Summer Transfers 2025 Missed Opportunities and Regrets

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Originally Posted by Mac76

That's what bothers me too - if Sesko is going to be Artetered then he'll be no use to us

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We say that, but whatever we say about Havertz (he was never meant to be a striker, let alone our only striker) he’s clearly a better player than he was at Chelsea, both in terms of goal output and overall play.

I think he doesn’t get the best out of Martinelli, because Martinelli is more geared for counter attacking football. There is a difference between playing more on the counter (which we should) and being a counter attacking team and I don’t think it’s possible for us to become the latter because there are simply too many teams that aren’t going to risk coming onto us.

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Originally Posted by Mac76

we should go for who we can get, if Osimhen, for whatever reason, is available right now then buy - we've enough funds to get a Sesko or Gyokeres or even a Watkins as well if we want

what we don't need is Sane, I'm willing to bet he's getting past his peak

In general I'm not sure LW is such a priority, for me Leo and Martinelli are fine, they just need someone in the middle more reliable than Havertz

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I think one of the reasons we are targeting that area is the expectation that Trossard is going. He’s rejected contract extension offers which suggests he sees his future elsewhere. I don’t know how long his contract is…I’d presume four years but who knows

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

We say that, but whatever we say about Havertz (he was never meant to be a striker, let alone our only striker) he’s clearly a better player than he was at Chelsea, both in terms of goal output and overall play.

I think he doesn’t get the best out of Martinelli, because Martinelli is more geared for counter attacking football. There is a difference between playing more on the counter (which we should) and being a counter attacking team and I don’t think it’s possible for us to become the latter because there are simply too many teams that aren’t going to risk coming onto us.

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Arteta bought Havertz to play in MF where he's not very good, it was an accident (a la Merino) that he turned out to be good upfront.

So technically it was a bad buy to get someone for £65m who's not very good in the position you bought them for.

As for the bit in bold, that's all about learning to step back, cede control for a bit then win it back and go forward quickly - trouble is that's not Arteta's way, he prefers the horseshoe of death

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

The majority of football is domestic, the German Bundesliga represents a far higher level than Portugal, and there’s a lot more in terms of success stories from that league to the premier league.

Confidence is relative…Ive never said it’s a sure thing that Sesko will be better than Gyokeres. However I’ve seen enough of him to see vast potential. Plus I don’t get why people are so confident Gyokeres will be a success. My preference as I’ve stated was to buy two strikers, one for the here and now and one like Sesko. I don’t like signing players over the age of 25 full stop (unless it’s a cheaper signing like Jorginho) but if we were to do that, I’d much rather go for someone like Lautaro Martinez

End of the day, nothing you or I say will make a difference to the way we play. I think we need to buy another creative midfielder but it’s not going to happen, because that will facilitate creating more space against obdurate opponents especially at home.

I think when the time comes for Arteta to make way, I’d much rather have a young striker with bags of potential in the team than someone who could well have flopped and will become impossible to get off our books. If we really want a sure thing, arguably neither Sesko or Gyokeres are the answer.

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Well there's no sure thing in football, there's always elements of risk. It just depends on the level.

Our bar is so low in goalscoring wise (by individual players), he would only have to perform a tiny proportion of what he has done this season to outstrip anything anyone else has done.

Nothing we ever say on here will make a difference to what we actually do, so I don't really get why that distinction is being raised.

Name your striker from Germany success story that isn't Haaland. Of all the leagues to nail your colours to the mast on, Bundesliga is such a strange one to chosoe for this.

You keep talking about creativity but the amount of sitters we missed last season to me is incalculable. I want someone that is going to make the half chances pay, that's where you go to another level.

Playing style is a major issue for me and with that unlikely to happen by Arteta's own devices, I want players that are going to force that to happen.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

Well there's no sure thing in football, there's always elements of risk. It just depends on the level.

Our bar is so low in goalscoring wise (by individual players), he would only have to perform a tiny proportion of what he has done this season to outstrip anything anyone else has done.

Nothing we ever say on here will make a difference to what we actually do, so I don't really get why that distinction is being raised.

Name your striker from Germany success story that isn't Haaland. Of all the leagues to nail your colours to the mast on, Bundesliga is such a strange one to chosoe for this.

You keep talking about creativity but the amount of sitters we missed last season to me is incalculable. I want someone that is going to make the half chances pay, that's where you go to another level.

Playing style is a major issue for me and with that unlikely to happen by Arteta's own devices, I want players that are going to force that to happen.

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All of the above, like I said elsewhere, Gyokeres only needs to be half as productive to be a really good buy, yes PL is a better league but correspondingly he will have better players around him, he can put away chances

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Originally Posted by Mac76

Arteta bought Havertz to play in MF where he's not very good, it was an accident (a la Merino) that he turned out to be good upfront.

So technically it was a bad buy to get someone for £65m who's not very good in the position you bought them for.

As for the bit in bold, that's all about learning to step back, cede control for a bit then win it back and go forward quickly - trouble is that's not Arteta's way, he prefers the horseshoe of death

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The inability to cede control which you refer to with Arteta isn’t about possession it’s about adversity to risk, I would say a demonstration of that was in the home game against Everton where we were making like for like substitutions against a team that had clearly come to get a draw. I’d say the majority of teams that come to the Emirates are quite risk adverse as well, the irony of our approach means that if we are chasing goals it means because we have less naturally creative and attacking players in the team we have to commit more players into attack, which does lead us open to conceding on the counter….so Arteta is causing the thing he wants to avoid.

Where as more creative players means we can attack more efficiently, and we have cover if we lose possession. Counter attacking football would work only against teams that come to us seeking to win. That’s why we beat Man City and Real Madrid the way we did. A better striker we’d have beaten PSG, but that’s not going to be the problem we have with most teams who come to play at the Emirates.
And when you look at Liverpool and the fact that one season aside (the 2020-2021 season) they have one of the consistently strongest home records in terms of both wins and avoiding defeat, it’s not about ceding control it’s about dominating on the ball

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Originally Posted by Mac76

All of the above, like I said elsewhere, Gyokeres only needs to be half as productive to be a really good buy, yes PL is a better league but correspondingly he will have better players around him, he can put away chances

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That’s where I disagree. It’s like we don’t remember tearing our hair out in frustration at Odegaard and the safety first football he was playing and the total lack of influence he was having on games.

When I look at the chances created that a top striker would have put away I think mainly of the PSG tie and even then that was as much about Donnarumma pulling off worldies

The one thing I saw a lot and definitely shows in stats is shots blocked. Because players are getting back into position to defend deep, and we are left with meandering sideways passing. I think the main reason we got frustrated with the likes of Havertz missing good chances is because they were often few and far between.

We talk about the need to change the way we play, well I suggest the best way to do that is to play two creative players in midfield unless we are playing the top teams (because our record against the top teams isn’t an issue).

The reason our build up play is slow is because we have too many players playing safety first passes, I don’t think that’s tactical that’s lack of confidence and not having the speed of thought to see a more positive pass. And that’s not a surprise when you’re playing two defensive midfielders week in, week out

By the way anyone who takes the above as we don’t need a striker. No not what I’m saying, it’s not a binary. We need both a striker and more creativity.

I’d buy Rodgers because he can play both left wing and attacking midfield

And his speed and aggression on the ball (especially dribbling) scared the shit out of Rice, Partey and Gabriel. That’s the kind of fear we should unleash on other premier league teams.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

You keep talking about creativity but the amount of sitters we missed last season to me is incalculable.

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I have far better recollection of games where we’d go twenty-thirty minutes without having a single shot on goal

I think too many people look at this issue in a binary way. We need a striker and in my view one who has consistent experience of facing better defenders and working with little to no space than in Portugal, I’d personally buy two strikers but I maintain that one of those strikers would not be Gyokeres.

But when we look at game after game of blocked shots, operating in congested penalty areas and being caught on the counter because we have to overcommit as a result….the suggestion that creativity is not an issue is astonishing to me


Also the last striker we bought from the Bundesliga was a certain Pierre Emerick Aubameyang

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Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE

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).

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When I bring up the now glaring fact, that we've got some of the most incompetent people handling our transfer business I usually get lectured on here by the usuals.

I doubt anyone can give me an example of a so called top European club that acts the way we do in the transfer market, especially when it comes to sales.

It's not been up to a week we sold Tavares for €6m and already news is that Lazio are inundated with bids as high as high as €30m and won't sell for anything less than €50m.

This is the 2nd time in less than a year, we are being shown off for being a soft touch, as lets not forget that we had a young striker (which MO says £60m is the going fee) we sold to a European minnow for just £4m, who later cashed in less the 6 months later, selling for £12m and now worth £30m conservatively.

In his case, forget the money and just think of the fact we had a young striker in the mould of Gyokeres when it came to a track record of delivering in a short time when it came various clubs and on the european stage. Just imagine if we'd delayed a pointless sale till January this year....just imagine the impact it could have had on our season!

I see KSE has gotten tired of keeping the dashboard going :lol: