Perhaps it is for just such a situation as Arsenal find themselves in now, with just over a fortnight to go before the start of a brand new and crucial season and our two first choice centre backs unavailable, that Arsene Wenger has been keeping his powder dry in the transfer market.
We should soon know what our manager has up his sleeve and barring any more calamities on the injury front he should have no problem with the left side of the central defensive pairing, with Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny. But the fact that the France international star will not be ready for the start due to his extended involvement at Euro 2016 makes the news about Mertesacker’s long spell on the sidelines even more of a concern.
It should make Wenger determined to get a new player in sooner rather than later, even though he has the option of two very promising defenders in Chambers and Holding, so who do you think will be on his list? Will the boss be looking at really splashing the cash and going for someone at the top of the game, although we apparently missed the chance of challenging Bayern Munich for Mats Hummels.
Will he see a proven Premier League warrior like Ashley Williams as the ideal man to plug the gap, will he instead go for a player starring in another league or could it even be a mister versatile like Man United’s reportedly out of favour Daley Blind?
What do you think Gooners?
Bob.
Loan someone? Like Chancel Mbema from Newcastle? He’s quite decent.
Ashley Williams will do the job perfectly! Bring him in! 🙂
Yes,Ashley Williams for me too, he is the experience we need as Wenger said, we can get at least 3years from him….
And if not,then Howedes will do to…as far as Wenger has said he will sign experience, and relieved!
I can see the apeal of ashley williams, but he has a short shelf life.
The links with us going after Shkodran mustafi are great. i want someone who can grow into Mert’s role. just quite silly it took an injury to finally realise…
Apparently Arsenal are in talks
with FK Partizani to sign
Gëzim Krasniqi.
The 6′ 2″ 26 year old is
available for .3 mill.
Squawker rate him highly.
Sounds promising.
Oh yes, we are saved by signing Albanian nobody who has never even made the Albania national team.
For 300k? Yeah sounds about Wenger.
Who? I prefer Rob Holding than Gezim whatever, and AW did buy him.
Arsenal forced to buy a player due to injury. Must we wait for a player to go down before signing one? It makes me wonder……
Chambers and Gabriel…..I wonder what will be of them this season. They both look good sometimes last season. Other times shaky and error prone. Hopefully, they will improve immensely this season.
Gabriels positioning was especially poor at times, which is worrying. Chambers is being used to plug gaps, Id have more patience for him, with his age, and not playing regularly, also been bandied about. Hopefully in the long run, Chambers will learn a great deal from these harsh lessons.
Gabriel is just like young Koscielny. I think he’ll be better now.
I’d be glad with Williams too, comment up top mentions him and I too think he’d do a solid job. Would have been nice to get him way back when, but even now he’s still a good player. Himself along with Van Dijk would be good, some extra insurance, won’t ever happen I know, but would be good to have those two along with Kos and Gab. Merts out, for most of season, and he’s nearing the very end. Chambers isn’t ready, sure how could he be, not for CB anyway. We can’t expect the Holding lad to dig us out. So yeah, two no nonsense CBs would be awesome.
I expect Wenger to get a ball playing CB though, especially seeing as it’s mert who’s out. Holding’s a ball playing one, but too early.
I think Ashley Williams will be perfect for this season.
He is 31 but still a hard worker, played well last season and played well in EURO 2016
The last time Wenger threw around the words cover and experience we got the past-it, calamitous likes of Squillaci, Kim Kallstrom and Flamini so id rather we just steer clear of any temporary signings and have Chambers,Gabriel and Holding do the job.
Other than Ashley Williams, we should sign one defender from Watford. Watford had 11 clean sheets and thats no fluke, thats beating the likes of Chelsea, Southampton, Liverpool, Everton. Prodl or Crathcart were a boss last season, they deserves better. Allan Nyom should replace Debuchy as well.
I would have liked us to sign Van Dijk,he seems to have everything that is required for a top class C.B. but Koeman took him to S’hampton. Wouldn’t be surprised if he gets him for Everton too.I think Gabby will be good but he just needs to conquer his nerves. Mertesacker should not come back. Even when fit he is a liability. Holding looks promising and could well take his chance. Remember Tony Adams was 17 when he made his srart.
Count me in. I`m eighty but on a good day I can match Mert over five metres.
This is why I will say this : Wenger hates wasting resources. It is a treat people born during post WW2 rationalization have in common. That’s no secret. Our parents are the same. Hence him and Bould will train Coquelin as a CB. Now, he is no stranger to this position, he played there even for Arsenal in two league cup games although one of them was against Coventry City if I am not mistaken. Hardly a tough game.
Why this will make sense for him? Because with the arrival of Xhaka, Coquelin lost his place in the 1st eleven. More likely Santi & Ramsey will partner Xhaka & Elneny in the middle. However, not sure if all our youngsters are ready for EPL heat. It remains to be seen tomorrow morning if Wenger will play him against all stars. Can’t wait to see the game.
I don’t understand at all how this ‘extended participation in the Euros’ works. The length of time between the Euro final and the start of the Premier League is 5 weeks. 35 days. How in the world can a professional athlete not recover in 35 days? Unless I’m missing something? In the Premier League sometimes the players have 3-4 games in the space of 2 weeks, should we give them 5 week holidays then too? We’re acting like players are fragile little creatures when in fact they are trained athletes.
Two things:
1) If you play sports regularly at even a recreational level you will know that during the course of a year or a season you pick up small niggles and your body simply gets fatigued playing multiple games week after week. You need an extended break to be able to heal and get back to 100% before starting into a grueling season again. Think of it like a battery that loses efficiency every time it recharges. Eventually you need a fresh battery, that’s like a professional athlete taking an extended break.
2) Maybe even more important than the physical healing is the need for a mental break. Especially in the premier league where there is no winter/x-mas break, footballers need some time away to mentally and emotionally recharge so they’re ready to give their all again. Imagine how soul-crushing it must have been for the France players to make it to the finals in the tournament in their own country with all the political/social strife happening, only to lose in the final to a Ronaldo-less Portugal in the 2nd extra time. They need a couple weeks first to grieve the loss, then a couple weeks to simply refresh, then their hunger for the game will return and only after all of that do you want them back in training.
Of course they are professional athletes, but a long PL season followed by an intense month long cup competition takes its toll physically, but perhaps more importantly mentally.
For me, that is why they get an extended break, to minimise the risk of them coming back not completely ready for the intensity of the Premier League / FA cup etc..
It’s good management. In these days of high intensity Premier League football games the players need managing in so many different ways. Look at Sanchez…he would run forever, but he needs reining in for his own health and fitness to remain at the top level.
It gets more physical as the years go by, so I’m all for extended breaks..