I know most people don’t like him, and have shat on him in the past myself, but Mount does on paper look like the best choice.
He can offer that attacking aspect Xhaka lacks and he is well known for being a hard worker off the ball.
Ideal scenario for me is Rice and Mount.
Think they’re both dudes that can come in and hit the ground running. They know the Premier League very well. They know our team very well. They have chemistry between them playing together before. They’re still both young at 24 yet they’re still very experienced. Bit of a no-brainer for me.
I think Mount and Rice elevate our first 11 like no others. I wouldn’t be against 2nd choice being Caicedo although what you saw from him today is what you get, he’s tidy but plays within himself a little too and at this level you really need to come in and influence games from that position. I think he could get much better in that regard and would grow here under Mikel although Rice is without a doubt my first choice.
Mount Rice and then some kind of wildcard move for a CF or a high level fullback like Cancelo.
Cancelo in particular would allow us to rely on White as 2nd choice CB during another Saliba crisis but ultimately I don’t see a deal happening for him.
I do really like what their experience and mentality could bring.
They’ve been there when the things were good and also when things were bad. Mount has been there starring in the CL when Chelsea won it. Rice was one of the key players in West Ham having those Top 4 charges they did with some pretty poor squads. They’ve both been there in reaching the Euro final but ending up losing on penalties.
If they move here it also shows their drive for success. It’s the same vindictiveness we suffered from when our players moved on to the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd and City in the past. Two Chelsea boys joining Arsenal to win things. That’s two characters you could absolutely use in the dressing room.
It does feel like the type of window where we really can’t cheap ourselves out of another title run. We will get away with losing out this season but if you don’t start winning something soon it’s going to be hard to keep our star boys together, and that includes the management.
I’m not really fond of the wish listing copium either but we will have a lot of out goings this summer so 4 big transfers isn’t really out of the realms of possibility. It’s just how badly do we want to improve. Which always seems to be the question with us
I’d keep a more skeptical attitude considering our pattern of going for good deals like Jesus, Zinchenko, Partey, Trossard rather than getting our top targets.
Yeah, as much as I would like Gundogan, Caicedo/Rice, Cancelo and a striker (sorry, Jesus… I watched the game today, you’re not it), I can see us opting for secondary options/unknowns. Just hope our scouting network is good.
By all accounts, Vieira was Arteta’s binkie, Lokanga cost 18m and you’ll miss at that price plenty often, Elneny new contrat is a nothingburger. We’re paying somebody like 3m a year to slap backs and bring good vibes, its kind of stupid but not the kind of decision that really impacts the club. Rice in January was never going to happen in a million years and we made a reasonable run at Caicedo but Brighton wasn’t interested in even naming a price. All in all, we did very well to get Trossard and Jorginho at reasonable prices in January and there’s really no reason to believe that if we had Caicedo and Mudryk instead the season would have gone any better.
Edu has done very well over the last three years to help build this side. There’s still plenty work to do but come on.
Pretty sure Edu took credit for Vieira in an interview and explained Mikel knew very little about the player but he was the type of player he wanted. Not the name of the player.
I suppose you can look at that either way but I think it’s clear Edu is the one keeping tabs on Portugal just from a cultural stance
Actually, I’ll side with @Powderfinger on this. I believe from the reports and the interviews when we signed him, it was clear that he was a guy Arteta really wanted.
Tavares was the one in 2021 who Arteta made abundantly clear he had very little to do with and was identified by our scouting team. And that was when he was doing well too.
