Arsenal get the transfer window right, mostly

50 comments

1. It will take a long while to turn the ship in the right direction. That being a high profile selling club that regularly is in the Champions League and competing for honors, but realistically…. nobody is knocking City off. Liverpool is kidding themselves. So long as Pep Guardiola is their manager and City can spend 120m+ on two elite players every transfer window, the rest are just competing for top 4.

   1. Not necessarily Jack.
      To three peat will be immensely difficult and while I used to think along the same lines , injuries sometimes have a funny way of derailing a season.
      City’s two most influential players, arguably , in Silva and Fernandinho are 33 and 34 years old respectively, and although the latter can play a CB position quite effectively he might not have the legs to be as influential protecting the back line anymore over the course of the season.

      1. And Sane is out or 6 months with a knee injury.

         That said, Rodri will probably play more games holding than Fernandinho.

         1. Is he? Ha, didn’t even know that.
            Too bad for him, always liked him.

2. scousers 4-0 up before half time..
   mmm

3. It’s not just investing 100m every season but investing in the right player to fill a role in need. We also need one to three academy players to come good. One to be at least established and the others to be squad players knocking on the door to be starters or play a role consistently.

   Feels like arsenal’s season will start on two months. Hope we pick enough points to be in the race for fourth.

4. City may be in their comfort zone at present. But.
   What’s the credo? “That thing that just happened? Will keep happening forever?”
   Hardly ever works out that way.

   So, the perspective on 2021 and beyond– all things considered? Is the target period for Arsenal to have the gears mesh for a title run.

   City has had good fortune as well the past 2 seasons. They are deep as a well– but also haven’t had to rely on playing with a rash of injuries. Don’t wish it on anybody– but they don’t win last season with KDB out– had Gundogan also gone down. One point is just one point. (Don’t forget how this season VAR can easily change things by a point or 3 unexpectedly.)

   Same token for Pool. Charmed season for them– and they don’t take the chip. They’re going to lose just one match– again?

   I’m going to revisit something I’ve long felt was the initial mistake made during Raul’s Coup– that brought in Emery. Arsenal should have hired Mikel Arteta. Nothing (OK, a little) to do with Arsenal DNA. But Arteta knows Pep– knows City. Removing him from City also weakens City. In turn, regardless of the results Arteta produces at Arsenal– it truncates the continuity that Arteta provides upon Guardiola’s departure/retirement from City. Cut both heads off that snake. Arsenal might have been the only club Arteta may have considered leaving the surest-thing in his future.

   A two-fer in my book. And Raul said nay.

   A no-drama call from me. Fourth place. Outside shot at 3rd.
   Arsenal play exciting football in front of both goals. Maybe ‘hair-raising’ on one end– the better term..

5. Tim, I literally know nothing about any of the new signings apart from Luiz.
   Up until two seasons ago I had probably watched more football that any of you but for various reasons ( personal, business and others) I just stopped.

   Pepe signing got me excited but I only watched his you tube reel and although electric, like you said, he might not hit the ground running , so in a way it’s a gamble.

   Still like him better than Zaha though who’s style of dribbling is more chaotic, kinda like Iwobi’s .

   I think Iwobi was sold probably because there’s zero interest in some of the other assets the club would rather push out the door but needed funds to balance out the buys.
   Good luck to him.

6. The omission of Ozil and Kolasinac because of security reasons is concerning. And for the second successive game, we are going into it under-staffed (and disadvantaged), because of off-field developments outside of our control.

   I can only speculate that both players have links to countries, Turkey and Bosnia/Herzegovina, with bad security/insurgency problems, which may or may not be related to militant Islamism. But both have that element.

   1. Claude
      I’ll posit both may be in the shop window as well. Ozil at DC, Kola likely more possibilities. Just trying to pull back the curtain.

7. I think it’s the outgoing more than the incoming playing personnel that’s impacted by not qualifying for the CL. We may have spent a bit more on the CB position if we were in CL other that I don’t think we would have topped Pepe, Tierney, Saliba. Ceballos would been more open to signing with us!

   I think if we had qualified for the CL, we would still have had Iwobi. Emery said captaincy is not decided yet because of pending sale – there is going to one or more senior players sold this window, to balance the books. Hope its someone like Xhaka rather than Laca, Aubameyang.

8. I’m surprised that I am happy with the David Luiz signing. Would never have thought it. But the Iwobi thing is annoying. He’s frustrating but all players are at some point, and he just seemed like he was on the cusp of getting it.

   It’s cool nowadays to say sell and reinvest, after Liverpool’s triumph. But Liverpool held out for top dollar for Coutinho. They also managed to get some great value for much lesser lights. 34m for Iwobi is not the sort of money that should tempt us to sell. What’s even more annoying is that despite the new sponsorship deal and ever growing cash reserves, we’re still limiting our net spend.

   Much of this, including Spurs signing Ndombele, Lo Celso and Sessegnon, could’ve been avoided if we made the CL. Ugh.

   But lots of positives. Even Saliba. Absolutely right that no one has watched him and he’s still too young anyway. But he’s got the personality, the physical characteristics, and the hype, and I trust our talent identification is better without StatsDNA calling the shots. (Are they calling the shots?)

   I can’t say I’m too upbeat about our season because I have no faith in the coach to play football that is fun. But I’m looking forward to seeing how we’ll line up, and how the new signings and young players will integrate.

9. What a window, what a summer! It all kind of started with the sucky departure of Ramsey and the kind of sucky sucky departure of Iwobi. Sure, he cut a frustrating figure at times but who doesn’t? Loved that kid and sad to see him go.
   But in between that all sucks, boy we did do the business! Loved the excitement of the last couple of days. Huge boost to the club. Bring on the season!

10. If this lot stay off the treatment tables and gel together as a squad I promise you, we’re going to kick some 3rd/4th place butt. We don’t get a CL spot we can surely kiss Emery goodbye,

11. I understand the sentimental attachment to Iwobi because he was an academy grad and always worked hard, however, I am surprised anyone would be upset about getting $38M for a player who has been here for 4 years and has hit a plateau and not really progressed since his first season. His minutes were almost certainly on the way to being phased out when we bought Pepe and brought Nelson into the squad. The only reason he played regularly the last couple of seasons was the lack of talent to replace him. . As we improve the squad’s talent level he was probably destined to be a squad player and $38M seems like a pretty good deal for a squad player.

    Clearly we needed to raise money to help fund the transfer window and in an ideal world I would rather have sold Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Mustafi, Xhaka, Kolasinac or Elneny but its not an ideal world

    1. 100 percent. And if you want to be self sustainable, this is how you do it. Through the academy, sell at their max potential. I agree Iwobi is close to his plateau and not ever going to be the first name on the team sheet, at least for us. His confidence always let him down even if the ability is there. He may do well at Everton, and my guess is he does fine, but I think that fee is generous.

12. For a team that attacked so much down the left side Iwobe’s output of 3 goals is hard to imagine. Given the number of times we had the ball in the attacking 1/3 on the left flank he should have had double that number by accident. 6 assists in league games is rather meager in the context of how often we had the ball of his side of the pitch and he was passing the ball to the golden boot winner and another good finisher. Iwobe’s numbers were not that good but on a team that had a better central midfield and right flank and a more balanced attack they probably would have been even more underwhelming.

13. Gazorpazorp…

    Hmm, perhaps a bit too inside? Wubba lubba dub dub!

    Nice write-up.

14. Remember all the Iwobi naysayers when the young man puts in 12 goals this season.

    Iwobi is a dribbler…a chaos agent…and kept generally put in a good defensive shift.

    He needed the one thing Gooners seem to perennially lack — patience. That young man’s gonna have a heckuva season, and, if we HAD to sell, we didn’t get nearly enough of Manure’s Maguire money.

    1. He’s got quick feet but not a huge amount else. Decent vision, ok shot, decent pace, lack of self belief that the top players have. He’ll do okay but I’m not even sure he’ll ever be a guaranteed starter at Everton over some of the other talent they have.

       People are also so focused on Iwobi they’re forgetting that this opens the door to more academy talent: Nelson and Saka on the wing, Willock in the middle. It’s not always the oldies that go to make room for the youth; it’s also those who stagnate, or whose ceilings become clear.

       Am fond of Iwobi, bit this may be best for all involved.

    2. Agree. We got good, not great money Iwobi. What’s great money? I have no idea but it felt like a quick sale to cover expenditure of 5 signings.

       Good luck to him. Other than the two times has to play us, I hope he tears it up.

15. Love Iwobi. Arsenal DNA, gave it his all. But when fans were calling out for wide forwards, I bet not many thought “we need more wide players like Iwobi”. Sad to see him go but the sale seems practical.

    1. Nicely put.

       1. You two can’t be serious…

       2. I mean Iwobi’s xG chain was among the highest on the squad.

          I can’t believe I had to reference “xG chain”

          1. I’ve seen those numbers; it’s curious. I know what xG chain is, but I’m not entirely sure how well it correlates to player quality yet.

16. Pingback: [区内编译]十年来的最佳转会窗？阿森纳19/20赛季前瞻 | 时讯快报

17. iwobi hit a plateau? based on what?

    iwobi improved tons last season. in fact, most fans have said he was arsenal’s most improved player under emery. some fans have complained that arsenal’s most consistent attack happened from the flank. it’s probably because, when iwobi and kolasinac were on the pitch together, no team could stop them. seriously, who stopped them? iwobi’s dribbles were dangerous and, like cazorla’s, embarrassed someone every single game.

    while you have the likes of messi, cristiano, alexis, and neymar, sometimes, you have great dribblers who aren’t great goal scorers. players like giggs, alex hleb, and santi cazorla were great dribblers but not prolific goal scorers. the danger of dribblers is when they go by a player, they collapse defenses. this is what sets up chances for team mates. there’s no stat for that but smart soccer folks won’t deny it often has more value than guys who get the stats. even uncle jay-jay wasn’t a prolific finisher but whenever he played against arsenal, he helped many bolton teams score goals and earn wins.

    some good dribblers become prolific in front of goal later in their careers. recent arsenal greats such as robert pires and robin van persie didn’t become consistent finding the back of the net until they were way past 23. even uncle jay-jay wasn’t a prolific finisher but whenever he played against arsenal, he helped many bolton teams score goals and earn wins.

    my point is there’s no evidence that suggests iwobi has hit a plateau. that’s something you made up. what evidence does suggest is that he’s more likely to be on the way up. this was plain to see last year and is the reason why some arsenal fans are disgusted by this move for such a cheap price. i’ll take it a step further and say that there’s no evidence that pepe will be more successful than iwobi next season, be it statistically or overall effectiveness. if pepe went for that much money, how much more should have a homegrown english player had gone? certainly more than £34 million. we’ll see.

    1. …apologies for the duplicate jay-jay reference.

18. whenever arsenal played chelsea, i looked forward to those game because giroud has always son’ed david luiz. now i look forward to that game with dread because giroud has always son’ed david luiz. at 32, giroud is still a world class center forward and at 32, david luiz has never been considered world class.

    david luiz was also at the center of that 1:7 scoreline in the 2014 world cup. he seems better suited to play as part of a back 3. emery’s back 3 sucks. i’m not excited about this move but the market for central defenders is and has always been difficult. for crying out loud, barcelona paid arsenal £24 million for an injury-prone bench warmer in thomas vermaelen. we’ll see what happens.

    1. I’m pretty sure David Luiz (who I think holds the world record for combined transfer fees spent on a defender) would be considered a lot closer to world class than Giroud by most neutral observers.

       Giroud is mister reliable, who will do a shift for you, play pretty consistently and open things up for others, but lacks the athleticism to really be considered top tier. “The best plan B in the premiership” as one pundit put it recently.

       Luiz is the opposite – athletically and technically prodigious, but prone to occasional lapses that leaves your jaw dropped and sticks in the memory. When he’s good, though, he’s excellent and will add a lot to our capacity to play on the counter. He’s a gamble, but to my mind he’s a good one, especially considering the alternatives available.

       1. My gawd are you deluded in your Giroud evaluation….

          1. I may have over-egged the pudding a bit – I loved Giroud and the quality of his touch and near post finishes are class, but I think he remains a very good but limited player.

       2. maybe you’re right. we’ll see.

19. Joshuad

    I don’t know a lot of fans other then you who thought Iwobe improved last year. He has played thousands of minutes over the last 4 years and has been sitting on the cusp of becoming a more effective player for all of that time. How long do we continue to wait? Is this the year or is it next year or what if its 2-3 years from now. We have been down this rode dozens and dozens of times before with younger players who hit a plateau and usually the answer is they never really reach their potential. We just spent $72M on a player that we expect will play the role we had hoped for Iwobe so his minutes are surely have been to significantly decreased this season, plus we have other players the organization is high on coming up behind him and getting $38M for a squad player is a good deal.

    I agree with you about the value of dribbling skill but the reason a lot of people thought we needed an upgrade at wide forward and we spent $72M was because Iwobe was not doing a good enough job of being that player we needed

20. Joshuad

    Many of the people on the blog have been complaining about how much of our attack went down the left side and how unimaginative and ineffective it was. If the combo of Kolasinac and Iwobe was unstoppable as you suggest in your first paragraph then why would anyone be complaining?

21. Lonestar Gooner

    We had 4 seasons worth of patience with Iwobe. How many years do you have to wait to be counted as having patience? We have needed an upgrade at the position for the last 3 seasons and avoiding buying a better player while we patiently waited for Iwobe to comes with a big opportunity cost. We sold Gnabry because he and Iwobe played a similar position and we thought Iwobe had more potential.

22. Josh says, of Iwobi and Kola:
    “….. it’s probably because, when iwobi and kolasinac were on the pitch together, no team could stop them. seriously, who stopped them?”
    __________________________
    Oh please. On a return of 3 and 6 for Iwobi, playing a ton of games? Please.

    Who stopped them, he asks? Usually themselves. Or an opposition that regrouped when Iwobi would perform stepovers in lieu of a dangerous pass, or when Kola — head down — would ignore an open teammate in favour of an extra touch and a charge to the byline.

    It would be uncharitable to say that they didnt have games where they were very good and effective, and over the course of October, Iwobi was one of our best players.

    But a long season finds you out, and I’m afraid I’m going to be brutally honest here. Both would generally run out of ideas when they got to the opposition box. And when in a position to score — which was often — you could bet the farm on Iwobi fluffing it. The quality of his finishing, for an attacker, was unacceptable. Kola got zero goals, not something youd expect from someone who attacked as much as he did. Heck, Nacho, who ventured forward less, was more effective in front of goal. Koscielny got as many goals as Iwobi, playing less than half the time.

    Iwobi, for a well-built lad, wasn’t particularly good at utilising his physical gifts. He doesn’t tackle well, he doesn’t defend well, he doesn’t track runners well, does the Elneny/Ozil shuffle thing instead of putting in tackles, and was often noticeably gassed after an hour. Let’s be merciful and leave Kola out of any conversation on defending.

    Kola’s nickname should have been Mr Extra Unnecessary Touch That Causes The Opposition To Regroup and Me to Do A Hopeful Square from the Byline. Sorry, it’s a long nickname.

    Know what is very noticeable about Tierney? One, he can cross the football. Two, he plays with his head up (unlike Kola), and his combination play around the box is very good. Three (very importantly) he can defend.

    Again, Kola and Iwobi had games where they were very good, very effective, and dangerous in attack. But sorry, your assessment made me chuckle.

    1. I don’t have strong feelings about Iwobi’s departure but I think you’re being a bit harsh in his assessment Claude.
       Everton fans seem to think they got a good deal with his transfer and according to one Danny Nay of “90min” here’s why:
       1. Iwobi’s progressive run index of 3.4 per game – a statistic involving moving the ball forward by ten or more meters was twice those of Pogba or Ndombele for example.
       2. His 10 big chances created ranks him in the PL top 20.
       3. His 0.35 expected assists per 90 minutes equals Eden Hazard’s numbers and betters Eriksen’s 0.26

       At 23 and on paltry wages for a top six club ,Tim might have a point that we sold him on the cheap.

       1. Iwobi has good xG chain numbers and a progressive run index, yet flattered to deceive at Arsenal. Why? Perhaps playing wide never suited him. And perhaps, like Ox, he didn’t quite fit in Arsenal’s midfield.

          Maybe there’s a great player out there, and Everton can benefit. Win-win-win.

    2. with david luiz, i’m not saying he’s not talented. mustafi is also talented. vermaelen is exceptionally talented. but what do they say about talent without intelligence? giroud has no where near the talent that david luiz has but he’s far more effective as we recall him ripping arsenal’s a$$ in the europa league final. i simply don’t believe david luiz is an upgrade to koscielny or mustafi so i’m not as excited as most. let’s see how we feel about him next summer.

       with iwobi, i’m not judging him exclusively on his performance statistics. my defense of him was primarily about someone declaring that, at 23, he’d plateaued. that’s nonsense and i think most agree that he improved last season. i think he’ll continue to improve. i mentioned he and kola because i thought every time they played together, they were electrifying. lastly, i said we’ll see how well he does compared to pepe. hazard and giroud maintained their levels coming from france to the premier league. hopefully pepe can as well. we’ll see.

       most importantly, we still have xhaka. for me, he was the biggest problem we needed to address.

       1. …with iwobi, 9 goals (3g & 6a) in 22 starts isn’t that bad. arsenal should have gotten more for a homegrown englishman.

       2. Oh, we can agree that there’s no evidence to say that Iwobi has plateaued, Josh. I was just taking issue with an overly-rosy appraisal of the talents of him and Kola. I said before and I’ll say again… I hope that he becomes a monster player at Everton. Even if he does, I would still think that we are right to sell at this time, in this price in this market.

          Tom, I stand by my assessment. If you follow my comments history, Im not saying anything that I havent said several times before about Iwobi and Kolasinac. Over the years, we lost our best talent against our wishes. But sometimes, you get a middling decision like this and you have to make a call. I think that Raul and Edu made the right and rational call, to sell now, at that price, in this market. I also think they made the right call on Zaha and Upemencano (don’t buy at the asking prices).

          The sale of Adebayor, who had been the best centre forward in the league, gave opportunities and more starts to Van Persie. Ditto Iwobi, and the other lads in the pipeline. Dont get me wrong… I hope he smashes it in Liverpool. But whatever happens, the club made a call, and Im fine with it.

          I leave xG and all of that to people brighter than me, which is huge sample size… They are illustrative, but are capable of being plenty analytical enough.

          “Progressive run index”. He ferries the ball further? To what end?

          Big chances IS a very telling stat and shows his destructiveness, but our strikers were finishing above average of most of the season, so big chances creation versus conversation can be analysed in more ways than one. What is his actual productivity? And what do we actually see when we watch games?

          Listen, I made the point twice that he could be very good, and was our best player for a stretch. But I think that all things considered, I’d have been happy or him to stay and get better, or or us to sell now, at that price. The decision to sell doesn’t bother me in the least, and I’d have said the same if he had remained. He needs to play. Good luck to him.

          1. I used to like getting really deep into stats and things with football players I liked. At some point in the not too distant past, I realized I was mainly just hiding my own personal preference for a player that way, which usually had more to do with what I thought of him personally than his actual contribution to the team.

             Iwobi’s a likable guy. Nice smile. Genuine Arsenal kid. Likes a dribble and has gotten much stronger. I wish him well. I don’t think we’ll miss him too much.

          2. I may have used the word plateau. I don’t think he has plateaued. I just think his ceiling is visible now.

23. some peoples rose tinted glasses are stronger than other peoples rose tinted glasses.

24. Hiya folks. This is the artist formerly known as Dr. Gooner. Actually I am not an artist at all, just an internet punter like the rest of you’se guys.

    I would like to share my completely subjective and bias-laden observations with regard to Arsenal F.C., a sporting enterprise that has held hundreds of hours of my life captive for no discernible reason seeing as I have no family, geographical or other tangible connections to any part of London or even football generically.

    Still, I have to admit that there is a certain warm fluttering in my bosom when I behold the red white and gold crest, if for no other reason than the above-mentioned hours of screen time spent supine on an achy back letting sunny Saturday mornings slip by as I am (subconsciously) yanking out eyebrow hairs with every loose pass and corner conceded, dreading the inevitable bobble lashed into the top corner by a completely forgettable guy named Billy or Freddie or somesuch to completely ruin my whole day, who, I am reliably reminded by Martin Tyler’s immortal dulcet tones, has a lovely story of surviving adversity to graduate to this level from the lower leagues.

    All of which brings me round to tomorrow, a day that begin’s Arsenal’s ecclesiastical calendar in earnest. The faithful will gather, hymns will be sung, oaths will be made, and we will once again unwittingly or otherwise pantomime the stations of the cross over the course of 90 minutes plus stoppage time as we come together to witness the coordinated actions of 11 sweaty grown men against another 11 sweaty grown men on an immaculately groomed field of semi-artificial turf and variably roared, droned or bored on by thousands of grown men with beer bellies and (gasp!) too much time on their hands who casually refer to themselves as “fans” and are thereby instantly immune to the otherwise implicitly held commonalities of good behavior that would otherwise be expected of them. (#ThisIsFootball) . Bobbles for good or for ill depending on your respective rooting interests will be interpreted as divine omens, proclamations of moral justice will be made with every free kick, throw in and penalty doled out by hopelessly flawed human beings with whistles strung around their necks as well as the computers designed to assist them, and we will all be grandly entertained.

    So let us join hands now in a solemn prayer for favorable winds, bounteous swellings of our opponents nets, good fortune to our players and a few ill-timed niggles to our oppositions’ players, and hope for a season of blessings, unity, faith and something to give us belief that humans are actually capable of being decent to each other.

    1. Amen!

25. I’m curious.
    Are people’s hopes for this season based on Arsenal improving (enough) or that Chelsea / ManU regress?

    I can’t think of a season where BOTH Chelsea and Man U collapsed, so do we think Arsenal are gonna get more points this season?
    Based on nothing(!) I only think we’ll get more points than last season if we drop out of FA/EL Cups. Now that may be more likely as we might rotate kids into those and I’m not sure how comfortable Emery will be with that.
    But still – are we more optimistic for us or more pessimistic for ‘them’ (MANUCHE)?

26. Are people’s hopes for this season based on Arsenal improving (enough) or that Chelsea / ManU regress?

    A bit of both.
    Chelsea are obviously in a more difficult position having lost their most influential player.

    Arsenal have strengthened on the other hand and it’s Emery’s second season so he should be able to eliminate some of the mistakes from the last one.

    Man U are a curious case.
    On the one hand the OGS’ bump from lust season won’t be there obviously, but on the other hand , he won’t have to dig United out of the hole Mourinho put them in either.

    I think it’s gonna be tight.

Comments are closed.