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Who Will Arsene Wenger’s ‘Two More Signings’ Bring to Arsenal?
By Josh Sippie
Arsene Wenger gave a quote to the media that he had to know they would absolutely devour. I will swallow my pride and devour it as well. When asked if he was going to make any more signings, Le Prof had this to say:
“It depends, if we find ideally what we want, we are still hoping to do something else. That doesn’t depend only on us, it depends on whether we can find them, but if we can find one or two players we will do it.”
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While the vultures of Manchester (City or United, pick one) have been unloading a literal ton of money (trust me, I weighed it) on odds and ends in the hopes of buying, I mean winning, a title, Arsenal have remained fairly quiet with Petr Cech being their sole signing. Of course, Wenger was asked about his dear rivals as well, and he spoke of how great the signings were and how it was all grand. But in the end, Arsenal did not need those guys, and he is spot on.
I was never a fan of the Morgan Schneiderlin rumors. He brought nothing that the team did not already have. The same is true of Raheem Sterling. If we were going to lose Theo Walcott, then sure, signing up Sterling would have made sense. But the prices that these guys ended up commanding were a bit eccentric and again, we did not need them.
But given Wenger’s comments, we now have to ponder to ourselves who exactly these two perfect signings are. Arsene Wenger is always going to make sure that there is no doubt that a player will fit in (especially after the Nicklas Bendtner circus), so I do not blame him one bit for not throwing cash at anyone with a pulse. Plus, it is not the Arsenal way.
The Metro has a pretty solid estimation of who the two signings could be: Alexandre Lacazette (28 million) and Faouzi Ghoulam (9 million).
For once, I would have to agree with the Metro. That is, if you forced me to pick two guys at this very moment.
First, lets look at price. If both of those deals are completed, they will total approximately 37 million pounds, plus Petr Cech and the youth infusion and you have the 50 million pounds that Arsenal were allotted.
So financially, it checks out.
Now lets consider practicality. I have covered how brilliant I think signing Faouzi Ghoulam would be. Nacho Monreal and Kieran Gibbs are a combined enigma. They are both injury-prone and inconsistent. Ghoulam was the most consistent player on a very inconsistent Napoli squad.
While no one has pegged left back as a position that needs reinforcing, it is pretty clear that it could use some hired help. Ghoulam is also younger than the other two, so he would have time to establish himself. Overall, between the price and the need, it just makes sense.
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And then there is Lacazette. Not long ago, Lyon were asking for somewhere in the vicinity of 60 million pounds. Who did they think he was, Gonzalo Higuain? (bad humor)
But now, Lacazette’s price is rumored to be between 21 and 28 million. I understand that he is ‘unproven’ and ‘untested’ but the guy outscored every other player in Ligue 1. Say what you will about Ligue 1, but if you outscore Zlatan Ibrahimovic, you are doing something right.
While I find Karim Benzema to be the perfect Arsenal striker, Lacazette is not too far off in second place. He contrasts Olivier Giroud nicely in that he has pace and dribbles the ball well. He also holds the ball well, just like Giroud, and that skill is crucial to Arsenal’s success.
However, Wenger has slyly indicated that Theo Walcott could be a striker come next year and if that is the case, than Lacazette probably will not happen. That is, unless Wenger’s plans for Welbeck involve exactly what he did last year, but I still think that Welbeck has something to give at striker.
All things considered, if two guys had to be picked at this very moment, those would be the two, with Ghoulam the more likely. A defensive midfielder is not too far-fetched either, but there have been far less realistic options emerging from that position.
Next: Will another Chilean join Alexis at Arsenal?