Author Archives: keenosafc

Andrea Berta ticks off 8 out of 10 of his summer “to do list”

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Before the summer started, a 10 point to do list for Andrea Berta was posted on the She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Facebook page (credit to admin Derek for the list).

The list, in no particular order, was

  1. New first-choice centre forward
  2. New defensive midfielder to replace Thomas Partey
  3. New backup goalkeeper
  4. New winger to compete on the left and offer cover for Bukayo Saka on the right
  5. New centre back to cover William Saliba
  6. New deal for Bukayo Saka
  7. New deal for William Saliba
  8. New deal for Gabriel
  9. New deal for Ethan Nwaneri
  10. New deal for Myles Lewis Skelly

With the window now shut, it is time to review the list.

New first-choice centre forward

In a deal that seemed to take forever, but was still be completed before the season kicked off, Viktor Gyokeres joined for £55m.

Some have labelled Gyokeres a flat track bully whilst others have raised questions about whether the 27 year old can make the step up from the Portuguese league to Premier League. And some have claimed that we should have sacrificed other positions and gone bigger for Alexander Isak.

Isak aside, all other strikers moving to a Premier League club this summer have question marks against them.

Hugo Etikite and Benjamin Sesko both came from Germany at higher fees than Gyokeres with less experience, whilst Joao Pedro has never been a consistent goal scorer. Meanwhile Yoane Wissa turns 29 tomorrow and is more of a back up striker than first choice.

Gyokeres was clearly the man we favoured, and Berta got his man.

New defensive midfielder to replace Thomas Partey

In a deal that was perhaps a year later then expected, Martin Zubimendi finally became an Arsenal player – our second signing of the summer costing £55.8m.

A classy defensive midfielder in the Xabi Alonso mould, Zubimendi has been Arteta’s number one choice to replace Partey for nearly two years. And Berta delivered him.

New backup goalkeeper

In a move that got a lot of fans complaining, “not another Chelsea rejected”, Berta secured one of the deals of the summer.

I am a firm believer that had we signed Kepa for £5m direct from Bournemouth, there would be no complaints. The only criticism fans have of the deal is who he came from.

Last season, Kepa was first choice for Bournemouth, on loan from Chelsea, as they finished 9th, conceding the 6th least goals. Signing a mid-table Premier League starter for your back up keeper without breaking the back is a great deal.

New winger to compete on the left and offer cover for Bukayo Saka on the right

On one hand, Noni Madueke is exactly the sort of player we needed to cover Bukayo Saka, and he proved what he can do against Liverpool. On the other, it was disappointing that we have not fully resolved our left win issue.

A top left winger was only going to come in if either Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard departed. With no major bid coming in for either, it meant that interest in the likes of Rodrygo and Rafael Leao was not progressed.

Like Kepa, the signing of Madueke led to criticism of “another Chelsea player”. Thus showing that some fans do not have the mental aptitude to judge a player based on his ability, and instead prefer to regurgitate what they have seen from “banter” social media accounts.

Madueke is fantastic cover for Saka. Left footed playing on the right, his acquisition should take some pressure off Saka. His chaotic and direct style of play also gives Arteta another option.

New centre back to cover William Saliba

Very few, if anyone, would have had Cristhian Mosquera on their “want” list this summer. And that is why we are fans and not scouts or Directors of Football.

Mosquera looks tailor made for the Premier League – big, strong, powerful and quick. And Berta got him for just £13m.

When Saliba limped off after 5 minutes against Liverpool, Mosquera came in and we saw no drop off in defensive quality.

Whilst I do not want to talk about Saliba leaving, there is a possiiblity he might next summer if a new deal is not signed. We may already have recruited his replacement.

New deal for Bukayo Saka

One of the two points on the two do list that Berta has yet to complete. No new deal has yet been agreed for Bukayo Saka.

Arsenal reportedly opened talks for a new deal with Saka back in March, so it is slightly concerning that 6 months on, one is yet to be announced. However, it has to be remembered that for much of that time, Saka was recovering from injury and then focusing on his return.

One for Berta to keep working on.

New deal for William Saliba

As with Saka, the new deal for Saliba has yet to be agreed, and I am slightly more concerned about this one.

I think Saliba is a fantastic player, but I have never felt he is as comfortable at the club as Gabriel. He reminds me of Patrick Vieira who every summer was always keeping half an eye out for a move away.

At one point, a Real Madrid will turn Saliba’s head and he will decide to take a move to a club for guaranteed trophies, and we will be powerless to keep him. This could happen next summer if a new deal is not signed.

New deal for Gabriel

I actually think Gabriel is more important to the defence then William Saliba. He is the leader of the back four and the glue that keeps the defence together.

A new deal that sees him through to 2029 will mean if Saliba comes in, we at least have our rock and someone like Mosquera should be able seamlessly slot in next to him. One of our captains.

New deals for Nwaneri and Lewis Skelly

Two gems from the academy.

Whilst I expect both to be squad players this season rather than regular starters, it is good that Berta has secured their long term future at the club and rewarded them for their new status.

Last year we lost a couple of other top youngsters (both to Manchester United), who departed due to their belief that the “pathway to the first team” was better elsewhere. In reality, they had their heads turned by money.

Nwaneri and Lewis Skelly have shown that if you have the talent, you will get your chances and the contracts will follow. Meanwhile the two that departed are still playing PL2 football, a level they were at 2 years ago for Arsenal.

Great to secure our future

And the bonuses?

We raised the floor of the squad by replacing Jakub Kiwor with Piero Hincapie.

Whilst Kiwior has never really let us down, he has also not really shown that he was capable to come in for Gabriel for an extended period if injury hit. He also looked a little deer in headlights if needed at left back.

Hincapie has played nearly 200 games for Leverkusen at both centre back and left back. That means he is proven cover for Gabriel at centre back, and more than an adequate option at left back if Ricardo Calafiori continues his injury proneness. A floor raiser who has reduced the gape between our best defender and worst.

Ebere Eze was also another surprise.

Whilst he is an option on the left hand side, I still expect him to make more of an impact centrally. However if he does make the left wing his own, then that is a bonus! And it is a double bonus the way we snatched him from Tottenham.

And finally, Christian Norgaard joined from Brentford. Cover for Martin Zubimendi without breaking the bank.

The easy option would have been to not replace Jorginho, and use Declan Rice as Zubimendi’s cover if injured. Instead, Berta listened to Arteta who demanded greater squad depth and a move away from having players covering 3 or 4 positions.

Norgaard, like Kepa, is Premier League proven. He will also be a great option to come off the bench, next to Zubimendi, when we are defending a lead. A towering defensive midfielder who will block everything.

As for the departures, that is a blog for another day. Maybe.

Keenos

Arteta spending, squad depth in defence, and Tottenham thinking they have done something

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Arteta spending

Piero Hincape will take us to around £300m spent this summer. Unless it transpires that it is a loan with an obligation to buy next season. That will means our spending tops out at £250m.

The “pressure will be on Mikel Arteta” following spending nearly a quarter of a billion pounds in one window, and close to £1bn since joining the club. But perspective is also very important.

2025/26 spending:

Liverpool – £293m
Arsenal – £253m
Chelsea – £241m
Man U – £200m
Tottenham – £181m
Man City – £153m

Since 2022, we have the 5th highest spend in the Premier League, spending half of what Chelsea have spent. That rises to 4th highest spend since Arteta first summer.

The numbers are huge. But everyone is spending huge. And when you consider where we were when Arteta came in, he has done a great job taking us to title contenders whilst continually being outspent by those around him.

Ps: for those that say “Liverpool won the league and spent less”, true. But they already had the likes of Salah, Van Dijk and Allisson in their squad when Arteta came in. What would they have cost if they needed to sign them in 2022?

Squad depth in defence

Throughout the summer, the consistent line at Arsenal was how Arteta wanted to raise the floor of players. About how he wanted more players he could trust which would allow him to rest and rotate players.

In recent years, Gabriel and Saliba have been backed up by Jakub Kiwior and full backs who could play centre back.

We now have the squad depth to rest Gabriel or Saliba, Timber or Calafiori.

And when you consider the injury issues 3 of these have faced, this rotation could be key to keeping everything fresher and out of the red zone.

Tottenham think they have done something

Why do Tottenham think they’ve done something? We basically signed a player they were chasing all summer and who they thought they’d signed

They’ve ended up with a decent player in Xavi Simons, but he is clearly their 3rd choice and someone they would not have looked at had they signed either Morgan Gibbs White or Ebere Eze.

Simons has been touted around Europe all summer by his agent and no one (except for Chelsea) showed any interest.

Tottenham and Simons feels like a transfer of connivence rather than either actually wanting each other.

Keenos

The evolution of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal

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We all know when Mikel Arteta took over Arsenal, the club were in a bad, bad place. Both on and off the pitch.

He took over a team 10th in the league with just one win in eight games. we had an ageing overpaid squad filled with egos who were not playing for shirt.

If you look at Manchester United now, finishing 15th and getting knocked out of the League Cup by Grimsby, we were heading that way.

The board plucked for Arteta, and he has rebuilt the club from the bottom up.

Training facilities and scouting have improved, the academy is producing superstars, and the senior team is now challenging year after year for titles. But it is easy to forget where Arteta’s Arsenal started.

Looking back, Arteta’s first line up was a nightmare.

Ego driven superstars in Aubameyang and Ozil were ripping the club apart. Underperforming senior players in Lacazette, Xhaka, Luiz and Sokratis disinterested. And youngsters Saka, Maitland-Niles and Nelson were overburdened.

The fact this was the strongest XI Arteta could put out against Everton back in 2019 is shocking.

Arteta gets mocked for his talk about “phases”, but he is completely right to look at the evolution of Arsenal in a series of phases.

We were never going to go from 10 to title challengers quickly. And I think we were surprised how quickly we did it. The plan was for progress each year, with different targets in place, and different players targeted. you don’t build the roof before you have done the foundations.

Phase One was returning Arsenal to the Champions League.

It had been about 3-years since we had qualified and the club was struggling with the financial hit, and in turn struggling to attract the top players we needed to enable us to return to Europe’s premier competition.

Phase One involved getting those underperforming, highly paid hasbeens of the payroll and replacing them with young, hungry talent. Player who might not be top, top class, but players who could drive us towards top 4 at least.

The club found the prima-donas tough to shift. Old, past their best and on huge wages, no one really wanted them.

Gabriel and Thomas Partey were recruited as the rebuild began, and then Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Martin Odegaard. Beyond Partey, none were really an elite European player, but they all had the talent and hunger to reach those heights.

Phase Two of the project was to turn us from Top 4 challengers to title challengers. It would take both the development of the new players by Arteta to get us out of Phase One and the recruitment of best level players to make the hill.

We kind of skipped through Phase Two quickly. The players we recruited to take us through Phase One progressed quickly and drove us towards the title. Phase One and Two quickly merged without the need of drastic changes.

In a blink of an eye we went from 5th to challenging for the title. The back end of Phase One was leapfrogged and we were looking at quickly being through Phase Two as well. The quick progression certainly raised fans expectations and Arteta attempted the quell them by saying we were 1-2 years ahead of schedule.

Phase Three of the project was turning our one off title challenge into becoming consistent title challengers.

We challenged for the title in 2022/23 with a paper thin squad. Arteta only trusted 13-15. We were not in the position either financially or status wise to build the strength in depth that the likes of Liverpool and Man City had.

What we now needed was to move from having a squad of 13-15 first teamers to a squad of 25. It is that squad depth that drives you not only towards the title, but also competing on multiple front and year after year. Without unlimited riches it was always going to take a few summers to get the squad depth we needed.

We are now well into Phase Three and things are looking bright. The squad depth is highlighted by our second string which, if Piero Hincapie join, is probably better than the XI that Arteta had in his first game with the club.

The evolution of the club really is highlighted when you put the two XIs side by side.

It is filled with expensive players on their way down, whilst our current 2nd XI is filled with a mixture of exciting young talent and serious 2nd choice senior pros who are proper solid players.

Now some who have got to this point will say “well now Arteta has the this great squad, not winning the league is a failure”. But that does not take into account that Manchester City and Liverpool also have equally fantastic starting XIs and squads.

The evolution of Arsenal under Arteta has not missed a step. we are now have a squad of 25 and ready to challenge on multiple fronts. We now just need the silverware.

Keenos