Who is on the bus?: Page 2 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Who is on the bus?

Klaus

If it were up to me I'd take what we can for Lacazette and some scraps and then pool all our money into a new midfield. It needs a real makeover and I'm not feeling optimistic that anyone can step up there except maybe Willock, but he looks at least a year away still. I thought getting Ceballos last summer was a bad idea for that reason. He was never good enough to fill Ramsey's shoes. We should have gone for a big signing, someone proven and experienced, instead of a cheap fix. I don't think we can afford to put that up for another summer. The team needs a new engine.

speedy

Klaus wrote:
If it were up to me I'd take what we can for Lacazette and some scraps and then pool all our money into a new midfield. It needs a real makeover and I'm not feeling optimistic that anyone can step up there except maybe Willock, but he looks at least a year away still. I thought getting Ceballos last summer was a bad idea for that reason. He was never good enough to fill Ramsey's shoes. We should have gone for a big signing, someone proven and experienced, instead of a cheap fix. I don't think we can afford to put that up for another summer. The team needs a new engine.

We needed to sell ramsey so we could get a like for like replacement even if we had to add 10-20m to it. Replacing him with someone who needs quite a bit of development was always likely to cause issues. Especially as our midfield was consistently getting noticably weaker every year for quite a while.

goon

The problem is Laca has been in 'bad form' since the start of the season, even when he was scoring goals the rest of his game was awful. At his age you start to question whether it's form or if he's simply on a sharp decline. He'll be 29 with I believe 2 years left on his deal in the summer, if we're going to get anything for him it's now.

Asterix

I'm on the side of selling Laca. I think he's a very good player, but his form, his age and his contract (we can still get some money) all combine to make it attractive to sell him.

The club needs to be a bit ruthless now in building for the future.

The only downside is that I think there's a reasonable chance Auba wants to go, and losing both strikers may seem like carelessness.

jones

The biggest downside to selling Laca as is is that he's in horrible form and so far we haven't shown that we're any good at selling. The one thing I'll give Liverpool unconditional credit for is their ability to sell for ridiculous fees, if there's anything we should look to them as a blueprint it's the talent to sell Solankes and Ibes for 20m each

Captain

There's nobody on the bus - this is the most dispensable Arsenal squad in decades.

banduan

Captain wrote:
There's nobody on the bus - this is the most dispensable Arsenal squad in decades.

disagree.

Watched a vid of us beating Chelski 3-1 at the Emirates and it struck me how many of those guys fans were dismissive of back then - Song, Walcott, Kosh. Heck, even Clichy.

goon

Let's be honest it's next to impossible to judge. Chelsea fans said the squad Mourinho had around the relegation zone was dispensable, including Hazard, and yet they won the title at a canter the following season with Conte.

I take the opposing view. I think our squad for the most part is fine, but it needs a couple of key additions to bring it all together. Like Klaus, I think it's mostly in the middle of the pitch. I'd like to see upgrades on Xhaka and Ozil and I reckon it'd make a huge difference. There's no energy, pace or creativity in the middle as things stand and it slows everything down.

Mirth

banduan wrote:
Captain wrote:
There's nobody on the bus - this is the most dispensable Arsenal squad in decades.

disagree.

Watched a vid of us beating Chelski 3-1 at the Emirates and it struck me how many of those guys fans were dismissive of back then - Song, Walcott, Kosh. Heck, even Clichy.

I'm still pretty dismissive of 3 of those...

Claudius

As you should be. They basically won “who wants to be a premier league footballer”.

The more I think about our squad, the more comfortable I am with the younger players, especially

Bellerin
Tierney
Saliba
Torreira
Guendouzi
Willock
Pépé
Martinelli
Saka

We just need to really invest in a creative midfielder or B2B and another central defender. But we have some of the most mouthwatering young talent in the league. And I’m counting someone like Pépé as young because he had a very late start in first class football.

yuv

Claudius wrote:
The more I think about our squad, the more comfortable I am with the younger players, especially

Bellerin

Tierney

Saliba

Torreira

Guendouzi

Willock

Pépé

Martinelli

Saka
We just need to really invest in a creative midfielder or B2B and another central defender. But we have some of the most mouthwatering young talent in the league. .

I agree on the youngsters (and totally disagree with the “no one on the bus” claim - really? Marti? Saka? Leno? Not even Saliba? That just sounds like teasing), but I tend to agree with Krause ang goon on the need to do something drastic with our midfield. I like Torreira, and both Douzi and Willock are talents worth keeping, but ATM our midfield is nowhere near the required level. We need to invest there more than what is suggested above - it’s our main problem, the way I see it.

mentalvortex

Will Pepe still get a free pass if he shows no significant improvement from now to the end of the season ?

Ray

If you look at the Liverpool players, most of their starting 11 are in the 26-29 age range, in their prime. We need to build a team who will be hitting that age range at a similar time, whilst developing them too before that.

We’ve got quite a few 18-21 yrs olds we need a few more in the 22-25 range. Build on Tierney, AMN, Bellerin, Pepe, Ceballos, Torreira.

MistaT

Pepe needs a full second season before we can even consider writing him off.

Too much turmoil around him to fairly assess what he can do. There's certainly reason for concern - primarily that three managers are skeptics - but plenty of offensive talent/output to still be excited by. Seems the kind of player that would be liberated if he had a rock of a FB (like Sagna) behind him.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

I would be up for selling both Laca and Auba this summer if it meant we signed a starting striker that is technically and physically top.

Other than that, focus our energy on overhauling the midfield. Only Torreira might have a role to play here (as a starter), as I see it.

Klaus

mentalvortex wrote:
Will Pepe still get a free pass if he shows no significant improvement from now to the end of the season ?

The problem with Pepé is that there's so much capital tied up in him. A £30 million signing (which is probably what he would have cost a few years ago before the market went insane) we would have been able to take a hit on. But we paid more than the double of that and we have failed to make Champions League yet again.

If someone offers us what we paid for him I don't think we'd hesitate to take it, but otherwise it's better to keep him and work on his game for the long term. Hopefully he can hit next season running instead and turn into the player we wanted when we signed him.

mentalvortex

We will also have to permanently shift deadwood like Mkhitrayan and Elneny off our wage bill in the summer.

From what I see, there is very slim chance that Roma or Besiktas are going to activate their option to buy in summer.

MistaT

mentalvortex wrote:
We will also have to permanently shift deadwood like Mkhitrayan and Elneny off our wage bill in the summer.

Had just forgot about these bums 😆

Next I'll learn Jenkinson is still on our pay roll

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Pathetic dregs still on the payroll ffs. Sort it out Raul, by hook or by crook.

awooga83

Problem is don't trust Raul not to pick up his own duds and add them to the payroll. We are not a team that looks at the positions where we need strengthening and then try to buy the best players who could fit that. We have a dodgy contact book board member who signs whoever is pushed to him by his agent mates.

I don't see our squad situation getting why better whilst we have Raul because we aren't making footballing decisions for the benefit of the team.

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