The Premier League campaign - 2011/12: Page 38 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

The Premier League campaign - 2011/12

Captain

Release clause Clrnc but he may have signed a new contract since then. There was some nonsense with Newcastle regarding it in the summer.

lorddulaarsenal

Would love Taylor to sign. Gibbs is a write off and actually isnt as good as people (a person) make(s) out. Weak defensively and average moving forward.

If we do get Taylor we'd be set at left back and could always play santos ahead of him

asajoseph

We need backup fullbacks anyway. Both of the ones we have are shit.

redstar

Ricky1985 wrote:
Podolski is an awkward one. He won't come to sit as van Persie's back-up - where he would be a stupendously good option - and we obviously won't pay him what he'd want unless we had him nailed down for a starting spot, and as a wide player in our system there are a fair few players I'd move for before I moved for Podolski.

Who would you prefer Ricky that would be somewhat realistic?

My preference for gibbs would be a loan. I don't think we should be giving up on him completely just yet, but we can't rely on him in the squad at present. We would probably only get a minimal amount selling him now anyway.

Ricky1985

The truth is I don't want anyone somewhat realistic. That's just another way of saying someone not all that good. I'd rather we wait until the summer and get someone brilliant than bring someone in January just for the sake of it.

Hazard is the one I really want. And he's an example of someone we couldn't get until the summer. Also I really like the look of James Rodriguez at Porto, although I haven't seen anything of him this season. For this month though, I'm not sure there's anyone out there available. Maybe this Matias Suarez is a good shout, but I don't know anything about him.

y va marquer

That's true Ricky - any player considered "realistic" for us this January would be average at best.

yuv

Does that include FB situation? can we (should we) drag the VP (no) back up situation till the summer?
The stuff about right signing, realistically and summer-winter is true (and Hazard - :drool: ). But what to do now? pray? accept no st. totts? what?

Ricky1985

I don't think signing a budget, temporary left back is going to change anything really. It might make us all feel a bit better about the situation, but I seriously doubt Wayne Bridge or Kieran Richardson are going to win us any additional points over an internal solution.

The help for Robin is Henry, and he's going to have to do. We're not going to get anything better in January, unless we're prepared to pay crazy money for them - which we won't and most likely can't. The usual difficulty of signing anyone significant in January is compounded by the Euros in the summer.

Henry and Chamberlain will hopefully contribute positively in the coming months, and we'll have to hope Gibbs can string enough games together between now and March to get us through - maybe we can entice Nigel Winterburn out of retirement!

YounGunner

Would be suicide not to bring in another forward at this point.

Klaus

Ricky1985 wrote:
I don't think signing a budget, temporary left back is going to change anything really. It might make us all feel a bit better about the situation, but I seriously doubt Wayne Bridge or Kieran Richardson are going to win us any additional points over an internal solution.

Don't think those two are the best examples, but signing a left-back, even if it's temporary, will mean that we can play Vermaelen centrally instead and finally have a spine in this team that isn't broken. Getting someone like Taylor in before Gibbs gets injured again could have a huge impact on our season in that sense.

yuv

That's another "realistic" appearance: it just might be the most realistic assessment of what the boss will do. So we might as well pray you are right, and not just very optimistic.
ATM the full back situation looks bleak, and we've already paid an insane price for that Olympiacos game. It keeps getting worse, and the problem is not isolated either - TV, DJ to an extent. Long time till Santos (and even Bac), Gibbs and Carl are not the steel that would calm my nerves.

Hoping for Jack and maybe Ox - yes, again - realistically: what better for us to do? but that could seem (say, to an external, emotionally detached viewer) a bit desperate or helpless.

And what with Robin. Titi might work (could even be a master stroke - there's less room for cynicism here), but it is still a gamble, and all this independently of looking at Robin's health: a whole 2011 almost without a scratch - we're already deep into miracle territory. What do we do if the man is out for (say, I'm not using my really big hammer) 6 weeks?

So I see what you're saying, Ricky, and I'm not saying it's crazy or anything. But it would seem that being too passive and hoping for the best in this T window equals a serious step towards 5th, no st. totts land. Don't know if I can take that.

redstar

Hazard is a great talent, no doubts about that and I'd love him at arsenal. Not sure he'd solve our goal scoring problems though. It would need to be hazard + another fwd for me. Not sure who that +1 would be though ideally someone who can play both cf and wide fwd.

Ricky1985

I would love another player in Yuvie, so it's not that I don't agree with you, it's that I just don't think we can get the calibre of player required in this window. Not someone who is going to turn 5th into 4th, or better.

I disagree on Vermaelen, Klaus. Mertesacker has been pretty good lately alongside Koscielny. Vermaelen's presence in there would make us stronger, but we're pretty good right now. Taylor, the Swansea fullback, is nothing special. I've seen him a few times and he's caught my eye, but not done anything to really impress. Santos and (a fit) Gibbs certainly look better players, and I'm guessing Swansea would want a pretty penny too (I can't believe they wouldn't have wrote the release clause out of his contract, that Capi mentioned, on promotion to the PL). I just don't see the need to spend the money on him this window - it wouldn't be a game-changing, point-winning signing.

I reckon Hazard has big time goal scoring potential in him, Redstar. And I think Wenger would bring it out of him pretty quickly. There's no way it'd be "Hazard +1" though. Absolutely no chance. It will be a miracle if we get Hazard in the summer. To be fair, asking for another on top of that would be asking too much anyway, in my opinion. We're not Real Madrid.

Klaus

Vermaelen is not a good left-back. And neither is Gibbs at the moment, even if he would somehow find a way to keep himself injury free. He was very poor before he got injured. There's so many holes in his game. Not saying Taylor is the bigger talent (he isn't) but he's a superior player at this point in time. And while I like Santos a lot, waiting for him to be fit again without having a proper backup is precisely the kind of thing that will cost us a Champions League spot. We need to start lining up with our two best centrebacks centrally instead of on the flanks, and we need to play with proper full-backs if we want a better attack. If we don't we're fucked in the long run, irrespective of how many forwards we sign.

kamikaze

agree with klaus, gibbs sucks/is hurt all the time and santos isnt due back until march (which means april or probably not at all this season).

redstar

You could be right about hazard Ricky, but you're really talking about next season there (if at all) aren't you? I guess I'm still thinking about who it might be possible to get now t hat would really add something to the team. If we miss out on top 4 and CL then it will be even harder (leaving aside the fact that wenger is a total tight arse) to attract quality players such as hazard et al

lorddulaarsenal

Klaus wrote:
Vermaelen is not a good left-back. And neither is Gibbs at the moment, even if he would somehow find a way to keep himself injury free. He was very poor before he got injured. There's so many holes in his game. Not saying Taylor is the bigger talent (he isn't) but he's a superior player at this point in time. And while I like Santos a lot, waiting for him to be fit again without having a proper backup is precisely the kind of thing that will cost us a Champions League spot. We need to start lining up with our two best centrebacks centrally instead of on the flanks, and we need to play with proper full-backs if we want a better attack. If we don't we're fucked in the long run, irrespective of how many forwards we sign.

Fully agree

I also don't buy into this " we shouldn't buy cos there's nobody of the level required out there" school of thought.

We have 40-50 million. Clubs are feeling the pinch and they ain't gonna just all of a sudden lower their asking prices in the summer. Look at Bolton with Cahill

Mirth

I thought are Bolton selling Cahill for less than what we offered? It's Cahill's wage demands that are halting the deal atm.

asajoseph

Mert is having a better season than Cahill, though you wouldnt know it from the press.

I liked Cahill last summer, but I like Mertesacker's calmness and authority more, even if he can be a bit of a donkey sometimes...

Qwiss

Cahill has never been as good as the press like to claim. He's at the right level with Bolton, Chelsea are just panicking with their defence and have come up with Cahill.

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