Gary Neville has questioned Arsenal’s decision to wait until the transfer deadline day to move for a new midfielder even though they had planned to sign one all summer.
The Gunners made a late attempt to add Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz to their squad just before the window closed, and they had three bids for his signature turned down by the Villans.
He has a year left on his current deal at the Midlands club and Arsenal had been confident they would accept their offers.
However, Villa stood their ground and kept the former Manchester City man, a decision that meant Arsenal did not buy a replacement for the injured Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny.
Neville has now questioned the timing of their move.
Appearing on The Overlap Fan Debate Xtra, Neville said: ‘We asked Mikel Arteta on the first game of the season, we said to him “are you going to do any more business?”.
‘He said he did, in midfield. Why did they wait until transfer deadline day to bid for Luiz? Why did they wait that three, four weeks?
‘I thought midfield yesterday [against Manchester United] was the one area where United looked like they had more, at times, passing through the lines.
‘I know that Arsenal did really well in midfield, but when there was a moment to open up the game – I know Odegaard can do that – I felt they did lack a midfield player.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
The timing of our move for Luiz was simply poor, and it showed we had a different plan prior to deadline day.
That decision cost us the transfer, and we will have to work with our current options until at least January.
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The last week has felt like aspects of the Wenger era is back… lots of promise but the defensive midfielder wasn’t signed as required and square pegs were played in round holes (Lokonga) in important matches.
Well,I don’t see MA getting any stick compared to AW for not having signed a DM.
@Siamois
If Arteta had spent more this summer then the Chequebook manager catchphrase would have gotten even heightened.
Or people would still be complaining about Arteta not being able to get the best out of the players available to him. He needs to buy buy and buy..
Now is the time for him to show that he can use the players available to him right now in order to satisfy his ardent critics..
👍
Great point here MA is not only a manager he’s also a coach. So he must get the best out of his players rather than being like chelsea and splashing the money all over the place.
He made sense on this one though.
But he still thinking we won’t make top 4 despite topping d league is nonsense. I believe no matter how things got we will make top 4 easily. If continue playing like dis, I dnt care if man u, city, Liverpool beat us, we will be up their
I hope so but i’m not sure. Our depth is conerning
While I accept the need for a quality DM and/or an athletic box to box operator, the criticism aimed at Lokonga is way over the top in my opinion.Saliba, Gabriel and Zinchenko were found wanting defensively and were culpable for at least 2 of the 3 goals, yet they seem to have escaped the wrath of armchair Arsenal fans.Lokonga is not a DM and never will be.He has been thrust into action as a DM due to the injuries to Partey and Elneny and the fact that our Management failed to add depth to our squad in an area where it is clearly needed.
Totally agree @Grandad. For a CM I personally thought Lokonga had an excellent game against Manure playing in a position that is completely foreign to him in the premiership.
I have been shouting for another cdm/cm since the beginning of the transfer window to no avail, so letting playera like Guendozi, Torreira and AMN go without replacments is absolutely criminal. But it is what it is.
When asked a few weeks ago before Elneny was injured what his strategy was in the transfer market he said we needed more fire power. So what happens… nothing?
I am more concerned about the lack of goals in this team. If Jesus or Nketiah gets injured what do we do? Everyone keeps saying Martinelli can fill in but I don’t think MA does hence why has has never played him there in the past.
I have said previously, last season we had 4 strikers. Auba, Laca, Eddie and Balogun. We now only have 2. So can someone make sense of that?
But hey ho. Onwards and upwards.
Did anyone watch mykhylo mudryk play yesterday. I just wonder why we did not sign him.
He was priced out of a move. He’s got 2 goals in almost 70 appearances so +40 million for a player like that is way too much at the moment.
2 assists and a goal well not bad but won’t judge from that now