Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[I am invisible]

Look, Vardy would almost certainly end up on the wing for us at some point - it's inevitable with our fitness record. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a tactical preference, or that we view him more as a wide forward / winger - it could simply mean that he can at least do a passable job there when we have no other options, and Giroud can't? How often have we actually had a full compliment of forwards and midfielders available at any given moment over the last few years? I think whoever we chose to play CF in those rare moments will tell us most about what our preference is...

[Özim]

I'm not saying Wenger wouldn't sign a player like Vardy and then try to shoehorn him into our shit system. I'm not saying that at all. I'm hoping, more than anything else, that after 10 years of seeing the same shit over and over even Wenger has twigged. It might be a vain hope, but it literally would be crazy to buy Vardy and then set him up to play with his back to goal. Can Wenger do crazy things? Of course. Will he keep doing them? I hope not. We know Wenger is here for at least another season, I'm betting it's another four seasons, so if you can't hope he'll figure this shit out and react accordingly you're essentially saying that's it for us - fuck all for the foreseeable future. And you may be right. But if all hope is gone then I wonder what other sport we can watch while we wait for Wenger to bugger off?

You think Wenger might have twigged, really? I doubt if very much, if he had twigged it would have happened a long time ago, the guy is more stubborn than a mule he won't change anything, the only reason he's going for Vardy is because Wellbeck is out and Vardy is in football terms quite cheap, no other reason, if Vardy was 30 million he wouldnt look at him twice.

When does Wenger ever do the right thing in the transfer window, the answer is never, this summer will be no different, we'll have to wait until he leaves (whenever that is, could be another 5 years by the sounds of it) before we start seeing change.

[Özim]

Look, Vardy would almost certainly end up on the wing for us at some point - it's inevitable with our fitness record. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a tactical preference, or that we view him more as a wide forward / winger - it could simply mean that he can at least do a passable job there when we have no other options, and Giroud can't? How often have we actually had a full compliment of forwards and midfielders available at any given moment over the last few years? I think whoever we chose to play CF in those rare moments will tell us most about what our preference is...

If we signed a top class forward who scored goals he wouldn't end up on the wing, much like Henry didn't. Players generally end up on the wing when Wenger doesn't fancy them up front or prefers someone else over them (Giroud in this case) and unless we find someone he can't play on the wing because they prove to be prolific, then the new signing will end up there.

[I am invisible]

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I'd be keen to see another wide forward / winger signed this summer - the better the options we have out wide, the less likely it is that we'd see guys like Welbeck and Vardy (if he signs) having to fill in down the left and right, while Giroud keeps the CF spot by default, largely through his inability to play anywhere else.

Walcott and Podolski are different cases for me in that I don't think Wenger actually rates / rated them as CFs, and doesn't / didn't know what else to do with them. He might have wanted them to be CFs to begin with, but that's not how it's panned out...

[Power n Glory]

All attacking players prefer playing in the middle as they see that as the best place to get glory; someone has to play out wide. He got 16 for us in his first season, two less than when he was the outright striker and that's most likely more than any other players we've played out wide recently, apart from Alexis.

I don't get what the issue is.

Your response on saying Poldolski was from Kano saying we haven't taken a player and put them in an absurdly different position; mentioning Vardy and England is facetious when Vardy has been with England for all of a handful of games - Podolski had been with Germany on the left for a long, sustained period of time.

The point is, for Podolski it is not an absurd position he has not experienced.

Also you say don't presume to know what Wenger would do with Vardy but then you're saying Podolski was bought to play as a striker for us as shown in the first game of the season he played for us? If that's the case, then can it not be said Wenger didn't like what he saw in that first game?

Vardy has played for club and country as a wide player. It's not just England. When Leicester spanked Man Utd 5-3 the season before, Vardy came up with a goal and 4 assists. He hasn't played there often but it's not an absurd position he hasn't experienced. Anyone here really going to suggest our manager wouldn't consider playing him as a wide player with Giroud up top? Pod's numbers were decent but he wasn't suited to play there for us. Most attackers with pace may be considered for a wide position if there is no space for the centre. Heck, we've seen Wenger play Bendtner on the wing. That's why I say we could very well end up with Vardy on the wing if things don't go according to plan.

In Pod's case, we were on the verge of losing RVP and a striker was needed. Pod was our first signing and earmarked to takeover from RVP by most of us on here and the press. His team had just been relegated after he scored 18 as a central player and it was an opportunity to pick up an cheap International player with a rep. An opportunist buy to fill that striker position. It's similar to Vardy's case. I wouldn't have thought Wenger had Vardy marked down as first choice but he has that transfer clause that makes it more appealing. Pod playing wide wasn't absurd per se we all know Wenger likes players that can play multiple positions. But our priority was to sign a striker that season and managed to sign two for cheap but shifted one on to the wing. We didn't even need Pod for that position because we had just signed Gervinho the season before.

I think it's pretty obvious Wenger didn't like what he saw from Pod as a striker. I'm not even arguing he was any good at it for us. But at club level, he predominantly played through the middle. At international level you play a handful of games each year. It's not week in week out. So when you look at Pod's caps over the years, it's similar to the odd games Vardy has played out wide here and there. If Vardy was discovered earlier and picking up caps at a young age like Pod was, he may have been played wide because Rooney was our first choice central striker.

I haven't even mentioned Danny Welbeck. Bought to play as a striker but shifted out wide once Giroud was fit to play.....and yes Danny has experience playing out wide but it goes back to what our original intention was when we signed him.

[I am invisible]

If we signed a top class forward who scored goals he wouldn't end up on the wing, much like Henry didn't. Players generally end up on the wing when Wenger doesn't fancy them up front or prefers someone else over them (Giroud in this case) and unless we find someone he can't play on the wing because they prove to be prolific, then the new signing will end up there.

Yes they would mate, if their playing style was right for it, and we were running low on other options - try and dig out Wenger's comments about South American forwards, and why he rates them. All of the front 3 for Barca do it, Suarez did his stint there at Liverpool, I've seen Aguero play wide for city, Cavani does it for PSG - obviously with other options available you'd want to keep them as CFs, but none of them are above filling in out wide when needed...

[Power n Glory]

Look, Vardy would almost certainly end up on the wing for us at some point - it's inevitable with our fitness record. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a tactical preference, or that we view him more as a wide forward / winger - it could simply mean that he can at least do a passable job there when we have no other options, and Giroud can't? How often have we actually had a full compliment of forwards and midfielders available at any given moment over the last few years? I think whoever we chose to play CF in those rare moments will tell us most about what our preference is...

It probably won't be a tactical preference. It might not even be a case of us having injury problems. It could come down to players coming back from injury and Wenger trying to fill a slot without dropping someone else. I'd love to think he'd try Giroud and Vardy up front if we sign him. But I can't see him playing two strikers up front. It would mean dropping Ozil, playing Ozil wide, or trying to play a diamond with Ozil top of the diamond. I can't see it happening.

[Power n Glory]

Yes they would mate, if their playing style was right for it, and we were running low on other options - try and dig out Wenger's comments about South American forwards, and why he rates them. All of the front 3 for Barca do it, Suarez did his stint there at Liverpool, I've seen Aguero play wide for city, Cavani does it for PSG - obviously with other options available you'd want to keep them as CFs, but none of them are above filling in out wide when needed...

If we signed one of those guys, I think Giroud would hit the bench.

[Kano]

You've got a nerve to say that to me after your recent posts to be honest.

He made a valid point, for some reason you refuse to acknowledge what Wenger does with players, he's got a record of playing them in the wrong positions, he's done it reguarly I find it odd you play dum with this.

Vardy has pace, it's quite feasible he could appear on the wing, for some reason you don't seem to think so. Podolski score plenty of goals before he arrived, didn't stop Wenger playing him as a winger instead of up front where he would score goals.

I also find it odd you're coming round to the idea of Vardy based on a few nonsense stats rather than real life game time too be honest, you're easily swayed.

Reading posts in full, rather than sections usually lead to better discussions. My opening line mentioned that Wenger, rightly or wrongly (meaning some I agree with and some I do not) has put a lot of young players in different positions as part of their development. I can't be clearer than that. Well, I can but it would take far longer and I'm not that interested to spend even longer typing this out on my phone. Podolski played in the middle for his club and on the wing a lot for the national side, so going back to my original post again, it is not absurdly out of position. He played there very successfully for the national team, so it's not unreasonable to have played him there for Arsenal. You can find a problem with anything really, that's not a hard thing to do and it is generally something you excel at. And as Maccy mentioned, he was gash when he played in the middle for us. Slow, lumbering and nearly all fans didn't want him played there. It is strange what time does to the human memory.

With Vardy, it's a case of reading some stats, then re-watching his goals again (something else that was that same post) listening to other people, reflecting on all the televised Leicester games I saw from last season and thinking maybe I've got it wrong. Hopefully it's ok to change my mind and change opinion, rather than making it up fully, 100% and sticking rigidly to it no matter what. I'm not sure why anyone would do that to be honest.

[Power n Glory]

Oh yeah...Eduardo and Wiltord. Two more examples.

Eduardo's career was short with us but Wenger would play him wide. Wiltord arrived from France as a Ligue 1 golden boot winner for Bordeaux. He was a striker. But for Arsenal we played him as a winger.