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With Barcelona singing their Song and Manchester United driving away to glory in their Van, Arsene Wenger, has quite a season ahead of him.
Now, how exactly do you replace a world-class striker like Robin Van Persie? Arsene seems to have done half the job, by signing two strikers, in Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud. But the main question in every gooner’s mind would be, are they as good as RVP?
Technically speaking, Giroud is much more of a physical striker, whereas, Podolski is a bit more like RVP, himself. The similarities are there to be seen. Podolski, 27, already has a lot of experience under his belt. He has over 100 caps for the German national team, performing quite well, scoring 44 goals. His club form though seems to raise quite a few eyebrows.
The Polish-born striker started his club career at German club, F.C Köln, impressing many with his performances. In 2006, he moved to a bigger German club, Bayern Munich. His spell at the Bavarian club was not so impressive and he returned to his former club in 2009. Upon his arrival at Koln, he started to gain more confidence at a club where he would be considered a star player. The 2011-12 season saw him score 18 goals in the Bundesliga, albeit for a lost cause as FC Köln were relegated to the 2.Bundesliga. Surely, ‘Poldi’, as he is fondly called by teammates at both club and international level, would not play in the second tier.
This led to him being linked with a move away from the German club. Arsenal came in with a concrete offer, which was accepted by Koln. The pre-season saw him play about 2 games, in which he scored 2 goals against his former club, Köln. Will he be effective in the Barclays Premier League against top teams like Manchester united, Chelsea and Manchester City? Only time will tell.
Now coming to Giroud, the French footballer was relatively unknown 2-3 years ago. He burst onto the scene with his performances for his former club, Montpellier. He scored 21 goals that season and assisted on 9, as his club won the league. He was bought in for a modest fee of 9.6 million pounds, though his manager at his former club stated, that he would cost ‘at least €50 or €60 million’.
He is known to be a technically sound player, with good aerial ability and a good left foot. Gut feeling says that he might not be a starter in his first season at the North London club, though he will be effective when he’s brought on. He should benefit from the service of attack-minded midfielders such as Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky and newly signed Santi Cazorla. He and Poldi also have wingers like Theo Walcott, Gervinho and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain sending in the crosses.
One good news coming out in the month of August, was the signing of a certain Santi Cazorla from the financially-troubled Malaga. The Spanish international is already an established player both in his league and the international level and I must say, he’s quite a ‘witty buy’ by Arsene Wenger as the club paid only 15 million pounds for a player of his calibre. With the three new arrivals, will Arsenal finally be able to win silverware? Time will tell.
With about 40 million to spend from the departures of Alex song to Barcelona and RVP to United, will Arsene dip into the transfer market? Well, he certainly needs to. We are likely to see three more arrivals this season at the club, a striker, a midfielder and probably a defensive-minded player. French prodigy M’baye Niang has long been linked with move, whereas Arsenal are also keen to sign Turkish International, Nuri Sahin on a season-long loan. Replacements for RVP, are already made, but we do need another striker as we have only two recognisable first team strikers. Benik Afobe is a talent, but he has gone out on-loan to Bolton. So, the arrival of a striker is necessary. With so much money to spend, Arsene will surely be keen to sign a replacement for Alex Song.
French international, Yann M’Vila has also been long linked with a move to the Gunners. The Rennes man, would be a good addition to the squad as he can also fill in at the wingback position or in central defence.
The departure of RVP, and possibly Song, may dent Arsene’s squad, but the potential arrivals and the already arrived give some hope of silverware for the first time in seven years. It’s probably the last season for Arsene Wenger to show his silverware-winning ability, as surely the board of directors would not like an eight year silverware drought. The future of Arsenal looks like a 50-50 proposition. The coming season, will surely give us a peek as to what Arsenal can do.
