Asa - I totally agree with that, our defensive signings have been better in recent years. Then again, has Wenger attempted to buy a first choice striker i.e. the equivalent of Koscielny, Vermaelen and Sagna? I doubt it - Park and Chamakh are similar to Silvestre and Squillaci in that they were always going to be squad players. We need to find the Mertesacker of strikers.
Don Pacifico wrote:
@ Sam
Therefore he's going to be great?
Look at how budget our team is at the moment. You simply can't buy top players for £10 mil anymore. Prices have gone up and scouting networks of other clubs are now widely on par with our own. Those players that were hidden gems when we bought them don't really exist anymore. There are of course very sparse exceptions but we're no longer the only ones aware of those guys.
The guy looks alright on a clip compilation but his stats suggest he doesn't consistently deliver. Sitting in 5th place might make it a good time to buy some proper footballers rather than bargain bin chumps like Gervinho and Chamakh.
Demba Ba? Hernandez? In the last two transfer windows and this is within England itself, I expect there have been similar bargains elsewhere.
Having an extensive scouting network doesn't guarantee much, Vermaelen was scouted by Man City and Spurs with both clubs passing him over allowing us to swoop in.
Paying £50m is no more an assurance of quality either, as Liverpool and Chelsea will tell you.
Edit: Some other 'bargain' buys:
Kagawa £350k
van der vaart £8m
Ozil £15m
Cavani
Boateng £4m