Transfer News, Rumours and Bollocks Thread

[Kano]

Well yes and no, i hear people on here saying they want us to go out and spend X on a world class striker and so on, cos there is loads of them out there that would a) Play for Arsenal and b) sit on the bench week in week out.

I appreciate RvP is a little injury prone or at least used to be but there isn't a striker out there that is that much better than Park or Chamakh that would come and sit on the bench until/if/when Robin gets injured.

With the growth of Walcott and Koscielny and form of the new guys plus Ramsey's brilliant season so far the only place i could possible see us reinforcing is the left wing, but again we wont buy a starter as we have Gervinho ripping shit up out there. Also how much would Wenger spend when he has Miyachi and the Ox waiting in the wings?

Also as we now have a pretty much nailed on first XI (bar the Mertcielny issue) we can either buy more kids with potential or spend a massive amount replacing a first teamer, cant see either happening

we def not going out to buy a world class striker in jan, that would never happen. i think there are better options available than cham and park, something in the eduardo mould would be a reasonable purchase. relying on just three strikers could be problematic and wenger would be a fool to allow himself to fall victim to the rvp curse again and or more injuries in that area.

[Flavs]

Ideally the new striker wouldn't just sit on the bench. We would be rotating strikers frequently. Would give us options off the bench as well.

At the moment if RVP is playing and we're not scoring then we have no different options to come on.

Yeah we do we have Chamakh and Park.

I don't think people understand how hard it is to make an impact when you are only playing 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there, you struggle to get used to your team mates, you struggle for form and this hampers your confidence. Look at Arshavin for instance? A player of unbelievable ability who just cant get it going. Can anyone remember a player coming from our bench or squad and making an impact in the team?

Strikers and central defenders will feel this the worst. Park also has to be given time, different country, culture, playing style, a crowd...

We don't play Chamakh's game so I'm still unsure why we signed him (he was free shout the haters) you can see he will win headers against anyone and bring the midfield into play, sadly fir us we don't tend to hit long balls, we cant cross and more often that not the gap between him and our midfield is too big.

We clearly wouldn't have signed Park if Campbell's work permit had gone through either so would Wenger risk buying another player when he has him coming back? Also what of Afobe? Wenger has big plans for the oaf so putting another player in front of him would be unwise.

[Flavs]

we def not going out to buy a world class striker in jan, that would never happen. i think there are better options available than cham and park, something in the eduardo mould would be a reasonable purchase. relying on just three strikers could be problematic and wenger would be a fool to allow himself to fall victim to the rvp curse again and or more injuries in that area.

Depends, if we are going to stick with this formation then an Eduardo type wouldn't work, they need either size or speed to play as the apex or to be a "complete forward" like RvP is. Was interesting we switched to 4-4-2 in the carling cup, it made us more solid but less able attacking wise, would like to see the first XI play that way and see if it worked.

[Kano]

Depends, if we are going to stick with this formation then an Eduardo type wouldn't work, they need either size or speed to play as the apex or to be a "complete forward" like RvP is. Was interesting we switched to 4-4-2 in the carling cup, it made us more solid but less able attacking wise, would like to see the first XI play that way and see if it worked.

i meant more in price and quality rather than actual playing style. i'm sure wenger could unearth someone to bring in, he's usually pretty good in that area. we need another body in there, as it would be far more problematic if rvp does fall injured than having an unhappy guy sitting on the bench.

given our position this season, we need more dead certs than projects that may or may not bear fruit by the end of the season. i agree in part with what you say about limited pitch time for the other two guys at the moment but its the nature of the beast in football, grab your chance when you get it or there is always someone else ready to jump ahead of you

[Flavs]

oh someone who could play as eiher winger as well as the apex would be worth a punt

[Kano]

are there many players like that?

[Syn]

I remember in end of 2009 (was it?) when we played Arshavin upfront as the lone striker...well, in fact, it was more of a 4-6-0. Nearly everyone said that was a disaster but I think Arshavin did quite well. He was grabbing goals and won us a key game at Anfield with a genius goal.

The point I'm making is not that we should play Arshavin upfront instead of buying a traditional CF (though I think it could be an option and I think it'd work) but more that a traditional CF isn't the only way we can get some success if RVP gets injured. I would be tempted to push Walcott upfront and stick Oxlade out wide. Or maybe Park upfront could do the job...he's done nothing to convince me he's not good enough at the top level and he's impressed me in the few CC games he has played. I'm sure he'll get more chances soon when Gervinho goes to the ACoN.

[Flavs]

are there many players like that?

nope

[Kano]

i think we had bendtner up front for that 4-4 game, with arshavin playing off him - he's def more effective centrally, his last good game against bolton in the cc found him to be very industrious there. i'm not sure how many games he was used as the only forward, maybe only one or two.

park? i dunno. played well in that same match against bolton but has drifted in and out of the other games and cham is like a floating turd in the toilet at the moment. slowly breaking to pieces, lingering around in the hope he will eventually flush away

[Flavs]

nope

In fact thinking about it there is only Odemwingie i can think of in the Prem, maybe Rodallega