We don’t want Ziyech or Fekir? Why? by Dan Smith
If Arsenal can’t meet a club’s asking price that’s a different argument to have. Yet when your being offered better midfielders then you have for £30 million, it’s getting to the point where we have to ask ourselves, are we finding excuses not to do something?
In the last week, it’s like we have had our bluff called with reports saying both Hakim Ziyech and Nabil Fekir would love to join us with both Ajax and Lyon asking for realistic money. Either would raise the spirits of Gooners while I would argue we could do with both. Yet apparently Emery doesn’t rate the Moroccan and we don’t want to pay for the Frenchman while we are paying Ozil’s wages. That’s despite our manager admitting he doesn’t trust the German for certain games.
If he truly believes Iwobi or Mhkitaryan are better options he’s putting his job on the line. This is the same man who advised that negotiations with Ramsey be stopped. He had a year to see he didn’t have a better CM than Rambo so where’s his replacement? Why is the criteria suddenly to only sign a CM if we lose Ozil’s salary?
Have we not reduced our wage bill enough?
The Premier League starts in less than a month and we are somehow weaker than Baku. We could have Fekir or Ziyech in a midfield three with Ozil behind the strikers.
If Emery claims his current midfield is better, he’s either bad at his job or a yes man…
Dan Smith
We CAN afford both.
Cech 100k
Licht 90k
Welbeck 70k
Ospina 40k
Ramsey 110k
That’s over 400k released. Martinelli probably makes 10-20k. Our other youngsters probably less than that.
Betis wanted to pay Fekir 120k a week. Ziyech probably doesn’t require more than 100k a week. So we definitely can afford both in fees (55-60m) and in wages.
Hopefully we can get rid of Elneny, who I think Chambers will replace (Chambers played really well as CDM at Fulham).
Cech > Martinez
Welbeck > Nketiah
Ramsey > Ceballos loan
Licht > probs that league 2 dude
Seems like we’ve replaced 400k a week adequately, as those who departed, were more or less back up players.
If we somehow could sell at least either one of Mkhi/Özil, this would be a great window.
Getting both Fekir and Ziyech will repeat Wenger’s actions in stacking CAMs
We had Cazorla/ Rosicky/ Wilshere/ Ozil in the same squad once and not one of them was willing to race with the opponents
No 10 tactic is obsolete and Arsenal had better allocate the space for a winger
Ziyech IS a winger, right winger. He used to play CAM but has been playing on the wing last season.
Fekir is a CAM, and Özil is untrustworthy.
Ziyech and fekir are both natural CAM’s.. doesnt matter if he played on the wing imo we shouldnt buy either unless we get rid of ozil and mikhi. Ozil is untrustworthy but for financial and balance it wouldnt make esense buying either of these two
We could at least afford Fekir wages the problem is the fee,like you said the same old problem shipping off some of our players, getting 30M in players sales shouldn’t be that difficult I just don’t get it!
Dan, can’t you get it mate? We aint buying nor selling anyone, but on tour making cash for our owner.
Fekir/ Ziyech are no 10 and we already have too many of them, such as Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Smith-Rowe and Willock. Even Nelson can play as a no 10
If Emery plans to use 4-3-3, he has to get rid of the no 10s, not adding them. Just keep the ones that are versatile enough to play as half winger/ mezzala and get specialist wingers
Nabil Fekir is much better than anyone we have at the moment,have you forgotten how Ozil,Mkhitarian performed last season and the others don’t have Fekir experience or technical abilities!he nearly signed for Liverpool last season!
true but this aint fifa. if u buy fekir and put him on the wing in PL i believe he wont be as effective as people think
Smith Rowe is LM.
Mkhi has played as RW lately.
Willock is CM.
Nelson RW.
Iwobi is CAM but has been played LW.
We are not stacked with CAMs.
You’re right!
Maybe you should add, none of the no 10 mentioned are willing to move. So its a dismal situation. Just like when fab was about to leave barca, we had the opportunity to buy according to the clause but we just sign Ozil, we had Cazola, Ramsey, Wilshere etc.
We seems to be having quantity but not real quality. I feel we should gamble on either of fekir/ziyech then put Miki on supplurs list, no matter what, he will get some chinese scoop
Ziyech played predominantly in the right wing last year… over twenty goals and over twenty assists also from the wing.
Yes in eredivisie.. the best full back he came up against was angelino
I think we will be using the 4231 this season, Brazil uses 4231 when Edu was the general coordinator and Emery also fancies that formation, we will shuttle between 4231 and 433 this season.
From the statement of Overmars, its obvious arsenal can’t sign ziyech or Fekir until Ozil leaves which is relatively impossible.
Nope,we have no money to spend mate. All goes straight into Kroenke’s account. WE cant get Yacidi for 20, nor Saliba & Teney for 25, how do you expect to get players above such low numbers?
Cenallos on loan aint happening but a joke, Real will sell him for 40 to Spurs or keep him if not getting Pogba.
We want him for free, same for Malcom, 2 years Loan and option to buy him. WE are been mocked as a total joke we are in this transfer; dead, Arsenal’s Ghost..
Where did you get all this?
All money goes into kroenko account?
We want cebello and malcom for free?
And whats big deal in our 2years loan interest in malcom? Bayern just had same for James which proved to be a good deal. Big teams are involved in loan deals, so what?
We are all frustrated about this window but lets not be rash and wait to see what surprises they have for us
Gotanidea, Ziyech is not a CAM and will never be. He can play there doesn’t mean he is one. I read an post in BBC I believe saying Arsenal already watched a detailed analysis of Ziyech then decided against signing him. Whatever they watched in that video and their analysis is just not correct. Ziyech is wasteful but so is Aubemeyang. No EPL team have two world class strikers again. Manchester city have Aguero and Jesus. Am sure most on here won’t tell me Jesus his world class. Mancity and Guardiola improved him. Manu have Lukaku and Rashford. Rashford is more of an inverted winger who can play as a striker. I need not speak about Chelsea or Liverpool or spurs. They all have one. In fact Liverpool have none. Firmino is not a striker. Strurridge and Original are the strikers but you know the story.
In contrast, every quality and top 4 EPL team have quality wingers with goals in them. That is the name of the game now. Even Barcelona and Real Madrid are not left out. Sadly, we don’t even have one. Not a single one. Funny enough, this also makes our defence poor. If your wingers are not fearful and dreaded then your defenders will overwork.
To me, Arsenal can cope without Aubemeyang, forget the fact that he was EPL joint top scorer. If losing him will bring us two quality winger with goals in them from the fund raised then I will be over the moon. Lacazette and another above average striker can do the job. He is 30 already and so wasteful! We can’t continue like this.
My preference will be Ziyech and Everton Soares on either side of the wings. They are the ones I know who can do a fantastic job and are fairly priced. If we can play Mhiki, Ozil and Iwobi (Yes, am a Nigerian) on the wings and almost got top four then I can only imagine what specialist wingers with goals in them will do. Oh! I also forgot, even the vintage Bayern Munich of the last decade had Robert and Robben as their arrowhead. Remember same Robben was a Real Madrid reject. It’s about our you want to play and player who can do that job. Emery style require wingers but he can’t even spot one. So sad! And I don’t even need Zaha, he his just overrated and not mature. He is not always willing to play to get results, always willing to draw a foul from opponents. That is and way of playing! Do your thing and let the opponents worry about you.
Robert not Robert. Origi not Original. Autocorrect ?
*Ribery and so many typos in my post. Was typing fast because I need to see a movie. Goodnight fellow gunners. Hope our club do the right thing!
Auba wasteful?both auba & Laca had some of the highest goals conversions ratio in the pl and that’s a fact!
Auba has the highest amount of missed chances in the EPL last season . If you don’t believe you can check it out.We need to find a way to balance our squad the way Liverpool have done
Very good analysis. I have been saying the same about Auba and i think in terms of fit, Laca is now a better fit for Arsenal because he has “more to his game. However, i DONT think we should sell Auba. We honestly can afford one of Fraser, Soares, Ziyech, Malcolm and maybe get another on loan. We can still play Auba, Iwobi, Nelson on the Wings. My worry is bringing TOO many squad players instead of one world class (or near world class). Pepe would be the best deal in. Even without touching the defence, we will concede less.
I am tired of Kroenke who always does blunders and thinks for himself and not the club. On the other hand, Ozil, Mick, Mustafi and Elneny must be offloaded because they are finished.
Why aren’t we talking about buying defensive players? We’ve probably lost Koscielny, Bellerin is only back in light training so you can forget about the next few months and the rest of the defence can’t defend. This has been the case for the past 5 years and still nobody does a sodding thing about it.
What this club needs is another George Graham to prioritize building from the back again. At the moment everybody loves playing Arsenal because they know they will get chances from our leaky defence, they don’t fear us anymore.
I am sorry to say the cause of this steady decline is Arsene Wenger who was brilliant for our club in his first 10 years then complacency set in. If, our new chief coach, Emery doesn’t address this urgently, this steady decline will continue and we will be fighting for 7th or 8th place instead of the top 4.
To emphasize my point I submit the following statistics:
Premier league Wenger’s 1st 11 years.
Played 418 W251 L65
GF 780 GA 369 GD +411
Clean Sheets 168
2nd 11 years
Played 418 W236 L86
GF 798 GA 446 GD +352
Clean Sheets 159
NB: AW’s 1st season wasn’t a full one.
In his second 11 years we lost 21 more games and let in 77 more goals.
Source: English Premier League
Dan I agree with you. How can we not sign Fekir. Top, top player. Maybe with Josh Kroenke saying he won’t sign any big names, maybe both he and his father Satan Kroenke don’t want their teams to shine. They have a stack of shite teams all over America. Either they are deluded or are thinking f*** the supporters. Nothing Josh Kroenke has just said will give any hope to our amazing supporters. To actually say no big names shows what an idiot he is. Does he think saying that will bring the supporters closer to him. Absolutely not. He is deluded. Genuinely deluded. What chance has our beloved Arsenal got.
CAM doesn’t seem to be a priority this summer, that is why. CM, CB, LB, Winger are also positions that need attention. I hope in winter we are looking for fill in CAM though and shift Ozil out of starting.
Ziyech is NOT a CAM. He is an attacking midfielder but a RIGHT WINGER.
I would love Ziyech to come here. He WANTS to come to Arsenal. But I think that Emery doesn’t seem to be interested in him.
Fekir is a CAM.
Ozil, Iwobi and Mkhitaryan are not good enough in the CAM positions. We need a new CAM. Fekir would be an improvement.
I wish we could sign these attacking midfielders:
CAM = FEKIR
Right Wing: Zaha or Ziyech
Left Wing: Ryan Fraser, Felipe Anderson or Shaarway
Shaarawy went to China already!
Its crazy.Ziyech avilable for 25 and fekir for 30 mill pound and both are better then ozil and there is no interest.Would buy both,but would prefer ziyech if only one.We dont have wingers.Just iwobi on the left and we do not have an out and out right winger.We are playing mikky and ozil out of position to fill that position and they are frankly not good enough on the wing.For a club like arsenal iwobi cant be our only recognized winger as he is far from good enough to start every game.Get Tierney,zah,ziyech and a cb or two
Dan, I’m glad I followed your link to David Ornstein’s statement about Ziyech, because it gives the reason for Arsenal not following up on the player as that the scouts reports were not favourable. No where is there any evidence that Emery doesn’t like Ziyech.
With Fekir, it appears obvious that given Ozil will not be leaving, opportunities will be given to Arsenal’s other midfielders.
The defense needs to be the priority.
adm: very good question but what is the answer?
Speaking of central midfield, we may be signing Dani Ceballos to replace Ramsay. He can also play CAM
Arsenal should also consider good players from Africa who have excelled in the ongoing AFCON. Examples are South Africa players such as Dean Furman and Zungu who were excellent in midfield, their two defenders, a center back and a left back, without forgetting Mr lorch a superb forward. Either one or two of these players can transform arsenal,i hope they will be gotten at a cheaper price. Ziyech, fegouli, Sarr ,zaha, bunijea who plays no. 9 for Algeria are some of the best players who have excelled in this tournament. Someone please to forward this names to teams management to consider some of this players when doing recruitment
If Emery’s focus is on getting really good defenders, I understand why he’s not going for either of the two guys mentioned in the post.
I hope you are right, WMT4TG.