Shkodran Mustafi has joined Schalke on a permanent basis after he reached an agreement with Arsenal to terminate his contract early.
The 28-year-old joins Sead Kolasinac in Gelsenkirchen just weeks after the left-back returned to his former club on loan.
Mustafi joined Arsenal in the summer of 2016 from Valencia for a fee of £35m.
Since then he has made 151 appearances in all competitions, scoring 9 goals in the process. He also contributed to our FA Cup successes in 2017 and 2020 by picking up injuries shortly before each final.
The best of luck to him at Schalke, and for whatever lies beyond.
schalke i love you for this. but i also feel bad for you
Last in the headman league
Meant to say German League for Shalke
Classless.
since when did saying the truth become classless? let’s all be polite and magically forget all his f*** ups?
That’s unfair. He might not be the best defender in the team (certainly not worth the £35 million he cost) but he is nowhere as bad as our fans make it out to be. In fact, he was one of the in-form defenders last season before the league was interrupted. Maybe it’s about time we admit our fanbase is becoming too toxic and it’s costing us on the market.
Mustafi >>>>>>>>> Maguire
All day long
but Manure has the best defender the world has ever seen to partner maguire, so they are safe. I’ve never seen a defender better than Phil omg Jones. what a legend.
“Becoming” too toxic??? That’s like saying Michael Jackson is dying.
I really wonder how good Mustafi might have been with a better standard of supporters behind him. Maybe I’ll just watch the 2014 World Cup, when the German supporters were fully behind every one of their players.
2014 not 2021…
A fine sentiment. I’d love to see us lose some of the negativity from our fan base. But that doesn’t mean we need to rewrite history. He’s been sold he hasn’t died. Mustafi was fucking awful at times. The same costly mistakes. Switched off at key moments. Was part of the defensive clown show that undermined the whole team until Arteta got hold of it What makes it worse was there was clearly a very, very good defender in there somewhere. Had some excellent performances over his time with us and I’m glad he got some kind of redemption last… Read more »
I generally accept that our fanbase is too quick to turn on players, but Mustafi has given us more than enough reasons to do so.
He wasn’t a terrible defender, I agree.
But he often played like one.
The double team of Mustafi and Xhaka kept us out of the Champions League in 2019.
Speaking of which, there are still some people who support Xhaka, so we can’t be that toxic. The guy should have been run out of town after that bitch fit at Crystal Palace.
No one is saying that ALL Arsenal supporters are toxic, but the ones who are, are “that toxic”.
And when Xhaka had that “bitch fit” in the Palace game, he became my hero – those fans deserved that.
That’s is exactly my point. He is not a terrible defender – just not an Arsenal standard. So it’s shocking to see him leave on free! A world cup champion, 2 FA winner, 28 years old with a contract leaving us for free in the January transfer market. I can’t help but feel we scared off other clubs with our constant toxic social media posts and mocks.
Yep definitely the fans fault.
I’ve got vivid memories of my stick of invisibility repeatedly tripping Musti at key moments.
If only I’d known earlier being politely clapped onto the pitch wasn’t enough to bring out his hidden Beckenbauer.
Not the best, not the worst.
Sorry but he was one of the worst, overall, that we’ve had. I actually saw most of his home performances and there was always a worry he’d make a mistake – and he did more often than a £35 million player would be expected to. Good luck to him of course but he just wasn’t up to PL standard.
You obviously never Igor Stepanov or Sqillaci play for Arsenal.
He said one of the worst…and he was…Lets throw Silvestre in their as well.
Please stop!
Easily one of the commercially worst deals we have done.
I don’t know who/what convinced the usually cautious and frugal Wenger to authorise £ 35M to buy him.
3 different managers tried but its best for him to resurrect his career in a different league.
Would have helped recoup some but we can move on now.
As I remember it it was in part an issue of Wenger refusing to strengthen. We were going to go into the season with only two established central defenders fit (Gabriel and Mertesacker, or was it Koscielny?). Then Gabriel got injured as well, and as we were in such desperate need for a central defender, the selling club could set a ridiculous tag.
If we’d gone for someone else we would have massively overpaid as well. That said, I think we all expected much more from him.
Looking back Wenger had some amazing prem finishes with some truly awful teams but half the time it was his own doing why the team was poor. I remember when he refused to buy a striker and instead thought injury prone Walcott, Lord Bendtner and Arshavin could get us throught the season.
Or when Sanogo was our backup to Giroud! We still managed to finish in the top 4, and may even have beaten Bayern in the CL had we not played Sanogo in the first game.
Like you say, some amazing finishes given the limitations in the squad.
I think you’ll find we lost that game because we missed a penalty whilst on top, and then went down to ten men later on. Not playing Sanogo would not have changed that.
It’s so important to get your facts right before giving your opinions.
Sanogo was actually terrorizing Bayern that game and Ozil was running the show. That penalty miss changed the course of his Arsenal career.
But Ozil was not our first penalty taker, was he? Had Giroud been on the field he would have taken that penalty.
I wasn’t saying that Sanogo playing was the reason that we lost. I’m merely saying that we might have won over the two legs had Giroud played the first game.
I agree that it so important to distinguish between facts and opinions. I don’t think you are demonstrating a capacity to do so.
Ozil had pen. Saved
You’re referring to the 2009/10 season, when van Persie got injured and missed the majority of the campaign.
So what would have been your great plan for when he had come back and we had this other striker, who you say we should have signed, on our books? Also, which great striker, on van Persie’s level, could we have signed in January 2010? Also, we still had Eduardo on our books at the time.
Maybe you should stop thinking that you know better than Arsene Wenger – he’s a genius, whereas you’re a numpty.
Indeed. Wenger usually got the team output to be more than the sum of the parts more. Ofcourse there were 8-2, type of matches, when he tried to play Wenger-ball with Vengaboys 😉
All he had to do was ask the Valencia manager Gary Neville what he thought of him. But on the other hand maybe Neville thought it pay back time for when he played against Wenger’s teams.
Don’t you think we already lost £35M on Pepe? I
Warning! Subjective elements can be detected:
Mannone
Silvestre – Squillaci – Stepanov – André Santos
Gervinho – Denilson – Frimpong – Park
Chamakh – Jeffers
Subs: Almunia, Luznij, Cygan, Jenkinson, Myachi, Kaellstrom, Bischoff, Sanogo, GUS CAESAR
Manager: Emery
May I also add Pal Lyderson and Kabo Diawarra?
Somebody call?
Looking at that lot, I think its a little harsh on Gervinho.
Still playing and scoring in Serie A for Parma
He scored for us, but most of the time was falling over his own feet
Luzhny? Seriously? He was pretty handy. Does not belong in that team, try with Colin Pates or Stathos Tavlaridis.
Justin Hoyte!
Inamoto?
No, he was just riding his bike, I think *rimshot*
Grimandi
Gus Caesar still gives me cold sweats at night.
“To get where he did, Gus Caesar clearly had more talent than nearly everyone of his generation… and it still wasn’t quite enough. […] Gus must have known he was good, just as any pop band who has ever played the Marquee know they are destined for Madison Square Garden and an NME front cover, and just as any writer who has sent off a completed manuscript to Faber and Faber knows that he is two years away from the Booker. You trust that feeling with your life, you feel the strength and determination it gives you coursing through your… Read more »
Fever Pitch?
You bet, my friend
How is senderos not here. Drogba scored most of his goals against us via him
Admiral Jenkinson on the bench, really??! Surely there are other options that would be much worse!
I’d swap Gervinho for Willian every day of the week
——————–Runarsson
——Squillaci – Stepanovs – Silvestre
Hoyte – Flamini 2.0 – Denilson – Santos
———————–Willian
—————Sanogo – Jeffers
Midfield isn’t awful, considering. And Santos might actually work at LWB
I’d at least have Justin Hoyte on an extended subs bench
*cough* not forgetting Lichtsteiner
Kaelstrom should not be included here. It was unfortunate he came with a broken back, so we didn’t really get to see much of him. He was actually a very good player. He was also much better than Xhaka. Great passing range (made some class assists for Zlatan for Sweden, a quality we could use right now), plays with high energy, reasonably quick, and always looking to pass forward. Also had a great left foot.
i take Almunia who was good for 2/3 season of season over Richard Wright
Denilson was good early on but after few injury he never continue progressing and fall off ,Chamak was a decent back up striker unlike Jeffers
Squillaci was so bad at times, instead of hating him, I begun to pity him.
i think mustafi is on par with Squillaci and the legendary Cygan.
No way. Squillachi’s ability to fuck up was quality. To be fair to him though, Wenger’s tactics always left him and his partner exposed
I remembering Squillachi making a 2 yard pass direct to an onrushing striker, who said thank you very much as he scored.
Hahahaha
Oh lord. My brain hurts hurts
Saw squallic score away at Bolton , had a great game tbf
Simply not good enough for a guy at his peak age
Disagree. He worked hard. He has some skills. But under any pressure he made terrible choices. You are last man back, ball at feet and facing your own goal, you feel a little nudge. Do you Attempt a blind thirty yard Crossfield pass across your own goal to a team mate who was definitely there last time you looked? Throw yourself on the floor and hope you win a free kick. Leaving the striker clean through on goal? Blame everyone else when 5 seconds later the ball mysteriously ends up in your net? None of the above because that would… Read more »
Maybe not the worst ever but definitely the most error prone. That’s why he was so frustrating to watch. I believe he jas better qualities than silvestre, squilaci et al, but none of them had his terrible timing for tackles or lack of concentration against fast strikers like agüero. Hope he does well but honestly I’m glad he’s gone
Good bye & good riddance. I appreciate that the club decided to sign him but he had a terrible work ethic and made rash & stupid mistakes.
With the clique of Ozil, Kolasinac & Mustafi now gone let’s hope the squad is more united & improves.
One of the worst players ever to play for us.
Terrible work ethic?
Tell us, what’s it like being on the Arsenal coaching staff? Must be awesome being on the training pitch every day!
By all accounts he was a professional. He always tried his best, it’s just that his best wasn’t up to scratch.
Ah well, best of luck to him
Who says the squad was not united. Not the best, and yes we could have better spent the money but I don’t recall Mustafi being lazy. Schalke seems about his standard. Also got to respect him digging himself out the hole he found himself in mentally after a string of errors.
Always looking around to blame someone else for his own errors.
No he wasn’t – you just made that up.
WTF have you been watching since he has been here.
Yes he did. Hes infamous for it. Just off the top of my head he tried to blame Leno for his Zaha Fiascos. Several instances out there just with the young players alone. Which in itself is a dick move.
A troika of German speaking malcontents in the dressing room. The leader, his bodyguard & batman (military not the Gotham City one)
You can’t ever fault him for effort. Quality at big moments, yes
I watched us play a friendly in 110/43 degree heat just before the 2019 season. The team took water breaks every 15 minutes – except for Mustafi who stood in the middle of the pitch and waited. He clearly knew he had a lot to prove to the fan base. I don’t think a lack of effort was his problem.
“He also contributed to our FA Cup successes in 2017 and 2020 by picking up injuries shortly before each final.”
Bit harsh seeing as he contributed to the rest of the runs and would’ve played both finals on form.
Best of luck to him though, his time at Arsenal was up.
Thought that was a bit harsh, too. Overall, yeah, he’s been really disappointing, but Arteta (in my opinion) coached him into respectability, and having watched so many other CB’s in the league make equally dumb mistakes all season, every season, I don’t think he’s as bad as our fan base is acting. Seems pretty professional and likeable as a person, I hope he kicks ass at Schalke.
He literally made at least 6 or 7 direct errors leading to goals every season.. Not to mention lapses in concentration and the ease in which every dangerous attacker in the league spun this fool and left him for dead. All you had to do was draw him to the half way where he would try and get too tight and boom they were in. Nail in the coffin for me was the Crystal Palace game at home when he repayed Emerys faith in him despite the whole fanbases misgivings by allowing Zaha to shit all over us and deny… Read more »
How can you call Mustafi a fool, when you’re too thick to know how to correctly use the word “literally”?
You’re right when you say that a lot (they’re two seperate words, fool) of factors have gotten us where we are. Toxic fans like you are among the biggest.
It’s starting to get a bit personal. It’s only football and opinions, boys. Be nice
Somewhere between a bit harsh and a cheap shot. Almost as cheap as the Sterling one that kept him out of the finals.
We only won them because he didn’t play. The truth is harsh sometimes.
You’re right – the truth is harsh sometimes. And the truth is that you’re too thick to be allowed an opinion. I know it’s supposed to be a human right, but extending it to you is just taking the piss.
Even I felt that comment was a bit of a cheap shot and rather unnecessary. At the end of the day he gave his best for us, and I would wish him the best going forward. The toxicity around certain players gets too much at times for me personally.
Damn right too harsh we only pick on certain players
At the end of the day, his best was not good enough.
Come on, that was pretty funny!
Obviously the great performance in the semi-final against Man City, which helped get us to the final, doesn’t count!
Bloggs can joke about 2017 now, but it wasn’t funny at the time. I was at the Everton match on the final day of the season. 15 minutes in, Kos gets a straight red, out of the cup final. 10 minutes into the second half, Gabriel ruptures his knee, stretchered off, out of the cup final. I remember saying, “So if Mustafi is still concussed, that means our defense is … the Big F*’n German?” and everyone in my row was like, “Cheers. Thanks for that.”
Best of luck Mustafi. A player at best times looked like he could just about become a good player at the Arsenal…alas never to be.
Damn! That was tad mean😅. Or is it just me? Oh well, all the best Musty. I’m sure it’s best for all parties concerned… Now please learn from your mistakes and enough of these terrible deals.
Life is good.
I always felt he was a solid defender if he improved on his decision-making. Unfortunately, he didn’t improve and I’ve lost a lot of hair watching him play at times. His aerial ability was good to be fair to him.
Good luck to him. I think he was one of those players not cut out for this League. Hopefully he will shine in Germany.
Shame it cost us £35 million to find out…
And a pair of CL berths.
I’ll offer up a description one of my managers (and a friend) made of a one-time teammate:
“Best player in the league– from the neck down.”
Yep. If I am right, that’s the last of Wenger’s signings gone. Very symbolic.
You’re not right.
Remind me – who is left ?
Aubameyang, off the top of my head.
You’re right. But as that one was and is a winner, we can live with that.
Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin, Auba and Laca. ESR and Saka both trained under him and were given contracts under him as I remember.
Have to go through the entire playing staff to be sure.
And Xhaka of course. Sorry, being dumb.
Chambers, Elneny….and (sort of) Per Mertesaker and Mikel Arteta 😊
Haha! I got a thumbs down for a list. Genius.
Laca, Holding, Xhaka, Elneny, Chambers…
Xhaka
But apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?
You win this comments section
Leno, Holding, Chambers, Elneny, Xhaka, Lacazette, PEA (+Bellerin)
It’s funny how everyone finds their empathy for Mustafi now blogs made a few jokes. He wasn’t good for Arsenal. There were flashes of ok-ness. Probably a nice guy and I wish him well but let’s take the rose tinted specs off
He was good when he first arrived and I enjoyed his little renaissance last season but aside from that mostly I was bricking it every time he played.
So true. I hate all this fake “ah well, good luck to the lad” bs. Same with ozil’s fluffers getting all weepy eyed as he swans out the door still pocketing 350 large every week from arsenal to bankroll his istanbul holiday. Mustafi sucked. Good riddance. Ditto Sokratis. Ditto Ozil. Good job Mikel. Keep it up.
So…. not Barcelona then?
I thought he might help Liverpool lose a few points.
Best news this window, one of worst ever signings.
35m well burnt. Seeya….
He also contributed to our FA Cup successes in 2017 and 2020 by picking up injuries shortly before each final…
Hahahaha 🤣🤣
28 years of age, 35 million paid and it costs us even more to get rid of him.
We are not great at transfers. Would like to think we have learnt lessons but with the Willian situation, I’m not so sure.
Still loads of deadwood gone, so can only be a good thing..reset and move on.
And don’t forget his contribution in the League Cup at Wembley.
Yeah, his contribution to Manchester City,
Good news – paying Mustafi to leave was always the most likely outcome. Our error in paying £35 million (sounds crazy just typing it) in the first place was one of Wenger’s biggest. Anyway, the long 5 year nightmare is over.
Thank you musti
I think it was the right time to go, i think you had a very good last run
Good luck and all the best
PS: but please don’t come back
Mustafi, Sokratis, Kola, Ozil all gone…..
AMN, Willock & Saliba on loan…..(Maybe Nelson?)
He’s got an ability, is good in the air despite lack of height. However on this level a defender has to play faultless game. Mustafi always had an easy error in him – whether it was a rushed challenge, hesitation or lapses of concentration. Very frustrating player, who could have been a very solid defender but didn’t koscielny his time at Arsenal but squillacied it.
Good luck.
The missus: “What are you grinning so broadly about….?”
Did not expect we could shift Kolasinac, Ozil and Mustafi before their contracts expired! Well played
We only loaned Kola and are still paying Ozil what he was due, he just isn’t a registered Arsenal player now.
Thanks Musti. Maybe not good enough, but you did your best!
What a window for Arteta and Edu! Trimming the bloated squad and getting rid of deadwood is the first step to getting Arsenal back on the right track. We need to make smart signings going forward (No Willian-like signings). As much as I detest City and Chelsea, they make good signings and sell well. We can be better than them
The mistakes of 2016, Xhaka and Mustafi. Mistakes of 2018, Torreira and Sokratis. Mistake of the year 2019, Nicolas Pepe for 72M. As a fan funded club with no outside cash injections, this has been a disaster run from the club. On fan investment expense. Kroenkes there holding a sinking reputation club which will stagnate in value as other clubs manage to grow theirs. This can only be fixed from the top. Transfer market performance makes or break a club. Stakes are very high for summer 2021 window. I personally would like it to be 4 players on 15M fee… Read more »
Yeah, but what will 15M get you nowadays?
A Pablo Mari
You could get a lot of quality for 15M in pandemic prices. If you look across the leagues, a lot of quality regularly is traded in that price range. Kind of quality and depth we would need for our style of play to make us an effective team. Quality to make us 4th best squad in the league and finish 4th to make some CL money again. Basically I want more players suiting our style to get in at cheap pandemic discount prices, than again just 2 signings for starter positions in summer 2021. We can be more smart with… Read more »
Theure already having a bad season, we didn’t have to sign their death warrant like that. In all seriousness though good luck to him.
The clean up continues…..sol good man
Man, the things I could do with the money this club is happy to burn…
So no money at all coming our way? I know we save on his remaining salary.
“He also contributed to our FA Cup successes in 2017 and 2020 by picking up injuries shortly before each final”
OUCH BURN!!!!!
Now that he’s gone, I don’t wanna remember all his mistakes and errors. So I’ll say this instead…he was probably one of our best defenders in the air. I wish him goodluck and I hope he is happy with the rest of his career.
He actually was freakishly good in the air for a player his size, probably better than Koscielny even
Woooohooooo
There was a player somewhere in there….DEEP down. He came out sometimes like on that 22 unbeaten run.. But for the most part he was just a calamity and a complete liability.
Remember when we used to miss players when they left.
He also contributed to our FA Cup successes in 2017 and 2020 by picking up injuries shortly before each final.
Brutal
Whilst not the best player, I think some of the criticism he received was unfair. He made some bad mistakes, but I always felt the mistakes he made were highlighted more than others who made mistakes that were just as bad and costly. Also, although stats never tell you the full story, I found it amusing when United paid a huge fee for Maguire and Mustafa was better than him for almost all the key stats, the season before Maguire was purchased.
Well said a5000
We all said we would have driven him to the airport. That says it all.
I didn’t. You are a naughty fibber 🙂
Rumor has it that he has forgone regular transport and will instead slide tackle his way to Schalke. Seriously, good luck to him. Had some real good qualities but his legacy at Arsenal will be his rash lapses in judgement.
Lol!
He was actually very good when we signed him.
Then something melted in his head…
Wow. 3 senior players getting their contract terminated early in just 1 window. So unheard of.
Add Mkhi , & Ramsey, consider the saliba deal, Willian wages. The waste of money It’s almost criminal
It does look to me like we’re turning that around, though. A lot of this stuff is correcting someone else’s prior mistakes.
“He also contributed to our FA Cup successes in 2017 and 2020 by picking up injuries shortly before each final.”
Savage.
I can’t think of worse money we’ve spent than the money spent on Mustafi, and there’s a lot of competition for that title.
Had some good games for us but when you consider the price tag, there’s a pretty compelling case for one of our worst ever signings, good luck Mustafi but glad to see the back of you
Unfortunately burdened by his ridiculous price tag. He wasn’t the worst but he made so many high profile mistakes. His tendency to throw his hands up in the air as he left his marker all alone drove me insane! I wish him the best but am very glad we shall never see him again. Now we just need to work on David Luiz.
Good luck Shkodran.Thanks for the really powerful defensive headers.
Thank god… Now Schalke fans can go nuts seeing him play instead us. This year is shaping to be very good so far!
Also, as blogs sometimes says, he has one of those faces, super irritating… Now all that’s left from that fantastic duo is grannyte, will open a bottle of champagne when he finally leaves. Then willian but that’s another story
Contributed to our FA cups by getting injured before the final??? Whoever wrote that obviously didn’t watch him in either semi final.
The man has incessantly been made a scapegoat during the club’s worst period since Terry Neil/Don Howe. Occasionally error prone, yes (including one absolute howler letting Zaha through), but not responsible for the team’s deficiencies.
Once the narrative had been written for him with all aboard that bandwagon, there’s no way he was going to recover at this club.
Dank Shkodran, sorry our club never appreciated you.
The club did appreciate him – it was the stupid fans who didn’t.
And that was a crass sentence about him not playing in the finals. Sadly, being a complete idiot does not stop one from writing a blog.
You’re having a laugh mate.
Mustafi was a major reason we dropped out of the ECL and the top four and haven’t been back since. In doing so, he was also practically cost Wenger his job.
He was nothing more than a perpetual on-pitch accident waiting to happen. Opposing forwards must have licked their lips even time they saw that clown’s name on the team sheet.
And people like you are a main reason why mid table mediocrity is now almost acceptable at this club.
*omit was
*every
Absolute liability gone, finally. Good luck Mustafi in your new club.
Hopefully Luiz will be gone in the summer.
Absolute beast in the air but always had an error in him. Transmitted panic to the rest of the players. Often blamed others for his mistakes.
Would rather have kept Gabriel Paulista
It was easy to join the “Mustafi out” fan club, and I certainly was a card carrying member. But his reclamation as a player was nothing short of remarkable. It seems clear now that his horrible run of form was not helped by a manager with a questionable ability to communicate strategy and tactics to team that was completely lacking in direction. It took a lot of character to withstand the hate that is even now keenly on display in these comments. While not suggesting he’s part of the solution back to the Champions League, he’s earned my respect as… Read more »
Far too often our perception is coloured by the transfer fees. Rightly so, in most cases. The over-inflated markets were the only reason Xhaka and Mustafi commanded the fees they did, patches of good form and goodwill notwithstanding, Pepe was worth 72 million and many deals across teams that simply had more zeroes than the people making the deals thought was fun to count.
Not the best we ever had, but thank you and goodbye, Musti.
You know, a player can be the worst, least talented player a club has ever seen, but if he absolutely works himself in to the ground for that club, the fans will at least respect and have love for that player. The amount of times we have seen Mustafi duck under a shot rather than take a ball in the face, turn away from a shot rather than take a ball in the stomach or plums, pull out of a challenge, I’m sorry, but he just doesn’t have the heart for it. He doesn’t have the courage, and doesn’t lay… Read more »