Christopher Samba

Since our defensive nightmare at The Brittania on Sunday, one man has been earmarked as the saviour to our defensive frailties. That man is Blackburn Rovers stand in captain Christopher Samba. Now I can appreciate knee-jerk reactions but it appears many fans think we must sign this man. My opinion of Samba is simple, he's average at best. So to back my opinion up I trawled through countless footage of Samba. Well actually there's virtually no footage of him apart from a free kick he shanks 30 yards wide and a goal scored against us last season. There is however highlights of Blackburn's 7-1 rinsing at the hands of Manchester United. So in true George Graham style I'm going to do a report of him as he's playing against a big team away from home. Before I do though, why not take a look for yourself first and the click the link here

Now, if you chose to watch the highlights you'll see Samba had an absolute mare.

1-0. Samba appears rooted to the spot as a united player goes on to challenge Robinson. The ball richocets out wide and a cross is swung in and Berbatov scores. Samba had no idea where he was, who he was making or where any of the danger actually was. He was focused purely on the ball throughout the move.

2-0. Samba again with eyes only for the ball, which results in him getting far too square , Ronney plays in Park who strolls through to score.

3-0. A very poor pass back allows Berbatov in to score. Samba faultless but his reaction to the mistake wasn't the best. It barely raised a reaction, what would have happened if Robinson saved the shot? Could have been better.

Free Kick. Nani whips in a ball and Vidic completely loses Samba but he heads wide. A let off or the law of averages kicking in.

4-0. Samba ball watching again, he has no idea where Berbatov is. He gets attracted to the ball and the Bulgarian gets his hat trick.

5-0. Nani gets in behind the full back and scores. When the ball is played through to Nani the gap between full back and centre half is unbelievable. This allows Nani to come inside and smash home. That centre half by the way was Samba.

6-0. Samba blocks a Park shot after a pull back and whilst on the deck he swings a leg at the ball and directs it straight to Berbatov who is approximately 1 yard away. Goal.

7-0. Berbatov scores again, this time playing on Nelson. He gets a lucky rebound of the Blackburn defender to get his 5th goal of the game.

7-1. Samba scores. Sign him.

Now some of you may think highlighting one performance may be a little harsh but this highlights a lot of weaknesses that the Congolese defender has. He's immobile, he ball watches (a lot), gets caught out position, struggles against pace and he makes poor decisions (like Djourou did yesterday). Whilst I know some folk saw his block against West Ham as him being the answer to our problems because he's what we are missing, he isn't. I've also heard that his Premier League experience is an advantage too. What differnce does that make? We compete in 4 competitions and all be it we have come up short for too long, he's a player that has not played over 40 games in a season in his career (Koscielny is currently on 43) and given his 14 1/2 stone (according to rovers.co.uk) that he weighs, I'm going to say he's not in any sort of condition to be playing week in and week out for us. There's also the issue of price, well if we do sign him maybe BlackScarfMovement can walk against the wasting of money on useless players? Seriously, I'd be disappointed if we signed him on a free. He's a player who would do well to attract interest off Villa or Everton. We are Arsenal, one of the top sides in europe and we think a centre half from a side 15th in the table is the answer? We may not have world class central defenders but we certainly don't need one that is worse than we already have (squillaci included).

Anyway I see news is doing the rounds about Karim Benzema...now there's a signing I'd love to have. Oh wait, I think he's over rated. That's for another day though.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a comment.

VTH.