Ivan Toney’s ban came to an end and it’s not a co-incidence that he decided to went on air to declare that he wants to play for a big club and compete for a trophy. The transfer window is open for all and there’s never a better time to announce your interest in a move. Proper goal scoring strikers are in shortage these days and almost everyone is looking for one, paying exorbitant amount for average strikers like Ten Hag did for Rasmus Hojlund. Arsenal is also looking for one after giving enough chances to Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah, when neither of them can convert any half chances, and our endless attacks just ends with no ‘end’ results.
I had been a supporter of Eddie, mostly because he never got a proper run of games earlier and he is from the academy – one of our own. However, with recent performances and some of the misses, it seems like he won’t make it. Not this year at least, when we are competing for the title. Gabriel Jesus is mostly injured, or if fit, suffers the same way Eddie does.
System is to blame, no doubt about that. If you are asking your Centre Forward to drop deep in defence and make him run full length of the pitch, his concentration shifts. Jesus is a play maker, so it’s fine but players like Auba / Nketiah are poachers who hangs around the box for the ball with just one single purpose in their life – put that ball in the nets. It’s not happening.
Mikel can change this by not asking a striker to drop deep and help in defence, but we all know how stubborn and inflexible he is for changing ANYTHING AT ALL. The other option is to bring in a non-traditional CF who can do what he wants along with scoring goals. Pep got it in Haaland, who can score 25+ goals a season. We need our own, and Ivan Toney could have been the answer!
But it’s not happening!
As much as I want to be positive and want to see him play at Emirates, the matter of the fact is that we have spent too much, and we can’t do that anymore. Only 6 months back, we had to ask Brentford to sell us David Raya on loan with a confirmation that we will pay the complete amount in the next summer to comply with financial fair play. And Brentford want 100 million pounds for one of their best players.
We can’t recoup any money from selling. There are news floating that Cedric will leave on a free transfer like a few others we did under Mikel’. How are we going to pay 100m? Even if Brentford agrees for a cash + player deal, we are looking at 50m + Eddie at minimum. It’s still not possible.
Now, I have had written earlier that the we are spending too much on fixing problem that can wait. Havertz? Timber? Raya? When we had Tierney, Vieira/ ESR, Ramsdale? I was told that it’s not my money and that I shouldn’t care. I was told that in present footballing scenario, you can’t win big unless you are able to compete with the oil money and the ex-russian.
You can win without spending a billion dollars. You can also run out of money even if your owners are billionaires. I’m sure Arteta would have asked for a bag of cash, and I am sure he would have been told that he spent 50m on Gabriel Jesus not so long ago in the name of bringing a winning mentality and that he would have to do with what he has, at his disposal.
I want Ivan Toney at Arsenal. It’s not happening though. Because we have shot ourselves in the foot with Raya and Havertz.
Not much happening in transfer news but Arsenal football will be back this weekend and I’m sure there will be some movements in the last week of transfers.
Hope 2024 is treating you well!
I won’t mind Benzema for a 6 month loan spell. Stop gap, can score anything near the box and is still not out of his prime. Plus, won’t cost us much!
Nice piece Ambarish and bang on.
Ignore the idiots who say you should worry / care about the money – I’ve put up with them for years. I was right then and we’re right now.
Yes Marc. The same idiots who used to say it’s not my money and are.now saying we are short on money to fix the CF problem.
Ambarish
Something I hadn’t thought about previously – we all knew we couldn’t afford to buy Raya so took him on loan with an agreement to buy. To get Brentford to agree to this we must have pre agreed a fee and to make the deal work for Brentford they’d expect something to compensate for having to wait for the money so we’re going to overpay for a keeper that really doesn’t look like any major improvement on Ramsdale.
More money pissed up the wall.
Ambarish
I have the luxury of being able to point out that when you are paying best part of £1500 a year for a season ticket it is your money!
Marc
Even if, for a second, we agree that it wasn’t a waste of money for Raya and Havertz but everyone saw that we needed a striker after our fallout towards the end of the last season.
Goals are distributed among Martinelli, Saka, Odegaard but if one of them fails, the system collapse. Martinelli is not very lucky this season, and the goals have dried. We needed to fix the striker problem first but Mikel and his defensive infatuations…
Ambarish
Definitely and Arteta’s defensive tactics are sucking the goals / creativity out of Saka, Martinelli, Ode and any striker playing up front.
Yeah endless sideways and back passes in the hope that the opposition goes to sleep zzz
Ambarish-very timely article considering my previous post on the last thread lol
like yourself, I very much doubt that Toney will be wearing the kit come the end of the window…he neither makes sense from a cost structure standpoint, in that he’s not worth the expectant fee, nor does he really fit our oft-times negative tactical script, as MA’s “system” doesn’t cater whatsoever to the Striker position…I kind of wish Arteta hadn’t just cherry-picked the whole inverted defender gig from his former boss and forgot altogether about the import of the whole Haaland acquisition narrative, which by the way supplied Pep with his most successful season in the PL…of course, Haalands don’t grow on trees, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find the next best option or at least someone within that realm, instead of throwing gobs of money at a reclamation project like Havertz
it’s clear that this manager doesn’t learn from his past mistakes, as this Havertz debacle reeks of a Willian 2.0 reboot nightmare, which wouldn’t be so tragic if it weren’t for the fact that he paid over the number and gave him a ridicuously unjustified wage package to boot, which makes him almost impossible to move on from…as such, I’m starting to find myself siding more and more with KP when it comes to the notion of any further financial backing for this particular manager…it’s a real Sophie’s Choice quandary, in that I don’t want MA to shit the bed again in another window, but I likewise don’t want to look another gift horse in the mouth…ultimately I would suspect that this will be an underwhelming window rife with “like a new signing” banter and an “on the cheap” buy/loan or two, just to quell some of the noise
Haha, you are right TRVL. NORG was looking for one too.
I was working on a different type of article but it needs more time and I have been busy as usual.
Putting Toney’s playing prowess to one side, I wanted to say something about gambling addiction. UK contributors may recall the powerful and emotional documentary about our very own Paul Merson (it’s still viewable on Amazon I think). Newer Gooners should check him out on YT – he was terrific. I was struck by Paul M’s point and those expressed by the interviewed experts that gambling is far more addictive and therefore much more difficult to treat than other addictions such as alcohol, recreational drugs, painkillers and smoking etc.
It would be interesting to know how Toney has been spending his time outside that game and what various counsellors and psychologists think about where he is now.
Whoever he resumes playing with, he will be under immense direct and subliminal pressure to relapse.
As far as Arsenal is concerned (and putting those risks to one side) I just don’t think he’s prolific enough. I’d try Martinelli in the middle, swapping with Jesus, sell Eddie Unket and take a deeper look at Zirksee. But change needs to come from defence and midfield too if the attacking fluency is going to return.
Arteta may have made ‘noises’ about signing Toney however the Brentford striker has an ego and therefore would probably question Arteta. Emi was a nightmare in the dressing room, a real piss taker. Arteta had no idea how to handle him. Emery has found a way.
Superb Edit Ambarish
But
As I read the further comments…
“Yeah endless sideways and back passes in the hope that the opposition goes to sleep zzz ”
You outdid yourself 😂
Keep ’em rolling TRVL , KP, Aluminia, Tony ( for so much more alternative knowledge )
Love you guys
It is so intellectually stimulating to be on LiR with all good posters.
NORG,
Most certainly Toney is not a yes man.
KP,
I love the idea of putting Martinelli up top in the middle. He ‘had’ some very good goals initially in his career and even some in his last season but Mikel thinks it’s best for him if he hugs the sideline and try to beat 3 defenders kn his own.
I don’t understand that.
I would have also loved a game that’s played more in the middle than on the wings. Thomas Partey, once back, will certainly help in that.
Hoopah,
Glad you are still around :))
here’s something you’ll never read about our manager, at least not by any reputable sporting news outlet:
“Why Klopp is Liverpool’s best performer this season
Jurgen Klopp has repeatedly made decisive, game-changing interventions in Liverpool matches this season.
His performances have been as crucial as any player’s”
(once again I must reiterate the fact that this wasn’t put out there by some under their organizational thumb paid hack, unlike most of the baseless gibberish written about our paint-by-numbers MIT)
now I will say this, the one thing that Arteta has brought to the equation was his ability to convince ownership to heavily invest, even though their lack of spending in the past was more about Wenger than Stan et al, which could reshape our organizational trajectory moving forward…that said, it will be all for naught if we don’t replace Arteta in a timely fashion, should we continue to regress this season
if we allow him to continually overpay for underwhelming half-measures, this little 7, 8, 9 or 10 phase “process” will surely fall well short of expectations, which will likely mean that any future manager will be hamstrung by both his poor wage bill choices and the fact that ownership won’t be nearly as forthcoming when it comes time to reinvest
so when I see rumours about our possible moves, in this or future windows, for younger, untested Strikers/forwards, it concerns me greatly, as I feel these moves are more about him trying to selfishly tie himself to the future of the club and not about our more immediate and pressing issues…let’s face it, the likelihood of a relatively untested/unproven Striker, like Kirkzee, making a decided difference this year is slim to none
it’s my belief that the reason why we’re not pursuing a more readymade option has less to do with the financical implications, as we’ve seen time and time again that any team of consequence can typically find a way to get a deal of great import over the line, and more to do with MA’s glaring lack of tactical flexibility…why would he pursue such a course of action knowing full-well that his approach will never provide any Striker of note with the required opportunities to justify this type of acquisition, which is why he might be pushing for a much cheaper poacher, like the Getafe Striker…once again, it’s a lowered expectations wet dream maneuver
Cheers Hoopah…take care
Hi all and what a dull 2 weeks it has been with the will he or won’t he (Arteta) bud another croc or dud?
First time in years I’ve taken a commercial break with Arsenal. Now time to pick up from before and read back posts.
Spot on again Ambarish. If Toney had Drogba vibes going for him as basically bull dozingly good aerially, and on both pegs with blistering accuracy. I fcking hated him but also admired his craft.
Toney is not Drogba.
No doubt we’ll get some half arsed baked name pulled out the hat at the 11th hour Ala Wenger. Arteta will claim the new incoming striker is also the #2 keeper citing a striker knows all the keepers’ moves and we needed the money for Ramsdale.
All LG fan boys nodding in wonderment with Pedro proclaiming a new high for Arteta’s Milky Way thinking that’s gone way past the previous Galaxy brain farts inc.
Agree with you all there is enough money leveraged for Arteta’s previous shocking inconsistency in finding gems polished or otherwise. It will be his legacy to leave such debt for the next manager to probably be treated like Emery was TW wise.
Meanwhile Pedro’s cringeworthy claims of reasons why are only to be immediately followed by Nigel blowing smoke up Pedro’s arse in fawning agreement.
Later Mikel Conetta will do his ex CC bit in poor imitation in trying to pick a fight with Marko to get Pedro’s, sorry I mean Conetta’s doing Arteta’s trumpet blowing and giving Pedro a rest.
Other Pedrobots will acclaim Arteta as the next god of football having passed the generational level achieving nothing really of any importance.
Hoopah thanks for the kind words and you grace these parts equally in loquacious sardonic form. Keep that coming too.
With that and my baking complete TRVL I will abscond into sleep thinking of the Thai OG sticks arriving tomorrow😎 Night all.
now I will say this, the one thing that Arteta has brought to the equation was his ability to convince ownership to heavily invest
Hi Vieira
I think that’s partly true. But it’s starting to dawn on me that Usmanov buggering off to Everton and giving the old bastard total control was the main catalyst for releasing the purse strings. We arguably suffered most during that period when Kroenke and Usmanov were busy taking measurements in a geriatric shrivelled cock competition. I was actually advising Kroenke at the stage and told him that he needed to unglue the merkin that matched his fake head hair (ie the toupee of doom) but the stubborn old cunt wouldn’t listen and Arsenal continued to suffer all because of a few foreskin microns.
I’m channeling my inner Pedro (yuck!) – my writing has turned to cock.
Hoopah – how goes it mate? I’d imagine that this time if year, your area is surrounded by irritating hippies and euro tourists. How’s your team doing? I met two lads from Kerala (south of you right?) the other day at a game who are getting their FIFA coaching badges. I think they’re connoisseurs of the game and we’re a bit disappointed by the physical/agricultural side of British football. Oh, and the weather here! All the best mate.
Maybe it’s time for a moniker change – to Kroenkephile. Nah, maybe not…
Tony-the legendary cure-all Thai sticks…that should do the trick…be sure to let me know how that all went…have a good one
“Arteta’s sprinkling of summer signs have all slotted into his plans seamlessly, with Declan Rice and Kai Havertz breathing a new lease of life into his midfield”
Imagine any so-called legit football journo actually believing such tripe, let alone publishing it and proving that either they’re on the take or functionally clueless, especially the part about Havertz’s “seamless” transition
Palace have won 1 game put of their last eleven, and the team suffered a demoralising cup loss to the mighty Everton in a replay on Wednesday so many players will be knackered.
Any ideas how it’s going to go? Asking for a friend. You going Marc?
Looks like the Smith Rowe is going this January to West Ham on loan. Depressing news , but if one is positive hope it re-ignites his career and England prospects. Also , if a team is keen to take him on now , maybe it proves that the ” fitness issue ” was just a red herring dished out by Arteta to humiliate ESR . Damn it he can’t suddenly be fit as a fiddle in an instant !
Another positive with negative connotation is expectedly ESR performance at WHU would expose Fraudeta .
Thanks
Ambarish, RVL , Kroenkephobe ,
My place is still the idylic coastal area. Bit conservative , not much tourists
“What he needs now is chances to put all the desire and qualities that he has on the pitch. To do that, we have to give him minutes.”
I’m not sure what might happen with ESR, but when your manager makes delusional comments(see above) it certainly can’t make him feel too confident about his future prospects at our club, so long as MA’s in charge…how does one look into a camera and make this statement, almost as if to suggest that it’s someone else’s fault that he hasn’t been given significant minutes…what he should have said was that it’s difficult to give him minutes when I’m so consumed with trying to justify my ridiculous off-season Havertz acquisition…not to mention, behind the underwhelming Havertz sits another short-sighted, square peg/round hole TW decision, Tross, who might have something to offer if it weren’t for our static tactical approach, but surely not as a cover piece for Marts out wide…as such, he likewise sits ahead of ESR on the depth chart in the “midfield”…go fucking figure!!
KP-we should be in full shock and awe mode out of the gates, but if we fail to pot a couple early, it could be tough sledding…if we don’t wipe the mat with this downward spiralling outfit, all hell will break loose, as even those within the Kool-Aid crew will have cause for pause
on a side note, what’s up Killroy??
Kroenke
No – had a crazy week and spent most of it freezing my arse off in the warehouse (I’m in sales I’m not actually supposed to do any actual work!) and my local train line has annual maintenance.
All in all the prospect of watching Palace try to bore us to death and Arteta trying to upstage them in the boring department whilst freezing plus a stupid journey produced a serious case of the “I really can’t be bothered”.
Maybe the Salah injury will be “like a new signing”…this window thus far has been as boring as our on-field product
I won’t be watching this match live, as I’m heading out again for some late-night revelry…enjoy what might be a rather tense affair…I’m sure I’ll have something to contribute once I’ve had a chance to play catch-up…here’s hoping that this isn’t a fucking snorefest…Cheers to one and all
Match Day article is live now!