Kevin Campbell has urged his former club Arsenal to make wholesale changes this summer, with as many as nine players sold.
The striker spent 10 years at Highbury with our club previously between 1985 and 1995 and remains a fan of the club, but wants to see new boss Mikel Arteta make some big changes in order to return the team to glory.
“Whether we like it or not, money’s going to dictate a lot of what Arsenal do,” Campbell stated in a YouTube interview with AFTV.
“I think there needs to be a ruthless streak going in.
“There’s been a lot of players there who have just sort of done enough and Arteta’s taken over and they’re improving but we know they’re not good enough.
“I think there’s got to be a cull, there’s probably eight players I’ll have out. Eight or nine players.
“I’ll clear the deck. They haven’t been good enough for two, three, four – however many – seasons now.
“We haven’t qualified for the Champions League, if we don’t this year – which I don’t think we are – it’s going to be the third season outside of the Champions League going into the fourth.
“No, there has to be drastic changes and it needs Arteta to be ruthless. If it was me, there’d be eight or nine gone.”
Campbell doesn’t name any players that he would be offloading, but the likes of Shkodran Mustafi, Sead Kolasinac, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Rob Holding and Mesut Ozil could be amongst those who are no longer important to the club moving forward.
We have a wealth of talent coming through, and the above will more than likely find themselves eve further down the pecking order after the current window.
Alexandre Lacazette would be a harsh inclusion in the list, but you could argue that his transfer value outweighs his importance to the team at present, although I feel he still has more to give should he be given the opportunity.
Would you keep any of the above players? Could any of those listed above prove us wrong down the line? Does Arteta have the cut-throat attitude needed to make such wholesale changes?
Patrick
Bellerin. Lacca
Mustafi. Nelson
Sead. Amn
Xakai
Elneney
Ozil
Sell above….
Agree on all apart from Mustafi who i believe is currently our best cb. Holding cant even get a game so it would be better to sell/loan him out and retain the german
Anyone who properly engages their brain before writing will easily understand that all bets areoff as to any comings or goings. The FIRST and probably absent requirememne twilbe MONEY. And money will be almost entirely unavailable save to a small handful of clubs,our own NOT among them.
Without serious doubt, I imagine we can all agree on at least six players we urgently need to shift and most of us would prefer perhaps nine or ten, but WANTING is NOT achieving. That needs a market and a market needs two participants and both participants need available money. And that, my fully engaged brain tells me, is going to be extremely difficult for most clubs , verging on impossible.
Only free transfers and loans will be plentiful, Actual permanent purchases will be few and far between, amounting to around perhaps 1% of all Patricks constant torrent of rumours on here.
Nice one, good advice
Agree with Jon.
As opposed to vast amounts of money changing hands, I can see much “wheeling & dealing” taking place – makeweights in deals, loans and the like.
A prime example could be the Lacca / Party situation.
Not the ideal window for a rebuild – or is it ?
Think Lacca. / Party
Spurious repeat of “Think Lacca / Party”.
Cabin fever !
Keep Kolasinac and Özil.
Offload the rest.
Campbell clearly does not appreciate the financial implications of the Pandemic on the Global economy which will of course include the business which we know as Association Football..Clean transfers will be few and far between and certainly not within the financial compass of Arsenal.The decks do need to be cleared before we can look forward with more optimism, but next season we will have to persevere with a number of of our poor performers if indeed we are able to play at all.
Absolutely Grandad
Depending on how long remains in their contracts, there a few who will be happy to rake in a more than decent salary even if the 12.5% cut is included
I will love to see this players out.
Elneny
Sokratis
Mkhitaryan
Ozil
Mustafi
Xhaka