Arsenal: Long term goal—no more “unsellable” players

Arsenal did a valiant job clearing the house this summer, but they should also have a new long-term goal of no more “unsellable” players.

I admire how well Arsenal handled this summer. Moreso now that Henrikh Mkhitaryan is on his way out the door on a season-long loan to Roma. They managed to recoup a lot of money without parting with anyone crucial.

Mohamed Elneny is also on his way out the door and Laurent Koscielny was unceremoniously shown the exit as well. Nacho Monreal moved back to Spain. It’s to the point now where the only remaining players who we wanted to see moved on are Shkodran Mustafi and Mesut Ozil.

As of writing, rumors still persist that Mustafi could make a move, but it doesn’t seem likely. Mustafi counts himself as one of the big three “must-leaves” alongside Ozil and Mkhitaryan, neither of whom looked likely to depart either until Mkhitaryan’s loan deal (with option to buy!) was put through.

This isn’t Unai Emery’s doing. Unai Emery’s acquisitions have been spot on. I can’t foresee a future where Lucas Torreira or Nicolas Pepe or any of his other signings become “unsellable.” Even guys like David Luiz, should he fail, didn’t cost much and isn’t costing us much.

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This is a long-term goal, but I hope that Unai Emery and the rest of the backroom staff are taking precautions to avoid any “unsellable” situations again. Mustafi is on the borderline of being unsellable, but Ozil is absolutely unsellable. A player at his age, making that much money, with as little playing time as he’s had recently, is a nightmare. You have to shoulder the burden and hope to get some sort of value out of him this year.

I think that Emery and his regime and smarter than that. They don’t make emotional decisions that can lead to attachments to players like Ozil. And that means that in the future, we won’t have players that, pardon the nastiness, are leeches. Players who can’t give us what we’re paying them for.

There have been rumors of new contracts for Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and making them performance-based. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Guess who taught them that idea? Mesut Ozil. Because if Ozil’s contract was performance-based, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

We’re in good hands. Now keep those hands good and clean and manage contracts like you actually care about the future of the team. The end.