Thursday 5 April 2012

Ex Arsenal Players in EPL… Can definitely fight for Europe!!!


I wanted to write this article a long time back. But it got delayed, as I couldn’t do much research. Here I would list all ex-Arsenal players currently playing in EPL. 

Right, so we start off with the list:

  • Fabrice Muamba - DM (Bolton Wanderers)
  • Ashley Cole - LB (Chelsea)
  • Steve Sidwell - CM (Fulham)
  • Philippe Senderos - CB (Fulham)
  • Stuart Taylor - GK (Manchester City)
  • Samir Nasri - AM/RW/LW (Manchester City)
  • Gaël Clichy - LB (Manchester City)
  • Kolo Touré - CB/RB (Manchester City)
  • Emmanuel Adebayor - ST (Manchester City)
  • Bradley Johnson - CM/LB/LW (Norwich City)
  • Jay Bothroyd - ST (Queens Park Rangers)
  • Armand Traoré - LB (Queens Park Rangers)
  • Matthew Connolly - CB (Queens Park Rangers)
  • Jermaine Pennant - RW (Stoke City)
  • Matthew Upson - CB (Stoke City)
  • Sebastian Larsson - RW (Sunderland )
  • Leon Britton - CM (Swansea City)
  • William Gallas - CB (Tottenham Hotspurs)
  • David Bentley - RW/AM (Tottenham Hotspurs)
  • Jerome Thomas - LW (West Bromwich Albion)
  • Jamie O'Hara - CM (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

If you look at the team you’ll find the demographics of the team area are:

  • Goal Keeper - 1
  • Centre Back - 5
  • Left Back - 4
  • Right Back - 1
  • Defensive Midfielder -1
  • Centre Midfielder -4
  • Attacking Midfielder - 2
  • Left Winger - 3
  • Right Winger - 4
  • Striker - 2

In total there are 21 players who were associated with either Arsenal Academy or Arsenal’s first team. The count here shows 27, as I took a leaf out of Boss and added utility position in my count above.

Now we can add players like Yossi Benayoun and Nicklas Bendtner in this list and you might have a good enough team to play in EPL. Only drawback for me is that there is no reserve goal keeper here. Also reserve Defensive midfielders are a miss and there is only one Right Back. Well we can always loan Almunia or Fabianski for courtesy and give first team experience to Frimpong. As far as Right Back discussion goes, well I’ll make a Centre Back as Right Back ala Boss.

So my playing XI from above 21 players would be:

First Team: Stuart Taylor (GK), Toure (RB), Gallas (CB), Senderos (CB), Cole (LB), Britton (DM), O’Hara (CM), Nasri (AM), Larsson (RW), Thomas (LW), Adebayor (ST)

Substitute: Clichy (LB), Upson (CB), Connolly (CB/RB), Muamba (CM), Bentley (AM), Pennant (RW), Bothroyd (ST)
 
In my opinion, this team has the capabilities to reach Europa league. If I was there manager, then I would add 2 to 3 more signings and I would be up and roaring to go. The main point here most of these players are home grown and hence team fall under FA rules. Also the team size is less than 25!!!

Now I would like to highlight one and only one point. How many players do we really miss? I think none. We already have enough talent in our ranks and if I ever thought of having some players from the above list, then I would have (not based upon our relation with them, just sheer talent) Adebayor, Toure, Cole and maybe I could have taken my chance with Larsson too. All the other players are good, but not Arsenal good!!!

If you like my article, then please follow me on Twitter @OnTheGunPoint. Until next time, lets UTA!!!

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
;