Before I start this, I would have put this in the Arsenal forum but that place is as dead as a doornail at the moment. But it's better to get a wider view anyway. Quite simple, keep/lose/not sure and explain any decisions that you think are a bit out there. Leno - keep Martinez - keep Bellerin - lose Soares - lose Tierney - keep Kolasinac - lose Luiz - lose Sokratis - lose Mustafi - lose Holding - not sure Chambers - keep* Mari - keep Saliba - keep Mavrapanos - lose Xhaka - lose Ceballos - lose Guendouzi - not sure Torreira - lose Willock - keep Maitland-Niles - lose Ozil - lose Smith-Rowe - keep Elneny - lose Pepe - keep Nelson - keep Saka - keep (AT ALL COST) Martinelli - keep Aubameyang - keep Lacazette - lose Nketiah - keep Holding - his Arsenal career has been completely stop start, and at 24, you have to start wondering if he's at the required level to be a player for Arsenal. Guendouzi - There is talent there. But there is also glaring holes in his game and I just think if the right offer comes along for him, maybe that money could be better spent in the reshaping of the squad. Torreira - too small for the league. He's a good player but again, the funds from his sale could be utilised better. Lacazette - he just doesn't score enough goals and like Guendouzi and Torreira, the funds his sale could raise would be beneficial. So judging by that, Arsenal need at least one right-back, 2 new centre-backs, a new left-back, 2 maybe 3 new midfielders and at least one new striker
First off I'd agree with most of what you said as a neutral. the only one I would counter is torriera. physically I think small is slightly over rated if he can make interceptions and cover the ground as a no 6. I like the guy personally. Leno - keep. yes Martinez - keep. absolutely Bellerin - lose - since knee injury yes, but before keep Soares - lose, yes. Tierney - keep. yes just about. Kolasinac - lose. too many injuries. Luiz - lose - lol Sokratis - lose, can't believe anyone thinks he's a prem player. looks a nice lad and a hard worker but he's way off the standard. Mustafi - lose . destroyed. Holding - not sure. get shut. Chambers - keep* not up to it either. Mari - keep Saliba - keep Mavrapanos - lose Xhaka - lose. a liability. Ceballos - lose. has no interest in your club. Guendouzi - not sure. keep! Torreira - lose. keep! Willock - keep. keep Maitland-Niles - lose. Attiude imo. should be grateful to play. I think he's decent. if he would adjust the attitude keep. Ozil - lose. shame you lost his time under emry. his contract is main issue you are stuck with him so play him. Smith-Rowe - keep Elneny - lose Pepe - keep. too expensive at the time, way to expensive now but you must persist and develop him Nelson - keep. yes. Saka - keep (AT ALL COST) not at all cost but yes hes good enough for top 4. Martinelli - keep. play this guy. hes way way too good to be benched. Aubameyang - keep. 100% Lacazette - lose. agree with your assessment Nketiah - keep
Keep all the young lads on relatively low wages, f**k off everybody else. Leno Bellerin Holding Saliba Tierney Pepe David Luiz’s lovechild Willock Saka Martinelli Nketiah But not like that... Can’t think of a midfielder so put in 2 strikers. AMN in the squad for cover. Arsenal can’t (don’t want to) compete financially with the big spenders of the league so they need to go down the route of giving youth its chance. Gonna be a few more years in limbo...
For me they need some leadership on the pitch. They have a good set of young players but they lack a bit of nastiness and that winning mentality through the spine of the team, which is why they continually throw away leads. It's probably been mentioned for what feels like the last 10 years now but start off with a couple of proper centre halves and a holding midfielder to protect the likes of Saka, Nketiah etc and they'll start to see progress.
Selling Aubameyang would be top of my list of things to do. Overall though I wouldn't change too much
Same, leave them be, its great watching them struggle Seriously though, they need an absolute clear out barring a handful of players. I can honestly say this is and by a long way their worst squad in living memory. First thing I'd do, release the waste of space Ozil immediately, the wages he's on is nothing short of a scandal, hugely overrated player, always has been imo.
Once they’re rid of the bigger name high earners they’ll have a decent outlook when it comes to signing players, but their profile has dropped so they’re not going to be shopping for the top drawer players. But that could be beneficial if they get things right on the scouting front.
3 to 5 year job. shut down arsenal tv and the voice of the whinger fans. It's a laughing stock. If they want to whine, drive it to the background and start propaganda social media and tv only. Back arteta for the long term. Build scouting to actually find players he wants. Are arsenal as bad as Liverpool in 2015, (and no i don't want to make it about liverpool but i am entitled to use what example i can talk about) probably not, once sterling left us we were pretty poor. If you get the buys right consistently and have some patience most teams will come on well. Spurs did it for a good while til the wheels came off. Utd are starting to do it with fernandes and even Maguire despite his turning circle, but patience is key. It took city 4 years from the outset of oil money to get it right. Arsenal fans savaged Wenger and started in on emry after 3 months. They need to back arteta or it will be a disaster zone.
Nothing they have just found there natural level pre 90's Graham bucked the trend and Wenger and PL gave them inflated sense of worth.
Joking aside I'll try and do this being impartial. Arsenal have too many problems. Mentality is the biggest one, they've also gambled a bit financially in recent years so you've got to wonder what resources they have to spend on wages and transfer fees. Lastly, and perhaps the one Arsenal fans will be in most denial of, you also have to ask how attractive the club is at the moment. The calibre of player the club needs to get back to their heights would rather go to Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea. Anyway.. Leno - keep Martinez - keep Bellerin - sell. I think of him as the face of Arsenal. He epitomises what they are. He talks a good game and I think does care at least but he's been a prominent figure in the rot, hasn't individually progressed either and has taken too much delight in Arsenal's small wins. One of the "well we did better than Spurs.." players that don't represent where the club should be. Soares - sell. Pointless signing. Maitland-Niles - keep. Sign a proper right back and let AMN be his understudy. Still think it's too early to write off some of the younger players. Tierney - keep Kolasinac - keep Tierney needs to be a no.1, don't think Kolasinac is that unreliable that this position needs to be an immediate concern. Luis, Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding, Chambers - sell. I'll give the other CB's the benefit of the doubt in that they're young or I haven't seen enough of them but not one of Arsenal's CB's will leave for a better club which tells you all you need to know. Realistically Arsenal can't sell them all. Luiz and Mustafi should be the first two out of the door and replaced with quality. The rest can perhaps remain to fill in but should be phased out over time. Xhaka, Ceballos, Torreira, Elneny - sell. I have a little sympathy for Xhaka but he's a long term figure at the club like Bellerin and I don't think he has the mentality required. Ceballos and Torreira have had their YouTube moments but haven't really settled in England so far. I'd be inclined to give Ceballos another season if Arsenal owned him but I believe he's only on loan. Guendouzi - keep. I'm not really a fan of the diving little prick but he has something about him. Put him in a proper team and see if he's up to it. He gets the benefit of the doubt. Willock & Smith-Rowe - keep. Young enough to stick it out and see how they progress. Not seen enough of the latter to write off. Pepe, Nelson, Saka, Martinelli - keep. Pepe needs to do more but it's only his first season at the club. The other youngsters have had their moments and are worth hanging on to. Ozil - sell, buy out his contract, whatever. As Brian said, he needs to be the first out of the door in the summer. Not only is he a waste of space, he divides the fanbase which isn't good. (Make him club captain and give him a lifetime contract). Lacazette - keep. He has his deficiencies but he's also a player worth holding on to. He has a good relationship with the squad, seems to get the rivalry with Spurs and links up well on and off the pitch with the star man. He's not a goalscorer but he's still a decent asset to Arsenal imo. The defence and midfield is a bigger concern than Lacazette's lack of goalscoring. Aubameyang - keep at all costs. In a proper team, this is your glory man. As absurd as it sounds Arsenal would be in a relegation fight right now without his goals. The problem will be keeping hold of him. I don't know why he'd stay at Arsenal. He should be playing Champions League football at a minimum. He's not going to have success at international level so shouldn't waste his club career too. In summary: the club are a mess. Right back, centre backs and the midfield are the biggest concerns. Changing the mentality will take a little longer to fix. Lastly, the club need to be eyeing up an Arteta replacement already. I'm not saying sack him but I'm baffled he got the job to begin with. Have a contingency plan in place and hope Arteta proves you wrong. Fingers crossed Auba goes in the summer. He's carried that team's deficiencies and kept them from dropping further.
Seems to me that Arsenal are stuck between being too shit for a big club and too big to be a feeder club. They should be aiming to do what Dortmund and Red Bull do.
Leno - keep Martinez - up to him Bellerin - up to him Soares - lose Tierney - keep Kolasinac - lose Luiz - lose Sokratis - keep Mustafi - lose Holding - not sure Chambers - keep* Mari - lose Saliba - keep Mavrapanos - keep Xhaka - lose Ceballos - lose Guendouzi - lose Torreira - lose Willock - keep Maitland-Niles-keep Ozil - lose Smith-Rowe - keep Elneny - lose Pepe - keep Nelson - keep Saka - keep Martinelli - keep Aubameyang - keep Lacazette - lose Nketiah - keep
Leno - keep Martinez - keep Bellerin - keep Soares - lose Tierney - keep Kolasinac - keep Luiz - lose Sokratis - lose Mustafi - lose Holding - keep Chambers - lose Mari - keep (well you've only just signed him) Saliba - keep Mavrapanos - keep/lose Xhaka - lose Ceballos - lose Guendouzi - keep Torreira - keep Willock - keep Maitland-Niles - keep Ozil - lose Smith-Rowe - keep Elneny - lose Pepe - keep Nelson - keep Saka - keep Martinelli - keep Aubameyang - keep Lacazette - lose Nketiah - keep Personally, don't think the issue is much deeper than sorting out the spine. Need to sort out the centre of defence and midfield and allow that to hold it altogether. 2 new centre backs and a chosen centre midfield pairing. Leno bellerin holding saliba tierney pepe guendouzi torreira saka martinelli aubamayeng That isn't even a terrible side imo. It doesn't get top 4 though.
Agreed. I've been calling for us to move in the 18-23 market for a while. It's been mixed in with questionable senior signings. For every Martinelli, there's been a David Luiz! The club have nothing to do with those guys. They've done all they are allowed to do which is stop them using the term Arsenal (It's can only refer to itself as AFTV) Before covid-19, they were fairly tight. There's been no talks of budgets thus far so you have to assume we have to sell to buy. Liverpool is by far the best model to try and replicate. Not a single one of the signings they made were at the time considered world class. Supreme scouting is king at the moment. This is a tricky one. As a player alone, I would sell him and reinvest. The ACL injury has knocked him well off his stride and he was losing his sped before the injury. But the fans have connected to Bellerin the person and there's a sense he 'gets' Arsenal. And not just because he badmouths Spurs but the traditions and identity of the club. He's regularly championed as a future captain. But his job is defined by what he does on the pitch. Soares was signed to free up AMN to move into midfield....I dunno if he has what it takes there but it's where Arteta wants to give him a go. But he is an asset with a value and if we're going to have to sell to buy this summer, Kolasinac would be one of the first to go imo. Agreed. Chambers won't be going anywhere due to his ACL. Xhaka is highly rated by Arteta but he's another that has a value. I think it's one of those where if the offer is good enough, he'll go. If PSG are still willing to chuck money at us for him, I'd sell him. He still needs a lot of work and we need experience in that area of the pitch. Considering how many minutes he's actually played, Pepe has done alright. Not £72m alright but he's been a bright spot despite what twitter will tell you. I have a feeling if Wenger was still here, he'd be thriving. Pepe, Saka and Martinelli have all had decent seasons. It will cost £18m to buy him out of his contract. The player has zero intention of leaving and I'm guessing would have zero intention of negotiating a payoff fee. We're stuck with him for one more year. Unless Fenerbache can find some money from somwhere Arguably the biggest problem we actually have. I know our defence and midfield has it's issues but that down to quality. These two are borderline impossible to dovetail. It doesn't work. And hasn't for nearly two and a half years now. And it's why Lacazette's lack of goals are so disturbing. His presence forces our best goalscorer out wide. So he needs to pick up the slack imo and prove why it's ok to put Aubameyang out wide. And he doesn't. He gets outscored by Aubameyang, who is out of position! It's further proof of just how brilliant a goalscorer Aubameyang is. But his link up leaves a lot to be desired. Hence why Lacazette plays. I'd honestly sell the pair of them and buy a more rounded striker and a more natural wide man. It's all about balance and the balance has been off for too long now. He probably got the job because he sold a vision to those at executive level that didn't require large spending. But now with 6 months under his belt, he's realised just how technically inferior this side is to the one he was assistant at.
Xhaka promises left ! Rather Aubamayeng, Lacazette, Mustafi and Ozil clean in squad ! Interesting about your squad players left ! Top 4 possible a fight of between of .. Arsenal Liverpool United Newcastle Leicester West Ham Tottenham Chelsea And by. Man City Wolverhampton Crystal Palace Everton Wouldn't top 4 enterily race spot in the 20/21 season.
I concur. ... I'll add, I don't want Arsenal to sack Arteta and think he deserves time... but I do not think he is the manager to get the club where it needs to be. Like Rodgers at Liverpool, in the end it just wasn't going to work out. If Arsenal want to be challenging for titles again they need to level up. Arteta strikes me as a stop gap to try and get the club pulling in one direction. If the club can persuade a top class manager then that would really get them going again, and give a lot of players a reason to get excited about Arsenal again.
