Arsenal accused of ‘criminal’ transfer window as Liverpool ‘destroyed’ by hubris | OneFootball

There’s some post-deadline day misery from Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton fans. Money does not buy you happiness.

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Arsenal had a poor window Arsenal have had a strange window, and one I would have to conclude as being a disappointing one. Feels strange to say that considering we bought a very good midfielder, a very good defender, and an interesting wide player, spending a lot of money in the process. Coming from the years when we’d wheel out an injury recovered Denilson as ‘like a new signing’, we are spoilt these days.

However, there is absolutely no escaping the fact that the most important target this window was to strengthen the left side of attack and possibly up front. In both of those positions all we’ve done is weaken the team. Trossard out and Tzolis in seems a decent bit of business. Jesus out and no one in is a bit risky, though being honest he hasn’t contributed much on the pitch for a number of years, but still, I think all Arsenal fans would have welcomed a replacement given the question marks over Gyokeres’ quality and Havertz limitations. Martinelli out and no one in is really, really poor. We had all summer to sort that.

I don’t mind being outbid – particularly as the figures get utterly ridiculous – but the time and effort wasted on what anyone could see were dead ends (Vini, Alvarez) was criminal, and Berta’s tactic of spinning plates backfired to a lack of decisiveness.

Arteta still has his coveted two players in each position, but I don’t believe the plan was to upgrade the left by using Eze there, when he was available all last season but only had a few games in that position.

I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom though. The squad is still excellent. Eze and Tzolis can do a decent job on the left. With Eze used there it gives more space for Merino to play at 10, where he can be extremely effective. And perhaps we have money on ice for January/next year… tricksy winger, excellent in 1v1s, with end product, please. Diaby

But did Arsenal really fail? I don’t agree at all that Arsenal has failed Arteta – it’s obviously disappointing to not bring in a marquee attacker, but when neither want to leave their gilded cages, there’s not much you can do.

A squad that contains Saka, Havertz, Odegaard, Eze, Gyokeres, Tzolis, Madueke, Merino and Dowman can hardly be called short of options; especially when behind it is arguably the finest midfield and defence in the league.

Everyone in those positions is fit and even with a slightly tougher CL draw than last time, we would expect to be in a strong position across all four comps by eo December.

Bruno G could well be the most impactful signing anyone makes in the league – progressive passes from deep being the true weakness that held back our attack from last year. That he could also play 10 is very exciting.

Keeping powder dry for January, when a fit Rodrygo is sick of kicking his heels on the bench at Madrid, Kroupi is fit and Bournemouth could be tempted into another payday or a similar market opportunity presents itself could be the smart play – in the last 3 years a big attacking player has moved in that window at relatively low cost with most of the main players having burned their cash in the summer.

So yes, maybe bringing in an Alvarez/Vini might have taken this window to a 10/10, but it’s still a solid 8/10 for me, with good money in, a big chunk off the wage bill and arguably all main rivals still showing weaknesses/having incomplete windows.

City spending £350m on three new midfielders is a bit irritating, but you could argue it won’t make them much better immediately. Tom, Leyton

Talking of Arsenal and Mikel Arteta Big news today – unbelievably, Machiavelli himself has been reincarnated, taking the form of a joyless Basque semaphore enthusiast wearing school trousers:

“I’ve been begging the Premier League if we can extend those numbers just for the welfare of the players, which is the most important thing, because I think every squad needs more than 20 outfield players, ideally, to sustain the level of demand in international games that we have,” Arteta said, as he prepares for the champions’ trip to Aston Villa on Monday night. “But these are the rules, and within the rules we have to play. We need to be very close to the players to explain those situations in the right way, for everybody to feel important, because they will be.”

“Otherwise you have to tell somebody: ‘You are not even part of this matchday,’ and that’s really tough. And it doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t help the club. It doesn’t help the valuation of the player. It doesn’t help the player feel part of something. It’s a real issue that has a really simple solution.”

Arteta added: “And all the clubs, because I’ve done the research with all the top clubs in Europe, we are not different to anybody. Most of them, 90% of them, they have more players than us. So we are going to have to deal with that.”

Christ Mikel, do you think we were all born yesterday? I know your overarching strategy thus far has been akin to driving an ever expanding ugly bulldozer – buy everyone, then make them so dull they can bore an arsehole in a wooden horse (creeping back in already last night after their swashbuckling demolition of, erm, Coventry) – but you’re going to have to do better than this transparent attempt.

Tell you what, let’s bring in long bans for cheats, that frees you up at least two match day squad places since Calafiori & Gabriel will be sat twiddling their thumbs for most of the season. Maybe they can get some tips from Tom Daly while they’ve some free time? RHT/TS x

(Martin Keown is so unbelievably, spectacularly, incredibly stupid, he’s on t’wireless blindly arguing the point on behalf of Arteta, having not spotted the subtle as a house brick subtext – the very definition of a useful idiot)

Liverpool cocked it too Man I feel sad about Liverpool.

We were a model for modern football clubs just a few years ago. Incredible forward planning, proper team building, world class recruitment that happened quickly, quietly and mostly at the start of the summer, nice solid management structure. We were the envy of basically every club that wasn’t owned by a billionaire Arab.

And now? New owners. Old owners getting old, trying to milk the fans and causing disenfranchisement. Most influential player of the last decade leaves with some bitterness. Good players keep leaving for free or running down their contracts. We are apparently paying Cody Gakpo £250k a week. Can’t we just cancel his contract and spend the money on feeding the homeless? I’d genuinely feel good about that.

New manager; talented but in a totally new realm. We could’ve had Alonso but Richard Hughes and Edwards (both now gone) had their egos burnt because he shunned them for Madrid previously so didn’t pick up the phone. That’s not to say I’m not excited to see what Iraola brings but Alonso has proven he can overcome Goliath in Germany; that’s worth a lot more than Iraola’s exploits at Bournemouth.

Speaking of the departed Hughes. A complete obsession with buying wingers whilst failing to notice that it wasn’t for a lack of wingers that we couldn’t defend for toffee last season (or this one, so far). He won’t be missed. I remember fearing Edwards would go to another club and replicate what he did the first time round for us. No such fear remains for me…he’s been well and truly brought back to Earth with a thud.

Last summer we were top of the transfers winners and losers lists. It really felt like we were building something epic. Isak, Ekitike, Frimpong, Kerkez all looked so good on paper. Now Ekitike is broken, Frimpong is terrible, Kerkez is like a Yorkshire terrier barking at a tree shaped like a cat and Isak seems to have stipulated in his contract a bonus if he manages to play 90 minutes without actually touching the ball.

Where did it all go so wrong? Maybe we are Icarus flying too close to the sun. Maybe we are Dr Frankenstein, destroyed by our own hubris. It’s very sad, either way. Minty, LFC

Oh Everton I’m reminded of Blackadder 4 this morning.

“Made a note in my diary on the way here. Simply says: bugger.” Aidan, EFC, Hoxton

Aston Villa fans feeling okay actually I’ve seen a lot of writings over the last few weeks that suggest Villa are in trouble and the fans are worried and we’re going to have a tough season. I don’t think that matches the feeling around the fan base though.

Yes, PSR is a bit of a pain, and we’ve had a massive squad turnover, which is undoubtedly and unsurprisingly affecting performances at the start of the season, but medium to long term, I’m not worried at all. I look at the squad that we have, and all through the summer, the holes we have had in the squad have matched up with the transfer rumours and dealings that we’re doing, much better than some of the other clubs that I’m aware of (not that I can keep up with it all!).

Winning a trophy felt like a crowning achievement for a lot of last season’s squad, it’s always been a bit of a concern that we had so many players signed by Dean Smith. With a new “President of Football Operations”, since the start of last season, it seems like a very deliberate choice this summer to use the winning of a trophy and the appeal of champions league football to do a big squad refresh, being able to attract players that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. We’ve also maximised the money we can make on sales this summer, we were never going to get more for Tielemans, Watkins, Konsa than this summer, and would be silly not to take the bid for Rogers. That’s let us build what I think is a really solid squad, filling in attributes we haven’t had last season, like pace out wide, we’ve lowered the age profile of the squad massively, and also reduced wages an awful lot as well, it puts us in a really solid long term position.

Most fans I know are quietly confident that after a slow start to the season as the players get to know each other and Emery, we should be fine and up challenging for European places again at the minimum, and nothing I’ve seen since half-time at Brighton has changed that. Oli, AVFC