Like we did this time last year, we’re going to avoid writing about incoming transfer rumours (we’ll save that for discussion on the podcast) and instead turn to fans of teams across Europe and ask: “who do you want to see leave your club?”
The results are in, and some may surprise you. So, alphabetically…
Arsenal | Mean Lean
Who I would prefer to be sold is a difficult one at this moment, difficult because we are currently searching around London Colny for fit players.
Under different circumstances I’d go for the obvious Mathieu Debuchy as he is clearly pushing for a move, but we do not have much in the way of natural cover at right back at present so I will go with Mathieu Flamini. He has done as good a job as you could have asked of him but it looks like he will be replaced fairly shortly with Mohamed Elneny.
Flamini is coming towards the end of his deal at Arsenal and I don’t see him staying on. So thank you Flam, all I ask of you now is to leave Arsenal with that unbeaten home record intact.
This might surprise most fans, but a player that I would not worry about leaving is Jack Wilshere. Now hold up a tick and listen. Jacky boy is an Arsenal man through and through, and he has been at the club for 8 seasons now. Yet he has only made 100 appearances for Arsenal and he has yet to feature this season. Not appearing this season and making around 90k/w? I would cut my losses and if Man City were to come in with 25m, ship him away.
Hernan-out.
The month of December has been a rough one for Liverpool. Performances and results have been average to poor and frustrating, so when asked which player I’d like to see sold immediately, I realized that it was quite hard to pick just one. Two specific games have stood out to me the most, though: Leicester at Anfield and Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Although both fixtures were won 1-0 and both goals were scored by Benteke, I feel like he has been the biggest liability to the team. He
managed to miss TWO one-on-one clear goal scoring opportunities two games in a row!
Manchester United | Ken Frampton
I’ll start by saying that one of the things Louis Van Gaal can claim he’s been successful at so far has been clearing out much of the chaff in the United squad. And there was a lot of it.
There are still a handful of players that I’d be happy to see the back of – Victor Valdes for being petulant, Marouane Fellaini for simply not being good enough and for encouraging us to play lump-ball as our Plan B and Antonio Valencia for his consistent inability to either take on a man or complete a cross.
But in a surprise move, I will nominate Phil ‘Calamity’ Jones as the player that I would happily drive to the airport. I’m not sure how a man who was once compared favourably to Duncan Edwards by no less an authority than Sir Bobby Charlton turned out to be so fragile – but there you go. Not only is he not really getting better as a footballer, he’s always in treatment. The end of this sad, monster of Frankenstein-style experiment would pave the way for the arrival of a proper centre-half to partner Chris Smalling.
Tottenham Hotspur | Nikhil Saglani
Valencia | David Wall
This is the first time in a while that, as a Valencia fan, I don’t think there is any player that should absolutely be sold. But, if I had to sell one player it would be Matthew Ryan, not because he’s a bad goalkeeper or has topped out his potential, but because we have two more top goalkeepers (Jaume and Alves) in the squad already and a very promising youth prospect waiting in the wings (Sivera). It doesn’t seem fair to keep Ryan on the bench, and we’ve seen before what having too many top goalkeepers can do to the dressing room morale. One of them has to go, and my vote is for Ryan.
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