I was thinking about Unai Emery’s Daily Mail £45m John Cross War Chest yesterday and the idea struck me that £45m isn’t even remotely going to be enough to rebuild this squad.
First, there are all of the players who aren’t going to be here next year: Cech, Ramsey, Welbeck, and the Lich. Then I thought about all of the players who are getting too old to play or who aren’t real good: Monreal, Jenkinson, Koscielny. And finally, I thought of all the players that supporters want to see the club sell: Mustafi, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Xhaka, “one of Auba/Laca”, and Ozil. At least, these are the names that most often come up when folks start talking about renewing the squad.
There are a million things that have to happen for players to leave the club but the big ones are: someone has to want that player, the player has to agree to move, and terms have to be agreed. So, while it’s nice to just say “sell Ozil to China” you can see at least two major stumbling blocks there: who wants him, and will he want to go.
And even if you just cut the players who are out of contract the squad has some major holes. If you add in that (I love these guys) Monreal and Koscielny are going to be 33 and 34 next year, and let’s be realistic here, they can’t play much, the holes in the squad get even larger.
So, let’s look at the squad, if all of the players on loan come back and we only lose the guys who we are guaranteed to lose (HG next to name indicates homegrown):
GK: Leno, Ospina, Martinez (HG)
RB: Bellerin (HG), Jenkinson (HG), AMN (HG)
CB: Holding (HG), Mustafi, Sokratis, Mavropanos, Koscielny
LB: Kolasinac, Monreal
DM: Torreira, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Chambers (HG), Elneny
AM: Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi (HG), Reiss Nelson (HG),
FW: Lacazette, Aubameyang
A few things pop out when I make this list.
First, center back isn’t a major priority. I know that we have a lot of injuries this season but Holding, Sokratis, Mavropanos, and Koscielny should be fine for one year. Especially if we have Monreal and Chambers available to cover. If Arsenal sell Mustafi, that’s fine. Though we need to uncover another cheap option like Holding.
Second, left back is in Eric Dier straights. Right back seems ok. But Left back needs a purchase. Kolasinac is so not a left back that Unai tried deploying him up front last match. Monreal is 32 and will be 33 in a few weeks. That’s a bad situation. I haven’t seen anyone from the academy ready to step up so it really feels like this is a must buy position.
For the two DM positions, it looks like Arsenal could sell Elneny and be fine. Let’s assume that the Brian Trust at Arsenal can get a good left back for the price Elneny will bring. Good job, hole filled.
AM, this is where the problems really are at Arsenal right now which is a bit of a revelation to me, though it probably shouldn’t be. There’s a reason why Arsenal got Denis Suarez on loan, because if we can integrate him and buy him for £20m or so, it frees Arsenal up to sell (buy out his contract) Ozil.
I think Unai likes Mkhi – he’s a hard working player. I know Unai likes Iwobi, so that guy ain’t getting sold. Reiss Nelson has cooled off quite a bit since his good start in the Bumdesliga. And Emery clearly despises Ozil. I think Emery is also going to give chances to Smith-Rowe (HG) and Joe Willock (HG) next season, especially Smith-Rowe who is an exceptional player. So, if we sell Ozil that leaves Mkhi, Iwobi, (Suarez?), and then maybe Smith-Rowe, Nelson and Willock. Is that really enough attacking talent?
In the forward position, I understand all of the arguments in favor of selling one of the two forwards but for me the question is whether you can get equal value. Aubameyang is the most likely to go – because he’s the least versatile – but where are we going to get 20 goals a season? Nketiah? Maybe. But if you try to dip into the market for a player like that, you’re looking at £70m, at least. Unless there’s some wildcard out there that no one has heard of. My guess is that this position will not see major changes.
Anyway it’s all guess work, folks. For all we know, Emery wants to buy 10 N’Zonzi’s and a D.Suarez and call it a day. I also don’t pretend to know how much money Unai has to spend, I’m not John Cross. The club have a ton of money and that’s regardless of whether we get Champions League or not. The latest financial report has over £200m in cash on hand. The most of any club. Meanwhile, every day the club announces new partnerships, new shirt deals, new naming rights, and there is a new television contract. And getting into the Champions League isn’t an automatic bumper payday. The Europa League is very comparable, depending on how far you make it, it can be worth a lot more to an English club than it can be worth to get kicked out in the first elimination round of the Champions League.
Look, I’ve tried to be reasonable here by saying things like we may start Smith-Rowe but I know most of you have higher expectations than that. I obviously don’t. I look at the list I compiled and it’s not very inspiring. There are a lot of players that I’d like to see leave the club who probably won’t.
Looking at the list, I see a squad that needs a major overhaul. But I’ve been around Arsenal long enough now to know that unless there’s some kind of major catastrophe (15th place finish) it ain’t happening. I don’t see this club shelling out £70m for a van Dijk or £100m for a top quality attacking mid. I think we are going to keep doing what we have been doing for the last 15 years: rummaging around in the 2nd hand bin, hoping to find some bargains.
Agree completely. Arsenal’s directors are complete, utter liars. I really think this is true. They talk about top four / CL ambitions, but they know with certainty that it’s not happening because there’s going to be a paltry investment in the squad…an investment not dissimilar to what you’d find at a lower table club. I really think the worst thing to happen to Arsenal is Leicester City, both because they won the league in the only season we had a realistic chance to do it, and because they gave our owner and managing directors a frankly ridiculous excuse to talk about success without investment.
It’s curious that they also raise Liverpool as an example. Liverpool’s owners put money into the club.
I disagree, my bro.
They couldnt be liars, the main reason is that they couldn’t KNOW in August of 2018, where Arsenal would finish in May of 2019. None of us even knows at this point. This deep into the season we can see the trajectory, and yes, I’d bet the farm on 6th. But you can’t lie about the unknowable.
Look, you hire the ex-coach of PSG and 3x Europa winner to deliver top 4. You just do. Emery is not a developmental hire. Arteta would have been.
It is of course another debate whether it was realistic at the time, and it probably wasn’t, but that had to have been his remit. All the talk at the time of his hire was how he showed he could optimise the squad, and we made additions in problem areas, such as GK and DM. He has improved some players, but it’s doubtful what it could be said that, overall, he’s optimising the squad he inherited.
Let’s be honest… on our long unbeaten run in November, top 4 looked distinctly possible.
In short, we are Everton. I miss Wenger……
Ornstein said it could be closer to 100m. Here’s my football manager optimistic rebuild if we get CL.
Sell:
Mkhitaryan (20m)
Ozil (20m)
Xhaka/chambers (30m)
Mustafi (20m)
Elneny/Monreal (15m)
£105m
Buy:
Konate (25m)
LB (10m)
Rabiot (free)
Attacking Midfielder (one of Aouar, Haverts, Ziyech) (50m)
Right wing (One of Pepe, Thauvin, Lozano) (50m)
Thuram (LW/Striker) (15m)
£150m
Net Spend £45m
Defenders: Bellerin, Sokratis , Konate, Kolasinac, Koscielny,Holding, Dinos, New LB
Midfielder: Torreira, Rabiot, Guendouzi, New AM signing, Smith-Row, Maitland Niles
Forwards: Aubameyang, Lacazette, New RW signing, Thuram, Iwobi, Nelson
Not picking on you but I see this sort of thing a lot and these prices feel WAY off.
My estimates:
Mkhitaryan (on £200k a week, £21m in guaranteed salary left on his deal, we would be lucky if we can give him £10m to take a huge pay cut and go to another team, but I don’t think we will sell him)
Ozil (on £350k a week, has £37m in guaranteed salary left on his deal, we will be lucky if we can give him £18m to take a huge pay cut and go to another team, so, I’m saying -£18m)
Xhaka (no one will buy this player)
Chambers (foolish to sell because he’s HG, but let’s say £20m)
Elneny (£15m)
Monreal (no one is going to pay us for a 33 year old on the last year of his deal)
Total: +£17m.
Buy:
Konate – the 19 year old CB from RB Leipzig? More like £50m. Not happening.
LB – £10m. I agree. That’s about the range we are looking.
Rabiot – Player wants 5 years and £350k a week, no.
AM – Agree, £50m but…
RW – It’s going to be Penis Suarez, £20m.
Thuram – no chance they let him go for less than £50m, so we aren’t buying.
Net spend: £13m – which is about how much we will probably spend.
DFers: Bellerin, AMN, Jenkinson, Sokratis, Holding, Mustafi, Koscielny, Dinos, Monreal, Kolasinac, maybe a new LB
MFers: Torreira, Guendouzi, Xhaka
AMFers: Smith-Rowe, Mkhitaryan, Penis Suarez, Willock, Zelalem, Nelson, Iwobi
FWers: Aubameyang (injured in October), Lacazette (injured in November), Nketiah, some 40 year old free agent from Serie A who we get in December and there’s a giant push to get us to buy his shirt after he scores a goal against Spurs.
Haha, I was being pretty optimistic. You are definitely leaning on the pessimistic side. No one will buy Xhaka? Come on, is his stock that low? If he became available he would have suiters in Germany and probably Italy.
Rabiot isn’t getting close to that anywhere. No chance.
I agree, don’t think the club would be ambitious enough to move on Mkhi, but they seem to be ruthless in getting wages off the book and if they aren’t looking at his output (5 g+a in the league) then that’s pretty incompetent. I guess it depends on the player hunger to actually play. Same goes with Ozil. I know taking a pay cut is unlikely but being frozen out isn’t good for a player who seems to be quite big on building his brand.
Guingamp aren’t going to be able to request 50m if they get relegated, which is looking likely.
Penis Suarez?
Come on Tim, you’re better than that. As a joke, it’s not funny. As a jibe, it’s lame and childish. And it’s your own player, at least for now.
Same team, bro!
I’m clearly NOT above that.
I don’t have to like or support every player just because they are under contract to Arsenal Football Corporation (a subsidiary of KSE). These aren’t guys from around my way, we aren’t all in a club together, they are well paid professional athletes who will eventually move on. Arsenal aren’t a quaint little team with a stadium from 1918, they are a corporate entity, a massive capitalist behemoth, designed to take your money and enrich stan Stan. I know we all like to pretend that this is something bigger and more important than just consumer capitalism but that’s exactly what they need us to do in order to keep us ticking over nicely. We are the consumer and the product. If I don’t like the taste of Pepsi Clear, I’m going to tell the corporation selling it to me that I don’t like the taste of Pepsi Clear. If you want to go out and get your D. Suarez Puma shirt, have at it. Just put a P instead of a D.
If you want, you can have it stand for Pepsi “Clear” Suarez.
If you don’t like Pepsi Clear, stop drinking it. Simple enough. I’ve never been much for protests when it comes to corporations because protests don’t work as long as you are still consuming the product. I like the Arsenal product, always have, and I know I will keep coming back to it, so protesting something I already like feels weird. I feel the same way about your blog, but I occasionally protest because you’re kind enough to actually respond and I enjoy having a conversation about the things that upset me once in a while. Imagine if the Arsenal brass did us the same courtesy. I’m not holding my breath.
Oh man, this was amazing:
https://arseblog.com/2019/02/arsenal-gentlemans-weekly-review-186/
Dude – if you can get ANY of those fees for the sales you mention, I nominate you for the job of Footballing Director. Nobody wants any of our players you mention for anywhere near those fees. And you are proposing outright swindling of players from other clubs.
I dunno, I’m watching liverpool sell nobodies for 20m a piece, I guess I didn’t think it was out of the question that someone may deem Mkhitaryan or Ozil worth as much as Danny Ings. I know there stock isn’t that high but come on. Bare in mind Barca are asking what 18m? For Saurez, who basically has played a few games in the last 2 years.
We were offered around 20m for Chambers a few seasons back.
Mustafi is unlikely I guess, but again, we are seeing some dreadful players get decent fees quite frequently.
You are not considering their salaries – Ozil is on 350k a week. Nobody will pay that AND a transfer fee. Mustafi is 140k a week. Mkhyi – 200k/week. That reduces their transfer fee dramatically. Chambers is garbage two Arsenal managers and a load of loan managers have given up on him. We paid 12m for Elneny, how did he appreciate in value on the bench in 3 years?
yea the wages are difficult. It comes down to the player, are they happy sitting out and collecting wages. Is Mustafi on 140m a week? FFS what the fuck is wrong with us.
Chambers had a good spell with Middlesborough and after a rocky start has been very good in Fulhams midfield (from what I have been reading), English premium too.
i thought arsenal only paid £5 million for elneny.
Correct, Josh.
Jack’s also got Mustafi’s and Mhki’s salaries wrong… they’re 90k and 180k respectively.
I was just doing these sorts of sums today, along with wages.
I figure we’ll sell/lose. Cech, Ospina, Licht, Mustafi, Ramsey, Ozil, Welbeck, Asano (remember him?), Jenkinson, Elneny for a combined total of 40m, and shed 750k/wk in wages. (We’ll still be paying 200k of Ozil’s wages) We’ll also bring back Chambers and Bielik for a combined 100k/wk. (Guessing)
This means we have 650k wages to play with and an additional 40m.
I didn’t include Suarez in any calculation. Because..meh.. we’ll see.
Chambers and Bielik will be Mustafi and Elneny’s replacements. We won’t buy a CB.
If we go with Cross’ version of 45m, we’ll have total 85m to spend. We’ll buy a RB and a wide forward.
Maybe we buy a LB, and maybe we buy an experienced DM or something but for now I’m leaving those out.
GK: Leno, Martinez* Macey*
LB: Monreal, Kolasinac
CB: Sokratis, Koscielny, Holding*, Chambers*, Mavropanos
RB: Bellerin*, New Signing
DM: Xhaka, Torreira, Guendouzi, Bielik*
AM: Miki, Iwobi*, New signing, Nelson*, ESR*
CF: Auba, Laca, Nketiah*
If we go with Ornstein’s version of closer to 100m but with wages, we’re not far off Cross’ 45m, but it suggests we could get higher calibre players.
Same transfer budget 45m, plus 52m in wages, ie a million a week. Gets you a Rabiot, a good wide forward, and two fullbacks. (If you can make the sales count)
Calum Chambers isn’t good enough, Shard.
He’s good enough to be a backup CB/DM because he helps the HG quota and especially because buying a CB who is good enough will cost too much for Arsenal.
Agree. Also a better RB cover than Jenko and Licht. But having played a lot in Fulham he might choose to leave.
Don’t you know our new motto? If he’s good enough for Fulham, he is good enough for Arsenal.
But seriously – I think he would be an upgrade over Elneny. Not a huge one but an upgrade none the less.
El Neny or Chambers at DM? It’s a lateral move. DM is another position that needs further investment.
I think you either forgot to sell AMN or put him in your team!
Sure, it’s a lean team, we might lack bodies to tackle PL+CL+ domestic cups at the same time and mount a proper challenge in any of those. 1 major injury in any department bar CB and we’re playing week in week out with a youngster we’ll burn to the ground.
But it’s also an exciting team filled with HG talent, a few stars and some cash to spend on a few lesser-known talents if we get a Monchi-like figure as our technical director.
Star-studded teams age too and leaner, sharper teams can survive and adapt and pounce when the time comes (e.g. Dortmund vs Bayern this season or in 2010-2012).
Indeed I forgot to add AMN.
Yes, provided we can sell well, have the right targets and are prepared to spend money then it’s not a terrible squad. It’s not a terrible squad now either.
But we should have more income next season what with Adidas and the new TV deal. So it is a good opportunity to build well.
Our squad for a top 4 finish isn’t that miserable, imo. Two thirds of the season gone and we are only 3 pts from that target. If we rebuild cleverly (good buys and right sales) we might be in even greater reckoning next sesson. Am treating the £45m war chest story as a wild rumour.
Full/wing backs are crucial to Emery’s game. Top priority is a left back (Nacho/age, Kola/ not a defender). Right back follows so M-Niles goes back to MF. Then a physical, athletic, technical B2B, a Rabiot. ERS, Nelson, and one or two more would be promoted. Then a few sales and non renewals.
ESR.
Absolutely agree with this and I made some of these points in my comments the past couple of days. Major overhaul is needed but it doesn’t need to happen all in one window. It’s about priorities and squad management. A left back and a versatile wide forward has to be the top two priorities right now given the way Emery wants us to play. If Ozil goes (which he should because it’s not like he is playing for us now anyway), I think we can buy another experienced central attacking mid. This is gonna be the trickiest part of our summer business. We will most likely have to subsidize his wages but with the wages saved and the money coming in from the transfer, we *should* be able to get another decent attacking mid at a reasonable price. I have no hope for Dennis Suarez and think he will be cr*p but I would loved to be proved wrong here. I have my doubts about Nelson as well but let’s see. I think AMN and Willock could be useful squad players. Maybe Nketiah as well but I still don’t know what to think about him. At times it feels like he is trying too hard. I think there is a mental block in him. If he overcomes it, he could fulfill his potential. The only guy I am really excited about in that group is ESR.
I would add that there is also an age imbalance in the squad. A lot of young guys and a lot of older vets in the wrong side of 30 make up a majority of the squad. Unfortunately the guys at the sweet spot of 25-27 range are very dispensable – like Mustafi, Xhaka and Elneny. If they are sold, I think we should replace them with players in the same age range. Just one more complication to consider.
For me, the gamble Arsenal had to make is try to replace the goals and assists of Auba/Laca (depending on who we sell) with AM’s. Striker market is thin and some big clubs need to fill that position. Perfect time to cash in. For a club looking into going top 4 having two premium strikers is luxury.
Also we should not rely on anything from ESR, Nketiah, Nelson, Willock except being cheap squad options. They need time and I won’t be surprised if only one makes a career out of this (which is still good).
Defensively bringing chambers is a very good option if we are not buying a top class player. He can play CDM, CB and RB cover.
I’ve never seen Chambers play effective football outside of CB, especially not RB. He simply lacks the agility. What’s more, Emery chose Holding over him at the start of the season and wasn’t disappointed. Best case scenario for Arsenal over Chambers is a tidy transfer sum and I believe his sale will be used to offset purchases this summer.
agreed, but it’s unlikely to happen unless someone wants him. however, arsenal would lose that homegrown player.
He’s a young-ish player with decent passing range and is probably not inferior defensively to your average championship defender, which makes him a championship level CB with PL level passing range. I’d say someone will pay us for him, most likely a promoted team or one who will be in the relegation zone next season.
Wenger reportedly to choose between 4 jobs. DoF at PSG, 2 major European clubs, and a NT.
Maybe he would be willing to take Ozil at his new club.
I have us down paying Ozil all the salary we owe him except the image rights which would be paid by his new club. I see no reason for him or any buying club to make it easier or cheaper for us.
Wenger at the board meeting as the PSG’s DoF in 2021
PSG President: “Arsene, where are we with the Neymar negotiations?”
Wenger : “ I see no need for concern about the Neymar situation. Yes, he’s got one year left on his contract but he really likes it here and footballistically speaking, the hand breake his agent has put on the new deal talks with us probably have a little bit to do with the rumors Man City are offering to double his salary.”
PSG President: “Should we perhaps double his salary then?”
Wenger: “No , I’m in football for 150 years and I believe in loyalty and I never broke a contract in my carreer and I believe I can make him sign for another four years for what Im getting paid. Trust me I have much experience in this”
PSG President: “Very well Arsene, let’s double his salary. Good talk”
1) I would push back on Emery hates/despises Ozil. I honestly think he’s been told to use Ozil as little as possible to cut back on his appearance bonus and also to make life so unpalatable for him that Ozil will be willing to leave for a lesser salary… because no one in their right mind would pay Mesut Ozil 350k a week. Emery is not stupid, I’m sure he can see that the team’s offensive output takes a hit with either Ozil or Ramsey out of the line-up.
2) John Cross is an idiot. He doesn’t know how much Arsenal have to spend, he heard that from some guy at the pub. Ornstein, who I believe is better sourced, admitted he didn’t know either but suggested it could be as high as a 100m. Who knows?
3) I’m pretty sure we’re going to make a big push for Monchi this spring as the new technical director. He’s at the end of his tenure at Roma. The Spaniards will be in charge and I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to find some cheap players kicking a ball in some lower league.
4) Settle in for the ride… the days of buying established stars was here briefly and is now gone again. Whether or not they’re in form or up to top 4 levels, we’re going to have Reiss-Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Willock, AMN, Pleguezuelo, Nketiah, Holding, Mavropanos, Torreira, Guendouzi et al as the core of our team. Emery wasn’t hired for top 4, he was hired because of his pedigree working with young players and selling them on for profit.
5) Transfer fees generated from sales; Ozil = 0, Mustafi = 5m… maybe. Nobody will want Mhyki, even for free. Auba or Laca would get us 50m each, those are the two to watch out for, and outside of Bellerin they are are only really saleable assets. One of them will probably go this summer to pay for a new LB.
The £100m Ornstein spoke of includes salary,for example 2 £30m players,on four year £20m contracts and all the money is gone.When you factor in that we will basically have to pay people to leave,we are really up the creek without a paddle.
I don’t know.
On one hand I can see Ozil sticking around , collecting the balance of the £60 m guaranteed in his contract – I mean , it’s not like he’s not getting his fill of top notch competition , if the rumors of his on line gaming prowess were to be true.
And you can’t beat London living either.
But on the other hand I can definitely see him going to Turkey and enjoying the remaining three to four seasons of his career as a living god with Arsenal supplementing part of his salary.
I’m surprised most on here have such a low opinion of the market value Xhaka represents.
25 years old, very durable, one of first picks for Arsenal ( at a relatively modest £90 k per week) and the Swiss national team, and even though I do realize it’s not an exact science but valued at €50m by transfermarkt.
I think there would be more than a few clubs willing to snap him up were he to become available.
Elneny , on the other hand, for £15m is a pipe dream.
I would be hard pressed to name another player on any club who brings less to the table than him other than don’t rock the boat attitude.
Xhaka at Juve or some team in Serie A with a solid defense would look all-world. It would depend who’s interested in him. No PL team will pay much for him because of his lack of athleticism.
I would include Osei-Tutu as a possible RB backup next year. 20 yrs old so a decision is needed soon and as a specialist RB not sure why he is being tried this year.
First, I’ll point out with a little irony that while the title of the blog is “major overhauls” you seem to conclude Arsenal mainly need two players, a LB and an AM. Or did I misunderstand?
Second, nobody thinks we can go from 6th to 1st in one transfer window, I hope. Sure, you could add Neymar and Varanes and Alcantara and we would be just about having a conversation about competing for the title. That isn’t happening, obviously, so we need to embrace the iterative process of adding more players in the Torreira bracket in terms of ability, age, and price on the market.
Adjunctively, there is no guarantee that if we spend a certain amount on a player that he will be any good. I see the van Dijk example all the time, as if any club at any time could just pay some effling money and have a player of the caliber of van Dijk. Maybe, maybe not. It’s an old Wengerism that the transfer price doesn’t determine the quality of the player, or have we forgotten this simple truth?
Perhaps instructive would be to examine Liverpool’s squad during Klopp’s first full season.
https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/liverpool-fc/2016/2/
As you can see, it’s an island of misfit toys. Joe Allen, Christian Benteke, etc etc. It took them several transfer windows plus the sale of their best player to get the squad they have now, which might still not be good enough to win the title over Guardiola’s Man City.
The squad needs a major overhaul, it’ain’t getting it.
My main source of angst stems from our current owner. I am utterly unconvinced that he/KSE have any sporting ambition beyond being “just good enough” to make profit. He is – correct me please, if I’m wrong here – the only PL owner not to put a farthing, a pfennig, a penny, a paisa into his club.
I desperately hope to be wrong.
I mean wrong about his ambition and associated investment to pursue trophies. That self-sustaining is not a euphemism for mediocrity.
I really just don’t know what kind of footballing philosophy is so rigid that you can’t fit in at least one of Ramsey /Ozil.
The other argument, cutting them loose to save money, is even more ridiculous. Which poor club wouldn’t love to have them already in the squad?
When Emery took over as manager, I was really excited about new possibilities. With Mislintat around and a young coach, I was hoping that we would start thinking like Dortmund and developing a team based on young guns. Playing fast exciting Football. I was even prepared to see utter disasters and whippings from the big boys of City, Chelsea and Pool IF we could see progress in terms of squad rebuilt.
Unfortunately, it all seems like a wasted opportunity. I think the Germany World Cup disaster didn’t help the cause with Ozil. But I would have really liked to have seen Arsenal prepare better for the rebuild by mopping up lot of the young talent identified by Mislintat instead of buying Aging players last summer. We had the perfect setting – a long term fading manager was being moved on, a younger guy was taking over, we had the guru of player scouting in our team. Even if some of these young kids would have not worked out, we would have had a fan base which would be forgiving as everyone wanted change desperately. Nobody would have complained so much if they could see the club trying to rebuild. Now it’s all a bit MEH… We have a similar kind of mood in the fan base like few years ago with angst creeping up. By the end of this season, the squad will frankly look worse off. We would lose 2 wonderful creative players. A hard working forward will be out of contract (Welbeck). We have a GK who is a bit suspect (not much better than Szcz or Fab). We have a backline with ageing war horses who might manage one more year. Our mid field will be so lightweight that I see us getting overrun repeatedly.
Add to all this is the behind the scenes drama. We got rid of our best manager in history and the CEO quickly disappeared after that (maybe he knew all along how screwed up our management was and with no Wenger shielding him anymore, he knew he will be left all exposed). Mislintat is gone because he probably realised that the owners don’t really have any long term vision for success. So I feel pretty depressed about our prospects. I didn’t really care if we didn’t manage to make it to CL. All I wanted was a coach to come in and stamp his style on the side. I had really hoped for better Football from Emery. But he seems to be a “not rock the boat” type of coach. I see us becoming Everton in the future. All that is remaining is having Moyes take over so that our players can get “stuck in” and “grow a pair”!
Not rock the boat! He’s only gone and marginalized the most high profile player at the club!!
Wenger/Gazidis made 3 catastrophic decisions; the effects of which are still being felt today, which indeed have come back to bite us very hard.
One, the decision to sign only Cech that summer, and effectively only Elneny in the following January transfer window. Arsene left on the table, money that should have been spent to strengthen other areas of the squad. This isn’t Lotto… you don’t get budget rollovers. That money went into the coffers of AFC. That was one of or some combination of touch of arrogance, gross dereliction of duty or sheer squad building incompetence.
It weakened us in the long term, and laid the groundwork for our fall out of the Top 4. It also laid the groundwork for the great Sanchez rebellion because, like Van Persie, he realised that the club did not approach competing for the title in a serious way.
Catastrophic decision No 2 was not taking City’s 60m for Sanchez in the summer. We went last minute for Lemar, after dragging our feet all window (and ended up offering 90m, 30m more than Monaco had initially wanted); he wouldnt come, we couldnt get the Sanchez replacement we wanted so pulled the plug. Arsene probably figured that his charm alone could cause Sanchez to sign on in his last year. When the disaster of that decision was laid bare and we tried to offload in Jan, we got….
Catastrophic Decision no 3… the Mkhitaryan swap. A Ford Focus for a BMW. which led to Catastropic Decision No 4….
Mhki’s wage packet (180k/week), which was completely undeserved based on his abilities. But, as always, we opted for the position of least leverage. We had to have something to show for Alexis, so we got the wrong M from United. Would have been great of it was Martial, but hey…
We compounded it with Catastrophic Decision No 5… letting Ozil ALSO enter the final year of his contract, which led to Catastrophic Decision No 6, the desperation not to lose both Ozil and Sanchez in the same window, thus rewarding Mesut with a contract FIVE times the figure of Koscielny’s.
And you know what? We let Ramsey do the same thing.
How much has all of this cost us financially?
As we say in the Caribbean, you wouldn’t run a cake shop in this way.
Agree on 1. Completely. The squad lost belief after we didn’t win the title that season. (Though I still don’t get why you make it sound money going in the coffers has to be a one way street)
Slightly disagree on 2. A backdrop that everyone seems to forget is that as a fanbase, and management, we were tired of losing our best players. It hadn’t happened for years but the sting remained. Also, most of us expected that the ‘fighter’ that Alexis is/was would still give his all. We were wrong. And so we waited for City to make an offer, and only then did we commit to spending money on Lemar. It worked out poorly, but I get the decision making process.
3 and 4 are linked to that. SO I guess yeah it’s bad. But what can you do? 180k shouldn’t be an issue if he performs. He still could. We wanted him before he went to ManU, so it’s not like we picked up just anybody.
5. I always maintained Ozil wanted to stay. And I honestly don’t have a problem with his wage packet. He’s our only global star and part of that will be image rights (and bonuses as Jack has pointed out) It’s a different issue that having signed him we’re now trashing his value (and being trashy in the process. Players trying to wriggle out of contracts get it in the neck. Clubs get a free pass?)
Again with Ramsey. I’m guessing he wanted to see what new management held. And he was prepared to sign (At good value) We could have sold him and I would have understood that. But that’s not what caused this mess. It was new management which did that. Who’s to say we wouldn’t be doing the same to him as we are to Ozil if he had already signed?
Lastly, all of this crying over wages, and people wondering which forward to sell. Arsenal have made y’all crazy. The club is loaded. They have money. They had zero spend last January. They barely increased their wages in the summer as far as I can tell. And they only signed a guy on loan this January.
And now they’ll do a clearout in the summer, and probably lower the wage spend in a season when they’ll be earning more money than ever before even without the CL.
Paying Ozil and Ramsey and Miki should have nothing to do with us not being able to buy more players. Swallowing the club’s line on this as they destroy the tiny window we had to do something with this squad is weird.
I’m not in the least concerned with how much/little we have to spend on next season’s squad. In fact I’m looking forward to Stan’s parsimony, as it may force the club to more regular use of the brilliant youth players who often sit on the bench without a game, and perhaps even produce a title challenging side worthy of comparisons with the ’89 to ’91 squads.
How they’re managed & coached is another issue completely.
There are several angles to this story, the need to correct the wage structure, the need to retain performing players, the need to satisfy the home grown quota, the need to grow suitable young players for sale.
I stated a few days ago that we would be needing wide players for defense and offense. Adrien Rabiot makes absolutely no sense coming to Arsenal when we have Guendouzi, Ainsley Maitland Niles, Willock and Zelalem, in that order as players who can play box to box. The rumoured wages don’t make sense to add to this squad based on the premier league STCC rules.
But the addition of Nkunku and Suarez could seem logical, players who can play on the wings, creating a constant supply from the wings for Auba/Laca, they don’t need to be World beaters, just skillful and hardworking and they would fit into Emery’s system.
If Õzil leaves Mhkitaryan will play in the hole as attacking midfielder, while Suarez, Iwobi, Nkunku and Nelson rotate the wing play on both sides. 😂
I stated a few days ago that we would be needing wide players for defense and offense. Adrien Rabiot makes absolutely no sense coming to Arsenal when we have Guendouzi, Ainsley Maitland Niles, Willock and Zelalem, in that order as players who can play box to box.
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Willock and Zelalem will never be good enough for Arsenal, and I have serious doubts about AMN as well.
We need a right back now! We can either promote Osei-Tutu or we buy. We need a left back, Monreal is aging and Kolasinac is a wing back bereft of defensive consistency. We bought a 16 year old from Barça, but I’m sure we can get one for a low price.
Suarez-18m
Nkunku-10m
Rb-7m
Lb-7m
This comes to about £42m which is the speculated figure, an internal solution would reduce this figure. But Smith-Rowe and Saka are also available to add to the squad.
Osei-Tutu Is 20 now, not a young kid. I would rather give him a few games for experience and see what he has.
Links with a 23 yo left back in the Mail today are encouraging.
Like Doc I also don’t see the need for a total overhaul this Summer. As things stand we need a LB, MF and wide-ish forward (replacements for Ramsey, Monreal and Welbeck).
If Ozil is sold, we buy someone to replace him as well. That’s the tricky part. On that, I know I’m a remorseless optimist but I also don’t see why Suarez couldn’t work out to be a very useful player for us. If he has the skills and the brain and does what Emery wants but can’t get from Ozil… then 20 mil is a good deal. That’s working on the assumption that Emery knows what he’s doing of course.
At CB we have Mustafi, Kos, Sokratis, Holding, Mavropanos, Monreal as backup and possibly Chambers. That line-up is good for at least one more transfer window.
By the way, that twitter thread of Mustafi errors does none of us any favours – we all know he makes them, but it solidifies a narrative around the player that he is never going to shake. It would be nice for the lad if someone also put together a reel of his goal-saving tackles and blocks.