Gunner be Honest – No room for Sentimentality Ospina Sorry
2 Cups in 2 Years so what do we need to win League?
After securing a second consecutive FA Cup triumph on May 30th, the foundations are undoubtedly in place to mount a serious title challenge next season, provided of course, a few additions are made in key areas, an all too familiar story in recent seasons.
The noticeable difference this summer however, is that we are now a team that has begun to demonstrate a new found ability to consistently win trophies in conjunction with offering regular Champions League football, boasting an attractive style of play and having sufficient financial resources that enable us to attract recognised world class players such as Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez from the two biggest clubs in football, Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, which make us a very attractive proposition for potential signings despite the greater wealth on offer elsewhere at home and abroad.
2 World Class talents in 2 season but who is needed now
A lot of debate has taken place amongst supporters regarding what areas of the squad should be the focus of our summer transfer activity but to me, it is relatively straightforward what business needs to be done. The biggest story doing the rounds is that Petr Cech is on his way and it’s not the rumour that I’m finding difficult to believe but the fact some Arsenal supporters are saying they don’t want him and that he’s a Chelsea cast off, he may be their second choice but that’s more to do with them having two world class goalkeepers and unsurprisingly siding with the man ten years Cech’s junior.
Current first choice David Ospina may have made few mistakes that have led directly to goals, although I personally felt he should have done better with Kane’s first at White Hart Lane, Swansea’s winner at the Emirates and West Brom’s consolation in our final home game where another tame effort almost ended up in the net following some very poor handling, but it is his inability to command his area to take the pressure of the team that has caused me frequent concern and I’m of the opinion that we’ve been fortunate that his weak punches haven’t cost us further.
There have been numerous occasions during the season where I have felt we are crying out for a taller and more physically imposing goalkeeper, at 6ft 5in Cech would certainly give us a far greater presence, who is able to claim aerial balls into the box with ease instead of replicating Ospina’s attempts that resemble some form of mid-air doggy paddle crossed with a bizarre aerobics routine, sadly he is a steady number two and not a top class number one.
Nick happy to carry Ospina to Turkey if Cech arriving!!
A few Arsenal supporters have offered to drive Ospina to his new club if we land Cech, however, I’d be happy to go one step further and personally carry him to his next destination such is my desire to see a considerable improvement between the posts.
With goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts having departed for Swansea, it would seem that Cech, who will bring with him a wealth of experience, natural leadership and perhaps most crucially, a winning mentality, will be joined by his personal coach Christophe Lollichon in North London which could be a double coup if he is able to help the development of the clubs younger goalkeepers.
Loan to where it all started to go wrong?
As far as Szczesny is concerned, I have always had faith in his ability but believe he needs to spend a season out on loan at another top flight English club, Southampton being the obvious solution with Fraser Forster out with a long term injury, in order to demonstrate that he’s finally able to overcome his concentration issues that have caused his career to stagnate.
In the defensive positions I’d like to see Chambers and Jenkinson loaned out for the season both on the understanding that they play regular first team football at centre back due to Chambers lacking the pace to play as a full back and Jenkinson potentially having the attributes to be developed into a useful option in the role.
CC Loan to progress and return stronger?
Whilst Chambers showed promise in his early performances but once he was played out of position at right back his form deteriorated and I think a season of regular first team football would assist his progression more than a few games here and there or substitute appearances for us would.
This would of course leave us a player light so I’d like to see a versatile defender such as Toby Alderweireld or Benedikt Howedes to be brought in.
Along with the goalkeeping position the one I consider to be an equal priority is the defensive midfield one, whilst Coquelin performed brilliantly there last season and gave the side a far better shape, he’s only played a handful of games and we can’t be entirely sure of how effective he will be in his second season or know whether he will suffer a long term injury which would put us back to where we were at the start of last season so adding another option for this role is vital.
One of the 2 Saints to compete with Coquelin please
The stand out solution for me based on having monitored his development since his early Sevilla days, was Geoffrey Kondogbia who has now sadly completed a move to Inter Milan for a rumoured £22m, who despite a lack of Premier League experience would have been my preferred choice to Schneiderlin at a similar cost due to him being the more powerful and aggressive Player, two attributes that I feel we would benefit from should he be added to our squad so to see him end up elsewhere is a huge disappointment.
Alternative options worth consideration are Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho, very impressive against England’s under 21 side recently, and Southampton’s Victor Wanyama despite his likely participation in the Africa Cup of Nations every two years causing disruption to his club commitments.
Despite the improvement shown in the finishing and movement of Walcott at the end of last season, I’d like another forward brought in despite us now having a number of players in the side who are able to score ten or more goals a season, Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck, Chamberlain and Walcott, a truly world class forward would of compliment them.
The Cavani form from Napoli would improve us
I appreciate that a player on the same level of Aguero or Suarez is very difficult if not impossible to find, however, I’d be happy to see us to take a gamble on Edison Cavani who has the potential to be a superb addition if we could get him showing the form he displayed during his time at Napoli….
Nick Birch – Gunner Be Honest
A 31 year old lifelong Arsenal fan who prides himself on his honesty, some supporters may call him negative but he prefers the term realistic. A newcomer to the blogging scene after penning numerous ‘Dear Arsene Wenger’ letters on his Facebook account which were met with both praise and the encouragement to write his own blog from fellow Arsenal supporters who felt his words summed up their own feelings perfectly.
Let us know if Nick should become a regular and we will try and persuade him!!
Real sense Nick. Without another DM we can predict Wenger saying for the 10th season in a row, ‘we have been so unlucky with injuries’. Has Wenger forgot ALL our league success was with Viera/Petit, Viera/Gilberto, TWO strong men protecting our defence and then turning defense into attack. With Khedira and Kondogbia with other teams and Wenger saying he will not buy, Scnederlin, Imbula or Vidal, I thing Wenger cannot control his ‘Demons’, (his word about himself). The season can now be 65 games without internationals. How the **** can Coquelin play 65 games. What upsets me is Wenger promises to buy before the end of the season and then his ‘Demons’ do totally differently. Mourinho may be proved right this year. Because we are alway two players short of a challenging team, Wenger has become a success at failure in the league. His ‘demons’ control him
Well said your conserns are the same ones i have after listening in depth at the press confrence he gave shortly after our FA cup triumph.
yes i agree e need a world class striker and as said the cavanni og hid Napoli days would fit the bill. If wecould get himon the relitavly cheap he might be worth a punt as i feel he has been crushed at psg trying to play with ibra who has a massive personality, but. I must say my preferance would be Benzema out of the two as i feel Cavanni is overpriced when you think it would take a season for him to feel loved and get his confidence back
Agree with that pretty much word for word Nick, excellent article and if your still learning the ropes then I can’t wait to see what else you can come up with.
The description of Ospina coming for crosses cracked me up but it’s very accurate.
I don’t agree with some of the sh*t you have written. If cech wasn’t available, wouldn’t you take ospina as your number 1. You focus on his mistakes and not his saves(even chelshit’s goalie made a mistake that lead to a goal,and dis is a keeper arguably better than ospina). You want jenkison and chambers to go on loan and we shld get another defender to replace them,when dey come back from loan 1 year later,where are we gonna put them or do we sell them off. P.S- shity writer,too negative.
Mad max what a very apt name why are you accusing the bloger of writing sh*t and No we would most certainly not I would hope take flappy Ospina as our number one i would be looking as others are at the likes of Asmir Begovic Even Tim Krul who with no defence or midfield has been decent
Well it had to find anything much the old man has done right? ok he tripped over due to injuries a CDM who we have needed since Gilburto Silva went in what 2007
As for defenders they are always needed the two mentioned to go out on loan one to recover from the old mans idiocy in playing the boy well out of position and the other is get experiance as a CB BFG and KAs wont always be around BFG is getting towards hanging his boots up now i would say Although i could if i wanted to blame the old man for that since if he had bothered to look at ant german team vidios he would see that BFG was always protected so if you are going to criticise a bloger at least tear the blog apart and not the person
Thank you for the feedback, as expected some positive comments and some negative.
Firstly Sean, I have to admit that I share your concerns with regards whether Wenger will recognise that we need another defensive midfielder player of a higher caliber than both Flamini and Arteta because it’s taken him so long to find or stumble upon Coquelin, depending on your view point, for the record mine is the latter but I won’t go into that at this stage.
Alex, Benzema would be a great addition but I think Cavani is more likely to be available than he is, unless of course Madrid bring someone else in.
Mad Max, you are obviously a negative person as I noticed you chose to focus on certain points in my blog that you perceive to be of a negative nature instead of a number of very positive comments I made, I’ll give you a helping hand on finding them, we are starting to show that we can consistently win trophies, play attractive football, have world class players in Ozil and Sanchez, need I go on?
I mention loaning out defenders because I feel it will help their development but perhaps for your benefit I should also have mentioned that in a years time both a Mertesacker and Debuchy will be in their 30’s so it could be the right time to look to move them on….
As for Ospina, I have never been a fan since the first time I saw him play so my thought process about him needing to be repaced is not a knee jerk reaction to Cech being available but as he is, signing him is a no brainer.
Thank you for calling me a shitty writer in a post that has to swear as well as displaying poor grammar, interesting…..
Nick,maybe I shouldn’t have called you that or swore at you(my mama taught me better than that). Sorry. I read your post again and coupled with your explanations in the reply it isn’t as negative as I thought. I still do not agree with you concerning ospina. I think he did try and is a better goalkeeper than Szczesny considering there is just a year between them. Ospina deserves at least another year, as the no2,I wouldn’t mind.
Gracious my friend. Top man
Mad Max, your apology is accepted and I do appreciate feedback whether positive or negative just as long as it’s constructive.
I do disagree with you about Ospina however and I’m more than happy to expand on my reasoning should you be interested, I just kept my original article as concise as possible although I of course expected to be quizzed about a few points….