There have been some recent reports in the mainstream media saying that Arsenal are in talks with the German defender Shkodran Mustafi to allow him to terminate his contract with the Gunners despite the defender having six months to go on his present deal.
Personally I can see no chance of this happening whatsoever, as Arteta has already managed to slim down our bloated squad, especially in defence, so why let a player that is being paid and could be useful to the squad in the second half of the season.
As Arteta said just a couple of weeks ago in The Mail: ‘His future right now is here,’
‘I’m trying to help. We have Papa that probably is going to leave the club in this window.
‘William (Saliba) that has already gone on loan, so we don’t have many right now.
‘Gabriel’s been out for a period, David (Luiz) has been injured, so the situation is completely different to before.’
It is true that we now have Gabriel and Luiz back in the squad, but now Pablo Mari is out for an unknown period. Rob Holding is back and also in fine form, but I cannot see that we can get through the rest of the season without Mustafi as cover for any other injuries and suspensions to come.
I think we can forget about this rumour, don’t you?
Let him go we have,
Holding,
Gab,
Luiz.
Mari,
Chambers,
And next year we will have Saliba, mavro back from loans..
Spot on. Mustafi was a panic buy when Mertesacker got injured in the community shield a few seasons ago. It’s not his fault the price was inflated. He was after all a world cup winner. However, at £35m, he can only be considered a flop. A decent first season and downhill from there with error-strewn performances. Emery transfer listed him and no club was interested. His renaissance under Arteta during last season’s restart was due to a lot of pitchside coaching which benefited a lot of players who got instructions at the drinks break. I bet the instructions were simply “whatever you do, stay on your feet in the box.” The only clubs interested are relegation-threatened Genoa and they don’t want to pay a fee. At £90k a week, it is best for both clubs. Chambers needs a run of games as well. There is no spilt milk to cry over here…
Much Adu About Nothing. Mustafi will never be missed.
Strange decisions have happened in the past and may possibly continue to happen. I hope you are right event hough Mustafi left the club mentally a long time ago.
Hoping for the best as the rebuild continues. I just want to see us play in the Champions league again someday. hopefully soon.
If Odergaard is coming into the squad then Arsenal need to remove one additional foreign player to allow him to take his place.
The options appear to be either Runnerson or Mustafi.
Whilst Runnerson is about as useful as a chocolate teapot he has not long arrived and has a long term contract.Mustafi’s contract expires this Summer.He is one of six centre-backs currently at the club and takes home a wage in excess of £90k per week.All the various rumours of other clubs wanting him are presumably nothing more than agent smoke screens so there is no point in keeping him.As a free agent another Club somewhere in Europe might take a punt…So it makes perfect sense for Arsenal to cancel his contract and get rid of another piece of deadwood from the Squad.
Mustafi us not good enough
It is a good decision to cancel his contract.
Mari
Gabriel
Holding
Luiz
Chambers
These 5 defenders can carry us.
Hopefully, we don’t have any further injury to the defense through out the season.
Mustafi has to go if we are to register Odegaard.
I think Edu and Arteta have not paid enough attention to the homegrown rules, which leaves them caught out too often.
Haha, you think Edu and Arteta don’t understand the rules? I think you had better apply for the job lol.
Nonsense. I think it’s Runarsson who won’t be registered or will be sent out on loan.
they are very much aware. dont worry about that
He can take kolasniac spot
Funny really to think like this. Lol
Can’t stop a player who wants to leave for free. I’m afraid Xhaka would be the next one and we need Xhaka so badly
You need Xhaka badly? Oh! Have mercy on Arsenal. I don’t need a master of back passes. Mustafi should be followed by Xhaka and Willian. Even if it’s for free, I don’t mind
Xhaka’s forward pass statistic is actually one of the highest among the Gunners and we usually lose without his passes. He’s the only left-footed DM at Arsenal who can glide the ball forward closer to the left touchline and this is highly important for our main dribbler, Tierney
If we start a game with two right-footed pivots or DMs, both of them can’t pass the ball along the left touchline as quick and as accurate as Xhaka. This is an obvious geometric problem and it’s proven that we lose more when Xhaka was absent
But he could send a letter by second class post to the opposition telling him when he was going to make those forward passes and it would arrive before he made the pass. That is no use to us! We need pace and he has the pace of a disabled snail!
We already have Smith-Rowe, Partey and Ceballos in front of him, who’re good in tight spaces and good in dribbling. But we still need a DM behind them, who can keep the central spine of the team by sitting in front of our two CBs
If the chacteristics of both pivots are like Partey and Ceballos, nobody would stay behind to protect our CBs and to make the passes to the left side
Why are so many players going of nothing
gai, Oh really? “We need Xhaka so badly?” Yes, like we need the plague!
Whatever is the matter with you? Are you really as daft as that incredible comment indicates?
Jon, please read my explanation above 👆
Jon
Making me smile. Xhaka’s thoughts are long-wave size. They can be intercepted. Sharp as a noodle.
We may have paid well over the odds for Mustafi and co –
but the market was way different back then and the
management team was too.
So what if we’re giving these guys away for free now? We
don’t want them and can immediately save on their wages.
It’s called ‘cut your losses’.
This is not Edu and Arteta’s fault, it’s the previous regime(s)
that cocked up…
We’re saving huge sums in wages, Mustafi and
Sokratis were both on 90k a week. Basically we’re
trimming the squad to a manageable size, and
righting past wrongs as far as possible.
One word, Willian.
And Pepe.
41 million to buy him 17 mill to pay him. So Mustafi cost Arsenal 58 mill.
Now he leaves on a free a total loss.
How is that good business?
He wasn’t paid to sit at home. And speaking of losses the current Arsenal setup (management, manager and players) is a total package loss. Millions are paid to them for 8th and 10th.
No point in paying him off to walk, so best to keep him for these last few months just in case.
With respect GAI, you are really clutching at straws in highlighting the need for a left footed central midfielder.If you look at Liverpool, Man City ,Spurs and Leicester you will not find one such player in their first choice midfields. If we had a midfielder such as Bissouma, instead of Xhaka we would improve our team significantly.He has pace ,energy and excellent technical ability and would be a huge help to our back four as he is strong and astute defensively.In tandem with Partey he would create a powerful engine room which we will never achieve with Xhaka due to his complete lack of pace.He has a very educated left foot and decent football intelligence, but opposition players run past him on a regular basis and he is obliged to impede them because he is so slow and ponderous.