Exodus, what exodus?

WTTGT Writer: John Montanye

There has been much talk about an exodus at Arsenal this summer. Much of this talk has been produced directly by the media and the blogosphere. I say: “What exodus?”

Irreplaceable skipper

First we have Cesc. Is he an important player? YES! Is he irreplaceable? NO!

Listen, let’s be clear, he is efficient, he has great vision and a superb touch. It would also be helpful to note that none of this matters as we have only seen this against the likes of Aston Villa and Blackburn. Cesc goes missing in big matches and his injuries are becoming more of a problem, missing a great deal of games these last two years.

He will be missed but we can become a better team by not having the game flow through one player. We could do less with a want-away captain that is often injured and more with hard working lads that would die for the club, i.e. Ramsey.

Au Revoir

Next we go on to Nasri. Ahhh, Mr. Samir Nasri. How easy it is to forget that only one year ago he was marginally part of the first XI? And how easily it’s to see the reasons why in the second half of last year when he completely disappeared. He’s hardly Dennis Bergkamp.

Nasri has great talent; the problem with this is that he is completely disinterested in any kind of team play, and highly inconsistent. Four assists in each of the last two years as a midfielder/winger says it all. Arshavin has more goals and more assists over the same time period; as a matter of fact Andrei has six times the assists Nasri does over the same time period and in the same amount of games.

So what does this all mean?

To me it means that he is another cog in the machine that can be replaced, not easily replaced, but replaced nonetheless. If we make a tidy sum from his departure then so be it. The only thing I would caution is not to give him any motivation by letting him stay in the Premiership next year, ship him off to Spain or Italy if necessary, but Mr. Wenger should not bolster the opposition.

The pretender

Now we go on to Clichy. Gaël gave us good work rate, although it usually was a waste of his resources. He developed greatly in the years leading up to, and including, 2008/2009. But the last two years he has taken steps back.

He is often out of position, putting our defender in perilous predicaments that also dictates them being out of position to cover his mistakes. He obviously has no clue what it is to play an offside trap as he continuously was caught ball watching and subsequently playing the opposition onside time after time. Add to this that he offered nothing when it came to the offensive game, his ball skills were clumsy at best and his crosses worse. Basically I don’t know how we could not replace him, but I am glad he is gone, ‘Invincible’ or not.

Were it not for Gibbs’ constant injuries, Gaël would have been hard pressed to continue in the first eleven. Gibbs has a long way to go, but at least he has the excuse of inexperience and youth. What excuse did Gaël have for these last two years of play?

‘Best’ of the rest

This brings me finally to our two aforementioned rebels; the world’s best striker, Bendtner, and the irreplaceable Denílson. Both want to move on and Arséne is more than happy to oblige, but there is a slight problem. No one wants to purchase these two!

They are both bit-part players with delusions of grandeur. We seem to have a lot of that at Arsenal.  It could be suggested that it’s a lot to do with Arséne instilling a sense of confidence in these players, and they believe they are better than they actually are. Then, when they leave, they see it was the system that made them adequate and not their over egotistical ‘talent.’  Let’s face it, at this level they all have talent, they just are not as dominant at their respective positions as they would like us to believe.

Be confident, trust

The exodus is a little farfetched. Will we have a different look this year? Definitely! Will we be less flashy? Probably. Could we win a trophy? Maybe, just maybe…