The summer transfer window has seen and will most likely go down in history as one of the most entertaining from a football fan perspective, with the unthinkable like Lionel Messi leaving Barcelona to the record fee for an English footballer.
Arsenal have been amongst the big money signings and look to do more business according to Mikel Arteta.
Arteta also weighed in with his opinion on other names like Jack Grealish, as well as giving an in-depth look on how the Emiliano Martinez deal took place.
Here’s what Arteta had to say about the club’s transfer business:
Question: In regard to Mikel’s previous comments at the end of last season about having a significant budget to spend. Three signings in… Is this what you were expecting and how busy will you be in the next few days?
Answer: Well, we identified what we wanted to do, how we could strengthen our team in short, medium, and long term, and how we wanted to achieve that. Then we defined a profile of the payer that can suit the moral that we have at the moment at the club that can sustain our financial position and we made three movements in relation to that, and we decided some excess in relation to that.
Question: How satisfied have you been with Arsenal’s transfer business so far?
Answer: Well on this first period of the transfer window, I think we’ve done a few things that we’ve wanted to do and it’s going to help us get into a much better place. There is still a window to go and I’m sure things will happen either way.
Question: If you had to pick a position where you need to sign before the deadline would it be the goalkeeper position?
Answer: (Laughs) No, I wouldn’t say that. It’s trying to do what we have to do. It is not about the player or position, it’s about where the squad should be finished. That’s what I would pick. The squad that we’re going to have at the end of the transfer window.
Question: Has the goalkeeper position taken a lot of time and work?
Answer: Yes, what happened with Emi (Emiliano Martinez) was different parties involved in that decision. At some stage you have to make a decision based not on what we want as well, and the players objectives and the history of a player that was here for 10 years, and the role that he wasn’t to have in the team. Then you try to do something and maybe you are not able to do what you want to do. Sometimes it’s financial, sometimes a player doesn’t become available, and you have to adapt. I wish it was always the way you plan it.
Question: How many more might we see in and how bigger priority and how close are you to bringing in a goalkeeper?
Answer: I cannot tell you today. I don’t have answers to that.
Question: How many more players are you looking to bring in roughly, ideally for you?
Answer: I am willing to work with the players that I have at the moment and get the best out of them, and we will see what we can do.
Question: Do you need to sell to get more players in?
Answer: Money is tight for every club at the moment. We have an ownership that is willing to invest in the team, and that want to get the team better with bigger aims. We are trying to find that balance and we need to be careful because we need to find a position that is sustainable and healthy for the club.
Question: Has the transfer window been a bit underwhelming for you? You have been linked with James Maddison, Martin Odergaard, Tammy Abraham, Aaron Ramsdale, and none of them are at the club. Others you have been linked with leaving the club like Alexander Lacazette, Granit Xhaka and Hector Bellerin.
Answer: It has been really busy. You’ve just named a few names, but that tells you as well how much we had to do and the position we started in the window. We are talking about probably the most difficult transfer market in this industry over the last years for sure, and we are trying to adapt. The club, the owners and myself we all have the same interests which is to make this team much stronger, and we know we still have things to do to get what we want.
Question: Have you still got the time to do that?
Answer: Yes, things take time. There is always different parties and different interests to get deals done, but for sure we are trying to do what we have and what is important is to make sure that the squad is healthy, and we have stability in that squad which is something we have missed.
Question: Thomas Partey was signed on deadline day last season and took time to settle in. Is it frustrating going into the new season with so much uncertainty over who might come in and who might leave?
Answer: It is how deals develop. Sometimes it is not possible to do it on the 12th of August, it is possible to do on the last day. Whether you are happy bringing the player in or not I think is more important. With Thomas, we managed to do it at the end, but the difficulty with him is how long he was injured…
Question: Do you think you might be busy up until the last day?
Answer: Anything is possible and there is still a lot of things to be done with a lot of clubs involved. The ball starts to roll at a different speed in the last week or so and it has been a really difficult transfer window, and probably a lot of things will happen in the last week or so.
Arteta on the recent signings, current players, as well as other big-name signings:
Question: On the situation with Joe Willock.
Answer: He is our player, and we held some conversations because this is not a about only what we want to do, it is the players interest, and the role that a player can fit within a squad. And what he has done has put him in a strong position where he can choose a little bit and with more options on what his future could look like. And this is what we are trying to define right now.
Question: Since signing his new contract the form Pierre Emerick Aubameyang has dipped. Where is he mentally and physically at the start of this season?
Answer: Since he came back, he looked to have the right mindset… and go back to the level that he can achieve. Because he knows and we know that with this level this team can achieve much better things.
Question: How good is Ben White?
Answer: I am very excited. He is a player that we looked at for a long time. He fitted exactly to the profile that we wanted. He has settled in really well.
Question: Views on Manchester City singing Jack Grealish on 100 million and Lionel Messi to PSG.
Answer: Well, it certainly is really good for the entertainment. When you want to see these teams play with the quality of those players. It is probably something unprecedented in the case of PSG. They can afford it and they will enjoy it for sure and from here we have to do the same.
Question: Do you understand the concerns of supporters when some of your traditional rivals are buying players like Jack Grealish and Jadon Sancho, and can you assure them that everyone at the club is trying to get new business done?
Answer: Absolutely. They need to be excited, and they need to see a team that is capable of competing with those teams, as our histories are related to that. Nobody can deny that, and that is the aim, and it should be the objective.
Question: Do you think players will leave in the same manner that Skhodran Mustafi, Sokratis and Mesut Ozil had to leave?
Answer: I think everything is related to who do we bring in, who is out, our capacity to hold foreign players at the squad. There is a lot of question marks still to be resolved, it is still very open.
Written by Joshua Gaillard