Cerebral Suker needs rejuvenating
by Myles Palmer
FEATURES
THE ARSENAL AGM - FULL WRITE UP
FIVE REASONS: ARSENAL COULD WIN IN BARCELONA
CARLTON AND ITV UPSET US AGAIN
JEKYLL AND HYDE PLAY THE NOU CAMP
Today's signing of Davor Suker buys some time for Wenger. Suker will be worth £3.5 million if he scores goals in the Champions League.
Basically, Suker is a left-footed poacher who has not done much in club football recently. But he has world class skill and Wenger might be able to rejuvenate and remotivate him.
Heynkes fell out with Suker, Capello kept pushing him to deliver
more, Hiddink didn't pick him much - and Tosh
ack sold him.
Suker is 31 and was born on 1-1-68.
His league record for Real Madrid in 1997-98 was 21-8-9. That is: 21 starts, 8 sub appearances and 9 goals.
He did not do much last season after France 98. Real mostly used Morientes, Mijatovic and Raul.
I remember talking to Slaven Bilic at Wembley the night before Croatia played England. Bilic said Suker is very patient, a player who can concentrate, seeming to do nothing for 89 minutes, and then score.
Suker played for Dynamo Zagreb, then joined Seville, where he scored 65 goals in 152 games. At Real Madrid he had scored 34 goals in 67 games before the start of last season. He only played two full games in the 1997-98 Champions League, but scored four goals.
Suker at his best is a superb volleyer, a clever passer and a decent header of the ball.
A change will do him good, and playing with a really athletic, dynamic, aggressive team like Arsenal should stimulate him.
He is too lazy to make a bad team good, but he is such a gifted goalscorer that he could make a good team great.
He is, or was, a player of immense finesse and sweet timing. He has a magical left foot and can hold the ball up, especially in wide areas, and give Arsenal's defenders a breather.
He has been brilliant for Croatia. But, on the advice of my old pal George Graham, I never judge players in international matches.
Suker continued to do the business for Croatia long after he stopped doing it for Real Madrid. He was, as commentators will not tire of telling us, the top scorer in France 98 with six goals
Since Wenger's low-profile assistant Bora Primorac is Croatian I have been waiting for him to sign a Croatian for two years.
Very unusual for Wenger to buy a 31-year old, but Arsenal need strikers immediately.
Stylewise, Suker will fit in well with Kanu, Overmars and Silvinho. He is a canny craftsman who likes to drift to the left flank. He is a cute, shrewd,k nowledgeable veteran centre forward.
It is important now that any new Arsenal forwards are perceptive enough to play with Kanu. Suker is accustomed to playing with fabulously skilful players like Asanovic and Seedorf, so he will love playing with Kanu and Bergkamp.
He is, of course, a complete wimp when it comes to physical contact, so don't expect him to tackle Matt Elliott of Leicester on August 7th.
Although he can be physical when he is psyched-up, as he was in Croatia v Germany.
Suker is a touch player, an anticipator, a volleyer, a chipper, a brainy, patient predator who drifts into invisibility and waits for that moment, as Ruud always says.
His game is technical/cerebral rather than athletic.
He works hard at being invisible. He is a matador, not a bull like Shearer or Sutton. He was, at his best, one of the most clinical finishers in world football. A better natural finisher than Anelka will ever be.
If Suker had been playing in Lens, Arsenal would probably have won 3-0.
The arrival of Suker confirms my view that Wenger was deeply, almost traumatically, disappointed by his results against PAOK, Lens and Kiev. He is the kind of guy who looks closely at his failures and privately vows: that must never be allowed to happen again.
Anelka stunk in the Champions League. He was far too young, far too raw.
PAOK was the mis-education of Nicolas Anelka. He was not experienced
enough or 
smart enough to learn the lessons, and of course Ian Wright is
a nightmare strike partner.
If Wenger could play that game in Salonica again he would pick David Platt in midfield in a 4-5-1.
As far as I can remember he never paired Wright and Anelka again after that catastrophic night. So I thought he would sign experienced players who had already played in the Champions League. Luzhny is one. Suker is another.
And this is the way world football is going: the clubs in the Champions League have been selling players to each other. This trend will increase every year until the elite are completely cut off.
It is a just a shame we did not sign Mijatovic, who is aggressive, fiery and passionate.
Mijatovic, who is a year younger than Suker, has been signed by Fiorentina. He is an Arsenal-type player if ever I saw one.
Having said that, maybe Arsenal have enough fiery players. Maybe they need a cool striker.
Maybe they need someone who just scores goals.
There is no striker in the Premiership who is remotely similar in style to Suker.
The only British player who was a bit like Suker was probably Allan Clarke who played for Leeds and England in the Seventies, and who was skinny, cool and skilful and deadly.
Monday August 2nd 1999