
Originally Posted by
Ollie the Optimist
Of all the big names that have moved, I'm not sure any of them would have been starters for us. Vidal possibly, but then he would replace Ramsey and thats a waste. Pedro, De Bryne, sterling, all are good players but i don't think they are starters for us, and certainly not for the prices they went for. In my mind, Schnerdlein is no better then Coquelin.
I would have loved us to have signed a Cavani or Benezema, but by all accounts we tried and actually offered serious money (well at least we did for Benezema), yet madrid didn't want to sell. Not much you can do about that but there is no doubting Wenger tried. Some strikers who moved this window, are not better then giroud, so there is no point wasting money just to have a signing.
Wenger has decided to place his faith again in his squad, but this time, it is a squad that has won 4 trophies in two seasons, that has produced some big performances unlike previous ones and actually looked like challenging. Its much easier to believe in a squad that has a world class player in every area (Cech, Koscienly, Ozil, Sanchez) with some fantastic players to compliment them (Ramsey,, Ox, Theo, Cazorla). I think this squad can challenge, possibly even win, we had an exceptional second half of the season last year, one which was helped massively by managing to keep players fit, which we couldn't in the first half. If that stays the same, and midfielders score more (which was a problem last year) then I think we really will challenge. This is a good squad, one which would have been helped by a world class striker, but that sadly couldn't happen, but not because of lack of trying.
However, this really is last chance saloon. Wenger has assembled a very good squad in my opinion, but they and he have to deliver this year.