Gervinho at the exit, but will Arsenal replace him?
According to the media reports, Italian side AS Roma have put forward a £7m bid for the misfiring Arsenal forward Gervinho. The report also goes on to say that the London club has not accepted the offer as of yet and are holding out for more.
The Ivorian did not fly with the rest of the Arsenal squad for the Asian tour due to illness but it is widely believed that his exclusion is due to the fact that he is not a part of Wenger’s plans for the upcoming season. Gervinho has also been linked to Marseille, Lyon and his former club Lille, all French sides said to be very keen on his signature.
The new Roma boss Rudi Garcia, who had previously worked with the forward while at Lille, has made no secret of the fact that he’s a great admirer of the forward and would be willing to work with him once again at the Italian capital, adding more speculation about the Ivorian’s future.
Interestingly, Arsenal are still said to be after Lyon midfielder Yoann Gourcuff and it is now believed that the Ligue 1 side are willing to let the the Frenchman go to North London, provided Gervinho goes the other way as part of the deal, according to the Daily Mail.
With Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski all fighting for a spot out wide and German youngster Serge Gnabry not too far from a first-team breakthrough, it is almost certain that Gervinho will be seeing very little, if any, first-team football next season.
The 26-year-old has had a disastrous season and many Arsenal fans,myself included, have called for his head. As part of a deal for Yoann Gourcuff or not, I just hope we can get this guy off our wage list and hopefully get someone else to come in. There are still plenty of rumours surrounding Suarez and Higuain, but still nothing concrete from the Gunners.
Right wing – walcott chamberlain campbell
Left wing – cazorla podolski ryo or gnabry
I see no need to replace gervinho he is just another of the players like denilson arshavin squillaci mannone djourou coquelin santos park chamakh bendtner. All of these players are or were just 3rd or 4th choice players and can be adequately replaced by the youngsters mentioned above or martinez frimpong eisfeld yennaris aneke miquel akpom olsson afobe. Its the players that left over the previous 2 seasons that we have never really replaced rvp song naris and cesc. If we could replace them with rooney suarez fellaini and of course cesc then we might be able to challenge again.
I want us to buy top players … regardless of who we sell.
But I would like to see Ryo, Gnarby or eisfeld given the chance to take gervinhos place in the squad.
I really do not rate gervinho enough to suggest his replacement has to be world class… we need world class signings but these signings would replace the first team players, no world class players to replace bench/ squad players.