Christian Norgaard became the third player we have signed this window, so far. After Kepa from Chelsea, and Zubimendi from Real Sociedad, we have got a Jorginho’s replacement from Brentford in a relatively cheap transfer. Lets look into these in details –
Kepa and goal keepers
Kepa became the 7th GoalKeeper Mikel Arteta has signed for Arsenal. Mind you, he inherited two world class goal keepers in Bernd Leno and Emi Martinez and made these signings on top of that. Selling Martinez was poor decision after his great run for the only trophy Mikel won while Leno slowed down and wasn’t suited for playing from the back. Mikel did try some cheap tricks initially to not spend much money so he got Runarsson, which was a complete failure. Ryan was on a 6 months loan in 2021 but failed to make any impact. Matt Turner joined us on a long term contract for 4.5m and was later sold on to Forest for about 7m, he was hardly average and didn’t deserve to be in the team. We got Ramsdale and sold him after 3 years, while Raya took the number 1 spot. Neto joined us for a season-long loan after Ramsdale departure to fill the vacant bench.
Out of all these signings and loan moves, Ramsdale was a good one. He played for 3 seasons, helped us in qualifying for Champions League and had some great energy on the field. Loved that lad, but the errors in him under pressure started costing us lately and Mikel decided to bring in David Raya. Raya has been solid, much calmer and we will probably don’t need to upgrade him any more. Overall, we spent a lot of money to get back to where we were in goalkeeping department, under Mikel.
Frankly, I don’t care about Kepa’s signing. It’s really poor that we are looking for loans each season and it’s good that we have got a permanent back up to Raya. Kepa will sit on bench and will only be used for dead games. I don’t mind that if it costs only 5m.
Martin Zubimendi – the new DM
Well, we were told that Declan Rice is coming in to take the Thomas Partey’s position eventually, but during this ‘eventually’ era, Mikel found out that Havertz is not a CAM and Merino is a better CF that Havertz, so he had to shift Declan Rice in an advance role. I am guessing Rice will keep his spot this season as well, and with Partey left out of a new contract, we needed a DM. Zubimendi is coming for that role, I have not watched him much but hoping that he can handle that pressure and picks up where Partey left. Midfielders aren’t cheap, and he costed us 51m GBP. Thomas Partey, 5 years back, was a 45m transfer so it’s an okay-ish fees we have paid to Sociedad.
With Declan Rice’s move to a CAM role and Jorginho leaving, we needed a DM and his back up. So we have spent another 9m an brought in Norgaard.
Christian Norgaard – a back up to Zubimendi
Again, about 10m for a back up who is a starter in a good Brentford team is a good transfer. He played 34 games last season for Brentford, so certainly he can keep himself fit, scored 5 goals and assisted another 4, which is a good output from a DM. Zubi, or for that matter any other DM, can’t handle more than 60 games in a season so Norgaard will get enough starts. Good for the player, good for the club.
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That’s all for the completed transfers so far. There are 2 more in pipeline and worth discussing.
Noni Madueke from Chelsea
Noni Madueke is almost a done deal with the clubs agreeing for a deal for a whooping 52m GBP. A medical will follow pretty soon, and we would then announce him. Now, I am not behind this deal. Yes, he is on the right side of the age and is only 23 years old. Yes, he was a regular in that Chelsea team but I have a lot of doubt about this transfer. Firstly, he is a RW. I don’t buy the versatility nonsense. He played almost all his games as a RW and we have a world class right winger playing for us in Bukayo Saka. Saka is fit, can handle 60 games in a season without any drop in performance and it would be very poor to make him sit on bench for any other RW in the world.
Madueke will get those 15-20 min towards the end, and the midweek not-so-important games. He will also be useful if Saka picks up an injury. But, you don’t spend 50 odd million GBP for a player who is needed scarcely. Also, Martinelli can play on either wings so it’s not like we didn’t have a back up. Now, if this transfer was for a left winger, it would have made more sense as Martinelli does struggle some times. A LW transfer would have fixed the Marts problem and would have also got us a cover at RW.
Trossard might leave, there’s been some chatter, so we will have to bring a LW eventually.
Victor Gyokeres Saga continues
It’s pretty much confirmed by various outlets that we have dropped the plan to bring in Sesko due to their mad demans. We are targeting Gyokeres now, but there has been some disagreement on the transfer fee with Sporting. Gyokeres wants nothing else than Arsenal, has given up 2m euros per year in salary to facilitate the move and has revolted by boycotting the pre-season. I think Sporting will ultimately fold but come one mate, if you are going to pay 50m for a back up RW who is not needed at this moment, spend 5m more to address the most important place in your playing XI.
We need a CF. If we go into the season without a striker, we are winning fuck all, again. Pay another 5m if the need be, and get done with it.
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Well, these transfers are going to create some problems which no one is bothered to address or talk about. With Zubi and Norgaard, the DM role is covered. What happens to the CAM? Rice will be the first choice, fine but are you going to keep 2 back ups to him in Havertz and Merino? If I put my Arteta’s thinking hat, I am getting the vibe that we will shift Merino back into the midfield as a back up, and Havertz remains up top as a back up to Gyokeres.
65m for a player that will be back up to a 100-goal striker, for whom we are going to pay 60? Doesn’t make sense to me. We should recoup some of that money if anyone is foolish enough to pay for him when he earns 250k/week in wages.
Gabriel Jesus? Another 250k/week for posting pictures of himself on Instagram and remaining injured throughout the season.
At the LB, with the brilliant performances from MLS and him getting a new contract, we don’t need Zinchenko. Calafiori will rotate with him and in a worst case scenario when both of them are injured, Timber can play in that position. We need to get rid of Zinni (sorry) and be done with another player who in mostly injured.
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Right, that’s all for today. Here’s the incoming and outgoing lists so far this window.
Incomings (65m GBP) –
Kepa Arrizabalaga from Chelsea – 5m
Christian Norgaard – Brentford – 9m
Zubimendi – 51m
Outgoings (8m) –
Jorginho – end of contract
Marquinhos – 2m
Partey – end of contract
Tavares – 6m
Tierney – end of contract
Tomiyasu – released
That’s a 57m deficit when we had a team that was 2nd for 3 seasons in a row and is playing in Champions League. We still don’t know how to sell, do we?
See you in the comments.
properly rotate
TRVL
Great post telling it like it is.
So, it looks like Isak to Pool for £120m or similar. Amorin isn’t that interested in VG who looks more like a Championship league ST than a PL top 9.
No other ST looked up for playing for MA, so VG it is, and I agree with you, Ambarish, VG isn’t what we need or really that much better than Havertrz.
VG is more Bendtner than the 2nd coming of Haaland who he claims to be better then.
Still, the Chavs reject Noni is due for his medical tomorrow and with Havertz, VG, Noni and Zubi I think Ode will have this song playing in his head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln7Vn_WKkWU
Clowns to the left of me jokers to the right seems very apt………
Leans me to predict us falling out of the top 4 next season. Anyone think differently?
Looks like Ethan is going to re-up. Not sure how that is a good move for Nwaneri after his treatment during the run in. How does Ethan get real minutes this season other than a bench rotator or last few minutes to try to change a game he has no chance in?
Ethan is looking to end up like Smith Rowe in all reality with us, so ~I hope his agent knows what he’s doing and they don’t trust MA’s usual BS.
I don’t want to lose Ethan but ………..? Maybe he’s staying knowing this season is MA’s last.
What a great thought that is………….
I surprised we didn’t go for Pervis Estupinan, him being a left back who can play in midfield and RB for cover.
Seems Amorim has Pervis in his sights and Ollie Watkins over VG. I’d keep Rashford over VG if I were Amorim.
Pool are rumored to have a 7 striker list should Isak not materialise. Bottom of their list was Osimhen, where we don’t even get to their list last choice levels. VG is not Osimhen or Ekitike; one of TRVL’s choices.
It’s another window where we’ll spend over £200m for players who will not improve us enough significantly to really challenge for top honors. We are and will always be the “nearly but not quite team”!
Always at least 3 key players short and are unable to sustain weekly pressure on those immediately in front and behind us.
Pool, City, Chavs, Spuds, Manure, Forest, Newcastle and Villa are all improving, with the south coast clubs also finding speedster gems that can take points from us.
This season will be far more points competitive that will need much more than our set piece goals, which dried up once our tactics were clear: block their keepers and defenders from marking Gabs and co.
We were Dark Arts ‘R’ Us last season.
To mount a sustained challenge we need upwards of Sesco for our striker, Eze or Elisse (or both) instead of Noni and keep Trossard one more season while blooding our ‘Bradyesque’ Ethan across the top, and in attacking midfield to complete his initial PL education this season.
He has a high footballing IQ when utilized properly with the play going through him and not Rice.
Otherwise Ethan is under used in games and unable to be free scoring. Even with MA shackles he managed was it 9 goals last season in all comps?
It seems Berta has little sway over MA.
Watch Lisbon milk us ALA Sulivan on the Rice deal for VG. A player hitting his prime that few clubs want if any?
Very underwhelming statement of intent from MA and our club here I feel in view of what others are doing to improve for the season.
The VG deal still not concluded?
We could start negotiating for an unborn child and by the time the deal was done they’d be too old to play.
What a useless bunch of cunts.
Marc
If Gykores were a Chelsea player, these cunts would have folded and paid them what they wanted. Probably £100 million
I could not have put it better myself.
Useless cunts. Because thats what they are
KP
2 – 0 up and a red card blew it all away.
Arteta at his paradoxical best winning the race to sing Will Wright a kid from Salford city.
The paradox is he won’t get first team minutes where we sell our best youth players, as MA has no interest in them. Look at Ethan last season and Smith Rowe and others in previous seasons.
Just a profit making exercise by the look of it ……….. A are one at that if you look at how MA tanks players’ worth.
Ambarish, I seem to have to keep adding my details to post.
rare one*
I’ve never seen the phrase “still finalising” so much in my fucking life…no one does a shittier job when it comes to deal making and optics…if there was a relegation system based on the manner in which each organization conducts their transfer business we would be in the National League South with the likes of Maidstone and Boreham…I wonder if they arrive for every negotiations 16 strong in a fucking old timey little clown car
HI NORG
Yeah, I was there. I know you have a mate in the area – the game was played in Llanelli’s Parc y Scarlets. Three reds in the end including one for the manager. We threw it away tbh. It’s rare that County got worse as the game wore on. Untypical night in that respect. The other lot got better as the game progressed. Bit sad, but the next round would’ve been in Kosovo which I quite fancied as I used to be a bit of a Balkans specialist in the 90s. Tant pis. At least the other 2 Welsh clubs fared worse than we did so a schadenfreude bonus I suppose. Real season gets underway in a few weeks so looking forward to some away trips, eg Stebonheath Park where Llanelli AFC play. Cheers mate.
We could start negotiating for an unborn child and by the time the deal was done they’d be too old to play.
Marc
A foetus managed by a cunt. What could possibly go wrong?
Kroenke
I’d hate to even guess – purely because Arteta would find even more pathetic ways to fuck things up.
for sure it would be a right bastard.
BBC reporting that Madueke’s a done deal and that the club also accidentally put out pictures of Mosquera in Arsenal kit before the deal was ready to be announced.
So we’ve spent another £50 million on a player from Chelsea that makes it Madueke, Sterling, Havertz, Jorginho and Willian.
How many of those can be considered a success or a decent signing? I’d say the closet is Jorginho but £12 million for backup?
So we’re about to go into Arteta 6th season in charge and we’ve given Chelsea around £130 million in that period for players who have so far been utter dross.
If Madueke isn’t a seriously good player questions really need to be asked why is our manager deliberately sabotaging us and strengthening a direct rival.
Marc—don’t you dare forget about the helmet-wearing twat we bought under Wenger, then we lost out to LC
I really feel for Noni, especially if what I think will happen, actually happens…he’s a talented individual when he’s deployed on the right and allowed to lean into his most direct inklings, which likely won’t be the case here…with our shoehorning fuckwit of a manager he’ll almost assuredly be wrongly positioned on the left, which means his dominant left foot will be predominantly used for crosses, as Skelly tends to tuck inside more…the chances of this miscasting happening will gain consdierable momentum if one of Marts or Tross are sold off (hopefully the latter)…so not only will he face considerable pressure, in liight of the negative initial response, he’ll undoubtedly be sending in crosses to the likes of Havertz and maybe VG, both of whom are bang average with their respective heads…fans will require goals out of him, considering the inherent costs and the mitigating circumstances, and I think he will struggle to meet those expectations…sure hope that I’m wrong and another more logical left-side attacker will be coming in, but I can’t help but think why would this player sign on the dotted line simply to be Saka’s backup…half my kingdom for a round fucking peg
TRVL
Wenger’s gone – we’ve all gone over his record at length.
My hatred must be focused on Arteta.
TRVL & Marc
I read a while back Noni was back up for Saka and competition for Marts on the left. If we buy Eze, then who knows?
MA will probably throw Noni in to save games as he did with Ethan.
I, too, feel sorry for Noni, but surely his agent can’t be that shortsighted to think MA will develop young Noni?
As usual we are just replacing pieces for the same failed project plan .
Marc—I can’t help but make note of the obvious connections between the misguided transfer practices of our former manager and our present day poor man’s version…just think of how many times we’ve turned to our city rivals when something more is needed and we’ve come up short time and time again…isn’t that the very definition of insanity
Tony—there’s little doubt that Noni could be an effective cover piece for Saka, undoubtedly the best he’s ever had, but it would have made infinitely more sense a year or two back when the price tag and his expectations would have been exceedingly less…I just find it difficult to believe that Noni’s head was turned by the prospect of playing behind Saka, unless the latter was far more injury prone or rumoured to be on his way out by this time next year…he was already causing a stir at Chelsea, where the competition for minutes wasn’t nearly as fierce…just think of how many minutes Ethan would have played if Saka wasn’t out for 3+ months…for me, if you need a top drawer left-sided option, you go out and get one…what you don’t do is get another coin tosser who has never shown the propensity to flourish, from a goalscoring capacity, on his non-dominant side
as for Eze, I kind of think he would be utilized more often as an 8 or a 10, as he’s not pacey enough to be a like-for-like Marts replacement, especially if both Cala and Skelly are still being tucked inside…I definitely think he would bring something to the equation that we don’t presently have, but only if he’s deployed more centrally and encouraged to shoot from distance…frankly, I’m not convinced that we’re even that interested, unless the fees were considerable lower and/or they were willing to take on some of our periphery pieces…why the fuck would the same Palace side who paid way above the number for Eddie ever do us another favour…shit, I would charge us twice the price…Cheers