Why Schneiderlin is not needed at Arsenal by Midkemma
Personally I hope Arsenal do NOT sign Morgan Schneiderlin, I have been saying this from day one and my view has not changed. He is a great talent BUT WE DO NOT NEED YET ANOTHER B2B CM! Make no mistake, that is what he is. Wanyama is the holder in that CM role at Southampton. Schneiderlin is a tough tackling B2B player and he does that job fantastically. Like how Vieira was; a B2B but a tough tackler and damn good at his job.
However we have Cazorla in that role, I prefer Cazorla :-). We also have Ramsey for that role, please don’t tell me people have forgotten his form at beginning of last season? Get that back and Schneiderlin will be cleaning Ramsey’s boots, not getting game time. Wilshere is a damn good third choice, if he can regain the form that his potential promised when he was younger, then he can be better than what Ramsey was last season… He also qualifies for Home Grown status, which is important, and Wilshere has Arsenal DNA, he will fight to regain his spot. I am willing to bet money that the Alexis effect has rubbed off on Wilshere somewhat, helping bring back that dogged determination.
So that is THREE B2B CM so far…
Diaby, I am reading, is more than likely be on a ‘pay as you play’ contract. This makes some sense as Diaby hasn’t had a chance to prove to potential clubs of his worth to anyone due to injury, and Wenger has put it down to Diaby not being robust enough to handle the EPL full time.. Still… as a 4th choice I think us Arsenal fans are damn lucky! I mean FOURTH choice, who else has that quality as 4th choice?
I’m going to continue with B2B players now, this one is a fantastic youth prospect which I have been watching with joy since we pinched him from Villa youths, young Dan Crawley. Similar to Wilshere in the fact he is a B2B and able to step past opponents like they are not on the pitch. Yes he is young, but we want to keep developing our own players right? So this FIFTH choice ideally needs to see a couple of the players ahead of him leave so he may stand a chance of getting game time. Could be good for a couple of years time though when Cazorla is getting on a bit and no longer able to maintain his current form – due to age/fitness – and Diaby has gone for good.
So yes… when you look at the logic of it all then it appears that if we were to get Schneiderlin then it would be to convert him into a holding CM… Why do that when there are already top quality specialist DMs out there? Gundogan, Kondogbia, Carvalho to name but three… There is Bender to make that four. Shall we continue with this list and see how large it gets – and then think about how far down it Schneiderlin would be?
I say all that with respect to Schneiderlin, I actually think he would do well at Liverpool but it isn’t like they have the volume of talent that we have 😉 Heck I think he could do a damn good job at either Manchester club as well. We just have too many numbers for that role, and our numbers hold some great talent and great potential, we shouldn’t sacrifice that….
Ideally he will leave the EPL though so we don’t have to face him….
Midkemma