Claudius wrote:

The rise of big money loan deals this summer.
Is this a sign that clubs are being more creative and flexible with resources? Or are elite football teams’ financial models at a breaking point?

it's a sign that player valuations and agent fees are out of control

Combination of unreasonable fees and clubs finally starting to resist paying those fees. Barca in particular must have been stung by spending nearly £300m on two players who ended up riding the bench most of the time.

Unai Emery has told Shkodran Mustafi and Mohamed Elneny to leave Arsenal this month for the best of their careers.

Neither player has featured in the opening two games of the Premier League season, with Emery having already publicly admitted that he has told Mustafi he can go.

But the Spaniard has now also confirmed that Elneny is free to leave and has made it clear to both players that they would be better served finding a new club before the European transfer window shuts on September 2.

https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/emery-urges-mustafi-and-elneny-to-leave-arsenal/1lr9xd7g1sa3x1mo9zcsq095n0

i like the new arsenal approach

It's nothing new. The only difference is Emery speaking about it to the press. Wenger had a bunch of these type of players who the club didn't want but couldn't find buyers so they ended up running down their contracts.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsene-wenger-every-arsenal-player-6498764
I cannot see Elneny finding a club if Arsenal cannot when he would earn a better contract by running down the present one. With Mustafi, we may be lucky as Roma seem interested
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/roma-turn-arsenal-defender-after-18966777

It's a new approach as far as I can tell. Not sure what that article has to do with anything.

Publicize this so they have no escape road. If they still stay it tells you everything about them

Publicly saying they'll get no playing time certainly ups the ante for both club and player to find a solution.

Clearing out musti and elneny paves the way for an upamecano madness in january

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

It's nothing new. The only difference is Emery speaking about it to the press.

That is literally the new approach.

Personally not a fan of that approach at all.

Much needed ruthlessness after years of mollycoddling.

Maybe it is what is needed to cleanse ourselves of Arsene’s Club Med environment, but it is not a sustainable way to run an enterprise. Mustafi and Elneny are people. We should treat folks with respect. Go about our business efficiently and quietly. Folks will know when their time is up if the incentives and expectations are set up properly. So I hope it’s just a transitionary step along with the Koscielny affair

I'd say we should treat folks with respect if news broke that Elnenys locker was dumped in front of Colney. This however feels 100% like a linear escalation of communication with two players who most certainly have been told internally to look for a new club ages ago. Mustafi is obviously the worse player in terms of performances but it's Elneny who gives off a strong impression of coasting being happy just to be at the club. We can't complain about a lack of ambition then complain about the club taking active steps to free up wages and generate fees for players that are in the way of said ambition.

And then you can't complain when your more desirable players use the press against the club to force a 'dream' move.

I don't think it's particularly outrageous, not like we're making them train with the reserves like other clubs do. I'm also guessing Emery feels comfortable enough to say it because he knows they're leaving. The idea that it's a tool to force them to leave seems a little out there to me, as if telling them they're no longer required in private and leaving them out of the match day squad isn't enough, which by the way is enough of an indicator that the club wants them out, so denying it would be a farce at this point.

Whether we complain or not, the reality is that players and agents use the media to play the club. I don't see why the club can't do the same.

Obviously it's a sensitive issue but it's not like the club came out at the start of the summer and shamed these two, like Jones' said, it seems like a gradual escalation. As long as we don't force them to train with the reserves like United did with Lukaku then I'd say we're being firm but fair.

I don't and I never did, loyalty is a two way street both with the good and the bad. When Cesc wanted to move e.g. I didn't hold it against him because he was clearly better than all his team mates. When RVP did it was a different story for obvious reasons.

Captain wrote:

And then you can't complain when your more desirable players use the press against the club to force a 'dream' move.

That's different though, when players do it it's to make it untenable by turning the fans against you and creating adverse headlines for the club, this on the other hand has no effect of any kind.

jones wrote:

I'd say we should treat folks with respect if news broke that Elnenys locker was dumped in front of Colney. This however feels 100% like a linear escalation of communication with two players who most certainly have been told internally to look for a new club ages ago. Mustafi is obviously the worse player in terms of performances but it's Elneny who gives off a strong impression of coasting being happy just to be at the club. We can't complain about a lack of ambition then complain about the club taking active steps to free up wages and generate fees for players that are in the way of said ambition.

Spot on. Clearly they've been told to leave internally but so far they're resisting, so Emery is doing it publicly to put the pressure on. Be indulgent and 'nice' towards the dross and you end up with a Jenkinson situation. 

It's also refreshing to have a bit of honesty, compared to the years of Wenger saying Nasri and Cesc won't be sold and then being sold the following month.