The deadwood that Arsenal must deal with this summer

The future of Walcott, the Ox, Per and the Arsenal deadwood?‏by KM

Good day to all of you bright people! As the title ended in spectacular fashion in the hands of Leicester, there is still something to play for in the league and tonight would be a really funny one if Man United managed an away win at West Ham on their final game at the Boleyn Ground.

I hope United outdo City in the race for fourh, because they have a terrible manager in LVG that seems ever more likely to be here next year, especially if he finishes fourth and wins the FA cup which by Arsenal standards is a successful season! Anyway the premier league is seeing a minor shift of power with West Ham’s and Tottenham’s rise, and of course the bomb of Leicester winning the title.

Next season Arsene will again have the advantage of experience. He’s got all the funds and as recent examples in Payet, Mahrez, Ali, Kante and Vardy show, there’s talent available at a good price. We can also free some good wages and as news reports there could be a 20 million offer for Walcott coming off of West Ham! I mean Theo is a nice guy, I suppose, but his contribution has never been that impactful.

Fabregas was a pivotal point of Arsenal’s team back in the day, so was Van Persie. If Theo is here or not is not something we’d cry over, but those 140k of wages could be well spent on fresh blood. The Ox is also someone who’s impact is highly questionable, but I feel like Arsene would give him one more season, after all it usually takes about 10 to realise a player won’t cut it (Hello Diaby).

Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky will be released hopefully and that’s more free wages. I’m hoping we’ll make at least 4 signings, 3 of which need to be ready made players. We need to ditch Per too in my opinion. Although he is Arsenal through and through, he’s kind of like the Arsenal. On his day he could do a job, but overall you really question if he’ll do a job over the course of the season and he is not exactly the kind of leader Arsenal need.

Speaking of which, who would you elect for our next captain when Arteta leaves? Per doesn’t play regularly so you’d obviously look to Koscielny. The curse of the armband might strike him too though, but in all fairness we really lack players with the demanding presence of Adams and Vieira. We need to buy character, but we are also immune to it, because it disrupts Arsene and his power.

One of our biggest weaknesses this season was the fact that we lacked a solid starting 11. We always had players out of confidence (or just short on quality overall) to sustain our push. We lacked killer instinct when it was needed and that needs to be addressed. Move out players who are in the balance and add solidity and consistent performances.

Bayern have already signed Sanches and Hummels! We need to act this window. Another slump like signing only Cech will be unforgivable. Just one game left! Then the painful wait will begin.

Konstantin

Tags Koscielny The Ox Walcott

32 Comments

  1. Teams like Bayern,Barcelona and Real Madrid are always in the semi-finals of champions league,winning titles but they’re also the ones who act in the transfer window while we as Arsenal will dilly dally over transfers when we should be acting fast!

    1. we acted pretty fast in signing sanogo, an if memory serves me right we were lightning quick snapping up andre santos after losing 8-2 to man u

      see we are no different from barcelona or bayern munich

      anyone seen my meds?

      1. GK: Cech, Szczesny/Ospina
        RB: Bellerin, Jenkinson
        CB: Koscielny, Laporte, Gabriel, Chambers
        LB: Monreal, Gibbs
        CDM: Carvalho, Coquelin, Elneny
        CM: Ramsey, Wilshere
        CAM: Ozil, Cazorla
        RW: Mkhitarian, Campbell
        LW: Sanchez, Iwobi
        ST: Lukaku, Welbeck

    2. We are the Tortoise of the transfer window, speed is not one of our greatest suits

      The scavengers…….Feed on the crumbs

      #Ya Gunners Ya#

    3. Came across a name today

      “Rushian Marcus Amari Hepburn Murphy”

      Hahaha….How big his shirt must be!

  2. Since Walcott has been at Arsenal he has never seemed to fulfill his potential and his time has come. You get 2 types of fast: with and without the ball, if you ever watch Walcott he is rubbish when it comes to running with a ball rendering his pace useless!

    Think about how sad that is, a professional footballer that genuinely battles to run with a ball. I would give him away even.

  3. We can make room for 4 signings without weakening the squad.

    How about simply lose these 8 from the 29?
    Szczesney (sell £10m) Martinez (loan) Macey (loan) Debuchy (£5m) arteta flamini rosicky sanogo (all released)

    Then sign
    subotic or marquinhos,
    Kante or xhaka
    mahrez or yarmelenko
    higuain or benzema

    Captain cech, Vice captain koscielny

    1. got a slight problem with your striking options!

      I would go for Auba or Lewy instead + griezmann as option to mahrez and yarmolenko!

    2. Benzama is not that clinical, he miss a lot of sitters, he’s more of a hold up play man, sounds familiar??

  4. i dont like the term deadwood…awfully offensive

    how about…

    thieves
    spawn of sanogo
    slightly less than dead wood 🙂

    “rainbows make me happy”
    *arsene wenger 2009

  5. Discounting players such as Arteta, who are likely leaving on a free, this is a list of what I consider the remaining deadwood and the length of time since signing with us or with the youth, their debuts:

    Mertesacker 5yrs
    Walcott 10yrs
    Ox 5yrs
    Ramsey 8yrs
    Sanogo 2yrs
    Szczsney 7yrs
    Wilshere 8yrs
    Jenkinson 5yrs
    Gibbs 9yrs

    I can’t quite believe how long some of these players have been with us, it’s astonishing! I cannot even bring myself to research how much some of these awful players are earning – just too depressing!

    The reason for this comment, is that with Wenger still in charge, most of this deadwood will still be at Arsenal come next season, and beyond. Given how long most of them have served at this club, Wenger’s philosophy, and the fact Arsenal have practically qualified for the Champions League (which was this season’s objective), there’s no way Wenger will suddenly dump this bunch of has-beens. It WILL be another, long, drawn out, frustrating, but unsurprising transfer window.

  6. Well first & foremost let’s make sure we improve our injuriy record because yes it doesn’t help when players like Cazorla, Coquelin, Wilshere, Welbeck & OX gets hurt. They found themselves in/out 7 unable to get consistent playing time (not good for young players).Specially recurring & serious injuries!
    Second get more disciplined, improve there finishing (being the most creative midfield is all well & good but can’t finish) & improving mentally to perform under pressure!! Basically get rid of the “same old Arsenal”!
    Than Yes it a prime opportunity considering that it’s probably Wenger’s last season to make the required adjustment to the squad! With the 4 mentioned players gone & maybe 1 or 2 more I do fancy Wenger getting 3 players (hopefully great/world class with no bargain involved) & completing the squad with Gedeon Zelalem,Bielick who is versatile and can play both in the middle or at the back & maybe another player probably a forward like Gnabry!
    Let’s cross our fingers and that’s all!!

  7. We have a tradition of always entering the transfer Window late, when all the other big clubs are already a country mile ahead of us in buying the best players!

    1. before the window opens, our lying manager will assure us that they will be very busy in the transfer market and they will do business. during the window, all the names mentioned will be ignored by the manager by saying we are not close to buying anybody. then he will say at the end of the transfer window is when players’ prices reduce and there he will do business.

      At the end of the transfer window he will say there is no one to buy coz clubs won’t sell while they don’t have enough time to buy replacements for the ones they sell. then you’ll hear we have enough quality, and if he is pressured more he will say show him who to buy and he will buy.

      we come settle for the Sanogos and kim kardashians, and some AKBs will think that the boss never did any wrong, on top of all he is doing us a favor coz he is the best manager the club has ever had so he should do what pleases him, and not for the better of the team.

      the cycle repeats itself. but sometimes when the pressure is high he buys one WC player to appease the fans and add himself some more time of relaxation.

  8. We’ll be very lucky to hold on to sanchez and ozil. No-one is going to sign for this club, i can promise you that, this is why we have to pay 40+ million now a days to get any players to come to the arsenal.

  9. It seems disrespectful to call players who have served us for several years like Arteta, Rosicky etc as “deadwood” 🙁

    Anyway, I believe Rosicky, Arteta, Flamini will be released.
    I think Gibbs, Theo, Debuchy will be sold
    I think Wenger will keep Sanogo lol

    In my opinion we will require:
    1. backup RB
    2. backup LB
    3. CF
    4. Winger
    5. DM or backup DM

    1. I know this a bit of a strange thought but I think a really good possibility at wing could be Antonio from West Ham!

      I know he is more of a wing back but he is fast, strong, determined and most of all he is a really good finisher. I genuinely think he would make a fantastic wing. Best of all he shouldn’t cost to much, would be a great squad player

  10. what a match.

    it was destiny …well done to the hammers an there fans incredible send off

  11. The real issue should be about getting rid of deadwood and filling in with quality ‘wood’. Kastrom, Gabriel, Flamini for examle, were not real va’ue edditions. If we let Theo go then lets have Abumayang or even Neymer. If Giroud goes let’s hav Lewa/Higuain and so on. Not Giroud for Van Perse, Flamini for Song, etc. OMG of late who is in charge of these transfers?

    1. To be fair to Arsenal, I think that Giroud was bought as cover for RVP, not as a replacement. And to be fair to RVP, he was approaching the latter part of his career and wanted to win something, he could see that Arsenal at the time were a selling club, fabregas and nasri had left a year before and RVP had delivered top four. Rvp could see that Arsenal lacked ambition beyond 3rd/4th place, something most of us have been saying here.

  12. Well West Ham have just guaranteed us CL again. Not much to do but make sure we end strong with 3rd place.

  13. And we secured our Top 4 Finish Trophy with West Ham 3-2 defeat of Manchester United.
    Once again, we cannot finish less than 4 place on the log.

  14. To be fair every team has deadwood it’s not like we’re the only ones with this problem, although I do agree we need to get rid of these players and bring in new ones, even though we pretty much can guarantee we won’t get what we need

  15. Even if you get rid of the deadwoods, the reality is that the rotting wood will still be there and who’s to say that it will not infect the new woods and turn them into deadwoods.

  16. We need a tall rough strong mobile central defender some one to stand strong against the bullies that can repel long balls at set pieces we need also a striker that will turn every opportunity to goals galore right back and left back and wingers but essentially a good defender and a good striker

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