Arsenal may be lacking in quality players on the forward line, with just Olivier Giroud and an injured Danny Welbeck as Arsenal’s only real out and out strikers, but it hasn’t forced Wenger into the transfer market just quite yet and nobody really knows why.
It was previously assumed that Wenger wasn’t willing to spend the money that today’s current market is demanding for top quality strikers. But after Wenger was told that he would be finically supported by the board for any transfer target that he has this summer, there is now no excuses for why Wenger shouldn’t be thinking about making a move.
Instead of finances being the issue, perhaps Wenger already thinks that he has enough options up front, as Le Prof seems to believe that Walcott will act as a main striker this season.
Speaking after Walcott announced that he wants to return to playing on the wing, where has had his better days, Wenger has instead came out to the media to announce that he personally sees Walcott’s future as a striker at Arsenal, rather than a winger.
Wenger said: “I believe that he has all the ingredients to be a great striker, because of the quality of his runs. He is an intelligent player, a good finisher. He is not a great defender so I believe that to use his runs in the final third for us could be very efficient. After that, I think scoring goals playing there, giving him confidence to play there, will slowly convince him maybe that he can be absolutely fantastic there. On the flank, today there is much defensive work asked from the players that you lose a lot of his qualities when you put him there. For me in my head I will use him more up front.”
There is a lot of doubt surrounding Walcott’s ability to play as a striker, because even though he has shown that he has the pace desired from a frontman, as well as a striker’s finishing ability in him, his inconsistency and weak physicality on and off the ball means that he can be easily lost during games, especially against the tougher oppositions.
Wenger has a decision to make next Sunday, when Arsenal kick off their Premier League campaign against Liverpool at the Emirates, because Le Prof will have to decide whether to go with Walcott or Alexis up front, in Olivier Giroud’s absence.
Perhaps Walcott is the reason why Wenger has held off in the transfer market when it comes to showing some real interest in a top quality striker. We all know Wenger believes in Walcott, even if the fans do not, however the real question of debate surrounds whether Walcott believes in himself to be the striker that Arsene Wenger wants him to be this season.
By AH
More like Wenger is holding it back……………
real talk.
6 days left till start, our first games our Liverpool and Leicester -tough games to be missing vital first teamers, we should have all our buys and have them in the squad already integrated, points get dropped like this.
wenger is a shrewd character, yet his transfer activity seems to go against his very nature,
kmt,
Wenger risked and it backfired. For good this time. I don’t think is fair to Holding to be given a start against Liverpool. What if it is a disaster? How is that fair to him? Same with Koscielny. You can’t come and play with one week training.
Let me be clear, it is our fault we didn’t act before (Wenger, Gazidis etc). Two weeks ago when Mert was injured we should have go full on a CB. 15-20 mils, who cares? Now it is 20-30 mils and the more we wait the expensive will be.
We are f00cked. Properly. But at least it won’t be any expectation from our season.
What a way to end an era…
In other news kelechi almost joined arsenal but his agent bloacked the move.
“Arsenal were interested in Kelechi but I blocked the move, there
was a problem with the agent brokering the deal,” Ezenwere told All
Nigeria Soccer .
“I picked Manchester City ahead of Arsenal not because of money. I
know if he goes to Man City he has a better chance of playing there
than Arsenal and I have been proved right.
“Kelechi has now become very popular, it wouldn’t have been so if
he joined Arsenal.”
wtf…
his agent picked man city but not for money loool but because he has better Chance playing there compared to arsenal…double loool
who is this fool ?! mina raola and mendes had a lovechild- foh l
No. We are good at window shopping and Wenger is afraid to spend. He knows we need a CF since, that’s why he went for Vardy. It is as if he regreted spending 42. 3m on Ozil and you can remember what made him to rush for Ozil. After early defeats and it was the time a little additional million could have gotten us Gonzalo Higuain.
He now has a habit of getting us one good player early in these past seasons so that we would think that he has changed.
Wenger also tends to go for the wrong guy who does not address a gaping need. Ozil was and is a great player but he did not fill the whole left by RVP or Hnery. Santi was a great nr 10 and Ramsey has shown during this Euro that he to can be effective when given the role Ozil currently takes up. Had we singed Higuain instead of Ozil we might have been better of. This is not to say I don’t rate Ozil highly. He just didn’t fill our gaping need of a central striker.
This year we signed Xhaka. Probably a fine player who will give us more depth and make us a better team but in my opinion, with Coq and Elneny both playing well in the DM role we should have kept our powder dry or at least prioritize a striker or CD over singing another, albeit good, DM.
Petr Cech is a great signing, but he didnt fill the gap left behind by Keown. Thats what you couldve been saying when you compared Özil to RVP and Henry.
That being said, I get your point – we signed a player we didnt need.
If Theo plays on the wing and repeats his performance of 2012/2013 (14 PL goals and 21 total goals) then i would be very happy. That’s decent for a winger
But i see Theo playing up front a lot. I don’t see either Theo or Giroud scoring 20 PL goals
For Wenger striker shopping is like Netflix. Lots of browsing but never committing to anything
Walcot mr go. He is just like that lenon from toteningharm.
Wenger is very arrogant and stubborn
He wants to prove his managing philosophy and technique is the best
He wants to prove that Theo is worth £140,000 per week
He turned Henry from a winger to a striker and wants to do the same thing with Theo
Only difference is Henry was World Class
arsenal transfer latest:
pogba has arrived at carrington lol
until next time ….stay classy san diego
Every week after singing Xhaka, Always the same rumours. Well atleast Wenger was right on one thing. He ‘isn’t close to signing anyone’. If you believe the papers prepare to be disappointed especially if you’re an Arsenal fan.
The deluded one waited the whole summer for yesterdays game in which Walcott and Akpom scored, now he will say he doesn’t need a striker. Defenders are getting injured yet you will see him put Monreal, Debuchy, Bielek or even Coquelin there. He will say they can player there. Remember what happened couple seasons ago when Monreal was magically transformed to a CB in a matter of 2 pre season games, and as a result the stingy one didn’t need to buy a CB.
It’s funny everyone keeps talking about Walcott, but he’s not even a striker, he had a chance, and was an epic failure! Half the time I didn’t even know he was on the pitch, and the same could be said of a lot of his performances on the wing as well. Simple fact is, Walcott has had TOO MANY OPPORTUNITIES, time to move on.
Why not start talking about Akpom? I am not saying he’s the answer to our problems upfront, but at least he’s a natural striker, and has been banging them in in pre season, with a great mins to goals ratio. I wouldn’t even have Walcott on the bench against Liverpool, because it’s time someone else was given a chance, like Akpom. With no new signings likely, I’d start with a front three against Liverpool of: Iwobi, Campbell, and Alexis, with the Ox, and Akpom from the bench if needs be. Not great I know, but I feel that’s our strongest line-up.
Akpom in the championship for hull played for 1800 minutes, that is the equivalent of twenty full games and scored three goals. That is 600 minutes per goal, giroud is about 170 minutes per non penalty goal In PL. This suggests that akpom is not ready.
Scoring pre season is no real indication of what will happen in competetive games, remember Sanogo playing for arsenal scoring four goals in one pre season game against benfica.
Really there should be a decision taken as to whether he is ready for the first team or should be sent out on loan, only arsenal can decide this based on how he is playing in training and on the pre season matches. If he is ready to try in the first team then he should be introduced in the normal way.
My concern is that if we are relying on Akpom to perform in the first team due to our incompetance in signing a striker then there will be huge pressure placed on him and he may fail and destroy his confidence.
It is one thing to be introducing a young player in to the first team and there is an injury crisis and he has to be played, as happened with Rashford at manu. It is quite another to say to a young player, you are no3 striker after giroud, who will go on a goal drought at some point and walcott who wants to play on the wing and will almost certainly get injured. That is a lot of pressure on a young basically untried player in the PL.
If akpom is ready then introduce him to the first team this season but we must not be relying on him. If he turns out to be a success then that is a big bonus.
And they were world class long range stunners. My favourite was the one vs mls when monreal gave him the ball on the halfway line and he went past 2 defenders and then smashed it in with his left foot
I have to say, I prefer speed over pretty passing around the box. Theo gives us speed. He was a very good attacking winger and better than Ramsey in this aspect. His goal and assist yesterday did seem to come from the right side.
One solution I think that might work is we have Elneny and Coq as defensive protection, is to give Sanchez and Theo the freedom to change roles during the game. Together they might fill the role of striker well. They are both better finishers than Giroud IMO and they both have pace. Sanchez became too predictable according to Wenger on the left wing, and he was right about that, both Theo and Sanchez like to pop up in the middle and both like to come from the right. With Iwobi on the left wing this could be a good solution. It seemed to work yesterday. It was not always clear yesterday if it was Sanchez or Theo who was playing striker and that must have been harder to defned against.
wenger is still and will always be our biggest problem, i hope we beat liverpool tho
What makes me laugh is how Wenger’s excuses pick up momentum as we approach the end of the transfer window.
Personally, I haven’t got any issues with Walcott been given another chance, even though it is frustrating to see him under- performing. We all know what his capable of doing but it seems as if his mentality has been holding him back and now wenger is trying to boost his confidence with his latest comments, but i beg to ask “where was wenger last season when Walcott needed that boost? ” ? instead of keeping him stuck on the bench for the final few months of that season and Yeah, I know that Wenger is only bigging Walcott up now because it will save him spending millions on a new Striker ? and thats why the sooner Ebenezer leaves the better it will be for the club.
He was telling the media that he would be buying another CB
Before the start of the new season and now Gabriel got Injured, he is saying that he will have to buy a CB … as if he wasn’t planning on buying one! ?
It would not surprise me if He ends up buy the injured Lacazette ??
There seems to be a lot more positive comments about Walcott since his performance against manc, perhaps it has reminded us how good he can be. Again the commentator made the observation that defenders do not like playing against him because of his speed.
I think that Walcots big problem is injuries and last season when he came back from injury he was trying not to get injured again.
Lets hope he is back to his best and can stay injury free, or at least no long term injuries.
Giroud plus injury prone walcott plus unproven Akpom is not enough, no matter which way you look at it.
We need a world class striker and Walcott is not one of them if not say he is not even a striker. We all hope he would be thou!
I doubt if wenger will buy a striker this window with iwobi playing well on the wings, Sanchez might be permanently deployed as a striker for next season leaving akpom and Walcott as alternatives… However a centre is non negotiable..