There have been suggestions on where Arsenal can strengthen in the winter in order to improve their chances of winning the Premier League. The midfield is one such position. Every day, it appears more likely that a central midfielder will be signed so that Mikel Arteta will have another talented player to call on in his engine room, especially in Thomas Partey departs as expected.
There have been rumors that Douglas Luiz and even Ruben Neves may be considered, but to sign one of the two, Arsenal may have to spend big. That said, what if I told you there is another cheaper and excellent transfer option Arteta can sign and get the most out of?
Kalvin Philips is this midfielder. Philips has struggled to establish himself as Guardiola’s first choice since joining Manchester City last summer. Due to injuries and struggles to break into the lineup last season, he only made 12 league appearances. This season, after 12 Premier League match days, he has only made four appearances (all as a substitute).
The Englishman could benefit from leaving January in the winter. With a move to a side that will appreciate his talent (because he is a superb midfielder), he can not only guarantee a place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad but also return to his best, as he did when he won people’s hearts while playing for Leeds.
Arsenal is one of the teams that have been linked with him. The Gunners’ signing him might take Arteta’s midfield to the next level. When England conquered Euro 20 (held in 2021), Southgate relied on a strong midfield pairing of Rice and Philips. They were the real deal, as they ran the show as England dominated the Euros, only to unfortunately lose in the final. Mikel Arteta couldn’t go wrong recruiting Philips and unleashing a Rice-Philips midfield that is tried and tested.
Declan Rice has already “welcomed” Arsenal’s move for Phillips. The Englishman recently stated how much he admires the 27-year-old, whom he describes as an “all-around top guy,” stressing how professional and dedicated he is to work hard and why he feels he is still as good as he has always been.
Rice told talkSPORT about Phillips: “He’s one of the best professionals I’ve ever seen, if I’m honest with you.
“I’ve seen players who don’t play and throw their toys out of the pram completely, and with Kal, every time he comes back here, he pops on a shirt and puts in 110 percent.
“He played with me against Scotland, and I think that was his first start in a while, and he played really well, so I’ll never question his professionalism, and I don’t think any of the lads will.
“As a person as well, he’s an all-round top guy, and he brings that onto the pitch. It’s obviously difficult when you’re not playing as a footballer, and I know he wants to be playing more, for sure, but mentally, he hasn’t broken.
“He hasn’t thrown his toys out of the pram. He gives everything every day. He still improves and still plays with a smile on his face, so I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
Guardiola already stated that he would not stop any player from leaving while addressing the Cole Palmer to Chelsea transfer, which means Philips, if he wants out, he may be allowed to leave.
Arsenal should sign Philips, who is a great player but has failed to find his feet at the Etihad. Arteta’s Midas touch could help him rediscover his mojo and be an excellent replacement for Thomas Partey, especially as we know he has a good working relationship with Rice.
Daniel O
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Am like a lone wolf been calling for this exact thing to be done.
This should have been the exact plan from Arsenal in the summer, signing a powerful and mobile midfielder whether Partey stays or not, this lack of vision is worrying.
Players like Barrella, Tchouameni, Fofanao comes to mind,
Maybe this is a clear indication the board needs a dynamic Managing director.
Ok lone wolf, MANY have been wanting that for years even long before Rice arrived.
Get him on loan if possible and buy in summer if goes well.
Play him in granits position and rice as DM
Will improve us without a doubt..
So Xhaka exit has left a huge hole in Arsenal midfield, we need that one all action player, that can slide into the team seamlessly.
Arsenal must now fix the spine of the midfield once and for all before toying with the idea of bringing in a striker.
There should be no excuse to fix the midfield, first to start with, it will be a midfielders market bless with an abundance of midfielders tripping over each other in the January transfer window.
But Arsenal must get creative and starts to hear from agents now, what their clients think about North London.
Rice must be played as a #6. That is his best position.
Playing him at #8 will limit his prowess and ability to read the game more from deep.Give us an elite #8 who can also play in a double pivot then we are settled
Amanda could score from set pieces as she did in the WWC
She insists on starting almost on the goal line.
If she started on the 6 or 18 yd line she could attack the ball from there instead of waiting for the perfect cross
Arteta has shown to be a good manager, and has improved us since he came in. No one can deny we are not better off under his stewardship.
That doesn’t mean there are not areas of concern.
1. Man management is still an area of concern, but Arteta has only been managing for several years so I think it will improve as his experience grows.
My main concern is over too much responsibility and too much control, where an individual determines the course, as it was under Wenger.
In the long run, it’s not sustainable as we saw with our great Arsene Wenger. Arteta has only managed for several years, but his responsibilities extend far beyond managing players.
Is there anyone who oversees for the club? Sure Edu, Arteta, and Per discuss young players and loans and promotions. But who makes the final decision?
A bit alarming we have not promoted academy players into our first team. Are there any promotions on the horizon, or continued checkbook spending?
Was 35 million for Vieira necessary? Was he more advanced than Balogun or Patino for example? Just honestly asking.
I ask because midfield is still an issue, even with Rice coming in. Jorginho, Elneny, and Partey are band-aids and not long term solutions. Havertz had question marks when he joined, and has not shown he is capable.
The striker position is the same; neither Jesus or Nketiah are the threats up top, and it’s too easy to double Martinelli and Saka, which stalls our attack. We only have a plan A, and no alternative in attack.
I don’t know the inner workings at the club, I just wonder if Arteta has the experience to be making decisions that affect the club years down the road. Even Wenger with decades of experience struggled in the end.
I think any manager at any top club has to earn their peers trust and respect. Once they do that then they will be afforded a lot of leeway.
I don’t see why people always go on about Arteta’s bad man management abilities. It’s like he is the only manager that has ever dropped or sold players. People say Arteta has poor man management skills but then players still want to play for him. He is an attractive manager to new players. Don’t these potential new players notice his bad man management skills?. Rice refused to go to City. Saliba signed a new contract the moment Arteta told him he is ready to get into the first team. Even if many said that he would never renew because of Arteta’s poor man management. “Treated Saliba so badly”.
Look at the harmony and togetherness in the team / Squad. That can’t be poor man management. Surely. Once he got rid of the egotisical / social media celebrity players, the team and squad just seem to have bought into his style. The togetherness, trust and respect that our players keep showing towards Arteta tells me that the poor man management talking point is just people wanting to have something to always whine about. How can a bad man manager hold a team / club together like Arteta has done since he was allowed to root out the Trojan horses in the team?
Bad man management is the likes of Mourinho, Conte etc always moaning and whinging about how shiit their players are in public. And destabilising their clubs etc.. To me bad man management means causing destabilisation at the club. It’s been the opposite with Arteta.
Thank you for writting exactly what I was thinking we have had some really bad decisions in the arteta era he have gotten a lot of money but he is to wasteful. Declan rice is a good signing of course but he he is the most expensive midfielder in the premier not a hard one. Viera lokonga willian Cedric nketiah resign Jorginho havertz loaning Tierney selling balogun selling willock. At the time we sold willock I was happy but the way we wasted that money I’m no longer see it as good business. Hojlund went for 80M players that are half the players balogun is and will be
Durand, What a mature, to the point and above all REALISTIC post. Even though, I dont agree with ALL you write.
Apart from your differing view on MA as a man manager- as I have been a convinced MA supporter from his start, though I did briefly waver for a very few short weeks in his second season.
But I was won over again by his continuing no nonsense man management, an area I PLAINLY DO NOT SEE EYE TO EYE with you about.
I was thrilled and I do not overstate things by saying “thrilled”, that unlike Wenger , he refused to to tolerate idle slackers, esp Ozil and also in his final two seasons Auba too.
I had long wanted that rotten egg Guendouzi GONE and so did MA, to my pleasure and approval.
So I ADMIRE his intolerance of slackers and his ability to have instilled , so obviously too, a wonderful team spirit throughout our squad, where ALL fight tooth and nail for each other. I regard that as TOP man management therefore.
But in his buying and not ridding us of lesser players, I AM FAR LESS SURE OF HIS ABILITY.
To my mind, both HAVERTZ AND VIERA were bad and expensive buys and have harmed, not improved, our squad.
I do not understand the new contract for Elneny, a loyal type, but way below the necessary talent level.
Nor do I rate Jorginho as more than a steadily fading, over the hill , only occasionally effective midfielder.
The money wasted on both H and V , including heavy wages, COULD AND OUGHT to have been spent instead, on far better, more reliable and less timid, lacking in oomph types.
Asyou righly say we are short in striker and in quality midfielders, Ricde and Odegaard apart.
AND YET, having led for most of last season, with a third of this seaon gone, we stand one single point behind City, the worlds best team.
And we have had real injury problems this season. So, OVERALL, I say we are fortunate to have MA steering us steadily upwards, despite certain ins and non- outs in transfers which I CANNOT FATHOM.
Morning Mr Jf &Mr D
Been a firm backer of MA from the start. Apprehensive on many occasion but he showed in his early start that maybe we might have something good but do Have to disagree with you on MA being a good manager.
He in my opinion seems to be a very good coach but still learning his trade as a manager which mean he is bound to make mistake. Some small ones and. some big ones.
Yes agree on K & V being big mistakes and money spent on them could have been spent wiser in other areas to strengthen us.
As for MA having to much power on players and running the club. Don’t believe the kronkies would ever allow that to happen again as in the days of Mr AW
josh makes a lot of final decisions behind the scenes and really glad he does as in the past we all bemoaned about the owners not being involved in the running of our club
We have come a long way in a short space of time and we still have to a long way to go
Its Nice to hear nowdays that we have been put in a category of one of the few teams who could possibly challenge city for the title . Now we need to go and win it
Onwards and upwards
Jon – I could not agree more with what you write. So I guess in a sense this post of mine could be seen as a waste of time.
The only thing – more for others – is to add that our transfer window in terms of immediate impact vs investment amount has been a disappointment. Timber’s injury essentially means we spend £200 million on Rice since IMHO H doesn’t add much and Raya seems a marginal improvement. I am convinced had Timber stayed fit we would have more points. I truly hope, given the severity of his injury, that he will be able to reach the levels he showed just before his injury. Often football players are never the same after an ACL.
For me, as a result of Timber’s injury, Havertz playing style or lack of contribution, our lack of midfield quality (should Rice need a rest or get injured), and our obvious lack of a quality striker, this season is a bit of a consolidation season. So for me, if we finish in the automatic CL places I will be happy, and I will hope we will use the next transfer window(s) to buy another midfield machine (Douglas Luiz?, Nevez?) and a top striker.
@Durand, agree about Balogun and Patino, 2 great players who could be kept and utilised to a very successful extent. I am also worried about the lack of Academy players making it into the first team, unlike the situation at City and Liverpool where Academy players are given a chance to enter the first team.
I’m sure Kalvin Phillips can be a good CDM for Arsenal and let Rice focus on the left-sided AM role, but I’d prefer Douglas Luiz because of his free-kick skills
My worry is if Arsenal would have enough money to invest in a proper midfielder in January with selling one or two players. If Arsenal is unable to invest in January Arteta should take the blame. He would have done that rather than investing in Havertz. I hope Arsenal invest in January in an experience elite midfielder CM and not in a rookie with tarlent.
##without selling
Havertz is still in his first season for Arsenal and I bet we could still sell him with £20m loss next summer
20M loss on Havertz? But why? Shouldn’t we get back almost what we paid for him? Chelsea did it rather effortlessly. Is it so hard to find another manager in the league like Arteta who would pay around 60M for Havertz and let us recover most of what we paid for him?
Would City allow him to move to us in Jan with us looking short a top midfielder it wouldn’t be wise they’d be better off waiting til the summer because they’ll still get a buyer
Fofanna of Monaco is the ideal replacement for Partey.He is similar to Partey in many ways, and he does not seem to be injury prone.Having developed a relationship with Monaco, most recently through Balogun, I hope we pursue Fofanna, although I suspect his Club will be reluctant to sell him until next season.
I agree with you about the Monaco guy.
Will be a huge signing imo.
Play Rice at 6 and get a proper Xhaka replacement in for the left 8 position. Paqueta and Rice formed a decent partnership at West Ham and he would be could straight in.
Havertz is your man, thank Mikel later.
You mean at left back? Or where?
Even Nagglesmann doesn’t know exactly where to use him.
Just too slow and bang average with ball at his feet.
You can as well tell us what we don’t know.
I cannot foresee Philips being of interest to us at all. He is a merely decent but far from top class player, even though a hard working and committed type.
But QUALITY of sheer ability is the MOST needed thing and he is not at THAT level.
I am certain he wont be of interest to MA, correctly too.
John on your answer prior to this you almost contradict your self by agreeing the MA has got rid of the slackers but yet you hate the buys he made with Havertz and Vieira.
We all agree Havertz and Viera are the new “slackers” since neither one of them can win a ball
of maintain possession under any pressure.
Sp the question is : Did MA really managed the slackers out of the club only to bring his own in?
BTW agree on the Phillips point. He is not good enough for Arsenal at this point.
Sorry to have to reply that you clearly did not read my post carefully enough. I was speaking of when he first came and his , even so rather late getting rid of the slacker then existing, which at first was just Ozil .
But after two good seasons, Auba got that new large money contract and immediately decided to”retire ” even while still appearing in matches.
IMO, BOTH we left far too long here , BUT MA, to his immense credit, DID GET BOTH OUT, even though it cost us much money to do so.
Much further on,in the summer of 2022, he bought Viera and last summer Havertz.
Though both lack drive and determination, I have NOT called either of them slackers and nor do I think it.
The misused word “hate” is entirely YOUR word and NOT mine. You decided, wrongly, that I had said either were “slackers”
That comment does NOT appear under my name but only under YOURS. How ironic then!
So “we do NOT all agree”!
I do not want either here but they are not , as OZIL IN PARTICULAR WAS, FOR FULLY FIVE YEARS, SLACKERS.
FYI, one cannot “ALMOST contradict oneself”, as one either does or does not do so. And I DID NOT DO SO.
Excellent point CFArsenal, Arteta is no better or worse than any other manager at managing the slackers, the only difference is that he has his own specific preferences. Going all out for Rice, although a no brainer,has been his one masterstroke on the transfer market. Saliba, Saka and Martinellii his crown jewels,he inherited while more than half of Arteta’s buys have been failures or bandaid solutions.And since the two star boys he has been reluctant to introduce any academy players into the first team. As to the main topic, Should Arteta buy? Yes, definitely. Will he? No, I very much doubt it. He doesn’t have the budget to go for the very best this Window. And who needs another Xhaka?
Admin Pat, it is always gratifying when one reads ones ideas, espoused by another.
Philips is and has been my choice for a couple of months!
Yes, kalvin Phillips would be a good idea but I think Newcastle are also actively pursuing him, so if it comes down to money, the oil rich club could get him. It is no shame to be second best to one of the best defensive midfielders in the world in Rodri, so Phillips shouldnt be undermined because he is not getting game time at City. In footballing terms, if Phillips reproduces the sort of form that he had whilst playing for Leeds, nothing like it. The main advantage would be that both Rice and Phillips know each others game well, play together for England, so the chemistry is already there. Aston Villa are unlikely to sell Douglas Luis to Arsenal and Rubin Nevez has already made it clear he doesnt want to leave in January, so Phillips would be a great choice, in my opinion.
I’m still not convinced about signing rejects from our rivals.
If a player can not cut it at a rival top club, I don’t see why he should be good enough for us.
We have enough regrets already.
I disagree Twilight. A player might just not suit one system but do well in another. Most of us seem to forget that Jesus and Zinchenko were a big part of why we nearly won the title last season. Cole Palmer is currently doing well for Chelsea despite not getting game time at City. Alexis Sanchez was once considered a Barcelona reject but for a couple of seasons he was arguably the best player in the Epl. There are lots of examples who have gone on to flourish after changing teams/tactics/ managers. Likewise there have been players who didn’t cut it at Arsenal but went on to do well elsewhere.