Country: Scotland
Player:Gabriel
Even after all that Arteta himself has made comments saying we need 5 or 6 new players. People can call the players "soft" or whatever but if your hearing your manager saying he needs further new players you can sure their will be doubts starting to swirl in their minds.This is the thing. Look at our team.
Leno, he chose him over Emi. He brought in Cedric, Mari and wanted Luiz to stay another year. He was happy to let Kola and AMN go without signing a Tierney backup. He wanted Gabriel. Holding was linked with a move away before deciding he wanted him to stay. He brought in Partey, personally convinced Xhaka to stay, used Elneny when his Arsenal career looked all but over. Brought back Ceballos, sent Torreira out on loan, sent Willock out on loan. Sent Guendouzi on loan. Discarded Özil and played no 10 for months quite happily. He wanted Willian. He's chosen not to use Pepe a lot as a starter. Decided not to send Eddie out on loan again. Wanted to keep Laca. Wanted Auba to stay and sign a big contract.
Almost the entirety of our current squad, Arteta either chose them over another player, brought them back, convinced them to stay or signed them. There's very few players that have been forced upon him. Chambers I guess but that's hardly a massive issue. Tierney and Pepe, but I mean what kind of manager would complain about inheriting these types of players. Saka and Martinelli, two youngster with high potential, one of whom he's incredibly reliant upon.
Arteta has been backed to the hills in everything he's done. Any player he didn't want regardless of talent, wages, value, etc was chucked aside. Any player he wanted in was brought in. Players with one leg out the door were convinced to stay because he wanted them to. Wenger was never backed to this extent in his final years. Yet a rookie has been backed like this, has us 11th and still has people making excuses saying he needs to be backed more.
Smaller pieces in the squad like Nketiah he rejected all talk of loaning in January yet he's barely made the bench since then. That's a guy who could have been earning a summer move with a loan and get us a higher fee. AMN he did all the hard work in the summer to convince him to stay and then stopped using him. He send so many mixed messages that you'd be surprised if the players aren't confused with their roles.