It's strange that Arsenal are running down their squad depth - especially considering that the recent departures have been first team players. Monreal has been a regular and is versatile. Stranger still given that they are in the EL and might end up playing 648 games this season.
It's really not that strange. There's no point having players in your squad who aren't good enough, who will get extremely limited game time or who are demanding obscene money.
Look at the players we've gotten rid of.
Cech - retired, but wasn't good enough - £100k p/w saved.
Lichtsteiner - contract wasn't renewed. Wasn't good enough - £75k p/w saved.
Ramsey - wanted ludicrous wages, blew hot and cold - £110k p/w saved.
Welbeck - very good 3rd choice option, but paying £90k p/w for a squad player is criminal - £90k p/w saved.
Ospina - wasn't good enough, needed to leave - £70k p/w saved.
Koscielny - 34 years old, not good enough anymore - £90k p/w saved.
Monreal - 34 this season, doesn't have the legs to play regularly - £70k p/w saved.
Iwobi - £35m was too good to turn down for a player who wasn't consistent - £30k p/w saved.
Jenkinson - never good enough - £50k p/w saved.
Elneny - not good enough - £55k p/w saved.
Mkhitaryan - absolutely garbage - £144k p/w saved.
Then we recouped about £18m from sales of youth players Dominic Thompson, Krystian Bielik, Takuma Asano and Xavier Amaechi (combined wages saved probably around £30k p/w).
That's roughly £60m in fees and £914k p/w saved in wages on players that weren't going to cut it or had no future at Arsenal.
Instead, we've upgraded our first team players and are incorporating the highly-rated youth players into the first-team set-up.
It may look like a lot of change on the surface of it all, but I maintain that what we've done is absolutely the right thing.


