Not for the first time in recent Seasons we are approaching a new Season with a truly huge squad that is in major need of trimming down. Papers are reporting the Thomas Lemar deal has been put on hold until we offload a few. It strikes me as terrible management from Wenger and it suprises me the board is OK with having soo many players on the books. Mourinho, Allegri and Conte tend to keep their squads very small for good reason. Two quality players for every position is all you need - on top of that there is always youth players to bring in. We don't need the 40+ we currently have on the books - most of which are simply not good enough to start with. Personally I think we need to bring in a TOP creative player and I would like to see a DM/box to Box player also coming in. Then there is the list of players we need to trim down.. Gibbs - Has to be sold. Good player and Im sure we could get at least £10 million for the Englishman. Gabriel - Wenger wont sell him but he's a total liability. Fallen behind Holding/Mustafi/Monreal. Chambers - I like Chambers but Wenger needs to make a decision. He's versatile. Play him or sell him. Chamberlain - Does'nt want to sign a new deal. Sell and re-invest. Wilshere - I think we should keep him. Joel Campbell - Sell him. Stop loaning him to every club in Spain. Wellington Silva - We still have this guy under contract. Why? Tokuma Asano - Really? I'm sceptical. Jon Toral - Looked good at Birmingham. I would have given him a chance this Season. Lucas Perez - Shame it hasnt worked out for Lucas. He needs to be starting games. Jenkinson - How many fullbacks do we need? Akpom - Not gonna make it - Sell. Coquelin - Has'nt played well for a couple of Seasons. Sell and buy a replacement. Martinez - Loaned Szcezney - sold to Juve. Wenger has already admitted it was his fault Ozil and Sanchez have run down their contracts. Somebody needs to take control of the situation here because it's costing the club money and restricts our ability to strengthen.
I agree, we do have an overly large squad that gets under used. In my opinion we need to cut it down and bring in more quality that would have a better chance of playing. It would cut down wages and reroute money for higher paid players. At the moment we have a whole range of players being loaned out or floating about not doing very much.
No need for more than two players per position and even then I'm not convinced we need six centre halves if we have Monreal as back up left back. But... Cech Ospina Bellerin Oxlade Mustafi Mertesacker Koscielny Gabriel Holding Monreal Kolasinac Monreal again Xhaka Coquelin Ramsay Elneny Sanchez Walcott/Welbeck Lacazette Iwobi Ozil Giroud SELL Chambers Welbeck or Walcott Debuchy Gibbs Jenkinson Wilshere Campbell Perez Akpom Asano So get rid of 10 players. Cazorla... whatever, see if ever becomes fit, if not then let him leave when he wants. Free up a huge chunk of wage (£400k a week approx maybe from those 10 as a guess?) then sign two top drawer players on £200k/w... at least one of them a centre mid so we have a better spine.
It's a definite problem for us. Although we are taking steps to change things, it seems to be overly slow. The glaring problem is Cazorla, the guy has been injured from last season and it'll be lucky for us if he's available this season, but what has been done to rectify this problem? It's bizarre the lack of movement from our management when a major problem is presenting our team. Cazorla is a key player for us but we don't have one player that can do what he can do.
Yeah - you would have thought at the start of the transfer window. Offload all the dead woodwhich adds to the transfer kitty and makes more space on the wage bill. With Carzorla out long term (and Ramsey playing soo badly) I would keep Wilshere just in case he rediscovers some form. We definitely need more players who can speed the game up and keep the play moving. I think that's why we have been looking at Seri/Lemar - Im doubtful either will happen though. It annoys me how unorganised everything seems to be at Arsenal these days. Selling players, buying players, renewing contracts, squad numbers etc..
For such a big successful club, it does surprise me how we do things sometimes. If they were to tweak a few things then we will show improvement on the pitch. But i think paying too much for some players has led to the problems we're facing. I can understand the idea paying them well, but it can backfire too, as we're seeing by our struggles of moving players on. I also agree on Wilshere, i think we should keep him rather than loaning him out. He would at least offer something different to midfielders like Xhaka, Elneny and Ramsey. Who knows he might forge a very good partnership with Ozil.
There are some problems with the players that you have identified as being surplus to requirement. Whilst you are correct in your assessment, the problem for prospective buyers is the fee and wages. You quoted £10m for Gibbs. I would divide that figure by 10 and perhaps you have someone in the PL prepared to take him off your books. Liverpool are also in a similar situation in that they want to offload players. The fee set is way to high. Like I quoted, divide the fee by ten and there's a chance of a buyer. Having said that your club has15 more games in the EL should Arsenal go all the way. Add to that the League and FA Cup, you need a big squad.
It's a shame Mike Ashley is as tight as ever - I'd love it if NUFC could sign Gibbs, Chambers, Wilshere and Perez. It would do our squad the world of good... Ah well.
They can only name 25 though, even in the EL. Alright League and FA Cups - but if it went disastrously that could be 2 games. Are many/any of these 21 or under?
And, by the way, I would hope Spurs would take Joel Campbell off your hands, looked a proper player to me.
