There are many Arsenal fans that think that Arsene Wenger’s next marquee signing should be a top class striker in the summer, and Le Prof himself has already praised the Porto striker Jackson Martinez who has a brilliant scoring record in Portugal.
Wenger said two weeks ago: “He has top physical strengths. Hugely efficient, he is the kind of player who can make room for himself in the box.
“He could play in the Premier League because he has the body to make the difference. He uses it in a very intelligent way. Very short back lift and he’s a very good finisher.’
“He’s on the list of many clubs, you know that. He will be the next big transfer who will give a big smile to Pinto da Costa [Porto’s owner].”
Now Costa himself has made it clear that Martinez will be available if Arsenal decide to pay the reported £29.5million transfer fee. “Jackson almost left last summer but we agreed he’d stay one more year,”Costa said in the Metro. “If somebody pays his value he will go.”
There were rumours of a bid for Columbian international last summer and Wenger obviously admires the prolific hitman. Martinez himself has already stated that he would like to join the Gunners if the chance arrived. He said: “As a child I cheered for Arsenal, they play a game that suits me. If I had the occasion to play there, I would say yes.”
That was a very blatant come-and-get-me plea and it could have been because Arsenal were in talks with Porto. Is it feasible to think that the two clubs agreed to wait another 12 months before finalising the deal?
I’d be happy with him.
He has scored 85 goals total for Porto in 2.5 years. Nearly twice more than Giroud in same amount of time.
Also 36 league goals in 50 games.
He would score even more with Ozil/Cazorla
He won’t be cheap though
Honestly, I do think Giroud will make more money for us as a half naked male model than he would make goals as our frontman on the pitch.
Not funny nor insightful. Typical comment from kickassfan.
Any one on here have any info on other clubs bidding or putting offers in for JM? He always seems to be linked with us and not really heard any serious interest from elsewhere. The head line figures are impressive and if anyone had thought these numbers could translate in to similar numbers in a different league then surely he would have been prised away from Porto by now.
At the moment I don’t see why we should replace Giroud, a striker that has made clear progress this season and is now fully integrated in our attacking system. When I’m watching Porto I always think that Martinez is the type of striker that loves to wander around and be in the right place in certain areas. Useful, but not really what Arsenal seek to link up with imo. Then again, I would take him over Cavani all day though.
Giroud is bit of an Arsenal oddity – one (perhaps the only one) of the few players the pundits/media rate way more than the supporters. He gets widespread and generous praise from the pundits, lots seem to rate him. I know it wasn’t always that way but I think they have warmed to him in quite a big way. I appreciate that at the end of the day that doesn’t count for anything – but just saying like.
It is the Portuguese league so goals are easier to come by. He is 28 and this is the last step in his career, his resale value will not be great. I want Arsenal to go for a younger striker as we already have Giroud that is in that age bracket.
He is much better than Giroud
It will be a step up
Giroud can not score against big teams and misses too many opportunities
If Wenger can get a younger striker who can score more goals great but I would rather have Martinez than just Welbeck and Giroud
Eh… Fred, Giroud very misses too many scoring chances, but recently he’s been doing well against the big teams in terms of scoring.
Fred – tell us the truth, are you an Arsenal scout? Or are you just going with the hype and a gut feeling? I say this because you appear to be terribly confidant about all the latest named strikers that come up on here be it Dybala, Lacazette or now Martinez. I’ll wager you that you haven’t seen a full league game for any of the 3 named.
We want trophies not resale value…or does the board shares the money with u wen they sale a playr?
Of course I want trophies too. But there is a limited amount of money. I think Arsenal have been bad lately when it comes to releasing resale value. Look at Chelsea and the amounts they got for De Bruyne, Lukaku, Schurle, Luiz & Mata. Now that our tema looks fully filled we may have to become more serious about that.
If we can we should snap jackson M. up. All this talk about younger strikers…we have Akpom who should be ripe in a couple of years when the older ones’ powers start to wane. Sometimes the solution is right under your nose. Le Coq comes to mind.
Sorry error
Since 2012
62 league goals in 80 games
85 total goals
Fools will say he is from an unproven league..bt i wonder how many playrs start making their names in the ‘proven’ leagues!
I tend to agree, you don’t know until they have a go, but I think you are in agreement that playing in a less competitive league is still part of the “risk equation”. For every one player from a lesser league that makes it in a “proven league” there are half a dozen who bomb. I would certainly think twice before blowing say £30M on a 28 year old big name. Give him a season to bed in and he will be heading toward 30 with no re-sale value. You only have to look at the goals for and against for Porto and Benfica to see what an uncompetitive league it is scoring 5 goals for every one conceded – Bayern Munich-esque stats.
Like a few others on here if we were going to blow £20-30M on a new striker I would prefer to take a different sort of punt with an up and coming talent in the 22-24 age range.
It’s not just about goals when you play half the game with your back towards goal.
Giroud don’t score against top teams?? Man city, Everton, Man U, Liverpool… That was then, this a different Giroud
i do like jackson but i think his age is a worry we would prob have 3 yrs with him then he would be 31 , dybala is a lot younger /even benzema is younger would cost 10 mil more than the other 2 but i would like any of these 3 . what ever happened to draxler ?
Yes, but when Martinez gets that age hopefully welbeck will haven gotten better and he can play there
i am surprised by people still making comments like Giroud is not scoring enough goals blah blah blah….which is no longer true and his game is more than that, holding the ball and bringing others players in the game ,defending of set pieces,target man when playing long….!!
I love Jackson Martinez because he’s the complete forward- quick, strong, good finisher and great in the air. Would be perfect for arsenal!
yes at 29yo…….
Does the name Rosicky mean anything to you?
wenger has a plan to make me, great Pythagoras, irrelevant 🙁 🙁
he won the fa, bought good players, changes tactics, beats big teams and will win ucl trophy thz season 🙁 🙁 🙁
now he wants to buy martinez, hence al have nothing against him 🙁 🙁 🙁
#Wenger out
#Save pythagoras
This has got to be haywill
Can’t see Wenger paying that much for a 29yr. old. Very happy with Giroud and Welbeck.The former helps out for set pieces and wins the balls that Mertesacker ducks away from. Priority is for more power in midfield i.e. Wanyama, Schneiderling and or Sissoko We were very lucky on Saturday. We were bullied and outplayed by Palace. Watch out for Liverpool, and Southampton are better than both teams.
at 28yo hes ageing…and he will not have the legs anymore
That goalscoring record speaks for itself. My main concern would be his age. As a quick striker, once your pace starts to go it’s a very steep slope downhill. Be happy if we signed him but I wouldn’t really be disappointed if we didn’t get a striker at all.
We’ve only scored 7 less goals the Chelsea and Man City this season, despite having Giroud out injured for 3 months, Walcott still being out and the injury to Özil. We had to start games with Yaya Sanogo up front remember..
We may not have a world class striker, but as a unit I think our attack is as good as any other in the league, because we get goals from all over rather than just a main striker like Aguero or Costa.
Would a world class striker improve our team? Yes. Massively? Not really. Having a world class striker won’t help us in the league unless our defence is up to scratch – we still finished 19 points off the title when RVP scored 30 league goals.
The main things we lack in comparison to City and Chelsea are a top class centre back and defensive midfielder.I’d rather we prioritised signing Lars Bender and Mats Hummels in the summer, and then used whatever we have left to look at buying a striker.
We need someone hungry to score goals, a poacher type like Suarez or Rooney. I am tired of laziness on the pitch and generally CF’s that just do not shoot. Giroud has improved ALOT and offers a different dimension to attack but he still lacks pace and ability to break on the counter. Welbeck has all the aspects of being a good striker, but the guy is shy in front of goal. I think Martinez would be a good signing in that he has height to win air balls (and is excellent in doing so) but is also fairly quick on the ground and also very technical and tricky. He reminds me of a taller Ian Wright with more flair on the ball. His scoring record for Porto shows he is a clinical striker. For 29m I would take him, rather than forking out 50m for Cavani (who has his own strengths but not worth 50m)
£30m for a 28yr old is a bit much. Has 1 or 2 good seasons left before he starts becoming leggy like RVP and Falcao.
J Martinez is a great striker with all the right attributes but i think the price is too steep for his age. I will rather we buy Lacazette, he is about half the price and just 23. I believe he will be one of the top strikers in Europe in about 3 yrs!