Tag Archives: She Wore

Some thoughts on Jamie Vardy

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So next season Arsenal will no longer be having a party with Jamie Vardy after he decided to remain at Leicester City for 4 more years. The following is some random thoughts I have on the matter.

Loyalty

Over the years, arsenal fans have abused Emmanuel Adebayor, booed Gael Clichy, hissed at Cesc Fabregas, and called Samir Nasri a C***. All for showing Arsenal no loyalty. For leaving for more money. In most of the cases, taking a step down (at the time) to fill their pockets with gold.

So are we then not a little hypocritical having a go at Jamie Vardy for staying at Leicester City?

The money on the table from Arsenal was more, but he has chosen to stay with the Champions. He has shown loyalty. Should we really be having a go at that?

Bottle

Despite showing loyalty, I do wonder if Jamie Vardy has shown a lack of bottle. Some reported that he wanted assurances that he would be Arsenal’s first choice striker next season. Arsene Wenger will never give those assurances.

Rather than join a bigger club, and compete with Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck, he has decided to remain a big fish in a small pond. He has bottled the challenge.

Played by agents

Jamie Vardy had a release clause. Arsenal were informed of this by Vardy’s representatives. Did they just play Arsenal? Was the plan all along to get Arsenal (or any Premier League club – he had apparently been pimped out to most of the top 10) to show interest, put an offer on the table and then go back to Leicester and get a new contract? Despite only signing a new one in February?

In February it was reported he had signed a new 3 year deal worth £60k a week. This was an increase on his previous £12k deal. He has now signed a four deal for £100k a week. So in 4 months he has increased his contract by £40 and an extra year. That is an extra £7million in his pocket above the contract from February.

Bet Mrs Vardy is happy.

Have Arsenal been played?another-vardy-grap_2911223a

Counter Offer

The way I see it, Arsenal had provisionally agreed a contract with Jamie Vardy. Leicester made a counter offer. They could not match the salary on the table, but offered an extra year.

Anyone who has ever worked in recruitment will know how often counter offers are made, and how annoying they are.

Leicester counter offered Arsenal, and as so often happens, the counter offer was accepted by the employee.

Olivier Giroud

Some interesting stats over the last two Premier League seasons:

Jamie Vardy: 29 goals in 70 Premier League games

Olivier Giroud: 30 goals in 65 Premier League games

When you take into account during that period Vardy scored 5 penalties against Giroud’s 1, it is clear, Olivier Giroud is better than Jamie Vardy.

However, Vardy would have given Arsenal something different. Someone who runs in behind.

Moving Forward

So what next?

The worry for many is that like previous years, we do not have other targets. A Plan B. Will this year be any different?

Part of me thinks it is (and call me crazy!). I think perhaps Vardy was the Plan B. Get him in for relatively cheap in today’s standards, and you still have plenty in the pot if you secure plan A.

When we chased Suarez, the big problem is we let other players go to pursue him. Higuain, Jovetic. This was hopefully going to be different. Secure one whilst you target others.

There are not too many top European strikers available at the moment. Hopefully we have one of them in our sites.

 

Just some random thoughts I have put together. Feel free to agree / disagree

Keenos

Europe’s Search for a Great Striker

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132The 2016 Eurovision Championships group stage are coming to an end. Finally. If you have made it this far in and are still interested, fair play to you. Myself, I finally gave up yesterday and watched the cricket. Liam Plunkett hit a last ball 6 to tie the game against Sri Lanka in case you were wondering.

It has been a snooze-fest. With 3 times going through, we have seen ultra defensive football and sides pretty much guaranteed of qualification after the first game.

Anyhow, what lives in my memory so far of this tournament are the strikers on show. Or the lack of.hqdefault

There is clearly a crisis in Europe. A crisis of decent strikers. Just look at the list of top scorers so far:

Alvaro Morata – 3 goals
Gareth Bale – 3 goals
Dimitri Payet – 2 goals
Ivan Perisic – 2 goals
Romelu Lukaku – 2 goals

In the top 5 goal scorers, there are 3 midfielders.

Then look at the squads of the major nations, the dearth of strikers can be seen even more

France – France have two main central strikers in their squad. Olivier Giroud and André-Pierre Gignac. The first we all know and love, the second, Gignac, plays for a mid table side in Mexico. Like many sides, they have resorted to playing converted wingers such as Antoine Griezzman upfront.

England – It looks like England have a lot of strikers. Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge & Marcus Rashford are all in the squad. They have mustered 2 goals between them.

Wales – Leading the goal scoring charts is Gareth Bale. A midfielder. Hal Robson-Kanu of Reading tends to lead the line for them.

Germany – The fact there were calls for 38 year old Miroslav Klose to be recalled to the Germany squad shows just how few strikers there are in Deutschland. Germany resisted and instead went for Turkish based due Mario Gomez and Lukas Podolski. Two players clearly past their best. Thomas Muller, the Germany Frank Lampard, leads the line for them, but has struggled playing upfront on his own rather than coming from deep or wide.

Poland – In Arkadiusz Milik and Robert Lewandowski, Poland actually have two half decent strikers. One potentially world class. Lewandowski has struggled and is yet to get off the mark.

Spain – If I were to ask you the name of Spain’s 3 strikers, you would not get them right. They are Alvaro Morata, Aritz Aduriz & Nolito. There is a lot of hype around the first. Morata is probably the most overrated striker in Europe, despite his 3 goals so far. Aduriz is 35 years old with 8 caps. Nolito 29 with just 12.

Croatia – Mario Mandžukić & Nikola Kalinić. The former is a solid, Giroud style (and quality) centre forward. The Latter spent 2 years at Blackburn.

Belgium – On paper, Belgium have a lot of options upfront. Household names such as Romelu Lukaku, Cristian Benteke, Michy Batshuayi & Divock Origi. Bar Lukaku, are any of the others actually any good?

Italy – When you have Graziano Pellè leading the line, you know you do not have many options.

Sweden – Zlatan.

Portugal – Cristano Ronaldo.

Going through the squads, there are a few big names with big reputations who are clearly on the decline, but other than that there does not seem to be very much. No world class talents with plenty still left in the tank. No young talents about to make a break through.

The well is dry.

And to bring this round to Arsenal, it is a worry. We need a striker. But when our striker is currently the main man for the tournament favourites, you can kind of understand when Arsene Wenger says “there is nobody better” as the reality is, there is not.

Keenos

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What else can Arsenal expect this transfer window?

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I am writing this on Saturday evening. Writing my blogs the night before helps me sleep. It could be a cure for insomnia you might say. anyway, by the time it is blogged (set for 8.40am Monday morning), Jamie Vardy might have been already announced as an Arsenal player.

If he has not, the likelihood is that it will happen at some point today (I now have to imagine that I am writing this tomorrow). Whether it has been announced or not, it seems pretty certain that he is on the way in.another-vardy-grap_2911223a

That then creates a good start to the beginning of the transfer window.

I am sure 3 months ago, we all agreed on what Arsenal need:

  • A pacey striker
  • A defensive midfielder
  • A centre back
  • A right winger

So it is two down, two to go. And it is only the 6th of June. The transfer window does not even officially open until the 1st of next month.

It is a good start. And hopefully that is what it is. A start. We still have more to go. Our business is not done. The cheque book should not be closed.

So what can Arsenal expect from the rest of our transfer summer (in before all the negatives nancies say nothing).

Now before I start, this is all my opinion. I am not privy to any information. This is just me putting together 2 and 2 and getting 12.

Ricardo Rodriguez seems to be one on our radar. Reports are that he has a release clause that we are willing to meet. A first choice left back was certainly not on anyone’s list at the end of the season, but he would be a good positive signing.

The consensus was that Kieran Gibbs’ time at Arsenal was coming to an end. That Arsenal should get shot this summer, and bring in a young left back to provide cover for Nacho Monreal, who within a year or two would replace the 30 year old Spaniard. The likes of Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell and Celtic’s Kieran Tierney were mooted. But it seems Rodriguez is top of the list.

This is a surprise at Rodriguez is not a youngster who would be willing to await his chance. He is 23 years old, is Switzerland’s first choice left back, whom he has 37 caps for, and has over played nearly 250 professional games. He certainly would not be coming to be Monreal’s understudy but as a direct competitor.

He is attacking and has a cracking left foot. In the short term, I think he would be coming in to both compete with Monreal, and also be a left footed option on the wing.

Were Rodriguez to come in, that would be 3 potential starters to have joined this summer.

Now I am of the belief that you do not introduce too many 1st XI players at any one time. It takes players time to settle, time to adapt, time to gel. Too many ends up with a disjointed team and history has shown it would create too any dropped points early on in the season.

By the time they have gelled it is too late.

Personally, 3 1st XI players is already too much. 2 maximum. But then we got back to the original shopping list. Signing a top left back still leaves us a right winger and a centre back short.

I honestly can not see the club signing Rodriguez, than adding a first choice centre back and a first choice right winger. It would leave us with one of the other. This will likely be a centre back.

Centre back is clearly more important than a winger. Laurent Koscielny aside, we are not strong enough at the back. Kalidou Koulibaly and Medhi Benatia seem to be the two at the top of our list.

A centre back is a most.

So where does that leave us with the right wing?

I do not think we will get one.

Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, two who were scheduled to be on their last legs, will be given a lifeline due to Danny Welbeck’s injury.

Again, in my opinion, the plan was obvious. Buy a striker, Welbeck go’s wide where he excells, and Walcott go’s.

With Welbeck out until February at least (don’t expect to see him at all next season) it leaves us short.

But as previously stated, I can not see us integrating a 5th player into the 1st XI. The result is Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, or even Serge Gnabry will start the season on the right wing. The alternative option would be Rodriguez on the left and Alexis Sanchez moving over.

Knowing Arsene and Arsenal, however, it would not be too much of a surprise if we did not buy a centre back and ended up with Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the right.

As for the out goings, I will look into these at another time.

It is going to be a busy summer. Granit Xhaka and Vardy are just the start.

Keenos