These guys are entering their last year of their contract......... please log in to view this image Laurent Koscielny please log in to view this image Santi Cazorla please log in to view this image Per Mertesacker please log in to view this image Serge Gnabry Yaya Sanogo I am a bit surprised that Kos the bos only got one year left! And for the next transfer window we have the following guys on their last year of contract which means Arsenal might have to make the decision to "Cash in" vs keeping a potentially unhappy player....hold onto your hats... please log in to view this image Alexis Sánchez please log in to view this image Mesut Özil please log in to view this image Aaron Ramsey Olivier Giroud Jack Wilshere Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Kieran Gibbs Carl Jenkinson On top of this Wenger will leave next year. Imagine the coach coming in next year...might loose players like Kos, Santi, Ozil, Alexis, Ramsey, Wilshere, Ox.
Sanogo was never going to make it at Arsenal. What Wenger thought he saw in him is an absolute mystery. He's 23 years old, going to be 24 in January, and still looks absolutely hopeless. If we even considered giving him a new deal, it would be a travesty. Will be interesting to see what happens with Jenkinson - I'm not convinced he's good enough for us, but as second-choice, he will do. Not sure if he will accept that role given that he played for two seasons at West Ham, so we shall see. Not that concerned about Mertesacker. If he stays, his experience in the dressing room could be important. If we let him go, we free up an extra squad place for another defender to come through. Koscielny, however, is someone we should be giving a new contract. Been our best defender in the last 6 years and even though he's about to be 31 (he has the same birthday as Perez!), that's fine for a centre-back. We should be looking to give him at least an additional two years. He deserves it. Cazorla is someone I feel we should keep for another couple of years too because he isn't someone who relies on his speed. His passing, vision and technical ability won't deteriorate significantly (if at all), so he's a player worth keeping hold of, in my opinion. As for the others who have two years left, the only ones I'm really concerned about are Sanchez and Ozil. Possibly Wilshere too, but he has to prove he can stay fit over an entire season. Otherwise we need to cut our losses and bring someone else in. If it was me, it'd also be last chance saloon for Ramsey. He needs to have a big season too. I still feel like he has been living off the good 2013/14 season he had and has never even come close to replicating that form since. He provides a lot of energy and presses the ball well, but other aspects of his game have been severely lacking. Someone needs to tell him that he's playing for his Arsenal career here because he seems too comfortable in the belief that he won't be dislodged.
Something tells me Koscielny, Cazorla, and Mert will all be moving on at the end of this year. Which would be a huge loss considering all the experience they bring. Hopefully at Least Kos signs an extension. (maybe a new manager next summer might persuade him to stay, but I think he'll have a lot of suitors)
Almost all need to sign new contracts. Not because many of them are worthwhile keepers apart from the obvious three, but so that we can simply sell them for more money.
From an outside view you need to keep Cazorla, he makes your team tick and you are much more threatening in attack with him.
We need new long term contracts for Ozil, Alexis, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ox, Gnabri and Gibbs. Three years extension for Giroud, two years for Kos and Cazorla. One year for Mert probably depending on how Mustafi and Holding perform this season. Thats a lot of work.
Last season we collapsed mainly because of Cazorla (and Sanchez) injuries. Her was a revelation as a deep sitting midfielder able to drive us through the midfield fast enough. Without him we were stuck in midfield, reversed to out ticky-tacky football and lost a lot of points.
A big issue was the fact we replaced the excellent Santi with Ramsey in the middle of midfield, who had no positional discipline and kept getting dragged out of position and isolating Flamini. Or we were playing Flamini and Arteta, which was a disaster. We really relied on Santi's ability to play out of defence and to also transition quickly from defence to attack by using both left and right feet to spray passes across the pitch. It was a huge loss, but I think we are in a better position now with the signings of Xhaka and Elneny who share some of his attributes.
Sanchez, Ozil, Kos and Cazorla you should be going all out to keep tbh. They are all very good players, and vital to your team.
Is Sanchez putting himself in the market for Barca or Madrid? http://www.skysports.com/football/n...e-level-of-lionel-messi-and-cristiano-ronaldo
Bod if you think that was a bit of a stretch you should see some of his desperate attempts to WUM on our board. Thank **** proper footie restarts tomorrow so Diego has something real to occupy his mind
The core players should be signed up asap - Kos, Cazorla, Ozil, Sanchez, Ramsey, Giroud and Gibbs. The rest we can come later.