So now the Football Manager part of the season starts, or at least many of us wished it would. Just sign up Villa, Lloris and Lucio (and that wonderkid from The Gambia) and look forward to a year of glory. We all know it won’t happen to our club, while we have more money than almost any other club, we are not going to spend £40 million on one player, or target many players (they probably call them assets in the boardroom) that don’t go up in value. There will be players coming in though, and that’s something to be happy and excited about. The goalkeeper and centre back positions have been long identified as the most urgent areas to strengthen, but there’s one position that hasn’t really been discussed that I believe could prove just as essential in bringing the glory days back to the club. Wingers.

With the problems at the back so obvious, it is understandable that people are looking to strengthen there. Goals win you games but defences win you titles. Look back at the list of Premier League winners and you’ll see that there’s another undeniable truth. Wingers win you titles, too. Going back to the days of Kanchelskis and Giggs at United, via Ripley and Wilcox at Blackburn, to Beckham and Giggs at United, to Overmars and Parlour, to Pires and Ljungberg , to Robben and Duff, to Joe Cole, to Ronaldo and er... Giggs, to Malouda, every side that has won the league has been able to call on excellence out wide.

While Arsenal has plenty of options out wide, none of them consider themselves actual wingers, and it shows. Nasri and Arshavin might be our most adept choices but they both drift inward and rarely go outside their markers. The result? The team narrows, crossing is left to Clichy and Sagna (when was the last time you saw those two pull a cross off?), opponents are not stretched and know that they can sit two banks of five in front of the box and stifle their way to a draw or a goal on the break.

Wenger has stated his belief that the game is changing and old-school tactics are on the way out. Spurs have bucked the trend with their 4-4-2 formation but by and large it seems there is a shift. Arsenal have sacrificed traditional width and seen their challenge for supremacy fade, while those that have adapted more pragmatically have remained successful. Whether bringing in a winger with a wonderful cross and the desire to go round his full back all day will do us as much good as other teams – what with our famous reluctance to get in the box and relative lack of an aerial threat – is debatable but the facts suggest it’s an important ingredient in the English game. Besides, with Bendtner’s rise and the arrival of Chamakh, we will be presenting a much greater threat to opposition defenders next season.

So who does Wenger target? Rumours surrounding Shaun Wright-Philips suggest Wenger has realised he needs more orthodox width but whether the player once assumed to be a future Arsenal great is the right choice is doubtful. His career has gone backwards and he possesses an infuriating lack of consistency and end product that Arsenal should be looking to get rid of rather than import. His team mate, Martin Petrov is a different proposition entirely. He is a prodigious crosser for one, and his set pieces would be a significant upgrade on Cesc’s. Staying in the Premiership there is Chung Yong Lee at Bolton. You may have missed him, it’s not often that many people can bring themselves to watch Bolton unless they have to, but he has been a revelation. Skillful, brave, quick and considered a bit of a genius by the Trotters.

Neither Petrov or Lee would break the bank, which would leave the board and Wenger happy, and allow a more audacious bid for someone like Buffon or Hart, or Hangeland. But just in case the temptation was too high, and the boss fancied a bit of real-life Football Manager, why not table a cheeky bid for David Silva? That would give us Gooners a lift this summer, and maybe an even better one this time next year.