Are Arsenal checking all these midfielders to replace Ramsey and Wilshere?

Could key midfield players be on their way out? by Konstantin Mitov

Well, it’s transfer window time! Being an Arsenal fan, that’s not the most exciting time of the year as usually transfers to Arsenal are slow and everything is always so secret about our business, but this time the window is short. We all know that figure of 50 million, which is hardly enough to fix a third of our problems, and although reports suggest it has grown to 70, that’s still at least 70m more away from the amount needed to repair our squad in today’s prices.

So obviously, we’ll need to sell to get some more money. But reports are linking us to some attacking midfield players which is one of the positions requiring least work right now. Dennis Praet and Lorenzo Pellegrini are a few names mentioned, but does that mean a key midfield player is leaving? If so than all fingers point at Wilshere and Ramsey.

The first one is out of contract and posts tweets about ‘new chapters’ and the other has a year left and was left out of the kit promotion launch. I feel like we might sell Ramsey. Unless a new contract is agreed upon it’d be incredible if the club allow a repeat of the Sanchez and Ozil situation. I hope we keep the Welshman and if Emery does intent to build the squad around him I’d be more than happy.

The problem is Ramsey has been here for a while and he was one of the few people who stood by Wenger till his very end and he might demand a huge payrise. Luckily we have Wilshere’s contract running out and if we free his wages we can hopefully get Rambo tied to a new deal.

I think Jack failed his Arsenal career. I also believe it was the right choice to drop him out of the World cup squad. If we keep him and he fluffs it under a coach like Emery, then we’ll find a hard to ship out player and a lot of dead wages. I’d invest into new people, but with a tight budget it’s unclear if we’ll be able to just let Wilshere swim in the river.

And speaking of free agents, Stephan Lichtsteiner reportedly visited London Colney and he might join us which would be a smart move in my opinion. We’re likely to keep Bellerin and adding an experienced right back that could help his development and also be a decent back up will certainly help fix part of the defense.

We’re still linked with Sokratis and that Turkish guy from the Bundesliga in the CB position and when you think about it we only have Mustafi as an experienced CB which is not really something to be proud of. Per retired and with Koscielny’s injury we might move for two CB, although our budget is tight, I firmly expect at least one to join us.

The other two obvious holes are the CDM and the goalkeeper role which as Karius showed in a prime example can cost you dearly. Even though Cech was given the number One shirt, he made an awful lot of mistakes and we might move in for Bernd Leno, which means we’ll have to ship out Ospina.

Lastly Jean Michelle Seri is linked to us and we’ve shown interest in him before. I’d welcome a player like him, but his price tag might be a problem. I’m also worried as to why we gave Elneny the number 4 shirt? I mean, I like him and his energy, but he’s mostly a squad player and he just got the number Paddy and Fabregas used to wear. We also have AMN who looks like a really good player in the making so I’m not sure if we’ll approach Seri.

Anyway, the rebuilding job won’t happen in one transfer window. And most of the players might get another chance under the new manager, so we’ll have to wait and see. And it won’t be that long of a wait since the window closes early. Exciting times ahead!

Konstantin

37 Comments

  1. Karius’ blunders remind me of Szczesny’s mistakes at Arsenal and AS Roma. Because Arsenal need to prioritize CBs, DM and wingers, they could just ask Cech and Martinez to compete

    A CM with excellent close ball control like Cazorla’s is necessary to replace Wilshere, Xhaka or Ramsey, and I think Seri could be a good option. We just don’t need another AM like Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi and Wilshere, this article explains it very well:

    paininthearsenal.com/2018/05/27/arsenal-emil-forsberg-oh-oh/?consent=01b56b24-df99-4c58-b5a5-12c95213ec9a

    A good DM is needed to compete with Elneny and I wish to see Ndidi. As for the winger, we need a skillful left-footed winger because we already have a plethora of right-footed attackers

    1. Yes, a good DM is exactly what we need, and we need to spend to get one. Not a reasonably priced B player, but a top top DM. If it cost $60m or $70m so be it. We also need a Top Top goalkeeper. A De Gea, a Courtois an Ederson. I think we need to go for Oblak. Again he will cost maybe $80m. So we sell Webeck and Ramsey. We also let Wilshere go (frees up salary),

      I think getting Oblak and a top class defensive midfielder would solve a lot of our defensive problems. Playing 4-3-3 with a midfield of Xhaka, Maitland-Niles and the new DM, would make us much more solid.
      Incidentally, the comment about Lichtsteiner sounds exactly like what was said about Debuchy. That turned out well didn’t it, and the Juventus reject is older

      1. Oblak will go for twice the Arsenal’s transfer kitty. He’s widely considered the best GK in Laliga’s history, and is beyond Arsenal’s spending limitation.

        And why would the best GK in the world want to play in the Europa???

  2. Szczney was young to be No1 and made mistakes that were costly.But Wenger was wrong to sell him.One season as understudy to Cech would have taught him a lot and we would be benefiting from that now.Instead he will be first choice at Juvenile and we are looking for a new keeper.Definately got that one wrong

    1. He is definitely a very good GK when he was at his peak and he shared the Premier League Golden Glove with Cech. Too bad he did not have good defending organization in front of him and he also made a lot of bad decisions at that time

      What’s done is done, therefore Arsenal could only expect a strong competition between Cech and Martinez now. Leno and Oblak must be chased by other big clubs such as Liverpool, and it would be very risky to recruit Butland

      1. Yeah I agree-we must hope Czech has an improved season and Martinez for me is better than Ospina.

        1. Sorry but you’re wrong we made the correct decision to sell, he is in the same category as the two clowns at Liverpool. Really don’t think he will be long term successor to Buffon, We have Martinez who will be ok but Macey will be better.

          1. Ok I’m sure we will see.Its just a shame he was forced out but happy to see Martinez get a chance and Matt Macey

          2. Agree, Szeszny will not last at Juventus. Too many high-profile mistakes compared to Buffon, Oblak, DeGea, Ter Stegen, and other top GKs.

  3. We do need a defensive midfielder in the mould of a game dictator. AMN might come good in that position. The coach knows best because he sees him in training everyday. I really wish Ramsey stays but wilshere can go. Wilshere should be playing futsal really. He only knows how to move the ball in tight places but he doesn’t control the tempo of the game and he has no impact in the final third. Why people still rate him was because of the potential he once had. Dude has not progressed at all. No thanks to injuries some might say, but we really need to move on. Even Manu moved on from owen haggreaves.

    1. I think AMN can be an amazing dm and I hope we give him the chance this year. He has speed, height, stamina, can pass exceptionally well and doesn’t make reckless challenges. I’m all in favor of shipping Xhaka out and using the funds on cb or gk.

  4. About Cech. The truth is that some goalkeepers or let me say most goalkeepers perform better in their 30s. Van der Saar, Buffon, etc. But some peak early and start declining e.g Casillas, Hart, valdes. Cech belong to the later. No matter how you want to put it, the honest truth is that cech is not what he used to be. Time to move on. Even Madrid moved on from Casillas. One of our biggest problem is staying put to serial underperformers with the vain hope that they will come good. Cech will still give you days of brilliant saves but he can’t deliver over the course of a season again. City brought Ederson and we can all see the impact he’s had. Liverpool had the chance to bring in a goalkeeper in January but didn’t. Both karius and mingolet were disaster waiting to happen. Karius eventually happened yesterday. No thanks to Liverpool dithering to do the needful in January same way they did with van Dirk from Southampton. A goalkeeper shouldn’t be super expensive in my own view. You just need to know how to scout for them. Even bernd leno that we are linked with made some costly errors for his team because I follow bundesliga well. A goalkeeper I would want is Sergio Rico. Dude is top notch. If he can adapt to the Epl then why not get him.

  5. The way arsenal want to play football is not suited to Xhaka’s qualities. We should cut our losses. Arsenal need to be proactive really. I really wanted Leon gerozka(bad spelling) after watching the confederation cup. He was a super box to box midfielder. Just like Vidal at his peak. He had just one season left on his contract last summer and with our German contingency who should have negotiated a cut price deal with schakle 04. Now he is going to Bayern for free. Our major problem is poor scouting network. Even Juventus don’t spend money. Aside Higuain tell me another big signing made by them. They are just shrewd with scouting and signing. Matuidi was free, Douglas Costa loan, Khedira was smart etc. Players are available if we know what we are doing.Even city got bernado silva for cheap considering how good the guy was with Monaco. If you watch Monaco title winning side then you will know what am saying. We can be great again if we can scout better.

    1. We spent more on Mertesacker’s salary this year when he could barely still run than we spent on all scouts’s salaries combined…

      Let that sink in.

      We’re extremely cheap when paying scouts, but spend lavishly on salaries of average players. Much as I still love Wenger, this is one of the 3, 4 reasons he had to go.

    2. Such good players can’t have their contact run down except a team like Bayern want them to come for free.

  6. Our issues are not only a lack of quality players but a lack of formation to include our best players. We have a bunch of very good player(mostly attacking) but i see no way we can accommodate most of them without playing some out of position. If we play 4-2-3-1 then we need a real winger(either right or left) to play in the 3 upfront so one of mkhi(if we play auba as winger) or lacazette(if we play auba as striker) is left on the bench.

    Next is midfield we serious lack personal plus ramsey works best with a 3 man midfield(much like pogba) and xhaka in a midfield that sits deep hence compensating the lack of pace. Defence need signings but mostly important needs training and organisation they never got during last manager era.

    We would need to use a rotational squad like man city and real madrid do to manage the players game time and fatigue. Emery for me is the best we can CURRENTLY get, if he can get the players like ramsey(dodgy hamstring) or ozil(Weak stamina) or lacazette(Not adapted to play against all opponents) to play less like zidane does with an ageing ronaldo, modric and injury-plagued bale we can be successful.

    1. Why not 4-1-3-2. this way you can play laca and auba upfront, miki, ozil, Rambo in AM role, let xhaka sit deep and protect defence, all you need good CBs to complement hector and nacho.

      1st team
      cech
      hector-mav-mustafi-nacho
      xhaka
      miki-ozil-rambo
      auba-laca

      2nd team
      Martinez
      jenkin-chambers-holding-saed
      elnenny
      amn-jack-iwobi
      danny-perez

      how it looks?

  7. Why people are happy that the transfer budget is increased to £70 millions only and the question is where is Arsemal momey gone. We are no more paying the stadium debt. We have a stadium with the capacity of 60 million seats and Arsenal have the most expensive tickets in the premier league . Arsenal have never bought a player for £ 75 million- Liverpool did that ane they are expanding their stadium and despite the fact that they played the final of the cjampion league they are offering their manager £200 million to strengthen the squad , so what is wrong with Arsenal ??!!

    1. Spending 200 million guarantees nothing. AC Milan did just that last summer. I agree with you that we should spend. Spending should be Bayern type. Buy a big player and some other quality but not so expensive signings with it. Then get a quality coach. Even Bayern got James Rodriguez on two years loan. I can’t remember the last time we made a loan signing. Big teams do it and Arsenal should be doing that too. why am happy about Leichsteiner from Juventus is that even though the man is 34 he still has pace in him. You need to watch Juventus matches this season to know that. He is 34 but still fast. You will have a good look at him in the world cup. And before you forget even Cristiano ronaldo is 33 years old ?

      1. Yea agreed , there should be 1 top signing every summer and then a couple of players that are going to fit into the team and improve it ,but there needs to be a star signing else the other top players we do actually have are going to second thoughts about how we are ran

        1. I agree with you, let s do that next year, but in the situation where we have to get rid of rest of Wengers golden boys, I would divide 200 mil by 4 and fill 4 positions we need with new guys.
          When I see Giroud, Walcott, Ox, Coq, Gibbs and others playing for somebody else, I feel happy and relaxed.
          And for Mustafi, Xhaka, Welbeck and Ramsey we can gain some more money too, not much but maybe enough for one star top top player.

  8. If it is true that Arsenal plan to spend just 50 mil, or maybe 70 then they should need to sell someone who is close to the end of contract or except offers (if they come). Only then Arsenal will have enough money to buy people we really need for 1st 11: GK, CB, CDM and even a winger.

  9. We need more signings to replace the old ones…

    wheres Kev Resources with the updates??

    1. You think them clowns know anything about arsenal transfer buisness they just copy what they read off other sites more fool you if you believe they have inside knowledge!!

  10. Currently we are far from City, Spurs Liverpool. If United get Bale they will challenge for the title.

    We deserved to finish 6th
    We need to focus big time on defense and central midfield

    In terms of CM we need a strong defensive midfielder who can link defense with attack, who can get the ball back to spearhead the attack, to cover the field from side line to side line, to be a leader out there. Wenger never gave importance to this role to our detriment
    We also need an upgrade to Xhaka, Eleny, Ramsey, Wishere. Someone like Cazorla or Viera type players.

    In addition a couple of centre backs and a right back. Plus a winger or two

    That’s a lot of players and money unfortunately and unlikely to be accomplished this summer. But I have faith in Emery that I lost with Wenger to sort this mess out

  11. in the coming weeks this forum will have lots to say about who should come and go from arsenal – im of the opinion that in domestic competition we need somebody notably ‘orrible as an available option among our midfield – currently we have no-one notably ‘orrible – which is why id suggest “junjo shelvey” – would raise his game were he ever to be offered a chance with the gunners…

    when he was with lfc he was rubbish which perhaps explains why he ended up running out for the swans. however lately – since running out for nufc he has shown a vast improvement and has been discussed (lately) as a potential england player, and so, at 26yrs of age i believe he’d add some steel to what has been a weak and largely unimpressive arsenal midfield – any thoughts on junjo?

    1. No thanks, no more shopping in Poundland, the fact he can’t get into a very poor England midfield says it all.

      1. @Mwsupporter
        Its in the bargain basement were we do our business more often than not – don’t think with the emergence of unai emery that this (trend) will change anytime soon… do you?

  12. In a simple way Wilshere is another Diaby in making. Offering him a new contract is a bad idea even though less wages. If he can go to a mid table team he’ll get more play time and Arsenal is free to look elsewhere. Ramsey had two good seasons in his entire Arsenal career and the time we spent on both of these players are criminal. Let’s see things in a bigger perspective a decade wasted on two players where club are the loosing side. Experiments and sentiments are over once Wenger is out. So let’s invest in our other youngsters.
    Carzola left so these two should follow the exit door. Let’s start a new era of manager and players.

    1. …without jack who’s in there representing the local passion – he’s the guy who understands what’s needed in terms of desire and commitment in our north-london derby. i see he’l be given another chance – when he’s together he’s formidable. he’s got to prove his detractors wrong next season and he’s more than capable with a good pre-season of doing that.

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