From 1 to 10, how would you rate our transfer business this summer?
- 1
- 2
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- 4
- 5
- 6
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- 9
- 10
0 voters
1 Like
Incomings:
Not the window I imagined or wanted of course but at least thereās a clear structure.
Clearly weāre trying to build a new core and weāre doubling down on a long term project.
Outgoings:
Plenty of those but almost all of them are on loans. Not ideal but Iām not overly fussed as I donāt think it affected our incomings much.
Verdict:
Iāve gone with a 6.
I think the squad balance has improved. Iām excited to how our new players do however I donāt see a Top 4 challenge realistic anymore.
Deep cup runs and Top 6 should give us a good base to work with next summer.
In hindsight it would have been useful to qualify to the Conference League as that would get our players more games under the belt to gel and also a chance to win a trophy.
The jury is still out on whether Arteta is the right man to lead this team though.
Gonna be(and already is) a tough season ahead.
Keeping Xhaka and Kola and Cedric and Mari bring it way down for me.
Needed more than just Ode for the attack. Verdict very much out White and Ramsdaleāpaid top dollar when no other clubs were in for either.
No changes to the internal structure of the club is poor.
Arteta doesnāt have the ability to find the right tactics. Anyone have any confidence that heāll improve the younger players or that the squad will play their best for him?
Overall a poor window with funds seemingly not used well. Even worse is realizing that there isnāt a plan for when Arteta gets sacked sometime before the year is out.
1 Like
The outgoings are terrible but covid has effected things. We still have an opportunity to make money on those guys next summer.
Chambers, Laca, and Kola on expiring contracts but nobody is taking those doods so not much we can do there. One point subtracted for not being able to move Eddie on even tho there was an offer on the table, that is just inept.
Signing Xhaka to an extension is worth - 3 points tbh. Just inexplicable, 25m offer last summerā¦12m offer this summer and we passed on it to keep the shitter. Unreal idiocy.
The incomings are fine. We needed a CB, RB, and backup LB, done. A new CM, we got one who wonāt be ready immediately but heās a future prospect. The AM we needed was signed. The one strange move was an expensive backup GK when we had more pressing needs this window.
This window is about as good as ur gonna get from an egomaniac like Arteta. We have better players we sent out on loan than we decided to keep around purely to placate this dirt pounders ego. Itās hard to accept but until heās gone there will be little joy at this club. 5/10 window imo.
2 Likes
Iāve given the window a 5 just because we seem to have a clear strategy in regards to an eye for the future bringing in 6 players between the ages of 21-23. We signed a RB, CB and backup LB which I wanted. Signed a CAM which we needed. The negative of the incomings are despite spending 150 million quid Iām a bit wait and see about all of them bar Odegaard who I think will be a fine player.
Negatives are the outgoings and lack of deadwood removed, Xhaka, Lacazette, Eddie and AMN should have been sold to raise some funds. We still have dross on the books like Elneny, Kola, Mari etc etc.
We missed on signing a partner for Partey which youād think we would have if Xhaka was sold and also a CF which we would have if Lacazette and Eddie got sold.
All in all the squad we have currently should be in that 5-8 mix with Spurs, Leicester and West Ham and itās up to Arteta to get us back into Europe with what he has or else he has failed.
Basically in 2-3 years weāre relying on lots of these younger players to really get to pretty high ceilings to be a permanent Champions League regular again.
1 Like
Apart from a midfielder we addressed everything else.
It is clear that the squad is being prepared for future rather than now. So it is difficult to say now whether it was a good business.
I appreciate that Edu and Arteta are moving towards getting pieces together however there is still some weird logic I canāt wrap my head around.
I rate this window 7.5
However Arteta will take the football out of these players, so it will eventually be less than 7.5
They did what they could. I wish they werenāt in charge of doing what they do.
2 Likes
Rambly commute transfer window thoughts:
White at 50m strikes me as fairly shit and unimaginative business. I find it hard to believe significantly better value couldnāt have been found if we looked at a non-English player from outside the league.
I find Ramsdale deeply uninspiring, particularly at that price.
Lokonga is one that gives me grounds for optimism, so fair enough there.
Odegaard will hopefully be a good signing, and I canāt quibble with the price paid.
I know literally nothing about the new right back. Fingers crossed on that one, but the timing and circumstances scream panic buy to me. Iād say itās more likely that we just added another mediocre right back to our collection of mediocre right backs than it is that he turns out to be an excellent purchase and worthy first choice right back.
Overall, the squad was not settled and our business was not sorted before the window closed, and this has at least contributed to our 0 for 9 start to the season.
Then we can look at outgoings, which was pretty disappointing overall. The main issue here being Xhaka. A bid was on the table and we didnāt accept it. Not only did we not accept it, we then went and gave him a contract extension and a payrise. I simply cannot forgive this.
Basically, we spent fairly significant sums and it feels like weāll basically be lining up with the same team as last season, and that was a team that came eighth and struggled to score goals or provide gooners with any entertainment. Adding Odegaard is good, certainly better than nothing, but itās basically just restoring the status quo from last season. We were deeply shit in attack last season, playing stale and predictable football that was neither easy on the eye or effective. This season weāll be relying on three youngsters (Saka, ESR and Ode) to carry us in attack, which feels a risky proposition to me. Sure, youād hope that all these players might continue to improve, but our attack will be built around young players who were all with us last season (even if not for all of it).
We created fuck all for Lacazette and Aubameyang last season and will be relying on largely the same personnel to produce different results this season.
It still looks like thereās about ten combined goals in all competitions coming from our midfield this season and I absolutely hate it.
I canāt go anything above a 4 at this stage.
I will however add that itās a folly trying to rate a transfer window in the immediate aftermath of it closing, it doesnāt really make sense to offer ratings before youāve given signings a chance to play and prove themselves. But regardless, the above is my first impression of the window. Hereās hoping that in a month or two I at least feel inclined to revise it to a six out of ten or similar.
9 Likes
No real upgrades on what we had.
We were clearly lacking top quality players in most positions and have done nothing about it.
We needed a goal scoring game changer in midfield and bought a player we already had, who doesnāt score.
Instead we wasted 80m on another CB and a GK.
Most of the high earning dross is still here.
Should have spent nothing and got Conte.
3 Likes
I think you hit the nail on the head here with this post.
I think Ā£50m on White is crazy and Iām worried that weāve overpaid for an average defender that was made to look great by the players around him and the system he played in.
Ćdegaard may turn out to be a great signing but I feel like he was underwhelming for us in his loan stint, but that could also have been Auba and our system letting him down. However I feel like he just preserves the status quo.
Tomiyasu screams ābang average RB weāll be loaning out in 18 months timeā.
Ramsdale, however, Iām actually quite excited by. Having watched some compilations of him and hearing Wimbledon, Bournemouth and SHU fans wax lyrical about him, I think he may actually turn out to be an unexpected success.
2 Likes
Odegaard and Lokonga are the only ones Iām optimistic about, and both of those are still based on potential so could still disappoint down the line.
Almost all the exits are trash.
I feel sorry for White, because out of this whole influx in the past 2 years heās the most expensive and itās not his fault, but heāll be held to a higher standard now forever. Thereās zero evidence that this is a better player than 25m Gabriel and I can see him getting lots of criticism in the near future that a few good passes isnāt going to fix.
7 Likes
White Iām hopeful for and think he improves us at the back.
Odegaard happy about but itās compounded by the idiot resigning of Xhaka.
Lokonga not going to be ready for a full season and think we will over use him. Also think we are convincing ourselves to some degree heās better than what he is on 2 defeats. This happens time and again here because we are desperate.
Ramsdale I donāt understand at all.
Two fullbacks canāt comment. Overall I just see an over reliance on ESR and Saka. Itās a wing and prayer policy that needs a perfect storm.
Personally donāt think it leaves much for a new manager either going forward.
Optimistically I give it 5. Xhaka destroyed any real hope though.
4 Likes
Odegaard was a good buy. Lokonga could be eventually too.
However spending 50m on White was a huge mistake, as was giving Xhaka a new contract.
Both are going to undo our season.
2 Likes
To be fair still hard to rate White, with that the whole transfer window. If he ends up being a top player, and he should for this money, makes the whole transfer window seem really good. If he doesnāt itās a pretty lame window, although we managed to get a few good players for not much money.
Similar with Ramsdale. I guess he was brought with the intention of him taking the no 1 spot eventually. Surely we didnāt waste 30M just to give Leno some competition. If he ends up being better than Leno, you canāt complain too much I guess.
Brentford had him on toast and that throw-in goal was just comedy from everyone.
Iāve already made my mind up that heās not worth 50m and is going to be a huge waste of money.
4
Itās clear they have looked at buying young players, none of who are fully proven at the highest level (which is not be a problem for us as we arenāt in danger of needing to operate at those levels anytime soon). This is my biggest concern. Even with established players, you can never say if theyāll fit in and perform at their usual level. With young players, that becomes an even bigger concern.
The other thing about the signings is that none of them excite me. Itās not like we signed a much talked about, inexperienced youngster for a lot of money. All of them are meh signings for me, including Odegaard, who is good, but nothing we didnāt already have last season.
I will give Edu and Arteta some credit for signing players for the positions we needed.
The outgoings have been disappointing. Still starting with Xhaka, Chambers, Kola is just a sign of our stagnation. I can understand the many loan deals we have done given the current market but there are still some first team players who should not be anywhere near the first team.
The one thing all the signings have is potential, given how young they all are. I guess time will tell. Time and maybe a football manager.
2 Likes
I have huge doubts about him, to say the least, but objectivelly I canāt write him off yet.
2/10.
1 Like
Still a 6/10 for me, no goal scorer or CM will hurt us.
4 Likes
This summer was the opportunity for a reset. Not a master reset as we already had some valuable players and assets on top the fact we were keeping the same manager.
It was very clear that amongst our pool of talent was plenty of deadwood a d obvious holes in the team. Goal keeper being on of these holes.
Emi Martinez being demoted to 2nd choice and then sold for peanuts has been awful business. However, we need to move on. Iām not his biggest fan, but Leno is a good keeper. Matt Ryan was a brilliant back up option. Life isnāt that simple though and itās possible that Ryan wanting a starting spot. With that being said, Ramsdale as a rotation keeper is a brilliant signing. Heās Premier League level player and has proven so, is English, driven and most of all a Gooner. That bum Runnarson has also been loaned out.
Iād rate our activity in the GK area as a 9! Maybe Iām just more keen on Ramsdale then others?
There were so many problems in defence where do you start? David Luiz was our best cb. Aging? Yes? Flawed? Yes but our best cb on so many metrics. That a lone speaks volumes about how poor our cb area was/is. We let Luiz leave on a free and loaned out Saliba after a great half season in France. So, two cbs - both good enough to start here - left for nothing. Ben White came in for a ridiculously high fee. He seems a good defender and if itās who the cone boy wants fair enough, but at that price he is a marquee signing and given the nigh impossible task of sorting out our spine. You can see his upside though. Luiz and Saliba out with White in is average and expensive business at best. Like Ramsdale though heās a smart investment for the future. The only cb we sold was Mavrapanos. So we spent 47m net in the area and replaced 3 competent defenders with Ben White. We were left with Gabriel, Holding, Mari and Chambers as his back up. Only Gabriel has ever looked Arsenal quality. Scary stuff.
2 for our cb business this summer. White is a decent signing but our outgoings have been horrific and our lack of sales even worse.