Jurgen Klopp tied himself to Liverpool until 2026. That’s a big move. He’s basically going to attempt a huge rebuild at Liverpool without the genius of Michael Edwards sitting behind him. A huge ask. I suspect this is his final deal and I also think Pep G will duck from Manchester City before 2026.

So that leads me onto what Arsenal Football Club is currently up to and how we’re going to attempt to ask questions of the Big Two over the next 3 seasons because make no mistake, that is the plan.

Firstly, accept this: We have a finite amount of money – and at some point, those sugar daddy cash injections are going to stop. That means two things: You have to de-risk every signing (deep scouting and specificity), you have to find long-term value (no 26+ players)

Stan K via Josh recognized that there are two ways Arsenal could do business in the post-Wenger world.

1. You bring in someone with connections and you become a ‘contacts’ shop.

Raul Sanhelli went on record as saying he liked to do the contacts scouting, he fired Sven Mislintat who was our proper scout, then oversaw some of the worst transfer business in the history of the game.

He invited the grimmest of super-agents into the club, things got so bad, we unveiled a terrible signing at the house of one of them. He would organise agents at both ends of the deals (Iwobi). He’d pay over the odds for players with release clauses (Lucas). He would lifeline dead players with long contracts (Cedric), he’d pay questionable fees (Pepe), and he made some mad decisions (Saliba @ 18) without a clear vision for where we were going as a club.

It ended abruptly with all the mess swept under the carpet.

We’re not rich enough to operate like Chelsea in the early 2000s and even if we were, without a vision and a strategy, you’ll always be a nearly club.

2. You go all-in on a sustainable model of football

I’m not sure if we ended up where we are because of clarity, necessity, or a bit of self-preservation, but whatever landed us with our current strategy was a blessing. It is, without doubt, the only way for a club with Arsenal resources to get back to the top.

A few things I’ve gone over in great detail in the past are now clear, we won’t rehash them:

The Playing Style: JdP (implemented top to bottom at the club)

The Manager: Mikel Arteta, young coach, shit hot reputation in the game, tutored under the king of JdP

The Transfer Strategy: Find young players with experience, give them the best coaching, make them elite at Arsenal.

The Academy Strategy: Coach every young player the same way and continue to feed kids into the system

The Loan Strategy: Loan players to clubs that will give them minutes, work to their strengths, and send them back ready to compete, or get sold for actual money

For the first time in a decade, the club is rowing in the right direction, top to bottom, all feeding into the mission of winning big trophies.

Now, the transfer strategy is something we need to talk about, because I think there’s a lot of ignorance to how we’re operating or why we’re doing things the way we are.

Firstly, age profile.

We aren’t at the elite end of the transfer market.

Each season, there are 10 or so young players in each position, between the ages of 21-24. Clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea, and United can purchase the players that are in the top 3. City will sign Haaland, we can’t do that.

However, that doesn’t mean we’re left with duffers. The 7-8 players in the lower tier could very well reach Haaland levels, but they need more coaching, more playing time, and things to go right for them. Arsenal plays in this category of player. Ben White, Ramsdale, and Odegaard have very high ceilings… us signing them represented more of a risk than some of the other players in their age group, but that was all we could afford. To deliver on this approach, you need great analysts, top scouts, very specific profiles, and a little bit of luck that you find more Tomiyasu’s than Pablo Mari’s. It doesn’t always work out, but that’s the transfer game at every level.

To make this transfer strategy taste a little sweeter to the fans that don’t like it, remember this, Liverpool played in this range of players when they were building back to the top. They still dabble there now. Diego Jota, 23 years old, 2 seasons of Premier League experience, sub £25m (CORRECTION: £45m, still a steal).

Intelligent clubs recruit like this because they are trying to build a sustainable model of football. Arsenal are unlikely to rock the City / Liverpool dominance boat for 2 more years, they are too good, but when those two clubs have to deal with the inevitable shock of losing their managers or key players who have aged out, we need to be ready to strike.

Ramsdale > Allison

Saka > Salah

ESR > Firmino

Where is it better to be with your squad age when the opening arrives? With The 29-year-old you signed at 27? Or your 22-year-old that is now 25? Arsenal cannot be in a situation where we are having to rebuild when the clubs above us are.

On signing 25+ players, because I know a lot of fans were miffed we didn’t move for older players… we have played in this market. The properly elite players in that age bracket are out of our price range, anyone else is a big risk with limited sell-on opportunities. We tried the ‘this looks like a Champions League player’ approach and we ended up with Auba, Mikhi, Sokratis, and Ozil. Expensive duds in the end.

Older players don’t have the same mindset as the young ones. They don’t want to learn. They have different priorities. We need players that only think about improving.

We had a January where we slimmed down our squad to just the players of the right character and mostly of the right quality. Our window, as it stands, looks like one of the better windows.

We go into the summer with a crystal clear brief.

We likely need two forwards. One that can offer us a brutal bully-boy presence, one that can offer us goals and maybe slot across our forward positions.

We need a central midfielder that can compete at the same level as Thomas Partey.

Those three signings alone give us at least 10 extra points over the course of a season. Instead of being on 60 points right now, we’re on 70 points, chasing down third.

We’ll also get better naturally because all our kids will have a rough season of hard learning under their belt.

Everything we’re doing right now is looking towards a title challenge in 3 years’ time.

3 top-class players this summer make us a top 4 guaranteed next season. If we make the Champions League, which will still be very hard, we’ll add more.

The hope is that by the end of next season, what we need is painfully clear. Then we’ll go big and add the cherry on top players like Liverpool did with Alisson and VVD.

Then you are ready to role with a team that has an average age of 25/26 years old. You then have a team that has been perfectly cooked so that it can compete for 5 years, not half a season. It’s robust because it’s young. You then have a group that can compete for the actual Champions League trophy, not just exist like we have done in the past.

You achieve all of this by being patient, not jumping at now fixes, and continuing to progress the squad the hard way.

The best part about all of this? Look at the counterpoints to clubs that basically did what popular fan sentiment suggested was the smart way.

Spurs went shortcut all the way, they did the obvious move, they went with the failed idea of tried and true. They have an arsonist manager, their two best players will never have an injury free season like this one, and their two signings from the summer are long-term loans. What has their strategy been since the Champions League final? Short-termism that majority of fans applauded as ‘genius.’ What have they been left with? A big pile of shit and an expensive rebuild when they have the guts to admit the last three years have been an unmitigated disaster.

Look at Manchester United. No strategy, no philosophy, and a load of mismatched signings that look like they were picked by Twitter. They can get their house in order faster than us because they can afford to buy the best two 23-year-olds in every position, but even their board is cautioning against the revolution they need from Ten Hag. United, more than any club, proves that even the richest cannot compete against disciplined strategy and clarity of vision.

I don’t even know what to make of Chelsea. They have been run well in the sense that they have lots of young talented players to sell, but it’s turmoil over there, they need to replace big players without an owner in place, and they haven’t made progress this season. I think they might be in for a rude awakening over there.

There is an opening coming in the Premier League. The only way Arsenal can make a beeline for it is by continuing to do what they are doing. Shut out the noise. Take the pain. Grow fast. Bring the fans along for the ride

No shortcuts.

No punts on stupid January signings that block the path of a better player or a young player.

No deviation from the long-term vision.

So what do we need to do as fans?

More of what’s been going on inside the stadium this year, less of the online stuff.

The journey we’re on now is how it’s meant to be. The hard way is always the best way. When we reach the promised land, it’ll feel amazing.

We have to accept there are going to be bumps in the road because none of our kids have been through this sort of thing before. There will be amazing highs, some horrendous lows, but as long as we’re making incremental progress and learning… it’s ok.

The great thing? This isn’t just theory like maybe it was when I was writing about this in September.

We have proof points.

We’re 4th outright with 5 games to go. No need for a half-season table. We have been a consistent 4th place operator for 18 months now.

Even if we don’t make top 4, you can see the changes needed to get there next season and they are not massive.

Someone asked me if I could prove that young players get better at the start of the season… take a look, have you noticed?

• Saka, 16 g/a, better than Mane. 2nd most shots in the league. Top 5 for chances created.
• Odegaard, top chance creator in the league since November, top 5 for the season.
• ESR, double digits goals and assists in his first full season.
• Ben White, England international
• Aaron Ramsdale, 12/13 clean sheets, one of the best distributors in Europe, England international
• Thomas Partey, post-Christmas, one of the best midfielders in the league
• The football, spectacular at times, defensively sound mostly, now producing 3rd most shots per game, 4th most shots on target per game.
• WE HAVE NO STRIKER
• We have the youngest team in the Premier League

It’s not propaganda if it’s true.

Arsenal has finally found a formula that has a chance at getting us back to the top. All we need to do is think long-term like the club is. The better we support the players, the faster they develop… it is no coincidence we are where we are this season when the support has NEVER been this strong in the post-Highbury era.

So, to conclude. This is the only way to get back to the top. You don’t need to theorize that its working. Look forward to a smarter future, with players you love, playing football you adore, challenging for trophies you didn’t think possible 18 months ago.

Right, that’s me done, jump on our midweek podcast!