If nothing else this confirms that Arsenal are actively looking for a striker, but the strangest part of this interview is that Clinton N’Jie chose to move to White Hart Lane instead of the Emirates for the reason that Tottenham are the club to give young players a chance to shine rather than Arsenal!
The Cameroonian international made this bizarre claim in the Express when he said: “I was never scared that my transfer to Tottenham would not be confirmed. I never spoke to Arsenal representatives on the phone, they simply contacted my agent,”
“My choice was made, I was determined to join Tottenham.
“Here, I will be working under Mauricio Pochettino, a manager who plays youngsters and allows them to progress.
“On Thursday, after I arrived in London and had my medical tests, he welcomed me, with the president Daniel Levy, to tell me that he hoped I would be available as quickly as possible.
“When I arrived in Europe, it was an aim and a dream to play one day in the Premier League.”
The signing by Tottenham is still subject to international clearance and a work permit, but the £10million transfer fee seems very reasonable for an exciting up and coming talent, and he has agreed to a five-year contract with Spurs.
The news of Arsenal’s interest would seem to indicate that Wenger is looking for an alternative to the quest for Karim Benzema, but will Giroud’s brilliant opening goal today make Arsene rethink his plans…
I don’t care about him. We need striker upgrade on Giroud and not some unproven one. Wenger should only sign WC striker. I know not many available. If you see Aguero, he is best in PL. He single handedly destroyed so called best defense in league. He is master and if we get someone like him and play him alongside Sanchez, Ozil , Cazorla then we can beat anyone.
Giroud is not good enough,anyone who watched Aguero against Chelsea then you will admit that Giroud is not good enough,he scored a great goal but then went missing for the rest of the game!
Can I just point out that if Giroud had missed so many brilliant chances he would have been slaughtered on here (no argument that Aguero is amazing though).
BYEeeeeeeee N’jie….. Arsenal’s just too big for u!
The lad is unaware that he couldn’t even make the bench at Arsenal.
2 of the 3 goals scored against Arsenal this season have come when the opposition gathered the ball, seemingly harmlessly, about 20-25 yards out and simply caught the entire Arsenal team relaxed and napping for just a brief moment – enough to sneak it by. This MUST be corrected.
When an opposing player has the ball 20-25 yards out from goal he MUST be closed down with urgency or Arsenal will lose more games. For the palace goal Kos just sat back momentarily uninterested – and the price was paid in the form of an unnecessary goal. This would not have happened to Kos in the past.
@mohawk I have the impression that the defense has been told by cech how to react and leave eh ball to him….but I also think they haven’t got the strategy worked out yet on timing.
Umm no… Not what really happened at all.
Koscielny’s on the guy who makes the initial lay off.
‘Momentarily uninterested?’ He literally has a split-second with about 3-4 yards between him and the player. The fact that their player was afforded that much space for a late run unmarked was the problem.
Honestly it was a pretty perfect strike. With slow motion replays and us actually knowing where the shot ends up it’s easy to call fault. Koscielny could have provided a better block. Except if you think he had time to actually close him down maybe watch the goal again?
Avoidable? Yes, with better organisation. Cause for concern? No.
Not impressed with Cech so far – is anyone?
He’s been very poor at this stage,he and his defence lack an understanding on how to defend as a unit
I wish we had a striker of Aguero’s calibre because Giroud keeps showing he’s not good enough,even after scoring a great goal he was anonymous the whole game
I know what you mean . But in the end they both got a goal each…and giroud is not indifferent to defending
Giroud can be anonymous
89 mins every game if he
scores the winner for us 🙂
Giroud didn’t score the winner it was the Sanchez header off Delaney that won us the game,Giroud is rubbish he hadn’t scored a league goal for 10 games straight including the end of last season
A goal each yes but please don’t tell me you’re trying to compare Aguero to Giroud?Aguero is different class man barring injuries he will finish as the top goalscorer at the end of the season
Could he have done better? Yes
Is he capable of better? Yes
But we went to a very, very hard place to play and after missing a few golden chances Giroud produced a moment of sheer quality when the pressure was building. The criticism of Giroud constantly changes game to game.
‘His hold-up and linking play is great but we need more goals from our striker.’
‘Oh, he works hard for the team but doesn’t produce match-winning moments’
‘He doesn’t score enough’
‘He only scores tap-ins and headers”
Look.. I get the criticism of Giroud, I truly do. And I agree that a world-class forward would increase our title credentials and squad substantially.
But after three seasons I can say one thing for sure. He’s a confidence player. If he’s playing with self belief and on a hot run of form he’s very hard to stop. Scoring with a finish of that quality will do him the world of good and if he can bag one or two against Liverpool and get some momentum going the way he did last season it can only be a good thing.
Giroud is not good enough and I have never wavered from saying this,I will not be blinded by one great goal,he was poor against West Ham,he was poor against Crystal Palace and he hadn’t scored a league goal in 10 league games from last season
Sorry… But a striker scoring a decisive goal in a 2-1 victory erases any notion of a ‘poor’ game, even if it was into an open net from 2 yards out.
Perfect example again of double standards. If it was Aguero, Costa, Higuain or Benzema it’d be ‘oh, that’s the match-winning, quality moments they bring.’ but with Giroud even after a goal of that quality you’re still labelling it a poor performance. Ridiculous.
Yes, he went cold the end of last season. But he was running extremely hot before that averaging pretty close to a goal a game. I expect you to gloss over my original point yet again but if Giroud can find the form and confidence he displayed for the majority of last season, he’ll find the back of the net.
Giroud is not capable of playing better,in all his career he’s averaged about 15 LEAGUE goals that’s not good enough to win in England,he’s been here for 3 seasons but still hasn’t gotten to 20 goals yet he’s the main striker at Arsenal where he has Ozil and Cazorla creating chances for him
Ok.. Firstly, do you think he has shown any improvement upon his first season?
Secondly, do you think the additions of Ozil and Sanchez since then have improved our overall attacking play and ability to create chances?
Thirdly, please acknowledge the fact that he spent 3 1/2 MONTHS on the sidelines last year, and he managed one goal off your supposed maximum goal-scoring evaluation of his capabilities this season, despite him converting an extremely difficult chance yesterday. Just once!! It’s driving me crazy!!
you talk as if Giroud is the only striker that gets unjured..Aguero and Costa both were injured as well but still gave in their 20+ goals that consistency.
scroll down mate. i provided some stats with Giroud v Aguero last season
… never wavered from saying this!? You never shut up about it you boring clown!
Giroud is not good enough….
Aquero misses heaps of chances against Chelsea……
Difference being if Giroud misses you know that was his 1 or 2 chances for the game, whereas Aguero always creates 4/5 chances from his movement/ability to find space. Being a top class striker isn’t simply conversion ratio.
Aguero’s phenomenal. Seriously a class above Giroud no dispute. Big game player and a lot more consistent.
But Giroud in the PL last season. (I’m using PL as I think everyone will agree that’s our target this season)
Minutes played – 1861
Shots – 58
Goals (no pens) – 14
132.92 mins per goal
32 mins per chance.
24.1% Conversion.
Aguero
Minutes played – 2531
Shots – 115
Goals (no pens) – 21
120.52 mins per goal
22 mins per chance
18.26% Conversion.
I’ll say it again, no dispute Aguero’s a much better player and he performed at that level over a larger amount of time and stats only tell a small portion of the story.
But at the same time… If Giroud can re-find and maintain that level of scoring efficiency, produce a few finishes of the quality he did at Palace, well… It’ll be pretty damn good. 🙂
And P.S. none of this is intended as a reason not to spend on another marquee attacker.
Not to be rude but what’s your point here? You throw some numbers my way and say Aguero is a league above Giroud, I know that…
‘Being a top class striker isn’t simply conversion ratio’
I agreed, with the numbers i threw your way. However the stats showed he wasn’t exactly miles off the league’s best, it was much, much closer to a difference of 1 chance difference between them per game than the 2-3 you inferred.
And that you can put statistics on…
Don’t start…Aguero won city their first league title in years…how many decisive goal has Giroud scores that led us to winning something…hmm
Yep… A very relevant moment when comparing last season.
Maybe we did enquire…..frnch club young etc….maybe he wanted first team scion guaranteed?
Any way…not the striker I want us to sign.
I want an established player.
Ramsey is a not a winger…….why does Wenger plays him there…….is it out of favouritism or what…….??
And was that Sanchez’s goal or own goal, I think it should be Sanchez’s goal because the ball was heading in anyways……what say???
Ozil’s performance was good yesterday.
When will Gabriel play…..??
And we need a new striker….!!!
I’d imagine this was more Arsenal “enquiring” then tabling bids and whatnot. I think had Arsenal’s representatives come calling it may have been a different kettle of fish. He is right though – Poccetino will give credence to young players to show what calibre they are made of. Arsene just does it too for a better club.
On paper we have a decent
“Arsenal” of goal scorers .
Giroud Wellbeck Sanchez
Walcott Chamberlain Ramsey
Ozil Cazorla Wilshere. 9 options.
It’s up to Arsene to ensure the players he
brought in deliver on their potential.
Giroud’s potential is 15 LEAGUE goals he’ll never be a 20 man,Welbeck has never scored 10 LEAGUE goals ever since he became a pro so these players are playing to their potential!
How… How, how can you so willingly just ignore the fact that he scored 14 goals in 21 starts last season, and act as if one more goal would be his ‘potential?’
Picking holes in his game is one thing, but blindly ignoring that he has a pretty handy skillset that can score in our current system is another…
It can be done with
out the mythical
25 – 30 goal striker.
Giroud 15
Sanchez 15
Walcott 15
Ox 7
Wellbeck 7
Ramsey 7
Cazorla 6
Ozil 6
Wilshere 5
Arteta 1
Defenders 6
90 EPL Goals.
This guy Reine – Adelaide
is special alright. He could
play in the first team now.
But would he get big headed?
They like them to wait and
“earn” their way in.
But seriously this guy is ready now
and he packs a wallop of a shot.
Wenger lets young players progress.
Bellerin, Coquelin, Chambers, OX, were all in early 20’s when they started in first team.
Wenger is known for signing vert young players and if they show How good they are then they will play.
Njie knows we have quite a few wingers who are more talented than he is Alexis, Walcott, Oxlade and he probably felt that he would get more playing time at Spuds.
There is nothing wrong with saying that.
As far as a winger is concerned I didn’t want Njie anyway. Draxler is same age and better anyway.
Reus and Greizmann are both LW but can play RW, CAM and up front
I would love it if we got Reus or Greizmann
why not go for both….
we can always rotate….
45m for Reus and 35m for Greizmann will do the trick
If Benzema is not available Griezmann or Reus would be great signing. We can play Alexis
as CF.
we need a striker priority…..
Who the hell is this wannabe striker ? I have never heard or seen him play.
Cech looks a little unconfident after the West ham match. He hasnt been playing in chelsea, so take that into consideration. Cech also needs to adapt to our defence since we dont have a bus to protect our goal every match. A clean sheet or two will bring his confidence up. Form is temporary!
Bergovic was superb against Chelsea……we should have sign him instead
Are your knees ok from jerking that hard?? Surely you had to go to the hospital?
Its his opinion buddy. No need to fight.
it was a joke about knee-jerk reactions… on a combative scale of 1-10 I think that was about a 1.5. hardly a fight 🙂
Benzema + Busquets = Squad complete.
This unsubstantiated gossip doesn’t confirm anything. This is not a top quality signing so it doesn’t meet Wengers stated criteria.
did u guys read the topic?
why are people even mentioning Busquets on here?
Like hell barca can afford to let him go off