In short, yes (at least in my opinion)!
After the Willian saga, Edu and Arteta Co. decided to move to a Dortmund model aka Project Youth where you buy young, talented players and develop them into world class players. In last transfer window, we got 6 first teamers costing around 150m in total – Ramsdale (GK), Tomiyasu (RB), Tavares (LB backup), Sambi (MF understudy), Ben White (CB) and Odegaard (CAM). Four of these players were starters in last season for a good number of games.
We are in another transfer window of Project Youth and so far has bought Matt Turner (GK backup, Leno’s replacement), Marquinhos (RW / LW), Jesus (CF), Vieira (MF). We have shown interest in Tielemans, Raphinha, and Lisandro Martinez, all of which fits the youth project.
Bar Jesus, it can be said that we are accumulating cheap and young players whom we believe have chances to come up good. Jesus is a proven winner but is still only 25 years old so you can count him too if you want.
We have some of our own young guns showing their worth on the biggest stage – Saka, ESR, Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes, Eddie N.
There are three possible reasons why we can end up a situation where we would have to sell.
- Return on investment – Kroenke’s are funding these transfers, there’s no doubt about it. We used to sit on a pile of cash but we have been in loss from quite some time now. 150+ millions last season and almost 80m till now this transfer window? It’s not free money and club would have to repay it to KSE. We have been losing out of Champions League from 6 years, haven’t won much which in return affects the sponsorship deals and merchandise sales. Josh Kroenke talks ambitious and has backed up his ambition with these funding but at some point he would expect it back. It’s a business for Americans.
- An offer we can’t refuse – Similar to the Coutinho situation at Liverpool. Someone comes to the club with ridiculous money for one of the players and we feel we can achieve a replacement in less or use it for a rebuild / cover other areas of the pitch.
- Player’s ambition – More like the situation at Manchester City. Young players have ambitions, they want to win things on one hand and earn a big fat contract on the other. Some just get bored at one place and need a change to keep themselves happy. Some of them wants to be a regular and makes their own legacy. Gabriel Jesus has won 4 Premier League titles in his 5 years at City at the age of 25, he can spend another 5 years accumulating some more trophies under Pep but he wants to be ‘the’ guy at Arsenal than ‘one of the’ guy at Manchester City. Sterling will probably move to Chelsea with similar reasons. Money is involved without saying. This can, and will happen at Arsenal in couple of years.
All of these are genuine reasons! We have to find a way to minimize the effect it can have on our team structure and the club.
Investment in young players comes with a risk. Some of them won’t cut it. The clubs needs to be smarter and identify them in order to make a sale. We were getting 20 odd million for AMN last year and we didn’t encash it, that was foolish. I don’t think he is going to get any important game time and no one is coming with 20m again for him. It’s too early to judge Lokonga and Tavares but we will know how successful they can be this season. Cut out the losses or make whatever profit you can make on players you think won’t be a part of playing XI.
At some point, we will be made an offer for one of our stars. Someone at the club would have to decide which is more beneficial, to keep the player or replace and use the rest of money to strengthen other area of pitch. Similar to Coutinho situation, if we happen to buy a Salah, Mane or a VVD with that money, it’s a fair deal.
For players who shows ambitions which do not fall in line to the club’s interest, we need to let them go at the right time for right money. Lets not make it a Koscielny (remember him?) situation.
We are emotional beings. All of this reasons sounds fair and selling out (of other clubs) sounds good in hindsight but when the time comes, we would be angry.
I would be more angry if we manage to create another Guendouzi, Mavropanos or Maitland-Niles scenario.
I would love to read your opinion in comment section. I know it’s a controversial topic and I would get some flak but hey London is Red respects every opinion!
Covid finally paid me a visit and though I didn’t succumb myself,my wife and kids were all knocked for 6 so I was a full time nurse. All good now thank God but I had a break from the outside world which was actually refreshing in a way. Hope everyone on LIR is well,going to catch up on the craic now with a cup of tea and a stroll through the articles and comments. Arteta still our hero I presume!
Hi Almunia
I noticed you’d been away. Sorry to hear about that. I hope everyone at Chateau Almunia is back to their best or quickly getting there. If you’re as good at making chicken soup as you are writing those satires, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Your ironic comment about Arteta raised a chuckle. No, I’m afraid to say Marc, Ambarish, TRVL, Killroy, Hoopah, Jamie, Retire and all the other lads have all had a ‘volte face’ and are now rabid, die-hard, Pedro and England’sbest-level Arteta devotees! The power of Jesus it would seem. ✝️ I’m the only one left. I’m a bit like that guy waking up in hospital at the start of the living dead.
No, just like that rather amusing political issue in our so-called nation these days, the upstanding and stout burghers of LiR are as revolting as ever!
Hi Killroy
I think the chief difference between manure and us is money. They have, or seem to have, an almost bottomless pit of lucre. I cannot see a type of Leeds demise for them. While we and they were battling it out footballistically (yes, that is a made up word), manure were also cutting the mustard commercially building up legions of plastic fans all over the world hungry for one of those hideous green and yellow half and half shirts. Almunia Is that fucking manure megastore still open in the centre of Dublin near Trinity College?
Anyway, all things being equal, manure are clinging onto the financial coat tails of the oil kleptocracies and do remain big players. We on the other hand are on the next rung down and therefore also unlikely to collapse. Were we ever to get a proper manager, and were the Krankies to join the dots from their experience in the NFL and recognise the need to continue to invest and therefore shun the self sustaining model, the Arsenal could get closer to being a top money club once again. But it requires money, success and proper leadership. We’re currently lacking in all three criteria.
If Manure sign Frenkie de Jong, might that mean Arsenal will have a clear(er) run at Lisandro Martinez? Or is Ten Haag eyeing both of them?
Take care Almunia.
KP
United doing united things, signing Eriksen and de Jong. Don’t think either of them are going to cut it.
I was a big Pogba fan but Mourinho was right all along about him – he is a real talent who is just not interested most of the times.
In this last few not-so-happy years of Arsenal, only thing that’s consistent is United demise. Thank god!
Ambarish
Not sure I’d write ManU off too soon – since Fergie they’ve gone through average, past it or never up to it managers. Ten Hag is a much better choice we’re looking at a better ManU this coming season and much better season after as well as a Newcastle who’ll be pushing for first EL places then CL.
Completely depends on how Ten Hag deals with the egos and how much he can extract from the high paying, non interested players.
They can buy their way out of the mess but it would still require a good manager.
I’m more worried about the competition Spu*s will present to us than United.
Ambarish
Ronaldo’s on his way and I have a feeling part of Rangnick’s care taker role was to provide a breakdown of the problem players in the dressing room.
Ten Hag vs Arteta – only one winner for me.
I think Oil money and bin dippers will yet again fight for the top 2 position and Chelsea, United, Ourselves and Spu*s for next 4 places. If we do not finish 4th or higher, it should be a failure.
Yep, could be because of the big egos he stepped down at the end. It’s a mess, they needed Conte more than Spu*s, he would have cleaned the old dross and created fresh mess lol
What’s up with these Odegaard fans everywhere on Twitter? Is it only because Arteta trusts him?
How is he playing ahead of ESR in no #10 role when ESR is a much bigger goal threat and we couldn’t score when our life depends on it, will remain a mystery to me. I understand ESR was injured but then he was scoring as a sub and should have got back in playing XI.
Ambarish
Arteta paid £35 million for Ode – he can’t be wrong. That’s why the signing of Jesus worries me he turns out to not be the central striker we need (you know doesn’t do much with the 39 crosses we put in to the box during several matches) and he won’t be dropped he’ll be moved wide in with ESR / Martinelli paying the price.
ManuRe got good players. Last year been noticing they lost out because of poor trapping of passes, and no dynamic movement. But from what heard, Ten Hag is a no nonsense boss and if he manages to instill discipline 2,3,4 will be among Liverpool, ManUre, Chelsea with rotten Spuds the oddballs. Newcastle and Arsenal should slog for the next positions.
So things looking positively shit with our aereal bombardment Don Mikel Quixote establishing his arseholery
The only way I can see for us to get CL next season is to win the games that we were expected to win like against Brentford, BHA, Southampton and Newcastle in other words mid table teams. Draw or loose against top 6 is OK as long as we win the games against teams below us.
That however is the job of the MIT setting up proper formation and tactics like PV4 and Eddie Howe did against us, plus getting the best performance out of the existing squad. However therein lies the dilemma since we have a MIT and not one with pedigree. Resign to the fact of more hurt and disappointment next season, at least we can say “Told you so and Nailed It” to the LG crowd.
Killroy
Your theory makes sense till you look at last season – the Spud’s changed manager halfway through the season and massively upgraded, ManU will have a much better manager next season as well.
Simple fact is even if Arteta does make a sizeable step forward it’s just as likely so will those two clubs.
I get what you are saying and expect that both the Sp*ds and United will improve this coming season and I do expect losses or draws against them. If the other clubs like Leicester, CP, Wolves, WHam and Newcastle also have a better season than the last one we are in deep shit.
I do expect that PV4 will improve CP massively this season and so will Eddie Howe, Conte is a proven manager so the Sp*ds will definitely improve as they are very active in the TW. I don’t expect more then 2 wins against the other 5 rivals for top 4, hopefully a couple of draws but we don’t have the luxury to start like last season, hope for purple patches and do not decisively beat mid table teams.
The problem is no one fears Arsenal anymore and the lower table teams fancy taken points from us even at home as they did last season. Don’t think anything has changed as the project seems to be “Failure is an Option”.
Killroy
I can see Vieira improving Palace through coaching (if we were on LeBullshit you’d have to explain what that means) Newcastle I can just see spending.
Looking towards next season, the Artetapologists will blame any setbacks on the extra scheduling as a result of EL qualification, e. g. ‘The only reason we got humped last week by Southampton was because the lads had to fly to Greece to play FC Xenofobicos in the second leg three day’s earlier blah blah’ . You can just hear it can’t you.
Yet none of them were prepared to recognise that no euro footie last year should have given us a serious competitive advantage and made 4th place even more straight forward.
I see UK viewers will have to pay 6 quid to Arsenal to watch the game against Nurnberg. They can fucking stick it! I’ll get it on YT a few hours afterwards.
Eddie Howe owned Arteta when we lost because of the way he set up his team and tactics, so there is something there, to what degree he will have success against other teams has to be seen. Hopefully it will be against those competing for top 4.
Just don’t have that warm and fuzzy feeling going into this season but that is mainly down to us having a MIT who doesn’t know what his left hand is doing from his right.
Killroy
I do agree with your CL argument, as I believe that we will continue to struggle against the “better” clubs so long as we remain overly reliant upon the sloth-like stylings of Xhaka and continue to deploy a largely negative tactical script…as such, any cock-ups against those who finished below us in the standings could prove incredibly problematic in the race for a top 4 position…of course, the notion of us finding a way to properly navigate our way through a gauntlet of better “managed” teams, the likes of Brighton, CP, United etc…seems like a bridge too far
I would suspect that if we don’t hit the ground running, we could be in for a shitload of borefest game-scripts, as MA doesn’t appear to have either the tactical acumen or onions to get shit done in the PL, especially when expectations for results will be at an all-time high…he’s going to be able to crack chestnuts with his ass cheeks by week 3
I have this gut feeling that perhaps KSE will stick with Arteta as manager until an obvious upgrade with proven record comes along. This would show intent on their part to give AFC trophies like their beloved Rams have.
ATM I have difficulties identifying who could replace Arteta without making too big of a splash and creating uncertainties among the already divided supporters, after all we don’t have an RA owning the club who would fire managers and DOFs without blinking an eyelid.
the toughest pill to swallow is the fact that many viewed MA as a logical candidate due in large part to the financial parameters of our self-sustaining business model, as it was difficult to fathom someone of significance coming without “backing” assurances…of course, no one could have foreseen that he was going to be given the largest transfer kitty ever, over a two year period, especially after shitting the proverbial bed in his first full season…just imagine what a “real” manager might have done with our talented kids and a projected 300M to spend
All’s well in the world. The sun is out in Wales, Bojo has resigned, the beers are already flowing (plus I found a bottle of Pimms of all things in the bottom of a cupboard so Ms Kroenkephobe and I will be caning that later while some dogshit tennis tournament or other is on the box).
But what’s this?..?..? A Swiss court has just acquitted Blatter and Platini of football corruption charges. Un-fucking-believable.
Half-time. Nurnberg 2 Arteta’s Arsenal 0. Second best in every way. I suspect none of them give a fuck. But I’m just a bedwetter who ought to know preseason shitshows are positive for the team. I predicted we’d face a trial in Nurnberg.
Arteta out! First and not the last time those two words will feature together this season.
https://www.twitch.tv/arsenalpresser
Here’s the link if anyone wants to ruin the rest of their Friday.
Jesus the saviour, Elneny with his rocket. Only managed to watch some 15min in second half and half of the team was unrecognisable. Arteta trying to show his project youth and keeping the best for PL games – THE XHAKA.
Hi Ambarish
Your comment about Xhaka is probably true. And very scary. That goal by Elneny wasn’t bad, was it?
Honest to God if we buy a new CM and the rumours / stories aren’t about Partey what odds would you give on our most often played first choice midfield in the PL next season being Partey or New Guy + Xhaka?
It’s like Arteta’s taking the piss on purpose.
KP
Really early here but another lovely Saturday filled with 4 Rugby matches watching Wallabies v England. Saturday set for me.