Success is achievable for any club and that is the beauty of football and one reason every team has fans.
Arsenal is traditionally one of the biggest clubs in England, but they have been on a steady decline in recent seasons.
After finishing last season outside the European places, finishing next season inside the top four is the minimum expectation for Mikel Arteta’s side.
However, we can even achieve more and I mean as much as winning the Premier League next season, it would only cost us a lot more money.
Teams like Chelsea and Manchester City have shown us that money buys success in football.
They have used spending money as one way of getting the better of their competitors repeatedly and it is a format that I think will work perfectly for Arsenal as well.
I know we don’t have an owner that will splash the cash, but we can raise the money from our current squad.
Chelsea made some good money from selling Eden Hazard, who was arguably their best player and they won the Champions League by spending the transfer fee on quality players.
Liverpool sold Philippe Coutinho and spent the transfer fee on some top players who transformed them into European and English champions.
Instead of waiting for Kroenke, we can cash in on the likes of Bukayo Saka, Joe Willock and Emile Smith Rowe to fund a summer spree.
Their transfer fees can help Arteta land the experienced targets that will bring instant success to Arsenal.
That is an unpopular opinion, I admit, however, that is the price that will have to be paid if immediate success is your demand.
Will that summer spree be better than keeping what we have in terms of our encouraging youngsters?
Brilliant idea. Let’s bring in more expensive mercenaries and sell the ones who have more chemistry
Exactly….
to many fans…spending 500m or even 1 Billion on players
we are guaranteed to win the title even before kicking a ball….
There are no poor or sick people out there
Funds should be used to spend big on players than build hospitals, help the needy or medical research and etc….
Chelsea/ Man City have proven that changing managers, players, coaches and staffs like diapers can win them titles, but we don’t have that kind of money and that practice is unfair for smaller clubs
You can buy the league like Dalgleish did with Blackburn but look at them now in debt and not in the EPL
Nice article!!
The young players that we should LET GO!, since we cannot satisfy everyone!!.
*Guendozi
*Saliba
*Mavropanos
*Nketiah
The Young players who should BE KEPT as squad players..
*Saka
*AMN
*Nelson
*Willock
*ESR..
*Balogun
However, we have to make a choice on who will be our Attacking midfielder in d coming season!!
Who will combine with T.Partey n maybe Bissouma??
Is it Joe Willock or Emile Smith-Rowe??🤔🤔
Why do you want to sell Saliba?
And keep AMN ? That’s a horrible one for me
nice question why should innefective AMN remain
Your comments unfortunately are flawed in as much that the likes of Chelsea etc have had European football to offer to top players, who do you think we can attract that are better players than the 3 youngsters you have picked out to be sold who do not want to play (wait to play) in Europe. I’m afraid its not going to happen.
No, I disagree. The young stars are not to be sold. Selling the many less useful players for less prices is the best way to gather money, with reasonable addition from Kroenke and we are good to go.
150 million pounds, with the right buys should make us top 4 contenders.
Chelsea spent 200 million on the right players and won the Champions league.
I don’t see the sacrifice being worth it, but even if say you were right, I don’t trust the recruitment process at our club, so it would be a complete waste.
👍 Exactly right; throw away what Arsenal has and take a punt on buying better.
SELL AUBA and that would raise a few bob the old chap needs moving on if you are serious about bringing in the changes and trying to get back into European football
How on earth can the article hint that Arteta is good enough to win the league with buying players from sales of young talent is beyond me. Arteta has nothing at all to back him up to say that of him. Arteta should go and a manager that knows what he is doing come in.
We should learn how to spend wisely first. A good squad should have a mixture of both experienced and talented youngsters.
How much can we spend to get a midfielder who can score 8 in 15 games? Probably four times the amount we will get by selling Willock. If our manager has failed to utilise him how can we be sure he will utilise the more expensive similar player?
Sell Saka and how much will we spend to get a better player than him? 100 millions?
We already have a pool of talented players it’s up to the manager to utilise their talents. And even if we replace the whole squad with expensive buys they will need time to gel and I don’t trust our current manager to get the best out of them.
If we have to spend big and as a shortcut to success we should spend it on a proper manager, but since Arteta is here to stay any money spent on transfers is a waste IMHO hence I am going into hibernation concerning Arsenal success on the pitch until he can prove he will take the club forward.
For the first time in my life as an Arsenal fan next season I will not put any expectations on the team and thinking of winning the title.
Spot on, HH.
HH I agree with you 100% but will they listen to the likes of us NO they think they no better
Arsenal do not need a rebuild, in this transfer window, they need to buy the right four players in order to compete for top four and titles. .
They need to buy the players they need, not the players fans think they need or pundits say they need.
The #1 problem for Arsenal are the two central midfield positions. Attacking midfield and center midfield. They need two players who can add goals and assists. If anyone watched the Austria game, the answer to attacking midfield was on the pitch; Marcel Sabitzer. If Arsenal are going to pay a lot of money for an attacking midfielder, it would be hard to do better than the Austrian. Martin Odegaard showed some promise, but 2 goals and 0 assists is not what the Gunners need. They need at least 5-8 assists and 5-8 goals from the player in this position. Sabitzer delivers that, plus intensity at both ends of the pitch.
At central midfield the Gunners never filled the hole left by Aaron Ramsey’s departure. The ideal signing would be Youri Tielemans from Leicester, with John McGinn from Aston Villa a close second. James Ward-Prowse would also be a valid option; all three deliver more goals and more assists than any current Gunner from the midfield.
The main problem with Torreira, Guendouzi, and Xhaka are the lack of offensive production.
Left back is another issue. The Gunners need a capable back up and rotation player for Kieran Tierney. His all action style of play has, thus far, resulted in a number of injuries, major and minor, and he will need rest. Owen Wijndal from the Dutch National Team is a good fit. He plays a similar style to Tierney and coming from AZ, he should not cost an over-the-moon fee.
Finally, goalkeeper is something the Gunners need to address. Leno is serviceable. The Return of Wojieck Szczesny has been suggested, which is not a bad option. Adding Leeds United #1 Ilian Meslier would be better, for about the same money. He has huge upside, plays the way Arteta wants to play, and he’s young enough to be the answer in goal for the next decade.
This line up is based on the club keeping the current first XI more or less intact.
GK
Meslier
(Leno)
Defense
Bellerin – Holding – Gabriel – Tierney
(Chambers) – (Mari) – (Saliba) – (Wijndal)
Midfield
Partey – McGinn
(Xhaka) – (Willock)
Attack
Pepe – Sabitzer – Saka
(Willian) – (Smith-Rowe) – (Martinelli)
Forward
Aubameyang
(Lacazette, Balogun)
This team would deliver 10-15 more points, based on individual player statistics, which would put Arsenal third, just behind Manchester United in the just-completed season.
May God bless you for these suggestions, @Arsenal needs a striker like Patson Dakar,a midfielder like Eduardo Camavinga and a defender like Pau Torres toget to the top 4 of the premier league
Paul, we can argue about the most appropriate players to bring in; however the positions where upgrades are required cannot be rationally argued against.
This opinion would be entirely sound and reasonable if we had an experienced manager and supporting cast that were capable of making good recruiting decisions. We are not there yet; As a matter of fact, we are still very far.
We had experienced managers in Wenger and Emery. Result? No PL title since 2004. No European cup since 4th May 1994! And you are talking of experienced managers? Get off Mikel’s back, the man is working wonders with one of the worst squads in our history or even the league. Instead of getting rid of the Wenger’s dross, someone pops up with an idea of getting rid of our best talent who kept us a humble 8th spot, without them we would be battling Fulham. And finally get rid of the best talent to replace them with Neves? Or are we interested in relegation with the hope of promotion and the money won in the process?Get rid of Torrera, Guendozi, Kolasinac, Elneny,Bellerin, Leno, Xhaka, Eddie, Cedric, Willian. These will never be missed, yet generate over 100M. We have able/capable players for a top 6 with AMN, Willock, Saliba, Azeez, Folarin and add Matty Ryan, Sambi Lokonga, and an understudy to Tierney and chambers and we are good for a top 6 without wasteful expenditure. Target top 3 only after all the useless good for nothings are gone for good.
If we acutally had a good transfer policy maybe you’d have a point. We’d sell them and buy more flops though, so no thanks.
The thought of us on a spree with all the cash they’d fetch doesn’t bear thinking about, equally as much as a team without our Hale-Enders in it!
We’d more than likely waste it just like the Spuds with the Bale money!
ESR and Saka are our future! They’re not going anywhere!
Saka, Martinelli, ESR, Tierney, Holding especially should stay. They are our future and present
Hahahaha!!
But you re funny!!
You did not add Saliba as those you want to Stay!!.
Meaning, you don’t want him in our team
But questioned me up There why I did same!!
🤔🤔
Sign Tyron mings, kalvin philips and recharlison now and get results
Yeah, sell Saka, Smith-Rowe, and, while we’re at it, throw in Martinelli. Basic common sense tells us that without any European football, all we could attract with the money would be second-raters, over-the-hill once greats, or promising youngsters, who wouldn’t be as good as we already have. Sounds a bit Spursy to me!
👍
Sure? A bird at hand is worth two in the bush. Change Arteta and see if this team can’t finish top4. This is rubish idea
Not a very good idea IMHO….
We can cash in on some of the youngstars and squad players(AMN, Willock, Nkethia etc) but for selling Saka and ESR thats not even in the picture.
what are you smoking? if we could get good money for esr and saka( with our sales success maybe 50m between them) we could afford Ben White maybe , but with our present and future stars gone who would come to us showing that kind of ambition.
Are you sure you are not a spud sabateur?
ESR, SAKA , MARTINELLI , TIERNEY STAY !!!!
Nope.
Hazard was 28. Countinho was 26. If we’re following this trend (selling the best player), then Alexis Sanchez should’ve been our breakthrough transfer.
A quick check on transfermarkt shows we sold Alexis for €34m when his value was €70m. Ozil has gone for nothing.
Only way we’re getting back to the top is from a hardcore injection of money from our owner, the kind that would threaten FFP or cause UEFA to come sniffing about.
we have tried and failed for 3 years for immediate success, I just dont trust the guys at the top to spend and get success, rather buy young and build for future
This is a spot on, arsenal needs to sell some of the youngsters also the deadwood we have. If we have club that can buy saka, Rowe, wilock, Nkatiah etc for a good price let sell them, including xhaka, bellarin, holding, chamber, Laca, Auba… though we cannot get that kind of money Chelsea get from Hazard sale or Liverpool get from courtinho but can get reasonable money from our deadwood and some of our youngsters. Then the owner to add some cash, then we go for quality players both in premier league and outside the league. With Smith Rowe, Saka, Xhaka, holding, Chamber as our first choice arsenal will not get top four instead of top six… arsenal will continue to regress.
I don’t even know where to start with this utter nonsense, so for my own sanity I’ll refrain from commenting…just this one time though
Can Saka, ESR & Willock fetch up to £140m in today’s summer transfer market for Arsenal if they were to sell them?
But how will Arsenal reinforced this summer with the £140m? This is a tough question that needs the correct answer to it. I for one wouldn’t want to go in into the debate of if Arteta will be capable to manage Arsenal to glory success to win titles for the club after utilizing the £140m to recruit some new players for the club for strengthening. For, it’s onl the future that can tell if he can or not.
But nevertheless, will the risk of selling the Arsenal trio youngsters of Saka, ESR and Willock worth taking it? For, it’ll become a serious gamble if Arsenal took the risk. And the gamble may payoff handsomely or just a little or even not payoff at all.
Therefore, since three is no any guarantees the gamble will payoff handsomely for Arsenal after taken the risk to sell. Then, it will be better for Arsenal to keep their trio quality players this summer but not sell them imo.
Meanwhile, I think Arsenal can raise the much needed funds that they need to raise this summer window to use the money for revamping exercise of their 1st team squad after they have sold Xhaka, Bellerin, Guendouzi. Nketiah and Kolasinac including one or two other players at the club to raise funds.
I agree with the author on the to the idea, but in the execution of it we have to be quite cleaver. I think the biggest problem is certain Arsenal fans tbh. I don’t think for a second that if Barca for e.g come in with and offer for Saka and ESR we should entertain it.
For me selling the fringe players makes more sense. Selling AMN, Guendouzi, Nkethia and Nelson for 15-20m+ each. We need to keep hold of potential superstars and sell on maybes stars with buys back and sell on clauses. Our problem like someone said above, selling our players and buying in mercenaries.
This is so true, for over a decade we have had players who are not invested emotionally to our club. Youth players are exactly this and will always give 110%. Additionally signing players like Zaha, Matty Ryan and Bissouma is the same. They already love our club from supporting them. Then we add players that are themselves on the road to being superstars. Like the Kantes and Bissoumas before the likes of Leicesters and Brightons sign them for peanuts.
Wilfred Zaha n Bissouma are two Must-Get for Arsenal dis season!!
Both have aggressive, fast and has got EPL experience!!
+Dey desire to play for us!!
But some here claim Pepe is better dan Zaha or reel out names as Lokonga, Loccatelli, etc!!
I pray we sign both players!!🙏
Why sign Zaha when we have Martinelli and saka ,that would just be a complete waste of 60 mill quid
Just an example of an Arsenal fan who plays top flight footy mate nothing else. I agree between ESR, Pepe, Martinelli and Saka make up the wing contingent
@Dan Kit!
Saka and Martinelli do not have Zaha’s experience!!
If you know football well, experience counts in tough matches!!
+Martinelli still looks Injury-prone!!
It’s a Terrible gamble to depend on him, Saka n Pepe as our wingers for d coming season!!
Zaha’s ruggedity is needed in our attack.
I don’t agree about the experience,where as Martinelli and saka have been around a big club for a few years now and have shone through ,Zahas one and only time at a big club and he came running back to palace with his tail between his legs
In ur post below!!
You talked about Zaha@ Man Utd in 2013/2014!!
Dat was 7 years ago, mate!!
He was just a Young player then!! Surrounded by big names such as RVP, Rooney, Valencia, Chicharito,etc…
He’s a Beast now!!
I repeat, it’s a bad gamble to depend on Saka, Martinelli n Pepe next season!!
Even I will accept West Ham’s Jesse Lingard to be added in our Wings!!
bt on my side its arsenal recruitment staff has a problem,bcoz theres are rumours that they want Ben White from brighton,then my quiz is that wot will they do with the likes of Saliba,Mavropanos,Holding,Chambers since they play in that same position??if its a must to buy White then two of those four must be offliaded
Okay. Who are the new players seriously been mooted by the Gooners to arrive at Arsenal this summer? 8en White, Bissouma and who else to arrive at the club as well this summer?
But no any striker signing by Arsenal of 30 goals plus per season top League goals scorer has been mooted by us Gooners to also arrive at Arsenal this summer. Why?
But I think despite that Arsenal are likely to retain the services of Aubameyang, Lacazette, Martinelli and Balogun. It’s still very necessary for Arsenal to do a top quality striker signing this summer in my own thinking.
Spot on!!
If Arsenal n Arteta still intend to use Laca and Auba as our Strikers next season, den 6th or 7th place is guaranteed for us, surely!!
Those two are past it, honestly!! Slow, lazy, poor body language, poor finishing, in Laca’s case!!
We need Andre Silva or Raul Jinemez!! Or any Aggressive Diego Costa or Marco Arnautovic kind-of-striker!!
To use an expression from 1657, that’s 3 minutes to 5; what absolute balderdash! The writer should be horse whipped and banished to spurs toilet bowl 😳
The issue is not whether we sell some of the youngsters it’s which … guendhouzi nketiah amn and Nelson seem likely .. other than amn there are few tears being shed … don’t think arteta has plans to sell saka or esr so that’s mute … leaves willock and it seems we will sell if a decent offer is made by n’castle .. and we are certainly looking for a better player than him in that position …. And need one .. so not much to discuss here really other than to acknowledge that the academy still has some way to go in producing a stream of home grown talent
Why has no one bothered to mention wages? We would be selling youngsters with lower wages, then replacing them with ‘elite’ players on massive wages. Our wage expenditure is already on a par with bayern, and we couldnt pass FFP while not being in europe. Its about operating costs, not just massive transfer kitties. Which makes the article completely IMPOSSIBLE, even if we wanted to
This article is totally crazy. How can one even dream of selling Saka, ESR and Martinelli along with Willock. They are the Arsenal of the future. If at selling youngsters is concerned, sell Guendpuzi, Nelson, AMN and Nketiah. Even Saliba and Mavroponus must be kept by Arsenal, they are promising young defenders.
Soton sold their players(mane,lallana,chambers,cylne and many others),did they invest?
Crazy is exactly the word to describe this article and those who share the views of the writer.
What!!!??? Firstly this is purely speculative sillyness.
After all the hard work of nurturing our football babies, to have them leave home before they are ready. Sounds like an abusive family to me.
What we need are players who can nurture ESR and Bukayo. layers like Nabil Fekir. He is 27, give him a three year contract and he will turn ESR and Saka into World Class players. Bukayo and ESR need a role model in the Santi Cazorla bracket.
Truly an awful suggestion. If it were to happen it would be the beginning of the end for Arsenal. Sell the only players that care enough about Arsenal to overlook the control freak and put in a shift, and buy superstars? The same superstars that spent a few months with Arteta and tried to throw him under the bus? The other youngsters would realise what is happening, that it’s all about Arteta now and not about the club anymore and no one but mercenaries would wanna play for this team. It would also be the end of the road for me as an Arsenal fan, love this club but there are limits to what I’m willing to put myself through.
I’m feeling generous. Perhaps the writer was simply pointing out that instant success comes at a price and if we want sustained success we have to be a bit more patient and accept there will be bumps along the road while our youngsters develop.
Like others have said, the likes of Tierney, Saliba, Azeez, Saka, Willock, ESR and Martinelli are hopefully our future.
Agreed, I think unless those players show something special like Saka and ESR. You could even go as far as Gnabry and Mallen. Two players we should never have let go, but did because Gazidis was out of his depth. For the life of me I can’t think Wenger would have got shot of them.
We have some good and great players on their way to being top players. As you mentioned Tierney, Saka, ESR, Martinelli, Willock and Saliba are all on their way. Then we have a minimum of Chalie Patino, Azeez and Balogun coming through this season. The other players like AmN and Nelson if they were going to do something they would have by now the fact that Nelson has been jumped by Saka tells you everything you need to know.
Possibly the worst article to ever get published on JA.
Homegrown players will only get better with years. Selling them at the risk of having slow-burner Pepes as replacements isn’t very smart. I’d much rather sell Auba than either of the youngsters.
This article is the sort of thing Kroenke enterprises love to hear. It fits in with the way they’ve run their other franchises ( hate that word). They finish close to the bottom, get the better draft picks and then trade them for older veterens thus maintaining the status quo for minimum expenditure.Meanwhile the taems stay in limbo, the youg players flourish somewhere else and hey ho its ground hogs day again. Why any true Arsenal fan would even consider going there is deeply disturbing. It suggests you believe in the process and are happy with the way things currently stand
Young players, who come through the system developing in the Club and playing together have esprit de corp, something imported mercenaries take time, if ever to exhibit. Arsenal’s previously successful champion teams have had a core of home grown players, augmented with targetted acquisitions. This nucleus of home grown players have helped new comers to absorb the ethos of the Club. Yet people want to throw this away and replace it with what?
The financial losses at Arsenal are deliberately manufactured to serve as a tax loss with the view that Kroenke’s massive, present, billion’s of dollars LA project does not have to pay major tax. Also as Arsenal always holds it’s 2billion dollar value even if working a t a loss, in the event of the LA Olympic project going down the pan then the sale of Arsenal would get Kroenke out of the shit. There is no interest in Arsenal per se from the Kroenkes. We need to lose money from his point of view to protect his Olympic Stadium project. Kroenke want’s Arsenal to trade at a loss. That’s business for you.
That’s business? I say that’s HOGWASH.
I am sure that the LA project is losing enough money on its own right now. As is EVERY club that has lost millions in matchday revenue.
To suggest Arsenal is being used as a loss leader is just ridiculous.
Maybe if you repeat it often enough you will even believe it yourself!
Admin Pat, KS&E are expected to recoup an absolute fortune from real estate sales around the LA Rams Stadium, itself heavy subsidised by local authorities.
Ad PAT, Spot on. There is no way during this pandemic that a man owning so many sports franchises cannot be losing money like we all lose blood and eventually life, if an artery is cut. The pandemic is bleeding SNAKE AND SNAKE SON DRY.
That being said, Kroenke is financially astute and he will be making property sales from land around LA RAMS STADIUM. But not enough to do anything save slow down the blood, aka money, loss!
But our best hope, ironically, to rid us of Kroenkes is that the pandemic lasts years, which of course I fervently hope does NOT HAPPEN.
We have many young players to sell without selling the brilliant ones. Wilnock, Niles, Guendozi, Nketiah, Mavropopotis and Toreira can all fetch us good sum without affecting our balance. After all they didn’t have any impact last season with us.
Maybe they will just leave instead. Tierney to Man City, Smith Rowe to Liverpool, Saka to Chelsea?
Not just in this window but in future ones perhaps…
Stranger things have happened.
Well Martin, you say “perhaps an unpopular opinion”. It is also a rank poor opinion which makes no sense at all. You say that selling our young starts will fund us getting a number of better players.
BUT, the younger a good player is, the more he is worth, so if we followed your foolish advice(in which I am certain you do NOT personally BELIEVE , even though you wrote it) we would need more money still to spend than we would get from selling our youngs stars. UNLESS we continued to import aged coasters like Willian and drift even further away from the top rank. No sane Gooner will think we should buy more aged Willians, including me and YOU TOO, my devils advocate friend.
You are far too long in the tooth and very far from stupid and so I simply do not believe you actually think what you wrote. And that means it was humbug!
Amen to that!JF.
I think it is erroneous to say that Chelsea won because of their expensive buys. If anything most of their new expensive acquisitions were pretty underwhelming throughout the season. The Spine that arguably won Chelsea the CL is Mendy-Silva-Kante-Mount. Mendy was a cheap smart buy-much better than the most expensive goalkeeper who also plays for the same team. Silva was a shrewd buy- a mature head with loads of experience that provided leadership and solidity alongside Azpilcueta and Rudiger.
Kante was not a super expensive signing- another smart buy from Leicester. And most importantly Mount and James, who rose from the Chelsea Academy just like our very own graduates in Saka, ESR, Willock etc were vital cogs in their push for the CL trophy. This article is ridiculous to say the least.