Ideally we lure Manchester into protracted talks and then tell them to go fuck themselves on August 31.

Rex wrote:

We can easily get away with Vermaelen against the bottom half of the league as it is I reckon, but even more so if we add a proper striker and a class wide player.

I think the theory of playing bottom half sides vs the reality is quite different in these sorts of discussions. If anything our solidity against the bottom half sides is what kept us in the top 4 this season while you could have thrown Vermaelen into the big away games and we'd have fared no worse.

Vermaelen wasn't too awful when he did play. He's good enough to be third choice and deputise for a fortnight here or there when suspensions and niggles kick in.

Like any club we're going to struggle if either half of our first choice defensive pairing has a long furlough.

I think Vermaelen was good when he played too. If he had been less injured he could perhaps have pushed for a starting spot. He didn't get an easy ride when he did feature but he handled it well.

I'm not opposed to him moving on as such, but it becomes one more hole we need to plug in the squad this summer. We only have one goalkeeper, no rightback who's fit to start, we're missing at least one central defender with Vermaelen in the squad, we're entering our 4th season without a good backup for Arteta and (if we're serious about improving the team and not just maintaining status quo) we could still use a leftback who's less injury prone and more accomplished than the ones we've got. These are things that cost time and money to sort out, and we have to do it in addition to the two or three top signings we desperately need if we're serious about next season. It's just too much work for one summer.

We gave him too little game time last season. It was our fault actually. So many games we could have given one of our CBs a rest and we didnt.

He was injured every other time we needed him so he has absolutely no reason to complain.

No he wasn't. I remember DaG making a big fuss of it every time an easy match comes around and we still started with our first choice CB.

An "easy match"?
That's the way to think if you're not bothered about losing.
Games are only ever "easy" after the fact.
I had zero problems with the consistent, regular selection of our two best centre backs.
Neither suffered greatly because of it and tough on Vermaelen if he had neither the character nor the performances to make Wenger's choice less difficult.

2nd half of the season Verms fitness record was awful. If I remember rightly he started and played pretty well against West Ham away, then was out for a month with some minor niggle, was on the bench for 1 game then missed another month or so with a different injury. He had one or two other periods out too.

No manager changes their center back pairing for matches that are ' easier ' on paper.

The reserve center backs will always get a look in, in the Cup games and when the first team defenders need some rest. Vermaelen, as pointed out by Tim was injured a lot in the 2nd half when fatigue started setting in.

Clrnc wrote:

No he wasn't.

Yes he was. When Kos or Per were out, more often than not Vermaelen was out too. He was injured for two or three months in a row at one point. You lose your right to complain about a lack of playing time if you can't stay fit as a bloody reserve.

Timothy wrote:

2nd half of the season Verms fitness record was awful. If I remember rightly he started and played pretty well against West Ham away, then was out for a month with some minor niggle, was on the bench for 1 game then missed another month or so with a different injury. He had one or two other periods out too.

That's my recollection too. When we really needed to rest Kos and Per after christmas we couldn't do it because there was no one who could cover for them. We had to run them into the ground.

He got injured again and won't be available for Belgium.

It's been years since Vermaelen was physically at 100%. Not a bad time to say sayonara.

y va marquer wrote:

An "easy match"?
That's the way to think if you're not bothered about losing.
Games are only ever "easy" after the fact.
I had zero problems with the consistent, regular selection of our two best centre backs.
Neither suffered greatly because of it and tough on Vermaelen if he had neither the character nor the performances to make Wenger's choice less difficult.

Exactly. Consistency at centre half is a good thing.

Ok if he goes. Plenty of options out there. I like Fazio and Schar

y va marquer wrote:

Neither suffered greatly because of it

They were crapola at times last season. We need so many new players that adding a CB to the list feels like too much. But we really need a CB.

perfectly fine with selling.

qs! wrote:

y va marquer wrote:

An "easy match"?
That's the way to think if you're not bothered about losing.
Games are only ever "easy" after the fact.
I had zero problems with the consistent, regular selection of our two best centre backs.
Neither suffered greatly because of it and tough on Vermaelen if he had neither the character nor the performances to make Wenger's choice less difficult.

Exactly. Consistency at centre half is a good thing.

Sure but Mertesacker and Koscielny cannot realistically be expected to play 50 games a season. They're not getting younger and CB is like any other position, occasional rotation is needed for freshness.

All in all, I'd say we were very lucky with injuries in the CB department last season. IMO I think we need to keep Vermaelen AND sign another CB.