 |
You ask any Arsenal fan what type of player we should sign in January and 99% will say a striker. With only Olivier Giroud as our truly conventional striker, the Arsenal fan base flinches every time we see him on the floor clutching his ankle. But as I’ve said a few times, I don’t see us signing the world class strikers we targeted in the summer when the winter window opens. Higuain has moved now. Man Utd will not sell Rooney to a direct title rival and the same applies for Liverpool. So we will need to be more realistic and look at some of the cheaper options. Here is two that I’ve picked out:
Carlos Vela
This is a very controversial pick. He was once at Arsenal and it didn’t work out, mainly because he failed to adapt to the English game. However, he has matured a lot in La Liga and is one of Real Sociedad’s best players. He can play on the wings or as a striker playing off the last defender. He has been scoring fairly regularly for Sociedad and has said many times that he’s not afraid of moving back to Arsenal. According to reports, we have a £4 million buy back clause in his contract and that would allow us to have that depth in January before buying someone big in the summer.
Loic Remy
We were in for the Frenchman last January but the likes of Newcastle and QPR ended up fighting for his signature rather than us. Now he’s on loan at Newcastle and has already scored 8 league goals this season. Now he apparently has a £7 million buy-out clause in his QPR contract but they’ll need to compensate Newcastle their loan fee (as well as compensation) if they take back Remy before the agreed loan deal ends. He is a player in brilliant form now and has got the talent to cut it at the top. He has unreal pace and provides something different to Giroud.
I’d love for us to be in for the likes of Suarez or Diego Costa in January but their clubs have high ambitions for this season and will not weaken themselves until the summer. So we’ll most likely need to improvise and bring in someone cheap but good enough to compete with Giroud. Who else would you suggest?
