Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014 - Mod Warning Linked in OP

egghead.

At least Santis future will be resolved fairly quickly now!

farna_boy

I have never seen Costa playing before and I am sure he is better than what he has shown in the World Cup, but I must admit I find it funny that because Chelsea's new striker isn't good enough for Spain, Spain had to rely on Chelsea's current striker (who isn't good enough for Chelsea), to make an improvement.

bad2dabone

I've not been impressed by him.

But I'm regularly informed that he's the real deal.

Last season was the most prolific of his career.

Soups123

If I was a Chelsea man you would be worried about how not good enough he was for all the seasons before the last two for the age he is at

Mr Blobby

Soups123 wrote: »

If I was a Chelsea man you would be worried about how not good enough he was for all the seasons before the last two for the age he is at

Well he was barely played as a lone striker back then since they had Falcao.
It was obvious to see that he just couldn't fit in with Spains Tikka Masala crap.

HazDanz

Spain is not suited to him.

He played muck just as most of the rest of the team did anyways so unfair to single him out.

Club and International football are different beasts as well so he could be a big success in the PL. Especially as Mourinho will set the team up to suit him.

gosplan

Fuzzy_Dunlop wrote: »

Well I'm not sure who you'd be looking to sign that can play with Giroud. In any case, I doubt we'll be changing formation to accommodate two up top all that often.

I wouldn't read too much into what Arsene said either, he's hardly going to say 'I want a striker to replace Giroud'. And besides, Benzema has already played in the same team with Giroud before.

A small fast striker who can also play as a left wing forward.

I'm not having a go at you but am I the only person who sees that Giroud and Balotelli wouldn't work well.

I mean how many clubs these days play with two big men up top?

Again it's not that Balotelli wouldn't be an improvement but we'll be left with more or less the same gaps in our team if we signed him.

OneEightSeven

gosplan wrote: »

A small fast striker who can also play as a left wing forward.

I'm not having a go at you but am I the only person who sees that Giroud and Balotelli wouldn't work well.

I mean how many clubs these days play with two big men up top?

Again it's not that Balotelli wouldn't be an improvement but we'll be left with more or less the same gaps in our team if we signed him.

Ronaldo is a big man. Are you saying Ronaldo and Giroud wouldn't work?

Benzema and Ronaldo are two players that work well up front. They won this game 4 - 0:

AdamD

The new striker won't actually play with Giroud. Wenger just can't say to the media we're looking for a Giroud replacement :pac:

gosplan

OneEightSeven wrote: »

Ronaldo is a big man. Are you saying Ronaldo and Giroud wouldn't work?

Benzema and Ronaldo are two players that work well up front. They won this game 4 - 0:

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. The world player of the year wouldn't fit into Arsenal.

I never knew Ronaldo as Benzema could play together. Thanks for the grahic.

OK - no more sarcasm. When I said 'big man', I meant it as in your traditional big CF. Ronaldo obv is not that at all.

It's kind of my point exactly. Look at Ronaldo, where he starts from, the ground he covers, the balls he puts in, and how he links up with Benzema.

Which would do this - Balotelli or Giroud.

gosplan

Are we seriously saying that the problem of having loads of central midfielders and a single big man up top is to replace the big man up top with a different version of the same thing.

Anyone could tell you that the number 1 thing lacking in this team is a fast mobile striker with pace who can take on defenders, link up with Giroud.

But we want to forget that, sign Balotelli simply because he's the biggest NAME people can see us possibly getting.

Now Walcott gets injured and we're where exactly?

Arteta - Ramsey
Wilshire - Ozil - Caz
Balotelli

Can no-one see the problem here? Who's going to cross it to Balotelli? Who's the person we were all crying out for who can actually take on a defender?

WoollyRedHat

Griezmann? Let's go get Griezman!

ronjo

gosplan wrote: »

This thread has gone rediculous tbh.

Are we seriously saying that the problem of having loads of central midfielders and a single big man up top is to replace the big man up top with a different version of the same thing.

Anyone could tell you that the number 1 thing lacking in this team is a fast mobile striker with pace who can take on defenders, link up with Giroud.

But we want to forget that, sign Balotelli simply because he's the biggest NAME people can see us possibly getting.

Now Walcott gets injured and we're where exactly?

Arteta - Ramsey
Wilshire - Ozil - Caz
Balotelli

Can no-one see the problem here? Who's going to cross it to Balotelli? Who's the person we were all crying out for who can actually take on a defender?

One small thing is that most people would have Ox there I am sure on the right. He can certainly take on defenders.

gnfnrhead

gosplan wrote: »

This thread has gone rediculous tbh.

Are we seriously saying that the problem of having loads of central midfielders and a single big man up top is to replace the big man up top with a different version of the same thing.

Anyone could tell you that the number 1 thing lacking in this team is a fast mobile striker with pace who can take on defenders, link up with Giroud.

But we want to forget that, sign Balotelli simply because he's the biggest NAME people can see us possibly getting.

Now Walcott gets injured and we're where exactly?

Arteta - Ramsey
Wilshire - Ozil - Caz
Balotelli

Can no-one see the problem here? Who's going to cross it to Balotelli? Who's the person we were all crying out for who can actually take on a defender?

Who is better that is also available and in our price range? The answer is no one.

ronjo

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Who is better that is also available and in our price range? The answer is no one.

I am available and most likely in the price range.
They do say two out of three aint bad

gosplan

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Who is better that is also available and in our price range? The answer is no one.

Firstly - everybody is in our price range.

Suarez, Sanchez, Grizemann and even Remy would improve our team more than Balotelli.

Maybe Draxler as well?

And that's only from my very limited knowledge of who's available.

gnfnrhead

gosplan wrote: »

Firstly - everybody is in our price range.

Suarez, Sanchez, Grizemann and even Remy would improve our team more than Balotelli.

Maybe Draxler as well?

And that's only from my very limited knowledge of who's available.

It's laughable that you would even include Remy in this topic.

Suarez would be an amazing signing but Liverpool have no reason to sell which means it would take Ronaldo/Bale type money for them to even consider it. It's a non starter unless he comes out and says he wants to leave which also won't happen.

I'm a fan of Giroud, but Balotelli is a great player and would improve our team a lot. He would be a steal at somewhere around the £20-25m mark. He is also well able to play in England. We can't say that about the likes of Draxler. They could easily fail to adapt.

Topbike77

gosplan wrote: »

Firstly - everybody is in our price range.

Suarez, Sanchez, Grizemann and even Remy would improve our team more than Balotelli.

Maybe Draxler as well?

And that's only from my very limited knowledge of who's available.

Suarez, Sanchez, Grizemann yes! Remy more than Balo, no way

emergingstar

We need a scanhez or remy more than mario I agree

gosplan

gnfnrhead wrote: »

It's laughable that you would even include Remy in this topic.

Suarez would be an amazing signing but Liverpool have no reason to sell which means it would take Ronaldo/Bale type money for them to even consider it. It's a non starter unless he comes out and says he wants to leave which also won't happen.

I'm a fan of Giroud, but Balotelli is a great player and would improve our team a lot. He would be a steal at somewhere around the £20-25m mark. He is also well able to play in England. We can't say that about the likes of Draxler. They could easily fail to adapt.

OK first, I'm not at all saying Remy is better than Balotelli. Just he would add something we don't have that might improve the team overall a bit more. But granted Remy isn't that great - maybe a step too far.

There's players out there is kind of the point. Why don't we just pick one and go for it?

Our highest wage increased for around 100K to 150K with Ozil. Why not just identify the player that would improve us most, put in a proper bid for them, and offer them big wages?

There's got to be a player out there like Lavezzi(I know PSG actually wouldn't sell at all) or Suarez or Sanchez or Grizemann who's head we could turn.

For me the whole point about the move and the years of financial restrictions is that we are now able to go out and get the players we really want.

The days having to rely solely on smart purchases like Caz/Pod/Mert or bringing through youth players should be more or less over.

Our team really really needs a LWF and we have a **** tonne of money.

Hopefully Wenger thinks like this.

Edited to include: I mean can anyone really think of anything better to do with the 'WAR CHEST' than trigger the Suarez (now well publicised) release clause at 70 million and offer him 200K per week? Or offer 35 million for Grizemann and give him 100-150 or whatever it would take?

Fuzzy_Dunlop

I agree that we could certainly do with another wide forward like Sanchez or Griezemann, but we'd still need another striker anyway.

gosplan

Suarez is undeniably a great player.


But seriously, f*ck him.


Has everybody forgot how he and Liverpool led us up the garden path last year? I have a feeling that if it wasn't for his agent getting in touch with us, we would have had Higuain signed last year.

gosplan wrote: »

Edited to include: I mean can anyone really think of anything better to do with the 'WAR CHEST' than trigger the Suarez (now well publicised) release clause at 70 million and offer him 200K per week? Or offer 35 million for Grizemann and give him 100-150 or whatever it would take?

And Gosplan, we apparently did trigger the clause last year. How well did that go for us?

F*ck Suarez.

slingerz

Suarez is out of reach for all English clubs, Liverpool showed that last year.

I reckon its only Real Madrid that could lure Suarez from Liverpool and after last season its only going to be for mega money

Wonda-Boy

Probably touched on already but seriously Mexican keeper Ochoa or whatever his name is for a "FREE" come on Arsene move you Arse!!!!

Pepe LeFrits

gosplan wrote: »

Anyone could tell you that the number 1 thing lacking in this team is a fast mobile striker with pace who can take on defenders, link up with replace Giroud.

Fixed.

We play two wide players and one centre-forward. Our options for the wide positions are Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Rosicky, Gnabry and possibly Campbell. Our options for the CF position are Giroud, Sanogo and possibly Campbell.

It's not hard to see what the priority should be.

gosplan

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Fixed.

We play two wide players and one centre-forward. Our options for the wide positions are Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Rosicky, Gnabry and possibly Campbell. Our options for the CF position are Giroud, Sanogo and possibly Campbell.

It's not hard to see what the priority should be.

I think that's what Wenger meant by the 'with or without Giroud' bit. Players like Higuain or Suarez that he went for last year.

Though they're different players, they could both play off Giroud to the left or up front alone.

Pepe LeFrits

If we're restricting our search to only include strikers who can play with Giroud, then we've got it arseways.

A striker who could move out wide to accommodate Giroud in the centre would be a useful option to have for some games, but considering how many wide options we already have it should in no way be a priority. Getting the best possible CF this summer should be the aim, and if that CF is purely a central player, then so be it.

Ken Shamrock

When you think about the amount of chances Giroud missed this season, and all the wrong decisions he made, we really don't need to buy a wide player, and certainly not another CM, the chances were there, the talent is there, we had injuries as usual, and i give props to Giroud i think he did well, a lot of pressure on him and he bagged 15 PL goals or something? However, with an out an out prolific striker, that 15 becomes close to 30, and that's the difference between us finishing 4th and us finishing 1st.

Mickeroo

Our biggest problem was having no cover up front. Giroud was our only option. Binging in someone better than Giroud but in a similar mould of player is a good thing and tbh, going by most of the strikers we've been linked with that's what Wenger wants to do.

Balo and Giroud wouldn't play much together I suppose but they'd both get into double figures, and as someone else said, if Giroud had converted his chances bter he'd have had 30 goals.

Bring in Balo then get someone pacy for the left and when Theo returns you have two fast players to play off whoever is in the centre.

TimeToShine

When did Suarez' name get added into this conversation? Blowing hot air, he's a Madrid man or he'll stay with Liverpool.

Griezmann is a winger, Draxler is an AM. They do not fit the CF role we are trying to fill. We aren't talking about the LWF position - as far as I'm concerned that is a secondary issue.

If someone wants to name anyone other than Balotelli then please do. Remy is just a slower Walcott with marginally better finishing. In fact, I'd argue if we stuck Walcott up front for an entire season instead of Remy he wouldn't be too off the mark goalwise.

greendom

TimeToShine wrote: »

When did Suarez' name get added into this conversation? Blowing hot air, he's a Madrid man or he'll stay with Liverpool.

Griezmann is a winger, Draxler is an AM. They do not fit the CF role we are trying to fill. We aren't talking about the LWF position - as far as I'm concerned that is a secondary issue.

If someone wants to name anyone other than Balotelli then please do. Remy is just a slower Walcott with marginally better finishing. In fact, I'd argue if we stuck Walcott up front for an entire season instead of Remy he wouldn't be too off the mark goalwise.

We really missed a back up to Walcott for last season though, and bearing in mind that Theo will take a while to get back into his stride, and should be used sparingly for quite a while, Remy would be the ideal back-up/partner.

Ken Shamrock

Didier Drogba,Klaas-Jan Huntelaar,Mario Mandzukic,Carlos Tevez,Karim Benzema,Mario Gomez,Gonzalo Higuain,Stevan Jovetic,Radamel Falcao are all strikers i personally would prefer over Ballotelli, now i'm not saying there all attainable but i'm sure with the right offer at least 5 of them would be willing to come our way, obviously i've left out the definite unattainable's like Aguero Neymar and Suarez

fulmer1984

imagine being a Leeds United fan right now...

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27902486

Dave Hockaday is their new manager, only ever managed Forest Green in the Conference!!

Soups123

fulmer1984 wrote: »

imagine being a Leeds United fan right now...

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27902486

Dave Hockaday is their new manager, only ever managed Forest Green in the Conference!!

They'd have been better going with Timmy 'Wacaday' Mallet

Marty McFly

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

Didier Drogba,Klaas-Jan Huntelaar,Mario Mandzukic,Carlos Tevez,Karim Benzema,Mario Gomez,Gonzalo Higuain,Stevan Jovetic,Radamel Falcao are all strikers i personally would prefer over Ballotelli, now i'm not saying there all attainable but i'm sure with the right offer at least 5 of them would be willing to come our way, obviously i've left out the definite unattainable's like Aguero Neymar and Suarez

Drogba? Jovetic? Huntelaar? Mandzukic? All over Balotelli can I have some of what your smoking?

Ken Shamrock

Marty McFly wrote: »

Drogba? Jovetic? Huntelaar? Mandzukic? All over Balotelli can I have some of what your smoking?

Someone was bound to pick out a few names and say yeah right? but it doesn't negate my point, there are better options than Balotelli and Wenger owes it to the fans to at least try and get them.

fulmer1984

am i the only one who doesnt like Balotelli? seems erratic and not what we need at the club. Wenger seems to go for personality/ attitude of the players he signs more than just potential. cant see it happening but if he does sign, would be interesting to see how he gets on at arsenal. not my cuppa tae anyway

TimeToShine

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

Someone was bound to pick out a few names and say yeah right? but it doesn't negate my point, there are better options than Balotelli and Wenger owes it to the fans to at least try and get them.

The only plausible names on your list are Higuain, Gomez and Mandzukic. Rest are too old and would only be stop gaps. Falcao is unattainable. City have no reason to sell us Jovetic. Huntelaar is crap and would get found out in the premier league like he has in every major competition he's ever played. Higuain won't leave Napoli after a year, Mandzukic is just Giroud Mk.II. That leaves Gomez who has lost form recently and is too similar to Giroud anyway.

Balotelli is 23 and has resale value.

Ken Shamrock

TimeToShine wrote: »

The only plausible names on your list are Higuain, Gomez and Mandzukic. Rest are too old and would only be stop gaps. Falcao is unattainable. City have no reason to sell us Jovetic. Huntelaar is crap and would get found out in the premier league like he has in every major competition he's ever played. Higuain won't leave Napoli after a year, Mandzukic is just Giroud Mk.II. That leaves Gomez who has lost form recently and is too similar to Giroud anyway.

Balotelli is 23 and has resale value.

That's a bit better, although i wouldn't be so quick to assume Higuain and Jovetic are out of the question nor would i dismiss Benzema or Tevez's abilities, Mandzukic is a similar player to Giroud yes but he takes his chances better in my opinion, he seems to be a lot more of a natural poacher than Giroud. I don't think the problem is with Giroud's style, more with his quality on the final ball, so Gomez would be a good option although i agree we could do with some pace through the middle.

astonaidan

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

When you think about the amount of chances Giroud missed this season, and all the wrong decisions he made, we really don't need to buy a wide player, and certainly not another CM, the chances were there, the talent is there, we had injuries as usual, and i give props to Giroud i think he did well, a lot of pressure on him and he bagged 15 PL goals or something? However, with an out an out prolific striker, that 15 becomes close to 30, and that's the difference between us finishing 4th and us finishing 1st.

Ah now, the difference between getting 30 goals and 15 is a huge amount of misses, especially for a lone striker, he probably should have got closer to 20 but the losing of the title shouldnt be placed on him in any ways

gosplan

slingerz wrote: »

Suarez is out of reach for all English clubs, Liverpool showed that last year.

I reckon its only Real Madrid that could lure Suarez from Liverpool and after last season its only going to be for mega money

Yeah probably.

Though the release clause was well publicized which might have been Suarez looking at Madrid a year or two down the line.

But it's difficult for my side of the argument to suggest the exact player that might be available.

What I'm getting at is that we've had our players heads turned over the years and if we look to be a club going places and are prepared to pay well, then surely that's a good use of our cash.

I mean we can wait for the 'fish out of water' transfers like Pod or Caz and try to find the player we need that way, or we can put faith in the development of Campbell but surely it's time to start chasing the players we really need.

Ken Shamrock

astonaidan wrote: »

Ah now, the difference between getting 30 goals and 15 is a huge amount of misses, especially for a lone striker, he probably should have got closer to 20 but the losing of the title shouldn't be placed on him in any ways

It's not a huge amount of misses as much as a small amount of big misses, i watched every single Arsenal game last year and although i dont know the stats i know there were an awful amount of times were i said for **** sake giroud! and thought to myself i wish we had someone else, the supply to our lone striker last year was excellent, more than enough for a world class striker to bag 30 goals.

farna_boy

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

That's a bit better, although i wouldn't be so quick to assume Higuain and Jovetic are out of the question nor would i dismiss Benzema or Tevez's abilities, Mandzukic is a similar player to Giroud yes but he takes his chances better in my opinion, he seems to be a lot more of a natural poacher than Giroud. I don't think the problem is with Giroud's style, more with his quality on the final ball, so Gomez would be a good option although i agree we could do with some pace through the middle.

I pointed out before that Giroud striking ability is not the only problem. His general style doesn't seem to suit the rest of the team or more accurately the team doesn't try to accommodate his style of play.

There was one match in particular that we lost where Giroud had only received something like 6 passes in the final third. Now we all know Giroud has a poor conversion rate but if he is only given the ball 6 times in the final third, there is not a whole lot he can do. Against the same opposition, Suarez had received three times the amount of passes in the final third and of course had scored.

The point is that Suarez has a totally different style to Giroud and so if he had been playing for us in that game, he may have been in a better/different position when he received those 6 passes and so have a better opportunity to score. However, if we get Mandzukic, yes he may be more likely to convert a chance but he is more likely to be in the same position as Giroud and therefore less likely to score.

gosplan

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Fixed.

We play two wide players and one centre-forward. Our options for the wide positions are Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Rosicky, Gnabry and possibly Campbell. Our options for the CF position are Giroud, Sanogo and possibly Campbell.

It's not hard to see what the priority should be.

Granted but i just think the biggest problems in terms of playing ability last year was pace in attack and width.

If Walcott doesn't come back straight away our only wide player with any real experience is Podolski.

Yes, there's Caz and Wilshire but then we're back to playing 5 midfielders with an isolated front man, Giroud or Balotelli or whoever.

Ken Shamrock

farna_boy wrote: »

I pointed out before that Giroud striking ability is not the only problem. His general style doesn't seem to suit the rest of the team or more accurately the team doesn't try to accommodate his style of play.

There was one match in particular that we lost where Giroud had only received something like 6 passes in the final third. Now we all know Giroud has a poor conversion rate but if he is only given the ball 6 times in the final third, there is not a whole lot he can do. Against the same opposition, Suarez had received three times the amount of passes in the final third and of course had scored.

The point is that Suarez has a totally different style to Giroud and so if he had been playing for us in that game, he may have been in a better/different position when he received those 6 passes and so have a better opportunity to score. However, if we get Mandzukic, yes he may be more likely to convert a chance but he is more likely to be in the same position as Giroud and therefore less likely to score.

A great point but how similar are Giroud and Mandzukic as far as positioning goes?? In my opinion Giroud gets himself in fantastic positions most of the time, it's the finishing and decision making that's the problem, i would prefer a different style of striker this year but if i had to choose between Giroud and Mandzukic i would pick Mandzukic and i think it would make a difference.

gosplan

Someone like...

Grizemann
El Sharraway
Muniain
Sanchez
Di Maria

Or someone who can also play up front alone (much harder to find a potential name here) but players of the Lavezzi/Suarez mould.

gandalf

What I like about Balotelli is the fact he is unpredictable and he scores goals in big games. We need a player who keeps the opposition defenders thinking and we really need one who can score against our direct rivals.

The downside is that the UK tabloid press have a hard on for getting at him and they also unfairly target us for criticism. I do believe Arsene is the right manager to get the best out of him and at 23 if things don't work out we should still get a good resale price for him (That'll make the board happy!!!).

shano_88

https://twitter.com/mixedknuts

Good person to follow on twitter. Plots alot of players attributes into radars and its a really good way of seeing a players strengths and weakness's.

Hes also an Arsenal fan and tweets alot about who he thinks Arsenals potential targets should be.

greendom

For me Mandzukic really is a case of the grass always being greener. If we want to double up on the Giroud type role, that's just fine, but anyone expecting an improvement on OG, think again.

astonaidan

Bob.Carcass wrote: »

It's not a huge amount of misses as much as a small amount of big misses, i watched every single Arsenal game last year and although i dont know the stats i know there were an awful amount of times were i said for **** sake giroud! and thought to myself i wish we had someone else, the supply to our lone striker last year was excellent, more than enough for a world class striker to bag 30 goals.

I watched most Arsenal games myself last year, and no the support wasnt enough to get 30 goals, the way ye play means the midfield is always going to be scoring goals, just cause you said **** sake Giroud a few times doesnt really mean he missed 15 goals.
The reason the season finished the way it did, was purely Walcotts and Ramseys injuries along with Ozils.
Giroud was a big plus for ye, just look at his goals, assists general play its madness to think he wasnt