More transfer success to come?
by AndersS
Yesterday, December 20th was exactly 2 years since Arteta took charge. It is obvious there is a quite a bit of disagreement about Arteta’s management capabilities amongst us fans.
Personally,despite our recent 3 wins, I am not convinced, until I see us standing up to the likes of City, Liverpool and Chelsea. In my opinion, we shouldn’t tolerate more humiliation in games against them. Nor can we realistically get back into competing for the PL title before we get more points out of those “6 point games”. I hope Arteta soon provides that progress.
But I also see some clear positives in Arteta’s 2 years in charge. Especially the last summer transfer window. At the moment it looks like an almost unbelievable success. We bought 6 players; Odegaard, Tavares, Lokonga, Ramsdale, White and Tomiyasu. All young and talented, and I readily admit, I thought most of them would be mainly for the future, and not able to make a big impact this season. That seems to be dead wrong. Not only are 4 of them; Odegaard, Ramsdale, White and Tomiyasu in our current starting eleven, at least 2 of them are regularly among the top 3-4 players in our games. On top of that Tavares and Lokonga have also had impressive performances already.
I don’t assume Arteta alone is responsible for the successful transfer window. I assume the players have possibly been selected in a dialogue primarily between Arteta and Edu, and I assume the development of the strategy to buy only young talented players is developed by Arteta, Edu and our owner. At the very least the strategy is developed by Arteta and Edu and heavily backed by the owner, and although to some fans it may be a like red rag to a bull to hear it, I think, we have to credit all three for this.
We have an upcoming transfer window, and although the January transfer window normally is much less busy than the summer transfer window for all clubs, I am very excited to see if we continue the strategy.
I certainly don’t expect us to spend anywhere near the same amount of money again. If the “youth strategy” is really something we are determined to follow, then it is apparent the CF position is next in line. Even before the recent events with Auba, it was quite obvious that if we are on a strategy to build a new young team, which can compete for the title within the next 2-3 years and for the years to come, then the age of both Auba and Laca would be a problem, and they will need replacing. It is only a matter of when, and of course by whom.
It does seem like Nketiah won’t be the long term answer. Balogun maybe, but we need more than him alone, that is for sure.
So originally not because of the problems with Auba, but because we need younger CF’s, I find the upcoming transfer window very interesting. If the problems with Auba are so big that he won’t play for us again, we may be looking to get him out, and replace with someone who may not be our long term solution, but rather a player who can help fill the gap short term.
The challenges for Arteta, Edu and Kroenke are there for all to see. Will we have more transfer success in January, or is the CF solution still a bit away?
kind regards
Anders S