Ings on a 6 month loan would be decent tbf
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You are probably right. January windows are tricky but CM should have been sorted last summer, I said so after the window closed, and fully agree.
It was, Lokonga. But it turns out he ainât ready for the big leagues yet. I think we all forget how much Xhaka is rated by Arteta hence the contract extension (ugh).
It wasnât a perfect summer window.
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No way. I think the club confident Xhaka was leaving. Xhaka was confident he was leaving.
The club could have done something with Elneny or AMN once it became clear Xhaka was staying and then bought a starter. We were already spending a shitload.
Was always saying it should have been 2 CMâs, not including AM (Odegaard), and independent of what happened with Xhaka. If we sold we would replace, and if we kept he should have been obsoleted within 12 months. This remains the ultimate nail in the coffin for Arteta potentially down the road, i.e. his inability to be ruthless with the airy-fairy Xhaka situation.
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@Midfield_Maestro Arteta is a charmed individual of the plan was 2.5 years to finish top 6 and either 3.5 or 4.5 years to finish top 4.
Mind boggling stuff.
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Not playing him because heâs shit? Not much of a saga lol
Arteta and Edu*
Not defending them, they arenât perfect by a longshot. Only a few months ago they were getting praised because of all the decent signings theyâve made in recent windows, and rightly so.
From my understanding it seems like the plan has been to intergrate youth mixed with established players, whilst trying to juggle finishing in the league as high as possible. At the same time having to offload all the shitters and deal with players Raul brought in too.
Not to mention weâve had to deal with a moody Auba and AFCON (before you say thatâs poor squad management - you canât buy players because that are gonna be needed for 3-4 weeks of the season only).
Some of the players in January have let us down massively with red cards and throwing away games in which we should win. I bet if we had beat City, Forest and Burnley, we wouldnât be shitting the bed that much over the January window.
It seems like weâve forgotten all the good weâve done recently just because this transfer window has been shit for us. Too many doom and gloom merchants wanting the youngest team in the league to finish top 4 instead of being realistic and accepting this project isnât gonna happen overnight.
This season is hardly a right off. Top 4 was a longshot at the start of the season and it would have been a great achievement for this growing team. Top 6 is still easily achievable. Weâve got only 4 games in the next 40 odd days, we donât necessarily need a massive squad right now.
Itâs difficult to sign playerâs in January because itâs quite condensed and teams find it difficult to replace lost players. Iâm confident weâll sign some good players in the summer.
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Iâm confident this project wonât eventuate with us challenging for a league title in the coming years. I think at best itâll result in 1 or 2 seasons of Champions league football as the ceiling, but we shall see hopefully Iâm wrong. At that point I think some of our young talent will get picked off my more ambitious clubs competing for the top honours.
Youâre right though saying the mood would be better if we claimed a major scalp like City, were 5 points better off in the league and still in a domestic cup.
Sadly though that isnât the case, the reality is winless in 5 and havenât scored a goal since New Yearâs Day.
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Lmfaoooooo imagine if Wenger was held to this standard? What kind of actual shit have this club become?
Artetas favorite player who he convinced to stay and doesnât want to upgrade upon.
Which is what? Beating a depleted West Ham, and Leeds who had one sub? Beating relegation sides? Putting up a good fight but losing to City and drawing with 10 men to lolpool? If this is good idk about this club man, sad days.
Wenger had a younger team in 2008 a whole year on average younger and was beating Milan at the San Siro in the CL smdh. This shit isnât an excuse canât believe my eyes.
Your post is logical and makes a ton of sense, if we were a club like Villa or Everton, even Leicester (and also if we hadnât spent 200m in the last window) But this is Arsenal and itâs unfuckingacceptable. And itâs all on the manager, he can fuck off. We need better than an amateur. Thereâs a dozen or more managers we could realistically get that would make top 4 with this squad easily. Fan base is gonna be happy with top 6 yikes 
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5th or 6th has always been our likely finish but ultimately itâs no marker for telling us about possible potential going forward.
If we surrender the chance of investing in this window and fail too challenge for the fourth spot thatâs piss poor.
All this perfect storm planning isnât a thing in the real world.
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BTW all the other positions are sorted weâll be needing a Partey replacement + we arenât going to nail all other positions.
As usual with Arsenal, always missing something and things always happen too slowly.
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Would be nice to know why Edu was overruled on the Arthur Melo loan/obligation, but likely that will be information that wonât come to us. If it was a decision based on money then it will be a bad sign when it comes to hopes here and there about Isak. If it was about Arthurâs injury history then I think the board would be shown to actually have a clue about what they are doing. Suggestions though that it might be the latter if we seriously have been in for Douglas Luiz.
Yeah, of course, as that might have indicated that weâd be OK without some January signings. Instead we lost two of those games and have been desperately failing to score any goals, very much indicating the issues with both depth and talent in the squad, and how badly the squad needs reinforcing.
Fuck that. We waited two years for Arteta to temporarily work out how to play a little bit of consistently good, attacking football (not that it lasted very long). If thereâs one thing we know itâs not to expect overnight results from Mikel Arteta lol. Itâs not at all unreasonable to actually start expecting something better than 8th to 6th placed finishes from your manager as he enters his third year in the job.
Whatever expectations were at the start of the season situations change, and expectations do alongside them. Whatever we thought at the start of the season feels largely irrelevant, as its since become clear that Man U and Spurs are absolutely as big a state as we are and that top four is very much possible. So fuck talk of sixth place being a decent finish, itâs not inappropriate to have a tiny bit more ambition than fucking sixth in a season like this.
Any Arsenal fan who would defend Arteta giving us 8th, 8th and 6th placed finishes is just funny to me. Theyâd probably still make excuses for him next season if he fails to take us into the top four, probably something about being in the Europa League and playing on Thursday nights making it difficult to get top four.
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8th and FA Cup in first 5 months in charge.
8th in second season was not acceptable - failed season but we had a lot going on.
Top 6 this season should be absolute minimum.
Top 4 minimum season after.
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Whatever the plan was at the start of the year, the club banished Auba. Thatâs a decision to weaken the team for (presumably) the rest of the season.
In the wake of that decision, the club needs to do something about it. I donât think itâs unreasonable to expect the club to attempt to fill a hole left by what was considered our best player at the beginning of the season.
Even a short term loan, Morata, Jovic, I really donât care, but whatever we do weâre currently in a state where a Lacazette injury is basically the end of our season, definitely the end of top 4 and maybe even the end of top 6. This is already a guy who looks like he struggles to play 90 minutes at times.
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Iâd like to think there is some sort of project but if there is, how long is it going to take?
Arteta might have bought some young players but theyâre not rookies.
White and Ramsdale cost 80m, for that sort of money you expect quality straight away.
Players like Partey, Gabriel and Tierney are still young but theyâre fairly experienced.
I agree he had success with Saka and ESR, although he was forced into playing them, but most managers do that, without spending 200m.
Look at some of the other average signings and decisions Arteta has made.
Like signing Willian, Mari, Runarssen, Cedric, Lokonga, Tavares and other mediocre players as well as continually picking Xhaka.
Or falling out with players like Guendouzi, Saliba, Aubameyang etc, as well as successive mid table finishes.
Saying he has a young team is just a poor excuse for an underwhelming manager and this shambolic transfer window is just something else to blame, others than himself, for yet another mid table finish.
How many seasons and how much money is he going to waste before people realise that itâs just a massive ego trip for Arteta and Edu?
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Vlahovic, Isak and David all have very different profiles and a different playing style. If Vlahovic was the one that we wanted and we couldnât get him, we should just bring Auba back and wait until the summer.
Iâm not saying Isak isnât good as I havenât seen much of him, but if the plan was to bring in a target man in Vlahovic, itâs a big and swift change of plan to bring in a technical player like Isak. David is an even bigger change.
This sums up the problem for me.
The club may not have planned to get fourth but they should have had a contingency plan for if the season was tanking and if we were in a position to outpace the goal of EL qualification.
The fact theyâre willing to just let it ride is disappointing. If we miss 4th by a point is the club really going to celebrate âhitting its targetâ? Theyâll look real dumb.
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I do not buy that the club would think 4th spot was out of reach without European football.
Maybe Arteta convinced them since we invested on a young squad but now in Jan with us out of all other cup, we should consider 4th a possible target.