Finally, we have landed one of our targets!
What a statement Arsenal seem to be making this transfer window, well so they should as it has been a long time coming.
I, for one, am happy to see that Arsenal is doing business and so early on as well. It is refreshing to see that we won’t be made to sweat and wait until the final day of the window for any players to come in.
And so as revealed over the weekend, which is an unusual thing for Arsenal to do, it has finally been confirmed that one of our long-term targets -Gabriel Jesus- will be joining us! Although yet to be published on the Arsenal website, I think it is safe to say this deal is done! (we hope).
It is nice to see that, although we were not the only club to be after him, we managed to beat the likes of Real Madrid and the other clubs to his signature. Because we know how it feels when we are beaten to signatures of players by rival teams and so this time it is nice to be on the right side of decisions.
As nice as the addition of Jesus is though, I feel as though we may need something more, and possibly the addition of Raphinha will sort out the winger/striker issues, as they will sit alongside our current stars of Saka, Martinelli and Nketiah to name a few.
Although we still have Nicolas Pepe on our books I am sure Arsenal will do their utmost to get rid of him, and so a replacement for him may be needed too.
Let’s not forget as well that Jesus is still only 25 years old and although many pundits were quick to slate Arsenal’s pursuit of him, I for one hope he will prove a lot of them doubters wrong as he can only improve the older and more mature he gets!
So, if Arteta and Edu’s attitude towards this transfer window continues, then I for one hope that the other targets are also soon-to-be additions and then we can get ready for next season with something that looks like a strongish squad that is ready to compete on all fronts!
Heres hoping hey Gooners!
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
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Signing a new player is always a gamble, but at least Arteta worked with Jesus for several years
Lisandro Martinez seems to be the left-footed version of Torreira. I hope he is quick enough to play in LB position, or maybe Arteta plans to revert to a three-CB formation or play him as CDM
As for Raphinha, I wonder what Saka, Pepe, Marquinhos and Hutchinson felt when they heard the intensifying rumors
if we do sign Raphinha, he is imo Pepe’s replacement, to compete with Saka on the right.
I think so, but Hutchinson and Marquinhos would likely be loaned out
Gai, Saka need someone to compete with him to avoid burn out as he will be playing too many matches next season including Europa and he is England international player. Raphinha is a good player i can’t wait to see him play for Arsenal. Its obvious Arteta no longer wants PePe.
But we just signed Marquinhos and Hutchinson needs to be promoted, otherwise he’d look for other opportunity
When Marquinhos was announced, Edu described him as “a player for the future”, so he should be fully expecting to be loaned out.
Not sure Hutchinson is good enough to be promoted on the basis of “in case he looks elsewhere”. And the purpose of an academy is twofold – to provide first-team players and provide players to sell on (preferably players who can eb both). If Hutchinson does the latter, then that’s probably good business.
I hope Marquinhos isn’t going to be Wellington Silva 2.0
I also wish Hutchinson gets the chance to show his capabilities in pre-season matches, before the management decides he isn’t ready for EPL
Yeah brilliant window so far, so the new signings can easily bed in with thier old teammates for preseason games, the nagging fear for me is the average height of our foward crews in Saka, martinelli, Jesus, nketiah and maybe Pepe if he stays, and dammit there isn’t any six footer’s in any of the aforementioned, how do you deal with hundreds of crosses and set pieces opportunities and potentially the 20 or odd goals that can be put away, Olivier Giroud anyone
If we complete a full transfer window, so we have the whole squad we need, I will be happy. If there are no ‘holes’ in the team structure, for the first time in many years we may have the whole shebang….we may be in the mix at the end of the season. I even think with the right players around him even Pepe could ‘perform’. Viera is an unknown, to me, but looks a great prospect, Jesus….25 years old…..6 top years ahead of him. A great signing. We MUST, MUST, MUST, get rid of Xhaka. Enough is enough…..he sets us back 10% and that is big problematical.
William Saliba…..like a new top CB signing. A footballing CB….no need for Holding…..good. Maybe we will get Lisandro Martínez as a DM., we should have got Bissouma…big mistake…giving your enemy a big WEAPON is not good. Ideally we need two more top players and we will have a challenging squad/team. Please don’t botch it and then not fill in the last two pieces of the jigsaw. We are close to a top squad, but not quite there…..just two pieces of the jigsaw. Lots of games next season, we will need a quality, big, squad.
Good to see an optimistic article on JA. To be fair to Shenel she is optimistic most of the time and it makes apleasanrt change
Don’t knowhow other non pessimists feel about what I say.
I DO know, obviously, what all the relentless pessimists on here will say They will slaughter this post(as best they are able, under Pats new JA rules).
But those of us who are realistically optimistic about the good direction our club is going under ,will, I believe, agree with my post.
To be clear, I have no objection to criticism of our club – that is normal and I do it myself, when necessary.
“is going, under MA”….
This is good, so we can have no excuses in play like no pre-season etc. etc.
Now need to work on new contracts ASAP and selling a couple players.
And sign a CM
A DM but it doesn’t look like that’s on the radar for some reason.
I’d still love to see Saliba take White’s place and Ben moved to DM to partner Partey.
I don’t think we’ll sign a DM as long as Partey is here (who isn’t really a DM either)..
And is injury prone…I honestly can’t understand it. One of the most if not the most important position on the pitch. Breaks up attacks and launches our offense.
Most likely nothing in particular. Pepe will most likely leave (if he stays, which I doubt, I assume it would be against both his will and the club’s wishes), marquinhos was acquired in order to go on loan elsewhere to develop, as Fabrizio Romano mentioned and Hutchinson, who is nowhere near the team atm is mainly an attacking central midfielder that is occasionally deployed right and was part of the bench in a few games last year due to lack of depth. So I doubt any of them is really bothered.
The money paid for players fee/salaries continues to be obscene. We are apparently spending 100mill fee/salary on Jesus, 56mill fee/salary on Vieira. And apparently trying to get 50mill fee/salary Martinez. 200 mill on three players. So close to 500mill spent since Wenger left 4 seasons ago. We will be rivaling Man City soon for trying to buy the league. We could feed a million people on our wage bill alone
I agree re football wages but as an overall, not only Arsenal.
But I read a while ago that Vieira was the lowest paid first team squad member at £25k a week?
hahahahahaha what a stupid comment……
If you want to add wages for the entire contract length onto every transfer total….I think you need to revise your totals. Grealish for example 100 mil buy, 100m 6 year contract. = same as all players mentioned above combined.
How about you add all the city players and wages together….in fact do it for Fulham and youll find it is very expensive running a premiership team…..
I guess some people haven’t read the admin post about being polite.
And actually, if any comment fits that description, it’s not fairfan’s.
ff you are almost the only only Gooneron JA , besides myself- who has been banging on for many years about the obscenity of ALL Prem players wages – who seems to see the huge danger in this bonkers transfer AND wage spiral.
It is steadily moving our game , further awAy from normality and financial prudence and is doing so, year after year, after year.
It will end, unless stopped by legislation, in financial ruin of our great game I , almost alone, apart from perhaps you and a tiny few others, saw AND SEE THE APPROACHING TSUNAMI OF FINANCIAL RUIN APPROACHING US ALL.
I foresee a time when even multi billionaires like Kroenke and the Chelsea conglomeration realise they cannot make money from owning clubs and then bail out and leave us all in the “going to hell ina handcart position”. Ther are very few corrupt countries left like the SAUDIS and the creature who owns City, willing and ABLE to throw countless billions down the drain on lunatic transfer fees and wages.
Greed is a killer ,not only of ethics and morals but also of the game itself.
If only ALL fans could see what is plainly right infront of our very noses and then could react collectively, just as they did when the European Super league was thrust under our noses and then SMASHED TO PIECES by collective fan power.
Collectively, we fans have enormous power for good but are, in the main, too blind and too timid to use it. Sob!!
I’ve been saying this for many years. The way to beat it is to stop paying to watch football live on TV.
I did that a long time ago – I voted with my wallet. That’s where the money comes from, the obscene amounts supporters are being charged tro watch football fuels wages etc.
The end providers buy up the rights at silly prices believing they can simply pass on the costs to the consumers (the supporters). Don’t watch and they stop – it’s teh only way.
Re the super league. Although it was in one way good to see it killed off, the other way I looked at it was the above – if they siphon off all the current “top clubs” into one super cess pit… and nobody bothers with it… they just fixed all teh problems of football in one fell swoop.
The power of the top clubs is part of the problem – the authorities fail to stand up to them so they get away with FFP breaches and skewing the rules in their favour (look at the rules on paying clubs relegated from the PL, the rules on CL qualification, the existence of the CL at all, FFP spending based on historical turnover so bigger clubs can spend more etc etc).
All a stitch up. If they want a super league, let the have it – and organise supporters’ trusts to completely and utterly ignore it = problems solved.
This is why I’m not keen on the Nketiah contract – it may work out cheaper for the club than signing someone, but it raises the bar for everyone else in the squad…
Completely agree with you Davi, just think about how much we would have to pay Saliba, Smith Rowe and Saka to keep them now, all the “supposed” hardwork to “reduce the wage bill” all for naught. But well if the players perform admirably on their new contracts no cause for complaints from me.
Good point.
Although they can point to the fact that there was no transfer involved, Saka can say the same and it would encourage players to run down contracts and become free agents to up their wages.
Ofc, that’s the problem with the existence of transfer fees in the first place. They should’ve fixed that problem properly when they had the chance.
Sign or don’t sign, does not matter because Pro Arteta squad will come up new excuses when we won’t make CL again. Our expectations are so low and we have become such a mid table team that finishing 5th with far less games to play for then top 6 but still finishing without trophy or top 4 place is deemed as success by Arsenal fans. Liverpool almost took the title when they were in out position under Rodgers. As I have said so many times you can give city & Liverpool squad to Arteta but he will still finish out side top 4. He just not have the capability to be a big manager.
@Logic
A few points on your comment….
“Pro Arteta squad will come up new excuses when we won’t make CL again” — How do you know that? Should we not bother watching next season if you already know the results?
“Our expectations are so low and we have become such a mid table team” — I think you will find our expectations have risen dramatically recently.
“give city & Liverpool squad to Arteta but he will still finish out side top 4.” — Totally ridiculous! You could give the Man City squad to Sam Allardyce and he would finish Top 4!
“He just not have the capability to be a big manager.” Is this your crystal ball speaking again? He could have another 20 years asa coach ahead of him, how can you call him incapable after 2.5 years?
Maybe you should reconsider your username indeed!
A perfect example of how to use your new more restrained language site PAT,in answering a fan whose username is plainly the opposite of how he “thinks”!
Personally, as a deep thinker, I DESPAIR AT THE “MINDSET”of such people as “Logic”!
Pat :
Point 1. If we don’t make the CL next season, what do you think will be the reaction and conclusion?
Point 2. Expectations – the bar HAS been lowered during the last three seasons and your correct in saying that we expect so much more after the players we have / or going to sign…. which brings me back to point 1
Point 3. Agree 100% and that’s why we can’t really judge Pep and Jurgen, as they have never had to, or want to, manage a “Sam Allardyce” team.
Point 4. To date, Mikel has not proven that he is a “big manager” – our end of season results prove that.
However, to make the claim that he will “never” be a top manager is wrong and I believe point 1 will prove it one way or another.
I recall the spud game at home last season and I compared the performance to that of the Invincibles – I also recall the complete capitulation in the reverse fixture and compared that to having no idea how to play such an important game.
Of course we all want Mikel to succeed and in a way that shows he can manage and coach top players.
His biggest challenge is consistency and, after this coming season, if he can achieve that, top four, CL and FA cup successes will prove he is the top manager certain fans think he is today.
As it is ken, well said.
@ken1945
I agree that everything goes back to point 1, but what I’m also saying is that we shouldn’t simply predict he is going to fail until it actually happens….
Of course we shouldn’t Pat, but from what we’ve seen to date, especially the end of last season, we should be asking questions and not burying our heads behind what happened before he came to the club.
Indeed Pat. I didn’t detect much “logic” either. Lots of ranting though.
Good on you Logic for speaking your truth, as there’s no doubting that if we don’t qualify for CL again a seemingly endless barrage of excuses will be forthcoming, which has been all too commonplace ever since Arteta flipped the script following his first half season
likewise, it’s clear that the objective here appears to be far more in line with the lowered expectations many called out Arsene for during the Wenger Cup years…that said, I wouldn’t suggest we’re a midtable team, at least not last season, but I get your point regarding our much easier schedule than most of those whom we were competing with for a top 4 position
furthermore, I do agree with you that MA has proven absolutely nothing managerially-speaking and I’m not convinced that he could just step into Pep’s and/or Klopp’s shoes and get it done, especially if he deviated from the current tactics they both respectively deploy
your post certainly didn’t deserve a critique as long, if not longer, than the post itself, but kind of understanding due to the vulgarities you used and the fact that you personally attacked other posters?!? I guess two wrongs does make a right
Strange that people give no weight to the stadium rebuild in the so-called “cup years”.
Wenger said (rightly imho) that he felt he did his best work in that time, consistently delivering CL football while the stadium leeched money from the club’s finances as they were then.
AW quoted figures showing that the original quote was £200m for the stadium but the costs spiralled to double that and cut-backs were inevitable in all budgets.
Note the latest on MU talking of redeveloping their ground now – they are being warned that at current costs the club would be £1bn in debt by the end of it. Clubs don’t do well under those circumstances unless perhaps they’re owned by a country, or someone who pillaged a country.
Perhaps you should ask yourself those questions before you reach for your keyboard?
Kroenke only took full ownership of Arsenal in August 2018. The stadium rebuild was completed in 2006 – so, long before that i.e. without the massive funding of a super-rich owner.
In thse days clubs operated in fairly traditional ways (and let’s hope there’s a return to those days soon) prior to oligarchs and countries buying football clubs.
Spurs’ rebuild was done in a totally different financial situation and let’s face it, they’re not massively successful and I don’t think they will continue to be CONSISTENTLY successful either.
Nice transfer window so far.
I’m a bit worried about our forwards average height, city and Liverpool has just recently addressed this same issue in their squad and we absolutely should be thinking in that direction, I won’t be too bothered if not done now.
Getting Raphinha and Lisandro Martinez would absolutely make us contenders for the league.
COYG……
Its a good window till now and I am specially impressed by Turner. The guy has something special in him and I am sure he will replace Ramsdale as no.1. That said, I hope we sign Martinez, the player can play multiple positions and also Tielemans, a top quality midfielder who can score goals from midfield, something we are currently missing. Not very keen on Raphinha, since we have many wingers already.
I’m guessing after lizandro and Raphina our transfers ( at least incomings) is done, So that would mean were banking on just 2 average height not too experienced strikers ?
That is not good enough in my opinion. We need a Center Forward , one who can come in and get us that match winning headed goal.
I’m hoping Barcelona sell De jong quickly so that they can pay that outrageous fee for raphinna, so edu and arteta can look elsewhere.
I just want to see Raphinha and Martinez signed ASAP after Jesus and I will be very happy indeeeeeeeeeeed! This would give us the quality and depth we need.
And then; If MA can’t turn this team in to title challengers within a season or two then it really would be time for MA to depart.
If we don’t see the arrival of Raphinha and Martinez I think we’re likely to struggle still.
Agree on the thrust of the article. I feel more confident that we are going after the players we want and not winging it. Not sure I agree with the types of players we’re prioritising (wingers and yet another centre back), but I’ve been wrong before and they threw out a few surprises last season, so interested to see where this goes. Squad definitely feels a bit better in terms of quality right now, just worry we could lack a bit of bite.
(as I remarked in an earlier post regarding our TW)
this might not be the prototypical off-season, but there’s definitely a weird vibe…it might have something to do with the fact that we were actually engaged in a 4th place race, so there’s more people actually following our TW pursuits, but if you sit back for a second and look at what has really transpired, we’ve got a lot of business left to be done if we’re going to challenge again
so far we have acquired a backup Keeper, a future prospect, a potential depth piece, who most didn’t even know existed, and seemingly Jesus, yet if you read half of the posts on here you would think we were the one’s who picked up Haaland and Phillips(I specifically mentioned those two as those were our most pressing needs, from a positional standpoint) not to mention, we haven’t totally figured out the Saliba situation or shipped out the myriad of players who aren’t part of our plans
I guess maybe the plethora of rumours might give some the misguided impression that more significant maneuverings have either occurred or are ongoing
Gabriel Jesus has already proven to be top class. He has no point to prove to anyone except to keep improving under Arteta. Anyone who has any anything negative to say about his quality is just hating… period