Arsene Wenger has realised that to make his team better he has to finally address the weaknesses that have plagued Arsenal for almost a decade, and the prospective signing of Sami Khedira would certainly do that.
For
10 years, you have needed convincing about Arsenal. When they are at
their best you know they can live with any team in the world. You don't
worry about them. But they are always capable of imploding, as they did
at Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City last season.Capturing Khedira from Real Madrid
would be a huge step in the right direction towards curing Arsenal of
their inherent weakness and it is good news that Wenger is keen to
address these shortcomings. If they can cut out the hidings to rival
clubs, perhaps they could be genuine title contenders.
That
is why Khedira would be a superb signing for Arsenal. I’ve always said
about Arsenal that they would be one of the easiest clubs in the world
to sign players for because what they are missing has always been so
glaring, and never gets addressed.At
least now they are addressing one of their big weaknesses: having that
formidable presence in midfield. Khedira is the type of player that
Arsenal need and who can help them when they are not playing well. He is
physically strong and, if he does indeed sign for the club, will give
them something extra.It does slightly surprise me that
with him being available at a good price, Chelsea and Jose Mourinho
haven’t pushed more to sign him. Khedira performed very well under
Mourinho at Real Madrid but perhaps they feel Nemanja Matic is a bit
ahead of him.enger, conversely, seems to have developed a strategy with Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez
and now possibly Khedira, where he picks up players from the two
Spanish giants as soon as they are deemed expendable, and it’s not a bad
strategy to go with. You know they have quality, suit a style that is
conducive to Arsenal and are used to playing with pressure. You are
already halfway there.If he does come to Arsenal then I
think it would have to be at the expense of Mikel Arteta. They have an
awful lot of midfield players at the moment and Arteta looks vulnerable
in the first XI. Wenger has realised that increasingly it’s a running
game in midfield and you have to be able to get around. You have to have
many qualities.I don’t think Arsene Wenger would ever go the whole way and get a full defensive midfielder – someone like Victor Wanyama or Javier Mascherano.
He wants someone who is multi-facted and can use the ball. But,
crucially, Khedira is still the kind of player you need when you are up
against it and that’s the kind of player Arsenal have been lacking.They
need someone who can help wrest control of a game, or shut it down when
things are getting out of control. They need someone who has played at
the highest level, both club and internationally, and Khedira fulfils
all of those requirements.
He
offers you a bit of everything. His defensive work is proactive. He
doesn’t stand and wait for things to happen. He gets involved and in
truth is more of a No. 8 or an all-action midfield player. He even
scores a few goals and has a knack of timing his runs well – and he will
link up well with Mesut Ozil given their history together with both Germany and Real Madrid.Spaniards
used to be in vogue but now it’s Germans, and you know exactly what you
are going to get from them: technical excellence and a fighting spirit.
It’s very rare they let you down. The only thing that slightly worries
me about Khedira is that he sometimes comes across as a better
international footballer than at club level.He suffered from a serious injury last season but there was never any question that they wouldn’t take him to Brazil,
not with his track record for Germany, and it was only a matter of time
before he found his form at the World Cup. In the semi-final against
Brazil, Khedira produced one of the outstanding performances of any
player.If Wenger can get him to reproduce his Germany form for Arsenal then he could be a big, big signing.
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