Arsenal fans are slowly starting to come out of the mourning
phase for Sunday’s result, but moving forward is difficult when you look at the
squad and wonder how we will get out of this sticky situation. Some fans are
calling for Wenger’s head, some are blaming the board and others just downright
blame the team. Visit any arsenal boards and you will quickly hear people
calling for mass changes in the team. Often the cry is for a signing in each
key position. Personally, I want to see some spending in this summer, but only 1 or 2 players.
Let me explain why this is the case. I am a strong believer
that team chemistry is more important than individuals in the team. This becomes an obvious statement by looking at the league today. Chelsea signed 5 first
team players that have featured regularly this season, Man City did the same.
Man United, who are taking the league by a landslide have, by contrast, only
signed two.
You
could put the success of Man united down to better transfers, but I don’t
really buy that. The likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar, Demba Ba, Javi Garcia, Maicon
and Nastastic are all quality. Player-for-player City and Chelsea are both
equal to – if not better than – Man United. Now this year could obviously be an
anomaly so I decided to look back a few years. Since 2000/01 season, only two
teams have added more than 3 regular first team players and gone on to win the
league – the Chelsea team of 04-05 and the Man City team last season. Our team
of ‘Invincibles’ saw several players join us that year, but only Reyes and
Lehmann were first team regulars. Maybe
not conclusive evidence, but it suggests nonetheless that wholesale changes are
unlikely to benefit results massively. Now
let’s look at our last two seasons, ones where we have struggled to maintain our
status as Champions League shoe-ins. 4 regular first-team players were signed this season and 5 last year (note that I have not counted Jenkinson or
Chu-Young). Once again the pattern re-emerges, it is not conclusive, but you can see my point.
In
conclusion, this summer my main hope is that we don’t lose any key players.If Wenger really does have money to spend, I hope he buys few quality players over several
decent ones. A CDM and RB would do nicely – I’m not too worried about upfront,
but that’s just me.
Anyway what are your opinions, What positions do you
think need strengthening?
Feel free to leave a comment,
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