Summer Transfer Window

[theHotHead]

Very good transfer window. Good enough to win the league. Never thought striker was needed in current Arteta system...and we didn't go for any.
Happy that we got another hugely experienced mobile forward and got a decent midfielder ( accidental injuries have nothing to do with recruitment).
Sold number of fringe players for good money, 89 million, also will get wage bills reduced from loans.
Also, hopeful that academy players, Skelly, Nwaneri, etc, will get ample opportunities to settle down in this set up.

Good enough to win the league? You are kidding right?!

Havertz is playing out of his skin at the moment and Haaland is outscoring him 2 or 3 to 1 !! What happens to us if Havertz gets injured, do we rely on Treatment Table Jesus who isn't that good at scoring? What about Scuffmaster Nketiah - oh wait he has gone anyway.

For everyone harping on about us not needing a CF, tell me what happens when Havertz is unavailable!!! What happens when Odegaard is f***ked?!!!

We've added to what we had last year - I don't see how winning the league is not possible.
We were 1 win short last year.

Jay you are being very blinkered/short-sighted.

While I agree that we were one win short, look at City last season. No Mahrez, no Gundogan, KDB out for a large period, missed Haaland for a period. This season they have Gundogan back, Haaland has come back refreshed, Doku has a season under his belt, they have Foden sitting on the bench, this will be a more formidable City than last season, we need to be better than last season.

Losing Nketiah, Nelson and ESR and gaining only Sterling isn't a net improvement for us offensively, unless we get prime Sterling playing.

[Salibatelli]

Man City had Haaland and De Bruyne out for a long period last year, two of their best players.

Haaland missed 7 games
In those games City won 6 and drew 1 , scoring 20 goals (2.86 goals per game)
19 out of 21 points or 2.71 pts per game.

With Haaland in 31 games, they had 22 wins , 6 draws and 3 losses, scoring 76 goals (2.45 goals per game)
72 points out of 93 or 2.32 pts per game.

They were better without him last year - quite a lot better in terms of scoring goals and winning points.

DeBryune is fair - he's far more important to them.
We also had injuries last year.

Man City are not better without Haaland, Haaland is one of the most prolific marksman in the world, 7 goals already this season and two hattricks, over 50 goals the season before last and 38 last season despite the missed games and of course the fact it takes a bit of time to get your sharpness back after injury.

I would definitely prefer to play Man City without Haaland, any team would.

[jayramfootball]

Very good transfer window. Good enough to win the league. Never thought striker was needed in current Arteta system...and we didn't go for any.
Happy that we got another hugely experienced mobile forward and got a decent midfielder ( accidental injuries have nothing to do with recruitment).
Sold number of fringe players for good money, 89 million, also will get wage bills reduced from loans.
Also, hopeful that academy players, Skelly, Nwaneri, etc, will get ample opportunities to settle down in this set up.

Good enough to win the league? You are kidding right?!

Havertz is playing out of his skin at the moment and Haaland is outscoring him 2 or 3 to 1 !! What happens to us if Havertz gets injured, do we rely on Treatment Table Jesus who isn't that good at scoring? What about Scuffmaster Nketiah - oh wait he has gone anyway.

For everyone harping on about us not needing a CF, tell me what happens when Havertz is unavailable!!! What happens when Odegaard is f***ked?!!!

We've added to what we had last year - I don't see how winning the league is not possible.
We were 1 win short last year.

Jay you are being very blinkered/short-sighted.

While I agree that we were one win short, look at City last season. No Mahrez, no Gundogan, KDB out for a large period, missed Haaland for a period. This season they have Gundogan back, Haaland has come back refreshed, Doku has a season under his belt, they have Foden sitting on the bench, this will be a more formidable City than last season, we need to be better than last season.

Losing Nketiah, Nelson and ESR and gaining only Sterling isn't a net improvement for us offensively, unless we get prime Sterling playing.

Hmm - City have also lost Alvarez and literlaly have 1 striker in their squad.
Lets see how the season pans out.
I would agree City are once again favourites, but that doesn't mean we don;t have a chance to challenge at the same level or better than we did last year and the year before.

We added Merino and Sterling by the way.
I think Califiori will also help make sure we don't suffer with injuries and then we also have Timber.
We will need Jesus to come back and stay fit - although I accept that is probably unlikely.

So
Nketiah gone
Merino for ESR
Sterling for Nelson.

Unless you are saying Nketiah is a huge loss that means we are weaker - that looks stronger in attack to me.

We've had a setback because of a terrible refereeing decision (expected) and we have 2 very hard PL games coming up - so we're certainly under pressure, but no need to be doom and gloom so early in the season.

[theHotHead]

ESR is an offensive midfielder, I get the feeling Merino is more box to box so I don't think he will contribute much to our offense. So I can't say with any confidence that Merino improves it.

[VCC]

Arteta could have signed a striker with the prospect of scoring more goals.

I think what he has done is signed more defensive players looking to reduce goals conceded, e is trying to lift the quality of defensive replacements if we suffer further injury

[jayramfootball]

ESR is an offensive midfielder, I get the feeling Merino is more box to box so I don't think he will contribute much to our offense. So I can't say with any confidence that Merino improves it.

I don't think you can look at it like that in a team sport.
Merino may well give more freedom to Odegaard, for example, by doing a lot of the leg work.
We just don't know yet.
He's also strong on moving the ball forward as well as defensively.
We'll see.

[Salibatelli]

Merino is mainly a breaker/defensive player, I don’t think his arrival changes much, he’s essentially cover or an alternative option to Partey.

Him and Calafiore are essentially defensive signings.

His arrival won’t dramatically change the way Odegaard plays, Arteta like Odegaard’s work rate and I’m sure he’ll continue to make the same demands on him.

[jayramfootball]

Merino is mainly a breaker/defensive player, I don’t think his arrival changes much, he’s essentially cover or an alternative option to Partey.

Him and Calafiore are essentially defensive signings.

His arrival won’t dramatically change the way Odegaard plays, Arteta like Odegaard’s work rate and I’m sure he’ll continue to make the same demands on him.

Have you seen much of him?

This is what has been said about him

Speaking of Merino’s technical ability, former Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez said: “He can control the ball. He has a very good left foot, he’s capable of playing the final pass, he gets there at the right time. He’s another player with intelligence.”

He's apparently excellent defensively but also was one of the top players in his league for final third progressive passes. He's also very good in the air and a danger on free kicks.

I must admit, I am waiting to see him actually play a few games before concluding anything and I don't believe anyone here has seen much of him.

[swipe right]

There is no point trying to justify our failure to buy an attacker this summer. The facts were laid bear when we signed Sterling on deadline day. A mediocre, short term compromise when what we needed was a long term, world class solution. If Edu cant do better than Merino, Califiori and two loans, he needs to be sent packing.

[Ach]

Yup

We've needed a striker for ages. Both Toney and Osimhen who are far better than anyone we have, left their respective clubs for a combined fee of 40m

Lol

Wtf are our joke duo doing?

[Salibatelli]

Merino is mainly a breaker/defensive player, I don’t think his arrival changes much, he’s essentially cover or an alternative option to Partey.

Him and Calafiore are essentially defensive signings.

His arrival won’t dramatically change the way Odegaard plays, Arteta like Odegaard’s work rate and I’m sure he’ll continue to make the same demands on him.

Have you seen much of him?

This is what has been said about him

Speaking of Merino’s technical ability, former Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez said: “He can control the ball. He has a very good left foot, he’s capable of playing the final pass, he gets there at the right time. He’s another player with intelligence.”

He's apparently excellent defensively but also was one of the top players in his league for final third progressive passes. He's also very good in the air and a danger on free kicks.

I must admit, I am waiting to see him actually play a few games before concluding anything and I don't believe anyone here has seen much of him.

I haven’t seen too much of him, but watched some clips of him and his main moments are defensive, he does pass the ball forward as well, nothing spectacular, but decent and pops up with the odd goal but his number are very similar to Parteys in that respect (except in his final season when he got a few more).

As for dangerous at free kicks, he got his goal in the Euros with his head and it was a pretty good header, but he scores around 4 goals a season on average so not sure how dangerous he is.

[TedLasso]

Yup

We've needed a striker for ages. Both Toney and Osimhen who are far better than anyone we have, left their respective clubs for a combined fee of 40m

Lol

Wtf are our joke duo doing?

Wonder why no other top tier teams went in for them? Conte wanted Lukaku over Osimhen, that should tell you all you need to know.

[Salibatelli]

Chelsea went for Osimhen but wouldn’t pay the wages due to restrictions.

Which big club was looking for a striker? Not Liverpool, Man City, Real, Barcelona, Bayern or Man U (bought Zirkzee and have Holjund).

PSG are moving away from the superstar route to adopt a more academy. based approach.

Which other clubs have the money, Juve maybe but they have Vlahovic.

Conte is a top manager but very dictatorial and Osimhen wanted out of Napoli anyway, so Conte didn’t have a lot of choice.

Toney is odd as he’s a lot better than a lot of the rubbish out there, I guess those looking were smaller clubs that he might not move to like Palace who had to settle for players like Nketiah lol.

The guy who worked with Toney (at Peterborough), said that he knew his agent and that Toney’s wage demands weren’t what was being reported at all.

[swipe right]

Vlahovic is a mystery to me. He is good quality but wasting his time in Italy. Dont get why he continues to stick it out. He would be a top premier league striker in my opinion.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

There is no point trying to justify our failure to buy an attacker this summer. The facts were laid bear when we signed Sterling on deadline day. A mediocre, short term compromise when what we needed was a long term, world class solution. If Edu cant do better than Merino, Califiori and two loans, he needs to be sent packing.

It's clear at this point that Edu doesn't do any scouting, he gets a list from Arteta's team and tries to sign them, funds permitting.

That explains why there was no movement on a striker after Sesko signed a new deal very early in the window --- Arteta didn't want anybody else, even though Eddie was being shifted. Same situation with Viera and ESR - no replacement signed, no cover for Odegaard or at the LCM position. A responsible DoF wouldn't allow this, especially as there will be more games tl play this season, assuming we don't drop out of the cups straight away.