Angelito wrote:As a diversion, let's talk about players whose contracts expire at the end of next season: Walcott, Welbeck, Ramsey, Cech, and Giroud.
Players whose contracts expire at the end of the season: Ozil, Alexis, Wilshere, Campbell.
Jeremy Wilson is reporting that we have started preliminary discussions with Welbeck and Ramsey. There are no on-going contract talks with Ozil, Alexis, or Wilshere.
Giroud and Walcott are set to depart in the summer. Wilshere is a goner too. Alexis will leave for sure - only question is if it's in Jan or in the summer.
Alexis scored 30 goals last season. He's been our leading goal scorer since he's joined. No winger has scored more than Alexis in the Premier League since his arrival. I'm not sure who would be able to reproduce that once he's gone.
A sticky position to be in.
In rather uplifting news, nonetheless, we shall continue to be clowns by offering Welbeck a Theo-esque deal.
Ramsey will no doubt sign a £150k a week deal.
Gosh, I just wish either one of Alexis or Ozil stayed.
I'll try and answer that question. If you can't replace like for like, then you get players and adopt a system that will get the best out of what you currently have a concept Wenger seems to struggle with imo. If, for example, your first ix is pretty good but full of injury prone players then 1. you make sure you have/buy players that will make your second team as good as your first and 2. you rotate/rest the injury prone players at every chance you get.
Another example using Lacazette. Lacazette to me seems capable of at least a goal contribution per game. Approach with him should be how do I turn that return into back-to-back wins. First, you strengthen your defense. Playing a midfielder who can barely move, a keeper with very little to no agility, and defenders who think they're forwards is definitely not what i'm talking about. Second, you get players who can play off of or with Lacazette considering he makes good runs as well as nice passes. In this case, you don't want to be playing Lacazette with players who don't have a football brain, good movement, or good finishing. I know the players I'm looking at
A third example using Xhaka. Xhaka's best assets seems to be his long range shots and passes. Approach with him should be how do I free him up to take shots and make passes. First, you lessen the amount of mop up work he has to do and instead surround him with players who are better at the job. If, for example, that means no Ozil alongside him and you know Xhaka provides more value to the team than Ozil then, for the sake of the team's balance, drop Ozil. Second, you don't play players who do not have the intelligence to play the ball to Xhaka's left foot as well as players who are not ready to pounce on rebounds. Again, I know who I'm looking at here.
I could go on with examples but
TL;DR: My point is, if you can't buy quality players or you can't fit quality players properly into your team, then go for balance.
