Thursday 30 January 2014

What to do About Right-Back

As most Arsenal fans know: Bac is out of contract at the end of the season. There are reports that we are trying to tie him down with a new contract; but we all know how Wenger feels about players over 30, and how all players over 30 feel about 1 year contracts. He has recently had some injury problems and in an ideal world I would like Sagna to accept an extra year on his contract. Jenkinson can be brought in more and more and I would like to see him starting league matches by the end of next season. The exciting Hector Bellerin should be experienced enough to provide cover for Jenkinson by then and eventually compete for a starting position.
Sagna helping the youngsters


The problem is if the French fullback does not sign a new contract and Wenger has to start Jenkinson or buy somebody new. I don't believe that Jenkinson is good enough just yet, so who could Arsenal realistically buy?


I believe that there are only a handful of players that are about as good as Sagna. Lahm and Ramos (when he plays there) are the best right-backs in the world and impossible to buy at the moment. Lukasz Piszczek, Pablo Zabaleta, Dani Alves and Branislav Ivanovic are the only players, I believe, that are as good as Sagna and all of the names mentioned would be highly unlikely to move. The most realistic option  is probably Lukasz Piszczek, but if he did move it would probably be to the Dortmund A-team: Bayern Munich.

If Wenger does buy a right-back in the off-season will he go for a temporary option while Jenkinson and Bellerin get better or will he buy an up-and-coming player to be at the club for years to come?

There are dozens of articles on great young right-backs to buy: Astuto Uchida, Sebastien Jung, Sebastien Corchia, Ricardo van Rijn, Marcos Rocha, Nathaniel Clyne, Roberto Rosales and Sam Byram to name a few. Maybe Arsenal are going to buy one of these players, but Wenger normally trusts in youth.

I think it's vitally important that Wenger convinces Sagna to sign a new deal and slowly bring through the youngsters as he is famous for.

What do you think?

Regards

1 comment:

  1. I think we do need some cover for right-back. Jenkinson is way too one-footed, to the point that he'll take three right turns to keep the ball of his left. He's shown that he can hang in there, but he doesn't inspire much confidence. We have a bit of a gap then, with Sagna on the other side of 30 and Jenkinson at 21. Bellerin's what, 18? We need someone in more experience than Jenkinson has. I'd like Uchida but feel pangs of guilt were we to sign him after signing Draxler (fingers crossed).

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