Quote Originally Posted by I am invisible View Post
Expected really - he’s only had this group of players for a couple of weeks, so he’ll want some time to see what they can do for him before he starts drawing up a shopping list.

Moreover he sounds like he’s just being realistic / pragmatic about the situation: we’re low on funds and January tends to be a restricted, expensive window at the best of times. Odds are nothing much will happen, so best to concentrate on the parts of the job that you can affect, while you wait to see what Edu and co can find.

CB is at least an obvious one that doesn’t need much assessment and can’t really be ignored - we’re down to two older, less athletic / energetic options (who haven’t had a break over Christmas) and Holding, who hasn’t played for a year, and could be blighted with minor setbacks for a while to come. Don’t know what exactly has gone wrong with Mavropanos, but if he hasn’t played by now then I’m not sure he ever will. This one definitely needs an addition...
To be honest, I personally wouldn't expect that, anyone that watches English football can tell you which players can't cut it, Mustafi, Xhaka, Sokratis Luiz (at CB), Kolasinac, they don't need to spend months assessing these guys, they just aren't good enough point blank.

It worries me considerably that Arteta wanted Man City to sign Xhaka and that he's been so complimentary about him to be honest, the guys just isn't up to it and if someone who has seen him play can't come to that conclusion I can only think there is something wrong with their eyesight.

The facts are there, we've struggled this season and for good reason, we had a manager who didn't know what he was doing and some absolute calamities in defence, those are the facts, what we need is better quality players, the last thing we need is another manager who insists on using these guys moving forward, they need to be in the past, they aren't part of the future, not if we want to achieve anything anyway.