Winter Transfer Ignorance and Dart Throwing.

[Özim]

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.

[Özim]

Are you suggesting that injured players should be disregarded in our planning?

Not all of them, maybe Chambers who IMO is going to struggle to get back and isn't much of a defender IMO and maybe Bellerin who is hugely overrated and maybe we should consider cashing in on.

[Özim]

Tierney and Holding have been major losses, also MartinellI

it's definitely going to strengthen us a lot to get them back

I'm not convinced about Holding, he seems to have become a better defender in many peoples' eyes whilst he's been injured, I think he's an OK defender but nothing special IMO, we can do better than him.

We don't really have many outstanding young players to be honest and we have none in defence, it's seem Mavropanos was a waste of money as well, when he's not injured he's not getting game time.

[I am invisible]

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.

I think you're looking a little too far ahead here, mate - the kind of mass-culling that you're talking about is something that you tackle in the summer, when you've got time to disappear off somewhere for a couple of months to knit a new team together.

For now, I'm not really looking beyond what we might be able to do in January, and that doesn't sound like it's going to be much. You raised concerns yourself the other day that we've already committed a significant chunk of next summer's budget to financing the Pepe deal, so I'm not really sure what your expectations are here? Personally speaking, I think we'll be doing well if we can even find a decent CB to come in and cover the loss of Chambers, and, reading Arteta's comments, it doesn't sound like he's pinning any hopes on it either.

Hence the comments about him assessing the players he has and trying to figure out a way to make them useful (as he already has with several of them) - if we can make one or two deals happen then I'm sure he'd welcome them, but I also think / hope he's smart enough to realise that he could be stuck with this group of players until at least May, and needs to keep every player on side, confident and motivated. If you're going to ditch a player then you do it quick and clean, with no warning and with the deal for a replacement already done - however, right up until the very moment before they leave, they're still your player and you might still have to rely on them, so you keep your mouth shut. If you want an example of how not to do it, just look at last summer when we very publicly tried to force out Mustafi and Özil, couldn't find buyers, and then ended up with two fucked off players in the camp who we eventually had to recall and ask to do a job for us! Hearing Mustafi being told to find another club might have sounded great to us fans, but practically speaking it was disastrous management. I really hope Arteta is wiser than that.

If it makes you feel any better, I think the manager's opinion may almost be irrelevant when it comes to moving certain players on in the summer - unless we get back into the CL pronto (or the senior players are all prepared to take pay cuts) then the numbers will probably make the decision for us.

[Mac76]

We got it wrong on Ozil for sure and i actually blame Emery partly for that, he tried the same thing with Neymar but he again ended up being the one to go.

As for Mustafi though he can be told to do one IMO, i don't care how pissed off he is, the more the better in fact, we just don't need him, every time he gets played he shows how he's the biggest waste of £34m ever

[I am invisible]

We got it wrong on Ozil for sure and i actually blame Emery partly for that, he tried the same thing with Neymar but he again ended up being the one to go.

As for Mustafi though he can be told to do one IMO, i don't care how pissed off he is, the more the better in fact, we just don't need him, every time he gets played he shows how he's the biggest waste of £34m ever

Again, I think you need to do it quick and clean, if you're going to do it - if there's even a chance that you might end up having to recall the player to the starting XI (as we've had to do several times this season) then you keep any plans to move them on quiet.

Believe me, I get it - as fans, we desperately want to see some kind of sign that the club are on the same page as us, and are seeing what we're seeing. Ultimately though, it's counter-productive to play these things our in public - sounds good for 5 minutes, but then we're stuck with a miserable player, dragging down morale. Even if he doesn't have a single friend in the group, the other players will still look at him and think 'Will that be me if I hit a bad patch?'

[I am invisible]

Bored - announce someone.

[Mac76]

Again, I think you need to do it quick and clean, if you're going to do it - if there's even a chance that you might end up having to recall the player to the starting XI (as we've had to do several times this season) then you keep any plans to move them on quiet.

Believe me, I get it - as fans, we desperately want to see some kind of sign that the club are on the same page as us, and are seeing what we're seeing. Ultimately though, it's counter-productive to play these things our in public - sounds good for 5 minutes, but then we're stuck with a miserable player, dragging down morale. Even if he doesn't have a single friend in the group, the other players will still look at him and think 'Will that be me if I hit a bad patch?'

Mustafi's a unique case IMO, it's rare one player makes so many goal-conceding mistakes and then compounds it by blaming the nearest teammate.

tbh i'm amazed they haven't all given him a group kicking by now.

it beggars belief that i've heard him, Kola and Ozil are some kind of clique - wtf is the most talented ball-player in the squad doing with someone who makes Gunnersaurus look like Pele?

[Globalgunner]

Mustafi's a unique case IMO, it's rare one player makes so many goal-conceding mistakes and then compounds it by blaming the nearest teammate.

tbh i'm amazed they haven't all given him a group kicking by now.

it beggars belief that i've heard him, Kola and Ozil are some kind of clique - wtf is the most talented ball-player in the squad doing with someone who makes Gunnersaurus look like Pele?

It must be a religious connection. Mustafi is awful on every level. worse even than the lanky donkey he replaced in our squad Mertesaker. At least he didint actively make goal conceding mistakes 4 times each game. Merts was simply slow and unathletic.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

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.

I keep saying to those who love Maureen that he too was very public of his praise for Xhaka.