(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 2)

BOOYAA

Yes it is ruthless isn't it AJC, good to see.

Ospina will be leaving for sure. Szczesny is the perfect back-up, 8 years younger, a natural successor once he learns from Cech what it is to be truly professional. 

Ospina's performances at the Copa America did us no harm either, rumours of a deal for Fenerbahce have now been joined by rumours that Marseille are interested. 

Think it would be a shame to lose Ospina. Comes across as a model professional and played well when he came in last season. Would have been happy enough going into the season with him as number 1 again if Cech hadn't been possible. Can certainly see it from his perspective though. He'll feel he'd done enough to earn the spot, only to lose it after 1 season.

Yes it is a bit sad, he did very well for us, he must be a bit gutted to be leaving now. 

One thing he can't improve, and perhaps the reason a lot of people don't see him as a no.1 at a big club, is his height unfortunately. Although there is the odd Casillas and Lloris out there, overall to be a top keeper these days you simply have to be tall. 

Cech's farewell letter to Chelsea is the best one I've read from a player. Very classy.

Yep, not one mention of mourinho either, so definitely classy ;)

Made it sound very clear that Abramovich has let him do this.

What a signing Cech is - you b@stards!

Still the best keeper in the league IMO. 

So that makes our spine now: Cech-Koscielny-Ramsey-Ozil-Sanchez

For the sake of comparison, the 07-08 side that people seem to love was: Almunia-Gallas-Fabregas-Hleb-Adebayor

I've held off thinking about this one until it was officially done as I've got used to us having deals fallen through but this is a massive signing - every top team needs a world class GK and a world class centre forward, and it will be a tough one for Chelsea to stomach.

Personally I would keep Ospina as he's a better GK than Scez, but he won't want to be number two and Scez loves the club so I'm not too bothered.

Now to sign a centre forward and DM. 

Cech > Almunia

Kos = Gallas

Ramsey < Fabregas

Ozil > Hleb

Sanchez < Adebayor

Probably get slated for that last comparison but people will probably choose to forget how good Adebayor was for us as a proper striker, before the bad blood with the fans and him turning into a knobhead.

Giroud-Adebayor was probably the better comparison given positions, but Sanchez would be part of the spine.

It's weird seeing him without the headgear. I'm disappointed he doesn't wear it socially too! The club should start selling them.

I think Gabriel is likely to take over from BFG as first choice by the end of the season. Kos and Gab played together a decent amount.

That spine stuff is a bit subjective. 

If you look at the traditional definition of the spine, it's really GK, CB, DM, AM, ST.

I much prefer a direct squad comparison... plus it takes longer and is geekier LOL

Cech - Lehmann

Szczesny - Almunia

Martinez - Fabianski

Debuchy - Sagna (experience)

Bellerin - Eboue 

Gibbs - Clichy (experience)

Monreal - Traore 

Mertesacker - Toure

Koscielny - Gallas

Gabriel - Senderos

Chambers - Djourou

Coquelin - Flamini

Arteta - Gilberto

Ramsey - Diaby

Wilshere - Denilson

Cazorla - Rosicky

Ox - Walcott (experience)

Rosicky - Hleb 

Ozil - Fabregas

Walcott - Bendtner

Sanchez - van Persie (experience)

Welbeck - Eduardo 

Giroud - Adebayor

So I count 14 - 3 in favour of our current squad, with 6 'draws'.

Where I have put '(experience)' means the age should be taken into account. E.g. Sagna was 25 in 2008, and in and out of the French side, whereas Debuchy is 29 now and first choice for France. van Persie was injury-prone and not yet the world class force we saw from 2010 onwards. 

I left Giroud/Adebayor as a draw but I guess most would pick Adebayor. He did score 30 goals in 07/08, but all his other arsenal seasons were bettered easily by Giroud. We have more goals coming from elsewhere now, so we don't need a 30 goal forward, and Giroud provides a lot more assists than Adebayor did. Still, if you award that to Adebayor, then the score is still 14-4. 

No doubting our squad is pretty awesome now.

Yep, ruthless.  And I think Arsene could do it again with either DM or striker.  Walcott and Giroud are not in the top 20 (or even 30) strikers in the world so why not challenge this?  Same with our lovely Coq.  Ambition folks...

I'd be interested to know which 30 you count ahead of them if you have the time.

Guess it comes down to who you define as a striker. Isn't Walcott a winger who likes to be a striker now and again? If you define a striker as an attacking player, there are easily 30 better. If you specifically mean someone named as a striker, then maybe they're ok.

i think Kons being injured early in the season had a lot to do without, will a good offseason without football he will be good. Having Gabrel there now to give him a break is excellent

Big call i reckon, personally i need to see more of gabby to really know how good he is

Still can't believe the Cech rumours turned into reality, was a real pinch myself moment reading that on the way work this morning.

Our defence will have some real credibility!!

Yeah Gabriel looks the real deal, he was calm composed and very quick, he'll develop into a top defender

in random order :) just some other strikers i think are good but not all are better the Giroud. Wally still has a lot to prove as a stiker. I was very bored

Kun, Benzema, Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar,Suraz, Bob Lewandowski, higuian, tevez, costa, Rooney, manduckiz, kiessling, Zlatan, Cavani, morata

Take some time to watch this. Such a shame the way his career panned out. He could have been immense for us

Depends what you would call a striker. Although based on that list i would add J.Martinez, Bacca and Griezmann. Beyond that i don't think there's anyone better than Giroud right now.

He would love to come back.

And no one would want him.

Arshavin article on F365. 

Yes Diaby, it's a great pity. I do hope he gets to play a bit.

Lacazette, Das Bost.  Just going off of last seasons stats.

Reus, Aubameyang.  Muller (not quite a striker).  These guys weigh in with similar numbers to Geeroo but his assists put him closer to Muller?

Giroud's assists are a great part of his game. He's delivered some big ones too i.e. FA Cup Final winner 2014, a backheel no less.

He scores some absolute belters too, nothing scrappy in here;

I feel like people keep wanting a striker without realising that there are very few out there that we could realistically get that are better than Giroud.

Absolutely. It would have to be a clear upgrade, and I'm not sure who we could buy who would be. There's no point spending 30m on a Benteke or someone like that.

Yea if you look at the list of names earlier on the page, how many are actually feasibly available for purchase?

Maybe 5 at best? And of those, some will be priced out of reach. 

There just aren't many options if we're wanting an improvement on what we have. 

Some rumours about that walcott has agreed to a new four year deal

He might tell me off but a MASSIVE congrats to SurgeQLD on his engagement!

Well done Surge, what took you so long?

Congrats Surge!