Realistically, I'd say: Chesney, Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Vermaelen, Merts, Koscielny, Arteta, Wilshere, Rosicky, Cazorla, Diaby (if only!), Giroud, Pod, Theo, Oxo (maybe), Coquelin (maybe), Ramsey (scraping!), Campbell (benefit of the doubt), Miyaichi (possibly), Frimpong (maybe next season?) are of the required standard to play for Arsenal. That's a maximum of 21 players, and 6 of them are "jury's out" ones.. It leaves: Gervinho, Santos, Mannone, Fabianski, Denilson, Bendtner, Djourou, Squillaci, Arshavin, Chamakh, Park That's ELEVEN players that are currently on the books (of which only 3 are on loan) with absolutely ZERO future at the club as far as I can see. That's a HUGE amount of wages spent weekly on unnecessary dross. Something seriously needs to be done about this. If those 11 players were replaced with 5 decent players the squad would be *SO* much stronger overall. It would be a 25-man squad with ability where genuine rotation could take place. It's worrying how many sub-standard players Arsenal have bought in the last few seasons. Something needs to be done.
I'd keep Mannone but look to bring in a more experienced keeper and leave him as 3rd choice. Although he's largely terrible, we have to remember taht Gervinho has made some contribution this season. He's done far more than Oxo or Ramsey. Other than that, yes I agree it is worrying.
We need a clearout... Arshavin -£2m Chamakh - £2m Bendtner - £2m Squillaci - £500,000 Fabianski - £500,000 Djourou -£2m Santos - £1m Eastmond - £500,000 should not be on first team wages...SELL THEM!- One of our biggest problems is that we keep so many sub par players in our squad and on our wagebill when its OBVIOUS they are not of the required quality. - let them got for cheap , at those prices they would sell. So that's 10-12 Million added to our transfer budget. Then Bring In Yann M'Vila - £15 Million. Having Issues at Rennes (banned) could defeinitely get him on the cheap. Huntelarr/Llorente - £10 Million. Both players have run down their contracts and both want moves. Huntelarr has apparently said he's preferred destination would be Arsenal. Either would be great signings. I still maintain a TOP striker needs to be our priority. Holtby - £10 Million Can play in a variety of attacking positions, seems ready made for the English game. ------------------Scezney---------------------- Sagna-----Merts--------Vermaelen------Gibbs --------------------M'Vila----------------------- ----Carzorla------Wilshere---------Holtby----- ----------Huntelarr--------Podolski------------- Bench: Diaby, Rosicky, Arteta, Oxo, Giroud,Koscieleny
No but I think we'd be more effective playing this way. Also that's why we have a squad for me it was between Pod and Walcott to play alongside Huntelarr and I think Pods is ultimately the better player. Walcott would still get plenty of games as would Rosicky and Arteta.
I'm pretty sure West Ham, Sunderland etc.. would bit our hands off for Arshavin or Chamakh. All of these players are good enough for the French, Dutch, Swiss, Russian, Belgian leagues or the smaller EPL clubs.
Yeah, I'm not sure what is going on here. A lot of the posters compaining, are the ones that were unhappy when Wenger was going with the youth policy, saying he couldn't buy players better than them, and that the players we could afford were overpriced.
I still think Santos/Gervinho/Arshavin are perfectly good back-ups/squad players. Although the wages Arshavin is on it's hard to justify keeping him as a bit part player. What we need is to ship out the crap at the bottom of the pile - a la eastmond/Bend/Chamakh/squilacci - they are just using up wages.
Arshavin has to go. He is one of the highest paid players at the club and he did not even start in yesterday's game. We know about the other usual suspects. Problem is they do not want to play football, they are happy to hang around Arsenal and pick up a very good wage.
So many players need to be moved on!! Do people think that ANY of them will be moved realistically in January!? If they're not, will anyone new come in? There's MILLIONS being WASTED here on players the club simply doesn't want.
Bendtner, Chamakh, Squilacci i think we're stuck with until their contracts run out. Hopefully one of the Russian clubs will finally take Arshavin back Djourou signed a new contract not long ago, the club obviously want to keep him
Could you ever have imagined Arshavin ending this way, after the start he had with us? We can't even give him away for free. Truly tragic for a man of his ability and class.
The problem we have is that we cant retain our successes, and we are stuck with our failures. It is all about money, salaries and player power. Management is no longer a significant part of winning trophies.
I'd go ahead to say how pathetically wrong you all are on Gervinho, but I'll just console myself that I can always quote this thread a few weeks ahead. Bar Cazorla he was our best player until he got injured, and he's had what, 3 games since he came back? Really surprising how no-one here ever said a word about that one-trick pony (proven over 7 years, not 3 games) Walcott at how useless he was when Swansea shut shop early in the 2nd half. He has been useless without acres of space for SEVEN years and no one says ****, they go ahead and blame everything on Gervinho who at least got in our best low crosses that game (where no one was there to convert, hint hint Walcott/Podolski) and tries to make something happen when we are dire. Absolutely pathetically biased judgement.
Nothing more pathetic on here than your assumption that your opinion is the correct one and that everyone else's is pathetic and biased.
I think the problem at the present is that we have too many players incapable of playing a really killer pass or a regular basis. Of course every top player can play a pass occasionally, but doing so a lot is a skill. Right now, Walcott, Giroud, Gervinho, Podolski and Ramsey are really not good at seeing or playing that pass. The addition of Wilshere helps and so will Rosicky, and if Gervinho plays with them, he will be fine, but we cant use him as a creative force, that isn't his forte.
Nothing in this forum deals with "correct", that you even use that word tells me enough. I'm just pointing at the ridiculous standards of comparison used for different players. Gervinho was a no-brainer as a first team starter while fit, and an injury (and a hat-trick in a comedy game by walcott) later, one is the deadwood and the other needs to be made our highest earner. Pathetic. Gervinho has been made THE scapegoat of a bad run of games he has barely featured in.
Come on lads.Lets not start we the abuse towards each other Everyone is allowed their own opinion as long as i agree with it
