For a few years now it has felt Arsenal do not have a clear transfer strategy.
A turnover of manager from Arsene Wenger to Unai Emery and then Mikel Arteta has not helped things.
But matters were made worse due to the turnover of staff who oversaw the transfer strategy.
From the Wenger / Steve Rowley / Ivan Gazidis / Dick Law era we moved onto Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat with a bit of Francis Cagigao thrown in and then onto Edu.
Often it felt like “too many cooks” and it let to a muddled transfer strategy which led to a lot of short-term options – the likes of Sokratis, Stephan Lichtsteiner, David Luiz and Willian – coming in; as well as plenty of players that clearly were not good enough.
This summer, Edu has got a bit of stick off fans due to liking a BBQ and his family enjoying posting pictures of him on Instagram cooking food. I did not realise that enjoying family time was frowned upon.
Whilst Edu can be heavily criticised for not having players in place for the beginning of the season and our lack of sales, where he can be praised is for the actual strategy of bringing players in:
It is clear and obvious that this summers strategy – and hopefully the strategy for the long term – was to focus on players under 24 who can still improve, be moulded by the manager and have a potential sell on value.
The strategy is one which served us well in the 90s and 00s, as well as one which Borussia Dortmund have followed for many years.
Under Arteta, is is the likes of Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka who have flourished; whilst senior players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Hector Bellerin and Nicholas Pepe have struggled with his demands.
“You can not teach an old dog new tricks” comes to mind.
So adding the 5 new players to Tierney, Gabriel, Smith Rowe, Saka and Martinelli shows we are looking towards the future.
That is 10 important first team players all aged 24 or under – Tierney being the “senior man” of the group.
Over the rest of this window we will hopefully replace Hector Bellerin with Emerson Royal (22, Barcelona) and might replace both strikers with a younger option.
That will leave us with just a handful of players 26 or over.
The other aspect is Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale were all desperate to join us. Pushing for a move.
Edu is building a young, exciting squad of some of the best talent in Europe. The Arsenal transfer strategy is the clearest it has been in years.
Plenty to be excited about.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Entirely agree. Still needs to be sprinkled with a some experienced players. The likes of Aubameyang/Lacazette, Xhaka, Elneny, Soares need to step up and show strength of character and leadership. Before last seasons disgraceful output I would have put Willian in that category. Clearly, that is well beyond his abilities and/ or concerns.
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Yes. In the medium/long term. Patience needed. Will be a thrill to see this project come to fruition 🤞
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Within such transfer strategies I may like to ask: how old is Joe Willock, Williams Saliba, Guendouzi among others not considered important in Arsenal buildup? Something is somewhere within our senses after £130 not showing significant sign in our squad.
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Wilock doesn’t fit well into Arteta’s style of play. Salina is on loan gathering experience and Guendouzi doesn’t have the discipline to be an Arsenal player.
The transfer strategy is sound.
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This.
Being in the required age range is not the same as being good enough.
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Totally agree, you listen to the likes of Carragher and Neville (absolutely stealing a living) and they cant work out what our transfer strategy is. Its clear as day and whilst I`ve said all along that this season could prove to be a difficult one, it might even get a bit ugly at times but we`ll have a very competitive side in 12-18 months. But fans are going to need to be patient and patience isn`t something the new breed of Arsenal fan is well known for. We`ve been stagnating and slowly getting worse for well over a decade, the rebuild has started and I for one am extremely happy about it. Unless something catastrophic happens (like getting involved in a relegation battle) then I`m happy to give the manager until the end of next season before judging him. He`s had the bollocks to start the process, I think he deserves a couple of seasons to work with this group of young kids.
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Something to be borne in mind during the 2 week break after Citeh next week. At which point there will still be 105 points to play for. So nothing will be decided.
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Hahahahahaha Banter FC
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God I’ll be glad when the schools go back.
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