Morning all.
Edu’s most recent interview has certainly got tongues wagging and pen’s scribing. I thought he was being honest, open and certainly very positive. I’ve read so much negativity about him since he rejoined the club yet I always believed that a man who’d been part of such a great Arsenal team/squad as a player, would only want success for the club again. Yes, there’s been a few “mistakes” or at least that’s what they turned out to be but that’s life isn’t it? None of us make the right decisions all of the time. Arsene Wenger, Fergie, Klopp, Guardiola etc have all made some fantastic signings but the ones they got wrong can often get forgotten.
The summer of 1997, before Arsenal won the Premier League the following May, our transfer deals were:
- Marc Overmars (from Ajax, £5.5m)
- Gilles Grimandi (from AS Monaco)
- Emmanuel Petit (from AS Monaco, £2.5m)
- Christopher Wreh (from AS Monaco, £300,000)
- Alberto Mendez (from SC Feucht)
- Luis Boa Morte (from Sporting Club de Portugal, £1.75m)
Two out of the six will always be remembered for the great things they did for Arsenal, one, certainly for me anyway, will be fondly remembered for the ‘Edgar Davids’ moment rather than the part he played in our title winning season, while the others are just a very distant memory as far their contribution goes. Remember Oleh Luzhnyi, Igors Stepanovs and Pascal Cygan? Of course you do but probably not for positive reasons. When I think of Stepanovs, I think of the story Ray Parlour told in his book. Hilarious.
Transfer ‘mistakes’ happen but how a club deals with them is what’s more important in my opinion. In the past, players have stayed at Arsenal for 3 or 4 years before sloping off to pastures new. Not their fault I hasten to add, not when they’re being paid handsomely for training and the occasional match day run out.
What transfer ‘mistakes’ has Edu/Arteta made in your opinion? Willian, Mari, Alex Runasson, Cedric, Tavares perhaps? Renewing the contracts of Aubameyang, Luiz and Xhaka maybe? Selling Martinez before signing Ramsdale, or do you have others in mind?
Runasson and giving Aubameyang a new contract are the ones I still scratch my head over but thankfully, one is now long gone and the other is extremely unlikely to ever wear an Arsenal shirt again.
Those first few deals aside, Edu, Arteta and the board have Arsenal back to being a club which is attracting high quality players. Would proven international Man City players been tempted to join Arsenal three years ago, let alone sign on the dotted line? I don’t think so. Why is Tielemans (reportedly) saying he’s only interested in joining Arsenal this summer? I’m 99.9% convinced that had Raphinha not only been focused on a move to Barcelona, he’d be an Arsenal player by now. For what it’s worth, I’m glad we’ve signed Zinchenko rather than Martinez. Repetitive as this might sound, we still need a midfielder to compete/rotate with Partey.
I’ve no idea how this coming season is going to play out but I do know that we have a squad on paper which should deliver better performances, more consistency and certainly something better than we’ve seen in a while..
Hopefully, I’ll still be believing that after the Palace game. Lol
See you in the comments.
Glass not just half full but almost to the brim!Soon hopefully,if one or two more in the door.The glass will be overflowing 🍺
Good morning Rico and Everyone.
I’m quite optimistic about this season but at thesame time I can’t wait to see how we handle Crystal Palace after what they did to us last season. That game is meant to be a statement of our arrival as real contenders and not pretenders.
Morning Pete, Mexy, all.
Yep, mines close to the top too.
Let’s see what Mikel Arteta can do with a better and deeper squad.
The difference seems to be that the Edu/Arteta team have set a course and seem to be following it .In the past there have been many changes of tack and knee jerk purchases.
Many of us have argued that we needed more than the one or two major signings that we were treated to every season and we now seem to be in the midst of a project by building a team that wants to work as a collective . As fans we can see it and the players have two choices , they either join the group or if they either don’t want to or are not suitable they go .
We are losing some good players , there is nothing much wrong with say Leno , Mari , Bellerin but for some reason they don’t fit . One suspects that Hutchinson was not prepared to wait , his choice , he’s gone.
Unfortuneately some cost money and we will lose on them but that’s nothing new, we have not been known to make money on transfers, at least not recently.
Is my glass a little fuller ? to the extent that I can see a pattern , then yes.
That’s pretty much how I feel Potter. We kept hearing about the process but not what it actually was or is. That’s since been made clear and the direction we appear to be going in does appear to have been thought about long and hard. As Kev said, we’re half way through a five year plan and that plan as far as building the squad goes, really has taken shape.
I wouldn’t include signing Cedric and Tavares, or the renewal of Xhaka among the mistakes, but would add Willian and Rúnarsson twice, however these are inevitable subjective perceptions.
I personally wouldn’t take the City signings as a proof of the direction, as Man City used to sell international players (but rarely clear starters) all the time: Delph to Everton, Douglas Luiz to Villa, Mangala to Valencia, Angelino to Leipzig, Harrison to Leeds, Nmecha to Wolfsburg, etc. And we had a decent track record with popular players – not from City though – joining Arsenal: Aubameyang, Leno, Pepe, Tierney, Willian and Partey were all class players attracting a lot of attention at the time.
What I consider a huge improvement though is that since we lost Sanchez and Ramsey on free transfers there was only one player in the last 3 years that we didn’t want to let go. At least I cannot see anyone besides Emi Martinez: we were proud of the sales of Iwobi and Willock, and while many of the other outgoing transfers happened below the fair value, all of them were intentional. Meaning that Arsenal’s first team managed to retain the best and most important players, which makes me quite optimistic.
Afternoon Rico and all
At the start of last season my glass was only 1/4 full on a good day, how ever after this transfer season and looking at highlights of our last practice matches my glass is now half full and slowly go up
Afternoon Geoff, you go steady now. 😆
Rico I will take it nice and steady it’s a long season ahead but hopefully and the end my glass is full and the beer is cold. haha
I can relate to your assessment, Geoff.
Half full, and still on the rise. 🙂
Afternoon all.
Of the poor ish players that have been bought recently, I seem to recall that JM warned us about the raging uncontrollable left back Nuno Tavares. In that he was a total disaster! Actually he has put in a few good performances, but too few to mention! Is there a good player in there just waiting to emerge? We’ll perhaps. It probably depends upon how well he’s coached……And, I think the poor assessment of Xhaka is mistaken. He’s a far better player than folk credit him with. He has a wand of a left foot/leg. His only real failure is that he’s woefully slow across the ground and sometimes woefully slow to pick a pass, but like the Black Knight, in Python, he’ll keep on going. Finally, Arteta seems to trust him. For now that’s good enough for me.
As for the promise of good things to come the Palace game will tell us all we need to know!
Lastly, after the earlier finally. Good luck to the England ladies tonight and especially Beth Mead a couple of goals this evening wouldn’t come amiss and she may even win the Golden Boot. What an achievement.
Good afternoon all, Rico over half full but not near enough to top yet and remember…there’s many a slip twice cup and lip. 😉
Twixt not twice. Bloody spellchecker.
I reckon there’s a player in Tavares Wavy, maybe not a left back though but a winger perhaps. Saying that, a season on loan with regular football, maybe he’s a left back. Clear as mud, I know. Lol
I echo that re the Lionesses, five Arsenal players will be involved I think.
I did say ‘on paper’ Cicero. Lol
Well you couldn’t ask for than that, England 4 – 0 Sweden. A great goal by Beth Mead and a cheeky backheal with nutmeg by Russo, a delicious lob by Kirby and a decent header by Bronze. We’re through to the final without conceding a single goal. 🔔🔔🔔🔔
Except the one Spain scored in the quarter final that is. 😉
Ha ha Cicero, getting forgetful? Lol
New post up now