Harry Redknapp reckons that Arsenal’s back four without Laurent Koscielny could belong to a bottom eight Premier League team.
- Arsenal have only won 1 Premier League out of the last 5
- Redknapp reckons Xhaka and Mustafi have been ‘really, really poor’
- The ex-Spurs boss believes most of these Arsenal players are lucky to be at the club
Redknapp loves to waffle on about Arsenal and Arsene Wenger so he must be loving having the chance to slag them off write about them all the time in his column for the Evening Standard.
The ex-Spurs manager reckons that Wenger’s wasted millions in recent years and two of his most recent signings, Shkondran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka, have been terrible.
“The main reason is Arsenal have wasted millions on average players over the past few years,” he wrote.
“It was easy to see how good Sanchez was during his time at Barcelona and Arsene Wenger deserves credit for pulling that deal off but the rest of the players he has brought in over the past two or three years haven’t been good enough.
“Arsenal spent nearly £90million last summer putting what were supposed to be the finishing touches to a squad capable of winning the League but the two big signings, Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka, have been very, very poor.
“The injured Laurent Koscielny aside, the back-four is worthy of a bottom-eight team, not top four.
“Mustafi and Gabriel were bashed around by Christian Benteke when Crystal Palace beat Arsenal 3-0 on Monday and everyone could see it coming.”
Redknapp also wrote, “A lot of them are lucky to be playing for Arsenal.
“Sometimes players need a rocket up their backside but I’m told Arsene doesn’t like confrontation.
“He likes to keep a steady, happy ship but when you aren’t winning, you have to do something about it.
“That was easy in years gone by but modern-day players find it very difficult to accept criticism — they are a different breed.
“You don’t have to do it publicly — although Jose Mourinho did with Luke Shaw recently at Manchester United — but behind closed doors you can still lay down the law.
“On occasions, it is absolutely vital that you do.”
Although Redknapp does make some decent enough points, such as the fact that some of these players should feel lucky to play for Arsenal and need to show that, his column reads like a typical pub rant, which makes it a little hard to take seriously.