Unless Arsenal are hit with an injury to one of our key first team players over the next couple of weeks, or until we are judging by the constantly long list of crocked players that the Gunners always seem to have, there is a good chance that Arsene Wenger will allow the January transfer window to close without spending any money apart from the pittance it cost to get the young left back Cohen Bramall to north London.
Whether you agree with the Frenchman or not about the strength in depth he has in the Arsenal squad is another matter, but I can sort of see his point. However, I do have to question his assertion reported in The Mirror that the Gunners do not need a player with the quality of Dimitri Payet.
Wenger said, “I rate Payet but I don’t need Payet because we have so many creative players.”
I beg to differ Arsene, or at least on the subject of Arsenal having enough creative players, because the injury to our Spanish midfield magician Santi Cazorla has deprived Arsenal of one of our two creators in chief, the other one being Mesut Ozil.
According to physioroom.com there is currently no date set for his return and not long ago the club was talking about the end of March, by which time Arsenal could be out of the Champions League and the FA cup and our title challenge could be done and dusted.
That is why I think Arsenal could do with a player with the quality of Payet, although they are obviously not easy to find. But I do not think Payet himself would be the answer after the terrible attitude he has been showing by telling West Ham he wants to leave and does not even want to play for them.
Is that the real reason Wenger is not interested in Payet or do you think he really does believe that Arsenal do not need a player like him to cover for Cazorla?
Without his baggage, Payet would be my ideal Santi replacement. What we really miss about Cazorla is the way he links defence to attack by a dribble, turn or pass to take one opposition player out of the game. Ramsey is good at running with the ball into space but usually after someone like Santi has created that space. His turns also take forever and are usually 2 steps back one step forward. Xhaka has a pass in him but no dribble or turn. El Neny has great retention but all too many of his passes are sideways. Even at 29, for £25m-£30m Payet could do a job for three seasons.
He can’t however do a Cesc- take a loyalty bonus of £1m from West Ham in September and whinge about home sickness in December. We need committed players.
Wenger is actually right on this one. What we need, if anything, are more two way players, who are good offensively and also do a good defensive work, when the opponents have the ball. The lack of defensive qualities in our midfielders and wingers (Iwobi, Chamberlain, Ramsey, Walcott, Reine Adelaide etc.) is our problem. It is a combination of not having the desire/discipline and Wengers blind spot in organizing the team. That is why, we give away so many chances and so many goals year after year. Payet will not help solve that problem, although he is a very skillful player.
Wenger has lost the plot with transfers
We need at least another RB.
Debuchy is always injured and Jenkinson isn’t good enough
Last summer he had the opportunity to get a Top forward and got Lucas (who is good) but a big gamble as he was 28 with only one good season and no PL experience
To win the PL you need at least two top forwards (ie Chelsea have Costa, Hazard, Pedro, Willain). We have Alexis and some good but not too forwards
We have needed another good DM for ages.
We have a Top RB in Bellerin but LB is just decent
Wenger is always going on about quality but still thinks Ramsey is World class quality
To be fair Wenger is right, we don’t need another creative midfielder in January.
We have Ozil. Alexis can play in central role. Also Iwobi. We can cope until the summer
Booo! Boooo!
I’d only consider Payet if he was replacing Ozil, you can’t have these two within the same team in this league. Then Walcott, Giroud’s lack of pace, Cazorla’s size, Ramsey’s mission, we’d be stomped on. Going forward the passing would be top notch, but taking this route I doubt we’d have the backbone to grind out a Premier league title.
There is an eye opening article from the Independent on Arsene Wenger and Arsenal’s wealth.
Headline – How Arsenal cemented themselves as one of world footballs financial elite.
There are tams like barcelona who besides being the best at everything never come up with something like. We dont need. A big team should always be open for new players. regardless if needed or not.
Arsenal stinks of small team mentality. Its amazing.