Odegaard is an underrated finisher imo, 29 league goals at Arsenal from 19 XG I think it is.
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Eddie did mention that he rates Trossard’s finishing
The thing with Trossard is that he’s ambipedal. Give him the ball at any angle, he has supreme control of both his feet.
It’s why I like the prospect of Nico Williams here. It’s such a massive asset.
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I still have the same opinion.
Williams, Zubi, and Hato. That would complete our roster for the next 4 seasons.
Everyone under contract, everyone in their prime, the squad is young enough to afford a smooth and easy transition.
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Eddie’s problem is that he offers nothing else beyond finishing, especially as our game has so many components to it besides just scoring once in 2-3 games.
Since his hattrick earlier in the season - he’s offered nothing to the side. I know that he’s not first choice, but it’s clear that he’s either not doing the business when he comes on and/or is poor in training.
Think we must ship him out this summer, even if he does a Willock between now and end of season. Increase his valuation a bit
He has played just 79 PL minutes in 2024. His chapter is done here.
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Woah, that can’t be right surely? Didn’t he play most of the game vs. Southampton/Sheffield Utd was it? where he scored that hattrick; has he not featured again since? 
He’s played over 1000 PL mins.
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Oops I meant in 2024
who else do we have though, and that right there is the huge problem. Relying on Jesus coming back from a big injury (before the injury his numbers were not amazing either) and his backup is this guy…we are lucky to be where we are in the league tbh.
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Arteta didn’t have to offer him a new deal. We could have let him walk and been forced to find a replacement.
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i reckon most of our money was spent on Rice, we had to strike whilst the iron was hot because Pep was lurking. If Mancity got him 
pretty much 100% guarantee wingers and strikers will be our summer.
Yeah I get that. I just think Arteta/Edu are scared (maybe that’s an unfair word, reluctant is probably better) to make a call on some of our more fringe players.
It’s easy to hit the big red “Cancel Contract” button for Ozil or Kolasinac. But it’s a big task to look at a guy like ESR for example and accept 20m for him. Supporters will be upset we sold an academy product we all like for “peanuts”, you run the risk of him fulfilling his potential elsewhere and looking silly, it also may create a perception that Arsenal are “easy” to lowball in the market.
But I’m not sure our current (apparent) approach is any better. (I say apparent because obviously we don’t know what’s going on inside the club) Instead of making tough calls on guys like Nelson or Eddie or Tierney or Holding we either did nothing or reupped their contracts at higher wages. It’s kind of blown up in our faces. Some of it is beyond the club’s control with the PL suddenly caring about wage/cost controls, a shift towards personnel who can play with the ball even in defense, individual players having injury histories, Rob Holding tanking our season two years in a row, etc.
But how many sales of young players do we actually regret? Willock? Balogun? Both are unqualified successes for the academy and the club in terms of selling players. It’s okay to sell players, it’s okay to sell young players with potential, eventually it will bite us in the ass and we’ll all have to deal with John Cross writing some hit job about how Arteta and Edu sold Balthazar Pudding-Jones for 10m to Fulham and now he’s at Man City scoring 100 goals a season. Shit happens, but I don’t think it’s a reason to take this very cautious approach to tying players down to long contracts and then not playing them.
I don’t think Arteta/Edu are scared/reluctant to make a call on any of the fringe players.
I don’t think the supporters give two shits who we sell unless they go off and become “superstars” for someone else.
Eddie and Nelson were kept/extended because of FFP, nothing else. They were never truly deemed good enough but the relative cost of their new wages compared to the spend required to sign a player that was deemed to be good enough PLUS their wages.
ESR is a bit different, prior to his injury, he and Saka broke into the squad at similar time and were both well regarded talents. I don’t believe we keep ESR now if a £20m comes in.
Like everyone here, I don’t know the inner workings at the club but I dont believe anyone is tieddown to long contracts to not play them. There are circumstances where we NEED a player to fill a spot, even if that spot is on the bench. FFP means that paying Nketiah £5m a year is more palatable than signing even a £10m player and paying them £30k a week.
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Just the past summer people were calling Arteta ruthless, the same for the summer before, and so on…
Dude’s obsessed with improving the team, even by fine margins.
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But isn’t that why we have scouts? To identify someone who would be cost effective?
Point is there wasnt sufficient funds under FFP to buy anyone better than Nketiah for the cost of his wages only…so really he is just a plaster (or place holder) until we can sign someone
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There’s also HG status, he’s bedded in with the squad somewhat and just easier to keep what you have than spend months trying to find a replacement for the same overall cost.
Only oil clubs could look to do such a heavy revamp quicker than we have and it’s not worked out for 1 of the two in our league.
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as simple as that…
we don’t have the money (or we don’t want to break the FFP rules) to have a Grealish sitting on the bench.