A poor squad depth saw the Gunners fail to win the Premier League last season. By the time this new season kicked off, the belief was that Mikel Arteta had signed well. Deals for Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber (and goalie David Raya, who joined recently) will surely take Arsenal to the next level.
However, as we speak, only the Rice deal has worked out. Havertz has failed to live up to his £65 million asking price and there are calls for him to be benched as he is no help to the team.
Timber’s long-term injury, unfortunately, makes him not an impactful signing; and Raya may find it hard to bench Ramsdale.
I’m forced to ask: Is Arsenal’s 2023 summer transfer window a success? Many may stone me for saying this, but unfortunately, it has not been. Looking at how the season ended, Arsenal would have had a successful summer if they had, apart from Declan Rice, signed a top forward, either a top striker or an explosive right winger.
Additionally, Arsenal have failed to replace Granit Xhaka. Instead, they signed Havertz and hoped he could redefine the vacant No. 8 role, which he hasn’t. As for the defence, with Timber set to be out for a long period, they need to get a versatile defender on board, considering Kieran Tierney is also set to leave.
Mikel Arteta has a few important days to change his transfer fortunes. We will have to wait and see if he will bolster these positions, but these few days could be the most important in Arsenal’s summer transfer window.
Daniel O
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We shud have either Kudus or Lavia.. And a striker like vlahovic..
Rice and Timber were great additions. Havartz might come good. He has potential and we should not judge so fast. The question is whether we could have done better than him, or prioritized other positions. I think that we needed a Xhaka replacement and an attacker to compete with Saka and Jesus. We probably would have focused on the latter now if Timber was not injured.
Arsenal wasted collosal sum of money in Chelsea’s flop; Harvertz signing is a worst mistake than that of Pepe
Maybe. Saying it after three games, about a player that a bunch of elite managers wanted in their teams, a regular for Germany, is unwise. If Arteta finds the right role for him, and he gains confidence, he might be a gem. It might not happen and he flops. But we can’t say anything after three games.
Agreed, Havertz has already proved that he can’t do it in England, I see him as the next Ozil.
Havertz is Xhaka’s replacement and he’d likely perform better next year, after spending a lot of time to train and play with his new teammates
We don’t need a new defender to replace Timber, because we’ve got plenty of them. We could always promote Walters if Holding leaves
It’s not about numbers it’s about quality. We have five very good defenders + Kiower who is unproven + even lower-quality players who would probably leave. To compete in all fronts we need at least another very good defender.
I think the Article is coming too soon.
It’s too early to criticise or judge Arsenal dealings on the transfer market untill end of season. JTimber injured but promising start, Havertz and Rice has a whole season for them to prove their worth. And it’s not late to get a dynamic forward with Aerial abilities and physicality.
Good points.
Unfortunately, the loss of Timber to injury and loan of Tierney leaves us light at the back.
Ideally, we would have had dominating/clinical striker up front as well . If we had, the pressure on Havertz would have been much less.
Timber is just bad luck. Rice is a great move. Havertz is just bizarre and likely going to end badly. Arsenal need to quicken the sales and loans, because I agree that this transfer window is looking like nothing special. I would love to know if Havertz was Arteta’s idea. I can’t imagine there is a single analyst that would recommend him as a player the side needs.
Had Arsenal exhausted the £200 mill on Rice and the Caicedo kid as first contemplated, it would have been excellent, having said that Rice and Timber are good buy but the purchase of Havertz has dampen the mood then the injury to Timber has almost relegated us back to square one..
all this Havertz negativity is just dumb. he’s played 3 games in a new role for him. he’s clearly not comfortable in it yet, and may need to be benched and eased into it. but you know what? he’ll get there, he already does so much so well off the ball, and he’s so talented it’s just a matter of clicking with Arteta’s system. Rice and Timber were great acquisitions. we were unlucky with Timber, but he will be back. I think this was a solid summer window.
Talent we never saw for THREE FULL YEARS in the Premier League? I don’t judge him based on the three games but on the fact that he’s been in England for years and has offered nothing. You also know our history with Chelsea players. And how we gifted him £330k p/w is shocking. A Chelsea flop becoming our highest paid player all of a sudden. I only pray he comes good at least to spite Chelsea. But I have serious doubts
Totally in agreement with you. How on earth he can earn that much!! sounds comical and bribery
A talented playeyer is Diaby who it was said we were going to sign him. Already he is scoring goals for Villa. He didn’t need time to adjust, especially that he was not playing in EPL.
I agree, Diaby has hit the ground running (scoring and assisting).I believe that he could be one if not the signing of the season.especially for the fee,51.9M (41.9M plus 10M on add-ons) on a 5 years contract.
We could have had Vlahovic for £70mill instead of Havertz for £65mill. Now there is talk of selling ESR to Chelsea. WTF is Arteta doing?????
Arteta has gone crazy. Why is he destroying what he built last season. We only needed Rice, a defender and a right wing to help Saka with the load.
Rice was needed BUT to play with Partey and is a brilliant signing. Timber was and has been unfortunate BUT why was he played on the left, he has predominantly played right, was that a part of the reason he got injured, it happened to Tomi, just the same. Haverz signing, from every angle does not make sense and shoe horning him in is causing us problems. It could come good but i have doubts and we should not at 67 mil be having to wait for it too. We dont seem so far too have improved anything on the face of it, even though 200 mil has been thrown at it.
Yes I do agree playing off position could possibly be the reason for injuries. Wait for Thomas within two or three fixtures if he continues playing at right back
I concur with you. In other words the 200 million seems not impactful. On another day with top notch scouting, we could have easily signed 4 to 5 excellent players like Madison. Am always tempted to think that we don’t have good scouts. For Havertz time will tell otherwise as someone said “you can tell a chick that will grow into a cock the day it hatches” we seem to have really soaked ourselves
Oh yes forgot Raya, which (while he is a very good keeper) it was a strange one and something to keep our eye on in the future.
Kai should be benched for sure. Let Rice replace Xaka, Gabriel back in central defense white at RB we’ll be winning convincingly
To me, no any amount of lamentations saying can help Arsenal now this summer. For, Arteta and Edu have already made their summer incoming transfer signings choice in Karl Harvest, Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber and David Raya. And the club’s hierarchy bosses vis the ownership have approved the 4 signings and they are done and dusted over the line successfully.
Which is seeing Arsenal currently now occupying the 5th position in the table on 7 points. With only 2 points behind the current table toppers Man City on 9 pmits.
Nevertheless, Arsenal are looking very likely will further strengthen their defensive options with another new top quality versatile defender signing before the expiration of this summer transfer window to improve the team match playing defending performance considerably to argument the Acl injury hit unfortunately suffered by Jurrien Timber at the onset of Arsenal campaign in the Epl this season.
Arteta must admit that he wasted the money by buying Kai Havertz, the guy is not used to the Arsenal style of play. We should have bought Tielemans or Maddison. Arteta is killing the team.
He will score in the next game and all will be forgotten….fickle fans or what!
Well Havertz will need more than 1 goal or 1 good game to justify his starting place,his fee and to convince fans.
Arteta was not worried that he has started this season again with Arsenal suffering the earliest goals with a good goalkeeper whose infantile exuberance will prefer to shameful goals while loitering in the midfield. We must begin to use Raya to checkmate Ramsdale. Ramsdale gives is room to reflect on how he displaced Leno and for us to ask, before the coming of Raya, why was Turner sent out on loan. Thank God that Arteta is lucky and surving on luck and individual plays’ skill; management of players’ skills in Arsenal team is still something to worry about.
We are in trouble with this regression of play.
We bought all the wrong players. Caicedo and Paqueta would have been my choices. Between them they cover all the positions that Timber, Havertz and Rice can apart from LB. Paqueta is a much more solid Xhaka replacement and Caicedo can play Inverted right back whilst Partey stays at DM or vice versa. I still feel we need to bring in a target man cf. even though he’s banned till January I feel Ivan Toney could be a big player for us.
Havertz must be benched, maybe coming from the bench he could play better and he won’t be the centre of focus, because by that time the team would have secured the maximum points.
This was the sensible thing the coach should have done, rather than throw him to the war front from the beginning of the season.
The price tag or wages aren’t my issue, the fact a team that wants to better Man City is waiting for a player to gel with the team while those who have master the style are unused substitutes is baffling.
If we aren’t careful, Man City will be out of our rich before Harverts (the messiah) master the role
The purchase of Havertz for the exorbitant $65M was always going to be a big risk seeing how he performed in three years at Chelsea. If it’s even temporarily, Arteta must remove him from the firing line. He looks like a fish out of water. In the incident where Saliba passed him the ball with acres of room for him to turn and play a pass forward, he gave the ball away trying to pass back to Rice, epitomises his performance in the three games so far. He looks devoid of confidence and seems as though he is terrified to make a mistake. Hopefully, Arteta does not wait until the entire fan base turns against him, because in reality, Havertz does not select himself.
Timber looks a solid player and a quality addition. Bad luck has robbed the team of a real talent. Rice was a decent addition, but sadly a silly fee may well end up stopping him ever reaching his West Ham levels. He already looks a player carrying a massive fee on his back. Havertz should never have been bought. Period. He may well shape up, he may well put in a decent shift where the manager wants him to. But ‘may’ is not what’s needed for £65 million. That money could have been used on players we need, like an out and out finisher, and top defensive cover at both the back and in midfield. But it wasn’t. As such it wasn’t a great transfer window. If EMR leaves, it will become a poor one.