Category Archives: The Rumour Mill

Should Mesut Özil be brought back into the Arsenal team? Cast your vote here!

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Over the last few seasons, we’ve all been debating the Özil conundrum.

We all know he’s the highest paid player at the club, on a whopping £350,000 a week since signing the new deal in January 2018. This new deal ends in the summer of 2021, meaning that he is free to leave in a years time for nothing.

The massive pay rise was offered to him at a time when Arsenal’s historic mishandling of contracts once again came to a head, with both of our star players; Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez, were at a crossroads.

We either had to sell them before their current deals ran out (otherwise they could leave on a free) or offer them big big pay rises. At the time, and I still stand by this today, I said that we should have offered Alexis Sanchez mega money and kept him, and sold Özil while he still had some resale value. In the end, Arsene went the other way and look where we are now.

Alexis Sanchez recently said that after one training session with Manchester United, he came home and asked his agent whether he could rip up his contract and return to Arsenal. Whatever you want to say about Alexis Sanchez, he was for me the best player we’ve had at the club in the last 10 years. He was that good. And along with his phenomenal ability, he always gave 110% every single time he wore an Arsenal shirt.

Özil on the other hand was the exact opposite. He was a maverick, a luxury player who did well one week and disappeared the next. And ever since his new deal and pay rise to £350,000 a week, he has done nothing for the club.

Arsene Wenger projected that buying a player of Özil’s quality would have cost the club a lot more, justifying the increased wages. But I think it’s pretty obvious that the new deal has been a complete disaster.

But yesterday gave a glimmer of hope. Özil featured in the 3-2 friendly defeat to Aston Villa, and a lot of Arsenal fans went mental at the fact that Özil actually played a match for the club. But what does his future hold?

Should Özil be a first team player, contributing as much as we know he can? Should he be a squad player who can help the team in a few games, but primarily from the bench? Or should he be sold ASAP so we can free up funds for new signings?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section and cast your vote below!

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Granit Xhaka eyes January exit… is anyone bothered?

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See you then!

In a development which is slightly surprising, it seems as if Granit Xhaka is looking to leave Arsenal this January.

According to The Mirror, Xhaka is eyeing a move back to German after the whole disaster at the Crystal Palace.

My thoughts on this?

Look, it’s a sad state of affairs to let it get to this point and the whole Unai Emery / Arsenal captain situation was just a ridiculous sequence of mistakes. Letting the players vote for their captain? And then having 5 captains? What on earth was that all about?

Would I be sad or disappointed if Xhaka left Arsenal.

To be quite honest, no.

Personally I would be happy if he left, because while I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy, I feel that his influence on the team and the squad is too much. As I’ve posted previously, his influence at Arsenal is akin to John Terry at Chelsea. So if a figure like that left the club, I have no doubt that we would be in a much better place.

As well as that, he just isn’t good enough. He can’t tackle, doesn’t have any pace and can’t lead the team effectively. His presence in the team means that our midfield is already disadvantaged and pedestrian. Xhaka leaving Arsenal would solve a lot of our problems.

Plus, he’s still at an age where we’d get something back for him, so for me it’s a complete no brainer!

Let’s just hope he can find a suitor to stump up for him, and honestly if a team offered anything over £20 million, I’d snap their arm off.

 

What Should We Do With Mesut Özil? Cast Your Vote Here!

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There is no player in the Arsenal squad that divides opinion more than Mesut Özil.

Some people think he’s lazy, others think he’s under appreciated – it’s hard to know what to think of him.

On one hand he is capable of doing things no-one else can do with a football – and that is no exaggeration. I can’t think of anyone else who can see a pass like this guy. In terms of vision, execution and delivery he is a one off. He is consistently top of all the assist leader boards, and has been for the last few seasons. He was a massive part of Germany winning the World Cup in 2014 and has won honours with Real Madrid and Arsenal. On his day, he is unplayable.

But on the other he is frustrating. We all know he is capable of 10 out of 10 performances but they don’t come often enough. The problem is he isn’t like Messi, Ronaldo or even Neymar – players who earn huge money but can in the blink of an eye pull off something special – score from a free-kick, lash one in from 30 yards, take on 3/4 players and score – basically inspire the team when the going gets tough. If Arsenal are having a bad day at the office, then so is Özil.

The problem now is Emery is (quite rightly) a manager who expects certain things from his players. If we want to support the new manager and want the club to move forwards then the players have to adapt. We’ve seen a marked improvement from players like Granit Xhaka, Hector Bellerin, Alex Iwobi and others, yet some like Özil have been left behind.

The other big problem is the size of Özil’s wage packet. He’s on superstar money and according to various sources the second highest paid player in the Premier League.

List of highest paid players in the Premier League:

1. Alexis Sanchez (Manchester United) – £500,000 a week
2. Mesut Özil (Arsenal) – £350,000 a week
3. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) – £290,000 a week
4. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City) – £260,000 a week
5. Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United) – £250,000 a week
6. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) – £220,000 a week
7. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) – £200,000 a week
= Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) – £200,000 a week
= David de Gea (Manchester United) – £200,000 a week
= Pierre Emerick Aubameyang  (Arsenal) – £200,000 a week
= Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) – £200,000 a week
= Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) – £200,000 a week

As you can see Manchester United, unsurprisingly, have some mega stars on their books, which makes sense as they are constantly at the top of the richest football clubs in the world. City have a few names in there, which also doesn’t surprise anyone and we also have Aubameyang on high wages, as he was cheap from Dortmund and to his credit, he keeps scoring goals.

But to have Mesut Özil as the second highest earner in the entire league is just ludicrous! And he’d be the highest earner if we didn’t balls up the whole Alexis Sanchez situation and kept him at the club (which for the record, we should have).

Arsene Wenger did many great things at Arsenal but giving Özil a truly astonishing pay rise was crazy. The money would have been far better spent trying to keep Alexis Sanchez (who was our best player by a mile) as well as trying to hold on to Aaron Ramsey.

The issue now is finding another club who would be stupid enough to pay Özil that kind of money. The only way Arsenal could find a willing buyer would be to drastically reduce the fee for the player – so a footballer who is probably worth around £45 million in the current climate is probably only worth around £20 million now, and that’s if we’re lucky.

But what do you think we should do with Özil? Keep him? Sell him in the summer? Sell him now? 

Cast your vote below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

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Arsenal Targeting Real Madrid’s Lucas Vazquez?

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Arsenal are looking to get back into the top tier of English football following a couple of disappointing campaigns. The Gunners struggled mightily in Premier League play last season and wound up finishing sixth behind Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea. Arsenal used a late surge to stay above Burnley, who finished 9 points back of Arsene Wenger’s side.

The Gunners parted ways with the French manager after more than 2 decades in charge, and he has since been replaced by ex-Paris St. Germain boss Unai Emery. Emery is expected to take an aggressive approach this summer with the hopes of revamping the squad heading into next season. According to OKDIARIO, Emery has his sights set on a Real Madrid player in Lucas Vazquez.

Emery believes that Vazquez is underutilized at the gigantic Spanish club and that he has the potential to become a star in a new situation. The 26-year-old winger is currently enjoying his time with the Spanish national side at the World Cup in Russia, but Emery would like to bring him to North London once Spain are ousted from the tournament.

When betting on football matches and transfers, it’s crucial to remember that nothing is certain. How many transfer rumors have ultimately been scuttled before anything came to pass? A lot has to go right for Arsenal to land a player of Vazquez’ caliber. The odds strongly favor Vazquez staying where he is.  Still, Emery seems to have a way of getting what he wants.

Emery is reportedly ready to triple Vazquez’ salary in an attempt to lure him away from the Santiago Bernabeu. Emery is reportedly ready to offer Vazquez a deal worth £7 million annually, which is quite a bit more than he currently earns in Spain.

With Real Madrid, Vazquez has served as more of a squad rotation player than a regular mainstay in the starting XI. This past season, the Spaniard bagged 4 goals with 7 assists in 16 La Liga starts. Real are the only club Vazquez has ever known, as he came up through their youth academy before making his debut for the senior side in 2015. He did have a brief loan spell at Espanyol during the 2014-15 campaign.

In all, Vazquez has scored 10 goals in 91 appearances for Los Blancos.

Vazquez is just the latest name to pop up in what has already been a busy summer for Arsenal. Emery has already agreed to deals to acquire Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno and Juventus right back Stephan Lichtsteiner. The Gunners have also been linked with Borussia Dortmund central defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira.

Vazquez has made a pair of appearances for Spain at the World Cup as the side won Group B and advanced to the knockout round. The 2010 World Cup champions will take on Uruguay in the round of 16.

A path to luring Vazquez away from the Bernabeu may be difficult. The 3-time defending Champions League holders reportedly consider Vazquez to be untouchable and would be reluctant to sanction a sale of the player. Vazquez is currently locked into a deal to stay with Madrid until 2021, so the player may have no choice but to stay even if he wishes to leave and earn more money abroad.

 

Should Arsenal Sell Alexis Sanchez? Vote & Comment Here!

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So here we are, the Alexis Sanchez conundrum.

The forward, and Arsenal’s best player, is into the final 12 months of his contract and is apparently looking for a move away from the club – and that club seems to be Manchester City after Bayern Munich’s interest has petered out, added to the fact that they have just signed James Rodriguez (on loan) from Real Madrid.

So the million-dollar question is should Arsenal sell him?

The £50 million valuation from Arsenal seems to be a sticking point as no club has yet to officially submit a concrete bid for the Chilean. So the question is are Manchester City looking at getting him for far less?

As a £50 million bid from the blue side of Manchester would put the ball in Arsenal’s court.

Alexis Sanchez is currently on £130,000 per week and it’s reported that Sanchez is looking for an increase to £400,000 per week – a figure Arsenal are never going to pay in a million years – the consequences to our existing wage structure would be catastrophic.

Our first option is to basically keep Sanchez, hope he keeps performing at his usual high level and use him to try and win the Premier League – selling him for nothing at the end of the season.

And the other is to sell him for £30-40 million (no club will offer the reported £50 million for a player with 1 year left on his contract) and re-invest that money into buying another player, such as Thomas Lemar from Monaco.

The thing is, for all his mood swings and negative demeanour on the pitch, he is our best player, someone who can win games on his own. Arsenal fans forgive his hissy fits because he is truly world class. You may laugh, but he is a player we are lucky to have at Arsenal and in the Premier League, only a handful of players come close to his level. Don’t make any mistake; if we lost him we’d suffer.

So is it worth strengthening our rivals? Manchester City want him and Chelsea, who lost out on Lukaku this summer, need a forward. Selling to either one of those clubs automatically makes them much stronger and solves a problem they have. Keeping Sanchez however gives them problems that help us in the long run.

But with Arsenal, it will probably come down to the maths.

Why We Should Sell Alexis Sanchez:

Selling him is probably Arsenal’s first preference considering the big lump sum we would get. Arsenal would argue that the fee received could go towards another player to strengthen the side and added to that, we would get rid of a “negative influence” from the squad.

And why would we want to keep a player who doesn’t want to play for us?

Why We Should Keep Alexis Sanchez:

We have one of the best players in the world at the club, and are paying them £130,000 per week – when players of similar stature are demanding well in excess of that.

Alexis Sanchez is apparently not the kind of player to sulk and would still give 110% week in, week out for the team, which would help us go as far as we can in the Premier League.

Arsenal paid £35 million for Alexis in 2014, have had 3 productive seasons from him and would get one more. £35 million for a player of his calibre, for 4 seasons, could be considered a bargain looking at the transfer market as it is today.

So what if we have to release him next summer for free? We’ve had one of the best talents the Premier League has seen for 4 seasons and paid the same amount that Liverpool did for Andy Carroll for Christ’s sake!

Vote & Comment:

Anyway, place your vote below and also leave a comment about your thoughts on the Alexis Sanchez situation – and I will replying to any comments!

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