Wilfried Bony will not be available to Manchester City when they face Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, but his presence will loom large over the contest.
It is a mark of Manchester City's continued ambition, not to mention their renowned financial muscle, that they can suffer financial fair play sanctions at the start of the season and then, barely six months later, find both the justification and the ability to spend nearly £30 million on a new striker, in a bid to plug one of the few obvious weaknesses in their current squad.
It is that economic muscle that has been so significant—vital, even—in City's recent successes and perhaps underlines once again the differences between themselves and Arsenal.
Arsenal have also made moves in the transfer window this month, with the club on the verge of a £2.4 million deal for Legia Warsaw's Krystian Bielik, per the BBC. Bielik is a defensive midfielder, and Arsenal need a defensive midfielder.
But he is also 17 and will do nothing to strengthen the first team in the short term. It is a deal the exact opposite of Bony, who has been bought for the here and now, regardless of the cost.
Arsenal have not been afraid to splash the cash in recent times, spending huge sums on Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez over the last 18 months. Now they arguably need at least one new defender, after another long-term injury suffered by Mathieu Debuchy depleted an already thin back line.Arsenal's need for a defender is not a new one, however, even if Debuchy's injury perhaps hastened the demand. City long knew they needed a striker, identified one and signed him all in the opening few days of the transfer window—why are Arsenal seemingly so incapable of doing the same?
It is a familiar complaint with Arsenal. If Wenger's scouts really are out there every day, then perhaps it is a problem of execution. Wenger seems willing to sanction spending £2.4 million on potential—a projection of what Bielik could become—yet more reluctant to spend a fee five or 10 times bigger on a player who would immediately go into first-team consideration.
Yes, there will always be risk attached to such moves. Is Winston Reid really good enough to improve the team? Is Celtic's Virgil van Dijk? These are questions that can only really be answered after they sign, but if scouts are monitoring those players for weeks or months before the window opens, the gamble becomes a more educated one.
Even so, they cannot give an unequivocal assessment, and perhaps that is why Wenger—whose eye for talent has become far less sure in recent years—is reluctant to pull the trigger.
In the current climate, that reticence is akin to taking a step back. Manchester City remind teams at the top that they always need to be adding talent in order to remain competitive, but it seems to be yet another area where Arsenal are lagging behind.
Now Bony is at the Etihad Stadium, City will soon have an attack that is more physical and more clinical. They will be able to physically bully teams. It makes them better, more flexible and more dangerous.
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2332014-premier-league-notebook-heading-into-week-22
No comments:
Post a Comment