Mikel Arteta admits Arsenal were disappointed not to add to their squad during the January transfer window but accepts he’ll have to get creative with his frontline in the final months of the season.
The Spaniard was very open about his desire to recruit in attack after losing Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka to injury but didn’t ever look like getting a deal done after a half-hearted flirtation with Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins came to nothing.
From the outside, it appeared the Gunners were torn between keeping their powder dry for a summer – they’ve been linked with big-money moves for Benjamin Sesko and Alexander Isak – or spending over the odds on a player capable of providing short-term cover.
Sporting Director Edu’s departure in November won’t have helped, leaving his team member, Jason Ayto, to pick up the slack at a crucial point in the season. Whether the club’s failure to finalise a deal in the final days affects Ayto’s chances of securing the role permanently remains to be seen.
Facing the media ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final versus Newcastle, Arteta said: “We had a clear intention, which is always there when a window is open, to explore the opportunities to improve our squad with players that can impact it.
“We haven’t achieved it so we are disappointed in that sense but, as well, we are very aware that we only want to bring certain kind of players and we have to be very disciplined with that as well and I think that we were.”
Pressed on whether he’s been left frustrated and if failing to sign a player will have an impact on the club’s season, he added:
“No, because when you try your best and you do things with the right process, and you see people that all share the same intentions and will, and after you don’t achieve it, [it’s] ok.
“For sure, there are things to learn, there always are, but you have to move on and that’s a piece that was important in the moment and now we have to move on and nobody knows whether it is better to have done it or not, we’ll know probably at the end of the season.”
Clearly reticent to shed more light on the situation, he continued: “I wouldn’t like to go into much detail, we couldn’t do it for certain reasons and we have to accept it, that’s it. It was a combination of things [that stopped us].”
Given that Kai Havertz has led the line without a break for much of the season, Arteta acknowledged that other attackers may have to help ease the burden of the Germany international. One option is to ask 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, who is in a rich vein of scoring form, to play as a number 9.
“We’re going to have to be very flexible in the front line and now the ones that we have on our feet make sure that they stay fit and they keep contributing,” said Arteta.
“Leo [Trossard] can play in that position, Raheem [Sterling] has played in that position, Ethan [Nwaneri] I think can play in that position, [Gabriel] Martinelli can play there, so let’s see in relation to how everybody is, the moment, the opponent, but at some point I think we’re going to have to try something different.”
Asked if tackling the business end of the season with a squad currently made up of 18 fit senior players and two teenagers, is a gamble, he responded:
“It’s not a gamble, it’s reality. I think we have to face the reality as well that we have.
“We have players that we have, some of them are on loan, we’ve never had a squad of 35, 40, 45 players. So many other clubs have 45 players in their list, we don’t have that size at the moment.
“It’s our reality. We’ve had to do so much in the last few years, that’s where we are. So we’re going to have to evolve there as well and have more, and have more players from the academy and the ones that are here need to be fit for longer.”
As a consequence of this new reality, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Arteta is now entrusting his coaching staff with the task of maximising his current options.
“We talked very openly from my side, the club’s perspective, about the intention to improve the squad if we have the capacity to do it,” he said.
“And then, most importantly, [we want] to keep improving the team, to keep improve the individuals within the team because it’s the ones that we have and we love [that are available] and that’s it.
“Now there’s no discussion about it [signings] and we focus on the things that we have continued to do even though the window was open.”
I wasn’t sure 100% about getting Watkins.
I was. I really wanted him.
If Liverpool fuck up now and we don’t capitalise, this will go down as one of the all time great mistakes in our history. (Alongside letting Leicester win the title. Fucking Leicester!)
The only way it makes sense that we didn’t sign a forward this window is if we are sure we can get Isak in the summer.
If we delayed in a bid to land Sesko I’ll be fucking furious.
What Leicester did that year was incredible and they were full value for their title win. They were better than us and everyone else. We finished a full ten points behind them too and not once during the season did we look like challengers. We didn’t hand them that title, they took it for themselves.
Meh – we beat em twice that year. Fucking Leicester. I’ll hate them forever.
We lost the title when we failed to re sign fabregas.
My point really isn’t about the worth of Leicester as champions, but about needing to take an opportunity when it is handed to you.
Leicester were first in the table from the end of January right the way through until the end of the season. During that stretch we were more or less consistently third until the very end when we pipped Spurs for second. There was no missed opportunity. Regardless of the two wins over them, Leicester were consistently the better team and deserving of their title.
what do you mean no missed opportunity? Leicester coming from close to being relegated to winning the title is the ultimate seizing of opportunity.. City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool were all out by Nov…anyone who didnt capitalise wasted the opportunity. didnt we beat Leicester home and away…everything we did that season including chosing to not resign Fabregas or add more goals was wasting the opportunity to win. Lets learn to be honest with our failures.
Ye, like with the chicks
I never wanted Watkins at his age. Understand why we didn’t buy anybody, but surely we could have got Tel on a loan?
Think we need a new Sporting Director urgently.
that’s something that we don’t do…we’d rather moan about being finessed by officials (usually right, but we make it all possible and easy when we dont do our part on/off the pitch)
They were better than us because we needed a defender, a striker and a DM and we eneded up only signing a Chelsea reject GK. We did then exactly what we did this window. Clear needs not met.
Exactly, Leicester won because they were better than us.
They were better than us?! Nope. We blew it big time that year and I hope that never happens again.
I think there’s been or two bigger mistakes mate
The Isaks and the Sescos of this world are NOT guaranteed to fit the Arsenal way and are giving the worong impression of their so called talents because they do not play in anything like the EPL. The team at the lane buy duds which is why they have been shit every year since 1962.
💯
plenty of options other than Watkins…its a maths thing ..we need goals and luck to get over the line. Some will come from the team as a collective like against City but in crucial times it has to be that out and out no.9. A naturally instinctive finisher. It was the same case last time out…the only difference is this season we had a higher incentive for doing it given our lack of depth and loss of key players. We acted the same
That instinctive finisher came on late and curled in a shot against City. I for one am glad that the team didn’t lurch into video game mode and buy “anyone” instead of finding the right “one.” Arteta is not blowing smoke when he says, “we are very aware that we only want to bring certain kind of players.” I agree. Get — or better yet, develop (as they have been doing) only certain kind of players — winners. There are enough goals in this squad to win games. Win the league? maybe not, when injury luck, and more to the… Read more »
Can you please tell me what those “winners” have won in the past five years? We will in the build up for a decade.
What is the team’s winning percentage the past two years? (Five is ridiculous, as is your negativity — the team building is still in process.) They are ahead of the curve, in my view. Did you expect them to be this good so soon? If so, you are a soothsayer indeed.
why not take advantage of the opportunity life presents now..Imagine if Leicester said theyre okay with a top 6 finish which is a success given they were fighting relegation the previous 6 months…they’d be 100+ years waiting for a PL title.. They took advantage of an opportunity, they bought the raffle and won the Jackpot
and thas why we’ll continue building players and selling or losing em on free to.teams that want to win now… yeah we’ll win but it will be some paltry titles and the occasional unique feat once in a blue moon. Its not really about finding the right player, its about Arsenal being typical Arsenal, chosing to balance the sheets and bankin on future success rather than risking a go at success NOW.
I think arsenal wasn’t sure as well, made a bid when they knew Aston Villa were about to lose Duran and hence likely to reject arsenal bid. A bit of smoke screen imo
Villa wanted 60m which for a player with double figures (20+) goals in all comps in the last 4 seasons was a steal..a PL proven striker. Arsenal haggled to 40, in typical fashion and showed their ambitions. Losing Saka was not about losing our RW..Nwaneri, Martinelli, Tross can all play there…it was about losing a consistent source of goals/assists and performer. Well that’s what we needed to replace to keep up with the title opportunities we had and still have. Watkins wasn’t the only option but the club’s approach shows you they knew he has the calibre of output we… Read more »
Crazy not to at least add a offensive player to this thin squad we have!! Club let him Down this window
real bad.. the board let down the team again. Raises serious questions when the time for renewals come. Most of our key players contracts end in 2026 and 2027
I think the big let down was in the Summer. Jan was always going to be hard. It’s not just Raheem, who I do understand, but mainly Neto. We should have signed a decent permanent reserve leaving us room for a loan in January. And he can’t even play Carabao!!! Terrible- it wasn’t like we couldn’t foresee Ramsdale leaving! We spent all summer chasing that Spanish keeper who we always knew was gonna be too expensive. I think we’ve got to shape up a bit on the recruitment strategy front.
The summer was a fkn disaster, we all know it. And now we continue to pay the price for poor planning and squad building last 18 months. The Kroenkes obviously put the kibosh on spending this window else we’d have done a deal early January easy. Not even being able to loan a UK-based player because we have Neto and Sterling (!) is absolutely fkn ridiculous. If that’s what costs us the league in the end that will go down in Arsenal history as the worst recruitment period EVER!!
Absolutely. Inaki Cana’s influence on GK recruiting has got to be reigned in. Look at the amount of money and time we’ve invested in goalkeepers during his time at the club. We did get Raya in the end and for what looks like a bargain now, so that’s fair enough. But we spent way too much time going after that Spanish goalkeeper over the summer, forcing us to waste a premier league loan on a cup-tied Neto as you mentioned. Have to think Hein would’ve been happy being promoted to backup keeper this season and playing some cup games, if… Read more »
Exactly, not having that second loan slot open is strategically naive to say the least. There were a number of prem loan reinforcements available that we could not capitalize. Like Rashford, Ferguson, just to take some minutes off our main players.
We will be very thin with another major injury up front, which is not unlikely given the pressure on our players. Can’t believe the club has zero ambition.
An overpaid average player does not jarm the long term process as some say. What the player will do is to play some minutes when everything is working fine, just to reduce the amount of minutes our main players have to play.
You should be a consultant
funny how some fans cant see the bigger picture in having am extra forward. Playing weekly is crazy and doing so under immense pressure with your back against the grain…Most of these injuries are due to players over exerting themselves due to no options. Our problems this season have been 3 years in the making esp. upfront. Zero investment/promotion in quality forwards. Just hope and pray the remaining 4 forwards don’t get injured playin out of position trying to cover the already injured ones.
Sometimes a bad choice is worse than nothing. We have … er … Sterling proof of that.
Indeed we do, but what was out there that we could have got? That Tel guy has gone to toilet town on loan with an option to buy? If that’s the case, maybe he would have been worth a punt?
Fail to understand the small but noisy minority who do not and will not accept or support Sterling and for that matter Havertz when he arrived.
Bad choices are simply that but this is Arsenal not Sp*rs or Man ure.
I liked Havertz when he arrived. I also thought that Sterling would have been better than he’s turned out, but his name provided a play on words.
you genuinely thought Raz was gonna be better based on what? look at his output and perfomance since his last days at City. Look at his Chelsea days…there was nothing to be hopeful about it..At the back of my mind i always hoped he’d be the one for dead rubber games..but somehow y’all viewed him as a dependable reliable early 20s mid 20s Raz. Wow
So you’ve accepted that we will once again finish trophyless unless miracles happen and Pool lose 3 in the next 14? Assuming we win all 14 and stay fit till end of season.. Sterling was a wrong option should have banked on Nwaneri as Saka’s prodigy and got someone who’s wants more with their career than an already established “done it all” player. May God help us
Lose one to us, another one, and draw two. That could well happen. Winning all our games is the less likely part.
thats why it all sets up for a spirited 2nd placed finish. Assuming Forest also follow suit in terms of form. while 3 consecutive narrow 2nd placed finishes might not look bad …add the fact that when the team needed reinforcements and opportunities presented themselves the board left em out to dry
Sterling is a short term reclamation project with very little risk involved. If you get even a semblance of his prime then that’s well worth it. The early going proved rugged but based on recent appearances I think he can contribute down the stretch.
I’d be damned…🤣🤣. I have more faith in KT playing out-of position and excelling than Raz
Liverpool losing 3 of 14 would not be a miracle.
Yeah but them losing 3 and us winning all 14 would be
Us winning all 14 would be Moses splitting the Red Sea stuff..
I think that’s kinda hypocritical…other players who have similar patchy/outright bad performances have always been made aware of our standards when wearing the shirt. Do I need to mention Willian, Luiz, mustafi etc etc etc. Kai Havertz is the top earner at the club ffs! You need a very specific set of circumstances for him starting every game at center forward and being successful week in/week out.
But is Sterling worse than nothing? He is at least a body that does a decent job. Imagine if we didn’t have him!
This was the real test of our ambitions and we folded back to the old Arsenal. Now we have to rely on miracles and perfection to win a silverware otherwise it’s another trophyless campaign which if it continues in a year or two, it’s another rebuild. Golden squad/generation with nothing to show for it. Kinda like England in every tournament
Neto was the bigger mistake
I actually trust the process on this.
Let’s get some sun on our backs, have some returning players rejoin, and go again.
What process? How many windows do we let pass, trying to fill a gap but failing to do so? Seriously last window we failed to add to attack, and then last minute took a punt on Sterling. 2 windows and the best we can come up with is a last minute loan of a guy with zero confidence. It’s pathetic.
Why have a scouting network if that’s the best we can do. I feel for Arteta – if the club can’t back him we will always fall short.
exactly… 3 times we’ve been in within a chance of changing our destiny twice in the driving seat and all times we’ve done nothing to actually do that. The players are watching the board’s actions, you only have 1 career right and we can’t expect the same level of loyalty from our homegrown players as everyone else. Bar a miracle, We’ll live to regret it
It’s a case of either landing our specific targets or coming up with nothing. That kind of discipline can serve you well, but sometimes you need more flexibility. I do feel that Watkins was the deal to do in this window and for whatever reason we fumbled it. Lots of pressure to land the preferred forward target in the summer now.
and hope Liverpool drop 9 pts while we stay perfect in the next 14 games?
Everytime we leave ourselves to fate, we set up ourselves for an edgy ending. It makes it even easier for PGMOL to screw us up, we do the major part to ourselves
Agreed. And watching Arteta in his interview it is clear he is pissed with the club.
Seems the majority think this is the long term process. With this type of recruitment, we will lose our big players and even manager. Arteta would have won trophies with an ambitious supporting club, why not to move to one.
If not getting Watkins or another forward player now means we’re better placed to sign our primary targets like Isak or Sesko in the summer then I’m glad we kept our powder dry. I can’t see us finishing outside the top four regardless and it’s better to suffer in the short term so we can reap the benefits of a clear and cohesive squad building plan for the seasons to come.
I respectfully disagree.
Are we all just assuming Man City have spent nearly £200m on players to be this shit again next season? “Pep is a fraud, he only does well when given unlimited resources”. Uh oh. And now he’s got the rest of the league season to bed in his new players without any pressure, ready to hit the ground running in September.
If we don’t land a significant pot this year and City get their shit together to complete another 99 point season next year we’re going to look like cunts.
We should have gone for it.
£200 m on what? Players who might fit the likes of city. Thoose who played on sunday justified the tag “waste of money” because they were shit!
AFC bought no one and won 5-1.
Did Citeh load up in January knowing that a transfer embargo is imminent?
I suspect that was very much in their minds. Sure they spent 180M, but on what? 65M on Marmouch (sp?) makes me laugh, the guy’s scored what, four goals all season at Germany and he’s supposed to be a forward? What a waste of money!
So you think we’ll still win the league? What short memory you have since December onwards when we couldn’t put away Fulham, Everton, Brighton, Man U, Newcastle etc. due to lack of firepower and a woefully thin squad. This should have been the season we romped the league instead we’re having to watch a rookie PL manager most likely win it at his first attempt ffs! And you’re ok with that? Wow
Wasnt the same thing when Chelsea won the league in 2017..look what happened next… a clean sweep the next year. winning 5-1 against City will mean nothing if we end up trophyless again…it’ll be even more harder to attract those “right targets” ..is it so hard to admit we fumbled the bag again when we had the chance. Almost every title winning squad has a striker or attacker who competes or wins the Golden Boot…when was the last time we won without one?
How are you going to maintain the current crop of stars? another speech of our so-called ambitions.? Clubs covet our players and Silverware is a big part to keeping a quality squad put as well as attracting those primary targets. Players only have 1 career
I think they looked at several things: – Recent form is good with current crop. Found ways to score without a “go to” guy. – Nwaneri is unironically like a new signing, scoring in the CL and PL. Didn’t anticipate such rapid development at season start. – Invested a lot of time reclaiming Sterling, there is hope he can add end product too – Saka will return from injury for the run in – Watkins or whoever would be great for 6 months but then Sesko might be like, didn’t you just sign a striker? Maybe not. But then maybe… Read more »
Well said, all good points and I agree with the reasoning. I think we’re in a favourable position to sign the players we really want in the summer now. I’ve made peace with this season not turning into the one we wanted. After all the setbacks we’ve endured any silverware will purely be a bonus. We’ll make top four at the least and look to the future from there. It’s as good a platform to push on from as any.
Even Sesko woukd have been welcome now…y’all are focusing on Watkins as if it was him or burst.
So in a nutshell you’re saying its okay to let the opportunity we’ve worked for since pre-season so that we can create another “perfect” opportunity and hope it all works out to our favour. Life just doesn’t accord you opportunities after opportunities if all you do is fumble them
Not sure Watkins is the right man. Seems to me that some fans will have anyone just to show a signing on the books. He may want the move but he is not what we are after. He is not prolific and probably too close to thirty to be anything other than a rash decision.
I think he could have been the exact right man for 35 mil. 60’s a bridge to far.
Agree 100%
I agree about Watkins. Nothing against him as he’s a really good player but read what Villa fans were saying about him and it’s that he makes a huge contribution to the attack of the team but isn’t actually that prolific. Which sounds kind of like Havertz to me. 60 million and 29 years old and it sounds like keeping the powder dry for the summer was probably the best thing to do.
I think Watkins could have been a good addition but once Duran went to Arabia, we were never going to get him. As for his age – isn’t there a 33-year-old leading the league in scoring right now?
60M is too high a price, though. 35M-45M would seem about right to me. Perhaps he’ll be available for a better price in the summer.
so now we sign him at 30 for 45m?
Watkins is a proven PL goal scorer who leads any of our current players in PL scoring charts this season! if we had snagged him for 50-60mil, which is not a lot of money these days, he’d have been a great addition to boost us through the end of the season. This narrative about him being too old at 29 is utter BS. Salah is 32!!!
Yeah, and Salah is… Mo fuckin Salah. Don’t compare apples to oranges. That aside, it sounds like we made a genuine effort to get Watkins but weren’t gonna overpay. We can’t complain for decades about poor selling and consistent overpayment for players then also complain when… we opt not to overpay for a player. Everyone seems to also keep ignoring the fact that Watkins came off injured last Saturday. Bullet dodged.
it just shows you the mentality we have in the fanbase… Appalling but not surprising.
Watkins was the deal to do if we were going to do a deal. I balked at the age at first too but he was a bit of a late bloomer, not as much mileage on those legs as some. His game does depend on a certain level of physicality, burst and quickness and those will inevitably fade, but I think it’s reasonable to believe he has at least 2 more seasons in his prime. Even two years of a proven striker’s prime is worth a lot of money. I don’t really think comparisons to Salah are too helpful though.… Read more »
wonder what Chris Wood would be …
The first few glimpses we got of Martinelli was in attack and he was really good. I’d love to see him there again, to see if he can do it.
I understand why Arteta & some of our fanbase are disappointed that we didn’t make any signings in the winter transfer window, and on some level I am too. At the same time however, I’m glad that we didn’t sign players just for the sake of spending money, because we all know that, long before they would have even kicked a ball in Arsenal colours, they would be considered & described in certain quarters as being “deadwood”. So in that sense, it’s a good thing that we’ve ultimately chosen to save and spend what limited transfer money is available on… Read more »
Are you saying there was no one in the market that could have made a difference in our current squad? Osimhen, Sesko, Vlahovic, Watkins, Kvicha, Gyokeres, Marmoush were all available …difference is with Arsenal, when push comes to shove, when its Go Time, we always fold. It’s been the history of the club. Guess we’ll just have to rely on favours and PGMOL luck otherwise its another trophyless campaign
You’re just listing players. What makes you think those players’ clubs would have let them go midway through the season?? Not to mention the preferences of the players themselves. You also voided your entire comment by including Marmoush – he didn’t touch the fucking ball on Sunday.
You’re EXACTLY the type of fan Stan and Josh love…keep the team top 4…that’s enough for Arsenal fans…🤦♀️
Yeap. He’s the IDEAL fan…. they’re quite many based on the comments.. our players aren’t the ones lacking in mentality, its the fans 💯
It’s easy to sign squad players to raise the floor during an injury crisis.
It’s much harder to get rid of them when you sign a new starter to raise the ceiling and they are left even further behind.
Every year it’s a case of Same old Arsenal, can’t go al out and do whats needed. Clearly theres is a lack of cohesiveness between the board and the football side of things. Everyone including Arteta and the players wanted a new signing to boost the goals. It’s always a gamble but you can’t win the jackpot if you don’t buy the raffle. Now Arteta and his staff have to think about adapt, make due which will mean players playing out-of position. Chances are we’ll only get so close…but yet far away. 3 consecutive January windows facing the same problem… Read more »
A few months ago MLS or Nwaneri weren’t even considered as first team players, now look at them! I’m a little disappointed but I don’t think we’re in a bad a shape as many people seem to think we’re in.
While I’m disappointed we didnt get reinforcement, it also important we dont just bring extra bodies for the sake of it. i hope we had learnt from the summer with neto/sterling loan. We dont have such resources like oil money citeh or american’s chelsea to spend crazy money and discard players if it doesnt work. Look at the noisy neighbor, they had to pay few millions for a 19 yo kid for a loan fee. Its desperation. We aren’t that either. If anything, we actually do look like a well run football club.
We can be proud of how we didn’t give into the temptation of signing a panic buy and how we go by the rules. But we have been going by the rules since Arsene years, where has the ffp ever been sanctioned on any title challengers. The 115 charges against city by the league exists but the same league also employs PGMOL. I don’t like boehly, but then if I was a billionaire and my team has been close to title challenges for last three years, I would have wanted to invest just to cross that line for once. The… Read more »
And where has that 1.5 billion pounds Chel$hit spent got them? A squad of 40 that they can’t fully register, playing in the Conference League in Europe. And now to balance the books they’re having to sell off players for half what they paid for them. “Creative” isn’t the word – it’s “spendthrift”. They’re like the kid whose rich dad takes him to the toy store and buys every toy, and the kid then doesn’t know what to do with them all.
I like our business model a lot better than theirs.
Though I agree that Chelsea are rubbish. It’s not like we have been great at selling players for what they are worth. Who is our record sell and how many players have been released on a free since Arteta took over? We are horrible at selling players. WHO that boils down to be it manager, sporting director, board or owners? I don’t care, it has been a problem for a long time now. It’s not about just buying players for the sake of buying them. Or appeasing the fans. We can all see Havertz is absolutely shattered at the end… Read more »
If it’s true that not signing someone is purely down to caution, and not wanting to make a bad signing, I fully support it. Doesn’t make it any less disappointing, but if it means we can splash on a big striker signing this summer it will have been worth it. Now if summer comes and we’re balking at 75 mill or whatever Sesko will cost (or likely over 120 mill for Isak) then it will be clear it’s more down to spending power. With Jorginho and Tierney leaving, maybe Zinchenko, we shouldn’t need to sell before we buy. I really… Read more »
Another missed opportunity that will cost us.
Our boys are playing flat out, push them more and you’ll see yet more injuries that will be the final nail in the title coffin.
We needed strikers/players not just to score goals but to give our players a rest.
For a club that has done so many good things recently, this is a stinker.
Unfortunately I can’t play well in attack as my knees are shot, but I give a hell of a team talk.
My main fear is that Mathys Tel turns out to be the player I think he is, and that we could have had a £150m player for peanuts, at the perfect time for us to get him, at the exact time we needed him, and with the whole world looking on and sighing at our fucking brilliance.
Let’s hope Sp*rs fuck it up, eh?
I screamed at the world when we didn’t get Son Heung-min from Leverkusen … this could be so much worse.
Disappointing that we couldn’t find a Trossard-like signing. I guess if MLS could play LW, he could be considered like a new signing! 🙃