Arsenal have managed to work quickly thus far in trying to strengthen the squad as they look to bridge the gap to the top of the table, but we may now need to concentrate on departures.
We have spend in excess of £75 Million to bring in Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nuno Tavares and Ben White thus far, whilst we are yet to sell a single player, with David Luiz’s exit at the end of his contract the only substantial departure.
As we near the beginning of the Premier League campaign, with just two weeks until we kick things off against Brentford, the manager is forced to consider the scenario of being stuck with a number of players, despite our efforts to sell.
When asked if it was difficult to continue to do his job knowing that some of his players are available for transfer at present including Hector Bellerin, he claimed that he simply had to respect all those still under contract with the club, seemingly downbeat on the club’s efforts to offload them.
“I don’t know,” Arteta admitted to Arsenal Media after the final whistle today. “I’m going to coach them and train them, and respect and look after everybody because they are our players. Hopefully they can have their minds here and prepare here because they are Arsenal players and our job is to make them as good as we can.”
Would all the early work from our club be undone if we fail to offload certain players this summer?
Patrick
We cant offload them because they are poor, some of us have been saying the obvious for years while we slip down the slope. We have to keep them and we will have to play them, which means everything stays the same. Our football next season after promises by our manager and co that we have identified players and some will go, will be the same. Saliba, Gouendouzi, Mavropanos gone and we retain xhaka, Bellerin, Willian and elninny. Says it all and that is it in a nutshell. Plus add to that poor decision making like selling Martinez and keeping Leno, again its all a joke, or nightmare whichever one you prefer.
the more Arteta flaps his gums, the less confidence I have in his ability to turn things around, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone…on the one hand, it was supposedly a light bulb moment on the club’s part to terminate the contracts of those who were deemed divisive, yet they can’t see how the possible retention of players like Xhaka, Bellerin and Willian could have a similar, if not worse, affect on morale both inside the locker room and in the soon to be occupied Emirates…sometimes it’s just best to cut ties, get them off the already bloated wage bill and move on…after all, if Xhaka is such a valuable commodity, as some would mistakenly suggest, then why is it that not a single other team came in with a bid above the 12M +add-on Roma offering…not a single club offered even 15 or 17 + add-ons bid, let alone anything remotely near the 25M fee placed on his head by our tone deaf administrative branch
furthermore, if we accept the notion that Arteta has a plan, which is a totally debatable presumption, that requires us to fundamentally change our expectations regarding particular players who appear not to fit within his particular footballing philosophy, like Willock, Saliba, Mavro, Guendo etc…, then why was it seemingly acceptable that he would trade away Martinez, who clearly made far more tactical sense, and retain the ever-growing tire fire that is Leno…it’s a cake and eat it too bonanza at this fledgling club, with no tangible relief in sight…it’s just incredibly difficult to envision this group of untried lightweights changing this depressing narrative when there’s always more questions than answers
Completely correct, Reggie!
All the talk is for nothing and MA and Edu know it because they can’t shift players out. They are going to regret some of their passed mistakes for sure (like getting rid of the better keeper). Unfortunately, we could all see this coming because of the usual amateurish ways in which the club go about things. Question is, if we are lavishing in mid table by January will MA and Edu still be in a job?
Completely correct, GunneRay. We have poor to average starters/bench players (Leno, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Elneney, Xhaka, Willian, Laca, Eddie, Nelson, Pepe) Above average starters – Chambers, Cedric, Holding, Gabriel, AMN.
Totally confused players like Torrera and untested talent like Folarin, Sambi, Tavares, so what realistically you want Mikel to achieve? We will languish mid table until the average first teamers are gone. If not next summer expect the departures of Willock, Tierney, Saka and ESR and maybe Partey too. Then we are relegation candidates. I feel just terminate the contracts of Arsene’s darlings and let the club move forward or else every season will be more worse that the last.
why are there rumors about contract extensions then? if nobody wants these players on the cheap, why would they want them with higher salaries and more years on their contract? it’s clear arteta actually values xhaka unfortunately. bellrin contract if true convinces me that there are people who really just wants this club to do as worse as possible.
I’m hoping it’s a ploy to get the players out quicker? By giving them new contracts it supposedly makes it more profitable when selling them on because they can demand more maybe?
But then I guess we’re more likely to be stuck with them even longer because the club are clueless and so out of touch with reality!
I say Arteta is not experienced to handle our dear Arsenal. He will continue to give excuses upon excuses. He has been with these poor players for a good time and still going to correct when the season is just about to start is unacceptable. Please, sack Arteta immediately, the job is far bigger than him. He should have started with a division 3 team first.
No Benjamin! No serious top coach/manager wanted this job when it was vacant on two occassions. Unai tried his luck and he only spoilt his resume which he was quick to correct with Villareal. Average /poor players need to go, not the gaffer.
Finally, what did the “world class” Carlo Anchelotti achieve with Everton? Nothing! What did the “specialist in sacking” achieve with the Spurs? Nothing other than the routine sacking. What did Rafa win with the toons? Its never the manager , it has got to do with the players at his disposal. And I am proved right by Unai. With our over loved, pampered, carresed, cajoled darlings he lost our potential European cup but won it with a hardcore rag tag team of Villareal who had the audacity to play a 0-0 draw at our “fortress”
Another poor decision by Arteta, unfortunately becoming a common occurrence.
He had a chance to sell Bellerin LAST SUMMER but talked him into staying.
So now he’s figuring out how poor Bellerin really is? Many have seen how poor Bellerin is defensively for years now, except Edu and Arteta by decision to keep him last year.
More self-inflicting wounds by the club; Arteta needed an experienced hand at the helm, instead he had Edu and the results are unsurprising.
No way club can progress with those two on training wheels as they learn on the job.
Oh well, either way Krone makes money; at least he doesn’t have to worry about the cost of ambition.
Just tread water, use rookie coach as human shield to avoid fan ire.
Classic Kronke; seen it for years here in States, been preaching on it for quite a while.
Look at his precious and favorite Rams, in their sad state, no way he would care more for his piggy bank across the pond.
other than Ben White it looks the likes the same squad of players for the new season come December we will be no where near the top 4, so much for the major overhaul
This is crazy. We are asking too much for these players, and we should let the market decide. Of course individual players wages might be a problem, but not insurmountable surely.
Loans with options to buy is satisfactory to you, is it?
I have always supported Arteta, and I like the new signings. However Arsenal have a massive squad and soon, this could create a disaster! With the new signings Arsenal as of today have 38 players. The official Premier league squad I understand is 25 players. Apparently with Covid issues, this may be increased to 30 players. Therefore we would still have 8 players more than permitted !
If anyone has a different understanding, please advise?
Arsenal off loading players is extremely difficult, many of them are not good enough, and very highly paid.
Selling for example Willian, Kolasinac, Cedric, Maitland Nikes, El Neny, in a couple of weeks is almost impossible.
Why did Edu and Arteta buy Willian, Cedric, and originally extend Luiz contract? These particular players are represented by the same agent as Edu !!
Furthermore Raul who was dismissed quickly, helped buy these players, and overpaid for Pepe by some £30 million, Pepe’s club Chairman was a friend of Raul, from Raul’s days!!
Even Mari has still not proved himself, as the new Mao at that time, I hope Arteta was not too involved in some of these transactions?
The bottom line, I expect some more signings of a high calibre.
But I am hoping we don’t have a Ozil and Socratis situation, six players out of the squad being paid for nothing. The next 3 months is paramount for Arteta’s and Edu’s survival!!
Wow thanks for the revelations, now we know
The club should open investigation into all these transactions , no wonder arsenal is sinking and stinking omg
ADMIN COMMENT – This comment will be posted as an article soon, with the title…. What have Arsenal actually achieved this summer?
Wish your comment is an opinion article in JA.
If the deadwood wont leave, I would genuinely rather we just informed them all right now that they will not be registgered for any competition and to make their mind up where they want to be.
We’re you guys expecting him to say ‘yes we want to sell them?’