Mikel Arteta has made it clear that he should not have to convince players to play for Arsenal. It also appears that he is sending a message to contract rebels like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Words like that inspire confidence among fans that our manager knows what he is doing and that he is showing that we can be a proud club despite our recent history.
However, we need to understand that we are mostly going after players that would hesitate to sign for us based on our current form.
We are a team that has just asked our players to take a pay cut and any player we approach to join us could take a pause and think: “wait a minute, did they not just ask their players to take pay cuts?”
In a situation like this, we have to be prepared to do some convincing if we want to sign any top player.
There will be players who still consider Arsenal as their dream club, however, a majority of the players that the media have linked us to are also wanted by clubs that are doing better than us at the moment.
We shouldn’t allow players to take advantage of our current situation and give us the run-around, but we have to also understand that modern-day players are in effect mercenaries chasing big paydays as well as Champions League football. Right now, Arsenal is at a disadvantage when it comes to being able to offer that.
It is ok Arteta laying down his conditions but he also needs to be realistic and first get Arsenal back in contention before we can start attracting top-class players.
An article by Ime
