"Thomas Vermaelen may leave" - Wenger

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

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.

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Verm’s contribution is debatable. But losing a player and then going a mad last minute dash to find a replacement is something we should be looking to avoid. That’s something we all should be able to agree on and you must admit, we put ourselves in a poor negotiating position if we sell then go to the market with little time left on the clock. If there are plenty of better options that can contribute more than Verm, why haven’t we signed them already or why can’t we do the deal before he goes? That’s my main concern. Because if we sell now and look later, clubs may smell the desperation and then try to hold us to ransom and knowing Wenger, he won’t have a bar of it. That means we’ll either gamble on an internal option or go for a cheap player that’s worse than Verm.

We can't be afraid to sign players in case they'll flop. Look at the names I posted that costed £10m or less, they are world class CBs. Nastasic is another one that only cost £12m, Gary Cahill cost £7m - there are players out there.

When we have actually invested in CBs (Vermaelen, Kos and Merts) we have generally done well. I don't include the names you mentioned in that, Squillaci (£4m), Sylvestre (£750k), Djourou (free), and Senderos (£2.5m) were all bargain bucket signings. Senderos and Djourou were inexperienced youths and the other two were just there to make up the numbers. Even in today's market you can buy an experienced CB for £10-15m.

What's there to lose? If Vermaelen was a reliable back-up I would agree that we shouldn't play around, but he isn't. He has major injury problems so he isn't even available half the time, and when he does play he's usually a liability. Even if we don't find a potential worldie, which would obviously be difficult, it shouldn't be hard to find a solid, reliable back-up. Which would be an instant upgrade on Tommy.

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Originally Posted by Penguin

We can't be afraid to sign players in case they'll flop. Look at the names I posted that costed £10m or less, they are world class CBs. Nastasic is another one that only cost £12m, Gary Cahill cost £7m - there are players out there.

When we have actually invested in CBs (Vermaelen, Kos and Merts) we have generally done well. I don't include the names you mentioned in that, Squillaci (£4m), Sylvestre (£750k), Djourou (free), and Senderos (£2.5m) were all bargain bucket signings. Senderos and Djourou were inexperienced youths and the other two were just there to make up the numbers. Even in today's market you can buy an experienced CB for £10-15m.

What's there to lose? If Vermaelen was a reliable back-up I would agree that we shouldn't play around, but he isn't. He has major injury problems so he isn't even available half the time, and when he does play he's usually a liability. Even if we don't find a potential worldie, which would obviously be difficult, it shouldn't be hard to find a solid, reliable back-up. Which would be an instant upgrade on Tommy.

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So why can’t we sign them before we sell so we don’t leave ourselves vulnerable? That’s the question you should be asking yourself.

Ok I do agree with you on that, we definitely need bring someone in first. I'm pretty sure Wenger knew all summer that Vermaelen was leaving so I hope he has one or two targets lined up

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

Verm’s contribution is debatable. But losing a player and then going a mad last minute dash to find a replacement is something we should be looking to avoid. That’s something we all should be able to agree on and you must admit, we put ourselves in a poor negotiating position if we sell then go to the market with little time left on the clock. If there are plenty of better options that can contribute more than Verm, why haven’t we signed them already or why can’t we do the deal before he goes? That’s my main concern. Because if we sell now and look later, clubs may smell the desperation and then try to hold us to ransom and knowing Wenger, he won’t have a bar of it. That means we’ll either gamble on an internal option or go for a cheap player that’s worse than Verm.

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I don't think it would be a mad dash, I expect Wenger has thought Vermaelen would leave for some time now but it may be the case we were awaiting another offer, probably so it would be outside of England. Yes it apparently doesn't leave a huge amount of time but I would reckon he already knows what he is going to do.

If it came to it and we sold Vermaelen with no apparent replacement then that wouldn't be ideal but so far as I am concerned we aren't talking about super quality we could probably replace him at the next available opportunity.

And due to that I don't think we would be in a position of being held to ransom.

David Ornstien (BBC) #AFC & #FCB agree fee around £15m for Vermaelen. Terms & medical over weekend. #MUFC ended interest after refusing player swap #bbcsportsday

Pretty good business tbf.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

I don't think it would be a mad dash, I expect Wenger has thought Vermaelen would leave for some time now but it may be the case we were awaiting another offer, probably so it would be outside of England. Yes it apparently doesn't leave a huge amount of time but I would reckon he already knows what he is going to do.

If it came to it and we sold Vermaelen with no apparent replacement then that wouldn't be ideal but so far as I am concerned we aren't talking about super quality we could probably replace him at the next available opportunity.

And due to that I don't think we would be in a position of being held to ransom.

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Even if we’re not talking super quality, another Prem team won’t part with their first team CB for chump change and they’ll push the price up on us. If that happens, then I fear we’d leave ourselves short or go with a cheap option presented by the same scouts that gave us Kallstrom. ;) If we sell, I hope we’ve got the green light on a player that we’ve researched and know he’s capable. It’s very difficult to find a mid level player that’s solid yet happy to be third choice.

Prefer Tommy's way of leaving the club to Cesc's. Whatever happens from here, we must at no point in the season be left in a position where Monreal is the only option to play CB.

Hopefully the Emirates Cup showed Wenger that Monreal should never play CB again.

15 mil for Verms to Barca is a decent deal providing we re-invest.