Leno will be on his way next summer. At that stage they will have former keepers Leno, Martinez, Fabianski and Szczesny all playing in top leagues, and arguably all better than Ramsdale.
Can someone post that article? I missed the Athletic offers and Iām damned if Iām paying full whack.
here you go, you parasiteā¦
Arsenal have bought Arteta a new spine for his side ā now he must show it was wise
By Amy Lawrence Aug 20, 2021
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The key point about footballās fabled war-chest mentality is that it is one thing to have money in yours, and another thing entirely to use its contents cleverly. Arsenal have made a substantial outlay this summer. All in all, their outgoings are about to exceed what Chelsea or Manchester City have so far spent but notably ā not being in the luxury position of ploughing around Ā£100 million into one marquee signing ā they have ticked off a different kind of shopping list.
It is part of an overall picture in which almost a whole new teamās worth of signings have arrived at the Emirates in a little over a year.
However unpopular Arsenalās owners are with a large faction of the fanbase, they have backed manager Mikel Arteta in delivering players he has specifically asked for. This weekās purchases of Martin Odegaard and (imminently) Aaron Ramsdale will take the total spend sanctioned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) for Arteta-selected players to approximately Ā£182 million (not including loan fees on players borrowed during that time, which would take the figure closer to Ā£200 million).
As soon as the injury and illness situations ā and manager preferences ā permit, Arsenal will be reconstructed around a spine replete with expensive reinforcements.
Over the past year, they have pieced together a backbone that potentially looks something like this: Ramsdale in goal, Ben White and Gabriel pairing up at centre-back, Thomas Partey alongside the eternal Granit Xhaka in the heart of midfield, and Odegaard floating behind the main striker. In an ideal world, Arteta would have a shiny new centre-forward to top off this new line-up but that might have to wait until another window, unless there is late movement to open up a departure for Alexandre Lacazette.
With last seasonās blowout followed by that spluttering start to this campaign at Brentford, there wonāt be vast reserves of patience to allow these new components to make connections. As a club Arsenal feel they have to get back into Europe immediately.
KSE has given Arteta and Edu its blessing to invest in a necessary rebuild during a pandemic. Whether the manager and technical director did enough to warrant that trust is open for debate given mixed results on previous signings. The new recruits have to deliver more Tierneys and fewer Willians to avoid a serious inquest into the talent identification process and how Arteta and Edu choose to spend the money made available.
It is a fast-evolving team. Looking at the line-up for the first home match of last season, Arteta will be hoping to play an alternative in at least half the positions.
Arsenal are eager to refine the squad further via some outgoings. Business has been painfully slow on that front, though. Selling to buy has not been much of an option. But anything recouped, and any wages cut via players who are available on loan, will be welcome as the days tick by.
Pre-pandemic, Arsenal were the Premier League club who relied most on match-day income. Tickets and hospitality contributed a higher percentage to their balance sheet than all their domestic rivals. So, having that income stream wiped out for 18 months at a time when they have been bogged down by some crazily misjudged salary obligations, and felt the need for redundancies across the club, the only way they could spend was to make a transatlantic request.
Tim Lewis is an important conduit. Arteta and Edu make their proposals and Lewis is key to the discussions with KSE to see if money can be released to fund each transfer. Much of Arsenalās business is based on the construction of deals with deferred payments, so the actual funds required this summer are less than the total cost of all the deals.
Perhaps the impetus behind this summerās outlay is to try to offset some of the fury that followed Arsenalās dalliance with the ill-fated Super League. Maybe Stan Kroenke recognises that team improvement is vital to arrest the decline and make a return to European competition more plausible. It could be that the owners have a hunch Arteta can be the superstar manager they want him to be if he has sharper tools to work with.
Fan distrust of KSE is not easily quelled by spending, however.
Another #KroenkeOut protest is planned ahead of the kick-off of Sundayās match against Chelsea.
This is also the first time in aeons that a fixture of this magnitude ā the first home game of the season, against big London opposition ā had tickets available on general sale so close to kick-off. Platinum members were sent emails during the week offering the chance to buy four extra tickets. This situation is unheard of.
Disillusionment persists, and will continue to until there is a credible upturn in fortunes.
Since Arsene Wenger left four summers ago, Arsenal have spent almost Ā£400 million in transfer fees. Really, it should be possible to build a pretty decent team with that sort of budget. KSE continue to trust in the people it has put in place to make football decisions, even if the team has declined in recent years.
Looking back, in 2018 Unai Emery was given a new goalkeeper, a couple of promising central midfielders, and two experienced defenders. In 2019, the clubās transfer record was obliterated on Nicolas Pepe, a couple of gems arrived in Kieran Tierney and Gabriel Martinelli, and Arsenal thought they were doing something very clever in buying a teenage William Saliba as well as signing David Luiz. Then, 2020 welcomed the coveted Thomas Partey, Gabriel was a shrewd signing, and the poorly judged transfers of Willian and Cedric Soares were agreed on drainingly long contracts. Now here we are in 2021 with the latest batch.
In identifying players in the younger age bracket, who should have hunger and a willingness to develop on their side, Arsenal appear to have learned at last that leaning on Chelsea veterans is not a good look.
KSE has backed the manager. Now the pressure is on Arteta to make it work, to demonstrate why he has backed the players he chose to try to fix Arsenal.
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Insipid that. Are they trying to emulate Sunderlandās slide in the first season of Sunderland till I die?
Time to bring the Boss back to steady the ship.
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Ahemā¦.anyone out there to do the necessary?
I was at the Arsenal the day he scored that goal so I expect to get proper emotional reading it.
As they say on Lad Bible, absolute filth:
Who is the next Arsenal manager? Theyll surely sack him tomorrow after a 5 nil loss to City.
Hole opening on the cards
I was swimming over beside the Etihad today. Beautiful day and great buzz about the place even at 10am.
I think the handicap was -5 today. Youād have to fancy Arsenal to edge it.
Eddie Howe or Antonio Conte. Conte would be a good choice.
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I hope the Wenger Out lot are happy. Sacked for a 5th place finish.
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Finished 5th in 2016/17 with 75 points. That would have been enough to finish 2nd last season.
Iām off to the beach, guys.
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As an arsenal fan, I canāt believe Iām saying this but arsenal could be in serious relegation trouble
33/1 with paddy powers fwiw
Theyāll bring in Big Sam Allardyce when relegation hoves into view and theyāll be grand.
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I called this in my super, clique only, EPL betting thread. City were priced 2/1 -2ā¦ Fucking madness.
Tis well in view after 3 games anyways. Arteta is disliked by a lot of the players. Heās supposedly super arrogant as opposed to highly arrogant like the rest of the prem league managers