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
