Just how true are the words from the club? by Shenel
Thank god the end of Arsenal’s season is finally here! Although we were not relegated, as we may have been guilty of thinking after the first few games, finishing fifth is not exactly the best, but not the worst either!
Now this season is over we should have a positive summer, or so we have been promised!
Mikel Arteta and the board have promised Arsenal fans so much for this transfer window where big spends and new faces are going to happen!
And as always, the rumours and links to many players are never ending.
But many a time we have been promised a certain budget for transfer windows but then when it comes to bidding for players Arsenal bid the lowest of the low. We then end up missing out on the player because they are too tight with the purse strings and then they say “we didn’t want that player that much anyway” or “we only go for players we feel would make a good impact on the side.”
Yes, I do understand they have to look out for their pockets, but with great additions come competition in the side, and with competition comes fighting on the trophy front, and with trophies comes bonuses and nice pay-outs for the club.
So why wouldn’t you want to splurge on players if they will make the team better and give you more chances to win trophies?
Every other club manages to do so!!
This is something that over the years we haven’t done right, we have panic-buyed at times and splashed out cash on players that (in my opinion) do not seem worthy and have not been worthy enough to don the Arsenal shirt!
This summer window will be a big test to see just how true the promises from the board are, and if we actually come through this window with even half of the targets we are being linked with then it will be deemed a successful one, although performances on the pitch would be the best way to prove it of course.
So, will Edu finally show his worth and his scouting eye? And will the club give free rein on funds and who we buy?
Well, only time will tell but I sure hope so, because it is about time we are promised what is preached by the club.
Then, and only then, will we be able to be in the challenge to bring home some trophies!
Heres hoping hey Gooners?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
Video: The Transfer Show – Alfie and Rob discuss the merits of Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal
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If we extended Nketiah’s contract, we should’ve signed a taller CF instead of Jesus. Having two similar CFs is redundant and would likely make our crosses wasteful again
For all your (usually very annoying) talk about signing a CF, this is the only one I agree with
Lewandowski(#9) and Gnabry(#14) would be the ideal forward signings for the club to replace Pepe and Lacazette.
Personally I don’t think defensive signings are a priority, I would just get those 2 and Gundogan.
Lewandowski is too old for our youth project
Gnabry could compete with Saka, but he’d most likely want a huge salary
Rather than signing Gundogan, I’d prefer to give Smith-Rowe another chance in the number 8 position
Gai, let’s be realistic! Why would Lewandowski, Gnabry or Gundogan want to be demoted from the UCL to the Europa League?
Huge salaries and jet-set lifestyles in London. We used those aspects to attract Ozil, Sanchez and Aubameyang
And all ended in tears. The reason they were in England was for football. Replace football with any other thing or aspect and it will end in tears. Luckily we have a no nonsense coach and not a nice papa to tolerate juvenile behaviour at the club.
Touche
That’s why we should avoid highly decorated superstars. Most of them are also not young anymore
Top footballers normally what to win and compete for major trophies and is why they join clubs who can offer that. Only those who are a. Only money /lifestyle driven or b. out to graze and have had their fill of success already come for the pay packet and city lights.
Gnabry has won Bundesliga four times and a UCL trophy, so I assume he only comes for money and lifestyle
Exactly…he has won stuff so as a result doesn’t mind stepping down not to win stuff..ala..David Luiz et al. Re; Gabri is he actually coming?
Gabriel Jesus? I don’t think Arsenal are serious in chasing his signature after extending Nketiah’s contract, especially we’ve still got Balogun
Gai,
If ManCity could go for the giant
E.Haland and even R.Madrid have decently tall Benzima. Hope Arteta knows what he really needs to improve Arsenal. I am still waiting for the first Arsenal signing. For me A tall maque CF like Osimhen, Lukaku or Nunez will show ambition. If Arsenal cannot spend 50-65m on a prime CF then the board is not ready to challenge next season. They must be ready to spend cash relying on inexperience accademy players won’t get us top4 but top6
Agreed, Sylva. Nunez just had a great season, but I’m not sure about his adaptability and injury record
OT: Looks like Spurs have almost sealed the deal for Ivan Perisic (free)
Still undecided if he is a good signing but extremely experienced and fit player, prob a good influence to have in a dressing room.
If true,he would probably be a good signing,having already played under Conté at Inter,he must believe that he can perform in the PL too.
I think this talk of “So and so player brings Experience / to the dressng room” is one of the biggest myths.
But I do understand where you are coming from, Perisic might turn out to be a very useful player for them.
I don’t believe it is entirely a myth but it is an overused narrative.
its a good player that is joining an already good attack.
I reckon we’ve done all our business . Got Eddie and Elneny after all. They are just like new signings! What ambition!
🤭😂🤣
We’re not quite done yet,you forgot Laca!!😉
Despite being the club that spent most in the season just finished and having spent quite a lot of money for the past 10 years, it seems the myth, we aren’t spending, can prevail for some.
Very strange.
We have been spending money since 2013, that’s FACT.. The problem is that we have misused those fund on overrated and average players..
But what I find very misleading is this constant talk of “We were the biggest spenders in the summer”. It is true that we spent a little bit more than anyone else last summer but if you are to put it in context £130 million on 6 players is nothing. Because for example Chelsea spent about £100 million on just lukaku, Man City spend about £100 million on Grealish alone..
Each of these 2 clubs spent nearly 80% of our entire summer budget on a single player. They were just strengthening their already better and expensive squads.. Even the £130 million was not enough as we had to compromise, we are trying not to assemble a brand new team while the likes of City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool etc just had to pad up their already stronger squads..
City Spent about £114 million (£100 million on a single player).
United spent about £112 million.
Chelsea spent about £100 million (£100 million on Lukaku).
We spent about £130 million on 6 players. Etc..
City’s squad is worth about £900 million. Chelsea is about £800 million. United about £800 million. Ours squad is about £500 million.
This talk about how much we spent is used in a very loaded / disingenuous way by some fans.. When they say it one might be led to believe that we spent about £300 million and £200 million more than our closest people rival..
But in actual sense we spent about £15 million more than City, £17 million more than United and about £25 million more than Chelsea..
Just saying..
Well see how it’s turned out for both Chelsea and city.
I rather spend my 100m on 10 players, their is no way all 10 will flop, assuming 3 became hit, I resell in years to come, recoup and make profit, than blow 100m on a lukaku or grealish.
Just saying
Possible signing (steal) of the year by Man City? Haaland at £51.5m!!
@goonster
I am not sure, I quite get your points. As someone else pointed out, it also seems to me, that our spending/investment on several players has turned out to be much better than Chelsea’s spend on Lukaku.
The writer of the article, is basically encouraging “splash cash” as if that is the solution, and with the underlying false myth, that we are a low spending club.
Most discerning fans are aware of what you have written. Those who have framed the discussions in the way you describe have clearly done so in attempts to cast doubt on the ability and judgement of Arteta and Edu.
Some, of course, are still in thrall to the legend of Wenger who unfortunately left a team which was in relative decline.
Still blaming Wenger 4 years after he left SMH
You see Shenel, I question thr premise in your piece that we were PROMISED a huge spend. Problem is with some people that whenever a rumour circulates, that manythen pick up on it wuthout questioning its truth and base their assumptions on what so very often was never the truth in the first place. Equally, I do not say that all rumours and statements are false , of course not, as that would be unthinking and I am a deep thinker who always questions every utterance I hear or read from official football sources. As a topical example of how I NEVER BELIEVE UNFOUNDED RUMOURS, right now the French police are claiming that there was “industrial level ticket fraud” in the CL FINAL, which , they claim, led to the chaos. I dismiss this as the French police and French governement desperately trying to get thmselves out of the chaos the police created.
I do not say there were NO FAKE TICKETS at all, simply that there was not an industrial level. All my common sencse tells me that is a lie and nonsense. I think for myself and have never subscribed to being what I call “unthinking rumour fodder”!
So returning to this thread, I HAVE NEVER ACCEPOTED THAT WE WERE EVER PROMISEDHUGE SPENDING THIS SUMMER. That also does not mean it will not happen for certain but simply that I have seen no actual “PROMISE” from the man who counts, Kroenke. All other noise is just conjecture and rumour, albeit easily accepted by non deep thinkers. So be warned, all of your easily deluded “rumour fodder”.
The French government said they were 15% of fake tickets.
Actually the French authorities said that there were 30,000 fake tickets among the Liverpool fans!!!!
We all know that is nonsense…..
But we seem to believe what we want based upon our bias!
What they exactly said is that there was between 30 and 40K of Liverpool fans with fake or no tickets.
“Chaos that the French police created”is that some kind of a joke?the problem is that the British media haven’t been showing footages that would contradict their narrative.by the way, you’re doing the exact same thing that you accused others to do Jon,making assumptions without any proof to back up your claims.
I am assuming you are Fench. Is that correct?
Jon you should know by now and yes you guessed correctly,I am French but that doesn’t make me automatically biased in favour of France/French people.
Jon Fox, I concur about the transfer money. No club will ever say how much they have to spend in a window. Nor will they say which players they are after. The media do a lot of guess work, and gullible people fall for it. The only time to believe we have signed a player is when it’s on the club’s official website .
HD, We have to bear in mind that JA thrives and exists on rumours and conjecture. JA even has a section marked “Arsenal rumours” which to my mind, admits in all but name, the fact that almost always, entirely unfounded rumours and false conjecture is what keeps this site functioning.
That being the case, put together with my natural suspicion of hype, of false rumours and of overegging the pudding,means I consider myself a sort of one man antidote to all the falsehoods claimed and so easily and gullibly believed by dreamers on JA
Your post summed up the reality in far fewer and more effective ways than my own post could ever hope to achieve. Well said HD!
Money bag managers
How many more signings do they need?
Let’s wait and see how it turns out this time around
Saido Mane’s wages at liverpool is £100k/wk, Jota is on 90k, Luiz is on 56k, Origi is on 60k and Kanote is on 60k. This is the wages of players playing for the second best team in epl and a cl finalist who narrowly lost Rmadrid. It is not about only how much we have to spend but also how we spend it. Liverpool was once in our situation with Solanke and Brewster, they sold them for almost 40m combined but we chose to reward an average striker with a world class wages. Well done. Edu/Arteta
Liverpool is by far the best run club in the EPL as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve said this before but I wish we could manage transfers the same way as them as well. They built a great squad and all they do now is sign 1 or 2 really good player a year, sign 1 or 2 back-up players a year. They do there business early and with little talk.
I am not convinced that this can be sustained.
The massive transfer fees received by Liverpool for Suarez and Coutinho has helped Liverpool alot.
The joy of winning trophies and playing in CL can only go so far. Players are all about money now whether we like it or not. 2 trophyless seasons for Liverpool and this house of cards will come crumbling down.
This is an important point. Liverpool managed their transfers quite well. They were however helped along by some remarkable transfer fees.
Whether they can sustain it is uncertain. They have had some great years but one wonders how much more some of their stalwarts can give.
David we have a higher net spend than them so yes they’ve bought expensive players but they’ve also sold well…overall we’ve actually spent more…..so reality is the only thing they’ve been “helped along” with is good business sense and selling at the right time.
You can only sell a player for 100 million plus if someone is willing to pay that much. Liverpool have managed their transfers well but “good business sense” does not exist in a world all by itself.
Whether they can keep the momentum going when some of their main players leave or get older remains to be seen.
You are spot on! Mané is the perfect example.now after prioritising & winning trophies,his main priority seems to be financial and you can’t blame him for that.i read that he earns less than the Ox and other squad members.
Similarly we sold iwobi and Willock for a combined fee of £60m.
Let’s face it, it is a lot harder to attract players to Arsenal playing in the 2nd tier of European Football as opposed to playing for 6 times winners of the 1st tier of European Football. Hence we have to offer higher wages.
I do not agree with you that it will be harder for us to sign good players because we are playing in the second tier European football. If we go for Dias we would have got him as well if we want him and liverpool is not in the picture. But that is not the point of my post. The point I’m making is we give money away in wages to so many of our players. We would have definitely double Dias wages if he is playing for us.
No reason for us to be concerned with the splashing. We need only to worry about what we are getting back in return. For certain, there are finger-licking deals available in the market – Jesus, Tielemans, Spence, Doucoure – but getting them will be the issue. Edu has the perfect opportunity to impress us (again) with a few more gems. My preference is for players with sound technical skills and physical presence – players with steel, grit, marbles.
Load of nonsense we cannot spend as the Kronkes have basically just took over properly right before covid hit & that stopped everything.
Stan will finance what we need this summer especially now we have trimmed the squad to the bare minimum, back in Europe and a young squad with a young manager on the rise in his eyes.
Our wage bill has been slashed so much and will continue this summer with already Laca, Matteo & Dino gone. With more than likely AMN, Lucas, Soares, Pepe, Leno, Bellerin & who ever else leaves.
Add we got £14m or so for Dino & Matteo & about £60m+ from above sales & about £400k+ on wages too we can afford 2 or 3 big signings this summer & a few squad players.
Saliba returning & Turner Arriving saves us having to look at any CBs or GKs, so main concerns are a Top Striker, Defensive Mid, Creative Mid, Wingback & Winger, then the youngsters like Azeez, Patino & Hutchinson being promoted to the senior team.
DM – Bissouma or Doucoure
CM – Teilimans or Aouer
WB – Hickey or Spence
W – Gnabry or Gakpo
CF – Nunez or Osimhen
Look the 2 strikers above are maybe out of reach but Utd are in same position as us but he will be the star here if Darwin wants as I see him a possible target as Osimhens Napoli are in UCL.
Maybe other targets a more better suited but we need to aim big and spend whatever necessary to close the gap on the top teams in not only the league but especially Europe.
Here come the shopping lists, delusional thinking, click bait articles and a whole lot of dreamt up nonsense. Must be silly season.
See you on the other side when reality sets in!;)
The most important thing is that we must show ambition as a Club. For me the following should be done as priority:
1. Bring back Saliba and tie him to a long term contract, a gem in the making.
2. Get Rubin Nevez/Gundogan/Tielemans/Douglas Louis/Renato Sanchez, either atleast one or if possible two of these.
3. If Nunez is going to United, try to get either Osimhen or Martinez. if both are demanding CL football, get Ivan Toni/Richarlison/DCL, all PL made and good end product strikers.
4. Get a fullback who can play both LB and RB and is flexible.
thats very optimistic. As things stand tho we are gonna be saying “why didn’t we get a top striker instead of Jesus/re-signing Nketiah”. That route is not how we achieve our goals. If we blow this transfer window it solidifies my opinion about Edu/arteta