Arsenal need more than a change of manager, they need to completely revamp their playing squad as well.
When the summer rolls round, we have at least 16 players who could or should be off for a variety of reasons.
Here they all are:
1Jack Wilshere
Out of contract in the summer, there is still no sign of a new one despite Wenger saying it would be sorted in December, then January, then by the end of the winter window. Rumour has it Jack isn’t happy with the wage cut he is being offered with his contract loaded with performance-related clauses to make up the shortfall.
While he has repeatedly stressed he wants to remain at the club, the fact that this deal, which should be fairly straightforward to sort out, is still up in the air means that massive questions have to hang over Jack’s future as an Arsenal player
2Aaron Ramsey
Aaron Ramsey is out of contract next summer and with reports saying he is following Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez’s lead and asking for a massive pay rise.
Arsenal, for their part, are reportedly prepared to sell him this summer rather than endure another saga next season.
3David Ospina
Has wanted to leave for a few seasons yet somehow has been persuaded to stay despite being a complete an utter liability. Wenger thinks he’s world class and Ospina thinks he’s worth a regular starting spot at the club. Both are wrong.
In the aftermath of the City final, he was already talking about considering his future.
4Joel Campbell
Seems to be out of contract in the summer so whatever experiment Arsenal were conducting with the Costa Rican’s career needs to come to an end during the next window.
Despite giving his all when he was begrudgingly handed a chance at Arsenal, Wenger has made it clear he has no future at the club. He should now be allowed to find a home where he can settle rather than being moved from club to club every season.
5Rob Holding
6Calum Chambers
Was almost shipped out last summer and, not unlike Rob Holding, is another who arrived with little expectation, excelled when initially given a chance and was then run in to the ground before being ditched from the squad and having his confidence stomped on.
Given a run recently, he has shown no signs of getting over thoe problems and it’s hard to see how he can as long as Wenger is still at the club.
7Shkodran Mustafi
8Hector Bellerin
Another who had his head turned last summer, Juventus are interested in bringing him to Italy. Raul Sanllehi spoke with the player last summer when he was with Barcelona and is said to understand the situation from ‘both sides’ now he is at Arsenal, having already held talks with the player who wants out.
Once the brightest youngster at the club, his development has not only stalled but started to slide backwards. Like Wojciech Szczesny, he is one who will leave Arsenal and go on to become world class with some proper coaching and guidance that he is not getting at the club under the current coaching setup.
9Santi Cazorla
As much as we all want the tiny Spaniard to recover and as hard as he’s working to return, his playing career is over. We spoke to a specialist surgeon about Cazorla’s problems and there is just no way he can return to play at the top level.
He is also out of contract in the summer after being handed a one-year extension last year when he was injured.
10Carl Jenkinson
Yes, he is still an Arsenal player and, unbelievably, has another two years on his contract at the club when he finishes his Birmingham loan in the summer.
Expect Arsenal to try and find a buyer for him and, if they can’t, to cancel his contract like they have done for a few other players in recent years just to get them off the books.
11Lucas
Why did we buy him? Why didn’t we play him? Why did we send him away? Questions with answers we will probably never get.
A hero at Deportivo before he left, he has struggled since returning on loan and you can’t help but wonder how much of that is down to how he was treated at Arsenal.
12Chuba Akpom
Chubs knows that he won’t ever get a chance of becoming an Arsenal first team regular.
Enjoying life on loan at present, he is another who needs to be allowed to find a new home so he can settle and try to make the most of his career.
13Petr Cech
He wasn’t good enough for Chelsea when we bought him and he isn’t good for any top side now. Accepting responsibility for the two goals scored by Brighton on Sunday, he is often the first (and only) Arsenal player to front up after a bad defeat.
In fact, he’s been the go-to ‘that wasn’t good enough’ mouthpiece for the club all season. He wants to play until he’s 40. He shouldn’t be allowed to play for Arsenal beyond the summer.
14Laurent Koscielny
A once great defender, his Achilles is destroyed and he’s a shadow of his former self.
If Arsenal have any pretensions of being anything other than a mid-table side, they will replace him in the summer.
15Danny Welbeck
When he came on against Brighton he offered nothing and we saw more from Eddie Nketiah in a few minutes than Welbeck has offered for most of the season.
It would be one thing if Welbeck was an incredibly talented player who is just enduring a bad spell. But he isn’t, he’s an average player that brings nothing special to the side and most fans would far rather see Nkeitah or another youngster given the chance to show what they can do