New Arsenal players are good – but not good enough!

With Arsenal having perhaps the worst campaign in recent history, the situation at the Emirates has invited a lot of criticism from fans and former players alike. The latest former player to give his take on the situation is club legend, Frank Mclintock. The Scotsman, who refused to solely blame Wenger for the current plight of affairs, spoke extensively on Arsenal’s transfer policy as a detrimental factor.

As quoted by TalkSport, McLintock said: “Arsenal were talking about challenging the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and that why they moved to the new stadium. But if you look at the buys they are making, the best you can say is they are adequate.

“They are not players that are going to turn Arsenal around and have them right up there at the top of the league. I think the scouting system, this year especially, has been disastrous.

“If you look at Chambers, the two centre-halves, Gabriel and Mustafi, and Xhaka, they are quite good players but they are not Arsenal standard. I can’t see them getting in the top four. It doesn’t look good at the moment. That team is definitely not good enough to win a championship in the future.”

Surely, it would be difficult for anyone to disagree with what Mclintock has to say. Arsenal’s recruitment in the past couple of years, despite improved finances, has been very sub-standard. With the exceptions of Ozil and Sanchez, you could say that that all the players the club have brought in have failed to make their mark at the Emirates.

Apart from the players that McLintock mentioned, if you look at names like Elneny, Ospina, Sanogo, Welbeck and Lucas, all signed in recent years, you’d see that they are all decent players capable of putting a shift in. But when it comes to cutting-edge and the ability to take a team towards championships, none of them have it.

In my opinion, the club’s transfer policy is a direct correlate of Wenger being too stubborn in sticking to his philosophy and not moving with the changing times. The Frenchman himself confirmed that he has the biggest say when it comes to transfers and this is another reason as to why Le Prof must go. If we can get a manager to come in and force the board in investing more on players, which includes modifying the wage bill, then perhaps the club can see a change of fortunes.

8 Comments

  1. Its time for the fans to demand the club to be directly under the payroll of the billionaire owners

    We have 3 billionaires and we should be spending 300million every season

    We need funds for the new manager to spend in the summer

    At least 12 players must be released

  2. I find extremely hard to disagree with your observations. To me the major problem of Arsenal is Le Prof. He has lost it and the way forward is to swallow is pride and take a walk for a new up to date manager to take over the helm of affairs in the team.

  3. It has not been about funds for a while. It has been about perceived need; Wenger didn’t think we needed any strengthening 2 summers ago, this set us back a lot. And secondly player selection, we paid close to 90 million last summer but didn’t get a good yield out of that investment.

    So for me, it is not so much about the money any longer, it is about the type of player we buy and the position we strengthen. Had we not bought Xhaka and Perez we could have bought Lacazette. Our goals dried up last season and that contributed to Leicester running away with it, yet we didn’t invest in goals if you consider the fact that Perez never got a chance. Now we are back to the same type of front line that failed last year and geuss what?? it is still failing and producing slow and laborious passing around of the ball with no real threat. Sanchez is back on the left where he is predictable and Giroud is back in the center where he is slow and non-lethal.

    We never addressed the gaping whole left when RVP left (same goes for Vieira and Henry).
    One of our biggest weaknesses is the lack of forward threat we pose. We were better in the beginning of the season when Sanchez was in the center and Theo was also contributing the occasional goal but now we are back to the good old times of Sanchez on the left.

    The issue is not transfer policy or money IMO, it is player selection and the lack of undertanding what this team needs to compete.

    1. Bottom Line……
      __________________

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      Old dogs don’t learn new tricks…..hence we want Wenger gone

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      New dog needed…..fresh idealogy

  4. With Xhaka and Mustafi I think they were playing much better before they joined than they are now. That has a lot to do with Wenger and how he has coached.

    Not saying they are top of the range but they are far from average too and now where near as bad as the season they are having

    1. yes, I remember Xhaka used to shoot from a distance and whenever he gets the ball on the opponents half, the whole crowd goes like ‘shoooot’, but now the flavor is gone, no one expects him to shoot, he’s changed completely, I’m sure this came after some directions from the master of everything, Elneny used to take those long shots as well

      1. I agree.

        Same with Coquelin too. He came back from Charlton a pure DM and that season he was a revelation. Now he is some kind of Xabi Alonso wannabe and that can’t be a confidence because Song also gradually deteriorated in his time at Arsenal while he tried to be some kind of long range passes master. This all must be coming from the boss because every DM/playmaker we have seems to end up as something else.

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