Your Vision Your Vision - Will Arsene go back to French connections for success?
Written by Paraigh Burke on Saturday, 04 June 2011 11:28
Arsenal have signed a lot of French players since Arsene Wenger joined the club.Many of the best players the club has signed in that time are French Henry, Pires, Vieira*, Petit and Sagna being the top ones. The positions that need to be strengthened now are centre back, left back, centre midfield, left wing and up front according to most fans and critics. Arsene Wenger is a very respected and trusted man in France, he enjoys good relations with most clubs in France and many of the national teams senior players. Is it time to use those connections again?
At centre back we need a physically dominating centre back many have linked us with Mahamadou Sahko who is by all accounts a beast, he would cost a lot but at 20 has a long and trophy laden future in football. Surely A man of Wenger's standing could negotiate the fee to under the 20m asking price. Clichy may be leaving and that may or may not be a bad thing at 26 he is still making the same mistakes he did 5 years ago and his final ball isn't improving. Gibbs looks like the heir to Ashley Cole's Arsenal and England throne but needs more experience. France's current left back Eric Abidal is hugely experienced only has a couple of good years left and is a world class defender.Why would he leave Barca? they have shown an interest in Clichy before, and a player swap + 5m sounds good for Clichy.Abidal is ageing and wouldn't stand in the way of Gibbs when he is ready to step up.
"No cover for Song in midfield and a general lack of height and strength in the side" not a direct quote but sums up the feeling of many.Alou Diarra, much improved since his Liverpool days(if they even count) he is 6'3 and tends to dominate any midfield, captain of the very successful Bordeux team of the last 3 years and captain of France since Blanc took over 29 and has experience in a few different leagues around Europe. A buy-out clause of 7.75m euro roughly £6m would be worth it. Another option for this position is Mahamadou Diarra formerly of Real Madrid now at Monaco at little more experienced and technically better but a year older and far more injury prone, could be available on a free considering Monaco's relegation. M Diarra is a Mali international but may or may not be retired from international football. Both Diarras are born leaders who captain club and country.
Every football fan wants a superstar signing for their team not sure if Arsenal really need one but hey there's a couple of French ones we could sign. Left wing could be pretty bare if (hopefully)Arshavin and (hopefully not) Nasri depart. A player we were outbided for not too long ago Frank Ribery had a pretty poor season at Bayern after lets just say personal problems. a couple of years ago he was arguably the best player in Europe as Bayern made it to the Champions league final. He would cost a fortune but is perfectly suited to the premier league.
A well rumoured signing is Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, I really like Benzema and see him as a replacement of Thierry Henry not just in goals but style he drifts to the left wing often to pick up the ball has a great turn of pace and brilliant first touch also a clinical finisher and a threat in the air. Many Arsenal fans would love to see an imitation of the Henry Bergkamp front line that brought us so much success.
Now I'm sure a few Arsenal fans might not like us signing half the French team but 2 of these players coming in would be a great summer of business for Arsenal.I'd like to see Sakho and A Diarra coming in to add to the squad we have hopefully Nasri and Clichy stay(and improve in Clichy's case). If we spent 16m on Sakho and 6m on Diarra while recouping 20m for the sales of Bendtner, Denilson, Rosicky and Arshavin we could still afford Falcao :p
I always find it a dangerous game to list a collection of players who could do a job for Arsenal because Arsenal go through such a thorough process before making a move for players, mainly first team players. This is probably the reason why we do not tend to waste as much money as the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham have done in recent times.
I know that many players are scouted around the world and our scouts watch these players for a long period of time before a dossier of the player is compiled and then given to the manager to make his decision.
I get the feeling that we do not often deviate away from our targets and when Arsene has let a transfer window go by without a signing, his version of not finding better than what we have could be closer to 'not being able to purchase one of his targets passed on from our scouts' instead of any player in the world.
You make a good point about Alex Song and his lack of cover. With the likely departure of Denilson away from the club you would expect that one of Wenger's top priorities will be a defensive midfielder to supplement at least two quality youngsters we have in Frimpong and Coquelin. Both players showing great promise but I do not see Wenger seeing them as the next best option in such an important season especially with Alex Song going away in January for the ACN. Who that player should be is anyone's guess but I would like to see a player with the right character come into that area. Technically good, mentally strong and a fighter. In fact, I want those attributes to be part of any player that comes to Arsenal this summer.
As for the rest, it is almost impossible to say. Because a) we do not know exactly who will be leaving the club and b) how those departures will impact the restructuring of the system and approach.
If I were to hazard a guess then I would say that we will see new faces in almost every area of the squad. Perhaps not a goalkeeper, unless Vito Mannone leaves the club. If Squillaci is moved on, (which is not really the norm in a first season at Arsenal) then perhaps Arsene will be after another center back. An attacking wide player who can play centrally would be advantageous, especially if Bendtner is moved on.
It is hard for us fans to know which players will be suitable because we often do not know the characters, attitudes, wage demands, price tags, current happiness etc of these players.
What is for certain is that, it will be a very busy summer ahead.
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