Arsenal: Arsene Wenger too smart to sign Karim Benzema

Arsenal need to find numerous versions of a solution this summer, but Karim Benzema, despite the talent level, is a problem waiting to happen.

Clearly the striker collection that Arsenal has compiled just isn’t enough. Olivier Giroud has his uses, but Arsene Wenger keeps sending him out there in games that make him look terrible. Danny Welbeck is a workhorse but can’t seem to be a consistent goal scorer and Lucas Perez might as well be invisible.

Therefore, a new striker should be somewhere on the to-do list and there will be options, both realistic and fantastical.

But Karim Benzema should not be on that list. The Frenchman has had a rocky road since his first link to Arsenal, plus he carries with him the pervading sense of becoming a future problem. I’ll elaborate.

The kind of players Arsenal need right now are the guys that are hungry for the next level of football. Guys with talent that has been proven, but who just need a bit of honing to make it at the top level.

Achieving that final level of development because they joined Arsenal will endear them to the club and that hunger will remain. I am thinking of young players who are ‘the next big thing’. Guys like Dawid Kownacki, Kasper Dolberg, etc, I did a whole list about guys that fall in this category.

What we absolutely do not need are guys who have won everything, have never played outside of their comfort zone, and could easily fall victim to frustrations when they aren’t as good as they thought they were.

While I respect Mesut Ozil, I can’t help but think he falls in this category. He had won everything and he came to Arsenal and he improved and looked like he would continue to improve, but now that he can’t seem to raise his level of play to where it needs to be, he is getting eaten alive on the pitch.

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Benzema is in a similar position. Plus he made those wonderful statements about how the two horse race in La Liga is the pinnacle of world football. Do we really want a guy who knowingly admits that it would be a step down?

We have no idea how Benzema would do outside of Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale are a bit different than whatever hodgepodge makes it through the summer to be our flanks.

Most importantly, Benzema would require to be started. Much like Ozil, that means that when he is not effective, which will happen from time to time, he will be beyond benching. And if you do bench him for then betterment of the team, you risk a highly toxic environment.

Benzema has already shown himself to be of questionable character and the last thing the Gunners need is any more toxicity.

Say what you want about Wenger, he definitely deserves his criticism, but one thing he seems to have a good grasp on is the power of positive-minded players – guys who aren’t so swept up in their own magnificence to be humbled from time to time.

Next: Arsenal's 30 Greatest Players Ever

And this is why Benzema will absolutely not be coming to Arsenal, and why that is a good thing

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