Why so few Gunners at the World Cup?? by Neil Watson
As I watch the World Cup I’ve been conscious of the fact there are incredibly few of our squad there compared to other premiership teams. Aside from Three or four we have hardly any, yet I can name loads of City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs players.
Is this a glaring example of how poor our squad has fallen over the last four years? It’s conceivable by the time we get to the quarters we will have no players included in the starting line ups of 8 teams, or 88 players. That’s staggering when you think about it.
Does it mean we have been scouting in the wrong countries over the past few years, does it mean players who have come to us have fallen behind their fellow countrymen or something completely different?
There’s an irony in that we sold Giroud for less than 20 million because we bought a fellow Frenchman for twice that amount yet he is currently on a beach somewhere in the world while Giroud is playing alongside the most gifted youngster in the game. That’s right, he didn’t even make the squad!!!
I don’t think it’s necessary to buy the best players throughout the team in order to succeed but I think the fact that all the top prem teams have at least one potential World Cup winner in their squads means Unai has plenty of work to do. Fortunately I believe he actually will create some greats for us before the next World Cup and we will have a greater presence than an erratic Swiss and a couple of bench warmers!!
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Neil Watson