Mikel Arteta says he’s unsure what is going to happen in the transfer market before the close of the window on October 6th, but has pointed to the business Liverpool have done in recent years as a major part of their success.
Obviously, circumstances were very different: it wasn’t done in a world affected so greatly by a pandemic, restricting already tight finances even further, and the current Premier League champions made a couple of key sales which helped finance moves for players who have become vital for them.
Nevertheless, Arteta’s assessment of Jurgen Klopp’s side made reference to how well they’ve strengthened their squad, and how it’s something the Gunners need to try and replicate in the wake of last night’s 3-1 defeat at Anfield.
“We are in a different journey to Liverpool,” he said. “They’ve been together for five years and they weren’t able to do what they’ve done tonight two or three years ago, that’s for sure.
“They have a lot of good work, a lot of belief in the way they play, great recruitment and they’ve improved the players that they have. This is what we have to try to do.
“They set the bar and they’re probably the best standard that the Premier League has seen in many years.
“This is where we have to get and obviously we’re still a long way from getting there.”
As for the business Arsenal will try and do before the close of the window, he said, “We don’t have any news on new players. We are trying to improve the team. There’s a week to go. There’s a lot of things happening in and out.
“We don’t know what will happen.”
Arsenal are expected to make a further bid for Lyon midfielder Houssem Aouar this week, having had one rejected already by the Ligue 1 outfit, but there remain issues with players who could leave to help finance further incomings.
Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi, Matteo Guendouzi and Alexandre Lacazette are all players the club are willing to move on, but thus far interest in them has been minimal.
They are so ruthless and efficient. Jota is going to be good replacement for mane who if lpool wants, can be sold for coutinho fees.
Mane is the stuff of CR7 . Coutinho money got nothing on his
I agree. Mane is the best player in the EPL. Incredible. That goal he nearly scored on the turn at near full pace – wow. that would have been goal of the season marterial. He’s one of my favourite players in the world to watch right now. So fast, so intelligent, so strong, incredible technique and juicy finishing. Drool…
Great elbows too, even if he does think they’re his shoulders
I mean come on as far as elbows go that one was pretty soft – the contact is with his forearm or wrist and it’s not hard – Tierney sold it well. It wasn’t a red. We look a bit whinny if we focus on that. We know there will be legit complaints over the course of the season. Let’s stick to those.
Just balancing out the Arsenal fan drooling over a Liverpool player thing. It’s my duty!
I’d love to drool over the forwards we have, pity we don’t have the midfield to give them enough chances to do so as often as we should. It was quite disheartening watching Auba be nearly completely starved of service yesterday. Auba is truely drool worthy, but I mean surely part of you was a little jealous of the quality Liverpool displayed against us last night. It was hard not to watch that game and just go “fuck they are playing some truly magical shit out here tonight”. We got schooled.
No, week in week out we’re told that’s a red. Yesterday it barely even registered a replay. Hmm….
whinny or neigh?
Intent matters a lot. Mane wanted to hit Tierney with shoulder, then saw Tierney was on half turn, so hit him with his elbow.
Once that intent is proven, its a red irrespective of the amount of contact.
That should have been a red if this was an Arsenal player we would see red.
And they did it without Henderson, Ox or Thiago which would be a very good midfield of its own. Will take us a while before we have that kind of strength in depth.
Which Ox?
I think he meant Charlie Adam.
It amazes me how we always leave these transfers to the wire. I realise a negotiation is taking place, but surely if we want these players we can find the extra few million to get them done early, and bed them in. Kroenke is worth 11bn ffs.
Prepare to get downvoted…some dudes still believe we can complete with the “100% sustainable model” and “our decline has nothing to with the Kroenke, they are willing to spend (the club’s money!)
I read somewhere that the Kroenke is the only owner that didn’t spend a single penny in supporting a Premier League so far. Leeches.
I am not here to defend Kroenke but we / they sure spent a lot to bring in Gabriel, Pepe, Saliba, Tierney, Luiz, Torreira, Xhaka, Auba, Laca, Mustafi, Leno… not to mention the wages for Soares, Ozil, Willian, Ceballos. That is a lot of freaking money. At some stage the focus needs to shift from how much we did or did not spend to are we bringing in the right players? Man U, Chelsea and Man C spend like it’s going out of style but it’s not happening for them either. Throwing more money at the problem is not necessarily… Read more »
Yeah they spent THE CLUB’S MONEY. While still managed to take out 6m advisory fee.
To be honest I’m not too bothered about their lack of investment. it’s their lazy, irresponsible management that annoys me. Always look to delegate to a scapegoat. First Wenger then Gazidis then Raul. Abramovich or the Thai owner would have sacked Emery in September not December. Why? They care.
If he’s worth 11 bln it’s because he is probably very catious with spending each dollar. And it’s a tough market at the moment.
Yeah sure for Kroenke the market has been difficult since 2016 or 17 when he took over!
I reckon it’s basically a game of chicken, it goes down to the last minute because both parties are hoping the other fold at the death. The strategy can stop you paying over the odds or selling under market value, but it’s clearly high risk.
LOL!
how do you think he got to 11bn
Our owners are stupid tbh
Remember the Fabregas/VP team. Or when we signed Sanchez and Ozil and then stopped. Success off the pitch pretty obviously depends on success on it, but we invest up to a point and then leave the team short. We fail to win the league because we don’t have a good enough goalkeeper, or whatever. Im hoping things have changed now, but I have my doubts. If they wanted to do something about it they could. To be fair we have been spending more recently, but prob only because we dropped out of the Champions League, and because we are generating… Read more »
Yeah times are diff and mugsmashers made key sales but their owners made a fine chunk of investment during that process too so that made a significant part to their conquest to the top of the world imho
I think at someone the owners realised that if the club does better the fan base grows, the value of players grow and their investment is worth more.
Not rocket science is it.
To a guy who moved an entire team to another City, it might very well be
Why, do you not think he did that for the same reason?
Exactly. Look at Liverpool; even their ‘dross’ would command high fees.
Liverpool are so good at selling and buying. They only paid 20 million for Thiago, and not much of it up front.
Seems like if they had Guendouzi, Sokratis and Mustafi on their books, they could sell them for over 50 million.
Captain of the France under 23s, loads of Premier League experience already! 30 million, sold!
Reliable, experienced veteran defender! 10 million, sold!
Former German international World Cup winner, looked good at the end of last season just a couple months ago– 15 million, sold!
He’s absolutely right. We’re still stuck with several Wenger-era flops – Ozil, Mustafi, Chambers etc. along with others such as Sokratis. Yes, I know at one time or another they’ve all had the odd run of better form but you need to look at overall performance – like Liverpool do. They cost a small fortune in transfer fees – well over £100million for those four alone (what could we do with that kind of money now?) – and are all on big or in Ozil’s case, massive, wages. which is one huge impediment to any move away from The Emirates.… Read more »
We signed those players 5 or more years ago. move on. £100 million is nothing these days we should be spending that every summer minium if we want to challenge.
He wouldnt sign a new contract so there’s nothing the club could do. Balogun another one but maybe he starts to reconsider when no decent club is in for him, a bit like Guendouzi.
The truth is we are never going to get to the level achieved by Liverpool while we still have the Kroenkes at the helm.
Zero ambition shown. We finished 8th last season and the owners are yet show anything really of substance in the transfer market. Fuck them.
Arteta really has got to punch above his weights to get us anywhere near the top four this season with the midfield that we have.
We have to realize that for him we are only an appreciating asset. He doesn’t need to put a cent in and he we can start fighting for relegation and he won’t give a shit.
We became a team being in the title race till March/April, to struggling for 4th and now almost finished below 8th and nothing has changed on their end.
Yes, we know we don’t have a pro-active owner in the way that some other clubs do (although the investment put in by Liverpool’s owners is nothing compared to that at Chelsea or City) but he never was like that so we’re stuck with it. We are where we are and it isn’t likely to change anytime soon no matter how much we complain. As for a top 4 finish, I think that’s unlikely as well and I suspect Arteta will be satisfied with a Europa Cup place and, if possible, another cup. He is stuck with a number of… Read more »
The thing is it doesn’t even have to be an extensive outlay. Net loss of about £65M on the season on transfers: Out: £20M martinez; £3M Greenwood; [£8M Mustafi; £2M Sokratis; £20M Torreira; £10M Chambers or Holding] – ~£63M In: £25M Gabriel; £6M Mari; £1.5M Runner; ~£5M (fees) Willian; [£45M Partey; £50M Aouar] – £127.5M Difference = £64.5M Now consider if we got those two midfielders we are a genuine threat for the top 4. Champions league money ~£20-60M depending on results. You get a boost in merchandise, boost in tickets (if we ever get back to fans at the… Read more »
Exactly. We have got a really good Manager in Arteta and there has been so much positivity around the club off late compared to all the doom and gloom. Even a man who just wants to make some money would see this an ideal opportunity to invest and reap the benefits. It is a win-win for everyone.
The Kroenkes are a bunch of clueless pricks.
Not clueless, just not engaged enough. To them it’s too easy – Arsenal is quite a low risk, appreciating asset that requires minimal financial and time management. It is (literally) a property investment in a highly desirable location (only downside is how close S**rs are really and them stinking out the neighbourhood).
Relax. We spent a club record 72m on Pepe, 25m on KT and 27m on Saliba (who wasn’t even available until this season) and we still ended up finishing 8th. Even the newly cash-rich Everton have not done that. Unai took us back a couple of years, to be honest. We have an astronomical wage-bill (more than Spurs) with new-deal Auba, Willian and Ozil. We have been consistently spending big fees on big players such as Laca and Auba year on year and not sold anyone noteworthy and we have just come up short in the league positions. So the… Read more »
Are you telling you telling me it was Arsène and and Unai who provided the useless bunch with the astronomical wages because of which we are unable to offload them?
Get a grip mate. It was the board who did it and Kroenkes would have had their say.
If the Kroenkes had pulled their heads out of their arses a long while back we wouldn’t have been in this position.
It was Arsene though, although I realise nobody is allowed to say a bad word about him. He’s the one who bought the players and refused to sell Sanchez for good money. We have spent lots of money very badly, and Mikel is now paying for the mistakes of Arsene, Gazidis and Sanhelli. Hopefully we get a boost before the window closes, otherwise this could be another long frustrating season.
Actually I think Arsene probably was very much involved in putting this collection of players together on the wages they have, so yes.
No. It was Arsene who had the last word on transfers etc. Apologists like you can’t have it both ways. He had almost total control of the club and that’s fine when things were going well, but when we entered the slow motion car crash that were (unfortunately) the hallmark of his later years it suddenly wasn’t down to him at all. The owner and the board went along with the recommendations from the coach.
Liverpool’s owners don’t spend much of their own money either. They are the self-sustaining model done right and they should be the model for our ownership.
But the very key difference between owners is that John Henry really wants to win trophies and Stan doesn’t really care much about that.
Our best hope is if Josh Kroenke actually wants to win trophies more than his dad does. He talks the talk, but we’ll have to see if he really does, and if he will make the investments to do it.
I disagree. They bought Gabriel, trying to buy Aouar, bought Willian because we have Saka and Nelson. Not perfect but not the way fans are putting it.
He’s far too complimentary of the scum. Enough praising of Pool already, just concentrate on ourselves.
It’s not as if he’s blind to the work we have to do. He literally says that.
Agree.
They are good but we gave them too much respect yesterday. But what can you expect when you have a midfield consisting of the players that it consisted of yesterday. Would have taken the names but it seems its forbidden here to do that.
Jt amazes me how we leave these transfers in the air always. I know the negotiation is taking place, surely if we want the likes of partay Hussaum, we can find the extra money to get them done early, and get them in. Arteta should also sale the like of ozil, mustafi, Socrates laca amd chembars coz they still have the negativety of Wenger. By Fredrick
Hopefully last night and the game vs West Ham have focussed our transfer team into getting done what is necessary
We don’t have a chance of top 4 with this midfield. Upper mid-table standard at best. They’re killing us at both ends of the pitch and putting far too much pressure on both our defenders and forwards.
And a deep lying, athletic midfielder who can advance the ball quickly and accurately (Partey or someone else) is absolutely critical – far more so than Aouar
100%. I don’t think people realise how vital having a player that can drive the ball through the middle of the park and into advanced areas is for our creativity. People think – Partey is a DM/CM so he does not improve our attack. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. Stick Ozil in this team now with a 4-3-3 and we lose our solidity and we won’t create much more (one thing at Arsenal we never realised with Ozil is he is most effective in space – counter attacking). Stick Aouar in with Xhaka and Ceballos we still… Read more »
I keep saying almost exactly this. I just don’t understand how there’s any debate about it anymore. There is nothing in Granit Xhakas skillset that comes close to making up for his shortcomings as a Premier League midfielder. He’s the footballing equivalent of a quarterback who needs absolutely everyone and everything to be just so for his talents to come online, and even when all those stars align for him to do his thing, he’s never providing enough consistent quality output to justify the lengths you go to getting him his moments to shine. It’s like splitting the atom so… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more. We set our team up to make it functional with Xhaka, when we could be so much more – 4 Arsenal managers have tried the same and all have more or less the same mediocre returns. I really hope we get to see Ceballos and Elneny in the short term until we get the replacements we need. Elneny is quite mobile and he does everything xhaka does without the limitations. Just a very no frills version. Right now I’d rather no frills, but flexible to do more across the park than locked into a system that has… Read more »
I just hope Arteta isn’t blind to it. Granit Xhaka absolutely cannot be the flagpole he ties his standard to. I know it’s not necessarily by his choice or design but until he addresses it he’s going to hit a wall on this teams progress. Ceballos and Elneny have complimentary dynamics. Give them games together to build a rapport. Both have shown they have the legs to get through a lot of work defensively and still have an impact offensively. Willian doesn’t have the legs to play wide right effectively when he’s isolated. He isn’t running past anyone at this… Read more »
Again I agree. I would love us to go with this team against the Blades (exactly the type of team a Xhaka midfield REALLY struggles against): Leno Bellerin – Luiz – Gabriel – Tierney Ceballos – Elneny (Double-pivot) Willian (AM) Pepe – Auba – Saka You’ll notice Laca is out too. I like him but I feel Saka would bring more and I’m still not so sure why we are so adverse to playing Auba up top. He scores goals for fun where ever he is and having Saka and Willian is great balance for the directness of Auba-Pepe. Willian… Read more »
I once got downvoted 59 to 1 when i said this a few weeks ago. But anyway..
I was the 1.
100% agree with your observations. There are several players with Aouar’s skill set in the market not as many with Partey’s however. It’s criminal he’s not the #1 priority given how much our midfield is being overrun and bypassed.
I really don’t get where this Aouar obsession started from.
Goals and assists. People chase the most superficial of data.
Christ, if Arteta loves Liverpool so much why doesn’t he just marry them! XD
Seriously though, he makes a good point on recruitment. We’ve wasted too much on players that were way above market value or that don’t fit what we’re trying to accomplish.
He also makes a very good point about how Liverpool have improved the players they have. None of their front 3 came to the club as a ready made superstar, nor their fullbacks or most of their midfielders. Liverpool took the time to improve them, Arteta should get the same time.
Maybe MA is thinking long term and we are a stepping stone. When Pep or Klopp decide to leave there are 2 great jobs available.
Many have been out critizising MA for his lineup. I watched Liecester run riot at the Etihad and saw the Baggies put 3 against Chelsea. What the lineup both City and Chelsea had in common, were that the back line did not now eachother and CB´s were making their debut – Ake and Thiago Silva. (And Alonso was total garbage, as was Kyle Walker – but we already knew that)
What I´m saying is that communication and knowledge at the back line is vital and our new boys will have to get some time.
I’m still fuming about the non red card. And no real review by VAR. Urgh.