"Thomas Vermaelen may leave" - Wenger

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

So which CB's are of equal standing or better who aren't going to cost a disproportionate amount to the role we are asking them to play?

Yes I do, selling players who need replacing which you then don't replace is what then? I'm alluding to a general will to improve the squad, lest we think the third choice CB is the only acquisition needed. Nothing too odd about it really.

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Exactly. It's not going to be easy to find someone that won't cost a fortune and is Prem ready. If we buy someone from overseas, we have to consider the adaption to the Prem phase and how much time will a third choice CB get.

If Kos or Mers picks up an injury this year, we'd need someone ready to go and we can't afford to bring in someone that's shocked by the pace and physicality of the Prem. Verm has his faults but if we can't coach him to reel it in, how are we going to coach a newbie to adapt quickly to the league?

A prem based player is probably the best option but we'd be looking at a premium fee and I just can't see us spending that much for a third choice player. We can't really gamble on the CB position. Our defence is the reason why we had a good run last year. I'd like us to build on it and make smart moves so we're not in vulnerable position come January where we're discussing this again like we did last season when short on strikers.

We needed another 3rd choice CB regardless of whether Vermaelen stays or not IMO. He's nothing more than a 4th choice CB for me as he'll never seriously challenge Merts or Kos for a place because he's not good enough. We need more than 'just' a back-up to make up the numbers or we'll be fucked if either of those two picks up a long term injury.

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

And we aren't going to spend 15-20 million on a third/fourth choice lads. If Wenger spends that it is on a first teamer.... and I am not convinced he believes somebody needs to come in over Mertersacker and Koscielny.

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It would be £5-10m net after selling Vermaelen which I don't think is unreasonable considering we would (ideally) be investing in a better, longer term player. Even if he wasn't willing to go that high, remember that we bought Mertesacker, Koscielny and even Vermaelen himself for £10m or less. Vidic and Kompany costed £7m! It's hard to believe that we can't find someone at least as good as Vermaelen.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

If Kos or Mers picks up an injury this year, we'd need someone ready to go and we can't afford to bring in someone that's shocked by the pace and physicality of the Prem. Verm has his faults but if we can't coach him to reel it in, how are we going to coach a newbie to adapt quickly to the league?

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If Kos or Merts get injured we're fucked anyway, Vermaelen has shown that he isn't up to it time and time again. It's always a risk to bring in a player from another league but you have to put faith in your scouting network and judgment of a player.

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Originally Posted by Sterling Archer

Vermaelen can fuck himself. Fuckin barca cunt.

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:lol:

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Originally Posted by Penguin

We needed another 3rd choice CB regardless of whether Vermaelen stays or not IMO. He's nothing more than a 4th choice CB for me as he'll never seriously challenge Merts or Kos for a place because he's not good enough. We need more than 'just' a back-up to make up the numbers or we'll be fucked if either of those two picks up a long term injury.


It would be £5-10m net after selling Vermaelen which I don't think is unreasonable considering we would (ideally) be investing in a better, longer term player. Even if he wasn't willing to go that high, remember that we bought Mertesacker, Koscielny and even Vermaelen himself for £10m or less. Vidic and Kompany costed £7m! It's hard to believe that we can't find someone at least as good as Vermaelen.


If Kos or Merts get injured we're fucked anyway, Vermaelen has shown that he isn't up to it time and time again. It's always a risk to bring in a player from another league but you have to put faith in your scouting network and judgment of a player.

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Yes, our scouting network. Squallaci and Santos should be clear reminder of how bad it can go when looking for a defender. Jenkinson and Monreal aren't that bad but you see the reaction on here to their performances. Verm is really not that bad. He's not as bad as Squallaci and Djourou who were just awful.

Kos and Merts took a season to adjust and they had their fair share of critics before they settled, including myself, but it took game time for them to develop and finding the right combination. A 3rd choice won't get that much game time to find his stride so I'm not confident about our scouts finding an unknown player that's undervalued.

Yes, I agree we need back up on defence but we're talking about selling Verm before we have a player in the squad that we know can cope. That's just backwards to me. I don't think Wenger will sell. I hope not. Bulk up before trimming fat, especially when we look wafer thin in that area.

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Originally Posted by Blink 1nce Quince 2wice

So which CB's are of equal standing or better who aren't going to cost a disproportionate amount to the role we are asking them to play?

Yes I do, selling players who need replacing which you then don't replace is what then? I'm alluding to a general will to improve the squad, lest we think the third choice CB is the only acquisition needed. Nothing too odd about it really.

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Well I didn't expect Wenger to pick Chambers as the next centreback for us but I dunno, somebody like Hoewedes? Maybe it'd cost a little bit too much and he has always been at Schalke but perhaps somebody of that ilk, not outstanding but solid enough. I'm not sure anybody will describe Vermaelen as solid, I'm not even sure how you describe Vermaelen as a defender.

We probably have a different idea of how we improve the squad; you think keeping a guy who may be pretty good (I think he has been full of errors and have no confidence him for quite some time), that is often injured is more beneficial to us than somebody who may be slightly inferior (again I don't think they would be because I don't rate Vermaelen much for us now) but is there able to help more often.

If we were talking about first team players like we have sold and replaced with inferior quality then I could understand but for a guy that I can't see has contributed to us in any meaningful way other than coming on for a couple of minutes at the end of a game.

If Wenger trusted him to contribute when he was there to play he would have played Vermaelen with any of Koscielny or Mertesacker. As we have seen - Koscielny and Vermaelen together is often horrendous, Vermaelen and Mertesacker is better but still not anywhere near Koscielny and Mertesacker and for that reaso we've seen that Wenger won't break up Koscielny and Mertesacker barring injury but maybe he would if he had a more trusted option there, inferior quality or whatever it may be and thus he might not need to play them together all the time.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

Well I didn't expect Wenger to pick Chambers as the next centreback for us but I dunno, somebody like Hoewedes? Maybe it'd cost a little bit too much and he has always been at Schalke but perhaps somebody of that ilk, not outstanding but solid enough. I'm not sure anybody will describe Vemaelen as solid, I'm not even sure how you describe Vermaelen as a defender.

We probably have a different idea of how we improve the squad; you think keeping a guy who may be pretty good (I think he has been full of errors and have no confidence him for quite some time), that is often injured is more beneficial to us than somebody who may be slightly inferior (again I don't think they would be because I don't rate Vermaelen at all for us now) but is there able to help more often.

If we were talking about first team players like we have sold and replaced with inferior quality then I could understand but for a guy that I can't see has contributed to us in
any meaningful way other than coming on for a couple of minutes at the end of the game, a game that is nearing to be won cannot be of helpfulness to us.

If Wenger trusted him to contribute when he was there to play he would have played Vermaelen with any of Koscielny or Mertesacker. As we have seen - Koscielny and Vermaelen together is often horrendous, Vermaelen and Mertesacker is better but still not anywhere near Koscielny and Mertesacker and for that reaso we've seen that Wenger won't break up Koscielny and Mertesacker barring injury but maybe he would if he had a more trusted option there, inferior quality or whatever it may be and thus he might not need to play them together all the time.

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Come on Mac, we’ve seen worse players. Djourou, Squillaci, Silvestre, Senderos, Cygan….are we putting Verm in that bracket where they’d most certainly cost us a game? I wouldn’t put him at that level where he can’t even be trusted to play 10 minutes. We’ve seen far worse. Nobodies saying he’s a great player or that he can’t be replaced. I’m just not confident about the player we’ll sign in his place when we’re pushed for time and in a panic. Which is why I say we keep him for one more season. We’ve spent well in this window but I can’t see Wenger splashing money on another defender that’s first team quality. He’ll either go for a veteran, someone young and untested or someone cheap from overseas. That’s what he’s done in the past.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

Come on Mac, we’ve seen worse players. Djourou, Squillaci, Silvestre, Senderos, Cygan….are we putting Verm in that bracket where they’d most certainly cost us a game? I wouldn’t put him at that level where he can’t even be trusted to play 10 minutes. We’ve seen far worse. Nobodies saying he’s a great player or that he can’t be replaced. I’m just not confident about the player we’ll sign in his place when we’re pushed for time and in a panic. Which is why I say we keep him for one more season. We’ve spent well in this window but I can’t see Wenger splashing money on another defender that’s first team quality. He’ll either go for a veteran, someone young and untested or someone cheap from overseas. That’s what he’s done in the past.

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That's exactly what is happening, isn't it? He's often only coming on for a couple of minutes; when he does play meaninful minutes I reckon we probably don't go on to win. I think his influence causes panic in the team, he himself makes reckless errors more than most and I don't see how he can be considered first team quality, when he is not considered by Wenger, clearly to be first team quality.

Personally I take it as good thing that Man Utd and Barcelona are looking to buy our bench players now, not our first team players.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

That's exactly what is happening, isn't it? He's often only coming on for a couple of minutes; when he does play meaninful minutes I reckon we probably don't go on to win. I think his influence causes panic in the team, he himself makes reckless errors more than most and I don't see how he can be considered first team quality, when he is not considered by Wenger, clearly to be first team quality.

Personally I take it as good thing that Man Utd and Barcelona are looking to buy our bench players now, not our first team players.

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Silvestre, Djouriou and Squillaci level? Did he cost us serious points last year as back up? I don't recall him being that bad.

I'm not saying he is at that kind of level but he isn't contributing in the way I think a third choice guy should; he makes plenty of reckless mistakes, positional discipline is not exactly his forté and he often gets injured. That to me isn't helping the squad.

I think this works both ways.

He hasn't wanted to be at the club for some time, and Wenger doesn't see him as first choice.

It's not like we're making a huge error here. We have our first choice CB's who happen to be pretty decent, and who are better than Verms. We just need a solid back up. Doesn't need to be a record breaking signing. Just a steady eddie type. Unless of course, Miquel is being bought on...which wouldn't be the worst thing.