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Did we do good business last summer?

Was the summer business good?

  • Yes

    Votes: 54 72.0%
  • No

    Votes: 21 28.0%

  • Total voters
    75

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
People will obviously put all the blame on Emery, but what did he get to work with after his first season?

Missed out on top 4 by one point and made the Europa final, a huge bottle job to miss out sure, but top 4 was right there for the taking next season with the right improvements and considering the competition.. We needed to improve our defence, what did Emery get? A cb he can't use, a lb who was going to miss months before he could play, and another cb worse than one legged Koscielny, instead of improving we downgraded for the season. Midfield and attack needed upgrade and he got a loanee that needed adaption and a player he didn't want. Not to mention that he lost huge personalities in the team and main creative forces from previous season without being replaced, again instead of improving we downgraded for the season.

You can say we'll improve long term, but we wasted a golden opportunity to get back into top 4 for this, so unless they get top 4 next season it was a failure that set us back further.
Summed up perfectly.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
Last summer was definitely a positive one, with a mix of short term and long term signings. We failed to strengthen adequately in the areas with the most urgent need though and that came back to bite us.

Our defence needed quality adding and leadership. What we got was David LuizLuiz! The jury is out as to whether his positive attributes outweigh his negatives. I'd suggest that they do. However, we needed a top 5 in the league CB and got an over the hill CB who might not even be in the top 20. Luiz came good in the end and was probably value at 8m for the season. Decent signing. Saliba could be another Chambers (high cost, but may not reach his potential) or could be a Rio Ferdinand (high cost teenager, who becomes elite), but for now, you'd put him in the good signing bracket.

I'm not going to bother writing a dissertation on why Tierney has been a tremendous signing and low key probably the best signing in the league last summer pound for pound.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
Ceballos I was very excited for. I was a huge fan of his before the season start and ended the season still a fan. Developing a young, foreign midfielder in an already misfunctioning midfield was a critical error. Good player yes, but allegedly we spent good money (10m according to some sources) to develop a player for Real Madrid and bar the last third of the season, it back fired. If we go on to sign Ceballos, last season was invaluable. If he ends up back at Madrid now or even in 12 months it was a poor decision. Awful summer for our midfield. Emery wanted Partey or Banega and our team needed either or both.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
Jury is out on whether Pepe was a good signing. We overpaid and he under delivered, but there were many factors working against him. I have faith that at 16m a year (his install,nets), he'll prove a good signing.
 

MikelHadADream

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
I think when we look back at the 2019 window in a few years, the consensus will be it was really good. I expect Pepe/Saliba/KT to all be key players for us in the next 5 years, with Martinelli important as well.

I think we one of the reasons we struggled last season though was because we lost basically all of the dressing room leaders (Cech/Kos/Nacho) and didn't really replace them, which left a leadership void in the team.

We also lost Iwobi and Mhki. I'm not a fan of either player, but both played a lot the previous season and along with Özil were our only players that can play between the lines. I think this hurt our creative game last season. I think signing Willian will help address this.

So I think in the short term it wasnt the best, but in the long term it will be a success. I also think we are targeting players this summer that will help solve some of the issues I mentioned.
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
Saying the fee was too high is different to calling him ****, imo. Think even who rate him would say £72m is a big outlay.

Don't think he's sh*t just not worth the 72m and will probably never live up to it. But still players never live up to their price tag these days because it's ridiculous, Lemar has - goals and assists for Atletico this season and was 90m.
 
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A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆
Don't think he's sh*t just not worth the 72m and will probably never live up to it. But still players never live up to their price tag these days because it's ridiculous, Lemar has - goals and assists for Atletico this season and was 90m.
If you posted sensible stuff like this no one would call you a troll. :lol:
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Saying the fee was too high is different to calling him ****, imo. Think even who rate him would say £72m is a big outlay.
From my understanding I believe he would have been cheaper if we bought him outright- but I can't find the article now.

As much as I like him I concede that £72 mil is a lot- but I think it was a smart way to secure a highly rated winger without spending a bomb off the bat. Like we would have had to have done with Zaha.

If there was something dodgy going on though, it would explain a lot.
 
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