Keep, Sell Or Loan

The more I look at our squad the more I think our best option is just offload and buy young players.

For the cost of an ageing experienced International you can still buy young players with 'World Class potential'.

Look at Saliba for example. 18 years old - a regular in the Rennes side. Strong 6'4 and technically excellent. Thats TOP class ability and we are looking at between 20-25m. Its still alot of money for a teenager and there is risk attached to the purchase but its FAR better than spending 20-30m on a Mustafi calibre players who will never hit that top level.

I wanna see Arsenal chase Saliba, Reinier Jesus Carvalho and players with the potential to be elite its our best course of action.

 

You mean St Etienne.

Saliba looks like he can be a top player, however, I am concerned with the terms of what they want. We'd purportedly have to loan him back to St Etienne for one season before seeing him in action for Arsenal. Meaning we wouldn't see him in an Arsenal shirt until 2020/2021 season. It's not worth it if this is true.

We need to get a younger squad generally, but should be looking more in the 21-25 age bracket too. Players who have had some experience of top level football, but are heading into the best years of their career. Because you can't put all the expectations on the youngsters to deliver as talented as they may be.

I'm all for making 17-20 year old signings so long as we're getting players who are a bit more seasoned too.

 

Yeah I do, not sure why I was thinking Rennes.

Once players hit that 22-24 year range though price wise there is generally a huge increase. 18-21 is where you get the best value for money because its still a gamble as to wether they will hit their potential.

 

Haven’t seen many rumours for outgoings so far - is Jenkinson still on our books, and did Monreal sign an extension

 

Jenkinson's contract is until 2020. The contract he signed in 2015 was for 5 years. The TransferMarkt website had it wrong.

I believe the reason we did this was so we could command a higher fee for him, but the mistake we made was bumping his wages up to £45k per week. No club, which is at his level, would have been willing to pay that. Hence why, when he was in negotiations with West Ham to join permanently, talks broke down over personal terms.

Arseblog reported that we had triggered a one-year contract extension in Monreal's contract in February this year, so he will be here until 2020. This was a mistake too, in my opinion, as his defensive reliability has declined and he is approaching his mid-30s.
My only question is why the club never announced he was staying for an extra season, which is what they would normally do. Seems very peculiar to keep this on the low.

 

This is also why we have been struggling to offload players, by the way.
Look at this :

 

https://www.skysports.com/football/...alks-with-arsenal-for-defender-carl-jenkinson

Jenkinson in talks with West Brom about a move to The Hawthorns.

I never thought I'd see the day

 

Assuming he will be taking a big pay cut?

 

Some talk that we might use him as a makeweight with Celtic in a deal for Tierney