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Why Wenger Has Made A HUGE Mistake Giving Up On £42m Duo

By on July 24, 2014

Widespread reports today claim that Arsene Wenger has ditched plans to try and sign either Sami Khedira or Lars Bender and is set to give Jack Wilshere the chance to be our holding midfielder this season.

The boss was fully expected to bring in a proper defensive midfielder this summer to replace the ageing Mikel Arteta, with Khedira and Bender among the chief targets we were being strongly linked with.

At one point two weeks ago the Khedira deal looked close, with reports in Spain stating that we had agreed a £24m deal with Real Madrid and the German was keen on making the move to the Emirates, but the move broke down after the 27-year-old supposedly demanded in excess of £150,000-a-week and we were soon being linked with his compatriot, Lars Bender.

The Bayer Leverkusen ace is valued at around £18m and Wenger is a long-term admirer of the players having tried to land him last summer, and we were ready to renew our interest after failing to agree terms with Khedira.

However, reports today suggest that the boss has now decided to call-off his interest in Khedira and Bender and plans to move Wilshere in to a deep-lying role in front of the back-four next season.

If true, it will be a huge mistake from Arsene in my opinion as Jack is simply not cut out to be a defensive midfielder. His instincts are always to get forward and right now, he lacks the discipline to sit back and protect the defence.

We need a fast, athletic, ball-winner who knows his job is to sniff out danger, make tackles, interceptions, break up play and get the ball moving to our playmakers. Wilshere is simply not the answer and we would be foolish to rely on him as our main holding player, particularly given his recent injury worries.

Sure, we could try and teach him the role, but why take such a risk when we have ample funds available to bring in an established holding player? This season isn’t the year to be experimenting or putting square pegs in round holes. We should be signing the players we need to build a complete and competition squad that’s capable of challenging for the Premier League.

Right now, the bookmakers are offering Arsenal at a good price for the 2014/15 league title with odds of around 7/1 [favourites Chelsea and Man City are at 2/1] and with good reason. They know we don’t have the squad to sustain a challenge right now. If we were to bring in someone like Khedira or Bender, I bet you’d see those odds shorten considerably.

With Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy in the bag, the only position in the starting eleven we now need to strengthen in the defensive midfield department. After that, it’s squad players like a back-up keeper, centre-back and hopefully another forward, but the main priority now should be an anchorman.

If we fail to fix this problem area, we will continue to be hit on the counter-attack this season and pace on the break is going to be our Achilles heel once again. But bring in the likes of Bender, Khedira or even Morgan Schneiderlin, and we’ll have a team capable of beating the best and lifting major honours. Over to you Arsene….