Judging by the results of last summer’s transfer window, Arsenal have made very many astute signings of a certain profile and have cleared out a lot of peripheral players that did not fit Arteta’s plans.
Our main goalscorer was also disposed of in January, but having failed to replace Aubameyang, we are clearly in need of a new striker or two, especially with Nketiah and Lacazette expected to move on as well in June.
This will be no easy feat, and I am sure Edu and Arteta will be scouring the world for a new hitman that will fit into Arteta’s youth revolution, but our Boss has described the profile of who he is looking for this summer. When asked by SkySports what were the qualities he is loking for in his new striker. “He puts the ball in the net, that’s priority number one,” he said. “Goal threat. Any successful team needs enough goal threat in the squad. Without it, you have nothing. You can play good football but you need enough goal threat in the team.
“The other thing is that he has to complement the other people we have, personally and on the pitch, and for that, we need the right profile.
“We need a profile where you can exploit his qualities at the same time as the qualities we already have, so we don’t have to transform our way of playing again to adapt to that specific player.
“He has to have a certain age, a certain level of experience, and he has to be able to come here and play under the pressure of being at Arsenal.”
As we saw in the summer, the incoming players were all 23 or under, but he says that Arsenal may not be so rigid in the summer, but the personality was the most important thing we are looking for. “I think now we can be more flexible in the type of recruitment we do because obviously we are the youngest squad in the league right now,” he continued. “We have to be careful about what is the balance.
“But sometimes, it’s not just related to the age because you see players who are 23, 24 but have the career of someone who is 29 because they started really young.
“Then, it’s about the personality, the leadership qualities they have at 22, at 24 or at 34, because some players don’t have that even at 34. We are sometimes much more focused on that than the age.”
Well, we can’t knock the success in the transfer window that we saw last summer, and hopefully we can have an even better one in this coming close season.
Onwards and upwards!
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Mikel Arteta’s FULL pre-Watford press conference 11.45 mins
Better loan a CF first, because a purchase can be very risky
And who’ll loan you a ‘top class’ striker?
The loanee doesn’t have to be currently on fire, but he must have the potentials to fit into Arteta’s system
Real Madrid loaned Morata out, who was Spain’s main CF in Euro. Jovic was also available and was lauded as a highly talented CF
Gai, should we quality for CL, loaning a CF won’t pay us it remains a risk. There are available CF if Arsenal can make it a major priority and invest. Calver Luise, Olly Walkins, Lukaku, Jonathan David’s etc . In the summer, Arteta only needs to know what exactly he needs like Jugin Klop and the board ready to invest.
Lukaku?
Have you been listening to the Chelsea fans recently? The way they are making fun of Lukaku is no different from the way our fans used to make fun of Giroud.
The chelsea fans are done with him and think he has been the biggest waste of money ever.
How much would you be willing to pay for Lukaku?
Somewhere out there, a player with that profile exist. Doesn’t really have to be from England though.
Taking into account his criteria for a striker, ideal targets would be Nunez, Osimehn, Broja and DCL who is the least appealing out those options for me. However none of them would be a guaranteed success, all risky but the last two at least have Premier league experience.
I have been a regular on this site way before comments. I’ve never had a need to make a comment until people started mentioning osimhen. He is no where close to what arsenal needs and I am sure arteta knows that.
Guess you’ve never watched him play.he is the most credible option just too expensive at 80 million
I doubt your knowledge of Osimehn. He epitomizes all the attributes Arteta listed.
The only issue might be his price tag.
If Laca goes (which I think is likely) we will need two new strikers, if Eddie goes too we would need three, assuming Balogun comes back with improvements from his short loan period
It’s a really tricky challenge for the Manager, he has built a good new young team who are challenging top 4 now and could potentially challenge higher next season if these next appointments are right
As the cliche goes, every challenge is an opportunity and with Auba gone, Laca possibly going as well it gives Arteta a fresh start up top
Maybe he will take a risk with another youngster, maybe a risk with a player scoring goals outside of English football
There is obviously also the factor of availability, Watkins gets mentioned a bit along with Calvert-Lewin but would their new Managers let them go to a Premier League rival, would they want to come to us etc
I would throw Bamford and Mitrovic into the discussion but it’s a difficult one to get spot on to effectively finish off this team that Arteta has created
Given the guys Mikel brought in last summer to good effect any new striker(s) will probably be players not mentioned by anybody yet
Btw I don’t think Osimehn is a realistic option given how much Napoli’s president will ask for him, Neither Broja too who Chelsea will want to keep especially with the circumstances surrounding them making it unlikely they will be able to buy another striker this summer. So imo Nunez/DCL+Origi on a free transfer would be decent business.
“We need a profile where you can exploit his qualities at the same time as the qualities we already have, so we don’t have to transform our way of playing again to adapt to that specific player”
the fact that he’s looking for someone who doesn’t require us to transform our playing style is a frightening proposition, as no Striker in world footballing would thrive under our present tactical stratagem, minus maybe Haaland…no wonder he wanted to re-up both Laca and Eddie…we need someone who can lift this squad out of the MA tactical doldrums and put them on his back at times
And who says a Lewandoski can’t tick the boxes for Mikel Arteta as a striker bar his age, he still has two or three seasons to deliver at the top level & Arsenal can utilize the opportunity for next season & the season to come signing him on a 2/3yrs deal while Arteta at the same time gets a young & promising striker who can learn the ropes from one of the very best in world football in Robert Lewandoski…. My humble submission.
I feel that Martinez guy at Inter Milan is the guy Arteta is referring to.. He can play as a support stricker, fox in the box, half-spaces, pretty good on headers and Arteta’s hold-up play having the killer instinct also.. Fits into the age bracket coupled with experience of playing at a big club.. His name is marketable too
Kroenke stand by your promised financial commitment and provide Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard the funds to approach his good friend and Norwegian team mate Haarland to join the “Arsenal project”.
One centre forward, job done.
Haaland would be the dream and a massive statement signing. Unfortunately even if we did register an interest In the player we would fall way down the pecking order. My gut feeling is he will end up at either Real Madrid, Barca or Bayern as Lewandowski’s replacement.
The qualities Arteta is looking for in a striker can be found in both Darwin Nunez(22yrs.old ) and Karim Adeyemi(20yrs.old). They both have played seven (7)champions league matches. Nunez 7 games, 3 goals, while Adeyemi 7 games, 3 goals and 2 assists. They also have International experience. In 30 matches played across all competitions this season Nunez has scored 25 goals with 2 assists, while Adeyemi has played 33 matches, scored 19 goals with 4 assists. If, however, Arsenal cannot get the both, then Arsenal should consider Noa Okafor(21) from RB Salzburg, who, also have champions league experience, playing six (6) matches and scoring (3)goals. Overall Okafor has played 26 games , 12 goals and 6 assists in all competitions this season. Karim Adeyemi is left footed and Nunez is right.