Arsenal Season Preview: The Squad Still Needs Strengthening

The summer of transfer speculation has finally come to an end. It would be so nice to be able to say that today. Alas, the speculation has not ended, but the summer has. A new season begins tomorrow and the futures of two of our best players are still in limbo. 

The potential transfers of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas have weighed heavily on the entire club--the board, the manager, the players, and the fans. The club is better off selling both players, but for different reasons. 

The Cesc situation is clear. He no longer wants to play for us and no longer wants to be Arsenal's captain. He made that clear when he was absent at the end of our Premier League season, choosing instead to attend the Spanish Grand Prix. 

We cannot succeed with players who would rather play somewhere else. We need our captain to galvanize and lead our young squad. We cannot expect our captain to lead and inspire his teammates when he has made it quite clear that he views Arsenal as his stepping stone towards greener pastures. He's the captain. Others are supposed to follow in his example. What kind of example has he set by quitting on his club? It is time to let him go.

The real shame is that the Fabregas era was blemished because it was also the Manuel Almunia era. Who can blame him for being fed up with playing alongside the likes of Denilson, Mikael Silvestre, or Sebastien Squillaci? He is ambitious and wants to win trophies, and these players held him (and the entire club) back.

The Nasri situation is purely a financial one, as his contract runs out next summer.  

We did see this coming. Over the course of the season, Nasri's contract situation was brought up numerous times, but he assured the club that he would enter negotiations at the end of the season because he wanted to concentrate on his football. 

Whether or not Nasri ever intended to resign with Arsenal we will never know, but he has refused to sign a new contract this summer. 

After paying over 10 million pounds just 3 years ago to get Nasri, letting him go for free next summer would represent an awful piece of business. Allowing Nasri to leave for free after we have invested so much into the player in the form of wages, his transfer fee, and his development on our training ground would mean a huge financial blow to the club. 

With Manchester City offering over 20 million pounds for Nasri, the best move for the club is to cash on him this summer.

That being said, Arsene Wenger has been adamant that he wants Nasri to stay. Perhaps Wenger thinks he still can convince Nasri to sign a new contract, even if it means risking him leaving for free.

Some have argued we will have a better chance to re-sign Nasri next summer, as the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules are gradually implemented into effect. Clubs will have to show that they are balancing their books in December of 2012, meaning Manchester City will not be able to offer Nasri as much money in the form of wages as they have this summer.

But the Financial Fair Play rules actually strengthen the argument to sell Nasri.

First of all, we will need to show that we are balancing the books as well, and offering Nasri a huge contract to convince him to stay will only hurt us in that regard.

Second, it's not as though Arsenal and Manchester City will be the only two clubs trying to sign Nasri a year from now if he was made available for free. Chelsea and Manchester United made their interest known this summer. Every top club in the world would want him if he could be bought for free, and against that sort of competition I doubt Arsenal's chances to retain the player. 

And lastly, if we sold Nasri to Manchester City this summer and let them grossly overpay Nasri a reported 160,000 pounds a week, we would be making it that much harder for City to balance the books a year from now. They will need to offload many players in order to comply with the rules, adding another exorbitant contract to their payroll will only hurt them in the long run.

Therefore the club needs to move on and sell both of these players. Arsenal needs strength and depth in the form of new transfers, and the funds raised by Fabregas' and Nasri's departure would help us buy the quality players we need.

Removing Nasri and Fabregas from consideration, I think our ideal first 11 will look something like this:

Szczesny

Sagna -- Koscielny -- Vermaelen -- Gibbs

Song -- Wilshere

Walcott -- Arshavin -- Gervinho

van Persie

That is a very good side. Robin van Persie proved last season that when fit, he is as good as any striker in the league. Adding Gervinho provides us with genuine speed on both wings, meaning tactical suicide for anyone who tries to play a high line against us.

The back line has improved from both the sale of Gael Clichy and the return of Thomas Vermaelen. Laurent Koscielny should also improve as he adjusts to English football, which should lead to less bookings and less penalties.

Jack Wilshere is set to take a starring role in the team. Alex Song has improved every season at Arsenal and will continue to improve as he is still young.

Andrey Arshavin, who looked a little lost on the left wing last season, could be given a more central role. Arshavin frustrated many fans with misplaced passes on the left wing last season. I put part of the blame for that on the man who played behind him, clueless Clichy. Clichy's lack of intelligence, poor passing, and terrible positioning let the entire team down, but no one felt it more than whoever played on the left wing.

Nasri's sharp drop-off in production over the second half of the season, when he played mostly on the left rather than the right (he filled in for Walcott on the right during an outstanding first half of the season--many tipped him to win player of the year in December) perhaps suggests the criticism of Arshavin was too harsh.

Despite a number of poor performances where Arshavin seemed entirely absent for large portions of matches, the little Russian ended the season leading the team with 18 assists. One would think that in a more central role Arshavin would be able to create even more chances.

The promotion of Kieran Gibbs to the first team is also a step in the right direction. Gibbs is a very talented player. He is more intelligent and a better crosser of the ball than Clichy. That being said, he has been injury prone in his few seasons at Arsenal, and his development would be more rapid if there was genuine competition for his place in the team.

Competition forces players to work harder in training and improve. Quality reserve players not only provide the depth a club needs to be a genuine trophy contender, but they also serve to accelerate the development young players who want to break into the side.

Without competition, a player's development stagnates. No one is a better example of that than Clichy. Clichy's career peaked at 23 years old. Arsenal needs to add players in order to provide both strength in depth and competition for places, because as things stand right now, the Arsenal second team is very weak.

This is how our second team looks at the moment:

Fabianski

Jenkinson -- Djourou -- Squillaci -- Traore

Frimpong -- Ramsey/Diaby

Miyachi -- Rosicky -- Chamberlain

Chamakh

That squad leaves a lot to be desired. Depth is vital to a club's ambitions. We don't have it.

Aaron Ramsey is the best player of this group. He is a future star who could very well make massive Wilshere-esque strides forward this season. The rest of the players aren't up to his standard, however.

The mercurial Abou Diaby has an important role to play in the team, but he cannot do so because he is injured far too often. Diaby provides size and strength in the midfield, something we really lack. But his constant injury record and inability to play in Song's role as the deepest defensive midfielder mean his contribution to the team has been minimal, only really having an impact two seasons ago when he beat out Denilson for a spot in the team and held on to it with a series of good performances. Diaby was France's best player at the World Cup last summer (although that isn't saying much). If fit, he can add a different dimension to our midfield. The problem is he's never fit.

Armand Traore has had chances to impress us and earn a place in the team before, and he failed to do so. He was given a loan move to Juventus and if he'd have impressed there, they would have signed him, but they did not. Given Gibbs' injury record, Traore will likely play in many games this season. Will this be the year he takes his chance?

The two new signings from League 1--Carl Jenkinson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain--are being asked to step up from third-tier English Football to the UEFA Champions League. I can't think of a single player who has every made that jump before. We have two.

Speaking of big jumps, young winger Ryo Miyachi was playing for his high school in Japan a year ago. He has spent half a season on loan in Feyenoord where he did impress, albeit against weak opposition. He is very fast and a good dribbler, but it's hard to believe he will hold up well against the big, strong, tough-tackling right-backs of the EPL. The thought of Miyachi going into a 50-50 challenge against Bratislav Ivanovic or Micah Richards makes me cringe and fear for the boy's life.

Emmanuel Frimpong has many believers among the Arsenal supporters, despite never playing a first team game in his career--not for Arsenal and not for anyone else.

Frimpong has been up and down in the preseason. He looked great in the tour of Asia and in the earlier pre-season matches. As the season drew closer and our opponents not only improved, but also started to take the matches more seriously, Frimpong has looked increasingly out of his element. This was most clear in our final preseason match against Benfica, where Frimpong struggled mightily. I fear the young Ghanaian is not yet up to the challenge of playing away from home.

I think Frimpong is a good prospect. He is small but strong in the Claude Makelele mold. But the club would be best served sending Frimpong on loan so he can earn consistent first-team football and develop, without costing Arsenal points in the table because he is on a steep learning curve.

The lack of cover for Alex Song has been a major problem for years now. Denilson never was able to prove himself. We are taking a step backwards if we rely on Frimpong to step up and fill the role. When you consider that Song will be gone for a month this winter at the African Cup of Nations, a move for a proven holding midfielder should be one of Wenger's top priorities before the transfer market ends.

All these kids (Jenkinson, Miyachi, Frimpong, and Oxlade-Chamberlain) are not yet ready to play for a Champions League club. They do not provide competition for places. They could all be terrific players 3 years from now but at the moment, they will not provide the strength in depth we need to win a trophy.

The older reserve players are not exactly inspiring either.

After nearly two years out injured, Tomas Rosicky looks to be a shred of the player he once was. After a few good performances early in the year, Rosicky was called upon to fill in for the injured Fabregas in a crucial stretch of last season, where he played very poorly. Wenger is loyal to Rosicky and frequently picks him to play in the big matches, and Rosicky normally disappoints in those matches. He has lost it and should have been sold years ago. Thinking about the amount of money wasted on Rosicky's wages since he signed makes my head ache.

Marouane Chamakh played well initially, but all the good work done by Chamakh in the early matches was undone entirely after a string of terrible performances late in the year as Arsenal's season slipped away.

My problem with Chamakh is his mentality. He has the athleticism, first touch, dribbling skill, aerial ability and technique to be a top-tier striker. But I've never seen any other forward turn around and look for a support pass when they are one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Strikers need to be aggressive and confident. They have to want to score goals and believe that they can. Strikers absolutely cannot shy away from the moment. Chamakh consistently does exactly that.

With Nicklas Bendtner determined to leave Arsenal after being wasted on the wing for much of last season, Arsenal will have to rely on Chamakh to cover for the oft-injured van Persie. Choosing Chamakh over Bendtner is a mistake. Bendtner may be over-confident to the point of delusion, but nonetheless he does have a good scoring record. He rarely got a consistent run in the first team and yet he has scored some vital goals for us. We might not have even made the Carling Cup Final (even if we ended up throwing it away) had it not been for Bendtner's terrific goal against Ipswich Town in the semi final. Bendtner already has the mentality a striker needs and as he is young, he still has time to develop the other aspects of his game. Chamakh is older, has reached the peak of his career, and still he plays like a scared kitten.

Johan Djourou was terrific in the first half of last season, but for as good as he was early in the year, he was equally awful at the end. Recent errors in the preseason make many Arsenal fans worried about Djourou's confidence, not to mention his susceptibility to injuries.

If Djourou gets hurt, Sebastien Squillaci will be called upon to be our backup central defender. There isn't much left to be said about Squillaci. A team with ambitions of winning trophies cannot do so if they are relying on players of Squillaci's standard.

The team clearly needs a central defender, preferably a taller one who excels at set pieces. Scott Dann, Christopher Samba, Gary Cahill, or Per Mertesacker could all fill this void. Ideally, the new defensive recruit would be good enough to step into the first team straight away and push Koscielny out of the first team. Koscielny would still get plenty of games as Vermaelen would be a better option at left-back than Traore and could play on the left should Gibbs suffer an injury, making room for Koscielny or Djourou to play in the middle alongside the new recruit.

In addition to a taller center back, I would also like to see us sign Phil Jagielka. Jagielka is a proven EPL center back, but he also can fill in at right back and in midfield. The first time I watched him play was when he was captain of a Sheffield United team that beat Arsenal 1-nil. The Blades had used all of their substitutes near the end of the match when their goalkeeper suffered an injury. Jagielka picked up the goalie gloves and even made a few saves in order to keep the clean sheet.

Jagielka is a proven leader whose versatility, determination, and adaptability would be of immense value to the Arsenal team. After having a bid rejected for him earlier this summer, I hope Wenger does not abandon his pursuit of Jagielka. He would be a fantastic signing.

In all, Arsenal's summer has been underwhelming. We have not been decisive enough with the players who want to leave. We still have not strengthened the defense or added a holding midfielder, areas of the team that have needed to be addressed properly for many years now. Our reliance on Chamakh to cover for van Persie is discouraging.

Our lack of depth means that should injuries occur--and they always do--we could face a real struggle both to score goals and to stop others from scoring. That does not bode well for a team with aspirations of lifting a trophy.

For that reason, I don't expect Arsenal to finish above third place. We don't have the depth, at the moment, to put forth a genuine title bid. If the fixtures are kind I could see us making a deep run in one of the domestic cups, but with or without Fabregas and Nasri, there is not enough strength in depth in other areas of the team to win a trophy.

I do not expect Arsenal to drop out of the top 4, either. The first team is very strong.

Vermaelen's return does improve the defense, as does Clichy's exit.

I can't help but think that Gervinho is feeling a little disrespected. So many Arsenal supporters are quick to forget him when they cry out that Wenger has done nothing this summer. Gervinho is a quality signing. He will improve the attack.

The maturation of Wilshere, Ramsey, Gibbs, Song and Walcott is another big plus. Every year they grow and improve and this season will be no different.

Even if Wenger fails to make another signing this summer I like our chances to finish in the top 4 against one of Chelsea (who get older and slower as each year goes by, as opposed to us), Manchester City (who will have the added distraction of Champions League football and Gael Clichy), and Liverpool (who paid too much for their overrated new signings). I don't think we can beat all three of these teams without some sort of investment in the coming weeks, but I am confident we will beat at least one of them.

This preview is a bit premature because new signings could still come in the next few weeks, but one thing is clear: the squad needs strengthening in order to end the trophy drought.

Let's hope Wenger and the board listen to the fans and "spend some f***ing money."