Three in, three out.

[thespus]

Out: Mertesacker, Walcott, Flamini
In: Sokratis, Icardi, Biglia

I love Per, and he's given us great service, but I feel we can upgrade there. If he's happy with a squad role, we should loan Chambers and keep his experience around. I am very excited for Gabriel, but we could do with a top class partner for Koscielny. Hummels would be great, but likely unattainable and his teammate Sokratis is a fine athlete. Failing this, we should upgrade at LB with Ricardo Rodriguez. Harsh on Monreal, but he is aging and Rodriguez is going to be one of the finest wing backs in Europe. His ability to overlap with Alexis would be incredible.

Icardi is a great talent, but I just don't like his personality. His age and high ceiling make him an obvious choice. Dybala is a better prospect, in my opinion, but it seems he is off to Juve. Higuain (arguably the most realistic) or Lacazette would be excellent. Benzema should be first choice if he somehow becomes expendable in Madrid. I would miss Theo, but that is more down to sentiment than belief he can become a ruthless striker.

Biglia is a destroyer like Coquelin with decent mobility and great positioning. He'd be perfect competition at a decent price allowing a CB/ST to be the marquee purchase. Lazio qualified for the CL, but Serie A is still crippled financially and I have no doubts he'd join if Arsenal did make an offer. Signing Jedinak instead wouldn't be the worst bit of business. Perennially overlooked.

Ospina
Bellerin - Sokratis - Koscielny - Monreal
Cazorla - Coquelin
Ramsey - Özil - Alexis
Higuain

Subs: Szczesny, Debuchy, Gabriel, Wilshere, Biglia, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud

Reserves: Martinez, Gibbs, Chambers, Arteta, Rosicky, Gnabry, and Welbeck

 

[Stevencc]

They are all good targets and realistic in their own right Thespus, but that's way too logical of a window for Wenger to oversee.

 

[thespus]

True. Which top class attacker from the Spanish monopolists will we sign, Isco or Pedro? Gareth Bale?

 

[Mustard]

No way I'd let Mertesacker or Walcott go.

Mertesacker had a poor first half to the season (not surprising given how much football he's played over the past 2 years) but finished strongly, and he and Koscielny have been our best defensive partnership for years. It would be madness to sell him given that Gabriel and Chambers are still really of an unknown quality and he's one of the few leaders in the squad. I think Wenger ideally would have liked to have bought a CB this summer, but having to sign one in January kind of forced his hand a bit. Now I don't think we'll see another until at least next summer seeing as Gabriel has come in, and I expect Chambers will be used exclusively as a CB next season. Mertesacker can certainly be improved on, but there aren't many options out there (I'm not convinced Sokratis is any better and I certainly wouldn't want to lose Mertesacker risking it).

I'd sell Gibbs before Monreal too, I'm just not sure if Gibbs will ever be good enough (perhaps harsh as Monreal has been a late bloomer himself but he's the exception to the rule) and somebody like Rodriguez (or Gaya from Valencia, or Kurzawa) would give a good range in ages for our fullbacks. He'd cost the earth for a fullback though so there's not way that will happen this window at least, it's not a priority.

Walcott still has a lot to offer and now he's hit form again I think he's shown that. I like Oxlade-Chamberlain but his end product is non-existent compared to Walcott who has scored over twice as many goals in about 1/4 of the game time despite coming off a year out and looking pretty poor for a lot of that time. There's no point selling him when he's just coming into his prime, we need to building a squad for next season as well as 3-4 years time. This isn't a squad based on youth anymore. If Oxlade-Chamberlain is good enough he will have to force himself into that RW position over the next few seasons, not just be given it.

I'm not sure there any perfect striker out there for us to sign. I wouldn't be surprised if Wenger uses Walcott as a striker more next season and buys another goal scoring right winger, but only if 'Sanchez quality' is available (Reus would be the dream and probably the only person who fits that criteria but it's hard to say if he'll be available). At least Walcott offers a distinctly different kind of threat to Giroud. Icardi would be the high gain high loss risk but I would rather him than Higuain who is too similar in age to Giroud, and there's not a big difference in quality in the two. Dybala is off the cards. Vietto sounds similar but I've barely seen him play.

I'd still like us to sign a DM to compete with Coquelin. Before the emergence of Coquelin I would have said Krychowiak from Sevilla but now I'd rather somebody who can play both as a pure DM or box-to-box, a Vieira type. I think Kondogbia is perfect for that (and a good age), but Schneiderlin would also be a safe bet. As it is, if Coquelin gets injured or loses form, we're screwed.

 

[thespus]

I'd sell Gibbs before Monreal too, I'm just not sure if Gibbs will ever be good enough (perhaps harsh as Monreal has been a late bloomer himself but he's the exception to the rule) and somebody like Rodriguez (or Gaya from Valencia, or Kurzawa) would give a good range in ages for our fullbacks. He'd cost the earth for a fullback though so there's not way that will happen this window at least, it's not a priority.

Walcott still has a lot to offer and now he's hit form again I think he's shown that. I like Oxlade-Chamberlain but his end product is non-existent compared to Walcott who has scored over twice as many goals in about 1/4 of the game time despite coming off a year out and looking pretty poor for a lot of that time. There's no point selling him when he's just coming into his prime, we need to building a squad for next season as well as 3-4 years time. This isn't a squad based on youth anymore. If Oxlade-Chamberlain is good enough he will have to force himself into that RW position over the next few seasons, not just be given it.

Monreal is certainly a better option than Gibbs at this point, but would he be willing to return to his squad role? Gibbs is younger and counts as homegrown, which would be the advantages of keeping him for the squad role opposed to Monreal. Granted we aren't short on homegrown players and Gibbs would likely fetch a larger fee than Monreal.

Walcott has shown decent form several times over his career. But when he is not scoring, he doesn't offer very much. I still don't think he's a good CF option (Villa and WBA were hardly testing) and he also should have done better a few times in the cup final. I don't think we can win the title with him being a permanent fixture in our first XI. Ideally we could sign a new ST and still keep Walcott. Sentiment is tough to overcome, but that's why Mourinho wins titles. He ships out quality players to bring in new faces to avoid complacency.