Like most Arsenal fans, I've thought many times about this as the season has gone along. If you look at who might realistically be available out there, I would love to see us target the following 3 players immediately after the season is over.

1. To address the striker position, I would love for us to go after Mario Mandzukic from Bayern Munich. I think it's pretty common knowledge that he will be on the market in the summer since Robert Lewendoski has already signed a pre-contract with Bayern and will be their first choice. Mandzukic is the top goal scorer in the Bundesliga this year, so how would that not be an upgrade to what we currently have with Giroud's form seemingly hitting its lowest point of the season when we need him to play at his best the most?

Other realistic striker targets I wouldn't mind seeing us go after would be Mario Balotelli and Christian Benteke. With Balotelli, it's all a matter of his attitude. His talent cannot be questioned as he is the type of striker that can score any kind of goal you can think of and do it anywhere inside of 30 yards. Thierry Henry was the last striker we had that could literally create a goal out of nothing from anywhere on the pitch. I also like the way Benteke plays and think he could fit in with what we try to do. He provides a very physical presence up top, but also has pace and is able to score some great goals that we don't have in our team at the moment. Plus, he's now been 2 seasons in the Premier League, and is really starting to play well again in the second half of the season for Aston Villa. He will never progress anywhere beyond a mid-table team while there, so could this be the summer he might make a move?

2. If all the talk is true about Podolski being on his way out in the summer, I would love nothing more than for us to go out and get Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad to fill that void on the left wing. There are some great goal scorers in La Liga, and it would be a massive add to get Griezmann who is currently the 3rd leading scorer in La Liga, at least coming into this weekend. He is young and will most certainly move on to a bigger club this summer, so why not Arsenal? After all, we were linked to him in the January window I believe.

3. Finding a realistic target to fill that holding midfield role is a bit more difficult in my opinion. I would love to have someone of the caliber of Matic who was signed by Chelsea in the January window. I think he's had a big impact on their title chances since coming back to the Premier League. Perhaps making another run at Lars Bender will be in the cards this summer, and I think that would be a great addition as well. We made a concrete bid to Bayern Leverkusen of 19 million pounds last summer that was turned down. He's a player who is really starting to show his potential in the Bundesliga and with the German national team, and will undoubtedly be on Germany's World Cup squad this summer.

Of course other positions will need to be addressed with Sagna likely to leave, and finding other defensive cover if Vermaelen moves on, etc.

But you can't tell me we wouldn't have the squad necessary to challenge for any and all trophies starting next year with a first-choice starting 11 that looks like this below. We would continue to improve defensively, and then have natural pace on the wings that Ozil needs to run the show.

Szczesny
New RB, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs
Bender, Ramsey
Walcott, Ozil, Griezmann
Mandzukic

Bench options: Giroud, Sanogo, Cazorla, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere, Arteta, Flamini, Gnabry, Monreal.

This is the quality and depth of a team we need to be able to contend for everything!

This post was edited on 3/23/14 at 9:14 pm