To start off I have to say the comments made by Paul Merson are for some reason designed to cause trouble. Take one glance in the papers today and all you will see in big letters is: “MERSON: WENGER INJECTED ME WITH UNKNOWN LIQUID”. It is pure attention seeking, an attempt to raise his profile and make a mountain out of an innocent molehill.
When Wenger came in he re-vamped everything, the diets, drinks, training programmes.. One thing he wanted was for his players to be more healthy and in top physical shape. To do this he used perfectly legal supplements such as Creatine – which is used my many players, in many sports, today.
Due to Paul Merson’s – lets put this kindly.. – slightly erratic lifestyle of alcohol, cocaine and gambling, is there any surprise he needed a few vitamin supplements? That is what those injections were, vitamins. Not some sort of amazing drug that turned him into Maradonna, and if that was what it was supposed to do it certainly failed. Then again, saying that wouldn’t attract readers.
To clarify a comment I made yesterday about our forwards – I think we need to change the system and them bring in another striker. Bringing in another striker and not changing the system would just be yet another waste of time and money like Chamakh is looking to be – yes, he was a ‘free transfer’, but the signing on fee must have been pretty sizable.
We are being linked with Salomon Rondon who is a forward for Malaga – he has a pretty modest goalscoring record and the justification for this link is that he is being ‘scouted’ by Arsenal. It is encouraging to know that we are looking at strikers, that is great news, but we certainly aren’t always interested, as such, in players that we send a scout along to watch. Sometimes it is just to keep tabs on their development and build up a knowledge of players in certain regions that might be of interest in the future – but it certainly doesn’t mean we are going to sign them. If that was the case, we would have the majority of the French league on our books.
To reel off the names of players we have watched would be pretty pointless and a waste of my time, a lot of them are obscure names that aren’t really of much interest – saying that, it is true that we have watched Chris Samba in the past, but most of the time the scouts are in the Blackburn area they are checking on Phil Jones. Ashley Young is a player we have been watching, as is Juan Mata and Eden Hazard, we have also had a sneaky peak at Kevin Gameiro on more than a couple of occasions. I can’t imagine us signing any of these players, but the last two I would have at the club in a heartbeat.
If we bring in another striker it would have to be one with a reputation, and for that to happen we would have to change the system as I said earlier. You can’t bring a top class striker to the club and expect them to perform when called upon every now and again – I think this is another area where Arsene’s youth plan is flawed. They need games and experience and won’t get that sitting on the bench.
Chamakh has been linked with a move to Lazio. I’d let him go, we would make a profit on him and it would give him a chance to shine somewhere else, he isn’t really what we need. It would by much unlike Wenger, though.
And that is about that for today.
Happy speculating.
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Merson is a complete prat and not even an Arsenal fan!He actually supports Chelsea…As for strikers we have 3 at the club who are blatently not good enough!Chamakh,Bendtner and Vela are just not of the standard of Arsenal Football Club.Martin is right we should cash in now.A tidy sum of around £26million could be got for all three so lets do it now.
yeah scouting a lot but ending up to offer Morgan Amalfitino ( spelling ) a contract cause he is for free. When will you ever learn? Wenger the wrong manager for Arsenal!! He is still looking for bargains. Therefore Nasri and Fabregas will leave both!!! Inter will bid 25 mill € for Hazard. Surely Wenger wont match even if we have first refusal. I really hate him and his stubborn head!!!
Getting rid of Chamakh on his first season at Arsenal will be stupid. the thing is, you do not expect a player to become top goalscorer in his first season. I sometimes think we asking too much on a player to deliver without checking exactly what kind of service does he get from his team mates. to be honest to you, he hasn’t got any great pass (to his head/feet) and that is worrying factor to me. we knew we had someone who can use his head for aerial ball but isntead of delivering those crosses our players run with the ball till the ball goes of.
Whilst i am in favour of a switch in formation, it seems to be very difficult to accommodate the players we have. Changing to a 4-4-2 seems to be the likely formation but how are we going to fit Fabregas, Song, Wilshere and Ramsey in?
What’s every1s problem with chamakh, give the guy a break. I stopped reading after seeing waste of money. What would you rather sign Torres or some a like, and lose all that money and it not work out? U guys r fucking mental. His stats were good until rvp come back. So now he’s playing second fiddle to him. Same with bendy, people go crazy when he doesn’t score, his stats again are good for starts an he’s constantly playing out of position. Get a grip fools
Sean – Merse is am arsenal fan. Before he got the Sky job, I saw him in my car park on Hornsey Rd before every home game.
Pretty sure these comments were lifted from his book anyway.
Lay off him, he may not be the sharpest syringe in the drugs bag but he’s a gooner legend
I am no fan of Merson but you cannot blame him for the HEADLINE to his article. That is the responsibiliy of the paper’s sub-editors in search of selling more copies.
On the subject of strikers, we badly need a two-footed version so as to allow Van Persie more freedom to roam. We need him but he is much too left-sided to continue as our main striker.
I have to agree, i think that is a bit harsh on Chamakh, in his 1st full season without a winter break he done well but fell away once the rigours of the Premiership caught up with him, i think with a full preseason he will be an assit just as he was at the start of this season.
in arsene we rust.
no i can second that,he is a chelsea fan.
merson got a book to sell, mmmmmm that means lets talk rubbish, about injections,it been no secret that many not just arsenal inject vitimans into thier players it not a new idea, plus he could of refused, but oblivously did’t,what merson should be talking about is how such a talented player could’t gone further then he actually did, and why he was more interested in drugs and gambleing,then playing football.
as for the strikers chamakh will not be sold he new in and still learning the arsenal way, this comming season will be important to him though.
i do think we need a top striker who can play a full season and not just when it suits him.
as for arsenal4ever, do really think a player playing second rate football with a poor scoring and assist record like hazard worth 25millioneuros?
if hazard is as great as you bloggers think then why he still in france? why did he not go to bayan munich last summer or inter milan, reason? because no one really thinks he be that good.
Getting rid of Chamakh would be Very stupid, he was proflific during his first couple months, as soon as RvP came back he then stopped scoring goals, simply cos he wasn’t playing enough and perhaps played too much during the first couple months. At least he works hard for the team unlike Bendtner, no matter how much you rate him, he really doesn’t try hard on the pitch, offers nothing defensively and can hold up the ball, Chamakh does all of these.
demongooner, 11 goals and 7 assists is very good return for a winger.
that is meant to be can’t hold up the ball btw.. (concerning Bentdner)
Chamalh does hold up the ball well. Problem is he holds it a bit too well and doesn’t have enough balls to shoot on sight, or at least more often.
We know he can’t beat his man, he is not technical, but he lays off the ball or waits for help even when there’s a scoring opportunity.
Bendtner (whom I think should go) isn’t very good technically either, and doesn’t work as hard for the team, but you cannot deny he is a centre forward at heart and has the confidence to try and change things by himself. He may fail in doing so, but at least he tries.
That’s why against Citeh at home, when they were defending with 13 players (don’t ask) and we needed someone to break the deadlock and have a pop at goal the boss brought in Bendtner and not Chamakh. Bendtner may miss the opportunity but Chamakh wouldn’t take it.
In france they call Chamakh “le remiseur” ie; the man who lays off the ball.
The only reason I would possibly consider selling is Chamakh is if there is someone whos world class wanting to come in. It is true that the sales of Chamakh, Bendtner and Vela would give us well over 25m to buy another. If Arsene were to swoop for an experienced goal getter maybe Chamakh would be in a position of having to leave. A player who could really change us ,who has always supported Arsenal and who we know the Arsenal players completely respect is Drogba. He may wish to leave Chelsea as he knows next year he will surely lose his spot to Torres and most likely a new signing. If Arsene were to ask for him I think he would cause a fuss for the move. The part that makes the deal a massive doubt is that of Chelsea not needing to sell and of course not wanting to sell to us. Therefore Arsene would have to sign a player of similar ilk to Drogba, otherwise Van Persie, Chamakh and Walcott will be good enough up top for us next year, surely producing 40 goals between them, having produced 31 goals and 19 assists in the premier league this year. With Chamakh surely settling in next season and Walcott more likely to score more when being brought on against tiring defenders in striker. So there we have it, if we don’t get a Drogba i’d prefer to stick with what we’ve got.
We need to buy 2 or 3 big money signings to satisfy all gooners and to show the rest we mean business,cesc must be sold and this will help fund these arrivals.I dont think we need cesc now as much as before and although hes been absolutely superb for us i hope the club grant him his alleged wish.I dont think anyone will hold it against him if he goes and we will always be cesc fans and grateful to him.Sort nasris contract out and wilshire and ramsay are two special ones for now and the future.Love to see samba at arsenal,we wouldnt concede all those silly set piece goals with him.