I don't know why he doesn't just admit he hates defenders and keepers. To be brutally honest he may as well pick a team full of offensive players and scrap the defence and keeper entirely...what use are they anyway?Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Yep I agree with this, we signed Campbell when he was pretty much Elite and could hold a defence together himself so he knew actually what to do and when to do it. Moreover, at the time we still had Adams and Keown so our options were experienced and elite.
Since then our Defensive signings have been pretty poor IMO with the exception of Gallas who was a very good defender in his day. He was still top class when he joined us but he was never a leader and had a very questionable mentality. He actually did OK here, at times he was brilliant...other times he fell apart a bit mentally, but his performances were genuinely of a high standard.
Since then we have pretty much signed Duds...Kos and Sagna excluded but neither of them ever reached top class status and were both prone to mistakes.
The defence now is a mess as is central midfield.
P.S. The less said about the Keepers the better...have we ever actually signed a top class keeper under Wenger's reign? No is the answer.
You don't regard Cech as top class?
Lehman had his moments too, big part of getting us to the CL Final in 2006
I think Cech was never the same after his head injury IMO, still a decent keeper but not a top top keeper anymore, when we signed him he was way past his best, before his injury at Chelsea he was unbelievable, we always seem to sign players like this when they are well past their prime TBH, top clubs don't give away their best players to other top clubs in the same league (except for us!).
As for Lehmann, decnt keeper no doubt and on his day could be very good, but never top top bracket like Seaman or even his countryman Kahn who kept him out of the German team for years.
I don't disagree we've not had anyone as good since Seaman, but I honestly think he was one of the GOAT when it comes to 'keepers so that's maybe as unfair as comparing strikers to Henry.
Cech was on the slide when we signed him. He was and is still to a degree on occasions a decent keeper, but he was definitely on the way down.
Lehman had his moments too, big part of getting us to the CL Final in 2006
Lehmann wasn't ever a top class keeper.
My point is that we never ever go for the best realistic option, there is always an element of opportunism or making do with a budget version.
Maybe but then you look at our rivals who have Loris, Courtois, De Gea and Ederson, only Liverpool are struggling keeper wise and are known to be in the market and you realise that keeper wise they have top top keepers whereas we have an ageing guy who use to be very very good and is now not at that level anymore.
We really need a top class keeper, they save you quite a few points and steady your defence a lot of the time, for years now we haven't had and to be honest never look for one, Oblak at Atletico is top class but we'd never pay the money for him, that's what I mean you can get top keepers but you have to be willing to pay for them, we're not so we never get one.
Yeah I totally agree, that's the issue, we look at price first rather than quality first, just look at some the keepers we've signed over the years, Almunia, Shaaban, Warmuz, Fabianski, Poom (when he was past it), Mannone, Cech, Ospina, Wright, Lehmann.
The reality is we haven't signed one top top class keeper and all of them were relatively cheap (Wright was highly rated when we signed him but that didn't work out), compare that to other top clubs and it's very different, a top keeper plays for years at the top level, we seem to prefer to pay less and chop and change.
The guys we're being linked with now are the same, cheaper options who aren't proven, so far that's not worked out well, you either haveot be very lucky to find a top keeper who isn't top class already, or have a brilliant scouting team like Atletico who seem to find top players that aren't that well known all the time.
Last edited by Özim; 10-04-2018 at 11:04 AM.
Yep, as long as Wenger remains in charge I don't think we will make any significant investments in the defensive areas of the team.
Wenger has neglected that side of the team pretty much his entire tenure...he got away with it in the early days for obvious reasons...but over the last 10 years it's been dud after dud.
What makes things worse is that in recent times when he has spent a bit more than usual in defence and midfield he has got it wrong.
He spent 70million combined on Xhaka and Mustafi, my god...he really did get that wrong.
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