Personally I'm pretty satisfied with our defensive personnel. Fully fit we have a great first team line up and very decent cover. I think the question marks over the new arrivals will evaporate as next season goes on as they will have bedded in by that time. Bringing in Vert would be great, but a luxury that we don't need and would be potentially disruptive. I think our midfield and attack is where we need to strengthen the most. I think bringing in a 'super quality' player in our midfield would allow us to compete on all fronts. Rosicky, Wilshire, Arteta, Song, Coquelin, Ramsey and Goetze would mean that when injuries hit, our opponents would not be let off the hook and our midfield would still be a handful. Winning the Premier league is increasingly down to the squad rather than just the starting line up. I think Poldi and Goetze, along with keeping RVP would be a great summer and would be a prelude to a very exciting season indeed!
Wenger has this tendency to think everything is alright when things are going well. He may look at the form of our current team and think he doesn't need to invest. Hopefully I'll be wrong. I think we only need Podolski to be successful next season. Vert and Goetze are just bonuses. If we buy Goetze then what about Ramsey and Rosicky? If we buy Vert then what about Kos and Merte? I've watched Podolski for many years playing for Germany, he is a world beater.
This is what I fear about Wenger's comments. It sounds suspiciously close to "we will only invest if we find top quality at the right price" which inevitably leads to inaction or bringing in the old or the mediocre. I personally am not convinced Ramsey will develop into a top class midfielder. Real, serious ambition would be to bring in a young player who is already making performances of the highest level and is attracting top clubs as we speak. If we got in at the ground floor and signed Goetze this summer we would have a very exciting midfield which would no doubt allow RVP to express himself fully. Why settle for a player that might (in my opinion won't) be a world class talent when we can get a player who is performing close to that standard already? I just have a feeling that we wouldn't regret it.
You are correct. But I think this year arsene has changed his views. Let's be honest - we cant rely on rvp to have another season like this year. Sure he will be at the club next year (imo he will anyway) but we cant rely on him to not get injured or to have such great form. Espcially after the euros and a long season might tire him out.
You are right but you are saying what others are saying: i.e we are only a few players off being champions again. We have alot of young and talented players and now have some experience too. We do need a few top class players. But it wont be easy. Those players are rare and highly sort after. Wenger will have to work his magic again
I think Ramsey is quality but i'm not sure if his terrible injury has affected his comeback. To be fair, he wasn't the only poor player for us during the season. I remember others like Walcott, Song, Vermaelen, Arshavin etc having dreadful games over the course of our season. The problem is Ramsey gets described as some sort of Fabregas replacement, which isn't fair. He's still young and the type of position he plays is very demanding. As for Goetze coming in, i would welcome it. We definately need a quality injection in our squad if we hope to challenge for the Premiership.
I honestly don't know. You ask that question like you would ask, Would you seriously prefer Ramsey over Messi. Mario Goetz is 19 years old. Ramsey is 21. They play slightly different positions. If I had to answer your question, I would say it depends what system we were playing and who we were playing against. But in our current system our midfielders need to be much more rounded than Goetz who is more of a forward than a midfielder.
I still think we need to replace at least one of Fabregas and Nasri for a creative attacking thrust in our midfield. We've used Ramsey, Arteta and Rosicky mainly to provide it this season, and Song has been providing some incisive passes in a similar way to how Fabregas did. All of those players have had a really valuable contribution this season. But I still feel that we need a top quality attacking midfielder that can unlock defences in the position that Ramsey is occupying. Goetze would be top of my list this summer.
The reason of having a quality squad is for a player of simular ability to step in at any time. We will get injuries/fatigue/loss of form over the course so if we have a player to step in, then we shouldn't turn our backs on it. Remember Wilshere's has missed a whole season, who would have thought that?
Exactly. This is what pisses me off when wenger says player x is coming back and will be like a new signing. it completely ignores the fact that other players will get injured and so we will be no better off. We should expect injuries. In fact we should make it so that whoever gets injuried we can still field a side that can win games. Lets be honest. During this runof form we have been incredibly reliant on rosicky for making the play in the middle. Can we rely on him to be fit next year? I dont think so. We need someone else who can play that position at a top level. Maybe wilshire but I would of thought he is better deeper.
We seem to get major injuries every season. We have to find an adequate striker for RVP, and repeating many others' - a creative midfielder.
Well after 7 years, it's clearly not working so he needs to change his way of thinking. The changes do not have to be big but small tweaks here and there will make all the difference. We are not too far off as it stands but buying a few quality players will be the difference between winning nothing again, to challenging. He surely can't expect the same level of output from RVP again next season? Instead, others should be making a much larger contribution. If our current players do not, then bring someone else who will. Thats what a squad is for!
If we are not far off and only need small tweaks, how come it is not working? Just get real - we are only behind two Manchester clubs. We can not compete with them on the transfer market at the moment. Both are much much bigger and more powerful clubs money-wise. So we are doing quite well. It is clearly working.
I think in our starting 11, we have quite a lot of quality there and in the next few years, we should have one of the best teams in the league. We have some of the best youngsters coming through in Cesney, Wilshere, OXO, Miyaichi, Campbell etc so we are nearly there. I still think we need a few more players to supplement this. Take a look at Manure's squad and it's probably one of the worst i've seen in quite some time, but they are still top!
It is working. 3rd is over achieving. However with a few clever buys in the summer we will have a better team and squad than anyone in england. That includes man utd, city and chelsea. They can throw their money around but it wont help them. Look at barca. They are top class with players they have bought through. We have young players who have in a large part grown up at arsenal and form a solid core of players. We just need to add 1 or 2 extra.
