Top of the morning to yall
Arsenal head into the next couple of weeks and very though
couple of weeks indeed with a squad that is desperately in need of strengthening.
For one, we have only one recognisable striker in the club after the loan move
of Marouane Chamakh to West Ham – thank God for that – who seem to be desperately
struggling for consistent form not to mention that Gervinho would be leaving
for AFCON 2013.
Our next games are Man City, Swansea, Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool.
That is 5 games in 2 weeks. You can make that 6 if we get through the FA Cup
third round replay against Swansea next Wednesday.
We desperately need reinforcements. Giroud is our only
striker and needs support. Walcott to me is and will remain a winger and am
sure if this contract standoff passes, we would see him returned to that role
on the right side of attack where he really belongs.
Santi Cazorla has barely missed a game since the season
started and his heavy legs has been evident in his performances in the last
couple of games where he simply drifts out of action and doesn't impact games
as we would expect and so is Mikel Arteta, and these players desperately need a
breather. This problem is further compounded by the lack of faith of the
manager in using other squad players. Franscis Coquelin for example should be
deputising for Mikel Arteta in certain games but Wenger just don’t seem to have
the confidence to play him.
The January transfer window is a golden opportunity to strengthen
the squad in those places where we are deficient and except a rabbit is going
to be pulled from a hat, a signing looks less likely at the moment.
Our pursuit of Barcelona star, David Villa seem to have hit
the rocks after the president claimed that he won’t be moving especially in the
winter and hence we would have to wait till the summer of 2013 to sign him (if
we are still interested). But what happens to the squad before then? The next
couple of weeks would go a long way in defining the rest of our season and
getting through with this crop of players without backup seems like walking a
tight rope with a crocodile infested river below.
Its 9 days into the transfer window and to be a little more dramatic,
we are in the second week of the transfer window and hence have just above 2
weeks to go and we are still expecting our first signing and we all would admit
that we need to strengthen in more than one position and as such, we need to
act fast.
The fact that we don’t know the direction where the club are
heading on this issue makes it more frustrating and this coupled with the fact
that one should never believe what Arsene says when it comes to transfers makes
it irritating. The fans are perpetually left in the dark and have only the
rumour mongers of social networks and creative journalist as our only
companions during the transfer window. In fact, those people have a field day
at our expense.
What we need is for the club to show a sense of purpose and
direction. I am not asking them to air their targets before they are signed,
but the manner with which Chelsea completed the Demba Ba signing can be taken a
cue from. They had their target, and everyone knew they were interested as
virtually every paper picked up on the trail before the deal was done. They made
their offer and the player was signed barely 3 days into the transfer window. That's
what we want and not a myriad of players being linked to the club without an
iota of truth in them.
Personally, I believe we need to sign at least 3 quality
players one centre back, one defensive midfielder and a striker to push our
quest for our holy grail (fourth place league finish) and probably a trophy.
I strongly believe that quality new players would improve
our season and not only provide good competition for the current bunch of
players but also get the best out of the current lot. I also want to believe
that the club are doing all their best to sign those players that would give us
something to cheer at the end of the season, but we have to act fast, to
improve our squad and give us a push for the second half of the season.
You can follow me on twitter on @nigeriangunners and I would
be glad to follow back and reply your comments.
God bless the Arsenal
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