The BEST use of Arsenal’s transfer budget – No striker!

How to best use Arsenals transfer budget – don’t buy a striker! By: Supertuur

Reading the newspapers there are lots of strikers being linked with Arsenal. Arsenal reportedly have £50 million to spend on transfers, and if we include some money from player sales this could be £70-75 million. Now how do Arsenal spend this money to maximum effect, here is my case.

Giroud our current striker gets lots of flak from our supporters. However if we look at strikers that we are linked with, his statistics do not compare bad at all. I am looking here at the minutes between goals and I exclude penalties here as Giroud is not our penalty taker.

• Higuain – 186 mins (£35-40 mil)
• Benzema – 154 mins (£35-40 mil)
• Lacazette – 150 mins (£30-50 mil)
• Cavani – 146 mins (£30-45 mil) I doubt he will sold
• Giroud – 133 mins
• Martinez – 128 mins (£20-28 mil) better ratio but from inferior league

So here we are looking at £25-40 mil of our budget spent on someone that is not better (statistically) then Giroud. Of course there will be 100s of personal options thrown around why a certain player is better.
We are also in contract talks with Theo, any striker we buy will make these talks even harder. Arsenal’s hand will be forced by paying over the odds for his contract extension, or we will be forced into a swap plus money for Raheem Sterling. Remember Theo is a homegrown player and they have insane value in the EPL.

So is Arsenal’s money spend well by buying one of these strikers. I don’t think so. Here is my case for spending the money wisely.

Goalkeeper – Ospina has done a great job taking over from Sczcesny, but he is not a world class goal keeper. If we can get Petr Cech for £10 mil we should go for him, if not look for alternatives elsewhere for £10-£20 mil. Leno is a good alternative.

CDM – Coquelin has been a revelation but let’s get genuine competition for him. Schneiderlin & Kondogbia are the most likely targets. I think Kondogbia is the better fit as he would not demand straight away a starting spot. Flamini should be sold and Arteta should be kept till the winter transfer period. We have a better idea of injuries and how the midfield is operating.

Central Defense – The purchase of Gabriel has relieved Arsenal from our defensive problems we had at the start of the year. I do see Gabriel as the one who will replace Koscielny in the longer run. I still feel we need an experienced top defender to replace Mertesacker (not saying he should be sold). I would love to see Hummels come in for this position.

Three buys but in areas where we can see a genuine improvement, I think this is the best use of Arsenal’s transfer budget. Do you agree?

Supertuur

Tags Giroud Hummels Kondogbia

66 Comments

  1. Giroud was from an inferior League too. Didn’t he come from Ligue 1? I think he scored 20-21 goals

    Martinez comes from inferior League but scored 30 goals and would have Ozil, Cazorla, Alexis to assist him

    I honestly think Martinez would have at least two amazing seasons with us. And would compete with Costa and Aguero for golden boot.

    1. All martinez is a better finisher than giroud he’s not the mobile striker we’re craving for like aguero or costa. I don’t see this deal happening just because of porto evaluation of how much they think he’s worth.

      1. Exactly. Martinez is good, but not the COMBUSTIVE striker we need, though he’s better than Giroud.

        1. If we factor in things like: never play in EPL, and need time to adapt to Arsenal playing style, Giroud is simply better striker for Arsenal next season.
          If we want to compete for EPL next season, convince Paris SG to sell Ibrahimovic. He is 33 but never play in EPL so he still has huge motivation to do well and win something here
          Benzema is a good option too, but does not see Real selling him this year – had hoped they will get Reus and sell Benzema to us but Reus is staying

          1. Right let’s get Ibra but not get Martinez because at 5 years Ibra’s junior he “needs time” to adjust to the league. Then Benzema is a good option just 1 year younger than Martinez. Quality stuff overall, age is a barrier only when suits apparently

    2. You make the claim that they are both inferior yet you don’t recognise a difference between the two themselves, why?

      Why not look at the French ligue 1 scorers?
      Giroud got 21 according to wiki, currently Ibrahimovic is on 19…
      Cavani is on 18.

      So let me guess…. Martinez is better than Ibrahimovic and Cavani? PMSL!

      Wake up and smell the coffee, Martinez would probably take 6-12 months to settle into the EPL and by then he would have 1 year left MAXIMUM, paying close to £30mil for this guy would be a WASTE OF MONEY.

      Aubameyang would represent better value for money, you know he scored 25 goals out of 46 games from a wide attacker?
      He can play anywhere along the front 3.
      Half an inch taller than Martinez
      3 years younger than Martinez
      Plays in a harder league.

      I can go on… Or I could find other attackers who would have better stats.
      End of the day, what I am saying is to think about the rumors before losing our heads about them.
      Martinez makes less sense than any other real rumor, it isn’t CF where we need more quality in the team, there are other areas.
      Also Arsenal play as a TEAM which means the right and left attacking midfielders should be chipping in with about ~20 a season with B2B players getting into double figures. Giroud not scoring isn’t a horror, it is ok as long as the team scores and he is involved with it.

      Only Chelsea and City (I think) scored more than Arsenal as a team and they both didn’t have the injuries to their front line like we did, how long was Ozil out and Giroud… not forgetting Theo as the other CF but then we have Ox and Gnabry out for large parts and resulted in playing a freaking B2B on the right AM slot.

      1. Yeh you might wanna check your stats:

        Giroud 37 appearances 19 goals
        Ibra 39 appearances 32 goals
        (In all competitions)

        From: HTeeTeePee://www.soccerbase.com/

      2. You could go on? I’d just stop after claiming Martinez would only give us 1 year “maximum”, are you that dense you think a footballer is finished at 30 in 2015?
        Ibra (33) – 32 in 35
        Tevez (31) – 29 in 47
        Tevez and Ibra are two obvious examples but there’s plenty more if you take 6 seconds to see the best players in the respective leagues. Is Ronaldo done for next year? He’s 30. LOL

        We even revere Rosicky as Arsenal fans and he’s 34. This age talk with Martinez is plain ignorant at todays lifespan of a professional footballer. 34 is the new 30, so we’d pay 25-30 mil for one of the games best ST’s who’d have 4 top drawer seasons with us and probably 2 ‘Giroud-level’ seasons (although that’s completely hypothetical and pessimistic, he could be just as good). You had a whiff of that coffee you were talking about?

      3. This is all classic bar-stool banter and none of us will ever agree – all good stuff.

        Rather than call out who we think we should get, we would do well to look at Wenger’s track record, take in to account his well-known stubbornness and loyalty traits. If we do I think a Cavani, Benzema, Higuain are mere pipe-dreams.

        1) He has no real track record of buying strikers in their prime years.
        2) He rarely buys the “finished article” – although Ozil and Alexis may be a sign that this could change. But importantly, he took them at 25/26 years old not 30.
        3) He has no track record of buying the obvious names.
        4) For better or for worse, you would be foolish to assume he would buy someone to automatically displace Giroud with immediate effect.
        5) But he will want someone with sufficient talent and/or potential to step in if/when OG falters or gets injured and someone who will accept squad status for the immediate future.
        6) I imagine Wenger being Wenger, he would prefer to buy a younger striker to bequeath to his successor in a couple of years time – rather than go for the quick-fix 2 year blaze of glory.
        With his next striker project Akpom aged just 18, the jury out on 24 yr old Welbeck and Giroud approaching 29 I would say 22-26 is the perfect age range.
        7) He does not get hung up on recent form or hot-streaks – it will not even be essential that this guy is knocking them in regularly at the moment.
        8) He is not easily swayed by reputations.
        9) He is not adverse to converting players – so it may not even be a CF/striker.

        I will wager that a Lacavette (maybe an obvious name and in the spotlight but fits most of the other criteria but don’t think he will be leaving Lyon), Aubeyang, Aboubakur etc is infinitely more likely than Cavani, Higuain or Benzema. Having said all that, the only possible big name I could foresee is Jackson Martinez. I think he would come with less baggage and more to prove than the above named superstars.

        1. All well and good and there’s plenty of fact in what you say. However…recent trends in transfer would suggest a proven big money ST is more a reality given we were ready to buy Higuain and Suarez, and as you say have splashed on Ozil and Alexis.

          I don’t so much care about the name/fee etc I just want us to buy what we clearly need, which is a ST who offers a more reliable goal return, greater match winning ability, and who is noticeably feared by the opposition thereby making space for our abundance of midfield geniuses. We need a better ST, that’s what most would agree on.

          1. I agree and I would welcome a top class CF option/upgrade to Giroud. I’m just not convinced it will pan out as per the script. Perhaps I am just bracing myself for the howls of derision and sheer misery on here when this big name doesn’t materialise. If Higuain is bought in I’ll support him and be excited to see how he goes. If he doesn’t arrive I won’t lose sleep. He does however seem “more available/gettable” than Cavani or Benzema.

            What I would like to know however, is exactly what conversations Wenger and Walcott have had. That strikes me as the key as to what happens next. Whatever has been agreed will dictate what we do in the market. Personally I don’t see a happy ending – whilst I wouldn’t mind Theo as a 3rd or 4th choice CF or a starter or impact option in lesser games I wouldn’t want him in there as first choice.

            Having said that, if he can maintain his 0.99 goals per game PL ratio for last season we might have to review the situation. Lol.

            1. Theo’s position is certainly the biggest influencer on who/what we get in the shape of an attacker, I agree. I also don’t want Theo as first choice ST, he’s a great option but you list Europe’s top ST’s and he doesn’t measure up regardless of his goal ratio etc

              If we buy a ST I think Jackson Martinez has all the marks of a Wenger buy, top ST’s go for 40-50+mil (Suarez, cavani, falcao)….Jackson arguably is among the best forwards now yet his fee is 25mil. He’d be a very welcome addition IMO, and this dubious nonsense about his age is ridiculous. How many would sell Giroud for less than 20mil? Yet 25mil is too much for a guy his age and proven better? Right ok….

    3. We still need a striker, Theo needs a few more years to turn into an all round striker. We need someone who can challenge giroud. Welbeck is not there yet although I think he will be a quality striker in a few years. Here is how we should spend that 70 mil:
      1. A DM my choice kondogbia, 25 mil
      2. A striker my choice Martinez, 35-30 mil
      3. Cech 10 mil

      Players out:
      Flamini,cambell , podolski, yaya, arteta.

      We should start playing Theo and the ox on rw, Sanchez is great at LW

      1. Arteta has huge influence in our dressing room. He is the role model for our young players. He is real professional knowing how to take care of himself, he can still contribute as squad player
        Sanogo – young with good potential, he need to be loan out. How much can we get for selling him now? What if he get a break through season? He got good physique, decent pace and work hard – he lack the calmness in front of goal but that will improve with age

        We are not playing Fifa, where we can just trash the players like seasonal toys. For each young player, our manager and the coaching team had spent a lot time to nurture them behind the scene and they may just give us a good surprise like Coquelin

        1. I never play Fifa for your info….look at what mourinho did last season. We need to get rid of those players. Yaya maybe not yet but the rest need to go including arteta.

  2. We dont need any CB. We already have 3 good CB’s and young Chambers. I dont think we should waste money on CB when we desperately need a quality GK, quality striker and good
    CDM.

    1. Everyone says we need striker – but is Walcott the answer?
      And what if the signing of new striker (such as Martinez) mean pushing Walcott to exit door? Will we fan take that as improvement?
      In the current market where good Striker is not available? I can see Wenger moving Walcott to centre and make him sign the contact.
      Then he will after a top quality wide attacker to play on the right hand side – Sterling, Draxler, Aubameyang, …
      GK – there are more good GK available this summer than Petr Cech- Hadanovic of Inter, Muslera from Galatasaray.
      I’m pretty sure Arsenal is looking at the like of Scheinderlin and Kondogbia – the ticking point should be the asking price – if the report is right £25M for a DM who may not be the clear upgrade over our existing player (Coquelin) and also cannot play together with him (too defensive) is not the most efficient way of spending money

  3. I’m not really buying the inferior league argument ppl have against Martinez. All the listed strikers play in an inferior league except Benzema, but he wants to stay at Real Madrid anyway.

    1. Even Spain is inferior to a certain point. Bottom half of that league is just no competition and Ronaldo wasnt scoring 60 to 80 goals a season when in prem, CR may have improved but not a chance at those numbers if he returned.

  4. Man Utd are spending 200 m on transfers again this season according to RVP. If they can keep
    De Gea and sign Hummels, quality CDM, RB, winger and ST they will be stronger than us.
    Chelsea are also looking to sign a keeper, CDM and ST. Man City will also sign few quality players

  5. Well we aren’t getting Vidal as Barca have him now (from admin). This after the Barca president confirmed Pogba was one of the players they were interested in.

    1. Uhm, well admin got it horrendously wrong.

      Barca bought Aleix Vidal, a right winger from Sevilla. Not ARTURO Vidal whom we are after!

      Oh and by the way, Aleix Vidal can’t play until January 1st.. lol

      1. No it was my bad.

        Well if they make an agreement with Pogba too he won’t be able to play until January. But I’m sure he would enjoy the rest and Barca would be laughing come the time to count successes.

      1. Oh yeh! Doh!

        Thought they were being a bit greedy talking up Pogba and signing Arturo.

        My bad, not Admins!

  6. About the article:

    where do people get this crazy price tag for Lacazette? He’s got 2 years left in his contract, £30 millions is totally the MAXIMUM that ANYONE will pay (the likes of PSG, City).

    There is absolutely no chance in hell his price would go to £40-50 millions, those are just made up numbers to “lure” Arsenal fans to scratch his name off from their wish lists hahah

    1. I believe he had contract until 2018?
      Aulas already said he wont sell even if the offer is 50M Euros (£35M?) – kind of a hint that he may consider above 50M? Still too much for a player with one good season
      Lyon is under no pressure to sell and they will play in CL next season – dont think we can get him less than £30M

      1. Its being reported that PSG signed Lacazette for 22m and Lyon will keep him for next season.

  7. Inferior league or not….a talented player is talented player anyday n on any league….CR7 ws frm d same so called ”inferior league”. we shd go 4 Cech, Geofrey or schneiderlin, Higuain or Martinez..

    1. Ronaldo had massive promise but he wasn’t that great when he joined Man U plus he was what 18 years old Martinez iS almost 29. I’m not saying he’s not a good player but he comes with a big price tag & if he flops you won’t recoup much.

  8. Defence- I think our defence has good quality and good depth
    Obviously if we have any long term injuries to key players going into next season then we may need additions.

    Midfield – numbers wise I think we have enough plenty of attacking quality probably lack one more DM / deep creative player.

    Forwards – again numbers wise probably enough but I think we lack one more goal scorer I think only Alexis Giroud and Walcott if fit will offer more than 15+ goals in a season although the rest of the team will score many goals. But I’d say one more versatile forward should do.

    Goalkeepers – not sure Ospina has done well and Shezza is a very good back up whatever you need 3 goalkeepers and if one leaves then another will have to come in I find goalkeepers hard to judge. See what Wenger does this summer.

    Verdict.

    New Forward first choice Aubameyang great player Scores lots of goals assists very fast tall versatile perfect age and I think he’d suit our style of play. cost 30m
    If not Tevez proven premier league experience top player scores lots of goals the work rate of Sanchez. A short term option but if you want the league next season could really make the difference. Because of his age and only a year left on contract. 7m.

    Midfield. Vidal don’t judge him on the champions league final although he showed great passion and fight is exactly what we need. Prefer him playing from deeper and that’s where he’d be playing for us. Top quality all round midfielder great tacking intercepting ability. 30m
    Many other options most probably cheaper.

    Goalkeeper even most top goalkeepers don’t have massive price tags 10 – 15m spend and if one comes in one will probably be sold so total spend might on be about 5m

    Total spend.
    Aubameyang 30m
    Vidal 30m
    Goalkeeper money from sale of Podolski & Campbell

    £60m ish

    1. Aubameyang is not good enough for us. He reminds me of Agbonlahor. Also he didnt score enough goals in Bundesliga.

      1. Gabriel Agbonlahor? Really Why? I think his goal scoring record is really good played last season mostly on the right wing behind lewandowski & still got 16 goals 25 goals this season in a reasonably poor Dourtmund side for a lot of the season. I think his versatility makes him a very good option. I always think play to your strength and ozil loves having the pace of theo in front of him & Aubameyang would be another fantastic addition.

        1. Hes not an upgrade, we have players who can hit those numbers so unless hes replacing Welbz well then its just more of the same. And id prefer to keep Welbz if only for his awkwardness, potential, and defensive capabilities.

      2. 25 goals in a malfunctioning dortmund? what the heck do you smoke?
        he is pacey as f*** , can finish and can play any front 3 position

  9. i insist…a striker is not an option for arsenal…its a priority.. we don’t need a a CB unless mert is moving…
    1)striker-a must for us to challenge for epl
    2)CDM
    3)GOALKEEPER

    i wonder what dm will want to sign for arsenal-they are afraid of fighting for a starting place with le coq

  10. I do not believe Walcot and OG. Can fire us to a tittle next season. if we compare stats yes they can, if we face the realities??? I dont think so. Walcot is injury prone and OG is simply not an Arsenal material second choice at best. Three seasons in the preamier league and very little to show for it. Even Ade was frustrating but he gave us one season of 30 goals.

  11. Strikers are only as good as their teammates allows them to be. If a striker comes from an “inferior league” to Arsenal they will get better results because they will be playing with Ozil, Cazorla, Alexis (all three are WC in my opinion, the other being Koscielny).

    1. Strikers at Arsenal should be scoring atleast 30 goals per season because of our attacking midfielders. Even terrible Adebayor score 30 for one season. Giroud I repeat will never score 30 goals in a season. Has anyone seen Giroud ever score a hattrick ? Walcott scored in just few games this season. Walcott also misses plenty of chances but atleast he gets in goal scoring positions but giraffe Giroud scores just 1 goal or at best 2 goals in a match. Imagine Suarez in our team. He would have scored 40 goals plus in a season.

      1. please, show me a season in which we had a striker that scored that much AND a team that also scored. what happens is, that a striker scores the lions share of the goals or the striker scored less and the team scores more. 30 goals a season is complete bs if you want a team to score a lot

      2. No but OG is the best passer of the ball and he plays back to goal. You just can’t compare target men with back shoulder players.

  12. Ok…I have just inherited 400billion pounds from my great uncle Maximilian (God bless him) and out of the kindness of my heart and my love of AFC I am willing to pay for the transfer fees for a GK, CDM, RW and striker. I am willing to spend 100 Million to move this club forward.

    I am open to suggestions as to which players I will buy for the club so ask for your player selections.

    My own choice is:

    1. GK = Cech
    2. CDM = Pogba
    3. RW = Griezmann
    4. CF = Zlatan Ibra..

    NB: I will not respond to requests for money.

    1. HTeeTeePee://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11659072/Why-Arsenal-need-Zlatan-Ibrahimovic.html

      1. Lol, not respond to requests for money when about half way down.. was just about to plead.

        Yeah id take Griezmann since your offering, id play AS right wing and AG on our left side.

        Striker, ill admit am a bit torn. Between Higuain and Martinez for me, i dont buy the JM too alike Oli G because one is simply a better finisher and he is quicker so is simply the better player in my opinion. Higuain, Premiership defences would not know what hit them, could be dynamite in debut season. Has so much to offer with his general play, battling qualities, and calmness in front of goal. Since you are offering though i will go with Cavani.

        CDM – Kondogbia. Would love a new Vieira.

        GK – P Cech.

      1. Walcott wants £100k a week? Equalling 5.2Million a year. I think Ibra is 3 times the player theo is and is worth it (if any footballer is!) but I agree Arsene will not pay it.

  13. Lacazette has agreed to join PSG acc to reports for 22 m. Looks like me have missed out on one of our targets.

    1. How do yo know for sure he was or is a target? And when you say “Our Targets” do you mean the targets of people on this website or Arsenal? Because we very rarely buy players who are mentioned as targets on here or anywhere. Potentially everyone’s a target.

    2. Lyon won’t sell their best player to their rival for the peanut price like 22M.
      It must be lazy journalism

  14. we only need 3 signings :Martinez, kondogbia and a good CB,preferably Abdenour from Monaco.I have faith in Ospina

  15. No need for CB, we have four. We MUST get a striker, bringing up mins per goal stats or whatever means nothing. Lacazette, Benzema, Higuain are all better than Giroud. I sort of agree that Martinez would be a waste though. He’s not mobile enough and costs too much. Lacazette would probably cost the same amount and is a better option. I think Kondogbia is the obvious best choice for competition with Coquelin. Getting Schneiderlin would bench Coq who doesnt deserve that since he’s been top class ever since he got into the squad. Theres not even any proof Schneiderlin would be the better option to Coquelin. And Ospina is just not a top GK and not good enough if we are trying to win prem, and nobody can convince me he is. Same level as Szczesny, just different weaknesses.

  16. Speaking of “inferior leagues”, what do you say of a league where a striker can score more than 40 goals in a season??? I call that “the Basket League”, aka La Liga. Any striker who thinks he’s from Mars or Neptune should come do that in the EPL.

    1. La Liga by far has the best teams in Europe at the moment though. The last 4 European trophies have all gone to them. When was the last time an English team even beat a Spanish club? Chelsea lost to Atletico last season, everyone loses to Barca, and Real Madrid beat City a few seasons ago. I think us EPL fans tend to overrate our own league honestly. Maybe the midtable teams are better here, but if it were top half of EPL table vs top half of La Liga table, I think La Liga would win.

      1. Exactly.
        We have the richest league and some of the richest teams/players but not the best all round quality.

        It will get richer too. So let’s throw a bit of cash around and get us some weapons!

  17. We are 4 good signs away from really challenging for the league. GK…CB..CDM…ST/winger

    In the sticks I want Cech and that’s all I need to say on that.

    We do need a CB Per is getting old and he has no pace we need a younger stronger faster CB.. we should try hijack Otamendi from United like they always try do to us…I or approach Hummels (the reason he did not want to go to United is cause they did not shown enough interest)

    CDM I would want Kondogbia or Carvalho both are young and hungry… have a lot of pace…strong..can pass and know their job is mainly to help defend. (coquelin has done nothing wrong this season I just want health competition to bring the best out of all out players)

    Up front in would want a diverse player like king Sanchez who could play either on the wing or as the main man.. Aubameyang and Reus both come to mind both are fast..strong..hungry and can finish.. Aubameyang the more likely to come. We should keep to how we play fast pace cutting attack.

    COYG

  18. Cech has been saying that it would be difficult to go abroad and play. He wants to move to Arsenal. Common Wenger sign him. He is just 33. He can play at the top level for 4 to 5 years.

  19. Lower league… Bla bla bla.
    Hazard needed 1 season
    Costa 1season
    Thiery 2 seasons
    If you don’t take a risk, you don’t win the prize.

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