Well, with the shocking news that Robin Van
Persie does not want to sign a new contract with Arsenal and claiming that the
club and himself disagree on which way the club should move forward, Initially
this has led us to believe that he feels we aren't strengthening the club in
the right way or are not looking to buy any more players. But with RVP set to
leave, the irony is that we will have to strengthen our team,
and strengthen the team we will. We will have to find a replacement
for him as soon as possible, and not leave it to literally the last day of the
transfer window. But who, who is worthy of being Arsenal's main striker or even
who will do battle with the other strikers at the club? Jovetic? Lewandowski?
Both are great players and I personally would love to have big Lew at the
club as he has shown he can score in big tournaments in front of his home
nation, shown that he is capable of scoring 30 goals in a season so I feel he
would be a great replacement. But none of these players would be more fitting
for Arsenal to buy than Papiss Cisse. We all saw the brilliance he
displayed last season, and that amazing goal he scored against Chelsea, and he
has proven that he can play well and score and effectively dominate in the best
league in the world. But I feel it would be hard to make Newcastle part with
their Senegalese hit man. Forwards that we should look to are Klass-Jan
Huntelaar, Moussa Sow and if we're lucky, even Higuain or Mario Gomez.
Not forgetting that we already have a
wealth of striking options in Lukas Podolski and Giroud who are both quality
players and I’m sure you all saw Podolski's performances at the Euro's. Giroud
is also a quality striker who is in a few ways similar to Chamakh but is
definitely a more proven striker than the Moroccan. With Walcott possibly
following RVP out of the door, we do have players like the Ox to really fill in
for his position, and also Gervinho, so for Arsenal's attack it is certainly
not all doom and gloom, but Mr Wenger should act quickly to snap up all of his
targets.
On the goalkeeping
and defensive front, if Fabianski and Mannone leave then it wouldn’t be too bad
if Lloris comes in, and he is apparently close to coming to the club. But I
believe this could have two effects on Szczesny, one of them being he could be
demoralised by the club having another world-class keeper in the side who would
greatly challenge his position. Or it could spur him on to play even better to
stay in the side, but I wouldn’t personally want to effect Szczesny's career in
this way, but we would need a back up keeper, and none of these keepers would
want to sit on the bench. In defence I feel we are pretty strong, but if we
could get perhaps Debuchy just as a back up player then it would be most
welcome. The midfield i believe is fine, but we could buy a more creative midfielder, but with Song working so well last season and Wilshere coming back we may not need to.
So in all I don't
believe its all bad for Arsenal, we really just need strength in depth. RVP leaving could be good for us, as when
Henry left, Arsenal finished a place above than when they finished the previous
season. It could possibly just be that RVP is doing this so that Arsenal will buy players and go in the right direction, but that is unlikely, but one can hope. But will Arsenal ever have a calm summer? Not on your life
Darren Bobb
