summer '22 transfer craziness and stupidity

[Mac76]

but we should have had the position covered months ago. If we were truly sensible we’d have let Xhaka and Elneny go and brought in players like Luiz and Tielemans who would have improved central midfield immeasurably.

Agree, this is down to Arteta actually thinking Xhaka is a good enough first team choice, I still think Elneny is a very useful squad player and he seems happy to be, but as you say we underestimated the need to strenghten in this area badly

[Marc Overmars]

Why, because they didn't cave to a player's whining and agitating for a move? Nah. I mean, I hope they go down because I think it would be funny, but not because of this.
We've been on the other end of that way too many times and we always cave. Just once it would be nice to say to a player "No, get on with it, you signed a contract".
Possibly counter productive in some cases if it affects squad unity, but I'm sick of players and agents having all the power.

Tongue in cheek. Just annoyed we’re a little short now in midfield.

The drop off in quality is very steep for us without Partey. Odegaard could possibly miss the United game now as well as Zinchenko. I’d say we’re almost certain to lose if they’re all missing.

[Letters]

It always bemuses me how we manage to have an injury pile up this early in the season

[Chippy]

It always bemuses me how we manage to have an injury pile up this early in the season

I know. How many times have we been in this position?

Harold Shipman is back as the club's Doctor

[HCZ_Reborn]

It always bemuses me how we manage to have an injury pile up this early in the season

With pre-season and everything there’s been very little in the way of a break. And with Odegaard, those Villa cunts just kicked him about didn’t they?

[Mac76]

Tongue in cheek. Just annoyed we’re a little short now in midfield.

The drop off in quality is very steep for us without Partey. Odegaard could possibly miss the United game now as well as Zinchenko. I’d say we’re almost certain to lose if they’re all missing.

plus that game has 'Xhaka red card' written all over it

[selassie]

It’s a head scratcher but given that Arteta doesn’t even know how to rotate the players he’s got maybe not that surprising

I don’t think Edu is especially good at the job he does, I don’t blame him for today but in general his record is sketchy at best.

It’s possible we may sack off the Europa league and go all out for 4th via the league but I think putting all your eggs in one basket not especially clever strategy

Edu has failed in his role so far, he pretty much just gives our players away or terminates their contracts. IMO It's set a precedence now within Football, teams don't want to pay for our players!!!

Let's take Villa for example, we pretty much gave them Chambers yet when negotiating for Douglas Luiz they gave us the runaround, what kind of relationships has Edu built with fellow clubs...because it seems to me as if they are happy to do as they please with us.

[selassie]

I get the logic - if you have a smaller group of more adaptable players then you have a better chance of keeping everyone engaged and motivated because there’s more minutes to go around. I don’t think it was meant to be quite this small though! They very obviously wanted at least another couple of players to choose from.

Guess we’ll find out just how adaptable this squad is now!

Our problem is that we have a couple of key players in our team who are injury prone, Tomiyasu, Tierney and Partey, these are a given. ESR is quite injury prone too. Take those 4 away from our matchday squad and the squad looks threadbare. It's poor planning on our part and not good enough IMO, it happened last season and there is a good chance it's going to happen again. If we collapse through the lack of options in the squad then questions need to be asked of Arteta and Edu.

[HCZ_Reborn]

plus that game has 'Xhaka red card' written all over it

I’ve sacked off that game in fairness, just glad we have an eight point cushion on Chelsea

[selassie]

Tongue in cheek. Just annoyed we’re a little short now in midfield.

The drop off in quality is very steep for us without Partey. Odegaard could possibly miss the United game now as well as Zinchenko. I’d say we’re almost certain to lose if they’re all missing.

Even with a fully fit squad this game would have been very difficult. For me now without Partey and potentially Odegaard and Zinchenko it's a write off. They are coming into good form too.