Shay Given - the only answer for Arsenal
It’s given that Arsenal needs a world-class goal keeper. A world-class goal keeper is available and his name is Given.
What sublime synchronicity – or maybe not.
For a team like Arsenal, goalkeepers such as Almunia and Fabianski are a disgrace. No wonder they have not won anything in more than five years now, and as long as one of these two is their first choice goalie, they never will.
Before Manchester United made the English Premier League their own by winning it a staggering 8 times in 10 years during the 1990s, Arsenal were only second to Liverpool in terms of league titles. It’s only a pity that in these times and with such football ethos, they struggle to challenge for the title, let alone win it.
Last season with only 8 games left to go in the season, Arsenal was in pole position to win the League but the horror show against Blackburn and two other outings against teams in the bottom half of the table sealed the teams fate, with the players encountering a third place finish for another year.
Arsenal plays with the same footballing ethos as Barcelona does, and where Barca won 6 trophies last year, Arsenal will make it 6 years without silverware this year. And all this is because they don’t have a goalkeeper who can pull his weight between the sticks for the Gunners.
For now they have the best chance to secure one of the best-shot stoppers in the Premier League. Shay Given has time and again said that he wants to win trophies at City but he will have a much better chance of doing so at the Emirates, and he will surely jump at faintest of opportunities to move to Arsenal. Given is 34 years old and although in goalkeeping terms its only adolescence but his price will not be sky-high. However, he is much better than Arsenal’s rumoured favourite Mark Schwarzer.
Despite all the positives, Wenger still has not bought Given. Why?
Only Wenger knows the answer to this why but apparently it seems a no-brainer. People in some circles say that it is a prime example of the Frenchman’s intransigence and even stubbornness perhaps; he is h**l bent upon proving that his goalkeeping crisis is no crisis and the critics are wrong.
It is quite daft on Wenger’s part that he is choosing to ignore such an obvious flaw in an otherwise very impressive system, and is willing to go his own way and doing so quite wilfully, but this time it’s costing the club. It’s a principle that only Wenger believes in and is a basic mistrust of anyone else’s opinion.
Wenger may be trying to drive the fans to a point of distraction but a club of Arsenal’s pedigree cannot be run like a democracy. It never works especially for a club with such history and presence.
All this Given business is mind-boggling because it is not even vaguely arguable that Given would immensely improve the Gunners. Off course a deal can still be signed and there are already talks in the market of the Irishman going on loan to Fulham. It seems like Wenger is once again set to miss out on Given, just like he did when the man left the Geordies for mere peanuts.
Wenger can just turn a blind eye to the world and think or believe that keepers in his squad are up to the mark, he is not stupid as the evidence on the contrary is over-whelming. Buying Given might be the answer to all his problems but he just doesn’t seem to know it as yet.
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