Arsenal: Riyad Mahrez transfer requires certain stipulations

Arsenal may still be able to land Riyad Mahrez, as he is widely available, and maybe it isn’t such a bad deal. If certain stipulations are met.

Most of you know by now that I am not all about the idea of Riyad Mahrez coming to Arsenal. I didn’t think he had proven enough with Leicester City. But that was all before seeing my club thrown into the incinerator by Liverpool.

Now, I’m open to just about anything. Marcelo Brozovic? Sign him up.

Okay, now we’re getting crazy. scratch that idea. And Mahrez? Well, I am warming up to it. But there are certain stipulations I feel have to be met before we go all in on the Algerian.

For starters, I completely disagree with Emmanuel Petit’s belief that he should ‘replace’ anyone. Let alone Mesut Ozil. If you want to add Mahrez to the club in addition to what we have and give him first dibs at making the starting XI, by all means.

At least that way, you shake up Ozil a bit, you shake up everyone else and you, for once, let them know that this isn’t good enough. As if they needed any addition help recognizing this.

Mahrez is not a wingback, either. He can’t be seen as a replacement to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, as has been suggested. Simply put – we don’t need a replacement for Oxlade-Chamberlain. We have Reiss Nelson for back up and we have Sead Kolasinac to start.

Arsenal’s problem isn’t in the talent department. It’s in the consequences department. And, as much as it sucks to admit, in the managerial department. That team selection against Liverpool was atrocious.

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But in terms of consequences, there aren’t any. Never have been. Players like Danny Welbeck, who couldn’t score a goal if the goal was the ocean, he was in a row boat and all he had to do was drop the ball into the water, are marched out there as a priority.

Sure, his hard work is admirable, but hard work alone doesn’t make you an irreplaceable member of the starting XI.

Anyway, how does this tie into Mahrez? Because it provides a consequence. If we sign Mahrez, he has to be given a chance, and not just buried on the bench during his “acclimating phase” which Wenger will try to pull out of his arse again.

Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have to be benchable, assuming they both stay. This ties into giving Mahrez a fair shot – a fair shot at his preferred position, which would be the attacking midfield. No jerry-rigging Mahrez into a deep midfielder just to try to prove to the world that you’re still innovative.

Play your best players the way they are meant to be played. And when they aren’t playing well, play someone else there.

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So no, I’m not opposed to Riyad Mahrez coming to Arsenal anymore. But I am if all these things can’t be guaranteed. He’s not a replacement, he’s a compliment. He’s an attacking midfielder, nothing else. He has to play, not “acclimate.”

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