You might not think that too much has changed at Arsenal since last season. We have pretty much the same squad with a few good additions and once again, we are set to finish the season without the Premier League title having played brilliantly at times but not so well at others.
We might well end up with another FA cup trophy as well but something has changed, at least in the way the Gunners and our ability to really challenge the top of the table is perceived by the football media. After Gary Neville gave a very upbeat assessment of Arsenal’s strengths earlier in the week, his mate on the Sky Sports team Jamie Carragher has added his voice to the growing belief in Arsenal.
As reported by The Independent, the former Liverpool and England defender spoke about how close we are to becoming champions again, although he still feels that the manager needs to loosen the purse strings again and perhaps pay over the odds for a player if he feels they are needed.
Carragher said, “What we’ve seen of Arsenal of late is that they are with the three best teams now, and then there’s a little level to Manchester United and Liverpool just behind.
“I think they’ve joined those top two sides that we think every season are going to go for the title. They’re so close.
“The thing with Arsene Wenger is I feel he always wants value in the market, and he always wants to wait, he’s patient.
“Rather than what [Jose] Mourinho did, he got [Diego] Costa he got [Cesc] Fabregas. Maybe at other clubs managers feel that pressure a bit more, but Wenger has been at the club for that long he knows he’s safe in the job.
“If he can’t find a certain type of goalkeeper for a specific price, or maybe a centre back or central midfielder, I don’t think he’ll get them, whereas other clubs will say “you know what, I’m going to pay the extra, I’m going to get them no matter what.”
“He spends the money like its his own, that’s the way he runs the club, you can admire that in some sense.
“But I think maybe that sometimes holds them back.”
The Frenchman has started to buy big though and his recent signings have really pushed the team on. I remember being frustrated last season when all the pundits were writing off Arsenal even though we were top and playing well, so there is a real sea change in the way they see us now. But will Wenger be able to take us to the next step and is it all about what happens in the transfer market?
F*ck these pundits besides Henry and Gary Neville (I respect him and his opinion) there opinions really shouldn’t matter to us. We the fans, the players, and the arsenal staff know that wenger is building something special and that we have reasons to be optimistic.The future is bright boys.
OOOO to be a gooner
Everyone has to respect us for our recent form, we have been simply brilliant. We will be world class if we sign a couple of world class players. I just hope we have a busy transfer market. For the millionth time we need a DM to back lecoq and a left footed winger.
These silly a*s pundits can go F*ck an elephant!…. We do not care if they start believing in us or not
People on here obviously do care what the pundits say. Every time one of them slags Arsenal off, there’s always at least one thread moaning about it, and saying what a pratt he is.
If you don’t care, why bother having a go at him on a here, something he’s NEVER going to see any way!
good…now lets get the spine ready
GK – Illoris or Casillas
CB – Varane or Hummels
LW – Griezmann or Reus
DM – Kondabagia or Wanyama
Striker – Lacazette or Cavani
Only ones we need are Kondogbia/Schneiderlin, Reus/Lacazette/Dyabala and maybe a GK
Dream summer: no injuries; get rid of a few players not in the picture; trade Szczesny for Lloris or Cech; find a talented young CB (none of the ones we are linked to excite me much except Howedes and Varane, and I don’t like our odds on them – also unnecessary unless we get rid of one or Chambers isn’t going to play there); Kongdobia or Schniederlin (if an offer of 35+mil comes in for WIlshere, sell and buy BOTH); Lacazette (Dybala looks great, but he is not a great goalscorer and I believe Arsene would turn him into a winger primarily – so, I’d still get him, but not as high a priority as the rest). Get Greizmann if possible, but that looks very unlikely. Maybe see if Cahill is available should Chelsea get Varane (yeah, I know; Jose wouldn’t sell to Arsene even if he was at gunpoint).
Honestly, it probably wouldn’t hurt the bank that much either. Lacazette + Schneiderlin for 55-60 mil, Cech for free, young defender for 8-10 mil, minus various fees for the players leaving would leave us spending around 60 mil.
Getting Ox, Walcott, and Gnabry healthy and in form will solve the wings along with improvements for Sanchez and Welbeck in their second years.
selling Wilshere and signing both Kondobgia and Schneirderlin is an excellent idea…..
we will have 5 players rotating 2 position…….DCM and CM
Carzola, Ramsay, Coquelin, Kondagbia and Schneiderlin
formidable
Honestly the only reason NOT to do it is the homegrown rule. Without that, I would much prefer to trade Wilshere, let Flamini walk, and get Kongdobia and Schneiderlin.
Also, I think you underestimate Arteta. In his natural B2B role next to a DM, I think he would be in that conversation as well. Maybe he wont be in future plans past next season, but I believe he will have a good role next year.
No way do we have 2 ‘Hafiz Rehman’s’!!
You want all the players, please stop playing Championship Manager and wake up and smell the coffee!!
Sczceney wont leave unless Arsenal get £10mill above for him l, which i doubt anyone will pay.
Kondogbia should be our main target for the summer as he can play as DM or B2B.
No defenders required, give Merts one last year to pass his experiences onto the young lads of Gabi and Chambers. Buy Merts replacement next summer.
In terms of forwards or wingers there are 2 options:
1 – Buy a cheap winger for squad and a good forward/striker – This would mean Konoplyanka and Lacazette
2 – buy a world class forward who can play across the front line – This would mean Reus/Pedro/Draxler (all 3 highly unlikely!)
Therefore realistically Arsenal should get a good natural winger and a striker who can play lone up front or alongside Giroud and Sanchez.
Now stop dreaming SD and Hafiz and get back to your day jobs!!
100% agree with you man, most ppl here dnt realise the role arteta can play. He’s a top professional with a good head on his shoulders
biggest fool on here.
learn how to spell the players names that you obvi. know soo much about
Moron, you just changes the whole team. Absolute moron!
F**k off Carragher.Wenger knows what he wants to do.
Hello Gooners, greetings from Mongolia.
Excited, my first comment here on JustArsenal.
COYG
Here in Mongolia we are happy with our Gunners and we believe that next season is ours. But this year I think 2nd place EPL and FA Cup would be an awesome achievement.
Welcome brotha and I agree with your assessment
Cheers mate,
There will be about 200 of us watching the FA Cup final on May 30 in a rented club in Mongolia. Here the game starts at 1:30 am, we’ll be celebrating till the sunrise I am sure.
Your doing it big I like that man. But we can’t underestimate villa they are playing good football and have players who can hurt us
Arsene indicated that there’ll no big changes and he only added few quality players into this good team basis. He also mentioned that it’ll be follow by some off loads.
In my opinion, first things first for Arsenal is to keep our style of play which has been core by Coquelin and Santi axis along the season. None other players of Arsenal have an equal quality to back up this section if those two unavailable. So, our priority should go to one CDM and one deep lying playmaker. We’ve many options on CDM from EPL experts (like Schneiderlin, Sissoko, or Wanyama) and abroad youngsters (like Kondogbia, Abdenour or Imbula). Deep lying playmakers are rather difficult to find. The shortlist maybe go to Ilkay Gundogan or Johan Cabaye(?). One more player I thing we’ll need but unlikely to happen is a striker whether he’s a target man or different style from Giroud. We’ve plenty of strikers aside Giroud but none of them close to his productivity. Another option, if we can utilize our wingers like Theo, Gnabry, or Ox then we don’t need striker addition. We can just unleash Alex up front. Alex style of play can be similar to Aguerro.
This summer signings will determine our title journey. So, make it good Arsene! COYG!!!!
Some pundit could be sentimental at times bt if a team is on rise we all have eyes to see. Most of the time their judgement is onpoint,I mean even as we sat on epl summit for the majority of last season,they kept on sayin it wasn’t goin to be our season and were right. Most sincere AFC fan also knew failure to recruit durin d winter of last season meant the end of our title chance bt this season its crystal we could have won it had it been we turn up early,am sure most of the pundits wouldn’t have bet against us had it been we led the table till this january as againts last season.
Sentiments apart, there is no season that we look balance as the second half of this season since the invincible except 2007 that we trew away 7pt lead due to Eduardo injury. The future is here