Edu Gaspar

[CaseUteinberger]

What has the Willian transfer got to do with this? Them playing for the same team before is of no importance or consequence. Luckily there isn't a magic rule that means that ex chelsea players won't play well if they transfer to Arsenal.

Its about the technical, physical and mental fit of the player.

Some takes are just lazy and reductive. We have signed an experienced player on a 1.5 year deal in an area we need cover and don’t have a lot of talent. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

This was Ivan tbf but I hope the summer transfer window is more organised and a bit better

I rate this window as an 8 out of 10. Not sure it could have been much better. Powder still dry and we go again in the summer!

 

[CaseUteinberger]

I totally understand what you're saying, but we literally can't get worse than Lokonga. I think Arteta has seen enough, we all have. We had to do something.

Sambi simply wasn’t an option. Something had to change!

 

[pigge]

I rate this window as an 8 out of 10. Not sure it could have been much better. Powder still dry and we go again in the summer!

7/10 for me, can't help but feel bit bummed that we missed 3 targets. But i feel people underrate Jorgi-boy. Imagine playing in that Chelsea team. I think he might surprise people with a new fire and in our system.

 

[db10_therza]

I rate this window as an 8 out of 10. Not sure it could have been much better. Powder still dry and we go again in the summer!

Bare jokes. Regardless of where you stand on the transfers, I’m curious. If you rate this 8/10 how would you have rated it if hypothetically we landed both our top targets? 16/10?

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

If Jorgingo had been a longer term target and we hadn't been linked with Caicedo then this window would be perceived quite differently I think.

I don't think many people expected 3 squad additions. Trossard is competition for Martinelli and good squad depth. He has already shown quality in the couple of appearances he's made for us.

I don't know a huge amount about the Polish CB but he seems fairly highly rated, nice one for the future and squad depth now.

Jorginho a good, experienced player who upgrades on Elneny and Lokonga.

We haven't upgraded our starting 11 ( which is hard in January anyway) but we've added quite a bit of squad depth which is what many of us were asking for prior to the window opening.

Emotionally speaking, missing out on a big name signing it feels like a 6 /10 window. I think it's probably closer to a 7.5/ 10 in reality though.

 

[14Henry]

Its been a decent window. Take Chelsea out of the equation and what they've done as I feel some are drawing illogical comparisons.

We needed a versatile forward. We got one.

We needed a defender for cover for Gabriel. We got one. People can say Tomi could play there but he clearly isn't considered a CB here.

We needed someone how cover CM. We've lost Elneny and Sambi has gone. 2 players we all agree are worse than Jorginho.

So the squad is 100% better than it was.

We can be frustrated at missing out on Mudryk but we can't compete with what Chelsea are doing. Sorry but it's just impossible. These young lads are basically being given their entire careers money by one club, guaranteeing that no matter what happens, they have millions rolling in for the next 8 years regardless of form. High risk from the club but low risk for the players and Chelsea do mean business. So it's not like a player is going there knowing they won't win anything. They have been serial winners for the last 20 years. That's unlikely to stop.

The above signings also don't block us going big for say Caciedo or Rice in summer and maybe another forward player. Overall I'd say about a 7.5/10 window.

But if we compare it to Newcastle, Sp**s, City, Liverpool, and United it's head and shoulders above them.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Bare jokes. Regardless of where you stand on the transfers, I’m curious. If you rate this 8/10 how would you have rated it if hypothetically we landed both our top targets? 16/10?

Think it has to be a weighing between incoming, outgoing, money spent, contract lengths etc. I wasn’t particularly wedded to any of our primary targets. Not a big fan for spending big in the January window anyhow. Better to get players in the summer that you can bed in over a whole preseason. In January players need to hit the ground running and feel at least Trossard and Jorge boy can do that.

So, no, would not necessarily even have rated the window higher had we have got our primary targets. Think we did well now with the players we actually brought in. Trossard I think will be great and Jorginho will if nothing else be a short term upgrade on our previous back ups if not more.

So, deep breaths and trust Edu and Arteta!

 

[db10_therza]

Think it has to be a weighing between incoming, outgoing, money spent, contract lengths etc. I wasn’t particularly wedded to any of our primary targets. Not a big fan for spending big in the January window anyhow. Better to get players in the summer that you can bed in over a whole preseason. In January players need to hit the ground running and feel at least Trossard and Jorge boy can do that.

So, no, would not necessarily even have rated the window higher had we have got our primary targets. Think we did well now with the players we actually brought in. Trossard I think will be great and Jorginho will if nothing else be a short term upgrade on our previous back ups if not more.

So, deep breaths and trust Edu and Arteta!

Fair take. For me, I just assume Edu and Arteta know what their doing when they decide a certain player is “first choice” so if we miss out on them then we’re necessarily weaker than we could have been.

Does seem though that now when we do miss out on option A, our fallback is to keep our powder dry and go for a sensible cheap option that can tide us over to the next window with minimal long term impact to our squad. Which is way more sensible than splurging out on a player you’re not completely sure of that might stink up the place for a while.

My concern is whether we can actually use said dry powder to land our option A next time around. In my experience we are terrible at landing high profile targets. Let’s see…

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Fair take. For me, I just assume Edu and Arteta know what their doing when they decide a certain player is “first choice” so if we miss out on them then we’re necessarily weaker than we could have been.

Does seem though that now when we do miss out on option A, our fallback is to keep our powder dry and go for a sensible cheap option that can tide us over to the next window with minimal long term impact to our squad. Which is way more sensible than splurging out on a player you’re not completely sure of that might stink up the place for a while.

My concern is whether we can actually use said dry powder to land our option A next time around. In my experience we are terrible at landing high profile targets. Let’s see…

Think we have a decent Rice if we win or finish second in the league. There will be competition but think there is a good chance.

 

[Sparrahork]

Bare jokes. Regardless of where you stand on the transfers, I’m curious. If you rate this 8/10 how would you have rated it if hypothetically we landed both our top targets? 16/10?

For me had we landed then then that 8/10 goes down to a 6/10.

The simple reason being had we landed then we would have better long term prospects, but both jorginho and trossard offer better odds of coming in immediately and performing. A lot has been said on here about this season being the one that matters, two experienced heads will offer so much more.

Kiwi has gone under the radar, he could be an excellent signing too, offering back up to CB, lb and dcm should not be underestimated in a small squad (as preferred by arteta).

The main reason the 8/10 would drop however is to get those two targets we would have had to massively overpay. That would not sit well with me and would both weaken our transfer hand going forward and possibly cause dissentions in the ranks if players have ideas above their station based on a large fee being paid for them. If you overpay as well they change your first name, e.g. £72m Pepe, £87m Anthony etc causing more pressure on a player who has not chosen his fee.

Thankfully Mr Blanco has now changed his first name to Benny through excellent form!

 

[db10_therza]

If you overpay as well they change your first name, e.g. £72m Pepe, £87m Anthony etc causing more pressure on a player who has not chosen his fee.

Thankfully Mr Blanco has now changed his first name to Benny through excellent form!

 

[db10_therza]

I think a lot of people here are seeing it as this season or bust. Idk. Hypothetically if we do “this season and then bust” I’m not gonna be a happy camper. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you make the right long term decisions you will be better off, both in the short and long term. We got to where we are when we abandoned the short termism and started making solid decisions. I hope our newfound status in the heavens doesn’t give us a sudden bout of altitude sickness.

 

[blrgooner]

I think a lot of people here are seeing it as this season or bust. Idk. Hypothetically if we do “this season and then bust” I’m not gonna be a happy camper. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you make the right long term decisions you will be better off, both in the short and long term. We got to where we are when we abandoned the short termism and started making solid decisions. I hope our newfound status in the heavens doesn’t give us a sudden bout of altitude sickness.

I think that is where the difference in people`s opinions come from. Obviously if we had gotten our main target, it would have been a great window for the long term.
Currently, as things stand, we still had a good window for this season. Given that we couldn`t acheive our main targets, we did do pretty well in terms of atleast strengthening the team in short term and buying time IMO.
I do think that our new found status has given as an altitude frankly. Lets face it, Mudryk and Caicedo wanted to join us. Our new found status doesn`t affect how clubs would deal with us though and thats understandable.
In terms of planning these things out and the optics of it all, I think we definitely need to get better though. Come summer, I don`t think I will be very confident that we will get a big signing through based on events in Jan.

 

[14Henry]

I think a lot of people here are seeing it as this season or bust. Idk. Hypothetically if we do “this season and then bust” I’m not gonna be a happy camper. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you make the right long term decisions you will be better off, both in the short and long term. We got to where we are when we abandoned the short termism and started making solid decisions. I hope our newfound status in the heavens doesn’t give us a sudden bout of altitude sickness.

Yeah but you can't get too far ahead. We play this season first and worry about next season next season. And Tossard and Jorginho help now.

Me and you would both sign for us to win the league this season with no guarantees about next season or the season after.

If someone said to me win the league this season and be top 4 for the next couple of seasons with maybe the odd cup here or there I'd sign. Obviously I'd rather win 2 or 3 leagues on the trot but it's difficult with the way the league is.

 

[Trilly]

My concern is whether we can actually use said dry powder to land our option A next time around. In my experience we are terrible at landing high profile targets. Let’s see…

This really.

There are going to be big fees and multiple clubs involved when it comes to pretty much anyone that can improve the first XI now, we seem awful at those deals.

 

[db10_therza]

This really.

There are going to be big fees and multiple clubs involved when it comes to pretty much anyone that can improve the first XI now, we seem awful at those deals.

Said it before and I’ll say it again. Takes a whole different skill set to stay at the top compared to getting to the top. Let’s see if we got what it takes…

 

[El Duderino]

Said it before and I’ll say it again. Takes a whole different skill set to stay at the top compared to getting to the top. Let’s see if we got what it takes…

Yeah, a lot of high profile guys seem to fall into our lap. Competing and actually landing a coveted signing is escaping Edteta (mostly the Ed part, as far as we know).

When you're going after Rice.... well, it's going to be even harder than a guy like Caicedo.

 

[pigge]

This really.

There are going to be big fees and multiple clubs involved when it comes to pretty much anyone that can improve the first XI now, we seem awful at those deals.

I kind of disagree. We've been excellent recently. Zinny, Ødegaard, G.Jesus, Gabriel(cb), Saliba, tom/white. All elite signings, probably best transfer window of all PL clubs this season. And we didn't even have CL


Having an elite first 11 actually means we don't need to improve it and should add youngster that can compete rather than replacements. Not sure which targets we have wanted that we have missed out on except for this Winter transfer window, which is the hardest window if you don't have unlimited cash.

 

[OnlyOne]

Yeah, a lot of high profile guys seem to fall into our lap. Competing and actually landing a coveted signing is escaping Edteta (mostly the Ed part, as far as we know).

When you're going after Rice.... well, it's going to be even harder than a guy like Caicedo.

Disagree on Rice and it’s a much different deal than Caicedo.

@Trilly I’m a bit worried as to whether we can land Rice as well, but I actually don’t see him that much in demand this Summer.

United & Chelsea both need strikers first and foremost, City probably covered?

Gives me more Jesus vibes.