Transfer deals as of now…

It has been an exciting transfer window for us, Arsenal fans. We have been very active, trying to fix the positions where we were lacking expertise, strengthening the bench and bringing in competition for other places. Let us look at the confirmed transfers till now.

Transfer Ins

Kai Havertz – £65.00m from Chelsea. We all have been asking for an upgrade on Xhaka from God knows when. Initially I thought Kai has been brought in to fill that position but I could be wrong. We saw Kai in more advance position playing centrally up top in our game against Manchester City and with Jesus injury records, he might be more of a competition to Jesus/Nketiah than a replacement of Xhaka. Frankly, if he is to play a striker role, we should have got an outright CF and 65m is a lot of money to get one. If he is a Xhaka’s replacement, who happens to cover the CF if the need be, I am more than happy. We may have paid a bit more for him, since his days at Chelsea wasn’t really exciting but he is young and was part of a Champions League winning team. Mixed opinions among Arsenal fans, we will have to revaluate once the season is over.

Jurien Timber – £38.00m from Ajax. Jurien has been brilliant whenever he is on the pitch so far. He is a natural right back, came to deputise Ben White but we have seen Arteta using him at LB position and he hasn’t disappointed. We have to accept two things at LB – Zinchenko is not going to be available for 38 games a season and Tierney is a limited defender who doesn’t suit Arteta’s football. We have seen Tomi at LB, Kiwior played too but Timber has made that position his own. Right side of our game is pretty aesthetic with Ben White overlapping Saka and drifting in the final third when we are in attack. Timber can do the same at the left side and it would be a treat to watch once he has the chemistry built up with Martinelli. He is fast, and don’t shy away in a 1v1. He is convincing in his defending and has good challenges/tackles in him. We paid good money for a good defender, no complaints here.

Declan Rice – £105.00m from West Ham. This one’s a pickle, not because I have any doubt in Rice’s ability but because the amount we paid for him to hammers. However, if you looks his age profile and consider the fact that Partey is 30+ and has only couple years left on his contract, he seems to be a good buy. He do not have an injury record, can play in a single / double pivot and I’m sure he has his best days ahead in red and white. We paid more, but that’s English premium I guess. Likes of Lavia and Mac Allister are going in the range of 40-50m to Liverpool, but Klopp doesn’t really need a high profile, high valued player to implement his game.

David Raya – £30m from Brentford. This one’s almost done. Fab confirmed the deal has been agreed and he will go through the medicals soon to be an Arsenal player. We have Ramsdale, who is not a bad keeper at all and pretty much does what Arteta expects him to. However, he has been erratic at times and Matt Turner wasn’t the answer. We are also going to play a lot of games this season (4-competitions, Champions League one of them) and we not only need a back up to Ramsdale but a competition who can play equally well every Wednesday/ Thursday and cover for him in injury times. Again, we are paying over the top for a keeper who plays for Brentford and has only a year left in his contract. Compare him to Bernd Leno, who was playing for Arsenal, was player of the season and one of the best shot stoppers in the league and he only fetched us less than one-third to what we are paying for David.

These 4 confirmed transfers brings our spend to 238m GBP… till now.

Transfer outs

Granit Xhaka – £21.5m to Bayer Leverkusen. I wasn’t expecting that but Granit fetched us good money after his best season with us. We have already replaced him with Kai, and have Vieira and ESR who can play in his position. We have also seen Arteta experimenting with a double pivot of Rice and Partey, which eliminates a need of #8 who need to track back, which is what the case is, with ESR and Vieira.

Pablo Mari – £3.7m to Monza. Good luck to him, we didn’t need him last season and we have enough body in the defence.

Auston Trusty – £4.9m to Sheffield United. At some point, we will have to learn how to best judge a player whether he can make it at the grand stage at Arsenal, or sell him and make some profit. Sure, we will have cases like Kevin DeBruyne and Mo Salah, but for every Salah, Chelsea sold 10 academy players for good money. I’m happy we decided Trusty wasn’t the answer to our questions and though the fee is very small, at least we made some money unlike Maitland-Niles. Do you remember we let go of 20m not long ago from Wolves for AMN, only to send him on loan and releasing him for free this window? Yes, lets avoid that and with the amount of investments our owners are doing, we need to recoup some of the money through player’s sell.

Till now, we have made about £30m in players sell.

…which leaves us to a £208 deficit. All our buys are costly, makes sense if you consider the fact that we finished 2nd last season and are going to compete for the title. It also makes sense when we are playing in Europe against the best of the world. CL will bring us extra cash, we have recovered from Covid and shirt sells are on a high. Some of that will cover this spend, the other, will be paid by some sacrifices in near future.

For now, we are winning the transfer window. In terms of the bodies we have brought in and sold; not so much in terms of the money we have spent.

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At first, I thought to make this a ‘frequently updated’ article, but it will mess up the date of publishing and I’m sure you don’t want to re-read part of the article to check what’s new. We can review it again once the transfer window is over and we have played few games.

What do you think of each of these transfers? Happy for some, not for others? Let us know in the comments!