While Arsenal fall deeper into a crisis with the almost inevitable loss of Gunners captain Cesc Fabregas to boyhood club Barcelona, and with Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City all chasing £25 million rated Samir Nasri, many would say the loss of such key men will spell the end for the team.
But Swiss centre-back Johan Djourou insists he and the rest of his Arsenal team-mates can still compete with England’s top sides next term with or without their star duo.
The 24-year-old defender recently stated:
‘We know that there will be stories but we know what we’re aiming for and what our goal is. We want to be successful so we don’t really get distracted by this. If Cesc goes, he goes. He’s been a great player for us and he’ll always have been a great player for us, but it’s his decision.’
Nasri, who was at his best last season filling in for the injured Spaniard, is believed to be contemplating his future at Arsenal after stalling on a new deal.
With both players nearing the Emirates Stadium exit doors, Djourou believes young stars such as Jack Wilshere, and Arsenal’s newest recruit Gervinho, could ease the pain of losing the pair.
‘When you look at players who normally come out and express themselves, it’s when someone goes. When Thierry Henry went, Cesc expressed himself even more. Cesc and Samir together are great so you’d rather keep them. But if someone goes then I’m sure someone else will step up.’
In my opinion, Djourou is in compete denial. I don’t think we will be able to challenge for anything next season unless Arsene Wenger can find proper replacements for the players we may lose this summer.
Yes, we have a good crop of youngsters to rely on, but at the rate we’re going only Robin van Persie and Tomas Rosicky will be our most experienced players at the club, there’s Manuel Almunia, but he doesn’t really count does he.
Arsenal’s current formation has been implemented to get the best out of Fabregas and on some occasions Nasri. However, this will surely have to be revised this upcoming season should both leave the club this summer.
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Your opinion is wrong then. Simple as. Johans opinion is all that count. He knows so much mKre about arsenal and football than you it’s almost unbelivable. his opinion counts not yours. Simple as.
Read between the lines.
Cesc has to go for causing so much confusion and lost of faith in the AFC players having a captain who “loves” someone else.
The team will regain their confidence and grow a team spirit.
I for one do not believe that the players were not affected by having a Captain who has given his heart to another team, wouldn’t you be as a player?
tanx alot, he ‘Cecs’ z nt fit to b a captain of such club.
As AW ritly pointed out 2wards d end of d season; ‘d responsibility r far above em’!!!
Yet another sh*tefest of a blog looking to capitilize and affect the bad morale of arsenal fans, you dont care about the club, you just want to hop on a sh*te bandwagon and ride into oblivion, you sir are a f***wit.
Bro the only only bringing morale down at the club is Wenger, nobody else.
Clearly you dont agree with the writer’s opinion, but to bad mouth a guy you don’t know on the internet is ridiculous.
Chill out because there will be more bad than good news coming up at our club.
I believe Djourou is worried like the rest of us, but is saying we will be fine and we can cope crap without Cesc and Samir to calm everybody down – deep down Johan is a worried man
God, the AKBs arrive in force. Good article mate – ignore these twats who know nothing about AFC- AKBs are not real football fans – just morons with no idea.
Taaza Banda whoever you are you are an idiot. You call crisis before the event has happened, they are not gone yet, and if they do go it is only a crisis in your narrow, negative mind. Do you expect the Arsenal players to be publicly ringing their hands in despair and give up, or do you want them to show some self confidence and fight. I know which I prefer. And his words are true, it opens the door for others such as Ramsey to step up to the mark and show their true worth.
dude….cesc going is not the end of the world im juz saying.
Ok! It appears some people are upset but it is the truth! Ever since we started to lose huge names, Arsenal as a team have never been the same. Yes we’ve seen players such as Fabregas, walcott and Nasri step up to the challenge but that has never been enough because Wenger has never found established players as replacements for the ones that leave and usually turns to the youth who are brilliant and that’s a fact I can’t disagree with but a little age and experience will help the team a lot!
If cesc and nasri go Jack and Ramsay would step up for sure.
Cesc is never 100% fit these days, his head is not here, misses many game, we became too relaint on him and thats not good at all. More minuses than pluses
Nasri was too inconsistent, where was he after january ?.I don’t think Arsenal would miss him at all. I hope Arsene sells him and that he proves to be a one-season rather an half-season wonder.
Add to Jack and Ramsay now that we have Gervinho coming in who is a natural winger and definitely more effective than Nasri on the wing,him being a predominant right winger I guess Theo would go to centre, probably 4-4-2.
At this moment selling both of them would be the best thing to happen to Arsenal ‘coz good money around 50 million and this time Wenger knows that he can’t escape with out spendng, he must spend at least some of that to buy a good creative player and a defender.
I am really excited to see Arsenal without these 2 players. Many of you wouldn’t agree but i don’t care
You r dead right there tho in my opinion I don’t c cesc go coz as much as barca players n fanz want him the coach won’t buy him till maybe next season ending coz the guy is injured alwayz even now….. besides all this negative energy surrounding ars is not from true fans… I think wenger is going to buy one midfielder n if we r lucky two defenderz but I think its gonna b one as for clichys replacement its gonna come frm within the ranks
What an absolute sh*te of a blog! Would be better if the title was “Only content in italic and bold is credible!”
Very educated comment r-tard, go back to your cave and only come out when you have something worthy to say
I don’t see anything wrong with Djourou saying we’ll be fine without Cesc or Nasri, or both. It wouldn’t be right for him to say ‘we’re doomed’ it’s the end of our club, I mean what kind of message would that be sending out to the rest of the team and the fans?
It’s good to hear players say something positive, if Johan had said the opposite daggers would be flying from all directions.