Short one for you today.
The signing of Takuma Asano is useful, in some ways (don’t laugh). With Danny Welbeck injured all the time and Theo Walcott on the way out as soon as a club wants him ‘in’, the reality of the situation is that Olivier Giroud is practically our only striker.
Asano is certainly no Thierry Henry, and chances are he’ll immediately be loaned to some lower division club for ‘further development’, but he’s still a body with a mind and legs, and Lord knows we need more of those. If a time ever came when Arsenal find themselves in a bit of an injury plague, we could always cut his loan spell short and have him do a job for us. I’m not saying he’d return a Francis Coquelin, but our state of play is such that should such a situation occur (and at Arsenal, that’s almost a certainty) we have no one except for Asano to be our fail-safe.
And quite obviously, now that I’ve said that, I look forward to the news of him falling of a train and having both his legs amputated.
Like everyone else, I won’t pretend to be a credible source to gauge Asano’s quality. YouTube shows him as an incredibly skillful player (video below), but then again, YouTube showed Hulk as this generation’s Pele. It’d be very much Arsenal for a bright young player to be bedded in our academy, only for injuries or catastrophic loan spells to scupper his development. That’s not to write Asano off as a failure before he has a chance to get started. It’s just to highlight the general unpredictability of the sport, especially when it comes down to raw, unproven talent.
Of course, signing a young striker from Ligux Ho-Chi-Minh reignites the long drawn “Why haven’t we signed a striker who isn’t a schoolboy” debate. The answer to that, as has been well publicized, lies in the paucity of options. It reflects in what others have bought – for all the money in England, Manchester City have made their peace with Nolito, Tottenham have tossed £16m on Vincent Jansen and even Crystal Palace are gunning for Christian Benteke. Romelu Lukaku and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, for some ghostly reason, seem unbuyable. And granted, quality players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alvaro Morata are making moves, but there’s still an element of “get what we can” to those buys.
The dearth of options is definitely a factor, but it’s frustrating that others have managed to make do. Why can’t Arsenal? Doing nothing is a guaranteed road to failure and other clubs know that. I hazard a guess Arsène knows that himself, but isn’t being as clinical to work on that notion. If City’s Plan C is someone like Nolito, why is our Plan C someone like Asano?
Chasing Jamie Vardy was something I liked because it felt like Wenger had a plan and followed its protocol. He had to have better targets than Vardy, but when it became obvious that those deals won’t materialize, he went further down the ladder and tried to get the next best thing. He didn’t wait for the Goldilocks striker and waste a season. That the Vardy pursuit failed is another story altogether, but it’s hard to see what Wenger could have done in the short-term to prevent that.
Having said that, Wenger certainly cannot sit on his hands now. Time is ticking and targets are dropping like flies. One way or another, Arsenal need goals and Wenger needs a way to get them. If strikers aren’t forthcoming, we need alternate remedies, and we need them right away.
Considering our current crop of wingers, a prolific wide forward wouldn’t be the worst thing. I’d be content if Wenger continues to keep his faith in Oxlade-Chamberlain, but that’s not really a move that reeks of ambition, is it? Yes, I share the sentiment that Oxlade-Chamberlain is judged too soon and the injuries he has picked up are not fully comprehended by some of us, but really, that shouldn’t excuse his performances. It wouldn’t be a show or faith to keep him a starter, as much as it would be shameless in-activeness. Chamberlain’s development has not gone according to plan – as has Theo Walcott’s – which is why it’s preferable to buy someone who doesn’t need to be developed all that much. That mustn’t necessarily mean the end of Chamberlain’s Arsenal career, but to a degree, it’s a kick up his arse.
It’s no compulsion to buy a striker and a winger (although it’d be a nice bonus). If the striker business is dry, Arsenal need to offset that somehow, and where better to start than a wide forward – an area where reinforcements are needed anyway?
Food for thought.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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