Why Arsenal really need to splash the cash to make Top Four

Arsenal need to spend to catch up with the other forces in England. by Konstantin Mitov

Hello lovely Arsenal people! You know the latest Arsenal news – we tried to get Fabinho but he went to Liverpool. What the hell? Why are we even trying if he’s already going to another premier league side? It just makes us look weak. At 40 million he’d be a steal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we were counting pennies and Liverpool just put the money up front!

Compare where we were when Klopp finished his first season at Liverpool and where we are now, and where they are? They’ll have Keita and Fabinho next season, which is incredible improvement on the likes of Wijnaldum, Milner and the Ox. Now look at United, who might get Bale and Alderweireld. City are getting Mahrez. I am worried.

We are already a lot of points behind the top 4, if those transfers occur I can’t really see how we’re catching up with 70 million. We obviously appointed Emery to get the best out of the squad, but there is only a certain best we can get out of those players. They are not champions like Chelsea were when they finished mid-tabled. This is a team on a very solid decline.

We need surgery. Where would you spend the money? We need 2 CB, a keeper, a DM and a left winger. That’s five players. I’d roughly put 35 million on average for a good player in each of those positions, which is 175 million.That’s roughly 100 million short. Who are we linked with?

Sokratis is a likely addition, but I wonder if he’s the player who’d fix our defence. He’s going to be 30 soon and he’s coming from a team far from famous for their defence. I like the appointment of Sven Mislintat, but I think that if we’re reaping what used to be the best at Dortmund, after Mikhi and Auba, only Dembele is worth it and it’s extremely unlikely we’ll get him even on loan.

If we’re looking for a cut-price CB, than we can add Johny Evans. He’d at least come with premier league experience and he’ll cost as little as 3 or 4 million. If we want a greek defender, Kostas Manolas is the guy. Drop 40 million there, and try to get him. If not, than we can try Koulibaly or another proven CB. With that guy and Evans , we’d have 2 CB and we can spend the rest on Seri as a new CDM is badly needed and I still very much feel either Ramsey or Wilshere will be gone.

Players I’d like to ship out in order to get some more money are Mustafi, Ospina and Lucas Perez. I’d release Wilshere to free up wages and then if we’re opting for a new winger, Danny Welbeck will likely have to make way to add funds, although I wonder how much we can get for those players?

I don’t know, I hope we’re ready to spend some money as a goalkeeper will also be needed. Transfer dealings at Arsenal are always kept very tight so I’d like to keep optimistic about next season and hope that the board have something under the cover that will surprise us, because we badly need fresh faces in defence especially.

Konstantin

86 Comments

  1. I think we are all worried…like if you are an arsenal fan and not worried I would so like to be you…but base on your calculation which is correct to certain extent we need 100m more( like where would we get that). So let’s be realistic for a start, we don’t have the big budget and I think this is where the coach comes in since he did such a good job for sevilla with less funds..manh there are so much players out their..we just need to look and be smart..even burnley did so well last season without breaking any bank..it’s high time we all accept were we are know and just try to make the best of our situation.

    1. Well after analysis of our transfer targets and what ppl want I think this would be the team

      …………….. aubameyung
      Forsberg……….Ozil……..Dembele
      …………..Torreira..Ramsey
      Monreal……………………Lichtsteiner
      ………….Sokretis..Soyuncu
      …………………..Leno

      Sell
      mustafi 20mil
      Wilshere free
      Welbeck 20mil
      Ospina 2mil
      Perez 5mil

      Buy
      Dembele free
      Lichtsteiner free
      Torreira 22 mil
      Sokretis 25mil
      Soyuncu 35mil
      Forsberg 45mil
      Leno 20mil

      So basically we can’t afford Forsberg if he’s £45mil and the team I have laid out isn’t that much spending so I expect Arsenal to find a way to achieve this with no excuses bcoz it’s a fair transfer window for a team that needs a whole new defence plus some quality going forward

  2. Sokratis(3 year contract or 2 years with option of a third)done
    Litchsteiner(2 years 45k) done
    In the market for a CB(Soyuncu,Pavard etc.),CM (Nzonzi and others) and GK (Leno,Sergio Rico etc.)

    In other news Man City will be signing Mahrez for £75m and Liverpool will be signing Fekir in the region of £55m.

    1. Yeah I saw it on the news that both Sokratis and Lichtsteiner will join Arsenal, hence I predict there is no more new defender

      Apparently Arsenal are close to Seri’s deal as well. Therefore I expect a new DM and a left-footed right winger to join us (although maybe Perez could be good in the right side, if he is given the chances to start)

      GK should be the last priority. Is there any news about Bailey, Bale, Malcom, Janujaz and Draxler?

      1. Sorry to say but We are in for another CB.Soyuncu will soon be coming.GK is also a priority.
        Sorry again if we sign Seri then no DM is coming.
        We want one central player.Woe unto us if we don’t sign a DM this summer and bring in another tippy happy player.The signing we make at centre midfield might likely define our season if people haven’t yet realised.

    2. you never give up do you?

      WE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE INSIDE KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU CLAIM TO BE HAVING.

      More over what are you giving us? the same news that has been there on various websites. Even we can write anything just because some website has reported something.

      I just hope there is the same level of persistent attitude in Emery so that he wont give up until he gets this team to upper echelons of Footballing world.

  3. Let’s not be too defeatest just yet.Just because Liverpool sign a player I can’t believe how negative it’s all become overnight.And the Scousers have only signed a replacement for Emre Can it’s not like they have signed Messi.
    Don’t panic.The management will have identified the targets and we will sign players and don’t believe this £50-70m budget either.If thevright player is there for us we will get him

    1. We are not panic, but we are worried that Arsenal would dilly-dally on the transfer again, like what they did on Suarez’s and Lemar’s deals

      Actually I was glad that we skipped Lemar, because he was not consistent in this season, but Arsenal ended up doing panic buys in the other occassions

    2. Exactly! and more people are concern about age and not quality well, let’s just keep Holding, Mustafi, Jenkinson and chambers and not bring in anybody experienced for next season
      How old is Modric, Ronaldo, Ramos, Messi etc?? they are all in their 30s

  4. You may get some that state we dont need to spend, however, Auba is exactly what you get for the right price. a few players may step up but we need spend if not i predict empty seats, protests and the club will cement 6/7 th place

  5. Arsenal have fallen behind Liverpool and they are improving at such a rate they will be hard to compete with, Wenger should have gone three years ago, he dragged us down to where it’s going to be difficult to climb back up to the standard that’s expected of a top four club. I expect Liverpool to challenge City this coming season, we should be targeting the likes of United, Chelsea and Spurs for the top four spot.

    1. Does the Fabinho last minute miss not suggest, that the dallying is done by the guys who’s job it is to get deals done. That wasn’t Wenger’s job, he spoke to players to sell us to them but all the behind the scenes work is done by our negotiators ..and Gazidas job title was negotiator. We also have others who are full time, wtf. When Mavrapanos came in, papers talked like Wenger wasn’t happy, but Wenger spoke well of him then kept him with first team and gave him games over Holding. That’s what Wenger’s like, you wouldn’t of known he wasn’t a Wenger signing only for Mislintat and us being told as much. So how many of these latest signings really are Wenger’s, he wasn’t sold on Lacazette it was said a number of years back also it was said he wanted Aubameyang from the beginning. He wanted Martial it was said as direct replacement for Alexis. We don’t even know if Xhaka and Mustafi are Wenger signings, these are two areas Wenger very rarely ever spent big bucks in. And if they weren’t we wouldn’t know because Wenger will back up the judgement of whoever did do their home work before targeting them. Wenger didn’t even know where Xhaka played in the beginning, that did not sound like someone Wenger kept eyes on. This Fabinho thing suggests to me that our problems are still with us, you speak with targets while they’re still in season like Liv done over 12 months with Fabinho. Us targeting Dortmund players and others in the German league, I expect much more from someone called diamond eyes. Sokratis, if at all I don’t think he”s much of an improvement. He only made the Dortmund team when their CBs left them.

  6. To be fair City Utd
    Chelsea + Liverpool
    will all double Arsenal’s splash.
    I thought Unai Emery was selected to out maneuver all comers
    with his superior smarts and tactical nous.
    But no it seems to be we are still trying to buy success
    even though that plan has failed these last ten years.
    Why not give coaching and motivation a try for a change?
    Leicester did it why not us?

    1. Arsenal don’t have the guts to change their whole system yet. To win a long and big competition like Premier League without huge resources, Arsenal must come up with different ideas, like what Ranieri and Conte did

      Leicester City’s win could be remembered more than Man City’s trophies. Only a great club can win with such limited budget like that

      Let’s see whether Arsenal is one of the greats or not, after Wenger’s era

    2. You can’t coach a sows ear into being a silk purse. PLAYERS MUST HAVE NATURAL ABILITY and coaching, though vital, can only ever achieve a certain amount! YOU MUST NEVER IGNORE THIS FACT.

  7. JUST COME OUT FROM MY CPA EXAMS AND DIND MBU RIYAD TO CITY IS HAPPENING, BEEN OFF FOR AWEEK. SIGN PLAYERS PLEASE!!

    1. Apparently they are interested in Mbappe as well

      Time to snatch Sane, Sterling or Bernardo Silva

  8. Arsenal should have issued a statement of intend by signing a marquee defender or CDM who will give the team stability.We have been dwelling much on Sokartis transfer which seems not to be materialising anytime soon

    1. I will say this and say it again that the signing we make at central midfield might define our season.Do the analysis and you can see this.

  9. We need players who will bring a positive change to the team ASAP.Age should not be a factor since we already have young players who are lacking sense of direction under Wenger.

  10. Xhaka can make up a good CDM if well trained since he has the physique to bully opponents

        1. Xhaka is awful I think he should be the first out the door. karius made them mistakes and has been the centre of the media attention (I get it was a champions league final) but xhaka has done that consistently since signing.

    1. I respect your opinion but even the Coqueli people were here saying is average is 10x better defensively than Xhaka.
      I guess people don’t watch Valencia so they won’t know he was their best player for a while making interceptions look like nothing and winning headers for fun.The guy is crazy because he just doesn’t want to lose any ball or duel and keeps doing the same for the full 90mins.i.e intercept,intercept and intercept.We need a player with his style but better.
      Xhaka is one very average player and a liability either at CM (deep lying playmaker) or DM.

        1. Good to know you actually watched him very well. I currently can’t find one Arsenal player who was better than him defensively last season.I hope you watch him at Valencia next season.It was like l14/15 and 15/16 for him this season over there before his injury.

          1. I always liked Coquelin, still can’t believe Wenger sold him, especially with the fact we had no other defensive midfielder. Mind boggling

      1. Xhaka is a complete waste of money and nowhere near the standard we need. One paced, immobile, blind to danger, slow witted on pitch altogether. Get rid ASAP!

  11. I agree with Phil, no need to panic just yet, I’ve got faith in Unai, Sven and Raul to make the right signings, let’s be honest the forwards are sorted, maybe a wide man and you know what Arsenal are like, they usually surprise us at a time when we least expect it.

      1. Thumbs up Ozziegunner, you’re the one that deserves the thumbs up mate, with what you’ve gone through recently. All I can say to you is good luck for the future and that goes for all the others on this site that told some truly sad stories

  12. HAPPY BD ARAHAVIN IWILL NEVER FORGET YOUR 4 GOALS VS LIVERPLFOOL, I CAN WATCH OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

  13. It’s doable.
    Our attack doesn’t need much input, a winger would be nice.

    The midfield and defence do need surgery though.

    If Seri is 36m, Sokratis 17m, Dembele (loan) 20m, Leno 22m, thats 95m well spent.

    Sell Welbeck, Perez, Mustafi, you’ll get 45m all day long.

    50m budget kept to 🙂

    The addition of Seri will improve the defence as much as an all greek CB pairing old & young. With good coaching and discipline I think Unai will get a tune out of this team.

      1. Woe into us if we sign Seri and not a DM.
        I guess people haven’t realized it’s either him or a DM we will be signing not both.

    1. Seri is not a CDM, he’s more of a CM, in fact he’d play CAM before CDM, we need Rabiot!

      1. I’d even go as far as saying Rabiot is more of a CM than DM.I want DM’s who love interceptions.
        Those with the Coq or Kante style.A player who likes to intercept more than anything else.

        1. Reallt gutted Fabinho signed for Liverpool. he woudl have been perfect for us. DM,CM and RB would all be covered if we had got him.

  14. @konstantin
    Nice article, you mention the positions that are needed. But lets get this straight once and for all, SERI IS NOT A DM. I don’t know why a lot of people keep mentioning seri for the DM position when his defensive statistics in ligue 1 is very poor, he is a playmaker like cazorla with excellent vision, technical ability and passing. If you have watched him for a few games, you would know this because it seems once a player is mentioned, everybody jumps on it. Fabinho would have been an excellent buy for that position but as you know liverpool has got him. Other options are Danilo peirera, Nzonzi or players of that mould.

      1. We better sign Torreira coz he’s not that expensive either compared to savic or Jorginho and he has cazorlas tricky feet

        1. I have just watched a 8 minute clip on You Tube on this player.For a guy who is only 5ft 6inces I can tell you he likes a tackle.He is quick,mobile and seems to sit in front of the defence to do one simple job-DEFEND.He also looks very good on the ball and seems to pass well both long and short(take note of that Xhaka).
          I know you can’t tell everything watching snippets on a short video but he made more tackles in 8 minutes than our entire midfield have done in 8 SEASONS.
          Looks exactly the type of CDM we are desperate for.

    1. Muff our management and marketing team can lean a lot from Lpool’s PR right now.

      At the back of losing another final, their keeper being bushed, and the entire team almost turning into a laughing stock they quickly diffusive all this by making an excellent signing and quickly announce it, followed by being linked to another amazing player and sought after GK.

      To Arsenal management, the Unai buzz has gone down now especially after the CL final and Lpools signings driving everyone crazy out here so instead of you responding by posting HBD Arshavin and a video of him smashing 4 past Lpool years ago why not make and quickly announce a major signing that will demonstrate intent instead of rumors of us turning into a retirement home drive our moral down.

  15. Pretty gutted about Fabinho but they’re are still players that can do a job out there, Rabiot-one year left on current deal + good relationship with Unai, Nzonzi-disgruntled at Sevilla + good relationship with Unai, Carvalho-decent player ready to make the step up + relatively cheap fee & wages. Wilfried Ndidi-most tackles in premiership by a mile, surely arsenal can prize him away from Leicester, All is not lost. Arsenal just need to get a move on!

    P.s. Seri is not a CDM, he’s a CM, who’s more on the CAM side, think carzola.

    1. Ndidi is a young, Premier League proven and hardworking DM with good physique

      To make him come, Xhaka, Elneny, Ramsey or Wilshere must leave

      1. ??agree Arsenal essentially need a DM such as Ndidi, Nzonzi or Carvalho; however the squad can’t be reduced too much without appropriate replacements due to the number of competitions Arsenal will be competing in.

  16. That Fabinho thing did make us look weak, couldn’t believe it hearing Liv spent 12 months in talks with the player then in the last minute we try to step in without the mega offer that would of been needed. What’s worse is we could have had Wenger working on this if he was a legitimate target, but it sounds like we don’t even know who we want. This Dortmund thing we are doing, going after their players, is it because we haven’t got a clue who we want. Our problems are not solved it seems. The only way we can turn this around now is if we get better than Fabinho, but like you say Liv have been planning and they have two arriving in an area that already outplayed us. Arsenal need to step it up, Sokratis isn’t gonna do it. Really can’t believe Arsenal behaved like that again after Wenger taking the heat for this stuff so many times.

    1. Sokratis has similar stature as Mustafi’s, isn’t he? We need a quick and tall CB with good marking and decision like VVD

      1. Jonathen Tah from Leverkusen ticks all the boxes and is relatively inexpensive considering his age and wealth of Bundesliga experience. Rate him MUCH HIGHER than the Turkish youth were supposedly chasing from Freiburg.

  17. Is it just me or does anyone else wonder why Arsenal fans seem so willing to believe bad news (e.g. Liverpool beat us to Fabinho) and dismiss any positive transfer news as fake news?

    1. ?Spot on, we should save our judgement to the end of the transfer window and then how the squad competes under Emery.

  18. For all those beating the Rabiot drum in this thread,
    the Frenchmen played a very similar role to Xhaka in Paris. He is not a traditional DM but a technical deep lying playmaker that occasionally throws in a tackle. Although I would trade Xhaka for either him or Seri in a New York minute, I honestly don’t believe Arsenal have the “intestinal fortitude” to cut ties with the Swiss international and upgrade his position with so many glaring holes to address.

    The Fabinho and soon to be Fekir signings hurt, but Arsenal could be serious players if they would splash a little of the cash that Konstantin is coveting and sign these players.

    Seri… $35M
    Torriera—$35M
    Jonathen Ta(VVD CLONE)—$30M
    Rico—$18M
    lichsteiner—free
    Dembele—loan($5M)

    $128M spent

    Sell
    Welbeck—$15M
    Ramsey—$35M
    Xhaka—$25M
    Perez—$8M
    Ospina—$5M

    $88M recouped, NET $40M spent this summer

    Auba
    Miki…Ozil..Dembele
    Torreria…Seri
    Nacho…Mustafi…Tah…HB
    Cech

      1. I would sell Ozil in a heartbeat if anybody was seriously interested. Forsberg is already a better player and has years on his side.
        Mustafi is a curious case, a schizophrenic player that with a touch of retooling imho can be an asset on the backline of defense. He is honestly a younger version of Socratis from Dortmund and AFC should strive for better than both.

  19. Well incase we buy seri no need for DMF again.
    Xhaka And Seri
    Gonna Be Solid
    And Also Xhaka Will Improve
    We Still Have Eleney

  20. How much do Arsenal get for being in the Premier League? A fortune? They earn big money in every way. One of the biggest clubs in the world. So when Kroenke and Gazidis come out about 50-70 mill, in our present league we will not do a thing. Those supporters who, like whimps, just accept that are useless supporters. Make a noise. Kroenke does not want to spend money for very simple reasons. It’s related to his American ownership of the LA Rams and massive, massive projects he has going on for them. He needs money in Arsenal, and his sheepish board, protecting their own interests lay down and say sweet FA. All the authoritative verbals from Gazidis will not mask the fact he is just in a job. The supporters love Arsenal. Konstantin you are the only writer who speaks honestly and from the heart. I appreciate that. Kroenke is letting our truly great club down. I wish Unai Emery a great future he is surely a quality manager but Stan Kroenke is useless. Other clubs have a much greater wish to give joy to their supporters. Kroenke is a rubbish owner. Let him know. Shout it. How I respect Liverpool, City and United for giving joy to their supporters.

  21. Kroenke and Gazidis have nothing to do with football as the first is a businessman who isseeking only profit and he has already said that loud and clear and Gazidis ai follwing the footsteps of Arsene Who who became one of the personalities of world football and a multi-millionaire after 22 years at Arsenal , Gazidis is working hard for himself and that is why he managed to bring his own prople to rule the club , but he is following a wrong policy as becoming an obstacle in fron of the aquad development will drag Arsenal down to mid-table and possibly to the relegation zone because all the other club are working very hard to strengthening their squad and Arsenal board are looking for free players pr those who cost only £16 million even if they are 30 or 34 years old older the Per mertesacker who is retired or Koncielny with poor fitness problems.

  22. Konstantin, you generally write much sense but I can’t allow your wanting Jonny “Third rate” Evans to go unchallenged!

    1. Yeah agree again Jon, I said last year, if we signed Jonny Evans I’ll give up my season ticket, although that was when Wenger was still at the club. I’m now looking forward to the new season and will be renewing on Thursday and then this. I also enjoy your posts Konstantin but please not Jonny Evans.

      1. Johnny Evans will be the milestone that our target position is lowered to top 8 from top 6. This will effectively be a mid-table finish.

  23. Can’t believe how some people are losing their shit because Liverpool have signed a couple of players. I think you all need to calm down.
    And as others have said, and proved, Seri is not a DM, never has been, never will be. Evans is not bad at £3 mil but his agent wants a £15 mil bung so that ain’t gonna happen. Just hold your nerve people, Emery and his backroom team will come good. As long as you realise we will be having at least a season of consolidation and rebuilding after Wenger’s mismanagemet and that the good times will be back in a season or two.

  24. If Wenger was still around and this claim of 50m budget was made,I think the stories would have been different,now we know why the club hasn’t been spending for sometimes now and Wenger being Wenger will come at the end of the transfer window and take the blame with his traditional “There’s no right player to improve the team available”.

    Selling Coquelin last season was one of the biggest mistake by the club recently,with the attackers at the club he would have don a good job screening the back four and letting the other four/five attacker perform their magic in front of him,now we have to spend tons of money on a player we had but benched cos Wenger thought Xhaka was a better DM….

  25. We are not making noise because other clubs are active in the market.

    We are just worried of the stupid panic buy syndrome which Arsenal always like to do. We just wanted to see that cure. We seen it for years… an act to con fans into parting with the money for season tickets… by injection of false hope.

    This is the WC year so a panicky buying spree looks very likely.

  26. Lucas Torreira made 67 interceptions and won 65 tackles playing in serie A for Sampdoria.
    Xhaka only made only 35 interceptions and 52 tackles, despite playing five more league matches that Torreira.
    Fabinho we are all crying about only managed 46 interceptions and 56 tackles, in 31 French Top division league matches.

    It is true that he isn’t good in the air, oweing to his short stature, as he won only 35.5% of the aerial duels he was involved in, as against 65.8% by Fabinho and 47.83 by Xhaka.
    But what he lacks in height he gained it all back from his low centre of gravity which allows him good control of the ball.

    Arsenal should try and get Lucas Torreira, once we got rid of Jack Wilshere.
    It would be a good buy. He is young, just 22yrs and with so much more room for improvement.

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