Realisations – yet again!

Edu and Arteta took over from Emery and Co more than two and a half years back. We saw some fresh faces coming in, in the hope of winning Champions League in 3 years time – Willian, Cedric, Mari and Partey. That hope crashed like no one imagined. Willian was one of the worst performers of the season even after playing 37 games. Cedric turned out to be okay-ish, Mari was so poor he is on loan to I don’t remember which club and Partey is injured most of the time.

Not so surprisingly, ones who saved Arteta’s career were the hale-enders. ESR broke into the team because of injuries and got him out of that winter misery. Last season when we lost 3 easy games against bottom half teams, Laca’s sickness allowed Eddie some game time and some relief to Arteta and Co.

Soon AFC realised what was done initially was just replacing old dross with new ones. So, someone at the club took a notice of it, decided there won’t be crap signings anymore and we only are going to invest in players with potentials and in the right age-frame. I suspect it’s Edu because of the Brazilian collections we are doing.

We went ahead and brought White, Tomi, Ramsdale, Sambi, Tavares and Odegaard.

How did that turn out? Not that great. Someone, again, at the club realised buying young players doesn’t guarantee success. It should be ‘good’ young players. We are back in the market this transfer window for a Left Back and targeting Lisandro Martinez who has a much better profile and would be an upgrade to Tavares. We are trying to bring in Tielemans because Sambi didn’t turn out to be the next big thing and we already have invested in Vieira who plays the same role Odegaard does – after noticing Odegaard’s little contribution in games when it matters.

We realised, yet again, that hale enders are much better in producing output than veterans we have. Eddie signed a 5 years contract and is given one of the most important numbers of all time #14. I hope he continues it’s legacy and make us forget TH14 with EN14. After letting go Guendouzi, the hottest prospect in world football at some point, we realised our mistake and are now adamant to keep William Saliba.

We also realised the priority. Fixing midfield and CF positions is (and was) more important than buying CBs when we had better than average players in Holding and Gabriel (and Saliba if we had not sent him on loan again).

If you are a ‘glass half full’ person, you are most likely excited for another season noticing all these realisation at Arsenal Football Club. You are happy we are correcting our mistakes and trying to be more competitive.

I’M NOT. I am more than excited for another season of Arsenal, I’m a gooner till I die. What I fail to understand is how can a club this big in history and values, is allowing people to learn on their job, things which are pretty basics for anyone working in the industry!

I guess someone will realise ‘yet again’ that some targets should be set for a manager, failing which there should be consequences. Three years of millions spent and finishing 5th is not a process, making mistakes and correcting it is not a good thing if those mistakes ‘shouldn’t’ have been made in first place.

Short one today, monsoon has arrived in this part of the world. Hope everything is all right for you, thank you for making LiR a better place for Gooners.