Bergkampesque

Great news that Emery has officially joined us and what a passion, professionalism and persona did he bring to his first press conference! He said all the right things for which he will have been briefed by the club, no doubt; but you cannot help thinking that this is a man in the middle of his football management career who is overjoyed to have arrived at our club.

After the departure of our long-serving leader we have lived in a management vacuum, so it is great that the search for a new maestro is over. I reckon with Emery we got the right man in all aspects. He comes with a fine CV with experience at the right level, offers youthfulness and passion for the game and the club, AND will be able to build further on Arsene’s legacy.

Some may believe that he does not represent enough change from the Weng-Era. But why totally change what has been good for us and has become our identity, our reputation and our values? Emery will build on this but with his own approach which will be quite different from how Arsene went about. All approaches have plusses and minuses but Unai has the advantage of starting anew and exactly at the same age as when Wenger joined the club in 1996. On another blog, ArsenalArsenal, the excellent blogger Shard put it best: ” Emery not different enough, I totally get that! And yet, I think he might be different in just the right ways!” 

Unai has been through two interesting years at PSG, where one or two players were force-fed into team by the owners for many, many millions of Euros, thus making them more important than the manager by default. It is reported that Emery struggled to get his players to play his system of football as he was being undermined by those self-adoring ‘purchases’. I guess if you go to the PSG BoD and say the players are not listening and I want to side-line one or two obnoxious individuals for a while to re-stamp my authority on the team, you will be told to look after their assets – meaning they should play every week. No doubt this was a nightmare scenario for a driven and visionary manager who relies on togetherness, hard work, discipline and tactics as his guiding principles. Welcome to Arsenal is all I can say.

It is clear that Unai’s command of English needs working on and it was the same for Guardiola when he joined MC. He made a clever move for his fellow countryman, Arteta, who is pretty fluent in English. I reckon Emery will need to do the something similar as language is key, both for press conferences and team management.

So who could be Emery’s Arteta? It could be Arteta himself of course, but I guess he will stay put at MC now. Cazorla has left and his English was not great either, so that is a pass as well. Of course Nacho and Bellerin, and Ospina if he stays on, can help in the dressing room and during training, but ideally he will get himself an assistant-manager who speaks both languages well.

Xabi Alonso was mentioned in conjunction with Arteta, and maybe he is the answer. I am not sure how good his English is, and he probably has a Scouse accent which is to be avoided at all cost. 🙂

The one player-manager who would fit the bill perfectly is the prodigal son, Cesc Fabregas. I know he is still under contract at the Chavs but surely they would let him go for a small price?  Would he do it?! In a heart beat.

Any suggestions?

By TotalArsenal.

UNAI EMERY CREATES A BLUEPRINT:- THE GLORY DAYS MIGHT NOT BE FAR AWAY.

Unai Emery has been announced officially as the new manager of Arsenal football team.

They say Unai is studious. He pores through the videos endlessly, most days working far into the night. Often, he has the sounds for the video turned off so that the noise from the stands wouldn’t sway him, neither the commentators. He wants his information first hand. As he watches the actions on the screen, he comes to conclusions but knows from experience that the conclusions are merely tentative. They undergo a thousand revisions. Unai Emery is forensic in his quest for the perfect.

He would see Ramsey’s brilliant runs into the box. He would also see the spaces he leaves behind. He would see Ozil’s masterly use of space. He would also see his reluctance to get involved when the opposition has the ball. He would see Mustafi feistily winning balls as well as his naivety in handling spaces. He will see everything. Unai, they say, leaves no stones upturned.

Not long from today, at the middle of watching yet another video, Emery will switch it off. Yes we can imagine. He would get up from his seat, pace around the room for a while rather satisfied with himself. He has seen enough to make a diagnosis. He has inherited a team with great technical savvy when with the ball but shocking when without it. He is stupefied by such a grave imbalance but excited by the thought of the team that would emerge when he has fixed it.

He recognizes that fixing it is made a lot easier by the fact the structure Wenger has inculcated to the team is a close fit to his model: the 4:2:3:1 formation with full backs positioned higher up the pitch, that is how he played it in Spain with Sevilla; the inverted wingers that Wenger favours is how he used Neymar and di Maria at PSG; the domination of possession and territory which is central to Arsenal’s philosophy, that has always been his baby.

He, however, has not failed to notice that the Arsenal he was seeing in the videos do not use a holding midfielder as conservatively as he would for shielding the back line. He is a bit taken aback at the lackadaisical response from the players when the team turns over the ball, as if they’ve been instructed that winning the ball back is the job of the back line. He is again shocked to notice the same lack of urgency from the players when the opposition, while attacking, turns the ball over to them. He cant fathom why the players don’t seem to recognize that turnover moments either way are critical moments, for the press, for the counter, for focus and energy.

He concludes he has a basic job to do and he knows that the heart of that job is in re-educating the players. There has to be a change in attitude. A change that should infuse more strategic energy into the team’s play. Emery is not just a hard worker, he is a deep thinker too. He knows that change in energy is already a change in tactics. How he would go about doing it are his cards to play, but expect that he would want to inject two or three new faces into the team to help catalyze the change and expect too that there would be no sacred cows only a sacred team.

Work of recreating the team starts with re-education. That’s what his blueprint says. Alongside it, however, Unai Emery has gone back to the videos. This time he is taking notes, employing his imagination, visualizing different combinations, drawing blanks in some and being hopeful in others and coming to conclusions here and there all preliminary work, the squad still on summer brake.

Like Wenger, Emery will work very hard. Unlike Wenger, he will not leave the players to work it out themselves. Sermons, repetitions (drills if you like), will be the new order. The missing link would have been found and Arsenal lost in the wild would be able to make its way back to its inheritance. The glory days might not be far away.  

BY PE

A few weeks ago, I published a post with what I regarded as the main selection criteria for a new manager:

https://bergkampesque.com/2018/04/25/two-germans-and-a-famous-dutchman-to-manage-arsenal-new-manager-options-against-key-selection-criteria/#comments

Unai Emery was not one of the managers directly considered back then, but here are my arguments why the man from Hondarribia in the Basque country, Spain, is a  very good option to take over from Arsene Wenger:

As per the list of selection criteria in that post, Emery should:
Share Wenger’s qualities – let’s say these are to do with personal presentation, PR, and passion for the game: Emery is reported to be a football nut who watches games all the time, he is 46 year old and already has managed a variety of clubs in Spain, Russia and France. He has great presence, a more than decent CV, gravitas and doesn’t look too shabby either. It looks like he is going places, a bit like Arsene did when he joined us 22 years ago. His English needs improving but that will come quickly. A Spanish assistant with good command of English may come in handy…. That is a ‘big yes’ from me.
Play progressive, exciting football: I have seen enough of the way Seville and PSG played their football under Emery to know he will be able to make us play good, winning football. But the first season is about getting balance in the team, make us much harder to beat and get the best out of the enormous attacking talents of Ozil, Ramsey, Mkhi, Auba, Laca, Welbz, Iwobi (and hopefully Jack). Emery is also a Cup fighter and Arsenal are a team that love good cup runs. That is a big ‘yes’ from me.
Give youth a chance: I don’t know Emery well enough to judge him on this. I would imagine he passed the test on this during his interview with Gazidis and co. That is a ‘don’t know’ from me.
Have won one or more top leagues, ideally the PL AND is likely to get us back into the top-four within one to two years: Unai won the league in France and I think he did well with Seville to finish fifth, fifth and seventh in La Liga (whilst excelling in Europe). He has no PL experience and it remains to be seen whether he can get us back into the top four and then challenge for the title again. That is a cautious ‘yes’ from me.
(ideally) Have won one or more CLs: Emery won a remarkable three UEFA Cups in a row with a ‘lesser’ team in Spain. Simply a superb achievement, indicating both a strong focus on cup  runs and playing with a system of football that conquers all. A lot is being made of losing out with PSG against Barcelona in the CL two seasons ago, after beating them 4-0 at home, but there were some bad refereeing decisions in that return game and I would actually give a lot for beating a team like Barcelona 4-0 at home. Emery embarrassed the Catalan footballing machine and not many managers can say that. That is a yes from me.

Gain the respect of the senior players quickly: Emery comes with Gravitas, energy and tons of football knowledge. Language barriers may form a challenge but Hector and Monreal will help out (Nacho as captain would make sense). The man lives football and gives his all when coaching during games. Emery will also be relieved not to have to work with the spoiled prats at PSG anymore. At Arsenal he will be able to work with a committed group of talented players who are looking for a new beginning, vision and a system of football that gets the best out of them. That is a big yes from me.
Be tactically astute and will be able to give the team a much-needed balance between attacking and defending: Emery watches a lot of videos of his opponents and prepares games accordingly, it appears. When PSG played Arsenal at the Emirates and in gay Paris in the CL two seasons ago, they really were an impressive team from a tactical perspective, and played us of the pitch in both legs. It was a miracle that we ended up with two draws from those games (and win the group for once as a result of those draws). I reckon Emery needs to get the spine of our team right and for that he needs to both buy a quality GK, CB and another defence-oriented midfielder AND get the best out of the current crop of defenders and midfielders. He knows the Spanish and French leagues well and surely will be able to get us some quality signings for a good price. This will be a challenge for him but, to be fair, it would be a challenge for anyone taking over from Arsenal. Getting the balance right is the big priority. It is a ‘yes’ from me.
Be looking for a long-term assignment and wants to leave a new legacy: this remains to be seen. He could settle at Arsenal long-term or, if highly successful, be tempted to join RM, Barcelona, Bayern etc when they come calling. It is a ‘don’t know’ from me.

All together, I reckon we have found a gem of a manager with a mixture of passion, vision and experience who is likely to need some time to get his vision and tactics across and build a winning team. Fingers crossed it gets completed soon.

By TotalArsenal.

Mustafi, the defenders or our defending: what is to blame?

Our most used back four during the 20017/18 season consisted of Bellerin (RB), Mustafi (CB), Koscielny (CB) and Monreal (LB). I doubt that these four players on their own could have been as poor as our season’s defensive stats show.

Juventus and Barcelona keep casting glances in the direction of Bellerin (so the rumours say). Mustafi is a German international, though he missed out on their World Cup squad (thanks, no doubt, to being at the back line of a team that was conceding silly goals all season long). Koscielny is a French international, out of the World Cup only due to injury. Monreal is runner up to the team’s Player of the Season Award. They just couldn’t have been trash.

We leaked 51 goals this 17/18 season. That’s classic mid table quota. Naturally, opinions lashed out and quickly settled blaming our defenders instead of our defending. That’s understandable as defending is a more elusive target to attack. Yet modern football tells us that whenever possession is lost defending begins irrespective of the location of the ball and all eleven men on the field become potentially defenders. The blame should therefore be on the team, on the defending, directed at either all the players or the tactics or both.

And poor Mustafi! Opinions have selected him as the sacrificial lamb and his blood is being shed daily for the sins of the team. After all, he made two errors that led to goals.

Let us look at Mustafi, not with our jaundiced eyes, but through the eyes of the Squawka Player Performance Score which is … “an advanced algorithm that takes every recorded on-ball action on the football pitch, evaluates its outcome, pitch co-ordinates, playing position of the player ………… and allocates it a score” The performance score simply adds all these scores together. The eyes of Squawka are not infallible but the prejudice of the past does not blur its vision (it’s a robot) so what it says overall might be more factual

The Squawka PPS says that Mustafi is the 10th best defender in the Premiership per 90 minutes played in the 17/18 season amongst those who played up to 10 games. See the list below.

1st, John Stones (Manc)
2nd, Nicolas Otamendi (Manc)
3rd, Danilo (Manc)
4th, Jan Vertonghen (Tot)
5th, Vincent Company (Manc)
6th, Chris Smalling (Manu)
7th, Virgil Van Dijk (Liv)
8th, Phil Jones (Manu)
9th, Nacho Monreal (Arse)
10th, Shkodran Mustafi (Arse)***

By comparison Koshienly is at 15th, Kolasinac at 67th, Holding 69th, Bellerin 75th, and Chambers is at 94th. It might also interest those who want us to make these premiership signings that Tony Alderweireld (Tot) is at 61st and Jonny Evans (WBA) at 65th.

The impulse of many would be to chunk the Squawka PPS overboard because they have never been schooled to doubt themselves occasionally. That’s fine. Let’s see what the reputable WhoScored has in store. This time we will skip ratings and go to the more objective facts of defensive stats.

BY WHOSCORED (for Arsenal players who have played up to 8 matches) :-

Top tackles/game:- Mustafi (2.4), Xhaka (2.1), Monreal (1.9), Kolasinac (1.8).
Top interceptions/game:- Koscielny (2.2), Mustafi (2.1), Monreal (2), Holding (1.8)
Top clearances/game:- Mustafi (6.3), Koscielny (5.4), Chambers (3.7), Holding (3.3).
Top blocks/game:- Chambers (0.9), Holding (0.7), Koscielny (0.6), Mustafi (0.6)

When any player, even if he is a defender defender, has the ball, technically speaking he is attacking (that’s the modern concept), and WhoScored further says that Mustafi achieved 86.2% pass success rate, scored 3 goals and made 1 assist (and the last fact I am reluctant to bring out is that WhoScored also put Mustafi as Arsenal’s highest rated player, and the 13th in the league!). It’s snake and ladders and back to square one.

For those who know how to wrestle with their certainties, it’s time to take eyes off Mustafi and focus on our main defensive undoing, our tactics; a tactics that left our defenders, particularly the central defenders, vulnerable. The good news is that steps are being taken to rectify this. The old guard is gone. We hope the new guard would be up to the task of fixing the tactics. Not that I would complain if the club decides to pay Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly £105m release clause.

By PE

ARTETA : A PROPHET NOT REVERED IN HIS COUNTRY, OR?……

We are virtually living from moment to moment in expectation of an announcement from the Arsenal FC on the appointment of a new team manager. The dark clouds of division are already gathering amongst the fan base and maybe in the club’s hierarchy as well on whom or whom not to be appointed. If we are to go by the stories making the rounds the front runner Massimino Allegri has opted to remain at Juventus. That has left a lot of signs pointing in the direction of Mikel Arteta. The controversy is whether he has the credentials to prove a success.

Without doubt there is a lot going for him but his lack of managerial experience weighs heavily in the opposite direction.

Before we begin our discourse on his suitability or otherwise we need to appreciate that the management structure in the club has changed from what it was when Wenger was at the helm of affairs. The club now has a two-tier system for team management such that a manager is now only a little more than a head-coach. In most of Europe where this two-tier system exists managers are termed head-coaches. The suitability of Arteta, therefore, has to be considered in the light of him as a head-coach.

There are some remarkable similarities between Arteta and Pep Guardiola. Pep is a La Masia product. Arteta is also. Pep was a holding midfielder for Barcelona. Arteta was for Arsenal. Pep had a slight frame and lacked athleticism. So was Arteta. Pep compensated for these lacks with technique, intelligence, timing, positioning, tidiness, excellent reading of the game and creativity. So was Arteta. Pep became captain of Barcelona. Arteta became captain of Arsenal. Both were the metronomes of their teams. Pep became manager of Barcelona B team at 35 years. Arteta became assistant manager of Manchester City at 34yrs. Pep became manager of Barcelona first team at 36 years. At 36 years Arteta became manager of …???. Remarkable!

What does it take to be a good coach? Of great importance is that the coach must be gifted in the less technical areas of management that includes self discipline, hard work, and man management. Arteta’s reputation indicates he has these in abundance. He was very much respected and loved as an Arsenal captain. On the more technical side, a theoretical knowledge of tactical systems does not alone make one a good tactician. That can be crammed into the head easily by anybody. It is the degree of the insightfulness that determines the potency of the knowledge. Arteta’s reading of the game is exceptional, be it offensively or defensively. He also understands players and understands how to improve them. Many players have testified to how in his playing days, he helped them improve their game. What more as a coach, where the latest of such tributes to hit the media came from the Brazilian international Fernandinho of Manchester City.

Wenger trusted him a lot and it was easy to see that his opinions were welcomed. If Wenger is consulted, and it stands to reason that he would be, I expect him to endorse Arteta’s candidature. On Guardiola’s part, he is thrilled working with and having his altar ego Arteta as his assistant. He has said he wouldn’t stand on the way of his career. He called him a good friend. They obviously understand each other. What greater recommendation can he again give.

Arteta’s poor score, however, is in the area of actual coaching experience. But even here there has been a lot of informal as well as formal tutelage. Important as a starting point is that Arteta is a very serious minded person with an impeccable record on and off the field. All through his playing career he had exhibited his passion for coaching and so had kept that faculty open to learning. In his injury riddled final two years as a player he operated informally more as a coach under Wenger’s structure and that was when stories started coming out that he could be retained at Arsenal in a coaching capacity. Again in this past two seasons he has understudied and contributed to the man who is regarded as one of the best managers in world football. These expousures added to his innate coaching qualities have placed him on a height where his readiness for the plum job cannot be ignored. Lest it’s forgotten any manager carries the authority of the club and how he is respected depends on himself not on his age. If Emmanuel Macron can head France at 39 I do not see why Arteta with these CVs cannot head the coaching crew at 36.

A further argument on Arteta’s side is that he knows the Arsenal system. We dare not engage a manager who is far removed from Wenger’s philosophy because our current squad have been assembled on the bases of that philosophy. If we wish for a big departure from our style then there must be a huge overhaul in personnel which would require big, big money. That, we all know, is out of the question.

I am not trying to say that Arteta is the best in the market or should be the one to be appointed. But if it happens to be him, we should give him all our support. Who knows, we might be up for another “Arteta who?”.

With Wenger now gone, space has been created for unity amongst the fans, not for a new division that would see us out of the frying pan into the fire.

By PE.

The season is over and it is very hard not to feel deflated. Yet if we look at last season with an eye on the future, there are five positive to take from it:

1. Arsene has gone and whether you liked him or not in the end, it is something to adjust to for everyone. A gentleman who loved and lived the club has gone after 22 years and that leaves a hole behind the size of Russia. The positive in this is that the club actually made that decision and Wenger went along with it in a gentlemanly way. A new manager needs to be announced soon, but if the BoD is really concerned about season ticket renewals they better make sure they pick a worthy replacement for Mr Wenger. I have heard from season ticket holders who are holding back renewals until they know who will be picked (and they are saying ‘Anybody but Arteta’). We are sliding away from the top four – who will also not sit still this summer – and another season (or two) of this and it may become very hard to reconnect and have a chance to win the title within the next decade or so. So a big decision has to be made but at least we are now in a position to do so.
2. Xhaka in the deeper midfield position. I have been a fan of Granit from the start: an intelligent player with charisma, vision and personality. Wenger tried Xhaka in different positions but it is clear he is a born deeper midfielder who can orchestrate our midfield with simplicity and crisp passing. We need that pivot in our team and Granit is just the man. Now I hear you say he is not a typical DM; and to that I say yes and no. His positioning and reading of the game is sound and he makes many good interceptions but he comes with a few limitations in terms of pure DM-qualities. In the modern game that is okay as long as his partner is the ideal one. Ramsey is not that guy as he wants to go forward as much as possible which leaves Xhaka exposed. Elneny and Xhaka are a more complete partnership imo. The decision the new manager has to make is whether to go with Xhaka-Elneny/new purchase or with Rambo/new purchase(pure DM). My hope and money is on the Swiss-Egyptian double pivot for next season and beyond. A quality DM-minded player should ideally be bought and Maitland-Niles deserves a promotion too.
3. Our home form has been the absolute opposite of our away form. Second best away form only to the Champions. Clearly, we need to address our approach to away games but this is for the new manager to sort and will be a mixture of strategic and psychological preparations for each and every game. We also need more leadership in our first eleven, and for me that means strengthening the spine of the team i.e. GK, CB and possibly the central midfield position (as per point two above). Nevertheless, our strong home form is a big positive of last season and a good basis to build on.
4. Our attack has been transformed over the last few months. Getting Aubameyang cost us dearly –  both money-wise and having to let go the eligible for UEFA-league football Giroud – but, together with the purchase of the also very-Arsenalesque Mkhi, we have now a brilliant balance in attack. The combo of Mesut, Laca, Auba and Mkhi up-front, all in their prime years, really has the potential to become as potent as our revered foursome Henry, Bergkamp, Ljunberg and Pires. These four will take care of the goals and will allow the rest of the players to play more defensively. Of course it is a team game, both in terms of attacking and defending, but we now have the sort of attackers who can make things happen against any team whilst the rest is focusing on not giving too much away. This allows the new manager to make an almost instant impact by having two sub-teams so to speak: one that defends a clean sheet with their lives and one that gets us the goals. Gradually these two can become integrated into a smooth one-team machine that can rival for the title eventually.
5. The final big positive of last season for me is the quality of our full backs. Nacho has been such a force and does not look like slowing down anytime soon; he was arguably our best player. I have also high hopes for Kola to improve significantly next season. Like many here, I have been critical of young Hector but he has improved a lot over the season. As a wing back you are going to leave your CB colleagues exposed at times and Bellerin needs to find a better balance between when to go and when to stay behind. I reckon with good (team)coaching this will improve further next season. But what really pleased me recently is Hector’s much sharper deliveries into the box. It would be silly to replace him now he is at the verge of breaking  through, but a good nr.2 should definitely be considered, either from within the squad or newly purchased.

By building further on these considerable positives and focussing on defending and leading better through tactics, team talk and new purchases, the new manager can make real progress in the coming season. An experienced manager who gets time to sort things out is of course what is needed right now. Somebody who has the proven tactical ability to make a team defend well and hard to beat as well as the vision to play (a form of) total football going forward. It does not have to be a big name but I cannot see why we couldn’t attract one. But it definitely needs to be somebody with tons of potential combined with real first team management experience.

The Juve boss would be ideal right now and Arteta would be a romantic mistake with potentially huge consequences. I sense it will not be either of them but time will tell. We are at a big crossroads and the club now need to justify their decision ‘to allow Arsene to go’ and their recent investments in overheads in the management team. One of the richest clubs in Europe and with everything going for it, Arsenal should now show real ambition and incisiveness.

By TotalArsenal.

When Arsene Wenger agreed to manage Arsenal back in the summer of 1996, it was a huge huge gamble for the club and for Arsene himself.
Dr Joseph Venglos had already shown what difficulties could arise for a foreign coach in England during his short and disappointing stint at Aston Villa, so the pitfalls were obvious.

But Arsene pulled off a stroke of genius, a move that won over the fan base in one swoop, a move that succeeded beyond even his wildest dreams: he signed Patrick Vieira, probably the most successful and productive transfer in his entire career.
That one transfer not only convinced the fans that we had a guy who knew what he was doing, it also transformed a team that was gradually winding down despite the additions of Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt a year earlier.

Wenger also had the common sense to listen to the coaching staff when he arrived, to trust in his own judgement and basically spent his first season watching the players before deciding who he could work with and improve and those he could not.
It showed a very analytical way of team building, not rushing in and tearing everything apart.  Not worrying that it was basically still George Graham’s defence even if they played with more freedom and élan under Wenger.
The following summer, in came Overmars, Grimaldi and Petit and the rest, well you all know the rest…

So now we move onto the homme nouveau this summer, what will he do, who will be his Vieira moment, who will he keep and who will he move on?

By common consensus Arsenal need strengthening in certain areas, the goalkeeper, a defensive midfielder, a centre-back, two young full-backs, a right winger, the list is endless, the new man will certainly have his own ideas for sure. But I would hope that he will maybe take his time, safe in the knowledge that Arsenal are not a sacking club and will give him the time he needs, as will the fans (I hope).

We might see a shift in style, players who maybe aren’t major constituents of the present team may become the next Ray Parlour, from obscurity to main player?
Players who we think are indispensable might be moved on to make way for new players,  may become the next Paul Merson?

This won’t happen overnight, we’ll probably see a few changes, a few tweaks, evolution rather than revolution, well I would really hope so.

I don’t think we have a bad squad, our home record proves that, our home record is second only to the runaway champions, that’s better than Man Utd, better than Liverpool, better than Chelsea and better than that other North London team who always manage to never win anything, despite the media telling anyone who will listen, how wonderful they are.

This Arsenal team has also succeeded in reaching a major domestic cup final and a European semi-final.
Only the away form has been a problem and that’s a tactical issue.

So what does the uomo nuovo do and who does he keep this summer?

The players who I think will form the basis of the squad for next season are:

Aubameyang, Bellerin, Cech, Chambers, Elneny, Holding, Iwobi, Kolasinac, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette, Ozil, Monreal, Xhaka, Mavropanos, Welbeck, Wilshere, Mustafi, Maitland-Niles.

You could supplement the above squad with youngsters like:

Macey, Osei-Tutu, Willock, Nketiah, Nelson, Nwakali, Dasilva, Dragomir, Bielik and Smith-Rowe.

The players who I think could be leaving this summer are mainly youngsters, many have been out on loan like Akpom, Asano, Jenkinson and Mavididi. David Ospina is probably the stand out departure from the senior squad who I can see going.

Now onto the ‘Question Marks’, those who could as easily stay as they could easily go over the next few months, for differing reasons like contracts or fitness:

Perez, Bramall, Reine-Adelaide, Sheaf, Martinez, Campbell, Cazorla, Koscielny and Ramsey.

Controversial?
I hope so, now what do you all think?

By Allezkev