Arsenal transfers preparing for life after Mikel Arteta

One game into the Premier League season and the mood in and around Arsenal is already different. It’s arguably worse. Hoping for a summer of progression, the fears of regression are not unfounded.

Defeat on the opening day to Brentford told us nothing new. Issues the plagued the side last season hadn’t been brushed under the carpet and out of sight. They were slap bang in the middle of the living room like an upward facing plug ready to pierce the underside of your foot.

Mikel Arteta was already tip-toeing his way across thin ice, with the floor beneath him thinning due to a combination of those before him, those around him and his own decision to think steel-toe caps were a wise choice of footwear.

The squad at his disposal is fractured. A weak underbelly with a side order of soft mentality.

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Arsenal transfers preparing for life after Mikel Arteta as recruitment in summer window tailored to a future after his potential sacking

Across the summer work has been undertaken to amend that. Previous recruitment decisions have centred around the desire for immediate impact to provide short-term results. None of it worked: the ghosts of transfer failings still haunting the bank balance of the halls of London Colney. Some of them remain under contract.

Thus the change of thought process has been reflected in how the club have tried to go about their business this window. Two squad players have been brought in, one in Sambi Lokonga who shown he’s ready to make an impact in the present, both aged 21 years old.

Together with them was the summer’s marquee signing so far, Ben White, who at 23 years old comes in to take over David Luiz’s slot with the added benefit of being considerably younger, fitter and quicker.

Other targets, many of whom have remained as such but were still prevalent names across the rumour mill, supplement this idea. Even some of the more pipe-dream options such as Lautaro Martinez and Manuel Locatelli fit into the profile the club sought to acquire.

While they may not have come off, the sentiment was there.

Aaron Ramsdale joins the list. A player few across the terraces were particularly keen on looks set to remain at Sheffield United, but he’s another example of the desire build a long-term project not centred around the urge to be winning immediately.

A creative midfielder? Both Martin Odegaard and James Maddison fit the bill, without so much as a peep of names such as Isco. Fortunately.

Seeing a team in need of substantial improvement, much of it will be organic. And for that reason, it’s preparing for life after Arteta, should the time come.

Will that come?

Continued…

If Mikel Arteta is Sacked Then the Arsenal Squad is Prepared

What the club is attempting to build is designed to be led by the manager. Of course. These are players he is being entrusted with, backed financially for and wanting to acquire to sculpt his version of Arsenal Football Club.

Should his methods continue to take him closer to the edge of the plank, then at least whoever comes in to replace him is being left with a squad destined for future success. Or at least better placed for it.

The squad now is, as hard as it is to believe at present, littered with talent that will be much improved than it is now in a few years’ time. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe are two players who demonstrate weekly progress, while around them are other stars who will be in the starting lineup for the seasons beyond.

If Arteta is shown the exit door then the next man who comes in has the framework in place to at least begin the job in better circumstances than his predecessor. Ben White and Albert Sambi Lokonga will be Premier League regulars, Nuno Tavares is at a great age and can be either sold or worked with, while Kieran Tierney and Gabriel are other options in the squad who will be mainstays whether or not the current manager is leading them.

While morale is down scraping the bottom of the seabed at the state of the current team, as well as the issues selling and buying this summer, there is some solace to take from the recruitment that has been made and the new contracts being dished out catering to future seasons.

Arsenal will improve as a result of internal refinement and experience, whether or not Arteta is at the helm. Ideally, he turns out to be a roaring success and these become his players. Should he not, however, and the window of opportunity to prove so narrows, then the squad in place isn’t entirely tied to his presence.

At present the narrative edges closer to that end.