At this point in time can anybody say with any level of certainty what on Earth is going to happen to our two ‘big name’ stars come January?

Can anybody enlighten me? 

Because Arsène certainly can’t and I’m not sure he has any idea any more. His latest interview from beIN – and if you don’t believe Arsène does anything for money then you should have a think about why he spends his time during international windows talking to one specific media outlet – explains that no decision has been made on Özil or Alexis and that both could be moved on in January. 

That makes sense. After all it was only six months ago that the manager was professing that both would see our their contracts and Alexis would not be sold under any circumstances, before accepting a deadline day deal, only for it to be rejected because a replacement couldn’t be found.

I sound a little sarcastic I know but on the Özil/Alexis situation I am actually taking a more clinical view. Simply because I think we need to knock everything down and start again and the best way to rebuild a team is to have a bit of cash to do it. So in a way I’m not being sarcastic when I say that talking about the potential of moving them on in January makes sense. 

I think we should sell, bank the cash, then look to get some proper work done for a rejig in summer. Call me defeatist if you like but this season already feels like it might be one that’s gone to the dogs so we might as well prep for a rebuild of a squad that needs a bit of an overhaul anyway. And if you believe the noises that appear to be bubbling around then there’s a possibility that this might be Arsène’s last season.

He of course denied it in his interview with beIN, citing his record of having never broken a contract, but even if he is planning to go at the end of the season he’s not exactly going to admit it in a media interview. 

Whatever the circumstances of the manager though, getting shot of two players who are running down their deals for a bit of cash seems the right thing to me. I hope the club are alerting just about every team in Europe with the hope that we can sell them abroad and not risk strengthening a rival. I’d certainly take that all day. 

Of course the players themselves could dig their heels in but if there’s any sense in them they’d probably move if we look as rudderless as we did at times last season and in games away from home this season. So maybe a January moving on is more than an outside chance.

I suspect we’ll get some team news today ahead of the NLD and when Arsène does his presser he’ll probably deny completely that Özil and Alexis are for sale. So we’ll be back to having no clue whatsoever on what is happening at our club.

Who said ‘ignorance is bliss’?

Catch you all tomorrow.