Despite our good start it’s more than common knowledge amongst fans that the position we really need to strengthen in is our centre forward position. Big Giroud has been in excellent form this season and despite me slating him as the next Chamakh at the beginning of last season he has proven himself as a key player for us and France.
However everytime he goes down holding his leg I’m sure 99.9 percent of fans are thinking the worst at the prospect of having a not so quality forward (cough Bendtner) leading the line. Sure as the sun shines Giroud does need competition up front whether its down to an injury, loss of form or the simple fact he is not going to be able to start every game and will eventually become fatigued. Arsenal have been linked with a lot of big name forwards from Llorente to Benteke and these names have cropped up again but we could certainly do no worse than.
Alexandre Pato– Pato’s name has come up a few times in the last couple of weeks mainly him quoting that he turned down the small team down the seven sisters road in August. It’s believed that he will be available in January on a possible loan or a fee. At 24-years old he is still very much a young player and yet to reach his peak or full potential. I saw him at Milan a few times notably in the game where he destroyed Madrid in the Champions League a couple of seasons ago and he looked like a genuine top class striker. However the only worry is that during his time at Milan he was very injury prone and wasn’t able to make the grade at the San Siro due to this. His career at Corinthians has been up and down and after 8 goals in 25 games there he’s come under a lot of criticism from fans, but maybe a move to the Premiership could be the career boost he needs and undoubtedly Wenger would get the best out of him and he could thrive in a team with someone like Ozil playing behind him. If not there’s always:
Karim Benzema– Benzema is undoubtedly a world class player who has been in and out of the Real Madrid side over the last couple of seasons and if rumours are to be believed he is looking to move from the Bernabau. I think if Madrid had signed Luis Suarez in August, Benzema would have been an Arsenal player already with him being linked with us throughout the summer. Benzema possess the quality to succeed in the Premiership and with 94 goals in 198 games in Spain, that isn’t something to be sniffed at.
However Benzema does suffer from an ‘Anelka’ attitude and has apparently had quite a few strops at managers / teammates and complained about the club publicly more than once. Despite his quality, something like that could affect dressing room morale (remember William Gallas public rant at Arsenal when he was captain?) and could have a bearing on results. If as expected Madrid do sign a striker in January then Benzema will be available for around the 20 Million mark, well within our transfer budget and at 25-years old he still has a good few years left in him. If Arsenal fans want a potential bargain then we could go for:
Robert Lewandowski– Who is an admittedly unrealistic target with many people believing he had signed for Bayern Munich on a pre-contract at the end of this season with the player since coming out and saying that this wasn’t true and he was keeping his options open. Lewandowski is probably one of the most sought after forwards in football and with clubs like Manchester United to Real Madrid expressing an interest it would be hard to get him.
January’s going to be a hard month for Dortmund and with his contract up at the end of the season and Lewandowski having no interest in renewing it, it has been quoted that a fee of just 7 million would be enough to get him. That’s probably just a rumour but with Dortmund maybe keen to gain a fee for him he shouldn’t be able to leave for much more than that. If Arsenal were to bring him to the Emirates it would more than likely create the same waves that it did throughout Europe when we signed Ozil on transfer deadline day , a real genuine worldclass player would show more than a few people that we aren’t there just to make up the numbers in competitions anymore and should be considered a real threat.
Arsenal’s name has been mentioned as a potential transfer and signing a player who has wreaked havoc on defences in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. Also apparently he grew up as an Arsenal fan (not sure if this is true, but still), so fingers crossed.
Hopefully by the end of January we could be seeing one of these players at the Emirates, however there are several other strikers who could do the job, and although I don’t like slating him too much our back up striker isn’t up to the job.