There are a number of players being linked with moves away from Arsenal at present, but how many of them could be difficult amidst the uncertainty?
Hector Bellerin appears to be in agreement with the club that a change would be best for all involved, and with him appearing amongst the leaders in the group, I would be shocked if he was to cause any issues.
Alex Lacazette and Willian have both been involved in the pre-season thus far, and despite appearing open to moves, it is the North London side who appear most keen on a break-up. As the window draws down, they could well become unhappy toward the end of the window if their future hasn’t been arranged, but I still don’t personally believe either would cause any disruption in training. That being said, if moves are not arranged for them, that could well hamper our transfer plans.
Sead Kolasinac is another who has been involved in pre-season also, and actually looked pretty sharp against Hibernian in our opening friendly of the summer. We allowed him to leave on loan in January despite not having sufficient backup, and with Nuno Tavares having arrived you would be shocked if this one dragged on really. I imagine he would be allowed to leave on the cheap, or an agreement could well be found to allow him to leave for free or on loan, and I don’t see him becoming an issue for the rest of the squad either.
Alex Runarsson has played no part in pre-season, but his move to Altayspor is believed to have broken down over a loan fee. While he has shown no inclination to being a problem, he can’t be particularly happy with his current role, and I’m yet to notice him training with the first-team squad.
Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson all have seemingly less certain futures. According to reports, you would believe that all are available possible departees, but I’m not sure the reports are true where the former pair are concerned. Willock is supposedly set to play a role under Arteta this season according to the manager, and while Nketiah looks likely to lose some of his minutes to Folarin Balogun, the Spaniard has reiterated on numerous occasions that he is a fan. Knowing our homegrown quota isn’t in the best shape, I wouldn’t be overly consistent that all four of those were to leave.
Granit Xhaka is another strongly linked with a move, and for me he could be the one to cause the biggest stir. According to Fabrizio Romano, he has agreed terms on a move to Roma, but Arsenal are refusing to back down on their asking price, and the Swiss international could grow frustrated with the situation.
He’s not one to shy away from controversy, and you will recall him shouting abuse at the fans previously, and should this continue to rumble on motionlessly, we may find ourselves best suited to just lower our demands…
Do you expect any of the above to cause issue this summer? How many of the ten are you certain will be leaving in the current window?
Patrick
No one wants to buy Runarsson, so hopefully loan.
Xhaka sold to Roma.
Nelson, Willock and Nketiah new contracts and off to loan.
Willian, AMN, Kola and Laca hopefully sold.
Use Bellerin as sweetener + cash for Lautaro (this is a loooong shot anyways).
Yes. We can’t let uncertainty ruin our pre-season, so Arsenal had better stop all transfer activities on August 15th
I predict Xhaka, Nketiah, Kolasinac, Runarsson, Nelson, Elneny and Lacazette will leave
Nketiah and Elneny both playing well against Watford in today’s game so far.
Our new players playing well too.
Nice goal from Eddie. Lokonga having a good game
Elneny gifted the goal!
I missed it!!
@Gai
Yes Arteta and Edu should be more proactive in their deals this window. It only makes sense for new signings to join others for pre season. Transfers don’t always have to wait till the last days.
Nkethia seem to be turning up in pre serson than Auba and Folarin. Though I am unsure of his capacity when season starts. With a good creative midfielder I think we should keep Lacazette for a season more. Others.can go
As predicted, Nketiah looks better on the left wing, where he doesn’t have to do hold-up play in the pre-season games. I liked his positional rotation with Aubameyang, because it made the opposition’s CBs unable to man-mark them
If Nkethia stays where will Martinelli play.? Arsena seem to have too many forwards that won’t be guaranteed playing time. Players simply needs to be moved on. Hope Edu finds a solution in time. Now Pep have picked form what of Bukayo Saka. Arteta is going to be in a dilemma with his team selection.
A season lasts 38 games and the first 4 or 5 (or even more) don’t necessarily define the season (ask man city) getting the right players in is still key especially for us given that we have a serious stock problem which always takes longer to adjust
Similar to the list of “possible” arrivals in this summer transfer window, this list of “outgoings” are based on pure speculations created by the pundits and fans. None of the above mentioned players will cause any issue for their current employer or themselves as long as they are not forced into making a decision against their wishes. It all depends on how the management wish to handle the situation. No one can predict who may or may not move, until the transfer window slams shut.
Wow great goal by Nketiah
Nice goal just scored by Nketiah
1-1😳
Another 4-1??
We can hope Sue.
Lot’s of half time changes. Pepe and Lacazette on.
Patrick It is not the players themselves who are likely to play up but the simple fact that until we offload most of those we wish to go, we will surely not be bringing in the replacements and THAT is the key point that matters.
We have somewhere between 6 and 10 we wish to leave, some on a free and some to sell.
But we can be sure our club will NOT be starting the season with a squad of thirty plus players and with the homegrown quotas issue to worry about.
Covid and its financial effect on ALL CLUBS EVERYWHERE is the real problem we face and far less so individual leavers causing trouble.
Enjoy the game everyone. I have to go out unfortunately.
Laca pen. Sent the goalie the wrong way.
Cross from ESR, Tierney wallop. 3-1.
I’ll tell you what will hamper preparations for the upcoming season, having the must unsettled roster in European football with just over 2 weeks left before the opening weekend…just another longstanding issue this club has failed to properly address for well over a decade…we simply can’t afford to have any more built-in excuses, especially after wasting a whole season with Arteta’s short-sighted “retooling” experiment…that is why it was imperative that we prioritized our most pressing issues early in the window, which we haven’t, so that we could hit the ground running…now it’s looking more and more like we’re going to be a scrambling 11th hour sloppy mess once again…until we fundamentally change the way in which we conduct ourselves, we will continue to struggle both on and off the pitch…like they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results…right now, we’re the organizational equivalent of Wenger’s malfunctioning zipper
Azeez curler from Pepe Corner.
Chuffed for Azeez!
Partey played well – going to be a beast this season..
Azeez against Walford Sue 😜
Great goal, Kev! Cojones galore!! 😂
Haha I haven’t seen it yet but looking forward to watching it later 😄 will ben white make his debut in the mind series Sue ? 😄
With his announcement imminent, I reckon so, Kev – looking forward to it.
Thought we’d have seen more departures by now..
Great final score prediction Sue, spot on!
🙂👍
Watford?
Kev’s ripping it out of me because I typed ‘Walford’ 🤣
Nice goal from Azeez Laca could have had a couple more but I’m pretty excited when it comes to Pépé this season might finally be “it” for him 20 plus goals!
Partey , lokonga, ESR …these trio will be the talk of the season…hope our strikers hit top form too….
Lacazette – 20 Epl goals
Pepe – 15 Epl goals
Saka – 10 Epl goals
Aubameyang – 15 Epl goals
Smith – 10 Epl goals
The Rest – 10 Epl goals
Total – 80 Epl goals
If these players can be productive at the attacking end of the pitch, it will give us a top 6 finish.
My lineup for the season when everyone is fit will be –
Lacazette.
Saka. Smith. Pepe.
Lokonga. Partey.
Tierney. Gabriel. White. Cedric.
S.J, if no other players come in, that is about the best one could expect. Maybe Calum Chambers at RB, instead of Cedric Soares.
Let there be no any worrying shown by us. For, I believe the combination of Arteta, Edu and Carrick will sort out the outgoings issue at the club this summer window before it’s shut, in such a way as if the issue was not there. Which will leave us to wonder as to how Arsenal were able to take care of such a pressing issue with ease as if there wasn’t an issue at Arsenal.
Will our plans be affected? If the Arsenal hierarchy are truly serious about our ambitions, then, no, it shouldn’t make a difference. If we were to follow a ‘sell before buy’ policy out of the window we would be buggered. There are players we need to get off the wage bill, and we mustn’t lose deals by insisting on unrealistic prices – leave that nonsense to Daniel Levy.