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