After watching Arsenal’s fragile-as-glass midfield and defence repeatedly giving away cheap goals these last few seasons and most of this preseason, it’s obvious to anyone now wearing blinders that buying a defensive/holding midfielder is an absolute MUST – that is if we want a cat’s chance in hell of lifting a trophy next season. To keep it simple, we’re too nice, and the worst part is that every good team knows it as they go straight for the jugular every time.
We have to sort out this mess quickly. I mean we bloody well have to buy a proper nasty, horrible, tough tackling pain in the arse Vieira/Keane like player who teams won’t want to play against and will be scared to face. Easier said then done, right? Who would fit that bill? To me it’s obvious! The 25-year old Belgian, Marouane Fellaini, has been plying his trade at Everton, and given his style would fit like a glove.
At 6’4″, Fellaini offers gerat size in the middle of the pitch (which we lack outside of Diaby) and as a player who puts himself about, hassling and tackling, he would allow the likes of the Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to create and damage teams instead of them trying to do things that are not their true qualities. Fellaini would be fantastic at both ends of the pitch on corners/free kicks – how many times did we see him get a head on the ball off a corner last season? Fellaini is in my opinion is a MUST have, and at around 23 million in this crazy transfer market, it would be fair, in fact very fair indeed.
To be honest, I really cannot understand why his still at Everton? Why hasn’t David Moyes brought him for United? And for us Gooners, why has Wenger not stepped in? Does he think he’s not good enough on the ball? Perhaps too slow on the ball for our passing game? Everton keep possession well so it can’t be that! Is his temperament too dodgy? Yes, he’s livewire, but that’s what we bloody need in the middle of the park. Maybe he is simply too expensive? The way money is in football, just over 20 million is a football bargain. So I’m left shaking my head, as I just don’t know why he hasn’t been discussed in recent weeks.
So that’s one problem solved, the next one is finding a top quality striker. Giroud is a fine player, and has potential, but surely we can’t expect to challenge the likes of City, United and Chelsea on a hunch. So, we have been discussing over the past two weeks whether Luis Suarez is coming. He has his suitcases full of baggage that I don’t wish to discuss again, but indisputable that when his mind is on the game, he has world class ability. More than that, his game suits our passing style of football perfectly.
As great as it sounds, to be honest I just can’t see it happening. And with Gonzalo Higuian and Stevan Jovetic both off the market, and Rooney looking very unlikely to be available, then sadly all our eggs seem in the Luis Suarez basket, which is unluckily for us in the hands of Liverpool FC. It’s a really crappy position to be in, but we got ourselves in into this mess by not acting quickly enough (even though both Wenger and the Board acknowledged the importance of acting early in the window). Yo Yo Sanogo might be quality, but he’s still a kid and next season will come too early.
So Mr. Wenger, first step up and sign Fellaini, then we will collectively cross our fingers, toes and whatever else in hopes of signing a world class striker like Suarez.
So until next time, Up the Gunners!
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