Many Arsenal fans would agree that Arsene Wenger had three priority positions to strengthen as we saw another season end without the Gunners ending the long wait to be crowned champions of England again, and they were all down the spine of the team.
Well the Frenchman wasted no time at all in signing a central midfielder in Granit Xhaka and with Arsenal meeting the release clause of Jamie Vardy the boss proved that he was after another centre forward to compete with or replace Olivier Giroud, even though the Leicester and England man seems to have turned us down.
The third priority is a centre back and hopefully Wenger agrees, but so far there have not been too many Arsenal transfer rumours linking us with defenders although The Mirror is now reporting that our manager is keeping a close eye on the situation of Daley Blind at Manchester United.
The feeling is that their new manager and our old pal Jose Mourinho is not sure about the Dutchman as a centre back and even though Blind himself has declared himself happy to wait and see what happens, he could find himself being pushed out of Old Trafford this summer.
One massive plus point about the Holland international is his versatility, which along with his technical ability allows him to play as a left back or central midfielder as well as a centre back and we know that Wenger likes a utility player or two. On the other hand, do Arsenal really need a top quality and specialist central defender to replace the aging and increasingly off the pace looking Per Mertesacker?
Bob
Very good back-up/ potential replacement for Monreal.
utility- can also play in CB, CM and DM.
overall he won’t be a bad addition.
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but we seem to be forgetting the priority which is a Striker
I think he is almost as good as Coquelin as a DM
And with Flamini and Arteta gone we could use him
Xhaka, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Eleney are all b2b generally, although Xhaka is very good defensively
It’s four positions we need strengthening, not three. DM/CM is complete, just need a new CB, CF, with the final position being another winger. Ox and Walcott have consistently under performed, and should be sold, Campbell and Iwobi are good backup options, but we need another top quality wide player.
3 positions are badly in need of filling: CB/CF/RW, ox/walcott are not good enough on the right.
Come on Wenger!
Not my ideal signing but a useful one. Only martial and smalling played better for Man U this season (whoscored) he is good on the ball and good in the tackle. He has excellent leadership and football intelligence
He would replace
Flamini
Gibbs
Chambers (loan)
And he is worth 14m-18m
I agree with your overall point about Blind but one little thing bothered me.
I take exception to the idea that Smalling “played great” for ManU. He “cheated great” would be more accurate.
Smalling is great when he is allowed to use his hands to grab, pull, push, drag, wrestle, and maul his opponents. He got away with it all last season just like Skrtyl did a few seasons back.
But recently in the FA Cup game and for England he has been carded and even sent off for these habits. The refs are now watching his obvious and repeated transgressions.
Smalling simply does not know how to defend without cheating. He knows he must do it to play for ManU so he does it. But I don’t trust a defender he must ALWAYS cheat to be effective.
Blind is not spectacular but is reliable and versatile.
The problem is this…. he will want 1st team play – he will likely not want to take on a role as Arsenal’s reliable “backup.” DM and LB have solid starters already unless someone departs.
So if Blind comes we must accept the probability of a blind/Kos pairing OR Blind must accept the idea of watching many games from the bench.
Do not see Mou selling to us, we have a hate thing going on, Blind is very similar to Chambers, can play several position ( can do a decent job in each) very much an Athlete, could compete in several areas. would be a good buy, but dont see him selling to us