Mike Francis
In the first part of our survey results we looked at how you had responded to the questions we posed about the 2012-13 season. We also asked whether you thought Arsenal could challenge for the title next season and discovered that over 40% were either “quite” or “extremely” optimistic. In part two of our results, we’ll find out what you think needs to happen to the squad during the summer for this to become more likely, as well as hearing your views on the manager.
Over the last 12 months we have signed four players for the first team squad so we asked whether you thought each of them had been a hit or a miss so far. As the convincing winner of our Player of the Season, there would have had to have been a bug in the survey for Santi Cazorla to have been classed as anything other than a hit, so it’s reassuring that over 98% of you said he was, but perhaps still a little worrying that seven people classed him as a miss. They are presumably the same fans who thought Liam Brady didn’t use his right foot enough and that Thierry Henry should concentrate on improving his heading technique!
The other three new signings had a much more mixed response. Lukas Podolski was regarded as a hit by 53% of voters, whilst Olivier Giroud got the thumbs up from 52% of you, although he also attracted the highest percentage of fans who felt he had been a miss (15%). Nacho Monreal was the last of the four players to be signed, back in January, and therefore had not had as much time to impress which is perhaps reflected in the fact that a majority (52%) were undecided about his worth to the squad, although 44% still felt he’d been a hit so far.
There has been much discussion on this site and others about how the perceived strength of the squad has been depleted in recent years. If the general view is that all four players we have signed in the last year are more “hit” than “miss” and we only lost two core first team players last summer, then perhaps it’s reasonable to conclude that the trend has been reversed.
Although I’ve just said we lost two core first team players last summer, there was really only one which bothered most people, so we asked that if, having won the title with Manchester United last season, was Robin Van Persie justified in deciding to leave Arsenal and 69% of you thought he was. That certainly should not be taken to mean that we are happy he went to Manchester United and played a key role in them winning the Premier League, but I think it does demonstrate the majority understand his reasons weren’t purely financially motivated, something which Ivan Gazidis confirmed during his Q&A session with supporters earlier this month. Van Persie was ambitious to win trophies and, after meeting with Arsène Wenger last summer, he clearly did not feel Arsenal provided his best chance of doing so.
A Mata of Regret
Over the last couple of years we’ve been linked with a lot of players, some of whom subsequently moved to clubs within the Premier League. We asked which player (from the list provided) would have made the most positive impact on the team last season. Two thirds of voters chose Juan Mata which is pretty depressing given that he is a player who, by all accounts, we had in the bag two summers ago until a last minute change of heart by the manager allowed Chelsea to snatch him away. His performances since have been excellent and it’s easy to imagine how comfortably he would have fitted into our line-up and style of play.
Four of the five most popular choices are actually plying their trade at Stamford Bridge with Eden Hazard (14%), Demba Ba (11%) and Gary Cahill (4%) making up the quartet. Of the four, I think only Hazard was an unrealistic proposition given the transfer fee and wages he commanded, but the others would all have been well within our budget. There’s a suggestion that one or two of these players will be made available by Mourinho for transfer this summer and whilst I’d still be tempted to take a punt on Demba Ba, I think the fact we now have Cazorla will mean we will not renew our interest in Mata.
In last years survey, when we asked you to identify the one area of the team which you felt needed addressing the most urgently, over a third of you chose defence. One year later and having made just one defensive signing in January, it is now the area you feel is least urgent. How has that happened? Has it been the impact of Steve Bould as some have suggested? Has it been that the defence has just been more settled, particularly in the second half of the season? Whatever it was, it resulted in us having the second best defensive record in the Premier League.
Instead, the area which you overwhelmingly feel needs to be addresses most urgently is the attack with 63% of the vote and there are plenty of strikers who have been linked to us recently, so here’s hoping we can rediscover what it’s like to have a truly world class finisher leading the forward line.
Interestingly, the second most popular answer for this question was the manager and that’s a topic we’ll return to a little later in this write-up.
Wishful Thinking
The next question about who do you want us to sign is one that has become more difficult to collate the results to over the years. In the first survey in 1989 we received votes for 72 players, the vast majority of whom played for English or Scottish clubs or were high profile internationals. Nowadays, with the increased awareness of overseas players and the constant stream of transfer rumours in the media (most of which is utter bullsh*t), votes are cast for players from every corner of the globe and include plenty of names (frequently misspelt) which draw blank looks from the staff at Gooner Towers and require a hasty bit of googling!
In recent seasons we’ve found that the names which have topped the list have been those which we have been most closely linked with in the press, so last year it was Cazorla and the year before it was Gary Cahill. Therefore it was no great surprise that this years most popular choices were (in order) Higuain, Rooney, Jovetic, Fabregas and Fellaini, all of whom received over 200 votes each.
I admire the optimism of those of you who are looking for us to sign Messi and/or Ronaldo, whilst the solitary vote for “a fit Diaby” raised a laugh and we were pleased to note our composite player from the front cover of issue 232 also got a vote.
Incredibly, there were just short of 300 different players suggested and whilst I’m not sure how many voters have worked half a day in football, we’d be delighted to share the full list with Arsène should he be interested!
The top eleven players in the voting would result in a team which paid little regard to defending, so we’ve instead tried to look for the most popular players in a vaguely traditional 4-4-2 formation and come up with this alternative Arsenal XI – Begovic, Richards, Baines, Williams, Ogbonna, Capoue, Fellaini, Fabregas, Bale (!), Rooney and Higuain. I suspect if we start the season with two or three out of that eleven, most people will be pretty happy.
Want You Back
We’ve had thousands of words written on this website and in the fanzine bemoaning how we have allowed so many top players to leave in recent seasons, so we queried which of them you would like to see return to the club, whilst accepting that some are more realistic than others. Not surprisingly given the rumours which have surfaced since the end of the season, Cesc was a popular option with 91% hoping to see him return from his sabbatical in Barcelona and lead us to the glory which eluded him previously, even though he has publicly denied wanting to leave his boyhood team (well he would, wouldn’t he).
Another former player who many will never feel able to welcome back is Robin van Persie, but he would be the second most popular returnee having received support from 27% of the voters, followed by Mathieu Flamini (16%) and Alex Song (13%), with Nasri (5%) and Adebayor (less than one in a hundred, which is still too much) bringing up the rear.
Please Don’t Go
In previous surveys we have asked which of the current squad you’d most like to leave, but when we thought about it this year, we decided that a question about loanees (coming up shortly) would probably serve the same purpose, so we opted only to ask which player you’d least like to leave and this seemed to confuse some people. Either that or there are more fans of Gervinho, Chamakh, Bendtner and “all the deadwood” than I thought since they all received votes! Top of the pile though was Jack Wilshere with a landslide 77%. Van Persie and Fabregas have topped this particular category in recent years, so we can only hope that this doesn’t jinx Jack into departing. I don’t think it will. At least not this year.
Santi Cazorla was a distant second with 14%, whilst Koscielny just edged out the Ox in third spot. Maybe we’ll manage to keep all of them for a change!
All a Loan
In recent seasons, if you’ve needed a player on loan, then Arsenal are definitely the club to speak to because we seem to have more than enough to go round. However, few have caught the eye with their performances away from their parent club and this is reflected in the results when we asked which of the long term loanees you’d like to see back at the club. The “Denchman” (Frimpong if you prefer) was the only one who came anywhere close to getting a majority in his favour with 48% believing he still has something to offer at Arsenal. Time will tell, but I do not think he has yet developed into the player he promised to be a few years ago and whilst injuries have undoubtedly played their part, I think his persona has also held him back so my money is that another season on loan will precede his departure from the club.
