Former Arsenal youth Fabrice Muamba has urge his former side to bring Blaise Matuidi to the Emirates this summer.
Muamba had his career ended prematurely after suffering cardiac arrest whilst on the football pitch during an FA Cup match between his then side Bolton and Tottenham Hotspur. It’s somewhat of a miracle that he survived the incident, and is now looking at returning to the game in a coaching aspect.
Talking ahead of the upcoming match with Chelsea, the former midfielder talks of our midfield frailties in comparison to our rivals, and claims we failed to properly replace Patrick Vieira.
Muamba also moves to insist that Arsene Wenger need to buy Blaise Matuidi in a £30 Million deal this summer, when the PSG star will be entering the final 12 months of his contract.
He said: “Sometimes you have to buy experience. Arsenal really need to go out there and spend £30 Millon and get the best central midfielder in Europe – in my view, Blaise Matuidi at PSG.
“Why hasn’t Arsenal signed somebody like that? You have to ask Arsene that. Everybody loves him and nobody who has been at the football club will speak against him.
“But some of those guys need to step up and repay his faith in them. It is time for them to deliver.”
The PSG midfielder will turn 30 in April, which pours cold water on any chance that Wenger would be willing to shell out the supposed £30 Million on him, but I seriously wish he would. Matuidi has been one of the most consistent central midfielders in Europe for some time now, and was even voted French Player of The Year in 2015.
Would Matuidi be the perfect man to sort our central midfield problems?
Pat J
Doubt that we will sign another central midfielder, but if we were to I’d rather go for Matuidi’s teammate Veratti.
I like him too- amazing amazing player but unfortunately everyone wants him and PSG won’t sell. Even if we do we are against Barca, Real and Bayern-in short we stand no chance.
Don’t want to be negative but if we could not compete for Kante on wages – Veratti is a dream
I don’t know how many of you will read this, but as it pertains to the current topic I wanted to share it. I am going to try and not put my own opinion into this as much as possible, but it is going to be hard. Patrick Vieira, our monster in the middle of the park during our invincibles season, led our team in one statistic that season. He accumulated 14 cards in all competitions that year (13 yellow cards and 1 red).
Now: the current mood around the forums seems to be that Granit Xhaka is daft and terrible because of his “lack of tackling” skill, yet through 19 appearances in the prem he has 4 cards ( 2 yellow and 2 red – one of which I and many others still feel was judged wrongly and should have been a yellow). He also currently has provided almost the same forward impact that Vieira did during his time, as during that season PV had 3 goals all season and GX has 2 already.
My issue with the “New Vieira” idea is that they always are players outside the club that we seem to look at. Xhaka statistically is doing well to replicate the results that Vieira did (not to compare the players themselves, just the results) but did anyone ever lose their heads when Vieira was suspended? (Note: Vieira only played in 29/38 games in the prem that season) NO because the rest of the team would work together to see off the hard times. I think, if we could support GX, and if the team could just pull through the tougher times as a collective whole, we could already have our next PV, and TH14, and DB10. This all comes from the team working for one another. Were those players great individually? Absolutely without a doubt. Does individual ability make you champions immediately? No, fighting for one another does, and conflict in a club only leads to issues. The club is the fans, the staff, the players, the manager. Yes there can be discontent at situations, and during midweeks it is all fine and good to voice them, but if every game day we all came together, whether in your homes, local pubs, or those lucky enough to go to a game live (something I wish someday to do) and fight for one another instead of against, there’s no telling what this team cannot achieve.
Sorry for the long read everyone, and I completely understand if you didn’t read it all it kind of ran away from me.
To sum it up: COYG! Arsenal til the end.
Totally agreed with Colin, some people just trying to justify his price tag but the guy is very composed player. less passing side ways and backwards unlike some who have spent more than 5 years at the team. He’s young, enthusiastic and no afraid to go for challenges. Today is not just tackling and elbows but the DM with a range of skills will help teams to flow from back to attack with one kick. Xhaka is in his first season so If santi was fit I would pair them both. leCoq has stamina but he’s not known for passing after many years in the arsenal team. Give Xhaka a break and get behind the guy. I do remember his first games when he just blasted few shokers but ever since then he was told to pass it more than taking a shot by the coach. now he’s been told not to tackle instead of finding ways for him to undesrratnd EPL is not the Bundesliga. Matiudi is a Box to Box man and can be deployed on the wings as well but at 30? we should look at younger midfielder for years to come.
Finally after years now we seem to have a settled team and I would now like us to focus internally and not externally. The truth of the matter is that a player like Veratti will improve us but financially we cannot compete for such a player.
For the summer we need to focus more on keeping Alexis and Ozil and making sure we get the best out of each and every player. may be a quality left back and a backup right back.
(1) The first thing we need to do is improve our injury record and we seem to be doing better this year
(2) Secondly lets see if we can find a better coach
(3) get behind our players. I don’t think we are lacking skill wise; it’s the mentality which seems to be a problem. That is why a new manager will hopefully shake things up for the better.
Strikers/Front three- we look settled. There will always be the odd games where we struggle but from a quality point of view- Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck, Perrez, Iwobi and Wallcott is top quality and one of the best in the PL.
Midfield: Shift Ox to the mid-field. Sell Ramsey and get Wilshere back. For defensive mid field I will keep the faith with Xhaka. Yes he is currently stupid but we all know that given he gets his head straight he has all the attributes to become a world class midfielder. I won’t count on Cazorla next season given his injury but if Wilshere is injury free we have a settled look for our midfield.
Wingback: This is the only place that worries me. Not sure if Monreal is getting any younger and Gibbs cannot be relied on for an entire season. getting a top class left back and getting a backup right back who can challenge/rest bellerin would be good business.
defence: The boss at least has 2 -3 years left in him and I am confident Holding will be more than ready by then. I don’t have much faith in Gabriel but I would not be unhappy if he stays but clearly he is not a first choice/reliable option.
Goal keeping: More than happy with what we have.
30 is not old for a central midfielder if he is big and fit. You need someone experienced in that position. I’d take him.
He’s been a very reliable player over the years, and he’s the sort that I’d imagine turning out at Chelsea at one time. I remember seeing him play for France when he looked the bees knees. I think PSG will keep him for the remainder of his contract unless the player asks to leave. His pace is about to go so there’s no telling how long he has left, once the pace is gone he’ll be half the player he was. I’d love to have him here now in truth, but I can’t see us going for him down the line.
True. 30M for a 30 year old is big risk!