Lets rate our 2021 summer transfer window.

[Jury]

Renewing Xhaka and dropping £75m on Ramsgate and Whitely should result in a court case and prison for somebody. We haven’t got the time or resources to be blowing our load in that fashion.

 

[IstraBalagina]

Downgraded my vote to a 2 this morning. Had a chance to sleep on it.

Like every other transfer window under Wenger so we're used to it

 

[IstraBalagina]

Why are people voting 5/6 when the team hasn’t improved?

Let them play first, but I don't expect much anyway because of the manager.

 

[Sanchez11]

He has no excuse now, that lineup on previous page bar Auba, esr and saka is his team.

 

[Diesel]

7 ... targeting right age group just no top 20 prospect in the 6 we brought in. All dartboard picks imo. Dont think anyone can confidently say one of these guys may become world class. Maybe lokanaga.... its disgusting.

 

[ArsenesCoatMaker]

Ødegaard is a gifted player. a Talent. But this is definitely not his profile.

What I meant by saying he's the glue that holds the team together is that he connects the midfield to the attack by picking out passes to connect the 2.

 

[Macho]

He's comfortably the closest thing to glue in this team.

 

[TornadoTed]

Gave it a 6... If we got rid of Xhaka i would have rated it a 7/10... My first wish of the summer was to get rid of that guy at all cost.

If somehow Arteta stops overthinking, we might see some football at the Emirates with the popular "best line-up". I'm guessing this the team most of the fan would pick.

But Mikel can't help himself. He might find a way to play Cedric or Kolasinac or Pablo Maric etc... Can never trust the guy.

Pepe has to play instead of Smith-Rowe or Ødegaard in my opinion. There just aren't enough goals in ESR, Ode and Saka to play all three of them.

Otherwise, pretty excited to see that team, especially under a manager who had the vaguest idea how to manage.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Why are people voting 5/6 when the team hasn’t improved?

Same folk who were defending the Mari, Cedric, Willian, Runarsson and Ceballos signings last summer and got promoted to trusted status days after.

 

[GoonerBoy19]

I disagree that the squad is unbalanced.

GK - Leno, Ramsdale, Okonkwo
DL - Tierney, Taveres, Kolasinac
DC - Gabriel, White, Mari, Holding
DR - Tomiyasu, Chambers, Cedric
MC - Partey, Xhaka, Lokonga, Elneny, AMN
AM - Ødegaard, ESR
L&RF - Saka, Pepe, Martinelli
SC - Auba, Laca, Nketiah, Balogun

We are definitely lacking in quality in some areas, central midfield in particular but numbers wise I think it is the most balanced squad we have had for a long time. We also look a little light in the wide forward positions but ESR and Auba can fill in there at a push. When you consider we had 34 players and 9 central defenders on our books at one point last season it is looking considerably better now.

I can only really see Kolasinac, Cedric and Nketiah who are completely surplus to requirements and hopefully the links for Kola and Cedric to Greek teams come to fruition in the next week.

Well you are talking like Arteta who could even play Kola as centre back. After so many seasons I could say without a doubt that Chambers is a CB and not a RB, AMN would do a better job there. Also at MC we are very dependant on Partey/Xhaka. Injuries/Red card/AFCON is going to put rookie Lokonga as focal point. See next 2 games are super critical for us and we dont have both Partey & Xhaka.

Rest of the squad is ok for 8th position finish. Just hoping Tomiyasu plays a blinder for this season and AMN does very well at MC. I would be very surprised if we finished top 10 with this squad.

 

[Oxeki]

He'll probably leave for free and then AM will tell me our players are hard to sell.

 

[Gooner416]

3/10 because this window was positioned to buy the chuckle brothers time and not in the best interests of the club and where it's at now.

 

[Melquiades]

It has to be judged in context. When you're not in Europe, nobody worth 70 million+ is going to have the slightest interest in playing for you. And if you're expecting that we should have signed a couple 'name' impact players instead of spreading the 150 million around, you were never going to be anything but disappointed no matter who the manager was.

Given where the team is at, I think they generally had the right strategy. Build a deeper squad targeting promising U-23 players who will be good investments and hope to hit some of those signings out of the park.

+ Ødegaard signing at 30 million is an absolutely outstanding bit of business. If anyone said in April that you'd get him for barely more than the sale of Willock, you'd have been laughed out of the room.
+ getting rid of Willian and somehow clearing his entire wage is amazing. Would never have thought it possible.
+ I really like the Ramsdale signing. People can't seem to judge it without combining it with the Emi sale ... but you have to judge every transaction on it's own merit. Given where the team was at in goal, signing probably the best U-23 English keeper is a strong move.
+ the required upgrade at RB was done and looks like a good move. Likewise Tavares at LB looks like solid cheap young depth.
+ selling high on Willock was the right move.
+ good loan landings for Azeez and Nelson.


- not unloading Xhaka will end up being a huge mistake. Sambi looks like a nice player but a bigger overhaul was needed in midfield.
- the AMN saga is embarrassing for the team and the player. Likewise Saliba.
- why is Kolasinac still here?
- not sold that they've upgraded at CB - I'm a big fan of White and if they'd signed him as a DM Xhaka replacement I could really get on board with that, but the price seems high and I'm not 100% sold on him as a CB. But he's a good asset and I'm not nearly as outraged as most.

__________

This team is now incredibly young, which is pretty exciting. If Ramsdale overtakes Leno (which I think is in the cards) you're going to see 8-9 players under age 24 starting for the team on a regular basis and nobody but Auba over 28 or so.

Ironically, Edu/Arteta might have cooked their own goose here by doing the right thing and going young and trying to build a good squad in a longer window rather than going for instant results.

 

[TornadoTed]

Well you are talking like Arteta who could even play Kola as centre back. After so many seasons I could say without a doubt that Chambers is a CB and not a RB, AMN would do a better job there. Also at MC we are very dependant on Partey/Xhaka. Injuries/Red card/AFCON is going to put rookie Lokonga as focal point. See next 2 games are super critical for us and we dont have both Partey & Xhaka.

Rest of the squad is ok for 8th position finish. Just hoping Tomiyasu plays a blinder for this season and AMN does very well at MC. I would be very surprised if we finished top 10 with this squad.

Kola has maybe played half a dozen games in a central defensive 3 in his whole time here and then only when we have injuries, I would most definitely consider Kola a left back.

Chambers I will give you although he is like Tomiyasu a RB/CB hybrid which is what Mikel is looking for. I totally disagree about AMN being better there, I thought he was a good wing back but an absolute liability in a back four.

The quality in midfield is woeful true but numbers wise 5 senior players for 2 spots is probably about right. My preference would have been for Elneny and Xhaka to be replaced by two new signings but that was only going to happen if either were sold.

Mikel is an abysmal manager and the squad isn't great either but I still maintain that is down to lack of quality. The squad size and the number of players competing for each position looks much better to me than it has done for a while.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

That was a rather weird transfer window for us. Doesn't make much sense. A top class CM to replace Xhaka was the most pressing need. We decide to ignore that and make signing a CB a priority, an area which had been the strongest. On top of that we already had a £30m promising defender ready to come into the team.

The rest of the recruits apart from Ødegaard are all seemingly backups. In summary we spent £150m, which is not only the highest in the PL but we outspent every single club in the world only to at most marginally improve the starting 11. Looking from this perspective and knowing the way Arteta likes to play and the unfortunate effect of almost any player he touches turning to crap then I can't rate this window anymore than a 3/10.

 

[Hleb's Sirush]

However if I can pretend we have a competent manager in charge then I see this window very differently. The 6 players we bought are 21, 21, 22, 22, 23 and 23. Perfect age for squad building. I think Ødegaard will be a great player for us. Like the look of Hero and Lokonga. Tavares can go both ways. We over paid for the two English lads but forgetting the price tags they can turn out to be good buys. Very much a window not so much for now but to bear fruit in a couple of years. The squad as a whole also has fairly good balance provided we changed our formation/tactics. For example we have the players to deploy an effective counter attacking team. Pacey backline of Gabriel, White,Tierney and Hero. All action CM's of Partey and Lokonga. Ode AM, Pepe and Saka on the sides and Auba central. Other options are available too, which would get more out of these players than doing the same ineffective, predictable, easy nullified football Arteta keeps insisting on. In this imaginary world where we don't have Arteta I would give this window 7/10. Not a great window by any means. Really missed an opportunity to strengthen the CM position.

 

[Lady_Gooner]

I don’t really know how this buying for the future thing works. So does it mean that artetas results don’t really matter because it’s all about in 3 years time anyway? How does arteta feel about that because the pressure is on him? Do we never sign an over 25 again? Do the club see the next 3-4 years as a right off?? (It probably is anyway tbf). What if we continue to decline so it doesn’t matter how good these players are in 3 years as the club is in turmoil? These players could turn out to be absolute garbage and we’ve just wasted about 4 years plus a lot of money. It’s not like this project youth is from the academy this time.

I don’t know.. I want to be optimistic but with the last 15 years of this club I can’t help but feel like it’s just going to be another flop idea. Right now my feeling is it’s 2/10 I’m afraid.

 

[dashsnow17]

I don’t really know how this buying for the future thing works. So does it mean that artetas results don’t really matter because it’s all about in 3 years time anyway? How does arteta feel about that because the pressure is on him? Do we never sign an over 25 again? Do the club see the next 3-4 years as a right off?? (It probably is anyway tbf). What if we continue to decline so it doesn’t matter how good these players are in 3 years as the club is in turmoil? These players could turn out to be absolute garbage and we’ve just wasted about 4 years plus a lot of money. It’s not like this project youth is from the academy this time.

I don’t know.. I want to be optimistic but with the last 15 years of this club I can’t help but feel like it’s just going to be another flop idea. Right now my feeling is it’s 2/10 I’m afraid.

Guess who just turned 25

 

[Barry]

Do Edu and Arteta deserve criticism, or are we just used to an Arsenal kicking?

Let’s not kick Arsenal for the sake of it, Edu and Mikel Arteta deserve praise when it’s due…

www.football365.com

 

[GDeep™]

Given Guendouzi away on loan with an obligation to buy for around 9M. Guy just got named in the French squad and quickly looked a 40-50M player under Emery.

Crazy stuff. Saliba will leave too.