HEY! Wenger could be RIGHT to back Arsenal strikers

Arsenal do have good striking options! by Sam P.

There is a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from the Arsenal fans at the minute, partly due to the fact that Arsene Wenger has once again been more careful with the transfer spending than all the other challengers for the Premier League title, but mainly due to the poor start we have had to the new season, in my opinion anyway.

I do believe that there would not be much moaning going on if Arsenal had won against Liverpool on the opening day and we could well have done but for a bit of bad luck, with the referee turning the game with a poor free kick decision on the stroke of half time.

Even then, Coutinho would not have scored that wonder goal on most occasions and we would have been further ahead at that point if the likes of Ozil, Sanchez and Giroud were fully fit and available. So can we just take a breath for a second and look at the situation with some logic?

Arsenal seem to have failed to secure the transfer of Alexandre Lacazette from the French club Lyon, but another way of putting it would be to say that Arsene Wenger has refused to pay a ridiculous amount of money, rumoured by some to be in the region of £60 million, for a player that he does not think is worth anything like that.

In fact, his comments reported by the Evening Standard this week about the quality available on the transfer market compared with the quality already in the Arsenal squad tells me that he was not really convinced that Lacazette would be a good signing.

The boss said, “I believe a club like ours is focused on giving chances to the players we develop in our own club.

“We have a few strikers who have a chance but if we find the right players we buy. But if you ask people ‘give me names’ they just sit in front of you — it is not that easy.

“We have Olivier Giroud, Sanchez, Theo Walcott, Chuba Akpom, Danny Welbeck and Yaya Sanogo who is still here but is injured at the moment — the players we buy have to be better.”

I really can see his point you know, apart from Sanogo. Even Joel Campbell has been deemed not good enough for the first team this season, despite some impressive performances in pre-season and in the first team last season. Would you really want a player like Lacazette to be our club record signing and be brought in to deny the promising Akpom and the likes of Walcott, Iwobi and the Ox their game time?

If it was a really top class striker guaranteed to perform in the Premier League that came in then it would be different, but with Lacazette I think Wenger is right to back the options Arsenal already have up front. Don’t you?

Tags Akpom Giroud Walcott

45 Comments

  1. Yes, if you want to sit passively and let Man. U, Man. C and Chelsea leave us behind to fight for 4’th spot with Liverpool, Tottenham etc. he has absolutely the right thing.
    I just think our ambition should be to become the best in Europe, and for that we need world class players and world class management. I see very little of that.

    1. Very well said Anders, But this is who we are, we are a team that fight for 4th place, and in a good year where everyone else is total shite then we come in second to Leicester. That is what Arsene has done to this team. His inability to motivate, his tactical ineptitude, his dithering in the transfer market, his cheap buys, his loyalty to average players, I can go on and on.
      I dont care what he has achieved in the past, that was 12 years ago, everybody wake up and smell the coffee, we are no longer that team, he is no longer that manager, football is no longer the same. He has failed to change and dragged us to mediocracy with him.

      1. Dont worry folks, I saw Wenger last Sunady in a Car-Boot sale looking for a bargain striker 🙂
        I said that last year, as long as the fans dont protest the team will remain average for many years to come. stop complaining on the net and take action to the stadium. these people understand only the language of PROFIT

  2. hahaha…so funny. re-wind last season. when chances created by Ozil which were going begging and begging – where were our so called strikers. Swansea, West ham, Manu, Stoke all winnable games which we lost. For one biggest factor the striker goes missing. These would have been 15 points the title was ours. Same mistake again and again. Wenger, Learn from your past mistakes!!! But no, he has to be downright arrogant and dictatorial! No mention of last season, Chelsea, City, ManU were down, this season more difficult…

    1. You guys are right but Lacazette is not our answer. We deserve better. It is such a catch 22 situation. We cannot win without a good striker; Lacazette is not that striker; and Unless we win a player like Griezmann/Lewa will not come to us.

      God help us !

  3. “Would you really want a player like Lacazette to be our club record signing…”

    If that increases our chances of winning the EPL title, YES I WOULD.

    ” …and be brought in to deny the promising Akpom and the likes of Walcott, Iwobi and the Ox their game time?”

    Same question could be asked of Thomas Eisfeld or Andre Santos. Step-up or step-out. Arsenal first, before any one individual’s career. And who says Akpom and Iwobi can’t fill in when the inevitable injury crisis strikes? Which is more important to us now? Akpom’s game time? or the EPL title?

    1. I’ve just read the latest article on arseblog, which have some very interesting and valid view on the issue.

      1st of all, there is no doubt that Wenger want another striker, he made a bid for Vardy and Lacazette. What he does not want is to pay 60M for Lacazette.

      What if after we paid 60M and signed him on 150k/w for 5 years and he flops in EPL? Which to be honest I think the chance for Lacazette to flop in EPL is pretty high. Now we wasted 60M and another 8M a year on his wage, there is not single chance where we can sell him due to the high wage he is on. In total Lacazette will become a 100M+ pound flop which equals to half of our cash reserve.

      1. I am all for spending and I am pissed because we left it so late to feed off scraps- which aren’t there this season. But for Lacazette this money is insane and it’s no one but us to blame. Wenger won’t buy a striker period.

        Looking back at our transfer history for the last few years our transfer strategy seems to be a 2 trick pony

        1. We go in for a player and are quoted a price and are told of other suitors; that sets of a poker game. Is the price right? are the other suitors for real??? Arsenal gets so sucked into it that at the end either someone else buys the player or the club gets fed up and refuses to sell.
        2. We wait for the domino keeping our faith in that some big club will buy- which will trigger a domino effect and we are there to feed of the scraps. We were waiting for this to happen last summer and it didn’t and we ended up with no player. That also partially explains why we need a certain type of player but end up getting a completely different type of player.

        The greatest positive for Arsenal is that if other clubs buy and sell we buy ; if they don’t then we don’t and we can always say- Look the big clubs didn’t buy and so there is no value/quality in the market!

        Genius stuff!

  4. really??? I cant see the chances of him being right…all i can see is delusion and an egocentric ole gunnar man.. aren’t these the same set of players we’ve had as attackers for the past few seasons??? or is there something i’m missing?? and Yes Laca aint worth that money but aint there better attackers out there? Auba? Mahrez? Reus? Draxler? (Dybala who we should’ve gotten few seasons ago?,it pisses me off when i see how he plays for Juve,would’ve been an upgrade) yea but well who am i?? i’m just one out of the million fans out there that the club tortures and don’t care bout.. So i’m sorry i aint gon follow you and jump into Wenger’s bandwagon

  5. Akpom wasn’t good enough to get a game for hull in the championship last year.
    Walcott has never proven himself as a striker and says he wants to play on the right.
    Sanchez is no lone striker but a very good winger
    Wellbeck is out until after Christmas
    Giroud is limited but a good backup
    Sanogo, well I can’t believe he even mentioned him he’s that poor.
    So no the striking options we have are not good enough to mount a title challenge and no amount of spin is going to change that. Wenger knows this that’s why he tried to sign Vardy and Lacazette so let’s not pretend otherwise.

    1. Nickw, Akpom played 36 games and 1800 minutes for hull in the championship last season. That is the equivalent of 20 full games. You cold have said he only scored three goals and is not ready for arsenal in the PL.

      “Akpom wasn’t good enough to get a game for hull in the championship last year” is completely incorrect.

      1. Funny site this, someone says “akpom wasn’t good enough to get a game for hull in the championship last year”

        I point out that he played 34 times for hull in the championship last year. What happens, I get thumbed down.

        If you fo not believe me look it up on squawka.

        1. Yea he wasnt gud enough thats why most of his games were as a sub.do u think he is ready to step up for arsenal no way

      2. I stand corrected he was always on the bench when I saw hull play on tv. However the point is he didn’t exactly excel in the championship so he can hardly be expected to in the premier league and shouldn’t be touted as the solution to our problems.

    2. Best comment I’ve read all week.

      “Wenger knows this that’s why he tried to sign Vardy and Lacazette so let’s not pretend otherwise.” – Best line I’ve read all summer. Two official bids that were confirmed by clubs/player!!

      Wenger isn’t right on this one. And he may not even be wrong!

      But the fact remains that the way the club operates isn’t befitting of a club that is supposedly desperate to wrestle power from the elite clubs of Europe. Everything football is done laid-back style over there at the Emirates.

        1. True!!

          So I wonder what’s been holding him back.
          His own philosophy? The owner? The board? Giroud? Theo? Welbeck? I don’t know!!!

          I find it hard to believe that the issue is a lack of money. Even if the club was cash-strapped, there are other creative ways to go about such things, if they really really want to do it.

          Some things we may never know. Some things we will know only later.

          1. One explaination is that the policy of the club is minimum spend to achieve top four. Really we should be looking at what we need to beat pool, tottenham, west ham etc. and hope it is enough to beat one of manu, chelsea, or manc so we get third and do not have CL playoffs.

  6. “..he was not really convinced that Lacazette would be a good signing.”

    Same could be said of Vardy, or Higuain in 2013, or Ibrahimovich during his famous trial at Arsenal.

    Arsene dithers a lot. It is in his nature. It has little to do about the talent of the player. Unlike Mourinho or Guardiola or Ancelloti, Arsene thinks about money first before quality -this much he admitted to last week when he spoke about 600 employees and yada yada yada.

    Arsene did his scouting right before putting in an official bid for the player. He saw talent. He saw enough potential for Lacazette to improve the team. This is why he went as far as to pursue the player for this long and even put in an OFFICIAL BID!

    Like it was in 2013 with Higuain, the problem in the end was money. Not the players talent or lack of it.

    Lacazette is proven goal-scorer. But, in a way, like Messi he’s only been doing it in just one league. If that is a indication that he is a bad player, then I leave you to your opinion.

    1. Arsene didn’t offer a bid higher than 40mill +1 for Suarez. Does that mean that Arsene thought Suarez wasn’t talented enough to command a higher fee? Does that in any way reflect on the quality that Suarez had at the time? That transfer saga dragged on for a long time and Liverpool (like Lyon) increased the fee, and rightly so. Arsene dithered.

      Up until that moment, Arsenal was basically the only “big club” that was actively in for Suarez. Was that an indication that he wasn’t highly rated by other big clubs? No! Barca came in an paid almost double what we were bidding for him the previous year. The rest is history.

      At times, I struggle to understand how the average Arsenal fan thinks.

      1. Why do we keep repeating liverpool propeganda.
        The suarez bid of £40m plus a pound was to trigger a release clause. Liverpool denied any clause had been triggered, it would appear now that the clause was triggered. This could only have been resolved by suarez taking liverpool to court, which he chose not to do.

        At the time suarez had been banned for racial abuse, was part way through a ten match ban for biting, had stated he was fed up with england and the media attention and gave every indication of being a troubled player..

        At the time of the bid RVP had just fired manu to the title and we sold him for just over £20m, believed to be against wengers wishes. £40m for suarez at the time looked a very good offer and a big risk.

        The criticism was media hype. Arsenal make very fair offer for striker is no story. Comments about £1 and “what have you been smoking” is a story.

        The real point of all this is that liverpools attitude to players and their contracts is very questionable.

        1. I’m not using that stick to beat Wenger or the club or anyone for that matter. I am merely pointing out the disconnect between Arsene’s valuation of a player and the players actual quality level, talent and potential to improve the team.

          Arsenal didn’t bid more than 39 mill for Lacazette, so Arsene obviously thinks that Lacazette isn’t really that good enough

          Well he didn’t bid more than what was stated in Suarez’s release clause too!

          The fact there was interest and an official bid was made, is indication that Arsene knows the player can improve the team. However, for some money reasons he dithers and then the other parties involved becomes tired, pissed off and starts to look for a better deal somewhere else.

          1. At the time of the suarez bid I felt it was on the high side because of the risks involved. Wenger clearly did not want to pay more and at the time no other Club put in s bid when suarez clearly wanted to leave liverpool and was refusing to train with the team. A year later having played well for liverpool everything changed and barca bought him.

            Lacazette did not go to the euros, giroud was chosen. as far as I can tell lacazette is not an upgrade on giroud but we need depth as well in the striker posiition. I do not know what would prise lacazette from lyon. Is say £50m a reasonably price for a striker who is not an upgrade on giroud? Wenger obviously thinks not.

            The problem is what happens iif giroud gets injured, needs resting or goes on a goal drought, we have no viable alternative. Under those circumstances, paying £15m over the odds for a player could make sense.

            1. You guys shouldn’t use international football to determine who is better sometimes a player just fits into a system better than other. France uses target men as strikers so yes Giroud went over Lacazette it dosent mean Giroud is better. Hello Higuain starts over Aguero for Argentina and we all know the truth about that.

            2. Jonm, what are you foaming at the mouth for? We get it that you agree with wengers valuation of the players we bid for, and we say, we don’t agree with both of you.
              On the Suarez issue, you say arsenal bid 40m+1 to activate a clause, fine, im sure they did activate that clause, go to colney you’ll see it. However, we missed out on the player. Point being, a serious person goes for his target, pays what he’s worth to him and doesn’t dilly dally about clauses. I don’t think barca was all about clauses, they bargained for the player. I know it’s difficult for an AKB to get this but let me further simplify this, you bid 40m for your man, Liverpool say they ain’t selling, you bloody ask yourself wether adding £1 would do the trick, you think it won’t, then for God’s sakes pay what you think will reasonably do it, as long as it ain’t above your valuation. If you get to the limit of your valuation and they don’t sell, say so and stop giving this embarrassment of an excuse that you were activating a phantom clause, who cares about that?

        2. I agree. if there is a release clause why will you bid higher? But also the 1 pound was pushing it too far 🙂 Not wenger’s fault though but what does not go down well with me is why are we trying to be the perenial “good guys”?

          Wenger could have easily unsettled suarez; he chose not to and Gerard made sure the transfer didn’t happen.
          if it was Barcelona, the additional 1 pound or not- he would be gone ! how they unsettle players is just classic!

  7. Every transfer window Wenger will have an excuse for not bringing in the necessary backup. When we signed Ozil and then Sanchez, I’m sure many of us thought well finally those days of window shopping are over. Lone and behold we are going backwards again. Unfortunately for Wenger the days when 20m could get you a world class player are over. Arsenal either need to adapt to the situation, or continue to fail. I am not saying we have the financial clout to compete with United, City, Chelsea etc, but for crying out loud when it comes to the transfer windows we look like a mid table team with no ambition and a pretty modest bank account. Arsenal are far from that, and this is why there is no excuse for Wenger to keep penny pinching especially when there are been options in the market BETTER than what we currently have in our squad. How on earth are we going to do better in the goal department when we have exactly the same strikers as last season?

  8. you make joke article? you make same article if ARSENE purchase striker? you in denials! We need striker!!! We finished! Season over. Wait to next manager, 2017 for more AMBITIONS!

  9. Strikers and wingers we don’t compare to United, City and Chelsea

    Arsenal: Giroud, Sanchez, Walcott, Akpom, Welbeck (injured) and Sanogo (injured)
    VS
    United: Ibrahimovic, Martial, Rooney, Mkhitharyan, Depay and Rashford

    VS
    CITY: Aguero, Nolito, Bony, Sane, Sterling, Nasri

    VS
    Chelsea: Costa, Hazard, Batshuayi, Willain, Cuadrado, Pedro, Remy

    1. If it were up to me, I’d give Welbeck one more chance to develop into real goal-scoring CF (he’s 25 now). I’d keep Akpom till January at least, before deciding if he should go on loan again. Sanogo is injured so you can neither sell him or loan him out (such a terrible dilema).

      As for Walcott, I’ll do an Adebayor on him. Find a way to move him on. I don’t care how. The club has invested so much on this guy, and all he has given back in return is his “loyalty” (based on improved contracts though).

      With him, we’ve had more disappointments than joy. More injuries, more transfer sagas, more “CF position” controversies than trophies. With him, all we have right now that is really positive is HOPE. Hope that after 10 years at the club and at 28 years of age he will finally reach his full potential for good.

      That should leave us with Giroud, Sanchez, Welbeck, Akpom and space for a new goal-scoring striker.

      1. Yeah i agree. Theo’s £140,000 per week salary is ridiculous and should be used towards a better goalscorer. He has had a decade to show us something. Loyalty should only be afforded to proven players

        1. Problem is theo has to agree personal terms with buying club. So either he accepts a pay cut or we have to find a club to match his current wage. It is bentdner saga again, and we could not sell him.

  10. why we Arsenal dont look at Jonathan Tah! and Lucas alario? Tah is a monster, would be a perfect replacement for Per!!

  11. The optimism from some of these articles is unbelievable. I think a lot of people need to get their heads out of the sand and see it for what it really is. We do not have the centre back partnership or strikers to win the league and we will struggle to get a top four because we haven’t strengthened like every other club. Unless Wenger does something about it before the transfer window closes, it’s as simple as that.

    1. I think we will make a fight of it (I mean the 4th).

      Buying now will not solve the problem – its too late to find any quality in the market; To win the league we needed a world class cb and striker and I am talking of the top top players!

      Why we never went for Hummels and Auba is beyond. We should have bid insane amts for at least 1

  12. He is too loyal to deadwood players, which leaves us flogging a dead horse every season, precisely because there ARE better players out there, but his loyalty overrides the reality.

    It really is like some kind of time warped delusion of a top team fantasy.

  13. Ian Wright mostly covered for me with his comments on bt sport prior to the Leicester game coverage. Stock piling not quite good enough players was one I liked particularly! Good to hear an arsenal legend telling it like it is for a change. Most of the ex players hold to much respect for Wenger. #respectisearned

    1. Well if building a team called the Invincibles and becoming record holders of the FA cup doesn’t earn you any respect, well then I may as well blow a hole through the back of my head and be done with it.

      Also, harsh criticism and being respectful are not mutually excluded!!. Wrighty has allot of respect for Wenger, I know this because he called the fans with the placards a bunch of mugs.

  14. And on the ssubject of a striker Wenger and anyone else who thinks we are okay is deluded I feel. Yes as Wenger says we need quality but we also need out out strikers on quantity. I say again Connor Wickham, shane long, the Newcastle crazy dude, (can’t remember his name), etc etc. Goodness knows we couldn’t even sign demba ba and the only reason we signed welbeck was because Wenger was off seeing the Pope! Wengers insistence of “I will only buy players if they improve our sqaud with quality” is bloody ludicrous. Have you not watched back some of our current players performances recently?

  15. Are we and Wenger forgetting the prices have inflated for UK clubs due to the increased UK TV rights hence lower tabke clubs spending more. Maybe rightly so Wenger is concerned this bubble may pop and players values will decrease outside of the UK at least, (much like property negative equity). Whilst Wenger ponders this dilemma the targets disappear? Has Kroenke already spent/earmarked/invested the TV bumper payout already?

  16. gawd, I need a therapist. 70% of my day is about Arsenal, not even football itself. I have job that gives me plenty of time. But now I can’t even concentrate on my job!! WTF??!!!!

    1. Just relax, only just over a week to go then window closes and we will have to make the best of a bad job.

  17. ADMIN, you talk as if OX and Walcott had been so good in the past couple of seasons. Lacazzette is a poacher and would score all the chances Walcott and Giroud miss. Yes, he’s not world class but he’s a top striker.
    Regarding him not getting into the french team it’s clear that the manager preferred a big central striker for the euros and he took Giroud and even Gignac as back up

  18. @breakonthrough. Agree with what you said but how long are we going to talk about the past. We are in the here and now and looking to the future. For whatever reason over the last 2 or 3 seasons Wenger has dropped the ball and should rightfully be objectively criticised. After all its the nature of being a pl manager. Fa cups being an exception we’ve massively underperformed since the invincible days. #happyhighburydays

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