Jonny Evans

I’m not saying it’s happened before but if you asked me to make a random prediction list of the 5 things that will hilariously go wrong this pre-season it would be there.

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As I’ve said more than once, I’d love to have Mahrez. But I believe Oxlade-Chamberlain has the same sort of potential if he can stay healthy and in the lineup. And among the players mentioned, I think Arsenal will be fine in the wide areas.

One thing everyone should remember – and admit to themselves – is that had Wenger bought Mahrez one year ago today the whole lot of you would have been howling that he’d lost the plot. Mahrez was an unheralded player who had was coming off a season in which he scored four goals and had three assists for a club that barely escaped relegation. Now y’all act like he’s frickin’ Maradona.

So if Mahrez becomes an Arsenal player this year (or at any time in the future), great. If not, I have confidence that some of the guys who are already in the squad can do just fine. Every player doesn’t have to be a galactico. Leicester City won the league with frickin’ Marc Albrighton on the other wing.

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No they’re not. The only key players who are 30 yet are Koscielny and Monreal (both just 30), unless you want to count Cech, who is still fairly young for a goalkeeper at 34. Bellerin is 21. Alexis is 27. Until they bought Stones today, City’s starting back line was all over 30. Sagna is 33. So is Toure. There’s a reason Pep is trying to move on some of the older guys and make the squad younger.

IMO Chamberlain does not have that kind of potential as his football IQ is low or at the very least stunted.

He’s essentially an attribute player, doesn’t have the vision or the the natural goal scoring ability to justify a consistent starting spot at a so called top club.

His ceiling is good squad player, very unlikely he’ll be world class. He should be out on loan proving he still has a future at the club rather than taking up the sqaud place of someone who could contribute much more.

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That poster did it.

It has caught on & is now an understandable phrase.

© @Castiel

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You need those sort of players. Our problem is we have far too many of them :slight_smile:

@JakeyBoy what’s a top knot?

We’d be calling Wenger a genius if had bought Mahrez last summer and he had the same year as he did at Leicester.

Problem is, none of the players that aren’t expected to contribute a lot at Arsenal, are doing more than the necessary and asking any Arsenal fan to have more patience isn’t going to solve that. Some of them have been at the club for 5-10 years and are still not consistent enough to be relied on.

Like anyone’s going to believe you aren’t versed in the hipster lifestyle.

Mertesacker is 32 next month, Cazorla is 32 in December and Giroud is 30 also next month. Those guys are core players in this team, like it or not.

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Actually, you’d still be bitching because he hasn’t bought the striker you want. Besides, what you’d be saying now wasn’t my point. My point was your heads would have been exploding when Wenger signed him because he was – in your opinion – crap from a club that barely escaped relegation.

Mahrez was 24 before he took off. Oxlade-Chamberlain is only 22. Iwobi is 20 and far ahead of where Mahrez was at that age. If Mahrez can become reliable at age 24-25, who is to say younger players at Arsenal can’t? Hell, Walcott isn’t actually much older than Mahrez. It just seems like it because he was hyped at 16.

I forgot Cazorla. Mertesacker I didn’t mention because he’s out until next year. And if we’re going to start including players who are going to be 30 someday, we can toss in a few more City players as well. Look at their roster and you’ll see that their core players are, on average, a couple of years older than Arsenals, at least. If we’re looking ahead, Sagna will be 34 around midseason. Toure will be 34 this year too. That’s a good bit different from 30. That’s why Pep is trying to turn over the roster somewhat. And it’s why City dropped off some last year. I mean, did you see Toure play last year? Not the same player at all. And their defense struggled when Kompany was out. It wasn’t just an aberration.

You’re a dick.

Would they have won the PL with Wenger as their manager?

I don’t know. They may not have won it with any other manager. I also don’t see the relevance.

But I can tell you that the talking heads were laughing and scoffing when they appointed Rainieri, who was considered an aging, washed up failure who had been dumped by Chelsea in favor of Mourinho then fired from Juventus, Roma, Inter and Monaco after not living up to expectations. A lot of the articles are still out there. Rainieri was past it. He couldn’t adapt to the modern game. Surely he would get Leicester relegated. But you never know what the future holds.

Give Wenger a new contract, let’s see if he can pull a Ranieri.

Hell no.

At least they working on their problems then, if it wasn’t an aberration. Unlike us.

I think we are going to see a lot of those oldies still though. Announcing the arrival of Guardion in mid-season also wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

Pull a Ranieri? AW is more adept at pulling the plonkers of the fans.