I've seen Sanogo this past summer in the Touloun tournament and the U-20 he showed flashes but nothing that suggests he's ready to step up to a primary role as #1 at a club that allegedly wants to win trophies.
I'm tempted to think "arsene knows" about sanogo. We'll wait and see. To be fair, very few of his "unknowns turned wicked" have been flops. Only Denilson and Bendtner spring to mind.
Speaking of forwards, I noticed Ciprian Marica just scored for Romania. If I recall correctly, we were linked with him in July/August (then again, who weren't we linked with). He's still a free agent at the moment. Wouldn't it be worth it to bring him in on a free just for depth?
Arsenal.com had an interesting article the other day. http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/49330/behind-the-numbers Lots of good players bought, but lots of flops too.
Frank Simek? Maybe Zelalem too. Although hanging out with Ozil all day is probably going to push him even harder towards Ze Germans.
My answer was DK, because I don't think Simek broke into the full senior squad (someone remind me if I'm wrong) and the Zelalem a) isn't technically American (or at least doesn't identify himself as such legally or otherwise) and b) he hasn't broken into the full senior squad. Only making that distinction because the article makes distinctions between players "signed" versus brought up or transitioned from a loan status.
It'll be interesting to see who's still healthy after the holiday fixtures to see who AW will go after.
You may laugh about it but this shit still happens in the world... http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=60130
Sooooo... Danglish is questioning Arsenal's transfer business? http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/bonus-kenny-dalglish-mesut-ozils-2256681 In other news, Arsene requested scouting reports for bargins Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, and Charlie Adam
I gotta say, I'm baffled by this apparently wide-held opinion in the media that we were already 'strong' in Özil's position.
Everyone seems to be under the impression that Wilshere and Ramsey are creative players And that Santi is better starting in the middle than he is coming in from wide left. The latter is at least somewhat plausible
Our former striker, Paul Mariner, was going on and on about how Cazorla should sit on the bench with Ozil coming in because he 'can't play on the left, no pace,' on ESPNFC last week. It's like no one knows anything about Santi's career before last season whatsoever...
That is why Mariner keeps getting sacked rather quickly. Nice guy but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
It's like no one knows that players are not glued to a specific position for 90 minutes. I mean, how many times does Gibbs act as a left-winger instead of a left-back or how many times do we see Cazorla in the middle compared to his left? Just because on the depth chart a player is placed as a specific position does not mean that they are trapped there for the full match. There is movement in football.
try reading it as "comparitively stronger than in other positions" and it'll probably make more sense. his next 2 sentences lend weight to that.