A striker was always going to be the priority this summer. Yet ask most Gooners what was the next area in the squad that needed surgery and they would say it was someone to take the creative pressure off Ødegaard and provide competition on the left side.
With Arsenal struggling to raise funds by offloading talent, some fans thought this would be another transfer window where the missing piece of the puzzle was not addressed.
Like a centre forward being signed at least 12 months too late, the assumption was that we would be saying the same this time next year about a midfielder.
Then on Wednesday night, at the 11th hour, after weeks of indecision about submitting a bid, the Gunners finally made an official offer for Eberechi Eze.
It shows that lessons have been learnt from January when we were left short in attack, proving it is better to have too many options than not enough. If our sideways passing is not unlocking a defence, we now have a plan B. Someone who can make Martinelli, Trossard and even our captain fight for their spot.
Then there is the romantic story of a 13-year-old boy in tears as he was released by his boyhood club, returning 14 years later having gone on a journey to prove he does belong at the Emirates after all.
Yet the cherry on the cake is the reaction from Spurs fans. Believing they were the only side chasing the 27-year-old, they thought it was a case of when, not if, the player would be having a medical in North London.
That is still happening, just on the red half of North London.
Our neighbours have taken this rejection personally, although to be fair his representatives were always clear. Arsenal were the first choice but their client would have been receptive to Tottenham as a plan B.
In other words, yes, Eze would love to return to where he started in our Academy but he was not willing to put his career on hold and wait to see if we were serious.
Although it is looking more and more like this was not necessarily the unexpected hijack it is being painted as.
In fact, Steve Parish, the player and his agent may very well have been expecting Arsenal’s call. Andrea Berta likes to talk to those on his shortlist and get as many details as possible.
It is being reported that as early as August 10th our Director of Football had agreed terms with both Crystal Palace and Eze. The Italian just needed time, asking the Eagles not to translate any silence as disinterest. The 54-year-old simply had more immediate business to address, namely raising funds by offloading talent.
The Palace owner himself was in no rush to get the deal done, originally wanting his star player to at least feature this Thursday to give the club the best possible chance of being in the UEFA Conference League.
Believed to have a decent relationship with our executive vice chairman, Mr Parish and Tim Lewis are reported to have been in regular contact behind Daniel Levy’s back.
So the notion that this has been a panic move based on Kai Havertz’s injury has been exaggerated.
It has left supporters of our rivals demanding answers from their chairman on how he has let Spurs be manipulated like this.
Petit and the Spurs taxi fare
It all reminds me of one of my favourite transfer stories back in 1997.
If you think Mr Levy has been incompetent letting a player keep him waiting for so long, imagine having the actual player at your training ground, in your office, with a contract in front of him.
The individual in question was a certain Emmanuel Petit, whose ambition was to leave France and play in the Premiership. The midfielder would have been quite content to sign on the dotted line.
Of all the contestants Sir Alan Sugar has told off for poor business acumen in The Apprentice, he fails to mention making the mistake of letting an asset leave the room without the deal being 100 percent official.
That is because while being shown around, Petit’s agent was asked not to agree to anything until he had a conversation with another club in England. Any other manager and maybe Petit would have chosen White Hart Lane. Yet the boss asking to meet for secret talks was Arsène Wenger, the coach who had given Petit his opportunity at Monaco.
In Petit’s defence, he did not understand the magnitude of the rivalry between Arsenal and Spurs at the time. Out of respect, he was simply agreeing to meet an ex-boss. Nor did the player realise Spurs had already paid for his taxi.
As part of the wooing process, Spurs believed they were paying for the Frenchman to travel back to his hotel to rest and take a couple of days to think things over.
In reality, Petit gave the driver the postcode to Mr Wenger’s house where he and David Dein were waiting. Petit claims not only was the offer to play at Highbury financially better, but he felt Mr Wenger and Mr Dein sold him on the project and took more interest in him as a person.
By the time Petit left Mr Wenger’s house, he was a Gooner. Mr Dein did not make the mistake Mr Sugar had of letting the player leave without a signature.
Spurs foot the bill
I have met David Dein and it is one of his favourite stories to recount. Not only did Petit travel from Spurs to sign for Arsenal, but Spurs paid his taxi fare to do it.
Something tells me Petit never paid Spurs back.
Dan Smith
__________________________________________________________________________________________
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Arsenal would’ve likely let Eze go to Spurs if Havertz didn’t get injured
I would only believe that it wasn’t the case if Arsenal sign a new CF after having signed Eze
@Gai, I think Arsenal has always had EZE on their radar. Imo, I think they had no intention of signing another CF but to use Trossard/Merino.
The rivary btw Spurds and Arsenal is well documented. My question is without any Outgoing yet why spend that amount of money on an attacking midfielder/winger?
Just may be if EZE wasn’t going to Spurds they wouldn’t have bought him? We didn’t seem to fight enough for Sesko.
I bet it was Havertz’s injury that forced Arsenal spend £68m for a 27-year-old AM
If Sesko was still available, they might’ve gone for him instead
Because Nwaneri / Martinelli/ Trossard would not have been good enough to win a title
Let’s see how eze copes with stick everywhere he goes from spurs fans. A sol Campbell style mental breakdown would be fitting karma
He did okay to be fair
He did trophy wise, but the years of abuse took their toll
Got the last laugh though
The most successful Spurs player in the Prem era
A Spurs captain who won the title at the Lane
Levygenius,
Eze hasn’t done anything wrong. It appears that Palace wanted to delay any move to Spurs so Eze could play one final game for them and help them progress in their European tie.
The fact that during that time Arsenal then came knocking, again isn’t Eze’s fault. The fact he’s an Arsenal fan to boot would have played a large part to.
And why be upset at Eze, why would you want a player that doesn’t want to be at your club anyway. So he doesn’t deserve the Sol Campbell treatment, as firstly he was never a spurs player. And secondly, he’s done nothing wrong.
So instead of concerning yourself with Eze, concentrate on what your own club is going to do in the rest of the transfer window. And as you appear to be a Spurs fan, why are you even commenting on JA in the first place.🤷♂️
Levygenius’s anger, I partially understand, shows us how much we get emotionally involved, all of us who get attached to a team.
Levygenius, I would ask you, if you were looking for a job and found an attractive one at company X, you would be tempted to get it, but at the last minute Spurs, knowing how much you love the club, offered you to work in Lilywhite House, what would you CHOOSE?
Kind regards, an AFC fan and not at all anti-Spurs
PS. I envy Derek’s first comment, I would have liked to write it myself.
Dear Levygenius, these things happen. Football clubs are businesses and players are professionals. They go where they think will get them maximum benefits. Why should fans like you and me (though of different clubs) loose our mental peace over these things? We hurt no one but ourselves.
Just my 2 cents. You are of course free to agree or disagree
The hurt runs deep, obviously. The fact is though, he’s already a Gunner and has been from childhood. No need for hate. It was always his personal preference. All the Spuds hate will only have Gooners showing more love. Bring it on!
That’s direct @ Levygenius.
There’s a difference between wanting to join your boyhood club and stringing a club along. We never thought we would get him because he was a gooner…..real Madrid will do this for saliba
He didn’t string you along
You were his plan B
Then plan A came available
You can’t expect any player surely to pick Spurs over Arsenal
Even you deep down accept Sol Campbell did the right thing
Yeah and why hate
He owes Spurs nothing
Spurs offering him a job doesn’t mean he needs to take it
Most people would accept the better offer in any job
Like he said look at Campbell
Like the Wizard of Oz …he walks through the door and it was like . :this is how it should be ‘
‘ It is being reported that as early as August 10th our Director of football had agreed terms with both Crystal Palace and Eze’
Am more inclined to believe that line as opposed to Arsenal hijacked the Crystal Palace Man to Spuds at the 11th hour. .
The question must be ask, what on earth could Tim Lewis and Steve Parish be in regular contact about all this time behind Danny Levy’s back.
Am not buying this 11th hour hijacked stuff, maybe this is the reason Arsenal waited almost one year for the Italian, he seems as clever as they get.
Couldn’t agree more, no hijack. Ezes agent has kept arsenal updated all along. I get it you lit want to stick one to us but mbuemo made it very clear he was utd fan and them only and didnt waste anyone else’s time. Classless from eze
I know it hurts, but the joy to represent his boy hood club was just too much for Eze to make pass.
Not sure you guys should be too hard on Danny Levy, the former Crystal Palace Man is a game changer type of player, it was smart of Levy to recognize it.
How is life down the lane, they are Reports fans not handling Arsenal capturing of Eze too well?
Please take care of Thomas Frank and treat him well. You never know where he could be next. If Mikel returns empty handed, then……..
Levygenius,
Get over it and move on. I repeat, Eze hasn’t done anything wrong. The fact he was even in talks with your team shows that maybe he had doubts about Arsenal’s interest in him.
And with your team being in the Champions League, so that would have been attractive to him. But then his boyhood club came in for him, and he naturally wanted to join them.
Again, get of Eze’s back, he’s done nothing wrong. Take a look at your clubs board, or possibly Palace themselves, as them wanting Eze to play one final game in Europe for them slowed down any possible move.
Maybe if Spurs had played hard ball, and said they couldn’t wait, Palace may have backed down. But it appears you didn’t.
And you notice when Arsenal made their move, it looks like they insisted that Eze wasn’t to play for Palace that evening. I understand your frustration, but let it go. And move on to your next target, whoever that might be.
Maybe Sol Campbell could be persuaded to come out of retirement. 🤣😂
Sorry, that was a cheap shot.🤦♂️ Naughty Derek.🙄
The sense of entitlement is crazy lol
Eazy E has joined, easy like sunday morning ..
I’m waiting for EZE to be confirmed on the Arsenal website lol
But I think we desperately needed him or someone similar to challenge for the Premier League title.
And I would have been upset if Spurs had got him instead of us
I think this has been our best transfer window in years
Gyokeres
Zubimendi
EZE (hopefully)
Mandeuke
Noorgard
Kepa
And a youth player Mosquera
The only thing we need now is for MA not to screw up positions, lineups, tactics
Just let them play in their best positions as long as we don’t have a lot or lengthy injuries
What are their “best positions”? There have been a lot of allusions to this kind of narrative that demonstrates an unhealthy bias against Arteta.
Is Declan Rice better as a 6 or an 8; is he better in a MF with a single or double pivot? What would be the best way for Arteta to deploy him?
Which players do you think have been positioned incorrectly and what would you have done instead?
David,
What absolute dross you talk at times. “There’s an unhealthy bias against Arteta”.
What because fans dare to question a said players position it’s an automatic slur on Arteta. The same can be said of fans questioning formations as well.
Fans are completely entitled to voice these thoughts without it meaning that they have a bias against Arteta. Is it not possible in your world to maybe not agree with Arteta and his positioning of certain players or his formations.
Your blind love for Arteta seems to know no bounds. I get the feeling that even if our team was relegated, you would still try to put a positive spin on the season, and probably find away to absolve Arteta of any blame whatsoever.
Be positive and supportive by all means. But don’t let it blind you, when there are clear deficiencies, say it. 🤦♂️🤷♂️
Boom 🤯.
Well said Derek .
I can’t stop grinning after reading that Petit story. Brilliant
Classy player Eze, similar to his ex-team mate Elise who is pulling up trees in the Bundesliga. My only concern? Is he an Arteta type of player, never saw him tracking back too much for Palace? Used properly he’s a game changer but time will tell. I don’t think we will ever know the full story regarding Spurs but it was obvious he wanted a move to the Emirates. The Havertz injury probably had something to do with the speed of the
transfer though.
Andrew Elder,
You say that Elise is pulling up tree’s in the Bundesliga. What kind of pitches is he playing on😂🤣👍.
Levygenius, stop sounding as though Eze did anything wrong. Eze wants a cnew challenge be it at Emirates or White Heart Lane. Truth must be told, he really wanted Arsenal his boyhood club. But, along the line arsenal was not forth coming and Torts came into the picture. If Daniel Levy had acted fast, Eze could have signed for the Torts before Arsenal made the offer. For him, it was a dream come true. Please, you and other Torts fans should direct their anger to their chairman.
True that the release clause gave Levy the opportunity if he wanted to bring in Eze. That’s why even though I was on my last thread of hope, it was still a small comfort when August 15 passed (making the assumption that the media had finally figured out the correct lapse date).
Man U paid £62M for cunha and £70M for Mbeumo both of whom have far greater output than Eze who we are paying £68M for? Eze at £45M would have made sense but £68M? 🤔
IQuantic Dream
Have been watching both Cunha and Mbeumo and they are really a handful.
I want to go on record, is not many teams is going leave old Trafford in this campaign with all three points.
Quantic Dream,
Firstly you say that Cunha and Mbeumo had far greater output than Eze, well even if that’s the case and I’m not sure if it is or not. But Eze had enough output to help them win the FA Cup and do well in the League.
And you say that Eze at £45M would have made sense, but £68M?🤔. That maybe so, but as Palace wouldn’t budge any lower that the £68M they wanted, we had to pay if we wanted Eze. 🤷♂️
Time to lower the temperature, we got our man, It is devastating enough for Danny Levy, Thomas Frank and their fans.
No need to make an awkward situation any worst, just appealing to all gooners