The Wish List

[MutableEarth]

Am I the only one that doesn't want to sell AMN?

 

[OnlyOne]

Am I the only one that doesn't want to sell AMN?

I wouldn't sell him, yet. He seems quite the squad player since he can fill multiple roles, also is probably the most experienced young player we have.

 

[MD3 Gunner]

Why?
Good blend of youth, experience and most importantly of all. Quality.

Didn't expect the likes of Matip and Mertens at all

 

[roz]

Didn't expect the likes of Matip and Mertens at all

Matips class, criminal that he’s 3rd choice at Liverpool. Shows how much quality they have at CB.

Mertens is the most underrated player in Europe. Could play for Barca no problem, would have been a much better buy than Griezmann. Getting on a bit but he’s a baller that doesn’t solely rely on pace.

would be delighted if that was our summer business

 

[MD3 Gunner]

Am I the only one that doesn't want to sell AMN?

Hopefully lol

Matips class, criminal that he’s 3rd choice at Liverpool. Shows how much quality they have at CB.

Mertens is the most underrated player in Europe. Could play for Barca no problem, would have been a much better buy than Griezmann. Getting on a bit but he’s a baller that doesn’t solely rely on pace.

would be delighted if that was our summer business

Matips class, criminal that he’s 3rd choice at Liverpool. Shows how much quality they have at CB.

Mertens is the most underrated player in Europe. Could play for Barca no problem, would have been a much better buy than Griezmann. Getting on a bit but he’s a baller that doesn’t solely rely on pace.

would be delighted if that was our summer business

Have to take his age into consideration just turned 33..

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

Realistically, how much money do you think Arsenal will have to spend this summer ? What will be the budget ? I honestly don't think it's more than 70m..

If the budget turns out to be that in 70 million well imo the first thing they have to do is pay the release clause for Partey & wrap that deal up then I suppose sell players to buy or concentrate on free transfers like Willian or Fraser.

 

[MutableEarth]

I wouldn't sell him, yet. He seems quite the squad player since he can fill multiple roles, also is probably the most experienced young player we have.

I really wish he would have gotten more chances in CM, he'd have done excellently IMO but we'll never know unless he stays and is given that shot.

 

[MD3 Gunner]

If the budget turns out to be that in 70 million well imo the first thing they have to do is pay the release clause for Partey & wrap that deal up then I suppose sell players to buy or concentrate on free transfers like Willian or Fraser.

Spot on

 

[Heskey]

Am I the only one that doesn't want to sell AMN?

I don't want him sold either. He's not an RB imo. And has pretty much never been given a chance centrally or in more attacking roles. Think he'd be much better centrally for us and regardless of performance he's a Hale End product. Why are we so eager to sell guys like him and Iwobi when these are the guys we should build the squad of?

 

[roz]

I don't want him sold either. He's not an RB imo. And has pretty much never been given a chance centrally or in more attacking roles. Think he'd be much better centrally for us and regardless of performance he's a Hale End product. Why are we so eager to sell guys like him and Iwobi when these are the guys we should build the squad of?

Because guys like Iwobi and AMN aren’t Arsenal standard.

Both are likeable and our academy did well to nurture and develop them into the players they are but doesn’t mean we should keep them for the sake of them being from hale end.

Mid table players at best but both can go on to have decent careers.

 

[MutableEarth]

I don't want him sold either. He's not an RB imo. And has pretty much never been given a chance centrally or in more attacking roles. Think he'd be much better centrally for us and regardless of performance he's a Hale End product. Why are we so eager to sell guys like him and Iwobi when these are the guys we should build the squad of?

In Iwobi's case, he'd really hit his ceiling here - but I really think he could have had a future centrally aswell. Certainly I'd have had him be Özil's back-up this year but he never really got a shot at #10 even at Everton surprisingly - when he's played there for them he looks good but they always drop him for Sigurdsson.

With AMN, he could be such an excellent midfield and is so underrated by everyone. I think it's gonna be similar with Willock - heavily underrated by so many,

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

I don't see anything in AMN to persist with him to be honest. We could use him better by selling him to a PL club in a deal for a better British prospect.

 

[roz]

In Iwobi's case, he'd really hit his ceiling here - but I really think he could have had a future centrally aswell. Certainly I'd have had him be Özil's back-up this year but he never really got a shot at #10 even at Everton surprisingly - when he's played there for them he looks good but they always drop him for Sigurdsson.

With AMN, he could be such an excellent midfield and is so underrated by everyone. I think it's gonna be similar with Willock - heavily underrated by so many,

You seem to overrate fairly average players.
Theres a reason top level managers dont play these guys in the positions you mention.

Hopefully Willock goes on to prove me wrong although I doubt it.

 

[Heskey]

Because guys like Iwobi and AMN aren’t Arsenal standard.

Both are likeable and our academy did well to nurture and develop them into the players they are but doesn’t mean we should keep them for the sake of them being from hale end.

Mid table players at best but both can go on to have decent careers.

Of course they were Arsenal standard.

I might be a romantic in that sense but I prefer our squad to be built of our own academy players mixed in with some top class from other places. If a player is good enough to be part of the squad whether rotation or starter I'd want to keep them rather than sell and replace with more expensive and more risky rotation/fringe-starter.

In Iwobi's case, he'd really hit his ceiling here - but I really think he could have had a future centrally aswell. Certainly I'd have had him be Özil's back-up this year but he never really got a shot at #10 even at Everton surprisingly - when he's played there for them he looks good but they always drop him for Sigurdsson.

With AMN, he could be such an excellent midfield and is so underrated by everyone. I think it's gonna be similar with Willock - heavily underrated by so many,

But with that ceiling I don't see us selling if it hadn't been for money-need for other transfers and that he was our best selling asset and Everton were willing to pay a lot for him.

He'd have been great for a rotation behind Özil. We wrote about it previously recently with Iwobi but his physique and skillset would've been perfect for a central role.

I fear the same with AMN and Willock - **** sake we even see it with ESR now after he's been away on loan. A lot of people seem to underrate our own talent only to drool over similar talent at other clubs, only to then complain we never produce our own...

Hopefully Arteta Will go a route of nurturing our own talents.

 

[roz]

Of course they were Arsenal standard.

I might be a romantic in that sense but I prefer our squad to be built of our own academy players mixed in with some top class from other places. If a player is good enough to be part of the squad whether rotation or starter I'd want to keep them rather than sell and replace with more expensive and more risky rotation/fringe-starter.


But with that ceiling I don't see us selling if it hadn't been for money-need for other transfers and that he was our best selling asset and Everton were willing to pay a lot for him.

He'd have been great for a rotation behind Özil. We wrote about it previously recently with Iwobi but his physique and skillset would've been perfect for a central role.

I fear the same with AMN and Willock - **** sake we even see it with ESR now after he's been away on loan. A lot of people seem to underrate our own talent only to drool over similar talent at other clubs, only to then complain we never produce our own...

Hopefully Arteta Will go a route of nurturing our own talents.

I actually agree with you but you cant keep all the academy prospects based on them being our own. It should take talent and hard work to break into the first team as thats what shows the rest of the academy players what it takes.

Iwobi had started to stagnate, we sold at the perfect time and we got a great fee for him.

AMN is the same imo.

keep those squad places you mentioned for guys like Eddie, ESR, Nelson etc... and if they continue to progress and develop then great. Keep them. If not, sell. Especially if we get good money from it.

even teams like Barca who are widely considered the best for producing academy players let some go for those same reasons

 

[MutableEarth]

You seem to overrate fairly average players.
Theres a reason top level managers dont play these guys in the positions you mention.

Hopefully Willock goes on to prove me wrong although I doubt it.

On the contrary - you underrate our own talents.

 

[roz]

On the contrary - you underrate our own talents.

Ha! We’ll see soon enough I suppose.

 

[Heskey]

I actually agree with you but you cant keep all the academy prospects based on them being our own. It should take talent and hard work to break into the first team as thats what shows the rest of the academy players what it takes.

Iwobi had started to stagnate, we sold at the perfect time and we got a great fee for him.

AMN is the same imo.

keep those squad places you mentioned for guys like Eddie, ESR, Nelson etc... and if they continue to progress and develop then great. Keep them. If not, sell. Especially if we get good money from it.

even teams like Barca who are widely considered the best for producing academy players let some go for those same reasons

I'm not saying we should keep everyone at any cost.

I just don't get how come we as a club are fine with signing (whether transfer or loan) and giving game time to similar aged players like Guendouzi and Ceballos centrally, when we barely ever tried our own products like AMN and Iwobi in these, and then we claim they're stagnated and not good enough and bin them. Without ever playing them in the position we have trained them at in the academy for several years.

Football philosophically I do believe that it's up to the manager of the team to decide where a player should play and that the players should do what they can to fit in, so I'm not claiming that the youth trainers needs to decide the rest of the players career positionally. But I don't understand why we insist/insisted on playing AMN and Iwobi wide when the both did great centrally in the youth teams and were only occasionally proving themselves in the wider positions.

Going from a central role to a wider role isn't necessarily easy.
We're seeing Saka perform in a LB role now which is amazing, but going from a LW to a hyper-aggressive LB role isn't as different as a central player moving out wide. You can't always translate your skillset to a different position.

Yes, you can argue that top managers are playing them there, so therefore they must be right and guys like @MutableEarth and I who claim they should be played otherwise must be wrong. But we see time and time again how top level managers are humans with their own ideologies and sometimes they don't play players in the optimal positions either. They make mistakes and aren't super humans who has the correct decisions every time.

Barca and La Masia hasn't been what it used to for quite some years now, so I wouldn't compare or strive to be like them these days. In any case the reason they had such success was because they were willing to give chances to their young players in the positions they were best in, and not push them out to other roles just because there wasn't enough fate in them in central positions.

 

[MutableEarth]

I think AMN should only be sold if we plan on using him as a RB. He's not one and it's a waste. If we aren't gonna give him time at CM then selling him would net us decent money. I can see us getting £15m in a depressed transfer market.

RE La Masia - I think Barca's reluctance to use their academy lately is one of the reasons they've struggled to maintain the dominance they had before.

 

[MD3 Gunner]

Because guys like Iwobi and AMN aren’t Arsenal standard.

Both are likeable and our academy did well to nurture and develop them into the players they are but doesn’t mean we should keep them for the sake of them being from hale end.

Mid table players at best but both can go on to have decent careers.

A lot of people brag about our academy but honestly the last great player to come out of it imo is Fabregas.. Frustrating we haven't had a star coming through the ranks