I didn’t really expect Wenger to buy anyone right away. In fact, I don’t expect Wenger to buy anyone at all. After all there’s Diaby, Denilson, Cesc, the tea lady, Song, Bischoff, Ramsey, an old washcloth, and Wilshere all ready to play in the center of midfield, right Arsene?
We are a body short. But do not forget we have Diaby, who is not available, Song who is at the Olympics. We have Nasri and Rosicky, who were not in Amsterdam. Then there’s Bischoff as well [who is currently injured], so we have plenty of players
It’s pretty obvious that he’s grasping at spirits if Wenger is reduced to mentioning Bischoff in his midfield horn of plenty. We most obviously do NOT have “plenty” of players. We have “plenty” of players who are constantly injured (Diaby, van Persie, Rosicky, Bischoff) and while some of them have shown glimpses of talent, any club that seriously wants to challenge for the marathon that is the Premier League needs a deeper squad than we have. Let’s face it, Diaby is a sub 20 starts per season type of player. When he came in from Auxerre he had played limited time due to niggling injuries. Then he started adjusting to the EPL and by the time he started finding his legs he had them cut out from beneath him by the talentless Dan Smith. Diaby made a pretty remarkable recovery but still was unable to start more than 16 games (a mere 9 Premier League starts) due to “niggling injuries.” And now this season, he’s given the role that he has supposedly been waiting for and lo and behold — he’s injured. If he plays 20 games this season it will be the most he’s ever played for Arsenal. 20 games seems like too much to ask to be honest.
Wenger has to be aware of this and still I remain uncertain that he is actually going to buy someone. My uncertainty stems from the fact that he and the team keep talking about how many players the squad already has. Not only that, but they keep talking about getting a bargain, and not paying over the odds, etc. But if this season were a road trip across the United States we’d be at the part where we’re sitting in the driveway with a flat front tire, no spare, and dad is frantically looking for some place to get a decent tire on sale. If you blow out a tire on a road trip, you don’t wait for the only service shop in town to have a sale; you get your tire changed even if you have to pay a little more for it.
No, I don’t think they’re looking for a bargain. I think the team is saying that they feel like they have plenty of players and they are just hoping to get through this period of injuries and Olympics and they will have their full squad back. What Wenger is doing is mollifying Arsenal fans, I bet. I bet you won’t see a signing even if Denilson or, god forbid, a less than 100% Cesc go down on Wednesday because Toure, or Ramsey, or Wilshere will just step into the spot.
That’s the way I see it; we might as well get used to the idea that Arsenal are not spending money on a big name player this summer.
reportedly Wenger went to Beijing and talked to this italian prodigy kid Giovinco who actually scored a sweet goal for Italy at the Olympics (currently with Juventus). Now if by miracle he pulls that off, that would be the signing of the year.