Some Arsenal Fans HATE Their Club's Very Normal Transfers
The chronicles of transfer insanity.
Arsenal have wrapped up the signing of Brentford captain Christian Nørgaard for £11 million plus add-ons, seemingly overnight. Immediately, some Arsenal fans went sobbing into the nearest social media microphone: He’s 31 years old, we want someone younger! He’s not an upgrade on Thomas Partey, whom we should have re-signed! My club only signs defensive players, where is the striker?
Maybe it’s growing up on FIFA Manager Mode (or whatever it’s called these days) but some fans seem to think you submit a £70 million bid for the generational striker you’re seeking, the other club accepts, and the guy appears in your squad screen. Then you move on to backup central midfielders and development-track center backs who can eat up some minutes in a 60-match season.
Except getting work done when you can is the whole game. The quick, cheap deal for Nørgaard will make him Arsenal’s oldest player at 31 — clearly they could use some experience in the squad amid a wave of departures1 — and takes that piece off the board when they’re looking at their summer battle plans. They don’t need to worry about being held to ransom in August for a backup to MartÃn Zubimendi, who they believe will be the star of their new-look midfield. Thomas Partey was among Arsenal’s best players last season, and had his best campaign fitness-wise, but the wages were a massive ask for a 32-year-old with an injury record that’s generally poor.2
These are the real decisions you have to make when running a real football club, which doesn’t mean the real decision-makers always get it right. The Gunners still need to get that striker, and I’ve felt since January that they need a ball-carrier to operate in transition and around the box, particularly in the left half-space where they just haven’t had enough creativity to break down low blocks. That sounds like Eberechi Eze to me, who’s been linked, while Rodrygo of Real Madrid could be an option down the left who can drift inside and cause mayhem. In fact, The Athletic’s transfer maestro David Ornstein suggested Arsenal could be in for three forwards this summer.
Each of those deals, including Benjamin Šeško or Viktor Gyökeres for the #9 spot, is a high-wire act balancing agents, directors of football, and upwards of £60 million. You’d expect that to take longer than a quick deal for a squad player. Yes, Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz for an ungodly sum of money, but how many major moves will the Reds be making this summer? Maybe the Premier League champions have to deepen their squad, but Arsenal definitely do. Signing five or six players means getting a couple of them (cleverly) in June. See also: Kepa Arrizabalaga for £5 million.
I suppose it’s useless making any kind of broad appeal to the denizens of Intagram comment sections. Some Arsenal supporters, like some segment of any club’s fanbase, will be wailing injustice even after the striker and the wide forward come in. Would everyone be happy with three new forwards, a (possibly) world-class Spanish midfield conductor, and a few squad players to beef up the crew? God, no. We need Alexander Isak.
Leandro Trossard and Kepa are 30, Mikel Merino and David Raya are 29, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus are 28. Everyone else is 27 or younger.
Thomas Partey is an elite deep playmaker who can slice through the lines with a pass, and he is extremely good in tight spaces and under pressure, but he’s also good for a few catastrophic giveaways a year that cost you points. If Zubimendi can bring the former — along with his ability to drift past people on the dribble — and avoid the latter, the club will take a major step forward with the Basque as their midfield anchor. And that deal with Real Sociedad was pretty much wrapped up before the summer window opened.