Tag Archives: She Wore

Could Arsenal sign both Sami Khedira and William Carvahlo?

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According to reports, it seems to be a straight shoot out between Sami Khedira and William Carvahlo to become the next Arsenal defensive midfielder for the 2014/15 season.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. One is experienced, comes with a low fee, but high wages. The other has potential, comes with a high fee but low wages. Both are suitable for the role and both are realistic targets.

But why do we need to talk about ‘either/or’. Why can we not sign both.

“We do not need two defensive midfielders” I hear you cry. Maybe you are correct, but stick with me, lets work this out.

Sami Khedira is 27. He is ready now. He could slot in and perform from day one. He is a class talent. William Carvahlo is 5 years his junior, rawer and would take a bit more time to settle in. You could easily have Khedira in the squad for 5 years, and by the time his legs start to go, Carvahlo will still only be 27 himself.

Both would get plenty of playing time. With defensive midfield being the position you are most likely to pick up bookings, there will be suspension aplenty. It would also give us the option of playing both men in the tougher games. After heavy defeats to Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool last season, it would make sense to start both men to create and stronger defensive spine. Add in Aaron Ramsey and it would make the middle of the park pretty impenetrable.

And who is to say we can not play both men every game? With reports that Alexis Sanchez will be our first choice striker next season, we could line up:

Szczezny
Debuchy Koscielny Mertersacker Gibbs
Khedira Carvahlo Ramsey
Walcott Sanchez Ozil

A lot more defensive than last season, but still with plenty of attacking talent. In would certainly be an option.

Another factor could be Thomas Vermaelen.

With the captain set to leave (have we ever been so unbothered about a captain leaving?), it leaves us without a back up centre back. Now so more learned people than myself have said Carvahlo can play centre back. So lets look at it another way, Carvahlo would be coming in as 3rd choice centre back, 2nd choice defensive midfielder.

Last season Vermaelen played 14 league games and 21 in all competitions. Bacary Sagna played twice at centre back. Matuieu Flamini played an additional 25 league games, 34 in total. That is 57 games in total where we did not play our first choice defensive midfielder (Arteta) or one of our 1st choice centre backs were out injured.

57 games last year. Suddenly buying a centre back / defensive midfield hybrid becomes an interesting proposition.

Last season, between Flamini, Arteta, Vermaelen and Sagna (at right back), exactly 100 games were played. That is more than enough to go around to justify spending big on two players.

“But if we sell Vermaelen, we still have Flamini and Arteta in the squad, and what about Chambers?” I now hear you think. Well, we are moving forward, it is about improving the squad. Chambers will get enough game time as 4th choice centre back / 2nd choice right back, so do no worry about someone coming in ahead of him, it will not, to quote Wenger, “kill him”.

Flamini and Arteta
Khedira and Carvahlo

When it is put down that plainly, the decision is obvious. Khedira and Carvhalo are far superior.

But what for Arteta and Flamini?

Well Arteta has 1 year left on his contract. He has already been linked with moves away. The decision could be up to him. Stay at Arsenal, see out his contract, get little play time, and leave for a free next year, or take a move this summer. It would be his choice.

Flamini would be worth hanging on to. With 2 years on his contract (people are actually moaning we gave him a 3 year deal!), he would still have a place in the Arsenal squad, covering both defensive midfielders, as well as full backs. He would still get game time, just not as much as last season.

Either way, were we to buy Khedira and Carvahlo, one of Flamini or Arteta would have to leave, or be happy playing single figure games next season.

Of course, buying both would be expensive. In the region of £40 million. But we can afford it. We have a current net expenditure of circa £41,000,000. Taking into account Vermaelen is set to leave for £10 million, that will be reduced to £31,000,000. Adding two additional players for a total of £40,000,000 would leave us with a net spend of £71,000,000. A lot, yes, but we have the money.

This total would be reduced further if, as reported, Santi Cazorla returns to Spain, however, I believe he will stay.

What buying both might do is restrict us from buying a striker. It would leave us with not much left. Of having to wait for the right person to come available, rather than buying a ‘he will do’ type striker. But with Giroud, Sanchez, Sanogo, Walcott, Campbell & Podolski, we have plenty of options up top.

Can we afford and accommodate signing both Sami Khedira and William Carvahlo? The answer is yes.

Keenos

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?

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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