I wrote this on the ferry, minutes after the final whistle, so this might not be very subjective.
We were poor. Arsene Wenger went cautious with four central midfielders and it didn’t work!!!
There was no creativity, no pace. We came to defend and totally failed.
Theo Walcott wasn’t interested. Robin van Persie had no service until The Ox came on and when he did have a sniff – their keeper played a blinder.
And to top it all, our full-back curse is now spreading to the centre-backs.
I know it’s a bit early doors, but we really need to take a serious look at next season’s squad. Too many current players aren’t doing it week in, week out. We are too inconsistent.
On the basis we make the Champions League for the 15th year on the bounce and the money is released and they want to sign for us and blah blah blah, we have to strengthen. We need to sort this out early before our targets get made public and the big-money clubs step in – Jaun Mata springs to mind.
A minimum of three players are needed to complete the squad below to at least push us forward to challenge for the title next season:
First-choice staring XI:
Scszeney, Sagna, Kos, Verm, Gibbs, Chambo, Gotze, Song, Wilshere, Hazard, RVP
On the bench:
Flappy, BFG/Santos/Jenks, Coq/Frimmers, Gervinho/Benny, Arteta/Rosicky, Walcott/Ramsey, Campbell/Another striker.
Squad players:
Mannone, Diaby (not that he stays fit enough for long enough), Eisfeld, Djojo, Miquel, Ryo, Vela, Wellington, Afobe, Yenneris.
Now I know this is pretty hypothetical and involves the club spending in the region of £70 million, but hey, we’ve got to spend it sometime and with the sales of AA23, Park, Chamakh and you never know, someone might be foolish enough to pay us for Manuel or the Squid – we might even be able to raise £20 million towards it all.
Two ‘big-name’, but young talent signings in Hazard and Gotze, and the much needed striker, would send the signal to players and fans alike that we mean business and we are her to stay. It also sticks to the ‘We don’t buy superstars, we make superstars’ ethos, which, to be fair, hasn’t done us to bad over the past 15 seasons!!!
With the possibility of Dennis and Tony joining the coaching staff as well, if it all comes off, one season of pain wouldn’t seem all that bad after all, would it?
Arsene, Kroenke and the board, if we want to stay, we need to pay.
Here endeth today’s sermon!!!
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Heavy investment is certainly required. Spending £70m+ sounds unrealistic, but we could make a fair amount of that by getting rid of the deadwood and a couple of under-performing players.
I know this is very Football Manager esque, but i’d like to see these kind of ambitious changes in the Summer.
Out – Almunia, Fabianski, Mannone, Djourou, Squillaci, Diaby, Rosicky, Arshavin, Chamakh, Walcott
In – Guardiola, Hiddink or Van Gaal as New Manager, with Steve Bould as #2 and Martin Keown and Dennis Bergkamp brought in as coaches.
Vorm, Vertonghen, Hazard, Eriksen, Podolski
If Van Persie decides to leave, a top class replacement ie Benzema, Hulk, Pato.
1st X1
Vorm; Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Santos; Song, Wilshere, Eriksen; Hazard, Podolski, Van Persie or Benzema
2nd String
Szczesny; Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vertonghen, Gibbs; Frimpong, Arteta, Ramsey; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho, Park Chu-Young
Reserves/On Loan: Martinez, Lansbury, Coquelin, Miquel, Miyaichi, Afobe, Joel Campbell
vorm ?
the one we alredy have is more then better.
and if v perise dose leave most likely for real madrid a swap for benzima or one of there players is realistic so that deal might not be too bad.
one of hazard, goetez or erikson is a must of our club in most of our bad games it is becouse
we do not have someone in the middle to control the game or get assits for the attackers
walcott is the player whos got the most assists so far so am not sure selling him his the right idea.
Szczesny is a good young goalkeeper, and I like his confidence and personality, but I feel he’s overrated by some Arsenal fans and think he needs competition to keep him on his toes. He knows that he can have 5 poor games consecutively and still be in no danger of losing his #1 status.
Personally, I think Vorm is a little better than him, but the main point is signing a goalkeeper of similar ability so they can compete for the #1 spot, without spending huge amounts on a goalkeeper like Pepe Reina. I feel Szczesny has automatically been awarded it due to the terrible performances of Almunia and Fabianski, and hasn’t earned it yet.
Walcott has a decent assists record, but do you trust him to deliver when it matters? Most of his assists come against the weaker teams like Wigan and Blackburn, he doesn’t produce enough against the top sides bar a few glimpses in the past against the likes of Liverpool or Chelsea, whereas Eden Hazard and perhaps Oxlade-Chamberlain look able to perform on a more consistent basis. I’d only want to see him sold if we get a decent offer , with his age and Nationality, i’d say in the region of £20m (given what Downing, Henderson and Barry have been sold for recently).
For outgoing sales, I could see us getting:
Almunia, Fabianski, Mannone, Rosicky – Bosmans
Squillaci – 3m
Djourou – 3m
Diaby – 5m
Denilson – 4m
Arshavin – 7m
Vela – 5m
Chamakh – 7m
Bendtner – 8m
Walcott – 20m
That’s around £60m, plus a huge amount off the wage bill (Diaby is on 60k per week and has offered little to nothing for 2 years).
Agree with GunneRay on the contract issues. We’ve rewarded mediocrity with bumper contracts. Can understand rewarding the likes of Wilshere and tying him down to a long term contract, but Diaby, Almunia, Denilson? Pathetic.
£70 mil plus?
C’mon we need to get rid of at least 8 – 10 “dead-wood” players that would probably get us 20 – 30 million?
Then we need to secure at least 5 – 6 good quality signings (including RVP) and i mean “quality”!!!
Also, we need to sort out “Pay and play on performance” issues because we have too many “yellow-belly” gutless wonders who don’t have the bottle to step up to the plate when we need them to. If they don’t perform, then reduce the wage and stick them into reserves!!!
Arsenal have been heading south for a long time. Personally, I would rather have stayed at Highbury stadium and keep our class players instead of the Emirates with a bunch of nobodies!!
What’s the use having a great castle if you don’t have a great army to defend it?
I think your team is very good Bergkamp, still think Arsenal needs a couple of no nonsense hard tackling players.
I still wonder what Wenger sees in Walcott he is so average, Arshavin is a much better player.
arshaving better player ?
do you watch games
arshaving used to be great for us
in his past 40 games his had an odd goal or assits here and there
but he just is lazy
walcott his 22 he has time to get better
and his more of a threat the arshaving
walcot has out assisted and out scored arshaving.
Can’t believe that you are saying Song should stay, he is a lazy no good liability. He has the odd good game against crap sides but when it counts he goes missing. I would take £5m for him now.
hazard wants to go to spurs, i think their style of play suits him better. Arsenal should go for gotze and an experienced central midfielder. Perhaps Kaka could be tempted to Arsenal? i dont think ramsay is good enough, although he’s young and could improve. i think they only need a few signings with oxlade chamberlain and wilshere to come back a couple of additions would greatly improve the team.
Welcome to Kroenke world. Just look how his other franchises are faring over there. He is just in for the money, and just want the exposure to football. He reckons by keeping the books straight, he will always be able to flog his portfolio to a mega billionaire at a
massive premium. Until then he has no intentions to spend any extra money. He is tuning the club for 4th place not more. And everyone caught up with AW scouting skills so that arbitrage is long gone and when talent is drained, you are left with mediocracy. Time to get used to Europa League.
if we sell the dead-wood
bender
suillaci
arshavin
denilson
rosicky
fabianksi
park
chamak
vela
lansbury.
that should get us round = 35-40 million.
and with those players of the wage bill
it will be another 20-30 million of the wage bill aswell
those players hardly play any mins for the club
it will not be much of a loss if they leave.
if the board want to make the club great or have ambition to go win things.
then they will need pull the cheeck book out
we still have money left from the sale of nasri fabirgas clishy.
and lets not forget aparent clubs have a budget at the end of the season and ours is alway “40 million”
40 million
and 30 million from player sales = 70 mill
with 70
podolzki 15 mill
vertonghen 10 mill
hazard or goetz one of them to play in the middle. 25-35 million.
with those 3 players we will have what we have been missing
we need a strong squad
we have too many players who are just not good enought some are young and need time
but most are old who can not offer anything and will not get any better then they are now.
i think 35-40 million for those players is very optimistic. who could you honestly say is worth more than, at the very most, 8 million out of that lot? arshavin and chamakh maybe. but probably not. the others are just deadwood players
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I have been saying that selling walcott and arshavin can pay a big part of the cost of a hazard or a goetze. We have cash for a vertonghen, podolski, etc . re -signing walcott would guarantee mediocrity for years to come. Aside from yesterday, i am happy with sczez, verm, kos, sagna, santos ahead of gibbs. Also happy with gerv, ox and hopefully can keep rvp. But need that creative attacking midfielder badly.