Does Arsenal Really Need to Sign Star Players?

Arsenal’s Russian international Andrei Arshavin has said that the Gunners need to land more star players at the Emirates Stadium in order to make a stronghold in the Europe. He also thinks that Arsenal should sign players considering their ability to improve the game at Arsenal, regardless of their age. He also urges the club to increase its squad, indicating that other big clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona have bigger squads than Arsenal. Andrei Arshavin who joined the North London club last winter and since then has been a key part of the club.

What Arshavin has suggested would not definitely go with manager Arsene Wenger’s way. Wenger is always interested to pick up young talented player and nourish their talent to make them real asset at the club. This has been his strategy since his move to Arsenal. Because of club’s huge debt in order to bankroll huge expense of the new stadium, Arsenal could not go for big name players over the last several seasons. However, still, they remained a striking force in English premier league and they made considerable amount of profit over the last few seasons.

To be honest, I partially agree with Arshavin. I do not agree with him on the fact that Arsenal really needs star players, but I agree with him on the fact that the club needs to increase its squad to some extent. I do not think that many star players can bring you success. If you look at the performance of Real Madrid’s Galacticos era, you can see that they were not impressive at all towards the end of Galacticos era.

Moreover, I do not think that Arsenal really needs to sign big players of Cristiano Ronaldo’s stature. For success, you need a balanced side where you will have all kinds of players. Some would be very strong in the air, some would be good in tackling, some in speed, while some would be good at passing. I think, Arsenal has all those elements to bring out success. Do you really think that Arsenal needs something more in their midfield than what Cesc Fabregas and Andrei Arshavin can produce at their best? I do not think so.

Moreover, there is an excellent combination in the centre of defense in the presence of veteran William Gallas and young talented Thomas Vermaelen. Both of them know how to win the ball and give lethal passes and most importantly they can play all across the field and set up and score goals.

Adebayor may have gone, but still Arsenal has skilled strikers like Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, who showed a clear indication of improvement on his game over the last season during Arsenal’s 6-1 win in the season opener, Theo Walcott, who is coming back from injury, and Eduardo is also on the verge of making strong claim for a regular place in the first team. All these strikers are very much talented and there is no doubt about it.

Furthermore, there are players like Tomáš Rosický, Samir Nasri, Carlos Vela, and Kieran Gibbs who are about to make a stronghold in the squad. Still, I think, Wenger should increase the squad to some extent- be it by signing some young but talented player or by bringing some more players from the reserve side. Talents like Jack Wilshere and Ramsey should be given more exposure at the top level.

It is not that Arsenal was not impressive over the last few seasons, but the problem is that Arsenal got out of track during the critical period of the season. They suffered a lot due to many injury problems. Rosický was out for a long time, while Eduardo was out of action almost throughout the last season. So, I think, there should have some young players who would be able to deliver instantly, and thus, giving some more options to Wenger who would then be able to replace the injured players and give enough rests to his top players during the busy phase of the season.