Summer 24: Page 48 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Summer 24

lorddulaarsenal

Wonder if Bournemouth fancy Nketiah

Mirth

Sicario2 - Tier 1 I'd rather do nothing than sign Solanke.

If you look through the activity across other clubs, it's been a quiet window for everyone: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/transfers/wettbewerb/GB1

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Mirth

We’re not everyone.

We have to win something this season.

Other clubs have different timelines and on different journeys. Next year is seminal for Arteta so no time messing about with the season starting in 10 days. We know every point counts so fine margins from day 1.

Gazza M

Mirth agree. we're officially floor raiser fc if we're going for guys like solanke, and will quickly get trapped in a cycle of having to clear out mid-tier players every 2 years, while winning nothing

we do need to get moving though. if funds are limited, don't spend yourself into a corner on yet another defender, no matter how promising as he is.

Mirth

Sicario2 - Tier 1 We’re not everyone

Grand statement but we’re a market participant and when other big clubs are showing similar pace with their transfers then you have to accept it.

For the past few transfer windows, we were quite proactive so it’s not like the will isn’t there. Ultimately all i want is for the club to try and I believe they have done so

Don Pacifico

Sicario2 - Tier 1 ordinary players aren't going to shift the needle for us. And at this point, we clearly no longer have the capacity to spend money freely (at least not until we improve outgoings).

So our task is to bring in top players (or players with top potential) who aren't over-valued (of which, Calafiori seems to fit that mould). Sesko also fit those criteria, but the CF market is even harder to recruit in given paucity of supply. Basically, it's not that easy to make the signings we need to improve.

Additionally, assuming we can only improve by bringing in new players misses the point of our whole squad building approach - most players are either improving or hitting their prime so you'd anticipate an organic improvement YoY, notwithstanding our YoY tactical evolutions as a team.

HomeSteak

Sicario2 - Tier 1 maybe it is true that we cannot buy unless we sell first.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

HomeSteak

We’ve sold ESR so you would have thought Merino would have come in by now.

Understand market conditions but we’re just spent £40m on a defender 2 weeks ago so don’t buy that.

Just feel we are playing with fire by not being proactive enough.

Don Pacifico

Sicario2 - Tier 1 don't think the two are that clearly linked. Gunnerblog has already said that the Merino deal isn't as progressed as has been reported. There have also been other reports that have suggested disagreement on whether he's the right player profile.

I think we've likely been plenty proactive, it's just that we haven't seen any of that hard work come to fruition yet (eg. Sesko). Doesn't mean it won't before the window closes.

Claudius

Gazza M Gazza - look at our results last season. What killed us in the league?

Gazza M

not sure I follow?

Claudius

Gazza M we had 5 losses to: - Aston Villa x2, Fulham, West Ham, Newcastle

This team doesn’t need a ceiling raise. It needs a floor raise.

Gazza M

Claudius not sure how one would come to that conclusion. we need ceiling raisers to close the gap to city and go deeper in the CL

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius a ceiling raiser raises both ceiling and floor since he pushes someone down the pecking order.

MistaT

Claudius -- those may have been our only losses, but we had three ties and many a close game early in the season. Through our first twelve games we were were holding around 3-4th place.

Qwiss

Claudius you used to profess about raising the floor by pushing the best players down and the worst players out.

I'm of the opinion a big ceiling raiser does more for us than multiple floor raisers at this point. We are still going into n xt season looking to Saka and Odegasrd to carry the team. We need someone else with them.

samthegooner

We need both IMO - a ceiling raiser in the attack and floor raisers in the midfield, with the opportunity to find a ceiling raiser if the market opportunity exists.

If we ended the summer with just Calafiori and Merino, I would be a little disappointed but by no means do I think it's a colossal failure by club leadership in a slow market this summer. I'd much rather make signings we know are going to make an impact and keep our powder dry for a game changer next summer than panic and go after mid-tier signings like Solanke or Toney that we would then need to move on in a season or two.

Claudius

QuincyAbeyie a ceiling raiser is always great but
a) our results show we don’t have a problem at all with the best teams in the league, so our peak quality is good enough
b) you always mention that Mikel doesn’t use his squad enough, so should get players there

QuincyAbeyie

Claudius when we got to the quarter final in Europe I certainly heard a lot about how Bayern had the better team. That wouldn't change if we had better bench players.

Coombs

Here's one where I disagree with you, @Claudius. We should only buy potential ceiling raisers. I say potential because you can never know for sure, but to purposefully buy just for depth seems ill-advised in this stage of the team's development. @QuincyAbeyie is right. Raise the ceiling, raise the floor.

Claudius

Coombs so for the last few years I’ve consistently said we need to replace the squad from the top. I think we’ve largely done that. We have an incredible team. Would be great to get an electric winger like a Salah into the team, but some considerations

these types of players are very rare. We aren’t even seeing many of them move this summer. Mbappe moved, and then who?
some folks were complaining about our wage bill. These types of players will cost £60m plus and then add another £10m plus to the wage bill
meanwhile we still have that mid tier problem - I’m thinking here our guys like Partey, Zinchenko, Vieira, Nketiah, Nelson, etc. they don’t all need to replaced by a superstar. We just need good players like Merino who will start against West Ham in a Christmas back to back

Qwiss

Claudius our wage bill is choc full of floor raisers on ceiling raiser money. That's the issue and it's likely we'll keep doing it with these mid tier signings if we keep making them.

Coombs

Claudius I think Merino is a potential ceiling raiser, concerns about midfield balance aside. I think he's probably better than anyone else we have for that third midfield spot. I'd still love it if he were a smokescreen for Zubimendi, but...

Calafiori is the same. We're targeting weak spots in our team and getting better players. As many goals as Trossard scored for us, we need someone better than him in attack. He's basically the Jorginho of midfield, and needs pushing down. He plays wing, sometimes CF, and 8. Kai plays CF and 8, Jesus CF and wing, Martinelli either side, Saka only RW, etc. We need someone to push Trossard, Jesus, or Kai down the ranks in either the CF or wing positions, and I'd argue it's pretty doable. We're not talking about raising the ceiling above Saka (because that IS impossible), but above Trossard/Jesus/Kai at either CF or wing. I'd target Trossard as the weakest, but even better if we targeted Jesus. Havertz is borderline.

Our floor right now is Nelson, Nketiah, youth, etc. Signing someone just better than them to make up numbers feels pretty pointless if you ask me.

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