Another striker out for the season but “We don’t need to buy any more” 20 March, 2007

Theo Walcott becomes the third top striker out for the season with a shoulder injury that needs surgery. He had this problem a while ago and Wenger thought about having it sorted out but with Van Persie injured and (at the time) Henry struggling he thought it would be best to keep as many strikers available as possible. The 19 year old fell badly on his shoulder in Sunday’s game against Everton and now it’s been confirmed that he’ll be out until August.

Not only is it a shame but it’s also stuck us in a bit of unavailability for attacking options. Hopefully Van Persie will be back before the end of the season but I’m not expecting to see him play a lot more football this season. We’ve got Adebayor, Baptista and Aliadiere but if anything happens to one of them we’re right in trouble. Ljungberg’s played there before, Rosicky might be able to do a job as a deep forward and then we’re into the reserves. However you stick Toure anywhere on the pitch he will play his heart out and do a decent job; Lehmann’s replacement? Could well be.

So now we’re right down to the bare bones as far as strikers go but Wenger has said we don’t need to buy any more. It’s pretty bad times when you think about it but by the End of the transfer window we’ll have Henry, Van Persie, Adebayor, Bendtner, maybe Baptista, Aliadiere and Walcott so if someone was brought in there’d be a lot of competition for places.

Wenger has also been talking about our tropheyless season saying he’s building a young squad so we’re going to have to accept a little less silverware at the present. I completely understand Arsene and have total faith in what he’s doing. He said he’s as frustrated as the fans not winning stuff but he’s completely right saying we went 25 years without a trophy so why are we complaining about just two years. That’s all for today on an unusually busy international weekday. Thanks for reading.