Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Diakhate or Mertesacker for Campbell?

I've obviously missed a lot of interesting Arsenal tidbits. That's by the way, thanks to a host of friends on Twitter who actually took it upon themselves to compare and contrast the aforementioned contestants for the vacant defensive position at our beloved club with a view to determining the real deal, we now have a clear and distinct winner.

I was appointed the case's impartial judge, and I hereby declare Werder Bremen's Per Mertesacker, the preferred replacement for Sol Campbell et al. Based on our informal discussion, a lot of questions were asked ranging from age, experience, cost and expected turnover with regards to their output per game.

At €12m our German lad's price is a bit on the high side, and given Diakhate's paltry release clause (€4.5m), I thought we'd opt for him, well it looks like reality is dawning on us and the effects are gunner be drastric in the long run, i.e. If we fail to achieve our objectives in the forthcoming season.

I do not wish to exaggerate, but a rethink in respect to where we'll stand next season won't be that bad. To be exact, we've lost four somewhat experienced defenders, and have just two able-bodied young men (Koscielny & Djourou), who can be referred to as tested, but yet to be trusted. I'll be the last Gooner to question Wenger's decisions, but sincerely our old man has to do something and it has to be done quickly.

It's hard to watch your title aspirations snuffed out at the last minute due to some avoidable mistakes, hopefully Wenger and co. won't devise survival strategies this time. On a final note, Pape is good, but not good enough so we'd love to see Mertesacker, or another proven guy at the Emirates soon rather than later.

I appreciate the efforts of those who participated in the exercise, time to retire for the day mates.