Brentford midfield raid makes sense as it allows Arsenal to still spend big on the attack, just as they should.
Beyond the signing of Martin Zubimendi, and the imminent arrival of our new goalkeeper, Arsenal’s main objective this summer has been to strengthen their attack.
If the club were to spend big, it was always going to be on attacking players capable of providing the cutting edge they lacked at key moments last season.
Some Gooners believe that, with a fully fit Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, a sharper attack might have tipped the title race in Arsenal’s favour. The Reds, they argue, would not have been so fortunate in lifting the Premier League trophy.
A marquee striker and a top winger remain the priorities
Up front, the race appears to be between Viktor Gyökeres and Benjamin Šeško, though there are whispers that Arsenal could go all in for Alexander Isak if the opportunity arises.
As for the winger, it is proving more complicated, but a move for Rodrygo is reportedly still on the cards.
While Arsenal work to close deals, they have also had to navigate the Thomas Partey situation.
Partey saga and Berta’s contingency plan
Both the midfielder and the club were open to extending his stay, but both parties have decided to part ways after negotiations failed.
That departure has disrupted Arsenal’s transfer plans. However, sporting director Andrea Berta appears to have devised a clever workaround that allows the club to stay on course.
Arsenal have submitted a bid around €10 million for Brentford captain Christian Nørgaard, who is expected to fill the role vacated by Partey, and potentially Jorginho, in the squad.
While some fans may have preferred a younger option, such players would likely have come at a higher cost.
This modest move for Nørgaard should allow Berta and head coach Mikel Arteta to focus their major spending on the attack, as they should.
At the same time, they preserve midfield depth by recruiting a player who is unlikely to mind playing second-fiddle behind Zubimendi and Declan Rice, a role he is more than capable of fulfilling, and one that would not attract media scrutiny if he sees limited minutes.
Thoughts Gooners?
Daniel O
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Excerpts from the article:
EXERPT: “Brentford midfield raid makes sense…”
ANSWER: Only makes sense to our bank balance but costs us in terms of quality
EXERPT: “Some Gooners believe that, with a fully fit Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, a sharper attack might have tipped the title race in Arsenal’s favour. The Reds, they argue, would not have been so fortunate in lifting the Premier League trophy…Arsenal have submitted a bid around €10 million for Brentford captain Christian Nørgaard, who is expected to fill the role vacated by Partey, and potentially Jorginho, in the squad”
ANSWER: Cheap signings like Nørgaard are what makes it impossible to keep up with quality when starters get injured. Hence why we feel the impact of injuries so much. Will City or Liverpool sign Nørgaard? It’s just about filling slots. No serious consideration for the PL or CL we want to win.
EXERPT: “While some fans may have preferred a younger option, such players would likely have come at a higher cost. This modest move for Nørgaard should allow Berta and head coach Mikel Arteta to focus their major spending on the attack, as they should”
ANSWER: Exactly my point. Brilliant business model. Bank balance prioritized over the PL or CL. That next step we ought to violently take in order to wrestle the two top trophies away from our rivals (both domestically and in Europe) is sacrificed on the altar of cost. It wouldn’t have been an issue if we didn’t have money. But we have money and lots of it.
EXERPT: “At the same time, they preserve midfield depth by recruiting a player who is unlikely to mind playing second-fiddle behind Zubimendi and Declan Rice, a role he is more than capable of fulfilling, and one that would not attract media scrutiny if he sees limited minutes”
ANSWER: Whatever happened to internal competition? How will Zubimendi be kept on his toes? Every player at Madrid is eager to play. We are after those who are comfortable on the bench, players like Kepa who will give up starting roles and be comfortable on the bench all because it’s a cheap signing.
As much as I always try to balanced in my assessment of the club, I honestly cannot understand why after finishing 2nd for three consecutive years, we are not showing signs of desperately trying to wrestle glory away from our rivals. Everything has to be about financial smartness and little about taking that next leap to go for glory.
You make it seem like City ,Liverpool and Madrid don’t have Norgaard level players . Matheus Cunha, Kovacic (City) , Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliot of Liverpool and Dani Ceballos, Lucas Vazquez (Madrid) are Norgaard level players. None of these players are considered elite yet they can be trusted to start from time to time especially against weaker opponents.
We would all love 25 elite players but that’s unrealistic. Not even Real Madrid can do that. Most elite players want to be assured of starting and will be unsettled on the bench. In addition, elite players command massive wages and I doubt any team can afford to pay 20+ players massive wages without violating regulations.
There are reasons why financial regulations are put in place and the club has to be mindful of their spending.
My opinion is that the club is being ‘cheap’ in acquiring squad players so that they can go big in attack.
Onyango, i am in agreement with you on this.
Further more Norgaard comes with experience, leadership and versatility. Those are valuable qualities that we really need in our team.
Bearing in mind that he is replacing the Older guys ( Partey and Jorginho) it makes alot of sense to acquire him.
I forgot to add that Ceballos was considered not good enough for us- I’m sure he’s comfortable warming Madrid’s bench. He simply doesn’t start whenever their elite players are available.
Still about the clubs you mentioned. Liverpool barely made signings last season. They signed Chiesa who was a Sterling level player. City only signed a cheap prospect, Savinho, who admittedly has done well, and Gundogan, who is past his best, on a free. From how these two clubs moved last summer, clearly there were financial considerations due to PSR.
Finally, we are still in June! I’d understand the pessimism if we were at the end of July. Let’s judge the people in charge once the window closes. It’s early days.
dgr8xt how much did Grealish cost mancity and where is he now?Do you consider him an elite signing or not?
You realise that the less decorated Kovacic plays a more significant role for them than their marquee signing.
Sometimes those cheap signings as you refer to them may be more important to a team than the top dollar recruits.
I ask you to atleast be nice and stop rubbishing what the Arsenal is trying to assemble.
DGR you are saving me a lot of work writing. Spot on. It stinks a bit and is not what a top club should be doing.
I can see us signing Eze but would not be surprised if we don’t sign a number 9. Gyökeres is flip flopping and now there are reports he wants Man U, Šeško who I believe is or was Arteta’s first choice, is more of a risk but I’m not really sure a big striker fits Arteta’s philosophy and he prefers goal scoring wide players and midfielders . He certainly seems to be concentrating at present on defensive players with Zubimendi, Norgaard and Mosquera seemingly imminent signings. We all hanker for a striker, but does Arteta?
Whether you like Arteta or not,his credibility would go down the toilet if a striker was not signed and the league was lost due that omission
Eggzactly @SueP! I’m really concerned why Arteta isn’t focused on signing attacking players after yet another 2nd place finish. We should sign at least 3 attacking players (A striker, winger and attacking midfielder.. in fact 4 players because 2 strikers is the minimum we need to challenge for all trophies next season). Without these reinforcements I’m afraid it will be another season down the drain even before it starts.
They will get a striker
They wouldn’t risk it
dgr8, some people just don’t get it. This is not completing with the Real Madrids ,Bayerns, Liverpools, PSGs, etc but simply a lazy way to plug a hole with no long term consideration. Good luck to the dreamers who believe, definitely hope I’m wrong and that my betters know what they are doing. But how ow are we going to get rid of these old discards in a season or twos time. More free releases?
My expectations for next season are quite low, to be honest. We will be having this discussion again by next summer of how we didn’t win the league because we don’t have quality backups like City or Liverpool.
When we sign cheap players who aren’t our quality, we call it smart. It’s all based on the bank balance and not much consideration for sporting competition.
Norgaard’s signing not only makes financial sense, it also makes football sense.
His quality in terms of playing capability and potential availability is not markedly inferior to Partey’s. Further, it ensures we have a PL-experienced DM as option to Zubimendi who, I believe, would be first choice for that no. 6 position. I don’t think it would be ideal to have two PL neophytes for such an important position
What does Norgaard provide that Merino couldn’t match or that should Zubimendi be unavailable Declan Rice couldn’t do 10X better? If Zubimendi gets injured are we going to rely on Norgaard for 2-3 months? No, because he isn’t good enough. Therefore this transfer makes no sense and is just more awful business when they could have offered Partey one more year for the same cost but much better quality.
With Arsenal linked to several expensive players I can see the financial sense in bringing someone such as Nørgaard (and also Kepa Arrizabalaga as back up for Raya) in on low(er) fees.
Arsenal don’t have a magic money tree (as far as I know, anyway) so it can’t be all “spend big”.
Arsenal had money but Arteta wasted those on buying average players like Havertz, Jesus, Zinzenko on high fees and devalued our players by freezing them like Pepe, Niles, Guindozi, Mika Beireth etc.
I can understand the growing anxiety shown by fans, It’s not like Arsenal is a serial trophy winner.
Had Arsenal not in the wilderness so long, this apparent nervousness wouldn’t exist.
It is widely believed Arsenal is not far off from wrestling away that big jug.
But when you have the recent champions making signing as Florians Wirtz, and comparing the Brentford man replacing Thomas Partey, the rest of the field may well have to settle for minor places.
Some fans thought, nevertheless, that Arsenal would be almost certain to win the EPL last season, for example, didn’t they. Given the team fell so far short at the end there’s bound to be even greater disappointment.
The longer the general trophy drought goes on, generally the less “certain” fans become that things will change. In a way though that’s a good thing as they are less likely to be disappointed if nothing happens yet will be even more pleased if the club finally wins something. It’s really best not to go OTT one way or the other as some have done.
Liverpool has certainly made some good signings so far, but it’s possible Arsenal may bring in some big names as well. We’ll only know at the end of the window.
MA has at least made AFC a serious club again, next phase are trophies..
I just hope this money saving option is so we can use more cash on Isak! 🤔. Would be great though and I can dream.. 😁
Not getting him lol.
It’s a dream but why would Newcastle sell him? They don’t need the money, they’ve just won their first trophy in decades, and they’re in the CL next season.
Wait patiently mates it will not be a long time before we sign a player from the Saudi Pro League. Which bigger clubs signed a 31 year old? No disrespect to the tireless energetic Nordgaard but it’s a bad publicity for a giant club like Arsenal. Even 15m is expensive tbh. He was in the territory of free transfers.
Noorgard to me makes no sense and here’s why. Thomas Partey is 32 and has played for Arsenal for 5 years and has done a great job in midfield. he is on £200,000 a week and wanted a pay rise and Arsenal said no which is why they’re buying Noorgard who is 31 for £10 million but lets check out the numbers. Imagine Partey is given a 2 year extension and given £250,000 a week over 2 years which works out to be £24 million. Now imagine you give Noorgard a 2 year contract on £160,000 a week over 2 years that works out to be £19.2 million pounds but that only cover wages when you factor in the transfer fee which could go up to £15 million then it works out be £25,360,000 if the transfer fee is £10 million and £29,360,000 if its £15 million. So how does that makes sense when its cheaper to give Partey more money over the same time frame
Forget Isak, the reported £150m Newcastle are asking for him is ridiculous. I tend to agree with GB, I don’t believe a big No. 9 fits in with MA’s style of play.
Can someone show me jst how ‘bad’ this Norgaard really is cos i don’t freaking care if he’s going to play for just a year as long as its a memorable one cos i’ve never forgotten a certain kim kalstrom who spent what 6 months… They ended 9 years of pain. I’m loving Norgaard more than the chickens Raya and Odegaard already who play with the spirit of their manager_losing mentality people. Zero Drive, Determination & Character. Even when your team loses its always to see guts! Noorgaard to be my next fave Arsenal player after Saka and Rice. Lets ball like MEN!
*nice to see guts
Brentford, Nott. Forest may both be considered as “small” clubs compared to Arsenal but i’m dying to watch an Arsenal team with half the SPIRIT that their teams possess. Bring all the elite technique, skill, gift or whatever to Arsenal and they’ll still come short cos there’s something called MENTALITY that matters just as much as ability even more for some managers. How many ‘gifted’ players were in Alonso’s Leverkusen? Goodluck playing your way to the title. I’d prefer we Battle our way but hey we hired an apprentice of Guardiola so…
Good signing. Money left to spend but looks like a solid backup DM.
I know we have Nwaneri and Dowman coming through. But has anyone been watching England U21. James McAtee is killing it. Felt he wasnt going to get player time at Man city so went to U21 Euros. I would like us to sign him. Drop rice back to DM and have McAtee and Odegaard infront of him
Zero chance. Instead Arteta will sign their some discards and bail them out.