Next summer a handful of experienced Premier League will be available for Arsenal to make offers to.
Arsenal has traditionally had one of the smallest budgets in the Premier League since transfer fees became so high.
The Gunners spent over £130 million last summer and I doubt if they will throw that much money around again unless they sell off one or two important players.
However, managers like Jurgen Klopp have shown that you can get some really good free agents in the transfer market and I expect Mikel Arteta to want to show some of that trait next summer.
Here are some players who have proved themselves in the Premier League over the years and who are set be out of contract next summer.
Adam Lallana, Liverpool
Lallana has struggled with injuries for much of the time he has spent on Merseyside, but the English man is proving what a player he is this season.
He has been an ever-present when the regulars have been rested or unfit and he remains one of the best players with both feet in the Premier League.
Jurgen Klopp is keen to keep him on but I think we can convince him to move to the Emirates for more playing time.
Christian Eriksen
Christian Eriksen is certainly on his way out of Tottenham but he would remain one of the best midfielders to have played for a London side.
While Tottenham is our fierce rival, I don’t think players are that loyal anymore and he may be tempted to move to a bigger side like Arsenal just like Sol Campbell did.
Eriksen would add valuable creativity to our midfield and he might just bring out the best in our attackers.
Jan Vertoghen
Another Tottenham player who has refused to renew his terms with the Lilywhites.
Vertoghen is one of Tottenham’s best and remains a quality defender.
A good player usually makes others around him better and the Belgian might just be who our defence needs.
Olivier Giroud
Giroud remains popular with some at the Emirates despite being forced to join Chelsea in January 2018.
He has struggled for minutes at Stamford Bridge but he won the World Cup with France.
None of our strikers can hold the ball up top like Giroud and he would give us a different dimension.
Willian
Barcelona has spent the past three summers trying to lure Willian to the Camp Nou, but Chelsea has rejected their advances so far.
The Brazilian is out of contract in the summer and he remains Chelsea’s most important attacking senior player.
Chelsea is struggling to agree on a new deal with him because of the length of the contract being offered, I believe that their loss can be our gain and we should lure him with a three years deal. He is old but still quality, just ask Spurs.
We call out the board and say all sorts of stuffs when the board tries to go for club rejects and older players but yet here you guys are suggesting players that clubs don’t want anymore, Lallana really? Giroud, Willian? Vertoghen at 32? The only player I might fancy is Eriksen.
Other than that, why not completely turn Arsenal to a Nursing home for aged players.
If those guys are any useful, other than Eriksen why would the clubs let them go in the first place?
Eddie, maybe because they are better than the players we already have?
Vertongen versus luiz or soks?
Some of these players coming up on a free, actually want to leave their current clubs, been offered new contracts, but want to move on…vertongen being the perfect example.
I’m not saying that I want them, but to class them as old and/or castoffs is wrong.
Ken, I don’t really see all of them better than what we have, except for Eriksen.
Vertoghen would look as bad as Luiz with his age.
We all knew our players are not completely useless, we all mentioned how we needed to asses the players under a proper coach.
Luis under Arteta looks like a different player from what we got under Emery, so does the rest of the team.
Willian was being touted as the perfect example to write off Ozil.
Under Arteta, Ozil suddenly looks to be the player he was.
Lallana is no better than any single starter we have.
He’s been a second string player for most of his Liverpool career.
Giroud, well you know that.
All of them are old players, are we not trying to get rid of the old players we have in our squad? Why discuss the potential to add more?
Eddie, I’m not sure we are trying to get rid of the old players – rather trying to get rid of underperforming players.
Iwobi wasn’t an old player(24), neither is Elneny (27), Mustafi (27), in my opinion.
Lacs (29), Auba (31), Leno (28), Xhaka (28) are all older than the three above, but we wouldn’t discuss getting rid of them would we?
To me, age is not a concern, if a player can still perform, be selected for his country (Giroud) and still play in the hardest, physically at least, league in the world…how old was the likes of Adams and Bergkamp (to name just two) before they retired?
We seem to be getting obsessed by age at the moment and, I would suggest that all teams ( no matter what sport/industry) need experience as well as youth to perform to its best – that’s without having to remember that it’s kronkie who holds the purse strings and we all know that means cutting our cloth accordingly.
In football nowadays, Age matters. Precisely ‘Writer’ you forgot to include their respective ages.
Lallana 31
Eriksen 27👍
Vartoghen 32
Willian 31
Giroud 33.
Mehn! you funny me… I can’t even imagine having back Giroud at AFC WTF!!.
Must it be AFC who gets any of them? Why aren’t other clubs going and talking of them? Excluding Eriksen.
AFC is Freaking weak in transfers and I wonder when it will end.. Gosh!
When will AFC improve in transfer sense..
You’re right, though when it comes to Giroud age is irrelevant because he was always very slow so that won’t affect him further and he’s still (as always) rarely injured. A somewhat decent backup option, but only if BOTH of these happen- either Laca or Auba going and Martinelli plays on the wing (or of course both Auba and Laca going and Giroud as a backup to Martinelli)
Giroud would, however, be a beast in Serie A at least for another 3, 4 years if not longer (the same type of striker – Luca Toni was the league’s top scorer at 38)
Eriksen won’t go to Arsenal, that’s certain. Ditto to Willian probably, although you never know.
Dislike Vertonghen severely.
Lallana always injured.
So yeah, none of these options are taking us forward. We should be buying young and hungry players coming in from smaller clubs looking to prove themselves and win their first silverware.
Yes to Ericksen but Big NO to the rest. ventonghen is good now but age is not on his side. lets not buy anymore players over 30 unless its messi or Ronaldo. Why add more ageing players when 90% of the current players need to be replaced in a year or two because of age and under-performance.
Player good with both feet.. Why don’t we try securing Carzola back; not giving a ass about injury prone Lallana I personally assume Wilshere is much baller than.
Mourinho’ isn’t a clown! If he’s rejecting Vartoghen; then he isn’t good for AFC.
I think Willian should go to China.
Eriksen balls but, c’mon Grealish or Maddison balls harder and they are young and hungry why not any.
Giroud Lols! then let’s go get Mertens!.
Please link the club with positive young players with football brain, body and mentality.
OT.. Another motm performance from Tyrone Mings… if only he was ours!!
If Only!
Grealish
Maddison
Dunk
Tyrone
Kurzawa
Outstanding players.
Just one will be a JOY.
Some wish list we have, hey?! 👍
I know we spent £130 million in the summer but we Have also sold some players for around £50 million and if we sell Mkhitaryan for around £15 million that’s total spending £65 million I’m sure we can sell one or two more players around £40 million that Total spent £25 million Which is nothing for a EPL club these days for shore we can come up with another £50 million for top defender
I’m sure the Kroenke realizes that we are midd table and soon the honeymoon period will be over with MA and things will go back to normal which means mass exodus in the summer , NOT SAYING DEFINITELY THINGS WILL GO BAD BUT WHY TAKE THE MORE EXPENSIVE OPTION BY STANDING STILL AND HOPING FOR THE BEST
Ornstein is saying we’re on about getting shot of 12 players!! Loans and/or permanent deals.. so we’ll have to see what happens!
I am waiting for the exodus to occur, these dudes could not win us the EL nor could they win against a very young Pool in the league cup.They are complaining about the intensity of training of Arteta. No energy for 90+ minutes. Arteta has improved them to a certain limit, beyond that it is impossible. For the 3-4 years of easy life on the training ground, mediocre “I don’t care” performances, and due to aging, many would want out. A good sign, so that we can sign younger players. Erikson should have been our priority target instead of Mesut years back and any day we should get him. Also that would anger little Jose Mou, so why not?
Normally clubs vying for survival would sign aging fringe players from top clubs, Arsenal do not fall in that bracket and we have Salliba next year with us. Salliba, Holding, Mavs, Chambers with Socrates / Luiz as back up would do. Maybe one high quality CB, DM and AM would be enough for us
Loose Cannon, interesting point you make regarding “They are complaining about the intensity of training of Arteta”.
Not disputing what you say, but I haven’t seen those comments anywhere, can you direct me to where you saw them and what players are actually complaining – that might give us an insight into who will be leaving the club, sooner rather than later?
Seriously I keep hearing we spent 130M last summer but it was more like 20M.We sold players for a combined 50M+ and apparently we only paid 15m upfront out of 72m for pepe.So I really don’t get our inability to splash some cash.
Back to cheapskate philosophy. Always accepting second best!
OT
Bit of worthless info`, but did you know Gilberto had an Anteater named after him at Colchester Zoo…………….personally, if I had an Anteater I`d name it…………….. Mikel Anteater.
The opportunity to sign the could become free agent next summer window Christian Ericksen might be too good for Arsenal to not miss out on signing him even this winter window but not wait until next summer when the opportunity to sign him might be lost. Therefore, Arsenal should not wait till next summer transfer window before signing Eriksen but sign him straight away during the ongoing January transfer window. But if Arsenal for financial reason cannot sign him this winter window, the club could reach a pre transfer signing agreement with him against next summer transfer window to come to Arsenal like Aaron Ramsey did when he signed for Juventus while he was still at Arsenal with six months or so left to run on his deal.
You realize Eriksen being a Spud would never come to Arsenal right?
He would if:
1. The quality of the respective teams were like in Sol Campbell’s time – Champions vs mid-table perpetual losers
2. We offered him a Mesut salary
#1 is gone and hopefully #2 never happens again no matter who the player is
I think Eriksen wants to go to Spain, the rest, someone else can have them. We need to build a team for the future even if it takes a bit of time.
I don’t understand why some of us here simply can’t see anything good in players above 30. If that is a rule, why make an exception with Messi and Ronaldo?
Not that am a drinking man, but as they say, the older the wine …
Every team needs a bit of experience in their ranks. An older quality player or two won’t do any harm. Plus, the younger players have a sounding board to help them navigate their careers.
Eriksen? Never say never!
I hope if we concetrated on giving time to our young players and rebuild our empire like liverpool have done
Spam.
🙂
Vertoghen is having a poor season and is going downhill quickly.None of the players listed should figure in our future.I admire Willian and Eriksen but I am told they will both be heading to Spain.
Some of you haven’t learned from David Luis