Arsenal 2021/22 summer transfer window grade: A success?

Arsenal’s Overall Summer Transfer Window Grade

Those who Arsenal brought in are signings that were overdue. There had to be focus on the longer-term strategy in a more sustainable manner, and signing six players 23 years of age or under on lower wages with greater resale value was the necessary step to take.

While it’s hoped they’ll all be roaring successes, they also enter the same boat as Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith Rowe and the others earlier in the summer having committed to Arsenal long-term. The belief is that they’re good enough to elevate this team and bring success, but if not the club won’t be shackled by ageing players nobody will want. There is always a market for young players. Always.

Do we believe them to be good enough? Well, Edu and Arteta have given us plenty of reason not to trust their talent ID: Mari, Cedric, Willian and Runarsson spring to mind.

In this case we just have to believe they know what they’re doing. They don’t deserve that, but there isn’t much choice.

More could have been done. What weighs this window down is the departures and had more been successfully facilitated it could have opened the door for that one more arrival to impact the team straight away. Whether that was selling Xhaka and bringing a new dynamic to the midfield or using £30m worth of goalkeeper cash elsewhere, had more departures been arranged then that one final piece could have arrived.

But, as stated, it’s one window. One in a brutally tough market to navigate with the pandemic and the calibre of player Arsenal were looking to ship being either too expensive or not good enough to play for an eighth place side. That’s not easy.

Did the club stray too far onto the youth/mid-term side? Perhaps.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Final Grade: B-