Are Arsenal set to get rid of Mustafi?

There were many rumours last summer than Shkrodan Mustafi was set to be sold to Inter Milan as deadline day approached, although both Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger both denied it afterwards.

But perhaps Mustafi wishes he had left as he had an awful season as the Arsenal defence conceded more goals than ever before under Wenger, with the German being lambasted for many suicidal individual errors.

There were many Arsenal fans who believed that it was Mustafi himself who wanted out, and now that we have brought in Sokratis and Mavropanos, and given new contracts to both Holding and Chambers, the centre-back may finally be on his way.

Because of his youth and status as a World Cup winner Mustafi could still command a very high transfer fee, and there are very few fans that would oppose the Gunners cashing in on him while we still can, as another season like the last one could see his value plummet and that is even if he can get into Emery’s new starting line-up.

It is a given that Arsenal will have to unload some first team players from our bloated squad, so should Mustafi be top of our selling list?

Darren N

31 Comments

  1. An emphatic YES!!! good riddance to bad rubbish!poor defender…often thinks he is Paul Scholes in defence and loads of other shit.

    1. Harsh. It’s down to Emery who goes and if he sees something he can improve on, I’ll give him a chance.

    2. He IS AN ARSENAL player
      Criticize him all you want but the please be respectful. We are all on the same side you know . A ” Bad player” will suffice

      BTW He isn’t “bad rubbish”
      He has played in the World Cup 4 years ago and WON. German national team don’t put rubbish players let alone “bad rubbish ” on the team

  2. I remember watching him play for Valencia and he was horrifying that game so I was shocked when we bought him but wasn’t as shocked at his defending cause I’d seen him play before we have to sell Mustafi and either invest in real quality or play 5 at the back

    1. Yes, Mustafi was a part of the falling Valencia, along with the Barcelona flops, Andre Gomes and Paco Alcacer. That was why I was worried that Arsenal would get Jonny Evans, because the same thing could happen again

      But I am not convinced of Sokratis as well. If Sokratis cannot perform well, Arsenal might as well keep Mustafi

      I heard it was Juventus that was interested in Mustafi and Ramsey. If that is true, I hope they can give us Douglas Costa and some money to invest in a better CB

  3. The guy is statistically the highest rated defender in the Premier League by whoscored, for the season.

    So if you think that Wenger’s defensive tactics were the problem for last season, it seems illogical to blame Mustafi.

    I would be very surprised if we get rid of the most experienced fit defender we have. If things don’t go well, that would be the sort of irrational decision that would get Emery sacked after six months. I don’t think that any sensible professional manager could make that kind of decision, without a lot of data to back it up.

    1. Pogba only scored one goal and did not produce any assist, but he was the one that bossed the midfield in France’s World Cup matches, along with Kante. Giroud did not produce any shot on target in World Cup, but he pressurized France’s opponents with his dominance in the air and work rate

      We cannot assess a player based solely on his statistics, but also his contribution in the field. Mustafi made a lot of errors, but I would like to see him under Emery’s guidance and a backup in case Sokratis performs worse

    2. well there’s no stat for switching off, no stat for not tracking a run, no stat for poor marking, being out of position, not covering your CB partner… Mustafi has good whoscores stats because his playstyle suits their algorithm. Specifically, Mustafi makes a lot of successful tackles. Too bad it takes more than that to be a top class defender.

  4. Mustafi, Ospina, Welbeck, Akpom, Campbell, Asano, are all leaving this summer.

    Jeff is not on the list for Singapore so I guess he is going out to loan.

  5. Just looked him up on Whoscored, he has got very good statistics on there. I only compared him to Van Dijk, and Mustafi came out on top easily. Problem is it mostly shows the accuracy/percentage success of each ability. It is much harder to find errors players make or how costly one is compared to another. Like a defender picking up the wrong man with it leading to a goal deficit. Or a player slipping before he reaches the danger. Or leaving a man behind him as a cross comes over him. Could go on for ages with this stuff. There’re some parts of the game that stats don’t tell you about, a players intelligence, his concentration levels, his ability to lead a line, his capability with an offside trap. His stats for making challenges and the success rate are pretty good, the goals scored also tot up his overall score. Looking at stats you could see why someone would target Mustafi, and statistics are heavily used in football. This and a world cup medal probably explains his price tag

  6. im sure mustafi has potential else he would never succeeded in representing his country – same can be said of other individuals in arsenal’s defence. but there really does need to be more for our defence to galvanise and work as an effective unit. If there’s no synergy between longer serving defenders? then elements within the defence should be asked to leave so as there can be room for a complement that works. fortunately mustafi starts the season with a clean slate but fans are well within their rights when occasionally we look at mustafi with eyebrows raised.

    1. How does Mustafi start the season with a clean slate? The slate was his last two dreadful seasons!

      1. @Jon – because like it or lump it he’s still in the mix.

        … with elneny we perhaps got value for money, he cost us something close to a bag of crisps, so whether he’s value, or not? it’s still up for debate. those others you mentioned would be better placed plying trade elsewhere if they persistently fail to meet the high expectations when donning our shirt.

        1. Trouble with calling small fees for rank poor players value, is that they still take a place in the team/ squad better filled by far better players. Rubbish players should have no way of coming to Arsenal, whatever the fee and however small that fee be. As for Mustafi, I pray he is moved on this window. He is just a mistake on legs. Lastly , surely the slate of any player is what he has done at Arsenal previously. We talk about wiping the “slate clean”, therefore the slate is what he has previously done. Seems obvious to me!

          1. i think players where brought in just to appease us as fans. we all know the pain @JF – but the acrimony is over now we’ve another coach and (i sense) he won’t tolerate pretenders at our resurgent arsenal.

            …and let’s not forget 14 premiership sides were where worse than us last season. Our recovery is only going to be as fruitless, or as hapless or as difficult as we all contemplate or perceive our task ahead. #COYG

      1. lol – we’re not about to get an entire new team – we’re merely trying to be reinstated back up to the lofty highs of champions league football – anything more will be a surprise if we’re to be honest.

        1. Waap2waal, yes those were the good old days when we enjoyed the lofty highs of champions league football.
          Amazing how just being out of this competition for two years has affected the finances and prestige of our club.
          And here we were criticising the club for doing what was seen as not good enough!!!
          Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.
          Let’s just hope that those’pretenders’ you refer to are able to recreate the results needed to qualify once again.
          After all, Emery has seen enough to offer new contracts to a lot of those being castigated by some of the supporters.
          My view is that we give Emery time to assess the players and then SUPPORT HIS DECISION…..at least for the upcoming season as an absolute minimum.

          1. with you 100% @Ken1945 – I wanted change and now we have emery im happy we’ll be repositioned to the lofty highs we are meant to be. Yes we have allowed some ‘pretenders’ to slip the net and play for us but the “jig is up” as the saying goes the pretenders will be found out, replaced where needed and then normality resumed – arsenal in champions league competition just as we’re accustomed to. we can only judge emery’s team by results and for those outputs as you said he does need “time…”. thanks for your comments.

  7. I think some people should spare us their uncivil language of rubbish, shit, garbage, trash and whatever else they come up with to insult our players. I wonder whether there is a school where they teach the most vulgar language! Words like bad, poor, below average would serve the same purpose without psychologically hurting the affected individuals. It is very absurd to insult an individual in very harsh tone because of a poor game. Those who have ever been victims of uncouth people know what I am talking about. I have argued before that one’s language is a reflection of one’s mental capacity. Why would any person insult another using the most debase language simply because one played poorly? Nobody would wish to perform poorly at any given task. However factors beyond anyone control cause this kind of scenario. Such people deserve pity rather than animosity. Before Arsene Wenger left many people gave their frustration as an excuse for using rather unpleasant language. What excuse is there now to use such abusive language? Let us all learn to respect one another as Gooners, whether we are fans, staff or players. That is the honour we can give our beloved Arsenal.

    1. historically football hailed from the lower classes where industrial language is common place – i think football would be far the worse if the language of ordinary folk were to be restricted in the way you suggest. personally i’m not offended when athletes are referred to in a manner that’s not offensive by the majority’s standards of acceptability. it is not unusual for football fans to use sh** as a reference to their team players performance(s) when the performance is under par. you sir, when faced with the passion of a football match or a simple fanbase could well have found y’self in the wrong place. noones broke the law on here, neither has any breached any code of conduct
      type parameters – so chillax (emphasis).

      1. I am a highly educated man who does however, at times, use strong( not filthy , vile or disgusting) words to descibe my thoughts. There certainly ARE many words which are beyond the pale, BUT almost all people at times use stronger words about all sorts of things than they really mean. How often , for example , do parents say to their kids”Oh , I’ll kill you when I catch you, you little monkey”. We all know they do not mean it but it sends an apporpriate message to the child to behave or else! In a highly nuanced world where tones , inflections and other deviations from purely accurate language are alpost universally understood, it is , in my view, entirely permissible to use forceful , though not filthy language, on or off the fan sites we all inhabit. Anyone who thinks the world should subscibe to their own personal view is showing extreme arrogance and a shortage of reason.

    2. I like this philosophy – as you say, why resort to abuse when simply pointing out faults has the same point to it.

  8. All those calling Mustafi rubbish should look back at his first 15 games for us, the guy was solid at the back and brought alot of excitement around our fan base. Whatever happened after that is confidence issues. He either lost it or became over confident.
    I still believe he deserves a chance, the talent has always been there. He was class against spurs last season.

  9. Better defensive tactics and we could have easily reached top four, our team is not as poor quality as the media and some fans here would like us to believe.
    What was present in our team was the lethargic way we approach matches, what was present was some players were always confident of there place playing good or bad.

    Now, we did not sign any big name players and in truth, i do not mind, but what we have addressed are leadership and DM, i would be the first to say i do not agree with some of the signings, but i can see the reason.

    It would be ridiculous to get rid of all our players and now a new manager whose teams play with high energy we should slowly observe the changes within the team and stop being jealous of opposing teams with theeir signings.

    Some fan reminds me of individuals seeing the neighbour bought a new furniture for a lot of money, would go and buy a new furniture too, without really needing it.

  10. Fans always slate players who perform badly and Mustafi was certainly one of if not the worst player last season but we are all forgetting that the man in charge before had full control of training and tactics. From what i’ve read in the past i’m led to believe that there was no training which was geared towards defending as the previous manager was all about attacking and took training himself while the coaches stood chewing gum in between putting out the cones and putting them away again. Now with a new man in charge we should see things improve including our coaches training players properly so with this in mind any player not sold or loaned out should be given our backing and time to worked with the new manager.

  11. How do you think Mustafi who is better than Chambers can be sold when Chambers has been offered a new contract????

    Keep on dreaming……

    It’s like saying Lichtsteiner (a man who played with the Pirlos of this world) will be sold in August leaving the headless, non-talented Bellerin to have a glorious ride.

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