Arsenal - 2024/25

Monmouthshire Red said:
This injury to Saka has been on the cards. Arteta has run him into the ground.
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The moments that seriously perplex me are when we bench him for domestic cup games or dead rubber games in the CL… and then bring him on as sub for 25 mins.

Or keep him on the pitch when we’re 3+ goals up, as we’ve been several times in the last couple seasons.

We’ve put additional minutes in his legs for no reason.
 
Maluco said:
I would almost put a bet on Rashford at this stage. They need someone and I think they will gamble on him being another case of a good player at a mess of a club.

I would see them looking at a 30 million fee and fancying the throw of the dice, especially now.

Arteta has quite an ego and would love the idea of reinvigorating Rashford and the media attention that would get.
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I think he's worth another 10 million but it's an interesting scenario. There's no doubt for me Rashford would go there and do well (for a time) but Arsenal fans would be on his back a lot quicker than United fans have been if he puts in any of the performances we've seen in the past year or more. It'd be risky for them but it could be worth a gamble.

Us buying RvP from them was actually kind of risky in some ways as I believe his last year at Arsenal was practically his only season with them that was injury free. It was worth it though for that one season.
 
Daydreamer said:
The moments that seriously perplex me are when we bench him for domestic cup games or dead rubber games in the CL… and then bring him on as sub for 25 mins.
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In these situations players are often on a schedule where they're going to do some kind of high intensity workout that day if they don't play, so playing 20-25 minutes or doing the workout makes little difference.

We have definitely overplayed Saka over the last couple years though. Injuries tend to cascade through a side. Once Odegaard went out Saka was always going to be pushed to play more as our second most creative player and other left footed set piece taker.

Every once in a while you have a cursed season where everything goes wrong - injuries, decisions, small margin moments within matches - and that's basically Arsenal's situation this year. At the end of the day the important thing is not to it derail the broader project. Finishing 2nd or 3rd and winning a cup or two would make this a reasonably successful year given the circumstances. Then go huge on an attacker in the summer and storm the league next year.
 
Irwin99 said:
I think he's worth another 10 million but it's an interesting scenario. There's no doubt for me Rashford would go there and do well (for a time) but Arsenal fans would be on his back a lot quicker than United fans have been if he puts in any of the performances we've seen in the past year or more. It'd be risky for them but it could be worth a gamble.

Us buying RvP from them was actually kind of risky in some ways as I believe his last year at Arsenal was practically his only season with them that was injury free. It was worth it though for that one season.
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Who is bidding 40 millions for Rashford ? He's not going to Germany, Real or Barcelona. I don't think even PSG are dumb enough to take a punt. Arsenal would be braindead to think about him. We're already in trouble at LB to waste money on a guy that does 0 defensive work. As bad as Martinelli has been, he'd be ahead of him every day of the week.
 
These yellow cards for kicking the ball after the whistle ar e such nonsense. I have seen countless of unpunished incidents...we had two red cards for this.
 
What a weird season. 1 point between 5th and 9th...and Man City is one of those teams. Forest in 3rd. Spurs and Man Utd in the bottom half.

Pool doing just enough on the backs off Salah and probably Konate....they haven't looked great to be honest. Everything is crumbling around them.
 
Changeisgood said:
These yellow cards for kicking the ball after the whistle ar e such nonsense. I have seen countless of unpunished incidents...we had two red cards for this.
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One of them was a ueflona special, I wouldn't be too bothered about that.
 
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I'm hoping this at least helps in keeping us in a title race towards the end of the season rather than falling away early and Liverpool wrapping the title up by March.



Liverpool have 8 of the top 12 to play away from home in comparison.
 
Might feel more confident about giving it a real shot if our play was a little fluent. Having Saliba at around 100 passes for a game is a great stat for him but it should not be happening.

One game at a time at the moment...need the win away at Brighton.
 
On the upside, I have to say, I am delighted to see Skelly and Nwaneri in there a bit more regularly. Timber is top notch as well.

Need Odegaard to pick it up a bit. He has been a bit meh as of late.
 
Changeisgood said:
On the upside, I have to say, I am delighted to see Skelly and Nwaneri in there a bit more regularly. Timber is top notch as well.

Need Odegaard to pick it up a bit. He has been a bit meh as of late.
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I’ve been a bit disappointed with Odegaard since he’s been back. He had an immediate impact initially, but has since dropped several disappointing performances in a row.

Lewis-Skelly has been impressive. Nwaneri less so but the burden to look good is higher on attacking players than it is on fullbacks, so he gets a pass. His development is more important than him making an immediate impact.
 
WeePat said:
I’ve been a bit disappointed with Odegaard since he’s been back. He had an immediate impact initially, but has since dropped several disappointing performances in a row.

Lewis-Skelly has been impressive. Nwaneri less so but the burden to look good is higher on attacking players than it is on fullbacks, so he gets a pass. His development is more important than him making an immediate impact.
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Yeah, Odegaard’s playing poorly at the moment. Pre and post the Saka injury. Would link it with his becoming a Dad just after he came back from injury, though obviously I’ve no idea.

Still, since he’s been back I think we’ve generally played excellently, dominating games and winning the tactical battles. The problems have been; 1) None of our attacking players are consistently playing well and unsurprisingly we struggle when 3/4 of them are off at the same time. 2) Opponents being insanely critical against us - this should at least normalise.

Whether 1) is an issue of talent (read: lack of) or a structural issue with Arteta’s system is the big question. But seems a harsh one given how well we’ve played for two and a half years now.
 
GoonerBear said:
I'm hoping this at least helps in keeping us in a title race towards the end of the season rather than falling away early and Liverpool wrapping the title up by March.



Liverpool have 8 of the top 12 to play away from home in comparison.
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Just hope Liverpool have a bad second half of the season. Surely their luck has to run out sooner or later.
 
Arteta is at $900M mark.

If he doesn't win the title this season, will arsenal continue to back him or will pull the rag under him?

 
Licha-Vidic said:
Arteta is at $900M mark.

If he doesn't win the title this season, will arsenal continue to back him or will pull the
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Sometimes I don't know whether it's the new trend in football support or just sour grapes but 3 seasons ago he was slumbering in 8th with a squad he inherited and paying off veterans to leave.

Sure he had that window where he built his own team and the result was two league 2nd place finishes. Truth be told not many of us looked at City and Liverpool and didn't think this was the top 2 locked for a decade or close to that.

And it's either me or there must be a fan out there thinking he's done a terrible job and they need a ten hag, Brendan Rodgers, Antonio Conte down there or it's just a bit of envy and jealousy at how competitive they've been in the last two years compared to the past twenty years
 
Donaldo said:
We would be loons to do that.
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Seen this posted in multiple threads. Comes off as a fan who desperately wants an opposition manager sacked and that can only mean one thing.

Think about how nobody outside united wanted Ten Hag sacked.
 
Licha-Vidic said:
Arteta is at $900M mark.

If he doesn't win the title this season, will arsenal continue to back him or will pull the rag under him?

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Apart from the Ramsdale-Raya switcharoo, i think most transfers were good and played their part in the rebuilding considering how low our starting position was.
Most bad ones were cheap. Jesus hasnt been great but was necessary like Zinchenko to reach that first step up.
This trend of opposition fans (and some mental Arsenal ones) wanting Arteta out is just bizarre.
 
Licha-Vidic said:
Arteta is at $900M mark.

If he doesn't win the title this season, will arsenal continue to back him or will pull the rag under him?

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So an average of £140M per season Gross over 5 seasons, is that excessive in this day and age?

Considering forwards tend to be more expensive, and Havertz was probably signed as a midfielder, what this shows me is that there's been a lack of investment in the forward areas. Look at the forwards signings, is there any that you would say is a forward on the up, that was bang in form and highly sought?

Jesus was a bit of a rescue job who never really convinced at City, Trossard a decent squad signing who was at his peak but not much more, Willian well on his way down, Sterling well on his way down, Havertz signed as a bit of a rescue job and hasn't really nailed down forward or midfielder roles. It's a bit poverty for a side looking to win the title when you really think about it.
 
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GoonerBear said:
So an average of £140M per season Gross over 5 seasons, is that excessive in this day and age?

Considering forwards tend to be more expensive, and Havertz was probably signed as a midfielder, what this shows me is that there's been a lack of investment in the forward areas. Look at the forwards signings, is there any that you would say is a forward on the up, that was bang in form and highly sought?

Jesus was a bit of a rescue job who never really convinced at City, Trossard a decent squad signing who was at his peak but not much more, Willian well on his way down, Sterling well on his way down, Havertz signed as a bit of a rescue job and hasn't really nailed down forward or midfielder roles. It's a bit poverty for a side looking to win the title when you really think about it.
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I never viewed either Jesus or Havertz as rescue jobs. I know Arsenal fans framed it that way with Havertz when the move happened, but 18 months down the line, he's upped his consistency slightly but overall he looks fairly similar as the Havertz Chelsea had, which wasn't even particularly bad, just not particularly great either, we just had a younger, inexperienced version, whereas you signed him as a stronger, more experienced 24 year old who had been in the league 3 years. Jesus was a very capable backup to Aguero, and back then he was seen as a player that could potentially be too good for that role, who could be the starting striker at a good level away from City. The fact that both for a period showed levels not previously seen at their old clubs probably fuelled this 'we've rescued them' sentiment.

I do agree with you though, 700m spent across 5 seasons is fairly standard for a club of Arsenal's size, a huge PL club looking to compete for the title. Transfer spend accumulates over multiple seasons, who knew? What's the next headline? Arsenal have spent 1.1b over 10 seasons?
 
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I predicated Arsenal to win the league this season but it doesn't look like they will catch Liverpool. Maybe next season.
 
I think Pool have done well spending wise when you look at the top spenders. They are probably around 6th. I am not even considering City because that's all rubbish.

Helps for Pool to have some great players who have built that foundation. I have respect for what they have accomplished and still are. We were not anywhere near that 3 years ago, in fact we were getting rid of all our poor costly squad at that time, so we do not compare well with Pool at all.
 
I suppose the key facet to the money Arsenal have spent is that it's one manager who has overseen it and they still don't have any trophy to show for it (I'm assuming the overwhelming majority of it has been spent post that FA Cup win).
 
I would have thought United fans would only admire Arteta/Edu work more after what we have been through.

They completely cleaned out the bad sentiment in the dressing room and rebuilt with a young/competitive side that haven’t reached their peak together yet.

They had to make a lot of big calls to make it happen and have generally brought in the right players and rejuvenated the club.

His work there deserves to be admired.
 
700m over five years is not a lot for a big PL club these days. It’s slightly less than Spurs, well off clubs like Chelsea and United. I think it might be slightly more than Liverpool and City but five years ago they were among the best 2-3 sides in the world whereas Arsenal were utter crap and had nothing beyond a few youth players to build on. Arsenal also spent far less than all these clubs bar Spurs on wages throughout this entire period.
 
WeePat said:
I never viewed either Jesus or Havertz as rescue jobs. I know Arsenal fans framed it that way with Havertz when the move happened, but 18 months down the line, he's upped his consistency slightly but overall he looks fairly similar as the Havertz Chelsea had, which wasn't even particularly bad, just not particularly great either, we just had a younger, inexperienced version, whereas you signed him as a stronger, more experienced 24 year old who had been in the league 3 years. Jesus was a very capable backup to Aguero, and back then he was seen as a player that could potentially be too good for that role, who could be the starting striker at a good level away from City. The fact that both for a period showed levels not previously seen at their old clubs probably fuelled this 'we've rescued them' sentiment.

I do agree with you though, 700m spent across 5 seasons is fairly standard for a club of Arsenal's size, a huge PL club looking to compete for the title. Transfer accumulates over multiple seasons, who knew? What's the next headline? Arsenal have spent 1.1b over 10 seasons?
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Im more thinking that the manager seen them as rescue jobs. Players who were highly rated when young, done ok but never really nailed down their position at City and Chelsea, and he thought that he could take them and help them fulfill their promise.
However, what we've seen is that they are who they are, they might go through a run of decent form where they look as if they've upped a level, but they will never be the final answer for that position.

SilentWitness said:
I suppose the key facet to the money Arsenal have spent is that it's one manager who has overseen it and they still don't have any trophy to show for it (I'm assuming the overwhelming majority of it has been spent post that FA Cup win).
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Think we forget that this statement is always fluid. We are in 1 cup semi final, home draw in the other domestic cup, 1 potential home win Vs Zagreb to basically securing a top 8 place in the Champions League, and still 2nd in the league.

There's been a fair bit of negativity about Arsenal this season, I've probably added to that recently, but it's not a bad place to be in.
 
GoonerBear said:
Im more thinking that the manager seen them as rescue jobs. Players who were highly rated when young, done ok but never really nailed down their position at City and Chelsea, and he thought that he could take them and help them fulfill their promise.
However, what we've seen is that they are who they are, they might go through a run of decent form where they look as if they've upped a level, but they will never be the final answer for that position.



Think we forget that this statement is always fluid. We are in 1 cup semi final, home draw in the other domestic cup, 1 potential home win Vs Zagreb to basically securing a top 8 place in the Champions League, and still 2nd in the league.

There's been a fair bit of negativity about Arsenal this season, I've probably added to that recently, but it's not a bad place to be in.
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Of course. You have a great chance this season to get one considering many other top clubs are floundering.
 
Powderfinger said:
700m over five years is not a lot for a big PL club these days. It’s slightly less than Spurs, well off clubs like Chelsea and United. I think it might be slightly more than Liverpool and City but five years ago they were among the best 2-3 sides in the world whereas Arsenal were utter crap and had nothing beyond a few youth players to build on. Arsenal also spent far less than all these clubs bar Spurs on wages throughout this entire period.
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True, and I think what’s helped Liverpool is the players they spent big on have shown great consistency over the last 6-7 years. So the fact they signed Salah, VVD, Allison, Robertson several years before covid and they’re still going strong and carrying the team in 2025 is unbelievable for them. It would have been nice if we managed to get more mileage out of the crop of players we spent big on 4-5 years ago (Ziyech, Havertz, Werner, Lukaku, Pulisic, Chilwell). If players like Rice, Havertz, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori etc are still mainstays in your team in 2029-2030 and contributing to success, then you’d be in a great position to spend less per summer than your rivals whilst still competing with them at the top.
 
WeePat said:
True, and I think what’s helped Liverpool is the players they spent big on have shown great consistency over the last 6-7 years. So the fact they signed Salah, VVD, Allison, Robertson several years before covid and they’re still going strong and carrying the team in 2025 is unbelievable for them. It would have been nice if we managed to get more mileage out of the crop of players we spent big on 4-5 years ago (Ziyech, Havertz, Werner, Lukaku, Pulisic, Chilwell). If players like Rice, Havertz, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori etc are still mainstays in your team in 2029-2030 and contributing to success, then you’d be in a great position to spend less per summer than your rivals whilst still competing with them at the top.
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It really is a very different scenario for them because they spent big on their initial teams and are still reaping the benefits of their success. When/if Salah TAA and VvD end up leaving, that is when they will have to have to spend, and as Man Utd fans will know, there is absolutely no guarantee there. It is hard to replace players like that and it can take multiple stabs in the transfer market.

We desperately need a great forward, but other than that we should not be spending perhaps as much as we have been. And having said that, this year has already seen a decline in spending.

Not sure we needed Cala....Unfortunately, he has so far turned out to confirm his sick note status. It would have been better off spending a bunch on a Olise to compliment Saka and Odegaard.
 
WeePat said:
True, and I think what’s helped Liverpool is the players they spent big on have shown great consistency over the last 6-7 years. So the fact they signed Salah, VVD, Allison, Robertson several years before covid and they’re still going strong and carrying the team in 2025 is unbelievable for them. It would have been nice if we managed to get more mileage out of the crop of players we spent big on 4-5 years ago (Ziyech, Havertz, Werner, Lukaku, Pulisic, Chilwell). If players like Rice, Havertz, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori etc are still mainstays in your team in 2029-2030 and contributing to success, then you’d be in a great position to spend less per summer than your rivals whilst still competing with them at the top.
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Exactly. And I'm sure that's also the thinking behind Chelsea's big splurge of the last few years, that this core of players can be mainstays that reduce the need for big transfer expenditures (or can be sold to fund new signings) during the 2025-2030 period when the club are looking to build the new stadium.

There is so much value in having players that can be long term anchors of a side, both financially and in terms of continuity on the pitch and giving you a clear playing structure to build around.
 
Be interested to know how successful fans rival and Arsenal see our transfer market grade overall since Edu/Arteta.

I personally see it around B+
 
Third year in a row, they’re letting it slip. Wonder if they’ve gone as far as they can go under Arteta.
 
If they can't even claim the title of "best football eva", what do they have?

Pointless bunch.
 
Changeisgood said:
Be interested to know how successful fans rival and Arsenal see our transfer market grade overall since Edu/Arteta.

I personally see it around B+
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They haven't done badly and the ones that haven't worked out have been fairly low cost. I do think they overpaid for some players like Havertz, White and Rice.
 
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