Just under a year ago we had so many central midfielders we didn’t know what to do with them. Some played at right back, some didn’t play at all, some played out on the wing.
Now we’re as short of central midfielders as Sp*rs are of league titles won in the era of colour television. Going into Wednesday’s game against FC Twente we only have Cesc and Denilson as what you might call ‘established’ midfield players. And Denilson has a whopping total of 23 league games under his belt.
Abou Diaby has been ruled out for a month and at this stage we need to look seriously at his position within the squad. If he is being considered as a genuine contender for a midfield place then a rethink needs to take place because this lad is never fit. You just can’t rely on him and when the chances are there for him to make a mark or to try and establish himself he can’t take them.
From everything the boss is saying he’s going to make a purchase and that’s good, it’s just when this purchase is going to take place. AW says:
We try to find the right player. My target is always to spend the right money on the right player, therefore the timing of your buy is also important as well.
I know the closer you get to the end of the transfer window the better value you can get but consider an injury to either Cesc or Denilson against Twente and we’re heading into the opening game of the new season with one fit central midfielder. It’s nonsensical that a club like Arsenal should be in this position. I know the game is against West Brom but you take a team for granted in this league and you can get found out. And we know to our cost how difficult it is to claw back from a bad start in the league.
It’s hard to know who he’s going to bring in. The smart money appears to be on the Swiss international Inler but the boss says:
I do not know yet if it will be with the Swiss or somebody else – but it is not necessarily the Swiss boy [Inler], though. Do not forget we have Diaby, who is not available, and [Alex] Song, who is at the Olympics, is a very good midfielder.
Well, Diaby we’ve already mentioned and while I know Wenger likes to give players their chances he’s surely got to see he’s dealing with someone who if he were a horse would have been shot by now. And as for Song, well now he’s a very good midfielder. A few weeks ago he was a very good centre-half. I can imagine he’d be a very good keeper should we suffer a series of injuries in that department too.
There’s the suggestion that he might be waiting to see if Liverpool play Xabi Alonso in the Champions League which would essentially rule out any deal because he’d be cup-tied. After the Amsterdam tournament Robin van Persie spoke about how we’re missing an experienced player in the centre of the park and when you hear the players talk about where the side is suffering then you know there’s a real issue.
I’m all for getting the best value when buying a player. It’s just common sense. But at this point common sense says we need a midfielder and we need him now. Cesc only returned to pre-season training on July 29th now he’s being thrown in because basically we have no choice. The manager is keen to talk up the potential partnership between Cesc and Denilson but to me they’re identikit players. Now, I’ve been impressed with the Brazilian in pre-season, he’s put in more minutes than anybody else, he’s going to be sharp and he’s stronger and better in the tackle that previously but the bottom line is once you go past those two you are looking at kids (real kids, Cesc being 21 and Denilson 20, haha) and kids that aren’t ready just yet.
They’ll be ready quicker if they can play alongside and learn from experience players but for the moment they shouldn’t be this close to starting. They need competition, they need to know they have to really work hard and perform to get into the first team, not just one injury putting them right into the mix. The manager says he has the money – he’s now got to go and spend it. This is not a vanity purchase, this isn’t something I think he can take his time over, it is, as Foreigner said, urgent.
The transfer market has been very quiet this summer, no doubt about, but I refuse to believe that with all his knowledge of the game that Arsene doesn’t have at least 5 or 6 names on a list, players that can come in and do a job straight away. Maybe not all of them have Premier League experience but I think that if you buy the right kind of player from abroad this legendary 6 month settling in period is not relevant. Bring over some guy raw from Brazil or Eastern Europe and perhaps, but if you bring in a quality player from one of the Europe’s top leagues then it’s not an issue at all.
So hopefully the precarious situation we find ourselves in now will make the manager realise we need that player and we need him yesterday. In the meantime we’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed that we come through the Twente game unscathed.
And that’s about it for the moment. Not exactly the cheery start to the week we’d all want but there you go. One thing I will say though is that whatever issues we have, or whatever people think about the manager’s reluctance to address this central midfield problem, it shouldn’t affect the support of the team. They’ll go out against Twente and they need the fans behind them.
Till tomorrow.
