Summer 2025 Transfer Window: Page 241 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Summer 2025 Transfer Window

Burnwinter

We've signed the top scorer in all European leagues for about £80m less than the price quoted to Liverpool for Isak (just the difference is worth a Zubimendi and a half).

We are evidently pursuing a left winger.

Signing Rodrygo has been intractable as the player himself is vacillating (and I wouldn't want him anyway due to that), whereas Eze is already an Arsenal player in his own mind.

Frankly the way we do business now is so very much more compelling than it used to be, and we have so much more clout in the transfer market, that I'm still astounded. Remember how this used to be?

Don Pacifico

Burnwinter you can't argue with the efficiency with which we've done our business.

But I get where TambourineMan is coming from. We've bought a lot of players but other than Zubi, none of them are in that elite tier of players for their respective positions. Gyokeres is good value but he's not Kane or Haaland (not that I'm suggesting either were gettable). PSG have three wingers (and Dembele) who are all superior to Madueke (all of whom cost a comparable amount of money).

It's not to say we won't challenge for the title, but our attack is a little underwhelming in calibre (not numbers!) when you think of how good the players we have at the back are. Pragmatism not idealism I guess but we've been spoilt with some of the attacking lineups we've had in the past.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Either Arteta has little imagination for the attack or KSE need to fuck off, unless they bring in Eze +1 this window.

Mirth

It's nuts calling this a 6/10 summer. Basically signed the most coveted DM and the second most coveted striker in Europe.

Anyway, the problem isn't the players and the focus needs to shift elsewhere - you can swap our front three with PSG and we'll see the same patterns emerge.

JazzG

Mirth It's nuts calling this a 6/10 summer.

It not when you think of it a different way, some just have a default position of everything Arteta is doing is wrong and from that perspective it probably seems like a 6/10 window. Every bad result will provoke the same reaction as well. There are over 3 weeks to go in this window, we are now shifting our focus to moving players on before any more signings. The players we may look to bring in, we probably have personal terms agreed, those clubs will soften their stance as they'll need to bring in replacements so it is a perfectly sensible plan.

It is very obvious people have never run a business before, you could see the knee jerk reaction of Gyokeres but we made sure we forced the issue and did the deal on our own terms. Fans are like just get the player whatever the cost, the structures we have done on those deals probably allows us scope to make another purchase or potentially two. The management need to work in the interest of the club not fans who just want their dopamine rush from transfers.

Burnwinter

Mirth It's nuts calling this a 6/10 summer.

Insisting Gyökeres is some sort of dicey proposition while Isak, whose signing by Liverpool is even less locked in than us signing Eze, and who's a superb player whose injury record is a worry and who scores fewer than Gyökeres for Sweden, is a certain world class proposition, is a strange distortion.

Think about it for a minute: Liverpool is definitely getting Isak but we haven't even been looking for a left winger and won't sign anyone. Sound true to anyone?

That a pretty outrageous distortion is needed to say this is a bad window is what suggests it isn't ...

Gazza M

Mirth we haven't signed a left winger. until that's resolved, it won't rise above a 7 for me. I've shaved off half a point for the noni deal because I still feel it was absurd

Doc

Zubi looks great. Elite player in his position.

Guess it depends how you view the Madueke and Gyok signings... Left side was a fundamental upgrade needed, as much as the striker for me, I don't think Madueke solves that.. so that's a huge issue with the summer transfers so far.

Also, many seem to think Gyok is among the elite strikers in the world, not really for me, although i'm hopeful he can still be decent given the right players around him.

6/10 sounds about right, so far...

awooga83

Doc I agree the LW has been a big problem I also think a creative midfielder would have been good not essential but I think we could use that but certainly LW we should have been taking action on it's not good enough and limits our threat as teams can focus on the right side trying to shut that down.

JazzG

Doc We've lost both our CMs and have signed a top class player in Zubimendi and a very good backup in Norgaard. We've signed a PL level keeper as our backup keeper. A top prospect in defence in Mosquera. Up top we've signed Madueke, who might not be top class yet but has proven he is a very capable player for Chelsea, he offers the team something completely different and can play both wings. Gives us a genuine option when we need to rest Saka or if he was injured. Up top we've signed Gyokeres, I've made my feelings clear on him but he isn't a terrible player, I just don't think he is the right player for us but still we've got a completely different kind of striker to Havertz and in some games I think he'll be very useful to us.

When was the last time Arsenal had as good a window as this? And it isn't done yet, I think there will be at least one more addition this window.

est

JazzG The players we may look to bring in, we probably have personal terms agreed, those clubs will soften their stance as they'll need to bring in replacements so it is a perfectly sensible plan.

This doesn't make sense.

The longer we wait, the less likely it is those clubs can get replacements.

The same goes for sales. If we need to sell Trossard to sign Eze, we should be actively looking to sell him.

At the moment, compared to the previous business we've done in this window and the information that preceded those deals, it's looking like we're not actively doing anything. Rather it seems like we're pretty content with what we've done so far and are just letting the chips fall. If it happens we can sell someone and in turn get Eze, great. If not, it doesn't seem Arteta and co. are that bothered.

Doc

JazzG Yes its been decent (thats what a 6 is for me anyway), sign Eze and it's great, add Rodrygo and its an 11. Like I said, left side is an essential aspect that we needed a significant upgrade, personally don't think that has happened yet.. and we have not solved a major problem we have going forward, which everyone is aware of, creativity and quality centrally... If we hadn't signed a striker until now and added a decent LW & AM who we had grand plans to convert to a striker, I think most on here would not have given it more than a 6... I feel the same way about the left...

yes numbers wise we have moved quick, great.. but the next step for us its to be winning major competitions.. quantity alone isn't enough, and there is an element of it being relative, look at what our rivals are doing.

Don Pacifico

I think the other thing here is there's just very little inventiveness and creativity in our front line. There are a lot of players who will work hard and work well within a well organised system. But we've seen plenty of times where that system has been nullified and in those situations, you just need someone who create something out of nothing. Aesthetically, I also want to see players that do incredible things. But that's a personal preference in terms of our overall style.

Mirth

Gazza M Rating the transfer window is a red herring anyway. The question should always be whether this squad can justify being trophyless based on the quality it has.

To me the answer is no and, frankly, unless the LW we sign is amongst the top 20 players in the world, they won't change the answer for me.

Burnwinter

Insisting there was no reason for the Madueke deal, and complaining about it having gone through too quickly also makes little sense to me. Seems feverish to me.

Signing Madueke was never set in opposition to the Eze deal. It's been publicly maintained the two are mostly unrelated. There are highly likely to be normal, logical reasons one deal happened quickly and the other hasn't happened.

Madueke's fee and wages, our relationship with Chelsea, and competition from other clubs are all likely to be among such factors. Eze's high price, personal bond to Arsenal, and a possible lack of competition are as well.

Newcastle are currently talking about paying Chelsea £60m for Jackson. Until Šeško was locked in United were bidding on every forward on the market.

I'm reading people writing Madueke's fee was too high in the same sentence they claim it's irrational Arsenal didn't cough up £70m for Eze on the spot. The chance of any ordinary pressures on these transactions is getting lost to preemptive griefing.

Qwiss

Burnwinter TBF I don't see why you think paying £68m for Eze is outrageous compared to paying £52m for Madueke? Eze is a far more proven player. I think we'd all be delighted if Madueke gets to Ezes level in the next couple of years. £16m for a player who's there vs potential seems a fair enough difference.

Pepe LeFrits

Burnwinter Signing Madueke was never set in opposition to the Eze deal. It's been publicly maintained the two are mostly unrelated. There are highly likely to be normal, logical reasons one deal happened quickly and the other hasn't happened.

For me there's a disconnect here between the way we perceive players and their roles and the management do. Fans look at Martinelli and Trossard, feel there is a problem there, and then look around to see what top level players there are who have previous playing that position. Management I think look at the squad and feel there are gaps, more in terms of specific attributes missing. I'd say they are looking at Madueke and thinking of playing him LW and using him to run at the fullback and unsettle opposing deep blocks. Eze if we get him will be signed because they want other attributes in the squad, which are complimentary but lower priority (otherwise they would have prioritised Eze first).

USArsenal

Qwiss Eze is a far more proven player

Is he though? I mean, i have watched him, and he is easy on the eye, but in terms of production, how much better was he than Madueke last season? 8 goals, 8 assists in the league for Eze compared to 7 goals and 3 assists for Madueke, and Eze played almost 600 minutes more. Madueke's style is more erratic and less silky, for sure, but he's also 4 years younger than Eze. I think that he comes from Chelsea is a big sticking point for many here. He career is just starting to get into its stride (and i think he has something to prove), while Eze is pretty much at his peak. Im not saying he will be better for us than Eze, but i think the fee that we paid for him is not outrageous compared to some of the numbers we've seen in this transfer window.

I mean, look at Wirtz.. Everyone is saying that he's the next coming of De Bruyne, but he had 10 goals, 12 assists last season. In the Bundesliga... So, he had a goal contribution of slightly more than double as Madueke, but somehow he is worth more than 3 times as much as Noni..

God i rambled there.. My bad.

Burnwinter

Qwiss TBF I don't see why you think paying £68m for Eze is outrageous compared to paying £52m for Madueke?

I don't.

I reckon paying about £50m for Madueke, who was on an epic contract on the kind of uncommonly low Champions League tier wages that invite competition, to Chelsea who due to their glut of forwards had put him on sale, is normal.

Remember that what was put round about that deal is that we paid the fee and took on the last 5 of the 8 years of the player's contract. We don't know if that's true but it certainly reminds you of the parameters in play for Chelsea and the player.

I also reckon trying to drive the price down on Eze, given he's as fixated on Arsenal as Gyökeres and is already best mates with half our squad, but Palace are far less keen to allow him to leave ... is also very, very normal.

I find it baffling fans claim Arsenal's transfer team have put their heads together and decided to make it hard to sign a better player by ensuring they overpay for a worse one. What's more likely: the transfer team are that ornery, or the fans don't know what the fuck they're on about?

RowJimmy

Qwiss
Current structure of market is that, all else being equal, the younger player is always more expensive. And not just 23 vs 32 - also 23 vs 27.

Burnwinter

Pepe LeFrits I'd say they are looking at Madueke and thinking of playing him LW and using him to run at the fullback and unsettle opposing deep blocks. Eze if we get him will be signed because they want other attributes in the squad, which are complimentary but lower priority

Yep, I reckon this is highly likely. I also think it's likely they carefully scrutinise athletic as well as technical data.

And I think we look at transfer targets with a decent ceiling who we reason may be underappreciated and poorly coached, who we might be able to level up. Madueke fits this profile and Chelsea have been a shambles along these lines. This is a hunch as to the meaning of some (not all) of the "Chelsea bins" phenomenon.

Also if we had two wide forward targets then from a risk perspective it could have been good sense to go decisively after the Madueke deal if it had relatively greater urgency and less play in the parameters, but to delay on Eze because we knew there would be later side plays with Palace around the futures of the likes of Nelson. That way we have one bird in the hand which strengthens our moves later in the piece.

To be clear, it's not like I know any of these theories are true, but there's not much out there to deny them. I'm just rolling them out as example explanatory theories of Arsenal's conduct in the transfer market. The claim the club's just rushing to blow wads of cash on the wrong players seems way less plausible.

RowJimmy

This is literally nonsense.

Mirth The question should always be whether this squad can justify being trophyless based on the quality it has.

Beyond the father angry at child for a C in elementary school, the only thing I think that "justify being trophyless" can mean is that you think our current squad is good enough that they should have won a trophy, ie there's no good reason why they haven't. (And the bad reason is....?)

Mirth unless the LW we sign is amongst the top 20 players in the world, they won't change the answer for me.

So we have a squad that is too good to not have won a trophy and the only way to make it so they can "justify" not having won a trophy is to sign a player better than anyone on the current squad?

Qwiss

Burnwinter What's more likely: the transfer team are that ornery, or the fans don't know what the fuck they're on about?

Transfer teams make mistakes so I don't think it has to be one or the other.

Tam

Burnwinter I reckon paying about £50m for Madueke, who was on an epic contract on the kind of uncommonly low Champions League tier wages that invite competition, to Chelsea who due to their glut of forwards had put him on sale, is normal.

'I said in one of the last press conferences that at the end, if players want to leave, at the end, it's difficult for the club and for the manager.

'Noni decided to leave, nobody told Noni he had to leave. If he is happy, we are happy.'

Enzo Maresca

Given your comments on how we were/are right to hold out for Gyokeres/Eze, the above quote from Maresca would suggest rushing in to get him when we knew he wanted to come to us was a rash move and we could perhaps have squeezed that deal more.

Burnwinter

Qwiss Transfer teams make mistakes so I don't think it has to be one or the other.

Transfer teams often do things that make perfect sense that are retroactively made into mistakes. I've just spent a few days reading people claiming Gyökeres was a mistake because Liverpool might get Isak.

These people have already forgotten what we learnt from our resident ITK. We know Arsenal carefully considered pivoting from Gyökeres to Isak, but we didn't twist because sticking with the deal we'd already sewn up was the better move. But in any case they'll read about that and declare "that's irrational!" when, and this has pristine clarity, it's that imagined, romantic switch to compete with Liverpool on Isak for a £150m fee when we had Gyökeres holding the biro ... that would have been irrational.

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