Arsenal’s pursuit of Dusan Vlahovic was very public and his refusal to speak to the Gunners was also well-publicised.
The Serbian has now joined Juventus from Fiorentina and seemed to aim a sly dig at the Gunners when the Old Lady unveiled him.
Juve remains one of the biggest clubs in Europe and arguably the top side in Italy.
It was an easy switch to make considering he would face the same defences he has dominated.
But that isn’t the main reason he joined the club, and he said on his unveiling, as quoted by Sun Sports:
“There were many rumours about foreign clubs, but the choice was easy because the club and I have a similar DNA.
“Fight and suffer when needed. I think it’s part of my mentality as well, so the choice was not difficult. I fit in here.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It was always difficult to convince Vlahovic to move to the Emirates because he probably wasn’t interested in leaving Italy.
We should have signed an alternative to the former Fiorentina man in the last transfer window.
However, our failure to do that means we now have to play the rest of this season without a recognisable goal machine.
Our faith is on the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, hopefully, they can fire us into the top four.
Not sure what a top striker would find appealing at Arsenal at the moment. Divided fan base, a Manger with 2 8th place finishes and no European football.
We haven’t shown the ambition that top strikers are looking for, and “the process” doesn’t resonate with top players interested in titles, trophies, and competitive football.
I think we have to start showing more as a club to draw interest and recruit top talent.
Wenger’s reputation and past achievements were a draw to many players, in addition to the style of attacking football we played (except last couple years under Wenger).
Honestly and without bias, ask yourself, “What is the attraction and selling point for Arsenal”
Not our style of play, not the CV of the manager, not the world class talent in the squad, not the ambition of ownership.
London life and the wage packet at the moment.
Don’t want to overpay in the market? What do you think will happen this Summer when we need 2 strikers?
Without CL football, how much more will we have to pay in wages to attract the quality we need?
Of the 3 strikers, Auba gone, Laca and Nketiah free agents in the Summer. Incredibly poor management; Last year Laca should have been up for sale if he did not extend his contract; this Summer for sure with a year left.
Management botched this to the extreme, and unfortunately the product on the field isn’t a selling point for top players either.
Very interesting Summer lining up; how they approach the market, the targets, and how quickly they get deals done. 4-5 positions need filling, so interesting to see how it plays out.
Pepe (lw)
Martinelli (cf)
Saka (rw)
Smithrowe (am)
Øde (cm)
Partey (dcm)
Tierney (lb)
Gabriel (lcb)
White (rcb)
Tomi (rb)
Ramsdale (gk)
Subs;
Lokonga (cm)
Taveres (lb)
Laca (cf)
These are the players we should be investing in to be playing each game weekly until the end of the season because the rest are not reliable, staying behind the summer or committed to the club anymore due to one thing or the other.
-Laca is committed and will steer the ship until he goes as captain, he has some class about him so kudos to the man considering he knows he leaving 👏
Laca, Elneny & Eddie are all out of contract in 5 months. Xhaka who is a liability as sometimes is Holding, Leno & Soares in the positions they play, good players just not worked out along with players like Dino, Matteo, Lucas, Hector & Saliba. Can see them all being shipped out permantly in the summer apart from the latter but he has 18months left of his deal left.
Saliba is the one we need to come back, White can also play RB & CM, we payed £50m for version 2.0 Calum Chambers or AMN, the ultimate defensive utility man.
Add Saliba into the 14man squad (take laca out come summer) above along with a RB, DM, CM & CF. Balogun may need loaned out for a full season but looks good at Middlesbrough with his small cameos so far.
All depends where we finish in the league to who we buy in the summer! Top4 is in sight, can this team pull off a miracle? Nothing we can do about the window now so let’s get behind the boys and grab that top4. Top6 be OK not really anything to jump about tbh.
We have played the first half of the season and much of last without a recognized goalmachine. Not easy to come by.
More like 2 years nearly without a goal machine, or goals in general.
The question though is it due to the strikers or is it due to the system that we play? Hopefully we will find out with the addition of a quality striker.