Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta’s project for Arsenal was in the fourth out of five phases last year, and these are the gains we made:
The top players chose Arsenal because they believed in coach Mikel Arteta.
Declan Rice was determined not to join Manchester City or Bayern Munich with Arsenal in his transfer race because he believed in coach Mikel Arteta’s plan for him.
Kai Havertz declined to return to Germany and join Bayern Munich or move to Spain and join Real Madrid because he was completely convinced by coach Mikel Arteta.
Jurrien Timber, a highly regarded Eredivisie defender, turned down offers from other clubs like Manchester United because he believed coach Mikel Arteta would help him reach his full potential.
Ethan Nwaneri, the next outstanding English prospect, decided to dedicate his future to Arsenal despite receiving interest from a number of large clubs, including Chelsea.
After falling behind early in the 2022–23 title race, our Gunners last season improved; they carried the title battle to the final day of the season, losing by only two points. Arsenal also participated in the Champions League for the first time under Arteta last season, and they did reach the quarterfinals, though they lost the quarterfinal to Bayern Munich by a single goal in a game that, with more precision, would have advanced us to the semi-finals.
Ultimately, with better-quality stars infused into the club, Arsenal may be better placed next season, allowing them to perform at their peak and ushering the project into phase 5.
In phase 5, there is much to look forward to, such as winning the league and competing for Champions League football as the club re-establishes itself as a European powerhouse.
Darren N
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS!please contact us through this link…
Smirk!
Arsenal really need to go one better by winning a big trophy – the Premier League or the Champions League. Another “nearly-only” season could signal the start of a downward slide as star players begin to cast glances at the exit door.
With the potential purchase of Raya, Arteta would’ve spent £601.11M. I’ll explain why arsenal will potentially only spend £120M-£150M this summer with a bunch of sales. Arsenal do have money but if you have basic understanding of the accounting side of football then you’ll understand what I mean. Arsenal’s 2year previous year losses come together at £97.6M only £7.4M from PSR breaching. In recent reports Reiss, ESR, & Nketiah have been put on for sale + Patino doesn’t want to play for arsenal next season and Biereth is unlikely to play so to calculate the fees we’ll get for them go to football observatory as it’s a website that judge’s players market value based on science. All of that combined comes roughly to £73M and thanks to Swiss ramble for Arsenal’s financial accounts you subtract the easiest form of profit of the players by 2 year’s total loss cause we want to know how much arsenal can spend split into amortization which is roughly £24.2M. Then multiple by 5 to get the budget cause most player contracts are 5 years which is £121M. In amortization you add the transfer fee + wage fee then divide by 5 to get the value Arsenal will put in their accounts. So if arsenal were to sign Isak they would not only go over the losses in the accounts but they’d be short of a CM & RW. There Arsenal need to be smart this window and also explains why they didn’t sign and haven’t signed Raya yet cause the financial year for football clubs end on June 30. £27M+(85,000*4*12[to get his yearly pay])=£31.08M/5= £6.216M which is £1.184M below PSR which is risky
That’s why we have highly paid accountants, financial analysts and lawyers etc.. If there is a financial problem when it comes to transfers then I think we will be notified.
Lets just keep calm and let the people that the club trusted with such matters do their highly paid for jobs..
That doesn’t change the fact that Arsenal can’t sell to buy. That’s why there were reports of us not able to sign a striker in January and weren’t able to finalize the David Raya deal in January when Fabrizio Romano posted that we were going to complete the deal at the end of the season hence why we haven’t signed David Raya or weren’t able to sign Sesko. The media aren’t going to tell everyone everything for example most football fans didn’t know about the end of the financial year which just passed (June 30). One has to find stuff out for yourself it’s part of being independent.
Unlike most clubs, not all of them, our financial year ended at the end of May, not June.
All clubs’ financial year in Europe ends in June not May I don’t know where you’ve got that from but if you could elaborate please do so
If you google “Arsenal financial year end” it will confirm it to you
That’s the reports for all teams, at least in the PL, to submit their financial reports for the first half of the year the deadline is 31st May for all PL clubs simply due to the fact their are two transfer windows. Manchester United submitted their own in March. the end of the financial year for the season ends on 30th June hence why certain clubs had to sell players to make their financials look like they didn’t overspend on the limit regarding PSR.
Thank you for correcting me, I bow to your superior knowledge 👍
No worries just here to get information that’s not common in the public domain and appreciations for the praise. I have a question that I’ve been thinking about for some time: now that the loan deal for David Raya is gone, the obligation fee wasn’t paid due to PSR, and he’s still contractually a Brentford player + Ramsdale’s claims of not wanting to sit on the bench of majority of the season, do you think Ramsdale is now the starting goalkeeper for Arsenal and they’re potentially getting Joan Garcia as the backup?
I’m pretty sure the obligation to buy Raya kicked in today.
It’s a theory, I theory I admit a hadn’t thought of but yes, exactly why haven’t we signed Raya yet? I too don’t think a firm agreement was in place to sign him permanently but so what was behind it all? It won’t be to long before we find out though IMO.
To me if it was that bad then we would know more about it right now. I think there is a lot of wiggle room and loopholes that the club use.
The club has siad that we are in a very healthy financial situation today.
We know about Everton, Newcastle, Aston Villa’s situations. But I have not heard that we are in the same predicament as them. Lets not over sensationalise about everything about the clubZ
As I keep saying about a lot of things regarding the club since Josh, Edu and Arteta have been at the helm. People need to calm down and stop over stressing about every matter. They must be more than competent enough to know where we are financially and how to deal with it (with loophole or not).
Same with the fans always over stressing about our progress in the league every season, player transfers etc.. Let’s leave all that to the guys that have been appointed in those positions. No need to think we know more than them when it comes to the running of a £Multibillion company like Arsenal FC. They are highly paid to do a job. If they fail then we can start over stressing. But I don’t see much to be overly worried about around the club nowadays.
We have the financial power to spend agreed but due to our endless history of poor selling we’re restricted to spend unless we sell first. As a fan who supports the club you should be somewhat concerned because its the fans that help make the money they use to buy those players from the stadium, broadcasting and ticket revenue, etc. It wasn’t mentioned that anyone knows more than the over it’s just information regarding our situation on signings. The media aren’t going to tell the everyday football fan everything just like a lecturer won’t teach one everything in the classroom; one has to find out stuff on their own. Plus it’s not until they mess up or stop progressing that the fans come calling for the sack, one has to be on their toes anticipate patterns that are good or bad and plan ahead cause doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different to happen is insanity.
I understand where you are coming from but I still contend that we should just stop sensationalising about everything. As I keep saying, the club owners are £Multi Billionaires that have been in the business for decades. Kroenke has been in the sports franchise game for decades and has never bankrupted a single sports franchise of his.
I will only get concerned when it’s warranted. But there is no indication of any financial problem at the club so I am don’t see the need to over sensationalise the whole situation.
Again, the club appointed individuals (accountants, Financial advisors, financial analysts and lawyer etc) that a being compensated handsomely to keep an eye om the whole financial health of the club. If they feel like we have to sell in order to buy then they will do that. If they feel like they can skirt / take advantage of the loopholes then they will try that too.
It’s the same thing I have been going on about since the Arteta tenure started. People over stressing about every decision he and Edu make. Worrying about this player not being played, this player being played when he shouldn’t, terminating this and that player’s contract. This and that formation / system. This and that league position. Academy player this academy player that… Now this financial thing too..
Again, let’s have some faith / trust in the individuals that the club has appointed in any given positions. Then start over stressing when it warranted..
Look at what the post was about it’s simply to inform people why we haven’t looked to sign anyone before June 30th. I’ll mention it again so people can understand: It’s not until they mess up or stop progressing that the fans come calling for the sack, one has to be on their toes anticipate patterns that are good or bad and plan ahead cause doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different to happen is insanity. Yes I agree there are people in place to make sure that we do what’s necessary but these people aren’t coming out in press conferences to tell people that we’re in financial trouble it’s financial analysts outside of the club and people who have knowledge on the topic that do. For example most people won’t know that Arsenal had to sell its naming rights of the training ground to a Dubai company to reduce thee risk of breaching PSR. It’s not to say there’s no trust but one has to be open to seeing both sides of the situation without any particular biases (not to say anyone has). An example of what I’m talking about is Leeds United in the 90’s and early 2000’s. They were a team that had been in the league a couple of times prior then got promoted in the late 80’s to the first division and won it 2 years after. Fast-forward to 1998 where they appointed David O’Leary as their manager after he’d been the assistant manager for 2 year. They spent a lot of money during the time he was there as they were trying to win the PL again disregarding the domestic cups and focused more in the league and UCL. They played exciting football and David was praised for the job he was doing despite his inexperience. Unfortunately they came short of both the a tough division (Manchester United had won the treble, Arsenal and Liverpool were their title rivals alongside Leeds Utd, and a bunch of other clubs were competitive such as Chelsea and Aston Villa) and the UEL & UCL getting knocked out by Galatasaray and Valencia respectively. By 2002 they had big debts due to there inability to sell players adequately and two seasons after they were relegated. Now there are a lot of comparisons between the David O’Leary and Arteta in the sense they both played for Arsenal, they took over managers that had done well in prior to their appointment (Arteta took over Emery who took over Wenger and O’Leary took over George Graham who took over Howard Wilkinson), they were both inexperienced before taking the job, spent a lot of money, played exciting football, etc the difference is that now clubs have more financial gains in comparison to the early 2000’s were the television deals, UCL money and other financial gains weren’t as lucrative as it is now so there’s a low chance of a club in this current period that has rich owners of the club to go into administration. However it doesn’t change the fact that history tends to repeat itself a lot and the debt that Arsenal own to the Kroenke’s since Arteta was appointed has almost doubled. Again this doesn’t mean Arteta is doing a bad job heck he won the FA cup in his first half season but one should sit on the fence and observe what’s going around the club without other people informing everyone about it & not be oblivious or bias to anyone (not to say anyone has). I’ll say it again the media aren’t going to tell the everyday football fan everything just like a lecturer won’t teach one everything in the classroom; one has to find out stuff out on their own as it’s part of being independent.
I really appreciate your write up and understand your point. But, the truth is we, as fans, has limited information about the club dealings, we didn’t have enough data to tell us the position of the club financially. You made a claim that the reason we haven’t sign anyone is because we have to sell first before we can buy but do you have any Data to proof that ? My guess is no so you’re only just speculating you might be right but you might also be wrong.
What’s clear is that we’ve never had FFP issue and no report says we’re at risk. So I see nothing to worry about. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be on the lookout but we can only see little and those are the ones they want us to see. Moreover, if the is in trouble financially they won’t be able to hide that but until I will advise we worry less.
Well the proof is in Arsenal’s financial report which you and everyone can access on swiss ramble. There you can compare Arsenal’s loss after tax, debt from the club, how good we are at selling players, etc with other PL teams and yes we aren’t breaching PSR rulings but that’s where the £7.4M comes from if you decided to read the original post that I posted that started this whole debate. This is why one shouldn’t make assumptions and accuse people when the facts and evidence have been presented that’s the proof all those numbers that are there are from Arsenal’s financial report. That’s one of the reasons why there hasn’t been a confirmation of Raya’s move to Arsenal cause it would’ve limited us in spending this transfer window(27/5=5.4 7.4-5.4=£2M away from breaching PSR ruling). And again if you check tweets and videos on F. Romano he himself said that Arsenal didn’t sign Raya in January due to being close to FFP/PSR breaching. The tweet he’s put out yesterday claiming Arsenal had activated the clause to sign Raya would either mean the amortization will be recorded for Arsenal H2 financial report totalling our losses close to £103M only £2M away from the £105M away from the breach or they’ve activated it after June 30 which seems unlikely due to the rules implied by deals including loans in football (If there’s a clause to by a player on loan to another club, the deal expires as soon as the loan expires. In Raya’s case that was June 30.) unless Brentford are willing to let him go. Plus if you check the post above you can check articles for yourself that state that Arsenal are unable to sign a striker in January due to them being close to FFP/PSR breaching & they had to sell it’s naming rights to the training ground to reduce the losses accumulated and to not breach PSR rulings. And it’s not the case that they can’t hide it the media aren’t going to tell everyone everything one has to find out stuff on our own terms hence why I found out all about this stuff and spreading the information around
@ A_G
Good insight.
Most of us had an inkling without exact figures to match due to the over-spend in the last few years.
We have to balance our books. Not fussed about selling players but hope we do not sell Biereth. W
He can definitely be a backup to KH and would save us the cost of a striker for a year.
We need to win a big trophies 🏆 because if we don’t win a big trophies all player they couldn’t stay our team , every player in the world needs to win a more trophies , if arsenal team will win the epl or Europian trophies every player will come here , this season arsenal team they
Some quality player , right winger who can do anything about on the pitch or of the pitch , at he can do over 15 goals , also
Arsenal they center modifielder who can play anywhere about th pitch , he can assist more goals, and also they need left back defender and center back player who could save anything
Players make decisions about where they play based on money and their career prospects.
Kai Havertz signed with Arsenal because no one else would pay a 13 goal per year forward 350,000 per week. Declan Rice chose Arsenal over other potential employers because of money and playing time. At Man City, he would have been battling for a place against Rodri, the best defensive midfielder in the world for the one defensive midfield spot City play, and as good as Rice is, he could not be certain of being selected ahead of him (ask Jack Grealish how hard it is to hold a spot in that star-studded lineup). Arsenal had the oft-injured Thomas Partey, Jorginho, and Mohamed Elneny at holding midfield. Rice may have accepted less money from Arsenal than he might have made at City, but at Arsenal, he would be selected ahead of Jorginho and/or Partey and Elneny every day he’s fit.
The entire time Arteta has been manager, he has sold the fans and owners on improvement, but that’s not really what happened, looking empirically at results.
In his first half-season, he was 5th.
His first full season, he was 8th.
His third season, he was 8th.
His fourth season, he was 5th.
His fifth season, he was 2nd.
His sixth season, he was 2nd again.
8th is not better than 5th. 8th is not better than 8th., while 5th was better than 8th, and 2nd was better than 5th. 2nd place is not better than 2nd place.
Arsene Wenger did more with fewer resources and he got sacked. That’s not to say Arsenal should sack Arteta, but evaluating performance means being honest about results. In the hyper competitive Premier League, 5th, 2nd, and 2nd are good results. However, very similar results achieved with a fraction of the resources provided to Arteta had fans calling for Arsene Wenger’s head.
A very important consideration in projecting results is where they club starts from. Arsenal have reached the place where a new signing is not replacing a vastly inferior player, but another good one. David Raya for Aaron Ramsdale is an example. Arteta believes Raya is better, and maybe he is, but how much better? Kai Havertz scored 13 goals and had seven assists. Not a bad year, but not what anyone would describe as a dominant performance by a center forward. Last season Gabriel Jesus scored 11 goals and had 6 assists. So, how much better was Havertz than the player he replaced? A little, not leaps and bounds. Declan Rice replaced Granit Xhaka. At holding midfield, Rice is a much better player, but as central midfield, where Rice played most of his minutes, Xhaka had 7 goals and and 7 assists last season compared to Rice’s 7 goals and 9 assists. Better, but not a lot better.
There is also the chance that a big-money signing won’t work out, and the player signed will be no better than the player he was supposed to replace. If, for example, Arsenal replace Havertz at center forward with Alexander Isak or Victor Gyokeres, that seems like the most likely pathway to significant improvement, but the improvement will not be a 20 goal jump, but a 4-5 goal improvement. However, players that move into the Premier League for weaker leagues in Europe often score half the number of goals than they did previously (Pepe anyone); which would give Gyokeres a tally of 14 or 15 league goals next season.
A specialist left back like AC Milan’s Theo Hernandez or Bayern’s Alphonso Davies would probably give the Gunners better two-way play than the Kiwior/Zinchenko pairing; and a central midfielder like Douglas Luiz or Conor Gallagher would give the manager more flexibility to adapt to the team’s opponents; but the improvements in both cases will be incremental, not monumental.
The other issue here is that a 2nd place finish in a tight race does not guarantee that next year will be better. When he was Liverpool manager, Aaron Rogers lost the title to Man City on goal difference. The next season, Liverpool did not win the title, the plummeted down the table to sixth.
Injury also plays a role in how a club performs, as does the relative strength of the other clubs. This past season. Arsenal had half the number of games lost to injury as Man United. Having the entire core of the team remain healthy is not something to expect year after year. None of Havertz, Saka, Rice, Saliba, Magalhaes, or Odeguard were injured for any length of time. A star player injury could, in the blink of an eye, turn a season on its head.
Other teams are also trying to improve. Chelsea made massive changes last season, and paid for it with a horrible start to the campaign, but by the end, the club was starting to play well. Manchester United had a torrid season, but a lot of the decline from last season’s third place finish was injury. The club stuck with Ten Hage and it seems likely that United will be better. Liverpool will be a mystery in the post Klopp era, but that is a side loaded with talent and experience. Tottenham have been erratic, but should improve in year two of the Ange Era. Newcastle struggled to replicate last years Cindereall season, but they have a strong core and look set to keep their important players. And of course, Man City are Man City. They will be difficult to beat.
The notion that somehow, Arsenal are destined to be better next season than they were last season is deluded at best. It is unrealistic expectations that lead to silly, reactionary responses to the ordinary ebb and flow of the game. West Ham just fired the manager who rescued them from and delivered the best four years of the club’s Premier League Era history because somehow, not matching the best finish in club history did not meet the delusional expectations of fans and ownership. West Ham will almost certainly finish lower next year.
Arsenal, so near the top, have only a short, steep, single step to climb, but 18 steps below, waiting for footfalls on the way down. For any Premier League club, a top 3 finish is a major success. Setting silly expectations is more likely to lead to disappointment and disillusion than a Premier League title.
I appreciate the time you took in writing up your comment and how detailed you were.
But I am finding it hard to understand what it is you want or are trying to say
You are saying all of Arsenal new signings for last season are no improvement (judging from goal scored) but the team as a whole scored most goals last season.
You are suggesting players who should be brought in as better options this season forgetting that they all can come in and perform “averagely” or “worse” – don’t forget, before bringing in the signings last season it was believed by some professionals that they would improve the team.
Transfer business in my opinion is sames as any other business, you make the right and wrong call sometimes but that is part of the game.
Your comment was OK until you mentioned clubs in PL you are very sure are doing well and improving but are determined to think Arsenal is not among those teams who are doing well and are a threat.
It got me saying to myself “this really isn’t a good fan/team spirit – thinking everyone is better or would get better except your team, that’s not how Champions think…Champions look for ways to get S**t done, some of the ways might be wrong and lead to unexpected failed result but Champions don’t look at other teams and stop believing, they focus on their camp and keep developing
Then IMO expectations are expected in every sphere of life, they might be too unreal to you but very real to some of us.
In all, it was a good read
For me IMPROVEMENTS is judged based on statistics and that included goals scored or conceded, game management, injury records, shot faced or attempted, chances created and as well trophy won as compared to previous seasons or records.
We came short in not winning the league but i saw improvement in every other aspects whether he accepts it or not.
We improved from not playing in any European completion few yrs ago to playing in the Europa league and then the champions league, the titles will come and i am certain Arteta is the right man for the Job.
Considering our continuous rise over the last three years, it should be obvious to anyone except staunch critic from day1 that we are “destined to get better” next year. Highly disrespectful and lack of insight to compare us to Westham.
@paul35mm
Very well laid out…👍🏾
You have included Emery’s first season there. In Arteta’s first half-season he finished 8th.
You have listed a total of 6 seasons. Arteta has managed Arsenal for 4 seasons and a half.
Agree with you on players following the money (as anyone would) contrary to what some trying to make themselves believe and unsuccessfully trying to convince others that players follow a project or phantom phases.
@paul35mm
Like Tee above has stated, you have put a lot of effort into your post
I got the impression, like Tee, that there was some veiled criticism and not much in the way of belief that Arsenal can maintain their tempo. You chose not to take into account the possibility that the teams below us last season will remain below us next time around. Everyone else will improve but not us.
For the better players, it’s a great place to be – choosing where they play. Singling out Rice and Havertz – both big money signings- worked very well indeed yet you chose to put forward the view that nobody wanted KH. He was one of Arteta’s first signings of the transfer window so to say that nobody wanted him wasn’t true and after a slow start became an integral part of the Arsenal setup. He is still being capped for Germany Was Rice worried that he’d end up like Grealish? A good reason then, to join a team that considered him good enough to play week after week and to get Arsenal as close as they’ve been in years to winning the league
I like articles like this. Arsenal cannot afford to think small if we want to compete against the likes of Real Madrid and Man City next season.
I trust Arteta and Edu with whoever they decided to sign because over 90% of Arteta signings are all top quality players eg. (Jesus, White, Trossard, Tomiyasu, Partey, Havertz, Rice, Timber, Ødegaard etc).
Cedric, Mari, Lokonga, Viera, Runarsson, Tavares, Zinchenko, Ramsdale, Wllian etc..
90% for sure.
😆. Arteta should deliver it this time. Too much times and investments have already been given to him. He can only be considered a top manager when he start winning titles; Epl or champions League. Or another fa cup at least.
Yeah, he’s the only manager hasn’t signed duff players 🙄
Zinchenko and Ramsdale 😂😂😂
If Ramsdale was a good signing why dropped after one season? Humor me.
Why are fans crying for Zinchenko to be sold? Humor me more.
Ramsdale wasn’t dropped after ONE season, it was after TWO seasons !
As for Zinchenko, fans can cry all they want, they obviously don’t realise that he was part of the team that has taken us from 5th to 2nd, challenging for the title in the last 2 seasons.
Me humour you, that’s a joke. You’re the comedian 😂
Hope you’re not part of them for the sake of your eyes
😂😂
Hes made more bad signings then good
Really ?
Thank goodness the good have made up for the bad
I’m just looking forward to phase 6 and 7
Dan Kit. I’ve choked on my champagne 🥂 every time I’ve heard Phase one, two, three, four and now Phase five. If I hear six and seven it may be fatal. I’ll choke to death. No such thing in WORLD FOOTBALL as PHASES. It’s a politically made up scheme by the Americans,,, of all people
Amidst the praise and adulation due everyone of the management team for where they have brought us to, there needs to be an aggressive intentionality from Artedu to close out this 5 year period with a league trophy this coming season. It could be detrimental if we don’t.
I’m not sure we will get much better than we have been for the past 2 years and there’s an inevitable dip in front. We need to make sure we don’t get to that dip without winning the league or we could wait another 5 years to have a go
Don’t understand these ‘phases’, what if we had of won everything in ‘phase 1’ what would we have to achieve in ‘phase 2, 3, 4, 5 ‘……
Win more? Just because you achieve your goals / targets ahead of time means that you have morr wiggle room to pile on more trophies..
Just because you win all does not mean you then put your feet up. You take that confidence and use it to push yourself even further.
Just because you win a title does not mean you all of a sudden are done. It means you keep pushing for more titles to your name.
Isn’t it?
I was referring to the term ‘ phrases ‘. Why not just say season 1 or 2 or 3 etc.
phases not phrases…..
phases of course not phrases……
Lazy coinage to entertain excuses
How many more phases before we aren’t totally pathetic in important cup competitions?
Someone else also keeps banging on here about phase 5, so what’s that all about? Serious question by the way.
I deduce that it much more likely than the improving arsenal are more likely to win the league than man city winning an unprecedented 5th straight title…I really think it’s a good bet