Parlour on what Arsenal need for success next season

The Romford Pele himself, Ray Parlour, has been giving his thoughts on Arsenal and the season which is now drawing to a close with the usual fight for fourth place when we all expected and hoped for so much more from the Gunners this time. He stopped short of blaming the boss, even though he also feels that next year will probably be the last one under the managerial reign of Arsene Wenger.

As well as revealing his thoughts on why Arsenal failed to challenge for the Premier League title once again, he gave his ideas on what could be done during the summer to make sure that it is not the same old story once again next time around. And the opinion of a player who knows what it takes to succeed, having won five domestic cups and three league titles in his 12 year Arsenal career, including the amazing invincibles year is surely worth taking on board.

Parlour blames the players jiout there on the pitch, repeating the theory that there are not enough strong characters and leaders in the current Arsenal squad. But he also blames the boss indirectly, for the insistence on packing the side will small creative players and ignoring the power and battling side of the game.

He said, “They had the chance to win the league this year, but then so did a lot of clubs.

“Every year the discontent will grow. It probably doesn’t help that Leicester and Tottenham are above them.

“Sometimes you have to look at the players and whether they’re strong enough mentally.

“Maybe it’s not the little tricky players you want to get, but those strong players like Tony Adams at the back.

“When you’re up against it it’s down to the players to sort out what’s wrong. We did that when we played. There are not enough characters like that on the pitch at the moment.

“They need a top-quality centre-half and they need another striker. Mesut Ozil has created the most chances of any midfielder in the Premier League, but they still haven’t scored enough goals.

“I know top strikers are hard to find but they nearly got Luis Suarez and that’s the calibre of player they’ve got to look at.”

Would a top quality striker and central defender be enough for Arsenal to finally have a proper go at regaining the EPL trophy next May?

Tags defender striker Wenger

19 Comments

  1. My god watching athletico vs bayern … The intensity with which both teams play puts arsenal to shame … Would like to blame the greedy yank but even I can’t do that … It’s all down to our tired and hapless manager … So there remains one basic thing to do to mice forward .. By any means necessary

  2. In recent years we have achieved comfortably most of the time, a top four position. This has been achieved by playing and being better footballers then our opponents.

    Next comes the hunger to do more. This requires a squad of winners, of people who want to achieve. Unfortunately until we rid ourselves of the players who are comfortable, and let’s be honest some players are overachieving at Arsenal, we will only win bigger things then the FA Cup when a squad of winners pushing each other play together!

  3. Ozil was supposed to break Henry’s record and create his own record this season…but thanks to Wenger and his son Giroud,alongside his adopted son Walcott, Ozil can kiss that record goodbye…and this is what we deserve when you try to buy a World class striker for £40.1 million pounds…live with the regrets…i don’t care if we get Messi,Neymar and Suarez now,Wenger should just leave

    1. This is such an irritating transfer story a lot of people keep regurgitating, get over it & move on. If they were under the assumption that he had a release clause, then they would obviously bid an amount that meets that clause and no more. It appears most likely that Suarez’s agent told Arsenal & other teams that Suarez had the clause in his contract so they’d bid for him, he’d have cause to be unsettled, and eventually would get a move away. If he indeed did have a release fee that Arsenal met, then it would be against the law for them to turn down that bid. That doesn’t make it a derisory bid, it makes it an offer that they were informed- would have to legally be accepted. Once they realised that there wasn’t infact any such legally enforceable release clause- they pulled out, presumably unwilling to spend £70+ million, since Liverpool would have viewed them as a rival, unlike Barcelona.

      1. @AidanGooner
        Thank You very much…Suarez’s intentions were to move to Barcelona to be with his girl. He even stated so himself. He also said he did not want to go to any other EPL team. And Liverpool had no intention of selling him to us, no matter the price…

        1. NY i see your back, i predicted we wouldn’t win the league when we were performing, next prediction Wenger = no CL next season

          i know you will still be happy though as your spurs will still be above us

          1. @john0711
            Save it dude…Since you’re predicting, how about Fridays Euromillions numbers…

    1. Yeh, funny that Greg isn’t it. I mean who else should we blame? I mean we have had Opposition players, referees, linesman, transfer windows, size of pitch, international friendlies, fatigue, cohesion, etc etc..

      We know Stan is guilty of having no ambition past swelling his bank account and ranch portfolio but when will Wenger actually become accountable for 12 years with no PL or UCL?

      Or perhaps we are being impatient or mean by our desire to have him out?‎

  4. It’s the manager thats a big problem in this team. No matter who comes in as a player at Athletico, everyone puts a hard shift in reap the rewards most of the time.

    Our manager is ok with mediocrity and players in general just keep passing and passing.

    Athletico are more fitter than us, Braver in challenges, better dribblers on the ball, confident on the ball, trust in each other, play until 90 minutes.

    Their only problem is against small teams, which they find hard to break down sometimes.

    Simeone would’ve kicked Walcott, Ox and Giroud to the reserves or sold them already if he was in charge at Arsenal. He would’ve spotted right away from the first minute that Walcott is a fraud of a footballer well into his 10th Arsenal season. Wilshere and Ramsey would’ve been bench players at best.

  5. Apparently in an interview with Mo Elneny. He said Wenger has told him not to shoot too much. Lol you couldn’t make it up if you tried.

    In the words of Wenger:
    “Look errrrrrrr I don’t want you to shoot too many times in one match errrrrrrr. Maybe keep hold of the ball and errrrrr pass it sideways. My wingmen Arteta and Flamini will show you the benefits of keeping hold of the ball for 60-70% of the game and have nothing to show for it after 90 mins”.??

    1. @sam-afc
      You did make it up and failed miserably. Elneny said “AW told him to shoot intellectually”…Seems like you guys are running out of crap to sling.

        1. Intelligently!? we hardly shoot at goal as it is. Do you watch Arsenal? I’m sorry I must of hit a nerve there. Maybe once Arsene Wenger leaves Arsenal he might go over to manage New York bulls so you can go to games lick his hoop haha

    2. The guy has a 1 in 20 goal record from his trigger-happy shooting days, I’m fine with him putting more thought into picking his moments.

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