Summer Transfers 2025 Missed Opportunities and Regrets

[HCZ_Reborn]

I have previously stated that one of the reasons we should do our business ealry and quickly is that is stops other clubs sniffing around and starting a bidding war or snatching our targets (like Mudryk for example).

But yes, I would much rather we buy a proven product for 80m + instead of 'potential'

Why not snap up Osimhen for instance.

Should does a lot of heavy lifting

Easier said than done, when we work in a market place of competing interests. The argument id say that is more pertinent is that we are too rigid with our targets, for example we wanted Sesko last summer but his contract extension meant that we didn’t look elsewhere. Now the one thing we do all agree on here is that it was nuts not to buy a striker last summer.

Osimhen? There’s clearly something not right there, you don’t get shipped out from Napoli to Galatasaray for nothing.

Plus I was never keen to begin with because I think it’s not good to lose a key player for potentially 4-6 weeks every two years.

[KSE Comedy Club]

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

I prefer: 'Horseshoe of shit'

[KSE Comedy Club]

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.

This was my opinion I was discussing with HCZ before I had my shit news and a small meltdown ()

I do think we should add some creativity (cover for Odegaard) but I don't believe it's a major priority to address as we still create loads of chances that we do nothing with.

[KSE Comedy Club]

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

[HCZ_Reborn]

You are kind of shifting the goal posts with those examples, I mean when it comes to the particular case we are discussing ATM.

De Bruyne and Salah were sold by Mourinho after having no standout performances while being at the club (though TBH Mourinho never gave them a chance). Man U brought Pogba back at what was pretty much the going price after a spectacular season with Juventus (so it kind of buttresses my point).

Both Mika and Tavares were sold after having standout performances. Mika's case was worse as he at least had 2 successful short term loan spells and there was no obligation to buy.

Tavares was slightly different as he only had one successful loan spell and the obligation to buy was baked in earlier. But like Chelsea proved, there are ways to get out of these things if you try hard enough....and we had a longer time than Chelsea to figure it out.

Also it seems we are about committing the same mistake with Viera as it seems we want to sell him back for peanuts to Porto after another hugely successful loan spell.

It's clear we are giving ourselves a reputation, and it's obviously not a good type.

It’s clear we are giving ourselves a reputation? According to you. Fucking hell , it’s hilarious that people accuse me of making unequivocal remarks

Tavares as explained in a previous post wasn’t wanted permanently by either Marseille or Forest

Mika Biereth actually only started scoring more prolifically after we sold him. His loan spell at Sturm Graz was one goal every three.

His overall league record (which includes spells in Dutch, Scottish and Austrian football) was 13 goals in 41 games. Ok but nothing great, and nothing that suggested the demand for him would increase exponentially

[KSE Comedy Club]

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

The issue I take with your view on this is that you seem to ignore the previous two seasons (where we finished with higher points tally).

We scored far more goals and created a lot more chances - all with the same set of players. So they are/were capable of producing more creative and attacking football.
It was only this season where Arteta changed our gameplay to slow, possession dogshit that they have fallen off.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I’m sure it’s reciprocal, but these debates do elevate my mood level. In that Im so fucking glad that none of you are responsible for the transfer business this club does

Whilst I think the club should do better, it’s good to have the perspective that it could always be a hell of a lot worse

[KSE Comedy Club]

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

It will return, just need to get my head straight

[HCZ_Reborn]

The issue I take with your view on this is that you seem to ignore the previous two seasons (where we finished with higher points tally).

We scored far more goals and created a lot more chances - all with the same set of players. So they are/were capable of producing more creative and attacking football.
It was only this season where Arteta changed our gameplay to slow, possession dogshit that they have fallen off.

But you realise by that logic that you can say because we scored far more goals last season there’s nothing wrong with us up front, and we all agreed last season that we needed a striker.

We scored 53 goals in 18 games in the second half of 2023/2024 season, that’s partly inflated by scoring 5’s and 6’s against completely hapless teams. But also we introduced the set piece play where we opened the scoring early and we then did get other goals on the counter attack.

We absolutely struggled to break down teams in the first half of the season before this and was exacerbated by experimenting with Havertz at 8.

The problem was the same, putting too much emphasis on attacks down the right and defenders doubling up on Saka

I simply don’t get why there is so much objection to me stating that we need another creative midfielder. We all agree that our attacking build up play is too slow, well that’s the obvious way to change that.

[HCZ_Reborn]

It will return, just need to get my head straight

To be honest, at the risk of giving you sensible advice. At this difficult time, I think you need all the positivity you can get and arguably getting depressed by our transfer activity (or lack there of) might not be conducive to that end