Your points would be true as being 'positives' if Giroud was being used as a backup squad striker. But he isn't.
I expect he will be at some point during the four years left of his contract. Obviously this season it's him and Welbeck fighting it out for the spot but who knows who we will sign after that.
But he isn't. He's first choice. You're basing your positive outcome of Giroud's abilities on the assumption we'll a) sign a world class striker (and why haven't we yet?) making Giroud backup AND b) AW having any tactical clue how to best use a world class striker (he's not exactly let our other two world class signings consistently shine in his system so far) Do you see both (a) and (b) happening?
I remember Wenger mentioning that he was in for another striker, whether it was in response to Giroud not being good enough to be our first choice or to get him more motivated is debatable. The urgency isn't clearly there with him getting another CF, but this may change next season if our CF options do not live up to his expectations. I think the striker(s) he wanted weren't available and we know that he likes what he likes, especially if its for a big money move. If say Benzema was available then he would have jumped at the chance. I think he would have gone for Cavani and Falcao if they were financially more favourable.
It's a convenient and cop-out excuse to make for AW to say that his targets weren't available. Top class strikers were available. He didn't sign one. AW transfers are such painfully long and drawn out affairs. Just bloody identify someone class and pay for them.
I'm saying it's a good move to sign him up to a contract as he has proved his worth and is a good option to have in the squad. It also makes financial sense as he is the sort of player that we could get a decent fee for when we decide to sell him on. Neither your a or b have to happen for my point to be valid. Everyone is just assuming that giroud signing a contract means he is going to remain first choice for the duration of his contract.
But were they targets Wenger wanted? I agree we should have gone n for a top striker but Wenger has his targets...
He's 28 and merely quite good... we're not going to get a decent fee for him whatever because he'll be 30+ by the time he moves and he'll move to a club like Villa or Everton at best (if he does ever move). I'm not slating the signing of a new contract. But the entire news is just 'meh'. He hasn't proved his worth. Unless his worth is just 'meh'. He hasn't pushed us on from what we were doing before he arrived. We were finishing 4th before him... we're still finishing 4th. We got nowhere in the CL before him... we still get nowhere in the CL.
But my point is that it's absurd that AW has this ready made excuse in the first place. He fixates on bizarrely specific (and often completely unrealistic) targets which he'll never get then sign no-one simply because his one and only target wasn't available. Either that or he'll underbid then say that there was nothing he could do.
But that's Wenger for you. We know how he works and he lives by his methods. Let's just hope that Welbeck turns out to be something special, if not, i hope we get that new CF next season.
I like Giroud and he's scored some important goals for us but if we want to raise our aspirations, we need to be upgrading players like him, Arteta and Flamini.
Sometimes I wonder why he doesn't revert to his older style of play since his early more successful Arsenal tenure.
Has he changed much though? From his early days? I think its more a case of football being more tactical these days than it used to be. I mean, 15 years ago, everyone played 4-4-2, you might have seen the odd 4-5-1 in there but that was about as far as it got formation wise. These days there are any number of weird and wonderful formations and tactics that managers deploy. 4-3-3 became popular in the mid 2000's, these days it even worse, with 4-2-3-1 and 3-2-3-2 and all sorts of weird ****. Jose did play a hand in that, he was the first manager (as far as I am aware, unless someone can prove me wrong) to successfully deploy a 4-3-3 formation and win multiple trophies with it. Until 2004 the PL was ALL about the 4-4-2 I dont remember much talk of Number 10's and false 9's and all that **** in my youth, not in England anyway. It was always 2 rows of 4 and 2 upfront, usually a little and large combo.
You're right things have moved on from rigid formations of the past, but I was referring to the point of us playing with power and pace, which is distinctly absent nowadays. We can play our 4-2-3-1 formation, but having a strong DM with fast paced front runners, can be achieved. Wenger seems to have completely ditched our fast paced/power game with pass pass pass.....Even with fast players like OXO, Sanchez and Welbeck (Walcott injured), we are still playing too slowly.
Win, lose or whatnot, this should be Wengers last season at Arsenal. What is clear is that he is not the man who can take you forward. He should move upstairs to a board position and let someone else take over as manager/coach. With FFP causing setbacks to the big spending clubs, and United (your only financial betters) on the wane and in the doldrums, this is Arsenals window to get ahead of the pack.......a chance you will waste, I am afraid, if Wenger is left in charge.
Agreed, and I think the majority believe the same on this board. It's clear that he should have left a few years back, but the fear of dropping out of top 4 and our financial constraints has caused this dependency on Wenger. The sad thing is, the board missed a trick with not bringing in a new manager, especially after Wenger won the FA cup. It would have been a good way for him to bow out with a trophy under his belt and leaving Arsenal in a strong position.
It's better than 1 in 3 but sorry yes not 1 in 2. I wouldn't disagree about that assessment of Giroud in big games.
