Many Gooners are left disappointed at the thought that they gifted their main rivals the title. It hurts, but even so, it’s time to look forward.
So what’s there to look forward to? Arteta has indirectly assured Gooners this summer that they can expect him to spend big to add quality to his squad after seeing his side lose to Nottingham Forest, a loss that saw City bag their third league title in a row. There’s an agreement that Arsenal couldn’t match City’s quality in depth, hence the need to splash the cash this summer to bridge that gap.
“To go to the next level is going to be a crucial summer for us,” Arteta said as per the Guardian. “That is for sure.
“First of all, to make sure that we maintain everything that we have at the club right now.
“That we maintain expectations, that we maintain enthusiasm and energy that is around the place, and we have a proper preparation to fulfil the objectives and the challenges that we will have next season.”
If the Kroenke’s are ready to support Arteta, they can provide the funds for deals for Moises Caicedo, Declan Rice, a top striker, and a top centre-back, if not a right-back. What would be your dream signings this summer, apart from the Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo deals?
For me, if Cancelo and Victor Osimhen (or any reliable centre-forward) can follow the two midfielders through the “incoming’s door”, that would be my dream summer.
Sam P
Video – Alfie and Rob are back for the summer transfer window
Here is their first clip where Alfie and Rob predict every single Arsenal incoming and outgoing this summer, including fees and potential destinations for outgoings.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
For its in this order.
1. Caciedo
2. Rice
3. Victor Osimhen
4. Cancelo
It also depends on who leaves. Personally I beleieve we should hold on to as many players as we can UNLESS. We are upgrading on them. The only player I think is 100% not good enough actually is Eddie nketia. Love the guy but would happily use him as a make weight to West ham or Brighton and bring in Balogun. Alternatively let’s allow Balogun to go on loan for a season or 2 at said west ham or Brighton as part of our deals.
If we loose xaka, nelson and ESR MUST replace them and add players. Also Viera is pants and not good enough.
Lastly KT was not used effectively imho. He is clearly a brilliant LB plays a different roll to zin. I think Zin is poor defensively and MA needs to realise that we can’t out attack every team.
Against tactically superior teams we need to go defensive a middle 3 of caciedo, partey and Rice just to protect the back 4 and let the front 3 do their thing would be the way to go imho. Teams where we can put them to the sword you switch back and bring odegard back into the fold and perhaps ESR as a CM.
I think its more about MA being tactical next season rather than having a while revamp use the damn bench trust your players!
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We have all seen and realised in the past games that we need a focal physical no9. Whoever can communicate to arteta and edu please assure them that without acquiring a player of that calibre, even top four is ours to lose next season. I insist on this because to me, we didn’t play very well to deserve the second position but we were just lucky and credit to Ramsdel despite a few mistakes.
No mention of a winger? Central midfield is the priority as we need at least 2 in there, of top quality, but we do need a quality winger as well so we can actually rest Saka and Martinelli.
Tierney and Tomiyasu have to go. Neither are first choice, and both very injury-prone, with the same applying to ESR. Vieira has flopped hard, and I wouldn’t even bother trying to loan him. Take a loss and sell if we can. Cash in on either Balogun or Nketiah as well.
I would like to see at least:
x2 DM/CM
x1 RW/LW
x1 LB
x1 RB
X1 CB
Let’s get a top No. 9 in other than the midfielders, then Gabriel Jesus versatility could see him at times deputise Saka while Trossard deputises Martinelli
Caicedo, Rice, Ming’s and Aaronson can bring more energy into our team.
However, we must not excuse our mentality challenges. Our loss of mentality was evident in comparative outcomes from matches 127 (1-1 draw) and 311 (3-3) with Southampton; 67 (4-0 win) and 215 (1-0 loss) with Everton; 78 (0-3 win) and 222 (1-1 draw) with Brentford; as well as 138 (5-0 win) and 366 (0-1 loss) with Nothingham Forest. These inconsistencies and losses in games with relegation-bound teams have little to do with energy, intensity and composure but have more to do with mentality, skewed between predetermined ‘winnable’ and ‘difficult’ games. This is the reason Arsenal is a team of surprises: winning difficult games (except MCI for now) and Lossing winnable games. While the team depth is improved this time (we hope), we must work on the mentality of our young players and do better to avoid opponents cashing on our inexplicable and assured goal-mouth errors to inflict defeat on us. Again, we must rotate our players to give everyone opportunity to prove himself in the new project. We congratulate Arsenal family of players, management and fans and hope also that our return to Champions League is just the beginning of our meteoric resurgence to invincibility.
“if the Kroenke’s are ready to support Arteta” is the key statement of this article.
Could be that Stan might be asking “What about the multi-millions I’ve already given you, to be wasted on mediocre players?”
That as to be a worry ,quite a few players stacking up the “not good enough “ shelf that have been bought in under Arteta.
I would say half the players have been good the other half well….
Half a billion spent under Arteta , when will Stan say enough is enough and money isnt the problem .
Yes he’s spent a lot, but you seem to forget the starting point from which he inherited. We’ve had to spend a lot just playing catch up after such a long period of regression.
Jen, We’ve not forgotten the “starting point”, but it can’t have gone unnoticed that at least £70 million has been spent by Edu/Arteta on players that are poor to average at the best. Depends on how Stan & Josh see it of course, it’s their money.
This is a really unfair, dismissive perspective on the approach to transfers taken by the club.
There is no team or manager in the world that gets its right with every transfer.
Given the number of sub-elite players that needed to be shifted at Arsenal there was always going to be a risk with some transfers. Most of them have been young players with promise; but again not all of these will work out.
Overall the team has improved significantly and that is reflected in the improved league position and the way we played for most of the season.
I would add as well that you are not in champions league and have not shown that you will be challenging for titles it is really hard to get the best players even if you can afford them. They simply won’t come. Many teams could have afforded Haaland at 50 mil that city paid, but only a few could attract him. So until you are consistently at the top you cannot often buy the players you want unless you grossly overpay (even then you can’t get them many times). And so you have to settle for second best
Jen, the “starting point” saw MA winning his only trophy with a squad that had finished 5th.
I’d love to know what your “long period of regression” amounts to.
If it’s league positions, fa cup performances, CL participation, results, money spent, contracts, player power – what, exactly, do you mean?
Ken please see my message to you about our historic defenders. It’s on the ” Why was Arteta experimenting” page and thread. Thanks
Fair point Jax.
Of course the club have forked out a fortune.
It is also worth remembering that £100m on Grealish in his first year looked a bit too much. Will the £42m on Kalvin Phillips this year be a waste of a money, or will he come good next season at City as Grealish has?
Vieira hasn’t been great, but I am only putting it out there that he may click next year too.
😂@SueP.i just posted a similar comment as yours!using Freakish,Alvin Phillips as examples.all this,without seeing your post.i guess great minds think alike!!
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Jax,several managers which include Pep/Poch have said that it usually take around 16/24 to see the best if most new players.as an example, 100M Freakish, who’s been playing in the PL most of his career, it’s only this season that we saw him at his best or very closed to it.what Alvin Phillips who has struggled big time,it is only now that he is starting to show what he can do.so i would cut players like Vieira/ Kiwior..some slack.
SueP & Siamois, Kalvin Phillips was very good before he went to City (while at Leeds), and still gets into Southgate’s England squads. I did suggest some months ago that Arsenal might consider making an offer for him as a cheaper alternative to Rice.
Jax,i didn’t know that you rated Kalvin Phillips. he’s had his fair share of troubles injuries wise this season,but he seems to be over them and slowly getting back to his best.
Are you saying that MA has gone and brought DROSS players into The Arsenal Dan?
My goodness, expect a flurry of activity comparing those to players deemed to fit that bill under previous managers 😂😂
Yep Ken
A certain poster suggested that under this new regime we would never see any deadwood players again 😂
I would say we have stacked up quite a few already .
This might be the case but there is a difference this time around.we have already got money for several deadwood players who left last summer,with more to come due to clauses.the difference i mentioned is that we will definitely get some decent fees for our unwanted players this time around.
Siamois
There will always be deadwood. It’s just part of the process at any club as end of season clear outs happen. Thankfully our current crop of players who have served the club but are not going to make the squad will indeed raise some funds – although I wince at what Pepe may bring in.
Could we use him as a backup for Saka?he might come back a bit wiser and determined to work harder,no??
You’re right @,SueP,it happens at every clubs,every summer.actually, I’m surprised with myself that I have used the word “deadwood “.i have never been a fan of it.as you correctly said, plans/objectives..change and some players just need to be moved on, that’s all!!
If we can keep hold of our players, we just need Caicedo to replace Xhaka. Then we should probably try for Ollie Watkins.. Emery might need the money.
I really liked the way Watkins held our CBs off and he’s a Gooner too. Maybe Jonathan David can also do a similar consistency of hold-up play
Osimhen would be the best gift from Kroenke, but Vlahovic or Sorloth could be highly useful as well
If we have two strong left-footed attackers in Saka and Sorloth or Vlahovic backing off the opponents to receive Ramsdale’s long passes, no team can press us anymore
Osimhen is a hot cake now. Won’t cost less than £150M. Am not comfortable blowing our entire budget on 1 player that might flop. Even Caicedo if they don’t want £70M they can stay with him, same goes for Rice.
I think maybe we should also bring in a left winger?? Saka has been shit for weeks now and Trossard is looking more and more of a flop with each passing game.
A lot of wishful thinking up above. I hope we get at least two top class signings, keep the likes of Smith Rowe and Neilson and say goodby to a few of the managers picks. That is being overly optimistic I know, but it is a wish list after all. Seriosly though the team needs a major rebuild rather than a tweek. I am not at all confident that Partey will rebound from his end of season wobblies. Also Trossard and Jorghino were a short term gamble to challenge for the title. How will they back up next season and what in the blazes are we going to do with Elneny. Have him hanging around because he is a good trainer and team mascot?
I think we need 1 RB
1 LB and keep Tierney if Xhaka is leaving so that we can move Zinchenko into midfield….
If Zinchenko gonna play in midfield then we need 1 CM or CDM
1 winger and 1 CF
My picks would
Mo Simikan for RB
Renan Lodi for LB
Caicedo for CDM
Tielamans because he is going to be free transfer…
One of Jarrod Bowen, Olise or Leon Bailey to compete with Saka and to give him much needed rest
And for CF either 1 of from below 3
Dusan Vlahovic
Youssef En-Nesyri
Aleksandar Mitrović
Arsenal can’t beat teams that go physical.
Against a better team like MC,he shd have flooded the md and hit on the break.
Teams know how MA s gunners play.Just stifle Odegarrd ,Saka and Martinelli.
That’s what happened to Wenger,the arch priest of attacking soccer.
His 8-2 loss could have been prevented if he had played anti soccer.
As for MA,great after the great choke,a repeat will be unacceptable
“His 8-2 loss could have been prevented if he had played anti soccer.”
What are you on about?it has nothing to do with it.
That summer we had just lost Fabregas/Nasri and no time to replace them.also Gervinho,From pong,Song were ineligible/suspended. Traoré was playing instead of the injured Kieran Gibbs at LB,a very young Jenkinson(got sent off) was playing instead of Sagna at RB who was left out the squad.Koscielny was playing with a back injury with stopped him playing in a CL game 3/4 earlier.lastly,Wilshere and Diaby were both injured too.
MA and Edu have bought some decent players in but they’ve also wasted a ton of money of players that are average or even worse, also some of the contract extensions/salaries have been questionable.
He can’t just keep demanding huge budgets while recouping almost nothing from sales. Often refuses to sell because offers are too low but then contract just runs down and we get zero, doesn’t make much sense to me.
Jesus is only good enough to be a backup, it’s hard to think of a worse striker at holding up the ball even for 2 seconds. Eddie should’ve been sold long ago but now on 100k a week we’ll struggle.
PJ-SA, I am well known as an Arteta supporter and firmly remain so . But I am also an honest person and sheer honesty means I agree with you and with all those who say our buys ,under MA and Edu, have been a very MIXED bag.
Some good. Some so so. Some, esp Viera, Tavares and Lokonga, frankly a waste of money.
Also why he extended Elnenys contract is a puzzling mystery to me. IF he is going to take his coaching badges, then keep him as a coach ONLY, but do not keep paying him stupidly high and undeserved wages.
Also Holding! Now, I blame Wenger for having bought him in the first place, even though he was cheap. And we can all see WHY he was cheap too.
He is rubbish,at least at the level we should be trying to reach and has always been, despite the occasional good game. REALITY says that IF you REALLY WANT TITLES, THEN YOU CANNOT CARRY PASSENGERS AND SUB PAR PLAYERS. I think MA is now BEGINNING, to realise that truth.
Not sure if he’s the type of player we need, but I’m surprised there’s been little talk of trying to sign eze. He’d fit in well, but is maybe too similar to ESR?
The way some fans quickly label players as flop is appalling. When Trossard was racking up assists with each consecutive games, he was not a flop, right? But now he’s a bad player. Humans are quick to forget the good ol days but when it’s not good, heaven is about to fall. Are some fans really arsenal fans? Top players have their bad days too, right?
4-5 top quality signings needed prob need to spend in excess of 250 Mill to achieve this. Out Mainland Nyles,Reiss Nelson,Rob Holding,Xhaka,Balogun,Saliba if he does not sign contract, prob a couple more fringe players I’ve missed off will go as well!
New players won’t matter if man management continues to be so poor. Arteta does a poor job of rotation with the players he does have, and has a stubborn refusal to drop his favorites.
Trossard left on bench when Saka has been poor for a month and Jesus has fizzed out.
Tierney can’t buy starts while he plays Zinchenko every game despite his poor defending directly costing goals.
Rarely played Tomiyasu when he was healthy, ESR (10 goals last season) gets ignored.
Will there ever be a true competition for starts and game time? Arteta over his tenure has shown a preference for his favorites over form.
Can’t ignore this in part of our second straight collapse.
Said before I’d feel more confident going forward if we played our way from 4th to 2nd, rather than collapsing to 2nd during the last 8 games.
Well said D.Your final paragraph sums up my own feelings of disappointment and casts a cloud over a season which promised so much.
The problem is not Arteta but the squad. Except for Tomiyasu, Jorginho and maybe Trossard, he couldn’t trust anyone outside the first 11. Tierny is perhaps the only one who could have been used more, but he did not adjust to Arteta’s demands. The other squad players are mediocre and playing them means a huge drop in quality. ESR might have potential but he was injured more than half a season, and I guess he did not adjust to the hight tempo high press game we played this season. What he did last season is irrelevant in that regard. Arteta saw him in practice and did not think he can integrate into his system without a drop in quality or tactical discipline. Much better players than ESR found it difficult to adjust to high tempo hight press game.
Your assertion that Arteta is entirely blameless for our collapse is ,with respect, nonsense.He has signed players, extended contracts for others already on our books and has simply refused to play them even when the likes of Martinelli and Saka were out on their legs. Rotation is a must in the most physically demanding League in Europe, but I’m afraid Arteta has proved to be lacking in that area.In real terms, we performed much better with Nketiah through the middle than we have since the return of Jesus who has quite frankly been ineffective.Arteta still has a lot to learn and I’m afraid his treatment of certain players ,particularly ESR and Tierney beggars belief.
But it’s Arteta’s squad and he’s been at the club for three and a half seasons!!
That was to Ox in the box.
I believe it is after the Lisbon’s game that MA lost complete/total confidence in the fringe players.
Number 9 should be a priority, we’ve seen we lack a deadly striker in front of the goal. After then we enforce the backline, Ukraine should never be ever placed at the left-back. The Central would be awesome to acquire the services of Caciodo, Lavia and Rice. Smith-Row needs to play. Oh! end the goalkeeper.
IMO, those fewshort sentences from MA are by far the most important actual NEWS today, as most articles are simply opinions.
Nothing wrong with opinions of course, but ACTUAL NEWS is always more important to we on JA. This summer we may finally find out whether or not the Kroenkes are REALLY AMBTIOUS FOR OUR CLUB.
OR NOT!
Jon, I’ve been censored so I think it’s time for me to walk away.
EG, Over the years , it has happened to me so many times that I HAVE LONG LOST COUNT.
We now have each others email, so I will be writing to you later this evening, when I get back from bowls.
We have to accept that plain speaking is often censored on here. I wish it were otherwise, but PAT RUNS THIS SITE AND HAS THE POWER TO DO AS HE PLEASES. Keep the faith though!
@EvGunner, censored for saying what??
Mon amie, someone upstairs doesn’t have a sense of humour !
No. I want you to talk Bout Arsenal. Not bowls Croyden or pantomines
EG, your private email, which PAT sent to me, bounced back unrecognised, when I sent my message last evening.
. Please write to me on my email , which you have, and we can then communicate privately, should you wish it.
EG yes it would be the reason.You can always turn that off ,it you wish.
I would really like to continue talking to you boih on her and privately. I recognise another off the wall and mature thinking Gooner and that to me is precious.
Please just email me and then w ecan continue talking about anything and everything.
BTW, Pat has many times warned me and put me in moderation too, for too plain speaking and saying is JUST AS I see it.
I have accepted that Pat chooses not to allow the brand of plain speaking, which I HAVE ALWAYS STOOD UP FOR ,IN LIFE, AS WELL AS ON JA,.
In life ,it best to lose the battle than lose the war so to speak, so as I wish to continue using JA and can still make my point, even though I have to skirt around some points , to keep PAT ONSIDE, then that is what I will do.
I HOPE very much you will agree to do something similar, but obviously that is your choice, not mine.
Sincerely meant , my friend”!
There is a quality winger at Leeds. Summerville. Get that boy
The PR machine in full effect. We keep going in circles which is why I dont think Arsenal will ever reach the heights of the Invincibles. Stan Kronke famously said he didn’t buy Arsenal to win trophies hence the lack of proper investment in the team since they became owners. If the owners are serious about this team we need Caicedo, Rice, Cancelo and right winger to spell Saka, another CD and a left back if Tierney leaves.
I have read reports that Edu is chasing Cancelo, and now Gundogan.
I want to support Arsenal FC. NOT Manchester city old boys.
I have been less than impressed with the overall contribution of Jesus, and Zinc this season.
The dynamic duo seem to stuck in a “Manchester rut”.
Why do Arsenal always go for Players (Declan Rice)
when they have no intention of meeting the Price. Then Chelsea or Man Utd slip in and outbid Arsenal to get the Player. Every Transfer Window we get the same old same old. I don’t know if Arsenal haven’t got the funds or is it they just won’t pay up.