Qwiss Are we back to this nonsense? There were half a dozen players who either moved or could have been moved that would have been reasonable or better signings.

We don't need a reasonable signing up top, we need someone to lift our level or a shit hot prospect. We tried for Sesko and couldn't get that deal done. The only strikers imo who were clearly better than Havertz that moved this window were Mbappe and Osimhen on loan.

Anyway our problem isn't to do with our striker, our problem is not signing a top class wide player but most importantly not signing a top class CM who can control the game. I think Merino will play a role for us but he is more backup than starter imo. I think Odegaard's injury has also exposed that we are short there and we let ESR go and Vieira go on loan.

Gazza M that's the point though we don't seem to cut this kind of run out, seems to follow a pattern and relies on near perfect run to get us back in it which we've managed but it's always a massive ask. You could easily drop a few more points and you're well off the pace and there is no way right now at look like a team that won't drop more points.

Burnwinter

For the record I don’t want Arteta out, hell I like Arteta but I just want some damn accountability. It’s a results based business. Results = trophies.

End of the season if we don’t win a trophy he comes under the spotlight.

I would even take finishing 2nd and winning the Carabo Cup because at least that is tangible progress and gets the monkey off our backs.

Guys, I just hate being nearly men, really pisses me off. Don’t want to be a glorified Spurs which is my biggest fear.

daredevil exactly, otherwise I should drag Edu for not signing Raphinha who has been linked with us a few times and is now the top performing forward in Europe. And I can arbitrarily add any other name I wish to beat down on those guys.

Claudius the job is to sign players, not to evaluate players other clubs have signed. Your criteria don't make sense.

Every player can be signed. If they say no, then you've failed to sign them. The magnitude of that failure is debatable, but it's not just something we have to accept without criticism.

It's a bit weak we didn't sign a dangerous forward in summer, but we went in pretty hard for Sesko, and we likely enquired about others. Olise is the achievable great signing we actually missed out on I reckon—but we would've had to beat Bayern to the punch. Gyokeres scoring one goal from open play against City doesn't at all mean he'd tear it up in England.

Rest of our signings were absolutely fine, even excellent, but we've lacked a settled selection through the midfield this season as well as missing arguably our best player. Kinda like City have had Rodri and Stones out and they've just lost four in a row ...

Burnwinter Gyokeres has a stellar championship goalscoring record. Those normally transfer to the top league. It's proven.

But the topic is not about specific player, but rather the lame excuse that there's nobody to sign.

If we want someone we will get him. We just chose to prioritise areas we thought were more important as usual.

City have the world's best striker and have four losses in a row in all competitions.

Clrnc Gyokeres has a stellar championship goalscoring record. Those normally transfer to the top league. It's proven.

Akpom, Ivan Toney, Pukki, Mitrovic, Vydra, Grabban, Wood, Gray, Murphy. Top scorers in Championship for past decade. How long exactly does it take for this record to transfer to the top league? Cos only guy whose game I recognise is Toney.

JazzG

Exactly, people don't want strikers for strikers sake, people want Champions Leagues and Premier League titles. If we don't land a striker who leads us to titles, people will turn on him as quickly as they can say his name. We've been here before between 2012 and 2018 under Wenger under a different manager and regime, the idea that the club, or any club for that matter, wouldn't want a top class striker is as dumb as it is to type out. In 20 years, we've managed to land one top class striker in Aubameyang and that should tell anyone how difficult it is and that's in an ever shrinking market. There are some options out there, I really like the look of Duran but people really want a striker who will score 20-25 league goals in the season and another Welbeck won't cut it.

RocktheCasbah Nope obviously not. I am saying evidence shows that the championship is a good league to judge if the players can bring those goalscoring prowess to somewhere else, especially the PL.

Gyokeres has scored 40 goals in 97 apps for a poor side like Coventry City, then went on to 66 goals in 67 apps for Sporting, where 10 of them are in Europe. He has every reason to continue this goalscoring streak if someone like our club buy him for example, than be an outright flop. 106 goals in 164 apps over 4 seasons is as consistent as it gets.

10 goals in 24 apps for Sweden as well, which is a goalscoring ratio only 2nd to Zlatan in Sweden's modern history.

daredevil Again, this is false. We could and should have signed Suarez or Higuain. It was all down to Wenger's penny pinching that we missed out on them.

For Wenger's fault, he has always tried to sign a striker to improve on Giroud. Be it Suarez, Higuain, Benzema, Vardy. Let alone the ton of attacking mids he signed. His weakness is opposite, he doesn't sign enough defenders.

Imagine a Wenger & Arteta co-managing run with Arteta coaching the shit out of our defenders and Wenger doing the same for our attackers.

Clrnc thanks for clarifying.

Just seems to me that whether or not these strikers have managed to convert Championship records into decent Premier League ones is a moot point (or at least irrelevant to Arsenal and improving our front line), if you don't think we should be signing any of them.

Fwiw, I wouldn't have minded seeing Ollie Watkins at Arsenal a couple of years back, but I don't think so now. And if you look at the top level Premier League teams, it's quite rare they take a striker from the Championship. We obviously haven't, Liverpool haven't, City haven't - even Spurs haven't done it. Villa were, of course, nowhere near the CL places when Watkins signed for them.

RocktheCasbah yeah. The championship to top premier league club pipeline was just a falsehood. Top strikers are the rarest and most valuable creatures in football. Henrys and RVPs don’t fall out of the sky everyday. Even in this league, there isn’t an endless list of sure fire forwards today: Salah, Haaland, Isak, the remains of Son, and then it thins out quickly.