Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Arsenal will not be looking to sign any new players before the transfer window closes at 11pm UK time.
The Gunners recruited Kai Havertz, Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber for £200 million during an early summer spree that delighted supporters who were impressed by the ambition shown by the club hierarchy.
Whem Timber suffered a season-ending knee injury there on his Premier League debut there were suggestions that Edu and Mikel Arteta might look for a replacement but the Spaniard has nixed that talk.
“For me, I’m serene,” said Arteta when he was asked if he was expecting a hectic afternoon in his pre-Manchester United press conference.
“I don’t have to do much more work. It’s more the recruitment [team], everyone, the boys [in the backroom], trying to finalise a few things.
“I don’t expect anybody to come in. I’m not going to reply to anything [on outgoings], you know that. There is nobody else coming in, we don’t expect. That’s what I can say.”
Pressed on why Arsenal opted not to reinforce the full-back positions after Timber’s injury, he added:
|It’s not sometimes that you want to do everything that is needed, sometimes it’s not possible and we have to adapt. We cannot go and buy another three players and if somebody gets injured, a long time do something else. It was just not possible.”
So far this summer, the Gunners have sold first team members Granit Xhaka, Matt Turner, Pablo Mari, Auston Trusty, Folarin Balogun and Nuno Tavares for a figure close to £85 million. Backup goalkeeper Alex Runarsson and Kieran Tierney have also been loaned to Cardiff City and Real Sociedad respectively.
More could follow in the coming hours. Sambi Lokonga is being linked with a loan move to Luton Town and Crystal Palace are interested in Rob Holding. It remains to be seen what happens to Nicolas Pepe and Cedric Soares but with the transfer window remaining open in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, it’s possible they could still move in the coming weeks.
“We’re working together to find the best possible solutions and we found them and I think the players are happy and the club in general. I think we did some good business as well,” reflected the boss.
Still feel we are short in couple of positions but we have a good squad
possibly at the back as we’ve lost Timber,
but if the idea is to play most of the games with two inverted backs TP5 (R) and Zinny (L), with White and Saliba as CBs,
then there is cover in Kiwior, Gabriel and Tommy. or add one of them in the back when required.
I am not saying that’s what I like,
A defender and RW to cover Saka would have been nice
What do you think Nelson is?
Think the club gave him a much improved contract to be sweet?
I thought Arteta preferred him on the left tbh
Hurrah for the Turkish transfer window! There’s still hope.
Only six fully fit defenders? Hmm…
tbf I suppose you can stick Rice in there or Partey (though people are less keen on that) if needs be
We might be okay till the new year but will surely need a loan deal or two in January with Partey leaving for AFCON. I read somewhere that Tomi will also be leaving for some domestic tournament? 🙁
Asian cup from mid Jan to mid Feb
Seven if you include Partey, which I think Arteta is doing unfortunately. There’s been talk of Reuell Walters getting minutes too, maybe in the cup competitions.
Youth prospects are the thing we are all ignoring I suppose
Yeah it was interesting that Arteta went to watch the u21s the week after Timber got injured when Walters had been training with the first XI regularly last season
We have to keep that balance where we give a route to the first team to youngsters. If we don’t then we do not retain prospects – they just join Chelsea like Hutchinson as they will be offered more money. If you can demonstrate the route, as we will be doing with the likes of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, by keeping openings for our other Hale End boys then you compensate for the money that we rightly should not be offering to kids like other clubs do. On a side note Patino and Norton-Cuffy made the England U21 squad this week… Read more »
Worth reading this and bearing in mind what Barca have already and loaning likes of Fati to Brighton before you discount youth options
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66682601
If only we had a decent left-back who could defend, ah yes he’s gone out on loan to Spain.
that ship has sailed,
Maybe, but I cannot help feeling it was a mistake as he was still a fine left back and a better defender than Zinchenko.
I agree, but I’m past thinking could have, should have
Have you considered that it might have been Tierney pushing to leave for regular gametime?
Hoping the Rob Holding to Palace is in part secret compensation for a late Guehi swoop.
I had the same thought but it doesn’t sound like it
I’m actually fine with no further signing but really i do hope we can figure things out for our players… Kai Havertz – I’m still very certain we could hv gotten a better players in other positions for that kind of money. That aside, we have ESR and Vieira still in the squad. I’m really anxious to know what’s Arteta game plan is for these players. Kieran Tierney – still gutted that he left for RS. He is definitely up there alongside Nigel Winterburn, Ashley Cole, Nacho Monreal. Given Timber injury, its absolute madness to let him go simply bcuz… Read more »
I can only speculate – but I’ll bet my bottom dollar Gabriel had his head turned by Saudi money – as will any player – so how do you set an example to your players that if you want to play for money or play for arsenal then these are the boundaries? My guess is that Gabriel has been offered significant sums in Saudi and has compared this to his new contract vs Saliba’s (far more generous) and his agent has asked some questions. From a neutral perspective I think Gabriel has every right to ask for the same money… Read more »
Well. I’m going to tip my hat to all concerned – and congratulate especially Edu and Garlick for getting the Rice deal over the line. Make no mistake, City wanted him too and could easily have dumped us out of the water after our opening two bids – which was why I was initially so angry. Thankfully Arteta stepped in to help with the final push – and we got our man. He is going to be worth every single penny. A lot of FIFA 23 clowns still moaning and groaning (which part of over £200m spent do you not… Read more »
Supremely well put, Q.
Exactly, big picture, the club is showing the right level of ambition. To Arteta’s point, you can’t control injuries and we had already spent £200m. The club is going for it and I couldn’t be happier.
Excellent comment. It is easy to get caught up in the noise – but we did our business early and got what we wanted. We’ve taken an early blow with Timber, but I think we have more than enough to work with across all positions. We have half the fanbase saying we need more defenders and attackers and the other half saying how can’t Gabriel and ESR get a game. To me that suggests that we’ve found a decent equilibrium
I still think the Kieran loan is weird but what can you do.
Please play Saliba and big Gabi this weekend!!!!
Can we pretend that Kiwior came in over the summer rather than Jan and is the replacement for KT/ Holding?
Should have bought a centre forward instead of Havertz and we’ll fall short of the big trophies again. Blew our best chance of the title last season.
Yawn. Jesus is our first choice striker. Eddie is our second choice striker, and is pushing for that first choice spot. So where does a £65m striker fit into this equation? We can drop Jesus and we lose the impact of the contributions from Saka, martinelli and MO as we no longer have that link man at no.9 – or is there a no.9 you suggest that can do what Jesus does? We could spend that £65m on a back up to Jesus – will it make a difference having that £65m on the bench compared to Eddie? Will they… Read more »
With no new signings we will effectively have just two new outfield players in this year (since Timber is done for the year) while losing a long time starter in Xhaka. We also added better depth at GK which will help in the other competitions, but probably won’t move the needle much in the league matches since both are relatively equal in most opinions. Hard to see how we’ve improved enough on paper this year to catch City with this year with effectively one new player (Rice as the new player and Havertz in for Xhaka) while they continued to… Read more »
So if we take Havertz price, divide it by his height, then multiply that by Xhaka’s goals scored, then add the square root of the total points we were behind Man City added to the number of pounds Pep gained over the summer, I concur – we are fucked and will finish 12.87 points behind them this year. So sad. Looks like I will have to skip this season and hope the math works out better for us next year so I get my trophy!
Fully agree with the assessment, with timbers’ unfortunate injury, we have effectively added just Rice as Havertz is in for Xhaka and currently giving way below what Xhaka gave.
But you have forgotten that Emile and Viera will have much impact this season than they had last time.plus,we brought in trossard,kiwior and jorginho in January while city was not strengthening in January and they have lost the best assister of last season in De brune to injury
Palace getting a hell of a deal for £4m on Rob Holding.
Almost half of his market value according to transfermarkt. Also Tavares is being sold (if Forest decide to buy after the loan) at a good few million below his market value (again according to tm). For whatever reason, other clubs simply don’t value our players.
Tavares I get. The unreliability in defence outweighs his attacking threat.
We would get a good price for any of the current first teamers.
The ones that are not deemed good enough to play for us not so much. Seem to be getting rid of the last if them.
Why is a solid experienced 27 year old English defender fetching only £4 mill? Every club mid table down would be improved by him.
4m is a pisstake. Like Leno.
100% – hard to figure out why we’d get less than £10m – he not only adds to the team but adds to the changing room
Farewell to our sweet, Northern prince. May he spread the word on those Turkish hair transplants, across South London
I feel like we can make a late move for Cancelo.
I wonder if a late loan move for joao cancelo is on the cards. We have 3 full-backs right now, 1 is injured long term and the other two are injury prone, seeing which it would make perfect sense to get him on board. Unless arteta thinks walters is good enough cover
Cancelo to Barca is a done deal.
Have we strengthened?
Rice replacing Xhaka? ( One for one – not yet convinced that Rice is an upgrade)
Timber – now essentially out for the season
Havertz
Out goes Tierney ( good left back), Xhaka and a promising forward in Balogun
I hope Gabriel gets his place back immediately but our defensive depth remains weak.
Arteta May be seeing great promise in the academy such as Walters – let’s hope so