Good morning, short post today but no less important.
Amy Lawrence and Gunnerblog have reported in the Athletic that five senior players want out of the club: David Luiz, Willian, Bernd Leno, Granit Xhaka, and Hector Bellerin. And over on the Guardian, Nick Ames and David Hytner are reporting that Bellerin, Leno, Xhaka, David Luiz, and Lacazette are all looking at greener pastures.
Between the four journalists – all of which I believe have high journalistic standards and double-source their articles like this – I think we can safely say that Leno, David Luiz, Bellerin, and Xhaka all have expressed some desire to leave the club. Now, before you go bookmarking this article so that you can return here in 6 months and say “HA YOU WERE WRONG” when one or more of them stays at the club please note this:
Transfers require a will on the part of the player, the club, and the new club. Things can break down in numerous areas such as salary, transfer fees, length of contract, and even personal things in a player’s life can stop a transfer. Additionally, transfer rumors are often used as bargaining tools to leverage new contracts for players and to help a club move on players which they no longer want on the books. Me reporting that these journalists are reporting that these players have expressed a desire to leave the club does not mean that I’m predicting that they will leave the club. What I am reporting is that I believe these reporters have very strong evidence that these players have told them or someone else that they “want to leave the club”. Why? We can only speculate. Will they leave the club? We don’t know.
Now… if you ask me how I feel about these players potentially leaving, well that’s why I have this here blog.
David Luiz – earns 5m a year is out of contract this summer. Not my favorite signing but he was Arsenal’s most progressive passer and is a rock solid passing CB. His defense is usually good but also prone to making gaffes. But most of all, at his age, I wouldn’t offer him another deal. Especially since Arsenal bought Saliba to play RCB.
Bernd Leno – earns 5m a year out of contract in 2 years and is refusing to negotiate. The hyperbole over the Martinez/Leno summer is pretty funny. Leno is the kind of keeper you want if you plan to play the ball out of the back, Martinez is the kind of keeper you want if you don’t do that. Both players have the exact same number of errors leading to a goal (1 – argue with Opta) but Martinez has a higher post-shot xG saves rate, which is really good. Martinez also makes three times as many claims in the box. But Martinez has also allowed 8 goals from outside the box (5th worst in the League) on 62 shots on target (13%) while Bernd Leno has allowed 4 goals on 33 shots on target (12%). Ultimately, what I think is going on with a lot of fans is that they see one or two Emi Martinez matches a year but 38 Bernd Leno matches. There are not a lot of differences between the two keepers other than the one which really matters to Arsenal: playing with the ball at feet. But here’s the big problem: it looks like he really wants out. If that’s the case, replacing him is going to be costly. Ball-playing keepers are not cheap: look how much Liverpool, City, and Chelsea paid for theirs. I wonder if Leno has been tapped up by someone. If he goes, this could be one of Arsenal’s most important signings this summer.
Bellerin – 5.7m a year, two years left. The searing hatred for Bellerin is annoying. I think he rustles the homophobes in the Arsenal fanbase. But that said, on-pitch performances of late have not been great. He seems to have lost a few steps since recovering from surgery and his defending wasn’t great to begin with. Definitely not irreplaceable. Reports that he wants to go back to Spain but will be difficult to move on because of his salary.
Willian – 10m a year, 3 years left. Absurd signing but like I said at the beginning of the season I could understand the motive at the time: he was a top five chance creator the season before. And he’s gone on to be Arsenal’s assist king this season. All that said, he’s clearly lost a step and Arteta’s system further hampers him. If he wants out I would help him pack. Surely that salary could be used for better things like gold plating the toilets in the Arsenal board room.
Xhaka – 5m a year, 3 years left. I feel like Arsenal have been trying to replace him for about three years now and haven’t been able (seeing how many starts he’s had this season). Guendouzi was bought to be his understudy but that seems to have died on the vine. And now, Arsenal have brought in Thomas Partey and paid him an absolute king’s ransom to be Arsenal’s main MFer. Rumors are swirling that Arsenal want Bissouma from Brighton (for 30m) and if we do sign him, then I suspect that Xhaka will be moved on.
Lacazette – 9.4m a year, 2 years left. Go to FBREF and look at the top five leagues, sort by non-penalty goals. Lacazette is 51st on the list with 10 goals. You can find a lot of players on the list who are under 25 and scored more goals than Lacazette but then you have to ask, can they do what Lacazette does for Arsenal? Andres Silva, for example, has 19 goals and 7 assists. He seems to be the perfect replacement. But if you watch him play, he’s more of a Timo Werner-type than a hold-up man. The point I’m making here isn’t that Lacazette is irreplaceable but rather that getting in a new player in that position is going to be tricky and potentially costly. Andres Silva is reportedly valued in the 50m range and with clubs like Man U vying for his signature, could be tricky to land. And then there’s the question of where Lacazette could go. There aren’t a lot of clubs (Roma, PSG, Man City, Man U, Bayern, Borussia Dortmund) which could pay him his salary and the ones which could aren’t looking at this type of player. Meanwhile for those who think “ok, let’s sell Auba then” that’s even less likely. Both reports suggest Auba is very happy and for good reason: he earns 13m a year. That salary also makes him virtually impossible to move.
Given the loans in and out, plus these five to six players angling for new contracts or moves away from the club it looks like there could be a lot of movement this summer at Arsenal. If the club retains Arteta then there can be no question as to whose image the club is made in after this year’s transfer orgy.
Sources:
Free: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/11/hector-bellerin-and-bernd-leno-could-leave-as-arsenal-look-at-changes
Paywall: https://theathletic.com/2580688/2021/05/12/arsenal-and-absence-how-lack-of-experience-across-club-is-causing-cracks-in-rebuild/
That’s absolute fake bullshit. 😂 Leno gave an interview yesterday evening to Sky Sport in which he said that he is happy at the club and noone in the dressing room wants to leave, when directly asked if there is any truth to reports linking him and others to move on. The problem is that some journo invents a dumb rumour and fanpages fall for it and spread it. Why don’t you factcheck before you post sich bullshit?
Easy there, fella… Amy Lawrence and Athletic are not your typical “BS sources” like Mirror, Sun, etc… And Tim was very upfront with what he posted when he said that even if (there’s a rumor) a player wants out, it doesn’t mean that he will leave.
Yes, I saw the interview and I’m sure that Hytner, Ames, McNicholas, and Lawrence have as well.
Sorry but the Guardian has strict editorial standards which require double-sourcing. So regardless of what Leno says publicly there are multiple sources in the club feeding these journalists these stories. Four different journalists. I understand that you don’t know how journalism works at real newspapers – they literally cannot manufacture stories. David Hytner is the chief football correspondent for the Guardian. If his name is on a story I trust it is immaculately sourced.
It is possible that they were fed misinformation about Leno but all four journalists are sticking to the story, with the Athletic piece even published after the Leno interview.
Anyway, thanks for your reply. Take care.
Great response! +1
+2
Also – do you think if we offer Brighton £31m they’d throw in Graham Potter?
And no, he’s not my dream coach but does seem a potential upgrade on the incumbent
Crikey, we are veering dangerously close to “anything is better than what we have now” territory. Graham Potter??
Arsenal football club needs an identity like it once had and a revolving door of managers will only ensure it never gets one. We will swing like Tottenham between Passhun and Highly regarded foreign coach and they all be run out of town because they can’t get the best out of Jenas and Huddlestone.
Doc (1.24pm) – for some reason I can’t reply to your comment so posting here.
Don’t get me wrong, I like me a win over the Chavs but having just watched Arsenal beat them this evening playing a hybrid Allardyce-Mourinho style of football combined with a humongous slice of Lady Luck, I guess I’d rather suffer a revolving door of managers than have this as our identity.
Tim, I am aware of how journalism works, and I had a problem with The Athletic piece. The timing, and the length and redundancy of a couple of themes in it. It’s one of the few times I haven’t accepted information from Lawrence, McNicholas, and/or Ornstein as near-gospel. There seemed to be an agenda buried in it– that has to do with a lack of transparency by Arteta toward those writers.
The timing and repetitive hammering on a theme of ‘inexperienced individuals operating in a power vacuum’ was a steady drumbeat raised not just once or twice– but many times throughout. No mistake, there were some great insights in it as well. But that piece might have been half the length– had the trio of writers written it in a style that didn’t seem so– forced. The exposé style, for me, seemed beneath that group’s level.
Maybe there was a minimum word count. Maybe composed in haste. For me? The timing set off alarms– as well as the glibness with which Arteta’s public-facing comments were bracketed.
There was no ascription of whom the sources were for the piece– or any indication of stature in the club. Even an italicized blurb at top or bottom of the article. Which I might have expected to accompany a piece in The Athletic– bylined with ‘James McNicholas, Amy Lawrence and more’.
I’d be very surprised if Willian wants out. He won’t get the kind of money he’s on anywhere else… unless we pay part of his salary, which I suppose is not out of realm of possibility. As for others… sell, sell, sell… I won’t miss any of them, including Leno. He’s not a bad keeper but he ain’t a great one either. Again, not keeping Martinez was one of Arteta’s biggest mistakes but that ship has long sailed. I don’t think we’ll struggle to replace Bernd though. I’m sure we can always snatch one up from Championship or another league. Weren’t we looking at Brentford’s GK last year?
I guess a chunk of his huge salary is performance related bonuses. In other words, we could cut his salary by not playing him.
I’m really confused about how Leno went from basically universally appreciated to being widely disregarded because of Emiliano Martinez. He’s still the same exact player he was before Martinez’s run in the team. Why has he become a lightning rod? Imagine being in that’s situation and making that decision last summer. You’ve got a proven quantity in Leno, a guy who was basically our best player under Unai Emery, and now you give him the boot so a career backup with a 6 month blaze of glory can be #1? It doesn’t compute. Any of us would’ve made the same decision if it was our job on the line.
Agree with you on this.
Not overjoyed at the potential prospect of him leaving and unsure why so many seem relatively blasé
I can’t speak for anyone else, but my opinion of Leno hasn’t changed at all. I think he’s a very good but not quite elite keeper and I think his distribution is functional but underwhelming for team committed to playing out from the back. I absolutely understand Arteta choosing him over Martinez as the competition was close, Leno has the greater body of work and Martinez had offer/s on the table. Personally, I would have gone the other way, but that’s by the by.
That said, if Leno really won’t extend his deal then we need to look for a replacement, and our GK carousel continues.
3rd in clean sheets behind Ederson and Mendy
2nd in save pct behind Nick Pope
But he has faced the 4th most shots in the league. Only the GKs from WBA, Sheffield United, and Leeds have faced more shots. By contrast Ederson is 17th on that list and Mendy is 20th.
I think that says alot about Emiliano Martinez
yes: he faces a lot of shots.
The Martinez ship has obviously long sailed, but my perception of his passing ability is very different to yours, Tim. It seemed to me that Martinez had the ability to beat the press with chipped passes to the FB (in the same manner that the Villarreal keeper beat our press in the semi), whereas Leno just recycles the ball fairly slowly to his CBs. I don’t think he’s any better than competent in his passing.
Am I going mad / succumbing to some bias, or does anyone else see it that way?
i have argued that martinez has a more accurate long ball than leno; meaning that when the short ball is a bad idea, emi is more comfortable sending the ball long and not having it come right back.
i didn’t realize how much we missed david luiz until the game against newcastle. that distribution from the back line is world class. with that, he’s getting long in the tooth. where does he think he want’s to go? we’ll see.
leno is troublesome. in fairness, i only heard those rumors on 7am but i don’t frequent other forums. his quality would be extremely tough to replace. he’s made mistakes but all keepers do so i’m not worried. he’s saved arsenal more than he’s hurt them. i don’t think arsenal can afford to let him go anywhere.
willian won’t go anywhere either…not on those wages.
i’ve heard that hector wanted to go and had some agreement with arteta. despite seeming disillusioned with arsenal this season, he often wears the armband. don’t know what kind of leadership he provides but i also didn’t miss how many times he gave the ball away last thursday. if he does leave, i like the young kid who plays for brighton.
xhaka is interesting. he’s never been my favorite but i respect that he’s coming into his prime. arsenal have been able to keep him on relatively low wages and he’s a leader. bissouma’s a good player but arsenal need leadership. does partey have the personality to lead from the arsenal midfield?
I see a lot of responses to yesterday’s post and today is kind of continuing along the same theme so let’s stay with the squad. I’m not sure where the idea of needing a perfect squad came from. I was making the point that as constructed, the Arsenal squad needs major surgery because we have so few reliable top tier players. I don’t mind if you quibble that player x should be higher or lower, that’s not really the issue. The issue is a lack of top quality, especially in midfield, and a lack of quality depth. It’s of course absurd to suggest that we should sit and wait for the perfect squad but is equally absurd to suggest that the squad is good enough as is. There will be 1000 shades of opinions in between and that’s just as well. This is mine: Arteta is part of the solution. We need somebody steering this ship and I’m very comfortable letting him do that. He’s a stellar human being, a good leader and at least a competent manager. His ceiling could be much greater than that. This is not a win now squad, so let’s let him do his job. He knows better than anyone that this season wasn’t good enough.
I’m firmly in the should have kept Martinez camp, particularly if Leno wants out now. But it’s crying over spilt milk at this point.
As others have said, I like Bellerin as a person, but he’s not the player he was 3-4 years ago, when I I thought he legitimately could be Spain and Barca’s next RB.
Xhaka works hard, is rarely injured, and has improved this year(one of few). And he seems decent next to Partey. I wouldn’t sell him unless we get a pretty good offer.
Luiz can go. Seems a decent guy, and a good passer, but too old on too much money.
However, I’m not convinced that all this potential squad shuffling will help. Arteta still seems to be a big part of the problem. Way too conservative. We have little to lose at this point…should have kept attacking today, but instead went full Mourinho.
Doc, doubling down on a hire you invested much hope in but doesn’t seem up to the job has never worked in any company that I know of. Changing an underperforming manager doesnt make us a revolving door club. If we were, Arteta would have been sacked at Christmas when we were barely above the relegation zone. As I recall, you made an identical argument for keeping Arsene, even as he was in terminal decline and being shown the door. That kind of indecisive conservatism is unhealthy. Crashing Arsenal out of Europe and finishing 8th (with Emery’s squad, but strengthened) weren’t in his KPIs. Im not fussed whether he stays or goes. I’ve seen enough to tell me that he isnt the quality of hire that we hoped he’d be. That his man management and player judgement can be suspect. He can, however, say “look at my result today”. There’s no convincing argument for persisting with Arteta — there are only expressions of hope. What can anyone show us to support the assertion that he’s “part of the solution?”
As for the potential outgoings, Hector’s problem (for what Ive seen watching him for years) isn’t his so much his loss of speed as his defending. He is simply not a natural defender. Lacks authority in positioning, and in the tackle. He is essential a right sided player, or a RWB in a back 5. Glad Luiz, a player I like, is getting some appreciation, but I agree that it’s time for change. Let’s see if Arteta wants to work with Saliba. Leno is a perfectly good goalkeeper for us. We made a sound choice between him and Emi. But if he wants to move on, that’s a different story. I suspect it’s European football, and he won’t be the last to leave for this reason. Xhaka I’d drive to the airport. Has improved, but too attached to Arsenal failure. Laca, despite Josh’s ardour, simply has not been the player we hoped he’d be. His goal return in the time he spent at AFC has been disappointing. Time for change. He did well enough to have raised his transfer fee.
my expectations from lacazette when he arrived was different from most. i didn’t think he’d prove highly prolific. in fact, i called him loic remy and a huge step down to giroud. i was wrong about the remy comparison but not about the giroud one. he’s better than i thought he’d be and worse than what you and others expected. i just have a healthy respect for what he does that a lot of folks seem to miss.
there’s only been one player to maintain their scoring rate when moving from france to england and that is giroud. even the likes of hazard and drogba couldn’t maintain so i didn’t expect lacazette to score 28 goals in england like he did in france. i expected him to score about 50-60% of that. same for pepe. it’s also why i said to tim higher up the thread that i don’t care what players in the top 5 leagues are doing compared to lacazette as it’s different in england. if lacazette were in france or germany, his numbers would be fantastic and he’d look attractive to arsenal. wait…
i don’t have a problem with laca leaving. however, you’ve got to replace him adequately. there’s no one in the squad capable of doing what he does. i can’t remember a single game where arsenal played a team not in the bottom six that they were able to dominate without lacazette. arsenal simply don’t create enough chances without laca there to facilitate the attack.
it’s cute to say he’s been a disappointment but who would do better that’s affordable and willing to come to an arsenal that’s not even in europe? i’m sure partey wishes he’d hung out in madrid for one year longer.
sorry doc, but what have you seen that confirms that arteta is the good man manager and leader you suggests he is? i think the fact that this thread was written suggests something different. you’ve got at least 5 seasoned campaigners who’ve been around top coaches, won silverware everywhere, and know what good leadership looks like, all wanting to leave this arteta-led arsenal.
imagine if leno, luiz, xhaka, and lacazette left arsenal. these four are literally the spine of the team and have been the most consistent players this season. there’s a lot of experience and leadership in that group. my biggest gripe with tuchel when he was at dortmund was that he allowed two senior guys, gundogan and hummels, to leave in the same transfer window. you can’t allow that much leadership out the door all at once. he thought he could do everything but no manager can. he lacked a healthy respect for the influence of the senior leadership, which is why dortmund fell so hard under his guidance. this seems to be a problem arteta is having.
i’ve watched aubameyang for many years, both at arsenal and dortmund. i’ve never seen him so dejected and confused. the relationship arteta has with auba appears troubled. a club captain is the most important player because he’s an extension of the manager on the field. auba seemed confused as to why he was being subbed off and arteta didn’t even acknowledge him when he came off. arteta can’t continue to treat him like he’s some regular dude but it seems he’s trying to step everyone down under his iron rule. that’s your captain, not a scrub. if he’ll disrespect the captain, he’ll disrespect anyone. what’s worse is that these guys (and ozil) have won far more than arteta ever did as a player. don’t think for a second that they don’t know that.
sorry, i wrote this yesterday but somehow didn’t post it:
lacazette would be very difficult to replace. i don’t care about the other five leagues in europe, they’re not the premier league. likewise, lacazette is a center forward. the true center forwards scoring at a high rate are not coming to a team that’s not in europe. likewise, laca hasn’t been a regular all season or one could argue that he’d have at least 4 more league goals this season. liverpool won the league last season and the champions league the season before that with a center forward who was less prolific than lacazette.
simply put, he’s a special footballer. arsenal need to be smart about replacing laca. if they can bring in the french kid from celtic, that might work out in such a way that arsenal won’t need to extend laca; all dependent on how he works out. i would have offered to extend laca by one year and 10k a week back in december.
Love a good narrative. But the reality is– whether or not the football is acceptable?
Arsenal have ammassed more points than any other team since Boxing Day.– except for City and Man U.
Per TalkSport: https://talksport.com/football/880295/
“The Gunners made their worst ever start to a Premier League season, languishing down in 14th after ten games following their lowest points tally at that stage in a campaign.
Right now, eighth place in the table, plus elimination from all domestic competitions and the Europa League, admittedly paints a pretty awful picture for Arteta.
But it doesn’t tell the whole story.
You probably wouldn’t believe us if we told you that since December 26, they’ve amassed more points than Chelsea, Leicester and West Ham.”
Throw all your opinions against the wall. Stats as well.
What sticks? Is points. Forty-one points since Boxing Day. A healthy +18 GD.
Sorry to bust up a perfectly good tarring-feathering.
But Arteta isn’t going anywhere. For at least a year.
Yes, and we’re undefeated in the league since May 2nd (2-0 victory against Newcastle, followed by 3-1 and 1-0 wins against West Brom and Chelsea respectively). It’s sarcasm, by the way. The season is not 15 games or whatever. It’s 38. We’re not 3rd in the table behind “only City and ManU”. We’re 8th. We’re out of all competitions. We’re playing turgid football. We still don’t know our best starting XI. I can go on and on… Things are bad. I take that back. Things are REAL bad. And most of it is on Arteta.
If you flipped the season? And Arsenal finished the way they started? Sure, I wouldn’t likely raise the point. But that’s not the case. I’d stated back in February that the remainder of this season was for observational purposes. This season, for all intents, was written off at that juncture– until the last of the clear-out could be effected in Summer.
‘We still don’t know our best starting XI.’ What of it. Come Summer, that’s likely to change. That it seemed Arteta was playing some players too much? For me means he needed to know whether they were going to be brought back next term.
This band of misfitting players– who failed AW, then Emery– and sat in 15th place in late-December? Somehow found it possible to put up 41 points in less than half a season.
Dismiss it. Feel free. But I’m not going to.
I’m not one to shy from taking an unpopular stand– or predictions either.
*’…less than half a season.’
Actually 22 matches. Mea culpa.
“Dismiss it”… that’s the thing… I’m not. It’s you who are dismissing half the season, and it’s just silly, IMHO. Arteta had two transfer windows as well as a full pre-season. He kept/bought the players he wanted, and got rid of the ones that he didn’t. So why should this season be a “write off”, and why do we have to only compare the stats since the Boxing Day? I wasn’t a fan of Emery but truth of a matter is that we finished 5th under him (in his full season), only 2 points from 3rd place. We reached Europa League final. Besides getting lucky with an FA Cup win last season, the way I see it is that Arteta has taken us backwards. If he was in charge of Chelsea, he’d be sacked 3 times by now. I’m just afraid that he’ll waste more time and money (if given in the summer), and will inflict more damage on the players and the club. I reckon he will be lucky to last ’til next Xmas.
Sorry. I can’t share in your misery.
Also sorry to say, Arteta isn’t leaving anytime soon.
I will admit to frustration on a per game basis. But as an optimist, I can see method behind all of it– in building a smaller team, playing a lesser number of games next season. Allowing players like Saka, ESR, and Martinelli to gel as a group without the demands of playing 50+ matches. At this juncture, I’m not sure 7th place and the new Europa Conference is a worthy goal.
If Arteta and Edu can trim the squad favorably this Summer? If the duo’s recruiting is strong as it has been bringing aboard Partey and Odegaard? If KSE gives over the amount rumored for transfers?
All big ‘Ifs’, granted. Though? If the alternative is yelling at my monitor until next December? Think I’ll stick with hope over high blood pressure.
But hey– you do you.
That is in fairness something of a surprise, albeit lose to Chelsea and the Hammers win their game in hand and we’re in 6th / it also includes us playing West Brom and Newcastle twice (in addition to Chelsea).
I suspect a more useful comparison – which we’ll have in just over a week – would be from the half way point to the end of the season.
The bigger surprise to me however is the relative goals scored. Who’s been scoring them / what have I missed? My eyes tell me that we’re not particularly creative (a point regularly validated by many on this blog including Tim), and my memory that there’s no one player standing out like Auba last season so who is scoring those goals for us / what am I missing?
3-1 v Chelsea
4-0 v WBA
3-0 v Newcastle
3-1 v Soton
4-2 v Leeds
3-1 v Leicester
3-3 v WHU
3-0 v Sheffield
3-1 v WBA
Not been entertaining– but we’ve scored 3 or more nine times in the PL since Boxing Day as well.
3-1 Chelsea – Boxing Day
4-0 WBA
3-0 Newcastle
3-1 Soton
4-2 Leeds
3-1 Leicester
3-3 WHU
3-0 Sheffield
3-1 WBA
Josh
I understand your ideas about Lacazette and Giroud but you ignore an important reality. The forwards score the majority of goals for every team and the most you can have on the pitch at one time is 3 so no team can afford to start a group of forwards who don’t score enough. If you start a CF who does not score a lot then the 2 wide forwards have to score enough to compensate. Liverpool the last couple years is a perfect example. If the wide forwards are not scoring enough then the CF has be prolific in order to compensate. In Arsenal’s case, we don’t have high scoring wide forwards (especially this year with Auba in single digits) and so there is no way we can’t expect the team to score enough goals with a CF who does not score a lot. The math is self explanatory.
I know how much you and several other regulars on the blog like Giroud but having a CF like him only works if you have an incredible amount of firepower in the rest of the team. Giroud is now on his 5th manager since 2017 and that group of managers (other then Lampard) have very strong resumes including a whole bunch of league titles and not a single one of those managers has used Giroud as a their regular CF. The only reasonable explanation for why they don’t use Giroud is because they don’t think he scores enough to justify taking up one of their forward spots on the pitch. Unless we think we know more then all of those highly successful managers, the only logical conclusion is that we significantly over rate Giroud’s influence.
But he IS handsome…
That has to count for SOMETHING?!?!
I think we’re in for quite the summer. I would try and keep Leno and Xhaka, both solid and good pros. Bellerin deserves a fresh start. Luis and Willian probably did not see themselves finishing out their careers on an 8th place team.
I think Aubameyang could be open to moving, he probably sees himself as a Champions League striker stuck on a team that won’t see Champions League for years.
Lacazette should go. Elneny should go. Ceballos should go.
This for me is the true crossroads summer – if we bring in veterans or extend ones we have, then you know they’ve lost the plot. If instead we sign Bissouma (25) and Edu pulls a couple U23 Brazilians, then maybe we’re learning.