It baffles me how some people claim we had a bad transfer window. It goes something like this.
Them: “Spend some fucking money”
Arsenal: Spend £200m
Them: “Spend some more fucking money”
Had we spent £250m, they would have demanded more. Had we spent £300m, they would have demanded we spend more.
They justify it by calling themselves High Standards FC. But inreality they should they have very little knowledge of the clubs finances, and they would rather us be Chelsea and spend £1bn on 20 average players rather than £200m on 4 fantastic ones.
And we have bought 4 fantastic players.
Declan Rice is world class. Not really sure how some fans still do not see it. A modern day Ruud Gullit.
Yes, £105m is a huge sum. But then Chelsea have spent £80m on Lesley Ugochukwu, Andrey Santos, Cesare Casadei and Carney Chukwuemeka over the last 3 windows. I have no idea who any of them are.
On top of that they have spent a further £260m on Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Enzo Fernandez.
£340m spent on midfielders, none of whom are better than Rice.
Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and David Raya are not world class (by my definition, which is if you made a World Cup squad, they would get into it), but they are the level below.
Havertz and Timber certainly have the natural attributes to step up a level, whilst Raya is a huge improvement on Matt Turner as a number 2.
We probably do not see as many outgoings as we wanted.
Early in the summer, I blogged that we could raise £190m if we sold all the players who were on the frignes of the squad. Realistically, I blogged that £100m will be the more likely figure.
We sold around £75m of talent in Pablo Mari, Granit Xhaka, Auston Trusty, Matt Turner and Folarin Balogun.
Going into the transfer window, Transfrmarkt valued them at a combined £65m, so we got better than the average.
I think Arsenal will be dissapointed not to get a fee for Kieran Tierney.
The reality is no top Premier League club really needed a new left back except for Newcastle United. They opted for Lewis Hall (The Man U door with Luke Shaw injured only opened after Tierney had departed).
I think considering he was rumoured to be “home sick” living in London, it would have made little sense for him to sign a 5-year contract with a European club. So a 1-year loan deal to see if he can handle living abroad is sensible from his point of view.
We also failed to sell Nuno Tavares as he was loaned out to Nottingham Forest.
This was not a bad move for us as the loan fee exceeds his amortisation value, and they are paying his full wages, so we are actually making a small profit on him this summer. There is an option to buy for Forest next year.
I think most expected someone (Burnley) to come in for Albert Sambi Lokonga, but there was very little transfer speculation linking him with a move away. On deadline day he joined Luton Town.
In the end, Charlie Patino decided to stay at Arsenal, and agreed to another loan deal at Swansea City. I imagine this change of mind was due to a lack of Premier League clubs coming in for him. It was also not a surprise that Alex Runar Runarsson left on loan.
With the Saudi and Turkish windows not yet closed, I was not surprised to see Nicolas Pepe fail to leave on deadline day. I think he will still end up elsewhere.
Finally Emile Smith Rowe and Rob Holding
Holding joined Crystal Palace for £4m, whilst Smith Rowe stayed.
So in the end, of the 14 players on my “could leave” list, 5 left raising £70m, with a further 4 leaving on loan. Matt Turner was the only one not on the list that departed.
You improve the squad by buying players that could play in your first team, and as a result those at the bottom end of the squad depart. And that is what has happened for us this summer.
Rice is an improvement on Xhaka and Lokonga.
Havertz is an improvement on Patino and Balogun.
Timber is an improvement on Tierney and Trusty.
Raya is an improvement on Turner and Runarsson.
For those that think we are short of players, we have a first team squad of XXX. you do not really want much more than that…
A good window, one of our best in years. Now to get the results on the pitch.
Onto Manchester United tomorrow…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Declan Rice a modern Ruud Gullit? You are mistaking Gullit with Rijkaard , I think.
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Nope. Gullit was more all-round than Rijkaard. Rijkaard was a defensive midfielder who occasionally played in defence.
Gullit could play in both attacking and defensive positions across the pitch. Rice is similar.
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you are mistaking it, Rice could be a Pat. Vieira no a Gullit, he has nor the pace neither the technical ability. Gullit was a number 10, Rice is fantastic but he is not that kind of player.
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