There is one big thing that bothers me about one of the recent Arsenal transfer rumours, the one that suggests that Arsene Wenger is preparing a move for the West Ham and New Zealand international defender Winston Reid in the January transfer window.
My concern is why, if Wenger wants the player and the player does not seem keen to sign an extension to the current deal with the Hammers that is due to run out in the summer, did the Gunners not try to sign the centre back during the summer transfer window?
It is not as if the 26-year old would have cost us too much with one year left on his contract, so assuming the report in The Mirror is not just an invention of some writer’s fevered imagination, what exactly has changed?
One of our first choice centre backs Laurent Koscielny may be out of action with an ankle problem at the minute, but the French international is expected back in action before the winter transfer window opens anyway. And our first choice right back Mathieu Debuchy is supposed to be back as well, leaving Calum Chambers more freedom to cover in the centre of defence if needed.
The only thing that would make sense that I can think of is that Wenger has realised he goofed by not signing another central defender in the summer. That and he may have been unsure about Reid before but has been convinced by his excellent performances this season. We have apparently had scouts watching him in the last few weeks. Do you think Reid is the answer?
Would rather get a CB that can actually challenge for a starting spot but Reid is better than literally nothing.
Reid is very underrated. Miles better than Mertesacker has been this season and should be able to challenge. Don’t form your opinion on him solely based on the club he plays for (who are ahead of us anyways)
reid may be underrated but i have seen him play enough to form my own opinion of him. you speak of underrated players, mertesacker takes a lot of negative criticism because he is “too slow.” he may be slow but his anticipation, interceptions and 1v1 defending are all better than most. the only reason he gets so exposed is because arsenal have been caught on the counter so many times this season. if we had a disciplined dm, then that would give the attackers less space to run into which allows mertesacker to strive just like in his international career. but for the sake of not making this into a pitiful argument, ill just say that i respect your opinion.
Can’t agree, Merrt’s lack of speed costs in one on one’s.
Its either you do not watch Arsenal games or you are too obsessed with the dm nonsense to see reality. Arsenal has conceded 11 goals to date whose origins dont fit your theory. In Crystal palace match the goal came from a corner kick so cant blame defensive midfielders on that.
In the everton game the goal came from a free kick that was played the right of arsenal defence then to barry who flighted in a good ball that was headed in. From free kick to barry there only three touches. If anyone should have closed in on barry it is the attacking players since defensive players were in the box already. The second goal was as a direct result of a foul on mert in the everton half. Note that mert was favorite to win the ball bar the foul. At that stage arsenal had adopted an attacking formation as they wanted to get a goal back.
In the leiceter match it was a very long ball from leiceter half which was chessed by mert and the leicester player whknocked it back for ulloa to head home. That goal represented a typical case of bypassing the midfield and ezploiting mert’s lack of pace.
In the man city game first goal can only be blamed on gibbs for venturing too far upfield. When city made first move the ball was intercepted by flamini who kicked the ball to the far left for a throw in. It was as a result of navas electric speed that he intercepted the ball just on yhe line. If gibbs was not high up field he would have gotten to the ball first. Second goal was from a corner.
Against tottenham goal came from an individual error that is unconnected to the dm theory. That the person who made the error is the dm whom you say is weak etc does not aid the theory. Any player can make a fatal mistake in a game, for instance how you model dm matic conceded a penalty in their game against marribor.
Against chelsea the penalty was a direct result of alexis losing the ball in dwfensive third which was quickly moved to harzard who was to the far right of the defensive area of arsenal. It w harzard’s dribbling skills and chambers yellow card that won him the penalty.. The second goal was another case of a pass bypassing the mid field. If anything the goal can only be blamed on the two cbs for losing concentration.i
In the hull game flamini did his job well prior to being fouled. The criticism that he should have kicked away the ball earlier is nonsensical. Players can not just kick away the ball for fear that they will be foouled with referees not giving decisions in ther favour. Second goal came from a long ball from halfway line into the left side of arsenal box. If you want to aportion blame you blame gibbs for failing to prevent the cross and mert for fail to pick the attacker.
So out of the 11 goals conceded only one goal can be directly blamed on a dm. That goal came not from the player’s failure to do dm duties but from an individual error. Since flamini returned f
I see now where the name “The Analyzer” comes from. Most Arsenal fans have developed a tendency to single out their not so favourite players to blame when things are not going right.It was Giroud for the best part of last season, the Ozil and now Flamini. They just can’t bring themselves to name the real culprits.
I feel as if a lot of us fans will choose a player that we don’t like that much, and base our opinions as to why Arsenal are not doing well based around that SPECIFIC player… Needless to say, I suppose we all have our opinions. We blame Mert but there are two sides to it. Mert is all of a sudden playing at the back with either young and inexperienced players, or players playing out of position. He is a different player when with Kozza, although one could say that Kozza made Mert look good. It’s a tough one… I don’t like to hate on our players.
Reid is getting a little media attention due to west ham playing well and his contract ending. If we were getting a defender from the premiership it has to be Curtis Davies. Wenger was a big admire of him in the past but now he has fully come of age. Stasitcally he’s up there with the best in Europe this season. He has the second most interceptions and clearances in the Bpl he is also ranked as the best defensive player so far this season (squawka) he is good in posession and quick aswell. He is the hull captain so he has leadership credentials. I don’t understand how this lad doesn’t get called up for England. As he is 29he won’t cost a fortune.
Dude, our scouts are merely paid to just go enjoy football matches, not becuz they had particular players in mind.
Now. Why am I thumbed down? Can’t you guys just embrace reality for once?
Did our scouts not go to watch Hazard play?
Did they not got to watch Mata play?
Did they not go to watch Gotze play?
Did they not go to watch M’villa, etc.?
Most of u know better than I do the number of players our scouts have been purportedly “sent out to watch”. But how many of those players did we sign?
Were our scouts sent out to watch Arteta, Santos, Matersecker, etc.?
My favourite one for the AKBz: Were our scouts sent out to watch Kim Kadashian?
The Wengerits are lurking everywhere bro. >: \
I tell u, pal! I tell u! Sometimes I feel like one surrounded by zombies on this site, with only a few humans like myself.
Grapevine has it that we bid 30 million for Goetze but BVB refused to sell. We were also in for Hazard but he chose chelsea (obv the financial package i mean)
Wenger did tried to sign hazard,mata and goetze. We were outbidded. Dont find blame on everything.
Did this bidding war haoppen in the opening hours of the transfer window or did Wenger sit with his thumb up his ass and let interest build and other bids come in for the player?
You know the answer, a bid in the 1st hour of the transfer window would have sealed the deal before anyone else got on board.
Can you stop posting transfer articles in F*CKING OCTOBER!?!
I would rather we make a bid for virgil van dijk!
Admin, you are posting articles too quickly, slow down.
I wish my comments would always fetch me “Top gunner” rating, but sadly that’s never the case becuz guys like me always call a spade what it should be actually called: a spade.
There you go just for you 🙂
Arsenal needs a new manager first as we can also buy the likes of Ronaldo and Messi and we will still suck monkey balls.
Ks-gunner, howdy pal? As always, I agree with u that we need a new manager. It’s not becuz Wenger is a bad person. No! But, as we (the realistic ones) all know, he is a bad coach now. I won’t be surprised to find a manual typewriter in his office.
Its easy to understand Wenger. He is a money man and not a coach. He takes pride in making money and not winning things. His goal is to make max profit with minimum investments. A common rule known to any profesional and hobby economist.
If the socialist wage structure, ticket prises, or our chairman saying things like “If Arsene has a plan we back it, if he doesn’t have a plan we keep quiet or the thing like.
So don’t let’s be in a muddle about who calls the shots about football at Arsenal. It is not the chairman, it is not the fans, it is Mr Arsene Wenger.” Dont scare normal thinking fans then i dont know what can change peoples mind.
The ultimative punishment should be Fans boycotting some games, as nothing hurts those fakkers more then the money.
@Ks, just say anything u want and I’d outrightly agree with u cuz it’s bound to be the f**king realistic truth.
@kickassfan
Sounds like true mano a mano love goin down there…lmfao
@Ny-Gunner, lol! I’m so straight, I can barely look at my own rod.
It can be, if your old lady can take us on.
@ks-gunner
If you’re into nailin your own moms then have at it. But I think your butt buddy might get mad, so stay on your knees d smoker…
Comon man, for the love of your mom, lets get along with each other, hahaha.
@Ny-Gunner, go easy with my buddy, @Ks-gunner. The only dfrens btwn u and him is just two alphabets. By the way, @Ks is one hell of a truthful, realistic dude. He never calls a spade a trowel and dat’s why he’s my pal on this site, together with the rest of the very few truthful guys on here.
NY_Gunner with another gay rebuff.
So in the past 7 days he has been talking about masturbation parties, giving head to guy and now ‘mano on mano love goin down’
The one who protests loudest is often the guilty one.
@savearsenal
It’s called an observation dude. Same as you just did…
Excuse me!!! There are some guys on this site who particularly follow all my comments just to thumb me down.
I’m warning you guys now, I can not be silenced. There’s nothing u can do to silence me, THE TRUTH MUST PREVAIL!!!
I feel bad not having Haywill around. There are some conspiracy theories working against me and only Haywill can help me decipher them.
Wenger, give me ur best shots, ok? I won’t go down. Never! Never! Not without a fight!!!!
The Truth Must Prevail!!!! #BadCoach
Here we go again, shopping at Tesco’s when we should be shopping at Waitrose.
Ok, that actually made me laff.
Mate I work for waitrose and if I ever see Wenger shopping I bet it will be for the reduced goods as he will not pay the full price
Evening mate,
Maybe he can use his club card points to get a great left winger for 10 million 🙂
Does that mean buying players that will go out of date soon 🙂
Hi Andrew hope you are well,I don’t see us buying anyone in January unless Klopp is in charge by then ! I can dream can’t i lol
I am aching all over, I have just dug out an old hedge for a client. How are you?You never know he might get rid of players we don’t need and buy players we do need.
Busy day then mate !
Yes. What do you think is Peter Reid the answer 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’d go for mike Reid at least he would make us laugh !
Dude, “Is Peter Reid the answer?”
Every player out there is the answer.
With Pat as our assistant manager 🙂
@Andrew, thanks amigo! I’m sure u’d do well to purchase my new book:
Wenger___The Man That’s Always Right
When he starts earning his money and wins us the ULC, I might think about buying his book. Until then he gets paid enough working being our manager and moonlighting working on TV.
@Andrew, u’d be patronising me, not ASSene.
Sorry if that came out patronising, I thought you were on about Wengers book.
To all the AKB, what manager in his right mind refs a game on transfer deadline day. That was unacceptable for a manger paid as much as ours.
Shows how little respect he has for the fans by putting himself before the clubs and job he is paid for
@Andrew, relax, pal! Wenger would do anything to raise himself some money. Dude’s always broke and it badly affects his tactics.
As a matter of fact simione was playing in that match and wenger was not a referee but a coach of one of yhe teams. So by implication you are saying simione is insane yet you want him to be arsenal’s nexy manager.
If there are more injuries
or the club is on the edge
of the lead he may add
but even then a loan is more likely.
Wenger said “we are short because of injuries”
He did not say “we are short because I did not buy enough”.
Meaning when the injured Debuchi returns we have enough.
With other clubs desperate for defenders also
what is on offer will be hugely over priced. Reids asking price
of 20-25 mill and pay demand of 150k p/w
is way out of Arsenes budget.
What is left won’t be any better than Monreal and Hayden.
Any way I think Wenger wants a 21 yr old
to mould into the Arsenal style.
But we did sign Kim Kalstrom last January
so anythings possible.
From wenger’s recent interview he said the club wanted to buy a cb but the was no one on offer with the desired qualities hence the decision to stick with hayden, monreal and another youth player who has been practicing with the senior team. Hayden and chambers formed a solid partnership against southampton in the leahue cup. In that match southampton had a full strength squad with pele leading the line but could not find joy. Were it not for rosciky and a wonder strike by clyne southampton would have gone home with nothing. Personally i woud not mind if wenger promotes hayden as fourth choice cb.
TC everyone and have a great day tomorrow.
You too mate
Reid would be a good buy but i would rather Rudiger and Van Dijk, because they are younger, taller and seem a lot quicker.
but if he chooses reid i would understand the choice would have to do with the league i would also look at th championship i think they have good strong defenders too, which could easily manage the physical and pacey aspect of the EPL
how about caulker. tall , quick, can score headers
we need quality players not another deadwood….
steven caulker ?