Summer Transfers 2025 Missed Opportunities and Regrets

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Originally Posted by Letters

Why do you keep on conflating me disagreeing with you with me shutting you down or stopping you talking about stuff?
If I wanted to do that I would use my POWERS to delete your posts or just lock the thread.
Talk about what you like, dude. There's little or no moderation on here these days.
If you want to wring your hands every day about nothing being announced then go nuts.
I just think you're being a bit silly so I'm saying so. If this were mid-August then I'd be concerned too. But it isn't, so I'm not.

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because you are evil :satan:

Obviously, this is all tongue in cheek to an extent, we just have different expectations on the subject. ;)

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Originally Posted by Letters

I'm interested in that claim. I don't know if that's true. It certainly feels like it might be. But I'd suggest one factor here is how with our own transfer sagas we probably follow them more closely than other clubs. Every set of fans feels their club is uniquely hard done by by officials, which obviously can't be true. So this could be the same - maybe supporters of every club feel their club is uniquely inept in the transfer market and slow to wrap up deals.
Honestly, I don't know.

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I'm in the same boat to a degree.

It certainly does feel like every transfer we do takes weeks or has some form of 'saga' attached to it, but then we see other clubs just pop out announcements like they are going out of fashion.

I think you could be right and it just seems that way because it's us, I dunno :shrug:

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

And now the victimhood, please stop pretending that you’re being tone policed

It’s an observation nothing more.

Plus using Mudryk as an example. Shaktah wanted a payment structure and frankly a fee that was outrageous. If you want a player but you don’t want to meet the clubs price, you let things drag out…I don’t see an issue with that. Clubs like Chelsea want to swoop in oh well, we had a backup option in Trossard and got in there quite quickly.

That seemed like a pretty efficient way of doing things if you ask me

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I'm having a bit of fun mate, it's really not that deep :)
But now you mention it, I do feel that you are oppressing me and my 'tone' :(

We still haven't signed anyone though.... just sayin.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I'm interested in that claim. I don't know if that's true. It certainly feels like it might be. But I'd suggest one factor here is how with our own transfer sagas we probably follow them more closely than other clubs. Every set of fans feels their club is uniquely hard done by by officials, which obviously can't be true. So this could be the same - maybe supporters of every club feel their club is uniquely inept in the transfer market and slow to wrap up deals.
Honestly, I don't know.

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Going by last season alone, there is evidence to say we do piss about when it comes to transfers.

Let's not forget, we all thought we'd get a striker in last summer only for it not to happen and the excuse being our targets were not available i.e. Sesko signing a long term extension.

January comes up, and the need for a striker is greater and the new excuse becomes no one of quality is available..... only for us to make a half hearted last minute bid/inquiry for Watkins.

To add to that, Villa end up selling Duran unexpectedly (he was the one they wanted to keep apparently but they had to meet FFP I think) and still manage to recruit Rashford and Malen in that short period. Let's not also forget Citeh swooping for the other Egyptian who revives their season without much noise and fanfare.

I'm sure most fans feel their clubs don't act fast enough in the transfer window, but under AW and Arteta (I don't think it was that bad under Emery actually), we've got more than enough cases to cite to fuel this belief, IMO of course.

Just seen the news that Chelsea is pulling out of their obligation to buy Sancho for £25m and willing to pay the £5m penalty.

I want to believe the penalty clause swings both ways and hope we have that in place for Tavares as letting Lazio get him for sub £10m seems ridiculous to me (this is a defender who achieved as many assists as Odegaard did this season).

So...the points made about it being very early in the transfer window are sensible of course.

But I think the frustration that many fans feel about Arsenal's transfer business is that we rarely move both decisively and quickly when it comes to getting busines done. I'll admit that I don't follow other clubs' transfer business closely, so I could be wrong, but it seems to me that our 'competitors' often don't seem to string out negotiations like we do. Even when we commit to spending big on a transfer - like with Rice - the period from our reported interest to getting the deal over the line seems very protracted - I think with Rice it was 6 months or so. This tends to deny us fans the excitement of a new signing - which is partly why the reported Zubimendi deal now feels a bit flat - it's been in the offing for so long.

The other issue is that having had 2 busts as far as transfer seasons go, and with the appointment of Berta - the natural expectation is that we would have our ducks lined up as regards our obvious and pressing transfer needs. Yet to us fans' outside view the appearance is that we are not as far along the line as might have been expected - particularly given that we were effectively told in January that the club had decided to wait to the Summer to land their long term targets rather than make a more pragmatic purchase. This understandably has made Gooners impatient for the results we have been waiting for.

Sure - we have no way of knowing exactly what is happening, and outside appearances - combined with transfer clickbait - can be deceptive. As long as we sign the players we need before pre-season training in the second half of July then any delay between then and now matters little. But Arsenal for a long time has given the impression that it plays with its food a bit when it comes to getting transfers over the line, and I can empathise with fans who fel a bit frustrated at this.

The Zubimendi deal was agreed upon in January, near as I can make out. Sociedad want to wait until July to conclude it for reasons of accountancy.

If transfer sagas drag out…I can’t say I really care as long as the squad looks like one that can compete come August 31st/September 1st.

The main frustration last summer and January was that we clearly needed a striker and didn’t buy one.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

The Zubimendi deal was agreed upon in January, near as I can make out. Sociedad want to wait until July to conclude it for reasons of accountancy.

If transfer sagas drag out…I can’t say I really care as long as the squad looks like one that can compete come August 31st/September 1st.

The main frustration last summer and January was that we clearly needed a striker and didn’t buy one.

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Yeah - I get it (although the most effective signings have time to bed in). We live, unfortunately in an age where (PSR aside) a few of our competitors do not have to consider finances when committing to deals. I do wish however that sometimes our club could look first at player requirements rather than (apparently) trying to play hardball with fees. IMHO it is this more than anything that holds up the deals we do.

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Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE

Going by last season alone, there is evidence to say we do piss about when it comes to transfers.

Let's not forget, we all thought we'd get a striker in last summer only for it not to happen and the excuse being our targets were not available i.e. Sesko signing a long term extension.

January comes up, and the need for a striker is greater and the new excuse becomes no one of quality is available..... only for us to make a half hearted last minute bid/inquiry for Watkins.

To add to that, Villa end up selling Duran unexpectedly (he was the one they wanted to keep apparently but they had to meet FFP I think) and still manage to recruit Rashford and Malen in that short period. Let's not also forget Citeh swooping for the other Egyptian who revives their season without much noise and fanfare.

I'm sure most fans feel their clubs don't act fast enough in the transfer window, but under AW and Arteta (I don't think it was that bad under Emery actually), we've got more than enough cases to cite to fuel this belief, IMO of course.

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This :gp:

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Originally Posted by IBK

So...the points made about it being very early in the transfer window are sensible of course.

But I think the frustration that many fans feel about Arsenal's transfer business is that we rarely move both decisively and quickly when it comes to getting busines done. I'll admit that I don't follow other clubs' transfer business closely, so I could be wrong, but it seems to me that our 'competitors' often don't seem to string out negotiations like we do. Even when we commit to spending big on a transfer - like with Rice - the period from our reported interest to getting the deal over the line seems very protracted - I think with Rice it was 6 months or so. This tends to deny us fans the excitement of a new signing - which is partly why the reported Zubimendi deal now feels a bit flat - it's been in the offing for so long.

The other issue is that having had 2 busts as far as transfer seasons go, and with the appointment of Berta - the natural expectation is that we would have our ducks lined up as regards our obvious and pressing transfer needs. Yet to us fans' outside view the appearance is that we are not as far along the line as might have been expected - particularly given that we were effectively told in January that the club had decided to wait to the Summer to land their long term targets rather than make a more pragmatic purchase. This understandably has made Gooners impatient for the results we have been waiting for.

Sure - we have no way of knowing exactly what is happening, and outside appearances - combined with transfer clickbait - can be deceptive. As long as we sign the players we need before pre-season training in the second half of July then any delay between then and now matters little. But Arsenal for a long time has given the impression that it plays with its food a bit when it comes to getting transfers over the line, and I can empathise with fans who fel a bit frustrated at this.

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All fair, reasoned points and all of which I agree with :)