I think it is fair to say that the majority of Arsenal fans last summer had much higher hopes that one of our young strikers Joel Campbell was going to have a much bigger influence on the season for the Gunners as another in the shape of Yaya Sanogo.
Even though the tall Frenchman had played 14 times for us in all competitions during the previous season and had received praise for the manager and the football media alike, he had failed to find the back of the net, at least one that had not been ruled offside, so it looked like a loan deal for Sanogo would be most likely.
That was even more likely after Campbell had been granted a work permit and had impressed for Costa Rica at the World Cup finals. As we know though, Campbell could not force his way into the side and was clearly not happy with his lack of chances on the pitch.
Now it is fair to say that the future at Arsenal looks much brighter for Sanogo than Campbell, even though a Daily Star report has revealed that the transfer talks about the Costa Rican moving to Real Sociedad have broken down. Even if this deal does not get done, there is no place for Campbell in north London.
Sanogo on the other hand is heading off to Holland to play on loan for Ajax where we hope him to play and perfect his trade under the watchful gaze of Dennis Bergkamp. The great man confirmed the move today in another Daily Star report and with a bit of Bergkamp magic rubbing off, will Sanogo return to Arsenal and prove his doubters wrong?
Sanogoal’s got talent, height etc etc, but if he cannot be confident at pulling the trigger, then he is no good, remember Lord Bendtner, oozing with confidence but no real talent or desire to back it.
Totally the same can be said for Giroud….
we need a player like Falcao, Torres, Benteke that guarantee goals…
Hafiz… Giroud outscored all of them… Comfortably. Seriously man, FIFA rating doesn’t equate to quality!!!!!
Giroud didn’t outscore Benteke,I saw Benteke’s stats on skysports he’s scored 48 goals in 105 games for Villa,since he came to England he has 14 headed goals while Giroud has 13 and he does all this playing for relegation candidates!
Umm Giroud scored 14 in the league while missing over 3 months.. Benteke 13.
I rate Benteke, but sorry no, Giroud’s scoring this season was comfortably better.
What does headed goals have anything to do with it?? Pretty sure those ‘relegation candidates’ bomb in quite a few more crosses than we do??
You fail to identify that Benteke scores that at an Aston Villa who don’t have the plethora of creative force Arsenal have.
So Liverpool have got Benteke and I can certainly view them now as legitimate title contenders.
If only we could switch Giroud, Welbeck and Sanogo with Liverpool’s Benteke, Sturridge and Origi…we would win the league. That’s for sure.
Our “plethora of creative force” have produced an average of 10 to 11 chances per game for the last 3 seasons. They get spread around to several players. AV produced an average of 8 or 9 chances per game – and the vast majority for CB, everything goes to him, no-one else at Villa can score.
CB strengths are from crosses and long balls – we don’t do that.
And our most maligned player, Mertesacker, has had this guy in his pocket for 2 seasons now. What does that say?
And take a peak at any Liverpool forum – a massive majority are apoplectic and absolutely dreading Rodgers signing him.
It’s hard to find form and consistency while having a bad run on the injury front.
The way the Ajax manager is speaking of him he seems to have loads of faith in him. Fingers crossed for some luck with injuries and he could be in for a great season!
Looks like both are going out on Loan or One would be sold…….Talk of something else
The biggest improvement Arsenal can make is to be consistent by playing from August until May,in the 2013/2014 season we played from August until February then collapsed and in 2014/2015 we played from January onwards this is not good for a team who’s gonna win a title!
I find it funny how Wenger keeps saying we are not far away from Chelsea or challenging for the title?
Does the idiot ever look at the table? We were 12 points behind Chelsea…that isn’t close.
Was it pure coincidence that was the time we were playing without Coquelin, Ozil, Giroud and at maximum 2 of our favoured back four playing in their best positions?
If Wenger did proper planning we wouldn’t use injuries as an excuse for a feeble title push,squad depth is important no player must be guaranteed a spot,Coquelin has only played half a season and now you’re saying he can’t be challenged?we need depth that’s fact!
That’s true
Poor planning last season too
Out Vermaelen, Sagna, Jenkison
In Debuchy and Chambers.
Then Debuchy got long term injury
Short on RB and CB
Were lucky that Bellerin was a revelation and needed to wait until January to get a CB that we desperately needed. Monreal was not doing great as cb. Much better as LB.
Also didn’t get DM but we were lucky to get another revelation after Arteta got injured in the form of Coquelin.
That’s part of the reason, first half of season was so crappy.
Alexis was amazing first half but unfortunately didn’t show in our results
I just want to start a season with everyone needed to fight for first. I guarantee Chelsea, United and City will get everyone they need.
A DM and top striker (2 players) is ALL we need.
My favourites would be Carvalho, Vidal or Bender AND Lacazette or Benzema
Sell Sanogo, Campbell
Place Akpom on loan and lets see him score goals for q PL side before we put him in our first team.
Sanogo is definitely talented, and i wish him all the best there in Ajax.I do hope he comes back better than this. He said he wants to emulate Nwankwo Kanu. great choice…….. Campbell? talk of wenger killing his morale last season. dude came burning with fire,and that fire died while seating on the bench
I remember when everyone was saying how dumb wenger is for not playing Campbell….. So can everyone relax and let the man work his magic in the transfer market he’s got a long time to make moves.
but he is dumb for not playing Campbell!!! The guy lit up the Worldcup with his exciting performances yet he is benched for Sanogo who barely has any worthy international experience. Some times I dont understand Wenger logic ..I just dont.
Inept Wenger is killing me
Inept?!?!?
What are you basing that on, the fact that he doesn’t buy a 50 million player every week?
If fans like you had your way players like Bellerin and Coquelin would never emerge, or have any game time because we’d have a team of expensive egotistical fliops, and our club would be riddled with debt with no solid future to speak of.
Wake up!!!
Some of Arsenal fans always think they can run this club better than Wenger. I want trophies very badly, in fact i would love us to win both UCL and BPL this year if possible, but i know and am sure good team cohesion would win both without even a single addition.
This story of teams win the league with to top quality players in every position is a lie, only Barca and Real who have that. Chelsea won the league last season with an unchanged squad of 12-13 players.
Chelsea used 18 players
who played more
than ten times
Not in the League. Overall (including UCL, cup etc) I believe it is even more than 18.
Speak on bro!
Sanogo Campbell
Park Ryo Chamakh
Girvinho Arshavin were all
really dumb acquisitions.
How can a big club like Arsenal
even consider getting such garbage?
Arsene knows best?
Working his transfer magic?
Giroud and Wellybeck leading the line now.
It can only get better.
Some players are gone or quickly going or unavailable
Dybala
Falcao (lol)
Benteke
Mandzucic
Kondogbia
Schneiderlin
Schweinsteiger
Vidal – Bayern ???
Higuain – high price
Khedira
I reckon these are worth getting who are left
Lacazette
Benzema
Cavani
Ibrahimovic
Lewandowski
Carvalho
Krychowiak
Lars Bender
Sven Bender
Gundogan
Liverpool is getting Benteke. Release clause triggered and suddenly I actually realize that they have a very good squad and definitely a better strike force than us.
The EPL will be fantastic this season.
Waiting to see the striker we get before predicting where we will finish. Right now, its not looking very good. I rate us at 4th/5th.
Congratulations!
Worst comment of the week!!!
Yeah… depends …you most likely read that as Liverpool has a better squad than us. I said they have a better strike force and that is very true. Sturridge is better than all our strikers. Benteke is better than all our strikers and Origi is a promising prospect who is better than Sanogo and Welbeck. Not to mention they have Danny Ings who wasn’t bad last season playing for a smaller team like Burnley and Balotelli as back ups.
I probably hurt your feelings by saying Arsenal is probably 4th/5th next season.
Well sorry…but as of right now Arsenal is 4th/5th next season.
And Liverpool have a better strike force than we currently have if they get Benteke. These are proven trends and facts…if you don’t have any contradictory evidence that you can coherently elaborate on…then you can just thumb me down because you hate my comment despite it being true.
Nothing wrong with that chump.
Don’t you get tired of predictions that are always wrong. For the past 12 or so years you have been saying Arsenal will finish outside top four but for all those years Arsenal have been finishing in the top four. Buying players does not make you champions but performing on the pitch does. There is a reason why Benteke and Ings were playing for relegation teams considering their respective ages. There is a reason why Arsenal had the best defence in the second half of the season and the highest number of points over that same period. Incidentally that is the period when most of you were telling us that Alexis’ performances were going down.
Can Arsenal replicate its second half of the season form? There is no reason why they should not. It matters not that Man U have bought Bastian and Schneiderlin, or Liverpool have bought Benteke, or Man City have bought Raheem, or Chelsea have bought Begovic; it will be down to belief and commitment of the players who are put on the pitch. They are good enough to beat any team, so what we will expect of them is to fulfill that potential.
so are you saying teams like Westbrom, sunderland and aston villa just lack belief and commitment? bro positivity can only get you so far..at the endof the day if you dont work hard in the transfer market to pull off smart deals then ultimately u will still fail..with all your commitment and belief.
But you cannot compare the quality of their squads to that of ours. Revisit our games against the so called top six. The only game that we all admit we were outplayed was Liverpool away, although we could easily have won it had the ref not added 7 minutes. Away to Chelsea the difference was two chances that fell to Chelsea, because we lacked mature thinking and switched off. Against Man United at home, it was down to us lacking composure and patience. That is the area that needs addressing, and bringing experienced players like Cech helps. Otherwise our squad is as good as they are.
You are funny. Sturridge and Benteke better strikers than Alexis? Sturridge and Benteke identical league goal/game ratio as OG but much better. Sturridge ain’t any use to anyone with his fitness record.
Alexis/Giroud: 30 PL goals last year
Benteke/Ings/Sturridge/Balotelli/Lambert/Origi: 31
Yes looks like it. He is definitely an improvement from Ballotelli lol
I also heard Liverpool are fighting Chelsea for Pedro
Additions too top PL teams
Delay
Schweinseiger
Schneiderlin
Pedro
Sturridge
Liverpool could become a top team with Benteke and Pedro and some other signings.
United, City and Chelsea will definitely be tougher this season than last.
I hope Wenger realizes this.
That’s like saying West Brom will win the premiership, if they buy Messi, Ronaldo, and some other players!
And at least 3 of them won’t win the PL so will be ripping it up and starting again in 2016-17. It still amazes me that people see other clubs changing half their starting X1 and assume it is a wonderful thing. How many times do we have to watch these circus acts every year before we learn.
It will be Giroud. Now get cracking.