Beckinsale. Upton is ridiculously hot right now but she's gonna balloon later. Beckinsale is still fit and has that accent....I'm all in like Flynn with her.
Random questions for the masses: - Wilshire: Would he be useful if the prevailing formation is carried forward next season? As I ponder roster movements based on the new norm I'm juggling midfield pairings around and trying to see where he might fit, with no standout success. - Similar vein - Chambers: Does new formation signal the likely end of his Arsenal opportunities? He seems even less apt for this defensive scheme, IMO, unless he's simply an eternal back-up. In which case I'd regret the price paid for his services, pending resale value. - Has Wenger ever recruited someone, or really touted a player, for his leadership abilities? I'm not recalling much offered in this degree, save for Vieira and Henry. Even then the latter was more a result of tenure, and a successful one at that. Otherwise I feel Arsene is averse to the personality types that would lead on the pitch. He's taken on aggressive personalities (Sanchez, Wilshire...) but those guys don't work to lead others, otherwise he prefers more quiet types (Cazorla, Ozil, Giroud...).
Wilshere simply cannot stay healthy. He's Diaby all over again. All potential. Chambers strikes me as a good sale to a mid-table team and not a long-term Arsenal player. Leadership- I think it's less an issue of whether a single player can lead but whether Wenger can. And he's shown in the last 8-10 years that he just doesn't have the ability to get his players up for the fight.
You make a good point there. It fits with Wenger not wanting to be challenged. See Steve Bould or Pat Rice. But OTOH he did have two very strong-minded on-field captains in Adams & Viera, which also fits Wenger's philosophy of allowing the players to manage themselves once they get onto the pitch, unlike some other managers who micro-manage vociferously from the sidelines. As much as I don't love this phrase... I think Wenger is past his sell-by date. So I'm still a little bit hopeful that it's not a foregone conclusion that he's extending his contract. I still think our summer overhaul, could include the manager. Wishful thinking I know.
Wilshere can't go from a Bournemouth bench to our line up, unless AW wants to do worse than 6th. Leaders, we haven't had any as mentioned and it's done so deliberately (as much as one can anyway) since leaders are also ambitious and talkative thus at some point become poisonous for Wenger. Vieira, Cessy, Gallas,Henry, RVP.
Keep in mind that we are stuck in the $&@£#% Europa League next year playing on @&#%!&$ Thursday nights. We will need a larger than normal squad if we don't want to slip to mid-table or worse. And with roster restrictions, I think the only way to do that is to keep/sign roster exempt players. Are any players exempt other than home grown players? Those are the only ones I'm aware of. So unless we are going to treat the Europa League like the League Cup and blow it off by throwing out a second team, we have to take that into account in our transfer choices. (I'm convinced that, once he had little chance to finish fourth, Mourinho tanked the end of the Premier League season, including the game against us, to avoid the Europa League.)
In football context Wilshere is dead to me .. I wish this team had same spirit of past three weeks when it counted Mentality of squad is off and It doesn't just start with wenger... it goes to all way up to owner... who is nothing but a real estate businessman This fourth place trophy is very much a real thing at our club... when they are fighting for the fourth spot... they can beat anyone in the prem...
Homegrown or u21s are exempt. So we could buy some young talent and give them a legit shot to play. If we get them young enough they could become homegrowns in a few years.
formation, yes. position, no. wilshere is viable in the slot that xhaka/cazorla occupies/would occupy in this formation of distributor. he's a terrific passer from the back and his (lack of) defensive acumen is negated by the extra centreback. unfortunately, wenger refuses to let go of the notion that he is an attacker and, in this formation, he's just not good enough to contribute in that 3. on the contrary, i would argue that, like gabriel, this formation suits him even better*. he can't be the deep guy but having the defensive space/responsibility cut down only helps shore up his weakness - one-on-one and defending in space - and his offensive ability adds value to the overload. * i think it would be even better if wenger could just suppress his need to make his formation as much offensively lean as possible. i believe most 3CB formation has the central defender be the one that moves forward, thus keeping 2 deeper in case of a break where we have the 2 wide defenders more advanced which does not suit our personnel nearly as well.
Being linked heavily with Henry Onyekuru this morning. 19 yo Nigerian FW who scored 20+ playing in the Belgium league this season.
Could be wrong, but I get the general gist that we are fixing to go young. AW says we are 1-2 quality players away but he is assuming Alexis and Ozil stay. I doubt they stick around for a Europa run. Both are nearing the back end of their career. They are gonna want to head to a CL club. Frankly I'm ok with that as long as a) both are shipped outside of the EPL and b) we get a good return.
Looks a decent player honestly. Joint top scorer at 19? Not bad. Only problem is we don't develop young players anymore. Man wears Henry instead of his last name on the kit. Would look hella weird.
Posted similar in another thread but probably more appropriate here... At this point I assume Alexis and Ozil will leave for a CL team. At their ages, I doubt they want to stick around to see if we can make CL next year. Our chances of being competitive next season depend on how we deal with their departure. With no CL, our best bet is to grab high upside guys from CL squads that aren't getting desired playing time or vets that want PT to extend their careers and hope they work well with the existing squad. Assuming others don't want to bail as well... GK - Sell Ospina and keep Cech. If Woj is willing to compete with Cech then keep him. Otherwise sell him and find a young guy (Pickford, Lafont, Horn...) willing to compete. CB - I would encourage Per to retire or sell him to a German club to try to extend his career. Kos, Holding, Mustafi, Nacho & Gabby looked solid in the new system and Chambers has a decent chance to adjust well to it as well. I might be on the lookout for a youngish bargain CB that can compete. May also consider the Nagelsmann route and find a DM destroyer (Krychowiak, Guilavogui, Gustavo) and convert him to CB since one CB. Especially important when Kos picks up another knock. Also think there is a decent chance that Nacho moves on for playing time more than CL. LWB - Kolasinac supposedly coming in. I think Gibbs stays. Nacho would be a great CB/LWB super sub but I think he could leave for PT to extend his career. If Gibbs and Nacho look to leave, find a young LWB to groom behind Sead. RWB - As long as Bellerin doesn't try to bail for Barca we should be good with he and Ox manning this spot. May need a backup if Ox doesn't re-sign and/or demands to be sold. CM - Xhaka & Ramsey ended the season looking pretty strong. Biggest concern is injuries. Wilshire is likely back and on the roster unless he requests to be sold. Would prefer to sell Coq but I'd guess he is back because he is French and HG. El Neny is a solid squadie. With mid week EL games we really need 1 guy that can challenge for starting minutes (Tolisso, Goretzka) and 1-2 younger guys that can play against weaker teams and develop for the future. Not sure what we have on our own academy that may be worth keeping around (Crowley, Toral, AMN, etc...). CAM/SS - The all important Alexis and Ozil replacements. For depth we have Iwobi, Welbeck, Walcott & JRA. Maybe we could promise some 1st team minutes to Willock to keep him from bolting. Outside of that we really need a couple of quality starters and possibly 1 other young backup to keep Welbeck and Walcott on the bench. Potential options that could be looking for more PT elsewhere or better situation... Shaqiri, Sigurdsson, Deulofeu, James (unlikely), Asensio, Lemar, Carrasco, Correa, Pulisic, Gomes, Coman, Joao Mario, Fekir, etc... ST - OG & Welbeck are decent but we need someone that can be more consistent. Not gonna get a world class guy at this point so our best bet would be young and needing PT. I would start with guys like Morata or Batshuayi who have showed good production when given opportunities but need more minutes. After that you basically have to start taking a chance and hope you strike gold.
i actually don't even want to bother with szczesny. if ospina is moving and we continue with cech, might as well make martinez no. 2 and move on. he adds an HG back onto the squad as well. i actually think both mertesacker and chambers are good fit as the center-most centreback IF wenger extracts his cranium from his rectal cavity long enough to invert how we have the back 3 set up so the center centreback is the one going forward. the current setup with the center-most centreback as the lone deep man is suicidal. which, i suppose, is normal for a wenger formation. so . . . . something along the line with what we are doing with bielik? i actually would like to see kolasinac as the left-side centreback (because i have zero faith in wenger having common sense any longer). i would be curious to see if everton would be incline to move baines with them continuing to slide back in the table and having garbutt in the wing. if ONE of bellerin or oxlade-chamberlain move on, i would be said but i would be okay with maitland-niles slipping into this spot. i like that kid. my concern with wilshere is that he will not be positioned here but rather in attack because wenger refuses to accept his (non)viability there. this formation actually fits coquelin - and his usage by wenger - well. with the extra centreback, we are not hurt as much by his chasing higher up the pitch because xhaka/cazorla is still partnered/covered by an extra person. while i have hope for toral, i can't see him sticking around. if i am not mistaken, his contract is up this year. i think the best chance in the bunch would be perez . . . except he cannot get off wenger's bench. oh, well. funny you brought up shaqiri. i do not follow them so i do not know how well he has played in the premier league but, watching him against us, i wondered if he could be converted to the left-wingback spot. he seemed to have worked hard tracking back in that game against us.
Shaqiri doesn't play enough D for LWB. Think he could be quite good in our CAM/SS spot though. He isn't nearly as good as Alexis/Ozil right now but he has a high work rate, good shot and is a good passer. Figure he would also work well with Xhaka due to the international connection.
Not entirely sure of the accuracy, but thought this might help some. Courtesy of sillyseason.com Wage, Contract Expiration, Age, Player £140,000 2018 26 Mesut Ozil £130,000 2018 26 Alexis Sánchez £110,000 2019 26 Theo Walcott £100,000 2019 33 Petr Čech £100,000 2018 28 Olivier Giroud £90,000 2021 24 Shkodran Mustafi £90,000 2021 23 Granit Xhaka £90,000 2018 25 Jack Wilshere £90,000 2019 30 Santi Cazorla £80,000 2018 24 Aaron Ramsey £75,000 2019 24 Danny Welbeck £70,000 2020 28 Lucas Perez £70,000 2017 30 Per Mertesacker £70,000 2019 29 Mathieu Debuchy £65,000 2019 30 Nacho Monreal £65,000 2018 21 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain £60,000 2017 29 Laurent Koscielny £60,000 2018 25 Kieran Gibbs £50,000 2019 24 Gabriel Paulista £40,000 2019 26 David Ospina £30,000 2020 20 Alex Iwobi £30,000 2016 23 Joel Campbell £20,000 2019 23 Francis Coquelin £10,000 2020 20 Rob Holding £10,000 2017 22 Damián Martínez £10,000 2020 20 Calum Chambers £10,000 2015 19 Héctor Bellerín _£2,000 2020 17 Krystian Bielik