Priority this summer

If Kronke is investing £250m in players in the summer its because Arsenal have or are paying for it. It wont be coming out of his pocket, except maybe if there is a very compelling reason fr him to doso, like he'll sell but add 1/2 billion to the price.

comment by WB2 {Tackle Like Tierney} (U8276)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
Given the complete sh !t show of decisions so far, why any of you would want Arteta backed with 250 mil I don't feckin know. That'd just be a feck up of a season same as this, only it'd cost us 250 mil first. No matter who he buys he'll still feck it up because of the simple basic fact HE CAN'T MANAGE PLAYERS, he's utterly dire at it. So bad he literally kills his own players will to play.

That aside any Arsenal fan should be more than clued enough onke by now to know that figure is a bunch of BS. And never going to be given to any manager to spend whilst that yank feck and his brat kid own and run the club. Not unless it's over 4 or 5 seasons/9 or 10 windows anyway. Seriously, ifke had any intention at all of spending that kind of money then he'd be sacking Arteta for sure because it's also enough of a transfer budget to attract almost any top manager too. So Arteta not being sacked is proof no big transfer spend coming.

Do note this just happens to be a big spending pledge in a window where ever so conveniently for the man making the promises, we won't be able to attract the best and more expensive players due to no euro football anyway. He's blowing smoke up ya ass and telling you ya on fire. It'sBS so don't even start to by into the false promises yet again. Been there, done that and got a decades worth of t-shirts and videos.

And shame on you OP for believing in that fairy tale
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It's a tragedy that we didn't have Ja606 in 1996. Imagine the meltdowns WB2 would have been having then.

Though WB2 enjoys a bit of hyperbole he/she has a point.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-arsenal/transfers/verein/11

Look at the values of the players now compared to the fee we paid for those players.

Thomas Partey Defensive Midfield 27
Net Present Value - £36.00m
Fee Paid - £45.00m
Loss - £9m

Gabriel Centre Back 22
Net Present Value - £18.00m
Fee Paid - £23.40m
Loss - £5.4m

Pablo Marí Centre-Back 26
Net Present Value - £4.32m
Fee Paid - £4.50m
Loss - £0.18m

Not one player has improved under Arteta. This should be a concern if KSE are truly going to spend £250m.

That's a fair point Jenius. It should be tempered by the fact that much of the supposed values of these players is due to the form of the team which, despite being good this calendar year, was relegation standard at times. If we're talking with our eyes, instead of Transfermarkt, we can see several players that have massively improved under Arteta. Pepe, Xhaka, Holding, Chambers, Saka, ESR and Elneny have all taken big strides this season. You can put Saka and ESR down to youth, but Pepe and Xhaka are particular success stories. Elneny has a low ceiling, but under Arteta he has a much higher floor.

Partey has massively regressed since moving here. The player he looked in his first few games has barely been seen. A lot of that is injuries and a loss of confidence, so I do expect to see him improve next season. Gabriel was our player of the month for several running, and also seems to have lost a little confidence. Arteta certainly made mistakes with the backline, and one of them was not having settled partnerships. Towards the end of the season you could see him tending to pair the same CB's together and we began to see the likes of Gabriel regain form under him. I believe strongly in his potential. Mari is as good as he was before we signed him imo.

The fact that club shipped out so many players for free, or even paid to get rid of them, shows that there were a great many cultural issues within the squad. There's no way the Kroenkes would sign off on that without good reason, no matter how much Arteta wanted them gone. Our form has improved massively in the second half, and a lot of that is ESR and Ødegaard, but the squad itself seemed a lot more settled and calm. I don't think the players that left were rats, or anything of the sort, but relationships can sour and turn toxic, which certainly did with Özil. It's also worth remembering that this is one of the most competitive premier league seasons that I can remember. City "running away with the league" amounted to 84 points. The last time a second placed team finished with so few points was us, when Leicester won it. The time before that was a decade ago. We have a slightly skewed sense of our points tally relative to the competition as a result of that and our disastrous start.

Emery inherited a mess from Wenger. Arteta inherited a mess from Wenger, Emery, Gazidis and Sanllehi. Time will tell if Mikel is actually good enough, but he has had some extraordinarily bad circumstances to work with. There's enough going right to suggest that he's far from a disaster.

Girøulski

Your opinion seems to be underpinned by the hope that we carry our form from end of this season into next season. I believe that is a very dangerous trap to fall into for the following reason.

a) Though our accumulated total number of points since Jan is only second to Man City, it has not actually translated into a move up the table. Why is that? Could it be because no one was very consistent this season but when others needed to get results they did? And we did not! What does it say about ability to play under pressure? or specifically the manager's ability to beat the teams we are supposed to! You cannot look at points total in isolation if 7 other teams had a total number of points greater than you! Arteta was still the manager before Jan. Why weren't we better in the first half of the season? You could point to ESR's impact etc. But he was already at the club. I think if anything it suggests that Arteta fluked into using ESR instead of Willian. Not out of some plan but desperation. Which then leads into (b).

b) We start a fresh in September. Teams will strengthen. They will change managers. Tactics will be different in front of crowds. Our away form (that has sustained our points total in the second half of the season) will go down because of fan noise. Our home form will improve. Teams will be used to playing against ESR and will prepare for him. So the question will be will Arteta be able to adjust all the new variables? He didn't last season and if it takes another 3 months for him to come up with a team that will already be too late and we will end up with another mid table finish. Just like Arteta's first season and his second.

At Christmas we were 15th and we finished 8th a few points off top 4.

I would say that does constitute a good move up the table.

If we sign the players we are linked to:

-----------------------Leno
Aarons----Tapaoba----Gabriel----Tierney
------------Partey-----Bissouma
Pepe------------Buendia--------Saka
--------------------Auba

And who put us down to 15th? The same players get us to 8th and that is considered achievement?

The implication of my comment was to qualify us for Europe which should the minimum requirement for a club Arsenal's size. That would have been a sign of improvement from where we were.

What difference would it had been if we had finished 15th? Or do you think Arsenal are now 'lets avoid relegation' type club?

Buendia
Bissouma
Odsonne Édouard (or just any competent striker)
Aouar
Bertrand or any cheap backup LB

The RB position between Cedric and Chambers is well covered. We shouldn’t be spending money on that position given how underwhelming other parts of the squad are.

Given we are losing Willian, Ceballos and potentially Odegaard, I wouldn’t be against going for another attacking option such as Zaha.

Apart from Bissouma, I do feel like the focus this summer has to be on attacking players. We had the 3rd best defensive record in the league but finished 8th because our strike force and build up play was woeful for most of the season. That cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.

I would get rid of one of Auba or Laca depending on who we can get the highest fee for. Truth be told, i wouldn’t be against getting rid of both if we could find some competent replacements for them.

comment by NorthLondonGunner (U22220)
posted 3 hours, 50 minutes ago
Buendia
Bissouma
Odsonne Édouard (or just any competent striker)
Aouar
Bertrand or any cheap backup LB

The RB position between Cedric and Chambers is well covered. We shouldn’t be spending money on that position given how underwhelming other parts of the squad are.

Given we are losing Willian, Ceballos and potentially Odegaard, I wouldn’t be against going for another attacking option such as Zaha.

Apart from Bissouma, I do feel like the focus this summer has to be on attacking players. We had the 3rd best defensive record in the league but finished 8th because our strike force and build up play was woeful for most of the season. That cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.

I would get rid of one of Auba or Laca depending on who we can get the highest fee for. Truth be told, i wouldn’t be against getting rid of both if we could find some competent replacements for them.
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Don't you dare get my hopes up about losing Willian. Dont!

comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 1 day, 5 hours ago
Girøulski

Your opinion seems to be underpinned by the hope that we carry our form from end of this season into next season. I believe that is a very dangerous trap to fall into for the following reason.

a) Though our accumulated total number of points since Jan is only second to Man City, it has not actually translated into a move up the table. Why is that? Could it be because no one was very consistent this season but when others needed to get results they did? And we did not! What does it say about ability to play under pressure? or specifically the manager's ability to beat the teams we are supposed to! You cannot look at points total in isolation if 7 other teams had a total number of points greater than you! Arteta was still the manager before Jan. Why weren't we better in the first half of the season? You could point to ESR's impact etc. But he was already at the club. I think if anything it suggests that Arteta fluked into using ESR instead of Willian. Not out of some plan but desperation. Which then nto (b).

b) We start a fresh in September. Teams will strengthen. They will change managers. Tactics will be different in front of crowds. Our away form (that has sustained our points total in the second half of the season) will go down because of fan noise. Our home form will improve. Teams will be used to playing against ESR and will prepare for him. So the question will be will Arteta be able to adjust all the new variables? He didn't last season and if it takes another 3 months for him to come up with a team that will already be too late and we will end up with another mid table finish. Just like Arteta's first season and his second.
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I agree with your points.
For me, Arteta is the issue. The beginning of the season, all our play was down the left wing. We completely gave up on playing through the middle or the right.

Arteta stumbled onto ESR. That was pure desperation due to injuries etc. And even then..Odegaard came in and ESR gets shunted to the left. Why??? Why ruin a good flow.

Pepe would play a good game...and then get dropped. Cedric (contrary to popular opinion is actually a good RB) has barely played recently. Chambers is not going to be the RB we need. Bellerin is done. Yet they both are in front of Cedric.

Arteta's man management is appalling. I honestly cannot believe that chucking new players into the mix will help. He did not get the best out of these players at all.