiderlin, for his versatility as much as his ability. With Coquelin, Arteta, Ramsey, Flamini, Wilshere, Cazorla and maybe even Diaby, Wenger would have more than enough choice and quality in central midfield.
Then comes the real cutting edge, and having paid something like £20 million for Schneiderlin and getting Vlaar for nothing, the Gunners could make a concerted effort to sign a top quality striker. Unlike Henry though, I would not be looking for a Giroud replacement but something different. For me it would have to be Marco Reus who has great pace, technical ability and finishing and can play on either flank as well as in a support striker role.
What do you think Gooners? £50-60 million to give Arsenal the tools for the title?
We need to spend if we want to win…..4 signings are required
Go get Falcao, Di maria, Cavani, Hulk etc. Spend, spend spend. Like Manure, Spuds, Liverpool? Yes, spend but wisely. Only Sanchez type.
Liverpool, Spuds, and ManU blew MILLIONS and they are still below us.
Chelsea sign 4 top players and they are above us … that’s not a logic
Chelsea can buy anyone they want. Chelsea FC parent company is 950 million in debt to Roman’s Holding Company Fordstam.
Funny Russian accounting. Players wages are a source of mystery.
Buy : Reus + Wanyama
Sell : Wilshere + Walcott
oh yes, sell that clown chesny and then promote Ospina to number 1 and Martinez to 2
Ha, this article is almost the same as a comment I put up a week or so ago. Ospina is a quality keeper and we don’t need to replace him. It depends if Szczesny wants to leave if we are in the hunt for another keeper. Morgan, Marco and Mats are the three players I would go for.
I also think we can get Hummels over Man U if we can get Rues first.
I repeat: With Giroud up front, we won’t hit top gear.
Giroud is good, but not good enough as ARSENAL’s main striker, FFS!!!
For every one goal, he’d miSs 4.
You are jelly bec he is better the Suarez XD
LOL – you say that like it is bad or something. 20% shot conversion is actually decent. Only need 2.5 shots a game to be a goal every other game striker.
See my answer below.
If Giroud is getting nearly a goal a game what more do you want? I agree with the article. .. We need an alternate striker with different qualities who can rotate with Giroud when tactics require it.
“Nearly” sums up arsenal over last ten years …. Sadly the Frenchman is already preparing way for another near season ahead … The only question he should be asking is who do I need to overhaul Chelsea and get in to semis of cl … Another bs summer ahead I suspect
he said four signings. GK, CB, DM and Striker. not clear if he meant first teamers. a bit harsh if he did because kos and coq have been outstanding and ospina hasn’t put a serious foot wrong so far.
but he seemed to be clear about giroud. cant argue much there. he isn’t a class above but still a decent player.
his argument seemed to center around “what mourinho would have done”. or would do. for Chelsea he brought in matic, fabregas, and costa.
but going by what mourinho did I don’t hink it was him trying to create a new spine. he felt he couldn’t work with mata and lampard wanted to go so he brought in fabregas. he didn’t like david luiz so he replaced him with matic. he brought in a replacement for cole but that didn’t work out. willian was brought in and through hard work broke into the first team.
the only real aspect he wanted to change up and felt his side were weak was in the main striker role. he complained off and on record. he brought in costa.
and though henry used mourinho as a template I don’t think he would look at arsenal and say I need 4 signings. he would say 2. one CF and a DM. and only because he likes two.
Mr Wenger will not be bringing any BIG name stars to Arsenal in the summer. Every year we go through the same old crap. Arsenal are looking at this player or that player and we get disappointed every year. Look as long as Wenger is Manager we might win the odd Cup and Qualify for the Champions League but that is it. Wenger and the Board are happy with this same old same old because the money is coming in. Wenger might buy a few young players for the future if he get’s them cheap so we can sell them a make a few £ for the shareholders dividend.
2013: Mesut Özil £42.5m
2014: Alexis Sanchez £35m
Things are changing. The club has more money to spend now than ever before. We splashed out around £80m last year and still made a profit overall.
We’ve spend a few £ before, but the difference the past two years has been that we haven’t had to sell any major players to finance it. Arsenal are spending again, get used to it.
2013 Mesut Ozil wast of good money, You can see the fear in his eyes .
2014 Alexis Sanchez a fantastic player but he needs to have some quality players around
him expecting him to do it on his own is not on. Wenger has more or less said he won’t buy this summer if you read between the lines. The share holders need it more.
.
Ron Vlarr? No thanks. Rather have Mertesacker.
Reus? Yes. For our marquee signing, Reus should be our first target. Top of the list. Pretty sure he’s the one 90% of Arsenal fans all really want. Yes it’s unlikely, but so was Özil. Trying to get any marquee signing to pick your club over another is tough unless you’re Real or Barca.
Lastly and most importantly, Morgan Schneiderlin. Schneiderlin will be expensive. Southampton drive a hard bargain let’s not forget. £25m Lallana, £20m Lovren and £16m Chambers. Schneiderlin, as their best player, will probably cost around £25-30m. Schneiderlin isn’t a player I’m particularly excited about, I don’t know why. I know he’s an excellent player and all, and I know he’d be a fantastic signing. But a defensive midfielder, regardless of who it is, is priority number one. First day of the transfer window I want talks underway.
I think James McCarthy is just as good as schnederlin, he is also youngerand could be our matic.
Everton won’t ask for over 15m and he is xp
A dose of reality. You want top top strikers yes? I have put together an arbitrary list. Change it if you wish.
Be truthful to yourself, what are Arsenal’s hopes of getting anyone on this list or someone like this? FFP has everyone scrambling.
We are going to settle instead for one one the best young strikers and mold them.
Lionel Messi, Radamel Falcao
Luis Suarez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Edinson Cavani, Robert Lewandowski
Sergio Kun-Aguero, Neymar
Marco Reus, Wayne Rooney
Gonzalo Higuain, Karim Benzema
Carlos Tevez, Mario Mandzukic
Hulk, Stefan Kiessling
Diego Costa, Mario Gomez
Bas Dost, Christian Benteke
I think there going to be a lot of swaps; My player & 15 million for your player. Arsenal cannot afford to swap anyone from our first team.
Ronaldo? Bale? Robben? Ribery? Muller? Even RVP and Kane… Though we don’t like acknowledging it. Mostly Wide players I know, but so are Neymar and Reus, they made the list.
But anyways. We could concievably get Cavani and Reus. Unlikely, but top players will always be unlikely.
Could probably go for Higuain, Falcao and Tevez too but I wouldn’t fancy them.
You see the point. City, Chelsea, ManU, PSG, are all after the same small list of players. Blaming Wenger for not getting one of those is a waste of time. Those big boys will blow us out the water on wages. Any offer we make will be topped by 70K more from the big boys.
Wenger will have to back League 1 France to get anyone that we can afford.
QPR is going down; Charlie Adams is available and English, I see City lurking.
Keissling,Mario Gomez and hulk shouldn’t be on the list
And I don’t know how you can include Harry Kane in that list we are talking about the best attacker sin football
Hummels will probably not come to Arsenal. Vlaar is no better then Kos and Gab looks like a better player. In contention with Mert I would favour Vlaar but it’s no massive gain. For the sake of stability Vlaar is a pointless signing. We have 4 CBs now, we should focus on blooding Gab and Chambers into their CB roles.
Reus will probably not come to Arsenal. Who is the next attacking option? As far as proven top draw strikers/forwards who are rumored to go onto the market there probably isn’t a single one in our range. Reus and Bale are the two big hitters and will probably go to a global team (Man U for example). Other then that it seems like you’d have to go into the next pot down and either gamble on someone not scoring for a top team or not scoring in a top league. This results in uncertainty on the final product. Higuain is probably the only name I’ve heard said who would be a guarantee (although the stats say Lacazette is a great shout) but with City and Chelsea probably looking to buy as well as United plus whatever big guns from other leagues choose to rock up, the market may well be closed on a top draw striker. I think priority should be getting someone who can honestly challenge Giroud for our starting position – I’m not actually overly bothered who it is as long as they can create doubt on who will start. Welbeck hasn’t really done that and we need to have a couple of strikers in contention or a talisman at the top. The days of having Henry and Bergkamp are gone though – that was a luxury that probably won’t be repeated again at Arsenal until money matters settle down across the footballing world.
Schneiderlin would be a good signing. It’s possible and would add depth to the squad and extra dimensions to our midfield. We’d finally have the ability to play proper counter football and proper defensive football to close out games against top opposition. That said we’re already managing it quite well this season so I am just happy right now we’ve finally changed tactically!
In short – CB isn’t a huge must unless we can drastically improve on Mertesacker (and then you loan Chambers). DM is a must and should give us cover to Coq AND options in our midfield formation. CF is a must but it needs to be someone who will challenge for the position. If they are not the world beater we want it does not mean we’ve failed because honestly the odds are against us signing a world beater in this day and age. We have to make them.
The problem with Arsenal is that we dont know that we are in the wrong. We always think of our self as good enough, and bec of this reason alone we will never become great again.
Moro is a piece of Sh*t, still speaks always the truth. Last year he knew that he could not win the leauge and that he needed more players to become great. What happened then, he did his homework. Cesc to give his team some style, a striker who can score goals, and a worldclass keeper who saves his team many points.
Moro is a man of his worth. He always does what he promises. I wish we had a manager who could simple say and do what he is supposed to do, instead of sweetllking and tllking every critism down.
Arsenal logic: World wrong, we right. Failure means, excuses like injuries, accident that we lose to 6 goals and 8 and so one.
You must think Wenger can buy whoever he wants. Chelsea is debt around £800m to loans from Roman to pay wages and transfer fees. Zero by funny Russian accounting, by changing the company name and lending millions more to Chelsea parent company and not Chelsea FC. Google “Fordstam Limited”
Those 220K per week players are being paid by Roman. Arsenal is run on football revenue.
Piss easy “homework” if you ask me. Adding the final touches to a decade of building and £900M of investment is a bit easier than starting again in 2013 after 10 years of no spending. Arsenal team now bears little resemblance to the August 2013 version. All the pieces fell in to place for Mourinho in 2014-15 but it wasn’t quite the work of genius often attributed to him. Costa was in the bag for eons and was a year too late – a decent striker in 2013-14 and Chelsea would have walked the league. Big mistake by Chelsea. Courtois was a Chelsea player already – not a stellar signing. And who knows the story behind Cesc but the betting man would say in all likelihood it was an opportunistic buy handed on a plate (by us).
And the biggest advantage Mourinho had was that he inherited perhaps the best defensive back 4 in Europe. Not one a Mourinho signing.
I don’t think we are in need of CB at the moment
I believe in the summer we should concentrate on players we need and then get extras.
We need another top DM (Coquelin is our only top DM)
We need another top striker (We can’t expect Giroud to be fit for every game and Welbeck needs time to improve). Dybala, lacazette, Cavani
Reus would be a good striker alternative. He can play on both wings, cam and up front. Very versatile and will always be needed.
Of course, Scneiderlin and Kondogbia are good choices for DM.
Man Utd can have Hummels. Absolutely abysmal season for Dortmund this year. Vlaar? Surely we can come up with better options. But Schneiderlin is a no brainer.
With all the clearing out we’ll be doing this summer we should be set for 2 world class signings. For me the two players that are coming in should be either Jackson Martinez/Cavani and the second world class signing should be none other than Hummels. After those two world class signings we should score cech our number 1 and Schneiderlin for his versatility.
These signings should make us very competitive for the title.
Arsenal have to accept it that saying again season after season arsenal will be ready does not make the team go to acceleration mode by just signing 3 players, we all know arsene is deluded he has practically helped the injured players by given them benefit of doubt and constant support towards them and all of them are lousy. Wilshere can leave but arsene won’t sell him cause he is like a trophy. Chelsea are the best team and planned very well in advance and worked hard and where the gunners failed they succeeded and fabregas was used properly by mourinho tactically as well as physically by giving rests to him and i feel happy for him cause he deserves it.
We need a top skillful striker, who can craft goals out of nothing even when Chelsea put nine men behind the ball. Giroud has not that kind of skill and speed to lead Arsenal to the title. I repeat, Mr Wenger, Giroud is not the top quality striker Arsenal can rely on to win the title. If you stick with your stubbornness and rely on Giroud, next season will be the same as this one and as good as ten years gone by without winning the EPL title. Wenger’s attitude of favouring certain players even when they are performing poorly is damaging the image of this huge club. How long can we continue with this nonsense?
Wrong
Thierry Henry was correct. Four signings are needed to strengthen the spine which would allow for a serious title challenge next year. Ospina has been good, but there is room for improvement. The same with the others. However, it won’t happen.
Arsenal could use another top striker for sure. I would sell Walcott. He always promises more than he delivers. Even when he was out with injury Arsenal didn’t miss him. I still think Arsenal need a little more physical toughness in the squad.
The signing of Alexis Sanchez was brilliant. If Wenger can do something comparable this summer, I will be very pleased.
I disagree, saying we won’t get hummels if man utd want him is crap!
If we really want him we can afford to pay the big bucks for him and we have as much pulling power as they do.
Man utd are not the force they once was
Has anyone seen wht Alexandra Lacazette is doing in Lyon, should we sign him I believe all our striker problems will be solved
Lacazette
hummels
Pogba
and Bale just to pi$$ off the spuds
That is 200 million. Wenger has 50 million to spend. Edit ?
I know its highly impossible that we can get him but i would like wenger to bid for cheileni (spelling) to me he is the best defender in the world that dude is a beast and i would go for kongdgobia or schneiderlin and honestly i think higuan can offer us something and more goals with the midfield we have and i have a feeling wenger wont go for any as he said our squad in strong enough lol deludes much and fooling some of u believe me we have alot of deadwood in our squad alot of english tok but we aint gonna kick them out as of their nationality and wenger deluded bias and thats why we wont win the league mark my work our squad is a bit weak