The Shopping List—aka We've got flipping great wadges of cash: Page 146 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Shopping List—aka We've got flipping great wadges of cash

y va marquer

I agree that we need numbers and quality in attack - I think the point I was meanderingly making was that we need to broaden our horizons in our search 🙂
Torres in his present incarnation is possibly not any kind of answer.
If he stays fit Wenger will play Robin in his current position for 90% of our games.
That's the reality.

We need players who can deal with that or who can score goals playing a different position.

Worth noting that the Chamakhian collapse coincided precisely with Robin's return last season (and the banning of the snood).

As for Gotze, yes please 🙂

Claudius

Torres in his present incarnation at 20 million pounds would represent a worthwhile risk. I've watched Torres for 7 or 8 years now. As a young captain at Atletico he was a versatile attacker who could run the offense and get on the end of things, much the way that Bergkamp did (although not at that level). He was a real handful. At Liverpool, he was a devastating no. 9. The combination of injury and potentially depression over the last couple of years has blunted him, but the talent is still there.

He's not missing games because he's injured like Diaby or Rosicky. He's healthy. He just needs to get his mind in the right place. If Wenger made a concerted effort to do this, and provided playing time, I am confident that he would come around and would really enjoy the Arsenal footballing philosophy. I still have faith that the Torres I grew to love all those years ago is still somewhere in there.

Captain

Nela wrote:
We should go for Gotze and Torres in the window. 🙂

But seriously, if he were willing to take a pay cut, why not?

Because he is crap now.

Captain

It amuses me greatly that Chamakh's no.1 detractors would like us to sign Torres.

Claudius

Simply because Torres at his peak was top class. Chamakh never has been and never will be upper echelon.
It's partly why I until recently harbored ambitions of signing Kaka, but the more I watch him, the more convinced I am that his legs are gone and he needs to learn to play a completely different game.

Captain

Torres has been poor for longer than Chamakh has.

Claudius

No doubt. The first year can be forgiven because that fool Benitez played him when he was injured. That's generally acknowledged. The last 12 months are the real problem because he was healthy enough to pass a Chelsea medical and has been surrounded by decent players. I think it's a big risk. Right now, as I said before, I'd rather take the safer option of Podolski, but it's worth considering if Wenger believes the problem is psychological and Torres can be reached. Even if we unlock Chamakh's brain, he'll never be a don. That's the difference here.

Nela

Obviously, most of us would want a ready to play quality striker to come in. There is no hope for Chamakh. Even if he regained his confidence, the guy still can't shoot and to my knowledge has never showed that he can strike a ball. I have no patience for someone who wants to play as a mains striker and can't shoot. Just go away please!

As for Torres, I think it's like Caligula said. The guy was class and there's still a lot of hope for him.

Idealy we need someone who can come in and deliver now. But I'd rather take a punt on Torres in his current state than more cheap signings like Park and Chamakh.

y va marquer

We've never spent £20 million on any single player have we?
If we're going to spend big (for us) I'd rather it go towards Gotze in the summer than gamble it on Torres who's scored what, 2 goals in 2011 so far?
If we had money to burn fair enough, gamble away but I would not spend £20 million in the hope that Torres will overcome whatever demons he has whilst watching from the bench as Robin tears it up on the pitch.

Nela

Personally, I think we need to spend big on two players and get rid of the crap(Almunia, Squid, Chamakh..etc)

If we did that I would be ecstatic.

Rex

Agree Nela that we should spend big on 2 players. None of those should be Torres though IMO.

y va marquer

🙂 Very few who would argue against Arsene spending big on a couple of players.

But no point spending big on players who don't deliver, which is ironically the case with Torres already.
Zero return for £60 million.

Captain

It would be like buying Arshavin for £15m. Think about it.

y va marquer

Arshavin was at least in good form when we bought him.
Short term - he did his job when he arrived.
Long term - massive disappointment.
Grieves me to see him these days.

Nela

Arshavin is another one we should sell in January if we bring in a couple of players.

Captain

y va marquer wrote:
Arshavin was at least in good form when we bought him.
Short term - he did his job when he arrived.
Long term - massive disappointment.
Grieves me to see him these days.

Exactly y va, I mean buying him for £15m now.

Clrnc

We didnt make any loss though, he sold so many jerseys when he signed and brought us into UCL. I still struggle to think of how someone as talented as him could become like this now. Was it our style not suiting him or did he just give up totally?

TheTGP

I think he was never gifted enough physically to last in the premier league.

Even in his first year with us, he was always speaking to the press about how hard it was to keep up over 90 minutes, especially with his defensive duties.

Then, once he started burning out a year later from over-use, he started losing his acceleration and pace, which caused him to start struggling for the first time. Then he just gave up.

lorddulaarsenal

I agree no more cheap options like chamakh and park.

Splashing the cash on 2 big signings would send out a message that we're a force again and not a club which looks to skimp and sell on stars.

You can still extract value from expensive buys

y va marquer

Better to identify the players we want and then pay whatever we need to pay for them than just blindly decide we're going to spend big to show we mean business.

That seems like management 101 to me.

Worth noting that our best buy this summer - Arteta - was relatively cheap and that the expensive buys from last January - Torres and Carroll - were a waste of money.

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