Shkrodan Mustafi arrived at Arsenal as the third-most expensive defender of all time when we paid Valencia a rumoured 35m GBP for the German international, but has he ever performed for us at a top level?
In Wenger’s last season, we saw many comical errors from our defenders with Mustafi being at fault regularly, and Le Prof told us that he was lacking in confidence. Despite our hopes that Emery would improve him our defence has looked like a shambles when he plays, and after the Man City debacle Jamie Carragher made it clear what he thought of him. He said: “Stephan Lichtsteiner is not good enough.
“Maybe you could argue that’s because of his age, and the fella next to him Shkodran Mustafi has never been good enough since the day he walked through the door and that’s why all the goals came down there.
“To see Arsenal defend like that really, there’s a big job here for Unai Emery to do.”
Now a report in the Sun has suggested that Emery will be putting Mustafii on the market in the summer as he desperately tries to raise funds to improve our diabolical defensive record which has seen us concede 36 goals in our 25 League games so far.
I don’t know whether the rumour is true, and I’m not sure how much we would raise if we sold him, but do you think we should just rid of him once and for all?
Darren N
He’s not good enough to start for us if we want to challenge the Top teams. Actually none of our CBs are. Sokratis, Holding, Chambers are not good enough. Koscielny used to be AWESOME. But he has lost a lot with age. Haven’t seen enough of Mavrapanos to judge.
We need two quality CBs and 2 quality midfielders minimum
Sell Mustafi and limit our loses
Sell other players to raise funds
Problem is KROENKE and MONEY
So blunt, but I agree with you on the CBs
Chambers is more suitable to play as a DM and we don’t need more midfielders because there are many of them
The problem is Mustafi’s price could be low, since he didn’t do well at Valencia and is inconsistent at Arsenal
not many billionaires are willing to fork out their own money apart from the Arab (City) and Russian (Chelsea)…..
However both City and Chelsea have gone quiet with limited spending
tottenham has no money to spend
Utd tooo has a budget and limited finances last summer window
Liverpool’s owner the most generous among the non Arabs and Russians……but the owner don’t spend big….they rely on their merchandise, player sales and occasion limited funding from their owner (probably less than or around the 50m mark)….
“However both City and Chelsea have gone quiet with limited spending” Yeah, I guess the literal billion they’ve spent on their club is actually a very limited amount.
Their own money John? Don’t know about that. Chelsea’s Russian money, City’s United Arab Emirates money, Paris Saint Germain’s Qatari money, Real Madrid’s Spanish money. As Arsene Wenger once said “when countries start owning football clubs the game’s finished
Holding isn’t good enough? Shows how many games you’ve watched this season (before he got injured).
To be honest i have given up on petr chek, ospina, jenks, chambers, leno, lich, mustafi, kos, socrates, kola, elneny, xhaka, ozil, welbeck, bould, juan, emery, sten. Doom and gloom at present, waiting to see a ray of light at the end of the dark tunnel.
The whole team is not good?
Then you wait till eternity for that change you want.
He is the 1st that should be shown the door alomg with a few others, maybe get 15-20m for him if we are lucky. Replace him with an exp head & Mavraponas, Chambers & Holding are the young guns. Koss & Socratis the Exp we need.
Bellerin will be back along with the other 2 in the summer but Leichsteiner will be gone on a free alomg with Cech retiring so both need replaced bit we dont have the funds. Cb, Rb & GK…. Thats the summer budget gone already.
Defence is no1 priority along with a winger… maybe the Benramhi from Porto on a free would be better than Iwobi. Rabiot AGAIN free from PSG to replace Ramsey is the only business we will do im afraid as we have no money from a miserable old yank who runs the CLUB.
Smith Rowe, Beilik, Nelson & Martinez (GK) all to return in the summer who need to playing in the main squad if thsybare to realise their potetnial at Arsenal.
Interesting to see what happens but wouldnt be getting my hopes up. Top4 or Europa winners will be the only way we spend to help Unai as he will get none from above. No wonder Mislaint is leaving.
Rabiot’s playing style is similar to Guendouzi’s. Prefer a powerful box-to-box CM like Ndombele that looks a more complete package to accompany a good DM
Ndombele’s playing style reminds me of Vieira’s and Ashley Cole said Vieira is the best midfielder he ever played with:
youtube.com/watch?v=MSfDTg4hQk4
Ndombele is one of the greatest young talents
in Europe but AFC dont have a snowballs chance
in hell of signing him this summer. His price
tag has been rumored by Lyon to be anywhere
from £50 to £90M and will likely end up @ PSG
or City when it’s all said and done.
This summer will be very interesting, for it AFC
are unable to move on Mustafi, Ozil, Miki, El
Neny and Jenko and address the glaring issues
at CB, winger and RB than Emery will be facing
a massive challenge to keep the club in
Europa contention for next year.
Sad, sad state of affairs in North London
Summer clear out raise some funds, reduce the wage bill, bring in the kids and buy some quality.
Personally I think only 4 players are good enough to be guaranteed starters next season bellerin, torreira, Lacazette, aubameyang. Guendozi has the potential as do holding mavropanos smith-rowe and nelson. Based on that I would start the season with this x1 if we do not make any new signings
Leno
Bellerin holding mavropanos kola
Smith-rowe torreira Guendozi nelson
Lacazette aubameyang
Martinez, Sokratis, chambers, niles, iwobi, mkhitaryan, nketiah
Rest of squad iliev, Osei-tutu, Pleguzuelo, medley, bielik, willock, amaechi, saka
I would sell/release the following
Cech, ospina, macey, Jenkinson, lichsteiner, koscielny, mustafi, Monreal, bramall, zelalem, elneny, xhaka, Ramsey, ozil, asano, welbeck
We could raise somewhere between £75-100m with those sales not to mention the huge wage saving.
Cech, Monreal, Ramsay, Welbeck, Jenkinson are leaving on a free transfer
Eleney is likely to leave
the rest are worth very minimal and most of them have 1 year left in the contract……..
We have 7 experience players from the 25 man squad leaving the squad for free….that will be a issue….considering there is only 40m to spend in the summer
We need to spend heavily in defence this transfer season.
I think our wingers could come from within – Reiss, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah. I think all 3 are as talented as Rashford and look how he has performed when given the opportunity
With 40m to spend there is not much choice in the market available for heavy spending
Reiss, Smith Rowe and Nketiah are better off going on a season loan to gain valuable first team football rather than warming the bench….
I’d prefer to buy another center back with quality like Sokratis so both will play solid together and Mavropanos is for backup on the bench..
And also buy DM like Matic to replace Xhaka, and he will be play together with Torreira.. (Xhaka is okay for backup on the bench).
With those choice, I am very optimistic that our defense will be much better and solid…
He should be sold please, I’ve said twice now, best thing Emery can do is to take the Wenger’s transfer route because the board will never leave over 100 millions for him to sign his players, what Wenger did was to sell players he doesn’t need, therefore raising additional money for himself, you can we say we spent on Lacazette and PEA but do the statistics, the players we sold and how much Wenger raised, if you minus the amount of players we sold, you’d see Wenger had little to spend on those players.
It’s what Emery should do, Sell whoever he doesn’t want, to raise additional money
LETS DONATE THESE USELESS PLAYERS TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP CLUBS
TIME TO BE RUTHLESS
One thing I do know is we won’t make a profit that’s for sure! We won’t even recoup what we paid for him!
Out of the whole team you can count on one hand the players we would make a profit from (If they were to be sold) a sorry state of affairs
If it’s true manager has only 40 million to spend in the summer then that’s a absoulute disgrace I will no longer put money in that yanks pocket and will not renew my season ticket enough is enough the club has become a laughing stock and I am not going to miss out on anything as we will never challenge for premier league or qualify for the champions league will just stay as a top 6 clubs if we’re lucky!!
Dan-think carefully mate.By not renewing your season ticket will not harm Kronke at all as there are 45,000 on a waiting list to snap it up.Use your hatred of the man to protest INSIDE the ground.It WILL happen.Kronke might believe he is untouchable but he will be shocked to the core at what is coming to him.
As I’ve said countless times Wenger was visibly upset at the hatred directed towards him last season.And this from. Manager who had done miracles at the Club.Kronke is HATED.He was always HATED.He will always be HATED.
Get yourself inside the ground next season and take your anger out on the one who deserves it-KRONKE
Oh Phil. how I admire your optimism about how relatively easy you believe it would be to oust Kroenke. As you know though I do NOT remotely share it, though I wish with all my heart and soul that I could. I just see things totally differently about how shocked Kroenke will be. Firstly he is several thousand miles away and though he will of course be aware of it, he has faced worse in his other franchises and survived; secondly he has not a heart or any regard for our club , our fans or our future success. I know you agree with this last point as you have several times said as much. And of course it is true. Billionaires are not like normal people with a heart and a soul. Wenger for all his managerial faults remains a humane and decent person, with compassion, human kindness and many other proper human qualities. He is TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM KROENKE, who would not even notice demos, until the attendances substantially and regularly declined. THERE ARE ALREADY MANY REGULAR EMPTY SEATS DESPITE THE REGULAR LIES ABOUT ATTENDANCE. That continuing to decline and rapidly accelerating to further decline and for a long time ahead too is our ONLY hope of forcing this scumbag out. Demos just let off personal steam. No more than that. I will never be less than truthful to my own opinions. I pray you are right and I am wrong. BUT I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT!
Jon-it may all be hyperthatical.Kronke may just surprise us and actually put a decent transfer kitty on the table for Emery to work with.But I wouldn’t wish to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
But I do feel that the fans voice will be heard.By continually protesting against Kronke the whole atmosphere will be as toxic as it was against Wenger.Sponsors and advertisers do not like this publicity and this will come back on Kronke.
They say there is no such thing as bad publicity but clearly that is wrong.A full Emirates Stadium can make its feelings known if it wants to.The BSM will again come forward to organise th3 protests and as I have said previously,it was Wengers long standing and respect that without doubt prevented the full force of protest being as effective as it could have been.Kronke will never have that respect.
Interesting times Jon.Its been coming as we all know.Now it’s all on Kronke.
Well Phil, I truly wish you every good luck; of course I do and so will all Gooners. It is better thn nothing and you never know what it may lead to even though I am pessimistic in it ousting Kroenke. But if we can far exceed the campaign against WENGER IT IS BOUND TO LEAD TO FURTHER ABSENCES AND THERE ARE ALREADY MANY EMPTY SEATS AGAINST ALL THE LESSER TEAMS, WHATEVER LIES THE CLUB PUTS OUT ABOUT ATTENDANCE. The good old British media will scent blood and give regular publicity to such a campaign. It needs some several people to start it though with banners, marches, demos, planes, like last season too. And who knows what it may eventually lead to. God how I HOPE IT SUCCEEEDS. I cannot possibly write in a public forum what I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO HAPPEN TO THIS “PERSON.”
Having seen him in action for Valencia I could not believe Wenger could comprehend paying £35m for him.I have highlighted his failings on a regular basis because as long as he plays our defence will never improve.The arrival of the hapless Lichsteiner has merely compounded our problems and the sooner they are both shown the door the better.The problem is our Management will have to resign themselves to taking a big hit on Mustafi as no one in their right mind would consider paying more than say £10m for him at best.He will sadly be remembered as one of the worst buys of the Wenger era.
The time to give up on Mustafi is NOT NOW! Though it certainly would be if we had an owner who cared a damn! It should have been BEFORE we made the disastrous decision to waste approx £35 mill on a rash, mistake ridden, rubbish player who is probably our worst ever CB who has been a regular for so long. We have had a very FEW worse still, like Gus Caesar but NONE who were regulars for so disastrously long. How any manager, even the unfairly maligned Emery, is supposed to make this piece of rubbish into a proper defender is way beyond sense! Frankly, I aged 68, have more chance of becoming a Blue Peter presenter! Right now though, thanks to Scrooge KROENKE, we have no other choice than to at least keep this twerp in the two or three to pick from. And THAT, along with several others hardly any better, is the main reason why this so called “defence” is the worst since Billy Wrights, back in the 1960’s. Our defence has been substandard in quality and number for perhaps ten years now and gets worse and worse each season. The “DEFENCE”- a misnomer if ever I saw one – was 90% of the reason I passionately craved Wengers sacking way, way back. IT WAS HE, GAZIDIS AND KROENKE WHO TOGETHER WERE TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SHAMBOLIC AND EMBARRASSING FARCE WE ARE NOW HAVING TO SUFFER. WEEKLY. The many unfair Gooners many on here, who falsely blame Emery are out of touch with all reality. HE has not wasted £70 mill on such diabolically useless types such as Mustafi and Xhaka. Has he!!!!