This been spotted/mentioned? http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/7787068/Djourou-considers-exit Can't say I blame him. Any player should want to play as often as possible. Obviously he doesn't say outright he wants to leave so I've no gripes with him staying (as 4th choice).
Let him go we could get a decent 4th choice defender using one of our youngsters. does anyone know what is Djourou's current salary? I'm sure removing deadwood like him would improve income and allow us to use the money on buying better players.
I've always maintained that we need 4 top quality CBs. Two first choice and two equally as good for cover. There are 50+ games in a season, more than enough for all 4 to get games. This season demonstrated why, when both Mertesacker and our full backs were injured and we played Vermaelen at LB. We struggled. Djourou is better at CB than he is at RB, but that's being generous. I think he's got some good aspects to his game, but overall I think he makes too many costly mistakes. For me, Miquel looks a better prospect. He's a proper ball playing CB, but he's not the quickest and could get torn apart by a pacey forward. Ultimately, I'd buy another CB - someone like Hummels or Subotic would be ideal - could be pie in the sky though . . .
Miquel lacks strength as well and I have seen him be bullied a number of times by strikes which is far from ideal for a centreback, in fact Djourou suffers from this as well, we need a tough tackling strong centreback with a bit of pace theres plenty who would fit this description and who probably would not cost us that much to acquire. Our Centreback paring of Kos and Vermaelen is very good in my oppinion and is up there with top's centreback paring.
Some of these comments are a bit stupid if you think about it. Djourou is an international who is too good to be happy as no 4 choice for us and wants game time. He could easily get games in other top flight teams, just not the best teams. Yet some people on here think we can sell him and get someone even better to play a bit part i our season. As we have seen, you need some continuity in defence so chopping and changing to try to keep 4 players happy would only result in all of them becoming fed up and wanting to leave. Djourou is probably about the best 4th/5th choice CB in the league.
Djoure made a total of 27 appearances for us this season, 19 from a starting position, that's hardly sh!t is it? Hardly something to cry about for lack of appearances, that's still a hell of a lot of appearances, and starting places. And not to mention, there were points in this season when he was INJURED as well. So putting it all together, being 4th choice, with his injuries, to still get 19 f--king starts, and 27 appearances in total, is very good. I don't see what's to complain about.
Had high hopes for Djourou, hasn't gone to plan. Understand his frustration, but, needs to improve his concentration & decision making. Still has all the traits of the dominant CB we lack. Hopefully Steve Bould can help him find that nasty streak he lacks.
Being an International means nothing these days, if you remember Senderos was also an international and for a while was ahead of Djourou both as an international and in our team...now he is playing for Fulham and is not always a starter there. You say he could easily get into other top flight teams, could you name me which teams because I cant think of many teams he could easily walk into. United and City have better 4/5th choice centrebacks than him, face facts he is rubbish and he wont get any better. I read some where that the guy is on 60K a week..look at his performance against United were got destroyed because of players like him. Now do you believe that he is worth that much? he is not worthy to play for Arsenal and I hope he goes.
I do not believe for a moment that Djourou will ever leave. He is on what, 60K ? No way he will get anything near that in another club. The guy was just reacted to his Swiss manager words. But I am sure deep down he is satisfied with his current job. After all he has admitted a couple of years ago that his favorite hobby was pampering himself with creams. There is plenty of time for it between games at Arsenal.
He truly showed that he was content at Arsenal after the beating we had against United, after the match he showed no concern whatsoever and was even joking with some of the united players and I remember when we lost to Blackburn because of his blunders and he had the audacity to blame our strikers . He is an average player and does not have the winning mentality that we need to push us to the next level and that’s why he can’t get ahead of Kos and Vermelen, they at least show heart and desire when they play for us.
Get rid - decent player but blighted by continuous errors. Not good enough to be trusted at the back.
I agree i would rather have someone else but do you guys seriously see anyone of quality being satisfied with playing fourth choice. I know this may be unpopular but what about.promoting bartley for.fourth choice. If not can anyone come up with any names?
