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If The Mirror are to be believed, Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Shkodran Mustafi could all be casualties in a mass shake-up by Unai Emery of his Arsenal squad this summer.
The Spaniard is looking to make wholesale personnel changes after his first season in English football following heavy defeat by Chelsea in the UEFA Europa League final and missing out on a place in the top four of the Premier League.
Accordingly, the Gunners won’t be involved in the Champions League next season and their transfer budget will reflect that. In other words, big names and underperforming stars will need to be moved on for Arsenal to make significant changes to their squad this summer.
In fairness, Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Mustafi have all endured pretty woeful seasons under Emery and could easily be moved on before 2019/20 gets underway. But who should the Gunners prioritise pushing out of the exit door first? Today we put the question to a trio of Football FanCast writers…
Matt Dawson
“After his absolutely shambolic performance in Baku then the priority in terms of shipping a player out has to be Ozil. The amount of money he’s on per week has completely destroyed Arsenal’s wage budget and he’s probably one of the reasons Aaron Ramsey has been forced to depart. If any club will take him then he has to be first out of the door. Mustafi is a close second but Ozil’s attitude is simply terrible. He has to go.”
Harry Sherlock
“All of them! They’ve all been stealing a living for too long. Ozil, for a start, is nowhere near the world-class playmaker he was when he turned up in north London to a raucous fanbase who couldn’t believe they’d snatched one of Real Madrid’s best players. In Baku he was absolutely anonymous. Mkhitaryan, of course, wasn’t allowed into the country to play but it speaks to his ability that Arsenal didn’t actually seem all that bothered. And, as for Mustafi, this is a defender who has all the positional sense of a player learning the game for the first time. He’s woeful. They all are. Ship them all out asap.”
From 6-0 FA Cup final maulings to Mkhitaryan missing the Europa League final, is football broken? Fans discuss in the video below…
Billy Meyers
“1000% Ozil. The German’s attitude stinks and if he played for the club I support I’d want him gone out the door immediately. He has been awful all season whilst raking in £350,000 per week, and his decision to trudge off the pitch almost in slow motion with his side losing a European final should’ve made every Arsenal fan’s blood boil. If they can even find a suitor for him, which would be amazing, they should even consider giving him away for free. Rotten.”