Tomi was not a nobody, just not famous enough. He was a well established defenseman before coming to Arsenal.
Ramsdale was solid before joining, he just played for bad teams.
30m on Ode was really good, but we have to admit that basically there was no other team fighting for his service except us.
There were teams also triggered Jesus’ release clause (or willing to pay), somehow he picked us (probably he will be the focal point of attack, not likely to happen if joining Spuds).
Any competent manager will do what we mentioned above… may not be the same players, but will be similar in qualities.
Still, I am impressed what Edu did last summer and this one so far. He did better than just minimum.
I don’t agree of what he did in January, which we had a concrete chance to cement top 4, but still, these 2 summers are looking positive.
There are positions still need reinforcement, and if we can get 3 more players (LB, CM, winger), this would be close to perfect.
Credit to him, and Arteta to convince Gabriel choosing our project.
Ramsdale was solid before coming here?
He was ridiculed by everyone. Arsenal was being laughed at for not only paying 20-30m for him but just going for him. He was branded the worst keeper in the league.
There was also barely any evidence to us that he was good with his feet but the club did their homework on him.
Wasn’t he one of the best upcoming young keepers around?
I believe we (not me at that time) were so excited to have him joining.
The only downsides he had, were the fees too high, and the teams he played for all relegated.
The fans wanted Onana. As cover Johnstone’s name was thrown around.
The Ramsdale rumours and eventual signing did not go well at all with the majority of our fanbase and the rest laughed at us.
Our window last summer in general was ridiculed. There were a number of people saying we didn’t know what we were doing, we were wasting our money and after our rocky start there were shouts of us being in a relegation battle.
I don’t recall those, but just remember that people (including me) whining our management not reinforce enough, too many deadwoods around… which we usually did.
Anyway, it actually was NOT enough, but if given 150-200m for consecutive seasons, Edu utilized these money good in these 2 summers so far.
It’s very easy for Edu to look amazing compared with Raul and end of reign Wenger.
He left us short in January ruining our run in for top 4. He’s already spent a lot to fail to get top 4. Not all his signings look great at the moment eg Tavares and Lakonga. Although he cleared out expensive old guard players he didn’t add value so they went on frees. Expensive assets like Pepe get left in the cold to lose any/most of the remaining value they had.
It’s possible he’ll now finish his very expensive project with huge squad write offs and we’ll maybe fly but at the moment he gets a 5 out of 10 from me.
I’m not after him to be gone or especially scathing about him like I was with Raul but so far he’s not punched above his weight in any big way.
As far as I’m concerned he’s still got much to prove.
Big test for Edu now, in desperate need of a winger, CM and LB / LCB hybrid. Let’s see how he goes about making quality signings in these positions happen in the next couple of weeks.
Ending the window with Jesus, Vieira (woah oh), Turner and Marquinhos is a push for me.
I don’t believe for a second that this is the end of the window but it certainly seems like they’re going to have to reevaluate things.
I wonder if they scrap the additional wide forward plan and go back to LCFC for Youri and then try to do another on-the-cheap wide forward signing towards the end of the window.
The other possibility is that the forward line at Chelsea might start to look a little crowded if they add Raphinha and Sterling. Would the club kick the tires on a guy like Christian Pulisic if the money was right? He’s been considered a bust a Chelsea by a lot of folks and needs a change of scenery. I hate the idea of signing yet another Chelsea player, but I think we’re going to see way more movement between big clubs because only other big clubs can afford to pay those players.
Cool your jets with the anti-Dortmund agenda, I’m spitballing.
I think he could fit what Arteta is trying to do. The USA have tried playing some diet-Manchester City stuff in the past and he can be utilized as a pressing agent but ultimately I think he’s a luxury player rather than a water carrier.
I just really liked this approach from the club trying to get another pressy forward into the group.
I don’t know if they have another target out there but they need to figure out where the additional goals are coming from. And I don’t think signing a guy like Martinez (as impressive as he looks) necessarily does it unless they think he suddenly unlocks our left side in a way that Tomiyasu did for the right. I think that would still require an additional midfielder to ensure Xhaka isn’t playing there.
I cringe at the thought of going cheap on an attacking wide player, quality front 3s change games they’re the X factor that get you over the line and win you games you don’t deserve to win.
With our current squad I still don’t see us getting more than the 60-65 goals we’ve been scoring last 3 seasons, absolutely need to go all out and bring in a stud winger.
