Thats pretty much my opinion aswell. Podolski would be the preferred option but it would be fantastic if we could afford to have a guy like Huntelaar on the bench as a plan B when we are chasing a goal.
Would love poldolski to start ahead of Theo for a bit if he signed for us. Any fullbacks that we are after?
A Leeds fan wrote on his blog that we have offered Aidan White a contract to join us next summer. He is predominantly a LB but plays more like a winger. I saw him make his debut for Ireland U-21's back in the summer. He has decent pace and a good engine, wouldnt be a bad pick up if true to compliment Santos and Gibbs. http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2012/01/arsenal-and-bolton-offer-contract-to-white/
Btw, Podolski is German record holder for the "Tor des Monats" (goal of the month). He has one of the best left foot in the world. A compilation [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXoagSi4hZ0"]Lukas Podolski - 10 Tore des Monats - YouTube[/ame]
Why not take a punt on Jordan Rhodes? Young, relatively cheap and prolific for huddersfield. Might work as a 2nd/3rd choice. Home grown too?
I can't wait to hear Gazidis excuses on January 31 as to why we signed no one despite desperately needing help Let the countdown begin!
aren't liverpool signing rhodes lamb? they like to buy british lol podolski would be nice, i really like hoil;ett at blackburn too, only 8 million aparently and is stron and quick his inconsistencies could be ironed out here (maybe?)
All we're getting is Henry, simple. Arsene already said we have enough fullbacks and that Gibbs is soon back. May sound crazy, but I think our most pressing need is an AM.
Agreed. A world class/star AM would be nice . I've been a big supporter of Ramsey but he is not there yet and we need competition in that spot. The pessimist in me thinks Wenger and Gazidis will sit on that 50m in the bank
Agree completely. Ramsey is very good but this is his first season at that spot. Arteta is too slow for a team that moves though the centre.
Something along the lines of... With the return of Wilshere, Sagna, Jenkinson, and Gibbs, there was no need to buy anyone. Plus, Diaby is due to return soon as well!
I'd love to see us make a huge signing this month, and if the reported offers we made this summer were accurate, it's a possibility. But i've been following this club long enough to know that it's not likely. We bought a bunch of players this summer, and only a few have actually started a meaningful game so far. I don't see anyone coming in soon, i think Wenger will bank the money and wait for the FFP rules to come into play. I can't imagine any single player will win us the league, and i believe our current squad is just good enough to finish top 4 and compete for the knockout trophies.
With our lack of depth, though, I can't see us taking the FA Cup seriously. It's going to be a heavily rotated, weakened squad for FA Cup games. Which disappoints me.
I rarely chime in on transfer threads but this has become clear to me... Wenger may try to blame yesterday's pathetic performance on the ref, but to me its indisputable that the #1 cause was weak defenders. I'm sorry to say that Djourou & Squillaci are both too weak to be considered part of a "strong squad". Forget about them having to play out of position. Both of them failed good-defender-judgement-101 yesterday. And Squillaci's in a league of his own... when he comes on, you cringe... way worse than when we had Senderos. Yes there were others who had off days, like Szczesny & Theo. But if you're banking on the comeback of Jenkinson & Gibbs to strengthen your fullback squad, I think you've really lowered your expectations for our defense. Sagna is really the only true quality fullback we have, and who knows how he'll recover... he broke an important bone for chrissake. And now Vermaelen is out injured again, ugh. In a world where we want to win most of our remaining games and finish higher than 4th, then we should have another truly quality fullback! And the chances of us buying one are close to zero.
I agree with you on the ref part and Djourou and Squillaci. However Djourou isn't a RB and it isnt his fault. For the most part he does it fine. His problem is that he can't attack. And even though he can't I think the last game when we scored it started with his attack. Anyway, I think Jenkinson and Gibbs are just fine. But the main problem is that Arsenal thrive on atacking fullbakcs and we just dont have that now. To make matters worse Ramsey isnt ready to carry the burden of AM, not sure if he ever will be.
I think this is a multi stage rebuilding project, stage 1 was over the summer window, the 2nd stage this january window, and then the final stage will be this summer
The starter and understudy at both fullback positions have been injured. No matter who those four are it is near impossible to have real quality at the fifth fullback spot. I do think Santos started to play pretty well before his injury, though, and probably warranted a spot over Gibbs.
hold on, neither of his cards was anything to do with playing at rb. it was simple basic football combined with yet more mango butter smelling djourou brainfarts. he's starting to make that donkey eboue look like a footballer who had competent decision making, and that takes some doing. a lack of attacking ability is NOT what got him red carded yesterday. haven't we all seen enough by now to know djourou is a soft-centred choker? i don't. they're young backups in my eyes and neither is either reliable enough to be regular starters. that's nothing against either, just an observation. they're still good to have around the squad.
Couldn't have said it better myself! Funny you bring up Eboue. As much as I was never his biggest fan, I'd be relatively overjoyed to have him filling in at RB instead of Djou or Squill or whoever Wenger has to deputize these days. But assuming Sagna makes it back OK and stays healthy, then it's really LB where we need a star. We haven't really had a high quality LB since Cashley left. Dream on, me thinks.