I’ve seen this issue come up a couple of times already, and while it is probably best suited for the beginning of the summer transfer period, I will throw it out there now. Are there any players out there (in any league) that you think would be an ideal fit for this Arsenal team? Please refrain from throwing out household names like Ronaldo, Messi, Kaka, etc. I’m thinking more along the lines of a Sagna, Eduardo type….A guy who isn’t widely known that would represent a bargain buy for AW. A signing that might make some of us scratch our head because we have no clue who it is.
What “under the radar” players have you been keeping your eye on as you have watched the beautiful game these past couple of seasons?
What relative unknown do you feel is primed to make a jump to a top level club?
58 Responses to “Help Wanted….”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I was going to suggest Jesus Navas of Seville, but then I looked him up on Wikipedia and read that he suffers from “chronic homesickness.” Nevermind.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
GK - Diego Cavalieri (Palmeiras) / Bruno (Flamengo) / Felipe (Corinthians)
DF - Miranda, Alex Silva (Sao Paulo) / Henrique (Palmeiras) / Lugano (Fenerbahce)
MF Defence - Hernanes (Sao Paulo) / Pierre (Palmeiras) / Cicinho (Roma)
MF Ofensive - Valdivia (Palmeiras) / Alex, Fernandão (Internacional BR)
FW - Adriano (Sao Paulo/Internationale), Ricardo Oliveira, Luis Fabiano
Fernandão remind me Pires… and Oliveira is a great striker… better than Adriano i think. Hernanes is a possible transfer to Inter or Milan. Miranda, Alex Silva and Henrique no comments… only watching them
So:
Cavalieri
Sagna - Lugano - Touré - Gallas
Hernanes - Fabregas - Pierre
Walcott - R.Van Persie
R. Oliveira
May 6th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
@ altair: i think you have mistaken this website for the argentine arsenal fan site!
all those players will be awesome for that arsenal.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
“I believe if Ade keeps his work ethic, there is still 20 per cent more to come from him. Does he want it enough - to get this extra 20 per cent out? Well that is where his future lies. If you lose that desire, you quickly become a nobody.”
I think Wenger’s pshycology with Adebayor is spot on.
Adebayor tappered off in the last 1/3 of the season. He wasn’t alone, but you could see the work ethic dipped a little. Some of the balls he would have chased, he didn’t, the enthusiasim ebbed, he stopped being as aware of his team mates. He can’t afford to do that.
Wenger knows Adebayor is street-wise. He has served him up a challenge to wash down with his personal success this season.
Ade is still a rough diamond. He needs to bring that attitude of hard-work and working for the team.
Hopefully next season he will have more upfront to work with. Adebayor has proven that he can work for the team, but if the players around you are rank average and ever-changing itmakes it much harder to maintain that attitude.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Psychology
May 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Keegan……..
“Maybe the owner thinks we can bridge that gap - but we can’t,” said Keegan after Monday’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea.
“What I can say to the Newcastle fans is that we will be trying to get fifth and we will be trying to win the other league that’s going on within the Premier League.
“I haven’t got enough money and I wouldn’t be able to get the players anyway (to do any better than that), so I will soldier on with what I’ve got and maybe add one or two, maybe three, depending what’s available.”
Inspirational stuff. Keegan has always been a spender, knows no other way, so for him it’s all about who has the deepest pockets. Maybe he should compare the annual net transfer positions of Arsenal and Newcastle for the last 10 years.
Reading this is like hitting ‘refresh’ on the computer and getting a rejuvenated perspective on Wenger’s value.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
With the departure of Flamini, Wenger will be keen on picking up that defensive midfielder who will be able to team up with Cesc in the center. My pick is Jérémy Toulalan from Lyon. From what I’ve seen in the French league, Toulalan is a hard worker and good passer of the ball. Although he may not be as committed as Flamini was on challenges i feel that he could be a good addition to the arsenal squad. Besides I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger went to France first to look for his new signings.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Not unknowns by any means, but Gareth Barry and Diego seem like nice options
May 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Kiwi, I felt those comments from Keegan and Harry were just about shifting the blame away from them. Having money does not guarantee success. What if a team has tons of cash but then the manager goes off and spends 16.5 million on someone like Darren Bent? Should the manager then turn around to complain that the real problem was that he didn’t have 28 million to spend on Torres as opposed to facing up to the fact that he didn’t buy wisely? I have lost track of how much money Spurs have spent on players over the last few years?Until Roman came along, the Premier League was a two horse race. The one difference was that Arsenal and Man Utd didn’t get that many points before because other teams could trouble the top 2. Atleast now you have 3 teams who can challenge, while Liverpool try to round out the top 4 and dream of Europe.
Ofcourse, money still plays a huge part. Example — Chelsea came along and took away Anelka in Jan and Bolton were left to struggle without him. But Arsenal have never been safe either when other big teams come around wanting Arsenal players? How many Arsenal players have been tempted over $$ in the last few years?
Blaming money is the easy way out. Even having a team with good players does not mean success will come. I look at Valencia. They had a team with some very good players but they are now fighting for relegation. koeman’s hiring played a part in their downfall.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
André Ayew - left mid/winger (18)
Hatem Ben Arfa
Karim Benzema
Sergio Agüero
Fernando Gago - Flamini replacement but not like he would leave Real Madrid
Nuri Sahin - turkish teen midfielder
Luis Suárez - for when Rosicky goes down after 4 games
Zdravko Kuzmanovi? - looked great in UEFA cup
can’t AW have another bottle of wine with Sven and convince Sven into screwing over Man Utd and Man City and selling us Micha Richards?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
André Ayew - left mid/winger (18)
Hatem Ben Arfa
Karim Benzema
Sergio Agüero
Fernando Gago - Flamini replacement but not like he would leave Real Madrid
Nuri Sahin - turkish teen midfielder
Luis Suárez - for when Rosicky goes down after 4 games
Zdravko Kuzmanovi? - looked great in UEFA cup
can’t AW have another bottle of wine with Sven and convince Sven into screwing over Man Utd and Man City and selling us Micha Richards?
May 6th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Andre Ayew - left mid/winger (18)
Hatem Ben Arfa
Karim Benzema
Sergio Aguero
Fernando Gago - Flamini replacement but not like he would leave Real Madrid
Nuri Sahin - turkish teen midfielder
Luis Suarez - for when Rosicky goes down after 4 games
Zdravko Kuzmanovic - looked great in UEFA cup
can’t AW have another bottle of wine with Sven and convince Sven into screwing over Man Utd and Man City and selling us Micha Richards?’
May 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
wow.. … i am really impatient when it comes to the submit comment button..
Isn’t Barry jumping ship for liverpool.. to be back up to the spanish armada and Diego seems like he would cost us our entire transfer funds..
May 6th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Milos Krasic
Carlos Cuellar
Alberto Aquilani
Diego
Miguel Veloso
May 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Kiwi, missed out a bit.
Wenger continued: “He was never prolific at Monaco, but he has worked hard for it at Arsenal and it highlights that our offensive game favours the strikers.”
Nice to see Wenger has still got his finger on the pulse with Adebayor. Thirty goals is great but nice to see Wenger is obviously still not satisfied with his overall game, such as continous offsides and lack of vision.
I’m encouraged by Wenger’s pro-active stance in releasing that statement. Maybe he will sell him for £20 mill!
May 6th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
It is good that Wenger has his finger on the pulse in this regard at least.
The bit you quoted Mazza I specifically omitted. I think the “….our offensive game favours the strikers….” line is overplayed. I think it more accurate to say that we enjoy a high level of possession and that we generate a number of chances but the thing that often frustrates me is that despite all this possession we look a little blunt at breaking down the opposition.
How many times have we seen the ball being pinged almost aimlessly back and forth across the width of the pitch with no real idea on how to turn that into a threatening situation for our strikers to convert? It happens repeatedly.
The reasons for this are probably multifaceted but I think a big part is our lack breakaway pace in the attacking areas (ironically Adebayor aside). With this an issue, by the time the ball gets upfield the opposition are there too assembled and difficult to break down. If we had a genuine breakaway threat we’d be more difficult to defend against.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I remember Wenger or someone saying that a consequence of leaving Highbury-a smaller pitch- was that we would lose that ability to counter attack with the same ferocity as we did. Henry and Vieira were also major players in this regard.
It’s also a by-product of our more possession-orientated game. We are more patient and comfortable probing than the invincible side and we try to gradually wear teams down.
As for passing it sideways all the time, I agree. It’s more of a mental problem though as there is often a lack of movement or reluctance for the players to ‘play what they see’, especially in the first half of games, where we often play too much for the full backs and lack the confidence to play passes into the box.
The tension in our game is often thawed by the time we approach the latter stages of the game and that’s when we belatedly make inroads. We start feeding balls into the box and mixing it up a little.
Playing balls into the box and ignoring the tedium of releasing full backs requires a forward with the composure to cushion the ball and lean into defenders, play round- the- corner passes, and generally stand their ground and not be consistently forced to come back out with the ball and start the same drawn out process again. That’ always been my biggest gripe with Adebayor. Bendtner has more ‘ideas’ when someone feeds him the ball. Note that double one-two him and Walcott played in the last minute on Sunday. Bendtner needs to show he can do that in pressure games and consistently but at least he’s shown he can do it against deep defences at the Emirates.
That’s the key really; the Emirates. Alot the stutters and stammers in our game are evident at home. Away from home we ‘breathe’ more easily as a team and Adebayor is nearly the perfect foward.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Yes the contrasting games and strenghts of Vieira and Fabregas are critical in the way the Arsenal style shapes up. Although I can’t work out how having more space at the Emirates restricts our ability to counter. One would think more space means making defending a quick thinking/passing team even harder.
It’s hard to judge this team meaningfully. If Rosicky and Hleb had been on the flanks as Wenger intended we might be able to more clearly see and assess the new plan. But we’ve had Adebayor and Hleb and pretty much revolving fodder in the other 2 attacking positions (where RvP and Rosicky should have been).
I agree with you that Bendtner, in at least some games, presents as more of a thinking forward than Adebayor. I hope his game continues to develop. But the reverse of that is Adebayor’s direct threat and his ability to impose himself and hurt defences - no matter what their ability. Even in Europe with some finely drilled defences Adebayor was clearly a customer they disliked dealing with.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Our single biggest problem in breaking down defenses is the overall lack of team speed, especially up front. If we have a speedy winger to complement Ade, teams will have to defend wide and create more openings for the second forward and attacking mid fielders. Unfortunately, Clichy utilizes his speed well but Ade tends to drift to the left and we end up with both of them on the left wing.
The lack of speed also hinders our counter attacks which invariably results in Ade up front by himself and having to hold up the ball while waiting for other attackers to join the fray. Whenever Walcoot is played on the right wing, his meandering runs always create problems for defenders. He does not seem comfortable on the left and seems to disappear at times from that position.
Hence the need for speedy players like Walcott, Vela and Traore or to step up and make themselves an everyday player with consistent performances.
Eduardo and RVP also have the abilities to stretch defenses although they lack blazing speed but both are question marks for next season because of injuries.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
@Fred
No Fred… in all america this is the only fansite.
I just post these names because most people must know only major league and euro leagues… the great players in major league are old and some GOOD euro players has renew the contract… or are expesive.
So as I am a great fan of Arsenal (after Sao Paulo FC) i think it would be nice look for these player that arent old and has a contract very easy to be broken.
Understand?
I’m sorry if a suggested player only in south america… but what good player should I suggest? Messi?… Julio Cruz?… Ibrahimovic?