Morning all.
Does securing Champions League football matter when the summer comes around and Edu and Mikel Arteta are trying to sign players? I used to think it did. Admittedly, the top top players probably want to be playing on the big stage but I don’t think Arsenal will necessarily be chasing that kind of signing. Big players can come with baggage, a high transfer fee and a big salary.
If the club’s name, history and the so called process isn’t something a footballer wants to buy into, I don’t think they’d be right for this Arsenal.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel, Aaron Ramsdale, ESR, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Kieran Tierney are big players now. Not necessarily by name, but certainly big performance players. The rest aren’t too shabby either, I just couldn’t be bothered to list them all. Big players who many a manager would love to have in his team right now. One or two might even try and sign them during the summer. Unsuccessfully though. Saka is playing like a £150 – 200m player if Grealish is anything to go buy, as is ESR.
Many a footballer watching Arsenal now with the kind of players Mikel Arteta has would surely watch on and think “Yep, I want to be part of that”. I know Arsenal are far from being “there” but we’re certainly heading in the right direction. At least I think we are. Stating the bleedin obvious I know but now it’s about continuing to improve, building on where we are and cutting out the moments of sloppiness and lapses in concentration, both of which should happen as this group of players mature. A bit like a block of Stilton, it’s gets better with age. I digress…
Just because Dusan Vlahovic, a youngster himself, reportedly turned down a move to Arsenal, it doesn’t mean every footballer will. We didn’t have a problem last summer, despite not having European football to offer.
But we need better than what we have don’t we? I think we need different, but that’s me repeating myself for the goodness knows how many times. Different in midfield and certainly different up front. Chelsea paid £100m for Lukaku, thinking he’d be the answer in front of goal but I think he’s been little sort of a disaster signing. Ronaldo to Utd, another deal which perhaps hasn’t worked as well as Utd thought it would, just as the appointment of Rangnick hasn’t. How they’re still in the Champions League I don’t know. Hopefully, Atletico Madrid will put an end to that when they play because the last thing we need is Utd winning the Champions League and Arsenal finishing 4th.
Arsenal aren’t afraid of spending big money on players, mind you, that depends on what one considers to be “big money” as Ben White was cheap compared to what Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk, but expensive in comparison to what Utd paid for Raphael Varane. But who got the better deal? Compare the Emerson Royal deal with that of Takehiro Tomiyasu and there’s only one winner and he was cheaper.
Just a few examples I know but all in all, I’d say Arsenal’s most recent recruitment has been good and regardless of where we finish this season, I reckon there’ll be many footballers out there who’ll jump at the chance to join the club.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and All
I recon all players want to play in the champions league,
However the will want to go to a team that has a good chance of winning it by playing consistent football through out the season.
This could be our problem when trying to get top players is that we are not consistent enough.
Good morning Rico, I guess every player starts out dreaming of playing in the Champions League and would probably jump at the chance of a move to a club that regularly qualifies for the competition. In younger players there isn’t the urgency that a twenty-eight to thirty year old feels so may be willing to wait a season or so. Then you have the ones who have been there, done that and got the t shirt, but are looking for the pension pot building move ease them into wealthy retirement.
With the first group a season or two in the Premiership with a team of Arsenal’s standing would be attractive to them. Before making the move to a top tier side.
The second group need the immediacy which is not guaranteed at Arsenal.
The third group, Arsenal should avoid like the plague.
Morning Rico and all.
I understand your point, but I’m not sure if it’s the case yet. Vlahovic is not representative – you imply – as there could be quality players cannot wait to join the gunners. I hope it is so, but the last transfer windows are not able to confirm it.
There was a crazy competition for Vlahovic, and there were practically no competition for White, Ramsdale, Odegaard, Lokonga, Tomiyasu or Tavares. That doesn’t mean they are bad players, but there weren’t too much hype around them (as opposed to Dusan), and the club wasn’t under pressure to sell them either. In fact I don’t remember the last time a player opted for Arsenal when big(ger) clubs came knocking. Maybe the last player was Tierney who actually had a say to pick his suitor.
I really liked the analogy with Lukaku or Grealish. Paying crazy amount for a player doesn’t mean him being world class. He can be simply overrated. Or a genuinely good player, but not the solution of the problems of the new club. I think from that perspective White is our Lukaku/Grealish, as he is a fine player and a really nice guy, and it wasn’t his fault that Arsenal paid twice his value to secure Ben’s services. The comparison with van Dijk is not apt in my opinion, as Virgil is (or was) the undisputed best central defender, while I don’t think White is in the top 50, so “not being the most expensive ever” will not justify his £53m price tag.
Funny thing: White’s situation is really very similar to Nicholas Pepe’s. They were bough after a great season for a record price, and even though they often delivered they couldn’t consistently perform on the quality associated with that price tag. But there are 2 important differences too: Pepe played 822 minutes this season (off topic, but his 103 minute / goal contribution is better than Saka, ESR, Martinelli, Odegaard and Lacazette’s, so basically every attacker bar Eddie who made a goal contribution every 91 minutes), Ben played more than 3 times as much: 2468. And the other difference is that most fans want Pepe out, while insist on White keep marshaling the defense.
For me the Champion’s League doesn’t really matter. For the Club it really matters because they want the filthy lucre that goes with it. The players and agents like it for the exposure and money
The group stage is dull and just a merry-go-round to get the bigger teams to the knock out stages. The novelty factor wore off years ago and Europe doesn’t get exciting until the fixtures after new year.
It’s all about rinsing as much money as possible from as many games as possible.
@Pb your stats would have Pepe & Eddie starting every game. The vast majority of fans that watch the games don’t want them to start.
Stats can be presented to prove any result that you want.
I mean what even is Xg? A load of guff imo.
Hi Cicero, Geoff, Pbarany all.
Depends on what or who we believe re transfer rumours I guess. I certainly don’t believe that other clubs weren’t interested in our summer signings.
You’re probably right Cicero, but honestly, I don’t think it’s the clincher on a deal, not if a player is dead set on joining one club only.
Re the comparison with signings, I think it’s more about what a player does for their team than how they’re rated globally. Is White doing the job Arteta signed him for and doing it well? Imo, he probably is and will only get better.
Pete, were on a similar page re Champions League, and definitely the same page re stats.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60678484
Excellent Kev 🤣
My take on it is that the Champions League is actually very very important this season in terms of our overall perception and how the fans and staff feel about the club, we need our amazing young players to feel that they’re a part of a club that is improving and progressing and CL football is a big part of that.
Yes the finance is important but it’ll come in one door and straight out of the other with increased salaries and agent fees and we don’t have a fairy godmother paying off our debts, it comes from what we generate. As much as we love some of these players they won’t hang about if we’re scratching around the Europa Conference for the next couple of years and believe me there are greedy eyes out there eying our young talent.
For those of you old enough to remember and experience I give you Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton. Never again…
Yes Rico, great news 😉
Now all we need is Harry Kane and Son to pick up hamstrings, 3 weeks off should do it and a Covid outbreak at the Chelsea training camp.
@Kev It could be argued that Brady left for trophies, but he definitely got paid well by Juve, before they dumped him for Platini.
Stapleton is another story. He won the FA Cup at Arsenal and he won the FA Cup with Man Utd. He left for money like the majority of other players. There wasn’t much between Arsenal and United at the time.
A friend of mine has a story about Frank being chased down Avenell Road by a group of disgruntled Arsenal fans after he signed for United. Moving to your rivals is never a sensible if you’re looking to preserve a bond (just ask Ashley Cole or Sol Campbell).
Mercenaries like most other footballers.
There’s no doubt about that for the fans Kev and right now, I think not securing top four would and will feel disappointing. But as far as signing players go, I’m not sure it makes a huge difference.
@Rico It’s reassuring that somebody agrees! 😂
‘rico on 9th March 2022 at 3:58 pm
Pete, were on a similar page re Champions League, and definitely the same page re stats.’
Ha ha Kev, wishful thinking.
😂 Pete, I hate stats.
The problem with stats is they don’t show the little things players do off the ball to help there team mates
Yes Pete, I remember vividly when Liam Brady left because it tore the heart out of a team that could have challenged a Liverpool team that was winning everything.
I remember Arsenal winning the FACup in 1979 and instead of investing in the squad Arsenal signed John Hollins from Chelsea, I think that Hollins was about 33. That decision might have had an effect on Brady because he was ambitious and that kind of transfer showed him that the Arsenal Board were not at the time. Yes he left Arsenal for a fee of around £550,000 in 1980, when he was worth upwards of £2m, which would equate today to the kind of fee Man City paid for Grealish last summer. He left for bigger wages a better lifestyle, better football and trophies and he left to join a bigger and more ambitious club.
Frank Stapleton left about a year later and one of the major reasons he left was because Arsenal hadn’t moved heaven and earth to keep Brady, it showed him a lack of ambition, a repetitive theme during this period before David Dein joined the Board.
It was notable that one the first things Dein mentioned when he joined the Board was that he didn’t want to see Arsenal lose it’s best talent again in such a way and he certainly made sure Arsenal got it’s money’s worth for example when Nicholas Anelka worked his passage. In fact Dein was behind some of the most memorable incoming transfers at the club in my time as a fan and probably the most ambitious the club had been since the 1930’s.
When Dein left we started losing our best players again mainly because the people in charge of contracts weren’t doing their jobs properly, it’s still an ongoing issue with this club and I don’t want to see it repeated again with Saka and Martinelli etc.
So yes mate, the Champions League is massive on so many levels for me.
As for signings, well I’m hopeful that those in charge can repeat the success of last summer in this coming summer window, but don’t ask me who?
One thing is for certain and that is NewsNow don’t have a clue either…
Why not have the champions league played every two years.
To qualify they have a points system at the end of each season the top 6 clubs earn points and then the teams with the most points over a two season period qualify for the champions league for exsample
( 1st = 20 points ) (2nd = 10 points ) ( 3rd = 5 points ) ( 4th =3 points ) ( 5th + 6th = 1 point )
This way the players don’t play as many matches and clubs can concentrate on the home and away season.
Clubs wouldn’t go for that Geoff, too much money at stake.
New post up now