Sorry, but I'm not accepting this. It is NOT an overreaction. We've known the issue for ages, Arteta's complained about it for the last two years and then we've done nothing to address the issue at hand. Some of the signings you're talking about were from 3-4 years ago when we weren't challenging for the league. We made a net profit in the last Summer transfer window. KSE backed us until the Summer 2023 window and once we'd solidified ourselves as a top-4/competitive side again, they've stopped spending and stopped pushing the boat out for the players we've been crying out for that would increase our chances of winning trophies. I don't think it's coincidental, but we will see in the Summer. This idea that we need 'very specific additions' is too risk averse and too picky. No player is going to be flawless and the players that we do idealise are not attainable (Isak). We're going to need to spend on someone eventually. Did you see our bench the other day? You're seriously telling me there's absolutely no-one we could get that would be better than those options? Sorry but I'm not having it. You're making excuses for the club's negligence.
Nwaneri and MLS have come around at the right time to boost our first team squad by two. I bet Arteta didn't expect them to be THIS good this early. Two £100m+ players have come from nowhere and made Zinchenko and Sterling redundant. I get why we've bought no-one. With Jesus going nowhere for over a year, we've already got two PSR-wage-heavy strikers. If we bought a not-first-choice third striker then we'd be struggling in the summer to recruit properly. -----------------------------Raya------------------------------- -----------------------------(Neto)-------------------------------- Timber----------Saliba---------Gabriel-----------Calafiori (White)---------(Kiwior)--------(Hato)---------(MLS/Tomi) -------------------Rice----------Zubimendi-------------------- -----------------(Partey)------(Merino/MLS)----------------- Saka----------------------Odegaard----------------Nwaneri (Martinelli)-------------(Nwaneri)----------------(Trossard) ---------------------------Isak/Sesko--------------------------- ----------------------------(Havertz)---------------------------- Zubi and a striker will definitely be coming in. Zinchenko and Tierney leaving frees up quite a bit of wage but also probably means we need one more defender, maybe Hato. Possibly two given we can't rely on Tomiyasu anymore. Cheeky Diomande bid for £40m?! MLS is a midfielder really. So we'll be well stocked at CM especially if Partey signs a new contract. MLS and Rice together looks awesome. To the point where if Zubi doesn't come then I'm not really fussed. But if he does come then wow, even better. Merino seems a dud buy now that MLS has come through so quickly. Even think Odegaard long-term should be used in the #8 position. Him and MLS rotating. Rice and Zubi rotating. Merino and Partey phased out. We're short of a right footed winger. But I can't see us spending big on a wing forward when we've got Saka, Martinelli, Trossard and Nwaneri. Only way we sign a big winger is if Trossard leaves. Nwaneri and Saka are the two biggest goal threats but can't really play both. Nwaneri maybe the #10. Striker is therefore the only real gap. And if signing Ollie Watkins now stopped us buying a proper longer-term striker in the summer I would have been annoyed. If Newcastle don't get CL then Isak is quite probably gettable. Newcastle could sell him to us for £130m and use that to buy three £60m players. Backup choice would be Aghehowa or Sesko, not fussed which. Both 6ft4+ and would suit our play.
Have we now..what issue have we 'known'?.. We scored the MOST goals in the league last Season. The Season before we also scored a TON of goals. Some of the hysteria around forwards is just coming from the old School British Press and their inability to understand the false 9 position. 3-4 years is nothing - if were spending hundreds of millions of pounds on signings - its towards this project! Arguably our best player and attacker is injured but could be back within a few weeks, Jesus also injured while Nwaneri and MLS have stepped up a level and look ready to make an impact. Don't forget we've been hit HARD with injuries this year. (and dont get me started on the weird refereeing decisions - this team could easily be 9-10 pts higher up the table and if that were the case would this conversations still be a thing?) Do we need another CF yes sure - but who would you bring in? They tried for Sesko, Watkins and they also tried to get Tel on loan. If you force it you just end up with another Willian, Sterling, Pepe type transfer and nobody wants that.
This is apparently vaguely reliable and true: https://x.com/nigel_b_golf/status/1886705307503542305?s=46 Rodrigo ****ing Muniz
We also had 7 games where we didn't score a goal. We scored bucketloads in some games that boosted our GD and made the numbers look prettier, but look at the games where we struggled to score or couldn't score. They are the games where we lost out on the league. Arteta has been talking about improving our efficiency between both boxes for almost two years now. What did we do in the Summer to address this? What did we do in January to address this when the manager was saying we needed reinforcements? It's insane to think we didn't need to improve on what we have. We're taking a huge risk. It's not 'nothing' when Chelsea have spent £1.3bn in 2.5 years and City have literally spent close to £200m in this January window alone. Talking about signings from 3-4 years ago is an entirely moot point. Again, I'm not advocating spending recklessly, but I am saying that we do need to push the boat out more to improve the dynamism and depth of our attack. Look at how little we've invested in reinforcing our attack. If we were serious about Watkins, we should have offered more than £45m. That was never going to be accepted. Did we try for Sesko? From what I heard, we enquired to see if we could get him this January but Leipzig quoted a price we (for whatever reason) were not willing to budge on. Tel on loan would have been useful, but he's 19 and I doubt he'd have really moved the needle, however, he would have released the load on Havertz up top. Why we didn't try for any of Gyokeres, Gimenez or Osimhen is bizarre to me.
Much as I would like Isak - these £150m price tags are silly. For that money we could get Sesko and Raphinha. Both will likely leave in the Summer. Add Zubimendi and that's an elite squad. -----------------------------Raya--------------------------------- -----------------------------(Neto)-------------------------------- Timber----------Saliba---------Gabriel-----------Calafiori (White)---------(Tomiyasu)--------(Kiwior)---------(MLS) -------------------Rice--------------Zubimendi---------------- -----------------(Partey)----------(Merino/MLS)------------- ----------------------------Odegaard---------------------------- ----------------------------(Nwaneri)---------------------------- -Saka---------------------Sesko------------------Raphinha- (Jesus)------------------(Havertz)--------------(Martinelli)
