awooga83 wrote:
We should have dealt with Xhaka long ago if Arteta doesn't see cutting him out at a priority when he's been happy to cut plenty of other players adrift that is negligent in my view. Xhaka is a mid/lower table player and a big drag on the club. When people have said about us cutting the crud and we can't get rid of this guy then that basically makes that idea look empty.
This is one of the real priorities for the club rather then investing more in defence.
And this is why I do not agree with the sell before you buy criteria unless it is purely from financial/squad numbers requirements, and especially when trying to rebuild into a team that is fit for purpose in a highly technical system.
IMO the biggest dangers in a 'sell before you replace' is that you are unable to sign your primary choices when you have an opportunity, and then you end up compromising the team rebuild by either needing to sign a player who is not fit for purpose when the other player leaves for free, OR you have another AW squad building scenario where you start to compromise on your preferred type of player/role in order to compensate for the weaknesses of the player still at the club, rather than the focus/purpose being to strengthen and go forward.
