"Because when you bring somebody in, you’re pushing somebody else down, so you’ve got to be sure that when you add someone, you’re really raising the level of the squad."

Back in the day there were groans when the child Fabregas came on to replace Patrick Vieira.
The screams were for the board to break the bank for the finished article.

To be honest with you, citing a young Fabregas as a reason not to have brought in a 'finished article' this summer is perhaps not the strongest of arguments.

Sorry what did Cesc win with us again? Paddy was not past it but was in a decline however I think we would have won a trophy or 2 if we kept Vieira

I know.
But the only players I would have wanted were taken :

Cavani - who would replace him at PSG? No one so no deal
Benzema - who would replace him at Real? No one so no deal
Schneiderlin - United would have kept upping their bid in desperation. And I really don't think we should be paying double money for anyone.

And this myth of getting quality benchwarmers is just that - a myth.
Possibly Delph is an exception to that but bar him who really was there?

What is a myth is that only 'world class' players would improve this current Arsenal side.

You only have to look at the players that have been outperforming our forwards during this calendar year to wonder why equivalent talents couldn't have been unearthed by our globe-trotting scouting network.

comment by Lexington Sanchez 125.2 (U8879)
posted 8 minutes ago
What is a myth is that only 'world class' players would improve this current Arsenal side.

You only have to look at the players that have been outperforming our forwards during this calendar year to wonder why equivalent talents couldn't have been unearthed by our globe-trotting scouting network.
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Sanchez is essentially a forward. Name a non-world class player who outperformed him?

Giroud, Walcott, Welbeck, Akpom, Campbell and Sanogo are also forwards.

There are a whole host who've outperformed them.

comment by Lexington Sanchez 125.2 (U8879)
posted 5 minutes ago
Giroud, Walcott, Welbeck, Akpom, Campbell and Sanogo are also forwards.

There are a whole host who've outperformed them.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
the only real names here you can use is Giroud, Walcott was injured. Who outperformed Giroud last season that was available?

Kane?

comment by Lexington Sanchez 125.2 (U8879)
posted 3 minutes ago
Giroud, Walcott, Welbeck, Akpom, Campbell and Sanogo are also forwards.

There are a whole host who've outperformed them.


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In the EPL, only Aguero, Kane, Costa, and Austin scored more than Sanchez and Giroud. Campbell, Sanogo, and Akpom are hardly the ready article--Campbell won't develop into a top player, either, in my opinion. Walcott had returned from a very long injury. Welbeck was purchased in January.

So again, besides Aguero (world class), Costa (top player but not world class), Kane (was on top form), and Austin (Berahino received more attention), Sanchez and Giroud scored as many or more than any other forward in the league. Doesn't mean I don't want another attacking player, but Arsenal is only behind City and Chelsea in terms of attack, which is expected.

Available

Why is it acceptable to be behind City and Chelsea in attacking talent?

And there were plenty of forwards throughout Europe who outperformed our strikers and weren't at one of the big boys clubs - ie Aubameyang, Higuain, Lacazette, Dybala, Tevez, Griezmann, Jackson, Dost, Bacca

I still think not getting a cover DM would be our biggest downfall

comment by Bats (U18355)
posted 5 seconds ago
Why is it acceptable to be behind City and Chelsea in attacking talent?

And there were plenty of forwards throughout Europe who outperformed our strikers and weren't at one of the big boys clubs - ie Aubameyang, Higuain, Lacazette, Dybala, Tevez, Griezmann, Jackson, Dost, Bacca
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Never said it was acceptable to be behind City and Chelsea, just expected given the different personnel. And are you seriously considering Dost as a replacement/improvement on Giroud? No on Tevez--too old; Jackson Martinez is very overrated--basically a battering ram. I won't disagree about Higuain, but he has a tendency to bottle it in big moments; had Giroud missed the some of his chances, there would be tombstone for him outside the stadium. Lacazette, Dybala, and Bacca I don't know much about. Aubameyang is like Walcott but with a fuller game and taller--he would be mobile without the physical tools.

And I must say Higuain, Griezmann, Tevez (he played for Juventus ffs ) and Aubameyang play for top clubs. Dortmund and Atletico are a level slightly below Arsenal--both CL finalists and league winners in the last 5 years. Napoli is the only uncertainty. All three clubs would want a fortune for those players--like pulling out a screw with tweezers.

The fact is that

I genuinely can't believe people are still defending Wenger and his antics. Stunned.

I didnt say any of those would be an improvement on Giroud, I simply stated that they played at 'lesser' clubs than ourselves and all outperformed Giroud last season. And yes I am aware Tevez played for Juve, a team made up largely of pensioners, journeymen and premier league rejects.

And so what if they would want a fortune, we have a fortune of money to spend and then some.

I don't even know why I'm arguing about this, it is clear as light as day that a disturbing amount of Arsenal fans would invite Wenger over to shíiiiiit in their breakfast and shàaag their mother and wife simultaneously just to appease him. There is literally an excuse for everything that he does.

Bats, don't waste your time. I just had a massive rant at Godfather on his most recent article but I realised after I pressed send that it was pointless because no matter how many issues I raise, he will always have a pathetic reason to rationalise Wenger's inaction.

Certain individuals on this thread seem no different.

I didnt say any of those would be an improvement on Giroud, I simply stated that they played at 'lesser' clubs than ourselves and all outperformed Giroud last season. And yes I am aware Tevez played for Juve, a team made up largely of pensioners, journeymen and premier league rejects.

__________

Did they all outperformed him? Think you fall for the hype in the media but it's up to you to believe.

And for me it's not a question to find a player being better. It's subjective and I understand that some dont like Giroud's style of play. It's about to find someone who is a reliable goalscorer and can finish when Giroud can't. I can't see any of the mentioned players who match this requirement. Higuain? Dont get me started....

A new striker doesn't necessarily have to be a more reliable goalscorer than Giroud, they just have to have better movement to stretch backlines and give our fantastic counter-attacking players room to exploit. Goals would be a great bonus of course.

Just think back to Chamakh who was a sh!te finisher but led the line to some fantastic results including a few 4/5/6 goal drubbings. We have the world's best counter-attacking no.10 and have people questioning whether he's a flop simply because Wenger chooses to play a massive bottleneck in front of him.

Renoog

And I think that's exactly why Wenger signed Welbeck.

The problem with Welbeck is his hold up play and movement aren't really good enough for that role, the ball just bounces off him half the time if he's not running it into blind alleys - but even with that, we saw how his work rate opened up so much more space for the likes of Sanchez.

It was zero surprise to me that Sanchez goals slowed down the second Giroud, who in fairness replaced those goals, came back in.

"A new striker doesn't necessarily have to be a more reliable goalscorer than Giroud...."

That's the only criterium we should pay for high fees. That doesnt mean we shouldnt take a risk as ....yes transfers are all risky. I mean why not take that risk on Lacazette for example? Not sure how he would turn out to be but yes he was available for a moreless reasonable price, had a good goalscoring history last year allthough I personally dont judge players on that alone.

"A new striker doesn't necessarily have to be a more reliable goalscorer than Giroud...."

Isn't our issue at the moment conversion rate not chances created, we've only converted 2%, but we seem to have the most shots on goal, I think we do need a better finisher
also Walcott has had a fair few chances to score, he has greater movement.

I think the sample size this season is too small but for me low chance conversion is not down to one player but a systemic problem where we're dominating possession and creating lots of poor quality chances against packed defences. Chance conversion will go up if we play a quicker game and create more one-on-one openings.

Not saying I don't want a better goalscorer but the 30+ goal a season CF like Aguero that we need is probably out of reach. So we should be settling for the next best alternative which is a quick channel-running CF with good hold-up play and ball skills. That would unleash the full potential of Sanchez, Ozil and Walcott/Chamberlain in a 3 behind, which is more than enough attacking talent. Finding such a player who can hit 20 goals a season isn't really that much of an ask for our scouting system and bank balance.

Agree with the above that Welbeck is more in that mould but I just think he's too erratic technically, and his finishing is atrocious. He did help get the best out of Sanchez though.

A quick, channel-running CF with good hold-up play and ball skills that can bring others into play and score 20 a season isn't really that much of an ask?

Now I'll be honest, I'm not one of these people who watches EVERY match from EVERY league on EVERY channel.
But that seems like a pretty outstanding singing to me - not a basic one.

I am not sure why some of you want to burden goalscoring only on one shoulder. Why cant we just play with different type of strikers?