If You’re Wenger, Who Would You Sign in January?
Arsene Wenger is a manager that has been heavily criticized this season for his ‘failings’ in the transfer market as the Gunners have consistently struggled due to the paucity of options in key positions this campaign. We all know that the manager is someone that takes a considerable amount of time to think through the players he wants to sign and as always, that player has to be for the ‘right price’.
The Gunners have crashed out of the Capital One Cup at the first hurdle and their Premier League title challenge has gone up in flames as well so the best shot of silverware this season can come from the FA Cup and well, the Champions League *gulp*. Hey, as long as you’re still in a competition, you have a chance of winning it. -____-
It’s only fair to take some time to analyze Arsenal’s new recruits this season before thinking about who could join the pack.
When Lukasz Fabianski joined the club on the back of an exemplary record in the Polish League, many felt that he would be a good understudy to Manuel Almunia. After some consistent errors from the Spanish goalie, Fabianski became the club’s No. 1 but injuries paved the way for Wojciech Szczesny and he hasn’t looked back ever since. With Wenger clearly favoring the younger Pole over Fabianski, the goalie was limited to domestic cup matches and will be forever remembered for his heroics against Wigan in the semis of last season’s FA Cup.
With the goalie leaving for Swansea in search of first team football, Arsenal signed the Colombian shot stopper, David Ospina, but his constant niggling injury problems has made the fans not to watch him on a consistent basis. Even when Szczesny was out for a couple of games, Arsenal had to count on a young goalie, Emiliano Martinez, and he performed admirably. At least, Wenger now has a selection headache on who his No. 2 goalie will be when Ospina and Martinez are fit.
Moving further up the pitch, Matt Debuchy has been a perfect replacement for the departed Bacary Sagna and his early season performances were top notch before his bizarre injury in the game against Manchester City. Since his return to full fitness, Debuchy played for over an hour in the dead-rubber match against Galatasaray before playing as a center back, yes, center back, in the 4-1 drubbing of his former employers, Newcastle. Many fans expressed their doubts when they saw the Frenchman line up beside Per Mertesacker but he put up a great performance. With Calum Chambers returning from his suspension, Debuchy is odds on to return to his favored right back position.
Speaking of Chambers, that young lad has been a revelation since signing for what seemed to be a ‘huge’ transfer fee. Whether at center back or right back, the guy has been damn consistent but from time to time, his inexperience is usually exposed and he has a penchant for picking up cards. At 19, he has a lot to learn and this club would give him the right platform to excel.
Then there’s the awesome incredible fantastic inhuman beastly OMG Alexis Sanchez. Alexis Sanchez Alexis Sanchez Alexis Sanchez is just the Alexis Sanchez definition of the word amazing Alexis Sanchez. Okay, I’m getting carried away but hey you can’t blame me.
On transfer deadline day, the Gunners signed that guy, Danny Welbeck from Manchester United and his arrival was met with mixed opinions from the fans. The lad has been playing well this season and he has gotten in on the scoring act as well but it’s clear that he’s one for the future, even if he’s doing great right now.
Despite these five great signings (yeah, Ospina is great too), the Gunners are still short of numbers in some positions and the club’s injury nightmares haven’t stop yet.
So if you’re Arsene Wenger, who would you sign in January?
Sayonara
Posted on December 19, 2014, in Arsenal, Football, Premier League, Transfer Gossip and tagged Arsenal, Football, Premier League. Bookmark the permalink. 23 Comments.
If I were Wenger I would sign a Centre Back and Defensive Midfielder. I.e Winston Reid and Sami Khedira.
Winston Reid has performed well for West Ham this season. Will they allow such an asset leave in January?
As for Khedira, I don’t know if he’s what we need at DM. He’s more box to box than DM
If iwas Wenger iwill sign cech ,Steven Reid,mings, schniederlind ,and howedes in January
In summer I will buy brnzema and pogba
and selling ozil.
Howedes, Mings, and Reid? Isn’t that too much bearing in mind that we already have some center backs in the club
Sell meresacker and monrea
Lol. But two of them haven’t been that bad. Maybe Per
Mings is currently playing as a left back for Ipswich .our left back Gibbs is injury prone , monreal is useless he has lot of weakness and will be exploited by other clubs.so sell him and buy mings.
Fair point. But Mings is unproven at the top level football. Monreal has not been useless this season. He has even played better than Per
Pogba, Cavani and Howedes. Reid is overrated.
I have serious doubts of Pogba and Cavani leaving in January. Maybe Howedes
Benzena is better than cavani for arsenal now we have welbeck and giroud both can play centrally .benzema can play in the wing as we saw in the world cup, if we sign cavani ,welbeck will be pushed towards the wing so we can’t get the full potential out of him.cavani might cost 50 million euro and he is 28,benzema is 26 and might cost only 40 million euro.
Benzema is in the form of his life at Real Madrid. He’s also their No. 1 striker following the sale of Higuain. I don’t believe they’d sell him
Reid and Schneiderlin or that Polish DM from the spanish league(sevilla or valencia)?
I like Morgan Schneiderlein. He would be a perfect fit for us
Due to financial fairplay rules they are going to sell there valuable assets benzema and bale might leave there by they can sign
aguero and hazard.im sure benzema will leave like Sanchez escaped from the shodaow of messi .benzema will escape from cr7s shadow.
Nice analogy in terms of players escaping from shadows. I’ve always admired Benzema.
Hey , the game against sawanse
we lost due to their vulnerability , he played as a stopper their , yes he was better .but per and nacho are not all consistent.mings can play as a second fiddle along Gibbs and he can play as astopper too.I’m suggesting along with mings sign howedes he is able to switch positions.lots of experience.which can help the youngsters.
I agree with you on consistency. Our defender’s have struggled with that all season long
For me with 2 upcoming transfer windows.we should sign Steven ried, howedes, mings,schniederlin,sissoko or pogba,benzema,and sell nacho,per,and ozil(he don’t track back enough).loan out Campbell,
the best buy would be Pogba and all our problems will go away
Pogba is a highly sought after player. I don’t think we can challenge the likes of Man City et al if we try to sign and they’re interested
Believe if pogba is available Wenger will sign.like he signed ozil.im sure he wont leave old lady for man city.
Well he’s not available. It’s really hard signing players in January