Summer Transfers 2025 Missed Opportunities and Regrets

[HCZ_Reborn]

gosh how bold and insightful of you, I hate to burst your balloon but you won't find anyone anywhere who would disagree with that statement



Not at all, in January he suddenly started saying that to sign a striker was really urgent because we'd lost Jesus, which was total BS on his part which too many people bought into - a) he should have made sure we bought a striker last summer and b) failing that it should always have been a priority for him in January before the Jesus injury and c) the idea that losing Jesus, who can’t hit a barn door anyway, makes a difference is ludicrous to anyone with eyes

In other words he just bullshits to take the blame off him – tbh you can already see he’s starting to be a bit equivocal about new signings: “Andrea [Berta] and the team have done an excellent job as well, trying to push everything forward. There's still a long time to go in that window. We have a lot of hope that we can still improve the team. We're going to continue to try to do that.”

That’s not the same as saying “we will definitely get more new players because without them we’re winning jack shit”

He's just lining things up to say "oh dear Andrea f**ked up but never mind I made sure we got Madueke"




(sorry it just makes me laugh every time)



that would be a first

Of course Arteta is arse covering with statements about needing to bolster the squad, I didn’t absolve him from blame for last summer or January just gone….but something can be said with clear motivation and still be right, Arteta can equally be too eager to protect players he’s signed that have flopped and can argue the club didn’t back him when he decided only when Jesus got injured to replace him (it’s not an either or)

Just like KSE can be fairly generous with what it allows and equally there also is a ceiling we can’t cross in terms of what we spend and that means we are more inclined to offer instalments for add on clauses than agree to these lumped on fees. With wages and everything else it probably is all a juggling act, even with Liverpool their spending this summer is balanced out by their relative parsimony the previous summer.

Are we done now, frankly anything else feels like a re litigation of the past two years?

[WMUG]

I do think it’s fair to say though that when it comes to transfer negotiations and how they are conducted, we are on here about as well versed in them as we are in conversational mandarin (someone is going to point out that they can do that to piss on that example I just know )

Guilty...

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Someone next to me just made a joke....we're probably just delaying Gyokores to ensure everyone is on board with our real target all along............ Nicholas Jackson

[IBK]

It's total BS to blame the owners - these guys paid £100m+ on ONE PLAYER when asked

they quite palpably (and misguidedly) place their trust in those they appoint - in this case Berta and Arteta - to be both competent in getting deals done and also to choose the right players.

It's not the Kroenke's fault if we go and pay asking price for Madueke then argue ad inifinitum over small print regarding the biggest signing we need to make this summer

Sorry mate, but this is nonsense.


Firstly, you argue against yourself. If the reason for our apparent hesitancy in the transfer market is not because the owners have set limits on what the club can spend then why aren't we getting the deals done? It doesn't make sense - if the Kroenkes are as generous as you suggest (and trusting in Arteta and Berta) - that the club is apparently so reluctant to pay Sporting what they are demanding. Occam's Razor says that this is because funds are limited. In any event, it is not a manager's job to look after the owners' money (we got too used to Wenger doing this), it is for a manager to say who he wants to improve his team.


I promised myself that I would not return to the Madueke signing that you and others seem to have such a hard on over, but I have to make an exception here. The simple fact is that there would be no great fuss if we had signed the player for 30M. We know that we need a reliable back up for Saka (and cover in the wide positions), so whatever your thoughts on the player, the principle of strengthening here cannot reasonably be denied. Which means (on your argument) that the alleged overspend of £20M is preventing us from being able to complete the Gyokores deal. Ergo this is a funding issue. Ergo the owners are only making certain transfer funds available, and this is directing our transfer business and meaning that we are being very 'Arsenal' over most of these.

The Rice signing proves nothing. Equally relevant is the fact that Areta publicly stated his wish to sign a striker in January, and we clearly needed this. But the owners were clearly not prepared to go outside financial limits - and therefore this was kicked over to the Summer.


You blame Arteta for wasting money on the wrong players. Name me a single manager who gets all of their signings right. This is not an exact science. The obvious fact is that the manager and our sporting director are working with owners who are more cautious in their overall transfer budget than our competitors. To this degree we are at a disadvantage compared with Citeh; Chelsea and even Liverpool.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Guilty...

I remember greeting someone in a lift in Hong Kong by saying nǐ hǎo

They replied in very good English that Hong Kong is a majority Cantonese speaking region


Toss me a fricking bone

Anyway if you’ll pardon my curiosity, how come you can speak mandarin, did you work out there?, are you planning to work out there, or is there some connection to the People’s Republic in your social life or family.

Replace curiosity with being nosey and just as accurate

[Mac76]

Sorry mate, but this is nonsense.


Firstly, you argue against yourself. If the reason for our apparent hesitancy in the transfer market is not because the owners have set limits on what the club can spend then why aren't we getting the deals done? It doesn't make sense - if the Kroenkes are as generous as you suggest (and trusting in Arteta and Berta) - that the club is apparently so reluctant to pay Sporting what they are demanding. Occam's Razor says that this is because funds are limited. In any event, it is not a manager's job to look after the owners' money (we got too used to Wenger doing this), it is for a manager to say who he wants to improve his team.


I promised myself that I would not return to the Madueke signing that you and others seem to have such a hard on over, but I have to make an exception here. The simple fact is that there would be no great fuss if we had signed the player for 30M. We know that we need a reliable back up for Saka (and cover in the wide positions), so whatever your thoughts on the player, the principle of strengthening here cannot reasonably be denied. Which means (on your argument) that the alleged overspend of £20M is preventing us from being able to complete the Gyokores deal. Ergo this is a funding issue. Ergo the owners are only making certain transfer funds available, and this is directing our transfer business and meaning that we are being very 'Arsenal' over most of these.

The Rice signing proves nothing. Equally relevant is the fact that Areta publicly stated his wish to sign a striker in January, and we clearly needed this. But the owners were clearly not prepared to go outside financial limits - and therefore this was kicked over to the Summer.


You blame Arteta for wasting money on the wrong players. Name me a single manager who gets all of their signings right. This is not an exact science. The obvious fact is that the manager and our sporting director are working with owners who are more cautious in their overall transfer budget than our competitors. To this degree we are at a disadvantage compared with Citeh; Chelsea and even Liverpool.

Re the bit in bold above, other managers are other teams' fan's problem, our problem is that our manager was happy to squiff away £52m without trying to bargain at all, and now the club as a whole has less money so is having to bargain on a player we REALLY Need - that's Arteta's fault through getting his priorities wrong, not the Kroenkes

and read what i said about January again - Arteta only made those noises after Jesus got injured when it was clear to everyone else we needed someone the previous summer - a summer when he wasted the Kroenkes' money on Calafiori and Merino

do you think the Kroenkes said 'go and spend money on Merino and Calafiori'? no they trusted Arteta knew what he was doing - which he demonstrably doesn't

if you and that hypocrite want to be apologists for Arteta go ahead, it's very clear he's the one mishandling our priorities and if that means at some point the Kronkes have to instill some financial discipline then that's his fault not theirs

[IBK]

Re the bit in bold above, other managers are other teams' fan's problem, our problem is that our manager was happy to squiff away £52m without trying to bargain at all, and now the club as a whole has less money so is having to bargain on a player we REALLY Need - that's Arteta's fault through getting his priorities wrong, not the Kroenkes

and read what i said about January again - Arteta only made those noises after Jesus got injured when it was clear to everyone else we needed someone the previous summer - a summer when he wasted the Kroenkes' money on Calafiori and Merino

do you think the Kroenkes said 'go and spend money on Merino and Calafiori'? no they trusted Arteta knew what he was doing - which he demonstrably doesn't

if you and that hypocrite want to be apologists for Arteta go ahead, it's very clear he's the one mishandling our priorities and if that means at some point the Kronkes have to instill some financial discipline then that's his fault not theirs

I'm not an apologist for Arteta, and have been vocal in my criticisms of him when I feel this is merited. But equally, I do not think that the manager should bear the brunt of the blame for this Summer's transfer business or negotiations. I opened this part of the debate by expressing my frustration that the club can underwhelm both in terms of the ambition of its signings and the protracted mature of its business, that leaches the feel good feeling away. HZC's theory that this is down to the owners' caution when it comes to funding makes much more sense to me than anything else.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

One thing that needs to be said for the Madueke deal (and I'm avoiding disparaging the player now as he is one of us), why was this deal a priority?

What I mean by this is first of all he's on holiday now and not going on the tour, which was decided by the club and not him, so why the rush.

Also Arteta admitted in his latest presser, that we've got more than enough time left in the transfer window, so again, why did this deal get prioritised before a striker, something we've known we needed for over a year. Was it more important for Madueke to join the team than it was to have our striker available for the tour? Let's not forget that Gyokores and all the strikers we've been linked with have been on holiday for ages, so surely they were always going to be able to link up and join the tour over someone involved in the CWC.

I mean everyone has agreed he's going to play a secondary role so what was the rush.

Also looking at it objectively, we completed the deal when there were absolutely no transfer rumours that anyone was willing to take him on. We also knew that Chelsea had a surplus of wingers thanks to their new signings....so wouldn't it make more sense to wait till practically the end of the transfer window to ensure we got the best price seeing as Chelsea clearly had a surplus and everyone kept saying they'd need to sell players?

IMO the way we acted only makes sense if:

1. The priority is a backup for Saka and not a new striker.

2. Madueke will not be a backup for Saka and Arteta will play him ahead of everyone else on the left wing.

or

3. You've got tone deaf clowns making decisions in the club who have repeatedly shown the inability to prioritise what is needed over silly whims and supposed bargain deals.

I think its pretty clear which situation I think applies

[HCZ_Reborn]

One thing that needs to be said for the Madueke deal (and I'm avoiding disparaging the player now as he is one of us), why was this deal a priority?

What I mean by this is first of all he's on holiday now and not going on the tour, which was decided by the club and not him, so why the rush.

Also Arteta admitted in his latest presser, that we've got more than enough time left in the transfer window, so again, why did this deal get prioritised before a striker, something we've known we needed for over a year. Was it more important for Madueke to join the team than it was to have our striker available for the tour? Let's not forget that Gyokores and all the strikers we've been linked with have been on holiday for ages, so surely they were always going to be able to link up and join the tour over someone involved in the CWC.

I mean everyone has agreed he's going to play a secondary role so what was the rush.

Also looking at it objectively, we completed the deal when there were absolutely no transfer rumours that anyone was willing to take him on. We also knew that Chelsea had a surplus of wingers thanks to their new signings....so wouldn't it make more sense to wait till practically the end of the transfer window to ensure we got the best price seeing as Chelsea clearly had a surplus and everyone kept saying they'd need to sell players?

IMO the way we acted only makes sense if:

1. The priority is a backup for Saka and not a new striker.

2. Madueke will not be a backup for Saka and Arteta will play him ahead of everyone else on the left wing.

or

3. You've got tone deaf clowns making decisions in the club who have repeatedly shown the inability to prioritise what is needed over silly whims and supposed bargain deals.

I think its pretty clear which situation I think applies

That the deal was easier to complete doesn’t suggest that it was prioritised. In that it’s clear we aren’t working on one transfer at a time. You are basically saying if Madueke’s signing was held up until we signed a striker, we would have had far less agitation from the fan base and whilst I don’t disagree with that, I think that says far more about the fan base.

I think long ago it was decided what the club needed in terms of players in, players out etc. Gyokeres it seems like we kept him on the back burner till a few weeks ago because although I’m sure the position was a priority, he individually wasn’t as he was second choice to Sesko.

We didn’t prioritise a backup goalkeeper over Zubimendi, it was just an easier deal to complete because we have a good relationship with Chelsea. Now we can argue all day about whether we should have a good relationship with Chelsea, and as I absolutely despise that club you probably wouldn’t find me unsympathetic.

But additional to that Madueke and Kepa are players that Chelsea were willing to sell to keep up the pretence that they play by the rules, Zubimendi was a player Real Sociedad wanted to keep, same with Sporting Lisbon and Gyokeres. Where I think we do go wrong, is that I think we place far too high value on getting agreement with the player before going to the club, somehow believing that this gives us leverage over the club and it doesn’t.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I'm not an apologist for Arteta, and have been vocal in my criticisms of him when I feel this is merited. But equally, I do not think that the manager should bear the brunt of the blame for this Summer's transfer business or negotiations. I opened this part of the debate by expressing my frustration that the club can underwhelm both in terms of the ambition of its signings and the protracted mature of its business, that leaches the feel good feeling away. HZC's theory that this is down to the owners' caution when it comes to funding makes much more sense to me than anything else.

He claims that I shift the goalposts

If we are talking about areas Arteta has strengthened against where he’s neglected, he’s absolutely responsible for that. But it’s equally not an either or, Arteta is wrong for instance to prioritise defenders the way he has when we’ve had them in abundance and we were clearly lacking in forward areas.

But to prioritise one position over another is as you point out, a result of a certain degree of financial constraint. No KSE are not telling Arteta which position to strengthen they are clearly saying “this is the money we think it would be wise for you to spend on transfers and wages” and Arteta felt (as it transpired wrongly) that cover for midfield and defence which are areas which in previous seasons had been beset by injury was the most important to strengthen….he got it wrong. But the fact that KSE were concerned enough about the wage bill to the point that we left our squad as thin as it is (as a result of player sales) suggests that their priority isn’t the priority of fans (winning the major honours)

Plus blaming Arteta for the fact that Gyokeres deal hasn’t been completed seems vaguely ludicrous, as if somehow he’s micromanaging transfer negotiations himself. I know I’ve said he’s a bit of a control freak, but that’s taking things too far