It’s clear that Mikel Arteta wants to add more quality to his squad this summer but second-guessing the club’s transfer budget appears to be a pointless exercise at this point in time.
While the papers are awash with ‘war chest’ figures, the manager was quick to point out that squad building involves many moving parts.
“It’s not only about that amount,” said Arteta asked if the club are in a position to match the £150 million spent last summer.
“If you see the wage [bill] that we have and we had, it’s night and day. So it’s not only about spending, it’s about what you have sold.
“We had 28 players and we ended up with 19 in the squad, so it’s about the total expenditure. Because if not that figure is irrelevant. Because what is the total annual cost of the squad you are building?”
While he wouldn’t be drawn on what has been budgeted, the manager made clear Arsenal will do their best to maximise what they have.
Selling some players (a novel idea!) should help. Yesterday, the club confirmed that Dinos Mavropanos had been sold to Stuttgart and it’s expected Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira will follow the Greek’s lead by joining their own loan clubs, Marseille and Fiorentina.
With three first team players out of contract and question marks hanging over another six or seven, there is money to be made and saved.
“We are going to have certain resources, not unlimited resources, some resources,” said Arteta.
“And with our resources we have to play and do what we have to do in the best possible way.
Arteta is acutely aware that rival clubs will also be pushing hard to sign key targets and that standards are rising across the board.
“We don’t know what the rest are going to have in terms of resources, which I’m assuming is going to be challenging because now it’s not a top three or top four league. Now it is a top eight or 10 teams that are involved. That’s why we have to find a way to do again what we did last summer.
He added: “I think the league has never been that competitive. The numbers you could produce six years ago in this league, today you are out of Europe. It’s as simple as that.
“We know that and the plan we have is to be able to compete with these teams, but we don’t know what resources other teams will have. But we know other teams are starting from a different position, because they are in a different moment but we still need to have the aim to do that, because if you don’t, where do you end up? Just looking back, I don’t want to do that.
“We need to find ways to be able to compete with them, like we have done this season, because nobody expected us to do that with the squad we had and the expectation we had.”
While Arsenal were busy in the summer, we were the exact opposite in January. The club allowed a host of players to leave, including captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and chose not to plug the gaps. In retrospect, it feels like an opportunity was lost to bring in the necessary quality to get us over the line in our pursuit of Champions League football.
Arteta was emphatic in his response when asked if he had any regrets. “No,” he said decisively.
He was then asked if not spending in January leaves the club in a better position to do business this summer. It wasn’t entirely obvious what he meant by his reply.
“Everything that we did do, was trying to reach the objectives that we had after January – which was to try to be challenging the top four, and the way we were going to do it. Financially be stable and be in a position that come January or December we could allow ourselves to do certain things and not be completely locked.”
He says he has no regrets but I don’t believe that’s true. He’s just toeing the company line an endearing himself to the Kroenkes (as usual).
I am concerned that we have only won 4 points from losing positions this season. That’s the lowest in the division equal with Norwich. I’m not Arteta out though not as convinced as some. More will be revealed. Coyg
Your comment doesn’t make sens as we have been in a loosing position a lot less than Norwich or many teams for that matter
We have won four points from losing positions. Norwich have won four points from losing positions. I hope that helps 🤓
How many times have Norwich been in winning positions? Now compare that number to the amount of times Arsenal have been in winning positions. I HOPE THAT HELPS
Not really as you have totally missed the point. 😂 I do remember Willy young though can you imagine him playing today 😂🤣
Loosing…..aarrgh!
Then the moral of the story is that we shouldn’t be going 1-0 down in the first place.
I actually find that quite comforting as i think the solution is pretty simple, we need a squad of greater depth of quality. As i see it we either win or lose, we rarely draw and that’s because we either play our football or we don’t. Mainly that’s because we’re having to use second choice players who aren’t really up to the job, especially if they have to play several matches and end up getting found out by the opposition. Even when we have a fully fit squad we’re probably at least 2 players from an ideal Arteta team, so… Read more »
Can someone hijack Spurs bus travelling to Norwich for 3 hours
I am sure arsenal Board will reward them handsomely.
They’re perfectly capable of failing when it counts without the need for outside intervention
We’ve got to get better at business. Selling Mavropanos for circa €4.5m is ridiculous. If we were buying him, it would be 3-4 times that amount….
they probably paid a loan fee for 2 years and his wages in that time.
its basically like we sold him 2 years ago for 10-15m
I don’t think he was on big wages, so not sure….
They will sell him on for €20m in the next year or even this summer 🙄
yeah but hes played 2 years of first team top flight football by then.
we couldn’t offer that.. though he was a sven signing i doubt other clubs would have had as much faith as they did.
No, we have to buy players we don’t want to sell, not one’s who we think we might be able to flip at a profit.
The quality has to be the main priority, but given where our squad is it’ll be another few years before we have backup players other clubs are willing to pay a premium for.
I have been watching Gabriel Jesus more closely since he was linked to Arsenal. He’s one step form the absolute best, but a very good striker who would fit in well in Arteta’s scheme. Adoptable, still young, smart. And probably expensive but affordable. Assuming they had a good relationship at City, this seems like a logical move.
Yeah, he’s really good but not great. As he’s in the final year of his contract I think we should set a £40m limit on his price. He’s another player that can play in about three positions.
I really think we need an amazing number 9 as well though…..
What I take from the article is there won’t be a ton of money available. I don’t think we can shoot for an world-class striker right now. Unless that guy is named Lewandowski.
Abraham would be my first choice but would probably cost almost twice as much as Jesus.
Torino’s Belotti,anyone?
What is the wage bill currently?
5th in the league, I heard on a recent podcast not sure whether that was at start of this season or current.
You say “chose” but they did try to fill the gap. They tried to buy the best forward who was available in January.
Newcastle were trying desperately to buy a forward and in the end they had to pay £20m to activate Chris Woods’ buy out clause. Nobody was available. That’s hardly a choice.
Even NZ’s finest Chris Wood would struggle to get on the end of Cedric’s crosses …
we need a big-time striker plus Abraham … and a dominant midfielder like Vieira to hook up with Partey …
They “chose” to let their only striker go in February, when it was clear they weren’t bringing anyone in.
Said striker has since scored 13 goals.
After all the fuck-ups this season, you would have to be an actual psychopath to to genuinely have no regrets.
Personally I would not regret letting him go but the club might. However that’s not what I disagree with. It’s this idea that they didn’t even try to buy a forward. Or even decided not to.
It’s like saying I decided not to buy a £1m house for £50k. I haven’t had the opportunity otherwise I would have…
I love Mikel, this interview could work as an open letter to the owners and educating them on focussing on how the market changes. Not trying to improve over the previous season. But to be more aware of the main aim… -To improve the squad in the long term. -And don’t live in the past, be progressive. -its not about how much you tell your fans that you spend big bucks, the nuance of how you spend and save is equally important. It’s amazing that after years of ownership it’s taken Mikel and the three of looking stupid on Netflix… Read more »
We can’t just be simply trying to improve over the previous season. We need need to improve over all our competitors.
Mikel:
“Our future me needs to be better than future them, not better than yesterday them or yesterday us.”
Anyone know how Isak’s season panned out? The previous season he was scoring loads but last I checked it had all but dried up for him.
6 La Liga goals apparently. That’s not just bad, it’s shocking. That should cool a few of his suitors off quite considerably.
Project, potential, direction, and other buzzwords will not make strikers of the quality of Jesus join us. Not even money will. It’s champions league football. So don’t expect too much from who we sign.
Arteta’s results has been a little sub-par as Arsenal manager, but he’s young enough and looks like he can be quite special given time, so I’m not overly worried about this. What I’m most worried about is with respect to offloading players on the cheap, some after a falling out with him. Guendouzi, Mavropanos, Ozil, Auba, the list goes on… How many millions have this cost the Club?
Trust the process.
Of becoming a midtable team. Yes i trust 100%