Arsenal need to get their act straight at the top-most level if they wish to get back amongst the big boys in the Premier League, that’s according to Charlie Nicholas.
The pundit thinks, the Gunners have constantly been selling their star players at crucial interjections which, in turn, has forced the side to move down the league table each and every season.
“I don’t think they have an identity problem,” he told the Football Show.
“The reality is for years and years, even under Arsene Wenger, we sold Patrick Vieira, we sold Thierry Henry and most of our big players. There was nothing wrong with change, but we sold them quite young when we weren’t perhaps going to get the full benefit of them.
“We let Aaron Ramsey’s contract run down and at the age of 28, we let him leave for nothing. We’ve had a problem at the top level for a long time. It goes as far back as David Dein not being present any more.
“We have a problem identifying the players and then what we did was start paying £30m for Shkodran Mustafi and defenders who have not cut it for Arsenal. We’ve been buying wrong and the players have realised they’re not a threat to the Premier League and the Champions League.
“The Arsenal hierarchy have got it all wrong. If Aubameyang does go, he’ll want to go to a club that can win trophies. It’s the same as what Robin van Persie did. Arsenal haven’t got an identity problem, they’ve got a decision-making policy problem, and it has to be sorted at the top end.”
Nicholas has hit the nail in the head and we are pretty confident that a repeat of what he said is going to occur this summer as well.
Arsenal are already on the verge of losing Aubameyang and Arteta might also be forced to sell off a few others in order to gather transfer funds for his new arrivals.
Last summer, they finally went out and spent big on Nicolas Pepe but the player has turned out to be a massive flop, so much so that there are already talks of the club looking for a replacement.
With a new recruitment team and manager, things are finally standing to look a bit brighter but it will easily take a few more seasons before Arsenal can get back to their feet and challenge for the league title.
Right now, their biggest aim is to get back their Champions League status but if the North London side are forced to sell off players like Lacazette and Aubameyang, they might well be playing in the Europa League next season as well.
