Morning all.
The next days, weeks and months will be about who leaves and who might arrive at Arsenal during the summer transfer window. Yes we have three fixtures to go but with very little to play for other than pride, I’d imagine interest levels will be low. Our last game of the season is against Brighton at The Emirates and ten thousand Arsenal fans will be present.
There were protests against Stan Kroenke before the game on Sunday and it’s likely there’ll more before our final home game too. Maybe during and after as well. For now, Mikel Arteta has escaped the protesters but next season, he might not be so fortunate.
Yesterday, Football London left a comment on Twitter which listed the players Arsenal are open to selling in the summer.
Bernd Leno
Hector Bellerin
Lucas Torreira
Matteo Guendouzi
Maitland-Niles
Sead Kolasinac
Konstantinos Mavropanos (a season loan)
Where such information came from I don’t know but applying logic alone, anyone could come up with that list of players, and more I think.
Selling AMN will prove to be a mistake in my opinion and Arsenal under Edu, Arteta and co have already made enough of those. Giving Willian, Aubameyang and Soares long deals at their age was bonkers, giving Lacazette a similar length deal would also be bonkers in my opinion. If anything this season has proved is that in the main, the older players have been the disappointment. The younger players like Saka, ESR, Martinelli, Tierney, Chambers, Holding and even Pepe at times, are the ones who give the team energy and direction. As has been said before, Arsene Wenger’s over 30’s rule doesn’t seem so daft now.
I doubt transfer decisions are made by one person alone, otherwise Mikel Arteta wouldn’t have been appointed manager instead of sticking with coach. Edu said that Arteta would have a big input into who the club sell and buy so the mistakes made are a collective cockup. I’d like to think the same group of people have learned that just because a player was once a very good player, if he’s 29 years old or older and free, he’s not worth the risk. A loan deal is different because there’s no commitment but a 3/4 year deal, no, never again surely. As far as Willian goes, Aubameyang too this season, Arsenal might as well have thrown their collective salary down the drain for all the good they’ve done. Or not more to the point. All Willian has done is blocked another younger player’s chance, like Nelson for example, or Azeez. Whether the two younger players would have worked out or not is irrelevant, having the opportunity is what counts and as Saka and ESR have proved, sometimes it works exceptionally well.
Arsenal certainly need more energy, speed and directness in their style of play. The crabby slow and sideways football will get us nowhere. Just because Man City play that way sometimes, albeit with an injection of pace and movement when it really matters, it doesn’t mean it’ll work for Arsenal. Certainly not with the players the club currently have. Or rather, the players Mikel Arteta has selected.
Anyway, the list Football London has come up with is a list I’d take with a pinch of salt because I think Arsenal have a lot of players who if the price is right, could be sold. That’s if the club wants to be ambitious and serious about getting back into the top four next season. We’ll see.
Lastly, yet right after Arteta’s comments about the owners backing him in the transfer window, the club have announced that Season Tickets will soon be available as they prepare for a full stadium next season. Yes, I am a cynic.
See you in the comments.
.
Good morning Rico, that was a short comment, a very short comment. More later? 😉
Morning Cicero, I couldn’t log in, hence the dot.
Mind you, what is there left to say about Arsenal? 😆
I see in the sales list no mention of Willian, as player with Arsenal whose stats make it clear he has not been a raging success. Played 37, goals 1
That’s true Rico. Back later. 👍
Cicero, he’s one for one this week though hahaha
Morning all.
Its not an inspiring list is it. All our loan crap, a dodgy keeper and model/activist. Laca, Willian (Oh please god), Elneny and even Auba should be included and Luiz, Cebellos shouldn’t be offered contracts. Total rebuild needed.
Hi Rico and all. I would like to keep Laca but on a year by year contract and around half of what Auba is on at the most.
I doubt we’ll see Ceballos or Odegaard next season. I’d be shocked if Luiz and Willian are still at the club too.
Saliba, Gabriel, Chambers, Holding, Mari and perhaps Mavropanos should be enough to get through a season without European football.
Two fullbacks are the priority imo, and a keeper.
Hi Geoff, I doubt he’d agree to that. At his age he’s probably looking at his last big deal. I hope it’s a different club who gives it to him.
Maybe we need to get rid of anyone we don’t want at the club in 3 years time.
Start planning for the future.
Laca has been very good this season but can we move forward if we are keeping players like him?
Auba, William, Luiz etc etc
No brainers-get rid of them.
According to a story last week Willian he would like to finish his career in America may Kroenke should start looking in his own back yard for a club to take Willian
Scott if we get rid of Auba and Laca together who have we got as a dedicated Striker and don’t forget the younger players lift when they play with Laca. We need to keep the spirits up on the younger player or they will walk if we stay around 10th on the ladder.
Without Europe and its finance we do need to trim the squad, not just in numbers but in cost. At the same time we need to try and be competitive in the League and maybe a domestic cup next season.
My list of players not needed or too expensive is much longer than this short list. Although frankly who the hell will match the wages we have given Willian, and Auba. Even Partey is on bumper money.
Seriously we could go position by position. Lets just take right back at random.
We have….
Bellerin £110,000 per week.
Soares £75,000 per week.
Chambers on £50,000 per week.
For me only Chambers deserves to stay in the squad and he would have to fight it out with a new signing.
Now lets look at Centrebacks
Luiz £101,000 pw
Mari £85,000 pw
Holding £80,000 pw
Gabriel £50,000 pw
Saliba £40,000 pw
Mavropanos £25,000 pw
We only really need 5. So, who do we lose and if we buy another one which two do we lose? Personally I’d let Luiz go and keep the rest. However if we do bring a right sided centreback one of Saliba, Holding or Mavropanos needs to go. So that will cost us on a fee and probably increase our wages.
This sort of hardheadedness needs to be done throughout the squad. Unfortunately this means that some tough decisions need to be made. They probably wont be popular but if they aren’t made it’ll be a mistake.
For example here are all of our players earning over £100,000 per week or £5.2 million a year.
Who on this list has given us value, is it possible to sell them, do we need another in their position, contractually can we save any of this money etc etc.
Aubameyang £250,000 pw
Partey £250,000 pw
Willian £192,000 pw
Lacazette £182,000 pw
Bellerin £110,000 pw
Luiz £101,000 pw
Kolosinac £100,000 pw
Leno £100,000 pw
Pepe £100,100 pw
Xhaka £100,000 pw
As a side note we really need to get on top of our contracts we are a bloody joke!
If both Aubameyang and Lacazette are sold, I strongly suspect another striker would be signed. That’s the trouble with this time of the season, it’s all ifs and buts.
Would anyone be surprised to see both Auba and Lacazette at the club next season? I wouldn’t.
Geoff, we can’t tread water.
We need to get rid of the players who’ve failed to gain us success and bring in those that can, along with the kids having their chance, imo.
Perhaps that’s why Richard Garlick is coming in Hobart. I totally agree re the contracts, the club really do shoot themselves in the foot.
Mavropanos is apparently hoping to stay out on loan and surely there won’t be another contract for Luiz although I bet there will be.
Afternoon Rico, topical post.
I was texting a mate earlier today and he just texted to me ‘In my mind we’re in the Close Season now’ and tbh it was difficult to argue with those sentiments because frankly Arsenal’s season really is finished.
If you look at the four clubs above us, that’s Everton, Tottenham, Liverpool and West Ham and look at their remaining fixtures Arsenal have virtually a zero prospect of finishing higher than 9th but have a very good prospect of finishing lower.
So we are pretty much now where we’ll probably finish.
Therefore no europe in 2021/22 means only the three domestic competitions to go for, less games especially midweek games, less Sunday games hopefully and no need for the squad size we presently have.
So I reckon that Arsenal could afford to move on up to 10 players, bring in 4 max and that’ll be sufficient to deal with next season. The general skill level of our squad should still be improved with the 10 out 4 in policy if we buy the right players and sell the right players – a big ask I know, with maybe 11 out and 5 in if Leno does leave?
Let’s actually take Leno as a primes example and also let’s not forget that we’ll be doing all our business in a seriously deflated market.
Now Bernd is on £100,000 pw which equates to around £5.2m per year.
Now where do we think he’s going to go, Italy? Spain? France? No, probably Germany where they are never going to pay stupid wages, so if you consider that, then he’s going to have to either take a major pay cut, which I doubt he’ll agree to, or if he doesn’t, then who is going to pick up the slack? Arsenal?
So even if Arsenal got a transfer fee for him and don’t ask me what that possibly could be, it might well be eaten up by Arsenal having to subsidise his salary at say Dortmund or maybe even Bayern and that’ll make us look such a well run intelligent club won’t it?
And the Leno scenario is just scratching the surface!
Agents must look at Arsenal, rub their sticky little hands and laugh out loud.
We are really quite a poorly managed club at all levels.
You know we like to think, as fans, that playing for our club is such a big deal, that playing for Arsenal is close to the pinnacle but maybe it’s not?
Maybe we have to pay stupid wages to persuade the perceived better players to come and waste a few years of their career at the Emirates but to also fill up their bank account?
Doesn’t it make you feel so proud…
Kev, well said, though to be fair, most players don’t seem to care where they play, these days, as long as the money is right.
This theory that we won’t attract top players without European football is wrong as long as they’re being paid enough as they have agents, families and friends to take care of 🙂
I am surprised that Leno is on that much. I hoping that we can sell Willian / Luiz and Auba.
I just hope that no other club comes in with a offer for Saka or ESR that is too good to turn down and we sell them.
Afternoon Kev.
Perhaps the only way Arsenal can get players to sign is by salary. It’s not like the club is as attractive a place to play football as it used to be. How many top players would want to join a club which is clearly struggling, let alone has a novice manager.
Out of the top ten clubs in the PL, I reckon we’d be the least tempting to join. Even Leeds play exciting football these days, Villa too.
Martin Keown:
The Kroenkes – do they really love the club? They need to spend massively. Leno wont’ sign a new contract. Luiz is leaving. Bellerin isn’t signing a new contract. There’s a remarkable amount of players that are uncertain of their futures.
‘Arteta needs to take some responsibility. He’s outsmarted himself. He needs to keep it simple. I do believe he’s an outstanding coach, he needs to prove he’s an outstanding manager. It’s going to be difficult to back him if he loses again.
‘It’s about results. He’s been here 18 months and he’s won an FA Cup, but when we look at league form it’s fallen away. The football club is going backwards and they have to arrest that slide. How much of the problem is about the manager and how much is about the squad? The manager is concerning me because he always blames the players. massive expenditure is needed. new owners could be the catalyst.’
In my view we have only three players, in our first team squad, who I would describe as exceptional and they are Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Tierney. On the next level down we have Rob Holding and possibly Pepe. Partey and Mari will, I hope, move into that category next season. Martinelli is a bit of an enigma, not enough game time and too many injuries make it hard to assess his real potential. I’m afraid the rest are distinctly second, or even, third rate due to age and or lack of ambition and motivation brought about by undeserved high wages and over-extended contracts.
We obviously can’t afford to sign sufficiently talented replacements for all the players who are not measuring up, but must be much smarter in our trading than we have been over the past decade or so.
It is unfortunate that there hasn’t been too much sign that the coaching staff have made any significant improvement in the players they have at their disposal.
It s up to Arteta to modify his preferred style of play to suit the squad he has, while he incorporates whatever players he manages to sign into the team.
Have fun ! (it’s in Portuguese)
https://itsagoal.wixsite.com/home/post/s%C3%B3lido-s%C3%B3lido-arsenal-os-50-anos-da-hist%C3%B3rica-dobradinha-dos-gunners
Martinelli was superb under Emery though and there’s no reason why he won’t be again. Had he played more, we’d have seen that. I’d put him the Saka, ESR and Tierney bracket. The latter has injury problems of his own which is a worry.
City league champions then after Utd were beaten by Leicester
Martinelli is coming off a major injury so still can’t be judged sufficiently, imo.
His time will come in the new season.
We really do have an average squad when you look at them as individuals.
We should be doing better, no question, but we have a lot of decent players and not enough top quality ones.
Recruitment must be better and Arteta needs to get the best out of them.
Evening Rico and the house.
We have 2 games against the Chavs tomorrow
With a 11am kick off the u18s are away to them in their last game of the season.At present we are 5th and a win could see us finish in 4th.
A very good finish to a poor season.
Rico I think Mikal has got to make changes to his Coaching staff.
Listed as AssistantManager they are
Round ( English)
Stivenbertg (Dutch)
Georgson(Swedish)
Molina (Spanish)
Pavon (Spanish)
Cuesta (Spanis)
Cuesta joind us last August from Juventus wher he was coaching
the U17s.
He is just 25 ,has never played for any senior club and is now tlling our first team how they should play
Evening Rick. I think the same about Arteta’s coaching staff. He needs more experience around him imo. What’s the point in having novices surrounding a novice.
Scott, most clubs bar the top ones have ‘decent’ players but not top class ones but they play much better football than Arsenal right now. Leeds and Villa spring to mind, Leicester too. Even Utd’s squad isn’t better than ours in my opinion.
Rico, the problem is, some of our so called best players aren’t performing and haven’t all season and that’s a big difference, even when comparing to Leeds.
If Auba (for one) scored a similar number of the goals he has the past few seasons, and he’s had the chances, we’d be looking better immediately.
William remains a mystery-even I won’t try and defend the playing time he’s been given.
Partey hasn’t really fired yet, but let’s hope he shows up next season.
Rick makes a good point on our coaching staff-to be totally honest, I’d not heard of any of them.
Dutch and Spanish coaches teaching our players how to play a new style of game will take quite a deal of time if it’s to work at all, but some more experience would help.
New staff.
New squad.
New style.
New culture.
The board had better buy right into this as it’ll take a fair bit longer and to sack Arteta will see it a total waste of time and money.
On the flip side, Mikel had better get this right lol
Xmas this year-time to judge, imo.
All the problems at our club stem from one source KSE.
From the moment Kroenke bought his way into Arsenal we began to change from being a football club to be a business corporation. Out went the people who knew what Arsenal was all about to be replaced by string of corporate suits who knew nothing, and cared less, about what has become known as the Arsenal DNA.
The Kroenkes lack of football nous led them to believe that the club’s seat at the top table was set in stone. They had no succession plan in place for when Wenger would finally go and,what was more serious, they did not recognise that his time was up several seasons before his eventual departure.
Freddie, as a stop gap, was thrown under the bus. Emery arrived expecting to change the playing style and reshape the squad. But the financial backing was not in place. The slump continued, the executive roundabout speeded up. The Kroenkes panicked, sacked Emery and went for a rookie head coach overseen by a rookie director of football.
Once again the Kroenkes lack of football nous led them to believe that winning the FA Cup made everything alright and so they promoted the head coach and gave him more responsibility than he can handle. Arteta too is attempting to change the playing style, but so radically that the players have become bewildered, and suffered a huge drop in confidence with the result that Arsenal are approaching the end of their worst season in decades.
Add, to all of the above, the disastrous ESL fiasco and it is plain that the Kroenkes are presiding over what could soon become a mediocre, mid table, soulless apology of a once great club.
I get that Scott, but then I wonder why players like Aubameyang continue to be selected. Partey has been good when playing alongside Xhaka but left on his own, anyone would struggle.
We saw Saka playing very well at left back before under Emery and Arteta but when we needed him there, Arteta opted for Xhaka.
Imo, Arteta is making big mistakes which I don’t think a manager of Arsenal should be making.
Morning all.
The Kroenke’s leave the decision making to the board though Cicero. Josh has said that before. I’d imagine they just agree/disagree on the big decisions.
I don’t like what they’ve done to the club but the decisions like Freddie, Emery etc I don’t think were down to them.
My whole point is that the Kroenkes have appointed the wrong executives in the first place. Rico.
Over the last few seasons we’ve probably had as many arrivals and departures of executives as players.
Morning all.
Rico, yes, I agree Arteta has made selection mistakes and Auba is one of them.
Stan and his moustache will be gone soon.
We will have new owners by the time the new season kicks off.
Watch this space.
But that ball started rolling before they arrived didn’t it Cicero? Didn’t Arsene Wenger deal with all of that to begin with. I’m not trying to deflect blame from the Kreonke family but Wenger appointed Gazidis I’m sure and the rest as they say, is history.
I blame the Arsenal people who sold the Arsenal soul for money because that’s where it began.
As I’ve suggested before Scott, if Kroenke does sell up, it’s likely a change of manager will soon follow if results/performances don’t improve. That is assuming any new owner will be ambitious.
Rico, I want what’s best for the club.
Simple.
Arsenal first.
Stan is more wrong for Arsenal than Arteta is right, if that makes sense, so if Stan going means Arteta leaves, so be it as the upside is enormous.
He’s been the problem ever since he took over.
You kind of imagine that to become a billionaire that you must be smart and part of being smart is to have an eye for hiring the right people to run parts of your business empire.
Have the Kroenke’s been smart in the people they’ve hired?
You don’t see John Henry at Anfield every week or see the Glaziers at Old Trafford, you don’t see the Abu Dhabi gang at Man City all the time or even Abramovitch at Stamford Bridge, but all of them have, it seems, hired better people to run those football clubs, Levy for all his snake like qualities has been better at running Tottenham than our crew, you don’t see Joe Lewis at WHL…
Ok Scott.
Kev, We can’t really blame Stan for hiring people to run a club in a sport he knows nothing about though.
I’ll forgive him when he sells 😉
If the Kroenke’s had done the hiring and firing Kev, we’d have a board full of Americans. Lol
Imo, the problem with the Kroenke family is they’re too far removed from the club. They haven’t a clue what the PL is about and rely too much on the board, a board which I think the board has always appointed. Hope that makes sense.
If a new owner does come in, I hope he/they wipe the slate clean and look at people who know the club and know the PL to take one or two places on the board.
New post up now
https://highbury-house.com/2021/05/12/have-arsenal-really-progressed/