Arsenal

[Timberwolf]

Big time stats guy and Arsenil fan is very unimpressed

If you're splashing the cash, you really want scouting and data to both be excited about a player. That's not output I want to spunk £50M and big wages on. Or big wages and a 5-year contract.

He was amazing against Barcelona! Great, then why wasn't he amazing against all the other teams in La Liga last season?

Atletico are weird tactically, and his stats are not reflective of how he will play elsewhere. Again, fine... but we can ONLY judge his output from Atletico because that's the only place he's played since 2015. This increases the risk that the transfer goes wrong.

He's an elite defensive midifelder! His output looks nothing like an elite defensive midfielder.

He's NOT a defensive midfielder, he's a box-to-box midfielder who is great on the ball. Okay, but he also doesn't score goals or create goals for his teammates, so what are you actually paying for?

Transfer shopping is all about correctly evaluating and mitigating risk. If you are going to spend big, there needs to be very little risk something doesn't work out, and hopefully some upside involved as well.

Season Preview 2020/21 Arsenal

Will Arsenal finish in the top 4, or scrape a position in the top 6?

statsbomb.com

hopefully a flop on big wages they can't move on.

I particularly like this quote from the article:

My perspective on Arsenal and transfers has been the same for years now. I think they should not be building to try and finish 4th and make the Champions League.

I think they should be building a squad to try and finish first, even if that's one or two years down the line. And the way you do that is not via signing 27 and 28yos... you do it via taking some risk on 21-24 year olds, hoping your analysis is good, and letting them mature into elite players while improving the style of play.

That last line sums up exactly what we've been doing over the past couple of seasons. While we hoped players like Lo Celso and Ndombele
would hit the ground running, ultimately we were buying them for the long term due to their huge potential. They are still only 24 and 23 and are on long contracts so if they develop into elite players (which I think they will) that's 2 incredibly important positions sorted for the next 5 years. Same goes for the likes of Hojbjerg and especially Reguilon, who looks a huge talent. If we get Rodon he would also fit into this type of signing.

You want to sprinkle your squad with older big name talents every now and then, as we're doing with Bale, but blowing a huge chunk of your wage budget for long deals on older players like Ozil, Aubameyang and, to a lesser extent, Partey, probably isn't the wisest move in the long term.

 

[ronspurs]

I remember this time last season their fans were saying guendouzi was gonna be young player of the season and a future heir to vierias throne ?

 

[absolute bobbins]

Guy has never recovered from Lamela calling him a pussy

Truth hurts, clearly

 

[RickyVilla]

I remember this time last season their fans were saying guendouzi was gonna be young player of the season and a future hair to vierias throne ?

FYP

 

[Shadydan]

I particularly like this quote from the article:

My perspective on Arsenal and transfers has been the same for years now. I think they should not be building to try and finish 4th and make the Champions League.

I think they should be building a squad to try and finish first, even if that's one or two years down the line. And the way you do that is not via signing 27 and 28yos... you do it via taking some risk on 21-24 year olds, hoping your analysis is good, and letting them mature into elite players while improving the style of play.

That last line sums up exactly what we've been doing over the past couple of seasons. While we hoped players like Lo Celso and Ndombele
would hit the ground running, ultimately we were buying them for the long term due to their huge potential. They are still only 24 and 23 and are on long contracts so if they develop into elite players (which I think they will) that's 2 incredibly important positions sorted for the next 5 years. Same goes for the likes of Hojbjerg and especially Reguilon, who looks a huge talent. If we get Rodon he would also fit into this type of signing.

You want to sprinkle your squad with older big name talents every now and then, as we're doing with Bale, but blowing a huge chunk of your wage budget for long deals on older players like Ozil, Aubameyang and, to a lesser extent, Partey, probably isn't the wisest move in the long term.

You could say though players like Gabriel, Saliba and Tierney (although injury prone admittedly) and Saka and Martinez are future prospects, I think their youth is pretty good, I know normally Arsenal fans unbearably big up their youth players as if they're the next Messi but looking at it that's not a bad set of youngsters.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Yeah the £45m up front was a bit of a surprise. Definitely a panic buy - there's no excuse as to why else you'd wait until 5 mins before the deadline to activate a clause otherwise

I don't think it was a panic buy, per se, it was more a case of them hoping to negotiate a payment plan with them but Atletico wanted to make it as awkward as possible. Must have stung paying that fee up front but fair play to them for putting their money where their mouth is.

 

[McFlash]

I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping that Partey becomes Xhaka mk2.

 

[Timberwolf]

You could say though players like Gabriel, Saliba and Tierney (although injury prone admittedly) and Saka and Martinez are future prospects, I think their youth is pretty good, I know normally Arsenal fans unbearably big up their youth players as if they're the next Messi but looking at it that's not a bad set of youngsters.

Yeah that's fair - Saliba and Saka look to have huge potential and Gabriel has been decent so far.

I suppose the point I was trying to make is that they're putting an awful lot of financial weight into mega contracts for a select few players, none of which are especially young. That's fine if you're Man Utd under Fergie and need a Van Persie to win you the title, but hardly seems like the best long term plan when you're trying to build a long term project and start challenging the top clubs for the title.

Apparently Partey will cost them over 100 million over the course of his 5 years contract... If he doesn't come off that's a fucking huge investment to have made on a 27 year old with little to no resale value. In our case at least Bale is effectively on a one year rolling contract for now.

 

[mark87]

I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping that Partney becomes Xhaka mk2.

I think everyone here is hoping that, but he comes from a very good Simeone side so unfortunately I can't see it happening.

 

[McFlash]

I think everyone here is hoping that, but he comes from a very good Simeone side so unfortunately I can't see it happening.

I'll admit to never having really seen much of him.
But he's coming from a highly organised, defensively minded team, to one with a very suspect defence behind him.
I live in hope. ?

 

[spursfan77]

Big time stats guy and Arsenil fan is very unimpressed

If you're splashing the cash, you really want scouting and data to both be excited about a player. That's not output I want to spunk £50M and big wages on. Or big wages and a 5-year contract.

He was amazing against Barcelona! Great, then why wasn't he amazing against all the other teams in La Liga last season?

Atletico are weird tactically, and his stats are not reflective of how he will play elsewhere. Again, fine... but we can ONLY judge his output from Atletico because that's the only place he's played since 2015. This increases the risk that the transfer goes wrong.

He's an elite defensive midifelder! His output looks nothing like an elite defensive midfielder.

He's NOT a defensive midfielder, he's a box-to-box midfielder who is great on the ball. Okay, but he also doesn't score goals or create goals for his teammates, so what are you actually paying for?

Transfer shopping is all about correctly evaluating and mitigating risk. If you are going to spend big, there needs to be very little risk something doesn't work out, and hopefully some upside involved as well.

Season Preview 2020/21 Arsenal

Will Arsenal finish in the top 4, or scrape a position in the top 6?

statsbomb.com

hopefully a flop on big wages they can't move on.

This bit of the article made me chuckle. They’re so fucking weak

“Arsenal had the fourth worst expected goals difference in the league when they had a lead.
All of the top 6 teams had a positive expected goal difference with the lead. The best teams look to extend leads, not protect them. Protecting leads is a recipe for 14 draws in 38 league matches and another likely midtable finish.
To put this another way - when playing with a one-goal lead, Arsenal became relegation candidates. They had 36% of the expected goals, 32% of the total shots, but still managed 47% of the goals. Luck? Talent? Bit of both probably, with a strong worry that it won't be repeatable should they try it again.”

 

[sausage]

You could say though players like Gabriel, Saliba and Tierney (although injury prone admittedly) and Saka and Martinez are future prospects, I think their youth is pretty good, I know normally Arsenal fans unbearably big up their youth players as if they're the next Messi but looking at it that's not a bad set of youngsters.

Is there another one, or are you on about the 28 year old keeper they just sold to Villa?

 

[Maxtremist]

WAIT WAIT WAIT...
So Arsenal outcast Ozil choses to spend his own money (which he gets from Arsenal who are overpaying him to do nothing) to then pay for Gunnersauras?

What is this club and how they run?

Good on Ozil to basically save a man's job but what is Arsenal? What are they doing money wise when it comes to this?

 

[Trix]

WAIT WAIT WAIT...
So Arsenal outcast Ozil choses to spend his own money (which he gets from Arsenal who are overpaying him to do nothing) to then pay for Gunnersauras?

What is this club and how they run?

Good on Ozil to basically save a man's job but what is Arsenal? What are they doing money wise when it comes to this?

Knowing him he's probably negotiating his pay off release as he's posting that.

 

[Maxtremist]

... He was on 80k a week?
Even bigger move by Ozil. Even weirder club, arsenal. 80K A WEEK FOR A MASCOT?!

 

[he is you know!]

Is there another one, or are you on about the 28 year old keeper they just sold to Villa?

Assume he means Martinelli

 

[King of Otters]

... He was on 80k a week?
Even bigger move by Ozil. Even weirder club, arsenal. 80K A WEEK FOR A MASCOT?!

Merson is exaggerating to make a point. I’d be surprised if he got that in a year.

 

[Wadec]

... He was on 80k a week?
Even bigger move by Ozil. Even weirder club, arsenal. 80K A WEEK FOR A MASCOT?!

Think he's joking to be honest. May even be a slight dig at the club.

 

[he is you know!]

Merson is exaggerating to make a point. I’d be surprised if he got that in a year.

Apparently £29k annually

 

[wirE]

So that sorts Gunnersaurus future for a couple of years more ??