Although some Arsenal fans are still not convinced by our France international centre forward Olivier Giroud, and may have been hoping that the manager´s decision to start Theo Walcott ahead of him in the FA cup final was a sign that he would be replaced this summer, I still think that Arsene Wenger has a lot of respect for and belief in his fellow countryman.
Without a fully fit Theo Walcott or Danny Welbeck, however, we had to rely on Giroud and the boss suggested that this had taken it´s toll on his sharpness and that was the reason his goals had dried up in recent weeks. So we can still expect the Gunners to sign a new striker this summer and it looks increasingly likely that it will be Jackson Martinez.
30 goals a season in his three years with Porto has proved that the Colombian international is a class act while an increasing number of Arsenal transfer rumours have linked him strongly with a move to north London and the Premier League. And the player himself has now confirmed his departure from the Portuguese club this summer, as reported by Metro.
The 28-year old said, “I’m leaving Porto.
“I’m focused on the national team at the moment, but I’m waiting to see what my future holds.”
The question now is where this prolific front man will end up. Arsenal anyone?
The way i see it, we only have one true striker.. Giroud! Walcott, Welbeck and Sanchez can play as a striker but also on the wings. We desperately need to add another natural striker!
The top teams have at least 3 striker:
Chelsea had costa, remy, drogba
man city had agureo, jotevic, bony, dzeko
united had rooney, RVP, falcoa
All we have is Giroud, we urgently need to add another natural striker, also the amount of injuries we have, i’m sure they will all get sufficient playing time!
The way you see it?
Wenger is the boss, Wenger says Theo is a CF now, Wenger hasn’t played him Right AM for a while now. Wenger says Theo is a CF… you say he isn’t… who should we listen to hmmmmm?
Arsenals CF list:
Giroud
Theo
Welbz
Akpom
Campbell
Sonago
Podolski
Alexis (wasn’t gonna say him as he is Left AM but meh, he can play CF)
8 players, 1 spot.
Actually 8 players isn’t enough, forget everything I just said as we need AT LEAST 9 CF so yeah, lets spend about £30mil on a 28(nearly 29) year old CF who has no experience in the EPL, no real resale value either… but we need that NINTH striker…
Alexis will stay on the left. Podolski, sonago, campbell,akpom are not good enough to be our striker (Akpom could be good enough in the future). Welbeck isn’t ready to be our main striker… that leaves Giroud and walcott… both very good players but walcott gets injured alot!
Everyone says we need a world class striker to compete… you must not be bothered about winning the premier league or champions league then?!?!
So sanogo is going to be a flop?
We dont need new striker. We need to get rid of Podolski, Campbell and Sanogo. We need a new striker who can score goals. Sanchez will be in copa america and will be rested for 1 month and its highly unlikely he will perform this season.
I think sometimes we get carried away by players’ dips in form and think it is a permanent state of affairs. Joel Campbell is only 22, has performed fairly at a high level at that tender age, and still has time on his hands to work his way further up. Great players like Drogba came into their own at around 25 or 26. This season has not been great for Campbell, yes, but I really wouldn’t rush into saying, “Sell him!” Coquelin is still here, remember!!! That said, we surely will need a steady supply of goals throughout next season. However, let us not forget that Wenger has stated that Walcott is tipped for a forward role. That means we may well be looking at Welbeck, Walcott, and Giroud as the three forwards in AW’s books. For this reason, injuries & the fact that he believes our poor start to the season was the WC’s fault, I don’t see Wenger buying another forward. I believe our problem is bigger on the defensive end of things. We scored only 2 goals less than Chelsea, yet lost 4 more games. Chelsea played badly in some of the big games but made sure they were hard to crack in defense while taking the few chances they got. There’s no question Coquelin has sealed the biggest cracks we had defensively, but we need to tighten things up some more. Defense wins you championships! And that’s where we need to start….
Martinez would be pure quality, he will bang in 30 goals a season for us.
No-one has yet come up with a decent reason why Jackson “30 goals guaranteed” Martinez is still at Porto aged nearly 29. Possibly one of the most scouted players in Europe if you believe the reports. Every top club in Europe would be in for a 30 goal man. But he remains unsold at one of Europes’ most prolific selling clubs. Something doesn’t add up.
Falcao doesn’t count as a striker, he’s a flop,more like a defender. Flopcao
Those names look sexy as hell I have to say but Drogba, Dzeko, Jovetic and Falcao scored less than our most maligned “not good enough panic buy” Welbeck. Rather than get seduced by these impressive names why not take a broader view. Arsenal’s top 3 scorers in all comps amassed 54 goals, Man City 56, Man United 34, Chelsea 49, Liverpool 32. We scored 107 goals to Chelsea’s 105.
Scoring is not our issue. Never has been. Winning mentality, match day tactics, ability to defend a lead and confidence are our main issues.
So because Theo and Welbz wasn’t fully fit Giroud had to play more games… now Theo is fit and Welbz should be fit for start of season and we are going to buy yet ANOTHER cf?
Which one are we going to sell?
We already have 3 internationals with Giroud, Theo and Welbz and we only have a SINGLE CF SPOT…
Oh yeah and we are going to be buying a 28 year old who will be 29 in Oct for £30mil? Wenger really likes his mature players doesn’t he, I mean he is well known for giving players over 30 full length contracts right….
Wenger has already came out and spoken about age ranges, one of the things he said is that we shouldn’t be looking to get 2 mature players for a single spot but rather a mature ‘in his prime now’ would be backed up with a developing player.
There is sooo much BULLSHIT about the Martinez rumor that it is annoying, he may be good but he isn’t what we need, we already have 3 EPL ready CF and we don’t need to buy a freaking FORTH CHOICE when we have Akpom looking to step up.
No Mr Writer, you have written your fantasy! If you had looked at the FACTS then you would most likely come to the conclusion that Wenger will most likely buy a ATTACKER who can play CF but primary a Right AM as Theo is a CF now!
Theo wants reassurances before he signs a new contract that he will get game time as a CF and enough game time as a CF from now on… Theo wants reassurance so Wenger goes out and buys a CF who has only a couple years left in him… JUST LIKE GIROUD.
Logic fail, SERIOUSLY!
Your comment was a “Logic Fail”!!!
&%$%&%$…….I give reasoning and I will be happy to debate with anyone who has enough …%$%&/&%$!
(ADMIN COMMENT – If you call that reasoning and debate you are sadly mistaken. You will be moderated until you rove you can discuss politely…)
If we want our team to go to the next level and compete! We need another World class striker! I gave my reason in my first comment… English to hard to read? 😉
Dude @Midkemma Why so angry dude @Arsenal369 was simply illustrating the fact that, Giroud isn’t a world class striker. There is a difference between World Class and simply having Premier League experience. For example Alexis Sanchez(World Class) when we signed him Zero Premier League experience. Jermaine Defoe 10+ Years of Premier League experience (STILL AN AVERAGE PLAYER). The defining factor between world class and experience is consistency and Giroud has about as much consistency as an English Summer.
Thanks @inapropriatetelletubbie Obviously not everyone will share the same opinion as me but that’s what this website is all about! to discuss arsenal!
We may have differing opinions, I am happy to talk like a mature adult with people willing to talk and not make insulting statement.
“Your comment was a “Logic Fail”!!!”
I written why I thought the authors post has failed in logic, I may be wrong but I did say that a Right sided AM or a player who could play their for us would be more of a logical choice when looking at Wenger and the type of players he likes to buy.
Where was his reasoning for that single line statement?
He had none, he made an action that is assosiated with trolling, why defend a troll?
Oh and if you watch the games live you wouldn’t say Giroud is as consistant as a English summer, he is very consistant at who he is. When he plays a number of games without a rest he starts having difficulty scoring, when he has a rest and comes back then he generally scores. He is consistant in that behaviour… If Giroud is managed correctly then he will be ideal for us, we just need Wenger to play Theo more, rotation.
I’ve watched Giroud, I like Giroud he is a decent player, I’m not saying get rid of him at all. But to honestly believe the man could be the main striker in a title challenging team. Well Its been 3 years …. I’m still waiting to eat my words on that one. I remember having a discussion with someone some days ago about the competitiveness of the league and what differentiates the top clubs and the players from the rest. Christian Benteke and Olivier Giroud have the exact same stats in the premier league. One plays at a Club ‘supposedly’ challenging for title, One plays for a club that has been fighting relegation for the last 4 seasons. My question to you @Midkemma how do we challenge for a title when the main man leading our attack has the same goal ratio as a striker leading the line for a team fighting for their very survival???
“Your comment was a “Logic Fail”!!!”
That is not reasoning, that is making a statement, where was the reason to your statement?
We need a world class right sided AM more than a CF, we need another holding CM before another CF.
We could go for a younger CF who would cost roughly the same, maybe a bit more but this player would be able to play out wide as well… Lacazette.
I am frustrated with this rehashed BS story of Martinez and people getting excited like we would be buying a CF that can take us forward… He has a couple years at the top left in him and the price he would demand does not warrent a team who is business smart to pay when there are other players who are younger, who will have more potential resale value if they ever decide to leave and we could tie them down to their best years still. 28, 29 in Oct and we would have to allow his 1st season to ‘settle’ so he would be 29 nearly 30… He could adapt like Alexis did but we can’t assume that.
Reus is another name thats been thrown around, that would be more appealing.
Draxler would be more appealing.
Aubameyang has been said for about the same price, 25 goals for a player who has been played most of it as a winger isn’t bad, oh and he is only 25 so we could get a good 5 years out of him still.
I don’t wanna jump in here but Giroud is just NOT good enough on his own to allow us to win the EPL if he was ….we would have. Theo has yet to really prove he can play the centre forwards role all season with or without Giroud next to him . Not his fault but if Wenger really thought that he was up to it he’d have already given him the chance so it’s either Wenger is wrong or Theo ain’t up to it. AND Well beck is never ever EVER gonna be up to it and that my friend is a fact . Sooooooo what we need is another goal scoring, defence scaring, trophy hunting beast of a striker. Akpom maybe in a few years, podolski, Wenger don’t like him, Sanogoals, never in a million years will he be any good, Campbell if he could do it he would have. You may be right when you say this martinez thing is rubbish and I’d agree with you and hope he’s NOT what we are in for but your reasoning g behind why you feel this way are flawed IMO .
@Midkemma
And we sold a young beast of a striker on the cheap. Who would have given us years of service, only to be drooling over an almost over the hill striker from another league.
Bring Back AFOBE….
Midkemma……………
We need a world class striker, why? Because we’ve won nothing without one.
The days on Henry, Bergkamp, Anelka? Ring any bells? All world class, all won something with Arsenal.
Walcott, Giroud, Welbeck are good in their own right, but they aren’t going to fire us to winning the Premier League.
2 FA cups isn’t nothing.
Theo has always been a player who can score, he may fluff a few chances but so has Costa, so has EVERY other cf including TH14… Theo is only 26.
Last full season fit for Theo was a better season for stats than Alexis has had this season;
Goals scored Theo has 0.55 compared to Alexis 0.49.
Assists, Theo has 0.39 compared to Alexis 0.24.
Shot accuracy, Theo has 63% compared to Alexis 62%.
They are all per 90 mins.
Theo hasn’t proven himself as a CF?
Neither had TH14 when he came to us.
You claim that our CF wont fire us to winning the EPL, I claim they can.
They didn’t this season but Theo was out for most of it and he wasn’t rushed back this time. Welbz was new to the team and of course it’ll take time for him to settle, as a 3rd choice I don’t see other teams having any better.
The CF can get use to Alexis on the left and Ozil in the ACM but the Right AM role has been up for grabs and as such we have been playing a B2B CM their… just to highlight again… A BOX TO BOX PLAYER HAS BEEN PLAYING RIGHT AM.
We all know Alexis cuts in, he isn’t the widest wide player.
We all know Ozil likes to link up play and doesn’t exactly enjoy bursting into the box to score… he would prefer to be the one assisting the player bursting into the box to score.
Giroud isn’t the fastest so when Ramsey was playing out on the right, we had no1 willing to get in behind the opposition…
When Theo was on then the opposition had to deal with Theos movement and pace… that is not including his own ability to score. Those attributes brings others into play a lot more, I haven’t been surprised how fans have enjoyed Ozil more since he has had more space because of Theos movements, only in 2 games but it was easily noticable. Alexis gets chance to play as a CF for periods as Theo can drop out wide easier than Giroud, if Welbz is playing on the right then all 3 of our players could play wide and CF.
The hold up play Giroud is great at won’t be needed so much as Ozil and Alexis can do hold onto the ball and then bring others into play.
Theo got 21 as a wide player, he hasn’t had chance to show us what he can do as a CF for a who season, now we haven’t rushed him back I would like to see him fight for that spot and let the hunger work for us.
We can not say if he will or wont be good enough… well we can but it is just opinion and Theo deserves a chance to proove himself.
Walcotts one good season doesn’t make him anymore of a world class striker than Danny ings … He isn’t in my books and doesn’t possess the necessary qualities to become one …. That said you are right to presume wenger will give him a chance at CF so unlikely to invest in another and not an overvalued aging striker from,Portuguese league … More likely an aguerro type coming in from right wing …so what are the options? The kid from Villarreal fits the bill but there must be others
You have good arguments, I am also one for getting a RW to give the service to whoever is paying CF.
All I wanted to add is that we need a bot of patience with Welbeck. He was good enough for Ferguson and was part of a Premiership winning squad, he delivers for England too. Let’s stop burying the lad under the typical “he’s not a CF”, “he’s not good enough” or “he’s not world class”.
He’s young, he has potential and he’s in our squad. He will be given chances and it’s up to him to him to make his own space at Arsenal. Who knows he may end up CF, support striker or even play on the wing but we should stop this habit of undermining our layers’ abilities and start supporting the team as a whole.
His 16m price tag is considered a bargain by most pundits and he paid it off by knocking United out of the cup and CELEBRATING his goal.
I’d trade in two FA cups for consistency in winning the premier league.
Winning The FA cup is a great thing, however it’s nothing over 37 games. That’s when it really matters. And u fortunately with Walcott up top, with Giroud, With Welbeck, you aren’t going to get that.
Man City and Chelsea are prime examples.
Aguero – main striker. Back up: Bony, Dzeko, Jovetic
Diego Costa – main striker. Back up: Remy, Drogba.
Arsenal do not have sufficient back up to cope without Giroud up top. Which is why our season suffered.
The days of Arsenal buying a player to let “settle” further forward I hope are numbered. Hence the signings of Ozil and Alexis in recent windows.
I am happy to run with the idea that there are better CFs than OG out there. Not all are available and want to come and not all nailed on to do a job in the PL. However I cannot accept that OG is the critical difference between us winning the PL or not. Chelsea scored 2 more goals than us. Sorry but Chelsea won it despite Costa not entirely because of him. OG was not the reason we had 5 losses to Soton, Swansea (x2), Stoke and Spurs – the team was abject. 15 points dropped right there.
The difference between us and Chelsea is they have a superior winning mentality and they defend winning positions better than us.
@NickJennigns
Strikers didn’t help either Chelsea or ManCity.
Chelsea’s defense is what won them the League. ManCiy’s defense is what kept them from retaining it. And our defense is to blame for keeping us out of contention…
I am a friend of Theo’s funnily enough. But I a,pm also certainly a realist.
Take away Aguero’s goals for City, Arsenal would finish above them. Meaning, his goals helped them finish second.
If Arsenal had an Aguero – we’d have won the league.
The defence of each team have helped don’t get me wrong, but Strikers score the goals, they make the bigger difference.
I have to ask, are you Theo in disguise? Or maybe his agent ? Lol just trying add a little levity to this
Sorry for double reply, I’m happy to talk as you did bring forward a resonable argument and I do hope you can see I am not being personal with you either ^.^
Henry was a winger when he came to us, not a proven CF.
Bergkamp was proven, a bit like Ozil was proven and Alexis was.
Anelka was a unknown kid when he came to us.
The argument you have used I could of used to say we wouldn’t win anything with Henry as a CF… We bought him as a winger, it took a few games for him to start scoring. Henry proved himself though because he was given time to prove himself.
Exactly the same for Anelka.
The point is though , having strength in depth. Even Henry with his tally didn’t win the title..as he said himself he had wiltord, berkgamp, kanu etc getting a good quota.
Apart from Giroud we had Sanchez scoring well off the wing.
We need strength in depth and most preferably of top quality who will contribute important and decisive goals and support the goals for effort. Welbeck, sirnogoals and akpom (at present) just don’t cut the mustard. Poldi will be gone I’m sure.
3 internationals doesn’t necessarily translate into top class @ the position, especially when one of the three is an actual CF and limited in his skill set.
I dont quite understand your holier than though, soap box rhetoric but if you honestly believe the three abovementioned strikers are capable of leading us to Premier League and European titles
than you probably need to spend less time lecturing Arsenal fans and a few additional minutes celebrating our 3rd place finish and embarrassing CL dismissal by Monaco.
@midkemma. Wo wo, thats a bit strong isn’t it?
@midkemma. Wo wo, thats a bit strong isn’t it? Also sarcasm is the lowest form of wit!
I think we do need someone who can offer something different. I like Giroud but he rarely does well against top class CBs. When he is being dominated Arsenal’s play can get a bit predictable. Theo has great speed and shot and his movement is getting better and better but not sure he has the physicality to play CF week in week out. Welbeck has great acceleration, reasonable heading ability and will improve but at the moment his shooting is less than great and his balance/control is suspect in tight areas. I think we either need a Giroud upgrade (Giroud could then be sold) or a fox in the box type (the role Hernandez had for Manure) to compliment the others.
Please… not a ‘Fox in the box’, last time Wenger tried to sign that type of player we got Jeffers…
Just to try and understand what you are saying now I will ask a couple questions and I am not trolling you.
Need something different to Giroud? You mean someone like Theo who is virtually the exact opposite to Giroud?
You say you have questions over if Theo can play week in and week out, I appreciate he has had a few nasty injuries for the last couple years but look at prior to then, Theo was doing 40+ games a season for a couple years, prior to then it was 30+ for 5 years. 7 consecutive years in total he has played over 30 games a season, then he has that knee injury at the spuds which kept him out for a long time and we rushed him back which didn’t help him…
We haven’t rushed him back this time, can he handle 40+ games a season? Probably, most likely if Wenger manages him and his health correctly.
Question over Theos phsicality against some ‘rugby’ styled teams?
Thats what a SQUAD is for, drop Theo and play Giroud who will bully them more.
Apart from the fact that we do read a lot of media telling us we need a CF, why do you think we need a CF?
What-ever reason you’re about to give, think about it. Find stuff to back up the claim.
In all honesty, when I look at as much as I can and not just what we’re being told then a CF is far from the top of the list. Would you be happy if we spent £30mil on Martinez and then gave Arteta a contract for another year instead of reinforcing that area before buying Martinez?
Wenger wont get into a bidding war and especially not for a 28 year old. Wenger puts allot of time and effort into young preferably home grown players so i think the smart thing would be to target an experienced player til the youngster[s] come of age.
I liked hearing the Palermo manager or owner not sure which when he said he thinks Dybala made the right choice… he said Dybala will play with “players who speak the same language”.
Vidal, Schneiderlin, Cech, Martinez – are we going to get anyone of these players? Strongly linked to us.
When do we ever get anyone we expect to get? Back last June I didn’t expect us to get any of the signings we made last summer. Back then we were linked to Martinez again, Khedira, the Carvalho guy from Portgual etc. none of them happened. January it was all about Winston Reid, didn’t happen. The summer before it was all about Suarez, Higuain. Again, didn’t happen. The players we do sign just seem to get strongly linked to us a few days before they actually join.
BLATTER HAS STEPPED DOWN!! ITS OVER!!!!!!
Best news all day!!!!
Just in case the original comment gets buried above here’s a re-post.
Midkemma has good arguments, I am also one for getting a RW to give the service to whoever is paying CF.
All I wanted to add is that we need a bit of patience with Welbeck. He was good enough for Ferguson and was part of a Premiership winning squad, he delivers for England too. Let’s stop burying the lad under the typical “he’s not a CF”, “he’s not good enough” or “he’s not world class”.
He’s young, he has potential and he’s in our squad. He will be given chances and it’s up to him to him to make his own space at Arsenal. Who knows he may end up CF, support striker or even play on the wing but we should stop this habit of undermining our layers’ abilities and start supporting the team as a whole.
His 16m price tag is considered a bargain by most pundits and he paid it off by knocking United out of the cup and CELEBRATING his goal.
Welbeck isn’t a natural goal scorer. Small minded Arsenal fans truly believe we bought him to win us the big games?
What Welbeck brings you is his attitude, his hard work and wanting to retrieve the ball back. He has all the qualities to be a good Arsenal player.
But he’s the last person I would want a one on one to fall to. In fact, other than Alexis, there isn’t anyone I’d feel confident scoring a one on one every time – so, as my argument States – A NEW CENTRE FORWARD!!
He has a lot to learn you are right but he’s young. I don’t think for one minute he’ll be the next Henri but he can definitely do a job somewhere up front. He and also Walcott would benefit hugely from a few Henri masterclasses.
if he comes, OG, theo or welbz must go. no room.
winger makes more sense atm. but AW knows best
We won’t have to choose, if he comes I can’t see Theo signing his contract
i would be very surprised to see us get martinez the only reasonable conclusion if we do get him is he has a fixed release clause price.
and no bidding required but baring that we wont get him, we need a slightly younger model that can score on the counter and make goals for themselves in the box, i am quite liking a lot of shout outs for this young vietteo lad he seems to have a bright head on his shoulders, and has a good skill set for what we need and for £12.5 million has gotta be worth a punt.
we could even throw in joel campbell as a sweetener to sway the deal our way, the lads ceiling is very high by the looks of him has the battling sanchez way about him.
BLATTER OUT
WENGER IN
let wenger the master football visionary take fifa to the footbal utopia he would love to make it. would be the perfect job for him as he is a football teacher and philosopher of the beautiful game just image the football world with wenger in charge of the big picture. footballing paradise
viva la wenger
fifa la wenger
Maureen would have an epileptic fit!
GET IN! (not you Blatter…just get out!)
Hopefully this is the end of all that cr@p!
We need Jack to sing about it!
If it’s a straight choice between signing Martinez and seeing Walcott walk I will go for Walcott every time.
Giroud and Walcott battling it out for one place up front is classic horses for courses and if Welbeck ever finds a first touch he ain’t a bad third choice.