Things were bad enough for Arsenal before the latest news from David Ornstein that Julian Alvarez has told Mikel Arteta that he doesn’t want to join.
After winning the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years and reaching their first Champions League final for 20 years, Arsenal had a big opportunity in this summer’s transfer market, and they’ve blown it.
There’s still a short amount of time left for the Gunners to save their summer, but at this point a lot of the best options have gone, and any business you do this late in the window is likely to be a bit desperate. Yes, we’re thinking about those Marcus Rashford loan rumours too.
Without even factoring in the Alvarez news, here’s a look at everything that’s gone wrong for Arsenal in this nightmare summer…
Four missed targets
Earlier in the summer, we were hearing about Arsenal’s interest in exciting young attacking talents like Morgan Rogers and Bradley Barcola, as per BBC Sport.
Later in the window, there was the excitement of the Vinicius Junior interest as reported by the Athletic.
You know the rest. Rogers is now at Chelsea. Barcola is on his way to Liverpool, as per L’Equipe, and Vini Jr has signed a new Real Madrid contract.
And now Alvarez. So that makes it FOUR of Arsenal’s top targets that they’ve missed out on. What exactly is Andrea Berta playing at?
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Ageing squad
Some signings have come in, of course, but Arsenal have invested significant funds on two 28-year-olds in the form of Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa. They’ll both turn 29 before the mid-point of the season.
In general, there aren’t a lot of young players in this squad, with all the key names like Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, David Raya, and Gabriel Magalhaes now at the point where they could soon enter into decline, or at least find it harder to perform at quite the same level week in, week out.
Aside from Myles Lewis-Skelly, there’s not much in the way of long-term prospects coming through, and even slightly younger players like Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, and Jurrien Timber have already been run into the ground and suffered major fitness issues as a result.
You can see in the age profile of some of the players mentioned above what Arsenal were looking for, with an attacking talent between the ages of 23 and 26 probably ideal for what Arteta needs for the present and future.
Poor sales
Apart from what looks like the imminent sale of Gabriel Martinelli for a decent fee, Arsenal still struggle when it comes to selling players.
Gabriel Jesus is still at the Emirates Stadium, with his huge salary eating into the wage bill. There’s still no deal for Fabio Vieira. They even had to terminate Reiss Nelson’s contract.
Meanwhile, the departure of Leandro Trossard arguably looks even worse now. Not only was he a reliable goal-scorer and one of the most consistent performers of the Arteta era, but he left on the cheap and has not been replaced.
Arsenal fans now have to hope the Matias Fernandez-Pardo interest comes to something or they’re looking at one of the worst windows of their recent history.
I take it to be you just want attention! From your write-up, let’s consider the following: 1. All the targets you mentioned are for just one position, therefore, arsenal just need one, not all and don’t forget the window is not closed yet. 2. Trossard has been replaced by a very exciting young Tzolis 3. Arsenal has bought two 28 years old who were among the best in the league per their position
A lot of biased bullshit. Perhaps you think that paying over the odds for the likes of Rogers and Barcola is a wise option. Better that Arsenal try to br sensible and not descend to the depths of scumbag clubs like Chelsea… a club you morons probably approve of. One gripe is that Arsenal should have never got too invoved with one of those dirty Argentinians who only wants Barcelona in the first place.
Arsenal has not done well enough to get world class attacking striker which they ought to have all these while the world cup was on and even immediately after workd cup. They even commited big mistake to gave allowed the exit of Troussard
There is still some great options other than Alveraz and Osimhen.
Raphinha is an old target of Arteta and still doing the business at both Centre forward and Left Wing for Barcelona.
Arteta could get him for £80m due to his age 29. He is still playing like he has just reached his prime.Hes Better technically than Alveraz and would cover both our CF and LW positions and he is still banging in the goals and assists. Just an option.
Otherwise keep our two main strikers and just concentrate on our Left Wing.
Apart from Raphinha there is the two footed players like Guler, Rodrygo and a possible loan with an option to buy the young Endrick.
There are also players from our own league he could buy.
I am sure Arteta has alternative players up his sleeve to purchase.
Im A Villa Fan, and I found this item very funny.
If any of my children when they were kids had written something as stupid as this I would have told them off. And the author has been paid for this?
People writing internet articles are all of a similar vogue, they just want clicks, no facts needed, Arsenal have had a very good window. might not be their best, but i will expect them to win the league comfortably.
I dont know why Arteta is running everywhere to look for who to buy! We have a complete squad that he want to destroy by selling Martinelli. We agree that Tzolis is an upgrade on Trossard, but selling Martinelli – our Champikns league top scorer, simply because you hate Edu his country man, is off target. That was exactly what Slot did by selling Diaz and today, Liverpool is a shadow of itself.
Alvarez my foot! Was he not the one that wad completely invissible on the pitch when arsenal hammered them 4 nil, with Gyokeres and Martinelli scoring yhree of the goals? We dont trust Arteta in the transfer market. That was how he compelled Arsenal to buy Gabriel Jesus for him to strike. Wr must cancel Martinelli Saudi deal, if ee are nursing any hope of winning Champions league.