Buzzin Football Blog

Arsenal are currently in the hunt for a new striker with Emmanuel Adebayor set to leave the club and today a new name was included in the ever growing list of potential replacements. The Daily Mirror are now reporting that Arsenal are interested in Peter Crouch to replace Adebayor. If this is to be believed then Arsene Wenger’s supposed list of strikers will probably out number his current squad.

It will be the same for most clubs set to lose a big name player, the best example of that will be if or when Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Manchester United when we can expect the transfer rumour mill to go into overdrive at that point with the number of possible replacements for Ronaldo. At the moment the press seem to be focusing mainly on Arsenal’s continuing search for a forward. What I would like to know is how much of the speculation is based on fact rather than just hear say. Cast your eye over the Ronaldo situation and who Manchester United could sign.

Today’s rumour takes the biscuit though. While Peter Crouch is a decent player I don’t believe he has the quality to fit in at Arsenal. Crouch has proved the critics wrong in his time at Liverpool showing some lovely touches and skill to defy his big man status. However the supposed interest from Arsenal seems to be nothing more than an exercise to push Crouch’s value even further so the likes of Portsmouth and Aston Villa have to spend that little bit extra to gain his services.

I would predict that Arsenal are unlikely to sign Crouch as a replacement for Adebayor and would suggest that the England striker will not be joining the Gunners this summer. Instead I predict Arsenal are likely to sign one of the other forwards they have in their sights.

Roque Santa Cruz has been linked with a move to Arsenal, the big Paraguayan striker was in superb form for Blackburn last season and a number of clubs are now believed to be interested in Santa Cruz. If I was Arsene Wenger he would be my choice to replace Adebayor should he leave. Santa Cruz has proven he is capable of playing in the Premier League, his height and strength match Adebayor’s and he could do a similar job to the one the former Monaco striker has done for Arsenal this season.

Adebayor has given the Gunners an added edge to their attack as they now possess an aerial threat when going forward and it doesn’t surprise me that Wenger wants to keep the aerial weapon in his arsenal so to speak. That’s why I believe you can rule out Wenger signing someone similar to the likes of Eduardo or Robin van Persie because that’s not what Arsenal will need if Adebayor were to leave.

That means that you can rule out Arsenal signing someone like Obafemi Martins because he doesn’t fit the requirements needed, plus Newcastle want £15m for the Nigerian forward which seems a bit too much.

The only way you would see Arsenal buy a player that didn’t match Adebayor’s height and strength would be if someone like David Villa or Andrei Arshavin where to express their interest in joining the Gunners. The two Euro 2008 stars have also been linked with a move to Arsenal but it seems likely that they will miss out on the pair with both players set to continue their careers in Spain.

So it seems to be that whilst the link between Crouch and Arsenal is unlikely to go any further than the rumour column on the back pages the Gunners are certainly in the hunt for a replacement to fill the Adebayor shaped hole the Togolese striker will leave in the Gunners forward line.