Morning all.
I feel a bit flat, disappointed, yet not surprised. After all the chat about how the club are trying hard to sign reinforcements after suffering injuries to both Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal did nothing during this transfer window. The frustrating thing is, we needed a goal scorer before those two players suffered injury. Scoring five goals at the weekend was great, especially against a team like City but it’s not the norm. Not this season. I think the club went into this season with the belief that the number of goals we scored last season would be repeated. It was a risk, I thought it was stupid and naive. When Nketiah was sold, he needed replacing but that replacement never came. Our only other proper striker, Biereth, was sold too, for £4 million. This season, he’s scored 11 goals for Sturm Graz and four for Monaco since moving there in January for three times the amount we sold him for.
In my opinion, it’s not always who a club sells which matters most, but when they are sold. Selling both Nketiah and Biereth without an upgrade coming in, was bad business.
Perhaps Arsenal thought spending £100 million on Watkins wasn’t worth the risk, not when he’ll be 30 years old in December, or spending £80 million on Duran wasn’t an option. I’m struggling to accept that out there in the footballing world there wasn’t a goal scorer for Arsenal to sign on loan. I know most Arsenal fans would categorically say no to Rashford but I wouldn’t. He’s a player desperate to get back into the England team with a point to prove. I could have suffered him for four months if he was scoring goals.
But it is what it is. My guess is, the summer transfer will be a busy one. Logic alone suggests that as we have a few players who’ll be out of contract, Sterling and Neto will be gone and there should be more money available as well as more buying options.
Liverpool have done nothing either this winter but, Totts, Man City and Aston Villa have. We’ve already played all three clubs twice so unless we meet City or Villa in the Champions League, their new signings are irrelevant to us. However, all three clubs have to play Liverpool and it’s better for us that when they do, they’re stronger. On paper at least.
Man City have been the big spenders this winter with £180 million spent on adding five players to their squad. That amount is more than the rest of the Premier League clubs spending put together.
Tomorrow we play Newcastle Utd in the League Cup semifinal. We need to score at least two goals without conceding if we’re to have any chance of making it to Wembley. Then we have a ten day break before playing Leicester City away from home. A break which gives Arteta, his staff and the players an opportunity to head off into the sunshine for some warm weather training. Liverpool however, have two fixtures during that period of time, a long haul to Plymouth in the FA Cup and then their game in hand at Everton just a few days later. At any time, Liverpool could lose a key player or three, as we have this season and who knows what impact that could have.
All Arsenal can do is look after their own games and results and should Liverpool slip up, be in a position to take advantage.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico.
Earlier on I visited Untold Arsenal which threw up some interesting stats, but I have not checked them TBH.
We are only 4 goals down from last season (24 games) and conceded 1 goal more 😯 which I found interesting if factual and we’ve lost Eddie, Jesus and Saka to injury, MO08 was out at a crucial junction and is only really now returning to form.
We’ve had more defensive injuries this term and 3 red cards so perhaps Mikel is wondering why we’re making so much noise to recruit someone we probably won’t need in the summer. My guess is, as are most of us is he intends to bring in Zubamendi for sure at a high cost and possibly a young fast winger to replace the ageing Trossard.
Morning Berg, all.
I’m sure UA have their figures right but last season, we were scoring a lot of goals in the same game which pumped our figures up. Our problem is, and was last season imo, breaking down teams who defend really well Villa, West Ham, Fulham springs to mind..
Good sunshine morning Lady and gentlemen
A good post which mirrors maybe all of our thoughts Rico. We are all disappointed since we all love a signing that can make an impact and lift everyone, however, that might or might not be that our desire is achievable.
Berg10 (I love your name bdw and wouldn’t have been sad to use it as mine – devilgunner and grumblestiltskin are more preferable for now haha), we have had 4 cards not 3 this year. Plus on the wings its Saka, Nwaneri, Martinelli and Trossard. I agree with your opinion that another winger comes in to replace the ageing Trossard but I believe that unless Trossard is sold in summer Arteta will see how he shapes between August and January before getting in someone. And we still have Fabio Vieira to recall unless he is sold. If MLS moves into midfield and Zubimendi comes in that would replace Jorginho and Partey. So the midfield is settled in that regard because we would have Merino, Rice, Odegaard, MLS and Zubimendi. Nwaneri, Havertz and Trossard can play instead of Odegaard (I hope not though).
I still think we will get one from Sesko, Gyokeres or Retegui.
Fingers crossed we get someone else from the academy, someone who steps up and gives us another body.
Good morning all.
Disappointing sums up the January window for me.
It is rumoured that deals are in place to sign both Zubemendi and Benjamin Sesko in the summer. I think we will also be looking for another midfielder as Jorginho has signed a pre-contract to join Flamengo at the end of the season and Partey is also out of contract then.
I hope I right in suggesting that Arteta refused to sign a short term striker when that may have put the proposed Sesko deal in jeopardy.
Rico, to break down teams who park the bus we need more creativity and pass faster and more decisive not farting around the box allowing them to keep shape.
We NEED to play at the back until teams move out a bit and then hit them on the counter. Or defend corners or freekicks and counter attack. If we get a goal early (like against City) they would be forced to come out.
Cicero, agreed with regards midfielder. If MLS moves to midfield (he is a midfielder after all) that opens a gap at LB with Zinchenko and Tierney off. Only Calafiori left, and while Tierney can play across the defence, or Kiwior (who might also be sold) can both play there, MLS has raised the bar. So we need someone better than him to play and cover for Calafiori.
Morning Devil, it’s not a case for loving a new signing in my opinion it’s about getting a player who would give us more of a chance of winning the league. This imo, should have been our season.
Morning Rico, good post.
Newcastle will be hard to break down this Wednesday, they know how to disrupt, slow down and frustrate even when the Gallowgate is roaring. It’ll be a totally different game to Man City, Arsenal will need to show Anfield 1989 patience to overcome the chain gang.
Regarding Arsenal’s transfer policy, I’ve heard a few pundits opine at how they admire how Arsenal do business, how unlike say United, we don’t throw money at players, we don’t panic. But it’s hard to take when as a fan you can see holes in the squad.
Those in charge of the finance, transfers and wages will be well aware of how things can get out of hand and how long it takes to recover from emotionally driven decisions when under pressure.
Ozil: new contract
Kolasinac: huge wages
Lacazette: big fee, huge wages
Pepe: huge fee, huge wages
PEA: huge fee, huge wages, huge new contract.
Mustafi: big fee, big wages
Luiz: big signing on fee, big wages
All of the above generated absolutely nothing in sales, cost the club a fortune and won one FACup as a group.
KSE must have been besides themselves when they saw what had happened and what needed to be done. Lewis must have suspected some form of skimming off of the top was in place. It was a nightmare and didn’t end until the guy who’d been at Nike was pushed out.
Those financial wounds, those examples of financial mismanagement run deep in the KSE psyche. Stan knew he’d been ripped off and it wasn’t happening again, so as annoying as it is not to make signings, I understand why, I don’t like it, but I get it!
Sesko doesn’t fill me with confidence Cicero.. But, what do I know…
I know that Devil. But it’s not happening often enough.
Rico
I agree we struggle breaking teams down, I think that’s a consequence of maintaining the same attacking structure/tactic that eventually gets nullified, just like the goals from corners have dried up, the defences have worked it out, e.g. Gabriel is not given opportunity to run towards the goal anymore.
This may be why Arteta is not rushing into any available attacker like Tel, he has that particular player in mind and maybe Zubimendi fits into the other piece of that jigsaw but hey, what do I know😊
Devil
Thanks for that😂, many years ago I tried to use Bergkamp10 but that was unavailable but Berg10 was.
I think MLS in the centre would be great as we’ve seen what he can do there. Jorginho will definitely go and Partey too if Zubimendi joins us.
Morning Kev, thanks.
I don’t think any of us want the club to throw money at shoddy players and I admire the club for not doing so but as you say, we have gaps which I’d hoped we’d fill during this window. A loan would have sufficed to get us through, a low risk player with an end of May use by date.
Agreed Berg and it’s up to us to find an alternative way of attacking teams. I get the playing out from the back is the way so many teams like to play but we just seem to do what we do, too slowly.
I don’t disagree with you there Rico, a loan from a foreign club, but I’m not sure there is anybody out there who could’ve made a difference and who we could’ve loaned?
Given our paucity in attack doing a short loan deal might have been horrendously expensive and then we end up with another Stirling!
We’re kinda paying for the Neto and Stirling loans as there was more value available in England.
Depends how hard we looked Kev. 😜
I don’t think we needed to worry about how he’d fit in etc, not if he was just a player who will score goals from the bench. As said though, this football transfer stuff is easy from the comfort of my own home.
That’s the thing, Rico, none of us really know what the club was doing for the entirety of the transfer window, but I can’t imagine that Jason Ayto were sitting at home, watching home and away, not if he wants the job permanently.
Now the window is closed we’ll hear about many of the attempted moves that Ayto couldn’t get over the line, like Alvaro Morata.
Apparently Kev, according to Gunnerblog that is, Arteta wanted Watkins and/Morata but the board didn’t go for them. 😜
Like you, Rico, I’m disappointed with the lack of January business
One thought though is that Nwaneri really looks the business, almost a Saka clone. The chant, “ he scores when he wants, Ethan Nwaneri, he scores when he wants,” really seems to be the case with this young star. Maybe Arteta’s relying on a decent goal contribution from him, either as a starter or from the bench, for the rest of the season.
There might have been financial reasons for why those deals didn’t get over the line Rico, I heard that Morata’s agent wanted a permanent move, Morata is 32…
If the Douglas Ruiz saga taught us anything it’s that Villa don’t like doing business with Arsenal, they’re a bit chippie in Aston, they see us as contemporaries rather than Arsenal being easily the bigger club as is the case…
They never seem to have a problem selling to Man Utd or Liverpool as they see those two as bigger clubs, but they do with us.
Anthony, Arteta said Nwaneri will probably end up as a striker. That moment might come sooner than he expected. lol
He ended up going out on loan though Kev, at least I think so. Morata wasn’t the answer in any case imo.
Like everyone here I’m disappointed we didn’t get someone in to bolster the attack. However my ire isn’t for the January window. It was the last window. It was obvious last summer that we needed at least one more body, either right wing or upfront, so we didn’t put physical strain on our current players.
We have had a combination of stress injuries and strange officiating which has exacerbated the lack of bodies. Luckily we have had a couple of Hale Ender’s come in which has taken the strain off the squad, but with the current squad one injury to Havertz and we are in some serious trouble.
We are riding our luck that he can keep some half decent form and stay fit. I don’t like our odds.
As I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of squad structure I thought I should say that as it stands we are going to be losing Jorginho, Partey, Neto, Sterling and Tierney from the squad for next season and even at my most hopeful we will be without Jesus for half of next season. So by my reckoning we need to buy a goalkeeper, 2 defensive midfielders, a right winger and a striker just to stand still on numbers.
I didn’t remember that Biereth was sold (!) this year. He is shining in Monaco.
Jorginho, Tieney, etc., they will also leave at the end of the season.
Continue to think that it is less risky to bet on players who will play in England, than to bet on big names playing in other championships.
I always thought that we were going to look for someone, because in addition to the injured, we have to anticipate that more problems will arise in terms of the injured.