The summer 2024 transfer deadline is almost here. As a Gooner, there are many things you expect the club to accomplish before the transfer window closes, but you may be wondering what the club should do to close the window in style.
I believe it’s time to let go of some players, especially after losing a generational talent like Emile Smith-Rowe. Edu and Mikel Arteta let our No. 10 go, which means they have decided to be ruthless and are taking no prisoners. Crystal Palace wants Eddie Nketiah; they should let him go.
If a suitor emerges, they should either sell or send Reiss Nelson out on loan. Aaron Ramsdale’s thoughts aren’t with the club; he must depart (Wolves should be grateful they had the chance to sign him).
It’s surprising that Jakub Kiwior hasn’t left yet, despite his popularity in Serie A (though Bologna seems to be his next destination). And if anyone wants Kieran Tierney, they should let him go.
Following Mikel Merino’s announcement as a Gunner, I anticipate the signing of a backup goalie (with Espanyol goalie Joan Garcia rumoured to be on his way to the Emirates) and a hybrid winger such as Simon Adingra or Johan Bakayoko.
I’ll be amazed if Arsenal’s recruitment team can accomplish all of the above within the next three days, but I’ll give them a chance.
Darren N
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I’m not keeping my hopes up.
But anything is possible
Mentally I’m focusing on our current Squad and if anyone comes in the next 3 days will be a nice surprise.
Even Marino hasn’t been announced yet and whilst yes, deals can be conceived and concluded on the final day, I very much doubt there will be any more, apart perhaps from a left field signing like happened with Trossard. My outside possibility is Ward-Prowse from West Ham and if it happens, you heard it here first😉.
I hate comparing but our transfers always seem to take forever to complete compared even to clubs below the top six.
Always happy when the transfer window is shut IMHO.
They seem to only be able to work on one deal at a time. While efficient in terms of staffing, it does make you wonder if we are stretched too thin. However, we’ve not knowingly missed out on any key targets because of a lack of staffing.
Quite. Some of us have been saying that with even more time left in the window. Arsenal (along with every other club) has had since 14 June to get their business underway and completed – buying and selling. Why is it that we’re 72 hours or so away from the window closing yet there are still so many issues unresolved?
Buying: Calafiori has been signed but what on earth is happening about Merino? Although we all knew Jesus was very injury-prone and Eddie was very likely to be sold, we’re still apparently scrambling about for a striker (or winger).
Selling: ESR has gone but nobody else has (so far). Eddie is now on his fourth potential move of the window, but Ramsdale, Nelson, Kiwior and Tierney are all still with us as I write.
There may be a late, great, surge so hopefully the position will change but so far, I don’t think it’s as successful as it could/should have been.
That’s a surprise.
You think it has been, then (so far)?
I do not know. You seem to have known since June 14.
No, it’s that Arsenal have had since the 14 June so I can’t see why with only 72hours left there’s probably still a striker to bring in and the likes of Eddie, Ramsdale, Kiwior, Nelson to offload.
because buying a marquee big name striker is not, and never was, a priority for Edu/Arteta, it is obvious – a fan fantasy and no more
Everybody keeps saying ‘when’ Merino arrives, well is he coming or not, nobody seemingly knows not even our supposed transfer insiders. Unless there’s secret negotiations that we don’t know about, and there might be I suppose, does anybody really see us signing a striker in the next 3 days. I’d be delighted if it happens but just can’t see it.
He just arrived, happy now
Yes I am, thank you for your concern.
At the moment we have a very unbalance squat:
2 goalkeepers
9 defences ( Tierney included)
5 midfielders (Merino included)
6) forwards (Jesus included)
22 players when we suppose to have 25
Compare with other teams excluding Chelsea and you would be supriced.
Lets remember how long they had to sort this
Three days should be enough to complete a couple of transfers, if the negotiations happened weeks ago. I don’t think Romano and Ornstein know everything about all Arsenal’s negotiations
Exactly gai. If the club are after certain players they will already have held talks with the clubs and the player/agents. Iirc, in 2011 we signed 5 players on deadline day. Also Welbeck signed on deadline day, and I don’t remember any talk of us being in for him previously.
Yup, Ozil and Kallstrom were signed out of the blue too
Yes, but whether that’s a good example or not is the question. Possibly a warning to get the right players rather than just players.
@Gai keep dreaming it cost nothing to dream . Imo Edu and Arteta are new regime who likes to do transfer in time. Yes Merino we are waiting for announcement. Nothing else is certain we need to have a cautious optimism. Transfer with Arsenal seem complicated this days..
I agree with you both. It’s like one of those card games where everyone can see some of your cards, you hold the others close to your chest. Romano and Ornstein don’t know everything, but they know how to grind out money at a rumour mill.
The bit I enjoy spotting is where increasingly desperate agents or clubs plant fictitious stories in the press to help sell someone, or soften things up for someone they may want to bid for, and UK press leap on it one after another – even though it’s fake and only reported in the local Grenyarnia newspaper. Italian clubs and the big Spanish ones are doing this all the time, usually in their local press where they have cosy relationship with the journo.
To answer a question from up thread, why after all these months is it always last minute? the answer lies in how the prices have remarkably dropped the closer it comes to window slamming shut. Osimhen for example – what a little bit of disaster for the club if he is still there on those wages next week, when Conte has frozen him out in favour of Lukaku. The player himself doesn’t want to go to the retirement home in the Middle East at the height of his career. If he moves to the premiership this week it will be for cheaper fee and wage than it would have been a few months ago.
The Merino deal is surprisingly long winded. Everything including his medical was supposedly completed late last week, but still no announcement, so unless there’s a secret deal taking place for another player I’m doubtful of us making another signing this window, not that it matters that much as we have the essential players in place now.
Edu is too busy for the photo op and Josh forgot his checkbook, lol.
Just the essential players for the competition but not enough for fighting for titles.The aspirations of the majority of us could not be fulfilled.
The Merino thing could be a medical trouble as his club announce a few days ago of his back pain.
If arsenal can’t get a classic striker, i’ll well hand the title over to city cause, I don’t buy the idea of harvertz.. He’s not physical strong not fast, he is Always lost in big matches, can’t convert those half chances or force a goal. Long after arsenal embark on negotiating merino’s deal, chelsea brought in neto, joao felix and sold gallarger.
Johan Bakayoko sign it!
Arsenal have done plenty of business particularly when compared to City and Liverpool are only real direct rivals as of the last two years.
City signed Savinho from their sister club at a reduced rate, agreed in January, and Gundogan on a free from Barca. They are still trying to sell Cancelo and Nunes
Liverpool have signed nobody.
We’ve had 6 outgoings:
Tavares went on loan with an obligation to buy for 6.5 mil next summer so that a sale.
Lokonga went on loan with an option to buy for £10 mil +25% sell-on clause next summer so that is a loan for now.
Bireth was sold for £4 mil + undisclosed sell-on clause
Patino was sold for £1mil +undisclosed “significant” sell-on clause
ESR was sold for £27 mil + £7 mil in performance add-ons
Vieria has gone on a year-long loan back to Porto
Incoming we’ve had Calafiori and Merino is imminent.
On top of this, it seems Nketiah is going for £25 mil + £5 mil in add-ons. He reportedly had a medical booked with Forest before pulling out likely because Palace usurped them and is more attractive to him as a prospect both in football terms and likely the fact he can remain in London too.
Hardly dragging our heels. Tierney is injured so not a lot to be expected on that front, Nelson may still move but looks like we are relying on West Ham to follow up there and Ramsdale we’re waiting on the right offer which may now come from Wolves. Kiwior has always been an if we get the right price fine situation rather than we need to desperately sell situation.
Kiwior going and maybe relying on Skelly as defender number 8 as Skelly can play LB might be a route freeing up more funds for an attacker or just signing a cheapish young gamble defender to fill that role. Either way, Kiwior and Ramsdale are great squad depth if they stay. So really the only potential problem area in sales may be Nelson who worst case Leicester wanted on loan.
Not sure where all this angst is coming from. It’s certainly not based in reality where are two main rivals have been less active than us so far.
True Words Angus. Nicely put, with an immense understanding of were we are as a club, couldn’t have said it better.
In my mind there is also zero chance that we’ve sold Nketiah, loaned Vieira, and are willing to listen to offers on Nelson and are not planning on buying a forward whether their main position is left, right, or center.
Can see Nwaneri taking the Vieira limited minutes role in 8/rw but can’t see Nketiah/Nelson not being replaced with at least one signing. We’d only have Havertz/Jesus/Martinell/Trossard/Saka in that scenario with Nwaneri maybe option 6 on the RW but you’d want another body in that area.
If Nelson stays he can be attacker 7 but think we’d all prefer that option to be Nwaneri for extra minutes on the RW in his development.
Think that is the profile we do really want in the squad the attacking midfielder who can play on the wing ala Bernardo Silva in particular/Foden at City which Trossard doesn’t quite fill and Vieira didn’t make the grade yet. Think the idea is to see how Vieira does on loan and see how Nwaneri comes on this year and reassesses next summer in that area.
Angst need not always be rooted in reasons. I appreciate Arsenal’s patient and clever approach this transfer window, even more than last summer’s. It’s reassuring and revealing that we already have a strong squad. Rather than fretting about who will rescue us each season, we now need to focus on building a quality bench. The defense and midfield have been addressed; only the forward area remains, and I’m confident there will be new signings in the next three days. Anyone expressing negativity about Arsenal at this point deserves pity—I don’t see any cause for alarm. While there are minor issues, the club is actively working to resolve them.
We lost Elneny, Cedric – played 200min combined
Vieira, ESR – played 1100 minutes combined. Nwaneri should cover these minutes and even more.
Merino will cover Kai’s midfield minutes and more, was around 1300 minutes
Kiwior played 1500 minutes, surely Calafiori covers those minutes and allows less minutes for Saliba/Gabriel.
Ramsdale can be replaced with a cheaper backup gk if we need money elsewhere.
Nketiah played 1500 minutes, we need to replace that.
Just to balance up what Angus has said :
At the moment we have had six outgoings, with a further two possibilities, bringing the total to eight.
Add to that the possible long term injuries to Tierney and Gabriel…. so that amounts to a total of ten players being unavailable.
We have had two incomings, if we count Merino.
Let’s add the two young players MA has drafted into the squad and that makes a total of four players and a deficit of eight players.
That’s probably where the worry (angst) is coming from and I’m surprised Angus doesn’t see this as a area of concern, but perhaps he thinks we will make a few more signings to make up the difference?
As for comparing what other clubs have done, I find that a pointless exercise, as each of them have different areas of concern to us, except maybe an out and out striker… something WE haven’t addressed ourselves of course.
Hi Ken,
Wanted to share some thoughts on our squad situation. I understand the inclination to compare player numbers with last season, but perhaps we could look at it from a different angle?
While we’ve seen departures like Lokonga and Tavares, these players weren’t regular fixtures in our lineup. Maybe we could focus instead on whether we have more reliable options this season to support our first XI?
Defensively, we seem to be in a good place. The additions of Calafiori and the returning Timber balance out the departures of Tavares, Cedric, and the injured Tierney. We might have one fewer player on paper, but our defensive capabilities look stronger. The promising performances of youngsters Myles, Josh, and Heaven in pre-season are also encouraging.
In midfield, we’ve seen some changes too. While Elneny and ESR have moved on, and Fabio’s out on loan, we’ve brought in Merino. It might look like we’re two players down, but don’t you think we have more viable options now? Merino adds quality, Timber’s versatility is an asset, and Calafiori could step in if needed. Ethan also seems to be developing into a solid backup for Odegaard.
Our forward line remains largely the same as last season.
Overall, it feels like we’ve gained quality in defense and midfield, even if the numbers are slightly down. We seem to have more rotation options without sacrificing quality, which could be crucial for managing the demands of the season.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how consider our rotation viability this season.
True
Daulat, in my opinion, over the last two seasons, we have seen MA and Edu greatly improve with regards to the standards of players brought in and our results echo said opinion.
I also wouldn’t argue with you that the players brought in are better than those who are leaving /left of course.
I’m excited to see the young players you mention being promoted, but we can’t rely on them to produce in the PL at the moment, whereas someone such as Elneny was experienced enough to never let us down when called upon.
Your rotation thoughts are, again due to the calibre of the signings, correct, but this is where my opinion on the difference between our ins and outs comes into play.
We are renowned as a club with injury issues going back decades and we are looking at a fixture list that has expanded due to the new CL formula.
Hopefully we will begin to do better in the domestic cups as well, so the demands on a smaller squad of “seasoned players” will be even more intense.
That’s why I addressed Angus’s very good post with that in mind and bear in mind the comments on JA about the bench being low in both quality and quantity compared to our rivals.
Because the angst is that we are being slow when we are not. If you’re not comparing to other clubs then it is pointless because it allows agendas to be pushed that are not reflected in the ordinary reality of the transfer window.
In terms of squad depth which is separate discussion from player sales, we look fine.
In goal, we have Raya/Ramsdale and there are plenty of reports that if Ramsdale seals a move we’ll replace him
Not sure why you bring up Tierney whose only still with us because of the injury. We have 8 players ahead of him currently. If Kiwior goes, a youth player could be player 8 or we could sign someone if not we are stacked
Merino/Nwaneri give us 6 in midfield with Rice/Partey/Jorginho/Ode with the option in Havertz/Trossard at 8 and Timber/White/Zinchenko at 6. So we are well stocked there.
Upfront with Nketiah gone, we look short with just Martinelli/Trossard/Havert/Jesus/Saka/Nelson (who we want to move.) We will sign a forward of some description before the window closes I’m 99% certain of that. Worth noting that we would still have 6 attackers at this moment if we didn’t with Nelson not on the move yet so it’s hardly panic stations.
Why would I compare The Arsenal transfer window with any other club?
What agendas are you talking about?
I can understand if, for example, chelsea and ourselves were after the same player and we looked at which club was successful and why?
But Chelsea are looking at buying a first team goalkeeper – as far as I’m aware, we are trying to sell one, so what agenda are you seeing from that?
You are obviously not seeing things as Arteta and Edu do, as both are saying that the squad needs replacing.
I named Tierney, because he’s one of our players that is currently unavailable through injury… and that could happen to any player in the squad.
Didn’t realize that we wanted to move Gabriel on, but if we did, that would make the squad even shorter!!
I hope your correct that further signings are imminent, but if they aren’t forthcoming, would you still let the players you mention (including Gabriel) leave the club?
The point of comparing how slow or not slow we have been with other clubs is to establish a baseline on what is realistic. The agendas would be those suggesting we’re being slow when we’ve done more than similarly placed rivals. Not sure why this needs explaining.
You brought up squad depth and now bringing things in I never said.
Not sure about your point on Chelsea I didn’t mention them they’ve already signed a keeper and currently have about 7 on their books, the links with Ramsdale currently are Wolves, Southampton, and Ajax. Likewise I said if Ramsdale goes we’ll replace him.
I never said we don’t need to sign anyone. I’m saying if Ramsdale goes we will and we will sign a striker. You are making statements on my behalf and asking questions I never raised.
Nelson, I said we wanted to move on not Jesus
Love how you didn’t respond to what I said but asked a bunch of questions on subjects I didn’t raise.
In terms of buying, it’s generally accepted I think that Arsenal have been in the market for three players: a defender (Calafiori), a midfielder (Merino) and a striker or winger. They have two of the three so far so that’s good statistically, but the time it’s taken to get those two means there’s 72 hours left for the third. Not impossible, but it’s pushing it, nevertheless.
Selling is a lot less successful so far. Again, I think that Arsenal needed/needs to offload ESR, Eddie, Ramsdale, Nelson, Kiwior and Tierney.
Only ESR has gone although Eddie looks like leaving. However, the prospective deal with Wolves for Ramsdale has apparently fallen through and there’s nothing much reported on the others as far as I’ve read.
It’s legitimate to include Tierney because he is a player Arsenal wants to offload (along with his wages). I’m not quite sure what you mean by “only still with us because of the injury” because I don’t think clubs were lining to buy him prior to his latest injury because he is so injury-prone, it’s not just the recent one.
As to your “Upfront” list – it’s not the number of players that matters but the number of goals they score. Martinelli scored 6 in 35 last season. Jesus scored 4 in 27. Nelson scored (a career total of) 4 in 50. So, in effect, it’s down largely to the other three, with only Havertz as No.9. I agree with you that we should sign a striker, but we shouldn’t be leaving it to the last three days.
Totally agree a lot what is being said would make sense if we do not sign an attacker, I just have no reason to believe we won’t.
Selling has been objectively successful. Lokonga only being an option and Nelson not having a suitor are the only negatives. ESR, Nketiah, and Tavares have been done effectively and at good prices.
Kiwior and Ramsdale do not need offloading if we can at a good price then cool. Kiwior is 100% the league’s best 8th-choice defender and Ramsdale is in the running for the league’s best 2nd-choice keeper hardly vital sales.
I think we need an attacker too and I believe the club does but if you’re going to bring in statistics the fact we scored more goals than ever in our history last year would suggest it’s not the roof falling in that people seem to want to pretend it is. Wenger’s teams never scored that many even with Henry and co.
Edu and Arteta will MOST CERTAINLY bring in a striker -“Gyokeres or Osimhen and a winger – Nico Williams or some other – before the door shuts on transfers.
Edu and Arteta know what the goals are these season. We’re not fighting for the Top 4 this season; we’re competing to beat everyone to the league title.
And with Jesus injured (not a surprise, sorry), ESR gone, Nketiah on the way out, it would be unambiguous and fool-hardy for us to go into the season as we are.
Remember you heard it here first.
We surely do need a forward, either a striker or a winger to rotate with Saka. Jesus has injury issues and we need someone to rotate with Havertz.
The unfortunate bit is that there is a lot of imagination going around from fans about a striker position; the Technical team keep analyzing these games day in day out and I am very sure that Arsenal has signed player based on the priority of departments they needed to strengthen; Even the strikers we dream of do not score goals on their own out of the blue, there are a combination of factors to include coordination play which is a big factor. Messy Ozil made most of Arsenal strikers look good, even when he scored he Assisted more; let’s focus on ability to create goal opportunities and converting must be EVERY PLAYER’s responsibility