We have just secured Champions League football and hopefully we will finish the job at Southampton to secure 2nd place…
What a disappointing season overall: no trophy, no finals, inconsistent form, injuries and red cards….ultimately: Top 4 in the Champions League, Top 4 in the EPL, Top 4 in the Carabao Cup and jaded in the FA Cup.
The most annoying thing is that this was supposed to be our season, especially given the unusual City blip but also because we were coming out of 2 very good EPL seasons…It seems that we were unable to grind out results when needed and that our team’s shortcomings in quality in some areas and in number overall were just too much for us to handle. Of course, injuries did not help and stupid red cards either but overall, the manager and the team did not deliver to expectations and some key players actually were below par, namely:
Saliba. He is only good with a strong CB next to him. He has yet to show he can be leading the back-linel
Odegaard. An injury obviously affected him but he was not at clinical or effective this year. We missed his goals and assists.
Martinelli and Trossard. Neither of them have put their shooting and assisting boots this year. It is becoming a problem for Martinelli because he does not seem to progress in the last two years.
So Kroenke and Arteta come out telling that they know how to address our issues and take the team to the next level but quite frankly, this year seems to have been a step back also given the fact that we had many injuries…
Some players will leave for sure: Neto, Tavares, Tierney, Lokonga, Jorginho, Vieira, Marquinhos, Sterling, Nelson and others may be leaving such as Kiwior and Partey.
So what are our priorities:
Add quality in 3 starting positions: CM/DM, FWL, ST. Ideally: Zubimendi, Williams and Isak BUT you could live with Reijneiders or Koopmeiners or Baleba or Kone; Gordon or Cunho or Neto; Gyokeres or Sesko or Sorloth.
Add depth to 3 key positions: GK, CB, AM. Ideally: ?, Branthwaithe (or Tarkowski), Mbeumo (or Gibbs-White or Eze).
Extend contracts: Tomyasu, Partey, Saka, Trossard.
Sell some players for cash flow purposes: Zinchenko, Martinelli.
Raya – White, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis Kelly – ZUBIMENDI, Rice – Saka, Ode, WILLIAMS – ISAK
? – Timber, Tomy, Branthwaithe, Calafiori – Partey, Merino – Mbeumo, Nwareni, Trossard – Havertz
+ G. Jesus, 2 other players from the academy…
We need a trophy next year. Time to address quality and depth issues.
So what is your take:
We did well given the injuries and red cards?
We did OK but should have done better and land a trophy?
This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2025 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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