If a new manager comes in at Tottenham then we can assume he will want some new players while it seems as though Liverpool are willing to throw more money at having another go at Champions League football and Everton will no doubt only spend around £8 million but we know David Moyes will spend it wisely. Furthermore, even though Chelsea have reached the FA Cup Final again and will have a Champions League final to look forward to, the squad still needs an overhaul; Drogba may leave for China and while Lampard, Terry and Cole are still world class players, they will need others to push them for their places. So what about Arsenal?
First of all they must stop becoming a training ground and feeder club for Manchester City, they can have the Kolo Toure’s and Gael Clichy’s but the top draw players such as Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor need to be kept. Van Persie must sign a new contract and Walcott’s future needs to be addressed so he can get his head down and improve on a solid season. Arsenal should look at Tottenham and how they handled Luka Modric last summer and make sure the stars stay, in past years Flamini’s contract was foolishly allowed to run down just as he was becoming an integral part of the side and Alex Hleb was flogged to Barcelona and only warmed the bench and should have stayed in London.
Arsenal’s problem is that they overpay average players, by removing the deadwood such as Denilson, Vela, Arshavin, Bendtner, Chamakh, Park, Squallaci, Djourou and Almunia, funds could be raised to buy other players and improve current players contracts, while question marks have to remain about players such as Diaby and Ramsey who have been out for long periods and failed to shine when given their chance.
Hopefully next season Jack Wilshere will be back to his best and every Gooner is praying that RVP does not get injured over the summer as a partnership with Lukas Podolski is starting to get Arsenal fans excited for next season. No longer do Arsenal fans have to beg Wenger to sign Shay Given as we now have a solid goalkeeper who can only get better, he has ‘Schmeichel’ arrogance about him so let’s hope he turns out to be more Peter than Kasper.
Jan Vertonghen would be a great signing if they could snatch him from under the noses of Spurs and one from M’Villa, Hazard and Götze would definitely strengthen the squadand put pressure on Song, Walcott and Gervinho. In the past few years Wenger has delayed in the transfer window and missed out on Phil Jones, Juan Mata, Jose Enrique, Yaya Toure, Christopher Samba, Gary Cahill and Scott Parker and so the fact that the Podolski deal looks set to be completed soon is a fantastic indicator. When was the last time Arsenal fans got genuinely excited about a signing? Arshavin maybe but probably before that was Dennis Bergkamp when fans could literally exhale with genuine happiness and think “we’ve got him!”
There is a good squad beginning to emerge from the red half of North London, Wojciech Szczesny, Laurent Koscielny and, most encouragingly, Oxlade-Chamberlain are stepping up to new levels of performance and it will only take a couple of exciting signings to make sure the fans stay on side and so this time next year, Arsenal are not lauding fourth place as another success.
On Twitter @hazzadavis
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Unless Ramilson play lesser games.