Brilliant news for Arsenal fans if latest rumour is true

If there is one player that Arsenal fans have had enough of it is Shkodran Mustafi, and the latest reports in the media are claiming that AC Milan are interested in signing the defender will be music to the ears of the majority of us.

Mustafi has put in consistently poor performances this season, especially over the last month and has come in for some blistering criticism from the fans. He is one of the players that most Gooners want to see sold, just check out some of the comments on this site to get a flavour of the frustration targeted towards the German.

We paid a whopping €41 Million to Valencia for the 2014 world cup winner and we will be extremely lucky to recoup even half of that but sometimes you have to cut your losses and in the case of Mustafi, it is more than justified.

A lot was expected from the 27-year-old but to call him a disappointment is an understatement on a mega level and whatever we get for him will surely be used to bring in an upgrade.

This summer is expected to be one characterised by significant turnover and if we qualify for the Champions League next season we will be in a much better position to attract quality players in addition to having a larger transfer budget.

It has not been a bad 24 hours, first we progress to the Europa League final and then this news about Mustafi.

It is bloody good being an Arsenal fan right now.

38 Comments

  1. One of Wenger’s worst signings. He hadn’t spent over £16 million for a defender before Mustafi.
    I don’t blame him for Ozil. I expected more out of him but Mustafi and Xhaka for around £35m were not shrewd purchases

    Mustafi MUST go. He was terrible this season

      1. Xhaka should be easy to be sold. But I would not take less than 25 millions for him, if I am in charge of player transfers at Arsenal

        1. By now everyone in the EPL knows Xhaka so to think we could get 25 million for him is hilarious. Maybe 2.5 million if we take the potential buyers for a night out and get them wrecked just before they sign him up. 15 – 20 pints should do it. And make sure there are witnesses present for when they sober up and can’t believe their ghastly mistake!

          1. Everyone knew about Walcott and we got him sold for, what was it 25 M?

            And to a Premier League club at that.

            Xhaka is an international player for his country, he plays for a top 6 club in the Premier League.

            There are for certain clubs both in England and abroad who could consider buying him. If he is sold for 25 M or not, who knows. But it is for sure not unthinkable.

      2. Why would we sell one of the best deep lying midfielders in the country with a fantastic passing range and who has formed a great partnership with Torreira

        1. Xhaka? One of the best deep-lying midfielders in the country? He is a good passer of the ball, but for my taste, he lacks mobility and defensive skills and awareness.

          We have too many incomplete players in our squad. Replace Xhaka with a DM who is actually mobile and knows how to tackle as well as spot a pass, replace Ozil with a creative midfielder who knows how to hustle, who is physical, scores from time to time and likes the big game occasions and we will have improved our spine immensely.

    1. Terrible? Nowhere near as good as that! Even diabolical doesn’t fully describe him.

      1. Agree with you Jon, no pace, no defensive awareness, no football brain, just the occasional long ball pass. Also, why Unai lets him take corners is mind boggling. Don’t know what Martin’s on.

  2. Can’t contain my excitement Arsenal are in Europa league final yet and then a club is interested in buying Mustafi. Really Arsenal is driving me wild and I’m loving it. Now lets go bring the trophy to the Emirates. Hahahahahahaha

  3. BS!

    Why on earth would Inter be interested in Mustafi? For free maybe..

    ..maybe they need a new janitor?

    1. The interested clubs must be impressed by Mustafi’s tackle and interception stats, which are one of the highest in EPL, as we were impressed by his stats at Valencia in 2016

      There are other things that cannot be measured by stats, hence Arsenal need to be careful next time and they might need to replace their scouts

      1. My sentiment exactly,before we bought him he was not a bad player,maybe the pl doesn,t suit his style,we,ve seen it wie so many players many times before!!he might fare well in Italy or back in Spain!

        1. Well you are right that the Prem does not suit players who are total rubbish, like Mustafi. Apologies to “the total rubbish society” for blackening their name by comparing Mustafi to them. I humbly apologise. He can never be as good as total rubbish.

  4. Do not sell him less than twenty millions

    Most people blame him because of his silly mistakes, but he has got highest interception stat at Arsenal and his tackle stat is just behind Torreira

    I blame Bould and other defending coaches for not being able to improve our defenders, including Bellerin. I know the team need a more dominant CB in the mold of Van Dijk or Koulibaly, but I believe Mustafi would be better if we have better defending coaches

    1. I didn’t realise those stats were so good, but one has to remember that he, like Xhaka, make key errors so many times. I never feel comfortable with those two playing. Cannot believe we spent around £70 million on them.

    2. Agree gotanidea, Steve Bould has got a lot to answer for concerning our defensive frailties.

  5. While Mustafi and Xhaka are the prime examples of the bad decision making which was a feature of the last years of the Wenger era this trend has unfortunately continued in the signings of Kolasinac,Mik,Socratis and Lichsteiner.I just hope those now responsible for acquisitions will be more competent and bring in young players with a good shelf life and the talent to take us to a higher level.As it is, it will not be easy to unload some of these bad buys without taking a hit financially,but they must be moved on quickly if we are to have any chance of mal by the top four next srason.

    1. Spot on Grandad! If we could add Lichsteiner, Jenkinson and Elneny to your list then we’re in with a chance. Can’t really comment on Suarez at this juncture due to his injuries. I haven’t added Iwobi to the list as I STILL THINK he might come good. Wishful thinking maybe?

  6. I actually think this article is a bit harsh. Yes we can criticise our player when he has a bad game but he has played better over the last month, not consistently poor as it says. I agree he needs replacing but he played better when he came on last night than Sokratis did.

    1. Agree article is harsh but I think its called piling on. Both are liabilities in their current form and while I’d rather see new CBs coming in, I’d prefer to keep Mustafi over Socratis.

  7. The Italian giants may be interested in the
    mercurial German but Arsenal must be
    prepared to accept a considerable loss if such
    a transfer comes to fruition this summer. £20M tops for Mustafi unless Emery can convince
    Milan to include Kessie in a player plus cash
    swap. £15M plus the German for Kessie would
    be a shrewd piece of business by Emery and Co. Imho.

    In addition to that possible scenario the
    following players will hopefully be moving on
    this summer.

    Xhaka (£35M)
    Miki (£15M)
    El Neny (£10M)
    Monreal (£10M)
    Ospina (£4M)
    Jenkinson (£3M)
    Lichsteiner (free)

    Approx £77M in player sales, plus CL revenue
    and the Adidas cheddar should result in AFC’s
    summer transfer kitty exceeding £100M

    In this theoretical case let’s say £125M is
    available this summer, would Arsenal fans be
    happy with this collection of new faces?

    F Kessie — £15M (Mustafi swap with Milan)
    N Ake — £35M
    C Under —- £40M
    A Grimaldo —- £30M
    Malcolm — £5M (1 yr loan with otb)

    Each of these potential WC players are 24 or
    younger.

    Auba
    Under….*Laca*….Malcom
    Kessie…Torreria
    Grimaldo…Ake…Boss…HB
    Leno

    *plays slightly behind Auba*

    Youth and athleticism all over the pitch for the
    Gunners

    1. I don’t get to watch that much international football anymore but the little I have seen of Cengiz Under doesn’t warrant 40m pounds. I would be happy to take Reiss Nelson back and give Bukayo Saka a chance in the senior team from next season and then look for another WF that would cost us around 25/30m pounds.
      I would try to get Frenkie De Jong for around 40m pounds.
      We have Rob Holding, Mavropanos and Bieliek from development for the CB position so I don’t see the point of spending a fortune there not unless we are not planning on using one of the aforementioned guys. I would understand a bit if we sold Mustafi or Koscielny or Sokratis otherwise it just doesn’t make sense to spend a fortune there.

      One of the clubs summer objectives should be to lower our wages, we are spending silly wages on underperformers and a lot of them need to be moved on this summer even if it means incentivising them to leave. We must spend some of our transfer budget on getting rid of underperformers.

      1. Frenkie de jongh joined barcelona for 75million euros. We need to trust nelson and smith rowe in the wider areas they can’t be worse than iwobi. Than we can buy a top cb koulibaly is the dream but to expensive. LB grimaldo get ryan fraser if he is cheap and get a centre mid that will replace ramsey. Our strikers are world class and ozil is great if the midfield around him is mobile and technically gifted. Did you see him when cazorla was still here. Xhaka needs to leave

        1. Spot on South African Gunner, I don’t think Ozil is a lost cause. He was good when we still had Santi around, well perhaps getting Dennis Praet and another specialist DMF could possibly get us the Ozil we paid for.

          Xhaka, Mkhi, El Neny and Mustafi need to leave to clear space and wages, Iwobi can go out on loan. I hope Nketiah gets the minutes he deserves in the senior team from next season.

    2. I think you know what you’re talking about ACE but I’d be surprised if we got 35m for Xhaka and 10m for the ageing Monreal

  8. Xhaka shouldnt be sold.
    he has errors in him and against Brighton the ugly errors we thought he has dropped came out at the most critical moment.
    he also lacks mobility
    but we cant ignore his qualities of long range passing, steel in midfield and shots.

    for that reason, although he shouldnt be a starter for a title challenging side , he is good enough to be a bench/squad player.

    we need to sign Rabiot for free then have xhaka n guedouzi as his backups.

    Torreira also needs a backup DM like Ndidi or even Nzonzi.

  9. It would be great if we could sell all the players the manager doesn’t rate. This would give us an insight into his thinking. I for one would love to see Mustafi, Xhaka, Ozil, Mikhi, Elneny and Sokratis and Iwobi go. I fear we might not be able to sell them as easily as some seem to think. This will leave us guessing if the manager actually rates these players or is simply forced to work with them because there are no buyers.

      1. Sokratis and Iwobi are not the worst of the ones I list but Iwobi doesn’t score and we need a scoring threat from our wings and Sokratis might have a great attitude but lacks mobility ans speed as well as a cool head. I would not see him start in any other top 6 team. At least Kos in his prime would have started in some of the other top 6 teams. If we want to move up the table we need a higher caliber defender(s) IMO or invest in our future by giving promising youngsters a starting role.

  10. Before Emery, bad defence. During Emery tenure with new players in defence, still bad defence. Underlining factor is we still have the same defensive coach.

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