Arsenal fans were desperately waiting for a last minute surprise star signing to balance the squad as it has been obvious all through January that we were desperate for a new midfielder and a striker.
Instead our final day drama simply saw us give Aubameyang to Barcelona for nothing, leaving Mikel Arteta with a threadbare squad to finish the season.
The Gabon striker was our sixth first team squad member to leave, after Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Balogun, Chambers and Pablo Mari, and we have sent another seven youngsters out to gain some experience.
We have signed a 17 year old from West Brom to join our academy, and we have arranged for a defender from the Colorada Rapids (a team owned by Kroenke) and the USA international keeper Matt Turner.
The last two won’t arrive until the summer and Turner will simply replace Bernd Leno.
Here is the full list of ins and outs at Arsenal this January….
IN – Lino Sousa (West Bromwich Albion, undisclosed), Auston Trusty (Colorado Rapids, undisclosed)
OUT – Harry Clarke (Hibernian, loan), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Roma, loan), Folarin Balogun (Middlesbrough, loan), Dejan Iliev (contract terminated), Sead Kolasinac (Marseille, mutual consent), Brooke Norton-Cuffy (Lincoln City, loan), Pablo Mari (Udinese, loan), Karl Hein (Reading, loan), Tyreece John-Jules (Sheffield Wednesday, loan), Calum Chambers (Aston Villa, undisclosed), Ryan Alebiosu (Crewe Alexandra, loan), Nikolaj Moller (Den Bosch, loan), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Barcelona, free)
So there are the facts, let’s see what the fans have to say now…
Why is everyone surprised
My prediction is the club will start saying we needed to get players out before bringing players in and watch us in the summer
It’s like boris apologising
But we actually needed to send players out, not because of wage bills but because we don’t have secondary competition anymore.
Nobody can honestly say arsenal didn’t try to sign, we tried but our top target join other clubs. Nobody can honestly say those players we let go can improve us b4 d end of d season. Arteta has already said in d beganing of this transfer that we are only bringing in players that will improve the team. Am actually glad we didn’t waste our money just to impress fans, let’s save the money till summer to get better players. If arteta and edu had signed flops its d same fans that will be counting d flops and causing them
Savage, its not only that we didn’t buy anyone he spent the whole window chasing one player vlahovic who made it clear he wasn’t interested, we had no plan b and also the amount of players who left means that if we have injuries the squad isn’t deep enough to replace anybody, yes great thinking
OT ,Pat the ads are still
Here
My techies are on it right now mate
1. Like all the PL Arsenal had a quiet window.
No crazy panic buys.
The club only courted one player Dusan Vlahovic.
Chambers +Aubameyang released.
AMN+Mari loaned.
2. We now have a tight 20 man squad.
Ramsdale Leno
Tomi Cedric White Gabriel Holding Tavares Tierney
Xhaka Partey Elneny Lokonga ESR Odegaard
Martinelli Pepe Saka Nketiah Lacazette.
3. In the summer Lacazette Nketiah Mavropanos Mari Torreira Guendouzie Leno Elneny Cedric Xhaka will all leave.
Probably 6 new incomings.
4. So we now have clarity of vision.
5. After only 7 months of the process a great deal has been achieved and the team sits 2 points off 4th place. Great time to be a Gooner.
This is the decision the club has made! Lets now support the team until the end of the season and we’ll give credit or criticize come May. We could have signed players so let’s see if Edu, Arteta and whom ever else have got this right!
COYG
I’d say 3 best buys of the window were:
Alvarez £15m (Man City)
Weghorst £13m (Burnley)
Zakaria £7m (Juventus)
And the most amazing sells were:
Chambers FREE
Aubameyang FREE
Kolasinac FREE
Just amazing business again by Arsenal. We buy them big and sell them for nothing! Wait another 5 months and we’ll give Elneny, Laca and Nketiah for free as well!
Concerning Trusty,he is staying with Colorado until the end of season and then will be loaned to an European club, that’s according to the Athletic,how true it is that I don’t know.
Well, our official website stated:
“Trusty, 23, will stay with the Colorado Rapids until at least the end of the Premier League season in May. The intention then is to loan him in Europe for the 2022/23 season to further progress his development. ”
I doubt we’ll ever hear from him again. More like a buy to sell shirts in the US (along with Turner).
👍
no one here (in US) will be buying Trusty shirts mate lol
Thats what I find strange, as the MLS season ends in December!
AdPat any idea why we are having to scroll though about 30 large adds before being able to comment? It’s not just me, others mentioned it last night and this morning too?
use a browser with an adblocker
Fixed now
Thanks AdPat, good service!
Techies just told me its fixed now
Yea It’s fixed 👍👍
Yay!
What does that mean?he finishes MLS in December then a January loan to an European club??
Major League Soccer’s regular season runs from late February or early March to October. Teams are geographically divided into the Eastern and Western Conferences, playing 34 games in an unbalanced schedule. Then the play-offs end in December.
Both Americans arriving in the summer makes no sense at all, except to save on wages until then…
Thanks for the info!👍
Putting potential league impact aside I would say the release of Aubameyang is the best thing for both parties.
As a captain he was never a suitable choice and it all went downhill from there for him.
The saving of £25 million in wages is significant.
The question is does this become another season of transition or can we fight with what we have?
The pressure will certainly be on Arteta and Edu but releasing Aubameyang is good news – I just hope we can learn our lesson from him and also learn to handle things much better in the public eye…
We are the only club in the top five who didn’t strengthen our squad
We are the only club in the top five who gave three players away for nothing.
We are the only club in the top five who have a section of fans who still insist we have to still get rid of “dross” players, in order to cover up for the incompetence of the present regime.
Great time to be a Gooner? Depends on what level one sets the bar – top four and FA cups not good enough for some, but now top six is seen as an achievement.
We are the only club in the top 5 to not have a top manager ,you missed that one Ken 😉
All the wages saved will go towards repayment of the 150M advanced to the Club last transfer widow by Kroenke. Arteta and Edu’s hands were tied behind their backs. We need to be rescued by a new owner; Kroenke won’t get us back to top of the league. This is a fact.
I don’t believe that is the case.
We bought quantity in the summer, now we need quality.
I will elaborate further, not that our summer signings are not quality signings, but we now need to spend big money on 2-3 possibly world class players.
Now there are some problems with that. First you need to find such players and second they need to want to come. Unfortunately for us we are not attractive destination right now. We need to participate in the champions league. I hope this will be the case in the summer, but i am not holding my breath.
In any case we will have far more time and options in summer, so as unfortunate as it is that we didn’t buy anyone, it is not the end of the world. Spending 50 millls on some mediocre player will not elevate us as a team.
Which world class players will join us now with the gunslinger Arteta in charge? Trust me, he will carry this tag forever.
50M would for sure be a worthy investment if spent on the right target, especially if we got back into Europe. A no-brainer.
Pepe would hardly be used and Xhaka will couse us to drop points…I have hope for Arsenal to make top 4..but no confidence……
Huge gamble but if Arsenal finish strong then they’ve set themselves up for a great summer window – I’d expect Saliba to return, a top quality striker and midfielder as well as a back up for Tomiyasu. The alternative finish isn’t worth thinking about.
I would have loved a difference maker in this window but it wasn’t to be and the deals on the table (with maybe the exception of Bruno who seems class and relatively cheap) were too risky imo.
Old adage but sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make. At this point we can only hope that’s the case and back the players for the next 17 games. I think this squad can do it – COYGs!
BTW it’s a shame leaving a top sticker for free n get nothing nevertheless we would have atleast got a goal scoring midfield coz we a now predictable, when Saka n martinelli are closed down then we expect no goals …for I thought we would have got a better midfield in the second half of the season but all in vain…””TOP 4 WONT BE ACHIEVED WIRH DAT MIDFIELD AND LOW GOAL SCORING..??
I can’t imagine any top player wanting to come and play for Arteta so come the summer we’ll be chasing young hopefuls again and then just continuing to buy and sell these youngsters and sit in a forever transitional period great time to be a gooner 👌