Every Arsenal fan and his dog were crying out for Arsene Wenger to bring in a new top-class striker during the transfer window, but while Le Prof was busy fending off the media by saying that Giroud and Walcott (and an injured Danny Welbeck) was more than enough to carry Arsenal to the title, Manchester United were doing great things in the transfer market.
Many people thought that Louis Van Gaal was mad to pay £36million for a promising 19 year-old striker from France, but his massive gamble has paid off as Anthony Martial has already scored four goals in four games for Man United. Arsene Wenger admitted that he had been watching the youngster’s progress, but thought he was more a winger than a striker.
Very few people agree with Le Prof, especially Philippe Lamboley, Martial’s agent. “Anthony is a true modern centre-forward who can play a part,” Lamboley was quoted as saying in the Mirror. “I am surprised by the analysis of Arsene Wenger, who has apparently been following him since he was a teenager.
“If the analysis Arsene Wenger has made is in order to justify not having signed Anthony, I accept he is a winger.
“But in football, there are those who follow players and those who buy them.”
Unhappily, this will be one of those that got away from Wenger, and reminds me of the years that Wenger spent watching Eden Hazard’s development and delaying making the right offer to Lille that would have brought him to the Emirates at a young age, or even just three years ago when Wenger said that Arsenal were just “a few million” away from signing the Belgian international.
Now, if Wenger had have got Hazard at any cost, and brought in Anthony Martial without worrying about the price, maybe we would now be favourites to win the Premiership?
Martial is an overpriced overhyped kid. Can only finish sliding. Don’t worry. . He will fail..
wengers was keeping tabs on him, forget what martials agent said for a min, the kid was french young and played for team wenger use to manage…
its pretty bloody obvious he knew about him..my question is…why when spurs were sniffing round at half the price he went for…were we not there.
its all well an good waiting outside la masia
i see anelka traits in this kid, hes 19 an the big stage doesnt faze him.
we could have got him alot cheaper if we had got there alot earlier- which was possible
Who needs Martial.
Arsenal has Flamini 🙂
@muffdiver, Wenger on Martial
He was more of a winger in his [early] career. He played the final part of last season as a striker. Monaco’s statement was always that two players, Martial and Layvin Kurzawa, would not move. I thought they would maintain that but in the end both of them moved.
so why would monaco sell.
something tells me that 36 million is just what they released to press..
i reckon its alot closer to the dreaded 58 million
@ArsenalGenes………u have no right to judge the kid or make assumptions of what the future holds for him!…… Let posterity be the Judge
Say u Pray and Hope he fail bt dnt just say he wil fail as u are a god!
Better than getting no striker, especially when we have Welbeck out till Christmas.
Martial started scoring from his first match.
He looks to be a good player, I am sure he would have been a good addition to the squad but at £50 odd million that they will pay for him it seems to be a little steep.
Arsenal will regret not signing an outfield player this summer…
we could of got martial alot cheaper…if we had got in there earlier
this 36 to 58 tag, was last minute desperation from man u.
still they got there man
Interesting Fact: Not only Martial has scored more than Giroud and Walcott, but he has scored more than Rooney, Aguero, Costa, Falcao, Benteke, Harry Kane, Lukaku etc. Just saying…….
wenger is just delusional
he said sanchez is as good as suarez
ozil would be better than hazard
walcott will be the new henry
and now he says martial is not needed because we have the ox??!!
LOL
ANTONY MARTIAL is better than
the ox ozil ramsey and cazorla combined who should be squad players by the way and not considered starters
oh dear…
nice to see your not joining wenger on the delusional bench pal
u need a lie down
@tatgooner the kid has just banged in a few goals and you are now hailing him to be better than world cup winners like Carzola and Ozil. Granted Wenger must have looked at this kid earlier as he is showing good signs so far but one for one will not rush in over hyping him which is the English press specialty.
Let this kid prove himself atleast for a season and actually win something before we all go nuts and giving him the crown! I still say the money Man U spent on him would get you a Reus, Lewa, Goetzer (sp), Cavani, Bezema. Proven players
yeah ozil and cazorla were world cup winners but the question is were they the key players or did they shine in any sense
Nonsense!………how could u???…….. Of form is anything to go by, why isn’t KANE banging in goals like he did last season for the spuds…… I’m saying this is not the best of times to judge a player……way too early into the season!
And the final nail in Wenger’s coffin will be Giroud missing out on Euro 2016 due to Martial.
And btw I dont care what you deluded Akbs think but Martial is already 10 times better than Mr hold up play Giroud. Oh and spare me your stupid statistics please
we missed out on martial martinez sterling kondogbia benzema pedro because of ox walcott welbeck giroud ramsey and akpom
this matial makes me to know that all these akpom,sanogo,campbell,welbeck are not good.
matial start becoming a good striker at the age of 19(let me say 18 because he was a ready made good player before he comes to england) and he start scoring in england top division compare to akpom who score only 2 goals in 8 to 10 matches in england championship,and both of them are in the same age.
matial`s stuff is an example of how world class player begin there career.
we can say hector bellerin and matial are alike(future world class player)
you couldnt have said it any better bro. you can add ox gnabry and walcott to that list.
Its not as if they were that good at the same age
Q: Should Arsenal have splashed the cash for Martial?
A: Stop crying over spilled milk. A
Spilled milk everyone
We should move on. I don’t care if he fails or succeeds because he doesn’t play for Arsenal.
Januzaj was this,Januzaj was that..now he is on loan at Dortmund.Same goes for Shaw.Wenger may have gotten Martíal for lower but paying 36 million upwards for an unproven lad is never the way to go.It’s still early days so saying the move has paid off is erroneous
i have to be sincere with my answers…..i never would have considered taking martial even for a minute………. Why should i even think bout it when the likes of lewandowski,cavani and Benzema exist?????
We are no longer at the stage where we were buying future stars. That has been our focus in the last few years but now we only invest in special players who can deliver the silverware that we crave so badly. We need Benzema or a similar player for has tasked success and will add something special to our team.
When we say some Arsenal “fans” lack perspective Admin threatens to block us for swearing (joking), however this articles and some comments herein buttress the point about lack of perspective from some of our so called fans. Today its Martial this Martial that, tomorrow it will be Mahraz this Mahraz that, and so on. The following facts need to be known by some of these so called fans:
(1) Arsenal cannot buy every young talent in the world, so not having bought Martial is just as irrelevant as not having bought players like Pogba (before he joined Man United) and other like players.
(2) Martial still have a very long road to travel before he can establish himself as a good EPL player. Man United used to have kids like F. Macheda and Welback who used to score every time they came onto the pitch. The former just disappeared without trace while the latter is still trying to find his feet. Martial can as well follow that trajectory, and nobody would be surprised when other cases like Andy Carroll and Berahinho are brought to the fore.
(3) Players follow different trajectories. Some mature early, which could be the case with Martial, while others take time a good case in point being Diego Forlan who flopped at Man United before he became a hit in La Liga at the age of 29. So the rubbish about Sanogo, Akpom, Gnabry, etc should just stop.
(4) Pastures appear green over there but they do not always turn out to be green when you get there. Some fans here always envy players at other clubs rather than appreciate what they have. The hollowness of this attitude is epitomized by the constant moan about why we did not buy Jackson Martinez. This is a player who is proving to be an early flop at Atletico Madrid yet these so called fans cannot see it. Every time Martinez starts he is sub at half time for below par performance. In the 5 games played by Atletico Madrid, he has started in two, while Torres has starred in three. While it is early to judge him, evidence so far suggest that he is failing to dislodge Torres from the starting line up. What impact would such player have had at Arsenal?
Hahaha Sanogo 😛
fantasy football..wenger had decided some time ago that we had enough attacking options to achieve 4th place with alexis, giroud, walcott wellbeck and campbell…he might be right …what is for sure we will not be challenging for titles at home or abroad…but the colonel doesnt need that to keep in power so he`s happy …
What is for sure is that you no nothing about what Arsenal or any other team can achieve come end of season. Despite so you continue to put forward your idiosyncratic opinions as facts.
Football is about gamble. Look at like this, which is better spending 36 million on a promising player or not buying anyone?
For those crying about money, I dont know how many of you were there , but in 1999 august we spent a then record of 11 million for a player who had a bad spell at Juventus. We took a risk and the rest is history. 16 years ago a 11 million is somewhat similar to now 30 odd million so risk is always there. Let us not be so rigid with our approach. Truth is we missed out ona very promising player and are praying that Martial fails miserably so that we can proudly say our promising strikers are better than all of others.
No. I would rather give Chuba Akpom a chance. He showed a promised during pre-season and I believe with more game time he will get better.