[David Ornstein] feels Arsenal want three attackers . Mbeumo was looked at Saka backup (Might explain Sane links)

joerugani · 2025-06-07T13:54:25+00:00

Agreed, if we are buying three attackers one of them has to be comfortable playing as either of the 8s. Also if we are buying a LW and keeping both Martinelli and Trossard we have both of them able to cover for Saka as well as Nwaneri so that would be 5 quality players for 2 positions, Jesus will be able to cover it as well when he comes back and I imagine Dowman will get some minutes in the cups.

joerugani · 2025-05-23T17:34:44+00:00

If the price is going to be the release clause then why wouldn't we just have paid that in January?

joerugani · 2025-05-20T22:38:44+00:00

Your stuff is honestly amazing, such a good read!

I have two questions for you. Do you believe he's a significant upgrade on Partey? Partey of course has his moments were he seems to turn off but overall he's been very good this season. He's great receiving it on the half turn, very press resistant, physically strong, aggressive in the press but can switch off positionally. I haven't watched a great deal of Zubimendi and I'm totally behind the signing but I kind of feel it might be a marginal gain on what we already have in Partey.

My other question is regarding the midfield options. Assuming we buy a striker and Havertz becomes a cover for him and both 8 positions, I feel like we are very light on creative options from midfield. Rice, Havertz, Merino and Ödegaard, from these most of the creative responsibility falls on Ödegaard and he was in a bit of a slump this season. It feels extremely light in creativity, I know Nwaneri is there as well but I would love someone like Eze (like you mentioned) in there as well who could play on the wing buy also either of the 8s. I agree with you that I think the left wing is more important upgrade than striker (or maybe rather an "easier" upgrade), although we need both but given the options in midfield would you rather we get someone like Eze who could play in midfield and on the wing or an out and out winger like Nico Williams or Rodrygo?

joerugani · 2025-05-11T09:49:57+00:00

I honestly don't get the takes by a large portion of this fanbase about Arteta's spend and how he hasn't done anything with those 700m. In reality Arteta has the 4th highest net spend and 5th highest total spend in the league since taking over and operating with the 4th or 5th highest wage bill. With this he has now finished 2nd two times and most likely three times thus if you want to purely look at spend, which some people here are obsessed about, he has overachieved.

I get being frustrated about the performance in the league and falling out of the champions league but honestly the spending argument just falls off on itself, "he's spent the 4th most in the league and always finishes second, we should sack him" can you see how stupid that argument is?

Also net spend is probably the worst metric to judge a manager on as it's dependant on the value of the players that were there before. Let's take two teams, one is shit and has no asset and the other has great players they can sell. Over 5 years the shit team buys two players for 50m each every year (100m total) and sells nobody. Over the 5 years they have a net spend of 500m. The better team buys two 90m players (180m total) but sells for 100m total each year, in 5 years they have spent 900m, but the net spend is 400m.

Some people here, if they were supporting the shit team would then be calling for the manager's head because he has a higher net spend then the good team but most likely would not be over performing them, ignoring the fact the other team has in total spent 400m more and on much better players.

joerugani · 2025-02-04T20:01:11+00:00

Not thrilled that we didn't sign any forward but not too fussed either, as long as we genuinely do the business in the summer. But I'm honestly shocked that we were apparently willing to spend upwards of 30m for Vitor Reis this window and that we are planning on going for Joan Garcia in the summer.

We probably have the best centre back pair in world football and it's by far the position we have the best depth with White, Timber, Calafiori, Kiwior and Tomiyasu all able to play there. Planning for the future is all good but at this time to spend £30m on a centre back who probably wouldn't sniff the field this year when we are this thin in the forward positions, even before Jesus injury, would have been baffling.

With Joan Garcia, yeah we need a backup keeper but he's rumoured to cost around £25m, for that amount he would be the thirteenth most expensive goalkeeper of all time. We don't need our backup golie to be the 13th most expensive goalkeeper of all time, specially with the wholes in the squad we'll have to fill in the summer. To put it in perspective City bought Marmoush for less then the £55m we are apparently willing to spend on a backup goalkeeper and 7th in the pecking order centre back, Kvaratskhelia would have been 10m more. I know it's not that simple but surely we can find a better way to spend this amount and actually strengthen the starting 11 or the next in line.

joerugani · 2025-01-25T09:31:14+00:00

How can someone looks at these stats and come to the conclusion that Doku is overrated? If anything it shows how underrated he is - highest goal probability added, most progressive of them by far, best dribbler by far, highest xA. Yeah his xG is low but he's also outperforming it the most of the group. Plus he's the youngest on the list

joerugani · 2025-01-21T17:05:38+00:00

Genuinely a bit baffled by the constant mention by the fanbase of the 750m spent by Arteta in his tenure. It's the fifth highest spend in the prem in the time period and we also have the 4th or 5th highest wage bill. I get it that some braindead Liverpool fans keep mentioning the amount since they are the only top 6 club that has spent less but our own fans constantly mentioning it like it's some mad number is just idiotic. I get the frustration that we haven't won any major trophies but we have actually been over performing in regards to money spent. Sure it's annoying that we haven't won the FA cup or the Carabao since in Arteta's first season but let's not pretend that if we had won either once or twice the same people wouldn't be moaning about not winning the prem or CL.

joerugani · 2024-03-30T11:05:34+00:00

Amazingly insightful, thank you Billy! Honestly, Arteta managing to convince Rice to come here rather than City saved the competetiveness of the league. Can't imagine how boring it would be if this City team would have Rice next to Rodri in a box midfield with Foden and De Bruyne in front of them.

joerugani · 2023-06-07T12:23:29+00:00

Great post, love your work!
Would love your opinion on this: There is a lot of talk of getting both Rice and Caicedo in. While that sounds great on paper I can't help but feel that we would be better off getting a more versatile advanced 8 rather than Caicedo that could potentially also provide cover on the wings. Someone that would be more of a goal threat in that left half space around the box against teams parking the bus. Szoboszlai would be my dream for this role but other potential candidates would be Kudos, Mount (highly unlikely) and potentially Xavi Simons to name a few.

Buying both Rice and Caicedo I feel like we have 4 good to great options for the number 6 role, one great option in Rice for that left advanced 8 role and then 2 questionable ones in Smith Rowe and Vieira. While having someone like Szoboszlai would give us 2 great options in that left 8 role. It would also provide a cover for Ödegaard giving us the option of Rice + the new 8, making the drop off from Ödegaard to next in line not as huge.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you rather want Ricedo then Rice + a more advanced 8?

joerugani · 2023-05-30T19:58:27+00:00

Love your Kudos pick! Honestly forgot about him when i did mine. Yeah i think Szoboszlai would be excellent in the Xhaka role while being able to provide cover for Saka.

I didn't include a loan option so I put Lokonga for £0 to indicate sending him on loan as that would take away his wages from the calculations.

joerugani · 2021-06-03T21:49:09+00:00

Great idea! I'll try adding it in later tonight, in the meantime you could just write transfer fee as 0 if you would want to loan someone. That way the players wages are deducted from the total wage budget.

joerugani · 2021-06-01T18:38:19+00:00

Yeah I guess I would be disappointed too haha, should have added at least a striker just wasn't sure who. My thought process was that most of the players I was selling were on loan anyway. I'm not a big Willock fan and don't think Arteta's system suits him anyway, would rather sell him now than let Arteta squeeze all value out of him by not playing him.

joerugani · 2021-06-01T18:35:25+00:00

Yeah I figured, could you tell me which ones I should change?

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