Arsene's Worst Signings

[northbank123]

He's just the wrong player for us, full stop. Even if we ditched the stubborn formation, our play relies on moving the ball quickly. Giroud is not only pretty slow for a centre forward, as people concede his touch is also fairly woeful. I've always heard people saying that we could use a more physical striker in our squad, which is probably true, but not at the expense of everything else.

I want the guy to succeed, I really do, but I just can't see it. I agree that he works hard and is great in the air, but what else has he shown he's good at. The goals scored with his feet have mainly been converting crosses from 6 yards out. I know these are worth as much as any other goal and it's great to have a striker attacking the ball, but what I'm getting at is that he's not shown predatory instinct when the ball is at his feet in the area, and indeed when he's been given golden opportunities by balls slipped through he has either skewed them horrifically wide or smashed them straight at the keeper.

I'm reserving absolutely final judgement and I do hope he proves me wrong but imo he's just an upgraded Bendtner.

[SteveO 35]

He's just the wrong player for us, full stop. Even if we ditched the stubborn formation, our play relies on moving the ball quickly. Giroud is not only pretty slow for a centre forward, as people concede his touch is also fairly woeful. I've always heard people saying that we could use a more physical striker in our squad, which is probably true, but not at the expense of everything else.

I want the guy to succeed, I really do, but I just can't see it. I agree that he works hard and is great in the air, but what else has he shown he's good at. The goals scored with his feet have mainly been converting crosses from 6 yards out. I know these are worth as much as any other goal and it's great to have a striker attacking the ball, but what I'm getting at is that he's not shown predatory instinct when the ball is at his feet in the area, and indeed when he's been given golden opportunities by balls slipped through he has either skewed them horrifically wide or smashed them straight at the keeper.

I'm reserving absolutely final judgement and I do hope he proves me wrong but imo he's just an upgraded Bendtner.

^^
Perhaps this is how I should have phrased it for I agree with pretty much all of it with the exception of the hard working bit - he was as lethargic as fuck for the first 45 minutes on Sunday again.

As for the bloke a couple of posts back saying I'm expecting too much from him and he's no RvP etc - FFS mate, I'm a 40 something, not some 6 year old child. I have never EVER said I expect him to live up to RvP's standards and I haven't even drawn comparison between them as footballers. If expecting too much from a 27 year old who cost us €14m or so is being able to trap a ball without the second touch being a tackle, placing shots accurately instead of woefully blasting them here, there and everywhere and failing to head the ball on target from six yards out.......then yes, I have clearly misread the fact that we are a PL club that should have technically adept footballers. As I said, when the Chamakh/Diaby/Denilson style ranting about this bloke starts next season I shall be posting a few reminders here.....

....and by the way, I am allowed an opinion on the bloke - one which hopefully I express without having to resort to calling him a braindead *word censored* etc as I've read so often about our imperious, talismanic midfielder

[kite]

Sure, one's a striker and one is an attacking midfielder, but in a league like the PL you need your midfielders to chip in with goals too.

Like Wilshere who scored 5 goals in 92 games (or 2 goals in 61 games in the PL) so far?

[DB10GOONER]

Sure, one's a striker and one is an attacking midfielder, but in a league like the PL you need your midfielders to chip in with goals too.

Like Wilshere who scored 5 goals in 92 games (or 2 goals in 61 games in the PL) so far?

But yeah, exactly! Wilshere doesn't contribute enough goals either tbh. It's obvious he has serious talent and his injury has given him a bit of an easy ride with our support. Also when he was playing he had to sit back to cover the Idiot Song's stupid charges forward so that deffo impacted on his chances to score. I think most of us are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Wengerball]

Sure, one's a striker and one is an attacking midfielder, but in a league like the PL you need your midfielders to chip in with goals too.

Like Wilshere who scored 5 goals in 92 games (or 2 goals in 61 games in the PL) so far?

But yeah, exactly! Wilshere doesn't contribute enough goals either tbh. It's obvious he has serious talent and his injury has given him a bit of an easy ride with our support. Also when he was playing he had to sit back to cover the Idiot Song's stupid charges forward so that deffo impacted on his chances to score. I think most of us are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I would disagree that you need midfielders to score loads of goals- if you look at the best in the business at the moment, Iniesta he doesnt score many goals but you can make up for that by creating a shit load for the strikers.

[DB10GOONER]

Sure, one's a striker and one is an attacking midfielder, but in a league like the PL you need your midfielders to chip in with goals too.

Like Wilshere who scored 5 goals in 92 games (or 2 goals in 61 games in the PL) so far?

But yeah, exactly! Wilshere doesn't contribute enough goals either tbh. It's obvious he has serious talent and his injury has given him a bit of an easy ride with our support. Also when he was playing he had to sit back to cover the Idiot Song's stupid charges forward so that deffo impacted on his chances to score. I think most of us are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I would disagree that you need midfielders to score loads of goals- if you look at the best in the business at the moment, Iniesta he doesnt score many goals but you can make up for that by creating a shit load for the strikers.

Who said "Loads" of goals. Not me. But you do need them to chip in to some extent as well. Look at the PL winners for each of the last 20 years. Each team had one (and sometimes two) midfielders that was popping in with 10 to 15 goals each.

[Wengerball]

Sure, one's a striker and one is an attacking midfielder, but in a league like the PL you need your midfielders to chip in with goals too.

Like Wilshere who scored 5 goals in 92 games (or 2 goals in 61 games in the PL) so far?

But yeah, exactly! Wilshere doesn't contribute enough goals either tbh. It's obvious he has serious talent and his injury has given him a bit of an easy ride with our support. Also when he was playing he had to sit back to cover the Idiot Song's stupid charges forward so that deffo impacted on his chances to score. I think most of us are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I would disagree that you need midfielders to score loads of goals- if you look at the best in the business at the moment, Iniesta he doesnt score many goals but you can make up for that by creating a shit load for the strikers.

Who said "Loads" of goals. Not me. But you do need them to chip in to some extent as well. Look at the PL winners for each of the last 20 years. Each team had one (and sometimes two) midfielders that was popping in with 10 to 15 goals each.

I agree that it would be preferable to get goals from midfield (to take the strain off the front men- or man in our case ) but I think that if a player has the quality to set up goals for the strikers on a consistent basis then it doesnt matter as much.

[Supagoon]

I dont think we'll be going anywhere significant with giroud as our first choice because, i dont think he is even a top 4 striker. His technique is average and he has very little pace. I do like the fact he likes to shoot, a refreshing change from chamakh who has a good touch and pace but hates to shoot. Seriously who is doing the scouting here?

If our midfield isn't scoring goals its enough proof to say we are in our rightful place. When we had Cesc, RVP, Ade we got involved in the title talk but we were never going to win it.

With this squad the best we can hope is top 4, and frankly I dont care about that. I used to care because it meant we could keep hold of our best players, and it will stave of the inevitable 'Power Shift'.

Now it matters not because top4 means only cash, no trophies, no ambition nothing.

On note of this thread my worst signings, i've seen with my own eyes.

Squillaci, Silvestre, Gervinho.

Never got the privilege to see stepanovs or cygan's rendition of an offside trap.

[oboe123]

The problem we have now got is that Man City,Chelsea and to a certain extent Man Utd are shopping at the top end of the market for their new signings and we are trying to find bargains or lesser players who they don't want.When or if that will ever change who knows?FFP is supposed to even things out, if it ever happens.

[SteveO 35]

The problem we have now got is that Man City,Chelsea and to a certain extent Man Utd are shopping at the top end of the market for their new signings and we are trying to find bargains or lesser players who they don't want.When or if that will ever change who knows?FFP is supposed to even things out, if it ever happens.

But there is value to be found outside of the players that those 3 are buying up - after all they can only have 25 players signed up in total for PL and CL. Michu, Jelavic, Ba (first time round), Scott Parker, Papiss Cisse just a handful of players that the top three weren't interested in at the time and all less than €10m...in some cases considerably so. Don't forget that Wenger chose to pay €14m for Le Chapman when he could have paid half that for Jelavic, or €11m for Gervinho when he could have signed Cisse

We have more than enough money to compete at a higher level than we are. Ignore Falcao, Aguero and co. - everyone knows we can't afford them, but outside of the elite market there are tons of players available to improve our squad that would be c. €10m or so each (in some cases lower)

[kite]

Imo Arsenal has enough money to compete. I know other clubs have more money but let's be honest - are they really that strong? Chelsea? City? Even United? Come on. I don't want to say they are shit but IMO they could do far better and as long as that's the case Arsenal could be able to compete. Wage bill of 125m pa (that was the number wasn't it? don't want to look it up now but I read the annual report just some days ago) could be enough to build a team that could win or at least compete for the title if it was used in the right way IMO but just my opinion anyway Btw 125m actually seems like quite something to me At Ajax we have 37

Sure, one's a striker and one is an attacking midfielder, but in a league like the PL you need your midfielders to chip in with goals too.

Like Wilshere who scored 5 goals in 92 games (or 2 goals in 61 games in the PL) so far?

But yeah, exactly! Wilshere doesn't contribute enough goals either tbh. It's obvious he has serious talent and his injury has given him a bit of an easy ride with our support. Also when he was playing he had to sit back to cover the Idiot Song's stupid charges forward so that deffo impacted on his chances to score. I think most of us are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

If you expect it from Wilshere, too then fair enough. I guess it can't hurt to have goalscoring midfielders anyway