Sentences with phrase «out of a squad which»

«That I think is the brief, but we want to work that through — but it is an inspirational manager and management team to get the best out of a squad which has got high potential,»

He's turned round players who had previously flattered to deceive such as Danny Drinkwater and Jamie Vardy and got every last ounce of effort out of a squad which in a certain light, has an alarmingly lower league hue.

Not exact matches

Instead we had a squad that does what it always does which is fall apart at the seems as a results of injuries and, IMO, bad mentality or weak will power, resulting in a run of results when it mattered most (as per usual) taking us out of contention early in 2016.

not quite sure about the maths here... but realistically 3 1 to city if both teams put in their best... only hope is they are knackered after napoli in which case i wouldnt rule out a draw if we can keep a decent tempo... real test in the middle of the park and i would like to see wilshire start as he is the only squad member who can control a ball and look up at the same time... another xhaka ramsey routine will see us lose sadly

Three Arsenal players — Debuchy, Giroud and Ozil — look set to be out of action until the turn of the year, at least, which means that Wenger has been handed a serious kick up his backside, with a small squad at the start of the season further shortened by this injury pileup that also sees Ramsey, Arteta, Diaby, Monreal and Sanogo not yet fit to return.

It's worth noting that Benzema was left out of Real Madrid's match - day squad for their opening La Liga fixture of the season, against Sporting Gijon, and Rafa Benitez's side drew a blank in that fixture which could leave the Spanish giants realising just how important a member of their Bernabeu squad the French international really is.

Picking a best XI from this season's Premier League but with just one player allowed from each club... who gets in from Chelsea's superb title - winning squad, and which stars stood out at the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United?

The England boss included the Arsenal midfielder in his provisional 26 - man squad for the upcoming tournament, but could still drop Wilshere out of his final 23, which is to be named next week.

Ship out the likes of Mustafi, xhaka and perhaps Kolasinac who has flattered to receive and you have makings of a squad which could perhaps challenge Man City.

You cant escape he fact that Podolski was played rarely and when he was he was played out of position much the same way that Wenger has assembled a squad of players most of which are a talented bunch, but, Wenger has failed to build a team who fit n with each other, we have a midfield that overtly populated with players who al excel in the same role BUT have no solid defensive midfield talent and no options in defence when players have crap periods or are long term injury problems.

The 25 - year - old has struggled with injuries in recent times, including this summer which is why he has been left out of Joachim Low's Germany squad for Euro 2016.

Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has been left out of the squad travelling to China which has added fuel to rumours that he would be set for a summer exit.

Conte is the perfect man — a leader, which is needed to get the best out of the squad.

It is exactly this lack of ambition to clear out all the «squad players» which is a euphemism for being NOT GOOD ENOUGH, that is keeping our club as also rans.

So the fact that he confirmed his interest in the young English defender Tyrone Mings, as reported by The Mirror, is fairly out of character for the Prof.. The 21 - year old is currently playing in the Championship for Ipswich Town and his usual role is as a left back, but at 6ft 3in and with his power and pace, it is thought that he could easily make the switch to central defence, which is coincidentally the weakest part of the Arsenal squad right now.

Leicester City right - back Danny Simpson was left out of Gareth Southgate's England national team squad which will face Malta on October 8 and Slovenia on October 11.

if it, s the case wenger shpould do like other manager when they want to get rid of a player, freeze him out the squad and make him train with the kids or on his own but that, s not wenger, s style i guess!do players have a say on which club they, ll end up??

I personally think he needs to bulk up some... Bielek is earning rave reviews though and his progression is going as planned, Akpom needs a proper talking to, his problem is more attotude than lack of ability, just like Gnabry, I think because both had a run with the senior squad they feel like they are big enough to.command regular shirts where they play which is not the case, you have to earn the right to play on a Saturday afternoon, its never handed out to you... all in all, its been a disastrous season for us of you look at progress Te English players are making at Spuds whilst our» s sit on their asses earning ridiculous money for doing eff all....

Let's face it goalkeepers tend to march to the beat of a different drum and Szczesny certainly fell into that category, but most of his antics were relatively harmless and simply reflected a certain level of immaturity that isn't uncommon for someone thrust into the limelight at such a young age... lord knows we've seen that happen with numerous players throughout the years and very few were ever banished for such behaviour... the only on - field action that drove me crazy was his inability to take a deep breath and not try to rush the play with an ill - timed throw at certain points in the game when common sense suggested holding the ball and slowing things down... the fact that he continued to do this probably had a lot to do with the glaring lack of coaching time spent with the goalkeepers... ultimately he made the fateful decision to take his frustrations out into the public sphere and paid dearly for it... in the end, his services were wanted by several of the best Italian squads, which is significant considering the historical importance placed on the defensive side of the ball in Serie A... all I know is that if someone asked me to pick the most athletically gifted goalkeeper we have had in our squad since the arrival of Wenger, without hesitation, he would be my pick and for that reason his departure is more than a little disappointing... what else is new though

So we have the smallest squad in the PL, which makes us play players injured or out of position.

Tomas Rosicky, Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta are all out of contract come the end of the season, which will free up space for three additions to our squad.

may be wenger is aware of his poor tactics, because he always fails to put out his best squad on the pitch which all winds down to his poor tactics.

its clear to all that even with a full squad which i believe is good enough to challenge for the title is miss firing, we are kittens in the first half and lions in the second half, so i think its time for AW to bow out its the right thing to do, we need a Klopp type manager full of passion and caring manager, caring because we have a few babies in the team that needs hand holding and cuddling

Yes, sometimes the players make individuals errors which can not be blamed on Wenger but Wenger is NOT giving us the BEST POSSIBLE CHANCE TO WIN EVERY GAME because of his lack of tactics, playing out of form players, not rotating squad and not having enough cover in CB and DM, HE IS TO BLAME HERE!!!

3 League titles / 6 Fa cups and constant champions league last 16odd years out of 19 also but no matter what anyone says his time as our coach has come to an end even if we win the league which in fairness we have a great shot so going out of Europe could help us win the league for Wenger to leave on a high like fergie did... This has to be his last season in charge along with Stan the Conman... Money needs put into this squad to get it to the next level and a different direction because in all honesty when we beat Bayern they just did nt take their chances like they did last night and they already had a great squad and added to it in the summer with Costa etc... we had a real chance this year if we had brought in more than Cech and that is Wengers fault!

Couldn't agree more with you regards the negative postings however I think it's more a reflection on how divided our fans are, bad results and wenger out posts get thumbs up, a win of any kind and wenger out posts get thumbs down.me personally a wins a win and I actually thought we did ol but I'm very much in the wenger out brigade, the wins really do cloud the reality in my opinion which is wenger has built a squad so unbalanced its scary, miss managed it and not focused at all on the defensive side of the game, I do however feel that some though not all on both sides are guilty of stepping over the edge as regards personal abuse and it's all getting a bit ott

am tired of wenger.the man has got good skills, but somehow he fails to address basic issues in the team like buying a striker and a cdm in the last summer.at one time, arsenal had good squad but had a keeper who at times committed mistakes i.e almunia.then after ozil came and arsenal were first in december, all wenger had to do was buy a pacy striker with eye for goal.but wenger did nt so obviously and instead bought an injured kallstrom.agreed ppl fans will keep saying managers shud hav played this guy or that one and so.but in case of wenger, its abt ignoring team issues t (to prove a point he can win without listening to critics and the fans which he never will), and then playing players out of form, out of position, and buying players that do nt fit ur style like giroud!!

alot of player's have been loaned out and sold, which obviously has reduced the size of our squad and a few more could be leaving, yet we have only signed one old boy reject keeper from our enemy and two teenagers.

This is an incredibly difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons, most importantly because over the years our once vaunted «beautiful» style of play has become a shadow of it's former self, only to be replaced by a less than stellar «plug and play» mentality where players play out of position and adjustments / substitutions are rarely forthcoming before the 75th minute... if you look at our current players, very few would make sense in the traditional Wengerian system... at present, we don't have the personnel to move the ball quickly from deep - lying position, efficient one touch midfielders that can make the necessary through balls or the disciplined and pacey forwards to stretch defences into wide positions, without the aid of the backs coming up into the final 3rd, so that we can attack the defensive lanes in the same clinical fashion we did years ago... on this current squad, we have only 1 central defender on staf, Mustafi, who seems to have any prowess in the offensive zone or who can even pass two zones through so that we can advance play quickly out of our own end (I have seen some inklings that suggest Holding might have some offensive qualities but too early to tell)... unfortunately Mustafi has a tendency to get himself in trouble when he gets overly aggressive on the ball... from our backs out wide, we've seen pace from the likes of Bellerin and Gibbs and the spirited albeit offensively stunted play of Monreal, but none of these players possess the skill - set required in the offensive zone for the new Wenger scheme which requires deft touches, timely runs to the baseline and consistent crossing, especially when Giroud was playing and his ratio of scored goals per clear chances was relatively low (better last year though)... obviously I like Bellerin's future prospects, as you can't teach pace, but I do worry that he regressed last season, which was obvious to Wenger because there was no way he would have used Ox as the right side wing - back so often knowing that Barcelona could come calling in the off - season, if he thought otherwise... as for our midfielders, not a single one, minus the more confident Xhaka I watched played for the Swiss national team a couple years ago, who truly makes sense under the traditional Wenger model... Ramsey holds onto the ball too long, gives the ball away cheaply far too often and abandons his defensive responsibilities on a regular basis (doesn't score enough recently to justify): that being said, I've always thought he does possess a little something special, unfortunately he thinks so too... Xhaka is a little too slow to ever boss the midfield and he tends to telegraph his one true strength, his long ball play: although I must admit he did get a bit better during some points in the latter part of last season... it always made me wonder why whenever he played with Coq Wenger always seemed to play Francis in a more advanced role on the pitch... as for Coq, he is way too reckless at the wrong times and has exhibited little offensive prowess yet finds himself in and around the box far too often... let's face it Wenger was ready to throw him in the trash heap when injuries forced him to use Francis and then he had the nerve to act like this was all part of a bigger Wenger constructed plan... he like Ramsey, Xhaka and Elneny don't offer the skills necessary to satisfy the quick transitory nature of our old offensive scheme or the stout defensive mindset needed to protect the defensive zone so that our offensive players can remain aggressive in the final third... on the front end, we have Ozil, a player of immense skill but stunted by his physical demeanor that tends to offend, the fact that he's been played out of position far too many times since arriving and that the players in front of him, minus Sanchez, make little to no sense considering what he has to offer (especially Giroud); just think about the quick counter-attack offence in Real or the space and protection he receives in the German National team's midfield, where teams couldn't afford to focus too heavily on one individual... this player was a passing «specialist» long before he arrived in North London, so only an arrogant or ignorant individual would try to reinvent the wheel and / or not surround such a talent with the necessary components... in regards to Ox, Walcott and Welbeck, although they all possess serious talents I see them in large part as headless chickens who are on the injury table too much, lack the necessary first - touch and / or lack the finishing flair to warrant their inclusion in a regular starting eleven; I would say that, of the 3, Ox showed the most upside once we went to a back 3, but even he became a bit too consumed by his pending contract talks before the season ended and that concerned me a bit... if I had to choose one of those 3 players to stay on it would be Ox due to his potential as a plausible alternative to Bellerin in that wing - back position should we continue to use that formation... in Sanchez, we get one of the most committed skill players we've seen on this squad for some years but that could all change soon, if it hasn't already of course... strangely enough, even he doesn't make sense given the constructs of the original Wenger offensive model because he holds onto the ball too long and he will give the ball up a little too often in the offensive zone... a fact that is largely forgotten due to his infectious energy and the fact that the numbers he has achieved seem to justify the means... finally, and in many ways most crucially, Giroud, there is nothing about this team or the offensive system that Wenger has traditionally employed that would even suggest such a player would make sense as a starter... too slow, too inefficient and way too easily dispossessed... once again, I think he has some special skills and, at times, has showed some world - class qualities but he's lack of mobility is an albatross around the necks of our offence... so when you ask who would be our best starting 11, I don't have a clue because of the 5 or 6 players that truly deserve a place in this side, 1 just arrived, 3 aren't under contract beyond 2018 and the other was just sold to Juve... man, this is theraputic because following this team is like an addiction to heroin without the benefits

The American squad's most dazzling innovation is the double tower lift, in which two swimmers, perched one on top of the other, are hoisted out of the water by an underwater support beam made up of six teammates — whose feet, of course, aren't allowed to touch the bottom of the pool.

Finally, and to reiterate an earlier point, the way forward for this club is to stop paying below average bench players so much money and to focus the bulk of the weekly wages on establishing a dominant starting 11... this will require the club to eat some wages in order to ship some players out, get rid of any deadwood over the age of 21, develop a cutting edge scouting service and put your money where your mouth is for once... I would much rather have a starting 11 that was world - class and give some reasonably paid young blue - chippers playing time when injuries occur than have 2 or 3 world class players surrounded by a plethora of overpaid and underwhelming players... management would no longer be able to sell their half - baked plans to the fans under the guise of «winning now», which any intelligent fan knows is a crap - shoot at best, and instead create a a squad that provides hope for the present and the future... this is exactly the model that has been used by Barcelona, Real & Bayern, so it should be good enough for us... by the way, until Messi & Ronaldo re-signed just recently all 3 clubs weekly wages were on par with ours... think about that for a second or two

Following a disappointing campaign in which the Reds finished sixth in the league and were knocked out at the semi-final stage in both the FA Cup and Capital One Cup, it appears the club are wasting no time in strengthening their squad ahead of the new season.

Having fallen out of this season's title race in a campaign which will almost certainly finish trophyless for City, Manuel Pellegrini may be under some pressure to rebuild his squad with some big - name signings.

I saw a brilliant article on another Arsenal forum that looked at a study produced by the Football Observatory site in which various player attributes are combined to work out the worth of the players, and these values are then aggregated to provide a valuation for the whole squad.

Since Francis Coquelin's return to Arsenal in the New Year, Flamini has not made one appearance for the Gunners, and was not even given a space in the squad for the opening game of the season against West Ham United, which would seem to indicate that he is completely out of favour with Arsene Wenger.

whatever you think of ramsey... and in my books he is a decent b2b but certainly not top class... he is not going to control the area between edge of box and centre line which is what all great DMs do... nor has coquelin proved that to me... he is a guttusso type player and has improved massively in that role... not convinced it is what will take us to challenging for titles however which is why a cavalho type DM is a needed addition especially as arteta and flamini are obviously not up to the task... but have always said that wengers job is to get best out of ozil santi and wilshere who are the real creative world class strengths of this squad... they need protection behind them and options in front... at moment the real worry is that wenger will continue to use mertesakher at CB and fail to bring in quality striker... so the song remains the same... without quality DM and attacking option we will be trying to retain 3rd place and reach qf of cl

Arsene Wenger confirmed his new two - year contract yesterday, which will see him remain in control of the squad for the new season, and the Frenchman has been ordered to improve his transfer dealings after a long - drawn out transfer window last summer.

The season before last 14 15 we did better with the points than last season even though we came second from last season we know we conceded many goals from set pieces and were very short on goal scoring the logic of this season was to fix the defensive department and the offensive department by introducing a defender to reduce the amount of goals conceded unless holding is to be the man we havent us of yet fixed the problem on the offensive department we all know the only offensive player is chuba apkom well else we have not addressed the problem so in reality I do not except Arsenal to finish the season with more than 70 points and personally think minimum point required to win the premier league is 85 points have we got that in our squad it will remain to be seen if chuba and holding are enough for a key to unlock the season we will soon find out but I think MR wenger is gambling with the introduction of new manageress which lives us with Liverpool and Leicester and who will take the points off united chelsea and city the next 6 games should give us the indication to what may happen to the long run for the new year

(1) this squad has way too many moving parts and very few of our players are good enough at their preferred position let alone relying on them in whatever position Wenger and his magic eight ball decide in the tunnel prior to the game... when teams do this it generally signals issues within the club, much like Jose last year and Van Gael before him... no one gets settled, the chemistry is almost non-existent and if provides a built - in excuse when the team comes up short... these issues fall squarely on Wenger, both for his decisions regarding players coming in and for his inability to rid the team of those players who aren't cutting it... in actually fact we have only 6 real starters on this current squad and that's being generous (Sanchez, Ozil, Lacazette, Sead, Kos & Cazorla)... which is discouraging because Cazorla is injured and might never play again, Sanchez is wanting out and the club is lying to us about his injury status, Lacazette receives no service, Ozil is relatively disinterested out there, Kos is getting up there and Sead is just trying to settle in... there isn't a single other player that would start regularly on any of the other top 3 teams, which should be the standard... imagine this team moving forward if Wenger only sells before the window closes

Well Arsenal fans, it now turns out that Arsene Wenger's squad purge which saw quite a few of the Arsenal fringe players leave the Emirates during the summer transfer window could have been even larger, but our England international midfield star Jack Wilshere turned down the chance to leave Arsenal on transfer deadline day despite being offered a hefty pay packet of around # 90,000 a week according to a report by The Mirror.

What depresses me about watching them this year is how obviously unhappy the team is... there is little to no chemistry among these guys — which is dispiriting to see on a Spurs squad... I think the big discrepancy in the home vs. road record is indicative of that... it seems like they just run out of gas and don't really rally around each other in the 4th quarter, particularly on the road... they still try because there's a lot of pride in them, but this team just doesn't really seem to believe in each other, if that even makes sense.

However, more transfer activity is expected, particularly in terms of players heading out of the exit door which in turn will likely raise further transfer funds to strengthen the squad.

We are coming out of the difficult financial years and should now be substantially strengthening the squad and wc striker is a glaring deficiency which has not been addressed.

Now I think there is still reasons to be cheerful, I agree Man C & Chelski have spent & bought some good players, we all understand that 5 of those teams might be in the CL proper which is a huge distraction for those 4 - 5 teams.Chelsea will not be able to field the same 13 - 14 players all season, as for Man C they were very frail at the back last season, add to that 2 flying wing backs and I'm not sure they will be any better this coming season.LFC will most probably have CL as well if they qualify and haven't exactly bought great players apart from Salah who could be a good aquasistion for them.Spuds have sold a good player & strengthened a rival & still not bought a single player yet, Man U have bought 2 good players & in Lukaku have a proven goal scorer in the PL but if they play the same dour way they did last season & with the added games the CL brings will they perform week in week out in the league??? As for Everton yes they have released a lot of players and also brought in a lot too to give better quality in the squad as they have Europa league the same as US the big difference is I think we will play squad players & youngsters maybe with a few senior players all the way up to the QF This tells me most of our rivals will pave the way for us to field pretty much the same side every weekend in the PL thus giving us an advantage over all the other 5 teams playing in the CL & Europa, just remember the League has been won in the last 2 seasons by teams NOT in Europe YES we are this season but I think Wenger will put all his eggs in the League basket and field an under strength side in all comps hence focusing on the League until we are no longer in the race.

While they did splash out # 75m on defender Virgil van Dijk, as noted by BBC Sport, which does incidentally address a major weakness in the current squad, it doesn't cater for the loss of one of their best players.

Blackpool manager Jose Riga has described striker Nile Ranger, 23, as «stupid» after a pre-match Twitter outburst when he was left out of Tuesday's squad which drew with Middlesbrough --(Blackpool Gazette)

Since then, we have witnessed the same problems year in and year out plaguing our squad — lack of a proper DM and CF, not enough cover in defense and of course every year we go through an injury crisis which just somehow always seems to catch our manager with his pants down.

As it stands, this squad is fairly well positioned to compete for the Wenger Cup and make a deep run in the Europa, if and only if we play first stringers in Europe and use the bench for the League and FA Cups... that being said, and based on the fragility of the manager and the team in recent campaigns, it's more likely that Wenger will focus on a top 4 finish and the FA Cup... while the reasons for such an approach may appear logical, it would confirm a rather disturbing trend and appear counter intuitive for any team which claims to have higher aspirations... I feel that Wenger simply can't afford to put all his eggs in the Europa basket because if he fails the potential backlash could cripple any top 4 chances due to the aforementioned fragile psyche that tends to rear it's ugly head like our own personal groundhog day each and every February... furthermore, can you even imagine Wenger bringing in the necessary recruits to adequately supply top quality lineups in a Thursday / Sunday dominated schedule; based on everything I've seen in recent years, I can't see that happening... in fact, mark my words, it's more likely that we see Lacazette playing out wide in Alexis's position with Giroud at striker, than we see Wenger make the necessary moves to right this ship... god, I hope I'm wrong but is it really that far - fetched considering what we've witnessed for past several years

Time for some brutal honesty... this team, as it stands, is in no better position to compete next season than they were 12 months ago, minus the fact that some fans have been easily snowed by the acquisition of Lacazette, the free transfer LB and the release of Sanogo... if you look at the facts carefully you will see a team that still has far more questions than answers... to better show what I mean by this statement I will briefly discuss the current state of affairs on a position - by - position basis... in goal we have 4 potential candidates, but in reality we have only 1 option with any real future and somehow he's the only one we have actively tried to get rid of for years because he and his father were a little too involved on social media and he got caught smoking (funny how people still defend Wiltshire under the same and far worse circumstances)... you would think we would want to keep any goaltender that Juventus had interest in, as they seem to have a pretty good history when it comes to that position... as far as the defenders on our current roster there are only a few individuals whom have the skill and / or youth worthy of our time and / or investment, as such we should get rid of anyone who doesn't meet those simple requirements, which means we should get rid of DeBouchy, Gibbs, Gabriel, Mertz and loan out Chambers to see if last seasons foray with Middlesborough was an anomaly or a prediction of things to come... some fans have lamented wildly about the return of Mertz to the starting lineup due to his FA Cup performance but these sort of pie in the sky meanderings are indicative of what's wrong with this club and it's wishy - washy fan - base... in addition to these moves the club should aggressively pursue the acquisition of dominant and mobile CB to stabilize an all too fragile defensive group that has self - destructed on numerous occasions over the past 5 seasons... moving forward and building on our need to re-establish our once dominant presence throughout the middle of the park we need to target a CDM then do whatever it takes to get that player into the fold without any of the usual nickel and diming we have become famous for (this kind of ruthless haggling has cost us numerous special players and certainly can't help make the player in question feel good about the way their future potential employer feels about them)... in order for us to become dominant again we need to be strong up the middle again from Goalkeeper to CB to DM to ACM to striker, like we did in our most glorious years before and during Wenger's reign... with this in mind, if we want Ozil to be that dominant attacking midfielder we can't keep leaving him exposed to constant ridicule about his lack of defensive prowess and provide him with the proper players in the final third... he was never a good defensive player in Real or with the German National squad and they certainly didn't suffer as a result of his presence on the pitch... as for the rest of the midfield the blame falls squarely in the hands of Wenger and Gazidis, the fact that Ramsey, Ox, Sanchez and even Ozil were allowed to regularly start when none of the aforementioned had more than a year left under contract is criminal for a club of this size and financial might... the fact that we could find money for Walcott and Xhaka, who weren't even guaranteed starters, means that our whole business model needs a complete overhaul... for me it's time to get rid of some serious deadweight, even if it means selling them below what you believe their market value is just to simply right this ship and change the stagnant culture that currently exists... this means saying goodbye to Wiltshire, Elneny, Carzola, Walcott and Ramsey... everyone, minus Elneny, have spent just as much time on the training table as on the field of play, which would be manageable if they weren't so inconsistent from a performance standpoint (excluding Carzola, who is like the recent version of Rosicky — too bad, both will be deeply missed)... in their places we need to bring in some proven performers with no history of injuries... up front, although I do like the possibilities that a player like Lacazette presents, the fact that we had to wait so many years to acquire some true quality at the striker position falls once again squarely at the feet of Wenger... this issue highlights the ultimate scam being perpetrated by this club since the arrival of Kroenke: pretend your a small market club when it comes to making purchases but milk your fans like a big market club when it comes to ticket prices and merchandising... I believe the reason why Wenger hasn't pursued someone of Henry's quality, minus a fairly inexpensive RVP, was that he knew that they would demand players of a similar ilk to be brought on board and that wasn't possible when the business model was that of a «selling» club... does it really make sense that we could only make a cheeky bid for Suarez, or that we couldn't get Higuain over the line when he was being offered up for half the price he eventually went to Juve for, or that we've only paid any interest to strikers who were clearly not going to press their current teams to let them go to Arsenal like Benzema or Cavani... just part of the facade that finally came crashing down when Sanchez finally called their bluff... the fact remains that no one wants to win more than Sanchez, including Wenger, and although I don't agree with everything that he has done off the field, I would much rather have Alexis front and center than a manager who has clearly bought into the Kroenke model in large part due to the fact that his enormous ego suggests that only he could accomplish great things without breaking the bank... unfortunately that isn't possible anymore as the game has changed quite dramatically in the last 15 years, which has left a largely complacent and complicit Wenger on the outside looking in... so don't blame those players who demanded more and were left wanting... don't blame those fans who have tried desperately to raise awareness for several years when cracks began to appear... place the blame at the feet of those who were well aware all along of the potential pitfalls of just such a plan but continued to follow it even when it was no longer a financial necessity, like it ever really was...

Xhaka, who I like, or at least I like the Xhaka who plays for the Swiss national squad, has shown to be in way over his head in the premiership... of course he showed late in the year that he can stretch the field with the long ball but our squad isn't really set - up for that style of play... most of his long passes are in the air not on the ground and our squad without Giroud, which should have been sold the minute the transfer window officially opened, is one of the smallest in England... we need someone who can pick out the runs of our forwards in the lanes and who is fast enough to come forward into space without conceding his defensive responsibilities... we rarely see him shoot or even be in a position on the field to do so, we rarely, if ever, see him used for set pieces and it appears that the only person at the club who has ever coached him up when it comes to tackling is Coq, which explains his atrocious disciplinary record... maybe it's me but didn't you see him coming in and contributing more from an offensive perspective, with his killer left foot, than a deep - lying midfielder... if that wasn't the case we are the stupidest team alive for taking him over Kante