Candidates for the much needed Arsenal re-shuffle
Early in this season I would have expected the headlines this week to say something along the lines of: Arsenal look to finish on a high as they compete with Chelsea for Title following emphatic victory over Stoke. Well what a lot has changed. For a start Manchester United found some form, well enough to be fifteen points clear at the top of the table, and after clawing it back Chelsea threw it all away on Sunday following a lacklustre display. And as for Arsenal, losing the Carling Cup to Birmingham was bad, but a 3-1 defeat to Stoke which has now left them stuck in the mud at third place is humiliating.
The one and only answer when your squad throws away 4 goal leads to the likes of Newcastle and inconsistently underperforms is to rebuild from the bottom up. Fabregas will undoubtedly leave this Summer to either Barca or Real Madrid, and there is talk that Nasri could go to the Nou Camp as well. So before Arsenal can even think about strengthening they must rebuild.
Southampton’s 17 year old Alex Chamberlain has strong links, but obviously isn’t going to be partnering alongside the already inexperienced Aaron Ramsey. The club has also been showing interest in Mario Gotze, from Bortussia Dortmund, but again he is too young to be a candidate for the first team next season. Arsene could much better invest his time going after proven talent that will strengthen his squad, ideally with someone like Wesley Sneijder. However, if the rumours concerning van Persie’s falling out with Sneijder than such a signing would have a negative impact on the squad. As such, players like Nuri Sahin or Keisuke Honda would be worthy signings.
Now that we’ve dealt with the most prominent damage, leaving aside the potential departures of Manuel Almunia, Denilson, Nicklas Bendtner, Gael Clichy, Andrey Arshavin and Emmanuel Eboue, let us look at repairing the defence. Vermaelen’s return will add fire to Gunners’ back four but just yesterday news has leaked that the transfer of Phil Jagielka is on the cards, albeit for £15 million plus. Combine this with the linked Jose Enrique or Gary Cahill and the Emirates’ new back four would look impressive – but as Bacaray Sagna said this weekend the new line-up will “have to fight more” if they want to maintain a prominent position in English football, as Manchester City rise up the table.
Now we’ve made a few minor adaptions to the starting eleven, how about the backroom staff? My primary piece of advice to Arsene is to hire a full-time defensive coach, because right now he might as well not have one at all.I wrote earlier this season that if Arsenal didn’t find the form to overcome a slightly weakened Barcelona then the Nou Camp would be Wenger’s “graveyard”. Don’t even ask me where I think he’ll be soon.
