Arsenal’s haphazard transfer dealings, since summer 2017.

A thread:

After finishing outside the top 4 for the first time since 1995/96 in 2016/17. Arsenal went into the summer of 2017 with contract sagas for Alexis and Özil. We sign Kolasinac on a free and Lacazette for 52m

We let go of Szczesny for only 10m, Ox for 40m

Throughout the beginning of the 17/18 season, the saga of Alexis and Özil’s contracts basically run the show till January. Özil signs, Alexis doesn’t and we decide to swap him with Mkhitaryan. We also decide to spend 60m on Aubameyang, 6 months after buying Lacazette.

We finish 6th, as we don’t replace Alexis’ creativity/x factor properly. Wenger leaves and in comes Unai Emery. With Sven & Raul coming in to head up the transfers. We bring in stop gaps like Lichtsteiner and Sokratis. While signing talent like Leno, Torreira & Guendouzi.

These signings would of been fine, but not what the coach wanted or what the team needed. Emery wanted Fabinho or N’Zonzi. We got Torreira.
We also lost Wilshere and Cazorla, huge creativity and replaced with no one.

January comes and we are in around the top 4. Welbeck, Holding and Bellerin have long term injuries. We need cover badly. Emery was only given Denis Suarez on loan, who was injured and had no impact.

Against all odds we somehow finish 5th and lose the Europa League final, to a team who already qualified for the UCL. We go into the summer of 2019. Emery wanted Zaha, he got Pepe. He also got in Saliba, Tierney, Luiz, Martinelli & Ceballos on loan.

The key to this summer is the players we lost. Ramsey & Welbeck left for free, two important players under Emery. Koscielny went on strike, as well as Raul selling Iwobi and Mkhitaryan because Arsenal needed the money. All creativity is gone, we rely on Ceballos and Özil

The plan backfires, Özil has been frozen by Emery. Ceballos poor and injured. Young players don’t make the impact expected. As well as new signings being poor. Emery loses his job and in comes Arteta.

In January Arsenal signed Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares on loan. Both deals pointless and both somehow made permanent at the end of the season.

Arsenal limp to 8th but win an FA Cup. Optimism is high, we recognise we need quality & creativity so we sign Gabriel in defence. Willian on a free for “creativity” Ceballos on loan again. But we still had no creativity, so we fail to land Aouar and sign Partey. Auba also stays.

Creativity hasn’t improved and Arsenal have lost 50% of their PL games. Aubameyang on a new deal, isolated on the wing. Willian looking even worse than Mkhitaryan ever did and no creativity with Özil out.

Arsenal signed good players, but without any plan on using them properly.

Here we are, with an unbalanced mess of a squad. Arsenal have gone from a team with an abundance of technical quality. To absolutely none. It’s a mess and Arsenal have been a mess in the market since 2017.