Former Chelsea forward Tony Cascarino has claimed that Arsenal need to sign ‘at least nine new players’ in this summer’s transfer window.
The Gunners are currently sixth in the Premier League table – 10 points off fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur ahead of their clash with Manchester City on Thursday night.
Arsene Wenger’s side will enter this week’s league game off the back of a 3-0 defeat to City in the EFL Cup final on Sunday afternoon.
The capital club were also knocked out by Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup, leaving the Europa League as their only chance of silverware this season.
Pundit Cascarino, who also represented the likes off Millwall, Aston Villa and Celtic during a successful playing career, has blasted Wenger for the club’s current plight.
Cascarino wrote in The Times:
“How can Wenger, if he loves this club, leave them in this state? With the exception of picking the team, I think that he has already checked out.
“They are now, by some distance, the worst of the big six and need at least nine new players to turn it around.
“I include [Mesut] Ozil in that too, even though they’ve recently given him a new £350,000-a-week deal. That also shows that almost every decision being made at that club, off the pitch, and on it, is the wrong one.”
Arsenal face a tough assignment in the Europa League as they prepare to take on Italian giants AC Milan in the last-16 stage of the competition.
Defeat to City on Thursday night would all but end their already-slim chances of fighting into the top four in the final weeks of the campaign.
