In addition to a winger, we really need to seriously think about a striker. I'm tired of being concerned about van Persie every time he scores a goal or somebody tackles him. It's plain foolish for us to be at the mercy of this man's brittle bones.

Go to Spain: Forlan, Rossi.
At 32 Forlan would be a real veteran presence. He apparently hates losing and losers, so would be good to have in dressing room. Rossi would probably be a lot more expensive, given his relative youth, but is really coming on as a forward.

Ex Man United. No thank you.

Forlan would've been a great signing for this season if he hadn't performed so very well at last summer's World Cup. It's very rare for Wenger to go after players with a temporarily elevated profile.

Not that he would've signed Forlan anyway. He wasn't free after all.

Guessing you guys have not seen him much since the World Cup?

Forlan has been terrible this season.

I don't watch much of the lesser leagues.

YounGunner wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

Valencia providing width and crosses didn't give Man United a new dimension or a Plan B - they have played that way for 20 years and had ample players in their squad to play that way anyway. We don't. We play a different way, and we're not set-up for someone like Ashley Young to prosper. I still wouldn't say no to him because he's a good player, but to really be a success here he'd have to adapt his game to fit us.

Young doesnt need to adapt his style of play at all. Hes a good pass and move player and someone that would give us width. I think all of our center forwards are good in the air and would benefit.

Have to say that I agree with this and Young is being severely underrated as a footballer.

I think he's a more rounded player than Walcott. I could see him doing better in the team over the oourse of a season than Walcott actually.

Young may be more rounded than Theo but the latters incredible pace and movement makes him the more dangerous player. 11 goals and 10 assists in 19 starts is nothing to turn your nose up at.

That being said, not sure why it's relevant, not likes it's one or the other.

The problem I have with Young isn't his quality, it's that I'd imagine with the 20m+ it would take to get him Wenger could do better.

agree with oft there.. the price tag that Young would have is crazy when we have more glaring needs.. we would never spend anywhere near the amount Villa would want to let him go.. for me, even in this market, 20m+ should give us a much better player than Young.. he's got the 8m+10m up-charge since he's English..

Young's a bit like Theo anyway, in that when he's good he's good, but when he's bad he's horrid. Technically a pretty good player, but his awareness can be shocking at times.

I'd take him, but as otf has already said, the thing about Theo is that he changes the game even when he's not playing well.

On Forlan, I have been following the story, and it appears that he has been disillusioned with the club and is 'distanced' from the coach and other players. The overriding theme from observers is that he wants to compete. It's a bit worrying if that's his reaction, but his quality is undeniable. I watched him live a couple of times, and the amount of ground the guy covered was phenomenal. He was popping up in all 4 of the forward positions within a minute, passing beautifully and, of course, scoring. He is more complete than any of our strikers, and could probably give us 2 top seasons at least.

Saw this at Caughtoffside / BBC

"Manchester United are preparing an audacious summer move for Bayern Munich playmaker Franck Ribery."

Please do it

Another April Fool's joke? Ribery would slot straight into Ferguson's thinking though - still only 27 and would be a marquee replacement for Giggs if they could afford him. Ferguson loves width.

Hard to believe Giggs is a full 37 years old going on 38 ... he's 10 years older than Ribery.

Really? I seem to recall United saying that Berbatov was the last player over 26 that they'd sign as oldies don't represent value for money.

YounGunner wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

Valencia providing width and crosses didn't give Man United a new dimension or a Plan B - they have played that way for 20 years and had ample players in their squad to play that way anyway. We don't. We play a different way, and we're not set-up for someone like Ashley Young to prosper. I still wouldn't say no to him because he's a good player, but to really be a success here he'd have to adapt his game to fit us.

It's bad enough we have Theo going through spells (badly) imitating Stanley Matthews, but at least he's super-charged and a massive goal threat with his brilliant movement and finishing.

Young doesnt need to adapt his style of play at all. Hes a good pass and move player and someone that would give us width. I think all of our center forwards are good in the air and would benefit.

Walcott is not really a typical Arsenal footballer but he gives us something different.

Exactly. Young is the sort of direct, quick player we need in attack. We've been missing Walcott alot recently because he stretches the game and makes us less predictable. We don't need another Rosicky, we need someone a bit different. All our attacking mids cut inside pretty much every time, Young can cut inside or stay wide and provide good service, he's be brilliant for us.
I

otfgoon wrote:

I'd still like to see how Theo would do up front, perhaps if we got another proper winger Wenger would be more willing to try it? He's always said that's where his future lies.

Interesting, this is something i've been thinking about for a while. Would love to see him given a chance, just not sure what way we should go about it.

It would be a brave move to replace Bendtner with a winger and use Theo as the extra cover for Robin considering Chamakh's recent form and Robin and Theo's inability to stay fit for long periods. I can't see us bringing in any attackers without letting go of somebody else (more than likely Bendtner or Arshavin)

As for Young i rate him highly and think he's exactly the type of player we need. We struggle in attack mostly against teams like Utd who sit deep and get numbers behind the ball. The best way to deal with such a tactic is to run at defenders and deliver quality ball from wide postions - 2 things Young specialises in and 2 things we don't do a lot of.

Have to say, I'm going to have to join the Scott Parker fan club.

Looking at the league table, there are gonna be plenty of good players playing for relegated clubs this season. Could get some quality bargains if we play our cards right.