Transfer Rumours Transfer Rumours Thread

I agree he's not worth the outlay.

The only things I can say in his favour are that he's still very young. Look at how Emi Martinez was doing at 23 and where Ramsdale is at 23. Obviously every player has their own pathway, and it doesn't mean Ramsdale will be the next Emi, but I guess it's a sign of hope when you compare the level both players were at when they were the same age.

The other thing is, despite being relegated twice, he was voted as Bournemouth's and Sheffield United's Player of the Season back to back. Which leads me to believe he has some potential and maybe can develop further.

As I said, I'm not happy with a move like this. And frankly, when I've watched his highlights in the Prem, he's looked a liability. But then again, I don't watch him every week. So I don't think it's all bad.

 

Yup, agreed. That's my worry too. I don't feel like we've substantially improved. And some of these names are underwhelming.

Considering this was meant to be our 'huge Summer' where 'big changes were made', it's not quite lived up to expectation.

 

Not finished yet but all accounts, can't judge until the end of window

 

Odegaard pretty much official. Arteta and Edu have nowhere to hide now.

 

Odengaard will be a better signing than people think - he's going to get better and better. =
I like Lakonga too - looks like a good all rounder.

Ramsdale i'm not sure about. I hope he is better with his feet than Leno.

My main issue though is Ben White. Now I do rate him but £50m while we have sent Saliba (£30m) on loan is crazy.
Arteta seems to want very specific players for very specific roles - which means TOP players can still be thrown by the wayside.
I know i keep going on about but I think W Saliba will be a Van Dijk/Kompany level CB.

So yeah I agree havnt really strengthened that much at all.

In fact Bellerin, Lacazette and Auba all seem to have had enough of Arteta so if we keep them we have to deal with unhappy/unmotivated players all Season. Arsenal is like a Soap Opera at the moment - its going to be interesting watching that Amazon show thats for sure.

 

As a complete outsider looking in, at the start of the window I thought your most urgent areas were:

Creative mid
RB
New GK (I don't think Leno is good enough)
Long term replacement for Auba (who honestly hasn't looked 100% since his illness and now apparently has had enough anyway)

So far you've only addressed one of those issues with Odegaard, although he'll need a good few years until he really starts to flourish.

 

Seems like we're going to sign Ramsdale, so you can tick another box off, though I'm not convinced he's the solution to upgrading Leno.

Right back will be hard as we have 4 players that can play there (Cedric, Bellerin, Chambers and Maitland Niles). Until we offload a couple of them, it's going to be a difficult position to spend money on.

 

I don't rate Ramsdale but in fairness he is young for a GK.

I guess that's part of what confuses me. You've signed players like White, Odegaard, Ramsdale and Lokonga who may or may not come good but either way will need a good 2 to 3 years to develop.

You've bought for the future when you need to improve here and now, bringing in players who are already at a level they can just slot right in and improve your team. That was clearly the thinking behind Partey although his injury record has prevented that from happening.

Are you not worried that by the time your crop of youngsters come good, you'll have slipped even further out of sight?

 

I think the issue we face is that it's very hard for us to sign a ready-made player in their prime that would want to join us having finished 8th back to back. We enquired about Locatelli and Bernardo Silva. Neither of them were interested or wanted to consider us and a lack of European (Champions League) football played a huge part in that. We wanted James Maddison but he proved to be too costly.

As I also mentioned in another thread - the club underestimated how difficult it would be to shift players this Summer. We expected to get around £120m+ in fees for the sales of Guendouzi, Torreira, Willock, Nelson, Nketiah, Maitland-Niles, Bellerin, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Willian etc. As it stands, only 1 of those players has been sold permanently. That money we anticipated was undoubtedly planned to be reinvested in other areas.

That being said, we have still spent a fair bit. A window where we bought Lokonga, Ramsdale, Tavares, White and Odegaard is a 6/10 at best. That's potentially £150m spent where we haven't really improved the team.

My concern is more in the present that Arteta isn't getting the best out of the resources at his disposal.

I feel like Arsenal fans always want optimal conditions otherwise people will nit-pick and caveat our transfer activity.

Unless you're Man City, Chelsea or Man Utd, you are never going to get the budget you want to sign the exact players you want. That's 85% of the division who don't have that luxury.

So then it comes down to quality of coaching and tactical flexibility.

Can the coach get the best out of the players he has at his disposal? Is he maximising what he has? Or is he trying to fit too many square pegs in round holes in the hope that one day it will just magically click?

And whilst I don't believe our squad is top-4 quality, there's no way anyone can convince me that Arteta is getting the best out of these players. We should be challenging for a spot if nothing else.

Our issues are more than young players coming good or buying a big name player. There's clearly confusion over Arteta's philosophy and how rigid he is. The lack of coherent ideas, style and continuity is a huge problem.

Carrying on with Arteta as manager is what will cause us to slip further away from the pack.

 

We're in a similar predicament, although the market is generally very stagnant and very few clubs have enough liquid capital to be taking risks on the type of player you've listed above.

We've yet to shift enough players and have also been turned down by a number of players due to a lack of CL football. Romero was a proper coup but Gollini and Gil are much like the signings you've made - investments for the future.

The uncertainty surrounding Kane also hasn't helped things at all as it means our operational budgeting margin of error is +/- £150m which obviously changes the dynamic of the entire recruitment strategy.

No question we were hoping Aurier, Sissoko, Winks and one of Dier/Sanchez would all be gone by now which would generate circa £65m, but they're all still hanging around like a fart in a lift.

We're short of a midfield creator as Nuno appears to have given up on Ndombele (as have much of the fanbase), a new RB and a back up ST. Not a huge amount to do but at the same time impossible without shifting players out first. And if Kane does leave, things become even more complex as we'll need two attackers to replace him plus a back up ST.

 

right on cue...

 

So who starts??????

 

presumably Leno for now, but Ramsdale is long term successor...

 

Wonder what ramsdale was told, leaving shef United as no. 1 and going to arsenal as no. 2 can't be good for him

 

Na I think its the smart move by the Club - might not be smart for Arteta but.. smart for the Club.

Much like Spurs we took out a bankloan recently and dont have a billionaire owner propping up the Clubs finances. The best way to compete is with youth for the long terms at least.

 

I would imagine that both Leno and Ramsdale have been told that the No1 jersey is up for grabs and that they will have to fight for it.

 

Plus we still have Kolasinac, Bellerin, Torreria, Nelson, Nketiah, Guendouzi, Elneny, AMN and Runnarson on the books !

 

Well thats been the main issue - selling players to finance moves.

 

Although this is true, we've still spent more than any other club in the league so far this Summer, despite not offloading deadwood.

Arteta cannot complain he hasn't been backed in the transfer market from here on in.

 

You have spent over £100m net and managed not to really have improved your team at all. Thats quite a mean feat.
Ben White may prove to be a decent signing, gotta give him more than one game, but other than White, and Odegaard who you already had last season on loan, all your other signings are fringe players.
You need to start offloading the deadwood in your squad.
I can't believe that not only did you not sell Xhaka, you gave him a new contract and made him captain
I guess the market really is stagnant. Fecking Covid