est wrote:

Compared to Real Madrid? Unfortunately yes.

I find all this recent hysteria a bit funny. City signing a couple of players really brought up the inferiority complex in some. Their best players are still Agüero and Toure. At the end of the day, those are the players that will make a difference over the league season. Take those two away and you got a team of De Bruynes, Sterlings and Fernandinhos- comparable to ours.

Adding the likes of Higuain, Aubameyang, Schneiderlin etc. isn't going to take us any closer to City or the title, because they still have Agüero and Toure. Those are the level of players we need to add to our squad and it looks like that's what we're trying to do with Benzema(and have done with Cech, Alexis and Özil).

So they only have 2 top players, but we have the 3 you listed, yet we are only on their level when their 2 top players are out? This doesn't make a lot of sense.

Klaus wrote:

I'll ask again: we have eleven players in the team. Do you honestly think it's impossible for a club like Arsenal to sign anyone that could improve us without having to pester Real Madrid on the off chance that they will sell us some superfluous player?

That's exactly it. It's not hard to make improvement to our current squad.

The scope can change entirely if we unveil some good signing out of the blue, but currently it's looking unlikely.

That's not really what I meant, Qs.

What I meant was that City aren't exactly signing Messis and Ronaldos, but rather adding to the supporting cast for Agüero and Toure.

We have enough of those supporting cast players and have been steadily adding players that are better than the one's we already have over the last few years. Some on here would probably like more of course, but to get to the next level, we clearly need to add a Agüero level striker. Unfortunately there are only a few out there and most are already at huge clubs who don't need our money, so the best we can do is make sure we're ready to pounce when the dominos fall and one of these players becomes available.

We could sign all the De Bruynes and Otamendis out there and we still wouldn't win the League, because we lack a top class striker.

est wrote:

We could sign all the De Bruynes and Otamendis out there and we still wouldn't win the League, because we lack a top class striker.

But we would be a lot closer than we were before. And when we finally have a shot at a top striker we won't blow the whole fucking season just because the rest of the team isn't up to code. City made that mistake themselves last year. Agüero was in stellar form and they weren't even close to winning Premier League.

Improving the team is a continuous process, not a once-in-every-blue-moon-when-the-right-player-becomes-available thing. Otamendi and De Bruyne will improve City a good bit relative to last season. Meanwhile, we've spent £9.8 million on Petr Cech who hadn't played football for a year. I'm happy we picked up helmet boy and all, but come on. We're not even trying here.

Klaus wrote:

But we would be a lot closer than we were before. And when we finally have a shot at a top striker we won't blow the whole fucking season just because the rest of the team isn't up to code. City made that mistake themselves last year. Agüero was in stellar form and they weren't even close to winning Premier League.

Then we don't have the funds left after spending 150m on the players that ultimately won't make a big enough difference.

Improving the team is a continuous process, not a once-in-every-blue-moon-when-the-right-player-becomes-available thing.

We have been continuously building in the last 3 years. We're at a stage where we're now looking for that final piece to fully push on.

We're building way too slowly. A top striker won't be even close to enough at this stage.

Where is this 'Arsenal is one player away from winning the title' coming from? It certainly doesn't make sense to me!

Klaus and Qs are right here, of course; the club is sitting on its collective hands waiting for some dominoes that may or may not fall, instead of actually strengthening the squad in other areas. If we did that, then could have actually been in with a shot at the title when the elusive top class striker becomes available. It is IMO absolutely laughable to think every player that would strengthen us in unavailable.

if the rest of the xi stays fit and performs to expectations, dropping benzema in for giroud gives us a shot at the title. of course, there will be at least one major injury and probably at least one player who goes through a major dip in form

Rex wrote:

It is IMO absolutely laughable to think every player that would strengthen us in unavailable.

The idea that reinforcements to other areas of the team doesn't really matter is so weird. Bayern won everything there is to win with Mario Mandzukic up front.

Rex wrote:

Where is this 'Arsenal is one player away from winning the title' coming from? It certainly doesn't make sense to me!

A lack of top class striker is a bottleneck for our squad.

Just one player can make a massive difference. Just look at what Suarez did to an average Liverpool team. On the other hand, no team has ever won the league without a top striker.

We are playing a central mid at right wing, we can't score if Alexis isn't playing, and we are a Coquelin injury away from having no bite in midfield. Impossible to fix.

Rex wrote:

We are playing a central mid at right wing

Clearly by design, since we have a 20-goal-a-season winger/forward on the bench.

The Alexis part is obviously not true and also would be fixed by getting a top striker.

Lack of coverage for Coquelin is a fair criticism, but it seems like Wenger still believes that Arteta can do a job. His cameo against Crystal Palace was pretty encouraging. Personally I wouldn't have extended Arteta's contract and done away with Flamini and got in another player there.

Yeah, well then we aren't doing it right. Also, if we have a 20 goal a season striker on the bench - why isn't he replacing the 16 goal a season striker we are actually playing?

Good question. Hopefully he will on Monday.

Signing other players would be good, but pointless without a proper striker. We won't finish any higher than Chelsea or City both of whom will be challenging for the title if they keep Costa and Aguero fit.

Basically City can sign KDB and Otamendi but if they lose aguero to injury and have to play the season with Bony they won't win the title. Same goes for Chelsea with Costa and Remy. I would say Giroud is on Remy's and Bony's level.

I'm talking about short term, long term of course over the seasons there's big benefits on improving the squad gradually.

Ray wrote:

Signing other players would be good, but pointless without a proper striker.

You're right. We should call Barca and see if we can sell back Sanchez for the same cash we bought him, no questions asked. Sell Özil too, and Ramsey. What's the point of going for quality players if we can't have a striker? Maybe we could offer our four best guys to PSG in exchange for one of theirs?

Of all asinine opinions casually thrown around in this place, this has to be the worst one. People are trying so hard to pretend they wouldn't bite someone's hand off right now for Marco Reus, or Mario Götze, or even Antoine Griezmann. There are a million ways to improve this current, sorry excuse of a team, but they all start with getting your hands on better players. Wenger expected Jack Wilshere to provide him with a world class player for free this season and it backfired again. He needs to get off his ass and fix this.

He's not going to fix it. Surely there can't be anyone here that think he's going to go sign the 2 or 3 players it's going to take to even be in the position to compete. The sooner people realise we're in for another season of fighting for fourth the less tantrums will be thrown.

I don't see the point in jumping from thread to thread getting upset about it.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

if the rest of the xi stays fit and performs to expectations, dropping benzema in for giroud gives us a shot at the title. of course, there will be at least one major injury and probably at least one player who goes through a major dip in form

This is how I see it too.

The only other area where we could have improved is Schneiderlin to replace Arteta and Flamini.

Our team is settled and we have 10 players who definitely start and it's hard to see how we could have improved on them.

Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Cazorla, Coquelin, Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez

These guys pick themselves.

I struggle to see how we could have improved on those 10.

The one area is up front and clearly we are trying to address that.

Vidal replacing Cazorla would have been a good idea.

Otamendi replace Mertesacker perhaps.

Baba Rahman replace Monreal?

I don't see the glut of players that we could have bought to improve that 10.