Article written by Jamie Chaplin
Departures - Bendtner , Squillaci, Park, Chamakh, Arshavin and now potentially Walcott.
Arrivals - Llorente, Cabeye, Dzeko, Rangel and potentially Van Der Weil.
The fact that we are talking about this many players being potential ins and outs 48 hours before the transfer window closes just shows firstly how difficult it is to offload players who are are currently earning a salary far above what their performances have deserved. More specifically in Theo's case it shows the difficulty when leaving contract renewal talks to the last minute when their current deal is a due to expire. Surely we have learnt our lesson regarding this?
I think I speak on behalf of most Arsenal fans when I say that I am pleased that we are finally freeing up our wage bill by attempting to sell a lot of the deadwood from the team. However, trying to find potential suitors is becoming extremely difficult. Years of rewarding players for potential instead of performances really has come back to bite us. I hope that by Friday evening we will find a new home for the majority of them and they will go on to show some of the potential that was seen in them (albeit not against Arsenal in future fixtures!).
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| Theo Walcott |
News has filtered through from talks earlier today that Theo is likely to stay, however he will not be signing a new contract. I must stress that at this stage this is speculation but if true, this for me is a huge gamble. He has had all summer to sign a new deal with Arsenal and quite frankly if he was going to do it he would have signed (take Koscielny and Vermaelen for instance). We are now putting ourselves in a situation where we have trained and developed a 16 year old into a full international and we may well lose him for nothing. I hope the news isn't true and that he does sign but if a large bid from Liverpool or City comes in, I wouldn't be surprised to see him go. What concerns me more is that we do not have long to find a replacement. Time will tell on this subject...
It's not all doom and gloom at Arsenal, I actually think we have a fantastic base to perform well this year however for us to challenge I believe we are missing two players. In my opinion we are missing a creative player in the wide area to help take the burden away from Santi and we are missing a killer in front of goal. Giroud or Podolski may well prove to be that player but what is clear is that they will need time to adapt. If I were a betting man I would say that Cabeye would be a safe bet (news that you could buy an Arsenal shirt with his name and number off the website already programmed in this morning) and a fairly unknown striker from Europe. All I do know is that we have one of the greatest mangers available and that whatever shape the squad are in, we are in good hands.
Saying that though wouldn't you love to wake up with the news we have signed Fernando Llorente? That would be something out of the ordinary.
Keep the faith...
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