Our Squad.

the issue is of course how long those prospects are prepared to stay with you
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Tbh I think the issue is more will we get good money for them when they do leave, or will we be in a situation where they leave for peanuts - as has been one of our problems in recent seasons.

I'm not afraid of losing these players, I am afraid of losing them for next to nothing and not being able to reinvest in the squad.

The most important thing this summer is to get the deadwood out of the club. Once we manage this we have to recruit well, no room for mistakes.

Getting rid of deadwood isn't as easy as it sounds. The likes of Sokratis, Mustafi and especially Ozil will be happy to sit on their wages. While we may be able to loan them out we will still have to pay a large chunk of their wages probably, which will of course impact spending.

comment by *GTWI4T- some people deserve to get trolled (U6008)
posted 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by *GTWI4T- some people deserve to get trolled (U6008)
posted 18 minutes ago
I reckon 9 out of that group are "top 4" quality... in a whole squad. That has to concern Arsenal supporters.
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We have a good starting point for a new era.
Leno/Martinez, Saliba, Tierney, Saka, Martinelli, Aubameyang are players we can build around - although obviously there is a risk with the youngsters.

If we add the correct midfielders then it will go a long way to repair us.

This is no quick fix. If we can do the midfield this summer, next summer we have a few of the defenders out of contract and will have seen how Saliba and Mari adapt.
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You have some outstanding prospects, the issue is of course how long those prospects are prepared to stay with you if they keep developing and as you say, it isn't a quick fix.
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The real issue is fitness and availability. A perennial issue at Arsenal that always seems to be ignored until 3-4 months into a season.

Appearance stats can be misleading.

At the end of the day, I don't think Kieran Tierney has started 5 games on the bounce for us. And if he has, he probably averaged about 45-60 minutes.

Saliba has just spent the lion's share of the season out injured. Especially troubling for a 20- year old prospect.

There's no guarantee our bumbling medical team won't make a complete Horlicks out of Martinelli's long term rehab.

Same goes for all our other defenders out on mid-long term recovery periods.

Auba is more or less our only reliable source of goals. And we've been very fortunate that he's remained bulletproof since we signed him. But so were Alexis Sanchez and Cazorla, who we also literally drove into the ground for 2-3 seasons. Auba is long overdue for something bad. Him being the wrong side of 30 will probably complicate the situation.

Right now, my main concern about any new signing is their fitness record over the past 1-2 seasons.

I realise that there are no guarantees in life, but I'd rather sign 2 mid-table workhorses like Granit Xhaka over some glass-ankled big name.

I think we play the slow possession based game to suit the midfield players we have. If we want to improve and move up the league we need a more effective gameplan. Moving on the incredibly slow (physically and in decision making) Xhaka and replacing him with a more dynamic player would help us hugely (and make us more entertaining to watch in the process). Of course, that player does need to be good enough, Xhaka does have his strong points, i just dont see us progressing when relying on him and said nearly 4 years ago we would end up midtable if we did rely on him. We did and we did.

Xhaka has looked great when he doesn't have to worry going forward thanks to ceballos, with a consistent am aswell he will be able to focus on areas he's meant to and improve.

Also he's by far our most experiance midfielder, he's the only one who doesn't want out or is fighting for a place so he doesn't have to go on loan. As DJ said there's not a lot there

If Ains follows Jordi out we will be left with just 5 homegrown.
Emi Martinez and Matt Macey, plus 3 defenders all linked with moves away; Hector Bellerin, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding.

Is there a minimum required of HG of can we do with none?

comment by We got our Arsenal back (U10012)
posted 0 seconds ago
Is there a minimum required of HG of can we do with none?
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Ignore this, just read the OP.