So…
Do Technical Directors take the weekend off?
Or do the ITKs go to Church and hit up family time?
‘Honey, I know the rules, no tweeting transfer gossip on the lords day’
It’s been quiet… but, if you want RAW conspiracy, how about Manchester City posting a goodbye video for Gabi J?
The best bits of @gabrieljesus9‘s 2021/22 🇧🇷🤙#ManCity pic.twitter.com/oczJxSUvXl
— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 26, 2022
OH MY WORD HE’S COMING TO ARSENAL!
Listen, I wanted a tall boy, but you cannot argue that this is a blockbuster move for Arsenal.
The player is a winner, he’s powerful, he’s aggressive, he has a big fat CHIP on his shoulder, he’s coming to Arsenal to help us find the next level.
If we’d had him as our striker last season with Eddie, we’d have finished with 79 points. It’s that simple.
I love that Arteta is attacking the brief this summer, I love that Josh K is leaning into the progress with investment, and I am SHOOK that we seem to be spending so much money.
Remember, it’s the selling club that leaks the fee, so here’s my estimate on outlay if it all comes off.
- Jesus: £40m
- Vieira: £30m
- Lisandro: £35m
- Tielemans: £25m
- Raphinha: £50m
That’s £180m.
I suspect we’re going to try and recoup at least £80m. Here are the top candidates.
- Holding: £18m
- Xhaka: £15m
- Torreira: £15m
- Ballard: £5m
- Bernd: £12m
- Ains: £5m
- Nico: £15m
- Pablo: £5m
- Nelson: £2m
- Hector: £8m
That’s £100m
If we exit this window with a net spend of £100m, we’ll be in great shape.
In the space of 2.5 years, we’ll have exited majority of the dregs of Wenger and Emery. We’ll have no massive financial weights sitting in the squad doing nothing. The squad will have a beautiful balance. The project will be ready to hit the ground running, and say it quietly, prepare to attack the league to make a run for the title in 2 seasons’ time.
… and to REALLY drive home how exceptional this rebuild is looking. Our 30-player squad will have an average age of 22.5. Our first-team squad of 24, as it stands, will likely have an average age of 23.5!
What does that mean?
3.5 seasons of time to move the average age of the squad to where title winners Manchester City are.
The average age of Liverpool’s starting 11 was around 29 last season.
Let’s talk about the opportunities opening up on Merseyside.
Their two best players are/were:
Sadio Mane: 23g | 5a
Mo Salah: 31 g | 16a
Combined 54g | 21a
Those two players alone were involved in 14 more goals combined than Arsenal scored in the entire Premier League season. Sadio Mane has exited the building. Mo Salah isn’t going to get the £400k a week deal he seeks, they will probably sell him. It is going to be VERY difficult to replace that level of end product, regardless of how good Liverpool are at transfers. It’ll be tough for them not to dip. Also, their generational defender VVD is 31 in two weeks, last time he picked up an injury, Liverpool dropped 30 points. There is an opening coming, it might not land next season, but it’s coming there.
Chelsea sold as a distressed asset. Their new owner Todd B has annointed himself Technical Director with ZERO experience. Marina G has exited the building. David Ornstein thinks CFC are going to move for CR7. That is not good news.
Manchester United kicked out Ralf R. They have a manager that has never worked in the Premier League. Their summer rebuild has stalled and when it starts up, it’ll be panic stations.
Back to Arsenal. How good does it feel to have done the hard part of the rebuild? How good does it feel to have stability, vision, and strategy that is being well-executed?
We’re building a title-chasing team. It won’t be ready to do that next season but I expect it will be in 2 seasons’ time.
It’ll be difficult though.
Arsenal will spend. But so will Newcastle, United, Chelsea, City, Spurs, and Liverpool. There are no guarantees. Which is why I’d like to put all the folk saying ‘NO EXCUSES NEXT SEASON’ in the bin.
Like, mate, do you think Arsenal is run on excuses? Is your idea of football so immature that you can’t understand the difference between an excuse and a process?
If someone tells you a house will take 2 years to build, do you head to the site at the end of year one and say, ‘guys, the house isn’t here, NO MORE EXCUSES.’ You don’t, because you’d get a slap from a man with coarse hands.
If you think Arsenal are letting Arteta do his thing because he has good excuses, you don’t get the football space.
He’s lighting up our summer because financial backing is a reward for a job well done.
This isn’t the same as Unai Emery finishing 5th, if you think it is, you need to rewatch where we were under him.
Arsenal are spending £180m on players this summer because:
- Arteta took the youngest team in the league to 22 wins, more than the European Champions
- We banked 69 points, enough for top 4 the last two seasons
- The team generated the 4th most shots
- The team generated the 4th most shots on target
- The team basically did all of this without a goalscoring striker
- Arteta has the fans in the ground BOUNCING for the first time in Emirate history. The mood around the club hasn’t been this good since peak-Wenger years
- The mission last season was to get back into Europe.
Arteta didn’t exit the season needing excuses.
We exited the season wounded because the team confounded expectations and made an argument they were a top 4 team.
Arsenal don’t have excuses, they have areas of improvement to address:
Squad rotation: Arteta needs to listen to his fitness folk and bring more players into the mixer next season.
How we solve:
- Arteta will be more experienced next year and learn from the pain of what happened with Partey, Tierney, and Tomi
- The club might look to the dark arts of Liverpool and be more aggressive about protecting the club from international friendlies
- Arsenal are adding more weight to the squad. We’re not buying filler, we’re buying KILLER (you like that). Bukayo is easier to rest if you have Raphinha. Tierney can be benched for Lisandro. Odegaard can be rested for Vieira.
End Product: Arsenal struggled with end product. Be that the killer pass or the killer strike.
How we solve:
- We’re adding a Premier League-proven talent to our striker force
- We tied down one of the sharpest young strikers in the league, giving Eddie a new deal
- We’re adding goals and assists in attack, tying down Vieira and chasing Raphinha HARD
Weak links at fullback: Both Tomi and KT are injury prone, cover has been weak
- We’re signing a player to compete with Kieran Tierney who has showed poor fitness over the past 3 seasons
- We have more options at right-back with Ben White and William Saliba. There might also be an option for Ainsley to come back in an be cover
Bravery under pressure: Arsenal fell to pieces in some crucial games where wins would have taken us to the promised land
- I don’t want to hear ‘chokers’ when it comes to young players. These kids will learn from their experiences and have more tools to pick from when pressure time comes next season. There aren’t many players born to deal with pressure, it’s a learned experience, don’t buy into anyone that tells you otherwise.
- We’re adding monster characters to the dressing room that will set the tone for the dressing room mood. Raphinha, Jesus, and Vieira all have winning mentality and experience. Tielemans and Lisandro have games built on bravery.
None of the above counts for excuses unless you are of a childish disposition or you’ve never built something in the real world.
Too many people that write about football don’t understand that sport is a process, there are ups and downs, progress is not linnear. People don’t understand that spending money does not guarantee anything. Just look at Chelsea and how they stagnated under Thomas Tuchel last season. Look at United who spent money on pure winnertivity, only to drop right out of the mixer. Look at how well Leicester have done a season after Arsenal fans said they were a better place to ply your trade than Arsenal: they found mid-table mediocrity. All of those clubs had managers Arsenal fans banged the table for, all of them have struggled.
Arsenal has one of the best projects in Europe. We have owners that are now certified winners. We have investment that looks very, very promising. There is momentum and we can all feel it.
If you are sitting there, looking at this summer thinking… if Arteta doesn’t get to X position, we should sack him. Then you are not doing football right. I worry that there are kids that think shouting STANDARDS into the ether means they have them. That behaving like that is progressive. That not having a better idea but shitting on one that is working means you are a cut above. But… who really gives a shit, because the ground is rocking and the folk that feed off of rage are not making much money off the algorithm these days.
Fuck the bores. Let’s crack on and enjoy what is set to be a blockbuster week and potentially the best transfer window of the last 20 years. Arsenal are MASSIVE.
Podcast coming later my darlings.
9pm NEW YORK time
8pm MIDWEST TIME
6pm LA time
I read that Saliba is responding well to talks to extend his contract.
That’s from the tabloids, by the way.
LT Do you mean if we are far from a 4th position by January? Then he needs to be sacked IMO. Emery got sacked by January because he was far from delivering anything. If we can’t realistically catch teams ahead of us then what is the point in waiting the whole season. Get a new manager in and give him 6 months to prepare for a new season. But I have to say, I am confident it won’t go tits up by January. The players we are signing and the depth we have will probably help us smash most teams.… Read more »
Dissenter Yeah. We will be a far more attractive team to join than we were 2 and half years ago. For that Arteta deserves credit. We have very capable players now. Remember the reports that Luis Enrique wasn’t happy to join such a disjointed team back then? That won’t happen now. Managers will jump at the chance to coach this team. And the Saliba contract talks have surprised me. You can say anything about Arteta but he is for sure a sales man. He some how convinced players to either sign for Arsenal or sign a new contract, even some… Read more »
That is Arteta’s quality, a superb sales man 😂😂😂.
Besides being a decent coach of course. But we will find out this season if he is a very good coach instead of a decent one.
Habesha and LT – you’ve just proved my point – why these negative posts ?
With Raphina, I have the feeling that we are in a used car sale transaction with Leeds
For them to keep asking for >60million is ridiculous, surely we can find better value in the market.
North Banker I am sorry if it came off negative. I am actually optimistic on our chances this coming season. I am excited to see what we can do. I was just responding to this part of the Pedro’s post. “ ”””””If you are sitting there, looking at this summer thinking… if Arteta doesn’t get to X position, we should sack him. Then you are not doing football right.”””””””‘ And I don’t agree with that. I think 4th is the minimum expectations this coming season. And I am just discussing that. But I want Arteta and Arsenal to succeed this… Read more »
Northbanker
There’s nothing Habesha has written in the last hour that’s remotely negative
Serge
I hope it is, would love Rahphina and Saka on the wings with Jesus in the middle. Good times.
Did someone just mention Chamakh? Damn those were some tough days even though we were making top 4. He actually had a decent start, scored 10 goals from Aug till November I think. But then just turned to an utter useless body on the pitch.
Dissenter
Raphinha is top class. He is better than most wingers in the market. My concern is if we don’t get a Xhaka upgrade in CM. But I have no issues with paying 60 mil for Raphinha if it means we would still get a CM and a LB. What I have issues with is if we leave ourselves short in one position and blow 60 mil on Raphinha.
60 plus for Rahphina should not be an issue. He is a class player and most importantly, has played in England. I cannot stomach another Pepe like signing where we splash 75 mill on a player who couldn’t adjust to the Premier League.
Man city are the assassins of the transfer business
They way they got the Curucella and Kalvin Phillips deals done is just stone cold. Then rob clubs if their best players with considerable ease.
Raphinha = Brilliant player
Why oh why do a section on here consistently look for the very worst scenario in every situation. I just hope they don’t spend their private and work lives catastrophizing every new event. The tedium and damage to partners and colleagues would be borderline intolerable.
Jesus….. and Holy mother Mary
No sensible manager buys a player who wants to be elsewhere. Understandable Raphina wants Barca, Deco is his agent. We should step away and let Leeds stew in the Barca juice. If Barca screw them (as is likely), the chances are Raphina will fall in love with Arsenal.
Sounds like Raphinha wants Barca tbh.
Think much will hinge on the Lewandowski deal because Barca definitely will not be able to match the £65m Leeds want if they pay the £50m for Lewy.
De Jong likely going to United, they want his wages off the books, apparently £350k p/w
Will they use those funds for Raphinha or Bernardo?
I’d love Raphinha at Arsenal, but at some point over the next 7-10 days we’ll need to pull the plug, and go in a different direction if we can’t get a positive answer
As much as we may like to believe it’s a choice, let’s be real and admit that we cannot compete with Barca as a dream destination for a player.
If they stump up the cash he’s theirs.
Rich
They had mounting debts and still have to redevelop the Nou camp
Lewandowski is their prime target; his transfer will still be low sizable and his wages will be immense.
Barcelona are insane, Lewandowski is 34 in August…
Talk of a 3 yr deal, they’re absolutely bonkers
I mean sure he could fall off the cliff soon enough but for now Lewy is still a 50 goal a season ST.
That’s worth every penny of what they’ll pay. Real Madrid have Benzema who is 9 months older leading the line.
Chelsea are in a puddle this summer
There are going to get some good Ae,Evian tried landing on their door step.
They don’t have a DoF and are leaning on Tuchel to call the shots, a position he has never been in. Tuchel has worked under a strong DoF all his career and never had to develop the conventional manager’s skill set.
Then the American billionaire is doing the deals? WTF.
Wenger Eagle
Lewa has played most of his professional career in the Bundesliga
I’m not so sure he’s a 50 goal/season center forward in another top league
Valentin made the point about Messi not replicating La Liga numbers in ligue Un NLD he wasn’t wrong.
Do you think Lewa scores 30 goal/season in the premier league at this late stage of his career?
Pedro,
Re Chelsea:
I read that Marina is staying until the window closes, which would make sense.
When you said that Todd B. chasing Renaldo I’m sure he wants to make a splash in his first transfer window,. However, when you said it was “not good news”, did you mean it wasn’t good news for Arsenal or it wasn’t good news for Chelsea. I tend to believe it’s not good news for Chelsea. I’m not sure Tuchel will welcome him with open arms.
”Do you think Lewa scores 30 goal/season in the premier league at this late stage of his career?”
Yes. Well, 25-30 anyway.
He has averaged more than a goal a game in the CL for how many years now? Where else does he need to prove himself to you? Before you say international he has a very good record there and it’s a different sport practically and moot as far as club level is concerned.
I f Raphinha wants to leave the PL then we should just use whatever we offered Leeds to go all out and get Gnabry back.
Pedro,
Agreed… our players are not chokers.
But it’s not too bad to say our young players choked towards the end. They were weak under pressure on that occasion. It’s in the past, and they’ll have that experience to help them next time against the big clubs.
I don’t care what anybody says though, they only crumbled when a ref handed spurs a ridiculous penalty that changed a huge game.
I don’t think it’s really wrong to be thinking Arteta needs top 4 to stay…. in the back of our minds maybe..,,,
But to be talking about it right at this moment,, after a successful season, with a lot of individual progress and completing a rebuild this summer (hopefully), seems a bit of poor taste.
I think Mikel may struggle adjusting to a bigger squad if some of these deals go through, so it could be a tricky season for him personally. I’m definitely cheering for him and the boys.. and even Josh Kroenke, because I am excited for Arsenal.
Can’t wait to see who the real striker signing is going to be in 6-12 months. The Auba signing after the Lacazette signing all over again.
Graham, you had no doubts that Sean Dyche was a better coach than Arteta last season, so maybe we are all in a better place if you doubt Arteta? You haven’t exactly been on the money with this project, have you?
TH14
Interesting thought you ve got there. It crossed my mind too but boy do we want a repeat of that ? I m really hoping Jesus and Nketiah bang real loud. if we end up buying a new striker, It better be because we are doing a Haaland, buying a top player to evolve us even higher.
Nigel, when young people fail, it’s experience, not choking.
TH14, Jesus is moving from the best side the Premier League has ever seen at his peak in the most innovative system in world football.
He’s nothing like Auba or Lacazette.
Assists/through-balls like Fabregas, dribbles like Cazorla, glides like Nasri, named like Vieira, welcome to Arsenal Fabio.
P.S Stole half of that from YouTube
Pedro
On that note, do you think we have enough or are targeting enough experience for the upcoming season General ?
Pedro
Jesus: £40m
Vieira: £30m
Lisandro: £35m
Tielemans: £25m
Raphinha: £50m
If we bring on the above then it will be a tremendously ambitious window fir the club and Arteta has to get credit for inspiring ownership to spend significant money for two straight years.
However, his job also requires getting the best out of the players. You were right in saying that only Top 4 will be satisfactory next season (I would add a Europa League win and Top 6 would suffice) but anything less than that should be the red line that costs him his job.
Pedro
I understand congratulations are in order. Don’t blame yourself too much if your daughter’s first words are “Arteta in!”
Congratulations!
Pedro
One other thing, I’m glad you finally came around to my way of thinking about Gabi J. I was ahead of the curve in this one!!! To be fair to you you were ahead on Arteta as Arsenal manager so I think we are even. 😜
Until now Arteta hasn’t had a chance to build an attack – and to his credit he didn’t go for the most popular choice. He went for the ones he wanted.
Well done Mikael for standing your ground. I hope Eddie and Gabi prove you right.
Just wana say
AFCF we get it you coached a team, your knowledge of the game is far superior to anyone else’s here 🙄🥱🙄🥱
Leeds,
‘One other thing, I’m glad you finally came around to my way of thinking about Gabi J. I was ahead of the curve in this one!!!’
I’m out here taking Ls all week! You were right!
Naija, if we get all those players, we will compete for the league in 2 seasons time
I’ve been pretty outspoken the last few days about the Jesus signing. I believe he is a quality player coming from a winning system and Arteta knows him well, which is a bonus. My issue with him is his lack of scoring this past season. Four goals before the Watford game is anaemic. Also, his pressures, interceptions, and tackles stats are worse than Laca. His EPL scoring last season was equal equal to Laca’s four goals (other than Watford) I really hope he works out but 5 years $45 mil for a player with declining stats just doesn’t sit right… Read more »
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/arsenal-next-bellingham-tielemans-silence-24327523
Yes please. Would be nice to scoop up one of these super hyped youngsters before they explode for once.
The KSE year just getting better adding a Stanley Cup to its Super Bowl title.
Jesus in no idea whose to follow but it’s surely getting interesting, didn’t think we’d land him.
Well done Edu you pitmaster.
Holding: £18m
Xhaka: £15m
Torreira: £15m
Ballard: £5m
Bernd: £12m
Ains: £5m
Nico: £15m
Pablo: £5m
Nelson: £2m
Hector: £8m
These are really optimistic numbers
I don’t think Pepe, Torreira and Bellerin are sellable given their wages.
Pepe perhaps to another mid-sized club but if he goes abroad, it is likely on loan.
Torreira is only on the Serie A market and his wages are prohibitive
Bellerin sale is possible only if he agrees to stay in EPL
i am now officially over the disappointment of last season. really didn’t think i’d be able to
in other news the world cup is happening this winter in qatar and no one’s going to jail for it? whatsup w that?
one positive is its looking like a season where the know it all know nothing cynics of LG will be even quieter than last
Klopp October 2015 “ if we don’t win the PL title in the next four years then I will have failed”
Pedro October 2020 : “Arteta is on exactly the same trajectory as Klopp was when he placed 8th in his first season”
Pedro now: If Arteta gets all the players he wants we will compete for the league in 2024.
Yep, the same.
I knew Arteta could pull Gab Jesus. There’s a lot of respect for Arteta among Man City players. They know him. We here have no idea about what he does with his players, but it’s working so far. If we start convincing other quality players to join us, with no CL, then word is out among players and agents that the project is exciting. Of course, It’s a combination of Premier league, cash, London, History too… but mostly good things happening at the club. Any neutral fans that are honest, envy what we’re doing. Even Goldbridge compliments what Arteta and… Read more »
Tom – well done for attaching a quote from a different manager than linking a view from the site owner to create a likely failure point for Arteta. As Arteta has never held himself to that it’s an interesting view you have.
So extending that logic does the the Wig Wearing serial winner have to win the title in say 2 years? Particularly as he has just bought the greatest player to ever grace the premiership in Perisic?
Cmon now you think Conte is way way better so two years should be enough !
Arsenal were in a mess when Arsene Wenger left the club. The board were mostly in their 70s and the senior management had allowed the club to stagnate with a bloated squad of grossly overpaid and underperforming players. It has taken four years to put the house in order with some expensive mistakes in the transfer market. Over the last two years the club has been offloading players mostly at significant loss, but at least reducing the wage bill. There are still probably 7-8 first team squad players on the payroll who need to be offloaded apart from Guendouzi, Mavropanos… Read more »
I’m pleased we’ve signed him. I think we need to tone down the argument that he’s leaving City because the Arsenal project is more exciting
He moved because he’s not going to get game time and he will get significantly more money at Arsenal.
MarkyMark, not sure why I’m even responding to someone who can’t follow the thread, comprehend what’s written, and makes shit up. My dig was at Pedro and not Arteta, for changing his tune as it suits him. Arteta never set hard goals so technically he can’t fail. As for Conte winning the PL…..I actually said he wouldn’t, not with the Spurs. Nor have I said he was better for Arsenal than Arteta, hence why I never wanted him. What I said literally was him going to Spurs was a bad development for us because he would get the most out… Read more »
TOM
Spurs may be in the equation for top 4 finish this season, but my view is that they will move in downward direction in next two seasons.
They are heavily in debt following building of stadium and I don’t think that they can compete financially in transfer market. The same may be also the case with Manchester United when you see what costs they need to incur in rebuilding their stadium and training ground.
“Spurs may be in the equation for top 4 finish this season, but my view is that they will move in downward direction in next two seasons.”
I never argued otherwise.
Fact is Conte can fuck off any minute if he doesn’t get his way. But for the time being he’s improving them.
Stroller, United are a different proposition because of their sustained spending power and high wage incentives.
With some astute signings ten Hag can get them into the top four picture as early as next season.
Arteta took the youngest team in the league to 22 wins, more than the European Champions — And 13 losses! We banked 69 points, enough for top 4 the last two seasons — but we were 8th and 8th last two season. 5th this season! The team generated the 4th most shots — no end product! The team generated the 4th most shots on target — we were having a negative goal difference for most part of the season. The team basically did all of this without a goalscoring striker – yet Laca was played for forever without scoring and… Read more »
The Baard,
Arsenal project is more exciting.
Winning the PL every season and competing for the CL trophy gets boring after awhile I’m sure.
“Alex Mitton
@Alexmitton10
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Ivan Perisic reached a top speed of 21mph in European matches this season. This is higher than ANY of the Tottenham Squad.
Age is not an issue. #THFC”
This from Twitter explaining why Perisic isn’t slow.
Two year deal at 100kpw on a free isn’t even worthy of a discussion on an Arsenal blog, yet here we are.
You love it Tom, goodness knows why!
Morning all
Congratulations Pedro on the baby girl, long time reader very sporadic poster.
Surely with the number 1st teamers Pedro called Gabriel the writings on the wall so to speak 🙂
Hope mother and baby doing well
Jesus at Arsenal, Perisic at Tottenham. What’s not to like 👍
Okay so we got Jesus. Mostly when people talk about his attributes, one of the first things they mention is “he’s great at leading the press…”. Which is a good attribute, but we are talking about a team lacking goal threat, spending a decent chunk of their transfer money, on what is going to be their number one striker. That does not sit right with me. Also, when I think of a goal scorer, and his attributes, I think of someone who first and foremost is confidant in his abilities. To the point of being cocky. You think Henry, Wright,… Read more »
Tom
If you read latest reports on Man Utd they are in a mess.
They are not only £500 million in debt, but the cost of rebuilding stadium and training facilities are huge and apparently difficult to finance.
Moreover they have owners who have just taken out of club £11 million to fund their own
requirements.
Sooner or later they need to sort out ownership of club. Their current owners are not in the
league of other clubs.
Aasim
Well I think we are getting Gab J becoz he is obtainable.
And he is an elite talent. Maybe not Haaland but you need to keep your marbles and not go after folks blindly.
And nothing is a guarantee. Look at Lukaku.
I mean look, we obviously needed someone to play striker and couldn’t possibly have gone into the season with Eddie as our main guy. But even today:
– Halland, Sterling, Alvarez, Mahrez
– Darwin, Firmino, Diaz, Jota
– Lukaku, Werner, Harvetz
– Kane, Son, Perisic, Kula, Moura
– Jesus, Eddie, Saka, ESR
– Cristiano, Rashford, Sancho
Looking at the above, do we seriously think our goal threat is one of the top four…..
missed Salah in the above ….. !!!!
Jesus + Eddie will contribute plenty of goal threat, both are penalty box strikers. With the quality of Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe from out wide, players who are maturing, and should certainly add more end product this season We might sign Raphinha who’s a top player, who should in theory hit the ground running, if not you’d have to expect us to look elsewhere for another top forward Odegaard + Vieira behind them, and maybe even Tielemans, or a similar profile if we can clear the deck a bit. We’d have excellent pressing forwards in Eddie, Jesus, Raphinha, Odegaard, Martinelli… Read more »
Jesus is a lovely signing . Pressing from the front is what I want to see.
Saliba new contract, come on!
Aasim
City – 1
Liverpool – 2
S*urs – 3
Arsenal – 4
Chelsea and United are both in a state of flux. I mean you have the gall to throw Luakau, Rashford and Sancho into the mix.
Regarding Strikers and goals,
1. Cant we expect at least 10 goals from each of Jesus, Eddie, Saka, Martinelli and ESR/Raphinia – give a total of 50 (Forward Line)
2. Expect at least 5 from each of – Ode, Viera/Tielamens/smith – 15 (Midfield)
3. 10 from others across the team – 10 (Defenders primarily)
We get 75 goals from a conservative estimate, don’t you think?
Madhu – ESR has 2 targets then
Sid are you drunk spurs over pool and us ?
Northbanker – If ESR repeats his current output we should be good. 10 goals either as midfielder or forward line should be good
At the start of this transfer window Arsenal’s priorities were clearly the recruitment of a centre forward to replace Lacazette, a central midfield to rotate with Partey and Xhaka and a centre back to rotate with White and Gabriel. Two of those positions appear to have been resolved with the return of Saliba and recruitment of Jesus. Arsenal’s other requirements were to beef up our squad. Leno was clearly going to leave club this summer and has been replaced in goalkeeping department by Turner. Vieira has been also added as an attacking midfield option. Raphinha has been touted as a… Read more »
I don’t know what other teams will do, but if we get our targets, here are my targets:
My minimum target is 75 points/goals
My hope would be for us to achieve 79 points/goals
If we smash it, then 84 points/goals is possible. Following season this should definitely be an attainable goal.
Madhu
We scored 61 PL goals last season. If we sign Jesus, Raphinha, Tielemans, a quality left back, and secure the futures of Saka, Martinelli + Saliba
I’d like to see roughly a 50% increase, so 90 league goals would be a reasonable expectation
I wouldn’t see that as being an unreasonable expectation, with a combination of adding 3 experienced PL players, just about to enter their prime, alongside internal improvements, and a much stronger bench
With the Stanley Cup on the shelf now, a cheeky call to Stan while he’s in a good mood, must be Edu’s first bit of business today. Raphinha, Martinez, Tellemans aaaaaand Gnabry please.
If Chelsea don’t get their act together, I could see them missing out in top 4 to us and spurs. Sterling will be an improvement on their forwards. But they will still have scoring issues because of a genuine CF. Havertz is okay but I don’t think he will get them the league goals they need. Lukaku is leaving. And Werner is being offered to Juventus as a make weight for De Ligt. Even then Juventus are going to be stubborn. If Chelsea get Kounde, De ligt, Sterling, a backup to James and a striker then we would still be… Read more »
WW If we were to spend: Jesus £45mill Raphinha £50-£60mill Vieira £30-£35mil Tielemans £25mill Martinez £35-£40mill That’s £150-£165million just on attacking players Then add in Saliba and possibly an expensive left back. I’ve continually made the argument that we’re a young team, and that there’s an offset to developing young players, which there is. But that excuse can’t hang around forever, I’d expect Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Sambi, Odegaard, Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Nketiah Too all be better next season, than they were this season, particularly if we improve the quality around them I get that we’ll have a heavier… Read more »
Sales are our weakness and sales are essential to drive this buys
Marina G needs to be the next signing
so far I’m happy with Edu and team with the buying now need to support the buying 🙂
Chrispy
You know sometimes we need to be realistic. Gnabry, Lewandowski, folks like them…..we have nothing to offer.
For Gabriel Jesus, we can offer first team football. Tielemans we can offer a pay bump. Same with likes of Raphina. For Martinez, we can offer the dis functionality of a United transfer.
If Chelsea is indeed after Raphina, I think he will head there. But he isn’t so we are in the clear.
I don’t think we should be selling holding. Not the best player but a decent back up. Getting 7-10m for him isn’t much and I would rather have him as back up then have to start playing xhaka or Tierney at CB, when we start collecting injuries and suspensions.
Habesha,
They all look like good moved for Chelsea, but not sure they’d be improving that much unless the striker is HOT. Replacing Rudiger and Christensen and an ageing Thiago Silva is not going to be easy in season one. Thereafter, they should prove to be upgrades. Gonna be interesting to see what goes in over there, but it looks like 3rd place defo up for grabs.
also with the European games — and hopefully with longer runs in the other cups 🙂 — the squad will be forced to get the rotation and first-team preparation that was neglected last season
so I’m not oo worried about the extra games
Rich
I stated that as a minimum target. I said the one I would hope to achieve is 79 points/goals.
It’s rare that so many new faces gel straight away. My expectation is a ten point leap, but WC dynamics make me consider minimal requirements.
Following season I expect 84+ points.
Season after that I expect 90+.
I think that’s a realistic expectation given age profiles of the team.
Obviously I’d love them to overachieve, but I’ve learned to have 3 tier target systems to allow for context.
And yes I agree with you that quality of football should be significantly improved
Rich, you might have to reign that 7-players in double figures thing. I don’t think that any club has even had seven players with double digit goals in a PL season. Last season Liverpool had 3 (Salah, Mane, Jota) and City had 3 (DeBryune, Sterling, Mahrez). Most of the other big clubs had two. One name that does stand out and could be a decent short term solution if cheap enough is our old friend Zaha who got 14 PL goals. If Raphinha if out of the picture then for say £20m I’d take him and we’re probably good for… Read more »
Pedro, would still like to know what your expectations are for the upcoming season if we land all our transfer targets.
Tom of course you’re right. Challenging for top honours every year playing outstanding teams is boring. Give me a midtable meaningless game every day of the week.
I believe the Jesus signing is huge. For so many reasons. Firstly, here we have a player with CL pedigree choosing to join a team not in the Champions League. Other teams were interested who have CL football but he made his mind up he wanted to join Arsenal. I love that. He’s coming here because he wants to, he’s not choosing us because we provide Champions League football. As an Arsenal fan, it’s important to me our players show they want to be here and care. This is so positive. It is a massive coo for us. The effect… Read more »
Andy We’re in the Europa, if we end up with these forward options, we’ll also be better equipped to compete in the domestic cups: Odegaard, Vieira Saka, Raphinha Martinelli, Smith Rowe Jesus, Nketiah We should see some serious stat padding against lower level opposition with this type of depth, particularly at home with players keen to impress to get chances in the bigger games, I don’t think we’ll get 7 into double figures in the league, but in all comps I think we’ll come lose to doing it, providing they all stay fit, that’s not an unreasonable expectation in anyway… Read more »
Received a new signing alert from Arsenal official and my heart missed a beat cos I thought it was the Jesus announcement. It turned out to be the Matt Turner announcement…. Bummer! Welcome to the Arsenal anyway, Matt. Hopefully you give Ramsdale enough competition to make him replicate his early form with us last season
Opening game ..palace away . Viera knows the game and he will know how to play against and unsettle Arsenal. Relentless pressing and in our face for 90 minutes is what he will expect , let’s hope connor Gallagher isn’t playing as he is a player that unsettles the opposition with his physicality when he presses. Viera wiĺl not let partey or Odegaard breathe for a second , he’s not bothered about Xhaka as he can’t hurt the opposition.. Vieira knows that by cutting out the supply to Partey and Odegaard our wide players will have to drop deeper and… Read more »
Rich “I’ve had more patience than most, I didn’t believe that sacking Emery was the magic pill some thought it would be, and I’ve had patience with Arteta through some really trying moments, because I didn’t think our squad/team had been great” Emery had no chance. Biggest mistake they made was not listening to Freddie that should have sounded the warning bells. Poor attitudes and unbalanced squad. Always my position that we needed a complete reset after years of mismanagement. Which is why I have backed the current regime so steadfastly. The thought of starting again makes me feel sick.… Read more »
Rich, and this is why I think we need at least one 15-20 PL goals a season man (preferably two). Otherwise we aren’t going to get 90+ PL goals. We can’t do it by expecting so many individuals to contribute (that’s never happened in the PL). You mention that last season City had seven players score 10+ in all competitions which is true but only TWO scored double-digit PL goals (Sterling and Gundogan). You also have to remember that only four or five can be in the team at any one time so they can’t all score ten plus, if… Read more »
Exciting times!
Tho Pedro you’ve subtracted 5m from most of those inbound transfer fees lol
I also think you can subtract 15% from all the sales values
But regardless if we do sign the players we’re currently linked with it looks as tho josh is basically bank rolling us. If that’s the case the numbers might not *really* matter
Pierre
That game will definitely be a good test of character. Can we handle the physicality.
AFC – My thoughts exactly with the G.Jesus signing. We’ve been linked with so many strikers the last year or so but the importance of desire to play for Arsenal cannot be understated. This is a player that actually wants to play for Arsenal rather than using links to Arsenal to agitate for a move elsewhere or for higher pay. Its important in the grand scheme of squad building.