Despite being linked on a regular basis to the likes of Christopher Samba, Ricky Alvarez and Joey Barton, the most underwhelming transfer rumour from an Arsenal fan point of view has to be the Gunner’s being linked with Wolves striker Kevin Doyle. After last seasons’ failings, Arsene Wenger is purportedly on the hunt for some real quality; for players with the ability to guide the Gunner’s to success next season. Could Kevin Doyle be just the man that Arsenal are looking for?
It’s clear that the Gunners need somebody who can partner Robin Van Persie upfront. Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh have both underwhelmed and there has been rumours that the big Dane will leave the club this summer. If Van Persie had a world-class strike-partner beside him, the Gunner’s frontline would truly be a terrifying prospect. The question remains however: is Kevin Doyle a world class striker?
Nobody rates Kevin Doyle more than Wolves boss Mick McCarthy, who has previously claimed that it would take a bid of around £50m to seriously convince him to part services with Doyle. Realistically though, Doyle is only worth around £10-12m and is likely to jump at the opportunity to play for a big side.
For too long now Arsenal have relied on players like Nicklas Bendtner: players who just don’t have the ability to guide the Gunners towards trophies. In my opinion, Doyle would be another of these players. There’s a reason why he has spent most of his career playing for clubs towards the bottom of the Premier League. He’s a workhorse and he grabs a fair few goals, but in terms of talent he remains some way off the likes of Robin Van Persie.
According to @Orbinho, he’s also someway behind Bendtner in terms of ability. Between 2008-11, Bendtner grabbed 17 goals, whilst Doyle picked up 14. Bendtner scored a goal every 205 minutes, whilst Doyle only scored every 363 minutes. What’s more Bendtner also picked up an assist every 435 minutes, whilst Doyle only earned an assist every 1017 minutes, making the Danish striker the better all round player.
Why should Arsenal send one striker packing to bring in another striker who isn’t as good statistically? The only answer can be that Doyle is a hard-worker who will chase down lost causes. Not every player in a team needs to have the technical ability of men like Robin Van Persie. Dirk Kuyt has carved out a niche for himself at Liverpool because of the sheer amount of effort that he puts in on a weekly basis.
But that isn’t the kind of signing that Arsenal need at the moment. Sure you can always use people who work hard on your team, but it’s important to counterbalance all this effort with a certain degree of effectiveness. It’s clear to me that Kevin Doyle isn’t Arsenal quality and that he’d be better served at a mid-table side. I for one hope that this is a rumour that doesn’t have any grounding.
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Great – we don’t want to sell him; after all, he’s better than Bendtner, Chamakh etc etc having prospered in a team without your midfield to support him! You gooners make me smile – won much lately? thought not.
Fantastic logic!
Bentner scores 17 goals in a team of world superstars that create chance after chance, and he’s better than doyle who scores 14 in a team where he may get one decent opportunity a game. Perhaps this may be where Arsenal are going wrong !
a player what works hard arsenal dont need one of them do they?
stupid article
Now that’s not exactly what I said was it?
errr yh it is. your a clown and don’t know football
Comparing the stats on the two players is frankly ridiculous. One has played for one of the most dynamic and talented sides in the world. The other has played at Wolves (Yes I am a fan but also a realist). Doyle has immense talent with his back to goal, works the channels incredibly well and holds the ball like its glued to his boot. His ratio of goals to chances isn’t bad either. In a side where it isn’t necessary to be the only man in the opposition half of the field for most of a match he would get a fair few more goals and perhaps more importantly, provide an immense number of assists.
I hope you manager listens to you and not me though, since I don’t want to see Doyle leave Wolves any time soon!
Well, there you have it Mr Cloke. Your piece has encouraged a number of reasoned ,plausible albeit partisan responses. Let’s hope you have the professional humility to acknowledge the good sense of so many of these responses after you have extricated yourself from the arrogant posturing which pervades your piece. You don’t deserve him.
I do appreciate the responses and most of them make a good point. I know it’s unfair to compare Bendtner’s stats to Doyle’s and I certainly didn’t mean to come off as ‘arrogant’ – although I can see how that may be the case. My feeling is that Arsenal need someone with a proven track record for performing at the top level of the game and that’s something Doyle simply can’t offer. He may have been a good addition had Chamakh and Bendtner not had such average seasons, but that wasn’t the case and the Gunners can’t afford to take a gamble. So apologies to Wolves fans, no disrespect meant and hopefully you can see where I’m coming from.
Spoke to Kevin Doyle yesterday and he informed me that he is not interested in joining Arsenal, apparently he would prefer to join a side who have a chance of winning something.
Mr Cloke, you clearly have no idea what constitutes a good player. Doyle is absolutely a fantastic all round footballer. Hasn’t scored many for Wolves simply because he has mainly been deployed as loan striker. It has already been stated he never loses a ball when played up to him. He is like velcro the ball just sticks to him. He is not physically the biggest but is strength is more than capable of holding off the best centre halves in the prem. Lets hope others at Arse-nal share your dim thoughts.
first get your facts straight Doyle was out injured more than half of last season and was only fully fit firing on all cylinders for a handful of games and had little chance to play alongside our other first choice striker fletcher ..that £50mill line was just your typical mccarthy comeback when asked if he would sell doyle he replied sure if someone comes in with £50 mill.. Wenger was commenting on an ROI game in which Doyle played well and said some extremely complementary things about him.. since then the rumours about doyle going to Arsenal surface whenever there is sod all else for the London press to make up.
Thank you for your response Harry.I, for one, appreciate it.
Bendtner better than Kevin Doyle who’s leg are you trying to pull? Not sure if KD is a naturally gifted as NB Big Head but when you add in attitude and work ethic there is no comparison, KD every time. Worth noting that there are people interested in signing KD but that no one seems to want NB, who is a useless, lazy, self opiniated cretin.
I am one Gooner who would love to see NB out of Arsenal as soon as possible. KD would shame the dressing room at the Emirates and therefore wouldnt fit in.
I remember when Arsenal fans were gritty, down-to-earth, knowledgeable realists. Boring maybe, but they knew their stuff.
Those days seem to have long gone and the misplaced arrogance these days is spreading from the team to the stands. I hope Doyle doesn’t go near the place, it could ruin him.
so if you fools think Bendtner is good enough for Arsenal, why isn’t Fukerson or AvB or Dalglish or Mancini looking to him to replace Berbaflop, Drogba, Torres or Tevez?
Do you think Doyle will EVER be considered by such managers??
and those saying he scored 18 goals in the championship,,its the championship for heavens sake!!
and those saying he scored 17 in the premier league, wasn’t Franny Jeffers banging them in for fun before he moved to The Arsenal???(this is just to point out, these English cum Irish cum Welsh strikers with a lot of hardwork but less of technical abilities are all crap!!)
Jay: “these English cum Irish cum Welsh . . . with a lot of hardwork but less of technical abilities are all crap!!” This is fair comment on the Wolves team, but as an assessment of Doyle it’s the crappiest comment in the thread. Has Jay ever watched Doyle? Let’s be specific: Doyle’s ability to take the ball in the air under pressure from a defender, to bring it down to his foot, and to keep the ball away from the defenders and under control is better than any other striker in the Premier League of any nationality. Doyle’s stats are not better because Mick McCarthy is scared shitless most of the time, and is frightened to get midfielders up into the opponents penalty box either to assist Doyle or to score. But Doyle himself is quality–that’s why, if he’s worth a penny, he’s worth £25m. With a natural goalscorer like Van Persie, the Arsenal midfield, and Wenger’s approach, he would be a priceless addition to the Gunners. And without him Wolves would be relegated for sure.
Rubbish! Unfortunately the majority of glory hunting supportes dont pay attention to the lower sides of the premier league, and so their knowledge of them and their players mainly come from stats. Anyone who has watched Doyle knows that he is twice the player the aptly named BENT-ner is! If you can i suggest you have a look at wolves season and see how important and impressive this man is (Wolves V Chelsea comes to mind where Terry and Ivanovic doubled up on him and still i dont think they got a successful tackle on him).
It is the year 2011. An Arsenal FC plane is flying – high up in the air. The plane is apparently on auto-pilot – the Pilot, (a one Ass-ne Venga) is in deep slumber. His ‘co-pilots’ (the Board of Arsenal FC) are deeply snoozing and hallucinating – they are dreaming big, visualising a huge feast courtesy of the wind-fall from the sales of the club’s star players. Meanwhile, from it’s sound, the plane (Arsenal FC’s) engine has clearly developed a fatal break-down. An armageddon-like plane-crash from high altitude is inevitable. Uneasy, sensing an imminent tragedy, the cabin crew (Nasri, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas etc) are secretly but hastily collecting parachutes – preparing to jump to safety. Curiously, the plane’s loyal ‘passengers’ (fans of Arsenal FC) are lost in song – blaring out their favorite – eternal tune – “In Arsene We Trust”.
Good article Harry. As you’re finding, you tend to get more responses (albeit some insulting ones) if you take an outlying or slightly harsh view. Shame about your stats – comparing three seasons for Bendtner to Doyle’s two seasons – as many have pointed out.
Wenger waxed lyrically about Doyle when he was co-commenting on the France v Republic game and he’s known to be an admirer of Doyle. However, as a Wolves fan, I have to say that as much as I rate Doyle, I agree with you in that he wouldn’t be the right player for Arsenal and your style of football.
He is a very intelligent and hard working player but you have that already in Van Persie. As a back-up he’d be a good call, albeit inferior to RvP, but I’m not sure that would appeal to Doyle.
RvP seems to need a speedier player alongside him, or attacking from midfield, something I suspect Wenger has tried, but failed, with the likes of Arshavin/Chamakh. Would it not be more appropriate to try RvP alongside Walcott with a winger (in the mould of Overmars/Limpar) to support?
Looking back at your most recent glory days, I see RvP (or Doyle) in the quasi-Bergkamp role, albeit not as talented. You need an out and out striker (ideally in the Ian Wright mould – although easier said than found these days) to play alongside.
From my observations, I can’t understand why Wenger persists with Bendtner – seems that the only one convinced of his talent is himself. If he put in as much effort as Doyle does, he’d be a far better player and likely more appreciated by the Arsenal faithful.
All the best for this season. As the only ‘big 5 or 6 team’ we haven’t beaten in donkey’s years, I hope we can redress this although I do remember seeing us beat you 1-0 at Highbury around 1980
Yep, you said it better than I could.
Blimey – what the hell are you doing as a Wolves fan. Please take over the Arsenal manager’s job – although you’ll have to stop talking so much sense Andy
Yes… I totally agree Arsenal should keep Bentnaar and persist with Robin Van Perscription… Kevin Doyle aint that good, he should stay where he belongs at a min’o club like Wolves (They’ve never won anything, No history, No fans etc..) Also Wolves aint got to sell, unlike every other club in the PL, we’re £40m in the black… Cant remember how many hundreds of millions Arsenal are in debt??
If I was an Arsenal fan (lol…) I would certainly start to question the ability of Wenger… He was good 10 years ago but things move on… Look at some of his signings, Chamak for example… He’s never successfully replaced the back four or goalkeeper in nearly a decade… When he scrapes through to a semi or final, getting a sniff of silverware, he bottles it…
Arsenal fans should have called for his head years ago and question the motives of the board, far too much foreign investment for my liking…
Not like Wolves…
How about comparing doyle and fletcher both wolves strikers. If i’m not mistaken strikers are there to score.