Perhaps our best signing of the summer was Andrea Berta? Our new Director of Football likes to talk to as many names on his shortlist as possible and collect lots of information. He then sits with the rest of the recruitment team and considers all details.
While that method means Gooners had to be patient (Arsenal need to stop leaking out information), the Italian’s job is not to give content to Sky Sports or YouTubers. This strategy meant he had an advantage when negotiating with Sporting Lisbon and meant he could easily hijack Eze’s move to Spurs.
Viktor Gyökeres made it clear to the 53 year old that the Emirates was his chosen destination at the same time that Benjamin Sesko was talking himself out of a move to the English capital. The player’s agent gave us contrasting details to what the Portuguese champions were quoting us. The striker accused his employer of breaking a verbal agreement from a year ago, essentially that if he gave 12 months more service he would not be priced out of a move this summer. The 27 year old’s representatives insist they have evidence that their client was telling the truth.
By knowing we were the Swede’s only choice we could call Sporting’s bluff in the knowledge that no bidding war was forthcoming.
Eze deal already in place
Eberechi Eze had made it clear a return to the red half of North London was his preference when asked. That is why the idea that we signed the 27 year old at the 11th hour in response to Kai Havertz’s injury was exaggerated.
In reality, terms with the midfielder and Crystal Palace had been agreed weeks before, with Steve Parish told not to translate our silence as a lack of interest. There was just some more pressing business to attend to such as trying to raise funds by getting rid of some of our fringe players.
The Eagles owner was in no rush, immediately wanting to give himself the best chance of qualifying for the UEFA Conference League. Having a decent relationship with our Vice Chairman Tim Lewis, it is believed the two were in constant contact.
While Eze was not willing to put his career on hold and wait (hence why he was receptive to Spurs) he and Palace would not have been shocked to get the call.
Did so much money need investing in Madueke and more defenders when possibly a LM was needed? Money could not be raised through player sales but that is a consequence of mismanagement from a previous regime. I think Mr Berta has the personality where he will not let that happen in the future.
Rating the transfer window
All any fan of any club wants to do is see their team try to be the best version they can be. The Gunners did that this summer (why did we not do this 12 months ago?).
It remains to be seen if the Kroenke family have learnt from previous mistakes and if this is a long term change of transfer strategy. It would not shock me if this time next year our owners are recouping this window’s outlay. Based in isolation though I would grade this window an 8 out of 10.
The pressure was to find a proven goal scorer and while there can be zero guarantees we probably got the best available in Europe. That was before it was revealed there was indeed a way to get Isak out of Newcastle. In a world where everyone talks off record, Arsenal were led to believe any deal was not plausible. That of course could mean that we simply did not agree on the Toon’s valuation.
If I woke up tomorrow and read we signed Mbappe I would say we will be champions. I do not say the same regarding Isak and you should be saying that for 130 million. Eze should take the pressure off Ødegaard being our sole creative outlet.
It would have been 9 had the Madueke and Mosquera money been spent on a quality LM. We also need to get out of this poor habit of loaning players just to get them off the wage bill.
How would you rate our window? Let me know in the comments. I am saying 8 out of 10!
Dan Smith
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Don’t have a rating but I think we have a good squad now and what will matter more is how these players are used by Arteta and what type of football we chose to play. Always supporting the team and looking forward to the rest of the season.
Transfers in 8.
Transfers out 6.
GB,
That looks about right to me. 👍
I may come off as a bit rash here…
But if you asked ALL Arsenal fans at the beginning of the transfer window to list the players they’d like in (and were available) for £300 million. I strongly think only a handful of us would have had a list as good as what we got. (keeping in mind the player costs and what our squad needed).
The window was already a strong 9 in my book, even before Eze’s signing.
The outgoings probably put a little dim on the overall picture. But it’s clearly our best transfer window in a very long time, if ever in the last 2 decades.
Spot on
Madueke remains a strange signing. Everyone else, including Norgard, makes sense. 8/10
I for one was never impressed with Madueke signing, but it is looking more and more like a master stroke
A masters stroke ?
I’ll wait a few weeks and see if my rating changes but at the moment 8 out of 10
Liverpool is probably 9-10 out of 10 with Isak signing
Levy ousted is sad and a shame really, as there was always that sense he was holding them back.
9/10 for me. We spent well. Conversely, I think Liverpool massively overpaid for at least 2 players. There’s no way Isak is worth 2x more than Wissa and Wirzt 2x more than PL proven Eze.
Wirtz is only 20 years old while Eze is 27. That’s why he’s so expensive.
Isak is the one I can’t argue about. He’s clearly overpriced
Good point. Though with Eze PL proven and at peak, the differential still seems a bit excessive.
Sometimes you have to forget the age of a player and invest in who can do the job right now
Agree SueP, that’s why I predict Eze will be a huge success. Loads of PL experience and not fazed by the so-called big teams – ask City!!
Sue is correct
If Liverpool lift title they won’t care how much anyone cost
Look at Man City
Grealish was never worth 100 million but when they won the treble few mentioned it
7 for me Madueke and Norgaard kinda keeps it below 8. If we had of added Lookman and Palhinha that would have been a solid 9. Outgoings as you expect a bunch of loans and not much money in return. Anyway still a strong squad and no excuses not to mount a strong title challenge.
7/10
Too many dms in the midfield, nogaard n madueke fees can be used to sign a proper cm like vitinha etc.
Though i like madueke but with dowman n nwaneri , I think we cool in RW
Overall, I think if matinelli can be kept out of the team and we keep eze/trossard in LW
Then we we shall be fine
Tea, who will you blame the next time we lose and Martinell isn’t playing. You must be very young so, I’ll overlook it. For me the transfer window is a mixed bag. I’ll start to rate it once the goals go in and the points accumulate. I like having Eze, and Mosquero is definitely one for the future. Gyokeres goals will be badly needed, but the others still have a lot to prove.and when will Arteta temper his mania for inverted wing backs?
Are you Martinelli’s wife or just a fan boy? I agree with Tea the less we see Martinelli the better the season will be
It’s a long season Liam and there a lot of Arsenal players plus a manager with everything to prove. When the going gets tough, I’d rather have Martinelli there than Trossard or Madouke, who will most likely disappear. Martinelli will at least run and run until he has nothing left in the tank. Regarding Martinelli’s game against Liverpool, you could count on one hand the number of times he received the ball, and yes, he did nothing with it , because the Liverpool defender marking him had his number, but at the same time he was also there to provide defensive cover. My take is that Arteta should use Martinelli as a full back. He does ok when marking and his runs from defence would be an additional decoy to the likes of Eze and Madouke . By the way what have you seen from Madouke to be so convinced that he is better than Martinelli? Have you seen him take a shot on goal yet? I think he would probably die in the bum if the opportunity presented itself. Seriously though the key to our boring attack lies with the midfielders. They are as boring as. If Odegaard can’t produce over the next few games then Arteta needs to start figure out how he can dump him and how to to utilise Nwaneri and Eze in his game plan.
So he runs around a lot is your argument ? Madueke has shown more this season than Martinelli did this one and last and the one before. A decent little spell under Emery and one good season under Arteta and he’s been garbage the rest of his Arsenal career. Sounds like fan boyism. You want to play him fold back ? Gets even worse.
Time will tell, Liam. You sound like one of these creepy types, who releases their hate beyond the football field. I doubt that you will be crowing about Hartvetz and Madouke at the end of this season . Eggs on my face if that’s the case. But no problems , we have Saka, Eze, Nwaneri, Dowmam and Martinell to save us and hopefully our season.
Call me easy to please, I think this window is a 10/10. When was the last time our team revamped the team like this. I don’t ask for perfection, this is as good as we can get. Now, the true challenge is getting the return for the money.
I agree with the 8/10 rating for this summer transfer window.
GYOKERES – We got the striker position that most Arsenal fans have been crying out loud for.
EZE – We got a creative player who can play through the left wing, another position that we needed something new.
MADUEKE – A back up for Saka that was necessary and he showed he can cover quite well for Saka in our last game against Liverpool.
ZUBIMENDI – Spanish defensive midfielder. A replacement for Partey.
NORGAARD – Premier experienced defensive midfielder. Replacement for Jorginho.
MOSQUERA – Young quality Spanish center back and right back. Replacement for Tomiyasu.
HINCAPIE – Young center back and left back. Replacement for Kiwior.
KEPA – Experienced back up goal keeper for Raya.
“MADUEKE – A back up for Saka”
I think more than that. I think of all signings, he has shown cutting edge from open play.
I’ll stand by Maddy being huge for Arsenal in the comings years.
Anyone here signed a petition banning Maddy from coming, wish to explain yourselves now?
Gyokeres.
Eze. Odegaard. Saka.
Rice. Zubimendi.
Calafiori. Gabriel. Saliba. Timber.
Raya.
Havertz.
Martinelli. Nwaneri. Madueke.
Merino. Norgaard.
Skelly. Hincapie. Mosquera. White.
Kepa.
Trossard
Downman
Jesus
Personally the speed with which we got Hincape knowing Kiwior wanted to leave is what puts it at 8, otherwise it would have been a 7 for me. Like most people here the signings of Madueke and Norgard were strange, Norgard can be excused because of how cheap we got him but buying another Chelsea reject is a no no for me even though I’m warming up to him. Let’s see how the new players fit in our system.
It’s a solid eight. If we had also brought in an LWF, it’d be a nine, and the only way to get a ten is through the calibre of players signed
Transfers IN 9/10 (we got all we wanted)
Transfers OUT 2/10 (did we earn anything? + Jesus and Martinelli are still with us)
7, squad is beefier, some good talent and it’s now down to the manager to make it work. But I don’t think we’ve signed anyone world class for all the money spent. Outgoings, non-existent but at least we got a lot of loans. It’s a better window than I thought it would be, I’ll definitely say this.
Effort put in for transfers 10/10, lots of money spent in positions needed.
Transfers in 7/10. Not sure on zubimendi, gyokeres or madueke. I feel there was better options available in the market.
Transfers out. 2/10 while we moved on players we really struggle to sell off players we don’t want
You are all clueless about football. What would you give Liverpools daft window – improving their starting 11 but weaker on depth (though one down on the depth being tragic passing of a family man, so nobody can crow too much – I feared Jota coming on or starting against us, which I think reveals my respect).
Especially the irrational person who drew the line at “Chelsea rejects.” You said that knowing Mo Salah not only 2nd choice signing for Liverpool, but archetypal “Chelsea reject.”
Yes – in hindsight only – something a bit “gone to seed” about Sterling – but Kai and Maddy superstars for us.
“Kai and Madueke superstars for us”?!!! 😂 😂 😂
Then that tells you the level we are as a club and what we can achieve with them as our superstars 😂
Seems a bit short sighted
Look at all the players the top few clubs sign each transfer window to know that there are more than enough superstars to go round and many of them come from mid table teams
Well, perhaps it’s subjective and how we define superstars individually.
Had to laugh at that one SJ myself 😂
😠
Kai has been pretty good for us. He’s actually outperformed Odegaard,Martinelli and Trossard since his arrival. I’m pretty sure he will take Gyokores spot once he’s match fit. The Havertz hate disappeared once he got injured. I think people started to realise how much he actually offered the team when he wasn’t playing
Kai runs through walls for the team, club and fans. He left the pitch at wolves on an oxygen mask and drip cause exhaustion. Save the petitions and hate for the shirkers of this world.
Well if you want to have a go at me do it directly not cowardly. I stand by my Chelsea rejects line. We bought William, David Luis, kai, cech, and now noni. Non of them gave us / is giving us anything special. We would/could have won the UEL trophy if cech had made that save, which was easy in goal keeping standards, agaisnt giroud. A giroud who helped them win that europa league and ucl when he scored that acrobatic goal for them agaisnt athletico madrid in the semis. And by the way mo sallah doesn’t count as a Chelsea reject because he spent 4 years in as roma before going to Liverpool.
You give yourself too much credit think you know football.
Here’s the thing. It was irrational to dismiss the players Arsenal have signed from Chelsea as “rejects”. Standing by an unreasonable position does not make it any less unreasonable.
Arsenal have signed various players from Chelsea at different times to help strengthen parts of the team. Some have not been successful but others have done a good job even if they weren’t at an elite level. Some of the more recent transfers from Chelsea help provide depth to the squad.
Arsenal as a team lost the UEL final and several players were subpar. Trying to suggest that Cech was primarily responsible is just unnecessary scapegoating.
Moon Girl,
Just because you don’t agree with fellow poster’s, to call them clueless paints you as very arrogant. I hope your not, but it’s a bit strong to say, You are all clueless about football. Who made you the mecca of football comments. 🤔🤷♂️
Point accepted and clarification needed Yes I exaggerated. Not everybody who posts here is clueless about football.
We need to tackle the reasoning given in posts, not who posted. Instead I should have said: I disagree with “everything” I am reading in this thread about the window.
The ones who say don’t sign the next Salah or Messi from Chelsea really get my goat – because we might not get a GOAT!
Moon Girl,
Full respect for acknowledging my post to you. 👍👏
On paper…. 10/10. We got the players we needed for the positions required. The squad depth is unreal.
It’s funny how these ratings bounced up and down for fans during the transfer window.
When we got Gyokeres it was 10, then when Eze was mentioned it dropped to a 7. Then we got Eze, it was back to a 10 for about 24 hours. Then we needed Rodrygo or some other LW’r. Talk about a roller coaster. 😳
For me it has to be a 10 for players in, on paper, because it’s too early to say. Every other transfer window we have had has the benefit of hindsight. In all the years I have supported this club, there has never been a transfer window like this one.
It all now depends on what the manager and coaches do with this group of players that counts. This squad is definitely good enough to do the business and I wouldn’t swap it for any other teams transfer window including Liverpools.
We got Gyokeres and Eze for roughly the same price as Isak. Zubimendi and Madueke for similar price to Wirtz. This seems like good business to me.
It’s a very long season though and we are going to need all of these players to click pretty sharpish and start forming a team instead of a squad. I think we will do. COYG