Arsenal OUTS 2026: Page 24 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

Arsenal OUTS 2026

RowJimmy

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It's not romantic. I spent many years in a position where my most important responsibilities were "talent management" - recruitment and retention. Both on the way in and on the way out, you need to have honest conversations with people about what's best for them. And being known for caring about your people makes a real difference to recruitment.

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Agreed. Although my point was more along the lines of he needs to be playing regular football at this stage of his career. He didn't get that on loan last term and he's not going to get that here this term.

Burnwinter

Qwiss but the squad isn't so strong that there is no case for Nwaneri. The position he broke through in, as the Saka back up, doesn't look as good with Madueke there as it did with Nwaneri. People want to keep hand waving that away but these are the decisions that lead the club to selling off talents like Nwaneri.

Well that sums up your argument, which is that Arteta has decided he doesn't like Nwaneri.

If there were a clear case for Nwaneri he'd be playing, unless Arteta was too pig-headed to understand this clear case. Nwaneri is at the club, training at the club, and so on. The football structure has decided he's available on the transfer market … the player's aware of it. The player might have asked for it, we don't know.

That's why I wrote earlier about fans "fighting for a fantasy" … for some the simplest explanation of what's going on is that Nwaneri's much better than Madueke but Arteta is too stubborn to see it. But how often has that been the case? The real simplest explanation is that Nwaneri's not quite as brilliant as we imagine.

Qwiss

Burnwinter for some the simplest explanation of what's going on is that Nwaneri's much better than Madueke but Arteta is too stubborn to see it. But how often has that been the case? The real simplest explanation is that Nwaneri's not quite as brilliant as we imagine.

Madueke was never getting sold after one season. Its a financial disaster to do that. So its more simply that Madueke isn't what they thought he was. That should have been obvious once they quickly gave up on trying to make him the new LW. Bad scouting costs more than money, it costs opportunities for better prospects too.

Gurgen

Arteta is too stubborn to see many things. Madueke is so bad we probably have guys in the U17 team that could improve on him, never mind Nwaneri. Remember he originally signed him to play left wing. That should tell you all you need to know about his eye for attacking talent.

Burnwinter

Arteta's just won us the league, and it would be hard to deny that obsessively signing players based on left-footedness, signing a whole parcel of fucking huge blokes, signing very very good midfielders, signing extra number one keepers, and terminating any player who says a thing about any of it with prejudice, these factors have all played a big part in that league victory.

He's not the Messiah but if he'd taken our attacking signing recommendations last summer we'd have had Šeško galloping around in confusion, or Isak crocked on the sidelines, or Wirtz with all the cutting edge of a kitten's fart … so … I'm not convinced the people who were making those recommendations know for sure that Nwaneri is best.

Mirth

Burnwinter

~~Wenger knows~~

Arteta knows?

Burnwinter

Mirth The thought had occurred, but I don't think he does "know" exactly. Arteta Kills, maybe? Either way for all this Nwaneri malarkey to obtain full credence, you'd want at least one example of Arteta cutting loose a player the fans really wanted to stay, and that player going on to become elite. It happened to Wenger … has it happened to Arteta?

RowJimmy

Arteta is super focused on winning now. So I think he thinks Madueke gives us a better chance of winning now than Nwaneri as a back up to Saka. I'm sure Arteta doesn't hate Nwaneri, or not see his talent, he just doesn't think he's as good for us right now.
I think the role of the manager is to think like this. The role of the DOF is to think longer term.
I suspect it's Nwaneri's representatives who are going around trying to drum up a good offer. The club is willing to listen. (I have less of an idea what may be going on in the case of Martinelli.)

Qwiss

RowJimmy I think the role of the manager is to think like this. The role of the DOF is to think longer term.

Well that doesn't seem to be how we operate given that Arteta is starting Myles in CL finals, the Charity Shield, etc while Berta is shopping him around to our rivals.

daredevil

RowJimmy

Have a feeling Arteta is gone at the end of the season.

Gunner89

MLS, Rice, Merino and Bruno is more than enough compared to the back end of last season when Merino was injured and MLS was not an option yet.

Gunner89

Qwiss

Don't think its a financial disaster - Garnacho, Tijjani many others sold after one season that too at decent prices

RowJimmy

Qwiss
I don't believe this actually happened.

Gunner89

Cannon

Weird take....nonsenical decision to sell and have bruno G/Rice over-exert like last season

Cannon

Gunner89 I think you misunderstood my post.

Qwiss

Gunner89 I meant sold at a loss. Which he would be. You know how we operate.

awooga83

Qwiss this, they talked about it on the Arsecast today that we might be struggling on European rules. But essentially if true someone like Madueke being sold at a loss does not in anyway help that so ts not worth it rather then he's the better option. Nobody is going to give us 50m so it would definitely be a loss as well.

Claudius

awooga83 they’re saying anything and everything. These are the same people who broke the Vini story. That transfer would’ve cost us some £50-60m in operating expenses. So now we desperately need to sell? In the event that we got Vini, how many players would we have needed to sell then? Half the team?

I think the more likely issue is we have a massive squad. These players want to play and feel good about their careers. We can’t hold onto all them or we could risk dressing room angst.

RowJimmy

Claudius I think the more likely issue is we have a massive squad. These players want to play and feel good about their careers. We can’t hold onto all them or we could risk dressing room angst.

This is pretty certainly true, within limits (players also like living in London, they like getting paid, they like winning championships).

Claudius In the event that we got Vini, how many players would we have needed to sell then?

We probably would have needed to do some accounting gymnastics if the Vini signing had gone through, yes. Which we probably would have scenarios for. But part of that was the theory that Vini would drive significant new commercial revenue.

awooga83

Claudius well to be fair this was just Arsecast not the ITK guys. But the reason they supported that hypothesis is we aren't trying to sell players like Madueke but players who came through our system or martinelli who would bank a big profit.

Yeah we have a big squad but it doesn't really make sense to focus on these types of players if we just want to trim the squad and aren't worried about what the return could be otherwise surely Madueke has to be in that bracket as his output does not warrant keeping him around. His financial contribution certainly would make it less worthwhile to sell him.

Qwiss

Claudius reading between the lines on this "balance the books" talk and the Vini rumours it seems the Kroenkes want to stop putting money in and have Arteta working a Wenger like even keel on transfers this summer. However they were willing to break the bank for Vini because they seen the commercial potential and probably felt it would push the clubs status and value.

Also its partly just good old fashioned excuse making after missing out on a number of their preferred targets.

MistaT

Claudius we have a massive squad and a set of challenging sales conditions.

Players on high wages (see Nelson, Vieria, and Jesus), players with unknown value (Nwaneri), a desire not to sell to rivals (heads would roll if MLS was actually sold to United), and players unwilling to move from a winning club in London to foreign destinations (Martinelli).

Those conditions aren't unique to us, but I do think they are magnified right now due to player mix and prestigious conditions.

daredevil

Qwiss

It's clear Dowman is ahead of him at RW so it's not just Madueke.

Burnwinter

daredevil Right, but you're just not factoring in that if Madueke hadn't been signed, Nwaneri could've become twice as good playing half an hour each fortnight over the past season.

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