‘And these are solid signings, central defender Mertesacker has played 76 times for Germany and he is still only 26. In Chu-Young Park we have signed another leader. He’s captain of the South Korean national team. I like the look of Santos too.’
Keown was also pleased to see Wenger strengthen the squad in the areas it was needed in:
‘They needed a creative playmaker. I don’t think Arteta is quite at the same level as Fabregas but he always wants the ball. It’s hard for the fans to see Fabregas and Nasri leaving, they are world class. But at least Arsene is buying the qualities he feels are lacking in the team. It’s pleasing to see him buying the maturity and experience which has been missing.’
A measure of how desperate Arsenal had become to strengthen their side this summer was their loan signing of 31-year-old Yossi Benayoun from bitter rivals Chelsea. He is a good player in my opinion, but he just doesn’t seem to be the same Yossi that made his name at West Ham. Keown was surprised by this move as well:
‘I’m not sure about Benayoun. I never thought Arsenal would loan a player from Chelsea.’
Neither did anyone else for that matter Martin.
Despite all these great new faces coming in, Keown still wishes there had been one jaw dropping signing to, as he put it, ‘give everyone a shot in the arm’, like the signing of Dennis Bergkamp from Inter Milan did back in 1995.
The Dutchman had sparked the club’s most successful period, which saw the Gunners win the Double twice and, in 2004, saw Arsenal win the league title (their last to date), by going through the entire season unbeaten, earning them the nickname ‘the Invincibles’.
With the recent transfers that Wenger has acquired, always looking for value for money, Keown accepts a modern day Bergkamp was never likely to arrive at the Emirates:
‘There is a budget and model that Arsenal work to and Wenger sticks to it rigidly. But when Bergkamp came in there was a structure but the club went in a different direction. It was a move that produced a buzz around the place.’
Perhaps we need someone to make Wenger bend these rules a little in order to bring in players that made an impact like Bergkamp did when he arrived.
Though the current starting 11 does look good, the only concern now is – who will fill their roles when injuries and internationals come about?
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Wenger should sign players like Samba, Cahill, Hazard, M’villa, Gotze and Thiago Acantala then we can talk of winnig League and Champions League. Wenger pls sign them by January gudluck to d gunners.
plz get hazard , mvilla , zarate & cahill to rock the world
Please Mr. Wenger listen to my stupid, idiotic and annoying comment on the Internet about who I think you should buy that I post on every blog I find.
Please buy Ronaldo, Tevez, Messi, Xavi, Pele, George Best, Roy Keane, Zidane and a young Thierry Henry. Please Mr. Wenger, pretty please, only if you buy these players like I did on FIFA will Arsenal be a good team again.
ha! ha!! ha!!. lol
get heskey, crouch, ngog, jonathan greening, barton, malouda and we can rule the world lol 🙂
I am of of the view that NOW Wenger has cottoned on the need our club’s need. Its so vast he was about to buy Dempsey from Fulham which shows how he has noticed that we are lacking firepower.
Our team that won 2004 was mismanaged by allowing it to disintergrate and replaced by kids who were backed by Gilberto, Gallas. Then when those left and the kids over-performed by almost nicking it for a couple of seasons this gave Wenger a false sense of security.
Our lack evaporated when Cesc left. I’m convinced that Nassri is a giood player but not a vital cog in the engine. He does not do anything special for the team although good when all the departments are in full flow.
The last few years everything has worked to fit Cesc in hope that if we win something that might make him to stay. It did’nt work and we have to change and we have to revert to our old style of 2 midfielders in the mold of Vieira and Petit. These sh’d be powerful with a bit of tricks to overwhelm opposition like old days.
That and a couple of forwards with tricks of their own can bring trouble to opponents. Chamberlain kid was nightmare for Israel when came on last night. England were caught flat footed and struggled to equalise. Chamberlain was let loose and supplied killer punches after nutmeging defenders. What a kid we have at our disposal.
Its gonna be juicy watching him taking on EPL pros.
Atreta will adequately replace Cesc,its really amazing how in certain angles he looks exactly like Cesc