Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Arsenal looking for some help up front

As the dust settles on North London and we realize that Titi is actually gone, the rebuilding commences in earnest. The first of which was the signing of Eduardo Alves de Silva, an ex-pat Brazilian who took on the Croatian nationality. Not really the replacement for Titi, but maybe a good part of a greater strategy.

Adding de Silva, in addition to Adebayour, Walcott, Van Persie and Bendtner gives Wenger some options at striker, but no superstar, no gold standard striker that will force defenses to shift their strategies on the mere presence of this striker on the pitch. Walcott and Van Persie may develop into such a striker, but that may take another season or two. If Wenger wants to contend in Europe and England he will need to find such a player...easier said than done. With Liverpool adding Torres, Manchester United adding players such as Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson and we are all waiting for the moves from Chelsea - potentially adding Malouda to an already stacked team.

So does Wenger want to compete for the Premier title or just to be in the "top 4" ..... and I even think the latter is not guaranteed with Tottenham looking to make the player moves to get into the top European competition.

There are still some big time prizes out there: Tevez, Anelka, and potentially Eto'o come to mind. Wenger needs to make a move for one if not two big names if he is serious to compete in England, otherwise we are looking at another "battle for 3rd and 4th place" type season for Arsenal.

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