I’m always puzzled by the human dynamics of these last minute transfers. It’s a hell of a thing to find that you’re suddenly off to another country tomorrow.

The ins and outs relevant to this season so far are:
In - nobody as the American keeper cannot play until next season.
Out - AMN (loan), Mari (loan), Balogun (loan), Chambers (permanent), Kolasinac (permanent).

It is impossible to argue the squad isn’t weaker for the second half of the season, at least as things stand. Moreover if the stories that Pépé is going somewhere on loan are right, that makes things even worse. Then there’s Aubameyang who is reportedly in Barcelona to seal a move.

Regardless of whether Aubameyang and Pépé stay or go, it will be astonishing if we don’t sign a forward and midfielder. The transfer window closes 11.00 pm tonight. So there’s still ten hours to go. But as time passes it’ll get closer and closer to the window being a hopelessly incompetent performance by Arsenal.

I would agree with that, but the squad is also in a better position for the summer. To me, the window is more about us not improving rather than the team getting worse, because all of those players are safety options you have in the squad but if you have to rely on them you're in trouble. None of those players have contributed anything of note to Arsenal in a very long time.

Aubameyang is a bit of a different case, as that seems like a personal issue. And loaning out Pépé who scored 10 league goals while not being a starter last season would be mental.

Sounds like the aubameyang thing is far from certain with Barca offering players on loan in our direction like Dembele and umtiti because we can’t agree a deal.

Yet … he’s in Barcelona but hasn’t met with the club.

Long day in prospect

Aubameyang has gone full Odemwingie

You never go full Odemwingie

Apparently Newcastle bid 140m euros for Osimhen and Ruiz both from Napoli. Napoli and both players rejected any notion of a transfer. Newcastle's summer is going to go crazy, bids for anyone and everyone. If only Willock had done for them this half season what he did last half season we could have probably squeezed them for £50m

Whilst I'd agree that none of those have offered us that much this season you then have to think what the alternative would be IF we had need to call on them. Chambers if he'd stayed might easily have got 1 or 2 games at right back or CB - now Chambers isn't here if we get to the stage where we would have needed him we're having to pick a total rookie from the U23 or mess up the rest of the team.

West Ham have had bids of £50m for each of Raphinha, Calvin Phillips and Darwin Nunez rejected this window. It isn't easy adding players.

In terms of strikers, unless you're willing to go to absolutely silly money, there seemed to be 2 options - Vlahovic who could be bought due to a contract running out and clear intention not to sign a new one and Isak who had a release clause.

Your Kroenke sister (or is it brother?) club is in the Super Bowl.

I wrote on hear years ago that Kroenke was going to build a very good team in Los Angeles. I said years ago that the agreement he had with the NFL was that he was going to try in earnest to build a very good team to challenge for the Super Bowl. Why? LA is the 2nd biggest media market in America. The NFL has been trying to get a team back there for years. In a rare moment of sanity, the people of LA refused to be bribed into funding a team for years. Unlike other cities. Well, now LA has 2 teams, LA Rams being by far the more popular. (The other team moved up north 2 hours from San Diego, the Chargers)

I say that to say that Kroenke can do the same with Arsenal if they had the will to do it. Maybe he is if the amount we spent last summer and over the last few years is going to be used to counter an argument otherwise.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60197489

Mentioned this guy before. Looks a good signing.

Aubameyang is staying because Barca can’t afford him. He’s gotta get a plane back now, he was there for a holiday for 5 hours

Maybe he was visiting family.

Heard about an interview with someone (no idea who but presumably a reporter). Seems he isn’t that surprised by Arsenal’s lack of expenditure this month. The implication seemed to be that Stan wasn’t too impressed with Arteta when he went to see him recently and as a result Kroenke isn’t convinced about the wisdom of letting Arteta spend big. If we do get fourth, that’ll guarantee his survival. But if we don’t, putting a few quid on Vieira replacing him in the summer may not be an outlandish bet.

How did he find this out did Kroenke tell him? Surely speculation at best but more probably made up nonsense

I’ve no idea. Perhaps it is pure speculation or made up nonsense.

But Stan is a multi-billionaire businessman. He is going to want tangible results after investing £160m of his money (as he will see it, wherever it comes from). I said that at the time, and it’s blatantly going to be the case. You don’t need a PhD in Business Management to work that out.

But how soon? We heard lots about the 'project' and using younger players rather than journeymen. It seems contradictory, and downright fickle, to suddenly demand that we come 4th this year. If we wanted immediate results we should have invested in a different profile of player, surely? The fact that we are letting so many players go without replacement (and the temptation is surely to find journeymen to fill gaps, or just not get rid of our own journeymen) suggests that we are more interested in building up a quality squad in the long run, and waiting for the right players, than finishing fourth. Is Arteta making all those decisions without the owners' consent? If he isn't, our problems in January were hardly his fault and replacing the manager with another unproven one does not seem progressive to me.

Of course but now when we are having our best league campaign for a while where we have a genuine chance for top 4. He’s not convinced. Doesn’t really stack up.

But is long term squad building in football always achievable? The obvious example is the talk of Saka leaving, whose contract expires in just over two years. If we don’t get into the Champions League this season, will he renew it this summer? I very much doubt it. Then we’re beginning to get into the nervous will he or won’t he renew period. What if he does go in 2023 or 2024? It arguably will show squad building must be accompanied by results.

But he hasn’t invested £160m of his own money, as he will see it, before.

So all of a sudden he’s become an obsessive and ruthless winner.

Nope don’t see it. I’m calling b%*&s%*^ on this one.

Evening Bernard. The way I see it is that the long term squad building route is a very tricky one. Many things can go wrong. However, in a league where we cannot compete financially (apparently) with the top four and now Newcastle, what exactly is the alternative?

Also, the 'project' doesn't preclude splashing out on the occasional top class player-we have seen the appetite for this. (However, it is damned hard to attract those players). What we can't do is get a whole team of these players and consequently we cannot expect that we are going to be contenders immediately.

So it seems odd to me that a steely-eyed businessman like Kroenke would suddenly get the jitters because we had a bad month.

And if he has invested so much money you would think it would be a for a long term project. He's not going to change tack just because of a few bumps in the road. Not the time to fold!

You could well be right. But I do not see a multi-billionaire businessman expecting tangible results from a £160m investment as the most ridiculous idea. By the way, I would not see getting a top four place as a tangible result making him an obsessive and ruthless winner.

If he leaves any decision to the end of the season, I would hardly call it changing tack because of a few bumps in the road. Would that have given Arteta approaching three years? Must be two and a half at least.

Also ignoring the fact it’s made up because he’s “silent Stan” who doesn’t speak to the press anyway let alone tell them he doesn’t like his current manager.

True, but the first couple of years were spent sorting out a big mess and surely shouldn't factor into a hard-headed decision about Arteta. In terms of our overall progress (a very good 2021), January 2022 surely registers as just a few bumps in the road.

So as it stands (still a few hours to go)
Arsenal have no one coming in and lots of fringe players out
Man U have probably lost Greenwood for the run in, also sent VD Beek on loan and had no one come in
Spurs got Kuvelevski and Bentacour in but got rid of Lo Celso, Ndombele and Alli - not sure it makes them much stronger
West Ham haven’t added anyone

We can debate which clubs have stronger squads and depths but in terms of where we were, how we all got here and what is left no one has really laid down a top 4 marker amongst the teams vying for it

Ornstein now saying there's an agreement between clubs to loan Aubameyang to Barcelona. Six months with option of another year.

...and we've apparently signed an American defender, who will join the club in the summer. Auston Trusty, 23 years old, plays for the Colorado Rapids in the US.

I read it is essentially him leaving on a free transfer rather than a loan. If so that’s a £27m saving over the next 18 months

A signing from another kroenke club regardless of how good he is or if he is what we need. What’s with us signing these players from the mls

Assuming Aubameyang would no longer be picked for AFC, If they get shot of Aubameyang and sign a striker then its worked out well. However, going into the final part of the season with only Nketiah and Lacazette as our first choice strikers would seem like a ridiculous gamble.

If we are to sign someone in the final few hours of this window wouldnt there be some news of negotiations?

Yeah, there would be. Nobody's coming.

It's a huge gamble. If we manage to get a respectable league position (top 6 for me) and the club really invests this summer I can see this being worth it. If we fall further down the table because of a thin squad and we don't recruits heavily this summer, then heads will need to roll.

Mixed feelings about Aubameyangs departure.

In his prime an explosive striker like few others, single handedly won us an FA cup and got us to a europa final.

Never seen a player decline like it though except maybe ljungberg and the last 2 seasons he hasn’t looked right. Weird that he kept getting covid but was also missing a lot. God knows what was going on behind the seasons and we will never probably find out.

It’s a shame that these transfers seem to end in bad blood all the time. Big part of our team the last few years I wish him well

Underwhelmed, totally.

Fingers crossed for the remainder of the season.

Although it is feasible he said something to somebody who wasn’t in the press, but it eventually reached a reporter.

Unlikely and even less so in a couple of days Or whatever it’s been. It didn’t happen. Made up.

Is is really that unlikely? Stan will speak to others not only in his family but KSE. That is guaranteed as it’s inevitable. I don’t think it’s outlandish to imagine someone mentioning what he said to someone with links to the press.

2 points off fourth place with a game in hand. Best position we’ve been in for a few seasons at this stage. Doesn’t make sense at all.

Made up.