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

Arsenal beer mats still available #Arsenal #ArsenalFC #afc https://t.co/zn8hEh76Df pic.twitter.com/gleJK6GuJ3

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) August 19, 2021

On Friday we sat down with friend of the site and Sheffield United fan Arty Bianco to get his take on Aaron Ramsdale’s impending transfer to Arsenal. Arty is the man behind the Arsenal Ultimate Team Print as well as being resident Sheffield United matchday programme artist.

Aaron Ramsdale was only back at Sheffield United for one season; how did you rate his performances?

It was a season of two halves for Rammers. It felt that for a very long run of games at the beginning of the season he got nowhere near any of the goals we conceded.

There were contributing factors to his slow start – the entire team was out of form, defenders making mistakes, injuries, inconsistent defensive partnerships but he looked like a rabbit in headlights at times.

He was clearly a talented young goalkeeper but was perhaps out of his depth; but we did not have the luxury to bed him in.

In the second half of the season he showed just how good a keeper he is… (It felt he’d arrived away at Everton Where he really contributed to us winning the points).

It was the good form that saw him picked for England’s Euro 2020 squad at just 23.

What are Ramsdale’s strengths?

He is blatantly a good professional with the right attitude and bags of potential. He was well thought of by everyone at Sheffield United. He is a likeable guy and his move to Arsenal shows he has a drive to play at the highest level.

And his weaknesses?

Like any young player he needs game time. Throughout last season we saw him improve the more he played.

He needs the opportunity and environment to prove himself consistently over the course of a season or 2. You can have all the faith in your own ability in the world and so can your coaches but until you’ve been there and done it, what’s in your head does not count for much.

Would you have liked Ramsdale to stay?

Of course, but taking into account the circumstances – the fee, it being Arsenal, our relegation – it was always unlikely he would remain. Once one of the “traditional” big 6 comes in and offers £20m+ for any player in the Championship, they are gone.

Is £24million a good deal?

Had we been able to keep hold of him another year, he might have been worth even more ‘if’ we had managed to secure promotion, but without a win in 3 games that seems a long way away.

The other side of the coin is if his form had have dipped again and we fail to come straight back up, his value might have dropped next summer.

From Arsenal’s point of view, they are getting a talented young goalkeeper. If he fulfils his potential £24million could be seen as a bargain for them.

What should Arsenal do with Ramsdale?

I genuinely think the best thing Arsenal could do would be loan him to a to a top end Championship club (that ‘should’ be defending less) so in theory replicate where they want Rammers to be the season after.

This will see him making less but more important saves ones win points – and hopefully keeping clean sheets whilst doing so. That would stop the ‘he’s been relegated twice’ narrative the media keep peddling.

Anything else?

I really want Ramsdale to do well. I think he could become England’s number 1. All the best Aaron, go smash it.

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Thank you to Arty Bianco for answering our questions. His Arsenal Ultimate Team Print can be bought HERE.

Arsenal are have signed Martin Odergaard and are close to confirming Aaron Ramsdale.

Both have been fairly long term targets for the club this summer and plenty has been written about the pair, so let’s not go over old ground.

With less than 2 weeks left in the transfer window the question to ask is “after Odegaard and Ramsdale, who next?”.

And the answer to the is “it depends on who leaves.”

I have seen a few on social media say “now let’s go for a striker”.

The issue with the statement is we have 5 strikers at the club already.

Unless we sell 3 of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli and Folarin Balogun, there will be no new striker.

And it is unlikely we will sell 3 of the above named players considering it will mean two of the 3 are Aubameyang and Lacazette.

What is more likely is one of the 2 leave alongside Nketiah. That will leave us with a senior striker being backed up by Martinelli and Balogun.

If Lacazette of Aubameyang does leave, it is more likely that we will bring in a left sided player.

At the moment we have been playing Aubameyang on the left win to accommodate the pair; it is a tactic that clearly doesn’t work.

If Aubameyang leaves, we then need to reinforce the left hand side. If it is Lacazette then Aubameyang is used centrally and we still need a left sided player.

The options would be either go for someone like Houssem Auoar who will come in off the touchline and add further creativity. He would then create space for Kieran Tierney to bomb into. Or go for Marcus Thuram who will now hug the touchline.

If we want someone to hug the touchline, we have that in both Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka.

Auoar would give us another options and a midfield 3 of him, Odergaard and Saka would have plenty of creativity, mobility and flexibility.

The flip side is someone like Thuram also adds 10 goals a season.

The only other place we will likely strengthen is right back. But only if Hector Bellerin leaves.

With Bellerin still an Arsenal player, we just do not have the space for a new signing. We are not managed by Gareth Southgate with us 4 right backs.

If Bellerin does leave the man to watch is Emerson Royal at Barcelona.

Despite their financial troubles, Barcelona spent €9m bringing Emerson back from Betis. This just have been done in the hope they could quickly sell him on for profit.

A quick sale has not happened and with their financial insecurity, they might look to cash in for not much more than what they paid for him.

Emerson is just 22 and combative right back.

For Betis he would often drop inside to create a 3 at the back as the left back went forward. This is certainly a tactic Arteta has looked to use in the past to try and free up Tierney.

Circling back, however, a new right back will only come in if Bellerin leaves.

So less than 2 weeks to go and plenty still to hopefully happen.

Keenos