Tag Archives: She Wore

What 25+ goal a season striker could Arsenal target?

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So there has been a lot of talk about how successful this transfer window has been for Arsenal. A lot of the feeling is that we are still short of a defensive midfielder and a striker. Whilst I am sure we can all agree, a defensive midfielder is a must, the striker is a bit more debatable.

When talking about a striker, most people claim to want a ’25-30 goal a season’ striker. Now whether these people want that 25-30 goals to be in the league, or in all competitions, is up for debate…

Taking league goals first of all, I feel people are being a bit hopeful demanding a 25-30 goal a season scorer in the league. These are like goal dust. In the top 8 leagues in Europe (England, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal & Holland), only 6 men scored more than 25 goals:

Luis Suárez 31
Cristiano Ronaldo 31
Alfreð Finnbogason 29
Lionel Messi 28
Diego Costa 27
Zlatan Ibrahimović 26

Taking into account that 5 of these players are not for sale, and the 6th is some random Icelandic who no one has heard for, demanding a 25-30 league goal’s a season man is very unrealistic.

So let’s open the search criteria to 25+ goals in all competitions:

Cristiano Ronaldo 51
Lionel Messi 41
Zlatan Ibrahimović 41
Diego Costa 36
Luis Suarez 31
Alfreð Finnbogason 31

Jackson Martinez 29
Sergio Aguero 28
Robert Lewandowski 28
Graziano Pellè 26
Mario Mandžukić 26
Edin Dzeko 26
Aron Jóhannsson 26
Wilfried Bony 25
Edinson Cavani 25
—————
SELECTED OTHERS

Karim Benzema 24
Gonzalo Higuain 24
Daniel Sturridge 24
Ciro Immobile 23
Marco Rues 23
Olivier Giroud 22
Gareth Bale 22
Alexis Sanchez 21
Luca Toni 21
Carlos Tevez 21
Wayne Rooney 19
Mario Balotelli 18
Neymar 15

So just 6 players have scored over 30 goals in all competitions last season. And they are all pretty much ungetable, except for that Finnbogason bloke.

As for the other 9, you can cross:

Aguero (Plays for Man City)
Mandžukić (just joined Atletico Madrid)
Lewandowski (just joined Bayern Munich)
Dzeko (New contract)
Pellè (30 years old)
Johansson (Dutch league)

off the list, which leaves us with a ’25-30 goal a season’ target list of:

Jackson Martinez
Wilfried Bony
Edinson Cavani

Not exactly the rich picking many were expecting? Of these, I would only really want Edinson Cavani, he is the only truly class, consistent scorer at a high level.

Now the other option would be to ‘create’ a 25-30 league a goal scorer. Sign one of the ‘selected others’ and hope that playing week in week out in front of our midfielders, they could go on to better things.

That is a reasonable thought to have, but then look at the list of selected others. Fairly high is a certain O Giroud, outscoring the likes of Rooney, Tevez & Balotelli.
A lot of people point to Mario Balotelli as the man they want. The 25-30 goal a season striker. But this is a player who has never scored above 20 goals in a season, and only twice scored over 15. Throughout his career, he has averaged 12 goals a season. A perfect example that some players are not as good as you might think. A perfect example of a 25-30 goal a season being hard to find.

At the top of the selected others are 2 names we have been linked with a lot over the years, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain. You would expect they were 25+ a season men, the way some harp on about them, but thye both miss out.

Karim Benzema certainly has the potential to score on a more regular basis. But in the last 6 years, he has only scored over 25 goals twice. And he is 28 this season, it is probably time to stop talking about his potential.

Higuain’s stats are almost identical, also only twice breaching the 25 goal barrier in the last 6 years.

Buying the top class striker is not as easy as some people make out.

Roberto Soldado had scored over 25+ goals for 3 seasons on the spin for Valencia, outscoring both Benzema and Higuain during that period:

Soldado 82
Benzema 78
Higuain 58

And we all know how Soldado got on last year in the Premier League. Many thought Spurs were getting a brilliant, consistent, goal scorer. He ended up flopping.

A final thought on this subject. In the last 8 years, we have only twice had a player score 25+ goals in a single season.

Yes, we could do with further assistance upfront, but demanding a player who can score 25-30 goals on a regular basis, well it’s not that easy.

Keenos

Has Arsene Wenger wasted £66 million?

88 Replies

I am usually Mr Positive. My Happy-Go-Lucky. Over the last 9 years, I have stood by Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal transfer policy knowing that things will get better. That as new commercial deals were signed, we would have untold rich’s, that the new stadium, once the re-payment’s were under control, would ensure that we could compete with the Real Madrid’s, Barcelona’s and Bayern Munich’s. But I sit here, a little down, a little depressed, wondering if Arsene Wenger has misspent £66 million.

Before you all jump up and see ‘typical She Wore, always moaning’ check the writer of this piece, it is not GC (who does love a moan). Look at other blogs, you will see I am usually positive!

But back to the £66 million that we have spent. It is a big chunk of change, and has got many people very excited:

Alexis Sanchez – £35 million
Calum Chambers – £16 million (Rising too)
Mathieu Debuchy – £12 million
David Ospina – £3 million

On paper it looks like a very productive summer. But in reality, what have we actually done?

Swapping Goalkeepers

Lukasz Fabianski OUT – Free
David Ospina IN – £3 million

David Ospina had a brilliant World Cup, but Lukasz Fabianski had a brilliant cup run. The change in goal keepers has made us no stronger. It is simply a case of one out, one in. Some might argue that Ospina is marginally better than Fabianski, but this opinion would be based on a handful of World Cup games.

In the last 3 years, Fabianski has played 5 league games. Whilst it is important to have a decent keeper in case the worst happens to Szczezny, the fact is, the £3 million spent will not improve our first 11 next season. It is a nothing transfer

Replacing Bacary Sagna

Bacary Sagna OUT – Free
Calum Chambers IN – £16 million (Rising too)
Mathieu Debuchy IN – £12 million

So we lost Bacary Sagna. Whilst I was not too upset to see him go, as his wage demands were unreasonably high for a player in his 30’s, it has required us to buy 2 players to replace him, costing £28 million.

2013/14
Bacary Sagna – 1st choice right back / 4th choice centre back
Carl Jenkinson – 2nd choice right back

2014/15
Mathieu Debuchy – 1st choice right back
Calum Chambers – 2nd choice right back / 4th choice centre back

Again, on paper it looks like we have made big steps forward. We have signed Mathieu Debuchy, who kept Sagna out of the French side at the World Cup, and is 2 years younger. We have also signed young Calum Chambers. Is he a better right back than Carl Jenkinson? Yes. But £16 million on a second choice right back is a lot of money. Debuchy has averaged 31 league games a season over the last 6 years. So we have basically spent £16 million for a player to play 7 league games a season at right back.

Yes, he also covers centre back, but how many games did Bacary Sagna actually play at centre back last season? The answer is 3 in all competitions. So what have we done? We have spent £12 million on a 1st choice right back, and another £16 million on a bloke who will probably play 10 games next season.

Yes, Chambers has potentially, and could well push Debuchy hard for a 1st team place, but that £16 million, could it not have been better off spent elsewhere.

£28 million in total to swap Sagna / Jenkinson for Debuchy / Chambers seems a lot.

Alexis Sanchez

The only truly brilliant player we have signed. The only man who has not come in as a replacement for other players. The only man who improves our 1st XI dramatically from last year. A World Class signing. I have no complaints.
For all intents and purposes, we have spent £31 million on a reserve goalie and a replacement for Sagna. The signings of Ospina, Debuchy and Chambers do not improve our first XI from last season. They do not move us forward. And we are only marginally better in terms of squad depth at the back.

My worry is we have papered over the cracks a bit. People are looking at the £66 million spent and getting excited. What they fail to recognise is that only one of the 4 players makes us stronger than last season. The rest are merely replacements for players who have left.

The biggest issue is last season we were short two players. A striker and a defensive midfielder. At this moment in time, a couple of days short of August, we still have not signed a striker and a defensive midfielder.

There is talk of Alexis Sanchez playing upfront and Jack Wilshere playing defensive midfield. These are not acceptable solutions.

Yes, spending £66 million is exciting. We have 4 new faces. But let’s look beyond this and realise it has perhaps been £66 million misspent. We are still a striker and defensive midfielder short. The squad has not massively moved forward. I feel like we have been blinded by the lights, spun a good yarn. If we fail to get in the striker and defensive midfielder, it would mean we are only better in one position than we were last season.

We are making steps in the right direction, yet are still short. It is too early to be excited.

Keenos

Sky and BT ruining football…AGAIN

5 Replies

So yesterday, SkySports and BT Sport announced the first round of TV games covering up until the beginning of October and quelle surprise, they have made it as tough as possible for Arsenal fans.

As in April last season, we have had pretty much every match moved, with only 1 out fo the 7 match’s remaining at 3pm on a Saturday – Aston Villa on the 20th of September. The full set of fixtures are:

Sat 16th Aug 17.30 Crystal Palace H
Sat 23rd Aug 17.30 Everton A
Sun 31st Aug 16.00 Leicester A
Sat 13th Sep 12.45 Man City H
Sat 20th Sep 15.00 Aston Villa A
Sat 27th Sep 17.30 Spurs H
Sun 5th Oct 14.05 Chelsea A

Firstly the Spurs game. I remember the days when it used to be an 11.30am kick off. It perhaps shows the way the game has changed, the hooliganism being less frequent, that it is now at 5.30pm. Or is it just that the power of the TV companies is now great than the power of the police?

As always, the biggest problem is going to be travelling to and from the games.

Everton v Arsenal

Everton v Arsenal

There were already major engineering works on the weekend of 23/45 August (Bank Holiday weekend), meaning that to get to Everton it was going to be a 4 hour, 3 train via Birmingham trek, but it was manageable. The changing of the fixture however has made it a nightmare for Arsenal fans.

A 3pm kick off would have meant fans could comfortably get the 19:04 and get back to London in time for the last underground trains. Due to the change, fans are either going to have to leave half way through the 2nd half, make other arrangements to get their, or do an over nighter. The only bright side is with it being a bank holiday weekend, an over nighter is not too bad.

The Leicester game is an even bigger piss take. On Saturday 30th August, you can get a train back to London up until 21:58. Brilliant. Sky, however, have moved the game to a 4pm kick off on the Sunday. The result:

Leicester v Arsenal Out

Leicester v Arsenal Out

Leicester v Arsenal Return

Leicester v Arsenal Return

On first look, it does not seem to bad, until you see those dreaded words ‘bus service’. The journey home will now take you via Kettering, where you will have to take a 70 minute bus journey back into St Pancras. This highlights the disregard that TV companies have for travelling fans. On the Saturday, no problems, on the Sunday, problems, so what do they do? Move the game to the Sunday.

So once again, thanks Sky, thanks BT. One 3pm KO in the first 7 games, and two nightmare journey. You clearly do not give a fuck about us. The more you do this, the less guilty I feel about streaming everything for free. You do not care about us, I will refuse to put money into your pockets.

By hook or by crook, I will get to Everton and Leicester, but I get the feeling this is the first of many travel challenges I will face as I embark on the 38 game season.

Keenos