The Wishlist: Page 539 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Wishlist

lorddulaarsenal

Don’t think centre mid is where we should invest next. Quite a few other issues to address first

A midfield three of Ramsey, Torreira and Guendouzi has the lot

Anzac

Claudius wrote:
I’m still not happy with central midfield. Would like a bid for Ndombele. Want more power. He does a great job of carrying the ball in the middle of the park, which we have often lacked, and often disconnects our midfield from our attack. Powerful, good dribbler and also a much more capable passer than the likes of Xhaka/El Neny.

I would rather sell Xhaka to fund this guy and see what upside we get. There’s no upside in Xhaka

Agreed that we don't have someone to bring the ball forward at feet - could AM-N fit the role???

Anzac

Clrnc wrote:
Anzac wrote:
Didn't BVB say they wanted about 60m Euros for Pulisic?

I like him but he will be another small sized playmaker in our team.

He's about the same height as Hazard & taller than Sanchez.

I didn't watch enough last season to say if he is direct enough or stayed wide so as to be called a winger,
or if he likes to operate behind the forward line and come inside like an AM wide playmaker type.

Qwiss

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
Don’t think centre mid is where we should invest next. Quite a few other issues to address first

A midfield three of Ramsey, Torreira and Guendouzi has the lot

If we could get Ramsey to sign a deal midfield would be good for a couple of more years while we sort out other issues. We need a winger, a left back and arguably a centre half as priorities in the next couple of windows. And then there will probably be more leaving that need replacing too.

lorddulaarsenal

It’s annoying. With so many problems by the time we’ll get to address them more will have emerged

Anzac

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
It’s annoying. With so many problems by the time we’ll get to address them more will have emerged

ATM our strength is our quality in attack.
However their ages mean that we need to regain top4 before they decline.

lorddulaarsenal

Kimpembe not in PSGs starting line their last two games.

Go get him in January

Kimpembe
Gbamin
Demarai Gray

Problem solved

marv3llous

Demarai Gray is complete toilet.

lorddulaarsenal

As in like a toilet he’s very much needed?

Anzac

I see Bailey has signed an extension with Leverkusen.

Meatwad

because they're selling him next summer.

it's still funny to me how there are so many promising french born defenders under 23 out there and arsenal doesn't have one of them.

speedy

Exactly, when we have the God given right to own them.

Meatwad

when i became an arsenal fan in the late 90's that really did seem like the case. then wumger lost his touch and the french talent went elsewhere.

Mirth

Clubs actually started sending scouts outside their own country in droves too. 20 years ago it was a unheard of that a newly promoted Championship team would boast international players but Wolves currently boast two Euro winners. Wenger was so pleased that he invented the wheel that he didn't realise that everyone else worked out how to build a car and it's frustrating that we had a genuine competitive edge over everyone that was somehow lost over the past 15 years. Even if we suddenly spent £1B on the team, we'll never have that kind of first mover advantage again.

Anzac

Mirth wrote:
Clubs actually started sending scouts outside their own country in droves too. 20 years ago it was a unheard of that a newly promoted Championship team would boast international players but Wolves currently boast two Euro winners. Wenger was so pleased that he invented the wheel that he didn't realise that everyone else worked out how to build a car and it's frustrating that we had a genuine competitive edge over everyone that was somehow lost over the past 15 years. Even if we suddenly spent £1B on the team, we'll never have that kind of first mover advantage again.

I think he became too fixated on their national academy system for too long.
Then when things fell off at the system he went British,
and then missed the boat when the current crop of talent surfaced.
In many ways we've been too narrow in our scouting range but also missed the best parts of the talent as they emerged.

Mirth

That's revisionist. By mid-2000s, I think we were relatively broad (by early 2000s standards) with our scouting. We were amongst the first to actively scout players who were playing for clubs in Africa and bring them in. We also took punts on players like Inamoto (Japan), Karbassiyoon (USA) or Vela (Mexico) as and when they came up. By every metric we were fairly global in our approach and not reliant on Clairefontaine. Of course we were not as well established in South America as the Spainish and Italian clubs but they have a cultural advantage in those regions.

Since 2007 we didn't really scout as actively as before, I don't know if this was tied to Wenger's preference to bring through 'internal solutions' via our academy (further boosted by the Youth Cup in 2009) but by taking a step back we handed the initiative to others.

goon

I don't think there's much of an advantage to be had anymore. It's just about having a structure and network in place that can identify good young players and have the conviction to go out and sign them.

Clrnc

Our lack of success since 2004 isn't helping and that's one of the main reasons IMO. That's more than a decade of average performances in competitions and talented kids growing up no longer aspire to join Arsenal. We don't identify enough talented players to bring in, but whenever we do they are more inclined to choose a better option than us.

We have to grow out of that cycle and revamp the scouting team. Liverpool for one has done pretty well with this in terms of british talents. Joe Gomez, Sterling etc.

Qwiss

Signing the best kids has become expensive too. When United signed Ronaldo he was less than £20m. Nowadays Mbappe moves for £100m and every top club in Europe is after him. There has been a shift in how big clubs operate when it comes to signing young players. Most of us grew up in the generation where the press were telling Fergie he'd win nothing with kids.

Clrnc

I think we are talking about kids before they breakthrough, the not obvious ones. Mbappe would have been peanuts if Wenger succeed in getting him the season before, but neither him nor our brand has that pulling power anymore.

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