Agree with Neville here. January is very hard to get business done
If we have got targets lined up it will be interesting to see if we get our business done early, or if we haggle endlessly until the end of the window like we did with Wenger.
I canāt see much business being done, although itās obvious we need an overhaul of the defence and a Ramsey replacement and a winger.
Possibly only one or two first team players will leave and certainly no more than that will be coming in.
As for Ozil, that really is a difficult decision for Emery, because if he feels it would be better to move him on, it will be even more difficult to get someone of a similar quality to come here to replace our best player.
I think Xhaka has a role to play at the club if heās happy with being relegated to the bench in place of a superior option, but Kolasinac and Mustafi are defo-must go.
If you swapped Xhaka and Kola in your sentence, I agree.
Kola has physical qualities that you rarely see in players that play in his position.
I really like Kolasinac, sure heās a little suspect at the back at times but I think - like Leno - he needs a chance in a more stable backline.
I agree, Iām always baffled about how much stick he gets on here. Might not be the best defensively, but in my eyes heās clearly been one of our most threatening players this year in attack.
Kola can stay as back up, the others 2 not.
I kind of agree with this tooā¦ in my priority (get rid) order - Moose, then Xhaka, then Kolaā¦ we need a wing attacker badly too unless Nelson turns into a star next year.
Then weād be spending Ā£120-130k a week on a back up left back.
Fair point. I wouldnāt sell him because he hasnāt been crap at all for us though.
Iād like to see what Kola is capable of in an organised and cohesive back line, barring Mustafi thereās more to squeeze out of most of our defenders.
He does seem to lack defensive nous though, he mainly resorts to shoving players as his go to move. He wouldnāt look out of place at Fitness First
Iād be surprised if Kolasinac or Mustafi went, both have a while to run on contracts and not sure what club would pay them the wages we do.
We have a completely new regime. Nobody here had anything to do with signing Mustafi and thereās no way all of these people are looking at him and thinking that this is a player that should be starting for us.
Sokratis at Ā£15m is twice the player he is. It makes no sense for anyone involved to keep hold of Mustafi this summer at the expense of having a superior player, even if we take Ā£10m and have to pay Ā£30k a week of his wages for the next 2 years.
You can make a positive case for questionable players like Xhaka and Kolasinac, but thereās no positive case for Mustafi. Heās a completely pointless player.
This will be the first summer of the Raul era, Iām expecting big changes.
Listening to the ornstein arsecast has got me proper excited for the summer tbh!
#madness
This really says more about the poor composition of the squad offensively and Emeryās over reliance on overly attacking full backs to provide width.
His attacking qualities are meaningless in a season where we have the worse defensive record and stats amongst the top 6. Everybody from the midfield down needs to be looked at. Kolasinac is certainly one of the players who adds to the dysfunction with his suspect ability to defend.
If youāre paying your fullback around Ā£100k and heās not close to an elite level alarm bells should be going off big time. Heās Europa league level at best and is grossly overpaid.
Seriously full back is a place where you can obtain cheaper, more interesting and younger talents.
Iāve read heās on around Ā£120k whichxis an extravagant sum of money to be giving to someone of such limited talent. It doesnāt matter if he was free heās simply not good enough.
I think youre right Aussie.
The wages is a killer but the timing to.sell would be perfect in terms of how contractually tied up the player is and the transfer fee we could command
I actually agree with a lot of what you say. I do think your first point actually summarises a lot of the issues weāve had as a whole in defence this season, not just with Kolasinac. The system Emery is trying to employ is probably most demanding on the full backs. When our full backs attack, we really should be expecting the 2 central mids to be more savvy and cover up the flanks. The system right now doesnāt have everyone singing out of the same hymn sheet and as a result we are leaking a lot of silly goals i.e. the classic 40 yard hoof over the top which seemed to catch us out every time over Xmas.
Bellerin has come on leaps and bounds this season offensively, but you must agree heās as suspect defensively too?
Now, Iām not saying as a result that personnel in our squad shouldnāt change - it certainly does. But the solution to me doesnāt feel as black and white as āsell him and buy cheaper and betterā.