Arsenal skipper Mikel Arteta has penned a new contract with the club and has ended speculation from all quarters.
The Spanish midfielder had actually agreed a new one-year deal months ago. But, the protracted delay by the 33-year-old in signing the contract gave rise to suspicions that Arteta would be following the curse of Fabregas, Van Persie and Vermaelen who were allowed to leave despite being the club captain..
There were reports flying left, right and center that Arsene Wenger will be looking for reinforcements and that Arteta will be moving out. The delay in him signing the contract did not help things further. But, all those rumours can now be put to rest as Arteta looks to get ready for new challenges.
Arteta appeared more than 100 times for the club in all competitions and scored 14 goals. He joined the club from Everton in 2011 and endeared himself to the supporters. He was signed as a replacement for Samir Nasri who was swayed by the money of Manchester City. In the 2014 season he was announced as the club captain.
He had options to get back to his homeland but Arteta has committed himself to the cause of the Gunners. He will continue to lead the team in a season that is fast turning out to be an interesting one.
Wenger has already signed a world-class goal keeper in Petr Cech which may eventually turn out to be the best signing of the year. He was rumoured to be interested in signing a defensive midfielder, most notably William Carvalho and the Bender twins.
With Arteta signing the extension, it could be said with fair amount of conviction that Wenger has shelved his plans to sign a defensive midfielder. The signs were there in the past couple of weeks. Arsenal dropped their interest in Morgan Schneiderlin of Southampton who was a long standing target. The price being quoted is remarkably higher than his value as per Wenger.
Last season saw the emergence of Francis Coquelin in the center of the park and he should continue his development. Wenger also switched Santi Cazorla to a more central role and seen him flourish there. Add Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey to that mix and you have a proper starting midfield.
With Arteta signing the extension and Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky still available, the chances of slotting a new midfielder into the line-up is remote.
There is still enough time in the transfer window to sign another midfield enforcer but it looks highly unlikely. What do you think? Does the contract extension of Arteta signal an end to the search of new defensive midfielder?
It is great that Arsenal finally have a captain that is unsold but is this the right move for the club in the long term?
Sridhar
Besides a top Striker and DM….
We need a top LW tooo…Alexis cant play every game…
which player in the team is able to replace Alexis and carry the team when Alexis gets injured???
I wish arteta would have decided to leave, now we must wait one more year for a top DM……what a shame, we can’t challenge for crap with arteta as our DM. Sorry but its the truth.
top DM rotate with Coqueline
25 games Each….
Hafiz, it won’t happen for another year. Wenger just doesn’t want to sign a dm ever.he’s starting to make me hate him.I have always been a Wenger fan but this arteta extension in on my nerve, why would he think lecoq and arteta would be enough???why doesn’t he get rid of arteta and flamini for good.arteta is not a good cover to lecoq,as simple as that. Even against lower teams we need a better DM.
Because that’s far too sensible and obvious. As usual we will be a couple of players short of a title challenging side. Wenger never learns. We could have had Kondogbia, Carvalho or Schneiderlin but no we get another year of Arteta who was too slow and too weak last year and is another year older. I guarantee you Mourinho would never had resigned him because he knows what it takes to win and he’s prepared to do the necessary to achieve it.
Depends on if and when Coquelin gets injured. Matic and Wanyama went though whole seasons with almost nothing. Even if he is injured for a bit it’s only really the top teams that we NEED someone better than Arteta now that we have a solid defence + keeper.
I believe the priority should be ST – GK – DM due to the emergence of Coquelin.
GK down so now the most important position to strengthen is ST.
So many massively underestimate Giroud and Walcott – Strikers that may be available are Martinez, Mandzukic, Higauin can be slightly better than Giroud – but if you take in 1 year to adapt to EPL – they are no improvement over Giroud for next season
To improve we need a real world class one and in this market it is clear that he does not come cheap – I won’t be surprise if the asking price is somewhere at 50M pound mark.
Unless we raise more money through sales we may have 50-60M max in remaining budget (having spent 11M on Cech and get back around 2M through Podolski sale) – if we spend 25M on a DM like Schederlein/Kondogbia/Carvalho now – we do not have any budget left for the World Class ST that we direly need more than the DM (Arteta played whole 2013-2014 where we have one of the best defensive record – people seem to have short memory – he would be ok as backup for another season)
Wenger have done well in the last 2 seasons – bringing in Ozil when Real signed Bale, bringing in Sanchez when Barca signed Suarez. This year he may be waiting for Pogba deal to happen – have some patient you Gooners
Our top priority is a DM, we already gave giroud,welbeck and now theo as strikers but we only have lecoq as a proper DM. DM is more important in my opinion. And we could have got Martinez and Morgan for a combined price of 50 mil….plus the 10 for cech it would have been a total of 60mil. I don’t think it would have took Martinez an entire season to fit in, he would have been a hit instantly.
We may have different view on this.
Martinez has not convinced me – he has a pretty good goal record in Portugal and 7 goals in CL last season (failed miserably in Copa) but beside that he is not proven in any big league – no guarantee he will be successful in the hardest league as EPL. Soldado, Falcao about the same age as Martinez who had much better goal records in better league are all flop at this league.
At the end of the day, we are all fans who scout player on youtube – does any of us remember where the beast Doumbia is playing right now? – hint: he may join Watford on loan from Roma.
Wenger must have scouts watching his targets dozen times before making move. He has done well in last 2 seasons, let him do his job
Wenger is biding his time , flamini is about to be sent back to France which is fantastic news for all of us, I have a sneaking suspicion that Wenger is going all out for benzema and might even make a sneaky swoop for illeramendi to rotate with le coq if these two were to come in we will be unstoppable in my opinion . Coyg
Where did you come up with illeramendi?????there is no way we can get two players from real at once….if we are not getting a DM I rather have a 50 mil striker like cavani…if not I rate dzeko and benzema on the same level,only difference is that dzeko is valued around 20 mil….we have enough money to get carvalho and dzeko or a 20 mil striker. We already missed out on bacca,martinez.,dyabla…..
Reports have Liverpool in for illeramendi at 15 mill , arsene knows value when he sees it and there’s no way he’d pick the pool over us if given the choice, I really like dzeko and could be great option but Benzema suits are game much better as he has the pace to run in behind plus he’s best mates with mesut so he would settle quickly as well as being French . Wenger is just waiting on who Benitez buys before making his move
Illaramendi seems like an under-the-radar transfer target for Arsenal. With Barcelona buying Arda Turan, it seems likely that Real Madrid will go for Pogba, or another quality midfielder.
Some young players with potential I would target to fill the defensive-minded midfielder role:
Granit Xhaka, Christoph Kramer, Bender Bros, Krychowiak, Sergi Samper
He will be injured most of the year. Don’t get it? Schneiderlin is worth the money. BUY HIM!
Alright. We got that from the previous article but you are wrong. Wenger is not fancying two wingers in the same game so if Alexis won’t play then the right wing will be assigned to Walcott or Ox (depending who’s playing CF/ST). Even Ramsey played there. I don’t know if we had such a good left winger since Overmars or Pires. Do not forget that Wellington’s Silva side position is left winger and I am ready to bet that if Wenger will ask him to play there he will do the best he can.
Ozil plays left. We played several times Cazorla as CAM and Ozil as LW And won. Ozil also plays LW for Germany. Danny Welbeck can play LW
Also we have lots of wingers. Walcott, Oxlade, Ozil, Welbeck. Even Ramsey played RW
Yes true most of our midfielders can play on the wing but are they natural wingers????can they offer the same quality gotze does for example???no they can’t.
Mario Gotze is not categorically a winger even though he can play there. Mario has attributes like any other Arsenal midfielder. He’s not so different from what we’ve got. Moreover wing play is not the weakest link in this arsenal squad. It’s the DM position. Not even the striker position in my opinion. If Wenger does not bring in a back up or direct competition for Le Coq, then he has goofed. EVEN if he bought Cech.
All i know is that Arteta is a year older and a year slower. He was NOT a good option as a DM before and I dont think he will be a year on. So I do not think that this is a good thing for Arsenal, and if it is not good for Arsenal then why are we doing it? Are we short on cash again?
Anyhow, the transfer season is still young, we got one of the best goalkeepers in the world for 11M, so I am still optimistic. I just dont like extending an aging mediocre players contract that is already playing out of position.
Exactly. I just don’t get it. Arteta was never arsenal material. He was a panic deadline signing. And now at the age of 33 he is still being offered a contract.unreal.I can’t believe this crap.wenger is a retard for not allowing him to leave along with flamini and signing a proper DM.even an eight year old would have done so
Don’t forget that Wenger has Welbeck… While we might not rate him as a top striker, I have my doubts that Wenger will just ignore his presence. With Walcott providing a different type of attacking threat in the striker’s role, there’s no doubt Wenger must be thinking he has enough options upfront. With Walcott, Giroud, Alexis, & Welbeck all being goal threats, I have my doubts that Wenger will want more personnel upfront. It’s not that I don’t want a top forward, but it just doesn’t seem likely that he would think of adding another.
You need a top winger who will sit on the bench and wait for Sanchez to get tired, injured or rested before he would start a game? Continue dreaming
Wenger should get rid of artreta an d buy 30-40 milion middlefielder whos also good in Defensive role and clsoe transfer window. But again he made cruical mistake.
Wenger didnt even start transfer window and allready made mess. He had to sell artreta and simply buy 35milion atacking middlefielder whos good on DM role also. And close transfer window after Chech. Dumb wenger.
Gotze seems to be available, Pedro can play on both sides. We have options but does Wenger want to spend the cash?????
Pedro is good but not in the class of Alexis that can carry the team….
besides hes 28yo ageing…
You dont need someone to carry the team, you need someone to be an aiding the effort to make the team better, if you become dependant on a few individuals. it just means the individual is good not the team, i believe the term is ‘polishing a turd’ kinda like Stoke are doing by adding shaqiri, Pedro has abilities that would make the team better, he is an accomplished winger, a decent goal scorer and he can assist, i dont expect him to carry the team but when he plays in tandem with Giroud and Sanchez and Carzola hopefully it would prove fruitful.
I reckon the Gotze thing is a ploy to re-negotiate terms, all of a sudden it seems that everyone is falling out with Pep, Last month Schwienstieger, this month Muller and Gotze. if you have that many pissed off players of that calibre the simplest thing would be to fire the manager… so i don’t believe for one minute the Gotze thing would happen. Its obvious he just wants more playing time.. the guy chose to remain in German football despite the biggest names in Europe calling on his services.
It’s going to be harder for gotze to get more playing time now with the arrival of Douglas Costa. He might want out of Bayern and he might want a taste of the bpl…..
Absolutley fair point, but who’s to say that he is even going to perform well, he has had a few scary patches of inconsistency, like most brazilian players now days remember Bernard, Adriano, Vagner Love, Ganso it ends up all the same.. for aome reason the dip in form is dramatic they go from scoring 30 goals and 16+ assists, to barely scoring or assisting at all. Remember when he was joint top scorer by the semi’s in the champions league last season, yh he didnt do so well this time around. And i dont think there going to be as willing as you presume to hand him a starting place, he is going to have to work for it and personaly i feel at this moment in time Gotze is better.
i dont think we need arteta any more .as simple as that..mayb in the training grounds but not on the pitch..ooh KENYANFAN .things are not always as you think…in the cup games?ooh no!!whats about the Dan Crowleys
Gedion Zelalems
Krystian Bieliks
Isaac Haydens and
Alex Iwobis ?don’t u think they should be given a chance to improve and prove themselves?
Send them out on loan, they will get more playing time in the Championship then a few cup games with us
Why is Arteta still Arsenal captain ? We need a new full time captain someone like Koscielny who
is a first team regular and best defender we have. Mertesaker should also not be captain
because Gabriel is better than him and should be playing alongside Koscielny.
Koscielny is way too aggressive to be a captain. The armband should go to cazorla or maybe cech or ramsey
We all love the man with the perfect haircut. And what’s with all this nonsense about him leaving. The guy will be very useful for us next year. I’m glad he’s decided to stay.
uesful for our opponents
The prob is wenger is to loyal to players like Arteta that are just not good enough sorry he was never good enough for Arsenal he should have never been given another contract.
Even thoug i would have preferred a new cdm signing, i really dont have a problem with. He may not be an athlete but his game reading, leadership qualities and passing range are amazing. He is a pretty good dm and it is important to note that his game time will be very limited as coquelin will be playing most of the matches and we are not a team to deploy 2 dm’s in tough matches
yes we are a team to deploy 2 dm’s in tough matches,it just hasn’t worked because in recent times we’ve had sub par defensive midfielders like Arteta an Flamini.An tell me something what happens when/if Coquelin gets injured?
With the dm situation unfortunately resolved, for the forward dilemna i think we need either a striker(benzema) or a winger(pedro) or a striker/winger(griezmann)
I have been saying the same thing for a month now….either get a winger or a striker.now that we won’t get a DM why not get both a winger and a striker. I just can’t get over the fact that arteta will be lecoqs backup. Too hard to get over it. It feels bad just like the Monaco game.for real????arteta to cover lecoq????what if lecoq gets a long term injury??? We are f…ked then I guess.
If there is ever a DM that needs replacing it’s Flamini, come on Bastia come get him. Arteta has an important role in the club that’s widely acknowledged.
OT: read that RM president wants Ibra from PSG, would be cool as I could see Benzema coming our way from that domino effect.
U think Wenger is keeping arteta for other reasons rather than backup to lecoq??? I sure hope so….I hope he’s keeping arteta for his leadership role in club.what scares me is an injury to lecoq and it will be all over for us….arteta can’t play anymore.he’s not the arteta he was four years ago
I agree that he cant play anymore – that’s for sure. But having a non-playing leader is also stupid. We need leaders who are playing 40+ games a year. Basically that’s Koscielny, Per, Sanchez, and that’s about it.
This is the 1 flaw of Wenger that stops him being an elite manger. He is too sentimental and likes keeping players that we should really let go off….
Arteta has been absent the last 2 season in all honesty. He doesn’t even deserve to be main captain.
Wenger need so be a bit more ruthless and drop players: Arteta, Flamini, Rosiky (on good terms)..
And this 1 will get a lot of thumbs down Mertesacker….He is getting old the game is getting faster..He has done a great job for us but I think it’s time to start looking for his replacement or start playing Gabriel more…..These are the choice that will determine if we challenge for the title before a single ball is kicked…..
@infumous,you make a very true an insightful statement,about the choices being made determining our season b4 its started,but many fans on here don’t seem to realise it
Rosicky I don’t agree. He still has lots to offer. Arteta needs to leave.he should play in the championship, that’s how weak he is.I thought we would never see arteta in our team anymore.I was wrong,another tear of pain I guess.a small injury to the coq and we will be f…ked!!!!!!
Don’t speak too soon. There is still time for Arteta to depart.