After Arsene Wenger’s comments last week that the Arsenal fans should not be expecting many new arrivals during the summer, it has created conundrum about where he will be getting the replacements for Tomas Rosicky, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini for starters, before we even think about the necessary striker and DM that have been needed for quite a while.
It appears to me that Le Prof is going to be looking for some new Iwobi’s in the reserve side that can slot smoothly into the first team, having been schooled in the ‘Arsenal Way’. Iwobi shot himself into the spotlight with a brilliant end to last season in the reserves, and it looks like Serge Gnabry is trying to emulate the Nigerian international this season, after having had a fruitless time out on loan at West Brom.
Gnabry played for the Gunners first team a couple of seasons ago but was interrupted by injury, but he feels like he had a wasted loan period but has now scored in his last two games for the Under 21s. “It feels good,” Gnabry said today. “I’m getting back to full fitness after the loan at West Brom where I didn’t get a chance. I’m finally getting to play and it feels good to be getting fitter and fitter.
“I have played in the last couple of weeks, improving my fitness and doing well in training. If you work hard in training and do things right, you get rewarded on the pitch.”
“That has been happening, and I’m happy to have scored twice in my past two games. When you come down a level from the first team, you have to use your experience to help the Under-21s and give them your advice.
“That is what all the first-team players do for the Under-21s. All of the youngsters are good players and look good in training. They have the best education here at Arsenal and there will be loads of them that reach the top level.”
If he carries on like this he is nailed on to be one of Wenger’s “like a new signing”s for next season. Jack Wilshere will certainly be another having missed the whole of this season. Chris Willock has also been hotly tipped to be the ‘next big thing’ from the Academy. Jeff Reine-Adelaide has also been a first team reserve many times this season and is expected to step up in the next campaign.
If Wenger brings all these through to the first team, then there won’t be much room for new signings, will there?
Even a feel good article like this one doesn’t make me exited….im depressed about this season…I still support my team but I’m shattered….It hurts more because my hopes were so high halfway through the season…somebody needs to take responsibility for this.
I am sorry the season has come off this terribly for us. I am to be blamed for every mess.
Yes, F u Kickass 🙁 🙁
No but seriously, we hated RVP for leaving. Not because he wanted more than what Arsene could offer, but because he chose manu (which looking back at, lies more on Wenger’s shoulders for accepting the bid in the first place). Given they don’t go to rivals, would we blame any star player in our team for wanting to leave this mess of a club? I wont. In fact, seeing how I suspect we will be utter crap the next years to come as well, I hope for their own good that Özil, Sanchez and Cazorla (++) leaves for a chance to actually achieve something in the remainder of their careers.
Alternatively, the players themselves might demand the star players Wenger most likely promised them as he lured them to Arsenal.
Or – how about we the fans help fund Dangote for buying out Kroenke?
RVP left because he could get more money elsewhere and Wenger let him go because he had less than a year left on his contract and 25 million now is better than 0 nine months later.
Arsenal cannot afford to pay its players 200,000 a week. Man U can. he other issue is, Man U players earn more money in endorsements and outside income, because they are at Man U.
RVP did not leave because he hated the club or didn’twant to play for Arsene Wenger. He left because his salary went form 90,000 per week to 200,000 per week. Hating a player for that is silly. There isn’t a person anywhere who wouldn’t go work for his employer’s most hated rival for double the money.
Ofc arsenal can afford to pay players 200k per week. Kroenke cant. You think RVP left because of money? No. He said himself in his statement that he left due to a disagreement of ambitions between himself and the board, which by now seems completely possible. The fact that manu paid him 200k/w only implies they had the ambition of having the best striker in the league to participate in winning the league for them.
Ofcourse we can afford paying players 150k+ per week, just look at how incredible salaries the useless players of ours are recieving. Players of the same quality earn far less, and with that there are loads of extra funds for world class players. The difference in wage bills between Arsenal and manu is less than £12M per year, which is about 6% of manu’s wages £(203M vs £192M)
New pLayers + OLd manager + Un-ambitious board = Another wasted season
(with the Akbs as cataLysts)
Soo pa. Stop talking rubbish. Explain how arsenal fans are catalysts for a bad season? If you start insulting everyone by calling everyone who disagrees with you an akb you will be moderated. We are all arsenal fans not Arsene fans. I will have no problems banning everyone again if every post becomes an insult wenger free for all
The title of this article should not be:
‘Let’s discuss Arsenal’s new players next season’
it should be:
‘Let’s discuss Arsenal’s new manager next season’
Hoped admin will help keep Wenger out as he has blocked me for the last couple of months. Budd ,,,,,thanks to your maker for you have seen the crap in Wenger now. Am soo frustrated than anyone now.
Some of the abuse directed by Wenger has just been over-the-top. It’s basically like blaming the poor performance of a machine on the machine itself, and not the engineer or manufacturer who made it. Wenger is hired by & works for Arsenal… If we have a problem, I think it should be directed to Kroenke and Arsenal FC, who secured his services, and not Wenger! Even if he’s been messing up, I’m of the belief that the first person hurt by a loss is actually the one who actually loses, and not the fan.
“Asking for change isn’t wrong…
Asking while insulting, mocking and disrespecting the man who gave his 20 years to our club, certainly is”
@sevenitti
Who died?
@sevenitti
So why the crude analogy?
Very crude indeed. Give an inch…..
I think sevenitti will be moderated until he starts talking sense about football
“insulting, mocking and disrespecting the man who gave his 20 years to our club, certainly is”
What does 20 years in charge have to say about him deserving more respect than we give him? An arrogant fool is still an arrogant fool, even though he has a past of something else. Did you read the article “A lifelong Arsenal season-ticket holder’s journey to disillusionment”?
Hahaha ? Yes… Poor old Wenger…
20 year’s and what has he got to show for it? ?
£150 million ?… plus whatever he received in Bonuses!
And what about the poor fan’s? ?
The machine in this case would be the players. Wenger would be the engineer, and the mechanic would be Shad Forsythe (or Colin Lewin, the head of medical services). The driver who also gives daily care of the engine is Wenger. Our problem is that a decent to good machine with clear faults from development (engineer’s fault) is being driven by a man who has surpassed his best days years ago, and who tends the machine by out dated methods. The result is poor quality output from the machine (players dont perform as they should), a machine that breaks down more than it should (players are more frequently injured) and due to the poor development of the machine, it has its obvious weak spots (it is easy to find a tactic that will neutralize us)
One could say that the engineer was given a rather low budget by his boss for creating this machine, but he himself lives for building machines on a low budget. It’s the only thing he knows.
So yes, you are absolutely right about claiming we shouldnt blame the machine itself for not performing.
Discuss the real problem at the club(ownership, management and board) not fantasy wishes!
I think the big question is: What will happen before Arsene either sits up or bows out?
The only way we can get a good DM is if he is also a good B2B player like Xhaka or if there is one in the Academy or free signing because Wenger will not spend big on a DM.
As for a top striker, I don’t see Wenger getting one unless he gets rid of one or two of the following Theo, Ox, Giroud, Campbell, Iwobi, Welbeck, Akpom
I am sure he will say, like last summer, that we have plenty of strikers. That would be actually be a true statement, but he would be hypocritical because he is always talking about Quality over Quantity.
Get set for another miserable summer. He may get one WC player but will still fall short of what’s needed to win the Title, as usual
In my opinion we require CF, DM, CB and RB.
yawn
they wont be ready, they will show glimpses
suddenly every player will emerge like iwobi lol..
hes exciting but is not near ready as he makes mistakes you cant at the highest level, naturally hes great going forward but thats not enough
interesting fact for us to chew…
which team this season have….
scored the most
have best defensive record
top goalscorer and this bugs me alot..
the youngest team in the league?
thats right…the spuds
…they deserve it more than leicester whos tactics this season no matter how hollywood there story have been annoying, diving constant shirt pulling in the box refs have been so poor with them
its win win ….
leicester means we can rejoice in spuds not getting it
spuds win it our fans will blow a gasket an it will put pressure on club, things may change (an thats a very miniscule may)
Cannot imagine what will become of me if the Fighting Cock lifts the trophy.
I know one person who will not care less if it’s the Spuds or Leicester or any other team than Arsenal team lifting the trophy.
And that’s Wenger. I suspect next summer going something like this:
– Wenger buys few decent players early so it looks like we have decent team
– Özil or Sanchez will be sold
– Aforementioned will not be replaced at all, maybe Gnabry will be promoted but that’s it
Just like it went when RVP left. Or it can go like this:
– Wenger won’t do anything than giving extensions to Flamini, Arteta, Rosicky… maybe resign Diaby
– Özil or Sanchez hands in a transfer request and will be sold in August
– PANIC BUY TIME! On the last day of the transfer window, cash will be spent on mid-quality players like Arteta, Mertesacker, Benayoun, CHU LEE PARK (or whatever his name was)
Another alternative is that the star players are given incredible salaries just to stay, no new players coming in to replace the players with contracts expiring (due to raised salaries and wenger wanting to ‘give the youth a chance’)
Walcott will stay
Giroud will stay
Gabriel and Mertesacker will stay
Wenger will stay
another stillborn season.
@muffdiver
RealTalk.
Spur deserve more credit than LC. They fought long and hard on more than one front, and are still commanding respect, by playing damn good football…
Whoever wins it, deserves it!
It means you fought to accumulate more points than the remaining 19 teams.
I think we will see another nightmare transfer window.
Last time wenger changed his plans because of bellerin coquelin and monreal.
This time he might alsi use the rise of iwobi as a reason.
Whilst also pointing out at el neny and hoping that jenkinson has a future with us
There are some very interesting prospects ready to step up soon enough, I cant wait to see how they’ll turn out with a couple of seasons behind them. Just a pity that they aren’t already 23 or more years of age. Iwobi case is great to see, I’m pretty sure Adelaide will follow suit, two very exciting players. Willock, Zelalem, Bielik and Crowley must not be too far behind. I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Also, can’t believe Crowley is eighteen already, needs to bulk up a little but I hope the praise for him is not the usual wonder kid BS. Am expecting big things from Donyell Malen too, Ajax academy and future Dutch international and all.
I think we’ll be getting a striker for sure, before the WHam game Wenger spoke about possible signings. He said that they are working right now on bringing people in. That isn’t like Wenger to admit to. Usually he’d say we are only concentrating on the season ahead as there’s still games to play so his focus is entirely on the next opponent. I believe it’s true, there will be allot of activity in the next window by everyone because of the new money and also because of the manager changes. We have no option other than to try and get talks going early.
I believe there’s truth to the Xhaka talks but he’s not the no1 CM target in my opinion, I think we’re opening negotiations because he’s a fall back option, but we want them to believe he’s a priority, thus opening the talks. Striker, I think it’s a certainty that we’ll get one, how good he’ll be I couldn’t say. If I was put on the spot Id say Benzema, but is he worth 40m?. Maybe we’ll try a thirty odd bid. I am sure we’ll be getting one though.
Now there is the added uncertainty that Sanchez and Ozil could force a move if a good offer comes in for them,
Rumours suggest that they won’t extend their contracts unless Wenger shows some intent by signing afew class player’s.
Personally, what with Wenger hinting of introducing afew youth player’s into the first team, I doubt that he will sign more than one class player, unless of course he sells a few players first… Eg…. Walcott and The Ox etc etc.
Who knows.. Things could get even more interesting if we fail to qualify for next season’s champions league and if the abuse keeps getting stronger towards Wenger, I reckon that he will step down at the end of the season.
there were times when i think what it would be like to be a arsenal fan without Wenger on it was frightening to consider. but now looking at the team on the way they play.no energy are movement off the ball running behind.why are. we so surprise the evidence was there all along. were playing bad all season .we as fan are to be blame too we alow Wenger to brainwash a lot of us makeing us believe players like coquelin bellerein Ramsey. ox Wolcott is good enough to play for arsenal when there are lots off better players out there t improve the team now come iwobi who next.all along at the back of my mind i tough Liverpool spurs man u were better than us
i remember a time when next season was never mentioned before the current season ended . but i have noticed that over the past ten years or so that we arsenal fans are always looking forward to next season . to me that is utter desperation and nothing else.no other fans look forward to the new season like us gunners , we are obsessed with a new season , a new promise , yes we will do better than last . but we never do better , do we ?. it has come down to this that we have to be thinking ahead all the time , months ahead .i wish we had the old times back again when all we had to worry about was who we would draw in the next round of the cup !.we are being forced to look ahead to next season already because of such a disastrous season this time around .i find this all very sad ,we should be enjoying the current season regardless of our plight . but we are totally obsessed with who we are going to probably purchase next term , if we are lucky . it all depends on who the board and wenger pick . nothing to do with us fans as we all know .i will not be surprised in the least if we have a quiet summer transfer window , after all wenger believes in the players that he already has in his clutches.neither do i thin that it will make one bit of difference to us who we might sign . i dont think many top class players wants to make the journey to the emirates . after all most great players have a favourite position on the pitch , they dont like to be reassigned by a manager who lacks in todays knowledge and know how.maybe we might get a couple of players from the lower leagues this summer , lets wait and see .
I disagree that we never do better. Two FA Cups in a row is good. The league title is better, but the cup is a worthy trophy. It might save Louis van Gaal’s job. It will definitely save Roberto Martinez.
Wow! So, in TWELVE years, we’ve won ONE trophy, TWICE in a row. Out of a possible FOUR. Consistently crashed out of the CL at round of 16/qf stages, gotten beat at different levels by mid to lower table opposition, and gotten whooped by all the other big teams. Meanwhile, both Wigan, and Birmingham, two clubs whose squads were at both times worth just about a FRACTION of our squad’s total value, and whose wage budgets were – well, you can imagine. To top all of that, Chelsea wins the CL, with a team of leaders and fighters, and nearly ALL the top teams, bar Liverpool, have won the Epl at least ONCE in the last FIVE years – not to mention the other trophies. Man, we’ve had such wonderful success, innit?
*Meanwhile, both Wigan and Birmingham also managed to beat us to trophies in that same period*
Arsenal is not going to sign 9 new players, 6 new players, or even 4 new players. Neither is the team going to sell Olivier Giroud, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, and Aaron Ramsey.
They might not keep Tomas Rosicky, Mikel Arteta, and Mathieu Flamini, but even predicting all three of these players will go is a long shot. They might all go, but it could be one or two, not all three.
If all three do go, Arsenal have some young players in Jon Toral who had a great year at Birmingham, Chuba Akpom who had a mixed year at Hull, and Gideon Zelalem who did very well for Rangers. There’s also Wellington, Jenkinson, and Szczesny coming back.
Based on the previous three years, it seems logical and rational to expect at least one world class signing (Wenger brought in Ozil, Sanchez, and Cech in the last three summers) and at least one or two squad players (Elneny, Gabriel, Ospina, Debuchy) this summer.
If one of the core players were to move on; Ramsey, Walcott, or Chamberlain; you could see more signings, but that seems out of character. Teams that make a lot of signings tend to struggle, especially in the early season, to integrate them into the team. People have a lot more fun creating false expectations then blaming the club for not meeting them. If Gooners really want to think about what the team will look like next year, envision two new players and two youngsters.
A possible starting XI (my own fantasy Arsenal team)
Petr Cech
Kieran Gibbs, Gabriel Paulista, Laurent Koscielny, Hector Bellerin
N’golo Kante, Jack Wilshire
Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck
Pierre-Emerick Aubemayeng
This is a realistic signing pair given Arsenal’s resources, Wenger’s approach to gradual reshaping of the team, who is realistically available, and a team that I think can win the title.
My squad players would be: Szczesny, Nacho Monreal, Calum Chambers, Aymeric Laporte Carl Jenkinson, Jon Toral, Francis Coquelin, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gedion Zelalem, Chuba Akpom, Mathieu Flamini, Santi Cazorla, Alex Iwobi, Olivier Giroud, Daniel Crowley, Stefan O’Connor, Isaac Hayden, Krystian Bielik
This would mean selling three players in addition to releasing or not resigning Arteta and Rosicky. Campbell, Ramsey and Walcott would all go. I base this on their transfer value versus the glut Arsenal have at their positions. Ramsey is a terrific player, but he does not play fast enough for Arsenal. When he plays wide, he drifts in and crowds the middle. When he plays in the middle, his lack of discipline and defensive liabilities open Arsenal up to the counter. He would bring a lot from either Spanish giant, PSG, or perhaps Man City.
Walcott would be much sought after as well. He’d score 30 goals in Spain. West Ham, Man City, and perhaps Newcastle (if they survive) might fancy him. PSG will need to restock if Zlatan leaves. Walcott could play in the middle in France. He could also go to Dortmund as a make-weight for Aubameyang.
Joel Campbell played well for Arsenal, but he was ignored in favor of the Ox, who played poorly, Walcott, who got hurt, and then played poorly, and Iwobi, who was good. If he’s not going to play, it seems like it might be time to sell him.
These three players should bring in somewhere close to 60-65 million. Or enough to buy Aubameyang. The savings from Arteta and Rosicky would easily fund Kante, so it would be a virtual zero-spend summer with the squad stronger.
My two cents. Thoughts?
If it was up to me I would make these signings in this order:
1/ A world class, physical type centre back. If we were to invest heavily in one- they would probably have to be young with resale value, so: in an ideal world Jose Giminez, though Daniele Rugani is probably more obtainable- if less proven.
2/ A world class striker. 1st choice- Aubameyang, sell Walcott. 2nd choice- Higuain, sell Giroud.
3/ Additionally, I would love to sell Oxlade-Chamberlain & sign Payet or Mahrez.
Those 3 signings would make a massive difference.
4/ A top CM/DM to give cover- with Arteta/Flamini/Rosicky exits. Ideally a proven talent like Kante or Xhaka, but as we already have a few different options here already, even if they are never all fit at the same time (Wilshere, Coquelin, Elneny, Cazorla, Ramsey)- perhaps a younger, athletic player for now & the future- like Bazoer is more likely.
5/It may also be wise to bring in experienced cover for Bellerin.
We’d have a great first 11 of: Cech, Monreal, Rugani, Koscielny, Bellerin, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez, Aubameyang, Payet – who could beat any team in the world on their day & good cover in every position.
Pray, my friend. Pray… Only God can make Wenger see the sense you’re making.
……after all wenger believes in the players that he already has in his clutches.’
And this is Wenger’s biggest downfall in the modern game I think. His inability to objectively assess his players potential/abilities compared to the best, and construct a team of truly top class performers and put them in position to be sucessfull on a consistent basis. So I think that AW has to accept the criticism because his selected teams have not performed up to fan expectation or his own for several years now, and he has not corrected the situation. I am starting to look ahead to the next manager, but I will wait until next season to start seriously looking at who will come in. I just hope they get the right person. As for this summer, i hope they at least bring in a top level striker.
If you ask me, for sure the Flam/Mikel/Roza replacements will come from the academy. The only big signings will come in case Ozil and/or Sanchez jump ship.
I’d be happy with just Theo Walcott leaving and Joel getting a contract extension really.