I don't know what Park has done for people to immediately write him off. The same thing that happened to Koscielny and Oxlade. Kos was always a decent defender but because we wanted someone with Mertesacker's credentials, we were disappointed. I understand that much. But Park hasn't shown anything that suggests he can't be a good finisher. In the few appearances he has made, he has shown good ability and a 'busy' style. Wenger has said that he will see much more of him now. Wenger did the same thing with Eduardo and others. I get the feeling had we paid £10m for Park, people would be more encouraged.

I agree with MOe that we should be looking to get a striker in. But obviously we're not going to get a 'world-class' striker or anything approaching Van Persie's level...because people approaching Van Persie's ability are settled with very good teams and don't fancy moving to a club where their chances of starting important games depend on someone else's chances of being injured (no matter how likely we consider it to be in Van Persie's case). After that you have to ask whether we can attract, in January, someone who is better than Park. And that is difficult to say because we don't really know how good Park is.