- 28 players Arsenal planning to sign; 20 players leaving this summer.
- The difficult run at the start of next season: how the league might look after nine games
By Sir Hardly Anyone
Well in relation to the question in that headline, yes they do, apparently. For as the Daily Mail told us “Arsenal ‘are monitoring five strikers ahead of the transfer window”. This is because Gabriel Jesus was “not exactly clinical in front of goal”.
Football 365 joined in saying “ Arsenal are lining up Torino striker Antonio Sanabria as a low-cost transfer option this summer.”
Football London went further saying Arsenal are lining up Torino striker Antonio Sanabria as a low-cost transfer option this summer, The same outlet also had Barcelona hand Mikel Arteta dream Arsenal striker transfer …
And so it goes on and on.
Talk Sport told us “Arsenal reportedly lining up move for Serie A striker who …’ well you can make up the rest.
And so it goes on and on and on and on.So just how desperate are Arsenal to get a striker that everyone seems to say the club needs?Last season Arsenal scored 88 goals. That obviously was pretty poor, according to the reports above, since if it were good the club wouldn’t need a new striker. So let’s see just how poor Arsenal have been, scoring more goals than last season a mere six times since entering the first division in 1919.
That was in 1932 (2nd in the league with 90 goals),, 1964 (8th in the league with 90 goals) 1953 (winning the league with 97 goals), and then three more title seasons in the early 1930s with 115, 118, and 127 goals.
So yes, six times Arsenal have scored more, but not since 1964 when the club got two more goals and came eighth. Which kind of suggests that scsoring goals while obviously very helpful does not mean that the club wins the league. One needs a balanced team – as a look at 1964 shows, when we did indeed score 90 but let in 82.
And I highlight this claim that Arsenal need to score a real striker who can be relied on to knock in 20+ goals a season to show just how mindless a lot of commentary on football has become.
Arsenal were the second top scoring team in the league last season, and did it beause the club had four players who scored in double figures in the league. Martinelli, Odegaard and Saka each got 15 and Jesus 11.
Now the benefit of such an approach should be obvious to all. Or rather the two benefits should be. First, the defenders have no idea who to mark, and second if someone gets injured in some pointless and mindless world cup match played part way through the season (I know that sounds weird but it could happen) there are three other players ready to step up.
Indeed with this approach Arsenal scored 27 more goals last season than the season before, and 33 more goals than the season before that. In fact Arsenal last season scored 15 more goals than in the unbeaten season.
So why should Arsenal disrupt this approach and add a new striker when this array of talent is already in place? Surely bringing in new player always risks disrupting the team, and as things went last season Arsenal gained a lot of traction in matches by the opposition not having a clue who to mark. That stretched the opposing defence, leaving one of the four goal scorers free to take advantage of any situation that emerged.
And this is before we mention that Nketiah is improving season by season, and we have a young man Folarin Balogun returning to the camp who scored 21 goals in the top French league last season. If we do need another striker does he not deserve the occasional game?
This story shows the insanity of contemporary media reporting in that a headline is given without any backup or consideration of related facts. In offering articles in this way the media in all its forms is treating football supporters like total morons, people so stupid that they can’t even see what is happening on the pitch.
And it is this final point (along with the fact that the media never apologize for getting 97% of its transfer stories wrong) that annoys me so much. I do object to being treated like a moron.
It is an undisputable fact that Arsenal need a serious goal scorer. If it is possible to sell Nketiah to buy a giant strong goal puncher. We need someone who can score twenty five and above goals in EPL. We can not be packing these good midfielders without someone serious in the attack to crown there effort with goals. It will just be labour lost. Please we need someone very serious.
Is this the same Ray Parlour who urged Arteta to abandon his plan to sign Havertz and instead sign Ivan Toney?
Ivan Toney – the same player who has been banned until next January for illegal betting?
The same Ivan Toney that made bets against his own team?
My general view of pundits are that they are a bunch of brainless morons – it is very easy to be critical in the past tense and most have had no experience of management.
As far as signings go best to believe it when you see the players in an Arsenal shirt – and given what can be done with photoshop that also might be a stretch.
Strikers are by in large quite selfish, I prefer the team to share the goals burden. The doubling on certain players wasn’t exactly a perfect tactic, but a no option, and freed up others to contribute. Not relying on one player worked perfectly for us this season.
I agree that we don’t need to buy a striker.
Also, I am not convinced that Rice is as good as the media claim. Worth £100 million? Nor do I want Caicedo at Arsenal, after his deliberate foul which took Martinelli our of the game and finished his season prematurely. I would rather he goes to Chelsea to further boost their over-inflated squad.
Once again the meaningless internationals prove to be damaging. First Saka, then Tierney, taken off with injuries.
Take Haaland from Citi or Kane from Spurs and where do the goals come from? Do Citi win the league? Spurs the much coveted 8th spot?
And yet football evolves , Martinelli and Saka proved to be an effective system cutting in from the wings and scoring . As much as clubs were caught cold by it they will devise systems to stop it next time round . So if we change things up by having an alternative is that such a bad thing .? Currently replacing Jesus with Eddie doesn’t really change things both being similar in style.
Even Guardiola shook things up by introducing Haaland he scored 36 league goals out of 94 . No reason for us not to have that capability too.
I’d like to see a back up right back ; Nwaneri signing a deal to stay with the Gunners and Balogun given his chance . Then for a certainty , no one leaves this Summer , the exceptions being academy players for 6 month loan deals but only with clubs in western mainland Europe .