We need a lot of players in the summer.
Backup RB, a CM (two probably) two strikers.
Assuming Eddie, Laca, Xhaka and Leno leave.
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
Well the keeper situation is already sorted at least. And we can add Big Bill Saliba to the defence as soon as the French season ends, so that's two right off the bat.
I think we'll go big for a CF and a left-sided 8. And If Xhaka finally gets his move then we'll need another CM, but I wouldn't be surprised if that sat more in the 'smart buy' category - another Tomiyasu who no one sees coming.
Beyond that I think a second CF and a backup RB might depend on how Balogun and Norton-Cuffy get on for the rest of the season on their respective loans - if we do need to dip into the market there I reckon those will be moves that no one sees coming either.
So that's my predictions - two big moves, and anywhere between 0-3 smart buys.
On the plus side, we've already done most of our clearing before the summer even starts, so for once we won't have to sit around waiting for players to leave before we can do anything!
Putting aside the playing side of things for a sec, the job these guys have done in turning the tanker off the pitch has been impressive - it's gotten ugly at times, but, you know... this is how the sausage is made. I'm just glad someone has aggressively tackled it because it needed to happen - as you say, for the first time in years it feels like we can think about building again, and aren't just baling water while the tide's coming in.
Guendouzi has signed a three year deal with Marseille for just £9m.
That seems like a steal in the current climate.
We more or less gave him away as he had issues with Arteta. We should be thankful we even got a fee for him, Edu has paid off most of the other players we have got rid of recently!
On a serious note it was a steal in the current climate, he is playing very well over there apparently and is now a regular in the France Squad. Still a troubled character though.
It’s of course a shame to lose another asset for peanuts but Guendouzi was a little cunt. Not someone Arteta wanted around the place and as the boss that’s fair enough.
Not been the biggest Arteta fan over recent times but I have to applaud him for weeding out everyone who didn’t want to tow the line. The club needed stripping back to the bare bones for years and now we’ve finally got what seems like a settled group. You have to think this summer is the big one where he will look to add the final pieces of the puzzle.
Problem is though that it is revisionist and inaccurate to look at how well ex players may be perfroming since they left Arsenal, and then make judgments on the wisdom of letting them go. Whether a player succeeds is down to a multitude of factors - of which perhaps the most important (more than individual talent) is how they gel with their team mates; manager; system and ethos of a club. There are countless examples of players thriving at one club when they were not the right fit for another - in fact this is almost the norm. For whatever reason Guendouzi was not right for Arteta's Arsenal, and we need to accept that and move on. The player himself did as much or more to devalue himself as an asset for us as the manager did, and like MO I think Arteta did the right thing by letting him go. Same goes for Auba - albeit that I think his departure was due to more nuanced issues of him no longer being right for our sysyem, and an impediment to the team spirit and ethos that the manager is trying to instill.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter