Ian Wright is such an Arsenal fan that it often interferes with his ability to be impartial in his role as a TV pundit and football journalist, but then again the same can be said of most of the former footballers working on the other side of the game these days and with all the anti-Arsenal bias, Wright at least helps to keep some balance.
He is not shy about giving his opinion the failings of the club, manager and players either. Where he is best qualified to give that opinion is clearly on the attacking side of things as he was the club’s all time top scorer until a certain Monsieur Henry came along.
So I definitely think it is worth listening to Wrighty’s opinion on the possible transfer of Raheem Sterling from Liverpool, which he gave during an end of the season review for Breathe Sport and you can see on youtube.
The gist of it is that he thinks it would be a great move for the Gunners as he really rates the talent of the young England forward. He also believes that the competition it would provide to some of the current Arsenal stars would be good for them and also for the club on the whole.
He said, “I think he’d give Santi Cazorla a run for his money, I think he’d give Ramsey a run and I think he’d give Theo Walcott a run. You want that calibre of player in your team so they would then have to raise their standard of play as well.”
So do you think that Wenger should hit Liverpool with a serious offer?
Sterling is a football player but his not worth 30/40 million pounds in sterling.
Thanks Andrew. Dybala went for 23£ MILLIOn. Depay for 25£million. Vietto is available for 14.4£ million. Goatze was 30£ million. Why on earth is raheem 40 to 50 million. Liverpool fans are even saying that they want Theo and gibbs +20 million. fxxxxxxxxx deluded .
I understand raheem wanted to leave. Imagine Ozil getting up in the morning and hearing that Arsenal has signed james Milner and danny ings. he would be asking a transfer request.
Arsenal don’t need raheem. I rather we keep our Sterlings at the bank.
If Liverpool want Theo need to make an offer of 100,000,001 🙂 and thats his buy out clause 🙂
Correction;
If Liverpool want Theo they need to make an offer of 100,000,001 and thats his buy out clause.
I’d rather have a player that will improve us, we’ve had 180mil in the bank for a while and it hasn’t served us as well as someone like Sterling clearly would.
If he joins I’ll be extremely disappointed. He’s a good player I guess but the amount of money it would cost to brig him here would be extortionate and would be far better spent on other players that would actually improve our best 11.
Agreed. Marco Reus would be the better investment anyway I don’t think he’ll cost us much more than these Sterling figures.
Raheem sterling is a very good player no doubt! But we have got ” the ox” who can provide the same operations as he can! Coyg!
Why is everyone talking about Sterling, when we have got a player a lot better than him.
Theo Theo Walcott
Sterling has been far better to date than the Ox. Potential is a wonderful thing, but Sterling is doing more on the pitch than Chambo so maybe fans need to stop waiting for our young players to be the next Messi and buy players we know are already doing the business.
The Ox is good has a lot of heart,but not as skilfull as Sterling.Ox runs with ball in space like Sterling but close ball control Sterling is way better and he scores and doesn’t get injured.Still love Oxy coming off bench but don’t think first choice ,any way don’t need Sterling need a left back for back up + Strker CB
That money instead of sterling can be better spent on jeffrey kondogbia! Coyg!
Our money can be better spent on geoffrey kondogbia! Coyg!
Kondogbia would be a nice addition – adding more physique to our midfield. But that also means it is either him or Coquelin (who is no way inferior than him) stay on the bench – they are too defensive to start game together under an attacking-minded manager like Wenger. So he would improve squad depth but not improve the total quality of our first 11.
If Wenger does decide to move Walcott to center as striker (also a ticking point in his contract negotiation) – I can see us moving for a wide forward player like Sterling. We fan seem to have short memory – Sterling had not been consistently great in the last half of the season (possibly due to burnt out like Sanchez) – but he had been their best player and carried the average Liverpool team in the first half. Also part of awesome SAS axis last season. He can form a new awesome axis similar to SAS with Walcott and Sanchez – young, fast, technical and all have decent to very good end product to their game. Our interest in Dybala shows that Wenger is looking for this type of attacking player – and we all know he joined Juventus – so Sterling can be the next best thing. At the end of the day it is whether we are willing to spend extra for the British player inflated fee and convince-to-sell-to-rival type of fee – it also depends on if Sterling trying to push hard for the deal or not
Ah. Good old Wrighty 😀 I love his energy and enthusiasm, but his analysis for a man who has played at the top level is non-existent and would be better placed on a phone-in on Talk Sport along with the guys who used to call for David Beckham to get a knighthood for being slightly worse than Mihajlovic at free kicks, lol. When one listens to Martin Keown, he’s not always right (but then who is?) but his opinions are at least considered and have some proper football analysis included.
If we could keep our players fit we’d already have plenty of competition for pacey attacking midfield slots, keeping each other honest. We have all the tools we need in attacking midfield, and in my view the main point of contention is the striking position: whether to stick with Giroud or drop the attributes he brings and go for a 30 goal a season poacher instead.
Although I’d be surprised if AW brings Sterling in given the way he’s been at Liverpool in terms of his attitude this spring (assuming much of that is true). When Liverpool have really needed him in big matches, he has only really delivered once this season, in one leg of the league cup semi.
Also we will probably agree that paying 30-40 million for a player who is going to “give a few lads a run for their money” is why AW is rightly more influential on Arsenal’s transfers than Wrighty, lol. If he’s going to score the number of goals that Alexis does and work as hard as he does for the team, then I’d say an equivalent transfer fee would be viewed as justified. But he’s just not close enough to that at the moment.
Agreed. Wright is only ever on TV for his playful puppy impressions. If I had £40M (or whatever the “best young player in Europe” is worth) to improve the current squad I honestly couldn’t think of a worse way to spend it. If we had money to blow and had upgraded in about 4 or 5 other positions first and Theo and Ox had handed in transfer requests then I could see an angle. But something is very wrong here – you have half the city of Liverpool and most of Anfield who would seemingly do a straight swap with Theo in a heartbeat. I think bottomline is I get bad vibes from the guy – you would have thought he would have made an effort this year when he was in the shop-window but he has been pretty bang average. It is like he assumes he has arrived and he will have suitors queuing at his door from all the footballing aristocracy – Man U only “enquired” to wind the scousers up. City will be the only ones who will take him – maybe the Milner thing was part of the deal.
Come on lets think bigger.
Why would we buy a player off a team that ended up in sixth position.
Lets start going after players that are really special.
To quote Wenger.
That’s silly. Some really good players play for teams not high up in the league. Marco Reus’s Dortmund finished 7th place. Sterling under Wenger would develop into a great player that would be hard to stop with his pace and quick movement. Sterling is much more technically gifted than Walcott and injury free.
Why is it silly?
If you want us to be the best we have to contend with the best and buy special players,
Not my words but Wenger’s words
We will only buy special players that can improve the team.
He answered why it’s silly. Who judges a player based on where their team ended up for the season?
Marco Reus came 7th with Dortmund as was pointed out…..is he beneath us now? Utter tripe.
What 19/20 year old have Arsenal got that can carry a team to the CL places? Nobody, so why is Sterling getting bashed after being their player of the year, topping just about every attacking stat possible, yet falling short of the CL places. Just a stupid argument you present frankly.
True..but the bigger question is what happens to the OX if we get Sterling?
It is clear that if we go for Sterling, he is head and shoulders above the ox on the wings, which means Theo plays as central striker and we will thus not get a new striker- which I was hoping will be Higuain.
Sterling can also play as central striker and would give us options but his finishing is too erratic and we already have a liability in that respect- Welbeck. Makes no sense to have one more.
So instead, I would spend that money on a top striker like Higuain – meaning Walcott drifts to the wing -which he may not like.
The only striker who can be leathal up front and also effective in the wings is Reus- Are we in for him? if not why?
Why is everyone so worried about Ox? You think he needs an easy ride into the first team to fulfill his potential?
If we buy Higuain (which I’ve advocated), then Theo is RW with Ox challenging him. If we get Sterling, Theo moves up top and Ox challenges Sterling……hows it any different from Chambo’s perspective?
People need to stop worrying about who we have when talking about targets. Quality competition is what makes players better and teams successful. I wouldn’t be at all concerned with having Sterling AND Ox, I’d be damn excited at watching both push one another to be the best they can be.
We dont need Sterling or any other attacking midfielder. We just need 3 players GK, CDM and ST. Dont waste money on Sterling.
and a young LB.
Move Alexis up front and buy a left winger it’s got to be the best option.
I love Wright but his Wrong on this one.
I like Sterling, he’s got great dribbling ability, very hard to defend against and could add a different dimension to Arsenal similar to Chamberlain.
BUT i don’t want him as our main target, he’s not a goal scoring machine, he’s not a defensive midfielder and he’s not a world cup keeper. We should focus on our weaknesses and not trying to add EVEN MORE creativity in our midfield.
I wouldn’t want to swap him for Theo who is a goalscorer.
Ex players need to learn to keep their mouths shut.
We as fans have got an opinion but when it comes to our ex players, they need to learn to be more respectful of our club and it’s players.
Stop earning money off your comments and support our great club.
GOYG
PS why would an ex player be buzzing about Sterling when we have TW 14.
Please no Stirling
Arsenal has tons
of attackers.
Giroud Sanchez Walcott
Ox Wellbeck Gnabry Niles
Campbell Podolski Sanogo
Ozil Cazorla Ramsey Wilshere
Rosicky Zelalem Crowley Akpom.
18 attackers sheesh.
Lets spend on what we need
which is a quality DM who can
defend and distribute.
If we can get any one of
Schneiderlin Kondogbia Imbula Vidal
I’m happy. Heck I’d even take Alex Song back.
But please, Stirling really?
It’s not about the quantity but quality of attackers
Podolski, Campbell, Sanogo need to go
Akpom needs more experience
Welbeck is not as good as Giroud and definitely not as good as his Chelsea counterpart Remy.
Alexis, Walcott, Oxlade are mainly wingers. They score goals but so do hazard, Cuadrado, Willian but chelsea still had Costa, Remy and Drogba
For centre forwards, we need to match Costa, Remy and whoever they bring in. For example, Martinez, Giroud and Welbeck would make a good line up of CFs
So I say bring in Lacazette, Martinez or Higuain
Sell Podolski, Campbell, Sanogo
Loan Akpom for more experience
That will be some good business that removes players who are not useful to us anymore and bring in another top CF.
Vidal + Cavani = proven quality that will start giving dividends immediately and add Cech to that and finally we have a team that can match any team in the EPL.
Cech
Debuchy – Kos-Per -Monreal
Vidal-Ramsey
Theo -Ozil – Alexis
Cavani
That is a team that is full of experienced winners that are ready to win now! not next year, not developing, already developed and ready to go. Add,Ospina, Wilshire, Cazorla, Bellerin, Ox, Chambers, Welbeck, Giroud, Coquelin, to that and you got a real team with real alternatives.
We should not waste our time on impossible target as Vidal/Cavani
– It is impossible for Arsenal to pay over the top to convince club to sell their star players
– Vidal availability will depend on if Juventus can keep hold of Pogba. He had talked to paper that he want to end his career in Juve
– Cavani wants to leave but Paris SG insisted they won’t sell – it is about their image and not money
Things may change during the transfer period but for now they are not realistic targets
Every target is as realistic as a club’s ambition!
Ozil was not realistic either but now he wears an Arsenal shirt.
Very few players are “available” in the beginning of the window. Club’s posture that they are not for sale, players tel the same old story of ” i am only concentrating on blah blah blah” but transfers do and will happen of the most unexpected players.
I personally think Pogba will stay another year at Juve and then go to Barca which is where he wants to play. Which may free up a Vidal transfer.
Cavani doesnt like playing from the wings, there is a chance PSG will want to cash in on an unhappy player.
All these are rumors just like them not being available for transfer.
Shoot for the moon even if you fail you’ll be amongst the stars!
These are my picks for CF
Lacazette
Martinez
Higuain
Benzema
Benteke
Cavani is not realistic and will cost too much.
Dybala has signed so not available
Back of midfield
Vidal
Kondogbia
Schneiderlin
Krychowiak
Carvalho
Gustavo
buy lucazette at £28,sterling at £38 ,vidal at £30,cech at £10 tot 106
sell giroud/welbeck,arteta ,sze, pod,Campbell,miyaichi,sanogo,flamini,diaby,maybe rosicky—coz we cant guarantee game time to such a gifted and humble man THO as long as hes happy for limited games we would rather keep him-salute rozza.
Centre Forwards
Higuain
Benzema
Lukaku
Cavani
Holding midfielders
Vidal
Schneiderlin
Krychowiak
Gundogan
I don’t think we need to worry about Sterling, Pool have said they would not sell to the competition.