With yet another international break approaching next week, we will continue to try and amuse ourselves (and our Just Arsenal readers of course) with some interesting discussions during this interlull.
Now we all know that Mikel Arteta made it clear at the end of the summer transfer window that his rebuilding process was only halfway through, and the next time he can continue with his clearouts and find replacement youthful stars of the future will be in January.
It seems obvious that Arteta now has a firm idea of his very best team, butI think his problem is that he doesn’t have backup players of sufficient quality to replace some of them in the case of injuries or suspensions.
Obviously we are not short of attackers, but I think the jury is still out on Balogun and Nketiah, and Martinelli has stalled a little, but with Auba and Laca getting on in years and close to the end of their careers, is it time to bring in another hungry young talent to challenge what we have?
We have Leno as backup to Ramsdale, but for how long is the question….
Tavares and Tierney are great competition for each other.
We have Lokonga to cover for Xhaka/Partey and he looks promising, but Elneny is definitely leaving and what to do with Maitland-Niles?
We have Holding, Mari and Chambers as backups in defence, but are they the quality that Arteta wants?
Kolasinac and Soares are really just here to make up the numbers and are never going to be first choice again, so need to be gone by next summer and quality replacements brought in…
And finally Pepe. Is he ever going to dislodge one of our star youngsters to get a run in the team? Or is he now an expensive surplus?
What is your opinion, which players does Arteta still have to clear out in his rebuilding project?
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Niles
Pepe
Nketiah
Cedric
Aubamayang
Laccacette
Kolasinac
Elneny
Nelson
In two words – Wenger’s signings. Cedric is an able backup. Pepe was unwanted but an Unai signing
Wengers signings that win Arteta his FA cup
Agree, we have to protect Unai’s signing , our super ‘legendary’ coach.
we should built a stature of him and Pepe and get rid of henry’s stature (another Wenger’s signing)
Unai didn’t want Pepe… but Raul had other ideas!
Loose Cannon WRONG Emery never signed Pepe he did not want him the board did So get your facts right
Silentstan But who will want them and you missed Chambers you will have to give some of them away just to get rid of
Eddie looks like he is leaving on a free transfer
Leno really wont want to spend another season as a no.2 so surely he will be off
Kolašinac looks happy to be a squad man but I see Saliba coming back in.
Manovano (misspelled) looks like he is sold after loan.
Chambers gona be sold?
I think we can raise £50-70m in sales.
Sell : Kolasinac, Soares, Holding, Elneny, AMN, Pepe, Mari
Buy : New hungry DM, New CB left, New Winger especially right, New CF
Free : Laca, Eddie
Eddie
Saliba
Marvo
Auba
Kola
Cedric
Xhaka
Nelson
Martinelli
Pepe
Leno/Runnarson (can prob only sell one at the moment)
Yes the list is long but players that aren’t getting minutes in cups or EPL might as well be sold before they run their contracts down anymore. Not that I want all of these players gone but some appear to not be liked/wanted so sell while we can.
We’d obviously need to bring some players in, we don’t really have any good wings besides Saka so that’s an area to strengthen along DM & striker.
Cash in or direct swap Laca in January, or he goes for free.
Keep Aubamenyang for one more season, so Balogun and Martinelli can go on loan for growth from game time
Sell Nketiah.
I often wonder what Kolasinac, Soares, Chambers, and Elneny are still doing in the team.
If AMN improves well enough by the end of the season, keep him.
Holding needs to be sold, Saliba is coming back. As for Mari he can’t provide competition to Gabriel for the LCB role, Mari isn’t quality, so we still need a backup LCB.
Bellerin is gone, make it permanent.
Get a good competition for Tomiyasu
A back up Goalie is needed to compete with Ramsdale. Bernd Leno is just counting days, he will leave, even after all these years, he still can’t play the Arteta Ball.
Reiss Nelson will come through.
Pepe is a fraud, he needs to go, Arsenal should just count it as bad business.
My two cent of a thought
If Pepe leaves, we’ll need a new inverted RW. Maybe Noni Madueke could be a stronger competitor for Saka
Hutchinson is very skillful, but he isn’t as tall and pacey as Pepe/ Saka. His best role will be CAM, as Odegaard’s backup
GAI your favorite word = Inverted
Hey you still remember that
gai I have heard Newcastle are very interested in Matteo Guendouzi the French International
I heard Marseille will take the option to buy Guendouzi, because the cost is just under 10 M
I actually rate Chambers and injuries have unfortunately hampered his career.
He is a solid RB/CB if called into action.
I see holding, white, Gabriel and saliba as our cb’s, none will be sold. our defence is sorted
Sell Holding. Bring back Saliba and Marospanov.
Kolasinac, Torriera, Guendouzi, Mari, Chambers, Elneny, Lacazette, Nketiah and Mavropanos should be sold asap for anything on offer. Arsenal should definitely make a statement of intent by signing buying Christopher Nkunku to strengthen the midfield and attack. Teams win matches by scoring goals. That is a major concern for Arsenal now. We need to increase the pool of goal scoring options. Compared to the top five teams this season, Arsenal has scored only 12 goals, while Chelsea have scored 26,Liverpool 29,Manchester city 20,West ham 20 and Manchester United 19. Bringing in a prolific striker also, like Dusan Vlahovic ,with Nkunku will definitely be a game changer.
Has anyone seen Bødø’s striker Sven Botheim in the Europa League?
He scored 3 against Roma in their 2 matches. Got 19 goals this season with 9 assists (more than Håland before Salzburg although Botheim is 21).
I think he should be looked at this January. He’s tall and quick. Plays a lot of one-twos and scores with his head, kinda like Giroud but much quicker and agile.
I don’t know about “clearing out” any of the players as they’ve all served a purpose at one point or another so it seems a bit harsh, perhaps a few could be moved on?
If we can raise some funds/free up the wage budget from Kolasinac and Cedric the squad probably wouldn’t be too effected. Apart from that anyone else would need to be replaced so it depends on who is available, and its obviously well known that January is notoriously difficult to bring in top level players.
So many for a variety of reasons, some due to their lack of first team potential, others for contractual reasons, a few who should only be removed from the equation if a suitable replacement is acquired and a few more that need to be sent packing so that it forces those in management to properly address particular positional shortcomings in the squad, like Xhaka
We really don’t need many players in January, if anything we should spend some big money on a quality addition otherwise wait until the summer.
Event goes and maitland takes his game time. We have enough cover in this area, one can drop in and we have some quality youth coming through. With maitland, Partey, Xhaka and lokonga we are fine.
I’d like to see Leno go either January or in the summer, he will be fairly easy to replace.
sell holding or chambers in the summer and promote saliba.
Sell Bellerin in the summer.I like him but I think he wants to leave and doesn’t want to compete to be first choice.
Then see what happens regarding laca and nketiah, I think one will stay and one will go.
Then we will have some good funds available in the summer to buy two big players to really strengthen the team.
Ramsdale..Tavares..Tierney..White..Saliba..Gabriel..Holding..Tomiyasu..Lokonga..Partey..ESR..Odegard..Saka..Martinelli….that’s 14………..need 11 more players within the next two seasons..3-4 transfer windows…….not counting laca..and Aubamenyang..they won’t be at Arsenal after the next two seasons…….the rest should be sold…..few youngsters will be promoted…..so Arsenal should be in the market for at least 6 more players…….my opinion
Odegaard the worst outfield player Arteta has bought No wonder. Real Madrid wanted shot of him
If what we read about Arteta wanting the OX, maybe we should add Oxlaide-Chamberlain to that list for completeness!!!