The new guys are stuck with the mess Gazidis created. They can’t do it all this summer. So would you rather pay Koscielny £90,000 a week or pay Mustafi £90,000 a week? And if you could manage to move both of them on, who are you replacing them with on a limited budget?
It seems to me the best path forward as far as center backs are concerned would have been to get rid of Mustafi now and then replace Koscielny with Saliba next summer. Or do you like Mustafi better? I guess it’s a matter of opinion.
As for Holding and Sokratis, they may not be Tony Adams and Martin Keown, but Arsenal did go 15 games unbeaten with that pairing before Holding got hurt in December. That stretch included five clean sheets, seven games with just a single goal allowed and a total of 15 of the 51 goals Arsenal allowed in the Premier League.
I’d get rid of both Kos and Mustafi as quickly as possible, there just no way of justifying having your 3rd string CB on £90k p/w. You’re talking as if shifting Mustafi was ever an option for this club this summer. He was always going to stay because there’s no market for him and he’s on a very comfortable wage so there’s really no need to present the “choice” of holding on to him or selling him now as as a credible option or strategy.
We’ve committed to signing an £30m 18 year old in 12 months time, prepared to spend at least £40m for Zaha and a £20m+ deal for Tierney this summer but keep telling yourself the budget is too limited to improve the worse area of our team. Any fan in their right mind have the question the logic behind the strategy and the poor execution to date.
Do you really think there are no CBs out there under £40m who would be an improvement on Sokratis? We have to question now if the club was even considering signing a CB at all
I only ever count league matches in terms of examining numbers and player’s production. Involving all competitions tend to skew the perception of numbers/stats due to the level of often poor competition in the early stages. I don’t consider Holding’s 5 EL group games appearances against the likes of Qarabag, Vorskla or Sporting as a worthy sample to consider in terms of measuring defensive efficiency.
Anyway focusing on Holding’s 10 league appearances,we conceded 11 goals and kept 2 clean sheets.
Holding was partnered with Mustafi in a CB pairing in 7/10 league appearances. In the other 3 appearances, he was in a trio which contained Mustafi and Sokratis, so where’s the sample which indicates Holding and Sokratis can form a solid partnership? Or that either of them has the quality worthy of securing CL football? Both these guys would be 3rd/4th options at best at any other top 6 club. We can and should be looking for better.
It’s just odd to see Holding being portrayed as a quality addition to our backline as he returns from injury based on such a limited sample.
Yeah it’s insane but it actually does now seem that there is or was not any intention to strengthen the CB position this season.
Simply has to be the priority.
Time ticking on now and we have very little change to this side yet and signs are not good.
So you’d rather have Mustafi as the first backup/rotation option than Koscielny? Because if Koscielny leaves that is absolutely what is going to happen…
I’m running out of players I like at this football club, I’m down to four right now.
Yeah this is basically the crux of the issue. It isn’t ideal that we were planning on keeping Koscielny around as a key member of the defense and we all know that. However, given how shite our options are at CB considering that we’re never going to move turds like Mustafi on, keeping Kos around for one more season was effectively us doing damage limitation for another year.
His inevitable departure now just further puts the spotlight on how existential the crisis is at the back, and this is especially true given that we seem to be unable to find any quality CB who can come in this summer. If we don’t do everything we can to find that person before the campaign starts, we’re going to have the exact same season once again and we’ll be even worse now that captain cunt has decided to ruin his reputation with us and pull this bullshit stunt.
Nonsense. Sokratis and Holding are easily a top 6 duo and Kosceilny is a good back up. We don’t have the money to buy a replacement for Kosceilny if he goes and we 90k per week is market rate for a player of his quality. He probably thinks he can get more on a free.
This is true, we can’t do it all in this window but we’re doing absolutely nothing and are going into a new season with a worse defence than last season.
After watching the amount of goals we were letting in through defensive errors in some games, I didn’t think that was actually possible for it to get any worse, but it has.
This leaking of 45 million by the club has really worked wonders on this fanbase.
We may spend 50 to 60 but it’s sown a seed with the continual repetition of limited budget being used time after time.
Absolutely fucking ridiculous for people to believe we can’t afford a new CB.
If this club penny pinch on this window in this department like the last window we are fucked.
Season ended were we conceded 3 goals at wolves, Leicester, palace and 4 in Baku. Reap what you sow here Arsenal.
Do not repeat this mistake because saving an extra few million here could cost us a lot more going forward. We don’t have the quality at the back to make the 4 this season.
We have more options for the wing over a CB though.
Also Bellerin coming back and hopefully Tierney signing helps attack wise.
CB has to be the priority.
Sarcasm? Which other top 6 club would these two start for?
Sokratis himself is massively overrated by Arsenal fans for basically superficial reasons. He compares poorly to mustafi in various defensive stats, he just as much of a liability in my eyes.
