After the last month or so, where our form has been inconsistent to say the least, we are no doubt in need of a couple of signings in January. As far as I’m concerned, I wish we had a transfer window now.
I’ve highlighted a couple of areas where I feel we need strengthening and areas where we are absolutely fine.
Goalkeeper: Now I’m a little split on this, possible fickle is the footballing word to describe my feeling. Anyway, I think Almunia has been one of the best keepers in the Premiership over the past year or so. Bar the Tottenham game, I can’t remember any mistakes he has made. I believe Almunia is a fantastic back-up keeper, but he seems to be missing the confidence of all the top keepers. You had to love Lehmann’s confidence. Who do we sign to replace him? Realistic targets are Robert Green of West Ham, and Shay Given of Newcastle. Personally, I’m not convinced either of these are “world class” keepers.
Defence: Sagna and Clichy are the best full backs in the Premiership, and for me we have enough adequate cover in Eboue and Silvestre when required. Central defence has been a problem for us for some time now, and even though I think Silvestre is a great signing, the Toure/Gallas partnership is clearly not working. As much as the fans love Toure and dislike Gallas, I can’t help thinking Toure is as much to blame. He’s had a poor couple of seasons and for me he really needs to up his game. Anyway, we are in need of a towering centre back in the Vidic mould, but I don’t believe these players are available. How long did it take Man U to finally replace Stam? Quite some time I’ll tell you that. Who do we buy?
Midfield: The defensive midfield position for me is the one area we really need to get sorted as a matter of urgency. Denilson is not a defensive midfielder, Song is not ready, and Diaby is not a defensive midfielder. The loss of Flamini is hurting more than anything right now. We’re sorted on the wings with Nasri, Walcott, Rosicky (when fit), Diaby, Vela, etc but we need to buy a battler to keep it real! There’s been talk of Yaya Toure coming in January, and I’ll be happy with that.
Attack: We have many available forwards at the moment in Adebayor, van Persie, Bendtner, and Vela but none of them are good enough to spearhead a Premiership winning team. We need a big player in the Thierry Henry, Bergkamp, Ian Wright mould. Robin van Persie could be that player but he really is the most inconsistent player in our squad. Eduardo is going to be a massive plus when he comes back, whether or not he’ll be back to his best this season is another thing. It’s not going to happen but I’d love Wenger to bid £30m for Karim Benzema of Lyon.
Do you think we need players? If so, who would you like to see us sign in January?
40 Comments
November 2, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think we definitely need to buy a tall agressive central defender. -to pair with Djourou maybe???
who? I don’t know: Sergio Ramos could be that guy cause he’s a wonderful tackler, but expensive and maybe not tall enough.
We need a central midfielder like Yaya Touré or Alberto Aquilani, both are good in these place and can score from long distance,.. to save a game for example??
And I hope Wenger signs Huntelaar Klaas Jan in January to make our attack even stronger even if I think we’re strong enough with what we’ve got at the moment.
The goalkeep is hard to say as i like more and more Almunia seeing him doing the job he’s asked for.He’not worldclass but he’s saving more and more .. so he’s not the first buy I’ll do.
CENTRAL wether in defense or in midfield, we actually look like a swiss chees with holes in the middle.
I love Denilson but he should remain a back up for Cesc or a right winger.
November 2, 2008 at 8:52 pm
RVP could easily be as good as henry if he didnt get all these injuries
I really think vela Could be as good as henry as well, as in that kind of awesome attacker u were talking about
benzema doesnt wana come england too
November 2, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I think Arsen’e Wenger should sort out the defence because i would drop toure & gallas to the reserves because they need to practice a little bit more and Eboue and Silvestre are great defenders because with Sagna and Clichy they are great partership. Also i think Arsene Wenger should buy a new defender which will be good like Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy with a good defender like Fabio Cannavaro and Nemanda Vidic. I think Arsenal boss should get a Central Midfielder because we need a player to partership with Fabregas because so far we put Song and Denilson and that is so terrible, also we should buy Central Midfielder like Xavi or Iniesta.
Striker: I think Arsene Wenger should buy two more strikers because players with got so far are Adebayor ,Bendtner, Vela, Eduardo, Van Persie
also they are’nt really the right players to win the Premiership or Champions League. Because Van Persie keeps getting Injuries and Adebayor is created chances Bendtner not doing well , Eduardo is injured for moment and Vela doesn’t get chances in the first team squad. The strikers I would like to buy is Huntelaar and Alberto Aqualini but Arsene Wenger doesn’t really want to spent the money because the squad what he has he thinks Arsenal can win Premiership and Champions League but I don’t believe him.
November 2, 2008 at 9:00 pm
GK- Shay Given is a world class keeper. Jussi from Bolton is another good buy.
MID- Definitely need a strong DM, donno why Wenger sold Viera, I think someone with experience is needed in this position
FW- Considering the current strikers and attacking midfield, no reinforcements are necessary.
I am a Red Devil, but I like the style of play of the Gunners. I really think Wenger doesn’t mix the youth with experience and this has been while Arsenal recently always fall just short. Good Luck.
November 2, 2008 at 9:32 pm
i realy like toure but he has been terrible for past 2 seasons,gallas has not in best of for m either and is not a good captain,this may seem harsh but i would sell both them,dijoouro looks very good and song is very solid,i think wenger sees him as aa perminent dm position he is more central defender for me both dijouro and song are looking better than gallas and toure, however i dont think that will happen yet,i do feel toure bad form continues he will gone. i wenger will buy dm,but i feel arsenal have alot of attcking options
November 2, 2008 at 9:48 pm
We have been iconsistent which is frustrating, but if you look at the log we still in it. Yaya Toure should have been an Arsenal player years ago, we most definately need a centre back, I agree Toure has been poor at times. Klaas Huntelaar is a good strker, as much as we love Van Persi his not a good finisher at all, in fact his poor but Eduardo hopefully will be back at his best. We miss Hleb and the only thing closest to him is Arshevin. YAYA and ARSHEVIN!!
November 2, 2008 at 9:54 pm
we should go for lorik cana of marseille he was nasri’s team mate last season great holding player very similar to flamini but this guy is a real leader hes the captain at his club. he’s a tough warrior who fights for the team abit crazy at times but i think hes what we need. he has a good shot on him to and a decent passer. and we should go for phillip mexes of roma a very good centre half and he is french if that counts for anything. strikers are not needed and goalkeeper you could argue the case. if we did go for a goalkeeper carlo cudicini but i doubt chelsea would let him go. or i would love us to sign joe hart or wayne hennessey. but a centre back and a holding midfielder are the priorities at the moment. also if anyone is sold they need to be replaced. also is anyone missing senderos??????
November 2, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I think Arsene Wenger should Buy goalkeeper like Buffon or Robert Green not Shay Given because Shay Given rubbish and Buffon is one of the greatest goalkeeper in the world. If we get Buffon or Robert Green I would pay about around 12 – 15 Million pounds.
November 3, 2008 at 12:26 am
We should play some of the talent we already have (and we dont have much choice). Why hasnt JD played in a meaningful game this season? He’s tall, busy and hungry. I’d play him in the center of defence with Gallas/Silvestre or give him a shot partnering Fab in the middle as a strictly defensive mid, it cant get any worse than its been the last two games. Give him a chance to play!
I think he’s better than any option we have, including Diaby who is a liability unless he’s going forward ,which stifles Fab.
Cesc has looked like a shadow of what we know he is because he knows he has no backup if a move goes wrong, he’s tentative because his partners this season arent doing what Flamini did, and I’ll admit he didnt do it brilliantly, but he did it well enough and thats to protect your star player and let him do what he does best.
Our midfield choices are making one of the best players on earth look average, we know he’s anything but that.
I’m glad that hit and miss cunt van persie did what he did on saturday, a dumb move from an arrogant player. Vela and Bendtner now have a chance to play .They fucking destroyed a decent sheffield team full of wily veterans because they played with no fear at all.
It it seems like the man u game couldnt have come at a worse time for us. No Adebayor, no Van persie (good thing I think), no walcott, no Gallas and off the back of two horrible games.
It could go one of two ways. They fucking murder us which lets face it we are all expecting or we step up and give those dirty manc cunts a hiding.
I think we have a good chance to do a number on them because we are a cornered animal right now and Wenger, who has made some appalling choices this season, has had all his options taken away by Stoke.
I seriously think we will do them, and I think we will batter villa too. We all say “give Player x a chance” and “why isnt player x getting a shot?” and it seems like that the time has come for some players to step up and shine.
I’ll be there and I wont give up on this season. we’ve had some shit results and some terrible luck and Arsene has made some bad choices but we are the Arsenal and we can play anyone off the park. I’m looking at this season as the opposite of last, we’ve started fairly ropey but I think we still have enough to get a good run going. Throw our kids at them and see how they get on, we dont really have much to lose at this point.
Come on you fucking Reds!
November 3, 2008 at 12:34 am
Have to agree. I’ve got the feeling we’re going to beat Man U next week!
November 3, 2008 at 1:44 am
Arsenal only need two players. One being a DM like e.g. Danielli De Rossi, Yaya Toure and Gokhan Inler. The other being a big ugly leader like a John Terry type CB. Like David Wheater from Boro
or C. Zapata from Udinese. Now come on Wenger we trusted you for so long, admit you were wrong not buying in the summer and act before it is too late.
In regards to our attack we have sufficient fire power and can score at will and we will score more
once the defence is rock solid.
November 3, 2008 at 4:14 am
every team has a bad spot in the season, this is ours.
but if its not then we need players like:
cb: zapata (i think udi overpiced him for arsenal) we were rumoured with metzelder aswell
cm: yaya, aquilani (weve been linked with both)
or we could promote from within: like coquelin for cm bring vela, wilshire, ramsey, and barazite, barazite should be brought bak from loan until van persie comes bak, but i doubt its possible
November 3, 2008 at 7:30 am
the most needed to sign new players are a taller centre back to partnership with Kolo and world class defendship midfielder are enough for wenger, I am sure.
November 3, 2008 at 7:33 am
Arsenal needs a strong DM like Yaya toure,inler. Fabrigas is not getting the midfield back up unlike when we have flamini around. We also need a finisher FW, a striker that can fraustrate defenders and also play a very good shot from outside or inside the 18yard box.(Benzima).
November 3, 2008 at 9:50 am
defence- i thing wenger should have sold gallas to psg n get the 10million but i think no one would buy him now cus he wants to attack more n defend less.he scolds the other defenders who make half as many mistakes as him.
i think he should buy david wheater from boro(has had a great season so far) n martin laursen from villa.(i dont know why he sold upson).
central midfield-it was stupid of arsenal to sell flamini plus wenger thinks his side are complete(bullshit).
mikel is doing brilliantly,yaya toure is an option or maybe he could play eboue with cesc cus he works his socks off.
attack-rvp is forever injured,bendtner isnt consistent enough,vela is just a baby n isnt given a start,adebayor can only score from penalties n tap ins(he should have been sold for 60million)
i hope eduardo comes back to his best
he should buy david villa or benzema or huntelar
i think boruc of celtic is a world class keeper as well.
November 3, 2008 at 10:33 am
It’s very simple…we just need a centre back whose main strength is his aerial dominance. We cant buy 3 players in january…it’s not possible. our only REAL weakness is in our center of defence
November 3, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Why does everyone envy Arsenal? is it because we have the youngest squad in the prem and still challenge every year? or is it because the name Arsenal makes other teams scared? We play the best football every one knows that but will we be hot or cold?
All I know is that we need silverware and badly .Wenger is a hero to me and most Arsenal fans and i hate to say it but this is a make or break season for him!
I dont think it is that we need better players in certain positions I think the top players are not performing at their highest level and that is the job of the manager to get the best out of them( having said that a holding midfielder such as a yaya or a Aqualini would help the leaking goal situation) I’m not buying in to all this crisis business we will be there or there abouts at the end of the season lets just hope our christmas blues dont hit again. If the fans stay positive and back the players i can see a bright future for this group of players. Ramsey, Walcott, Vela, Clichy, Denilson, Nasri, Wilshire are all going to be world class players lets just give them the time they need .
November 3, 2008 at 7:50 pm
i am the only one suggesting lorik cana! trust see him on youtube hes exactly what we need.he would definetel fight for the team and you see with the first 30 seconds he is a leader. he would play great alongside cesc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_bZAdOKhk
also great to the person who suggested wheater i never thought about him he would be perfect. or even martin laursen which i kept on saying. get cana and wheater/ laursen we should win the league. if i was manager i would get laursen and wheter and get rid of gallas.
November 3, 2008 at 10:18 pm
gav both players would be fantastic signings for us. laursen is probably the most improved player in the last year or so. i can only judge cana from the video but he looks good, we need a crazy person.
November 4, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Just seen the video of Cana- he’s a nutter if that’s anything to go by. He’d be great at DM, but how many games would we lose him to suspension?
November 4, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Nothing more intimidating then playing against someone like that.
You feel that our current crop just don’t strike fear into opponents, to the same extent Vieira, Adams, Campbell, Henry, Petit, and Lehmann did.
We lack a footballing thug!
November 4, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Defensive midfielder: Hernanes, from Brazillian club, São Paulo. Considered the next defensive midfielder in the brazilian team. AND he is a match-winner with very good long shot. Cost more than £7m and less than £11m.
Centre back: Cristian Zapata, from italian club, Udinese. I think £8-10m will be enough.
November 4, 2008 at 11:19 pm
We had a bid of £10m turned down for Zapata.
should have got kompany. £7m!!!!
November 6, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Defensive midfielder Owen hargeaves if he can stay fit. Central defender sergio ramos.
November 7, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Hmm.. I think we lack big name players with experience, to be honest we need to get sme big name tall strong powerful players, we need defo a new keeper, new cb, new dm, and a clinical finisher who can take chances. I think we should buy sergio ramos if possible because hes a great talent gd areailly and strong. for defensive mid i think we got 3 main options cana, yaya toure and inler, i would get cana or yaya toure cana great aggresive player with experience, toure great young talent and strong. As for striker i would simply go for Villa at Valencia, sme1 who stays on the defenders shoulder sme1 to aggrevate the defenders, bcoz hes most prob to much for us the cheapr version of villa is Guiza at fenerbache. The keeper that i think we need to enquire is Robert Green such a underated keeper, great shot stopper if not him il get buffon he must b at a cheap price because of hes age. Great line up:
Green/Buffon
Sagna
Toure
Ramos
Clichy
Walcott
Cana/YayaToure
Fabregas
Nasri/Diaby
Guiza/Villa
Adebayor
November 8, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Fabianski
clichy
gallas/djourou
silvestre
sagna
diaby
fabregas
denilson/ramsey
nasri
walcott
van persie/adebayor/eduardo/vela/bendtner
All you need is faith .!!!!!
When great players are under pressure they always produce the goods .
November 17, 2008 at 7:18 am
just need 1 solid DM…& wenger just put Djourou along side gallas or silvestre…dat all
November 24, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Fabregas as captain is a good choice. I agree septz djourou is class he just needs more games . Miguel veloso or yaya would be great i think i would like to see more of ramsay and vela . Adebayor or van persie will go in the summer that will pave the way for the young guns.
November 28, 2008 at 3:02 pm
get henry back…or karim benzema
or david villa or raul
November 28, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I’d take Benzema over the lot. He’s absolutely quality.
December 4, 2008 at 4:00 am
agree! karim benzema upfront
daniel alves and huntelaar just a slipped-off chance.
December 5, 2008 at 12:16 am
Whoever wrote this article I couldn’t agree with you more, all the points you’ve highlighted are bang on, and believe you me we aren’t the only ones who think the same.
Goalkeeper: For me a keeper has to be consistant and our number one is bad. In fact the numbers prove he is one of the best granted we’ve leaked alot of goals but our defence has been great either. He maybe a fourth rate Spanish International wanting to turn English but his confidence like Lens will grow. Afterall could be worse we could have Gomes… I could kiss Ramos for that signing!
Defence: Our full-backs are the best in the Premiership I dont care what anyone says. Going foward they are world-class, and the way Clichy kept Ronaldo quiet at the Emirates proves he can compete with the best. The main problem with our defence is draw to the center-backs. In my opoinion we still got the better deal with the Cole transfer, Gallas is still world-class. At Chelsea and against United this proved this completely flawless. With regard to the other guys they are all good enough our main problem is that we have no height. Mertesacker would be ideal but will Wenger buy he i doubt it. I’ll even put in a couple of quid for the transfer.
Midfield: The defensive midfield position for me is where i can see Wenger spending the money we have leaked so many goals missing our holding man and losing Gilberto and Flamini and not having any replacments other than Song (will be good in time) there is no one to fill the void. Having the two Toure brothers together would be a fantastic partnership but there has been alot of talk and no action. Somebody give him a pen!
Attack:
I was quite shocked Wenger didn’t make a bid for the Hunter over the summer and now that he has shipped of to Real to join his follow countryman we have missed out on the chance to pair Van.Persie with another dutchman which would of worked well. So realiastic replaces Podolski wants out as he hasn’t been played but will Arsenal beat the new money of City… I doubt it.
When it comes down it though I can’t see Wenger at this point in the season using the window for more than one tranfser. We all know his style of dabbing in the market so for the big money buys (if they ever happen) the likes of Benzema will come in the summer… well maybe one day.
December 8, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Well The thing is the players we need don’t come cheap and are they even on the market?
Wenger fully knows what he needs the problem is we lost out on the bidding on more then a few players.
Wenger wanted Michael Essien, he would have filled that role Song is trying to fill.
At best I think we might be able to pickup one key player in the center back or defensive midfield but
Really we need another Tony Adams a player that not only is great defensively but can also organize the younger players because it is not skill but positioning that is hurting our defense.
But unless management is ready to spend big.
After building the stadium I just do not think they have the cash to get in bidding wars over top players your best chance is better organization of what we have.
December 22, 2008 at 9:43 pm
DEFENDERS-philip mexes as centre back and marcelo or drenthe(real madrid) as left back…cris(lyon)..
MIDFIELDERS-govou(lyon)..ribery(0.001 chances of bayern letting him go)..jaou moutinho(sporting lisbon)…yaya toure…daniel de rossi(roma)….barnetta(bayern leuverkusen)…stankovic(inter milan)…miguel veloso(sporting lisbon)
FORWARD-alex pato…benzema…zltan ibrahamovic(dream come true if he comes to emirates)…hernan crespo
wenger enough is enough!!!!!…use ur head and bring in some experience…skool kids cant do the job…
December 24, 2008 at 8:22 am
i need a player like yaya toure for the defence midfider so he can boost our midfider and assist our defender too please wenger we need this player in our team.
December 29, 2008 at 3:11 am
I believe Wenger needs to get rid of Song, Eboue, bendtner and maybe van persie as we need players proven quality who will produce consistent form week in week out. Wenger is a very Good manager but he has never won any back to back titles while managing Arsenal. Also in other countries were Wenger has managed teams such as France and Japan wenger only won the league title with Monaco in France along with French cup. In Japan Wenger won J-League Super Cup (1996 ) and the Emperor’s Cup(1996)with Nagoya Grampus, he never won any titles in Japan. Now my point is Wenger has had a limited success on building a consistent thread of success when he produced league winning teams. Both his rivals Alex Fergison and Jose Mourinho have had back to back title success as theses mangers know how to strengthen their squads after producing title winning teams. Not even think of Wengers Euro Record with Aresenal is abysmal, as Wenger has been manager of Arsenal Since 1998 and even though Arsenal has qualified for Europe every year to date, Arsenal has only been runners up in Europe in 2000 in theUEFA Cup and (2006) UEFA Champions League, this is all we have to show in Europe for 20 years of football (this is rubbish!)
To go to the next level Wenger needs proven quality players who can give that additional strength, experience and depth to our current squad.
players such as Zaki, David Villa, Arteta, Bellmany, Daniel Sturridge, Defoe, Richardo Fuller, Stephen Ireland and David James need to be bought by us as we need players who are in-form and proven players in the premiership.
Aresnal need 2 hot in-form Strikers (Strikers who only need 1 chance to put the ball in the net), 2 all action type Midfielders in the Roy Keane, Steven Gerrad and Patrick Veria mould and a World class goal-keeper who is a born shot stopper and then we need 2 additional centre backs who are comfortable on the ball, can head the ball, who are very quick and are all round solid like Ferinand or Vidic.
I rest my case, Wenger take a close look at your success and step up to the plate and change your management style. As Wenger just needs to fine-tune things and everything will be alright at Arsenal.
December 31, 2008 at 3:47 pm
A defensive midfielder is certainly a must – along with a central defender. But Arsene seems stubborn to make players stick to a specific role in the team, and that’s what really seems to be out problem this year.
With a midfield as attacking as ours a holding player is essential. I think Diaby is a good enough tackler and keeper of the ball – but Wenger needs to play him infront of the defence and get him to play simple; break up the play and pass, make the occasional surge forward at the right time, just like Paddy used to do.
The other option is obviously to buy someone already in that mold, but I’m not sure how many ‘world class’ players are out there in that position. Chelsea have arguably the best in Essien, Man U have a few – Hargreaves, Carrick… Liverpool have Alonso and Mascherano, and Villa have Barry. There are a few prospects abroad – Yaya Toure etc… But none of them are completely convincing and most of the best players play in the premiership already…
Central defence is also a problem of balance. Gallas and Toure are both too wayward and need to play alongside someone solid as opposed to together. We need a holding defender to fill Cambell’s shoes . Level headed, strong and capable of leading the defence. In theory we should be able to fill this position a lot easier than the one in midfield. There are plenty of world class centre backs out there….
December 31, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Agreed Charlie. Apart from the Diaby bit!
Diarra from Real Madrid would be a great option, but he’s just been stung by a long-term injury which has ruled him out for the season, hence the reason Madrid signed the other Diarra.
As for centre backs, Senderos may improve after his spell with AC Milan, maybe this is what Wenger is expecting or hoping for.
December 10, 2009 at 4:25 pm
we need to buy two strikers and two defenders as we have plnty of midfielders.
http://dyton.blogspot.com
December 29, 2009 at 3:54 am
I think we should sign David villa in january yes/no reply now