Tuesday Cannon Fodder: needs

Imagine you run Arsenal Football Club. You have the money to buy one, and just one player in the January window (reasonable money, not Erling Haaland money). Who are you buying?

A lot of your answer probably boils down to what you think the biggest need at the club is right now. And that’s likely one of two things: a striker or a central midfielder. There is probably a bit more room for debate about what type of striker - hold up or more direct - and what type of central midfielder - CDM, box-to-box, or creative attacking - but I’d wager most of you are buying at one of those two positions.

A central midfielder is probably more of an immediate need, at least in the shortest of short terms (but Ghana could alleviate that significantly today if they don’t win by at least 2-0). And even with Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny back from AFCON, CM is a more vulnerable position. What I mean by that is an injury to Thomas Partey hurts the club a lot more than an injury to Alexandre Lacazette or even one of the young wide / behind-the-striker attackers (Saka, Ødegaard, ESR, Martinelli).

Arsenal can probably get by with the attacking options they have right now, but I think they probably win more games over the course of the rest of the season with a top-shelf striker, if that makes any sense.

So yeah, who are you buying? And so that we have more to talk about below, what moves are you looking to make in the summer?