By Tony Attwood
In his final interviews at the Huddersfield game Mr Wenger said he was convinced that the squad merely needed two or three new signings to be able to challenge again for the major trophies.
At the same time we have had the figure of £50m being available which in terms of top players buys one these days.
Meanwhile we have the story in the Telegraph that says (“exclusively”) that “Mauricio Pochettino wants £150m Tottenham squad overhaul including several new signings and departures.”
So how can Arsenal make up the difference? Several issues and options come to mind – or I should say “come to my mind” because I might be wandering off down a totally different trail from anyone else. Here are the thoughts:
1: We might be able to promote at least one and maybe two players from the youth squads for next season. Maybe 1.5 – the 0.5 being a player who can cover a position rather than being a first team player. I would start with Ainsley Maitland Niles who is valued on Transfer Market at £4.5m – an extraordinarily low figure given what I have seen of him.
Despite his sending off at Leicester I thought Konstantinos Mavropanos to be an excellent prospect certainly worthy of a number of games next season. Maybe Nelson will come through; maybe Willock. You never get all the youngsters who look great to emerge at one go, and anyone you can’t use them all, but having two or three available would be good for the squad.
2: We might be able to sell some players in order to make up the missing £100m, although I foresee a problem here. The assault on our players by Sky, the press and the bloggettas combined may well have reduced the value of a number of players and so we could get far less for them than they are worth simply because of the destruction of their reputations.
3: If Mr Wenger left his note book lying around in which he listed some brilliant prospects we might be able to pick up another Konstantinos Mavropanos for £3m.
4: Maybe just maybe Santi Cazorla is fit and could put in another season for us, perhaps playing every other game. I know he is out of contract but I suspect he recognises how much he owes to Arsenal and so would sign up for another one year contract, renewable if all goes well. He’s 33 so he would not be expecting more than one season, but one season playing every third game would be worth it.
So we put the £50m into one player – perhaps as a central defender and introduce Maitland-Niles and realise that Elneny is an extraordinarily good defensive midfielder who is still developing, then we still have the income from a couple of sales of players we are ready to let go.
Although I am not sure that we should take Gary Neville’s suggestion that Arsenal should sign Yaya Toure too seriously. Or in fact not seriously at all.
Looking at who should go and who should stay in defence it is interesting that the Who Scored statistics have two Arsenal defenders in their top team of the season based entirely on their numbers – Mustafi and Monreal.
But if the thinking is that we do need to buy a goalkeeper, and two defenders then we are going to struggle to do it in a way that will satisfy the anti-Arsenal blogs, at least on £50m.
Anyway, as a guide to prices, here’s who we sold in the season just finished
| Player | How much we got | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kaylen Hinds | £2,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daniel Crowley | Undisclosed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wojciech Szczęsny | £10,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ismaël Bennacer | Undisclosed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gabriel Paulista | £11,100,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jon Toral | £3,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Savvas Mourgos | Undisclosed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain | £35,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kieran Gibbs | £7,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chris Willock | Free | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Donyell Malen | Undisclosed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stefan O Connor | Free | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Francis Coquelin | £14,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olivier Giroud | £18,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Theo Walcott | £20,000,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alexis Sánchez | Player Swap | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If on the other hand the new man wants to get rid of most of the squad on the basis of what Paul Merson says on Sky Sports, we might have to mortgage the ground again.
- Who did what and what problems come up next…. Using the past to predict the future.
- The Premier League 2017/18 – what went wrong and some bits that went right
Well we know that Mr. Teuchel isnt coming to Arsenal.
Allegri doesn’t fancy working for Stan either. If Arteta is being considered then Thierry has to have a shot and I bet on his gift of the gab and good internal links if he gets the chat.
Kane is crying about losing the golden boot.
Why is the EL final only 3 days after season end? What a joke.
We covered expenses right do how do we have less than ever to spend?
I can’t repeat myself again. Let’s see, there is a snippet of Wenger telling Wright he intends to leave a war chest.
Or even Tuchel. Eddys done a nice podcast over at PA,its in the comments section.
If Arsenal are going to depart from the mediocrity winning mentality that has seen us limit to only the 3 FA Cup Titles we’ve won in the last 14 seasons under the managership of our last manager, Arsene Wenger. but who has left the club at the end of last season. But instead, the Arsenal board should totally embraced absolute super winning mentality and strictly adhered to it. Then, the Arsenal CEO, Ivan Gazidis and Arsenal director, Josh Kroenke who is representing the interest of his Dad at the club must endeavour to eat the frog who has eggs inside it by buying it but if they want to it which can be a bit expensive to buy that means by appointing a new manager like Luis Enrique, the former FC Barcelona’s manager who has proved at Camp Nou to have the super winning mentality to steer a club to win Titles when he managed at Barca. Though one must ssy he has the 3 electric goals scoring human machines of: Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar the (MSN) at his disposal then. But if Arsenal employed him this summer, he’ll also have the super Aubameyang, Lacazette and the yet to be signed that 3rd super striker by Arsenal in the summer including of course the highly rated midfielders of: Mezut Ozil , Xhaka and Mkhitaryan and a host of other top quality Gunners all in the Arsene Wenger Gunners team to inherit with some quality youth Gunners too at the club to work with and use them to deliver the long elusive Premier League Title win and other Titles like those of the League Cup and the ELC to the Arsenal Gooners next season to celebrate.
But if the 2 most influential Arsenal board officials of: Ivan Gaxidis and Josh Kroenke believe Mikel Arteta who they are reported to be after to appoint as the new Gunners boss can deliver the PL Title and 2 other ones to Arsenal next season in his first tenure season as the Arsenal manager, then, they can go ahead to appoint him. But I must warn that they must make sure to get the new Arsenal manager appointment right and not make a mistake of it by taking a gamble on it. For, the Gooners will not tolerate it if the duo officials failed to get the appointment right as a result of taking a weak gamble on it because of stinginess not to spend to appoint the correct person who is likely to demand for high wages but has the managerial super capacity experience needed to move Arsenal to the next level of winning Titles that includes the major ones of the PL and the CL next season and the season that follows the next one.
Can a 100% fit Yaya Toure despite his advancing in age become an improvement over the injured and not certain to play for Arsenal next season at the top level, Santi Cazorla at Arsenal midfield for option and cover if he’s signed in the summer by Arsenal for a season contract deal with another year option if he contributed to Arsenal’s next season campaign very successfully by impacting on their season campaign very positively to win Titles,? And will Arsenal accept his likely demands to be paid his current Man City wages if he asked for it,? Or will he instead opt out for the China Super League?
The trouble is that it is all a gamble. I can remember Billy Wright coming to Arsenal with the Beverly Sisters all in red in the directors box. A long time captain of England and a genuine nice guy but it did not work out. But Bertie Mee who nobody had heard about outside of the treatment room did work out.
This was a bit negative, surely you’re not throwing the towel in for next season before its begun?
It will an interesting period over the next couple of years.
Kroenke will not mortgage the ground, yet. The established managers being touted as replacements (Allegri, Emery, Enrique, Ancelotti) will not come with a transfer pot of £50m to play with. As even a world class manager will struggle to get us back in top 4 next year with that money – after all our world class manager has tried and failed to do that for the past two seasons.
It is more likely that a young manager like Arteta will take it on. But there is a big risk with a relatively inexperienced manager that we will be down in 8th and out of Europe entirely – it only takes a couple of the mid table clubs to have a good run to make that possible.
At that point we will see what the Kroenke’s are made of.
I hope that I am wrong and being overly pessimistic but I think there’s a good chance the WOB will find out in the next couple of years how lucky they have been for the past 10 years.
Please read Arsenal Financial reportts often …
We got only 100m+ Cash reserve at the end of 2017 and still serving debts.
Please be realistic . We already got rid of an economist. Please be very mindful of what you are wishing for.
@Mad Eye
Arsenal were one of the Top Group when it was a Top Four. Arsenal is _STILL_ part of the Top Group now that it is a Top Six. Thereis no change in that, top is top.
Who wins the top group, could be decided on statistical basis year after year. PGMO doesn’t seem to want that.
I hope that I am wrong and being overly pessimistic but I think there’s a good chance the WOB will find out in the next couple of years how lucky they have been for the past 10 years.
The last 2 years league wise have been very dissapointing and as long as the new manager can improve the defensive side of our game and our defensive frailties we will be fine.We need a goalkeeper ,a centre back and a no nonesence dcm .We were a joke at times away from home last season and finishing 37pts off top was not acceptable for a club of our stature.Heck we finished 12 pts off 4th and some here wanted the manager to stay.I just hope kronke shows some ambition and releases the purse strings so we can push to get up there with the big boys.Getting back into the champions league is a start and im sure the owners are targeting this and the extra revenue this brings.
I did indeed want Wenger to stay Jim, because I was sure the issue was psychological in the team. Indeed as I try to point out in today’s article, the difference between home and away form showed that. But in the end the media attacks on Wenger just dominated everything else, so it was right for him to say, I have to leave.
Chinese Gunner makes a good point .
As we all know through choice Arsenal run their business in a far different way to other clubs that isn’t a negative it’s a fact.
The stadium debt is in effect already a mortgage in that the bonds are secured against Arsenal’s assets. There is no doubt Arsenal could borrow large sums but that really doesn’t seem to be on the cards so any player purchases will be funded from current resoures.
There is no doubt that AW was starting to remodel your squad and there is no doubt that had he remained in post that would have continued in the next window the dilemma is that unless their is an appetite to sell on players such as Bellerin, Mustafi and Xhaka , who in turn would need replacing, and if £50 million sum is correct and indeed is a massive sum but not it seems in the crazy world of football transfers, then the rebuilt will be limited to a couple in and possibly a couple stepping up from your under 23s. The retirement of Mertesacker, the injury concerns Kos and of course Cazorla only add to the mix as does the Wilshire and Ramsey contract issues
Hey we have massive issues ourselves over at SB , it’s abundantly clear that we have a number of players who will be moved on some from our first team squad but also a number who currently are out on loan but also I suspect hard nosed descions will be taken regarding players entering the last year of their contracts or indeed refusing to sign new ones will be sold irrespective of their perceived importance
Mad Eye,
If what you’ve projected should happen at Arsenal next season to see the club finish on 8th and be out of Europe entirely as a result of lack of spending well by the club owner to recruit a proven top grade manager to replace the out gone Arsene Wenger, and lack of proper spending to sign 2-3 world class players of a striker, a true midfield enforcer and a CB. Firstly, to replace Welbeck who is still at the Gunners but needed IMO to be replaced this summer with a top quality striker signing of consistent goals scoring ability per season campaign. Secondly, Cazorla who is injured and out of contract. And thirdly, BFG who has retired from playing for Arsenal. Do you think an anti-Kroenke Arsenal fans might arise then in the name of, KOB I.e. (Kroenke Out Best) Arsenal fans. Which could force the hand of the sport investor billionaire eventually to sell his majority shareholding at Arsenal likely to a passionate football investor who will Arsenal winnig Titles a prioritised major focus of himself?
It wasn,t the media attacks that got wenger out, it was his poor results and his failures on the pitch… And he didn’t resign, he was pushed out by the board for having a terrible season… 13 losses out of 38 in the league… Shameful… The man is gone for good, let’s move on.
If the team’s problems were “psychological” than whose fault it was they were signed in the first place? Who managed them? Who was paid 10 milion a year to improve them? Who has always spouted “the mental strength” in interviews when referring to his players?
I think Gogu you have not read much social psychology. The answer is there, but I leave it to you to consider whether you want to read up on it or not.
He’s gone and they still come! Fools, we can’t attract an alternative at the wages he intentionally didn’t asked to be raised and they still come. We are worth £2bn and have more than £100m, the dividends being paid because we earn so much are too high. The revenue from transfers isn’t being returned at 100% even.
What are the dividends being paid?
“I think Gogu you have not read much social psychology. The answer is there, but I leave it to you to consider whether you want to read up on it or not.”
classic spin from spin doctor tony
I guess that we could all back down and grovel to that other ‘major’ shareholder inviting him to show his generosity and loosen his purse strings and invest a few hundred million Pounds to curry favour with us .
Am sure he will be making a killing during the WC in Russia, and will have some spare change for Arsenal FC. We would all be so , oh , grateful , that we would ‘convince’ Stan to sell his stake to Usmaninov , who would then take the Arsenal to that famed next level .
He would then ‘address’ the problem that is PIGMOB , the PL and the media with the help of those Russian hackers and get justice and restore parity. We would then dominate the EPL for years to come , and he would throw his money at each and every new and emerging world class player to get them all into our team.
Oh , what joy would it be then for all of us .
Up the Gunnerskis !
The Arsenal board need to be willing to let the new manager spend a significant amount to shape the squad in his image.
We, the fans, accepted that moving to The Emirates would put some temporary financial constraints on the club but it was acceptable as it would benefit the club in the long term. Arsenal have the highest match day income, and are among the wealthiest clubs, not only in the PL but in the world.
We must buy the 2-3 top class players in the positions we are currently lacking the necessary quality. The players we bring in must improve our starting XI and those being pushed out can be squad players. As a minimum, I believe we need both a world class CB and a DM. We also need a commanding figure both in the dressing room but also on the pitch that refuses to lose. Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan and Özil are world class offensive players. Lacazette, Kolasinac and Bellerin are not far behind. Ramsey, Wilshere, Monreal and Mustafi are all good PL quality. Ospina and Martinez are both good keepers and with Cech; GK would not be my priority. Getting Butland or Oblak would be great but we have bigger issues in central defence and DM. A new manager may be able to improve the team with the current players; after all- Mustafi is a WC winner. Elneny and Xhaka have showed glimpses of quality but…
Cech, Koscielny and Cazorla are fading but still valuable in the squad. Holding, Chambers, Nelson, Maitland-Niles and Martinez are very promising. Mavropanos who came in January looks like a shrewd signing although his inexperience showed against Huddersfield. I’m not a big fan of Iwobi and Welbeck. Iwobi slows down our play. Welbeck hasn’t been the same player since he came back from injury. The January transfer window improved our starting XI when Sanchez was replaced by Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang but our squad was weakened as we lost Walcott, Debuchy, Coquelin and Giroud. Mavropanos is currently only a cup or back up player.
I really miss Giroud and was very disappointed that he left. He is a different type of player to Aubameyang and Lacazette – a plan B. We may need to get someone like him in a couple of years but only after we’ve improved the starting XI.
The issue now is how to recruit the top class players we want, we need? We will probably not offer a very high salary, we cannot offer CL but we could have offered a renowned manager. If Arteta comes in; who will take the chance? This is truly a different situation to ManU after AF. ManU offered a PL winning team, CL and have always offered top salaries.
LOL -Keep taking the meds Bricks at least its keeping the spirits high.