Stephan Lichtsteiner says it’s likely that he’ll leave Arsenal when his one-year contract at the Emirates ends in June.
The Swiss was signed on a free transfer from Juventus last summer as back-up to Hector Bellerin but things haven’t really worked out for him.
While the 35-year-old arrived in London off the back of seven Scudettos, he quickly found that experience counts for little when you can’t cope with the pace of the Premier League.
Even when it looked like he might get a run of games in the absence of others, Unai Emery found himself turning to Ainsley Maitland-Niles and even Carl Jenkinson.
With that in mind, it seems unlikely we’ll take up the option to retain him for another 12 months.
“I see it being quite difficult to stay but we are going to see what happens,” Lichtsteiner told the Evening Standard.
“I don’t know anything. The only important thing is the Europa League Final now.
“I really want to win this cup and bring this club back to the top level, back to the Champions League and winning important titles.”
Given he’s unlikely to start in the Europa League final, it looks as though he’ll leave the club with one goal and 23 appearances to his name.
It’s a gamble that didn’t pay off. China maybe. Cash in for one last big payday
Well..
Waste of time signing for 90K a week tied up and ushering us into the “Panic Loan’ stage last January.
Could have/Should have kept Chambers (made more of an effort). Calum would have covered at Rback (which ws incidentally his NATURAL POSITION at Soton)
But also competed for right of defense (against Mustafi) and had utility in deep midfield (in lieu of Elneny)
Which is why I am not anywhere near impressed by Mslintat…or Raul.
All of Southampton’s coaches who had him as a youth say he was never going to be a right back long term. Arsene didn’t see him as a RB. None of the Managers who have taken him on loan saw him as a RB. None of his underage England international coaches saw him as a RB……but you know best I’m sure., and his natural position is at RB.
Last summer was our best transfer window for quite a while. Everyone I know thanks that….but again you know best I’m sure, and it was a disaster.
Decent window. Letting chambers go out was a mistake though. Won’t be sorry to see lichsteiner leave to be honest. To old and too full of shit-housery for my liking. Can’t wait for hector to come back.
We needed more experience at the back. He brought it.
If the only thing he did while here was teach Bellerin that it was “Stephan AND Hector, not Stephan VS Hector” then it won’t have been a waste.
In Hindsight it was ‘stephan and Hector’ aren’t playing.
Also santori, please go get your coaching badges and take over at the spuds.
By your logic Kane’s “natural position” is a gk.
If Chambers comes back from his loan running, then it’ll have been worth it.
What a surprise, eh?
Sign da t…
Oh wait, there’s no ting.
Wasnt a great signing but he was a reasonable body that didnt scare the shit out of me when he appeared on the team sheet…… unlike Mustafi
He wasnt good on the field, but as mentioned before I bet he was terrific off the field for a lot of our players, especially Hector And AMN
Lichtsteiner is good tactically. He positions himself wisely and provides passong options going forward. But technically, he is a bit rusty. I also don’t quite like that he seems to feed on anger during games.
I guess Arsenal is his last club, and unless we are looking to invest in a new right back, he might stay another season.
We’ve got AMN, Chambers coming back, and the option of going with 3 Cb’s until Hector is back. And then we’re in pretty well stocked shape.
I certainly wouldn’t be against another specialist RB if you can find someone better than what we’ve got who’s willing to sit 2nd to Hector.
What if the new guy is better than Bellerin?
Then I’d say the money required for that is probably better spent elsewhere first.
i feel if we have another decent right back, AMN will play in midfield instead or even up on the wings, playing RB isn’t make full use of his talents. hopefully we can find one, so we wouldn’t have to see either AMN or Chambers playing there.
Waste of time.
Poor decision by Raul and Mslintat.
We need Jorge Campos to come in as Dir of Footy to be honest but we will likely penny pinch and those higher up (Venkatasham) lack clout will demure to Raul who wants a lesser experienced man under his thumb.
It will affect us in market.
Can anyone translate “lack clout will demure to Raul” to English please?
No, none of us speak faux-intellect
Even if it is real intellect, using language that you know won’t be understood because it shows how smart you are is either arrogant or ironic.
Either you are aware it is arsey and you still do or are unaware therefore showing lack of intelligence, or perhaps wisdom but that’s a different debate.
All I am saying is you are pulling a mustafi mate.
All the signs are there for some good content, but then you go and f it up by saying something stupid like I love you… Mustafi.
*”and will demure” I assume
Departures lounge is going to be busy.
I think we’ll see the following leave (assuming we can get rid of some of those big contracts):
Cech, Rambo, Welbeck, Elneny, Mustafi, Lich, Suarez, Ozil, Mkhi, Monreal
Except Monreal, I completely agree!
And Mkhi. Underrated player his transition play form defence to attack his often unnoticed. Yes he has been a bit frustrating lately but he was instrumental in our unbeaten run.
Overall he’s a useful player even taking into account his inconsistency. But given his age and his salary, if there is an opportunity to sell and replace him, we should really take it.
Departures :
Cech, Ramsey, Welbeck, Lichstiner (Suarez a given)
Koscielny should be let go. He has more wear and tear issues than Monreal. Monreal needs to stay bc we don’t want to (have the capcity to) deal with adding at LBack as well.
Thereafter Mustafi or Chambers, Martinez or Ospina, Ozil or Mhkitaryan depending on buyers.
Jenkinson and Elneny please give away. There are no buyers for them.
Suarez gone already, mate.
Ozil isn’t going anywhere.
Most likely true.
I just hope we find a better way of utilizing him, and he has a better go next season.
We can see how well Liverpool’s attack has done since they invested in a solid defense and dialed in their midfield.
Liverpool have Milner, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Shaqiri and Keira. Keira is world class but apart from him their midfield doesn’t look the best in terms of individual technical quality, they do work their asses off. But if you ask me, I think they would love to have a player like Ozil in their team, Klopp would make him work hard and he would enjoy assisting their fowards.
Keita*
And Jenkinson, he seems to have been around for time immemorial. What kind of contract did he sign?
Jenkinson can only leave when Bonnie Tyler’s heart isn’t totally eclipsed anymore
Similar one to Gunnersaurus I presume.
He’s a true Gooner who everybody loves to see run around during the warm-up, but hope he stays far away from the field once the game gets going.
I also expect him to leave.
Great this season? No. Didn’t need to be. Did a job, always left it all on the pitch. Team player. Added some bite. No assumptions about playing/starting. Very professional.
That is not a bad signing.
Agreed, and I know it’s not something you can ever get a true measure of, but I like to think his professionalism and commitment will have had an influence on the squad. His knack for shithousery has too but overall still a net positive.
Absolutely. He was brought in as someone who could toughen up our attitude a bit….and also …how much better was Bellerin this season ? And after he got injured how much did AMN improve at RB/RWB too ? I find it hard to believe hat having one of the most experienced RBs in Europe at the club wasn’t a factor in both these things.
One year deal. Job done. We move on. Shouldn’t be negativity around his signing. Good luck to him.
I don’t know if others agree, but I have really high hopes for Ainsley Maitland Niles, like we should build around young players like him as Liverpool have done with players like Alexander Arnold.
He improves year on year and did across this season on a whole. But we’ve got to dial in his position before we can build around him. Goes for all of the young players, really.
We’ve got Hector coming back a little into next season, so AMN will have to find yet another position and then try to perform well enough there to make it his.
4-2-3-1 next season with AMN ahead of Bellerin.
Am keenly curious to hear why you suggest dropping our first choice RB behind a player whose best / natural position… isn’t as an RB.
Eh…. I’m not. I’m suggesting playing both in the same team. AMN on right of midfield.
Ah… ahead positionally not in pecking order. Gotcha. Is that his (AMN’s) position, though?
That’s really the core of it. Nobody really knows. He’s played LB, RB, RWB most at first team level, DM with the academy but hasn’t had many shifts there for us and when he did looked like he needed some development.
We don’t have any idea right now if he can force his way into a midfield with Torreira, Xhaka, and Guendouzi. He may well be capable, just don’t know.
Up at RW he’d be possibly in competition with Reece Nelson, or a new wide addition.
Right!
Exactly
I like that he seemed quite passionate and not afraid to shout at people (our players, opposition and officials!) When perhaps they needed shouting at. That’s something we’ve not got an abundance of and his experience and professionalism will have been a good example to the younger players
Unfortunately, the narrative towards him is a bit tainted because he would up playing in matches he was never supposed to play in due to Bellerin’s injury. He was brought in to spell Hector in cups and group stage Europa league matches and to give Hector some veteran leadership from a guy who has a ton of experience in sides that celebrated many championships. That part worked as Hector looked much sharper this year and I’d give Lichtsteiner some credit for that. We could do worse than offering him a defensive coaching role with the club.
Waste of time by Mslintat.
Could have done better to keep Chambers.
He would have covered Rback which was his NATURAL position at Soton but also cover right of defense in competition with Mustafi AND at DM in lieu of mediocre Elneny.
Instead we saddled the wage bill with another 90K per week and had to resort to panic loans in January.
Nah.
Decent season if only for the aggro against the homeless
?
We probably should have kept Chambers instead of signing Leitchsteiner; not only would it have saved 5.2 million in wages but it would have benefited Chambers’s progression playing in our Europa League and domestic cup matches and training with us on a daily basis.
I reckon scrapping for survival in the relegation zone for a season has probably benefitted his progression much more. Every time I’ve watched Fulham on TV he’s been one of the standout players. Hoping he cements a place in our back 3 next season
We all agree that Chambers was more than good enough for Fulham (a team in the bottom 3). Is he going to be good enough for a team which needs to be in the top 4?
I’m hopeful!
Exactly, as a player he has beneffitted from the Fulham loan. He may not have developed anywhere enar as well if he stayed at Arsenal and found opportunities limitted. You want your frienge guys to go out on loan and play and improve. Chambers has done that. Arsenal will benefit now as a result.
Chambers as right back? Ask Montengro how that turned out.
Montero from Swansea…not Montengro the country. But then again, they probably would agree.
That was one game when he was about 19.
I like Chambers but not as a full back. No where near fast enough. I’d give him a shot in center half or defensive midfield. Not sure he’s a starting 11 top 4 player but very servicable as a squad player.
To be fair, if we were just assessing pace, would you bet on Chambers or Lichtsteiner if they were racing in 100 meters today? (Or maybe especially if they had to race after already playing 60 minutes of football?)
Chambers without a doubt. However, I wouldn’t choose either as a starting 11 player. Squad cover yes but I think Chambers is more suited in midfield. I think he’s closer to being a starting 11 player in that role than either center half or full back.
He did his best and gave his all, I don’t really care for negative opinions on his stay here because when things were going right everyone said he was the bastard we needed blah blah blah
My own take of our players this season somewhat more nuanced and not so subject to hysteria : 1) Leno – Really came to the fore this season. Still improvements to be made in some areas but some fine saves this season and we should be confident moving forward with him. 2) Bellerin – Unfortunately injured but clearly a very important piece of our system. Still the more balanced player between attack and defense. My main issue with him is we are very dependent on him to make width out right. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that we… Read more »
Forgot to mention
28) Suarez – Hard for him as he had very limited opportunities but clearly did not do enough to make a strong impression. Seems short on confidence.
No one ever:
Santori: HERE’S MY IN DEPTH ANALYSIS ON EVERY ARSENAL PLAYER THIS SEASON
Any chance of a word count limit, Blogs?
Better yet can we eliminate Santori’s access all together. Can’t see the same bullshit any longer…
Finally got to the end…
.. Fingers.. Bloody and numb…
I’ve not eaten in 3 days..
But I finally got to the end of the post!
Only to find you’ve misnamed a player.
Saka not sakho
In terms of what we need form market, as I mentioned : HIGH PRIORITY 1) Cback. A good one preferably with height and 23-28yrs. Doesn’t have to be well known name or break the bank though. Sokratis, Holding, New Cback. Then its one of Mustafi or Chambers depending on buyers and who wants to leave/or stay. Mavropanos out on loan to develop. Monreal also available in a back 3 if need be for one more season so we have 5 for redundancy into 3 (or a back 4) 2) CM. Torreira has not been the complete answer. We have positives… Read more »
Fuck a duck. You’ve got far too much time on your hands!
I liked Lichtsteiner. In retirement, I expect to see his face as the mascot for a company selling frankfurters or popcorn. Put an apron and a little hat on the fella, perfecto.
We’ve had plenty of real dross over the years I’m glad he wasn’t one of them. Loved his in your face attitude and niggling ways something we’ve been missing for long time he came in did a job and leaves us maybe a bit or much better (depending on your view Point) than when he arrived. I wish him all the best in his next adventures.
Signing defenders over the age of 30 with no Premier League experience almost always ends in failure. I hope Emery and Co are taking a look at Max Aarons, the young wing back at Norwich. Would be a fantastic addition to the squad
God I hope he leaves.
He cannot have too many complaints though – a years salary for doing nothing…
The guy did nothing wrong he just got old and unfortuately the pace of the Premier League is high.
Good luck to him and perhaps he can impart some of that knowledge from experience onto younger shoulders.
Solid professional, at his age though never really able to keep up with the pace required for the EPL.
Certainly not the worst signing we’ve ever made.
Thanks and good luck.
I liked the fight he picked up with Eric Dier at the Emirates. His only moment of usefulness all season.
He played about as most would have expected at his age. Certainly wasn’t one of the main problems for the squad this year and in some ways his lack of form was a blessing in disguise as it allowed AMN to get more game time which is more valuable for the long term.
a perfect example of why bargain hunting isnt always a good idea,