When you have a restricted transfer budget and a ton of areas that need strengthening then you have to be a bit creative and signing free transfers and aged players are a couple of ways to go.
One player that Arsenal is being linked with is former Chelsea defender Gary Cahill and while your initial reaction may be to say no way, it is worth considering.
For starters, he would be a better option than Shkodran Mustafi, he is immensely experienced, he is of course, free and his wages would not be ridiculous.
I am not suggesting we build our defence around him or anything like that but he was and probably still is a good defender, he does not panic and would know how to calm the situation down when we fall a goal behind.
Players at the end of their career do experience a resurgence, especially when they have been discarded, they have a point to prove and it is not like we would be using Cahill in every game.
Our Away form over the last few seasons has been abysmal and that could be when we use a player like Cahill, he is used to the rough and tumble of road games and he is very decent at set pieces.
He may not be fast and so at home where the risk of counter-attacking football is at its highest I would not recommend we play him but away against a team like Burnley, I definitely would.
I know there are many reasons why he is not suitable for us but do we really have that luxury to be picky? I am not sure we do and his experience at the highest level could be just what we need right now.
I’m hope you’re joking. Don’t we have Koscielny already? We as a club should be tired of castoffs especially from our rivals. If we want an experienced english centre half, i’ll rather we go for Dunk or Tarkowski, not a 33 year old from Chelsea that hardly played last year.
I think you missed the point man, we’re skint. He would be free and could get us over the hump until 2020-2021, when Saliba becomes available. We don’t have the money to even fill half of all our holes. We need a LB, RB, CB, Winger, and central midfielder. That’s five players we need, there’s no way we can afford another CB if we sign Saliba and then loan him back to St.Etienne.
Having said that, we should bring in Bielik and keep Kos for another season. Holding should be back just in time.
I’m fed up with Chelsea castoffs particularly the over 30’s.
Sorry Martin, absolutely not.
I would be very annoyed. I would rather give youngsters a chance and loose than sign a bunch of has beens like we have done previously.
Reiss Nelson.
Eddie nketia
Joe willock
Smith row
Believe
Mavropanos
Chambers
All of these players should be given a chance and we should sell
Elnany
Mustafi or koscielny
HMK
Jenkinson
Use the remaining funds for Nicolas pepe and a right back.
Squad revamped and enough players to bring competition and rotation
Or just put the trust in Holding and Mavis.Plus we have some youth players coming through that can cover for them.
Lichstiener was a stop gap signing and look how that worked out.If out budget is a small as being reported then why use up wages on a player who MIGHT give us one season.If next season is to become another transitional one then we just have to face up to the facts and get on with things.
I believe the key issue is as much to do with fullbacks as it is with CB’s.Enery wishes to play a 4 traditional four at the back.This gives us the extra player in midfield.When Torriera And Xhaka were put together we actually looked stronger.It was the loss of Bellerin that hurt us.
Sign Tierney and wait until Bellerin returns and our full back positions should last 10 years.Its the two CB positions that will need to be sorted and I would have more understanding with either both or one of Holding and Mavis taking time to gel than I would with Cahill as a temporary solution.And let’s not forget Chambers who was arguably our most consistent performer at the back in the second half of the 2017-18 season.Which wS why it eS such a ridiculous decision to send him out on loan last season.He could have played a lot of games last season and we would know now if we had a player we could rely on or not.
No more past-it players from Chelsea and Man United
However, I’d gladly take Eric Bailly
its good to have a 33yo to led and past the experience to the younger players..
but we already have Kos so..thats enough
Cahill’s arms looking jacked like he is an IFBB pro or something.
He’s been photoshopped ??
Lol! It must be!
Remember Lichtsteiner
Signing him also sounded good until he showed us all
Don’t judge a player by his AGE. Judge him by his PERFORMANCE
You completely right and base on his last season performance oh wait ,did he even play at all, what do you think. This is a tongue in the cheek article from adMart???
Not for me
Sue I will take him as a replacement for Mustafi at least fans need someone to moan about here. I can’t imagine how a season without complain on JA about any of our players will look like.
I know most players are an upgrade on Mustafi, Mobella… but he’s 33 & been released for a reason (just ask Lichtsteiner) we made that mistake last season, I don’t want a repeat of it this season. Sorry, but imo we’re better than Cahill!!
Mustafi,Sokratis,Kocielney,Holding,Mavropanos,Beilik and Chambers.Move on the first three and we still have four centre backs on our books.If we do need another CB it needs to be a quality player with pace.Cahill is no longer top quality(if he ever was) and he lacks pace.A non starter.
Rather than sign a 33yr old give Bielek a chance otherwise he will be off and in a few years will probably turn out to be an accomplished international and we’ll have wasted time and money on him just because we didn’t give him a chance. I remember when we gave a young 17 yr old Irishman called O’Leary a chance and look how that turned out.
WTF is wrong with our club? Lichtsteiner first and now Cahill?
What a deflating and demoralising club our Arsenal has become.
So depressing.
If we sell Laurent K. He would be a suitable replacement. Experienced, solid in aerial duels, free and can certainly do as a backup.
Not monkey business
What’s the need of selling Koscielny then.
Let not Mustafi poor performance make you believe any defender can replace him. If we are not careful we may end up buying someone who makes Mustafi appear good.
We already have Koscielny as an experienced CB, on top of that Sokratis is experienced enough so I see no point in selling Koscielny then get Cahill because we should be looking at young CBs & also give chance to our Chambers,Dinos,Holding..
Buy this LB from Celtic & over Hector returns we get back to the back 4. We need an additional midfielder someone like Ndombela of Lyon or Dicoure of Watford and a natural winger ( Ziyech, Carrasco) . Looking at this boy I wouldn’t mind buying him even if it means loaning him back ( William Saliba) so that our chambers,Dinos & Holding surely one should make it as Holding showed serious consistency last season and so was Chambers on loan..
We still have Mav, Bielik and Chambers, who should be given their chance, Mav has not really gotten a look in, Chambers English core and our best performing CB in 2017-18 season, Imaging Bielik getting 37 games in the season, he would be 100 % a better player.
While Defence has been the main thing being discussed i strongly believe our core is what needs re-done, Xhaka and Torreira are our best pairing, but still, seem short of athletism or mobility. Playing Torreira too advance has not help that situation, without a quicker DM beside him. but let us so if there is any difference this season.
I think we missed the boat when he was available in January…how his experience would have helped us in the run in for the CL place.
However, it is now time to give the current players the opportunity to prove their worth, but I have this nagging feeling that, wherever he goes, there is still a couple of seasons left in him.
Let’s hope we don’t have the defensive injury problems this coming season as we did last season!!!
Typical Arsenal interest. Free player?
Did he play last year? But he’s free.
How good is he? Whatever, he’s free.
Can he make team better? But he’s free.
Have to break our stupendous cycle of perpetual mediocrity. Won’t be done by frees and buying average players.
Know what you get with just average and mediocre players?
An average and mediocre team with average and mediocre results.
Please say no to Cahill, if he is no more good for Chelsea, he is not good for Arsenal either.
It’s not a bad idea but it’s a horrible one.