With the furore surrounding Arsene Wenger’s new contract, it is clear that the Arsenal will be expecting some very big name transfers to “take us up a level” and Wenger hinted that there will have to be a clearout of current playing staff. He said: “First of all, we have a very heavy squad at the moment so maybe we might lose some players.
“We want to keep the strength we have and build on that. We will work very hard to find the additions of top, top quality. I believe that our squad is very strong and we will only look for top-class people who can strengthen our team now. The basis is there so we need the additions who will make a real difference.
“First of all, we look at the top, top quality available. We have seen in the recent games against Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United that we are a very strong team. For us it’s very important that we only consider the players who can really make a difference, no matter where it is.”
Us Arsenal fans have been saying for quite a few years that we have been carrying too much ‘deadwood’ around to compete with the big teams, and perhaps this summer will be the perfect time to have a clearout of our ‘heavy’ squad. There are the obvious ones that will certainly leave like Sanogo and Debuchy, but who else could could be going out the door?
I would suggest Kieran Gibbs, Wojciech Szczesny, Carl Jenkinson, Lucas Pérez, David Ospina and maybe Francis Coquelin and Theo Walcott?
What are your suggestions?
Admin
Despite a few decent performances here and there, the following are the biggest underachievers in my eyes and/or guys that have very little to offer as of right now: Ospina, Debuchy, Mertesacker (sorry), Gibbs, Gabriel, Jenkinson, Cazorla (Thank You for your service), Ramsey, Wilshere, Coquelin, Perez (very sad, but it’s for the best), Sanogo, Akpom. I got a soft spot for Theo, but I would add him to this list as well, unless he’s willing to renegotiate his contract. I’m also torn on Iwobi at the moment, but I guess he stay for now.
Cazorla is 5 more months out, no one will buy him, he will enjoy his wages(unfortunately) and leave free agent next year. Same for Per, keep him as backup CB and let him leave as free agent next year. We cant do 10 out and 10 in like City with 100mil budget, so whoever is young(Akpom,Coquelin) or at the last stage of their career(Per), we cant sell them for good money, better to retain and give chance.
Ramsey can be kept and rotated, he is not good enough to play 45 matches a year, and Wenger has a problem of playing almost same starting 11 when they are fit, he has to manage Ramsey better
They can’t and Wenger won’t clear out that many players in one go. Let’s look at it this way,
Want to leave – Sanchez, Ospina, Perez and Ozil (I really hope Ozil leaves, watch the John Hartson interview on Arsenal Fan TV. He is 100% right)
Should sell – Wilshere, Debuchy, Jenkinson, Sanogo, Campbell and Mert (Although I think Mert would be a great influence on the younger defenders)
And then players that deserve one more year to prove themselves or should be up graded next summer – Chambers, Coquelin, Gabriel and Welbeck (He just doesn’t score or create enough goals)
And players nearing there end by next summer – Giroud and Cazorla to be assessed at the end of next season.
Giroud and Walcott are good plan B’s off the bench and scores goals.
Ramsey would be great with a world class defensive mid next to him.
That would be my number one target, a world class defensive mid that will control and boss the midfield in front of the back three to let players like Ramsey to get up and down the pitch.
Who is available btw ? The problem is we have too many mid fielders of the same type. Never quite understood why we bought Elneny. We have the nos but lets look at each of them
(1) Ramsey- good but unlikely to influence the outcome of a season. Injury prone
(2) Wilshere- good but too injury prone to have any effect on the season
(3) elneny – not sure why we bought him – very avg player
(4) Coquelin – Again at best a decent dm option and the only pure dm we have – will not win you the PL ; no creative prowess
(5) Xhaka – no pace; effectively offensively, suspect defensively ; suspect temperament: above average
(6) Cazorla – the only true class mid field option we have; too injury prone jn the last 2 years – our hopr of competing for the title depends on what kind of season he has
I agree with list with exception of Ramsey and Coquelin. Sorry Walcott has to go. Tragically seeing it is a “clean out” and assuming we purchase a world class striker add Giroud to the list. Carzola let’s waitv to see after he recovers. What about Eleny? Of last years purchases Xaba, Mustafa and Holding have made an impression.
I can’t understand why we are not fighting to hang pint Sanchez and Ozick?
Sell: perez 10mil, giroud 20mil, ozil 30min, wilshire 25mil, elmany 10mil, gibbs 10mil, jenkinson 7mil, debouchy 3mil, gabriel 10mil. And if Sanchez wont sign get as much as we can for him even if from one of our rivals, 60 to 70mil or cash and a player.
Walcott/Wilshere should not be in the maybe list, they are a MUST along with Gibbs(if Sead is confirmed),Sanogo,Ospina(Szczesny must stay and play), Debuchy and maybe Elneny. Jenkinson and Chambers should be kept for 1 more year, may be Jenk out on loan. Perez/Giroud I am not sure, if we lose Ozil/Alexis, we cant lose Perez/Giroud same year. Perez is better than Walcott. We should keep him and give more game time. Tie Ox/Ramsey down to long term contracts. Campbell must be retained and sent on loan again. Problem is, this Wenger dont trust Campbell/Perez and he will keep them on bench and play around same starting 13-14 player to cause injury in crunch times, blame injury his way out
The players to clear you should not include Walcott in your list he carried the club in first half of the season, a winger with 18 goals in all competition where will you get one of that calibre you underrate him…how many goals has ox scored ever he joined us? he’s a winger too..Debuchy , jekinson, Gibbs, coquelin he let hazard to demolish us, Gabriel, cazorla no help two seasons now, Welbeck he’s injury prone average player of 5 goals, sanogo, Szczeny, ospina, Ox, Giroud
in mpappe for ox, perez for Giroud, Belotti for Welbeck , kosaniac for Gibbs
only three players needed striker, winger and full back 3. team is complete.
I agree. Walcott gives you the goals and you don’t let him go unless you find a replacement. Thhe problem with Walcot is his presence does not improve the overall output of the team because he is very one dimensional but hey as long as he is banging in the goals I don’t mind. Unfortunately like I said – we have a lot of players who will have occasional great days but are not good enough to produce that across a season and help us win the PL. At the back I think I would stick to who we have. Given that Mert has shown that he can still play for 1 more year – I would give gabriel the benefit of doubt and keep him on for 1 more year.
Defence: Rob and Mustafi for me are the main players at the back who need to do the heavy lifting; Kos needs to be rotated to keep him fit along with Mert and Gabriel. Chambers as back up
Goal keeper: If Ospina leaves bring back Schez- he deserves one more chance – if not buy a replacement
Mid field – Ideally everyone should go but practically I think it has to be Wilshere and may be Elneny (but only if we can replace him). We need to work to find Cazorla’s successor asap
Wings – I am fine
Striker – I will keep everyone; Try to bring in a world class striker – if we fail we need to keep Perez and play him in the Europa league – the guy has goals in him
Who should go:
– Debuchy (no brainer)
– Campbell (he will not get a chance)
– Sanogo (plz go)
– Ospina (he wants to go)
– Gibbs (if a replacement is coming)
– Elneny (if a replacement is coming)
– Wilshere (definitely)
– Perez (if a world class replacement is coming)
WALCOT EN COQUELINE+AKPOM NO INSTEADY PAULISTA OLIVIER WISHERE PLUS THOSE ON THE ABOVE LIST LET THEM GO
WE NEED ASTRIKER DANGEROUS ONE NOT LIKE PEREZ U BOUGHT FOR THE SAKE ADEFENDER COZ KONSHENLY US LOOSE ALOT EN IN 10-2 AN ATTACKING STRIKER LIKE CAZORA PLUS MAHREZ
Your CAPS LOCK key is stuck
No, he is SHOUTING!
So is his brain!
I kind of feel bad about giving names so sorry because I’m sure they are honest decent men but Wilshire, Walcott, Xhaka (liability with his sending off record), Gibbs, Sanogo, Jenkinson, Coquelin, Sanogo, Elneny and Chambers.
I like Perez who needs to be played more as should Campbell. I think with a decent defense in front of him Szczesny could still become a great keeper and one to take over from Cech in a year or so. Also keep and play Mertesacker in the middle of a back three as although very slow is a great organiser and has great positioning (when Wenger doesn’t put him way out to the right when we are attacking). I am not sure about Akpom but I have a feeling that if he was given a run in the team he would rapidly get better. Also I am a massive fan of Giroud as a supersub but not a starter.
Ivan,
Xhaka got sent of less in his 1st season than Patrick Viera did in his 1st season. You are writing the kid off to early. Watch and see him fly next year he bossed the midfield in the last few games of the season and could have been man off the match in the F.A Cup final. So just relax and give this kid a chance next year.
COYG
Given our seasonal injury problem, i’m surprised Wenger said this.
Surely he more than anyone would blame injuries for derailing arsenal’s season/push for trophies.
We need to keep everyone, except for Wilshere (obviously). Probably a good idea to sell Cazorla given the latest injury set back. Also, people forget that Lucas Perez was injured quite often this season (arsenal injury room and ben dinnery on twitter are reliable sources). He wasn’t always available to play.
I hear we are ready to fork out in excess of £87mil to sign Mbappe….
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If this is true, and we are capable of keeping Sanchez
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The Arsenal sure means business next season
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Yeh, but it’s just not true;)
just sell debuchy, elneny maybe, szceszny, ospina n jenkinson.. buy mahrez, benzema/reus, kolasinac, van der wjick.. then maybe we can win league next seasons.. giroud can be sell or keep, it can be rotate player..
Walcott- high wages, not good enough, let him rip someone else off
Wilshere- waste of time at this point
Gibbs- If we get Kolasinac I don’t see why we should keep him around
Cazorla (sorry, but why keep someone who is always injured?), find another, younger CM. A lot of quality in Spain.
Ozil- sell, buy a better CAM, James?
Jenkinson- deadwood
i’d rather keep Elneny and Coquelin because we get a ton of midfield injuries at some point and they are acceptable bench players. We have a lot of defenders, but that’s fine if we keep 3 at the back and either Gabriel or Mertesacker are fine as squad players.
I would personally sack Wenger and watch Ozil and Sanchez jump ship for bigger things and put Ramsey in the berkgamp hole. Get proper wingers, that were supported by wing backs in the shape of ox and monreal with Xhaka and le Coq bossing midfield (that is unless Stan actaually let me by a decent midfielder) and protecting the defense that has holding at its centre in a 3.
We would come at least 3rd in the Emirates cup and for that I would see it as a victory of sorts and expect a trophy.
you still here ? thought you were leaving arsenal !?!?
Guess you wouldnt have anything else to do if not moaning about Arsenal !!
Yeh? Thought I’d hang around to stop you being so bloody delusional and fairy like.
I’d like to suggest a re-write for the title of this article:
“Who will not make way for the new signings we haven’t yet made and are unlikely to make unless you are referring to two teenagers who might potentially amount to something in the future?”
I would look to getting rid of Wilshere, Gibbs, Ospina, Jenkinson, Perez. These would be in my “want to sell” list. If I knew who we were buying then my list could include one or two more names.
Lol, apparently we’ve made an 87m pound bid for mbappe… turns out stan is now paying the media to make up fake stories. Is he even worth that much? Personally, I don’t give a monkeys how much a player costs. Imo, that’s for the owners to worry about, not me. I don’t care if it’s good or bad business. All I’ve seen is some youtube videos and the odd champuons league game. Is he really the real deal?
Looks like the real deal atm, potentially could be a very very big deal
Mbappe wants Madrid only, just like when Suarez was for sale and we bid an extra 1 pound? Higuain’s price was 28m and we bid 25m. now they know Mbappe ain’t gonna come to us with Madrid in his mind, it’s then the time to bid for him and show the whole world that Arsene tried to sign him. I don’t believe a single thing they do
Below are some of the possibilities that could be explored, not necessarily everyone but you can see that there are better players out there than some of the deadwood hanging around at Arsenal!
Szczeney (£10m) —> Jordan Pickford (£15m)
Ospina (£5m)
Gibbs (£7m) —> Sead Kolasinac (£0m)
Debuchy (£5m) —> Djibril Sidibe (£15m)
Jenkinson (£5m)
Chambers (£10m) —> Ben Gibson (£18m)
Mertsacker (retired)
Gabriel (£10m) —> Virgil Van Dijk (£40m)
Coquelin (£15m) —-> Jean Michael Seri (£25m)
Wilshere (£15m) —> Adrien Rabiot (£20m)
Joel Campbell (£10m) —> Pablo Fornals (£15m)
Lucas Perez (£16m) —> Riyad Mahrez (£35m)
Ozil (£30m) —> Douglas Costa (£35m)
Sanchez (£50m) —> Alexandre Lacazette (£40m)
Sanogo (£3m) —> Henry Onyekuru (£7m)
Giroud (£15m) —> Alvaro Morata (£50m)
Money in = £225m
Money spent = £325m
Net spend = £100m
You make as lot of sense but no need for Sidine, Ben Gibson, Pabro Fernals. Then we need just one between Mahrez or Douglas costa . Giroud should stay for certain matches but choice of Lacazette or Morata is okey, or other alternatives like Lukaku etc. Sanchez should stay at all cost…. Sweat or blood better he goes for free next season if he wants. He is our face for now
Some fans are so deluded, we have greater chance of winnning the premier league with the current squad with 2-4 addition, 1-2 out the door then a whole makeover.
we have no chance of winning the league no matter what happens this summer. Winning the league? That’s fantasy, lmao
They’d need to the right ones @Adi. Ozil, I’m not sure if he’s the type we need. Walcott certainly isn’t. We have loads to sell lower down, but there’s a few around the first team that are holding us back. Get those ones out and I think you’re right. Giroud is another one. Right, seeing as Ozil was at Real and won with Germany, I’d say there is a chance we could find tactics that could work alongside him. Giroud and Walcott need to go, those are two big positions, we could and should be doing better. Your 2-4 addition, I’d say more like the other way round, 4 out the door and two big additions. Four players that get a good amount of games, I wouldn’t count Sanogo Jenkinson Debuchy and the likes, that is trimming fat. Personally, those two I mentioned up top, them Wilshere and Gabriel I’d start with.
But Coquelin and Ozil wouldn’t be too far off my thinking, if they know whats good for them.
Why does he talk like that. We are Arsenal, we expect signings that will improve our team. Every club tries to improve the quality. So it’s granted that the players coming in will be at a certain level. Wenger says it in a way that it’s a let off for if we don’t get top signings, he sounds like he is saying ..well, we really needed some special players, but unfortunately. Once in a while it’d be nice if we just went and got the targets we wanted without everything that goes with it. Or if he says we need two but then surprises everyone by bringing in five. And he needs to stop always talking, he gives away too much information that the other clubs can then scupper us. Same with injuries, he gives too much information out.
he is bored, not so much to do at home, he takes more time talking to media to buy time
Sell list for now:
Ospina, Debuchy, Jenkinson, Coquelin or ElNeny, Ramsey, Perez, Theo and Welbeck.
Lowball fees of around £4 mil for Ospina, £15 mil for Perez, £15 mil for Welbeck £15 mil for Theo, £5 mil for Coquelin/ElNeny and £35 mil for Ramsey. HG might get a bit more for due to quote rling but lowball figures and it is still around £89 million.
Ontop of the £100 mill and we could afford to get MBappe along with a TOP World Class CM and give Alexis a wage to compete with the top earners…
In the new system we will need an extra (capable) CB. Also we need a back-up RB, a LB, a winger, two if Sanchez leaves, a CF who we know will score 25+ goals and I would like to see a DM. Then we can play with 5 and 4 defenders and we actually have a change to win the league. So at least 5 players, at least 2 top players. Realisticly will get 2 maybe 3 not even top players..
Mbappe story says it all. If City and Real offer 130 million why even bother offering 100.
Think we can safely say going on last windows that everyone we have listed we won’t get. Not being negative about it but when has AW ever done what is expected. If the media is saying we are going for someone at this stage it’s a virtually safe bet we aren’t – certainly not mbappe etc.
Who I think will leave: Ospina, Debuchy, Jenkinson, Akpom, Sanogo
Who I think should leave: Ospina (like him but he wants out), Debuchy, Jenkinson, Mertesacker (one quality game doesn’t paper over his faults), Gibbs (hasn’t progressed for like 5/6 years), Wilshere, Ramsey (a few good games doesn’t cover up his inconsistency and injury problems), Coquelin, Walcott, Giroud, Akpom, Sanogo, Campbell, Perez (deserves more game time but obviously will not get it)
Give Chambers and Gabriel 1 more year to prove themselves.