Former Arsenal forward Niall Quinn says that he sees Nemanja Matic as the perfect player for Arsenal, but he does not understand the reasons for the North London club no longer signing the perfect players.
Former Arsenal forward Niall Quinn says that he sees Nemanja Matic as the perfect player for Arsenal, but he does not understand the reasons for the North London club no longer signing the perfect players.
After several seasons of going young in the transfer window, Arsenal are once again back in the market for experienced internationals. They have brought in the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck in the summer, but the form this season has once again shown that Arsenal still are several top players away from challenging for the title. Quinn says that Matic should have been one of the players signed by Arsenal.
The 26-year-old Serbian international was brought back to Stamford Bridge for £ 21 million after Chelsea deemed him to be surplus only a few years ago. In the last three years, Matic has improved tremendously and he is now one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe. The tall, quick midfielder has reminded many of Patrick Vieira, who used to dominate Arsenal’s midfield for several years. This was a major factor behind the club dominating in the early part of the century. Quinn says that Arsenal need to rediscover such a player if they are to start challenging for titles.
“They always seemed to sign the right player when [former vice-chairman] David Dein was working with Wenger. I look at Nemanja Matic at Chelsea and think, “Wow, he’d have been great in this Arsenal team”,” said Quinn. The former Arsenal forward was speaking before the gunners were to play in a league match against Manchester City at Etihad stadium. After years of losing against the top teams, Arsene Wenger finally showed signs of adapting his tactics to play the big teams. Arsenal managed to get an impressive 2-0 victory despite playing very defensively throughout the 90 minutes.