Today,a guest post from Muppet ( @MuppetGooner )
Here we go again, it’s that time of year where everybody gets to play championship manager and decide what reinforcements we need for the assault on the title in May. Costa, screams the Twitter arsenal massive, buy him, and we secure the title. Wenger laughs off this suggestion, claiming he would be an outlay of £145m. Now, I am a Wenger fundamentalist, but, like the Earth was created in 7 days claim, cannot help think that £145m is a stretch. Perhaps £80m, unless those rogue agents are making hideously more than usual.
So, do we join the Costa chorus ? To be honest, I know nothing about the guy. Haven’t even seen him play. He’s 6 ft 2 and bangs the goals in for Athletico Madrid. Now, I might be completely wrong in my contrary opinion, but there are reasons for caution. For an outlay of £80m, Costa doesn’t guarantee success. Sure, he may increase our chances of winning the premiership, but does he win it for us ? Is he the best in the business ? Well – he’s maybe in the top 10 strikers in the world, but for the outlay, that does not compare with, say, Ozil, who is widely lauded as the best no 10 in the world, and has the pedigree, track record and age to prove it. We may do the deal, and I wouldn’t be against it if Wenger went ahead, but it seems to be as though he would present a financial risk. And our club is very cautious.
The “pundits” say we still need to strengthen. Two players is the accepted wisdom. This is high praise indeed, as traditionally we have needed a spine and more. Striker and one other is called for, but not sure in what position. Make no mistake, like dry or wet rot, the moaners will resurface when we lose, citing all the players we need. The strident call was for a DM, until Flamini came in. Before that, the “pundits” called for new centre backs.
This bloggers opinion? Julien Draxler would be nice. Joking aside, let’s give the manager a little credit eh ? Ramsey has come good, Mertesacker, heralded as a donkey in the english press, has come spectacularly good. Rosicknote, who should have been shipped out 3 years ago, according to the gloom-brigade, put Spuds to the sword at the age of 32. Get the idea ? Like some of those dormant stocks in your portfolio, when the money starts gushing in, so it is with some of our squad players. People scream for new incomings, but they ignore the potential of those we have. I am waiting for Wilshere to hit form and have a similar patch to Ramsey. Ox will be back. Gnabry, for an 18 year old, looks like he could be a monster. We’ve not had the opportunity to play Gnabry, Walcott, Ox and Ozil in one game yet. The opposition will require new pants at half time.
Of course, the specific concern is if Giroud is absent. Well – the candidates are Bendtner, Walcott, Podolski and Sanogo. People wrote off Podolski after his lack of success before being subbed against Cardiff. But I would go for another bite of the cherry. So what if Podolski wasn’t sharp. We can always try him again.
Other positions ? We seem well stocked in midfield. Flamini, more streetwise after his stint in Milan and the excellent Arteta in front of the back 4. Cazorla, Rosicky, Wilshere, Ozil and Ramsey is an embarrassement of riches. More power would be good – maybe Diaby will provide that in March. Defence ? No complaints there. It’s the best defence in the league, and possibly the best midfield as well.
The detractors say we need to strengthen further to reverse our recent poor performances against top 4 sides. This may be a point of view. Whilst we’ve been extraordinarily consistent in beating mid and bottom of the table opposition, we have not been great in recent head to heads versus Man U, City and Chelsea. We had unfortunate results against both Manchester sides. The Man U result, for me, was down to the absence of Mertesacker. If he was in the side, 1-0 would have been 0-0. The City result came after two tough fixtures and suspect refereeing. The Chelsea game indicated to me that we were able to play a disciplined and professional game against a side who looked highly dangerous on the counter attack. One can argue that “extra quality” would bridge this gap, but on the other hand, we may be able to do this by tapping into our unfulfilled potential within the squad. Nobody saw Ramsey become the best midfielder in the country this season, and who knows, someone else may become similarly unplayable. We may also just be on an upward swing, with more incremental improvement to come.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks for that Muppet.
Personally I cant see us splashing that much cash on a player unproven in this league or at international level.
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morning muppet and everyone.
costa is a player i already liked and wanted us to buy last season even before the talks of higuain and suares. i watched him a lot in the second half of last season. he works hard and scores and was on his final season with his club at the time and valued around 12m.
but going by his present price tag having signed a new contract, i am not as confident as i was before even though he has stepped up a bit in class and performance. 32m or 145m is a risk. i dont know of any brazilian doing so well in epl.
having such a big price on him can make him a subject of attack from fans and media if he fails to hit the ground running. but what do i know?
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Nice post that looks at the quality and potential within our squad. Such a perspective is needed in the transfer window. As Arsene said, throwing around names of fantasy players, often entire new teams is an insult to the players currently playing for the club. Anybody bought will be to supplement the already high quality players we have.
Thanks Muppet
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we stil have campbell on loan. a genuine talent and a future superstar. i see him as the next theirry if he developes well. what about calos vela? we have 4m buy back clause on him. he is doing so well in la liga and far better than soldado. so if there is any need to strenghten the team, it can be done without spending our fortune.
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morning all, good post muppet. as bloggers we can only guess at what we need with only half the information at best, its like getting the answer to an equation with no numbers to work with, this is normally based on a look back short term or who’s missing from the team at that moment. This is why names come in and out depending on who’s flavour of the day with no real substance to how they would benefit or effect the current squad.
quite often when it looks like one position is an absolute must for a team a manger will bring in a player in a completely different place and solve the original problem in a different way. In the days of 4-4-2 most squads had four out and out strikers to accommodate a season. only playing with one up top and scoring so many goals from midfield we rely less on the lead player scoring. so should our back up striker actually be a winger or false nine or another 10 maybe.
to be honest I haven’t a clue but I know a man who has and its not bill the hack or eric down the pub.
Muppet I disagree with the defeats in Manchester, with utd it looked more about a team racked with flu and devoid of energy going forward. At the back we looked ok and per’s inclusion would not of affected the goal we conceded. City were very good going forward and we were always chasing the game maybe with keiron and kos playing 90 minutes and a better ref we might have taken it.
.
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Aha M’Pet – a shrewd review of the runners and riders in the January race. All the right names I think but, as Eric would say, not necessarily in the right order.
I have that sneaking suspicion that AW will have us all foxed. Eyes swivelling, tongues hanging out, right up to that final shot of Redknap sweeping through the gates of some training ground, before stunning everyone with the arrival of ANOther at 5 minutes to midnight.
The other side of the equation is whether we might see a few of our underused and younger lads sent out on loan ?
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Do we really need a new player… If a great one comes along and is available, why not? But not just for the sake of it cos short term, ie for a few weeks max a month, i think we can cope with the loss of Walcott and NB23 cos i think Giroud was ill not injured which should have cleared by next week Monday surely?
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Morning Muppet.
Great piece of work.
Has Arsenal, in recent times ever extracted a player out of a club via a buy-out clause against the owning clubs wishes? No Suarez jokes please.
I have been one of the people saying we need no extra players added to the squad, but injuries may be too much of a handicap if we continue to compete on all fronts.
I also note that there is a player at Hertha Berlin that looks decent for a lot less money – Adrian Ramos, but if Gnarby continues to play like he has when given the slightest opportunity – I would be more than happy to stick with him.
Let’s hope January will be kind to us, because March is really trying to feck us over.
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Nice one Muppet,like I said yesterday-let Arsene get on with it,he continually proves the experts wrong,they’ll never bloody learn,will they?
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Off topic,
Arsene Wenger has managed Arsenal for 953 games at the beginning of this season.(I think).
We have played 31 competitive games in all competitions so far this season.
I guess the pre-season games are not counted?
16 games to go.
Any more expert help?
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Morning all – nice one Muppet, always great to read your articles and hope we can catch up again on match day, sometime.
Whether Arsene’s summer long dalliance with Higuain and Suarez was just an elaborate smokescreen to cover his subsequent acquisition of Mesut Ozil, we’ll only know when AW’s book is finally released. Hopefully many years from now.
Assuming it was NOT a smokescreen then we probably can expect the club to be at least looking at what is available. Alongside the ‘Wenger-doesn’t-do-tactics myth, the Manager’s once much vaunted reticence to spend has also been revealed to be illusory. I often read claims that many of our supposed targets wouldn’t move due to there being a World Cup summer ahead of us. I’m not sure I follow the logic in this; a world class forward is hardly likely to be so down on his abilities as to cling to his current club for security. Similarly, there ARE top quality players stuck in clubs that are perrenial under-achievers (eg Suarez at Liverpool) or clubs clearly on the way down (eg Rvp, Rooney at Manure). There are clubs with players out of favour with their managers who are also likely to be stressing about the summer (yes Mata, I’m looking at you).
So in England alone, without really trying, it’s possible for a know-nothing like myself to identify four players at three clubs for whom logic suggests now might be a good time to move. That’s not to say they WILL but my point is that Arsene will likely be fully aware of all the Suarez’s, Rvp’s etc, throughout Europe and beyond who might make the switch of their careers.
What is exciting for me is that whilst we don’t HAVE to buy anyone, our form and our league and cup positions are such that given the potential value of success or prolonged involvement in those competitions – both in terms of cash remuneration and marketing spin-offs – there is clearly a commercial logic, if not imperative – to make another Ozil-scale ‘statement’ and bring in a potential game-changer. Whilst most here on PA might argue that we hardly need an actual game-changer, pitchside, at least, an out-and-out specialist cf/goal-scorer/poacher etc could be the final piece in the jig-saw that sees a return to the days when teams experienced real fear when facing The Arsenal.
It’s by no means inevitable that anyone will join in January. I for one, given the emergence of Ramsey and Gunnernabry to name but two, am not hankering for signings in the way our friends in Madchester now so desperately are.
But we shouldn’t be surprised if Arsene becomes Mr Audacious en route to ruining the seasons of so many of our rivals.
Go Arsene!! Or don’t, as you see fit.
It’s your call.
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Good write up, Muppet.
For me, the only reason to sign anyone is that we will be kicked from here to May, and this significantly affects our injury list. Needless to say; the cost of any new players makes no difference to them being assaulted. How many times had Ozil been kicked and shoved – without punishment to the offender. Olivier, though “cheap”, seems to be on the field mainly so that the opposition can get stuck into him. Most teams field some shit player(s) just to injure our players (Mikel, Essien? et al).
Whilst I creamed myself over the way Arsenal played and won against the scum, I really don’t give a toss about the minor cups. Lays season we had dean refine at Bradford – doing his usual thing – he and his colleagues having already contributed to the depletion of our fit squad, and so it carries on. No amount of new signings will change this refshite, but what I like is this feeling I have that the current squad accept that being Arsenal players means they’ll have to endure multiple and constant shit kicking and are prepared to take it in order to please the club, manager and supporters.
This, I like. This, I love.
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“Lays” = “Last”.
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to make another Ozil-scale ‘statement’ and bring in a potential game-changer.
suarez. not because we are detractors. not because we dont believe in oli theo poldi etc. BUT we want that element of fear to hit our opponents in the face, balls, hearts, minds.
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Suarez is not even a remote possibility.
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I wasn’t suggesting Suarez IS a remote possibility (I have no real idea either way); I was only using him as an example to illustrate the point.
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Thanks Muppet.
Following two month long injuries (at best) to two strikers at the start of the month, with Podolski and Chamberlain to be nursed back to full fitness with possibly the odd niggle here and there, it will hopefully not be a massive surprise this time to the expert and reliable ITK Krew if Arsenal Football Club sign a footballer as we wade through the last dregs of this transfer window. Like they did with Nacho ‘The Harbinger that’d take effort to ignore’ Monreal last year…
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“We’ve not had the opportunity to play Gnabry, Walcott, Ox and Ozil in one game yet. The opposition will require new pants at half time.”
I needed a new pair of pants after reading the first sentence above.
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Fisbury
You mean Nacho ‘victory cigar’ Monreal?
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Andrew,I was talking to Hunter.
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Yes, thought so George, just wanted to nip in the bud any potential misunderstanding.
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pedantic george
i agree. its just that he is exactly what we need. a killer who knows the epl and who wants to win and stick one up the english establishment for the character assasination he has had to endure plus i cant see him blinking or being afraid when important trophy winning games come thick and fast in feb-march…. we came so fucking close int he summer…… fucking henry and rodgers…cunts….
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plus mourinho will shit himself if we get luis …
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Yes ,but we CANT get him.Hunter.
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DC
Victory Cigar makes a lot more sense then what I tried to write!
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Yes ,but we CANT get him.Hunter
of course we can…stan picks up the phone and tells henry 80…cash! plus ozil’s miss venezuela for 3 nights free of charge
will it happen? probably not
but it is do-able.
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if henry says no to 80m in cash then he should stop smoking whatever it is he is smoking
🙂
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what if kroenke jr kidnaps henry’s daughter and we exchange for luis?
plenty of options…..
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Hunter – you’re making it sound like a racing certainty!
Kroenke – there’s a name I’ve not seen mentioned for a while …
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foreverheady
January 5, 2014 at 3:56 pm
arse_or_brain and ArsenalAndrew gave the rest of us on PA the heads up on Gnabry and Hayden* last season, I’m happy to listen to their thoughts on the kiddies.
Aside from Zelalem there is Bellerin who looked full of beans when we saw him play in the first team this season. Akpom I thought had a fantastic cameo against West Brom, then there is Afobe returning from injury horrors…fingers crossed for Theo, I think he might be pushing it for the Bayern tie.
*can’t believe that I forget the promising player who looks to Thiago Silva and not John Terry as his role model played as a D**Mer and nearly got himself sent off against Maureen’s honest plucky protectors of Engerleesh gr*tball. The squad is so versatile you forget who can play where, that’s my excuse.
Let’s not remind the insightful Experts that Özil played as a No.9 (ok then, a false nine!) for Germany in recent months, it’s gonna be fun listening to the squeals when and if that happens this month given the injuries and likely delays in any prospective signings considering the timings of the injuries.
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ArsenalAndrew
January 6, 2014 at 2:01 pm
hehe …
i love luis. we should have got him when he cost only 20-25m ….unlucky we were due to our economic policy……comolli what a cunt…
i also want to see arsene laughing when media and rivals start crying when luis kills them all…
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Hunter, maybe Zaha got there first?
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Hunter – we made no bid for Suarez when he was at PSV/Feyrnood whatever because we have a fully functional world class striker at the time.
I forget the fellows name, he went up north muttering about ambition or something.
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sigh,
I am crunching the numbers on a spread-sheet myself.
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double canister
January 6, 2014 at 2:33 pm
i know…it was a period where we couldnt spend more than 10-15m on any given player…real pity.
van persie is not fit to lace luis shoes…robin will crap his pants in the big and important game/ stage..luis will show the way.
luis was at ajax..they aint mugs…they know. he was scoring 40-45 goals a season there…
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did you mean zahavi?
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most important signings should be Bacs and TR7
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I just wonder whether some ot these “stike fear into the oppo top, top strikers” do more harm than good to the team spirit and togertheness of their club. A 30 goal a year man is not that much help if the rest of the team only contribute another 15. I’d rather see Walcott, Giroud, Podolski share 35 -45 goals between them with the midfielders adding another 20. It won’t quite happen this year because of injuries, but I bet it ends up quite close to that.
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his aggression, confidence and finisihing plus his “i’ll take you all on” attitude does remind me the original ronaldo the phenomenon, only he had the speed and physique to be unstoppable. a beast..luis is more foxy than a beast but does have the chracteristics of a brutal striker who will punish opponents mistakes or score one on ones first time asked. bang..chance and goal. everyone happy.
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Hi All,
Thanks for kind comments.
@arse_or_brain – yes I think the illnesses were a factor at Man U. We certainly looked sluggish on the day.
@Andrew – yes, responded to you on Twitter. Will like to go to a home game at some point. Be nice to meet up.
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foreverheady
fair enough..but when im playing top teams in high pressure games that are title or european deciders i need the instincts of a brutal killer and not a handsome french bloke feeling sorry for himself or a delicate spanish aritist, nor a younsgter who will be very afraid. i want the cannibal from uruguay who grew up in favellas and has come to europe to make a living via the only thing he knows and not just to professionalise his hobby………the man took a “bullet” for his country in last world cup and it worked..balls the size of alaska…most people came out to lynch him but real football people have nothing but praise and admiration
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Yes: I see that point Hunter, but he is also capable of missing when he should score. He had a couple of golden opportunities against us earlier this season if I remember rightly. It is a pity he didn’t come to us but I fear he never will now.
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ditto fins..(zipping up my new pair post-pinnacle-multi-momento)
nice one Muppet..
In Wenger I trust
In Costa I doubt
In January we should be alright
‘Cos the schedule ain’t too tight
Its February & March that are crucial
If Theo, Nik, Ox & Poldi aren’t up & sharp by Feb 7
We could be taking too much of a gamble…
Personally…I wouldn’t mind the opposition changing pants incessantly from Feb to April
The lazy way out is to loan in Dimitar Berba & be done with it.
We might be doing a double this year
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Why would Fulham “loan” us their best player Aman?
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Does anyone remember the appalling interview last season when a hack tried to interrogate Vengaaar about why he had not signed Berbatov, whilst trying to imply that the senile gaffer had “lost it” for passing by such an amazing opportunity? The response was of course very funny. AW did not care to know that the player had been available, that’s what he said and I don’t think he was messing about on that occasion.
Berbatov? Save yer clicks, save energy! Not going to happen*
*cue signing within the next few days!
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Loan with option to buy, PG… & ’cause his gaffer’s said he’d be ok with whatever the player’s wants.
truth is I don’t care either way…just seems like the easiest route to take.
In Arsene I trust
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Q: ..why did Real Madrid sell us their 2nd best player, PG?
A: ..same reason we sold the red Mancs our best player 2 summers ago George
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let me rephrase..
Q: ..why did Real Madrid sell us their 2nd best player, PG?
Was it for the same reason we sold the red Mancs our best player 2 summers ago ?
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“Unless you have a club in a desperate financial situation it will be difficult.”
It was Muppet, I think, who long ago wrote a much ignored post on how Arsenal would have to conduct their transfers. “Guerilla transfers” he wrote. Not just funny, but wise too. With Gazprom and the even more appalling Oilers lurking in the shadows cast by exectued and nameless political prisoners, even the Özil deal involved more smoke and mirrors then any of us could see. Will Arsene Vulture swoop again, like he did last Summer? Who knows, not me.
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I wish he had taken a bullet for his country
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