Well, it’s not going to be a very positive article.
Latest news from the club is that we have let go 13 players, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Matt Smith among them the important ones.
Maitland-Niles has played 132 times for the club. He is 25 year old and is English. It was only a couple years back when Wolves were ready to pay 20m for him, but Edu and Co. rejected it. He spent his last season on loan and now leaving for free.
We bought Nicolas Pepe for a club record fee at that time, he scored few under Emery and Arteta and then faded away. He spent the season on loan to Nice where he scored 6 goals from his 19 games. It’s a decent stat from a winger but the rumours says we are going to terminate his contract this summer. He will leave us on free.
So, we either let go of our players for free, or in some cases, pay for them to leave. We paid Aubameyang to leave, he joined Barcelona who sold him to Chelsea for 15m+ Great Britain Pounds.
This was from the outgoing. Let’s talk about the important part – incomings.
We are in the market for midfielders. West Ham wants more than 100m for Rice. A player no one else want (or can afford). A player who is willing to join us over anyone else. A player who wants to stay in London and we are his best options. Yet, West Ham are lowballing us and we don’t have a way. We can’t force a way like Real Madrid is doing with PSG. We can’t convince a player to join us and have a fight for it (Mudryk, Rice, Caicedo). This is when we finished the season 2nd best and are going to compete for the title this season.
For Havertz, we are ready to spend 60m and put him on a 220k+/week wages. Although Pepe and Kai plays in different positions, there is not much difference between them. Both are lazy, both lack end products and both were bought for a very high fee from their club. Yet, we couldn’t sell Pepe 2 years back for a pack of cigarettes and are ready to buy Havertz for 60m. I understand Arteta prefers him but then he also preferred Runarsson but we didn’t pay such extra-ordinary money for him, right?
We don’t sell well, we don’t buy well.
The only relief is, we have managed to tie down the important players of our playing XI which finished 2nd in the league. Frankly, I’m tired of keeping a check on money we spend, but if we overpay for Rice and Havertz and we miss on Caicedo (or a CF), we would basically have to wait for another bag of money and another transfer window.
We want to see sensible signings like Trossard, and good sales like Iwobi. I’m not complaining about Rice, Caicedo and even Havertz because I’m so desperate to see us fixing that midfield. Xhaka will be gone, Partey can’t keep himself healthy for a match a week, and we have Champions League too this season. We can’t rely on stop gaps like Jorginho and Elneny, Vieira is not the answer against the Citys, Bayerns and Madrids of the world and Arteta didn’t really try to fix it from the academy. But if spending too much on one players costs us an upgrade in the other areas of the pitch, it would be frustrating. How many of us remember that we paid 50m for Ben White when we clearly needed a midfield upgrade and ultimately ran our of money to fix it?
We are in this mud because of our own. At least, the players in question will improve us massively (Caicedo, Rice), or at least match our performance (Xhaka=Havertz). Pay extra like we do, and hope they turn out to be as good as the sum we are spending.
What’s your take on it?
@Bob
Don’t glance over posts because you would not have attributed the comment “‘An Edu and Arteta enabler’ to TVRL because it was me who posted that. You also forgot to mention that this was the worst scenario, so your willingness to ‘give Edu and Arteta an ounce of credit’ is well within that statement. That you take issue with that statement show where you are on the spectrum of the varied opinions. You have to call it as it is and the facts / results support his being not the best for Arsenal.
84 points was the 1st time Arteta beat Emery’s 70 points in 3+ years. Anyone is well within their hoped expectations that Tets would achieve that after the massive investment and not being canned after two 8th place finishes.
Borrowing two phrases from LG that expresses my sentiment Arteta’s success is summed up in this US southern phrase “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile”.
For me again a poster on LG labeled Arteta as a Manager In Name Only and this upcoming season will show if that is true or if he is the real thing. How long do you think he would have lasted under Roman A. or other clubs after that massive investment with some improvement?
Monchi joined Villa where Emery is and if they replicate their success from their Sevilla days there will be an exciting EPL season ahead of us. IIRC next season 5th place will also have CL in the EPL, so Arteta again may be of the hook.
According to Transfermarkt Arteta has spent €450 odd million so that 14 point improvement (finally) on Emery’s 70 points cost over €32 million per point and that’s without mentioning being gifted 6 points by Chelsea who were abysmal.
Just wondering if everyone is aware the club have changed the season ticket set up. You used to get 19 PL matches plus 7 cup credits which covered European and FA Matches – League Cup were sold separately.
They’ve now changed that to the 19 PL matches plus the 3 CL group matches, FA Cup matches will be offered as / when they become available.
Now the only reason I can seriously think why they’d do that is because they’re fed up with being embarrassed every summer when they have to give ST holders money back because Arteta doesn’t progress in knockout competitions.
So at face value the club doesn’t expect him to achieve anything.
Ambarish-I must admit I’m a little saddened by the fact that you were inquiring about both Lavia and a potential Partey exodus, as it means you haven’t even been glancing whatsoever at my earlier posts LOL
Lavia is a 19 year old former City prospect of Belgian descent…he’s a deeper-lying midfielder who currently plays for Southampton…he certainly has his admirers, like Pep, but having watched him on numerous occasions I can’t say that I was overly impressed by what was on offer…of course, this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a big up-side, as that team was rather dire this past season…most are trying to get him on the cheap this summer, due to both their relegation status and the fact that City placed a buy-back clause within their seller’s contract, but that doesn’t come into play until next year…in my estimation, albeit early days career-wise, he’s a poor man’s Caicedo and should be treated as such…if we didn’t have such a tragic history when it comes to half-measure purchases I might be far more optomistic about his prospects
as for Partey, when we first started to hear buzz about our potential midfield rebuild with the purchases of both Rice and Caicedo I felt his exodus was a foregone conclusion, especially considering his injury history and wages, but when we seemed to shift our focus from Caicedo to Havertz, which could be a huge mistake, I was hoping that Partey might stay on for one year so we didn’t have to rely too heavily on Jorginho/Elneny…now I’m of the mindset that Partey will likely be sold on regardless of our other transfer window business, even though those presently behind him are considerably less valuable from a defensive zone coverage standpoint…Cheers
TRVL
There are also stories about “legal problem” with Partey – if true it would make sense to plan for him not being about.
Of course the issue is who’s going to pay any sort of serious money for someone who might be “unavailable” in the near future.
Marc-I have a lot of empathy for Partey, his potential legal issues notwithstanding, in that I believe Arteta pried him away from Madrid under the guise that we were going to be far more progressive/direct than his former employers…instead he was partnered with the defensively challenged and sideways passing juggernaut Xhaka, which meant he had exceedingly more defensive responsibilities and decidedly less offensive impact than he undoubtedly expected…half the time he had no direct options except sending a myriad of 4 yard passes to the diminutive Laca, with his back to goal, which usually led to some sort of ridiculous flopping display…his offensive chances from distance were so few and far between that when he got the rare opportunity he looked as if he had never shot from distance in his entire career, which clearly wasn’t the case…not to mention, once teams realized that we fed everything out wide they would constantly attack his right leg knowing full-well that we carried no real interior midfield threats…of course, his injuries weren’t always due to the tactics being deployed, but they certainly played a decisive role…as such I will view his time here with mixed eyes, as there were times, especially more recently, when he was clearly our engine room option, but there were also some rather disappointing periods where he looked physically unequipped to deal with the week-to-week rigours of the present day PL
we better get some business done before City and United go on their respective buying sprees, as City is losing several starters and United will have new owners with considerable funds to burn very soon…it’s funny when reports come out in the press as they will suggest things like Arsenal are very confident that they will complete transfers of consequence this summer, whereas when they mention Chelsea they will say likewise but within the next 7 days or so…just goes to show how inept/antiquated we are when it comes to the pace by which we conduct our transfer business
TRVL
According to the Daily Telegraph ManU’s shares were suspended on Friday – the new buyer is going to be in place before we know it.
If that happens I can see Mount and RIce ending up at ManU.
TVRL, my comment was regarding Havertz not Lavia, a talented player who has been underachieving and a move to Arsenal could reignite his career. Don’t be so serious – I tongue in cheeked it and you react as though I’ve insulted a close family member.
You need to change the record- everything is slanted by your antipathy towards Arteta. ‘I have a lot of sympathy for Partey….wait for it, wait for it……….the never ending sentence detailing Arteta’s misuse of him.
Your long diatribes might be more credible if you didn’t attack Arteta pretty much every time you post.
Killroy- you like the Abramovic approach. Personally I think Chelsea is a horrible club and Abramovic had the financial clout to do a reboot anytime he wanted hence the £1 billion debt which was written off and the endless change of managers. The inflationary spending of his time there,fucked Wenger and the club royally.
Bob-the whole Partey rant couldn’t be more pot calling the kettle black if you tried…are you actually suggesting that Partey didn’t have to endure some pretty dire football upon arriving at the club?? btw the fact that you were speaking of Havertz doesn’t change the logical impetus behind my ridiculous comparison comment…now who looks like someone insulted a close family member? finally, as to your statement attacking the validity/credibility of my club-related commentaries due to the fact that I seem to blame Arteta ad nauseam, I would simply say this, if the shoe fits…
TRVL, don’t follow your ‘logical impetus’! I’m not arguing Partey has had it easy particularly but you turn everything into an Arteta attack. All I’m saying is that your ‘club-related commentaries’ might come across as more reasoned if you changed the record a little. Otherwise for someone like myself, your passionate dislike of Arteta is fairly repetitive and gets in the way of your other views.
One last thing and this might sound really patronising but honestly I don’t mean it to be but your sentences might benefit from being a lot shorter.
TRVL,
Sorry if I missed it, if Partey is leaving, are we going to see Rice + Caicedo and Lavia as a half measure whom we are going to develop? I don’t think Arteta will trust a 19-year old to play in Premier and Champions League, against the likes of City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Champions League teams.
If that happens, I would take it.. But I am against letting Partey leave, not when we are going into a transition in the midfield.
Bob
Have you ever considered that its very easy to turn everything into an attack on Arteta because he’s shit at his job and lucky to still be in it?
Marc, that’s your view which puts you in the minority of Arsenal supporters. So when you repeatedly attack him, that’s all it is – a repeated attack. It’s easy to turn everything into an attack if you interpret everything through that lens.
I think your criticisms would carry much more weight if you acknowledged him in some way but as you just call him shit, your comments just come across as from someone who has an irrational dislike of someone and become just a diatribe.
We improved by all sorts of metrics but you just think he’s shit and none of the improvements were down to him.
Bob
There’s nothing to acknowledge – he did brilliantly to get in a position (after a few years of complete shit) to win the PL and then bottled it something he has form for.
The difference between us is I judge on “what did he do” and you judge on “he did better than before”.
I notice no mention from Bob about Arteta lucky to still be in the job?
Ambarish-I would gladly take Rice, Caicedo and Lavia, even if it meant Partey was removed for the equation, but we all know that will never happen…Lavia is the cheaper, far less polished Caicedo option, which is likely required if MA is going to pursue another overpriced luxury option like Havertz
Bob-sorry if my responses required you to dig up your old reading ruler, but when one is dealing with highly nuanced scenarios not everything can be reduced to the length of a casual text message…as to your previous response, you seem to actually agree with my Partey sentiments, which, like it or not, means that you too have questioned MA’s tactical approach in regards to this particular player…it’s likewise important to note that I made reference to the fact that Partey’s oft-times mixed reviews aren’t always down to the ineffectual nature of our present manager…just saying
New post.
btw Ambarish I’ve spoken about Partey’s likely exit since the day Jorginho was acquired, as there was no way we agreed to pay his sizeable wage, for an unreasonable term, if he wasn’t given going to be given some significant minutes moving forward…I would go so far as to suggest that one of the main reasons anyone would want to come here presently is the fact that MA has provided players with the kind of assurances they would find difficult to get elsewhere…oft-times when a club is a desired destination such assurances aren’t required and/or expected, but it’s likely imperative with our little project…it also carries considerable weight as MA’s known for his lack of rotation, so if he says your in his future starting 11 plans if would be difficult to not believe and/or be encouraged by the possible prospects of signing on