We’ve all heard those Remy to Arsenal rumours, they’ve been going on for about a year now and finally this week that all came to an end. When it was announced that Loic Remy will be completing a permanent move to Liverpool I was amongst those Gooners who were relieved he hadn’t joined Arsenal.
At this time Arsenal are full of fresh ambition and new hope after winning the FA Cup and anyone who is bought this summer will have to fit in with that premise and Remy just doesn’t show that ambition.
If we want to win the league then we need a world class striker or at least someone who is very near to that potential and at 27 years old you could argue that Remy should be a lot further ahead in his career in terms of how he is rated by certain people.
Potential isn’t word that can be used on a 27 year old striker, he should be at the peak of his career or nearing it at the least but he is still lacking in certain areas. This could be improved especially if he gets the chance to play for a bigger club but he hasn’t been a stand out at his previous clubs so I can’t see it changing much even at Liverpool.
Remy is a good striker, but that’s it, just good. Last season at Newcastle he actually had a better goal to game ratio than Giroud at Arsenal and in terms of pace there is no denying Remy is much faster but I don’t think he is good enough for Arsenal. We need a solid fast out and out striker, a fox-in-the-box player who is always there to receive crosses from Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla and Remy isn’t the first name that springs to mind when you think of those qualities.
I’ve always been critical of Giroud but it’s always because I think he can be better than he is and during the World Cup we saw that with France, he is much stronger there and more confident in his finish within that team. At Arsenal it is another story, he is slow and often fails to be in the box when balls are being crossed, he also needs to work on his finishing but his strong points such as aerial challenges and contribution to play are what makes him a better choice than Remy.
I couldn’t see Remy and Giroud providing a good strike partnership even though they are strong in opposite areas of their game. There are aspects they could learn off each other but that will take too long, we need goals and a striker now, we don’t want to have to wait a year or so for two dull strikers to spark each other off somehow.
Neither of them are strong enough to be the main men for their teams either. Giroud with another decent striker alongside him could improve no end, Sanchez could be that but with Wenger’s recent statement indicating that he might be played on the flanks it might still mean that Giroud will be our main striker this season.
Without improvement he will struggle but Loic Remy was never the solution to this problem.