Why would Arsenal buy a striker when we already have ………?

In the last couple of weeks Arsenal have been strongly linked with moves for top strikers like Edison Cavani and Paolo Dybala, but anyone who knows Arsene Wenger is aware that his motto is “we don’t buy stars, we make them”.

Okay the purchases of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have proved to be the exception to the rule, but for out and out strikers Arsene always dreams of bringing one through the Academy that will become a world-beater. This season he has got the 19 year-old Chuba Akpom remaining with the first team squad although he has only made one substitute appearance in the Premier League plus a few minor cup games. Akpom was extremely impressive in the Youth sides last season scoring 15 times in his 23 appearances and could become a star in the future.

For me, even more likely to succeed is the youngster Benik Afobe, who has been in scintillating form out on loan at MK Dons in League One. He has amassed an amazing 19 goals in the first half of the season, including a double when the Dons knocked Man United out of the Capital One Cup. The 21 year-old has promised to do even better in the second half of the season. “The one goal I have is to do everything exactly the same as I did in the first half of the season – but better.”

“My team-mates have also been incredible here.

“All the staff have helped me a lot as well so it it’s just been really easy.

“Sometimes when something clicks, it clicks.”

If he carries on like this surely Wenger will have to give him an opportunity to prove himself in the next pre-season back at Arsenal, before he even considers bringing in an outsider at an extortionate price?

Tags Afobe Akpom MK Dons

30 Comments

    1. I believe in Akpom my self. The reasons we are seeing the Jack W we c nowa days is because of a similar thing…those promising boys need 2grow up while learning from some one (a technically gifted player) in their position. I believe had fabregas still been around, jack would be a pleasure to watch b’se i used to call him spanish by the way he played. Akpom under giroud, welbeck n’ sanogo is learning from guys he’s more talented from and will end up becoming another average player

  1. Buying a world class ST will make an instant impact, and will make our front line world class. So I say not a bad move. As for the young guns STs, it can only help them if you ask me, because playing with top players of the same position can only make younger ones better, by learning through them. If you ask me szczesny is having trouble in form and concentration because he has no mentor. Or role model around.

      1. To be fair though, we are yet to see him score those goals (he’s been banging in the lower division) in the top-flight. But we can’t pretend we were oblivious of his talent.

  2. These guys aren’t world class… They are good, but not world class! People forget that we are Arsenal and not the likes of West Ham, Spurs (just had to throw that one in there!) Newcastle, etc… Arsenal needs players that will win trophies… With all due respect, anyone who thinks Afobe or Akpom are going to win us the PL have lost the plot… They are good, but not world-beaters! Maybe later on in their careers, but we can’t keep looking at “future prospects”…

    A player like Dybala excites me, I may be hypocritical here, but he has shown that he is already world-class (or very close to it) at his tender age…

    1. Look at spurs where Harry Kane is scoring goals an academy product and not their world class signings Soldado & Addebayor. Sometimes we get to hung up on the world class signing thing.

      1. You do have a point… But with all due respect, we aren’t spurs… We are better than them. Harry Kane is at 15th or so on the top goal scoring charts, he isn’t the highest goal scorer for spurs even.

        One of the differences between Arsenal and Chelsea/City/United, is that they all have world class strikers. We need a world class striker to make the difference.
        Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against Akpom/Afobe, they just haven’t proven themselves yet, they may become brilliant, but right now, we need class!

        1. People said the exact same thing about Henry when Wenger bought him from Juve. He was aa winger, he wasn’t aa world class striker, he couldn’t replace Anelka, Wright and Bergkamp. I’d there is 1 thing that Arsene can do consistently, it’s teach a guy to score.

  3. We can not win the Premier League without a Top striker at the level of Costa, Aguero, RVP and Falcao. That is why the top 3 this year is most likely going to be Chelski, City and United.

    Giroud and Welbeck are good strikers but not great like those mentioned above. The above teams have good strikers (ie. Remy, Drogba, Rooney, Dzeko) in addition to TOP strikers, but they have top strikers.

    I want our defense to be improved of course. However, a striker capable of 30 PL goals per season, being able to shoot goals in big game or big moment situations, being able to make a goal out of nothing is what we need to be really ambitious. Also, we have injuries so depth is not a bad thing having Giroud and Welbeck as supersubs.

    Yes we have Sanchez and Ozil who are WC, BUT the top 3 teams have also have great wingers and attacking. The only thing our attack hasn’t got that they have is a WC striker.

    As long as we lack one we will NEVER win the PL.

    1. If Sanchez Walcott and Giroud have been fit and in form from the start of the season then you would see 20 goals from each this season. Each player would have multiple assists, Ozil would also be assisting many and Ramsey would be scoring goals pretty consistently with his hook ups with Giroud. I’d rather have that then relying on 1 player to score goals.

      1. We would never have to rely on 1 player to score us goals (if everyone was fit), that is the beauty about this Arsenal team in my opinion. If we had a WC striker with Sanchez and Theo (proven goal scorers) on either side of him, they would ALL score goals… Including the odd goal from Rambo…

      2. One striker (ours) RVP handed UTD the Premier league, that is the difference a proper striker can make.

    2. I think we can win the league with the attacking players we have. I DO NOT think we can win the league without a proper DM and a new CB to pair with Kos/Per (depending on who’s injured). We also really need quality backups for LB & RB as we don’t know where Chambers future lies position wise. With Giroud, Welbz, Theo, OX, Ozil, Campbell, Jack, Rambo, Alexis, Santi, Gnabry, Afobe (future), Akpom(future) we can score the goals. It’s stoping other teams from scoring that’s the real problem!

      1. On the money. Apologies for repeating the mantra – but defence wins leagues. It is daft to suggest that if we had a world class back 5 and CDM we could not win the PL with the firepower we already have. When the day comes where I worry where our next goal is coming from I will give up; I am waiting for the day to come when I can chill out on a 1 goal lead.

  4. Get Dybala, Reid and Perrin. If better Cb available snatch them instead of these two. Use Coquelin and Chambers as double pivot.

    Schez
    Debuchy–Mert-Kos–Gibbs
    Coquelin-Chambers
    Ozil/Cazorla
    Sanchez–Giroud–Dybala

    This is good enough. Push as far as we can for CL and Fa cup and try to get back in the PL. This is season is not over but not much we could do. BTW as terrible our defense is our attacks arent that good too. If u look at our goals its mostly luck and/or non stop attacking. No more those classy goals. Hopefully with good step up for this half of a season. Maybe not the best idea but good enough for me. 🙂

  5. It is always refreshing to see our young guns playing well and fighting for a first team spot. Afobe has done well during his loan spell and I bet he has caught some attention from EPL teams too.

    Cant see him break into the 1st team as of yet, Wenger should loan him out to an EPL side THAT WILL PLAY HIM regularly next season for further development.

    The only transfer news of a ST that I want to hear for this winter and the summer transfer window is for a WC striker. We already have enough upcoming / average / and good ST’s at the moment, what we lack is a WC ST and players in other key positions such as defense and DM.

  6. living.in denial again。…

    we hv not been making any world class talent….so its time to buy..

    lets spend some money and sign somebody

  7. bag Dybala fast as he is (at present) within our budget (on a very good day). Can’t see ole moth pockets paying the sum required to bag Cavani.

    Shame as he is proven. Dybala would make a phenomenal sighting though!

  8. I would rather him buy a CD and A DM for now then do the rest in the summer. A good utility player would go down very well and get Jenkinson back

    1. I see no reason why we can’t do all 3. Where there’s a will and all that.

      We have the funds, so it’s down to ambition and having the business mind to make it happen in time and at all..

  9. Ambition and Arsenal currently are not two words that go together! unfortunately 🙁
    I hope I am wrong but I can’t see Arsene spending big in this window.

  10. As I predicted after the Southampton game, SZNY’s dad is out on a blame everyone else but not Szny, does this guy think Arsenal is some little club that Szny is doing a favor by playing for us?..

    I know he is trying to protect his investment as Szny is his real money maker now but he is a joke, we are tired of baby sitting players who are not improving and those that improve abandon us.. We are being left behind because of Wenger loyalty to his under-performing players season in season out.

    We have got to get ruthless now, who ever is not pulling their weight has got to be dropped or moved on, we have become some dormant and stagnant club who are just proud of making profits and so called promoting youth and buying unknown players that are turned into stars..

    Lets become ruthless like the other Top 3 clubs..

  11. I warn Wenger not to think that he is guaranteed his precious 4th place.

    I believe we will get it in fact, even 3rd is possible.

    However, Southampton is not a club that is unjustly in 4th position. They beat us 2-0. It’s not impossible for them to finish in 4th place

    Also, we make fun of Liverpool on occasion but they are only 4 points behind us. What if they get a top striker like Cavani or Benzema? Is it not possible for them to overtake us?

    3 Solutions
    1. Do like United (who have arguably worse defense then us. Strengthen attack with a WC striker and maybe even another top player like Reus or Draxler wwho can play in different position. Goals Goals Goals can compensate for average defense
    2. Strengthen Ddefense GREATLY. Obviously, no defense can be completely water tight in every game, but try to make our defense the best in the PL.
    3. BOTH 1 and strengthen defense enough.
    This is an example.
    1. Howedes: £15 million
    2. Benzema: £35 million
    3. Kondogbia £15 million
    Total £65-70 million but well worth every penny

    CheAper
    1. Schar £7 million or Van Dijk £8 million
    2. Benzema £35 mil (camy think of cheaper top striker at moment- mind is blank)
    3. Sissoko or Milner £15million

  12. Another thing.

    Getting a WC player from Academy is very rare. When we sign youth players its a gamble. Wenger has had better success than many but we can’t rely on Academy players

    I’ve been happy with Bellerin. Afobe and Crowley hasve great potential

    However, when we lack a top player you need to spend big money sometimes. It’s a combination of big spending for certain players and a good youth development strategy that will sort us our for future but more importantly the Present

  13. MOYES just before his demise was babbling on how much money he was planning to spend to renew their SQUAD, the board making sense of what was happening decided not to spend while MOYES was the man in charge, so they did the sensible thing they KICKED him out, then they brought a world class Manager and had him decide which players they needed and not sparing costs they brought them in, the results are there to see…..Should we trust WENGER doing the same???, MAN U needed and wanted immediate results, WENGER in his fantasy world is signing players not ready for the EPL for at least the next 3 years….we have plenty of prospects taking space of Players that we really need and need NOW…WENGER YOU BETTER PROOF ME WRONG FOCUS AND BUY WHAT WE NEED.

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